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☆ SoftBank leads TravelPerk's $104 million fundraising, in a bet that AI will reshape corporate travel
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-23 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

TravelPerkBarcelona-based startup TravelPerk, which helps automate corporate travel and expenses, has raised $104 million in fresh funding from Japanese tech investing giant SoftBank and a flood of other names, to invest in artificial intelligence development and new products. SoftBank invested $70 million in TravelPerk's latest round, which the company said was an extension of its "D-1" funding round. The fundraising round shows SoftBank is placing a major bet on a company driving disruption in corporate travel through new technologies, such as AI — which has seen significant buzz since the November 2022 launch of OpenAI's ChatGPT. Whereas many travel agents operate on low single digits gross margins, Meir says that TravelPerk's profit margin stood at 60% last year. TravelPerk competes with American Express, BCD Travel, SAP Concur and Navan in the corporate travel management space.

Persons: Avi Meir, TravelPerk, Felix, SoftBank, that's, Meir, Roy Hefer Organizations: SoftBank Vision, Felix Capital, American, CNBC, American Express, SAP Locations: TravelPerk Barcelona, Navan, U.S

☆ Omada wants to become a healthy alternative to sports betting sites. It just raised $7.5 million with this 9-slide pitch deck.
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-27 | by ( Riddhi Kanetkar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Social gaming startup Omada has just secured $7.5 million in seed funding from Felix Capital. The French startup, which launched less than two years ago, bills itself as a healthy alternative to traditional sports betting apps. "It's not just a game, it's a social game," said cofounder and CEO Adrien Miniatti. Beyond its core game-prediction and social features, Omada has also worked on a range of campaigns to raise awareness about betting addictions. With the fresh funding, Omada will ramp up its product team, and focus on its expansion in the US.

Persons: Felix Capital, It's, Adrien Miniatti, Zs —, Omada, Miniatti, Julien Codorniou Organizations: Felix, influencers, French football club Red Star FC, Omada, Play Ventures, Motier Ventures, Felix Capital Locations: London

☆ McLaren Applied's Lavoie in talks to buy Dutch e-bike maker VanMoof - source
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-17 | by ( Nick Carey Tosterling | Nick Carey | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Piroschka van de Wouw Acquire Licensing RightsLONDON, Aug 18 (Reuters) - Lavoie, the electric scooter unit of Formula One engineering and technology firm McLaren Applied, is in advanced talks to buy bankrupt Dutch e-bike maker VanMoof, according to a source familiar with the negotiations. The source said talks are at "quite an advanced stage" and would involve Lavoie taking over "as much as possible" of VanMoof's operations. The company had raised more than $180 million from investors including private equity firm Hillhouse, Silicon Valley venture capital fund Norwest Venture Partners and venture firm Felix Capital. According to another source familiar with the matter, McLaren Applied is one of two suitors remaining for VanMoof. Bought from McLaren by private equity firm Greybull Capital in 2021, McLaren Applied recently launched the premium Lavoie e-scooter brand.

Persons: de Wouw, Lavoie, VanMoof, Felix Capital, Jan Padberg, Nick Carey, Frances Kerry Organizations: REUTERS, Formula, McLaren, Reuters, Norwest Venture Partners, Nasdaq, Capital, Thomson Locations: Amsterdam, Netherlands, Silicon Valley

☆ A Nvidia-backed platform that turns text into A.I.-generated avatars boosts valuation to $1 billion
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-13 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

In this article NVDA Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNTAn animated avatar generated by the AI video platform Synthesia. To do that, Synthesia has created animated avatars which look and sound like humans, but are generated by AI. Synthesia is a form of generative AI, similar to OpenAI's ChatGPT. The company doesn't disclose its sales or revenue metrics, though it says it "consistently driven triple digit growth," with over 12 million videos produced on the platform to date. Synthesia plans to ramp up investment into its technology, with a particular focus on advancing its AI research and making Synthesia avatars capable of performing more tasks.

