Edición Especial: MultiVersial Research 1 abril
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1º Analyst Reports - 1st April
Generative AI set to affect 300 million jobs across major economies: Research by Goldman Sachs suggests that AI could automate a quarter of the work done in the US and eurozone. The technology could spark a productivity boom that could raise annual gross domestic product by 7% over a 10-year period. It will likely bring significant disruption to the labor market and affect an estimated 300 million full-time workers. Around 7% of workers in the US are in jobs that could be completely replaced by AI. Link
Subscription revenues far outstrip ad revenues for digital audio, where US adults spend one-fifth of their daily digital media time: Digital audio subscription revenues crossed the $10 billion mark last year and are on track for $15 billion by the end of our forecast period in 2026. Paid subscriptions remain the foundation of the industry. Link
5 charts showing where people (and advertisers) would go after TikTok: If TikTok gets banned (and it’s a very big “if”), advertisers need to know where consumers will go. Instagram and YouTube would be likely beneficiaries, but OTT TV like Netflix could also see gains. Advertisers may even branch out to other categories entirely, like retail media. Here are five charts showing what could happen. Link
Analyzing Thoma Bravo’s investment strategy: Where the PE firm is betting big across key industries: Thoma Bravo is one of the world’s leading private equity firms, with a successful track record of investments across the technology, healthcare, financial services, and software industries. Link
Quantitative Perspectives: Putting the Pieces Back Together: Startups and investors must come together to restart the flow of VC. Link
Q4 2022 Retail Fintech Report: March 24, 2023. Link
Q4 2022 Insurtech Report: March 27, 2023. Link
Why Europe struggles to scale its deep-tech startups. Link
H2 2022 Greater China Venture Report: March 28, 2023. Link
Q4 2022 Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning Report. March 29, 2023. Link
2º IA, Robots & Automation - 1st April
News:
AI researcher Margaret Mitchell was fired by Google. Now she's the chief AI ethics scientist at one of its startup rivals. (The Information)
Norway-based 1X, which is developing humanoid robots, raised a $23.5M Series A2 led by the OpenAI Startup Fund with participation from Tiger Global and others (Will Knight / Wired)
An AI chatbots comparison test finds ChatGPT is the most verbally dextrous, Bing is best for getting information from the web, and Bard is surprisingly limited (The Verge)
LLMs will remove scholarly, creative, and economic software creation barriers, marking the industry's Gutenberg moment to unleash the next great technology wave (Irregular Ideas)
A look at the community of users who “jailbreak” GPT models to generate unfiltered content and see themselves as fighting back against OpenAI's closed policies (Chloe Xiang / VICE)
Q&A with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang on AI's iPhone moment, the DGX Cloud service, the US' export controls, Nvidia's position in the stack in an LLM world, and more (Ben Thompson / Stratechery)
Replika restores erotic roleplay for users who signed up before February 1, after complaints from some who considered themselves “married” to chatbot companions (Anna Tong / Reuters)
Zoom partners with OpenAI to expand its Zoom IQ assistant with features to generate whiteboards from text prompts, recap meetings, summarize threads, and more (Emma Roth / The Verge)
A mid-March Midjourney update seemingly fixed one of the AI image generator's major failings: its inability to depict lifelike human hands with five fingers (Pranshu Verma / Washington Post)
A look at Modulate's ToxMod and other AI-based tools that help gaming companies moderate voice chats in online games, amid concerns of accuracy and user privacy (Sarah E. Needleman / Wall Street Journal)
Porn creators in Germany face fines and imprisonment as regulators use AI to spot porn not protected by age verification tech on social media and messaging apps (Matt Burgess / Wired)
A look at the non-consensual deepfake porn economy, with video sites easily accessible via top Google search results and some accepting Visa and Mastercard (Kat Tenbarge / NBC News)
