School is nearly out and summer’s almost here. A lot is going on in most people’s lives, so let’s take a look at a few intriguing startups that raised cash this month that may have escaped your notice.

This month the rounds included everything from added support for cancer survivors to leveraging your car for credit. Let’s take a look.

AI parenting

Depending on who you talk to, AI can solve everything. But can it solve the problem of making sure your kids are watching what they should on the internet?

Well maybe — at least that’s what one Nashville, Tennessee-based startup is promising. Angel AI Co., which has created an AI platform that it says provides an “age-appropriate” internet experience for children between 5 and 12 years old, raised a $4.75 million seed round led by Cortical Ventures this month.

Angel AI says it uses large language models, natural language processing, speech recognition and other tech to generate age-appropriate answers to children’s questions and deliver what the company calls compelling but safe content and entertainment.

The platform has the ability to learn and understand the child over time, and will provide video and audio options at their comprehension level to help them learn.

Angel’s content is also free from advertisements and includes a parent insight portal — which can inform parents about their children’s interests.

Making it rain

One of the things humankind still has not figured out is how to control Mother Nature.

Nevertheless, an El Segundo, California-based startup is giving it a try when it comes to rain.

Rainmaker Technology raised a $6.3 million seed round from a large group of investors that included Long Journey Ventures, Champion Hill Ventures and Garry Tan. The startup aims to develop cloud seeding techniques — a weather modification tool discovered last century that seeks to introduce ice nuclei to clouds and cause, well, rain.

Cloud seeding can work, but the question has usually been how well it works. It also has been in the news recently.

Rainmaker hired its first engineers this year and now seems poised to get out into the field later in 2024 — and make it rain.

Fighting obesity

More than 2 in 5 adults — 42.4% — have obesity in the U.S., so clearly it’s a problem.

However, it also can be complicated due to the many reasons for it. Startup Phenomix Sciences is trying to bring some clarity to the problem. The Menlo Park, California-based biotech firm locked up a $5.5 million Series A this month from investors including DexCom, LabCorp and Health2047 as it tries to bring data intelligence to the treatment of obesity.

The startup, born out of the Mayo Clinic, says it has developed a phenotyping test that gives insights into genetics to determine an individual’s cause of obesity. The test is already in use by obesity treatment providers in the U.S. and identifies obesity subtypes of the disease caused by the interaction of genes and the environment.

These different phenotypes can include things like emotional hunger or hungry gut — defined as when someone eats a full meal but feels hungry soon after. Knowing the phenotype can allow for a better treatment.

Along with its Series A, the company also secured a $1.8 million National Institutes of Health research grant.

Obesity is serious and can be caused by many things. Knowing the root of a specific patient’s problem can lead to a better outcome.

Care for cancer survivors

Beating cancer is hard. However, sometimes dealing with beating cancer can be hard too.

OncoveryCare, formerly VivorCare, locked up a $4.5 million seed round this month led by .406 Ventures to launch its cancer survivorship care model.

The Boston-based startup’s virtual care model for cancer survivorship equips patients with a care team of survivorship-trained clinicians, and initial areas will be toxicity management, mental health support, navigation and care planning, and preventative care. The first regional rollout will serve Tennessee to start, in partnership with Tennessee Oncology, also an investor.

The population of cancer survivors is growing rapidly in the country, expecting to double between 2008 and 2030 to 22 million, according to the company. It’s critical to offer those survivors help as they fight fatigue and anxiety, and deal with complex screenings and monitoring — especially coming off the toughest battle of their lives.

A credit car?

While many people take getting a credit card for granted, it can be difficult for many people who have low credit scores or have struggled to build a credit history.

Dallas-based Yendo closed a $150 million debt financing led by i80 Group to try to help those people — using something many already have.

While some folks may not have a strong credit history, they have a car. Yendo provides a vehicle-secured credit card, allowing consumers to tap into the equity of their cars to get up to $10,000 of revolving credit. A person’s credit line increases proportionally as they pay down their auto loans each month.

The card also is available to customers who do not yet own their vehicle but choose to refinance their auto loan through Yendo.

The company’s card currently is available in 40 states across the U.S. and hopes to expand with the fresh funding.

For many, their car is their most valuable asset. Being able to access credit by leveraging it makes sense.

Illustration: Dom Guzman

Growing up bouncing between southern Florida and Puerto Rico, Peter Henry knew one thing for certain — always have a Plan B.

Being raised by a single parent, money was tight. When disasters hit — such as hurricanes — hard times quickly became harder.

“I remember, I think, it was Hurricane George. It was devastating,” said Henry, remembering bathing outside in what little water was available. “We went through some rough times. But you can’t rely on others, you rely on you.”

Those experiences — and that mindset — helped prepare Henry for what came last fall. Like the hundreds of thousands of other employees in the tech industry, Henry was laid off from MetaMap where he was vice president of revenue.

“It was tough, but it also was an opportunity,” said the 33-year-old Henry. “You can either cry about it or move on.”

Henry moved on to Agricompa, a fintech company that enables small and medium-sized farmers in Latin America to access loans and other services specifically for them.

While many may seek out the cold comfort of a new job with a well-established company after the trauma of a layoff, Henry — and many others like him — have instead used the tech job cuts as their chance to pursue their dreams.

“In a sense, it was a relief,” he said, “I could focus on what I wanted to do.”

Lessons from baseball

What Henry wanted to do was help Latin American farmers after seeing firsthand many of the issues they faced.

In 2013, Henry bummed around Venezuela playing baseball after taking time off from Stanford and that school’s baseball team.

“I hung out at farms,” Henry said. “I actually did my thesis on the informal economy in Venezuela.”

Even after graduating, Henry continued to hang around Latin America, first taking a baseball development job with Major League Baseball before moving on to a sales job in Puerto Rico for PayJoy — which offers credit to underserved consumers in emerging markets around the world — in 2015.