Persons: Synthesia, Slack, Kleiner Perkins, Morgan Stanley, Victor Riparbelli, Matthias Niessner, Steffen Tjerrild, Lourdes Agapito, Philippe Botteri, Riparbelli, Nvidia isn't, it's, They're, Felix Capital, Atomico, they're, David Beckham, Beckham Organizations: Nvidia, CNBC, Accel, Facebook, Spotify, GV, FirstMark, MMC, YouTube, Netflix, Business, Iconiq, Felix, Meritech Locations: London, A.I

☆ The family office for Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey backs French rival to Microsoft Excel
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-08 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

The logo of the spreadsheet software Microsoft Excel is shown on the display of a smartphone. French business planning software startup Pigment has raised $88 million in a funding round led by ICONIQ, the private investment fund that manages the money of tech billionaires such as Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey. Pigment is best known for its business planning and forecasting platform that's designed to be more user-friendly than Microsoft's spreadsheet software Excel. As well as Microsoft, Pigment also views enterprise software tools from giants like Google, SAP and Oracle as rivals. It introduced a new service called Pigment AI last month, on the heels of heightened buzz surrounding AI and products like ChatGPT, which lets clients query data, identify patterns and automate analysis and reporting.

Persons: ICONIQ, Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey, Eleonore Crespo, Romain Niccoli, FirstMark, Klarna, Miro, Tommy Hilfiger, PVH, Crespo Organizations: CNBC, Venture, Felix Capital, Google, SAP, Oracle, behemoth, Microsoft Locations: U.S

☆ Y Combinator-backed headless commerce startup Vue Storefront just raised $20 million with this 14-slide pitch deck
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( Tasmin Lockwood | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Y Combinator-backed Vue Storefront has developed a frontend system for e-commerce sites. Vue Storefront, a Y Combinator-backed startup that aims to improve customers' experiences with e-commerce sites, just raised $20 million in fresh funds. The Polish company, founded in 2020, has built a plug-and-play frontend system for marketplace sites. This is what customers see and interact with, rather than the behind-the-scenes backend system, and is known as "headless commerce". Vue Storefront is rooted in open-source development, having spun out from a design agency.

☆ Peppy provides employees with personalized care for gender-based health conditions. Check out the 9-slide deck used to raise $45 million.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-11 | by ( Riddhi Kanetkar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The startup offers personalized consultations for gender-based health issues as an employee benefit. London-based Peppy has raised a $45 million Series B from AlbionVC to bring its employee benefits platform to the US. Peppy's app provides live chats and one-to-one consultations with specialists, so users can get personalized advice in real time. Peppy's app offers employees live consultations with specialists. Peppy has now partnered with some of the biggest health insurers in the UK, such as Axa Health and Vitality.

☆ Here comes the generative AI gold rush: Creative Fabrica raises $61 million after launching design tools based on GPT-3 and Stable Diffusion. Check out its 19-slide pitch deck.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-10 | by ( Riddhi Kanetkar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Design startup Creative Fabrica has raised a $61 million Series B from Alven. The starting gun has fired for venture capitalists racing to get into what is predicted to be a hot field in 2023: anything involving generative AI. What has piqued investor interest is the startup's implementation of generative AI. "So generative AI is a very natural extension to our content library, where we can become hyper-personal." The team's "demonstrated early leadership in generative AI" was a key factor that put them in good stead for growth, said Frederic Court, founder of Felix Capital.

☆ Ukio wants to create a rental market for a new generation of flexible workers. It used this 11-slide pitch deck to raise $28 million.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-23 | by ( Hasan Chowdhury | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Spanish startup Ukio has raised $28 million for its flexible rental platform. The startup's platform offers apartments to workers seeking greater flexibility on contracts. Check out the 11-slide pitch deck it used to raise its Series A round below. Ukio raised the funds in a round led by Farfetch-backer Felix Capital, with additional investment from Kreos Capital, a London-headquartered debt fund, Heartcore, and Breega. Of the $28 million raised, $18 million was in the form of equity and $10 million in the form of debt.

☆ Patagonia's charitable change will inspire founders. We spoke to 8 VCs about how startups can create their own climate change legacy.
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-16 | by ( Hasan Chowdhury | Tasmin Lockwood | Riddhi Kanetkar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Patagonia's Yvon Chouinard said he was giving away his $3 billion company to fight climate change. Insider spoke to 8 VCs about how hard it is for founders to follow suit and what they can do instead. "Instead of 'going public', you could say we're 'going purpose'," Chouinard wrote. Insider spoke to eight investors to find out why venture capital-backed startups would struggle to replicate Patagonia's model and what they could do instead. This means founders need to be active at an early stage in deciding what to do with their business.

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