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☆ Healthcare Startup Valuations Are Coming Back to Earth — Except in AI
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-15 | by ( Rebecca Torrence | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

The frenzy has investors across industries rushing to get into AI deals, including in healthcare. AdvertisementStill, healthcare startups using AI have already raised hundreds of millions of dollars this year, especially to automate tedious administrative tasks for providers and health plans. Andrew Arruda, CEO of Flexpa FlexpaThe AI long-haulNot every startup needs to be an AI startup. AdvertisementPlus, healthcare companies that do want to use AI face higher stakes than other industries, contending with numerous privacy, regulatory, and safety issues, Kong noted. For example — if healthcare AI makes a mistake, could patient health be impacted?

Persons: —, Scott Barclay, Nina Achadijan, Shiv Rao Abridge, VCs, nabbed, CodaMetrix, Aike Ho, Christina Farr, Andrew Arruda, that'll, Flexpa, he's, Flexpa's, Kong, Todd Cozzens, it's Organizations: Service, Business, Insight Partners, ACME Capital, nab, Catalyst, HealthQuest, Transformation Locations: Tech, Kong

☆ Automation helps insulate Rohlik from a bruising 2023 for the grocery delivery sector
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-07 | by ( Callum Burroughs | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Read previewInvestors couldn't get enough of grocery delivery startups during the pandemic. Rohlik is on a pathway to profitability and has broken even in several key cities, CEO Tomas Cupr told Business Insider. Advertisement"The online grocery industry didn't have the best year in 2023, but we're still growing, which is super positive," Cupr told BI. At least 19 grocery delivery startups were operating across Europe at the height of the market. "The grocery delivery market remains a challenging area in Europe.

Persons: —, Tomas Cupr, Cupr, we've, Turkey's, Germany's, Nalin Patel, Jan Hammer Organizations: Service, Venture, Business, Ventures Locations: Europe, Prague, Czechia, Hungary, Munich, London, Paris, Budapest, Vienna, Istanbul, New York

☆ VCs need to return cash to their investors. The secondary market is coming alive as a result.
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-02 | by ( Tasmin Lockwood | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Venture capitalists need to free up cash and return money to their own investors, known as limited partners (LPs). The secondary share sales market in the US is well established. Bad timingMost VC funds agree to return their profits to their LPs within 10 years. A record 31 secondary funds headquartered in Europe were established in 2021, amid the hype period, with $29 billion in assets under management per PitchBook. It all comes down to how buoyant the VC market is: "If the market is good again, then who's going to sell secondary?

Persons: There's, Michael Smith, Regeneration's Smith, Kelly Rodriques, Hussein Kanji, Kanji, Hussein, Tom Henrikkson, OpeanOcean, it's, Henrikkson Organizations: Venture, Business, Industry Ventures, Cherry Ventures, Ventures, Albion, Forge, Financial Times, VC, Hoxton Ventures, Sequoia Locations: Silicon Valley, Europe, San Francisco, Amsterdam, London

☆ Tiger Global-backed Productboard conducts third round of layoffs in two years, sources say
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-26 | by ( Tasmin Lockwood | Riddhi Kanetkar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

download the appSign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Now, Productboard has begun another round of layoffs, the scale of which is unknown as yet, the former staffers said. Startups and Big Tech companies alike have slashed their wage bills as the high-interest rate environment encourages businesses to prioritize sustainability over growth. AdvertisementIn January alone, 76 tech companies have laid off 21,370 employees, according to tracker site Layoffs.fyi.

Persons: —, Productboard, Daniel Hejl, Hubert Palan, Kleiner Perkins, Palan, Productboard's headcount Organizations: Service, Business, Tiger Global, Dragoneer, Microsoft, Volkswagen, Sequoia, Bessemer Venture Partners, Index Ventures, Big Tech, Bloomberg, LinkedIn Locations: San Francisco, Czech Republic, Silicon Valley, Sequoia Capital, Productboard

☆ Cradle uses generative AI to design proteins more efficiently. See the 17-slide deck it used to secure $24 million from Index Ventures.
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-28 | by ( Riddhi Kanetkar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Biotech startup Cradle, which uses AI to design proteins, emerged from stealth last year. The Dutch startup has now secured $24 million from Index Ventures. See the 17-slide pitch deck and messaging used to raise the fresh funding. Cradle, a startup that uses generative AI to help design proteins more efficiently, just raised a $24 million Series A from Index Ventures. It has also trained its generative AI models on proprietary data generated in its wet lab, as well as billions of protein sequences.

