Byju’s, once valued at $22 billion, is willing to cut its valuation to below $2 billion as it hunts for new funding, a person familiar with the matter told TechCrunch.
Byju’s willingness to cut the valuation is a stunning reversal of fortune for the startup, once the poster child of the Indian startup ecosystem.
Byju’s has been chasing for new funding for nearly a year.
The new funding deliberation follows BlackRock cutting the value of its holding in Byju’s, slashing the implied valuation of the Indian startup to about $1 billion, according to disclosures made by the asset manager.
Byju’s was preparing to go public in early 2022 through a SPAC deal that would have valued the company at up to $40 billion.
Captain Fresh, a business-to-business harvest-to-retail marketplace for animal protein, is engaging with investors to raise up to $50 million in fresh funding, according to sources familiar with the matter.
Captain Fresh declined to comment.
The startup specifically focuses on seafood, helping fishermen and farmers sell their catch and livestock to businesses.
Captain Fresh has raised over $100 million prior to the new funding and was valued at $500 million in the previous round, whose first tranche it closed in March 2022.
It has since extended that round to raise another $15 million or so.
Korea’s Myrealtrip cashes in on travel rebound with $56M in new fundingMyrealtrip is the latest travel tech company to ride a growing post-pandemic tourism industry.
“The travel industry was fragmented 12 years ago in South Korea, and there was no platform that provided travel information,” CEO of Myrealtrip Donggun Lee said in an exclusive interview with TechCrunch.
Myrealtrip acquired Startrip in 2022 to capture the number of foreign tourists visiting South Korea post-pandemic.
This travel platform lets users discover and book Korean-pop (K-pop) themed spots, including popular boy band BTS music video filming locations.
Myrealtrip also invested in IwaTrip, a Korean travel platform that helps users find available spots to travel with kids, and O-Peace, a co-working and co-living space platform designed for digital nomads workers.
According to PitchBook data, VC investments in crypto companies are down by 68% in 2023 compared to 2022.
But that’s a small number compared to 2022, the year during which crypto companies raised $30 billion.
French crypto startup Kiln just closed a $17 million funding round in December 2023.
As a reminder, staking consists in locking crypto assets in a blockchain to secure a blockchain and its transactions.
Several proof-of-stake blockchains let its users stake crypto assets, such as Polygon, Solana and Avalanche.
International Battery Company, a startup developing lithium-ion battery cells for electric vehicles, has raised $35 million as it plans to bridge the demand-supply gap in the growing EV market in India.
International Battery Company touts to address these issues and fulfill both the current and projected demand of EV batteries in the country with its in-house Li-ion battery cells.
So, we want to participate in that journey in India,” Priyadarshi Panda, founder and CEO of International Battery Company, told TechCrunch in an interview.
“We are proactively preparing for the execution of building the gigafactory in India, which we will do with the additional fundraising.”Distinctive edgeNotably, International Battery Company is not alone in building Li-ion battery facilities in India.
“The [International Battery Company] founders, and the way they have approached so far is just very different from a lot of others.
Funding to Black founders was down in 2023 for the third year in a rowBlack founders in the U.S. raised 0.48% of all venture dollars allocated last year.
The past two years saw Black founders raising at least 1%.
Last year, though, suspicions were confirmed as the market cooling really did appear to have an extreme impact on the Black community.
In Q1’23 and Q2’23, Black founders raised 0.74%.
There’s been a consistent yearly decline in funding since the murder of George Floyd in 2020, which saw a record-breaking amount of capital flow to Black founders as the tech industry promised to better support them.
Female-founded companies in the U.S. raised $44.4 billion out of the $170.59 billion in venture capital allocated last year.
Such teams raised 26.1% of all venture capital allocated this year, a sizable jump from the 18.2% they picked up last year.
This follows the pattern that women founders still fare better with a male co-founder in the mix.
Kyle Stanford, lead VC analyst at PitchBook, told TechCrunch+ that it’s difficult to pinpoint a single reason why funding to women founders has dipped a bit, but he added that the decline in deal counts for women founders follows the trends of the broader market.
“That is not meant to make activity in female-founded companies look better, but the context of market difficulties is important.”Overall, less than 25% of all deals went to female-founded companies in 2023.
The questions and answers website nabbed $75 million from Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), which will be used to power the growth of Poe, Quora’s AI chat platform.
Even developers who integrate bots with the Poe AI are eligible to earn money.
“In the last two years, the market has changed substantially, driven by rising interest rates and higher cost of capital,” D’Angelo wrote.
“Excluding Poe, Quora is cash flow positive, so all of this new funding will be used on Poe,” D’Angelo said.
“Currently, Poe is one of the top 5 largest generative AI-related properties, and creators have built 1M+ bots on Poe the platform.”
Parallel Learning is solving that problem with a teletherapy platform that partners with school districts to create individualized plans for each student.
Parallel’s providers work with a school’s special education program (SPED) to develop a Individualized Education Program (IEP), a legal document in the United States that outlines the personalized education plan for a student with special needs.
Then when the pandemic hit and schools began struggling to serve their students, Heldfond knew it was time to bring her idea to fruition.
One of the main problems Parallel addresses is the shortage of behavioral and special education providers that work with children.
The company partners with K-12 public school districts, reaching out to special education directors, superintendents and others.
ABL Space Systems is looking to raise up to $100 million in new funding, and has just closed over $40 million, according to a new filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
It’s the first indication that ABL has raised venture funding since October 2021, when the launch company closed $200 million at a $2.4 billion valuation.
Together, they’re meant to provide a mobile, all-in-one launch system.
However, the overall launch site layer represents a weak link.”Unsurprisingly, they argue that GS0 is the solution to this vulnerability, offering both a launch mount and a site system in a “proliferated” architecture.
“It was not in our plans to have RS1 grounded for most of 2023,” O’Hanley wrote after the launch.