Europol details how LLMs can be used to fuel fraud, cybercrime, and terrorism, and claims criminals are already misusing ChatGPT to carry out illegal activities (Katyanna Quach / The Register)
To compete with GitHub Copilot, Google partners with Replit, which used AI to make coding tools and will now rely on Google's LLMs for its Ghostwriter product (Dina Bass / Bloomberg)
Discounting AI's short-term risks, from phishing to fraud to propaganda, because artificial general intelligence is not here yet leaves society ill-prepared (Gary Marcus / The Road to AI We Can Trust)
Cerebras open sources seven GPT-based LLMs, ranging from 111M to 13B parameters and trained using its Andromeda supercomputer for AI, on GitHub and Hugging Face (Mike Wheatley / SiliconANGLE)
Plugins turn ChatGPT into an aggregator, signaling a major shift in ambition that puts OpenAI well on its way to becoming the next major consumer tech platform (Stratechery)
Sources: Google Brain and DeepMind have been forced to work together on a project known as Gemini to compete with OpenAI's GPT-4, after Bard's stumble (Jon Victor / The Information)
The UK government publishes recommendations for AI and tasks regulators with issuing practical guidance to organizations on implementing them in their sectors (Ryan Browne / CNBC)
As Microsoft, Meta, Google, Amazon, Twitter, and others cut their responsible AI teams, experts worry about potential abuses, disinformation, and hallucination (Financial Times)
Report: Google AI engineer Jacob Devlin quit to join OpenAI in January 2023 after complaining Bard was being trained on ChatGPT data; Google denies the charge (Sean Hollister / The Verge)
Some signatories of the open letter to pause AI training walk back their positions, others turn out to be fake, and many experts disagree with its proposal (Chloe Xiang / VICE)
Synopsys claims to launch the first full-stack AI-powered EDA suitethat covers all stages of chip design, including architecture, design, and manufacturing (Anton Shilov / AnandTech)
BuzzFeed quietly started publishing fully AI-generated SEO-driven travel posts by non-editorial staff on March 14; a spokesperson calls the posts an experiment (Futurism)
Q&A with Vinod Khosla on how AI could “free humanity from the need to work”, seeing the AI future early, his OpenAI investment, AI and geopolitics, and more (Reed Albergotti / Semafor)
FreedomGPT, a chatbot from Austin VC firm Age of AI, is free of ChatGPT's safety filters and ethical guardrails, and praises Hitler, uses the N-word, and more (Pranav Dixit / BuzzFeed News)
Startups raising funds
Perplexity AI, an SF-based answer app, raised $25.6m in Series A funding. NEA led, and was joined by Databricks Ventures, Elad Gil, Bob Muglia (former CEO of Snowflake) and Paul Buchheit. Link
FedML, a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based collaborative AI startup, raised $6m. Camford Capital led, and was joined by Plug & Play Ventures, AimTop Ventures, Acequia Capital and LDV Partners. Link
Irrigreen, an Edina, Minn.-based robotic irrigation startup, raised $15m in seed funding. Ulu Ventures led, and was joined by with Sage Hill Investors, Burnt Island Ventures, MFV Partners, Anorak Ventures, Echo River Capital, Tamiami, Catalyst Innovation Lab and Sum Ventures. Link
Deep Render, a London-based video compression by AI startup, raised $6.3m (+2,7 grant) in Series A funding co-led by IP Group and Pentech Ventures. Link
Parloa, a German contact center automation startup, raised €20m in Series A funding. EQT Ventures led, and was joined by Newion and Senovo. Link
Fixie, a Seattle-based automation platform for large language models used by enterprises, raised $17m in seed funding. Redpoint Venturesled, and was joined by Madrona Venture Group, Zetta Venture Partners, SignalFire, Bloomberg Beta and Kearny Jackson. Link
Stratyfy, a New York-based provider of machine learning solutions for lenders, raised $10m. Truist Ventures and Zeal Capital Partners co-led, and were joined by Mendon Venture Partners, The 98, FIS, and Barry J. Glick. Link
Jigso, an Israeli AI observability platform, raised $7.5m in seed funding from General Catalyst, Entree Capital and Jibe Ventures. Link
3º Hardware, Chips, Telco, Quantum computing, IoT Space & Industrial - 1st April
News:
How and When the Chip Shortage Will End: Fabs using older process nodes will be key to ending the chip shortage. IEEE
South Korea has passed its own Chips Act: Like the US equivalent, it’s designed to boost the country's native chip industry. Bloomberg
