Speedinvest

16/05/2024

Tulyp.io is revolutionizing digital trade finance for SMEs by providing services on par with large corporations.

The Paris-based company offers a holistic platform that digitizes and secures the entire trade finance process for SMEs.

With clients spanning three continents, Tulyp is leveling the playing field by allowing faster, more secure international trade, and eliminating financial counterparty risks in import-export transactions. Tulyp is also collaborating with a network of global financing partners to alleviate cash flow problems and accelerate import-export transactions.

Alexis Majos, Principal with our Fintech investment team says, "We are very excited to partner with Tulyp on their mission to digitize SME trade finance by addressing the trust deficit and financing inefficiencies in international transactions. There is a $500bn trade finance gap in the segment, and we believe that Maxime, Gilles, Eugene, and the Tulyp team are the pioneers that will tackle it at scale.”

We're excited to lead Tulyp's round alongside Kima Ventures, Purple Ventures, and prominent angel investors.

Maddyness has more on how the Tulyp team will use the funding to expand across Europe and Asia ⬇

https://www.maddyness.com/2024/05/16/fintech-tulyp-leve-15-million-deuros-pour-mieux-servir-les-pme/

Tulyp, la startup qui ambitionne de révolutionner les services de Trade Finance pour les PME, réalise un tour d’amorçage pour développer sa technologie et ses partenariats.

15/05/2024

cylib secures €55M in Series A funding, the largest round ever raised by a European battery recycling company!

Just two years after our initial investment, founders Lilian Schwich, Paul Sabarny, Gideon Schwich, and team secured the historic funding as part of a first-of-its-kind consortium of investors across deep tech, automotive, and industry.

Led by the venture arm of Porsche AG, Porsche Ventures, and World Fund, Cylib — the only company on the market that offers clients a way to recover every component in lithium-ion batteries, EV or micro-mobility batteries with a recycling efficiency of > 90% — will use the funds to scale up operations at its already-secured industrial facility in Germany and grow its 60-person team.

Rick (Jingchun) Hao, Partner with our Deep Tech investment team, says: "Cylib is accelerating the transition to zero carbon emissions by recycling the used lithium-ion batteries and making new battery materials with lower carbon emissions. We believe that Cylib has the potential to unlock the supply of critical battery materials in Europe. We're looking forward to continuing to support Cylib in its growth journey."

Handelsblatt has more on Cylib’s future plans and the landmark Series A that included participation from Bosch Ventures, DTCF | DeepTech & Climate Fonds, NRW.BANK Ventures, Vsquared Ventures, 10x Founders, and leading business angels.

Zu häufig verbrennen wertvolle Batterierohstoffe im Hochofen. Die Wiedergewinnung ist aufwendig, gefährlich und teuer. Das Start-up Cylib will das ändern – und konkurriert mit Konzernen wie BASF und VW.

14/05/2024

hexafarms is leveraging AI to optimize greenhouses and power the future of food production 🌽

Some 10 to 30% of food produced annually is lost between seed and harvesting – hexafarms wants to change that. The Berlin-based startup founded by David Ahmed, Felix Kirschstein & Huijo Kim harvests data and uses AI to monitor, control, and optimize controlled environmental agriculture in real time.

The result? Customers halve energy and personnel costs and can predict crop yields 4 weeks ahead with up to 95% accuracy.

Andreas Schwarzenbrunner, Partner in our Climate Tech & Industrial Tech investment team, says: "The agricultural sector is in urgent need of innovative solutions to address the pressure from climate change on commercial food production process and food insecurity. We have strong confidence in hexafarms and cannot wait to see them further develop their AI and machine learning capabilities and expand their team of experts. We are convinced that their app will transform commercial food production through optimization and digitalization."

EU-Startups has more on the pre-Seed funding round led by Speedinvest with participation from Mudcake and Techstars.

hexafarms, a pioneer in agricultural tech leveraging AI to optimize greenhouses to power the future of food production, announced the successful close of

02/05/2024

We’re thrilled to welcome our newest Partner, Rana Abdel Latif, to the Speedinvest team!

Based in Dubai, Rana is joining our Emerging Markets team to further strengthen our long-standing commitment to finding, funding, and supporting best-in-class early-stage startups in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and South & Southeast Asia.

Using her 15+ years of experience in VC and PE across Africa and the Middle East, Rana will also work closely with our current portfolio of more than 20 Emerging Markets companies from across our six sector-focused areas of investment, including Moove, Open, FairMoney, Yolda, and Abhi.

