Yildiz Ventures Newsletter | 01-15 Jun’24
?? Hi there!
Welcome to Y?ld?z Ventures Newsletter, your bi-weekly roundup of news from the ever-changing world of start-ups!
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Whether you're a seasoned entrepreneur or just a passionate individual about innovation, disruption, and entrepreneurship, we hope you'll find something valuable in our newsletter. ??
???Let's take a look at the highlights of the 01-15 June 2024! ??
?? Online grocery / Food Delivery:?
?? Anla?mazl???n ??zülmesiyle Getir, Mubadala ile yeni bir yat?r?m turu tamaml?yor. Ayn? zamanda Mubalada’n?n Getir’e yeni bir yat?r?m yapaca?? da gelen bilgiler aras?nda- ??
?? Getir is understood to be weeks away from having no cash left as its founder has reached an impasse with investors over a rescue plan to keep the company afloat- ??
?? Grocery delivery service Gopuff has launched a partnership with Barclaycard to make prices more "accessible to budget-conscious consumers"- ??
?? Deliveroo has launched a new multi-channel partnership with recipe subscription service Mob Kitchen to provide easy and exclusive recipes with ingredients that can be bought from the rapid delivery firm- ??
?? Amazon will offer grocery deliveries to all customers in eligible cities across the UK, including a range of items from Amazon Fresh, Morrisons, Co-op and Iceland- ??
?? Uber Eats has launched advertising for FMCG brands with its new “sponsored items” section, as PepsiCo becomes its first brand partner- ??
?? Otonom teslimat robotlar? geli?tiren Delivers.ai, Japan Post Capital'dan yat?r?m ald?- ??
?? Turkish Startups / VC & CVC News :
?? AI ve robotik uygulamalar i?in tasarlanm?? bulut tabanl? yaz?l?m geli?tirme ve da??t?m platformu Robolaunch, Simya VC’nin liderli?inde ger?ekle?en yat?r?m turunda $1.5mn yat?r?m ald?- ??
? Rekabet Kurumu, Google'a otel sorgular? bak?m?ndan tedbir ?nerilerini yerine getirmedi?i süre i?in toplam 482 milyon TL para cezas? verdi- ??
? FAST servisi, onay ve tescil gerektiren ?demeler i?in devreye al?nd?- ??
?? Türkiye’nin veri odakl? startup ve VC platformlar?ndan biri olan LemonRocks, 8 milyon dolar de?erleme üzerinden 750 bin dolar yat?r?m ald?- ??
?? Midas'?n uygulamas?na kripto al?m-sat?m se?ene?i eklendi. ?u an i?in beta olarak k?s?tl? say?da kullan?c?ya sunulan Midas Kripto ile birlikte kullan?c?lar, kripto para al?p satabilecek- ??
?? Finansal teknolojilere odaklanan Sipay, 15 milyon dolar yat?r?m ald?- ??
???? Uluslararas? A?lar? Etkinle?tirme: Türk Giri?imcilik Ekosistemini Gü?lendirme Raporu'ndan ?ne ??kanlar- ??
?? Giri?imcilerin ve i?letmelerin ?irket kurulu?undan vergi süre?lerine kadar tüm ihtiya?lar?n? tek ?at? alt?nda kar??layan Mükellef, 20 milyon dolar de?erleme üzerinden ikinci yat?r?m?n? ald?- ??
?? Alternatif fonlara yat?r?m yapman?z? sa?layan yerli mobil uygulama: Fonmap- ??
?? At?klardan yeni nesil yap? malzemeleri geli?tiren Harcy, 350 bin dolar yat?r?m ald?- ??
?? Index Grup'un halka a??k ?irketlerinden ?ndeks Bilgisayar, HB Bili?im A?'nin 23,5 milyon dolar ?irket de?eri üzerinden yüzde 51 hissesini sat?n ald?- ??
???? Hamdi Ulukaya Giri?imi’nin Startup Destek Program?’na kat?lmaya hak kazanan 5 yerli giri?im- ??
?? Güne?ten ve rüzgardan elde edilen enerjiyi üzerinde depolayabilen ve entegre edilen IoT sistemlerini ?ebeke ba??ms?z sürdürülebilir enerji ile besleyebilen RumiTech,?Sabanc? ARF’tan $250 bin Pre-Seed yat?r?m ald?- ??
?? Türkiye’nin global melek yat?r?mc? a?? Decacorn Angels, ?ngiltere pazar?na a??l?yor- ??
?? Global Startups / VC News :
?? Data analytics software maker Databricks acquires data optimization startup Tabular in fresh challenge to Snowflake, they will be paying over $1 billion to buy Tabular- ??
?? SAP to acquire digital adoption platform WalkMe for $1.5B- ??
?? Sword Health, an AI-powered virtual physical therapy startup, raises $130M and its valuation soars to $3 Billion- ??
?? Cybersecurity firm SpyCloud has raised $35mn in financing. The capital will be used to expand the company’s solutions to help businesses investigate & defend themselves against cybercrime- ??
?? Canary Technologies raises $50M to accelerate AI hotel solutions- ??
