The Startup Advocate

Welcome to a new week!

I’m back in New York City for the AWS Impact Accelerator. We’ll be hosting investor events to meet the Black Founders cohort, so message me if you’re an investor and would like an invite. For all the Female Founders out there, we’ll be opening applications for your cohort on August 11th, so stay tuned.

Extending Runway During Turbulent Times

I’ve known Index Ventures Parter Mike Volpi for over fifteen years and appreciate his take on many aspects of investing and startups especially a recent thread on how to survive and thrive as a startup in turbulent times. I suggest you check out his recent posts about how to navigate a downturn depending on the length of your runway and efficiency of your business. Here’s a quick breakdown but I encourage you to click thru and keep an eye on his valuable content.

• If you have 2 years or more: stay aggressive, strategic and deliberate
• If you have 2 years or less: it’s all about ruthless prioritization and growth
• If you have 1 year or less: it’s time to cut costs and focus on efficiencies.

?? If you’re looking to cut costs and become more efficient:

???Register for the AWS webinar on cost-saving techniques below

???Read this post about extending your runway by turning off AWS resources when they’re not in use.

???Read this post from Andrew Chen about how to reinvent your product growth strategy for the tech downturn.

???UPCOMING EVENTS

Wednesday, July 27th: AWS Startup Bootcamp - Baseline webinar for new and emerging startups

Startup Bootcamp is the first-stop webinar for new and growing startups. You will learn about the 3 main pillars: credit and funding programs, baseline services every startups consider, and how to get the expertise you need fast via partners. This event is recommended to all AWS customers (technical and business personas) who are new or want a refresh on how AWS can support you.

Wednesday, August 3rd: AWS Startup Academy - Save costs with ML Infrastructure

Aaron Melgar, AWS’s AI/ML Business Development Manager, will deploy his expertise on cost-saving techniques, diving deep on how to best use SageMaker, the benefits of going serverless, how to avoid paying for idle instances, and more. We’ll get more granular as the session goes on, going over specific scenarios, implementation time, savings potential, the time it will take to realize savings, and required commitment. Plus, get tips for better understanding AWS costs and develop a plan to start saving right away.

?? Monday, July 25 at 12pm PT Angel Club: How to Structure Your Startup with Rachel Bassignani

?? Friday, July 29 at 10am PST Angel Club: Leadership and Culture with Kyle Hermans

Angel Club is an inclusive membership community for underrepresented angel-stage founders and angel investors. We provide access to seasoned mentors, monthly events, a robust resource library and more. ?? Join Angel Club or email [email protected] for more info.

?? NOTEWORTHY NEWS

Less than 2 weeks to apply for Black Founders Demo Day: Deadline is August 5th!

This event, designed to showcase, inspire, and invest in Black and Brown wealth creation will take place on December 1st in Miami, as a featured event during this year’s Art Basel. All presenting companies will receive a $3k travel stipend, in addition to over $1M in investment opportunities from prominent venture capital and angel investors.?Learn more, spread the word, and get those applications in!

???Have something you want to share in an upcoming edition? Message me here or email [email protected].

?? MEET AN ANGEL CLUB MEMBER

Medina is on a mission to change the business of dentistry. With over 24 years in the field, she understands the pain points dentists and practice owners face, from staff shortages to the high cost of running a dental practice. GetVWire helps dentists get paid on time and provides front desk support with the help of AI technology. Reach out to Medina if you have investor leads or just want to say hello and give first to a female founder!

?? CELEBRATIONS

NEW DEAL FLOW: Check out who’s investing in your sector!

• Atlantic Money, a UK money transfer startup, has raised $3 million in seed funding led by?Amplo, with participation from?Nordstar and?Martell Hardenberg.
• Bloom, a Sudan fintech that offers a high-yield savings account and adjacent digital banking services, raised a $6.5M seed round from?Visa,?Y Combinator,?Global Founders Capital, Goodwater Capital and VentureSouq, among others.
• Bluestream, a Worcester, MA, customer service software company, raised $5.2M in Series A funding co-led by?PBJ Capital?and?GutBrain Ventures.
• Charter, a New York digital media and insights start-up focused on the future of work, raised $3M in a seed round led by?Bloomberg Beta.
• Cornerstone AI, a San Francisco health care data company, raised $5M in seed funding led by?Healthy Ventures.
• DRAUP, a London platform for digital fashion, raised $1.5M in seed funding from a group of investors, led by?Variant Fund.
• Equals, a Bay Area remote-based spreadsheet analytics platform, raised $6.6M in seed funding, led by?Craft Ventures.
• FairPlay, a Los Angeles startup whose?software analyzes banks' loan programs and rejections for signs of discrimination, raised a $10M Series A funding round led by?Nyca Partners.
• Hearth Display, a Brooklyn, NY digital touchscreen board company, raised $3M in seed funding. Girls Who Code’s?Reshma Saujani, Rent The Runway’s?Jenny Fleiss,?Female Founders Fund,?Stellation?and others invested in the round.
• Healshape, a Lyon, France-based?breast reconstruction startup, raised €6M in seed funding led by?Go Capital?and?Demeter.
• HiddenLayer, an Austin, TX, security platform for machine learning models, raised $6M in seed funding led by?Ten Eleven Ventures.
• Medusa, a e-commerce platform for Javascript developers founded last year in Copenhagen, raised $8M in seed funding co-led by?LocalGlobe?and?Dawn Capital.
• Natron Energy, a Santa Clara, CA, maker of sodium-ion batteries, has raised $7 million in funding from Houston oil field equipment company?Nabors Industries.
• Oncoustics, a Toronto ultrasound-based cancer treatment assessment tech company, raised $4.3M (USD)?in seed funding, co-led by Creative Ventures?and?Saltagen Ventures.
• Pebble, a Cambridge, MA, personalized investment startup, raised $5M in seed funding from?Jump Capital,?NextView Ventures?and?Cendana Capital.
• Perelel, a Los Angeles maker of a?prenatal vitamin brand, raised $4.7M in seed funding led by?Unilever Ventures.
• Proteus Motion, a New York fitness tech company focused on measuring physical strength, raised $8.5 million in Series A funding co-led by?Acies Investment?and?HBSE Ventures.
• Push Security, a UK security company that says it finds the SaaS apps that employees use and helps them protect themselves,?raised $4M in seed funding led by?Decibel Partners.
• Resolve, a Hanover, NH, medical bills payment platform, raised $3.3M in seed funding led by?AlleyCorp.
• Senzo, a London and Newton, PA-based life sciences company developing diagnostic technologies, raised $2M in funding led by?BioAdvance.
• Sunscreen, a Los Angeles startup that?has developed a compiler to make it easier for engineers to build fully homomorphic encryption (FHE)?programs,?raised $4.65M in a seed round led by?Polychain Capital.
• Super Mojo, a New York buy-now-pay-later NFT financing platform, raised $6M?in seed funding from?BH Digital,?DRW VC,?Intersection Growth Partners?and?Neuberger Berman.
• Umami, a San Francisco open-source web analytics platform,?raised $1.5M in pre-seed funding led by?Race Capital.
• WeMoney, a Perth, Australia, debt tracking and payment platform, raised $7M in funding co-led by?Full Circle VC?and?Betterlabs.