Organizations: Biotech, Ventures, Index Ventures, Business

☆ Germany approves financial reforms to help its tech industry compete with Silicon Valley
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-17 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

BERLIN, GERMANY - NOVEMBER 15: German Finance Minister Christian Lindner gives a statement to the media at the Chancellery following the weekly government cabinet meeting on November 15, 2023 in Berlin, Germany. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)Germany on Friday approved a package of key reforms to its capital markets frameworks to help its technology industry compete with Silicon Valley. The reforms, which have been in the works for sometime, had been widely expected. Some of the major changes will be to employee stock options plans, which allow companies to hand a slice of the business to their employees. Index has invested in a number of high-profile German tech startups, including human resources software firm Personio and financial service startup Raisin.

Persons: Christian Lindner, Sean Gallup, Martin Mignot, Mignot Organizations: German Finance, German, Court, Getty, Ventures Locations: BERLIN, GERMANY, Berlin, Germany, Silicon, Europe

☆ AI supply chain startup Tacto is set to raise funds from Sequoia. It's already in talks to bring in more cash.
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-03 | by ( Callum Burroughs | Tasmin Lockwood | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Tacto, a small German AI supply chain startup, is set to raise new funding from US giant Sequoia and is already in talks with a different high-profile investor to raise another round. Sequoia is set to lead Tacto's Series A round, six sources familiar with the deal told Insider. Unusually, the startup has already begun talks to raise another round of funding in addition to the Sequoia deal. Tacto is also in talks with London-based Index Ventures to immediately raise another funding round, five sources said. Andreessen Horowitz led a seed round in tiny AI startup ElevenLabs in March, and is also in talks with months-old company Mistral.

Persons: Tacto, Andreessen Horowitz, Fintech, Hanno Renner Organizations: London, Ventures, Sequoia, Energy, nab, Cherry Ventures, UVC Partners, Club Locations: Sequoia, Munich, Berlin

Mistral, a tiny AI startup that aims to be Europe's answer to OpenAI, is in discussions to raise a major round of funding that could push its valuation above $2 billion. Its cofounders are in talks with venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz to raise further funds, seven sources familiar with proceedings told Insider. Mistral is set to raise around $400 million at a valuation of at least $2 billion, which could rise to as high as $2.5 billion, three sources said. The deal is not yet finalized and the round size, valuation figures, and participants could still change. Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst, Mistral, Abstract Ventures, and Bezos Expeditions did not respond to Insider's request for comment.

Persons: Andreessen Horowitz, Catalyst, Arthur Mensch, Guillaume Lample, Timothée Lacroix, Jeff Bezos, Xavier Niel Organizations: Mistral, Meta, DeepMind, Bezos Expeditions, Amazon, Catalyst, Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners Locations: Paris

☆ UK’s Motorway takes eBay approach for consumers to sell cars to dealers
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-05 | by ( Nick Carey | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

EBay also sells cars in the UK, though its own marketplace consists of consumers or dealers selling to consumers. The pandemic "acted as a massive accelerant" for Motorway because physical auctions were closed for months and dealers needed access to cars, Leathes said. In 2022, its auctions doubled to 1.7 billion pounds ($2.06 billion). That should double again this year, giving Motorway around a 5% share in a UK used-car market worth 80 billion pounds, Leathes said. Dealers can now use "wallets" for multiple transactions and Motorway now picks up around 30% of the cars it sells and delivers them to dealers.

Persons: Tom Leathes, Leathes, Nick Templeton, Templeton, Lewis Jent, Nick Carey, Nick Zieminski Organizations: eBay, Reuters, EBay, Index Ventures, Growth, BMW I Ventures, BMW, Dealers, Tesla, Thomson Locations: Britain, U.S, Leathes, CarShop

☆ Apron, a fintech founded by an ex-Revolut staffer, just raised $15 million in a round backed by Index Ventures with this 19-slide pitch deck
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-28 | by ( Callum Burroughs | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Apron, a fintech startup that simplifies invoice payments for small businesses, has raised $15 million in a round led by Revolut-backer Index Ventures. The London-based company, founded in 2022, has developed a payments platform that pulls invoices into one place and enables firms to batch-pay their suppliers. Apron takes fees on associated interchange charges and also offers a three-tier subscription model. The $15 million in funding was led by Index Ventures, alongside Bessemer Venture Partners and Visionaries Club, and follows a $5.5 million seed round from July. Apron's new capital will go towards strengthening its team of 20 employees and doubling down on product and marketing capabilities.