Our CEO & Managing Partner, Oliver Holle, says “Adding someone of Rana’s caliber to our team was a no-brainer and the perfect way for us to double-down on our already successful expansion into strategic emerging markets. Utilizing our pan-European experience, sector-focused know-how, and global network, we’ve had the honor over the past 5+ years to help multiple companies grow and scale more quickly and efficiently in their local markets and beyond – Moove’s recent 100M Series B led by Uber is just one example. With Rana on board and working side-by-side with Deepali, Enrique, Alvaro, Varun, and Stefan, I can’t wait to see what happens next.”

Neither can we!

Welcome to the family, Rana!

25/04/2024

roclub is revolutionizing how medical devices are used, enabling diagnostic examination anytime, anywhere.

Starting with MRIs/CTs, the first-of-its-kind teleoperation platform enables remote scanning and support, and even makes it possible for providers to remotely access additional radiographer talent when needed.

The secure connectivity solution is tackling the global medical staff shortage, increasing medtech efficiency, and boosting access to care.

Andrea Zitna, Partner at Speedinvest: "André and Matthias are serial health entrepreneurs with deep experience in the medtech and specifically diagnostics imaging space. They intimately understand the pain points in the industry and their roclub solution is a testament to that. Not only can it dramatically improve access for patients, it represents a clear and compelling business case for providers. We are excited to support them in their vision and respond to an amazing demand from providers globally."

EU Startups has more on the funding round we led with participation from FJ Labs, Better Ventures, and strategic angels, and roclub’s plans to expand across Europe and the USA 👇

https://www.eu-startups.com/2024/04/berlin-based-roclub-secures-e4-million-to-overcome-shortage-of-medical-technical-workers-in-europe-and-the-us/

roclub, a pioneer in teleoperations aiming to transform the global healthcare landscape, today announced the close of a €4 million seed funding round led

18/04/2024

🌄 We’ll be at AustrianStartups SUMMIT 2024 - join us!

THE yearly event where Austria’s startup community meets will be held on 8th May 2024 @ Semper Depot.

What you can expect:
🔥 Speakers like Ali Mahlodji, Andreas Treichl, Katharina Unger, Karl Edlbauer, Eva Sommer, Harald Leitenmueller, Carina Roth, Henry Murray, Tina Deutsch, Markus Fuhrmann, Eva Arh, Werner Müller, Maggie Childs, Daniel Cronin, Hanno Lippitsch, Nermina Mumic, Daniel Albertini, Marilena Koumartzaki, Oliver Holle, Christian Trummer, Werner Müller, Kristina Velickovic, Florian Slezak, Markus Raunig, Hannah Wundsam and more!

🎡 Startup Fair where you can explore innovations and companies

🎤 Pitch event brought to you by startupworldcup-austria.com

👥 1on1s with investors in our investor's lounge

👩‍🏫 Masterclasses hosted by Microsoft & Canva

🥳 (Guided) networking & aftershow Party

👉 Get your ticket here:

https://austrianstartups.com/networks/events/130436

16/04/2024

Want to win over clients and follow-on investors? You need a solid comms strategy. Here’s the full guide👇

With over 300 portfolio companies across six sectors, we know first-hand that comms can sometimes be an afterthought for busy founders.

We partnered with communications experts across the industry to give you the secret ingredients to a winning comms strategy from day one. Find out how to:

🔥 Write a press release that gets journalists’ attention (Tom Lawrence, founder of MVPR)
🚀Secure top media coverage (Martin SFP Bryant, PreSeedNow)
👏Nail your press interviews (Patricia Allen, ex-EU Startups)
🎨Build a brand from the very beginning (Saskia Ketz, Mojomox)
😬Prepare for and communicate in a crisis (Michael H***e, Kekst CNC)

Get the key takeaways and watch all the videos here 👇

https://www.speedinvest.com/blog/communications-strategy-for-startups

25/03/2024

MiLaboratories launches Platforma Bio: an AI-powered, UI-First platform to revolutionize biological analysis!

Biology researchers can spend hours each day on computational analysis. Spain and San Francisco-based company MiLaboratories is determined to streamline and simplify the data analysis process.

With industry-leading partners like Illumina, Biogen and Bristol Myers Squibb, the company is now launching Platforma Bio, a new computational biology platform that uses AI large language models to transform complex processes into manageable, easy-to-combine blocks – helping make groundbreaking discoveries more quickly.

