Who Got Funded? Week 50, 2023

Morning, startup friends!

Ready to dive into last week's top-funded startup stories? 🚀 

Last week's top-funded startups (11-17 Dec, 2023)

👼 Pre-seed / Angel

🇩🇪 Gorillas founder Kağan Sümer raised a ~$7,000,000 round for secret healthtech startup called Mirror. The round has been co-led by FoodLabs and Giant Ventures. You can read more about this deal here.

Mirror is building a health management app, which will help people manage things like sleep, fitness and nutrition through a combination of physical tests, data from wearables and personalised recommendations. 

🇳🇬 Nigeria-based Maka raised a $2,650,000 round co-led by 4DX Ventures and Janngo. You can read more about this deal here.

Maka is an interactive social commerce platform which, through live try-on hauls, reviews, and user-generated content from both creators and customers, enables users to discover products tailored to their personal styles in a scalable way.

🇩🇪 Berlin-based Montamo raised a $2,400,000 round led by Project A Ventures. You can read more about this deal here.

Montamo aims to accelerate the implementation of the green energy transition by addressing its biggest challenge: the lack of skilled workers.

🇮🇹 Perugia-based Cents closed a $1,300,000 round led by SICI. You can read more about this deal here.

Cents, a fintech startup founded in 2021, aims to help financial and e-commerce companies easily manage and show their social and environmental responsibilities.

🇬🇧 London-based Jenesys AI closed a $1,200,000 round led by Twin Path Ventures. You can read more about this deal here.

This startup helps accountants manage client bookkeeping, compliance and global payments.

👶 Seed

🇺🇸 Former AI lead at Figma, Ankur Goyal, raised $5,100,000 for his startup Braintrust Data. The round has been led by Greylock and you can read more about this deal here.

Braintrust provides AI developers with advanced tools and software to evaluate, troubleshoot, and enhance their AI applications, making the development process more efficient and effective.

🇬🇧 London-based Arcane raised a $5,000,000 round led by Accel. You can read more about this deal here.

Arcane is a tech startup focused on automating marketing tasks using AI. They help marketers streamline repetitive tasks like competitive research, ad analysis, and content creation.

🇨🇭 Swiss startup Aesyra raised a $3,000,000 round led by Supermoon Capital. You can read more about this deal here.

Aesyra creates devices to monitor and reduce teeth grinding and breathing issues during sleep.

🇺🇸 Houston-based Digital Wildcatters closed a $2,500,000 round led by Chuck Yates. You can read more about this deal here.

Digital Wildcatters is a company that modernizes the energy workforce through digital tools and community building.

🇨🇦 Canada-based Leav raised a $2,300,000 round led by Exo10.vc. You can read more about this deal here.

Leav develops mobile self-checkout solutions aimed at enhancing the shopping experience for consumers and streamlining retail operations for retailers.

🧒 Series A

🇫🇷 Mistral AI, a Paris-based OpenAI rival, closed its $415,000,000 funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). You can read more about this deal here.

The French startup is developing open-source generative AI and large language models.

🇺🇸 Essential AI closed a $56,000,000 round led by March Capital. You can read more about this deal here.

This startup creates AI tools to automate business tasks, increase productivity, and improve human-computer collaboration.

🇺🇸 Deep Apple Therapeutics raised a $52,000,000 round led by Apple Tree Partners. You can read more about this deal here.

This startup specializes in discovering new medicines using artificial intelligence. They focus on developing treatments for complex diseases.

🇯🇵 Shinobi Therapeutics closed a $51,000,000 round co-led by EQT Life Sciences, F-Prime Capital and Eight Roads Ventures Japan. You can read more about this deal here.

This company specializes in developing unique cancer treatments, primarily focusing on creating cells that can combat hard-to-treat cancerous tumors.

🇺🇸 Andalusia Labs closed a $48,000,000 round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners. You can read more about this deal here.

This company specializes in developing technologies to secure and manage risks in digital currencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum, ensuring safer and more reliable transactions for businesses and individuals.

👵 Series B and later

🇧🇷 Sao-Paulo-baised QI Tech closed a $200,000,000 round led by General Atlantic. You can read more about this deal here.

QI Tech is a Brazilian fintech company that provides technology for financial services like banking, payments, and fraud prevention, helping businesses integrate digital financial products.

🇺🇸 True Anomaly raised a $100,000,000 round led by Riot Ventures. You can read more about this deal here.

This startup makes technology for keeping space safe. They build software and spacecraft to help watch and manage things in space.

🇬🇧 Qogita raised a $86,000,0000 round led by Dawn Capital. You can read more about this deal here.

Qogita is a wholesale marketplace for retailers, streamlining the purchase of health and beauty products from suppliers.

✅ Takeaways

🤯 The most shocking round: Mistral AI and its monstrous $415,000,000 Series A round, less than six months after its previous $112,000,000 seed round.

👩‍🔬 The most impressive technology: Shinobi Therapeutics' technology helps create cell therapies that can treat diseases without being rejected by the patient's body.

👀 One thing that caught my attention: Nigerian-based Maka looks very much like Instagram, don't you think?

Alright buddies, that's all for today. ✌️ 

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Ono