The job appealed to Henry and his personality for several reasons. First, sales stoked his competitive fire like baseball and sports did. He could prepare and plan for sales — just like he would practice and train in baseball.

“Winning a sales call is like winning an at-bat,” Henry recalled. “I also liked that it’s about tribulations, persistence and consistency. In baseball, you have to learn to accept failing. I couldn’t, I used to let the strikeouts get to me.

“Now, I don’t let that phase me,” he said

He also fell in love with the entrepreneurial and startup aspect of the business. Lastly, he liked the impact he thought the company could have.

“Bouncing between the U.S. and Latin America, I sometimes didn’t have the right paperwork or ID, so I could relate,” Henry said. “I liked the positive social impact.”

After 17 months there, Henry followed that entrepreneurial spirit he fell in love with and co-founded Miami-based online real estate company Home61 before moving on to fintech identity startup MetaMap.

There, Henry led the expansion for sales, product, marketing and customer success in all of LatAm, Brazil, Africa and Southeast Asia. He helped grow revenue from zero to $18 million ARR in 18 months.

Hard times

During his time at MetaMap the seeds for his future were planted — literally.

When the pandemic hit, Henry was living in Mexico City. Not enamored with the idea of isolating with the city’s other 9 million people, he and his wife Oris went to the Dominican Republic and bought a three-acre farm.

The idea of farming and being self-sufficient appealed to Henry, and the isolation of the pandemic seemed a perfect time to try it out.

However, that would not be the only life-changing moment about to happen for Henry.

In October of last year, Henry got the call that he and his team were being laid off. His job, with a $240,000 salary and $130,000 in bonuses, was gone.

While a layoff can be a traumatic milestone for many, Henry’s baseball career would not let him see it that way.

“In sports, you can always be waived or let go,” Henry said. “So I always have the feeling you can be let go at any time.”

His upbring also prepared him for such a moment. Growing up in a home where finances could sometimes be “mismanaged” taught Henry the importance of saving for a rainy day.

“I always had something saved, I always have a Plan B,” he said.

Growing up in the midst of the Global Economic Crisis in 2008, also likely affected his mentality toward money and savings, he added. 

“These crises affect how you deal with a lot of stuff,” he said.

Support from those close to him also did not hurt.

“My wife always has pushed me to do my own thing,” he added.

Fintech for farmers

A few days after getting the layoff notice, what would become Agricompa was founded with three of his former MetaMap partners — Pierre Antoine Rohr-Lacoste, Carlos Ruiz and Amaury Soviche.

Through talks with coffee roasters and cacao farmers in Mexico, Colombia and Africa, Henry knew small growers seemed to always suffer from cash-flow issues. 

One of the main issues is limited access to cash, Henry said. Many farmers in Latin America don’t have the paperwork or documentation for their farms, limiting the extent the property can be used as an asset.

There also is not immediate accessibility to a bank in many of these regions.

“In some of these rural areas, you can be two to three hours away from a bank,” he said.

There also can be hangups in the time it takes distributors and packing companies to actually pay small farmers.

Henry knew he could help fix some of these problems.

“I’m not a pro farmer, but I’m a pro at building teams and startups,” he said.

While the startup is still in beta-stealth, the concept is to offer an all-in-one agro management platform that allows packing and trade companies to manage cash flow and consolidate operations while being able to pay out farmers quickly with fast and hassle-free financing and ERP solutions.

Despite not being fully launched, 150 farmers are already on the platform. The company has eight employees and plans to operate first in the Dominican, Mexico and Colombia.

The startup also has raised $100,000 from Day One Ventures’ Funded, not Fired program that is supporting laid off tech workers’ dream of starting their own companies.

“Day One has been great,” he said “We do a weekly call with other founders in Day One’s portfolio. It has been really helpful.”

The company also has additional money from other angel investors and the like. Henry expects to start seeking out a proper Series A in the final quarter of the year.

Henry, who has always had a passion for farming and roasting coffee, has great expectations for what the company can become as he writes the next chapter of his story.

“We want to be the Shopify for agro,” Henry said.

Illustration: Dom Guzman

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Global funding reached $21 billion, down 56% from $47.8 billion in a year-over-year comparison. This is the second-lowest amount recorded in a single month since July 2022 when venture capital started to scale below $30 billion. 

The slowdown has impacted all funding stages. Seed was down more than 50% year over year, while early-stage funding dropped 48%. Late-stage funding was down the most at 62%. 

Month-over-month funding amounts were also down, in large part due to an increase in late-stage funding in March 2023 with Stripe‘s $6.5 billion funding.

Health care leads

Health care was the sector that raised the largest amounts with close to $5.7 billion invested. Companies that raised large rounds at the early stages include RNA-based medicine provider Orbital Therapeutics, medical robotics company Noah Medical and drugs from plants developer Enveda Biosciences. 

Companies active in AI raised around $2.8 billion, close to 13% of funding this past month. They include OpenAI, which raised a further $300 million. CoreWeave raised $221 million, Pinecone and AlphaSense each raised $100 million, and Replit raised $97 million. 

Financial services companies raised just over $2.7 billion, down from $7.7 billion raised in the same month a year ago. Companies that raised large rounds at Series A and B include capital markets infrastructure provider Clear Street, mobile payments TerraPay and LatAm B2B expense tracking Clara. 

Funding to unicorns tails off

Meanwhile,  new unicorns total in the single digits, compared to 40 new unicorns in April 2022. 

Of the $21 billion raised this past month, $4.4 billion was invested in unicorn companies. This is a smaller percentage than previous months in 2023, when unicorns averaged a third of all funding. 

Unicorn fundings include BYJU’S, a leading edtech company in India that raised $700 million at a flat valuation of $22 billion led by sovereign wealth funds and private equity firms. The company laid off 2,500 employees.

And medical supply drone delivery company Zipline raised $330 million at an increased valuation of  $4.8 billion, according to Forbes, up from its 2021 funding which valued the company at $2.8 billion.  

