Who Got Funded? Week 52, 2023

Happy new year, startup friends! 🎆 

I wish you a year filled with wonderful surprises and good health. Let's focus on the things that matter and the people we love; the rest is irrelevant. Have a great 2024! ✌️ 

With that said, let's dive into the last top-funded report of 2023.

Last week's top-funded startups (25-31 Dec, 2023)

👼 Pre-seed / Angel

🇰🇪 Kenya-based Tappi secured a $1,500,000 round co-led by Mercy Corps Ventures and Chui Ventures. You can learn more about this deal here.

This startup offers a chat tool that allows users to easily create webpages and use mobile money for digital marketing.

🇿🇦 South African TUNL raised a $1,000,000 round from investors such as Founders Factory Africa, Digital Africa Ventures, E4E Africa, and Jozi Angels. You can read more about this deal here.

TUNL offers cost-effective international shipping solutions for South African e-commerce businesses.

🇬🇧 London-based Imaginario AI raised a $1,000,000 round led by 216 Capital. You can read more about this deal here.

Imaginario AI creates AI solutions to improve processing and management of video and audio content.

👶 Seed

🇺🇸 BotBuilt raised a $12,400,000 round from investors such as Y Combinator, Ambassador Supply, Shadow Ventures and Owens Corning. You can read more about this deal here.

BotBuilt specializes in using robotics to automate and reduce the cost of framing in home construction.

🇬🇧 London-based Labrys Technologies secured a $5,500,000 round led by Project A Ventures. You can read more about this deal here.

Labrys Technologies builds software for secure communication and coordination in defense and commercial sectors.

🇰🇪 Kenya-based Amini.ai raised a $4,000,000 round led by Salesforce Ventures. You can learn more about this deal here.

Amini uses AI and satellite technology to address environmental data challenges in Africa.

🇩🇪 Berlin-based NeoCarbon secured a $3,500,000 round led by RAISE Ventures. You can read more about this deal here.

NeoCarbon develops technology to capture CO2 directly at industrial sites.

🇩🇪 Bonn-based Midel Photonics raised a $1,100,000 round led by High-Tech Gründerfonds. You can read more about this deal here.

Midel Photonics develops advanced laser beam shaping technology for materials processing.

🧒 Series A

🇸🇦 Riyadh-based Soum secured a $18,000,000 round led by Jahez. You can read more about this deal here.

Soum is a marketplace for selling and buying secondhand products, particularly electronics.

🇺🇸 Ketryx raised a $14,000,000 round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners. You can read more about this deal here.

Ketryx develops software for enhancing safety and compliance in medical devices and AI applications in the life sciences industry.

🇺🇸 PaintJet raised a $10,000,000 round led by Outsiders Fund. You can read more about this deal here.

PaintJet provides a service using robots for industrial painting tasks.

🇬🇧 Cumulus Encrypted Storage System (CESS) raised a $8,000,000 round from investors such as HTX Venture and Infinity Ventures Crypto. You can read more about this deal here.

CESS provides blockchain-powered decentralized storage and CDN infrastructure for Web3.

🇺🇸 Mezcla closed a $4,000,000 round co-led by Dream Ventures and Santatera Capital. You can read more about this deal here.

Mezcla produces nutrition bars using quinoa as a key ingredient.

👵 Series B and later

🇺🇸 Shield AI raised a $300,000,000 round from Hercules Capital and others. You can read more about this deal here.

Shield AI develops autonomous systems and AI technology for aircraft.

🇨🇳 China-based Avistone raised a $141,000,000 round co-led by IDG Capital and CMG-SDIC Capital. You can learn more about this deal here.

Avistone Biotechnology develops precision oncology therapeutics for cancer treatment.

🇮🇳 Kitchens@ closed a $65,000,000 round led by Finnest. You can read more about this deal here.

This startup provides shared kitchen solutions for food businesses.

🇮🇳 EMotorad raised a $25,000,000 round co-led by Alteria Capital and xto10x. You can read more about this deal here.

EMotorad specializes in electric bicycles for sustainable mobility solutions.

✅ Takeaways

🤯 The most shocking round: Shield AI recently raised an impressive $300,000,000 round through a mix of equity and debt, backed by undisclosed investors. This funding boost is set to advance their AI tech for autonomous aircraft systems, significantly upgrading military and defense tools with cutting-edge solutions.

👩‍🔬 The most disruptive technology: BotBuilt is on a mission to make homebuilding cheaper using robots, and they've just landed $12,400,000 in seed funding to make it happen. Check out more about them here.

👀 One thing that caught my attention: Please take a look at Amini.ai's landing page; I absolutely love it.

Alright friends! That's everything for today. ✅ 

Have you enjoyed this newsletter? Let me know your feedback here.

Thank you so much for reading!

Ono