Startup Monday: Latest tech trends & news happening in the global startup ecosystem (Issue 135- July 27)
Welcome to Startup Monday, my weekly newsletter that recaps the week in the global startup ecosystem. To have this newsletter emailed to you, you can sign up here.
Top startup news to follow this week:
1. VCs are still pouring billions into generative AI startups
Investments in generative AI startups — those that are creating AI-powered products to generate text, audio, video and more — aren’t slowing down. But they’re being consolidated into a shrinking number of early-stage ventures.
Here’s how the H1 2024 total broke down by stage:
- 198 angel/seed deals: $500 million
- 39 early-stage deals: $8.7 billion
- 18 late-stage deals: $3.1 billion
- Early-stage startups were the clear winners, like Elon Musk’s (which $6 billion in May), China’s ($1 billion in February), ($502.6 million in June), Moonshot AI ($203.2 million in February) and Cognition ($175 million in April). According to Chris Metinko, an analyst and senior reporter at Crunchbase, investors appear to be betting on big startups they see as having a high chance of success while letting those they’re less sure about “wither away” at the earlier stages.
“Some VCs expect the legal and regulatory dilemmas AI companies could face in both the U.S. and overseas to lead to a slowdown in the flood of AI funding,” Metinko told TechCrunch. “Others point to the fact that when the mobile revolution occurred more than a decade ago, the biggest winners when it came to the foundational infrastructure layer ended up being well-established tech companies.”
To Metinko’s point, the fate of many generative AI businesses — even the best-funded ones — looks murky.
2. A new unicorn in Seattle: Cybersecurity startup Chainguard raises $140M at $1.1B valuation
The funding comes less than a year after Chainguard raised a $61 million Series B round. The company’s customer base has quintupled year-over-year and annual recurring revenue is up 175%.
Founded in 2021, Chainguard aims to help customers secure their “software supply chain,” a term used to describe a company’s software production line.
“Existing solutions haven’t kept up with the pace or scaled to the new methods,” he wrote. “Our Chainguard Images platform provides a safe, trusted way to build software on top of containers through a fully-managed open source supply chain.”
Redpoint Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and IVP led the Series C round, which included participation from Amplify, Mantis VC, Sequoia Capital, and Spark Capital.
“Chainguard is one of the fastest growing enterprise businesses we have seen in the past several years and we could not be more thrilled to join on this mission to build the industry standard for software security,” Sai Senthilkumar, partner at Redpoint Ventures, said in a statement.
Lorenc is a former Microsoft and Google engineer who is based in Rhode Island. He started Chainguard with Ville Aikas , , and , former engineers at Google and VMWare who are all based in the Seattle region, in addition to Scott Nichols , a former Google product manager based in the Bay Area. Nichols left the company in 2022. Kim Lewandowski
Total funding to date for Chainguard is $256 million. The company employs about 150 people.
3. Colin Kaepernick Raises $4M In A Funding Round Led By Alexis Ohanian’s Seven Seven Six To Launch An AI Startup
Kaepernick has been pouring into new ventures following his departure from the NFL, which came after he started kneeling in 2016 during the national anthem in protest of police brutality and racial injustice, TIME
Kaepernick last played for the San Francisco 49ers on Jan. 1, 2017, and when he became a free agent he was not signed by a new team, ABC-7. Since then he has focused his attention in areas that include venture capital. As mentioned, he joined KINLÒ, tennis star s skincare company, serving as an and board member. He also is a children’s Naomi Osaka’ and released “I Color Myself Different,” in April 2022, which depicts his experience of embracing his Blackness as an individual adopted into a white family.
“The majority of the world’s stories never come to life. Most people don’t have access or inroads to publishers or platforms-or they may have a gap in their skill set that’s a barrier for them to be able to create,” he told TIME. “We’re going to see a whole new world of stories and perspectives,” Kaepernick said.
He adds he experienced several challenges himself through the creation of his own media company, Ra Vision Media, and publishing company, Kaepernick Publishing. He cited several issues such as “long production timelines, high costs, and creators not having ownership over the work they create.”
4. Alibaba-backed Baichuan raises $691M as China seeks to catch up on generative AI
Baichuan AI , a Beijing-based unicorn backed by , has secured 5 billion Chinese yuan ( as China’s tech giants looks to catch up on AI investment. around $691 million)
AI has also become yet another technological front amid a growing strategic rivalry between the US and China, which has restricted collaboration and investment between the two major economies.
Against this backdrop, VC investment activity in China’s AI-related sectors has been relatively muted. So far this year, PitchBook data shows at least $4.4 billion worth of investment in Chinese AI startups across 372 rounds, not including this latest transaction.
Moreover, investment in the sector has seen two consecutive years of decline in China in terms of both deal volume and capital invested, having peaked in 2021 at $24.9 billion invested across 1,411 deals.
Overall, Chinese VC investment still represents just a relatively small share of overall global investment in AI. PitchBook’s 2024 Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning Overview shows that in Q4 2023 alone there was $22.3 billion invested globally, including a $2 billion investment in led by .
