Gen AI Sovereignty, a CO2 neutral pharma supply chain, European founders still laggards in VC fundraisings, and many more...
What's Up Tech? #155
Welcome to our 155th newsletter. It was written with 🖤 by Tara Dorfmann, Charlie McDonnell, and Justine Pelisson.
Fundraisings from last week with Aleph Alpha, Atom Bank, SkyCell, Memo Therapeutics, and Accelex
News from last week with BP Ventures’ investments in climate tech, the launch of a UK AI Life Sciences Accelerator, and European Founders’ ability to raise money
Internships & Job offers of the week
Enjoy the read! 🌞
🤑 Aleph Alpha raised $500M, confirming its position as a Sovereign Gen AI application provider (🇩🇪)
Big news in the German Generative Artificial Intelligence Ecosystem! Its leading Gen AI applications developer Aleph Alpha has just closed a half a billion series B round to reinforce its foundation models (Aleph already has several multimodal LLMs trained on 5 languages with sizes up to 300B parameters) and accelerate the productization of its sovereign gen AI solutions with advanced product capabilities. 🎯
As emphasized by Jonas Andrulis, Founder and CEO of Aleph Alpha, “The ongoing developments will extend interfaces and customization options tailored to business-critical requirements. For customers with a significant responsibility and in strategic environments where sovereignty is at risk, we will remain the best option.” 🙏
🏡 Atom Bank raised £100M in new capital to accelerate lending for UK homeowners (🇬🇧)
Durham-based Atom Bank just raised £100M. The digital retail bank will use the investment to expand its lending book customers, adding to the £4bn already on its books in the UK. 💷
Notably, the round shaved just under £73M off its valuation, appraising the company below its pre-valuation in early 2022. This comes despite an annual operating profit of £4M and a revenue increase of 62%, further signifying how rising interest rates and investor expectations are squeezing fintech valuations. 📉
Investors Back Atom with £100M to Further Disrupt The UK Mortgage Market
🛠 SkyCell raised $57M at $600M valuation to remodel pharmaceutical supply chain (🇨🇭)
SkyCell, the Swiss startup specialized in temperature-controlled hybrid containers and in pharma supply chain solutions (tracking software and risk management services), has just raised $57M to work towards a CO2 neutral pharma supply chain.🌿
The company already transports more than $1.5B pharma goods per month, delivering essential care to patients around the world. Its unique value proposition, fostered by data and its automated approval capability, is to limit risks from drugs’ air-delivery, shorten significantly quality approval time, limit product loss from temperature excursions in the supply chain, and reduce CO2 carbon footprint.♻️
Reducing Waste and Decarbonising Pharma Supply Chains SkyCell Bags $57M
🧬 Memo Therapeutics raised $27.7M to accelerate drug development for renal patients (🇨🇭)
Zurich-based biotech Memo Therapeutics (“MTx”) has just closed its series C at $27.7M. 👏
The funds will finance phase II trial completion and phase III study preparation for its lead antibody candidate AntiBKV, targeted at BK polyomavirus (BKV) infection in kidney transplant recipients. Concretely, the drug aims to neutralize the virus and treat the infection in patients following the transplantation procedure - usually generating many serious side effects and affecting patient survival - and has already received a Fast Track designation from the US FDA earlier this year. 💪
Memo Therapeutics Raises $27.67m for Kidney Transplant Infection Trial
🙌 Accelex raised $15M in series A to automate private markets workflows (🇬🇧)
Accelex, a London-based company specializing in AI automation for private markets data acquisition, data reporting, and analytics, raised $15 millions in Series A. 😎
FactSet, a financial data provider, led the round, strengthening its relationship with Accelex, as the latter’s technology enables Factset to expand its foothold in private markets. “This partnership will solidify our position as a leader in the alternative investment data management and analytics space,” added Michael Aldridge, President at Accelex. “Today we serve some of the world’s largest and most sophisticated investors, and their service providers, delivering better data, faster while reducing their operational burden.” 🤝
🌱 BP ventures officially committing to climate-tech startups
BP Ventures, the CVC arm of oil & gas giant BP, expects to invest $200M (approximately 90% of its outlay) in climate tech start-ups before 2026 - up from 60% in previous years! In particular, they aim to focus on five "transition growth engines": renewables & power, EV charging, convenience, bioenergy and hydrogen. ♟
BP Ventures is looking to invest in 10-12 startups this year as well as follow-on rounds within their existing portfolio. 🔌
BP Promises to Back more Climate Tech — but Will it Make a Dent in Its Emissions?
⏭ The AI Life Sciences Accelerator: UK’s quest to treat incurable diseases
Last week we mentioned the UK’s commitments to become an AI global leader. This week, Prime Minister Sunak made another announcement: the launch of an AI Life Sciences “Accelerator”, worth a £100M investment from the British government, to “accelerate the use of AI on the most transformational breakthroughs in treatments for previously incurable diseases […] and solve some of the greatest social challenges of our time.” 💊
The accelerator will be deployed over the next 18 months and get anchored in a very diverse ecosystem of academics, industrial partners, clinicians, charities, as well as the government. 🪄
New £100 Million Fund to Capitalise on AI’s Game-Changing Potential in Life Sciences and Healthcare
👀 Europe’s Entrepreneurial Challenge: Bridging the VC Gap
According to a study by VC Runa Capital, European universities lag behind in venture capital funding for alumni founders, based on a ranking evaluating median funding amounts raised between 2007 and 2022 by alumni founders who attracted investments exceeding $1 million. 🫣
Cambridge University was the highest-ranked university in Europe at #28, with a median funding amount of $15.9M for its alumni founders. In contrast, Ben-Gurion University in Israel took first place with a median of $26.8M. More than half of the top spots were occupied by US universities, such as Yale, Harvard, and Stanford… 😶🌫️
Unsurprisingly, European universities face growing pressure to foster entrepreneurial talent, especially in vital tech areas like biotechnology, quantum computing, and AI - with efforts to support startups like alumni funds and spinout programs on the rise. Alumni Ventures, with 1,000 portfolio companies, has been a US pioneer, and more funds are adopting this model, like G.Ventures in France. However, work remains to help Europe catch up with global counterparts…🤓
No European Universities inside Top 20 for Alumni VC Funding
Internships
Investment Analyst - Eutopia (Paris)
VC Analyst - Galion.exe (Paris)
VC Intern - Alantra (Madrid)
Jobs
Private Equity Investment Analyst - Leading PE firm (Paris)
Investment Analyst - Media & Entertainment Business (London)
Investment Associate - SevenVentures (Munich)
Founder’s Associate - Procuros (Hamburg)
👉 If you’d like to discover more offers, you can check our job board just here or fill this form to submit a new one.
You can also read more about baby vc on our website and follow our updates on LinkedIn, or directly reach out to us at hello@baby-vc.co! 🤝
Have a wonderful week and see you next Tuesday!
The whole baby vc crew 🖤