Yildiz Ventures Newsletter

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Welcome to Yıldız Ventures Newsletter, your bi-weekly roundup of news from the ever-changing world of start-ups!

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🔍 Let's take a look at the highlights of the 15-31 October 2024! ⤵️

🌠🎤 Yıldız’ın İzinde Podcast Serisi:

🎤 31 Ekim bölümünde Arzu Aslan Kesimer, konuğu Türkiye’nin ilk döngüsel marketi Yenir’in kurucu ortağı ve CEO’su Servet Akdoğan’ı ağırlıyor. İsrafla mücadelede çözümler sunan Akdoğan, döngüsel ekonomi modelini nasıl hayata geçirdiklerini, sürdürülebilirliği bir yaşam biçimi haline getirme yolculuklarını ve Yenir'in ilham verici hikayesini paylaştı- 🔗

🛒 Online grocery / Food Delivery:

🚴🍬 Haribo has teamed up with rapid delivery firm Gopuff to launch the UK’s first sweets emergency service, offering rapid deliveries this Halloween- 🔗

♻️ Ocado and the UK Refill Coalition are adding laundry essentials to the online grocer’s Reuse range, which looks to limit single-use plastic on everyday items- 🔗

📣 Walmart adds pharmacy to same-day delivery. The retail giant said it’s responding to a top customer request. Under this program, they can include prescriptions, grocery items or both for delivery- 🔗

🤝 Specialist wine retailer Majestic has partnered with rapid delivery firm Just Eat to expand its on-demand offering- 🔗

🚀 Starship Technologies & Bolt have launched a new food delivery service in Tallinn, Estonia. It combines Starship’s delivery robots with Bolt’s technology to offer a more flexible, sustainable, and cost-effective last-mile delivery solution- 🔗

📈 Grocery e-commerce soars in September as delivery posts another strong showing- 🔗

🆕 One Stop now offers speedy delivery from 250 stores across England and Wales as part of its partnership with quick commerce firm Snappy Shopper- 🔗

🚀 Turkish Startups / VC & CVC News :

🎤 Webrazzi Summit 2024 Teknoloji ve dönüşüm Paneli: Katılımcılar arasında Yıldız Holding Dönüşüm Lideri Yahya Ülker, Sabancı Holding Yönetim Kurulu Üyesi Melisa Sabancı Tapan ve Akfen Holding YK Üyesi Pelin Akın Özalp yer aldı- 🔗

🛍️ Hepsiburada’nın yüzde 65,4’ü 1.1 milyar dolara Kazakistan merkezli Kaspi.kz tarafından satın alınıyor- 🔗

📣 Papara Holding, yatırım teknolojileri şirketi Finfree’yi satın aldı. Bu satın almanın ardından Papara, Finfree’nin teknolojilerini kendi yatırım ürünleriyle birleştirecek- 🔗

🆕 SOCAR Türkiye grup şirketlerinden internet servis sağlayıcısı Millenicom'un, Albaraka Portföy Yönetimi A.Ş. Dördüncü Karma GSYF’ye satış süreci tamamlandı- 🔗

👉🏼 Mediterra Capital, Sistem Global’e ortak oluyor. Sistem Global’in önümüzdeki 3 sene boyunca regülasyon teknolojileri ve İK teknolojileri gibi servis entegre teknolojilerine ve ilgili altyapılara yatırımlar ve satın almalar yapması hedefleniyor- 🔗

✅ FINEXT Hızlandırma Programı’na kabul edilen 13 fintech girişim- 🔗

🔥 Sipay, online karşılaştırma platformları Hesapkurdu ve Koalay'ı BHL Holdings UK'den satın alıyor- 🔗

👀 QNBEYOND Hızlandırma Programı’nın 6. döneminden mezun olan 8 girişim- 🔗

📣 Yapay zeka destekli görüntü işleme ve artırılmış gerçeklik teknolojileri sunan PulpoAR, Decacorn Angels'dan yatırım aldığını açıkladı- 🔗

👉🏼 Hızlandırma ve iş birliği programı Mastercard Lighthouse Türkiye’ye seçilen 6 girişim- 🔗

🆕 Param, Nebim Yazılım’ın çoğunluk hissesini satın aldı- 🔗

✅ Obilet'in hisselerinin çoğunluğunun BlaBlaCar olarak bilinen Comuto SA tarafından devralınması işlemine izin verildi- 🔗

🔥 Yandex, bilgi teknolojisi ürünlerini yerelleştirmek ve Türkiye'deki erişimini genişletmek için 400 milyon dolar yatırım yapmayı planlıyor- 🔗