5. Climate Tech VC Clean Energy Ventures Closes $305M Fund II Aiming to Mitigate 75 Gigatons of Emissions by 2050
- The firm closes an oversubscribed second fund to scale world-changing climate tech startups that can mitigate gigaton-scale greenhouse gas emissions
- With the opening of a London office, Fund II marks the beginning of a push into Europe and Israel to support local climate innovation ecosystems
- Investing with a technology-first lens, more than 60% of CEV’s team began as scientists and engineers, a critical validator in the deep-tech early-stage market
Since the early days of Cleantech 1.0, CEV’s team of veteran climate investors have guided the next generation of companies spanning mobility, renewable energy, carbon capture utilization and storage, energy storage, critical minerals, and more through seismic market shifts. With a unique investment thesis, the CEV team positions quantitative climate impact alongside financial performance — requiring that each investment be capable of mitigating at least 2.5 gigatons of CO2e emissions cumulatively between the initial investment and 2050. CEV takes a hands-on approach to commercialize its portfolio companies by leveraging a deeply technical and commercial team with support from a group of venture partners and angel investors with extensive industry executive experience and a Strategic Advisory Board led by former U.S. Secretary of Energy, Ernest Moniz.
“Demand for climate investment opportunities is rising from all corners of the globe, and we are grateful for the amount of interest from our new and existing LPs,” said Temple Fennell, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Clean Energy Ventures. “As we look to scale decarbonization technologies globally, we’re doubling down on our thesis to invest in novel hardware-oriented climate-saving technologies with the potential to bring outsized emissions reductions and top-tier financial returns.”
With a 15+ year track record of growing climate tech companies, CEV now works alongside more than 70 strategic co-investors, and is backed by LPs including Carbon Equity , , The Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment , and Builders Vision . New Summit Investments
“As we catalyze the innovators building the decarbonized economy with new climate tech solutions, CEV’s combined ability to pinpoint the most impactful companies and technologies and then shepherd them into commercialization has been a crucial force for us and the global climate tech ecosystem,” said Scott Gerdes, Director of Private Investments for Builders Asset Management, the asset management team of Builders Vision and a limited partner in CEV’s new fund.
Alongside the launch of Fund II, CEV has established offices in London to support the growth of its team and operations in Europe. “With climate tech funding soaring tenfold across Europe in recent years, today it is the continent’s fastest growing sector. Tapping into the region’s thriving innovation ecosystems, we are primed to bridge the funding gap for promising early-stage companies and bring our expertise and network to accelerate European companies’ path to market,” commented Daniel Goldman, Co-Founder and Managing Partner.
To date, CEV has deployed capital from Fund II into long-duration energy storage company Noon Energy , compressor technology , Israeli green ammonia company , and UK-based sustainable aviation fuel company , with two additional stealth companies soon to be announced. “Climate action is atop the European agenda, and climate technologies are poised and ready for development and adoption. We are fortunate to have CEV’s support and guidance as OXCCU scales its innovative one-step technology from lab to planet,” said OXCCU CEO Andrew Symes.
“We know our hands-on guidance goes well beyond standard venture capital, through dedicated leadership coaching, strategic marketing, IP development, engineering support, and active board participation,” commented David Miller, Co-Founder and Managing Partner. “We are eager to seize this next chapter in our firm’s growth with our second fund and support more early-stage companies with deeply technical, game changing approaches to decarbonization.”
6. Energy tech startup Greenely grabs €8M to reach more households and support Europe’s energy transition
The energy tech startup is serving around 200,000 households in its home market. It offers freemium energy consumption analytics combined with energy optimization services that allow paying customers to achieve savings on their electricity consumption. Examples include smarter charging of electric vehicles when the energy price is low or accessing government payouts as a result of Greenely being able to reduce energy demand on the grid through automated (aggregated) optimization of customers’ energy demand.
Currently, these energy optimization services are only available to customers who pay Greenely for energy supply. But it plans to decouple that requirement as new European legislation is implemented in its home market — hopefully by the end of this year.
The startup also offers its energy customers the ability to install a home battery (it currently resells the Pixii Home) so they can store energy for later use. This enables households to respond to changes in wholesale electricity prices and optimize when they are/aren’t tapping the grid to reduce their energy costs.
Greenely’s platform is also designed to integrate and manage energy use and demand for households with solar installations and heat pumps. So, for instance, customers with home batteries and solar panels installed are able to sell surplus energy when the electricity price is high and store it when it’s low (for later use or future sale).
7. Vanta raises $150M Series C, now valued at $2.45B
Vanta, a trust management platform that helps businesses automate much of their security and compliance processes, today announced that it has raised a $150 million Series C funding round led by Sequoia Capital.
Initially, Vanta focused on helping businesses obtain ISO 27001, HIPAA, SOC 2, and similar certifications. Now the company is aiming to go beyond that. Vanta co-founder and CEO Christina Cacioppo told me that while Vanta obviously started with a focus on automated compliance, especially for startups, it is now moving to become part of a larger and more holistic discussion about trust.