Since the latter half of 2022, deal sizes have come down from seed through Series C fundings. The interest in AI is driving larger funding rounds, but not enough to lift the funding slowdown. 

Methodology

The data contained in this report comes directly from Crunchbase, and is based on reported data. Data reported is as of May 2, 2023.

Note that data lags are most pronounced at the earliest stages of venture activity, with seed funding amounts increasing significantly after the end of a quarter/year.

Please note that all funding values are given in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted. Crunchbase converts foreign currencies to U.S. dollars at the prevailing spot rate from the date funding rounds, acquisitions, IPOs and other financial events are reported. Even if those events were added to Crunchbase long after the event was announced, foreign currency transactions are converted at the historic spot price.

Glossary of funding terms

We have made a change to how we include corporate funding rounds in our reporting as of January 2023. Corporate rounds are only included if a company has raised an equity funding at seed through a venture series funding round. 

Seed and angel consists of seed, pre-seed and angel rounds. Crunchbase also includes venture rounds of unknown series, equity crowdfunding and convertible notes at $3 million (USD or as-converted USD equivalent) or less.

Early-stage consists of Series A and Series B rounds, as well as other round types. Crunchbase includes venture rounds of unknown series, corporate venture and other rounds above $3 million, and those less than or equal to $15 million.

Late-stage consists of Series C, Series D, Series E and later-lettered venture rounds following the “Series [Letter]” naming convention. Also included are venture rounds of unknown series, corporate venture and other rounds above $15 million.

Technology growth is a private-equity round raised by a company that has previously raised a “venture” round. (So basically, any round from the previously defined stages.)

Illustration: Dom Guzman

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In this week’s edition of Who’s Hiring In Tech, we round up five fintech startups that have raised money in the past 12 months, that haven’t had reported layoffs in the past year, and that are actively hiring for multiple open roles.

Farther down, you’ll find a complete list of 349 Actively Hiring startups across sectors that meet that criteria.

5 Funded Fintech Startups That Are Hiring

Company: Finix

• Position: Director of sales
• Salary: Base salary is listed at $150K-$175K, though of course earnings potential is much higher including commission. (The company estimates total on-target earnings could be as high as $350K.)
• Location: San Francisco
• What it does: Finix is a payment processing platform for businesses.
• Why it’s cool: If you’re an ambitious sales leader looking to take the reins of the revenue team at a well-funded startup, this looks like a pretty neat gig. The company is looking for someone with at least eight years of experience at SaaS companies and six or more years of experience in a leadership role, specifically managing a revenue organization.
• Funding history: Finix has raised a total of $126 million from investors, including Sequoia Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, American Express Ventures, and more.

To learn more about this role and others, click Actively Hiring in the company’s Crunchbase profile.

….

Company: Wealthfront

• Position: Lifecycle marketing manager
• Salary: $130K-$150K
• Location: Wealthfront is based in Palo Alto, California, but the position is open to remote candidates in both the U.S. and Canada.
• What it does: Wealthfront is an online wealth management platform that offers automated investing and portfolio management tools, savings accounts, loans and other products.
• Why it’s cool: The company is looking for an experienced lifecycle marketer who is comfortable with data and analytics and enjoys working closely with other teams. Among the benefits that Wealthfront offers — besides standard startup perks like generous vacation time and wellness reimbursements — are 16 weeks of paid parental leave, 401K plans, and an employee investing discount.
• Funding history: Wealthfront has raised a total of $274.2 million, though it’s been a while since its last raise — its Series E was way back in 2018. The company is backed by big-name investors including Tiger Global Management, Spark Capital, Index Ventures and Greylock.

To learn more about this role and others, click Actively Hiring in the company’s Crunchbase profile.

….

Company: Tribal

• Position: Strategy and new business associate
• Salary: N/A
• Location: Remote, based in Mexico.
• What it does: Tribal provides credit cards and other financial services to small businesses and startups in emerging markets.
• Why it’s cool: This seems like a nice challenge for an ambitious finance geek to help a U.S.-based fintech expand its business in the fast-growing Mexican market. Tribal is looking for someone with two to three years of experience in investment banking or a similar field to “actively participate in all aspects of fundraising efforts, from strategic planning to execution, including creating compelling narratives, preparing materials and analysis, engaging in conversations with investors, supporting the due diligence process, and assisting in valuation discussions.” It goes without saying, but you need to be fluent in Spanish as well.
• Funding history: Tribal has raised a total of $142.5 million from investors including Google For Startups, SoftBank Latin America Ventures and QED Ventures.

To learn more about this role and others, click Actively Hiring in the company’s Crunchbase profile.

….

Company: Chronograph

• Position: Private equity data operations analyst
• Salary: $60K
• Location: The company is based in Brooklyn but says its culture is remote- and hybrid-work friendly.
• What it does: Chronograph’s platform is used by institutional investors to analyze private capital markets.
• Why it’s cool: This early-career position is part of Chronograph’s two-year analyst program, which positions successful employees to be promoted into associate manager roles at the company. The company says it’s an opportunity for someone to “gain deep experience in alternative assets at a market-leading fintech company focused on the space.”
• Funding history: Chronograph has raised a total of $20 million, including from Summit Partners and The Carlyle Group.

To learn more about this role and others, click Actively Hiring in the company’s Crunchbase profile.

….

Company: Scratchpay

• Position: Product manager, fintech.
• Salary: $100K-$150K
• Location: Scratchpay is based in Los Angeles, but the position is remote-friendly.
• What it does: Scratchpay helps veterinary practices provide financing options to their patients (or, more precisely, to their patients’ human benefactors). The company says its payment plans are used in more than 10,000 veterinary care practices across the U.S. and Canada — including pet dentists and pet optometrists (who knew that was a thing?).
• Why it’s cool: Love pets but your skillset is more on the tech and numbers side? This could be a cool gig. The company says it’s looking for someone with at least two years of product management experience who enjoys working very cross-functionally on a small team.
• Funding history: Scratchpay has raised a total of $108.8 million, according to its Crunchbase profile, from Credit Suisse and Companion Fund, among others. Norwest Venture Partners led its Series C in September.

