Let's have a look at the notable closed funding rounds as of 21.02.23
We are sure we did not cover many startups worth sharing, feel free to add more in the comment section below!
Biggest mentions:
Fundraising by VC firms has hit a nine-year low, according to a new report. VC fundraising dropped 65% YoY in Q4 2022.
The public cloud market is expected to grow to $987.7B by 2027, representing a 17.3% CAGR growth. The market was worth $444.7B in 2022.
Bosch Ventures has led a $50.5M funding round for Motion to build quantum computing capabilities. Porsche also participated in the round.
Sony has acquired Ballistic Moon studios as it continues the campaign to boost its creative portfolio. The amount of the acquisition remains undisclosed.
Australia-based WiseTech has acquired Blume Global for $414M to help companies save money by implementing efficient supply chain data analytics tools. Blume expects to reach the break-even point in its cash flow by the end of the 2024 fiscal year.
PhonePe has raised a $100M Growth round to provide fintech services in India, reaching a $12B valuation. The platform has over 400 million users.
Texas-based GrainChain has raised a $29M funding round to provide blockchain-based supply chain tracking for agriculture. The company operates in the U.S., Mexico, Brazil, and Central America.
Berlin-based Pliant has raised a $28M Series A to expand its corporate credit card solution. Over 40 million retailers accept its product.
Carbon removal and related startups brought in a record $4.2B in VC funding last year, up from $3.6B in 2021, according to PitchBook data. The uptick defies the broader VC slowdown and highlights growing investor interest in the emerging carbon tech industry.
Zillow CEO Rich Barton said the company's voluntary attrition "declined steadily across the organization" in 2022, decreasing by more than 50%.
Zillow, which switched to a work-from-anywhere model, claims 4x more candidates per position versus 2019 levels.
Pliant, a 2.5-year-old, Berlin-based outfit B2B credit card platform that operates on the back of Visa, has raised $28 million in Series A funding, led by SBI Investment.
SaaS
- Zerocater (California), provides corporate cafeterias and catering solutions: $15M C led by Cleveland Avenue, with participation from Remus Capital.
- Puzzle (California), an accounting platform for startups: $15M A led by General Catalyst, FOG Ventures, XYZ, Felicis, Sterling Road, Kapor Capital, and angel investors.
Fitness
- Quell (U.K.), an immersive home workout platform: $10M A led by Tencent with participation from Khosla Ventures, Heartcore Capital, Social Impact Capital, and Naval Ravikant.
Food Tech
- Ocean Rainforest (Faroe Islands), a seaweed cultivation and processing company that aims to use seaweed as a food source: $6.2M A led by The Grantham Foundation.
- Planetarians (California), produces alternative vegan meat: $6M Seed extension led by Mindrock with participation from Traction Fund, Techstars, SOSV, and ZX Ventures.
Web3
- Nefta (U.K.), aims to become a one-stop-shop for Web3 tools that can help integrate companies in the blockchain economy: $5M Seed led by Play Ventures with participation from SevenX Ventures, Sfermion, MZ, Polygon Ventures, and reinvestment from Picus Capital.
B2B
- Jumba (Kenya), offers an e-commerce platform that simplifies the process of sourcing construction hardware supplies: $4.5M Seed led by LocalGlobe, with participation from Enza Capital, Foundamental, Seedstars International Ventures, Logos Ventures, SpeedInvest, and First Check Africa.
AI
- Kern AI (Germany), an open-source platform that enables data scientists and companies to embed natural language processing in their code: $2.8M Seed co-led by Seedcamp and Faber, with participation from Xdeck and Another.vc.
Sustainability
- Carbon Maps, a new Paris-based SaaS platform that aims to enable agri-food industry players to perform rapid assessments of the environmental impact of their products and agricultural raw materials, has raised €4 million in pre-seed funding from the European venture firms Breega and Samaipata.