Huawei announces tools for designing chips as advanced as 14nm, about four generations behind the latest available, to help Chinese companies replace US tech (Bloomberg)
SEMI forecasts South Korea will increase its spending on advanced chipmaking equipment by 41.5% YoY to $21B in 2024, versus China's 2% YoY increase to $16.6B (Sam Kim / Bloomberg)
Startups raising funds
Huupe, an Irvine, Calif.-based maker of smart basketball hoops, raised $11m from Protagonist VC, Marvan Ventures, TRI Investments, Kawn VC, Genesis Ventures and Reform Ventures. Link
Mixergy, a British maker of smart water tanks, raised £9.2m from EDP Ventures, Nesta and insiders Oxford Science Enterprises, Kiko Ventures, Foresight WAE Technology and Centrica. Link
IsarAerospace, a Munich-based rocket launch startup, raised €155m in Series C funding from 7-Industries Holding, Bayern Kapital, Earlybird VC, HV Capital, Lakestar, Lombard Odier Investment Managers, Porsche SE, UVC Partners and Vsquared Ventures. Link
M&A and Private equity deals
Northvolt, a Swedish maker of lithium-ion batteries, is in talks to raise up to $5b in new funding, per the FT. Last year it raised $1.1b in convertible note funding from such backers as Baillie Gifford, Goldman Sachs, OMERS and Volkswagen. Link
CVC Capital Partners, I Squared Capital, Stonepeak Partners and Mitsui & Co. have been shortlisted for a stake in Edotco Group, the wireless tower unit of Malaysia’s Axiata Group, per Bloomberg. The deal could fetch up to $750m. Link
EQT is in advanced talks for a majority stake in the infrastructure business of Italian telecom operator Wind Tre, a unit of CK Hutchison Holdings (HK: 0001). Link
Zound Industries, a Swedish headphones and sound systems company backed by Zenith Venture Capital, agreed to buy Marshall, the British maker of guitar amplifiers. Link
4º Cloud, Big Data & Analytics/Intelligence - 1st April
Startups raising funds
Huupe, an Irvine, Calif.-based maker of smart basketball hoops, raised $11m from Protagonist VC, Marvan Ventures, TRI Investments, Kawn VC, Genesis Ventures and Reform Ventures. Link
Graphiant, a San Jose, Calif.-based edge services startup, raised $62m in Series B funding. Two Bear Capital led, and was joined by Sequoia Capital, Atlantic Bridge and Harpoon Venture Capital Partners. Link
Talpasolutions, a German provider of analytics SaaS for fleet operators, raised €15m in Series B funding. Bosch Ventures led, and was joined by MIG Capital. Link
Markerr, a New York-based analytics platform for institutional real estate owners, raised $6.6m in Series B funding. RET Ventures led, and was joined by Pretium. Link
M&A and Private equity deals
Actis bought the Latin American business of Nabiax, a Spanish data center firm owned by Asterion Industrial and BlackRock, for around $500m. Link
Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) agreed to buy Lightspin Technologies, an Israeli cloud security software company that had raised around $25m from VC firms like Dell Technologies Capital and Ibex Investors. Link
5º Web3: Blockchain, cripto, NFTs - 1st April
News:
"We believe that post-FTX, the regulatory environment will be much less favorable for Binance and that they will face significant regulatory pressure across multiple jurisdictions." (Insider)
Crypto wants its shine back. (The New York Times)
Binance's public chatrooms show some employees and support volunteers helping customers bypass China's crypto ban, including evading the company's KYC checks (Rohan Goswami / CNBC)
Tether estimates the company will make $700M in profit in Q1, taking its excess reserves to back its USDT stablecoin to $1.66B, above $1B for the first time (Arjun Kharpal / CNBC)
Filing: a federal judge grants the US government's request to temporarily halt Voyager's bankruptcy plan, putting its proposed ~$1B sale to Binance.US on hold (Jeremy Hill / Bloomberg)
Nvidia CTO Michael Kagan says crypto does not “bring anything useful for society” and other processing power uses like AI are more worthwhile than mining crypto (Alex Hern / The Guardian)
Filing: MicroStrategy bought 6,455 BTC for ~$150M from February 16 to March 23 at an average price of $23,238; the company held ~$4.14B worth of BTC on March 23 (Larry DiTore / The Block)
Regulators are choking the crypto industry in the US, but major policy decisions should be made by Congress and state legislatures, not by unelected officials (Katie Haun / Wall Street Journal)