Persons: Bogdan Uzbekov, we've Organizations: Revolut, Ventures, Index Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, Club Locations: London, Revolut

☆ New York is a tech startup hotbed after almost a decade-long run of IPOs
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-22 | by ( Jordan Novet | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

New York had its share of startup investors and venture-backed companies, but it wasn't a hotbed of tech activity. After four years at the company, Wang left but chose to stay in New York to launch Bearworks, providing software to sales reps. In 2014, prior to the run of New York City IPOs, California was the leader, followed by Massachusetts and then New York. During the record fundraising year of 2021, New York startups received almost $50 billion across 1,935 companies. Northern California has long been the heartbeat of the tech industry, but Murat Bicer remembers what it was like for New York startups before the rush.

Persons: Olivier Pomel, Albert Wang, Datadog, Wang, UiPath, they've, San Francisco's OpenAI, Murat Bicer, Bicer, Datadog's, Pomel Organizations: Datadog, Big Apple, Nasdaq, National Venture Capital Association . Massachusetts, ChatGPT, Investors, Bay, RTP Ventures, RTP, Boston, Index Ventures, New York Times Locations: San Francisco, New York, Boston, Datadog, York, San Francisco Bay, East Coast, Yorkers, , New York, California, New York City IPOs , California, Massachusetts, San Francisco's, PitchBook . Northern California, Silicon Valley, West, West Coast, Europe, Pomel

Insider asked 34 top fintech investors to nominate the most promising startups. VCs highlighted startups that haven't raised more than a Series C.Behind-the-scenes firms, payment and compliance startups dominated this year's list. Get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in business, from Wall Street to Silicon Valley — delivered daily. Insider surveyed 34 early-stage investors — including Bain Capital Ventures, Point72 Ventures, and Index Ventures — about the hottest fintechs to watch. There were also several sustainability-focused startups, offering everything from electric-vehicle financing to marketplaces for financing renewable-energy projects.

Persons: VCs, we'll, Mark Peter Davis Organizations: Service, Bain Capital Ventures, Point72 Ventures, Ventures, Interplay, Bank Locations: Wall, Silicon

☆ Big startups are a bust so prestige investors are fighting for deals into tiny European companies
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-05 | by ( Callum Burroughs | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Funding to European startups across the board dropped by almost 60% to $23 billion in the first six months of 2023, according to Crunchbase data. ElevenLabs, a London-based artificial intelligence startup founded by Google and Palantir alumni, pulled in $18 million at a $100 million valuation a year after it was founded. Mistral, another European startup set up by ex-Facebook and DeepMind staffers, raised $113 million a month after it was founded. AI has been of particular interest to investors with similar hype surrounding a deal for London-based text-to-voice startup ElevenLabs. Industry stakeholders believe that teams springing from already successful companies to set up their own startups will be very attractive with some predicting startups founded between 2022 and 2024 primed to be very in demand in the future.

Persons: Andreessen Horowitz, David Schreiber, Duco van, Pivot, Marc, Antoine Lacroix, Romain Libeau, Sifted, Filip Dames, Dames Organizations: Google, Mistral, Facebook, Ventures, Cocoa, Club, Cherry Ventures, Sequoia, Industry Locations: Europe, London, Paris, Berlin

Insider asked more than 30 top fintech investors to nominate the most promising startups. VCs highlighted startups that haven't raised more than a Series C.Here are the 54 most promising fintechs. Insider surveyed 34 early-stage investors — including Bain Capital Ventures, Point72 Ventures, and Index Ventures — about the hottest fintechs to watch. As was the case last year, fintechs that sell to businesses, as opposed to those that serve consumers directly, dominated the list. Check out the 54 fintechs identified as most promising by top investors.

Persons: VCs, we'll, Mark Peter Davis Organizations: Bain Capital Ventures, Point72 Ventures, Ventures, Interplay

☆ Carbon data and credit rating startup Sylvera just raised $57 million as it heads to the US. Check out the 12-slide pitch deck it used to raise the fresh funds.
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-18 | by ( Tasmin Lockwood | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Climate tech startup Sylvera has just raised $57 million for its carbon data platform. Sylvera, a startup helping businesses invest in high quality carbon credits, has just raised a $57 million Series B round led by Europe's Balderton Capital. The London-based startup, founded in 2020, provides carbon data and carbon credit ratings in an effort to bring integrity to a market plagued with quality issues. One carbon credit represents 1 metric ton of carbon dioxide or equivalent that has been removed from or prevented from entering the atmosphere. As well as decarbonization, many companies look to compensate for their hard-to-abate or historic emissions, which is where carbon credits come in.

