PreIPO INTELLI™ Weekly Insights | Series 37
Friday, June 16 2023 | Volume 1 Series 37 | Preipo.com and Jafton forge global partnership, overview on Zepz M&A plans, and some new funding rounds we are tracking.
Hello everyone! We hope you're having a fantastic Friday! As the week draws to a close, we are delighted to announce the exciting collaboration between PreIPO.com and Jafton.com. Together, they aim to revolutionize the startup landscape by combining their expertise in technology and AI services.
🌐 PreIPO.com and Top-Rated Jafton.com Forge Global Partnership
This partnership goes beyond mere business growth; it's about fostering innovation. PreIPO.com, a leading online marketplace for private securities, has joined forces with Jafton.com, a renowned custom software development company, in a strategic alliance. This collaboration includes an acquisition framework that will generate significant value for PreIPO® shareholders while enhancing PreIPO.com's technological capabilities through Jafton's experienced development team.
PreIPO.com has been at the forefront of innovation in the private securities market, streamlining the fundraising process for private companies through its accessible platform that connects qualified investors with pre-IPO opportunities. Now, in their quest to disrupt traditional private market investing, they have partnered with Jafton.com, known for its expertise in creating tailored software solutions, mobile app development, AI development, and cloud computing services.
This partnership empowers PreIPO.com to offer advanced development services under the banner of PreIPO Labs. Leveraging Jafton's software development and artificial intelligence expertise, this new offering will transform PreIPO.com from a mere marketplace into a comprehensive platform that supports companies in their technological growth.
"At PreIPO.com, we are committed to challenging the status quo of private equity investing, and our partnership with Jafton.com exemplifies that vision," says David Grzan, the CEO of PreIPO.com. "Through PreIPO Labs, we are poised to provide our customers with even more comprehensive support on their path to going public."
Importantly, Jafton.com, having propelled five businesses to unicorn status, brings extensive knowledge and experience to this collaboration. The partnership will also introduce an AI-infusion-as-a-service offering, leveraging Jafton.com's AI expertise. This service will empower PreIPO.com's clients to integrate AI into their operations, enhancing efficiency and competitiveness.
Bobir Akilkhanov, CEO of Jafton.com, sees the partnership as a crucial step toward driving further innovation. "This collaboration is not just about business growth; it's about enabling innovation. By integrating our services into the PreIPO.com platform, we provide businesses with the tools they need to innovate, scale, and succeed."
While the partnership primarily benefits both companies, its impact will extend to the wider finance and technology sectors. Users can expect an enhanced experience, improved technological infrastructure, and sophisticated AI-enabled services that will transform the pre-IPO investment landscape.
The CEOs of both companies share this sentiment in a joint statement: "Our partnership represents the fusion of finance and technology, aiming to make the journey to IPO as smooth and successful as possible for companies. Together, we are excited to build a future where technology and finance go hand-in-hand, driving innovation and growth for businesses worldwide."
About Jafton: Jafton is a custom software development company renowned for delivering high-quality, reliable, and scalable software solutions tailored to clients' specific needs. With services that encompass custom software development, web development, IT consulting, AI development, and mobile app development, Jafton.com equips businesses with the tools they need to innovate and succeed.
🔥 INTELLI™ Featured Deals 🔥
This week, we wanted to highlight a few deals that INTELLI™ is tracking.
Blackbird AI - 20 Million Series B
Blackbird AI, a New York-based startup, has secured $20 million in a Series B funding round led by Ten Eleven Ventures, bringing its total funding to $30 million. The company develops AI-powered software for risk intelligence and aims to combat the spread of disinformation and conspiracy theories. Blackbird's initial product was used by the U.S. Department of Defense to analyze online propaganda and influence campaigns. When the pandemic hit, Blackbird shifted its focus to the enterprise market, expanding its capabilities to analyze text, image, video, and audio data from various sources. The company's platform helps organizations detect and counter cyber information attacks, track narratives and influencers, and mitigate threats to their reputation. While the accuracy and performance of Blackbird's platform are yet to be independently verified, the risk management software sector is projected to reach $86.53 billion by 2030, indicating a growing market for such solutions.
Cohere - 270 Million Series C
Cohere, a generative AI startup focusing on enterprise applications, has raised $270 million in its Series C funding round. The funding round was led by Inovia Capital and included participation from several prominent investors such as Nvidia, Oracle, and Salesforce Ventures. While earlier reports suggested a valuation of over $6 billion, the latest tranche values Cohere between $2.1 billion and $2.2 billion. Cohere's AI platform is designed to be cloud agnostic, allowing companies to use their preferred cloud provider while ensuring data privacy and simplifying implementation. The funds raised will support further development of Cohere's AI platform, expansion of its team, and engagement with leading enterprises. Cohere aims to empower businesses worldwide to leverage transformative AI technology and create custom large language models (LLMs) based on their proprietary data. The company has partnerships with various organizations, including news outlets and Salesforce Ventures, and works with companies like Jasper and HyperWrite for copywriting generation tasks. Cohere sees "search and retrieval" as the next area of growth, enabling chatbots to expand their knowledge base and retrieve relevant information from the web. The company also plans to develop AI models that can take actions on behalf of customers. Despite competition in the market, Cohere positions itself as an independent, cloud-agnostic AI platform focused on enabling enterprises to create proprietary LLM capabilities and gain strategic differentiation and business value.
