Deal Dive: Iron Sheepdog is fixing short-haul trucking from the bottom up

Will Lawrence, the co-founder and CTO of Iron Sheepdog, likes to say that sometimes building something simple is actually really hard. Building simple-to-use technology for the short-haul trucking industry is Iron Sheepdog’s goal. That approach is also why the company thinks it has been able to see a level of adoption from the industry its competitors haven’t.

The Williamsburg, Virginia-based company’s software looks to make the short-haul trucking space, which largely involves outsourcing short-haul jobs to truckers booked through brokers, more seamless and efficient. Companies can track their contracted trucks through Iron Sheepdog, giving them more transparency into where trucks are, how long a job takes and how much to pay. The truckers themselves get an easy-to-use app that helps them accept jobs and get paid online.

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Zomato pilots new service for last-mile deliveries across corporate parks

Zomato appears to be trialing a new service wherein the company is ensuring last mile delivery for office goers through a stationed team.

The service seems to be an attempt to streamline deliveries inside tech and corporate parks to ensure timely deliveries and save rider’s time. It also reduces the hassle for an employee in collecting the food as many offices do not allow delivery partners beyond the reception area.

As spotted in Gurugram, Zomato has set up a micro hub at an office premise where the delivery partners can deliver the food. Then, a “walker” picks up the food parcel and hands it over to a customer on their respective floor or exact location. 

It’s likely Zomato has made some arrangements with such corporate parks to whitelist these last-mile delivery partners. Moreover, Zomato is promising “no calls from delivery partners”, and dedicated “walkers” for each floor.

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Seso is building software to fix farm workforces and solve agriculture’s HR woes

Migrant workers are a critical labor force for U.S. farms, but getting them here on proper H-2A visas can be complicated, and the compliance surrounding these employees is taxing for farms. Seso was founded five years ago to help streamline that process and now looks to expand into a one-stop-shop HR platform for the agriculture industry.

Michael Guirguis co-founded the startup after his cousin asked for his advice on whether or not her organic farm should expand. Despite demand for her harvests, Guirguis, whose entire career has involved job creation and the labor market, told her expanding wouldn’t be smart because the industry’s labor shortage would make hiring enough workers hard.. That inspired Guirguis to found Seso to automate the H-2A visa process to help fix that issue and help farms stay compliant. Once he started talking to potential farm customers, he realized that farms could use a lot more help with their HR beyond just finding workers.

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Exclusive: Deeptech startup Planys raises $4 Mn

Deeptech startup Planys Technologies has raised $4 million in its ongoing pre-Series A round.

The fresh investment tranche has come after a gap of more than two years for the Chennai-based firm.
The board at Planys Technologies has passed a board resolution to issue 8,471 CCPS at an issue price of Rs 41,600 each to raise Rs 35.23 crore, its regulatory filing accessed from the Registrar of Companies shows.

Himalaya Finance, Golden Birch Investments, Krishna Defence, Impact India Investments, SiriusOne Capital, and several individuals including Ashish Ramesh Kacholia, Shalini Chhabra, and Puneet Gupta participated during the new investment tranche.

The company also approved its MSOP pool of 1,445 equity shares amounting to Rs 6 crore (as per the valuation report) in February, a separate filing shows.

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Jobs for the Future’s new $50M fund looks to invest in underrepresented founders

Two years ago, Jobs for the Future (JFF), a non-profit dedicated to helping low-wage workers attain upward mobility, established a venture arm, JFFVentures, to back innovative employment tech.

In a move implying that the launch went well, JFFVentures today unveiled its second fund, JFFVentures Fund II, with a target of $50 million. $15 million has been raised so far.

The new fund — furnished in part by the Autodesk Foundation, the Workday Foundation and the American Council on Education — will target founders building HR, education and workforce solutions that “enable economic mobility for workers in middle to low-wage jobs,” said JFFVentures Fund managing partner Sabari Raja.

