• early stage funding for AI-based startups: workforce predictor, content--to-code converter, code review, "the European ChatGPT alternative"
• a wave of series A rounds ranging from 10 to 35 millions
• laying offs, shutting downs, scouting deals and exits

 

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Interesting deals

Nordics

🇩🇰 Stykka, 3D printing producer of kitchens, raised growth funding from North-East Venture, The Footprint Firm and angel investors.

🇳🇴 Relynk, developing a API for building owners & service providers, providing access to commercial building's real-time data, raised $500k from multiple local angel investors.

🇳🇴 Aimy, developers of an AI-based workforce management tool for retail, raised $500k from Sweden-based VNTRS.

🇳🇴 Kakadu, developing an inclusion platform for least digital people with acess to step-by-step recipes teaching them how to use online services, raised $600k from the US-based Right Side Capital and local investors.

🇸🇪 ChainTraced, doing a SAAS solution automating the administration and distribution of product certificate data through out the whole supply chain, raised $1 million seed from local investors and EIT Manufacturing.

🇫🇮 Epicbrief, developing a corporate CRM aggregating video sales calls intel, raised $1million pre-seed from Curiosity VC and Superhero Capital. 

🇳🇴 We Are Learning, doing a SAAS edtech solution enabling no code dialogue creation training in 3D animation, raised $1 million seed from Skyfall Ventures and Sondo.

🇸🇪 Stepler, developers of a mobile app providing a loyalty scheme against actions indicating a healthy life, raised $1.5 million in a financing round that also includes debt.

🇫🇮 Origin by Ocean, producer of algae-based alternative solutions for the chemical industry, raised a $3.3 million seed round backed by Voima Ventures, Lifeline Ventures, Batofin and Security Trading.

🇫🇮 Cosmic Lounge, mobile gaming studio with offices in Helsinki and Stockholm, raised $4.4 million seed from Transced Fund, Sisu Game Ventures, Project A and Stableton.

🇸🇪 Bits Technology, developing a low-code framework used for automating all layers of open finance, raised $4.4 million seed in a round led by Unusual Ventures, joined by Fin Capital, Cherry Ventures and Alliance Ventures. Bits was pre-seeded with 1 million by Cherry Ventures 9 months ago. 

🇩🇰 Trebo, a recycler that converts polymer waste into high value recyclable fractions, raised $4.4 million from EIFO and North-East Venture.

🇫🇮 Haltian, selling IoT software and sensor solutions for commercial real estate worth 20 million per year, raised $24 million in a growth round led by Mandatum, joined by Varma, Tesi, Ventic and Inventure.

🇪🇪 RangeForce, operating a cloud platform for cybersecurity scenario training, raised funding from KPN Ventures. RangeForce has raised a total of $36 million since 2019 from the likes of Cisco, Paladin Group and Energy Impact Ventures.

​
The UK

🇬🇧 Infyos, developing analytics solutions for the battery supply chain, raised $1.3 million seed from Pale Blue Dot.

🇬🇧 Libraro, developing a blockchain book publishing platform, raised $2.5 million seed from nChain.

🇬🇧 CarbonChain, a YC alum carbon accounting platform using granular data to provide end-to-end visibility into the carbon footprint of a company's supply chain, raised $10 million in Series A funding co-led by USV and Voyager Ventures.

🇬🇧 Zaptic, developing a connected worker platform for manufacturing companies, raised $10 million series A led by Molten Ventures. Zaptic has previously raised $6 million from investors including Acequia and Backed VC.

🇬🇧 Hived, a parcel delivery startup via an all-electric fleet, raised $12.5 million series A led by Planet A Ventures, joined by Maersk Growth, Eka Ventures and Pale blue dot.

🇬🇧 m3ter, developing a SAAS for deploying B2B usage-based software product pricing, raised $14 million in Series A round led by Notion Capital, and joined by Insight Partners, Union Square Ventures, and Kindred Capital. m3ter previously raised a $17.5 million seed round in 2022.

🇬🇧 Riverlane, developer of software and algorithms for quantum computers, raised $19 million in Series B funding round led by Molten Ventures, joined by Altair, Cambridge Innovation Capital and Amadeus Capital Partners.

🇬🇧 TympaHealth, developers of handheld hardware built around streamlined mobile devices and corresponding software to run hearing tests, raised $23 million in a round led by Octopus Ventures. TympaHealth previously raised $8 million in angel funding in February 2022.

🇬🇧 Zodia Custody, a London-based crypto custodian controlled by Standard Chartered, raised $36 million in Series A funding led by Japan's SBI Holdings. 
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France

🇫🇷 Fari, developing an AI-based tool on top of the invoices and supply deals of a freight transport company, raised $550k pre-seed from BpiFrance, Finaqui and angel investors.

🇫🇷 Qiti, a consumer insurance provider with 1000 users and which dubs itself as ChatGPT for insurance, raised a $2 million, half of which in equity from angel investors.

