Yildiz Ventures Newsletter | 1-15 Oct’24
?? Hi there!
Welcome to Y?ld?z Ventures Newsletter, your bi-weekly roundup of news from the ever-changing world of start-ups!
Get access to the latest trends, insights, and innovations from the start-up ecosystem so that you can stay ahead of the curve.
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 1-15 October 2024! ??
???? Y?ld?z’?n ?zinde Podcast Serisi:?
?? 12 Eylül b?lümünde Arzu Aslan Kesimer, konu?u DE?K Dijital Teknolojiler ?? Konseyi Ba?kan? ve Y?netim Kurulu üyesi Dr. Erdem Erkul ile Türkiye'nin teknoloji ve dijital d?nü?üm vizyonunu ele ald?. Dr. Erdem Erkul, dijital teknolojiler, teknoloji ihracat? ve giri?imcilik ekosisteminde Türkiye'nin globalle?me ad?mlar?n? ve DE?K’in bu süre?teki katk?lar?n? anlatt?- ??
?? 3 Ekim b?lümünde Arzu Aslan Kesimer, konu?u ?DEAL kurucusu ve CEO'su Fevzi Güng?r ile Türkiye'nin fintech ekosistemini konu?tu. Fevzi Güng?r, mobil ?deme sistemleri ve tele sat?? alan?ndaki ba?ar?lar?n?, fintech alan?ndaki yenilik?i ??zümleri nas?l geli?tirdi?ini ve giri?imcilik ekosistemine olan katk?lar?n? payla?t?- ??
?? Online grocery / Food Delivery:?
???? Morrisons expands Uber Eats partnership adding 400 supermarkets to platform- ??
?? Instacart adds games, personalized coupons to its smart carts. The new capabilities aim to deliver benefits for brands & retailers while also driving repeated customer use of the technology- ??
?? Deliveroo has teamed up with Blue Light Card, the?discount provider?for the emergency services, teachers, the social care sector & armed forces, to give members free deliveries and savings- ??
?? Waitrose has partnered with?rapid delivery firm?Just Eat on a multi-year deal to ramp up its presence in the on-demand grocery and convenience sectors- ??
?? Amazon bundles online shopping of groceries and non-food items. The company is diversifying its marketplace and fulfillment centers to allow Prime members to add goods from Amazon.com, Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods in one cart- ??
?? Kroger’s new additions to its Boost membership put the grocer more in line with Walmart’s membership moves as companies aim to add perks to bolster the perceived value of subscriptions- ??
?? Turkish Startups / VC & CVC News :
?? üretken davran??sal yapay zeka platformu Quin AI, 1.5 milyon pound tohum yat?r?m ald?- ??
?? Yerli bulut mutfak a?? Paket Mutfak, 2.7 milyon dolar yat?r?m ald?- ??
???? ?nsan kaynaklar? yaz?l?m? ?denfit, Sistem Global'den ve melek yat?r?mc?lardan yat?r?m ald?. Son turla birlikte yat?r?mlar? 2 milyon dolara ula?t?- ??
?? ALJ ve Sabanc? Ventures'tan erken a?ama giri?imleri destekleyecek J-START Fonu- ??
?? Tüpra? Ventures, ye?il hidrojene odaklanan Verdagy ve Ionomr giri?imlerine yat?r?m yapt?- ??
???? Yapay zeka destekli analizler sunan kariyer platformu: YouthSide- ??
???? EY Türkiye Giri?imci Kad?n Liderler Program?’n?n 2024 y?l? kazananlar?- ??
?? Türk oyun ?irketi?Fiber Games, yeni yat?r?m turu tamamlad?. ?irket bu yat?r?mla ekibini gü?lendirmeyi ve hybrid-casual türünde yeni oyunlar?n? global ?l?ekte büyütmeyi planl?yor- ??
?????Trendyol’un düzenledi?i E-Ticaret Hackathonu kazanan projeleri belli oldu- ??
?? Türkiye’de giri?imlere 2024’ün ilk 9 ay?nda 388 turda 709 milyon dolar yat?r?m yap?ld?- ??
?? ?stanbul ve Boston merkezli yapay zeka giri?imi?Novus, tohum yat?r?m turunda $1,5 milyon yat?r?m ald?.?Vestel Gelece?e Etki Fonu?liderli?indeki turda ?irket,?$14 milyon de?erlemeye ula?t?- ??
?? Dental ürün pazar yeri dentalpiyasa.com, 5 milyon dolar de?erleme ile yat?r?m ald?- ??
