All posts tagged: funding

Paris-based startup studio Hexa raises some funding to launch even more startups

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You might not be familiar with Hexa, the Paris-based startup studio that has launched dozens of B2B software companies, but some of its portfolio companies have become well-known unicorns, such as Front, Aircall and Spendesk. And it turns out that Hexa itself could be considered as a startup as the company just raised a funding round of $22 million in fresh capital (€20 million). This isn’t the first time Hexa raises outside capital. But it’s the company’s first round since 2016. “We’ve got a few family offices investing, but we’ve mostly got local entrepreneurs investing like Luc Pallavidino (Yousign), Adrien Van Den Branden (Canyon), Paul Vidal (Collective) and Arnaud Schwartz (Marble),” Hexa co-founder Thibaud Elzière told me. In other words, Hexa is raising from its own community of founders and friends. And this is just a first step as the company promises that there will be more funding in the coming months. “This marks our initial close, and we anticipate a subsequent round in the new year. Our aim is to welcome even more family …

European startup funding halved to $42B in 2023, says Atomico

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The downturn in the technology sector — dragged by inflation, higher interest rates and geopolitical events — continues to persist, and one of the most acutely impacted areas has been VC funding for startups, particularly those outside the U.S. According to VC firm Atomico, companies in Europe are on track to raise just $42 billion this year — less than half the $85 billion that startups in the region raised in 2022. The figures come from Atomico’s big report on the state of European tech, which it publishes annually. It also found that startups in the region are raising less at each stage of funding from Seed through to Series C (and beyond), with later stage and larger companies feeling a particular pinch: just 7 “unicorns” (startups with a valuation of more than $1 billion) are set to emerge this year in Europe, compared to 48 in 2022 and 108 in 2021. Image Credits: Atomico (opens in a new window)(opens in a new w But there is a silver lining in the story. While overall …

Cradle’s AI-powered protein programming platform levels up with $24M in new funding

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Biotech and AI startup Cradle is finding success with its generative approach to protein design, landing big customers and a hefty $24 million of new investment. The company exited stealth a little over a year ago, just as the hype around large language models was really heating up. Many AI companies in biotech train models to natively understand molecular structure; Cradle’s insight was that the long sequences of amino acids that make up the proteins in our bodies are akin to “like an alien programming language.” It may not be possible for a person to learn that language, but an AI model could — and a person could work with that instead. While they still couldn’t just say “make a protein that does this,” they could ask which of 100 interesting proteins looks most likely to survive at room temperature or an acidic environment. The approach seems to have caught the eye of major drug development companies like Johnson & Johnson and Novozymes. Creating a useful and functional protein from scratch is generally a pretty …

Lightspeed finalizing leading $80M-plus funding in Pocket FM

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Audio series platform Pocket FM has topped $160 million in annual recurring revenue and is inching closer to raising over $80 million in a new funding round, three sources familiar with the matter told TechCrunch. Lightspeed, an existing investor in Pocket FM, is in advanced stages of talks to lead the funding round into the Indian startup, the sources said, requesting anonymity as the matter is private. The investment giant is evaluating leading the round from both its India and U.S. arms, one of the sources said. The current deliberations value the startup at nearly $800 million, two of the sources said. The funding deliberations follow a fast-paced revenue growth at the Indian startup. Its current ARR is over $160 million, two of the sources said, a six-to-seven times increase over a year ago. The startup’s expansion into the U.S., and offering customers a non-subscription, pay-as-you-go offering has proven especially successful, according to one of the sources. Pocket FM and Lightspeed declined to comment Tuesday evening. Indian outlet Entrackr previously reported some of the funding …

Badenoch accused of axing funding that helped UK fashion labels launch globally | International trade

Published by Sam

The UK trade secretary, Kemi Badenoch, has been accused of quietly killing off a funding stream for small businesses that had helped fashion brands such as Paul Smith and Vivienne Westwood launch their products at global trade fairs. Specific support has been provided by the government since 2006 to small and medium-sized companies wanting to showcase their products at overseas exhibitions, but after years of budget cuts the initiative has been shelved. The decision has been negatively compared with the policy of the German federal government, which continues to provide up to €7,500 (£6,572) to small businesses seeking to take part in international trade fairs. According to recent figures, Germany is third in the league table of the world’s biggest exporting countries, behind China and the US, with the UK sitting at 15th. The founding of the Tradeshow Access Programme (TAP) for small and medium-sized businesses was backed by the then chancellor, Gordon Brown, in 2006 as a successor to the Support for Exhibitions and Seminars Abroad programme (SESA), which had a broader remit to …