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Four-year-old Wiz Freight posts Rs 1,243 Cr revenue in FY23

Digital supply chain startup Wiz Freight’s growth has been explosive in the last two reported fiscal years as its scale skyrocketed to Rs 1,243 crore in FY23 from Rs 18 crore in FY21. However, the Tiger Global-backed company needed to power it with higher expenses to chase scale and posted a loss of Rs 90 crore in FY23 against Rs 8 crore profits in FY22.

On a year-on-year basis, Wiz Freight’s revenue from operations surged 3.8X to Rs 1,243 crore in FY23 from Rs 327 crore in FY22, its consolidated financial statements filed with the Registrar of Companies show.

Founded in 2020, Wiz Freight provides a platform for exporters and importers to book and manage their cross-border shipments.

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M2P Fintech posts Rs 440 Cr revenue in FY23, losses mount 3.35X

Application programming interface (API) infrastructure platform M2P Fintech (formerly Yap), registered a remarkable 10.5X increase in its operating scale in the last two reported fiscal years, zooming to Rs 440.7 crore in FY23 from Rs 41.89 crore in FY21.

On a year-on-year basis, M2P’s revenue from operations surged 2.26X to Rs 440.7 crore in FY23 from Rs 194.74 crore in FY22, its consolidated financial statements filed with the Registrar of Companies show.

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EarliTec Diagnostics raises $21.5M to help diagnose autism earlier

One in 36 children in the U.S. has autism, according to the CDC. Research shows that the earlier a child gets diagnosed, the better their developmental outcome will be. EarliTec Diagnostics just raised fresh capital to expand its system that helps clinicians diagnose children as young as 16 months old.

The Atlanta-based startup’s FDA-authorized approach involves a child watching short videos and social interactions on a screen for 12 minutes while the device, using AI, tracks the child’s eye movements. According to EarliTec, children with autism won’t focus on the video the same way that kids without autism will.

The startup raised a $21.5 million Series B round co-led by Nexus NeuroTech Ventures, a venture firm focused on backing companies creating solutions for brain disorders, and Venture Investors, a Midwestern venture fund that invests in healthcare companies. The startup’s tech is currently used by eight clinicians across six states in the U.S.

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Paddy Cosgrave returns as Web Summit CEO after resigning over Israel/Gaza controversy

Paddy Cosgrave, the co-founder of the Web Summit tech conference, is returning to his role as CEO after resigning in October over controversial statements he made about the Israel/Gaza war last year on social media. Rumors of his return began to surface over the weekend; Cosgrave confirmed the move in a post on X today.

Notably, in his announcement, Cosgrave does not make any mention of the politicized remarks he made that led to his departure less than six months ago (with the social media posts he wrote at the time deleted as well). Instead, Cosgrave goes for de-escalating, announcing plans for a shift in focus to “smaller” groups.

“As Web Summit becomes bigger, our aim should be to make it smaller for our attendees. More intimate. More convivial. More community focused,” he writes.

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Kiki World, a beauty brand that uses web3 for customer co-creation and ownership, raises $7M from a16z

If you think that choosing a nail polish color or which ingredients go into your face cream can’t have anything to do with blockchain, think again.

Kiki World, a beauty startup launched last year, wants consumers to co-create products and co-own the company with the help of web3 technology.

On Tuesday, LA-based Kiki announced that it raised a $7 million seed round from the Andreessen Horowitz crypto fund and The Estée Lauder Companies’ New Incubation Ventures, along with other backers such as OrangeDao and 2Punks Capital.  

Kiki co-founder Jana Bobosikova said she believes that being a loyal user of a brand in the Web 2.0 world can be a net negative experience. “You probably have watched a lot of creators on TikTok recommend it to you. You probably recommended it to all your friends. And what do you get for that? Just more retargeted ads,” she said.

Kiki is flipping that model by allowing its community members to vote on the features they want before the beauty products are made. As a reward, voters earn points toward free products and receive digital tokens in the company.

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Guesty snaps up $130M at $900M valuation to help property managers list on Airbnb and beyond

Travel and tourism are very much back on the map for consumers and the business world. Now, to underscore that surge, one of the startups building software in the space has closed a big round of funding. Guesty, a platform that lets accommodation managers manage their business online, including on platforms like Airbnb and Vrbo, has raised $130 million.