“Vanta today, we still do a lot of SOC 2, but a lot of what we’re building is around how do you help companies build out their security programs?” Cacioppo told me. “And then how do they go get credit? There’s a compliance piece, there’s the trust centers, there’s real-time security status pages and questionnaire automation, but the thesis behind a lot of that is: if you can give people credit — which really means revenue — for showing off all the good security work they’ve done, they will do more good security work. … When we talk about trust, a lot of trust in software, especially B2B software, it’s around: Can I trust you with my customers’ data?”
8. Berlin-based fintech bunch raises €14.2 million Series A to build the backbone of private markets
bunch, a fintech company transforming private markets, announced the successful closing of its €14.2 million Series A. The round is led by global investor FinTech Collective, and existing investors including Cherry Ventures and Motive Ventures are doubling down. Top private market experts such as Broadhaven Ventures and former AngelList Europe Head Philipp Moehring’s TinyVC, as well as angel investors including founders and executives of Klarna, Moonfare, and Kinnevik participated.
With this new funding, bunch plans to accelerate its growth by expanding into new asset classes and geographies, with a particular focus on the UK market and Private Equity clients. The company will also invest in enhancing its platform capabilities, providing more insights to professional LPs through digital analytics and growing its team of fintech and investment experts.
Founded in late 2021 by Levent Altunel and Enrico Ohnemüller, bunch is the end-to-end platform that enables sophisticated funds and investors to operate, administrate, and transact within private markets, in a seamless and secure manner. The data-centric approach helps GPs and LPs save time, money, and mental energy by reducing complexity and replacing legacy providers with tech, as bunch heavily leverages AI and automation workflows. This allows GPs to focus on what they do best: raising capital and investing. In turn, bunch’s solution also makes LPs’ lives much easier as they use bunch as their Private Markets system of records.
In just over two years, bunch has already earned the trust of leading fund managers and institutional LPs across Europe and beyond, who have collectively committed over €2 billion through the platform.
The private markets data sector is experiencing significant growth, with the industry expected to reach $18 billion by 2030, growing at 12% annually from its current $8 billion size. This growth reflects the increasing demand for standardised data, benchmarks, and analytics that enable investors to better allocate more capital to private markets. bunch’s data-centric approach allows investors to store all private market data points in one place, and have access to up-to-date information at any time.
9. Munich-based deepc gets €12 million to spread radiology AI around the world
deepc, a company behind the leading AI operating system for radiologists and enterprise clinical organizations, announced the closure of its Series A with a €12 million extension round , bringing the company’s total funding to date to €27.6 million. The funding was co-led by Sofinnova Partners and Bertelsmann Investments, with participation from new investors KHP Ventures and SwissHealth Ventures, alongside existing investor Winning Mindset Ventures.
The funding will be used to accelerate deepc’s growth and international expansion, as well as further enhance and commercialize its industry-leading operating system. Key priorities for growth include extending deepc’s presence in the United States, further expanding in the United Kingdom and doubling down on key European markets.
Today, deepc’s platform is used by leading organizations including Solothurn Hospital in Switzerland, the Vivantes Hospital Group and LMU University Hospital in Germany, CHU Brugmann (Brugmann University Hospital) in Belgium, as well as the National Health Service (NHS) in England.
Founded in 2019, deepc is driven by a vision to help ensure precise and safe diagnostics for all patients and has a strong track record of helping radiology AI providers deploy their technologies in clinical settings through a single integration solution.
Through deepcOS ® , clinicians can access regulatory-approved AI solutions for more than 60 clinical indications, allowing healthcare providers to benefit from the rapid developments taking place within radiology AI without any of the technical, operational, or commercial complexity. By giving AI developers low-friction access to deepc’s broad customer base and distribution network spanning over 30 countries, deepc is also helping accelerate the development of new AI solutions.
10. Barcelona-based travel tech Exoticca nabs €60 million Series D to keep disrupting the multi-day tour segment
, a leading travel tech platform for multi-day tour packages, has announced that it has closed a €60 million Series D round led by Quadrille Capital, the global investment platform focusing on high-growth technology companies, with the participation from new investors including All Iron and ICF and existing investors 14W, Mangrove, Bonsai, Sabadell and Aldea.
This latest injection of funding will allow Exoticca to develop its platform, leveraging AI to improve product offering, customer experience and boost its partners’ profitability. The company is focused on building a leading global brand and opening in new markets, accelerating the adoption of the platform by both traditional travel agencies, as well as other online travel partners.
Multi-day tour packages, a sector worth over €100 billion, is one of the last segments of the travel industry still dominated by traditional tour operators with very low levels of digitisation. This prevents travel agencies from offering real-time pricing and availability for complex packages and, as a result, customers experience a cumbersome and time-consuming purchasing process.
Exoticca’s bespoke technology connects all the different services (flights, hotels, meals, transfers, transportation and activities) required to book multi-day tours, connecting local companies at destination with travel agencies and other online players and therefore provides the broadest scope for tour package distribution. By digitising all parts of the booking process, Exoticca has cut the process of booking complex long-haul trips down to just minutes and can guarantee its customers the best prices, bringing costs down by around 30% compared to competitors.
