Tech-driven fashion, vectorized antibodies, next-day grocery delivery, and many more...
What's Up Tech? #157
Welcome to our 157th newsletter. It was written with 🖤 by Sally Lo, Arnaud Savouré, and Justine Pelisson.
Fundraisings from last week with Urbanic, VectorY Therapeutics, Fnality, and Crisp
News from last week with Open AI and Microsoft’s dance around Sam Altman
Internships & Job offers of the week
EWOR fellowship application
Enjoy the read! 🌞
👚 Urbanic raised $150M to drive responsible and creative fashion through tech (🇬🇧)
The London-based fashion brand Urbanic, known to bring creativity and technology to fashion consumers by leveraging AI, machine learning and large language models (LLMs), just closed its $150 M Series C. The new funding should allow Urbanic to invest more in its proprietary AI to generate creative content for fashion as well as to optimize its supply chain. 😎
As emphasized by James Wellwood, Urbanic’s founding partner, “we launched Urbanic with the simple idea that clothing does not need to be expensive to be differentiated, stylish and socially responsible”. ☘️
U.K. Brand Urbanic Raises $150M for Socially Responsible Fashion
🔬 VectorY Therapeutics raised €129M to treat neurodegenerative diseases (🇳🇱)
VectorY Therapeutics, a Dutch biotech company dedicated to vectorized antibody therapies for neurodegenerative diseases - including Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) - just closed a substantial €129 million Series A round.🧫
This funding is among Europe's largest private biotech financing rounds in 2023. The capital will advance the clinical development of VTx-002, a potential therapy for ALS, and expedite the growth of VectorY's vectorized antibody platform and pipeline programs. 🦠
💎 Fnality raised £77.7M to accelerate on blockchain-based payments (🇬🇧)
Fnality, the UK-based blockchain and cryptocurrency payments startup, just raised £77.7M to “establish a world-first global liquidity management ecosystem that empowers new digital payment models in both wholesale financial markets and emerging tokenized asset markets”.⚡️
The startup has already delivered several proofs of concepts to demonstrate its capabilities (such as real-time settlement of tokenized securities), supporting the claim for leveraging distributed ledger technology as a facilitator for traditional finance. 🙏
Fnality International raises £77.7m in Series B funding round
🛒 Crisp raised €35M to scale next-day delivery and put grocery delivery back on track (🇳🇱)
Crisp, an Amsterdam-based food delivery startup, secured €35 million in series C funding for its expansion in the Netherlands and Belgium. 🥳
Crisp stands out by offering next-day delivery, eliminating the need for city micro-warehouses and reducing rent costs. They target customers with larger weekly baskets averaging €90, aiming to reduce food waste. Their competitive advantage is a focused product range with prices like mid-range competitors. Operating without physical stores ensures efficiency, but economic downturns could pressure their premium positioning…🤔
Grocery Delivery is Back as Crisp Raises €35m to Scale Next-Day Delivery
😏 Earthquake at OpenAI and Microsoft: dancing around with Sam Altman
After OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's abrupt dismissal from Open AI this weekend, chaos has followed with tense negotiations for his return. Investors and employees have exerted pressure campaigns, with Microsoft's CEO Satya Nadella reportedly brokering talks. Altman has been demanding a new board and governance structure, and while the board agrees in principle, no official deal had been announced as of late Sunday. 🎲
Yet on Monday morning, Microsoft announced that it had hired Sam Altman, as well as his Open AI co-founder Greg Brockman, to join a new advanced AI Research team. 🫣
The startup's sudden instability has been reverberating through the tech world, with concerns of a talent exodus looming. Despite a slowdown in generative AI deals, Altman's departure adds uncertainty to the industry, prompting expressions of support from figures like Vinod Khosla. This weekend, OpenAI cited Altman's inconsistent communication as the reason for his removal. ☄️
Internships
VC Analyst - Pléiade Venture (Paris)
Startup Program Officer - 50 Partners (Paris)
Analyst Intern Digital West - Earlybird (London)
Analyst Intern IR & Fundraising - Earlybird (Berlin)
Growth Intern - Enpal (Berlin)
Jobs
VC Investor - Anfa (London)
Investment Manager - Nauta Capital (Barcelona)
Investment Analyst - Alstin Capital (Munich)
VC Associate in Life Sciences - Angelini Ventures (Europe-based)
👉 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 🖤
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