Online grocery startup Pricepally to expand in Nigeria backed by $1.3M funding

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Pricepally, a Nigerian online grocery store for fresh produce and packaged food, has raised $1.3 million seed funding, backed by Samurai Incubate; a Japanese VC that also participated in the startup’s 2021 pre-seed round, SOSV, ELEA, Hi2 Global, Chui Ventures and ex-Unilever executive David Mureithi. Following the new funding, the startup joins a handful of African food e-commerce startups, including South Africa’s Yebo Fresh and Morocco’s Terraa, that have raised funding this year, as venture capitalists continue to scale back their operations. Pricepally says it will use the funding to expand beyond the three cities it currently serves in Nigeria and to re-introduce group buying to keep up with its promise of enabling consumers to buy food affordably. The startup facilitates same or next day delivery of the produce ordered through its digital channels including the app and WhatsApp chatbot. It has a network of fulfillment centers within the three cities it currently operates in but outsources delivery services. Luther Lawoyin (CEO), Deepak Bansal (CTO), Mosun Lawoyin (CXO) and Jummai Abalaka (COO), launched Pricepally in …

Use intellectual property to secure debt and equity-based funding

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Keegan Caldwell Contributor Keegan Caldwell is the global managing partner and founder at Caldwell, a premier law firm specializing in high-growth technology and life sciences companies. Cars, phones, watches. It’s easy to put a value on physical objects when we can see their differences and compare their quality. But what about intangible assets that make up the designs of each car, the trademarks behind those watches, or the patents fueling the smartphone wars? The abstract nature of intellectual property (IP) presents a dual challenge: It can be demanding to safeguard and can be equally intricate to articulate its worth. This affair can pose a significant hurdle for companies looking to leverage patents in their fundraising efforts, primarily as more companies rely on forward-thinking conceptualizations aided by technology. Recent years have seen increased financial support for companies seeking debt funding and equity fueled mainly by the innovative ideas of startups and tech companies that have established precedence. From 2011 to 2020, 58% of venture capital went to startups with patents or patent applications. Deal sizes for patent …

Mike Johnson funding bill faces House vote in race to avoid government shutdown – US politics live | US Congress

Published by Sam

Big day for Mike Johnson as government funding bill faces vote in the House It’s a big day, and the first real test, for Republican new House speaker Mike Johnson as the chamber votes on his proposal to keep the government funded. He’ll need the help of Democrats to get his CR (continuing resolution) bill through and ensure there’s money to keep the wheels turning after 17 November. It’s an issue that helped topple Johnson’s predecessor Kevin McCarthy: Republicans angry at his consorting with the “enemy” to get a stopgap funding bill passed in September ousted him three days later. There is, however, growing confidence that Johnson’s two-tier, “clean” CR bill (dealing only with government funding) will find enough favor on both sides of the chamber to reach the 290 votes it needs to pass. Senior Democrats don’t love it, but also don’t want to shut down the government heading into the Thanksgiving break. House Republicans meet this morning to plan their strategy. Either way, it’ll make for a lively day. Here’s what else we’re …

Singapore-based startup EduFi raises funding for its student loan platform

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EduFi, a fintech startup that enables financially strapped students to secure loans for their education, has raised $6.1 million in a pre-seed round led by Zayn VC with participation from Palm Drive Capital, Deem Ventures, Q Business and angel investors.  The Singapore-based startup has launched an artificial intelligence-powered study now, pay later (SNPL) lending platform and its mobile app in Pakistan, a country that does not have student loan products as a category; instead, users take personal loans with high interest and lengthy process, Aleena Nadeem, founder and CEO of EduFi, told TechCrunch.  EduFi wants to address the country’s two issues — high poverty levels and low literacy rates — via its fintech platform. In Pakistan, about 40% of students attend private schools due to public schools’ poor quality, resulting in spending more than $14 billion on their education every year. Moreover, over 50% of the adult population in Pakistan does not have access to financial services such as bank accounts and insurance. Nadeem, an MIT graduate who previously worked at Goldman Sachs and Ventura …

Robotics funding saw another dip in 2023

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In 2021, robotics startups were flying high. Unlike other categories that had buckled under the strains of a global pandemic, interest in automation was at an all-time high, as companies attempted to navigate supply chain issues and ongoing labor shortages. Robotics and automation were insulated from broader investment slowdowns, but eventually, they, too, were impacted. It’s not as though the signs haven’t been there. I kicked off the year with a post titled, “The thing we thought was happening with robotic investments is definitely happening.” That thing being investment slowdowns. After a banner year, 2022 was the second-worst year for robotics investments in the past five. It was second only to 2020, which was one of those once in a life time global anomalies. Totally understandable in that case. That figure represented the five straight quarters of decline in VC money. Image Credits: Crunchbase Today, new numbers from Crunchbase point to another annual decline for 2023. The year isn’t quite over, of course, but year-to-date investments in the U.S. market are at $2.7 billion, down …