Startup studio super{set} has a fresh exit under its belt with the sale of marketing company Habu to LiveRamp for $200 million in January.
Now, super{set} is adding another $90 million to its coffers as it doubles down on its strategy of building enterprise startups.
We remain a venture studio focused on building companies rooted in data and AI.
We found, fund and build new technology startups, mostly in the enterprise space,” founding managing partner Tom Chavez told TechCrunch.
That’s one aspect in which super{set} has changed compared to 2019, Chavez said, as its method went from art to science.
Alex Chatzieleftheriou founded Blueground in 2013 after being frustrated with the dearth of short-term furnished apartments in Europe.
In 2022, the company gained a strong foothold in Latin America by buying Tabas, an operator of over 9,0000 furnished apartments in Brazil.
Blueground leases apartments in popular neighborhoods and then equips and furnishes them for renters.
The company didn’t reveal its new valuation, but Chatzieleftheriou said that the company’s value has increased since its previous round.
Sales jumped by 70% to $560 million in 2023 over 2022’s $300 million in gross revenue, Chatzieleftheriou said.
And they’re calling their company… The Mobile-First Company.
Too many companies that offer B2B tools treat mobile apps as companion apps and second-class citizens.
Small companies don’t need a complicated enterprise software solution.
While Siel Brunet is more experienced with the needs of large companies, he has also seen how B2B apps don’t work well with small businesses.
Many small companies simply rely on consumer apps to fill their needs.
Byju’s secured favorable outcomes in two court hearings Thursday, paving the way for the embattled edtech startup to move ahead with the extraordinary general meeting scheduled for Friday.
The National Company Law Tribunal refused to stay on Thursday Byju’s planned EGM to increase the authorized share capital for the $200 million rights issue.
The matter will be heard again on April 4, but as the lawyer representing the estranged four investors of Byju’s warned, once the authorized share capital has been increased, it cannot be reversed.
Separately, the Karnataka High Court said Thursday it will only hear the case where the investor group seeks to remove Byju’s founder and chief executive Byju Raveendran from the firm after two months.
The rights issue is crucial for Byju’s, once India’s most valuable startup, as it seeks to tap the $200 million it has already received from a set of investors, including Raveendran.
StealthMole, an AI-powered dark web intelligence startup that specializes in monitoring cyber threats and detecting cybercrime, announced Thursday that it has raised a $7 million Series A funding round.
The startup serves over 50 clients across 17 countries in Asia, Europe, and the Middle East.
One differentiator from its competitors in the cybersecurity industry is its unique expertise in Asia-related threats, Kevin Yoo, chief operating officer (COO) at StealthMole, told TechCrunch.
“The high demand for Asia-oriented threat information underscores the uniqueness and value of our dataset for customers worldwide, within and beyond Asia,” Yoo said.
Korea Investment Partners led the Series A round with participation from Hibiscus Fund (a joint venture between RHL Ventures, Penjana Kapital and KB Investment) and Smilegate Investment.
All VC firms have also grown increasingly focused on making early-stage investments in India in recent years and finding the next Flipkart at the seed stage.
Accel has been trying to find the right fit for its early-stage accelerator program for nearly half a decade now.
SkoobSkoob is a generative AI platform which is revolutionizing the way readers interact with books.
More than 800 startups applied to be in Atoms 3.0, and about 300-400 applicants were AI startups.
Swaroop said nearly two-thirds of all pitches focused on AI startups that sought to solve HR and marketing problems.
That’s why Sheets decided to develop the $199 Blipbox, an affordable kid-friendly synthesizer designed for ages three and up.
With its chunky control knobs, levers and an easy-to-use randomize feature, MyTracks aims to encourage music exploration and simplify beatmaking for kids.
According to the company, all Blipbox devices underwent “rigorous” testing to ensure they are BPA-free and comply with toy safety standards.
Blipbox has even been used by music teachers, including helping special-needs kids express their creativity in a non-verbal way.
“We got a lot of weird looks from parents,” Kate Sheets says, describing how people reacted to the first Blipbox synthesizer in 2018.
March 29 is the final day to grab your early-bird savings for TechCrunch Early Stage 2024.
TechCrunch Early Stage 2024 is set to take place in Boston, offering invaluable resources and insights for founders at every stage of their journey.
Here’s what awaits you at TechCrunch Early StageRoundtable sessions: Engage in collaborative conversations with experts in small-group settings.
Don’t wait until it’s too late — secure your tickets now and accelerate your startup journey at TechCrunch Early Stage 2024!
Is your company interested in sponsoring or exhibiting at TechCrunch Early Stage 2024?
The study (“Unicorn Founder DNA Report) by Defiance Capital of 845 unicorns and 2,018 unicorn founders set out to look at the “DNA” of unicorn founders, concentrating on the US and UK (no EU/European) from 2013 to 2023, to define the common traits of these kinds of founders.
During the last decade, all top Seed funds were generalist funds, and the market for Seed funds is highly fragmented.
Only 34% of unicorn founders had worked at an elite employer prior to founding a unicorn, suggesting a McKinsey or similar background is not a prerequisite to success.
Dorffer, who intends now to produce a podcast with many of the unicorn founders surveyed, said: “The stories that are coming out show crazy determination.
As a female founder, you have to work twice as hard and take twice as many meetings to raise the money.
Marissa Mayer’s startup just rolled out photo sharing and event planning apps, and the internet isn’t sure what to thinkWhen Marissa Mayer co-founded a startup six years ago in Palo Alto, Ca., expectations were sky high for the former Yahoo CEO and early Google employee.
When that startup, Sunshine, revealed that its first app centered around subscription software for contact management, people wondered if something more ambitious might be around the corner.
Today, after Sunshine released two equally mundane features – event organizing and photo sharing – internet commenters were decidedly mystified.
I was also baffled last week, when Mayer walked me through Sunshine’s new offerings.
The core thesis has always been to take the mundane and make it magical.”The team “thought about naming it Mundane AI,” she continued.
