Startups

French startup Exotec has raised a $335 million Series D round in a new round of funding led by Goldman Sachs' Growth Equity business. Following today's investment, the company has reached a valuation of $2 billion. Exotec sells a complete end-to-end solution to turn a regular warehouse int

Welcome to Startups Weekly, a fresh human-first take on this week's startup news and trends. To get this in your inbox, subscribe here. Among many of the entrepreneur catchphrases out there, the one that annoys me the most is: “It's not what you know, it's who you know.” The phrase

“Raising money is catastrophically challenging for female founders, and even harder for Black female founders.” It's a bold, even damning statement — one I made in a recent discussion speculating what's to come in 2022 for women leading startups, like myself. As one of

Singapore-based industrial robotics firm Sesto this week announced a $5.7 million raise, featuring TRIVE, WTI GmbH and SEEDS Capital (Enterprise Singapore's VC wing). The round follows a similarly sized $4 million Series A, back in 2018. Sesto has had a busy few years since that round — a

Whatever you do, don’t refer to LG’s incubator program LG Nova as a corporate venture capital (CVC) outfit. LG Nova is the pointiest tip of the spear for LG, the company’s experimental playground to work with startups to explore spaces where the corporation has sp

Brazilian instant payment system Pix ended 2021 having powered more than 8 billion transactions, according to statistics from the country’s Central Bank. This is quite an impressive figure for an offering only launched in November 2020 and goes to show how ubiquitous Pix has become in the cou

Checkout technology company Bolt continues to make quick work of attracting new capital. The company announced Friday $355 million in Series E financing to give Bolt an $11 billion valuation, according to sources close to the company. Bolt's one-click checkout product aims to give businesses th

FinDev Canada has injected $13 million into Energy Entrepreneurs Growth Fund (EEGF), which invests in early and growth-stage energy startups in sub-Saharan Africa. Part of the funding will go toward increasing access to clean energy for off-grid households and businesses in the region. The $120 mil

A congruence of factors in India — notably, climate change policies, fuel costs and skyrocketing demand for e-commerce — has set up ideal conditions for startups like all-electric commercial vehicle startup EVage. The startup already has five EV trucks on the road for a range of e-commerce cust

In a tight labor market, so-called vertical labor marketplaces that zoom in on one industry, like nursing or hospitality, are drawing funding. Trusted Health, a healthcare staffing platform, raised $149 million in funding in November, for example. Seasoned, a hiring platform for restaurant workers,

The U.S. International Trade Commission ruled on January 6 that Google infringed Sonos' patented innovations in wireless speaker technology. This may sound like an obscure legal ruling about a complicated fight over intellectual property. But it confirms a problem that threatens America’

Quick blog here to update you on some pretty important movements in the market. Today, in a nasty day for stocks generally, shares of software and cloud companies took a pounding. In numerical terms, the Nasdaq Composite lost 2.51%, per CNBC data. That’s a very bad day for a huge, critical ca

That the venture capital market is incredibly exuberant at the moment is not news. Data from 2021 paints the picture of a startup fundraising game at peak velocity, with more capital, unicorns and nine-figure deals than ever. And let me tell you, some venture capitalists are tired of it. PitchBook

GoFundMe announced today that it will acquire Classy, a nonprofit fundraising software company. This is an all equity deal, though the company did not disclose the financials. Anyone can make a GoFundMe, from a local food pantry to a community member in need. But Classy is more specialized, working