💰 Yapay zeka teknolojilerini sağlık alanına entegre eden Viseur AI, Kayacan Ventures’dan 6.6 milyon euro değerleme üzerinden ilk yatırımını aldı- 🔗

🎧 Sanatçıların eserlerini tescil etmelerini sağlayan Musiwars, 3 milyon dolar değerleme üzerinden yatırım aldı- 🔗

🆕 Ortak Yatırımları önceliklendiren yeni VC fonu: INMerge VC Fund- 🔗

💰 Yıldız Ventures’ın da yatırımcısı olduğu 212 birinci fonunun Portföy şirketi, Yapay zeka tabanlı çok kanallı deneyim ve müşteri katılımı platformu Insider, General Atlantic liderliğinde 500 milyon dolar yatırım aldı- 🔗

🚀 Global Startups / VC News :

🔥 Silicon Valley's General Catalyst raises $8bn in global push. New money is the largest sum raised by a venture capital firm in more than 2 years- 🔗

🧑💼 LinkedIn launches its first AI agent to take on the role of job recruiters. The new product designed to take on a wide array of recruitment tasks, from ingesting scrappy notes & thoughts to turn into longer job descriptions to sourcing candidates and engaging with them- 🔗

✨ Zip Secures $190 Million in Landmark Series D Funding, Marking the Largest Investment in Procurement Technology in Over Two Decades- 🔗

🏪 Sensei reels in $16M to expand its contactless store platform in Europe- 🔗

💰 GMI Cloud raises $82 Million in total Series A Funding to drive Global Access to Advanced GPUs and Cloud Infrastructure- 🔗

🚀 Socket lands a fresh $40M to scan software for security flaws- 🔗

💸 One Zero, a fintech aiming to use AI in retail banking services, is in the process of raising at least $100 million- 🔗

🆕 India’s largest eB2B platform, Udaan, has raised approximately INR300 crore (US$36 million) through debt funding- 🔗

💰 Alpha-9 Oncology Inc. Announces $175 Million Oversubscribed Series C Financing to Advance Robust Clinical Pipeline of Radiopharmaceuticals- 🔗

⚔️ Finix raises $75M to take on Stripe as a payment processor- 🔗

💸 Nigeria based fintech Moniepoint has raised $110 million in new funding from investors including Google to scale up digital payments and banking solutions across Africa- 🔗

🆕 Billing software firm Zuora to go private in $1.7 bln deal with Silver Lake, GIC- 🔗

🔥 Terray assembles $120M series B to push AI-powered small molecules into clinic- 🔗

🛍️🛒 E-commerce / Grocery:

🛒 ABD'li perakende şirketi Walmart'ın Türkiye'ye giriş yapmaya hazırlandığı bildirildi. AmCham Türkiye Başkanı Turnaoğlu, "Walmart, Türkiye'den alımlara başlıyor. Mobilya bunlardan biri, dondurulmuş gıda bunlardan bir başkası." Dedi- 🔗

🛍️🤖 Amazon is extending the availability of its AI-enabled shopping assistant, Rufus, to more markets in Europe and the Americas- 🔗

❌ 5 grocery concepts and companies that got buried in 2024- 🔗

📈 Lidl GB is expanding its plant-based offerings, more than tripling its range. The move comes in response to a 12% increase in demand over the past year- 🔗

💰 Simbe, the robotics company whose aisle-scanning bots are in several U.S. grocery chains, raised $50 million in a Series C round led by Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives- 🔗

👉🏼 Stores report two thefts per minute as shoplifting hits record high- 🔗

🆕 Amazon pilots small-format grocery concept. The test store in Chicago is meant for quick fill-in grocery runs- 🔗

♻️ Aldi is set to reduce plastic packaging across several of its product lines in a bid to minimize its environmental impact- 🔗

⌛ Kroger begins rollout of RFID tech to fresh departments. The tech aims to provide more frequent & accurate inventory insight to prevent food waste & streamline in-store operations- 🔗

🆕 Sainsbury’s is trialing larger self-checkouts with a conveyor belt service, in replacement of staff manned tills in a bid to drive efficiency- 🔗

⚡Tesco has signed a deal to acquire enough solar energy to power 144 of its large stores in what it said was “the largest solar corporate power purchase agreement ever agreed in the UK”- 🔗

🍲 FoodTech / Food Companies

🍫 US-based cacao startup Blue Stripes secured $20mn Series B, in a round featuring Hershey’s, to develop superfood chocolates and upcycled cacao products, including cacao water, granola, and chocolate-covered cacao beans- 🔗