Andrea Zitna, Partner in our Health & Techbio team, says: "Platforma.bio is the natural evolution from MiXCR - the gold standard in immunology & genetics research. We’re excited to see it launch and founders Alexey Nechaev, Dmitriy Bolotin, Dmitriy Chudakov and Stanislav Poslavsky bring their computational bio tools to an even bigger audience.

Businesswire has more about the platform and its exciting features ⬇️

https://www.techtimes.com/articles/302836/20240321/platforma-bio-is-the-new-platform-changing-how-biological-analysis-is-done.htm

Anyone in the industry can tell you that there are multiple standards for computation, and any literature review will encounter dozens of different computational platforms and strategies. MiLaboratories sees all this lost time and these confusing complexities as a problem to be solved, and its solut...

19/03/2024

Moove secures $100M in Series B funding led by Uber to become the leading partner in global mobility 🚀

The Nigerian-born, Dubai-headquartered startup is democratizing access to vehicle financing, using proprietary performance and revenue analytics to underwrite customers that have previously been excluded from financial services. To date, Moove has helped more than 20,000 mobility entrepreneurs complete more than 30 million financed trips.

With the new funding and strategic partnership with Uber, founders Ladi Delano and Jide Odunsi aim to expand to 16 markets and add 45,000 new vehicles to Uber’s platform by April 2026, with a focus on EVs – underscoring Moove and Uber’s commitment to achieving a zero-emission future.

Investors since 2021, our Stefan Klestil will continue his role on the advisory board as Moove executes its growth plans alongside Uber and existing co-investors Mubadala, with additional funding from The Latest Ventures, AfricInvest Group, Palm Drive Capital, Triatlum Advisors AG, and Future Africa

TechCrunch has more👇

Uber and sovereign wealth fund Mubadala have invested $100 million in Moove, an African startup that offers vehicle financing to drivers.

27/02/2024

Lapse closes a $30M Series A co-led by Greylock and DST Global to take its authentic social media app to the next level.

The London-headquartered company is a friends-focused photo-sharing app inspired by the experience of disposable cameras, encouraging users to capture and share authentic, unedited photos with friends, not just random social media followers.

The raise comes in the middle of a period of exponential growth for the company – Lapse now captures 100 million photos per month, and even reached #1 in the US and UK app stores in 2023.

Jeroen Arts, Partner with our Marketplaces & Consumer team, said, “Lapse is revolutionizing the way we connect. Ben and Dan Silvertown are amazingly talented and product-led founders who have built a brand that truly stands out from the pack in terms of vision, quality, and user-centricity. It’s a privilege to continue supporting them in their Series A and beyond!”

Greylock (an early investor in Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Musical.ly/now TikTok, Roblox, and Discord) and DST Global (Facebook, Byte Dance, Spotify) were also joined by existing investors GV (Google Ventures) and Octopus Ventures, as well as angel investors from Facebook, Snap Inc., and Pinterest.

TechCrunch has more👇

https://techcrunch.com/2024/02/27/lapse-the-app-turning-your-phone-into-an-old-school-camera-snaps-up-30m/

It can cost a fortune in 2024 to find an analogue camera, buy film (and maybe special batteries) for it, and take pictures that then need to be paid to be

27/02/2024

Inkitt, a self-publishing platform using AI to develop bestsellers, raises a $37M Series C led by Khosla Ventures.

The Berlin founded and San Francisco-based platform uses AI and data science to select and optimize the most compelling stories written by users and distribute them on their app, Galatea.

Inkitt has attracted 33 million users, doubled its revenues in the last year alone, and published dozens of bestsellers. Founder Ali Albazaz aims to use the new funding to expand Inkitt’s content library: think AI to write stories based on your original ideas and hyper-personalized stories for readers, as well as launching more video content, games, and audiobooks.

We’re excited to continue our support of Inkitt in their Series C, which was led by Vinod Khosla, co-founder of Sun Microsystems and founder of Khosla Ventures, alongside existing investors, including NEA and Kleiner Perkins.

TechCrunch has more 👇

https://techcrunch.com/2024/02/26/inkitt-ai-publishing-37-million/?guccounter=1

22/02/2024

Thank you to everyone who joined our NYC Marketplace Meetup at the NY Stock Exchange!

In partnership with our friends at FJ Labs, we welcomed 70+ marketplace founders, investors, and leaders from across the Big Apple for an afternoon of networking and best practice sharing on AI in marketplaces.

