From Digital Age to Nano Age. WorldWide.

Tag: 20M

Atoms Lanka Solutions > 20M
Robotic Automations

Space VC closes $20M Fund II to back frontier tech founders from day zero | TechCrunch

May 22, 2024 7:59 PM0


Gone are the days when space and defense were considered fundamentally antithetical to venture investment. Now, the country’s largest venture capital firms are throwing larger portions of their money behind so-called hard tech startups at the earliest stages. This about-face has led some in the industry to question whether smaller investing shops will be able […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.


Software Development in Sri Lanka

Robotic Automations

After a $20M Series A funding, Germany's Insempra plans eco-friendly lipid production | TechCrunch

May 8, 2024 4:13 AM0


Lipids are fatty, waxy or oily compounds that, for instance, typically come in the form of fats and oils. As a result they are heavily used in the production of beauty products, as well as in fashion, and food industries. Right now, most lipids come from environmentally problematic petrochemicals. But new processes mean its possible to make lipids from organic materials.

That’s the idea of German startup Insempra, which plans to turn oil yeast in lipids on an industrial scale using yeast fermentation factories. It’s now raised a $20 million Series A financing led by EQT Ventures. Also participating was BlueYard Capital, Possible Ventures, Taavet Sten and Acequia Capital. Notably, new investors incliude the venture arm of FMCG giant Henkel, Henkel dx Ventures, as well as Bayern Kapital and Alante Capital.

The Series A follow an initial $15 million seed round conducted in 2021.

Lipids are used for cosmetic and food applications, but Insempra is also developing technology that offers a bio-based alternative to everyday materials such as polymers and textiles. It plans to work on generating ingredients used in antioxidants, preservatives, flavors and fragrances, as well.

Founder Jens Klein was formerly CEO of AMSilk GmbH, an industrial supplier of vegan silk polymers.

Over a call he told me: “Lipids typically are either extracted from nature. You harvest the plant, or you can produce them petrochemically. We use so called oil yeast. And these oil yeasts are put under certain conditions in our in our steel vessels under certain metabolic situations. Then they produce lipids oils, which we can extract later on, and which we can sell into the cosmetics and into the food industry.”

He said it’s main competitors are specialty ingredients companies, largely petrochemical companies: “I don’t know any other company with an approach like ours.”

Insempra will also produce fibers for use in the fashion industry. “There is a spinoff we’ve done together with Imperial College,” he said. “It’s located in London. It’s called Salina, and we do the Salina fibers there.These are protein fibers, which are spun as normal.”

In a statement, Ted Persson, Partner at EQT Ventures, added: “New technology platforms such as Insempra’s have the potential to dramatically change the manufacturing processes of multiple multibillion-dollar industries, developing customized ingredients to fit market needs.”


Software Development in Sri Lanka

Robotic Automations

Turkish startup ikas attracts $20M for its e-commerce platform designed for small businesses | TechCrunch

April 18, 2024 11:15 PM0


It’s easy to assume the e-commerce ship has sailed when you consider we have giant outfits like Shopify, WooCommerce and Wix dominating the sector. But the opportunity for e-commerce platforms that cater to brands remain vast and fertile, since so many smaller businesses continue foraying into the internet in the wake of the pandemic.

Further evidence of this has surfaced in the form of one of the largest fundraises by a startup in Turkey, given that the average Series A usually comes in at below $15 million. E-commerce platform ikas has raised $20 million in a Series A funding round as it seeks to expand its operations into new markets in Europe. The company currently operates in Turkey and Germany, and says its platform simplifies store management for companies that want to have a digital presence.

The investment was led by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) fund, a venture arm of the World Bank Group.

ikas’ co-founder and CEO Mustafa Namoğlu told TechCrunch that the company would be using the new funding for international expansion in Eastern Europe and the DaCH region.

“Most of Europe is predominantly neglected or underserved by those U.S.-based giants,” he said. “The global platforms lack customer service in local languages. It looks easy to start with, for example, a Shopify. But once you start, you need to add other plugins, and you may even need an agency to run it.”

Namoğlu said ikas can win customers against other platforms because it’s more of a “fire and forget” platform. “The first reason our merchants pick us over others is storefront speed, which gives them higher conversion rates. You get this out of the box, even if you pay us €30 per month. The second reason is customer service. Thirdly, we bundle the payments and the shipping labels into our core product, which means you don’t need to go and negotiate with payment providers or shipping labels. You’re immediately ready to go,” he said.

Namoğlu previously founded MUGO, a fashion distribution and retail company, and launched ikas in 2017 with co-founders Tugay Karaçay, Ömercan Çelikler and Umut Ozan Yildirim.

The IFC invests directly in companies as well as through PE and VC funds.

Also investing in ikas is Re-Pie Asset Management, which has grocery delivery startup Getir in its portfolio. The round saw participation from ikas’ existing investor Revo Capital, best known as the first institutional investor in Getir, Param, Midas and Roamless.