?BEDA?, AEDA? ve ?EDA?’?n hayata ge?irdi?i Dinamik H?zland?rma Program?’n? kazanan giri?imler- ??
?? Borusan, Sürdürülebilir Fayda Program? ile ?evreye ve topluma de?er katan giri?imcileri destekliyor- ??
?? Global Startups / VC News :
?? Zepz, an international money transfer service group, has bagged $267 million in a Series F equity round spearheaded by global venture capital firm Accel- ??
?? Healthcare startup Suki raises $70 million to build AI assistants for hospitals- ??
?? Munchfam secures €600K to reduce the restaurant failure rate. Munchfam offers a service platform that combines cutting-edge digital tools, plug-n-play brands, & high-quality ingredients- ??
?? Paris-based Sto?k raises €25mn Series B to expand its cyber insurance platform in Europe- ??
?? Omnea, the AI-powered procurement orchestration and supplier risk management platform, has raised $20M in Series A funding- ??
?? Basecamp Research raises $60M Series B to fuel AI advancements in life sciences- ??
?? Munich-based startup OroraTech has closed a €25 million Series B funding round that it will utilize to expand its wildfire monitoring service into new markets- ??
???? HUMAN raises $50+ million in Growth Funding to Protect the Digital Customer Journey and Defend Against Bots, Fraud and Risk- ??
?? Numeric grabs $28M Series A to automate accounting using AI- ??
?? Farther, the leading technology-centric financial advisory firm, closed a?$72 million?Series C funding round to expand its advisor network and enhance its wealth management platform- ??
?? $55.5M growth round to boost Submer’s "greener" datacenters- ??
?? Amplitude, a publicly traded company that makes digital analytics software, has acquired?Command AI, an app user engagement startup formerly known as?CommandBar- ??
????? E-commerce / Grocery:
???? 4 key takeaways from Groceryshop 2024. The annual show centered on ways grocers can serve shoppers in an era where people have more choices than ever before- ??
?? Germany’s?Foodforecast?raised over €3 million?to scale its operations across Europe. Its AI-powered sales forecasting technology for the food retail market is designed to automate over 90% of orders, reducing food waste by up to 30% and increasing sales by up to 11%- ??
??? Amazon debuts AI-powered Shopping Guides. The guides, will span over 100 product types on Amazon.com & will help to consolidate the key information consumers tend to research before making a purchase as well as provide a list of the most trusted brands in that category- ??
?? Sainsbury’s top investor Qatar Investment Authority has sold ￡305m ($400m) worth of shares, sending the grocer’s shares tumbling- ??
?? Whole Foods Market has called on “innovative and mission-driven” suppliers to apply for its upcoming ‘Supplier Pitching Event’, in a bid to find new brands to roll out onto shelves- ??
???? Ahold Delhaize introduces new in-store audio retail media solution- ??
? Automated-checkout company Grabango shuts down- ??
??? Co-op is to roll out 300 new front-of-store digital media screens to boost its retail media offerrings- ??
?? Sam’s Club to open location without checkout stations. Shoppers at the digitally focused store, due to open next week in Texas, will need to use the retailer’s Scan & Go app to make purchases- ??
领英推荐
?? Aldi is set to invest over ￡30m in dairy farmers over the next three and a half years through an enhanced partnership with the UK’s?biggest dairy cooperative, Arla- ??
?? SpartanNash to buy regional grocer Fresh Encounter. The acquisition of the grocer’s 49 stores across Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky grows SpartanNash’s store portfolio by a third- ??
?? FoodTech / Food Companies
?? Foreverland, an Italian food-tech start-up, has raised €3.4 million in a seed funding round to advance its mission of creating sustainable chocolate alternatives using carob- ??
?? Mondelez’s corporate venture capital arm SnackFutures has acquired a minority stake in?non-HFSS doughnut brand?Urban Legend- ??
?? German food manufacturing specialist D?hler has invested in UK startup Nukoko to scale up its bean-to-bar cocoa-free chocolate, ahead of a market launch in 2025- ??
?? PepsiCo is acquiring Siete Foods, also known as Garza Food, Texas, for $1.2 billion. Siete Foods is a manufacturer of “heritage-inspired” tortillas, salsas, seasonings, sauces, cookies and snacks- ??
? Unilever has completed the sale of its Russian subsidiary as the consumer goods giant makes its official exit from the country- ??