Sources: the Hong Kong arms of three Chinese state banks reached out to offer services to crypto companies in the past few months, despite a mainland crypto ban (Bloomberg)
Researchers say North Korean hackers are likely laundering stolen crypto by renting cloud compute to mine fresh coins, avoiding more scrutinized crypto mixers (Andy Greenberg / Wired)
CryptoQuant: BUSD saw $500M+ in outflows in the ~24 hours after the CFTC filed its Binance lawsuit vs. $2B after the SEC's Paxos crackdown in February 2023 (Shaurya Malwa / CoinDesk)
Sources: Huobi partnered with Dominica and prompts new Chinese users to apply for a Dominican digital citizenship to evade China's crypto trading restrictions (Wall Street Journal)
The FDIC tells Signature's crypto depositors that they must close their accounts by April 5, as Flagstar Bank's bid excludes ~$4B in Signature's crypto deposits (Bloomberg)
The SEC sues shuttered crypto exchange Beaxy and its execs for allegedly not registering and Beaxy Digital's founder for raising $8Mvia unregistered token BXY (Sarah Wynn / The Block)
Sources: Gemini is preparing to launch an international crypto derivatives exchange to offer perpetual futures, which US regulations prohibit for retail traders (Akash Pasricha / The Information)
How a New York couple, who used to host an RT show, became key advisers to El Salvador on its bitcoin adoption while making crypto investments in the country (Santiago Pérez / Wall Street Journal)
A US court rules the bZx protocol meets the definition of a general partnership and finds the DAO's token holders are liable for losses from a $55M hack in 2021 (Sam Reynolds / CoinDesk)
Startups raising funds
Conduit, a platform that enables developers to launch OP stack rollups, raised $7m in seed funding led by Paradigm. Link
Cega, a Singaporean crypto derivatives startup, raised $5m. Dragonfly Capital led, and was joined by Pantera Capital and Robot Ventures. Link
EigenLayer, an ethereum restaking protocol, raised $50m in Series A funding. Blockchain Capital led, and was joined by Coinbase Ventures, Polychain Capital, Hack VC and Electric Capital. Link
True I/O, a Carlsbad, Calif.-based provider of blockchain solutions for supply chain security, device management and software licensing, raised $9m in Series A funding led by Deal Box Ventures. Link
Polytrade, a web3 protocol focused on global trade, raised $3.8m in seed funding from Alpha Wave, Matrix Partners, Polygon Ventures, Singularity Ventures and GTM Ventures. Link
6º CyberSecurity & Defense & Identity - 1st April
News:
Sources: Fortra told GoAnywhere customers that their data was safe after a ransomware attack by the Clop gang, but two said they later received ransom demands (TechCrunch)
CISA releases Untitled Goose Tool, an open-source Python-based utility to detect signs of malicious activity in Microsoft Azure and Microsoft 365 environments (Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer)
Citizen Lab: Russia's PROTEI is selling internet censorship software to Iranian telco Ariantel, for monitoring and intercepting all Iranians' communications (Wall Street Journal)
Documents and sources: Belgian intelligence is investigating Huawei to determine if the company's Brussels lobbying office has direct ties to China's government (Politico)
Filing: Twitter wins an order from a California court to subpoena GitHub for information on FreeSpeechEnthusiast, the alleged leaker of some Twitter source code (Malathi Nayak / Bloomberg)
Court records and messages from alleged hackers reveal a massive hacking campaign targeting thousands of environmental activists, dating back to at least 2017 (Christopher M. Matthews / Wall Street Journal)
Pennsylvania-based NCB Management Services, which purchases debt, says hackers leaked the sensitive financial info of 494,969 people after a company cyberattack (Jonathan Greig / The Record)
Startups raising funds
Right-Hand Cybersecurity, a Phoenix-based provider of cybersecurity-focused human risk management solutions, raised $5m in Series A funding led by AZ-VC. Link
M&A and Private equity deals
Advent International is seeking a buyer for IDEMIA, a French biometrics and fingerprint ID firm, per Les Echos. Link
Airbus (Paris: AIR) ended talks to buy a 29.9% stake in Evidian, the cybersecurity and cloud computing unit of Atos (Paris: ATO). Link
7º BioTech & eHealth - 1st April
Startups raising funds