To learn more about this role and others, click Actively Hiring in the company’s Crunchbase profile.

Methodology:

Crunchbase News editors select interesting roles to feature based on Crunchbase’s Actively Hiring and funding filters. We looked for companies that are tagged as Actively Hiring — meaning they have multiple open roles listed — within Crunchbase, and have recently raised new funding. We only include companies that have raised at least $1 million in total funding.

We mostly look at U.S. roles, but also feature other locations, and cross-reference companies with our Layoffs Tracker to avoid featuring those that recently laid off employees. Deciding which roles to feature is ultimately based on editors’ discretion.

• Submit an open role at your company for consideration in this feature.

• Have a correction for this list? Email me at mvanromburgh@crunchbase.com.

• Learn more about how Crunchbase’s Actively Hiring filter works.

Illustration: Dom Guzman

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The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. announced the deal late Sunday night.

The Silicon Valley Bridge Bank — which SVB became after it fell into receivership — had approximately $167 billion in total assets as of March 10, the FDIC said in a statement.

First Citizens BancShares’ deal includes the purchase of about $72 billion of the bank’s loans and other assets at a discount of $16.5 billion and $56 billion worth of the bank’s deposits. Approximately $90 billion in securities and other assets still remain in the receivership.

The 17 branches of Silicon Valley Bridge Bank will open as First–Citizens Bank & Trust Co. today, the FDIC said.

The Raleigh, North Carolina-based bank had earlier been reported as a suitor, along with Valley National.

The sale will bring some closure to one of the most dramatic bank collapses in U.S. history.

A timeline

On March 9, Silicon Valley Bank saw its stock price plunge after announcing it would sell $2.25 billion worth of stock — including $500 million worth of shares to private equity firm General Atlantic — to shore up its balance sheet.

The announcement led to deep concern around the venture world — SVB has relationships with more than 50% of all venture-backed companies in the U.S. and countless VC firms — about the bank’s liquidity and balance sheet strength and led to a run on withdrawals.

The bank unsuccessfully tried to sell itself and was shut down by banking regulators the following morning.

The bank takeover spread fear in the startup realm as many were left to wonder what would happen to their deposits and if they could do simple things such as meet payroll. However, about 48 hours later, regulators announced a plan to ensure depositors at the bank.

SVB’s collapse was due to both bad decisions and bad timing. During the recent venture capital boom, the bank was flush with cash as private companies raised huge sums of fresh capital at sky-high valuations. That cash was stuffed into the bank.

However, as the market has slowed with rising interest rates, that cash has dried up as deposits by startups dipped.

At the same time, SVB had decided to invest in long-term, higher-yield bonds. That decision proved disastrous, as when customers started to withdraw cash, the bank had to sell its $21 billion bond portfolio at a $1.8 billion loss.

The bank had hoped its proposed financing would fill that gap, but instead just spooked many of its customers.

A history

SVB was the dominant bank for tech startups and venture debt in the U.S., cultivating a reputation for close-knit relationships with the power brokers of venture and taking chances on young startups that most banks wouldn’t have the time of day for.

The bank was founded in 1983 by Bill Biggerstaff and Robert Medearis with an eye toward backing VC-backed companies — a still relatively new phenomenon at the time. From there it grew, even surviving the California real estate crash in the early 1990s. It provided banking services for up-and-coming tech companies such as Cisco Systems and Bay Networks.

Now, after 40 years, startups will have to look somewhere else for their financial needs — if such a place exists.

SVB wasn’t just a bank for VC-backed startups — it was “the” bank for such companies. One of the reasons SVB became the bank of choice was its venture lending practice. The bank had about $74 billion worth of loans on its books, with about 20% of that being from venture debt, according to those in the industry.

SVB also had a large private wealth management division that had significant synergies with its commercial banking operations — helping the same VCs and entrepreneurs with home mortgages and personal loans after it just helped their startup close a big financing round.

The SVB failure is the second-largest bank collapse in U.S. history. The largest collapse of a financial institution was Washington Mutual, which fell in 2008.

Related reading:

• Silicon Valley Bank Stock Plunge Sends Jitters Through The Startup World
• Silicon Valley Bank Fails, Is Taken Over By Banking Regulators
• Silicon Valley Bank Collapse Leaves Tech Industry Scrambling For Answers
• Silicon Valley Bank Bet Big On Biotech. And Now It’s Gone.
• Guaranteeing SVB’s Deposits Was The Right Thing To Do
• SVB Puts Subsidiaries Up For Sale As HSBC Buys UK Unit
• Silicon Valley Bank’s Collapse Will Leave A Big Hole In the Startup World
• SVB Kept Up With Fast-Paced Health Startups. The New Normal May Be Slower
• SVB’s Demise Cools An Already Chilly Climate For Startup Funding
• SVB, Signature Shutdowns Not Chilling Crypto
• In Their Own Words: What Silicon Valley Bank Meant To The Valley 
• Regulators Announce Plan To Ensure SVB Depositors
• Silicon Valley Bank’s Collapse Will Leave A Big Hole In The Startup World
• In Their Own Words: What Silicon Valley Bank Meant To The Valley

Clarification: The original article was updated to reflect the close of the sale.

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But in late January, Papaya CEO Eynat Guez moved the company’s funds out of Israel, citing the country’s risky business climate amid political turmoil. She joins a growing group of tech leaders alarmed about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s plans to give parliament veto powers over the Supreme Court.

Such reforms have not only triggered widespread protests the scale of which Israel hasn’t seen in decades, but also raise questions about the future of the country’s technology industry. The Israeli government is moving to allow the Knesset, its parliament, to appoint justices, override Supreme Court decisions, and remove the high court’s power to judge government legislation. 