Software Development in Sri Lanka

Robotic Automations

Sprinto raises $20M to bring automation to security compliance management | TechCrunch

April 17, 2024 3:43 AM0


Sprinto, a security compliance and risk platform, has raised a $20 million Series B round to build more automation into its compliance management platform and widen its customer base to include the wide gamut of companies that operate digitally but aren’t tech-first.

Compliance with frameworks such as SOC 2, GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) and HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act ) has become crucial for companies across sectors to ensure data security and privacy, but compliance management remains a cumbersome process for most businesses, as it requires teams to maintain records frequently and regularly monitor data flows.

Sprinto is working to automate this aspect of security compliance management, which involves vendor risk management, vulnerability assessment, access control, evidence collection and other filing tasks. The company’s platform connects directly with its customers’ HR, IT, and engineering systems via over 160 integrations and has baked-in support for popular frameworks like SOC 2, ISO 27001, GDPR, CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act), HIPAA, PCI-DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard), and CIS. Sprinto uses a mix of AI, GPTs and its own internal large language model to offer efficiencies in compliance management. The company said it aims to focus more on bringing intelligence to the platform by bolstering its R&D.

“Our goal is to help companies build trust and grow their business using the trust they’ve built,” Sprinto’s co-founder, Girish Redekar, told TechCrunch.

The all-equity Series B funding round, which takes the company’s total capital raised to $31.8 million, was led by Accel. Existing investors Elevation Capital and Blume Ventures also participated.

The market for automated compliance management solutions already has players such as Vanta and Drata, which Sprinto considers its key competitors. However, Redekar said Sprinto primarily focuses on automating the entire compliance management process and helping businesses build trust.

Redekar founded Sprinto with Raghuveer Kancherla after their startup Recruiterbox was acquired by the private-equity firm Turn/River Capital in 2018. The co-founders were familiar with how difficult and onerous a problem compliance can be, and they set out to address that problem with their new startup.

Sprinto employs about 200 people, and Redekar said it currently has more than 1,000 customers across 75 countries, but a majority of its client base is in the U.S. and Europe. It plans to expand its presence in both these markets by attracting traditional businesses that have deployed tech but are not natively a tech company.

“The largest opportunity is in companies that are digitally native; they are not necessarily tech-first, but are tech-enabled. Increasingly, every company is a digital company in one way or another. We are really focused on growing that market,” Redekar told TechCrunch.

Redekar did not disclose the startup’s valuation, but Ravi Adusumalli, co-managing partner at Elevation Capital, said Sprinto has grown over 20x since it raised its Series A in 2021. Redekar said the company’s ARR rose 3x from 2022 to 2023, and is projected to double in the coming year.

“We are able to go a mile beyond just checking a box where you can show to an auditor that we do this, but we actually want to make you more secure. We want to do it more continuously. And we want to be able to build tools that help you demonstrate what you’re doing to external stakeholders,” he said.

The startup plans to utilize the fresh funding for product R&D and to cater to new businesses. Redekar said the plan is to scale its current intelligent automation by four times in less than 12 months.

“Sprinto is doing an incredible job of helping companies focus on their core business by making compliance low-touch, automated, and efficient. With a deep understanding of the product and a sharp focus on execution, Sprinto has been on a rare growth trajectory. We are thrilled to partner with Girish, Raghuveer, and their team at Sprinto in their mission to ensure that compliance becomes a driver of growth for businesses,” said Shekhar Kirani, partner at Accel, in a prepared statement.


Software Development in Sri Lanka

Robotic Automations

Pula raises $20M Series B to provide agricultural insurance to farmers in Africa, Asia and LatAm | TechCrunch

April 15, 2024 11:50 AM0


Pula, an insurtech based in Kenya, has since 2015 been keen on enhancing the access to agricultural insurance by small-holder farmers across emerging markets, shielding them against losses from pests, diseases and/or extreme weather events like floods and droughts.

So far, the insurtech has supported 15.4 million farmers in Africa, Asia and Latin America to get insured, and it is eyeing more following a $20 million series B funding that will enable it to establish new partnerships, including for livestock covers.

Global investment manager BlueOrchard led the round through its InsuResilience strategy, which aims at providing access to climate insurance to vulnerable people in emerging markets. The IFC, through its $225 million venture capital platform, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Hesabu Capital, and existing investors, also participated in the round.

“Partnering with this group of like-minded investors to boost the growth of Pula globally is a very exciting milestone in driving our triple 100 vision, through which we intend to bring insurance to 100 million smallholder farmers. What started nine years ago as an unconventional idea that many deemed un-scalable is now a proven solution that has solved real needs for millions of smallholder farmers across 22 countries,” said Pula CEO Thomas Njeru, who co-founded the insurtech with Rose Goslinga.

