Australia-based link-in-bio platform Linktree announced today that it has acquired competitor Koji from its parent company GoMeta for an undisclosed amount.
The company is offering Koji users three months of Linktree Pro plan as a trial.
“We’re thrilled to welcome Koji users to the Linktree community and are excited to continue to innovate on the category we created.
The company launched Koji as a link-in-bio platform in March 2021 and raised $16 million through its parent entity.
In a previous avatar, Koji let non-technical developers make “mini apps on the web,” which were later turned into templates on the link-in-bio platform.
For a VC firm, the second fund is a make-or-break moment.
First, after raising €225 million for its initial fund ($245 million at today’s exchange rate), Singular managed to raise €400 million for the second fund.
Second, all the investors who participated in the first fund are back as limited partners in the second fund — this is a good signal.
This wasn’t an obvious outcome for the VC firm, as it’s been a wild ride over the past two or three years in venture capital.
Building a big European VC fundUnlike many VC firms based in Paris, Singular has been investing in European startups from day one.
The investment arm of the UK retail bank M&G has led a funding of $340 million into Udaan, a business-to-business e-commerce startup, in one of the largest financing rounds secured by an Indian startup in 2023.
The Bengaluru-headquartered startup, which helps merchants in smaller Indian cities and towns secure inventories from major brands as well as gain access to working capital, said the new funds include some convertible debt.
Existing backers Lightspeed Venture Partners and DST Global have also participated in the new round, which awaits regulatory nod.
Udaan competes with a number of players, including Mukesh Ambani’s $100 billion Reliance Retail, the largest retail chain in India.
Udaan didn’t share how M&G and other investors valued the startup in the new round.
Can we transfer green cards too?
Sophie is passionate about transcending borders, expanding opportunity, and connecting the world by practicing compassionate, visionary, and expert immigration law.
Our I-140 EB-2 green card petitions have been approved, but we’re waiting for our priority dates to become current for our green cards.
Your startup will have to file a new I-140 to sponsor you for an employment-based green card or you will have to self-petition for an EB-1A extraordinary ability green card or EB-2 NIW (National Interest Waiver) green card.
I recommend consulting an immigration attorney about transferring your H-1B and green card options that meet your plans and goals.
Can we transfer green cards too?
Sophie is passionate about transcending borders, expanding opportunity, and connecting the world by practicing compassionate, visionary, and expert immigration law.
Our I-140 EB-2 green card petitions have been approved, but we’re waiting for our priority dates to become current for our green cards.
Your startup will have to file a new I-140 to sponsor you for an employment-based green card or you will have to self-petition for an EB-1A extraordinary ability green card or EB-2 NIW (National Interest Waiver) green card.
I recommend consulting an immigration attorney about transferring your H-1B and green card options that meet your plans and goals.
Palace intrigue might be dominating the news cycle around OpenAI, but the AI startup — and its accelerator programs — are chugging along uninterrupted, so the PR team tells me.
OpenAI today announced the launch of Converge-2, the second cohort of its six-week Converge program for “exceptional engineers, designers, researchers, and product builders using AI to reimagine the world,” as the company describes it in a blog post published this morning.
As with members of OpenAI’s first Converge cohort, the 10-15 startups chosen to participate in Converge-2 will receive a $1 million equity investment from the OpenAI Startup Fund, the $100 million-plus entrepreneurial tranche announced last May backed by Microsoft and other OpenAI partners.
Do the math, and that’s at least a $10 million investment in the Converge-2 program — not an insubstantial chunk of change.
OpenAI is encouraging founders from all backgrounds, disciplines and experience levels to apply, including those based outside of the U.S.
Can we transfer green cards too?
Sophie is passionate about transcending borders, expanding opportunity, and connecting the world by practicing compassionate, visionary, and expert immigration law.
Our I-140 EB-2 green card petitions have been approved, but we’re waiting for our priority dates to become current for our green cards.
Your startup will have to file a new I-140 to sponsor you for an employment-based green card or you will have to self-petition for an EB-1A extraordinary ability green card or EB-2 NIW (National Interest Waiver) green card.
I recommend consulting an immigration attorney about transferring your H-1B and green card options that meet your plans and goals.
TUNL, a South African parcel shipping platform, has secured $1 million in pre-seed funding from investors, including Founders Factory Africa, Digital Africa Ventures, E4E Africa, and Jozi Angels.
The current challenges in cross-border shipping cost African businesses an estimated $50 billion annually in missed opportunities.
TUNL’s founders identified a recurring issue among small- and medium-sized South African merchants during the pandemic: Shipping costs sometimes surpassed the value of their products.
On the TUNL platform, merchants offer customers various shipping options during checkout.
South Africa is known for its wine industry, with exports reaching 368.5 million liters last year.
French startup Pivot is an interesting startup story as it is scaling at a rapid pace even though startup investments are down in Europe.
After raising a $5.3 million pre-seed round in April (€5 million), the company worked on the first iteration of its procurement tool over the summer.
And feedback has been so great that Pivot is raising another $21.6 million (€20 million) in a new Series A round from its existing investors — and in particular Visionaries, Emblem, Anamcara and Oliver Samwer.
I already wrote a lengthy description of Pivot, so I also encourage you to read my previous article on the startup.
But in short, Pivot is a modern spend management solution that supposedly works better than Oracle NetSuite’s procurement component or Coupa.
In 2020, the startup raised $27.5 million in its Series E funding round led by Alphabet’s CapitalG.
It competes with the likes of Capital Float, Lendingkart and Indifi, which all work toward offering credit to small enterprises in the South Asian nation.
One key reason for startups like Aye Finance and others to gain enough traction in India is the lack of credit for small businesses.
“Aye Finance is on a growth journey, and we are delighted to partner with BII, who have a deep understanding of the financial services sector in India.
“Our investment in Aye Finance underscores our commitment to back companies that have a strong development impact philosophy and promote financial inclusion for India’s underserved groups.