?? Storyblok raises $80M to add more AI to its ‘headless’ CMS aimed at non-technical people- ??
?? General Motors gives Cruise, the autonomous vehicle subsidiary, $850M lifeline as it relaunches robotaxis in Houston- ??
?? Munich-based ARX Robotics gets €9 million to make European armed forces future-proof for robotic warfare- ??
?? Google has acquired Cameyo, a company developing virtualization tools to run Windows apps on ChromeOS devices, for an undisclosed amount- ??
???? Ashby, a recruiting platform that efficiently scales hiring from startup through enterprise, has raised an additional?$30 million?in equity financing- ??
?? Anterior secures $20mn Series A to unlock administrative efficiencies for Healthcare Payers- ??
?? Robinhood bets big on crypto with $200 million deal for Bitstamp- ??
????? E-commerce / Grocery:?
??? Amazon’s Project PI AI looks for product defects before they ship. Project PI combines computer vision and generative AI to catch damaged items and prevent returns- ??
?? Tesco’s SKUs have grown by more than a third following the launch of its marketplace- ??
?? Waitrose has acquired meal-kit delivery service Dishpatch- ??
?? EBay rolls out AI-backed photo enhancement tool- ??
?? Walmart to bring electronic shelf labels to thousands of stores- ??
?? Asda has unveiled an upgraded gen AI platform in a bid to “unlock new levels of operational agility”- ??
?? Tesco has launched an online marketplace containing thousands of third-party products to give shoppers “access to more” than it carries in-store or online- ??
?? Walmart boosts InHome delivery reach by nearly 30%- ??
?? FoodTech / Food Companies
?? Israeli startup Kokomodo has emerged from stealth with a $750,000 investment to produce cocoa and chocolate products via cellular agriculture- ??
?? Iyris raised $16mn Series A funding to make fresh produce easier to grow in difficult climates- ??
?? The world’s second-largest confectionery company, Ferrero, is set to debut a vegan version of Nutella in Europe later this year- ??
?? The University of Essex has built a new facility to develop climate-resilient crops that can adapt to a hotter and drier planet- ??
?? Israeli startup NewMoo is using soybean plants to produce casein proteins in liquid form for animal-free cheese applications, with plans to partner with the dairy sector- ??
?? Danone has launched a new category management website for trade customers, in order to bolster relations with independent retailers- ??
???? Nestlé is shifting its focus to products with nutritional needs for the older generation, due to falling global birth rates- ??
?? BIOVIT have developed the World's first clinically developed and tested plant-derived multi-nutrient blends for use in food manufacture, in a UK Gov funded, ￡1.5m R&D Project- ??
?? The Coca-Cola Company is planning to invest $175 million in its business in Kenya- ??
?? UK-based functional mushroom brand Dirtea debuted a new range of gummies for cognitive and physical wellbeing- ??
?? Global plant-based food leader Wicked Kitchen has been acquired by the newly formed Ahimsa Companies, which seeks to lead an “industry-wide consolidation effort”- ??
?? Californian biotech startup Prolific Machines has closed a $55M Series B for its photomolecular platform, which leverages light to create novel proteins at significantly lower costs- ??
?? ?? ?? AI / Web3 / Metaverse / Blockchain / Gaming:
?? Nvidia & Salesforce double down on Canadian AI startup Cohere in $450mn round. This concludes the first tranche of Cohere's fundraising, while the company is still in talks to raise more in the same round at $5 billion valuation- ??
?? Microsoft-backed french tech startup Mistral AI raises $645 million at a $6 billion valuation- ??
?? Luma AI unveils Dream Machine, a free text-to-video model to rival Sora and Kling- ??
?? Voodoo, a French mobile apps and games publisher, has acquired BeReal for €500 million- ??
?? Sustainability:
?? Global snacking company Pladis has changed the packaging across its Jacob’s Cream Crackers boxes to reduce plastic by 78% - ??
?? Worth Reading ?
?? How big retailers are battling the last-mile delivery squeeze- ??
?? The unsustainable hype around ESG. Several months of fund outflows mark the decline of ESG as a marketing tool- ??
?? How retailers can fight theft without hurting customer experience- ??
?? The robots preparing to get their hands on your lunch- ??
?? Hey Siri, is Apple’s AI strategy enough to sustain this rally?- ??
? News from Y?ld?z Ventures’ Portfolio Companies?
?? Roamless, Aral?k 2023’te a??klanan turda Paribu Ventures ve Revo Capital liderli?inde 2,6 milyon dolar yat?r?m alm??t?. Revo Capital’in yine kat?l?mc?lar? aras?nda bulundu?u yeni turda 2,4 milyon dolar yat?r?m alan Roamless’?n tohum yat?r?m turu 5 milyon dolara ula?t?- ??
?? Earlybird Digital East Fund & Endeavor Catalyst portfolio company, Payhawk, a $1 billion corporate card startup, plans M&A shopping spree after 86% sales growth- ??
?? Food Labs portfolio company Kynda breaks Ground on Hamburg Facility to Produce 2,500 Tons of “Kynda Meat” Annually- ??
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