🇫🇷 Bastion, developing a cybersecurity platform for SMEs, raised $2.8 million in a seed round backed by Frst, Global Founders Capital, Kima Venturesand Motier Ventures.

🇫🇷 Verteego, developing customizable AI solutions to retail and CPGs used to optimize prices, promotions, inventory, assortment and resources, raised $2.8 million seed from Archipel Ventures, Supercapital, Holnest, Finoli, Bpifrance, Kima Ventures and angel investors.

🇫🇷 Woodoo, transforming low-grade wood into high-performance, low-environmental impact materials that can replace glass, steel, leather, concrete etc, raised $20 million seed from investors led by Lowercarbon Capital.
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DACH 

🇦🇹 Leftshift One, building what they call a European ChatGPT alternative for the B2B market, raised capital from eQventure, SFG and Hermann Hauser.

• 25 people team, founded in 2017, out of Graz, a 300k people border town in Austria
• developed a proprietary tool called GAIA (Generic Artificial Intelligence Application), an AI platform with modular artificial cognitive skills, such as text comprehension, data analysis, conversion of speech into text and the interpretation of emotions
• as a benchmark, the GAIA model relies on about 20 billion parameters, vs 175 billion used by GPT-3 and trillions by GPT-4.
• they position the business as a reliable alternative to ChatGPT and say they're different from OpenAI from a privacy perspective, as customers can keep and train their data on their own servers.
• tool is sold as SAAS to other companies, with clients in chemical, pharmaceutical, semiconductor and automotive industries.
• raised 2 million in venture money back in 2019, locally from eQventureand Herman Hausser, ARM founder who now heads the EIC Fund. 

🇩🇪 Ecoplanet, developing a B2B SAAS tool used for energy management by industrial companies, raised $2.9 million seed round from HV Capital, SEK Ventures and angel investors in Germany.

🇩🇪 DearEmployee, doing B2B SAAS used to measure the mental stress of employees in the workplace, raised pre-series A funding from HTGF, MBS, Impact 51 and Brandenburg Kapital.

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Other geographies 

🇨🇿 Contember, using AI for turning content description into code that can be used for a functional web app, raised $250k pre-seed from Tensor Venturesand 108 Agency.

🇮🇹 PipeIn, developing a hardware and software combo used for predictive maintenance of strategic pipelines, raised $800k seed from CDP and Pariter Ventures.

🇵🇹 Reviewpad, developing a code review platform that's also using AI, raised $1.1 million pre-seed from Shilling Capital and angel investors.

🇪🇸 Taclia, selling SAAS for SMBs, raised $6.8 million in a round backed by Cusp Capital and Stage 2 Capital. 

​

Please note that this is just a selection of interesting early stage transactions, all deals (many more!) are available here. Pro tip: use advanced trackers to learn about new deals by industry, country, stage or a specific set of investors.

 

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Investors

Powder

🇳🇱 Convent Capital announced a second close of its AgriFood Growth Fund at €100 million. 

🇫🇷 Bouygues and ISAI announced the creation of the ISAI Build Venture, a €80 million fund to be deployed via checks between €500,000 to €5 million in startups in the fields of construction, property development, transport, and energy and services infrastructure.

🇳🇱 Pymwymic announced a second €48 million close of a fund also dedicated to agritech startups. 

🇬🇧 Sturgeon Capital of London launched a $35 million fund focused on Central Asia startups.

🇧🇬 AlfaStar Ventures debuts AlfaStar Capital, an open-ended alternative investment fund manager based in Sofia to invest in climate impact, early stage startups.

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On the move

🇪🇸 Luis Garay joined Samaipata as senior principal, after having worked as CFO for a Mexican startup while doing angel investing on the side in Spain.

🇬🇧 Lyle Schwartz joined Evercore as a senior managing director and head of its EMEA equity capital markets business, after working for Goldman Sachsfor 23 years.

🇫🇮 Mika Koskinen joined CapMan as managing partner at CapMan Wealth Services, after 18 years of working for SEB. 

🇩🇪 Michael Braun joined Golding Capital Partners as CFO. He was with BayernInvest for 8 years, last as a CFO and COO.

🇬🇧 Anthemis confirmed it laid off 16 people at the start of the year, including Farhan Lalji and Swarnali Mitra. The former says he is putting together a new fund called LTV Capital.
​

Also notable 

🇬🇧 After co-founder and CEO Dominic Perk's sudden resignation from a week ago, Hambro SPAC will close down and return the money to the investors. It initially raised £150 million in 2021 to be spent on a fast-growing private European tech business, and targeting a £2 billon deal including debt. The deadline for a deal was November 30 this year. 

🇳🇴 Arkwright X, a startup incubator of a local consulting company in Norway, will scout regional startup deals for Target Global.

🇬🇧 Founders Forum Group has acquired Tech Nation.