“There is so much at stake here, if this reform passes,” said Shuly Galili, a founding partner at UpWest, a seed investor based in Silicon Valley that invests in Israeli founders. This will impact “investments coming into the country, founders staying or not staying in the country.” 

Since the first vote on such reforms passed in January, the response has been swift from both tech investors and startups. Dozens of public and private tech companies have publicly announced they are taking funds out of the country. Guez, however, estimates that many more have done so quietly, amounting to what could be $7 billion to $10 billion in funds moved out of the country.

“It’s a new thing for the tech community to step outside the comfort zone of not being political and jumping into it and showing their force,” said Galili. 

Since the first vote was passed in January, Galili said, this issue has dominated her calls with startup founders. 

These judicial reforms were not discussed in advance of Netanyahu’s recent election in November 2022. “You can argue whether or not the majority chose these reforms,” said Guez. “It wasn’t even discussed. It’s a surprise for us, and it seems like the majority are saying, this is not what we are after.” 

‘Significant concerns’

U.S.-based Bessemer Venture Partners, an active investor in Israel for three decades, has had a local office there since 2007 and estimates it has invested more than $1 billion in Israeli startups including Axonius, Fiverr, Habana and HiBob in the past 10 years. But in February the firm advised its portfolio of startups in a private memo to hold only six months worth of shekels.

“We are confident in the resilience of Israeli high-tech given its limited exposure to the local economy, but have significant concerns that the current climate may result in a chilling effect on non-tech foreign investment and domestic consumption in Israel that goes beyond the challenging macro environment,” the firm wrote in the memo obtained by Israeli newspaper Calcalist last month. “Our primary business concern is the continued weakening of the shekel and the smaller risk of foreign currency controls as the outflow of funds from Israeli banks continues to gather steam. While both concerns may feel exaggerated at this moment, investor and public perception can abruptly make both risks a reality.”

Moving funds

Last week, Wiz, an Israeli unicorn, announced $300 million in funding at a $10 billion valuation, but said the new funding will not be moved to Israel amid the ongoing political conflicts.

Guez, too, acted quickly after that first vote, moving Papaya Global’s funds out of Israel to Europe and the U.S. As a CEO it’s always necessary to assess business risks. But Guez went further and was public in her criticism, seeing it as her responsibility to be vocal.

The Israeli government is starting to “demolish everything that we’ve built around here,” she said. It’s almost impossible to raise a round in Israel currently, she said, because the risk level is so high. The funding environment is “completely frozen,” she said. 

In a country with internal conflicts, the Supreme Court is one of the most important institutions, she said. “Eliminating the Supreme Court — this is the end of democracy.”

Nascent industry

Crunchbase data shows startups headquartered in Israel raised close to $8.9 billion in 2022 — down from $9.8 billion in 2021, a 10% decline year over year. That contrasts with overall global funding, which fell 35% year over year in 2022. 

The billions invested in Israeli startups is a testament to its lead in cybersecurity, health, energy, agriculture and foodtech. 

In the first two months of 2023, Israel-based startups have raised more than $500 million, down 72% from funding raised in January through February 2022. 

However, the amount invested in Israeli startups is much higher if you take into account that many Israeli companies have dual headquarters or are headquartered outside of Israel.

The growth in large Israeli technology companies is a fairly recent phenomenon. Five to six years ago, when Guez started fundraising for Papaya, the overriding notion was that you could not build big companies in Israel, and that founders would have good ideas and then sell. 

In the past five years, more than $50 billion was invested in Israeli tech companies, Crunchbase data shows. And more than 30 or 40 companies went public, Guez said.

The significance of the technology industry for the Israeli economy was highlighted in a report in 2022 from the Israel Innovation Authority. High-tech exports represented over 50% of exports for the first time in 2021 — with the majority of that in high-tech services. More than 10% of Israelis work for technology companies. 

Global outlook

The Israeli technology community is international in its outlook. 

“Israel doesn’t have a local market. Israeli founders have to be global from day one,” according to Galili, who works with Israeli startups on their strategy to go to market in the U.S. Israeli startups will build their R&D in Israel but also incorporate and set up banking in the U.S. and other parts of the globe.

Israeli startups are also dependent on global investors, many of whom have set up local investment arms in Israel due to the strength of the technology industry. Galili predicts that as much as 85% of dollars invested in Israeli startups come from outside of Israel.  

What is the impact?

Founders are looking at what their alternatives are. Technology industry startups have options to relocate to almost anywhere in the world. “Everyone is discussing this,” Guez said.

For now, Galili says the talent in Israel remains a draw to keep startups in the country despite the turmoil. “Most of the impact is the uncertainty we have right now,” said Galili. 

Going forward, Israeli startups who in the past incorporated their company in Israel might decide to do so in Delaware or elsewhere to protect their intellectual capital in a country where the judicial system is not compromised. 

The current political tensions might be misunderstood as being about the political right versus the political left, Guez said, but “it’s really about the right to live in a democracy.”

Protests against Netanyahu’s plans have even spread to Israel’s military. “As time goes by you see more and more people from the right are joining and saying, ‘This does not reflect our opinion. This is not what we voted for,’ ” Guez said.

“The general environment is that we understand that we need to unite and to fight for things that matter in this country,” she said.

Illustration: Li-Anne Dias

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Esusu, a fintech startup that helps renters build credit with on-time payment reporting, was rejected 326 times by investors prior to its 2022 funding that valued the company at a billion dollars. 

Investors who passed over the company did not believe in “this idea of investing in low- to medium-income households and helping them get quality financial access to products,” said Wemimo Abbey, Esusu’s co-founder and co-CEO. 

That all changed in early 2022, when Esusu raised a $130 million Series B funding led by the SoftBank Vision Fund — just six months after announcing its Series A in 2021. 