?? Entosystem, which produces proteins for animal nutrition and organic fertilisers for agriculture from black soldier fly larvae, has secured a $58 million investment- ??
?? Crop protection solutions provider?AgroSpheres?has made a final close of its Series B fundraise, bringing total Series B funding to $37 million- ??
?? Food-tech company?NotCo?has developed a novel generative AI model, the Generative Aroma Transformer (GAT), capable of creating new flavor and fragrance formulations- ??
?? Dutch-Belgian food tech startup Those Vegan Cowboys has debuted its precision-fermented casein protein, with plans to launch animal-free cheese in 2025- ??
?? US energy drink company Lucky Energy has closed an oversubscribed $11.75m Series A funding round led by Brand Foundry Ventures- ??
?? LanzaTech, a specialist in converting carbon emissions from industrial processes into ethanol, is moving into the food & feed arena with a new product- ??
?? Italy's?xFarm Technologies?raised €36 million, in a Series C funding round led by?Partech, to expand its “better farm management” platform across the EU, Turkey, India- ??
?? Austrian food tech startup?Revo Foods?has opened the?world's largest 3D food-printing facility, the TASTE FACTORY in Vienna, which will produce up to 60 tons of product per month- ??
?? BE WTR, the Swiss-founded company sustainable and premium water solutions provider, has raised $45.5 million in its Series C funding round for expansion plans in Singapore and Asia- ??
?? French plant-based meat startup?La Vie?secured €25 million?following 192% sales growth YOY, taking its total funding to date to €50 million- ??
?? China’s?Protoga Biotech?is set to launch the?“world’s first” commercially available microalgae milk, which it says is rich in protein and lutein, lactose and cholesterol-free- ??
?? ?? ?? AI / Web3 / Metaverse / Blockchain / Gaming:
?? Here’s the full list of 39 US AI startups that have raised $100M or more in 2024- ??
?? OpenAI raises $6.6B and is now valued at $157B. Led by previous investor Thrive Capital, the new cash brings OpenAI’s total raised to $17.9 billion- ??
?? AI coding startup Poolside raises $500M from eBay, Nvidia, and others- ??
?? OpenAI unveils experimental ‘Swarm’ framework, igniting debate on AI-driven automation- ??
?? Elon Musk unveils the Robovan: the biggest surprise from Tesla’s We, Robot event- ??
?? Video olu?turmaya odaklanan a??k kaynak yapay zeka modeli: Pyramid Flow- ??
???? Yapay zeka destekli tasar?m arac?: MolyPix AI- ??
?? Relyance AI Raises $32mn Series B Funding to Safeguard AI Innovation in the Enterprise- ??
?? OpenAI to open offices in Singapore, Paris, Brussels to facilitate global expansion- ??
?? ElevenLabs, a startup that makes AI tools for audio applications, is being approached by existing and new investors about a new round, which could value the company as highly as $3 billion- ??
?? KoBold Metals, which uses AI to help find critical minerals for the energy transition, raises $491M- ??
?? Tolga Kart ve ?zgün Pelvan'?n kurucusu oldu?u Third Dimension AI, $7 milyon yat?r?m ald?- ??
?? Sustainability:
?? M&S has started using drones and robot tractors in an autonomous field farming trial to cut carbon emissions in its parsnips- ??
?? Berlin-based forward earth secures €4.5 million to meet global demand for environmental management software- ??
?? Worth Reading ?
?? FoodTok: How supermarkets are using TikTok to win Gen Z shoppers- ??
???? 4 of the biggest challenges to hit the grocery supply chain in 2024- ??
?? How grocers are jockeying for position in an age of rapid change- ??
?? Investors should be wary of Tesla’s robotaxi hype. The pay-off from fully self-driving cars is likely to take much longer than expected- ??
?? 5 ways grocers can master shoppable video, connected TV- ??
?? Global FoodTech?investments of Q3?2024 mapped by?DigitalFoodLab- ??
?? How big food companies should?work with startups?to accelerate the innovation process. According to Ian Noble at?Mondelēz International- ??
? News from Y?ld?z Ventures’ Portfolio Companies?
?? 212 ilk fonu Portf?y ?irketi, Yerli seyahat ve konaklama teknolojileri platformu, HotelRunner ?ngiltere merkezli Bookingate’i sat?n ald?. Bookingate seyahat hizmeti sa?lay?c?lar?n?n otel envanterine ve 3. parti hizmetlere eri?mesini ve da??t?m yapmas?n? mümkün k?l?yor- ??
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