Sources confirmed to TechCrunch that the Series F values Guesty at around $900 million post-money.

The company, based out of New York with roots in Israel, says its revenue has increased 5x in the last three years, and it expects to turn profitable this year. The company did not specify actual revenue figures.

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Tech upskilling startup Scaler lays off 150 employees

Tech upskilling startup Scaler has laid off around 150 employees citing long-term growth and sustainability. This is the first instance of layoffs at the Bengaluru-based company since its inception in 2019.

“At Scaler, we’ve always believed that education is a primary human need, and tech education, more so. It is imperative that we look at how we operate for long-term growth and sustainability. As part of this, we have designed a new way of working to be able to achieve sustainable growth while delivering the best learning experience and outcomes for our learners – something that we’ve always been committed to,” said Scaler cofounder Abhimanyu Saxena, in a statement.

“As part of this restructuring, we identified some functions/roles, primarily in marketing and sales, in the company that we had to part ways with…,” Saxena added.

Saxena further added that this was not a performance-driven decision and the firm assures all those affected are provided with the necessary support to ensure a smooth transition.

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Virtual physical therapist Hinge Health lays off 10% of its workforce

Hinge Health, a nine-year-old company that offers a digital solution to treat chronic musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions, cut approximately 10% of its workforce on Thursday, TechCrunch has exclusively learned.

The company said people who were laid off worked across various functions; according to employees posting on LinkedIn, some were engineers. Before the layoffs, Hinge had more than 1,700 employees, according to a LinkedIn estimate.

“As we continue to reimagine musculoskeletal care, we are also committed to building a long-term sustainable business,” a company spokesperson said in a statement.

“To accelerate our path to profitability, speed up decision making, and better focus our investments, we have made the decision to realign our organization. We are incredibly grateful for all our departing team members’ contributions and are focused on supporting them through this transition.”

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API startup Noname Security nears $500M deal to sell itself to Akamai

Noname Security, a cybersecurity startup that protects APIs, is in advanced talks with Akamai Technologies to sell itself for $500 million, according to a person familiar with the deal.

Noname was co-founded in 2020 by Oz Golan and Shay Levi and is headquartered in Palo Alto but has Israeli roots. The startup raised $220 million from venture investors and was last valued at $1 billion in December 2021 when it raised $135 million in a Series C led by Georgian and Lightspeed. While the sale price is a significant discount from that valuation, the deal as it currently stands would be for cash, the person said. The deal is not final and could change or not happen at all.

Other investors who have backed Noname include Insight Partners, ForgePoint, Cyberstarts, Next47 and The Syndicate Group.

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5C Network raises $3 Mn in a new round

Medical diagnostics platform 5C Network has raised Rs 25.5 crore (approximately $3 million) from Redwood India Healthcare Fund in a new round. This is the first investment for the firm this year.

The board at 5C Network has passed a special resolution to issue 2,72,241 CCSPS at an issue price of Rs 936.67 each to raise Rs 25.5 crore, its regulatory filing accessed from the Registrar of Companies shows.

For background, the Bengaluru-based company has raised the proceeds after a gap of more than 17 months.  5C Network last raised $4.6 million in its Series A round led by Celesta Capital in Oct 2022.

As per the startup data intelligence platform TheKredible estimates, the company has been valued at around $30 million (post-money).

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Paraform raises $3.6M seed round to connect startups with recruiter networks

Layoffs usually drive attention and sympathy toward affected employees, but rarely does anyone talk about what happens to the recruiters who are sometimes also asked to leave when companies decide to cut headcount. Indeed, tech firms cut up to half of their recruitment teams when they were laying people off in droves back in 2022 and 2023.

Paraform, a recruitment platform aimed at startups, feels there’s an opportunity in tapping the pool of laid-off recruiters who have since branched out to start their own business, and helping startups source talent and access a broader talent network. To fund that effort, the company recently raised a $3.6 million seed round led by A*, a venture capital firm founded by Kevin Hartz — the co-founder of Everbrite and Xoom, and Airbnb’s first investor.