👀 US private equity investor Advent International is understood to be preparing a multi-billion takeover bid for food and beverage supplier Tate & Lyle- 🔗

🏭🍫 Voyage Foods Opens $25M USDA-Backed Facility, Targeting 10,000 Metric Tons of Cocoa-Free Chocolate Annually- 🔗

💰 French startup Hubcycle, which specialises in transforming food industry by-products into affordable, sustainable ingredients, closed a €15 million Series A round- 🔗

🥛 San Francisco-based Força Foods launched MILKish, which it says is the world's first watermelon seed milk- 🔗

💸 Agribusiness finance platform Agrolend has raised a $53 million Series C round, bringing its total funding to nearly $100 million- 🔗

🌎 The World Bank Group will double its agricultural finance commitments to $9 billion per year by 2030, the international lending giant - 🔗

🌾 Carbon Robotics has raised a $70 million Series D round that will fuel the growth of its autonomous LaserWeeder platform for farmers- 🔗

👉🏼 Data from the Good Food Institute reveals that alternative protein companies raised $233 million in Q3 2024, marking a 37% decline from Q2 but a 25% increase year-over-year- 🔗

📣 Cristiano Ronaldo Invests in Bioniq, a Supplement Brand Valued at $82M- 🔗

💰 Swiss startup UMAMI secured CHF 4.3mn Series A to expand its holistic indoor farming operations. Its microgreens are currently available in more than 450 Coop and Migros stores- 🔗

💸 Infinite Roots received a €2.6mn grant from the German government to develop technology that upcycles dairy industry waste, specifically whey, into a feedstock for mycelium fermentation- 🔗

🥛 Finnish vegan company Oddlygood, a spin-off of dairy giant Valio, has acquired British plant-based milk brand Rude Health- 🔗

❌ The House of Lords has said that “mandatory regulation is now needed” in the food and drinks industry to tackle the UK’s obesity crisis- 🔗

💰 MicroLub, has closed a £3.5mn seed investment round. The funding will enable them to commercialize its patented tech for fat replacement, texture enhancement & nutrient delivery- 🔗

🤖 🎮 🌎 AI / Web3 / Metaverse / Blockchain / Gaming:

📈 Perplexity AI has started a new round of fundraising talks, seeking to more than double its valuation about $9 billion. The company is looking to raise roughly $500 million- 🔗

🆕 OpenAI is reportedly working with TSMC and Broadcom to build an in-house AI chip in 2026 — and beginning to use AMD chips alongside Nvidia’s to train its AI- 🔗

💰 Concentric AI, a prominent provider of AI-based data security solutions, has successfully raised $45m in a Series B financing round- 🔗

⚔️ OpenAI launches its Google challenger, ChatGPT Search- 🔗

🤖 🎮 Buddy.ai is using AI and gaming to help children learn English as a second language- 🔗

👀 2024'ün 3. çeyreğinde üretimsel yapay zeka girişimlerine 3.9 milyar dolar yatırım yapıldı- 🔗

💰 Read AI raises $50M to capitalize on strong demand for its AI summary bot- 🔗

⌛ E.Musk’s AI company, xAI, is in talks to raise new funding at a valuation around $40 billion- 🔗

♻️ Sustainability:

🏭♻️ Dutch food firm Yespers is opening the "world's first" zero waste factory in The Hague, an apple processing facility that fully utilizes every part of the fruit- 🔗

💰 Türkiye’nin 2035’e kadar Rüzgar Enerji Santralleri yatırım hedefi 80 milyar dolar- 🔗

🔖 Worth Reading ✨

👀 60 AgriFood Solutions VCs want you to pitch them. FoodHack caught up with 25 investors to hear where they're looking to invest next- 🔗

⁉️ Why big food is buying healthy brands, and which is next?- 🔗

👉🏼 Whole Foods Market Forecasts the Top 10 Food and Beverage Trends for 2025- 🔗

🍫 A graph of how chocolate is changing- 🔗

🌠 Discover the AgriFood startups on Time’s Best Inventions of 2024 list including Shiru, Meatable, BeeHero, Brightseed and LifeStraw- 🔗

📣 Nestlé ‘not broken’ says new chief as he announces restructuring- 🔗

⚔️ Kroger and Albertsons make their final pitch. In state and federal courts, the retailers have painted the deal as essential to enabling them to bring down prices in a world ruled by Walmart- 🔗

⁉️ How grocers’ private brands can better appeal to Gen Z- 🔗

⭐ News from Yıldız Ventures’ Portfolio Companies