Mosaic - 26 Million Series C
Financial planning and analysis teams often struggle with time-consuming data gathering and administrative tasks, leaving little room for generating valuable insights. Mosaic, a startup founded by Bijan Moallemi, Joe Garafalo, and Brian Campbell, aims to address this challenge by developing a centralized platform for operational data. Recently, Mosaic secured $26 million in a Series C funding round led by OMERS Ventures, bringing its total funding to $73 million. The platform provides real-time planning and analytics capabilities, including dashboards, modeling tools, and data visualization, specifically designed for financial planning use cases. By using Mosaic, companies can make better-informed decisions, such as timing sales team expansions or fundraising activities. The platform offers custom-tailored department or executive views, ensuring a unified source of truth. Unlike legacy solutions that require lengthy IT implementation, Mosaic eliminates the need for IT involvement and empowers business users to gain real-time insights into relevant metrics. The company has experienced significant growth since its inception in 2019, with its customer base including notable companies like Emerge, Sourcegraph, and Drata. Mosaic plans to enhance its AI capabilities and introduce new tools, such as the recently launched Metric Builder, to support agile and strategic finance leaders.
Zepz, a $5 billion fintech firm, seeks to challenge PayPal with its digital wallet and M&A initiatives.
Zepz, the parent company of money transfer firms WorldRemit and Sendwave, is actively pursuing mergers and acquisitions (M&A) opportunities after reducing its workforce by 26% last month, according to the CEO. With a valuation of $5 billion, Zepz is one of Europe's largest fintech companies and has backing from prominent investors such as Accel, TCV, and Leapfrog.
The company offers users the ability to send money internationally from their smartphones or computers, with recipients able to receive funds in their bank accounts, mobile wallets, or as mobile airtime top-ups. Zepz presents itself as a challenger to traditional banks and established money transfer services like Western Union, emphasizing lower fees and faster fund transfers. It faces competition from players like Wise, which also claims to provide cost-effective international money transfers compared to banks.
Mark Lenhard, Zepz's CEO, stated that the company aims to expand its portfolio of businesses in order to capture a larger share of the global digital payments market. While specific acquisition targets were not disclosed, Lenhard highlighted the attractive valuation opportunities in the private fintech sector, making it an opportune time to explore M&A activities.
Zepz is particularly focused on digital wallets as part of its product strategy, with plans to launch its first digital wallet in the near future. Lenhard emphasized the company's goal to become a central financial hub for specific segments, particularly migrant communities that send money back to their home countries.
The decision to pursue M&A comes as a surprise following significant cost reduction measures implemented by the company. In May, Zepz laid off 420 employees, equivalent to around 26% of its global workforce, due to operational consolidation following its acquisition of U.S.-based remittances firm Sendwave. However, Zepz clarified that it was still actively hiring to fill approximately 200 positions.
Despite the cost-cutting measures, Zepz remains optimistic about its future prospects. The company believes it is less susceptible to economic pressures than other firms in the fintech industry, as remittances are generally less affected by macroeconomic factors compared to traditional banking. Zepz reported a 25% increase in customer transactions year-to-date as of April 2023, with customer growth accelerating by an average of 30% and reaching up to 80% in certain regions.
Zepz aims to achieve profitability on a full-year basis in 2023, building on its achievement of monthly profitability in the first half of 2022. The upcoming launch of its digital wallet product is expected to encourage customers to rely more on Zepz for their financial needs, instead of using competing digital banks and financial apps that offer a broader range of services, such as mobile wallets, cryptocurrency trading, and installment loans.
👪 The Significance of Famtech for Businesses, Governments, and Families
Famtech, also known as family technology, utilizes the power of technology to address and alleviate the challenges associated with family responsibilities. Its purpose is to empower families, enhance their well-being, productivity, and overall experience. Famtech tools include digital solutions for managing household tasks, tracking children's activities, finding childcare, and freeing up personal time. The increasing demands of parenting have created investment opportunities in the famtech sector, as entrepreneurs and investors recognize the need for technology-driven solutions to simplify childcare and household management.
The care economy, valued at over $648 billion, has been a driving force behind the growth of the famtech industry. The sector has experienced significant activity, partly due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the growing desire for work-life balance and employee retention. As technology continues to play a larger role in our daily lives, famtech has become increasingly important in helping families efficiently manage their busy and interconnected lives. Startups and investors are actively working to fill this gap and contribute to the expanding famtech sector.
In today's world, every company needs to embrace technology to attract and retain talent, benefiting both employees and families. Establishing initiatives that support individuals and businesses alike will be crucial for rebuilding the economy and providing support to employees, families, and the public.
Famtech encompasses a wide range of products and services, including smart home devices (e.g., thermostats, locks, lighting systems), parenting and childcare apps, family communication and organization apps, telehealth tools, mental health education apps, family health and wellness apps, and educational initiatives such as remote learning. Additionally, famtech solutions include video collaboration platforms, digital assistants (e.g., Siri, Alexa, Google), remote monitoring (e.g., health tracking), and e-commerce platforms that streamline lifestyles through retail, supermarket, and pharmacy home deliveries. The projected future growth of e-commerce suggests that the majority of purchases will be facilitated online by 2040.
Recognizing the importance of famtech, both the New York State and New York City governments have partnered to implement transformative changes. The "Making New York Work for Everyone" blueprint, released in December 2022, has been embraced by Mayor Eric Adams and Governor Kathy Hochul. Efforts are being made to enhance tech infrastructure, promote tech equity, improve procurement processes, and provide online tools for accessing child care services. Initiatives like the MyCity online portal and digital equity projects aim to increase connectivity and simplify access to essential services for underserved New Yorkers. By fostering collaboration and understanding across all sectors, families and women will be better empowered to contribute and succeed, facilitating the rebuilding of our economy, businesses, and lives collectively.
As always, stay tuned for more updates and insights from the team at INTELLI™.