Briq, a startup that uses AI to automate finances in construction, brings in $8M extension at a $150M valuationAt a time where many startups are struggling to raise funding, or are raising – but at lower valuations, it’s notable when companies raise at flat or higher valuations.
The startup last announced a fundraise in June of 2021 – a $30 million Series B financing led by Tiger Global Management.
Customers include Briq Choate Construction, Catamount Construction, Fessler and Bowman, and Elder Construction, among others.
Briq deploys that across two products: Briq AutoPilot and Briq CoPilot.
“Usually when we think about robots in construction, we think about machines on a jobsite.
BlackRock has yet again cut the value of its holding in Byju’s, slashing the implied valuation of the Indian startup to $1 billion from $22 billion in early 2022, according to disclosures made by the asset manager.
At the end of October last year, BlackRock said it valued Byju’s shares at about $209.6 apiece, down from the peak of $4,660 in 2022.
This isn’t the first time BlackRock has cut the worth of its holding in Byju’s — and BlackRock isn’t the only investor that has severely downgraded how they value Byju’s, but the new adjustment is by far the most drastic.
Prosus, which owns about 9% in Byju’s, said late last year that it valued Byju’s at “sub $3 billion.” At $22 billion, Byju’s ranked as India’s most valuable startup.
The valuation markdown is a stunning reversal in fortune for Byju’s, once the poster child of the Indian startup ecosystem.
That emphasis on sustainability is translating into a goal at Finn to have 80% of its car inventory electric by 2028, from 40% today.
Previous backers such as HV Capital, Korelya Capital, UVC Partners, White Star Capital and Picus Capital are also participating.
It’s been a very bumpy road for the car subscription market over the years.
The idea of car subscriptions is neat, but the execution is not.
And it’s brokered deals in advance with car retailers to buy up the vehicles when subscriptions are finished.
Cap table management startup Carta has been dealing with a PR nightmare for the past couple of days.
The short of it is that one sales employee, according to Carta, used confidential data from one of the company’s customers to craft a sales pitch for a secondary stock sale.
The problem, according to Carta, is taken care of.
Before we dive into what this mess might portend for Carta, we need to understand the state of affairs at the company before this came to light.
While Carta hasn’t raised a round since that 2021-era transaction, per secondary data from platforms like Hiive Markets, Caplight and Notion, its current valuation is estimated to be about half of its last primary round.
PhotoRoom — a startup out of Paris, France — has built a popular AI-based image editing app and API targeting e-commerce vendors, media specialists, and others.
Multiple sources say that the startup is raising between $50 million and $60 million on a pre-money valuation of between $500 million and $600 million.
PhotoRoom, and Matthieu Rouif, the CEO who co-founded PhotoRoom with CTO Eliot Andres, declined to comment on any funding-related questions.
Adding all this together, since its last round in 2022, when it raised $19 million, PhotoRoom has been blowing up.
Most categories of apps, she wrote, are still up for grabs; and within the popular area of AI image-based tools, apps like PhotoRoom, in her opinion, have a shot at success.
Carta’s decision to exit the secondary share trading business was a quick response to the controversy that emerged after it was chastised by customers for using private data to foster its equity transactions.
The Exchange explores startups, markets and money.
Read it every morning on TechCrunch+ or get The Exchange newsletter every Saturday.
After a customer criticized Carta for working to connect buyers and sellers of startup shares on its secondary trading platform without permissions, there have been several questions regarding data security and just what — or who — its product is.
Cloudflare’s CEO and co-founder, Matthew Prince, argued in the aftermath, for example, that the only way for Carta to “justify [its] multiple [and] valuation” was to pitch investors that it was going to build “the world’s biggest secondary market” predicated on the data it holds on behalf of its customers.
The valuation reassessment comes at a time when Reliance is expected to undertake initial public offerings for both Jio Platforms and Reliance Retail.
In 2020, Jio Platforms raised over $20 billion from a series of investments by companies like Meta, Google, Silver Lake, Vista Equity Partners and others.
Reliance Retail, which raised about $7 billion in 2020, recently raised about $1.85 billion at $100 billion valuation.
The investment bank also expects the Indian telecom industry to hike tariff in the second half of the year, it said.
“On enterprise business we see three areas where Jio Platforms could capitalize on: government contracts, SMEs and corporates (by offering VAS),” BofA added.
Defense tech startup Shield AI has expanded its latest funding round with another $300 million in equity and debt, bringing its total Series F to $500 million, TechCrunch has exclusively learned.
This total amount reflects $200 million in equity closed in November, $100 million in new equity raised at the Series F price, and $200 million in debt.
Shield AI is building an “AI pilot” to turn aircraft into autonomous systems.
“AI pilots are becoming a strategic conventional deterrent in class with our aircraft carriers andguided missile submarines,” he said in a statement.
“Adopt AI pilots too slow, and we will fail.
ShareChat is in final stages of deliberations to secure about $50 million in new funding that trims the startup’s valuation to below $1.5 billion, according to two sources familiar with the matter.
The terms of the talks, which are still ongoing so they may slightly change, currently value ShareChat below $1.5 billion, the sources said, a steep drop from the $4.9 billion valuation at which ShareChat raised funding early last year.
(In late 2020 and early 2021, X explored buying ShareChat in a $2 billion deal, TechCrunch exclusively reported earlier.)
Prosus recently marked down the valuation of Byju’s to below $3 billion, down from $22 billion in early 2022.
Byju’s has raised more than $5 billion in equity and via debt over the years.
Startup valuations — especially at the later stages — have come down drastically over the last year and a half of the ongoing market correction.
Companies that once boasted sky-high valuations like Klarna and Getir have seen their valuations slashed in their latest funding rounds.
Outside of Klarna and Getir, though, very few late-stage companies have raised new primary rounds since the booming 2021 market.
This is a noticeable haircut from the $25 billion valuation it garnered in 2021.
A recent survey of venture secondaries investors found that for those who focus on the industry, many think prices may still have room to drop.