🇨🇭 Lakestar’s first fund, closed in 2013 and which includes Spotify, has apparently performed weaker compared to other funds closed that year, according to the German media.

🇫🇷 M Capital (Merck's investment arm) and a bunch of French banks exited from Imactis as it was acquired by GE Healthcare. Imactis, specialized in computer assisted interventional radiology, has raised 3 million since 2009.

🇩🇪 Picus Capital was part of a $4.8 million seed round raised by Openlayer, an American startup that provides a platform for testing and verifying machine learning models.

🇩🇪 Earlybird, 🇬🇧 LocalGlobe, 🇬🇧 Dig Ventures invested in a $9 million series A raised by Ctrl, an Israel-based SAAS for sales analytics developer.

🇩🇪 468 Capital SPAC acquired Marley Spoon in order to initiate a relisting of it from Sydney’s ASX to the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Marley Spoon is a meal in a box delivery company founded in 2014 and was once funded by Global Founders Capital, Lakestar and Point Nine Capital. The company went public in Australia in 2018.

🇺🇸 Greycroft, the American early-stage venture firm focused on both consumer and enterprise deals, closed $980 million in capital commitments for two new funds. 

Last year in Europe, Greycroft did two early stage deals - Solid World (DAO for climate-focused projects financing) and Loyal Guru (end-to-end loyalty marketing platform) - and a series B round with Stable (commodity hedge provider).

🇺🇸 Fireside, a mobile app for smart TVs where viewers could watch content on the big screen and engage via their phone, while their comments would display on the TV, raised $25 million in Series A funding at a $138 million post-money valuation, backed by the likes of Mark Cuban, Paris Hilton, Tim Connors, Zeke Bronfman, Evan Abraham, Redbeard Ventures and David DeVoe.

 

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Investors profile

🇩🇪 Project A Ventures

• Founded in 2012 by Anton Waitz, Ben Fischer, Christian Weiss, Florian Heinemann, Thies Sander and Uwe Horstmann with a €80 million fund raised from Otto Group, and Axel Springer.
• 40 people team HQ-ed in Berlin, with an office in London, currently deploying from a $375 million fund (the fourth), closed in 2022.
• Areas of interest include B2C and B2B in fintech, commerce, enterprise software, data infrastructure, supply chain and climate tech. 
• Stage wise, they do startup deals from day zero to Series A, this is from pre-product, pre-launch to companies that have products in the market and are scaling their distribution.
• Their differentiator is what they call operational VC resources, namely access to a team of 140 advisors available to the portfolio companies, wrapped up in an operational services unit led by Thuy Ngan Trinh and Stephan Schulze. The unit is a profit center though, as its services are sold on a man/hours basis. 
• Also claim to have a very structured approach, detailed to the dot on their website, with no BS or too much VC-specific BS, rather focused on defining clear rules of engagement with their firm, as well as setting clear expectations. You don't find that very often in the Euro VC ecocystem. 
• In 2022 it announced that it plans to expand its private equity co-investment practice, and will invest up to $80 million in Private Equity deals. Over the last years the firm has already built a portfolio of 11 private equity co-investments. 
• co-investors in Europe: Creandum, Accel, Index Ventures, Picus Capital, Lakestar, Earlybird
• part of 28 deals in the past 15 months, with 16 new startups added in the portfolio in 2022:

🇪🇪 Alvin - developer of a data lineage technology that automatically builds and maintains a highly accurate dataset
🇩🇪 Black Semiconductor - chip manufacturer with integrated electronic-photonic circuits using graphene technology.
🇫🇷 Bene Bono - subscription of baskets of organic fruit and vegetables refused by traditional distribution channels and purchased directly from farmers.
🇫🇮 Cosmic Lounge - mobile studio developing a puzzle game.
🇫🇷 Dalma - insurance company selling medical insurance services for pets.
🇩🇪 ExpressSteuer - an AI-powered software automating the process of filing a German tax return, backed by an accountants marketplace.
🇩🇰 Growblocks - SAAS for predictable revenue growth in a collaborative, data-driven and actionable way
🇬🇧 Landmark Games - a mobile games studio from London
🇫🇷 Morpho Labs - developers of an open source protocol for crypto-assets.
🇬🇧 Netspeak Games - a zero-crunch studio that develops online multiplayer games.
🇳🇱 Origin - membership-based mobile travel app.
🇩🇪 Quantum-Systems - manufacturer of UAV 
🇩🇪 Root Global - SAAS platform enabling manufacturers, food processors, and retail in the food and beverage sector to calculate carbon scores.
🇩🇪 Vaeridion - manufacturer of electric aircrafts able to transport nine passengers plus crew up to 500 kilometers.
🇬🇧 Valve - SAAS for sales, marketing, and distribution solutions for landlords, operators, and brokerages transacting in the flexible workspace market.
🇩🇪 Yoummday - online marketplace for support recruitment, helping contact centre solutions for in- and outbound

 

 

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