Abbey, who grew up in the slums of Nigeria and came to the U.S. as a student, had direct experience of the impact of not having a credit history. He was not able to get a loan from a bank, so borrowed from a predatory lender. 

Around 47 million American households — representing more than 100 million people, or roughly a third of the country’s population — rent their homes. But those rental histories don’t help to build credit, said Abbey. Esusu works with property owners to help renters build their credit scores with on-time payment reporting. The company has 3.5 million rental units on its platform, and grew 300% over the past year. Esusu also provides rental assistance with 0% fees in order to support renters and avoid evictions. 

“As a society we’re not solving homelessness backwards, and the landlord also doesn’t have to evict people,” said Abbey. 

Esusu was one of three Black-founded U.S. startups that joined The Crunchbase Unicorn Board in 2022. At the top of the list was new health care unicorn Virginia-based Somatus, which raised $325 million in a round that valued the company at $2.5 billion. Somatus provides kidney care and prevention through a network of health care providers. 

Another Black-founded health care startup in recruiting, San-Francisco-based Incredible Health, raised $80 million last year, valuing the company at $1.7 billion. 

These three companies joined a 2022 cohort of 170 new U.S. unicorn companies, based on an analysis of Crunchbase data.

In the U.S., 13 current unicorn companies have a Black or African-American founder, out of 714 unicorn companies. This amounts to just 1.8% of U.S. unicorn companies. 

And in total, Black-founded startups in the U.S. raised about $2.3 billion in 2022, representing 1.1% of U.S. venture funding that year, per a recent Crunchbase News report. That’s more than a 50% drop in VC funding from 2021, while the broader U.S. funding market was down 37% over the same time period. 

Leading sectors

Behind these stark statistics are companies building key services for consumers and businesses. Leading sectors for funding in 2022 to Black-founded companies included financial services, health care, consumer goods and professional services, based on an analysis of Crunchbase data. 

San Francisco and Nigeria-based fintech unicorn Flutterwave, a cross-border payments platform that connects 34 countries in Africa to the broader payment ecosystem, was first valued as a unicorn in 2021. It went on to raise a $250 million Series D funding in early 2022 led by Eduardo Saverin’s B Capital Group that valued the company at $3 billion, making it the third most highly valued company with a Black founder alongside Calendly. 

Other Black-founded fintech and SaaS service companies that raised VC funding in 2022 include:

• San Francisco-based career service company Career Karma raised a Series B of $40 million led by Top Tier Capital Partners. 
• Atlanta workspace logistic fulfillment for e-commerce providers Saltbox raised a $35 million Series B led by Cox Enterprises and Pendulum Holdings. 
• An HR management platform for small businesses, Los Angeles-based Bambee, raised a $30 million Series C from QED Investors.
• San Francisco-based Wonderschool, a service to assist the setup of preschools, raised a $25 million Series B led by Goldman Sachs.
• Oakland-based Promise, a payment processor for utilities and government agencies, announced a Series B of $25 million led by The General Partnership. 

With the slower funding environment, companies tightened their belts in the latter half of 2022 to preserve cash. Only one of the companies listed here raised funding in the second half of the year. And there’s no sign of how long the U.S. venture market will have to wait to see the first Black-founded unicorn in 2023.  

Methodology

Funding amounts and counts for the most recent year were collected through Feb. 21, 2022.

The data contained in this report comes directly from Crunchbase, and is based on reported data provided by our Diversity Spotlight partners, venture partners, our community network and news sources. The data in this report is focused on the U.S. market for underrepresented minorities, namely Black-/African-American-founded companies.

Crunchbase’s dataset is constantly expanding, but there are gaps. A company may not have founders listed, or the Diversity Spotlight data may not be updated on its Crunchbase profile. We do believe we are missing companies, especially at the early stages of funding.

If you notice missing data please reach out to spotlight@crunchbase.com or verify with your company email to update your company’s Diversity Spotlight tags directly onsite.

Crunchbase, like all databases of private-market transactions, has a documented pattern of reporting delays. The data for 2022 will increase over time relative to previous years. As data is added to Crunchbase over time, some of the numbers in this report may shift.

Illustration: Dom Guzman

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This is a weekly feature that runs down the week’s top 10 announced funding rounds in the U.S. Check out last week’s biggest funding rounds here.

Huge rounds were the theme of the week, as we saw six rounds of $100 million or more — including two of a half-billion dollars or more. What’s interesting is all the rounds came from different sectors — although one could argue two were in cybersecurity. While AI is dominating the headlines, investors placed bets in several other areas too this week.

1. Dreamscape, $850M, real estate: One of the difficult aspects of creating this list is trying to figure out what is debt and what is actually growth equity in many of these larger rounds. (This will come up again further down the list.) New York-based Dreamscape, a real estate development and investment firm, completed an $850 million capital raise this week. However, it’s unclear what was debt and what was equity. We do know Wells Fargo led the debt syndicate and Raymond James led the equity private placement, but that’s about it. We don’t know how much of that $850 million was equity. Regardless, it is a big raise. The firm will use the proceeds to create two new platforms: Dreamscape Entertainment Properties and Dreamscape Entertainment Integrated Resorts, both involving  gaming, hospitality and entertainment.

2. SandboxAQ, $500M, AI: Nearly a year after spinning out of tech giant Alphabet, AI and quantum computing startup SandboxAQ finally announced more funding details this week, saying it had raised a $500 million round. SandboxAQ is examining the related effects of both AI and quantum — which is where the company gets “AQ” — to develop commercial products for telecom, financial services, health care, security and other computationally intensive sectors. One aspect of security the startup is looking at is how companies and the government can replace current public-key cryptography algorithms with algorithms that are resistant to quantum computer-based attacks. Quantum computing is a level of compute much faster and at a level superior to classical computers that examines quantum states to perform computation. Investors named included Breyer Capital, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Thomas Tull, First Light Capital Group, funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Guggenheim Investments, Time Ventures, Section 32, Parkway Venture Capital and other funds and investors.