Pula embeds insurance in partners’ products

Instead of selling insurance directly to farmers, Pula has built a distribution channel of over 100 partners, including charitable organizations, banks, governments and agricultural input companies, to serve even the hard-to-reach farmers, by embedding insurance, for instance, in farm input costs or credit.

Each product Pula offers is customized to suit the demands of its clients, and the needs of the beneficiary farmers. The products, underwritten by insurance and reinsurance companies, are designed (including premium setting) through Pula’s digital actuary platform, based on historical data including weather patterns, and the frequency of events like floods or drought, harvests, losses and inputs used.

Among its collaborations is a long-term partnership with the government of Zambia, where the insurtech embeds insurance premiums with fertilizer and seed packages, reaching farmers across the country. In Ethiopia, it partnered with the World Food Programme and German Development Bank KfW and a local insurer, where it embedded insurance in the input voucher scheme that reached 122,000 farmers. And its impact is about to be felt following an outbreak of wheat rust disease in the Amhara region, where Pula is set to make the largest insurance payout to date, estimated at $800,000.

Pula says they have seen increased investment, yields and savings by farmers using its products, underscoring the benefits that agricultural insurance portends for emerging markets like Africa, where small-scale farmers contribute 70% of the food supply yet only 1% of them are covered. High-cost, lack of awareness and access are some of the barriers to agricultural insurance access.

“Research carried out by Pula in some African countries where we have delivered insurance shows that agricultural insurance helps smallholder farmers to on average increase investment in their farms by 16%, improve yields by 56%, and increase household savings by up to 170%. Also, an impact on farmers’ livelihoods can be seen through our partner insurer’s payouts – which have reached close to over US$40 million to 900,000 farmers since Pula’s inception to date,” said Njeru.

“Lastly, our impact is reflected in our renewal rate and growth. Eighty percent of the farmer groups and aggregators that buy Pula-developed insurance products from our partner insurers renew the following year, which is above the industry average, and reflects our customers satisfaction with our comprehensive products.”

Building on the success of its crop insurance products, Pula is set to introduce livestock covers in countries like Kenya upon the completion of a pilot program that kicked-off in Nigeria last year. Pula, through insurance partners, has been offering rural families in Nigeria comprehensive coverage against banditry, disease and death of animals. It is also doubling down on Asia and Latin America, markets its entered in 2021.


Software Development in Sri Lanka

Robotic Automations

Google.org launches $20M generative AI accelerator program | TechCrunch

April 12, 2024 10:10 AM0


Google.org, Google’s charitable wing, is launching a new program to help fund nonprofits developing tech that leverages generative AI.

Called Google.org Accelerator: Generative AI, the program is to be funded by $20 million in grants and include 21 nonprofits to start, including Quill.org, a company creating AI-powered tools for student writing feedback, and World Bank, which is building a generative AI app to make development research more accessible.

In addition to funding, nonprofits in the six-month accelerator program will get access to technical training, workshops, mentors and guidance from an “AI coach.” And, through Google.org’s fellowship program, teams of Google employees will work with three of the nonprofits — Tarjimly, Benefits Data Trust and mRelief — full-time for up to six months to help launch their proposed generative AI tools.

Tarjimly aims to use AI to translate languages for refugees, while Benefits Data Trust is tapping AI to create assistants that support caseworkers in helping low-income applicants enroll in public benefits. mRelief, meanwhile, is designing a tool to streamline the U.S. SNAP benefits application process.

“Generative AI can help social impact teams be more productive, creative and effective in serving their communities,” Annie Lewin, director of global advocacy at Google.org, said in a blog post. “Google.org funding recipients report that AI helps them achieve their goals in one third of the time at nearly half the cost.”

According to a PwrdBy survey, 73% of nonprofits believe AI innovation aligns with their missions and 75% believe AI makes their lives easier, particularly in areas like donor categorization, routine back-office tasks and “mission-driven” initiatives. But there remain significant barriers for nonprofits looking to build their own AI solutions or adopt third-party products — chiefly cost, resources and time.

In the blog post, Lewin cites a Google.org survey that similarly found that, while four in five nonprofits think generative AI may be applicable to their work, nearly half currently aren’t using the tech as a result of a range of internal and external roadblocks. “[These nonprofits] cite a lack of tools, awareness, training and funding as the biggest barriers to adoption,” she said.

Encouragingly, the number of nonprofit AI-focused startups is beginning to tick up.

Nonprofit accelerator Fast Forward said that this year, more than a third of applicants for its latest class were AI companies. And Crunchbase reports that, more broadly, dozens of nonprofit organizations across the globe are dedicating work around ethical approaches to AI, like AI ethics lab AlgorithmWatch, virtual reading clinic JoyEducation and conservation advocacy group Earth05.


Software Development in Sri Lanka

Back
WhatsApp
Messenger
Viber