Persons: Sylvera, Furey, it's, Serge Kruppa, 9yards Organizations: Balderton Capital, Fidelity Strategic Ventures, Bain & Company, Europe's, McKinsey, Paris, Index Ventures, Insight Partners Locations: London, New York

Unlike past tech booms that have touched San Francisco, the generative AI craze brings fewer jobs, because AI firms excel at staying lean and automating work. "I think we should curb our optimism that San Francisco commercial real estate will bounce back because of AI," said Silicon Valley investor Jeremiah Owyang. Eleven of the country's top 20 AI companies are in San Francisco and have raised $15.7 billion collectively between 2008 and 2023. That amount is just 2.3% of the estimated 150,000 daily workers that downtown San Francisco lost during the pandemic. Reporting by Anna Tong in San Francisco; Editing by Sayantani Ghosh, Anna Driver and Matthew LewisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Carlos Barria, San, Jeremiah Owyang, Erin Price, Wright, OpenAI, Matt Schlicht, Mike Grabowski, Grabowski, Owyang, Lee Edwards, Daron Acemoglu, Anna Tong, Sayantani Ghosh, Anna Driver, Matthew Lewis Organizations: Intelligence, REUTERS, FRANCISCO, Reuters, Francisco, San Francisco Mayor London Breed's, San, Microsoft, Octane, Google, Nordstrom, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Thomson Locations: San Francisco, California, U.S, Valley, NFX, Dubai

☆ Investors have piled into AI startups following the launch of ChatGPT. Here are 20 pitch decks used by Europe's AI founders to win over VCs.
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-16 | by ( Riddhi Kanetkar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

AI startups raised $60 billion last year and investors have continued to pile in on the tech in 2023. Below are 20 pitch decks used by European startups deploying AI in everything from health to property. V7Generative AI, media, and designThis startup uses generative AI to speed up the property-buying process. This AI startup helps Big Tech firms compress videos while maintaining quality. This AI startup helps firms like TrueLayer and CurrencyCloud meet their revenue targets.

Persons: Sam Altman, Elon Musk, Andreessen Horowitz, Nat Friedman, Alberto Rizzoli, Simon Edwardsson, Iris Organizations: Morning, Investment, Venture, Insight Partners, Ventures, Google, Creative Fabrica, Big Tech, Health, Microsoft, Enterprise, Ikea, Twitter, CurrencyCloud Locations: Temasek

☆ Nvidia invests in Google-linked generative A.I. startup Cohere
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-08 | by ( Natalie Rose Goldberg | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Cohere, an enterprise-focused generative artificial intelligence startup, has raised $270 million in a Series C round of venture capital which includes AI giant Nvidia as an investor. In the new Cohere round, Oracle and Salesforce were also investors. Cohere is one of the companies that the new Salesforce Ventures generative AI fund is investing in. "We want to build that toolkit that's accessible to any dev," co-founder and CEO Aidan Gomez told CNBC in June 2022. Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang expressed confidence in Cohere, saying in a press release announcing the funding, "The team at Cohere has made foundational contributions to generative AI.

Persons: OpenAI, Cohere, Aidan Gomez, Gomez, Nick Frosst, Jensen Huang, DTCP Organizations: Nvidia, Oracle, Microsoft, CNBC, Google, Google Research, Inovia Capital, Schroders, Thomvest Ventures, Ventures Locations: CoreWeave, Cohere

☆ The decision to split Sequoia Capital into 3 entities puts to bed any questions of a power struggle at the VC powerhouse
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-06 | by ( Melia Russell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

VC powerhouse Sequoia Capital announced Tuesday that it is splitting into three entities. One of those entities, Sequoia China, known locally as HongShan, will operate as a distinct firm. The mighty Sequoia Capital is dropping branches. The decision puts to bed any question of a power struggle at one of Silicon Valley's most respected firms. And unlike some other global firms that had veto power over investments overseas, according to Bloomberg, Sequoia China had full autonomy to strike its own deals.