3. Deepwatch, $180M, cybersecurity: Cybersecurity funding has proven resilient, even in this down market. Managed detection and response company Deepwatch is the latest in the sector to close a big round — locking in a $180 million round of “equity investments and strategic financing.” The financing comes from a handful of investors, including Vista Credit Partners — Vista Equity Partners’ “credit-investing strategy offering flexible, customized debt and structured equity financing,” per its website. However, the company declined to offer a breakdown of the round pertaining to equity investment and debt/credit. The Tampa, Florida-based startup reported 100% sales growth in 2022 while announcing the funding. Founded in 2019, the company has now raised $256 million, per Crunchbase.

4. Juniper Square, $133M, financial services: Ever wonder how GPs and LPs communicate? Well, one way is through San Francisco-based Juniper Square’s platform, which allows GPs and LPs to connect and manage their partnerships. The company announced a $133 million growth capital round this week led by Owl Rock. According to the company, more than 1,800 GPs use Juniper Square to help support more than 32,000 investment partnerships and $700 billion in LP capital. Founded in 2014, the company has raised $241 million in funding, according to Crunchbase.

5. Via, $110M, transportation: Nearly everyone has changed the way they travel and commute in the last several years. New York-based transit company Via locked up a $110 million round to help cities and agencies better traverse that changing landscape of transportation. The new round values the company at $3.5 billion and was led by 83North. The company ended 2022 with an annualized revenue run-rate of over $200 million, more than doubling since the previous financing round — a $130 million Series G in November 2021. Via plans to use the money to further expand its line of products that help cities and transit agencies improve the efficiency of their transportation systems. Founded in 2012, Via has now raised around $900 million, per Crunchbase.

6. R-Zero, $105M, biotech: Salt Lake City-based biosafety technology startup R-Zero closed a $105 million funding round led by the global investment firm CDPQ. Founded in 2020, the company has now raised more than $170 million, per Crunchbase.

7. Hexagon Bio, $77M, biotech: Menlo Park, California-based Hexagon Bio, a biopharmaceutical company focused on medicines encoded in the global metagenome, raised a $77.3 million Series B. New investors in the round include the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. Founded in 2016, the company has now raised nearly $271 million, according to Crunchbase.

8. NanoGraf, $65M, batteries: Chicago-based battery materials company NanoGraf raised a $65 million Series B led by Volta Energy Technologies and CC Industries. Founded in 2012, the company has raised nearly $90 million, per Crunchbase.

9. Checkerspot, $55M, advanced materials: Alameda, California-based Checkerspot, which designs materials used for outdoor recreational products, closed a $55 million Series C led by ArrowMark Partners. Founded in 2016, the company has raised $109 million, according to Crunchbase. 

10. Descope, $53M, software: Los Altos, California-based Descope raised a $53 million seed round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and GGV Capital and emerged from stealth. The company has launched a new authentication and user management platform for developers.

Big global deals

U.S.-based startups were not the only ones to raise rounds of a half-billion dollars or more this week.

• China-based Zeekr, which develops and manufactures electric vehicles, raised a $750 million Series A.

Methodology

We tracked the largest announced rounds in the Crunchbase database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the seven-day period of Feb. 11 to 17. Although most announced rounds are represented in the database, there could be a small time lag as some rounds are reported late in the week.

Illustration: Dom Guzman

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Taurus works through the entire spectrum of digitizing and tokenizing assets, particularly securities. The company issues and manages tokenized assets and has built a software solution that allows banks to offer clients custody and trading services. The company also built what it called the first regulated marketplace for tokenized securities. 

“Our thesis is the world of digital assets and the world of traditional finance will ultimately converge,” said co-founder Sébastien Dessimoz. “We basically built our business based on the assumption that we’ll see the institutionalization of this world.”

Digital securities on the global stage

That thesis is starting to come to life. In 2021, Switzerland voted in a new law that would allow any share or bond to be made official either on paper or via a digitized token, and both are equally recognized as proof of an asset. The Taurus marketplace for securities, T-DX, is regulated under the Swiss government’s financial marketplace department, FINMA. 

“I think what is important in terms of innovation is that we have the right regulatory framework in place,” Dessimoz said. “Plus having the technology there to allow this kind of transaction.”

In January, Swiss bank Cite Gestion became the first to hire Taurus to tokenize every single one of their shares. But it’s not the only one to do so — investment management firm Hamilton Lane worked with another digital asset platform, Securitize, to tokenize three funds.

Companies in the digital securities space have raised around $142 million so far in 2023. It’s unclear how affected blockchain-based platforms are by the cryptocurrency crash in 2022, but Taurus says it works with cryptocurrency banks and traditional financial institutions that don’t touch crypto. Taurus has more than 25 clients in the banking and corporate world. 

There are a couple of benefits to tokenizing assets. Because the token is inherently secure, trading shares becomes more efficient. Rather than issuing a number of shares and getting signatures from both parties to confirm the trade, the process can be done electronically.

But the world of tokenized securities is rather nascent, and the industry is still working toward a set of standardized regulations as well as grappling with the issue of cybersecurity.   

“Unfortunately the regulatory framework is moving country by country,” said Dessimoz. “There is no global legal framework all over the world.”

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This is a monthly feature that runs down the month’s top 10 funding rounds in the U.S. Check out last year’s top rounds here.

The new year did not start slowly, as U.S.-based startups saw five rounds of more than $200 million. Of course, all the talk was about ​​OpenAI’s huge strategic raise, but health care, cybersecurity and renewable energy startups all saw large raises last month as investors wrote big checks.