ArriVent Biopharma, a biotech whose lead candidate is a mutant-specific EGFR kinase inhibitor, raised $155m in Series B funding. Sofinnova Investments and General Catalyst co-led, and were joined by Catalio Capital Management, HBM Healthcare Investments, Shanghai Healthcare Capital, Sequoia Capital China, AIHC Capital, Terra Magnum Capital Partners, Unicorn Capital Partners Limited, Infinitum Asset Management and insiders Lilly Asia Ventures, OrbiMed, Octagon Capital Advisors, Sirona Capital and Boyu/Zoo Capital. Link
Labviva, a Boston-based online marketplace for life science supplies, raised $20m in Series A funding. Biospring Partners led, and was joined by insiders Senator Investment Group, B Capital Group and Glasswing Ventures. Link
Mbiomics, a German microbiome biotech startup, raised €13m in Series A funding. MIG led, and was joined by High-Tech Gründerfonds and Bayern Kapital. Link
Genialis, a Houston-based computational precision medicine startup, raised $13m in Series A funding. Taiwania Capital and Debiopharm Innovation Fund co-led, and were joined by First Star Ventures, Aedalpine Venture Partners, Pikas and P5 Health Ventures. Link
Florence, an ER patient intake and tracking startup, raised $20m in seed funding. Thrive Capital, GV and Salesforce Ventures co-led, and were joined by Vast Ventures, BoxGroup and Atento Capital. Link
M&A and Private equity deals
CVS (NYSE: CVS) said it expects to close its $8b acquisition of SignifyHealth (NYSE: SGFY) this week. Sellers include New Mountain Capital. Link
JounceTherapeutics (Nasdaq: JNCE) terminated a merger agreement with Redx Pharma (LSE: REDX), in order to be acquired for around $96m by Concentra Biosciences, a privately held company backed by Tang Capital Partners. Link
Inato, a Guilford, Conn.-based clinical trials marketplace, raised $20m in Series A2 funding. Cathay Innovation led, and was joined by La Maison, Top Harvest Capital and insider Obvious Ventures. Link
ICU Medical (Nasdaq: ICUI) is partnering with Linden Capital Partnersto bid for the patient monitoring and interventions businesses of Medtronic (NYSE: MDT), which could fetch upwards of $9b, per Reuters. Other second-round suitors include Carlyle, Clayton Dubilier & Rice andGE Healthcare. Link
Inverstors raising funds:
SR One, a life sciences-focused VC firm, raised $500m for its second independent fund since spinning out of GlaxoSmithKline in 2020. Link
8º Fintech - 1st April
Analyst reports:
Startups raising funds
Raisin, a Berlin-based savings and investment startup, raised €60m in Series E funding from M&G's Catalyst and Goldman Sachs. Link
Thunes, a Singapore-based cross-border payments startup, raised $30m in Series C funding from Marshall Wace. Link
Spiral, an impact-as-a-service platform for financial institutions, raised $28m in Series A funding. Team8 led, and was joined by Euclidean Capital and Intuition Fund, Communitas Capital, Phoenix and Nidoco AB. Link
StellarFi, an Austin, Texas-based bill pay tool, raised $15m in Series A funding. Acrew Capital led, and was joined by ATX Venture Partners, Trust Ventures, Dream Ventures, Interplay, Accomplice, Vera Equity, FJ Labs, Fiat Ventures, Gaingels, Kelmhurst, Oyster Funds, Hilltop Ventures, Permit Ventures, Kindergarten Ventures, J2 Capital, Socially Financed and Kapital Ventures. Link
Toku, a Chilean payments startup, raised $7m in seed funding. F-Prime Capital led, and was joined by Wollef, Honey Island by 4UM, FundersClub and Clocktower. Link
Connect Earth, a London-based startup focused on decarbonizing finance, raised $5.6m in seed funding. Gresham House Ventures led, and was joined by Love Ventures, Global Brain, Portfolio Ventures, Super Capital, Market One Capital, Mustard Seed MAZE and Venista Ventures. Link
Investing.com agreed to acquire Michigan-based financial news site StreetInsider for more than $10m. Link
Paytrix, a London-based fintech platform for brands, raised $18.3m in Series A funding from Unusual Ventures, Motive Partners and Bain Capital Ventures. Link
SKUx, a St. Petersburg, Fla.-based payment and consumer engagement startup, raised $11m in Series A funding. An undisclosed family office led, and was joined by Advection Growth Capital. Link
Playbook, an SF-based Gen Z and millennial-focused personal finance app, raised $7m in Series A funding. Telstra Ventures led, and was joined by Atomic. Link
Pacto, a POS payment solution for restaurants in Mexico, raised $4m led by DILA Capital. Link