“During the 2022 and 2023 wave of tech layoffs, we saw 100,000 recruiters laid off, driving many recruiters to go independent and start their own recruiting business,” John Kim, CEO of Paraform, said in an exclusive interview with TechCrunch. “This has left many independent recruiters with valuable skill sets and high-quality networks available and open to new ways of working.”

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Finmid raises $24.7M to help SMBs access loans through platforms like Wolt

Berlin-based finmid — one of the many startups building embedded fintech solutions, in its case targeting marketplaces that want to provide their own payment and financing options — has raised €23 million ($24.7 million) in a Series A round to further build out its product and enter new markets. The round values the company at €100 million ($107 million), post money.

Marketplaces — typically two-sided businesses that bring together retailers or other third-party providers with customers to buy their products or services — are very classic targets for embedded finance companies, not least because they host a lot of transaction activity already, so it makes sense for them to build in more functionality around that to improve their own margins.

Players like Airwallex, Rapyd, Kriya, and many more are among those building for that opportunity. But finmid believes it has the potential to lock in more business specifically in its home region. Small and medium-sized businesses in Europe typically look to banks to borrow money. The rise of fintech has opened the door to SMBs accessing more, varied sources of financing than ever before, and an increasing number are doing so.

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Kickstarter launches preorders for completed campaigns

Once a Kickstarter campaign is complete, you need to turn to a creator’s own page to preorder the products — that is, until now. Today, Kickstarter announced that it is (finally!) including preorder functionality as part of its core platform once the campaign is over. It calls the feature “late pledges,” and the platform says it’s planning to make it available to all creators “soon.”

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Screen Skinz raises $1.5 million seed to create custom screen protectors

Clay Canning had an idea while in high school: smartphone screen protectors that featured logos, right on the screen.

He later connected with Rashaun Brown, who was working in sports and licensing at the time, and the idea for Screen Skinz was born.

“We both understood the opportunity and complemented each other’s weakness,” Brown, the company’s CEO. “In December 2022, I resigned from my job to pursue building Screen Skinz with Clay full time.”

Now, Screen Skinz can officially announce the closing of a $1.5 million seed round led by South
Loop Ventures and Abo Ventures.

The company produces custom, patent-pending phone screen protectors that feature personalized logos or slogans that are visible when the phone screen is black and then disappear when the phone is in use. Customers can create their own designs or pick from the company’s existing catalog.

Phone accessories have always been a massive market, with the global screen protector market alone worth an estimated $51 billion as of 2023.

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a16z promotes Jennifer Li to help lead the new $1.25B Infrastructure fund

Powerhouse venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz is promoting Jennifer Li to general partner after six years at the firm. She’s being tapped to help invest the new $1.25 billion Infrastructure fund managed by longtime a16z general partner Martin Casado

The Infrastructure fund is part of the fresh $7.2 billion that the Silicon Valley VC giant just raised. Li has been an investing partner on the Infrastructure team for a while, which means she was already writing checks and taking board seats. But her promotion puts her in rarified air: making her the 27th general partner at the firm, and she’s hit this career milestone while in her early 30s.

While that may sound like a lot of GPs, a16z currently has over 500 employees. Plus she’s one of only four GPs on the Infrastructure team.

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Ibotta’s IPO opens sharply higher, hinting at warming public-market interest in tech shares

Ibotta began its path as a public company on Thursday by opening at $117 per share, a big increase from its IPO price of $88, itself an increase from its proposed range of $76 to $84 per share.

Update: Shares of Ibotta closed at $103.25 yesterday, up 17%. The company has given up some ground to $97.38 per share today, lower, but still comfortably above its IPO price.

And this pop is despite boosting the size of its offering earlier in the week, with existing shareholders expanding their sale by just under 1 million shares.

Shares are not continuing to climb in early trading, but are holding steady above its IPO price, at around $100 at the time of writing.

The company left money on the table “for investors who are very bullish on it [expanding] its third-party platform beyond just Walmart,” which has become a key partner for Ibotta and represents much of its current revenue, said Nicholas Smith, a senior research analyst at pre-IPO research company Renaissance Capital. Given that it started trading far above its IPO price today, some critics may argue that it left too much money on the table, and could have raised more for itself.

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