INVESTORS: Do you want access to our deal flow? Investors are invited to complete this form, so that we can match targeted opportunities to your investment thesis.

FOUNDERS: Do you want to pitch to investors in Angel Club? Fill out this form so that we can learn more about your business, share relevant opportunities, and make introductions.

CONGRATS: These folks are making money moves!

• Tariq Trotter, best known as Black Thought, lead MC of The Roots -- just became a general partner with Impellent Ventures, a firm that looks to back startups in the so-called Rust Belt.
• Partech has promoted **Andrew Whiting** to partner, Laetitia Marcadé and Luis Zarate to senior associate, and Alexis Lancien to associate.
• Norwest Venture Partners?has hired?John Gu?as a principal on its growth equity team. Gu previously spent seven years as an investor with Spring Mountain Capital.

NEW FUNDS: Applauding the latest funds investing in startups!

• Boeing agreed to provide $50 million to anchor a new aerospace technology venture fund, AEI HorizonX, which aims to raise $250 million to invest in startups in future mobility, space, sustainability, digital enterprise applications, networks and security.
• AM Ventures just closed a $100M fund to focus specifically on the early growth stages of industrial and commercial 3D printing applications.
• B Capital raised $250M in capital commitments for its first dedicated early-stage venture capital fund.
• The auction house Christie’s is launching a venture-capital arm called?**Christie’s Ventures** which will aim to supply seed funding to young companies whose technologies could ultimately help collectors buy and sell more art, digital or otherwise.
• Collaborative Fund, a seed-and-early-stage venture fund, raised $200M for its first climate-focused vehicle, Collab?SOS.
• Elysian Park Ventures, the private investment arm of the LA Dodgers ownership group and the?PGA of America, have teamed up to create a new?investment partnership called?**EP Golf Ventures** which is designed to back startups that "drive value" across the golf industry.
• Fifth Wall has more than tripled commitments to $495M for its early-stage climate technology fund, while also securing fresh funding for its inaugural late-stage technology Fund.
• Fifth?Wall, has?****raised $500M for its first climate-related venture fund.
• FirstMark?Capital raised $1.1B for its sixth flagship fund (to invest in promising consumer and enterprise technology companies in their earliest stages of development) and fourth opportunity fund (to help accelerate breakout companies in their growth phase.)
• FrontEnd Ventures, a Kenya-based venture firm focused on supporting local teams, raised $1M of a $5M target for first fund.
• General Catalyst has raised $670M for its second Health Assurance Fund.
• Menlo Ventures has raised $761.4M in capital commitments for its third "special opportunities" fund. It closed its second special opportunities fund in 2019 with?$497M in commitments.
• New Age Capital raised $25M for its debut fund to focus on startups led by Black and Latinx founders.
• Portage Ventures collected $655M in capital commitments for its third flagship fund to invest in seed through Series C-stage fintech in the United States, Europe and Canada.
• Section 32 is raising $500M for its fifth fund to back startups at the intersection of technology and healthcare.
• Tribe Capital?has raised $25 million from outside investors to collaborate with crypto developers and help incubate their startups.
• The?United Arab Emirates?will pour more than $800M into space initiatives through a massive new fund, with the first investment going toward the establishment of a remote sensing satellite constellation.
• Vektor Partners raised €125M in capital commitments for its debut fund, to focus on sustainable mobility startups.

Remember to reach out to advisors that can help you build your team, business, or fund. Learn all about how to source and leverage advisors and customize these templates to start reaching out today!

AFTER HOURS

???Listen: 4th of July by Sufjan Stevens

???Watch: The Future of the Metaverse

????Go: The NoMad Library in NYC

Make it a great week!

With grit, grace, and gratitude,

Angel