Data from the Week 📊
Last week, I tracked 60 early-stage startup investments totalling USD 458.03m, down from USD 547.51m the week prior. The median amount raised rose to USD 5m from USD 4.4m.
While there’s no longer interview in this week’s newsletter, I’m presenting all of the early-stage deals tracked last week. All figures are in USD:
Epsagon: 4.1m seed round. Unearth: 3m. VueReal: 10.5m Series A. Airspace Systems: 20m Series A. Artland: 1m seed round. Blast: 5m seed round. Carbon Lighthouse: 27m. Imply: 13.3m Series A. RapidAPI: 9m Series A. TAE Life Sciences: 40m Series A. Wefarm: 5m seed round. Digital2Go Media Networks, Inc.(D2GO): 1m. Lumavate: 2.5m seed round. Percipient.ai: 14.7m Series A. PredictiveHR: undisclosed seed round. Luxify: undislcosed. Robotic VISION Technologies: 10.5m Series A. BioLumic: 5m Series A. Luminate Security: 14m Series A. MyPadi: undisclosed pre-seed round. OpenBazaar: 5m Series A. Skilljar: 16.4m Series A. Solebit: 11m Series A. Tech Will Save Us: 4.2m Series A. Pray.com: 14m Series A. Pilot: 15m Series A. Airsorted: 7m Series A. Sagoon: 5m. Blue Vision Labs: 14.5m Series A. LandscapeHub: 4.4m seed round. SambaNova Systems: 56m Series A. Fortem Technologies: 15m Series A. Algoreg: 1m Series A. Drover: 7.7m. lemon one: undislcosed. Streetbees: 12m Series A. Avail Finance: 17.2m Series A. Foxtrot: 6m Series A. ShareRing: 3.8m seed round. Andie: 2m seed round. Strix Leviathan: 1.625m seed round. Hazel Technologies Inc: 3.6m Series A. Parachute Health: 5.5m seed round. Medinas Health: 1m seed round. Serious Factory: 3.6m Series A. BCI Pharma: 4.7m. WebForce 3: 3.6m. CURRENTBODY: 6.9m. Klipworks: undisclosed angel round. Statum: 165k. Disior Bonelogic: 737k. Sumpli: undisclosed. Geddit: 778k. BizBot: 570k. Beleco: 243k. Visiba Care: 3.8m. Flexion Mobile: 9.75m. ActiView: 6.5m. Lightning Labs: 2.5m seed round.
I’m continuing to track the number of female CEOs and founders and I’ll make use of that data here in a few weeks time. The initial numbers aren’t great for diveristy initiatives. One idea that I’m condisering is publishing two graphics side-by-side: one with the most active early-stage investors and another with the early-stage investors that rank highest on funding women founders. From what I’ve seen so far, the most active early-stage investors aren’t investing nearly enough into female founders.
I’m also continuing to track the amount of time spent raising capital and social media presence and I’ll also make use of those numbers in the weeks ahead.
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Highlighted Deals 📌
Here’s some background information on recent deals from the founders and CEOs that the raised the rounds:
Wingly, a France-based platform that connects pilots offering flights with passengers, raised its recent USD 2.45m (EUR 2m) seed round at a valuation between EUR 5m and 10m (USD 6.17m and 12.34m), co-founder Emeric de Waziers said.
Of note:
The company, which has raised a total of EUR 2.5m, spent approximately 7 to 8 months talking with aroung 20 funds and 30 business angels.
Funds from the round will be split 35% for the tech team and 65% on the business development team. “We are at the stage where the product is fully functional and we need to scale as fast as possible”
Thoughts on the process of raising capital: “It takes time to find the right investor and it is worth it to build a long-term relationship with an investor to win time on a fundraising process.”
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Camera IQ, a Santa Montica, California-based camera experience manager platform, spent 5 months actively speaking with investors for its recent USD 4.3m seed round, CEO Allison Wood said.
Of note:
Wood estimates that she alone spent 200 hours, at a minimum, raising the round.
The company spoke with three to four dozen investors. “We focused in on about a dozen of them, most of whom ended up in our syndicate.”
Capital will be used to build out product offerings, working with customers like the NBA and Turner.
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Maude, an NYC-based sex essentials company, spoke to over 100 potential investors and reached out to over 1,000 in a 6-month period before recently raising a USD 550,000 pre-seed round, co-founder Eva Goicochea said.
Of note:
Asked how the capital raised would be used: “Our spend currently is 20% on product / tech, 20% on marketing / team and we have the rest allocated for the coming months to build team, additional product.”
“This was the first invesment from our lead at XFactor Ventures, Aubrie Pagano. We're super excited to have her on board.”
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Interesting Reads 🤓
1- “In a two-part study, we observed that venture capitalists adopt markedly different stereotypical notions of female and male entrepreneurs during their decision-making processes.” - HBR — For me, this article seems to reinforce the idea that the gate-keepers and of venture capital dollars are an inefficiency that needs to be disrupted.
2- Y Combinator has published the second post in the Decentralized Future series. - Y Combinator
3- By 2020, 77% of financial services industry are expected to find adpot the blockchain in some way. - Fortune
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If you’re building an exciting early-stage startup that’s raising venture capital and you’d like your startup featured, please get in touch by emailing chris@pdreporter.com.
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