We were also on hand for the ringing of the NYSE bell, and Speedinvest even got a shoutout on their iconic Times Square billboard!

A huge thank you to our speakers Randi Zuckerberg (HUG and Zuckerberg Media), Fabrice Grinda (FJ Labs) and Alexandra Cavoulacos (HUG), plus Mathias Ockenfels, Jeroen Arts and Katharine Spooner of our Marketplaces & Consumer team for sharing their in-depth knowledge and insights.

Want to join us next time? We’re back in Berlin for our next marketplace meetup on February 29th. Spots are filling up fast so apply asap!

https://www.marketplaceconf.com/meetups/berlin-meetup-2024/hub-berlin

21/02/2024

9amHealth raises $9.5M Series A extension to expand access to its one-of-a-kind cardiometabolic care.

9amHealth is the leading virtual cardiometabolic care provider for people living with diabetes, obesity, high cholesterol, and hypertension, offering personalized care plans, prescription delivery, at-home lab tests and unlimited specialist access.

To date, 9amHealth has seen an ROI of up to 4x and up to $284 monthly gross savings per member per month. Now, founders Frank Westermann and Anton Kittelberger (ex-mySugr) are further scaling the solutions and expanding their internal team of care specialists, doctors, medical advisors.

DerBrutkasten has more about the financing round led by The Cigna Group Ventures, with additional support from 7wireVentures, Define Ventures, Leaps by Bayer, and Founders Fund (article in German)👇

https://brutkasten.com/artikel/9am-health-cigna-investment

Das HealthTech-Startup 9am.health rund um Frank Westermann und Anton Kittelberger "erweitert seine Series A-Finanzierungsrunde".

20/02/2024

Every startup should be prepared for a potential crisis. But how? We asked a crisis comms expert ⬇️

Facing a crisis is daunting and something we’d all prefer to avoid. But in the world of business, that’s not a realistic option. Luckily, there are many things your startup can do now… before the 💩hits the fan.

To help you get started, we interviewed Michael H***e, a Crisis Communications expert at Kekst CNC, to find out the basic steps founders on any budget can take to minimize the impact of a crisis – from identifying potential crises to knowing when to involve customers and the media.

Watch the video below for a snapshot and head to our blog for the full interview (video and article)👇

19/02/2024

Just 10 days until our CEO & Managing Partner Oliver Holle is at Founder’s Circle in Factory, Berlin!

Don't miss...

👉A panel on accelerating your early-stage startup.
👉Office Hours with the panelists & free legal Office Hours with Osborne Clarke.
👉Networking with 100 founders.

Sign up here👇

http://tinyurl.com/3r2r9hzw

15/02/2024

We’re excited to announce that Randi Zuckerberg will be a panelist at our NYC Marketplace Meetup!

The former Director of Market Development and Spokesperson for Facebook has more than two decades of experience across the tech sector as a founder, investor, and board member. She is currently the CEO of Zuckerberg Media as well as CEO and founder of HUG, an inclusive social marketplace democratizing access to the arts while empowering independent artists to become creative entrepreneurs.

Randi will join Jeroen Arts of our Marketplaces and Consumer team and Alex Cavoucalous, COO and Head of Product at HUG, to discuss the role of AI in art marketplaces.

Want to join us? We’re inviting founders, investors, and other marketplace insiders to join us for exciting discussions about AI in marketplace dynamics, plus networking and best practice sharing in the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday, February 20th.

Spaces are limited, so sign up quickly!

https://www.marketplaceconf.com/meetups/new-york-city-2024/hub-nyc

13/02/2024

Kema is automating cash flow for B2B SMEs in MENA and slashing accounts receivables process costs by 50%!

The UAE Fintech platform digitizes, automates, and streamlines the invoice-to-cash process. Thanks to its no-code plug-in, Kema syncs with leading accounting software, such as Xero and Quickbooks, within minutes.

Since the private beta version rolled out in Q2 of 2023, Kema has facilitated more than AED 16.5M (USD $4.5m) in invoices.
We’re excited to lead the pre-seed round, with participation from Dubai Foundation District Fund.

XYZ has more on the new funding and Kema’s plans to scale its solution across the UAE 👇

https://www.wamda.com/2024/02/uae-fintech-kema-raises-2-million-pre-seed

UAE-based fintech Kema has raised a $2 million pre-Seed round, led by Speedinvest with participation from the Dubai Future District Fund...