Persons: Roelof Botha, Neil Shen, Forbes, Alex Konrad, Doug Leone, Instagram, Bytedance, Botha, Shen, Julian Bek, Elon Musk's Organizations: Sequoia Capital, Sequoia, XV Partners, YouTube, Bloomberg, Shen, Sequoia China, Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Accel, Elon, Twitter, Fidelity Locations: Sequoia China, China, Europe, HongShan, India, Southeast Asia, Sequoia, Sequoia Capital China, Asia, Silicon Valley, London, FTX

☆ After ChatGPT, AI startups are poised to boom. See 16 pitch decks used by founders in generative AI, health, and enterprise.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Riddhi Kanetkar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

See 16 pitch decks used by AI founders using the tech in everything from health to fintech. V7Generative AI, media, and designSupernormal, a generative AI startup that automates meeting notes, just raised $10 million. This AI startup helps Big Tech firms compress videos while maintaining quality. These 3 founders are using AI to analyze patients' biological profiles and recommend drugs. This AI startup helps firms like TrueLayer and CurrencyCloud meet their revenue targets.

☆ What's better than OpenAI? Developers shop for alternatives
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( Krystal Hu | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

George Mathew, an AI investor at Insight Partners, compared the AI foundation models to other technological breakthroughs which spawned competition. As the infrastructural layer of AI applications, foundation models have attracted the most investment from venture capitalists and strategic investors. Writing assistant Jasper.ai began with OpenAI's models, but does not want to rely on a single model, CEO Dave Rogenmoser told Reuters. For example, it uses OpenAI’s model to generate long articles, and Cohere to auto-complete sentences at faster speed and lower cost. Fergal Reid, Intercom's director of machine learning, conceded that OpenAI's GPT-4 is "very expensive."

☆ AI startup Pinecone was just valued at $700 million. Here's why VCs like Andreessen Horowitz are obsessed with it and other vector databases.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( Stephanie Palazzolo | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Vector database startups like Pinecone have received term sheets from top-tier VCs, Insider has learned. Similar to the investor excitement around generative AI, VCs are now flocking to another area within the buzzy AI ecosystem. Instead, a vector database can store and quickly find past responses to similar questions by understanding the meaning behind the statements without having to call the base model. Because the vector database space is so intertwined with LLMs, it's benefitted greatly from recent hype around generative AI and LLMs. "The LLM tax is real," one VC said, referring to the high valuations for buzzy vector database startups like Chroma, Weaviate, and Pinecone.

☆ Tiger Global-backed $2 billion marketplace startup Ankorstore is set to become the latest tech unicorn to cut jobs, sources say
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( Callum Burroughs | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

French retail marketplace startup Ankorstore is set to cut a significant amount of roles, sources said. The Tiger Global-backed company has raised 365 million euros (around $387 million) to date. It is the latest high-profile Tiger Global startup to slash jobs, following on from Stripe and Getir. Ankorstore, a $2 billion marketplace startup that counts US investing giant Tiger Global among its biggest backers, is set to cut a substantial amount of its workforce, sources say. Investment firm Tiger Global had been a major pandemic startup investor, with a particular uptick in European deals through 2021.

☆ Israeli cyber security firm Wiz raises $300 mln, valued at $10 bln
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-27 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

JERUSALEM, Feb 27 (Reuters) - U.S.-Israeli cyber security startup Wiz said on Monday it raised $300 million in a private funding round that values the firm at $10 billion. The late stage round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and existing investors Greenoaks Capital Partners and Index Ventures. Since its founding three years ago, Wiz, which focuses on cloud security and has 650 employees globally, has raised $900 million from investors, including Sequoia Capital, Insight Partners, Blackstone and G Squared. It said it plans to open new offices in Austin, Dallas and Washington D.C. Reporting by Steven Scheer Editing by Ari RabinovitchOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ AI startup Cohere in talks to raise funding at $6 bln plus valuation -sources
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-06 | by ( Krystal Hu | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Generative AI aims to make human-like creations through computer code that has processed vast amounts of data. FOCUS ON NLPFocusing on training natural language processing (NLP) models, Cohere competes with a group of foundation model providers such as OpenAI and Anthropic. Gomez said the company differentiates itself by focusing on serving enterprise users, and Cohere has been talking to companies from marketing, consulting and tech to help them incorporate generative AI. Cohere is powering some consumer applications including Hyperwrite, which helps people write faster and generate articles using AI. Other foundation model providers such as Anthropic is also in talks to raise funding at multi-billion valuations, investor sources said.

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