Payday, a pan-African neobank, raised $3m in seed funding. Moniepoint led, and was joined by HoaQ, DFS Labs and Ingressive Capital. Link
Acko, an Indian digital insurer whose backers include Amazon, is in advanced talks to raise $120m at a $1.5b valuation led by General Atlantic. Link
Orb, an SF-based billing automation startup, raised $19.1m in Series A (led by Menlo Ventures) and seed (led by Greylock) funding. Link
Nimbbl, an Indian one-click checkout startup, raised $3.5m from Sequoia Capital India, Global Founders Capital and Groww. Link
M&A and Private equity deals
Ingenico, a French payment hardware provider owned by Apollo Global Management, acquired Phos, a Bulgarian provider of software that converts smartphones into payment terminals. Phos raised around $8m in VC funding from backers like CM.com. Link
Mastercard (NYSE: MA) and Visa (NYSE: V) are circling Brazilian banking and payments startup Pismo, which could top $1b, per Bloomberg. Pismo has raised over $100m from backers like Accel, Amazon and SoftBank. Link
Zenus Bank, a Puerto Rico-based digital bank, acquired Puerto Rican payments startup Financial Urban Exchange (dba FUEX Payments). Link
9º Clean: Energy, Logistics & Batteries. Agro/Food tech - 1st April
News:
Unpacking the future of the foodtech industry and where new and innovative opportunities are emerging. (AltAssets)
Most carbon emissions caused by businesses are hidden from sight. US and California regulators are pushing to require companies to fully disclose them. (Wired)
Fossil fuel CVCs are increasingly investing in climate-tech startups, posing a conundrum for many founders looking to raise funding. Link
Startups raising funds
Type One Energy, a Madison, Wis.-based nuclear fusion developer, raised $29m in seed funding from Breakthrough Energy Ventures, TDK Ventures and Doral Energy Tech Ventures. Link
Venti Technologies, a Weston, Mass.-based provider of autonomous logistics for supply chain and industrial hubs, raised $28.8m in Series A funding. LG Technology Ventures led, and was joined by Safar Partners, UOB Venture Management, and existing investors Alpha JWC and LDV Partners. Link
Connect Earth, a London-based startup focused on decarbonizing finance, raised $5.6m in seed funding. Gresham House Ventures led, and was joined by Love Ventures, Global Brain, Portfolio Ventures, Super Capital, Market One Capital, Mustard Seed MAZE and Venista Ventures. Link
3E Nano, a Toronto-based developer of solar control coatings for windows, raised US$4m in seed funding. Energy Foundry led, and was joined by MUUS Climate Partners, ACT Venture Partners, Creative Ventures, New Climate Ventures, Vectors Capital and VertueLab. Link
Cardonaide, a Finnish green concrete startup, raised €1.8m in seed funding from Lakan Betoni and Vantaa Energy. Link
Ph7 Technologies, a Vancouver-based sustainable metal extraction tech developer, raised $16m in Series A funding. TDK Ventures and Pangaea Ventures co-led, and were joined by Rhapsody Ventures, Collaborative Fund, FM Capital and BASF VC. Link
Evoco, a Canadian maker of plant-based materials, raised C$12m in Series B funding led by Circular Innovation Fund. Link
Irrigreen, an Edina, Minn.-based robotic irrigation startup, raised $15m in seed funding. Ulu Ventures led, and was joined by with Sage Hill Investors, Burnt Island Ventures, MFV Partners, Anorak Ventures, Echo River Capital, Tamiami, Catalyst Innovation Lab and Sum Ventures. Link
Cauldron Labs, an Australian precision fermentation company for alt proteins, raised A$10.5m led by Main Sequence Ventures. Link
Cowboy Clean Fuels, a Denver-based RNG and carbon credits startup, raised $7.5m in Series A funding led by Machan Investments. Link
Two Boxes, a Denver-based returns platforms for brands and 3PLs, raised $4.5m in seed funding. Vinyl Capital led, and was joined by Matchstick Ventures and Range Ventures. Link
Effy, a French energy renovation company, raised €20m from Felix Capital. Link
Gen Phoenix, a British sustainable leather maker, raised $18m in Series B funding. Material Impact led, and was joined by Dr. Martens, InMotion Ventures and Tapestry. Link
IPO & SPAC
Bestpath, a Shanghai-based hydrogen fuel cell developer, agreed to go public at an implied equity value of $1.2b via Aquaron Acquisition Corp.(Nasdaq: AQU). Link
Inverstors raising funds:
Magnesium Capital, a London-based energy transition PE firm co-founded by Ian Jones (ex-Apax Partners), is raising its debut fund. Link.
