Entrepreneurs navigating the later stages of a startup face a minefield of funding options, and not all of them are suitable for their business.
I’ve seen too many brilliant and hard-working entrepreneurs end up with too little, so it’s critical to understand the different financing options available to you.
As the founder and CEO of Runway Growth Capital, I’ve had the pleasure of working with hundreds of startups (large and small) and witnessing the wide range of funding options available to founders.
Funding a late-stage startupThe disparity in what different forms of financing can mean has profound implications for founders, yet too little is known about them.
The disparity in what different forms of financing can mean has profound implications for founders, yet too little is known about them.
In recent years, there has been a proliferation of business intelligence tools that aim to help companies make critical business decisions based on data analytics.
As data adoption increases at most companies, they are left with growing administration problems, said Logan Havern, co-founder and CEO of Datalogz.
Other participating investors from the latest round include Graphene Ventures, Squadra Ventures, Berkeley Skydeck, Defined VC, Mana Ventures and Trajectory Ventures.
These piling reports, Havern argued, could lead to thousands of dashboards with duplication, unused assets, security risks, inefficiencies and consequently unwanted costs.
Part of Datalogz’s business is stepping into the turf of traditional consulting firms, which easily charge $1-10 million annually just to perform business intelligence audits and clean-ups, according to Havern.
Pan-African e-commerce platform Jumia has disclosed its intention to discontinue its food delivery service, Jumia Food.
As a result, Jumia will cease its food delivery operations across these markets by the end of December 2023.
Jumia is redirecting its focus towards the core physical goods business and maintaining its JumiaPay operations across all 11 markets, as outlined in a recent statement.
Jumia’s decision to discontinue its food delivery business aligns with a broader trend in the industry, mirroring the recent exit of another food delivery competitor, Bolt Food, from Nigeria and South Africa.
Both exits seem to be influenced by current macroeconomic headwinds, high inflation and intensified competition within the food delivery sector across the continent.
Instead, what is immediately changing as a result of this ruling is the legality surrounding the app store business model itself — and potentially others.
“What we know right now is that this is going to impact the walled garden business model Google and Apple and other companies have enjoyed for a while,” Swanson said.
In fact, the legal risk from this business model may encourage other businesses to change, even without being dragged to court.
Apple didn’t regularly engage in side deals (though it considered one with Netflix) nor did it pay developers to launch on its app store instead of theirs, as Apple only offers one route to app distribution: the App Store.
“Just because it is your business model does not mean it is legal or that it’s right,” VanMeter pointed out.
Now, one of the companies building security tools for SMBs has raised a round of funding to expand its business, underscoring the demand in the market for better defenses.
It’s no longer selling directly to SMBs but is working with managed service providers that in turn sell and manage IT services for SMBs.
MSPs, it found, were the primary route to getting their product to get used by SMBs (meaning direct business was not taking off).
“Guardz has developed an impressive, holistic, and user-friendly cybersecurity and cyber insurance risk-assessment platform that is cleverly tailored to MSPs, who serve the often-overlooked long-tail small business market.
We are excited to lead this funding round and join the Guardz team on their journey to secure the digital world for those who today need it most.”
Zuper, a field service management company, closed on $32 million in Series B funding to provide its customers with technologies and tools to cater to a wider range of workers.
While other field service management companies target specific parts of the market, Zuper was designed to encompass the entire workflow.
That has now evolved into working with small business and enterprise customers, Subbaraj said.
Within that group there are more than 50,000 users of the Zuper platform.
We announced ZIVA earlier this year, and it’s an alpha right now, but our goal is to bring GenAI to the field service management.”
“Verve is pioneering a new class of connected wearable technology for the industrial sector by integrating robotics into functional apparel,” Galiana said.
But Galiana perceived applications well beyond combat; Galiana launched Verve in 2020 to commercialize his and his team’s tech for industrial as well as retail and manufacturing settings.
Verve’s mission is to power the human workplace through people-centric robotics.”Verve’s powered exosuit is customizable to workers and tasks, intended to be worn like a regular backpack.
“The challenge [we face] is to convey that the goal is to create a safer and more efficient future for industrial workers,” Galiana said.
“As we heighten awareness regarding the advantages of soft exosuit, we anticipate a rapid transition towards a future where wearable robotic technology seamlessly merges with our everyday work attire.”Aspirational?
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