Who Got Funded? Week 21, 2024

Welcome to another edition of the Who Got Funded newsletter. 🚀 

My name is Onofre, and I'm an entrepreneur living in Aarhus, Denmark. Each week, I dedicate 3 to 4 hours of my free time to reading startup news, which I then summarize in this newsletter.

I hope you enjoy this content. Thank you so much for reading.

Estimated reading time: ⌛️ 4 min 50 sec.

SERIES B AND LATER
Cologne-based DeepL bags €277 million to address the global demand for AI language solutions

🇩🇪 DeepL, a leading Language AI company, announced last week an investment of €277 million at a valuation of $2 billion.

I think all of us have used DeepL at some point. But... how good is their business? 🫰 

According to the funding press release, DeepL has experienced significant growth in recent months and now claims over 100.000 customers (!!!), including major enterprises like Deutsche Bank and Zendesk.

Besides, this startup is targeting a market that is projected to reach $95.3 billion by 2028.

So, even though I believe DeepL is still not profitable, they are targeting a rapidly growing market. This makes it a perfect opportunity to invest in sales and marketing, potentially delaying profitability until they have captured a significant share of this expanding market. 🚀 

You can read more about this deal here.

More Series B (and later) interesting stories:

🇺🇸 Scale AI secures $1 billion funding at $14 billion valuation as its CEO predicts big revenue growth and profitability by year-end.

🇬🇧 Cambridge-based Bicycle Therapeutics secures €507 million to advance cancer treatment using Nobel-inspired “bicycle” molecules.

🇬🇧 UK-based Circtec secures €150 million to build Europe's largest tyre pyrolysis recycling facility in the Netherlands.

🇫🇷 Toulouse-based OneStock bags €66 million to help brands unlock their full omnichannel potential.

🇬🇧 UK-based Grey Wolf Therapeutics raises €46 million Series B to develop disease-modifying therapies for autoimmune disorders.

🇬🇧 London-based LabGenius raises over €40.1 million to further develop its ML-driven antibody discovery platform.

🇫🇮 Finnish biotech Enifer secures €36 million to cope with the world’s soaring protein need.

🇬🇧 London-based Zen Educate secures €34 million Series B to connect schools with absent staff to the best available teachers.

SERIES A
London-based Nory raises €14.7 million to spearhead AI across the hospitality industry

🇬🇧 Nory, an AI powered operating system for hospitality businesses, has secured €14.7 million in Series A funding round.

This startup grew its revenue by 400% in 2023. But how did they achieve this growth? What is their secret?

Well, according to the press release, its technology predicts hourly venue demand for each day with 95% accuracy (!!!) based on historical data matched with AI algorithms.

This helps businesses in the hospitality industry reduce costs by almost 20% and increase EBITDA by over 50%. Impressive!

You can read more about this deal here.

More Series A interesting stories:

🇬🇧 London-based Praktika raises €29.9 million to personalise language learning with AI-powered avatar tutors.

🇩🇪 Berlin-based Rows raises €8 million to spread AI-powered spreadsheets around the world.

SEED
Paris-based AI startup H secures €202 million to develop advanced foundational models

🇫🇷 AI startup H, previously known as Holistic and founded by ex-Deepmind scientists, secured €202 million to develop advanced foundational models.

These are impressive numbers for a seed round (!!!). 🫠 But how did they manage to achieve this great round?

Their experienced founding team is the reason why this startup has quickly raised substantial funds.

Co-founder and CEO Charles Kantor was a Stanford researcher. The other four co-founders, Karl Tuyls, Laurent Sifre, Daan Wierstra, and Julien Perolat, previously worked at DeepMind on projects like AlphaGo and AlphaFold.

You can read more about this deal here.

More Seed interesting stories:

🇨🇭 Swiss-based Limula raised over €6.2 million aiming to democratise access to life-saving cell and gene therapies.

🇩🇰 Danish industrial biotech startup Cellugy raises €4.9 million to replace petrochemicals in personal care products.

🇬🇧 London-based fintech Viable raises €2.8 million to improve finance outcomes for new breed of online and multi-channel merchants.

PRE-SEED
Lisbon-based Unlockit closes €1.4 million to strengthen Web3 platform for managing property transactions

🇵🇹 Unlockit, a Portuguese real-estate transaction management platform, has wrapped its pre-seed funding round for an amount of €1.4 million.

This PropTech startup founded in 2020 uses blockchain to automate real estate transactions and comply with European regulations.

With their recently secured funds, this startup plans to improve their platform and expand to Madrid, Dubai, and São Paulo.

You can read more about this deal here.

More pre-Seed interesting stories:

🇫🇷 Paris-based En Carta secures €1.5 million pre-seed to advance platform for early Lyme disease detection.