0º "Traditional” SW - 1st April
Startups raising funds
Hilos, a Portland, Ore.-based 3-D printed footwear startup, raised $3m from Better Ventures, Builders VC, XRC Labs and former Nike executives Eric Sprunk and Greg Bui. Link
Paraform, an SF-based recruiting marketplace, raised $1.4m in pre-seed funding led by Primer Sazze Partners. Link
123 Baby Box, an Irvine, Calif.-based monthly subscription box for babies, raised a $1.2 million in pre-seed funding from XRC Labs, Sunstone Fund and Salt Lake City Angels. Link
Coursedog, a New York-based academic operations platform for higher ed, raised $90m from JMI Equity. Link
Hygraph, a Berlin-based "federated" content management startup, raised $30m in Series B funding. One Peak led, and was joined by insiders OpenOcean and SquareOne. Link
LeapXpert, a compliance-focused employee chat monitoring startup, raised $22m in Series A funding. Rockefeller Asset Management led, and was joined by Uncorrelated Ventures and the Partnership Fund for New York City. Link
Deep Render, a London-based video compression startup, raised $6.3m (+2,7 grant) in Series A funding co-led by IP Group and Pentech Ventures. Link
Autio, a Santa Barbara, Calif.-based storytelling app co-founded by Kevin Costner, raised $5.9m from iHeart Media Ventures. Link
M&A and Private equity deals
Arko (Nasdaq: ARKO) offered to buy TravelCenters of America(Nasdaq: TA) for $1.4b, topping an accepted $1.3b bid from BP PLC (LSE: BP). Link
Krafton, a listed South Korean company backed by Tencent, agreed to buy a 10% stake in listed Polish video games maker PCF Group. Link
KKR is seeking to sell RBMedia, a Landover, Md.-based audiobook publisher that could fetch up to $2b, per PE Hub. Link
11º Media, MarTech & AdTech. - 1st April
News:
US ad revenues will rise 3.4% this year, down from 5.7% in 2022: Like Magna, we forecast softer ad growth this year over last year. But the market is still growing, even as economic factors lead to tightening budgets. Link
The Belgian Data Protection Authority (APD) has voluntarily suspended the six-month implementation period of IAB Europe's action plan for TCF due to unresolved questions sitting with the EU Court of Justice. [IAB Europe]
Criteo is making a new attempt to sell itself after discussions with potential acquirers in previous years proved unsuccessful. [Digiday]
Google announced the first beta release of Android Privacy Sandbox,which will initially roll out to a small percentage of Android 13 devices. The Android Privacy Sandbox includes four APIs: Topics, FLEDGE, attribution reporting, and SDK Runtime. [AdExchanger]
Netflix has procured the services of Jon Whitticom, former chief product officer at FreeWheel, as its “advertising platform advisor” to help the company assess its next step in ad tech: build or buy. [Digiday]
Marketers respond to TikTok CEO’s testimony and potential ban: It’s looking more and more like Congress will try to ban TikTok. The question is what that will look like. A total banishment seems unlikely, but other actions like limiting monetization could still hurt the platform. Link
US ad spend reached its eighth month of decline in February: US ad spend dropped 8.0% YoY in February, according to a MediaPost analysis of Standard Media Index’s US Ad Market Tracker. That marks eight months of consecutive YoY decline as part of a trend that began in July 2022. Link
The state of generative AI in 7 charts: The buzz around generative AI — which refers to AI technologies that generate entirely new content, from lines of code to images to human-like speech — has reached a fever pitch. Link
With Elliott Management, Starboard Value, and Third Point now invested in Salesforce, what assets might it sell off and who are the likely acquirers? Link
The Trade Desk's OpenPath: one year later: The Trade Desk's OpenPath, a program that allows its DSP advertisers to bid directly on publisher inventory without the involvement of SSPs, launched a year ago. By circumventing SSPs, OpenPath offers advertisers an efficient supply chain with more bidding power. Some publishers have seen OpenPath become one of the primary ways TTD buys impressions from them. However, some publishers are concerned about TTD becoming too powerful, and SSPs are concerned about margin pressure. Around 4,000 domains now actively sell inventory via OpenPath. (Digiday)
Yahoo shutting down its SSP: Yahoo plans to lay off over 20% of its total workforce, with over 50% of its ad tech employees affected. The decision is driven by strategic changes in the company's unprofitable "Yahoo for Business" advertising unit. At the same time, Yahoo will shut down its SSP business and seek outside partners to help monetize Yahoo's media properties. Its native advertising platform, Gemini, will also be shut down, leveraging a partnership with Taboola instead. According to Yahoo CEO Jim Lanzone, this move will be "tremendously beneficial for the profitability of Yahoo overall." Yahoo will continue to focus on its DSP business, renaming it "Yahoo Advertising" and targeting Fortune 500 businesses and "premium" accounts in global markets. Yahoo also wants to focus on growing its own media properties as standalone brands. (Adweek)
