HR Path, Natcap, Cluby, and Altrove

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: ⌛️  5 min 35 sec.

SERIES B AND LATER
Consulting leader HR Path raises €500 million to consolidate its position as a leader in human resources transformations

🇫🇷 HR Path, a global leader in HR consulting founded in 2001, has announced a record €500 million fundraising.

We usually don’t speak about mature companies in this newsletter, but let me make an exception in this edition to talk about this interesting French company.

Despite not being a very “sexy” company (over 20 years old with a consultancy-based business model), it has recently raised a significant amount of funds to expand its business globally, demonstrating both ambition and a strong drive for growth.

This company operates in 22 countries, employs over 1.800 people, and serves over 3.000 clients worldwide. It has a turnover of €215 million, with a CAGR of 25% since 2021. Interesting! 🚀 

👉️ You can read more about this deal here.

More Series B (and later) interesting stories:

🇪🇸 Zunder, an EV charging infrastructure company based in Palencia, Spain, secured €225 million in debt.

🇬🇧 London-based Oscar-winning DNEG raises €184.7 million to set up a new visual entertainment hub in Abu Dhabi.

🇪🇸 Spanish startup Citibox raises €80 million (in debt) to expand its smart mailbox network.

🇩🇪 Munich-based Cartken bags €20.8 million to make self-driving tech ubiquitous across transport applications.

🇵🇹 Coimbra-based Eneida.io secures €10.5 million for zero emission neighbourhoods.

🇩🇪 Cologne-based Vytal secures €6.2 million to expand its tech platform for circular reusable packaging.

SERIES A
London-based Natcap secures €9.2 million to bring nature into business decision-making

🇬🇧 London-based Natcap, founded in 2018, has secured €9.2 million in an oversubscribed Series A to scale its pioneering nature tech product.

The goal of this startup is to provide high-quality nature data to companies impacted by various European Union directives and regulations, as well as to those voluntarily following guidelines for disclosing nature-related financial risks (something known as TNFD, which I wasn’t familiar with before learning about this startup).

I really like this startup's mission. They are on a journey to enable more organizations to integrate nature into their decision-making and accelerate the world’s transition to a nature-positive future.

👉️ You can read more about this deal here.

More Series A interesting stories:

🇪🇪 Tallinn-based eAgronom harvests €10 million to help farmers make a profitable transition to sustainable food production.

🇩🇪 Berlin-based Alcemy raises €9.2 million to decarbonise the cement and concrete industry around the globe.

🇫🇷 French biotech Overseed raises €6.7 million to become local manufacturer of 100% medical cannabis medicines.

SEED
Helsinki-based Cluby raises €2.9 million to help restaurants turn anonymous restaurant visitors into repeat customers

🇫🇮 Finnish startup Cluby, which offers a platform that allows restaurants to engage with their customers digitally, has secured €2.9 million in seed funding.

I perfectly understand the goal of this startup. While big companies or franchises like McDonald’s or Starbucks can create their own apps to connect with their customers, this approach is neither plausible nor cost-efficient for small and medium-sized companies in the hospitality industry. It’s an interesting proposal.

However, I would say that the main challenge for this startup is the go-to-market strategy.

While I believe many restaurants, for instance, would find it valuable to have an app that generates customer retention, executing the go-to-market strategy efficiently will be key to the startup's success. If they have to visit each restaurant in person, one by one… it will be much harder to make the unit economics work properly.

👉️ You can read more about this deal here.

More Seed interesting stories:

🇩🇰 Copenhagen-based Kvantify secures €10 million to unlock quantum computing for the life science sector.

🇳🇴 Norwegian startup Versiro gets €2.3 million to help power producers make better market decisions.

🇬🇧 London-based contech ObraLink raises €1.8 million to automate and speed up the construction process.

🇮🇪 Dublin-based Solidroad secures €1.1 million to revolutionize hiring, onboarding, and training for enterprises.

PRE-SEED
Paris-based Altrove closes €3.7 million to develop sustainable alternatives to critical materials.

🇫🇷 Altrove, a deep tech startup focused on developing sustainable alternatives for critical materials, has secured €3.7 million in a pre-seed funding round.

This startup develops substitutes for rare-earth compounds and uses AI models coupled with an automated synthesis lab to accelerate discovery processes by up to 100 times. It seems like a very interesting field of study.

I honestly don't have all the necessary knowledge to make a perfect analysis of this startup, but it's clear that they are targeting a rapidly growing market, the rare earth elements market, which is projected to reach over $8 billion by 2032.

Also, it's important to note that China controls 90% of this market, which creates opportunities for public funding due to geopolitical reasons.

👉️ You can read more about this deal here.

More pre-Seed interesting stories:

🇫🇷 Paris-based Orus Energy secures €2.2 million to transform the way buildings interact with electricity markets.

🇩🇪 German company ISPTech secures €2 million to make a greener space economy.

🇳🇴 Norwegian contech startup Leasi raises €1.1 million to step up machine management.

🇬🇧 London-based Gendo raises €1 million to transform visualisations with AI image platform for architects.