investors

Byju’s Fundraiser Stalls: Court Stops Second Rights Issue

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Byju’s had launched its first rights issue in late January, but a court order directed the company to not tap the funds it had raised through that rights issue after many of its investors opposed the fundraise. Thursday’s court order is the latest episode in the spectacular collapse of Byju’s, once the world’s most valuable edtech startup. TechCrunch couldn’t determine exactly how much Byju’s ended up raising in the first rights issue. In the letter, he urged his estranged investors to give him another chance and participate in the rights issue. “But my benchmark of success is the participation of all shareholders in the rights issue.

Apex Ventures Secures $95M Investment for Satellite Bus Division

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Fresh off the success of its first mission, satellite manufacturer Apex has closed $95 million in new capital to scale its operations. The Los Angeles-based startup successfully launched and commissioned its first spacecraft, a model called Aries, in March. The company is on track to manufacture five Aries this year alone, Apex CEO and co-founder Ian Cinnamon told TechCrunch. Apex was founded on the thesis that the one of the main bottlenecks facing the growth of the space industry was satellite bus manufacturing. The company is approaching fifty people and that number is likely to double by the end of this year.

Mistral AI, an AI startup headquartered in Paris, secures staggering $640 million in funding

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Mistral AI has closed its much rumored Series B funding round with General Catalyst leading the round. The company has secured €600 million (around $640 million at today’s exchange rate) in a mix of equity and debt. As a reminder, Mistral AI is a relatively new entrant in the artificial intelligence space. It also has distribution partnerships with cloud providers, such as Microsoft Azure — Microsoft is also a minor shareholder in Mistral AI. According to the Financial Times, Mistral AI raised €468 million in equity and €132 million in debt (around $500 million and $140 million respectively).

“Raising $14M: Fractional Property Investment Platform Set to Expand into Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi”

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The UAE is home to most of its customers, and people from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait form the bulk of its international customer base. Entering Saudi ArabiaStake claims it has surpassed Dubai-based fractional property investment platforms like Smartcrowd, but it will be starting afresh in Saudi Arabia. Property investment companies therefore set up special purpose vehicles through which they let investors buy real estate. “Saudi Arabia has properties that are recently completed and under development that are worth billions. We are going to use [our] experience to offer a similar unified product for investment in Saudi Arabia within the same app,” Mahmassani said.

“Delays and Obstacles: Wasoko-MaxAB Merger Challenges Africa’s E-commerce Growth”

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It’s been described as “the largest merger in African e-commerce” by both companies. When the planned merger was first announced, the B2B e-commerce players were active in eight countries. These recent moves suggest the new entity will likely serve fewer than the 450,000 retailers quoted during the merger announcement. As the merger nears completion, the CEOs from both companies will continue as full-time executives but function in different roles. “Regarding our merger with MaxAB, it is important to state that this is progressing as expected and in accordance with the initial terms.

Deadline Approaching: Last Chance to Submit Applications for Startup Battlefield 200!

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You’re running out of time to join the Startup Battlefield 200, our curated showcase of top startups from around the world and across multiple industries. This elite cohort — 200 companies strong — absolutely owns (and slays) the exhibition floor at TechCrunch Disrupt. Tomorrow is the last day to apply to Startup Battlefield 200We’re accepting applications from early-stage startups until tomorrow, June 10 at 11:59 p.m. PDT. A shot at $100,000: TechCrunch editors will select 20 startups from the SB 200 to be Startup Battlefield finalists. Apply to the Startup Battlefield 200 right now.

Possible alternate styles: 1. The Market’s Confidence in a Salesforce-Informatica Union Falters on Wall Street 2. Salesforce-Informatica Merger Met with Skepticism on Wall Street 3. Potential Partnership Between Salesforce and Informatica Fails to Impress Wall Street 4.

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For Informatica investors, it was the opposite: The price was too low to warrant selling — they wanted more, more, more — and their stock also dropped, down a similar amount over the same period. The biggest by far of that bunch was the $28 billion deal to buy Slack at the end of 2020. Informatica is also far smaller than Salesforce, making its potential revenue bump to Marc Benioff’s company modest. The ace up Informatica’s sleeve is that while its total revenue growth is slow, one important segment of its revenues is expanding quickly. If we were to compare Informatica cloud net-new ARR that it expects this year instead, the percentage becomes even smaller.

“Discover Geodesic.Life: A Comprehensive Pre-Seed Pitch Deck with a $500k Investment Opportunity”

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Cover slide Problem slide 1 Problem slide 2 Product image slide Solution slide What Is Unique? The business model comes up shortClosely related to the previous point: Pricing is one side of the business model, but there are many more parts to the puzzle. The business model slide is very light on details, and the details that are there are a little confusing. The full pitch deckIf you want your own pitch deck teardown featured on TechCrunch, here’s more information. Also, check out all our Pitch Deck Teardowns all collected in one handy place for you!

“Angel Matchmaking: Cherub’s Innovative Platform for Investors and Founders to Connect and Thrive Together”

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Today they are the co-founders of Cherub, a marketplace that pairs angel investors with entrepreneurs. Johnson likens Los Angeles-based Cherub to Raya, an online membership-based community for dating, in that it matches founders and angel investors based on their preferences. Or if an entrepreneur’s minimum investment is $25,000 but an angel investor is only investing $10,000 per deal, they can see that and not reach out to connect. Of those deals, 40% were new angel investors, meaning they were accredited investors that had never written checks before. Angel investor Allen Orr told TechCrunch that he had used other platforms such as AngelList in the past.

“Tech Maverick Danielle Baskin Unveils Moonlight: A Revolutionary Online Tarot Platform in Silicon Valley”

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Moonlight is a free online tarot platform, where you can draw tarot cards on your own, do a reading in a multiplayer room or even book a session with a vetted tarot professional (that’s where the SaaS part comes in). It was at one of these lessons that Baskin first imagined what an online tarot platform could look like. As she was building out the idea for Moonlight, Baskin teamed up with Caroline Hermans, a game designer and former UX engineer at Google. “I was worried that investors might think I’m a prankster — will that hurt me in actually making a business? We’re all using technology, and I think they’re excited that someone’s making a platform who’s a tarot person, too.”