EMX shutting down its SSP: Big Village Media, previously known as Engine Group, and its ad-tech subsidiary EMX Digital has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, leaving creditors uncertain about receiving payments. The filings indicate that Big Village and EMX Digital have an estimated 5,000-10,000 creditors, with assets ranging from $10-50M and liabilities between $50-100M. Major creditors include Pluto TV, Yahoo, and Google. Claims among the top 30 creditors vary from $6.6 million (CPX Interactive) to $348,527 (Roku). The bankruptcy follows the departure of two consecutive CEOs from Big Village and EMX Digital, Kasha Cacy and Michael Zacharski. (Business Insider)
The cautionary tale of MediaMath: MediaMath was once considered one of the leading companies in ad tech, with a unicorn valuation and blue-chip clients. However, despite multiple acquisition talks and partnerships, MediaMath never achieved its desired exit. In 2022, it gave up a controlling stake to private-equity firm Searchlight Capital, leaving early investors and the founding team with shattered expectations. The story of MediaMath's rise and fall is a cautionary tale about strategy, competition, and the consequences of raising too much capital. (Business Insider)
Startups raising funds
Turntable LIVE, a collaborative music streaming service, raised $7m co-led by Founders Fund and f7 Ventures. Link
M&A and Private equity deals
Investing.com agreed to acquire Michigan-based financial news site StreetInsider for more than $10m. Link
WPP (LSE: WPP) acquired Obviously, a New York-based social influencer marketing agency. Link
Recognize invested in 2X, a Berwyn, Pa.-based provider of B2B marketing-as-a-service solutions
WildBrain (TSE: WILD), the Canadian producer of Teletubbies, agreed to acquire House of Cool, Toronto-based animation studio, for C$15.5m in cash and stock. Link
MusicBird, a music-rights investment firm, acquired the catalog of Midge Ure, a Scottish singer-songwriter-producer. Link
KKR is seeking to sell RBMedia, a Landover, Md.-based audiobook publisher that could fetch up to $2b. Link
12º Investors raising funds - 1st April
Analyst Reports available this week:,
Analyzing Thoma Bravo’s investment strategy: Where the PE firm is betting big across key industries: Thoma Bravo is one of the world’s leading private equity firms, with a successful track record of investments across the technology, healthcare, financial services, and software industries. Link
Quantitative Perspectives: Putting the Pieces Back Together: Startups and investors must come together to restart the flow of VC. Link
10 largest private debt funds find opportunity in tight lending market: Private debt managers are building up their war chests as a tighter debt market, made worse by the current banking crisis, creates opportunities for alternative lenders. Link
Strategy Capital, a tech-focused hedge fund, is a reminder that one year of performance doesn't make or break a manager. (Institutional Investor)
News:
Blackstone is in talks to buy a passive minority stake in growth equity firm FTV Capital, per Bloomberg. Link
Why it could ultimately be a good thing if VC funds have to go back to a slower way of making investments. Bloomberg
Detail:
Crédit Agricole (Paris: CAGR) launched a China M&A advisory business. Link
KPS Capital Partners plans to seek $8b for its sixth flagship fund, with a $10b cap, per the WSJ. It also will target $1.5b for its second midcap fund. Link
Magnesium Capital, a London-based energy transition PE firm co-founded by Ian Jones (ex-Apax Partners), is raising its debut fund. Link.
OpenView, a Boston-based expansion-stage VC firm, raised over $570m for its seventh fund. Link
SR One, a life sciences-focused VC firm, raised $500m for its second independent fund since spinning out of GlaxoSmithKline in 2020. Link
DW Healthcare Partners raised $210m for a founders fund, which will back companies with between $3m and $6m in EBITDA. Link
Parthenon Capital raised more than $4.5b for its seventh flagship PE fund. Link
Playfair, a London-based pre-seed firm, raised $70m for its third fund. Link
Torch Capital, a New York-based consumer tech VC firm, raised over $200m for its latest fund. Link
Accel-KKR raised $4.4b for its seventh flagship fund. Link
Anamcara, a London-based VC firm led by Annelie Ajami (B&Y Venture Partners), raised $10.6m for its debut fund. Link
Gutter Capital, a New York-based pre-seed and seed VC firm, raised $25m for its debut fund. It’s led by Dan Teran (founder of Managed by Q) and James Gettinger. Link
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