​​1. OpenAI, $10B, artificial intelligence: The deal had been rumored for weeks, but was finally made official. Microsoft confirmed it has agreed to a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar investment” into OpenAI, the startup behind the artificial intelligence tools ChatGPT and DALL-E. The exact dollar amount was not confirmed, but Semafor reported earlier last month that Microsoft was in talks to invest as much as $10 billion. The deal follows a $1 billion investment in 2019 from Microsoft into the AI startup. It will help position Microsoft in what will be an all-out battle for AI dominance with other tech giants such as Alphabet and Amazon. Earlier this month The Wall Street Journal reported the startup could be valued at $29 billion thanks to a new tender offer.

2. Netskope, $401M, cybersecurity: There must be something about cybersecurity startups and $401 million in convertible notes. In October, Eden Prairie, Minnesota-based Arctic Wolf raised $401 million in convertible notes led by existing investor Owl Rock. This week another startup, Santa Clara, California-based Netskope received a $401 million convertible note investment led by Morgan Stanley Tactical Value. Both Netskope and Arctic Wolf are companies that have been rumored to be IPO candidates for the past few years, so such financings make sense with the path to the public market blocked. Convertible notes work like a short-term loan, but are repaid to the investor at a later point in equity — i.e., after an IPO — typically at a discount and can also include an interest rate. Founded in 2012, Netskope has now raised $1.4 billion, per Crunchbase.

3. (tied) Monogram Health, $375M, health care: Nashville-based Monogram Health is one of several health care startups to raise big last month, as the company closed a huge $375 million funding round. The round included strategic investments from the likes of CVS Health, Cigna Ventures and others. The startup is a specialty provider of in-home care for patients living with polychronic conditions, including chronic kidney disease. More than 37 million American adults live with chronic kidney disease, according to the company. Founded in 2019, the company has raised $555 million, per Crunchbase data.

3. (tied) Silicon Ranch Corp., $375M, renewable energy: Silicon Ranch Corp. actually announced a $600 million raise last month, but only the initial funding of $375 million has closed, with the additional $225 million expected to fund in early 2023. Founded in 2011, Silicon Ranch provides customized renewable energy, carbon and battery storage solutions for a variety of partners across North America. Last year, the company installed 11 new solar facilities that produce nearly 700 megawatts of new generating capacity. Silicon Ranch is no stranger to large raises; it raised $775 million early last year. The company has now raised about $1.6 billion, per Crunchbase.

5. Paradigm, $203M, health care: New York-based Paradigm emerged last month looking to take on one of the more complicated aspects of the health care industry. The startup, conceived by Arch Venture Partners and co-incubated by Arch and General Catalyst, raised a $203 million Series A. Paradigm is trying to change the way clinical trials are run, making it more equitable for patients to get in on them while also making it easier for health care providers to participate and cooperate. The tech-enabled platform aims to open up trials for more people and reduce barriers such as location and finance as it also looks to accelerate the clinical research process. Time will tell if it is successful — the startup already has big-name backers.

6. (tied) Asimov, $175M, biotech: In what seemed like a good month for biotech, Boston-based Asimov raised a $175 million Series B led by Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. The startup is developing a synthetic biology platform to design and manufacture next-generation therapeutics, including biologics, cell and gene therapies, and RNA. It currently partners with more than 25 companies that include pharmaceutical companies, biotechs and manufacturing organizations. Founded in 2017, Asimov has raised more than $200 million, per the company.

6. (tied) VettaFi, $175M, financial services: In the financial realm, data is gold and VettaFi has a lot of that apparently. The New York-based startup formed last year and provides data analytics and indexing for financial advisers, asset managers and institutional investors. The company received a $175 million investment from global market developer TMX Group — whose operations include both the Toronto Stock Exchange and Montreal Exchange. The deal gives TMX a 21% common equity stake in VettaFi.

8. (tied) Colossal Biosciences, $150M, biotech: The idea of bringing back the dodo also was able to bring in big money. De-extinction platform Colossal Biosciences raised a $150 million Series B, giving the startup a valuation of more than $1 billion, per reports. The Dallas-based startup, which launched in 2021, plans to use the new cash infusion to continue to advance its genetic engineering, as well as keep developing its software and hardware solutions for applications involved with de-extinction, conservation and human health care. With this new round, Colossal has launched its Avian Genomics Group, which will pursue the de-extinction of the dodo. The startup previously had talked about bringing back the woolly mammoth and the Tasmanian tiger. Last March, Colossal Bioscience raised a $60 million Series A led by Thomas Tull and At One Ventures. Per the company, it has now raised a total of $225 million.

8. (tied) Pathalys Pharma, $150M, biotech: Raleigh, North Carolina-based Pathalys Pharma raised $150 million through what it called “a combination of secured product financing and equity to support the two phase 3 clinical trials, registration efforts and pre-commercialization activities for upacicalcet” — which is used to treat hyperparathyroidism. Abingworth was the lead investor. Simultaneously, the company and Launch Therapeutics announced a collaboration to advance phase 3 clinical trials for the drug. Founded in 2021, Pathalys has raised $150 million to date, according to the late-stage biopharma startup.

10. Xpansiv, $125M, financial services: San Francisco-based Xpansiv was busy last month. The company announced the acquisition of Evolution Markets — which helps with transacting environmental commodities — and the closing of a $125 million round. Xpansiv said the new capital is “linked to the recent $400 million capital raise led by Blackstone Energy Partners which closed in August 2022.” New strategic investors Bank of America and Goldman Sachs participated in the new round. Xpansiv is looking to grow its market infrastructure platform which helps with energy transactions such as carbon credits and renewable energy certificates. Founded in 2017, the company has raised more than $700 million, according to Crunchbase.

Big global deals

Not all the big rounds went to U.S.-based startups, as another AI firm had a big raise.

• London-based global life insurance group Resolution Life raised a $1 billion investment from Nippon Life.

Methodology

We tracked the largest rounds in the Crunchbase database that were raised by U.S.-based companies in January. Although most announced rounds are represented in the database, there could be a small time lag as some rounds are reported late.

Illustration: Dom Guzman

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