Enterprise Weekly #455: Funding Challenges, Top Pre-Seed NYC Enterprise Startups, and More
This week, Jessica spoke to Term Sheet about how, “In 2021, when the market was at its peak, many VCs were saying ‘we don’t need ownership, we don’t need board seats’ to get into overly priced, competitive deals. And now so many companies are still trying to work their way out of 2021’s consequences, saddled with high valuations.”
The reality is that almost everyone in the ecosystem has been affected, but the most visible have been high-profile companies like Brex, which fired 20% of its staff (despite $1.5B in funding and a $12.3B valuation) after news hit that the company burned $17M a month in Q4 2023 and that it only had enough cash to last through March 2026. But Brex isn’t alone. In the first 24 days of 2024, 70 tech companies announced layoffs – more cautionary tales of the downsides of raising too much.
Despite the frosty funding environment and recent funding declines, Seed has been a shining light. To amplify this ecosystem, we published our annual list of the NYC Enterprise Pre-Seed Startups to Watch for the coming year across the Cloud Native/ Developer Tools, Data/AI/ML, and Saas/Enterprise Application spaces.
🖥️ Join more Work-Bench events:
Tuesday, February 6: NYC Early-Stage Software Happy Hour co-hosted with Comma Capital
Wednesday, February 7: NYC Angel & Pre-Seed Investor Drinks
Wednesday, February 21: Enterprise Sales Masterclass on How Technical Founders Can Sell Technical Products where Work-Bench Sales Advisor Kiran Narsu will walk through the 5 critical stages of sales including messaging, discovery, org mapping, demoing, and enterprise readiness
📚 Read more news:
Bloomberg: Microsoft Closes at Record, Ends Just Shy of $3 Trillion Value
Crunchbase: US Seed Investment Actually Held Up Pretty Well For The Past 2 Years. Here’s What That Means For 2024
WSJ: Google Cloud Eliminates a Switching Cost as Regulators Step Up Industry Oversight
🔦 Read Work-Bench investor spotlights:
📚 Read more (th)reads:
Company: Courier Health
Role: Solutions Consultant
Technology: Patient Engagement Platform
Funding: $4M from Work-Bench
🌟 Company of the Week 🌟
Prompt Security raises $5M led by Hetz Ventures
Risk / Security • Seed • Tel Aviv, Israel
Founders: Itamar Golan (CEO), Lior Drihem (CTO)
Coana raises $1.6M led by Sequoia Capital
Risk / Security • Pre-Seed • Aarhus, Denmark
Send AI raises $2.4M led by Gradient Ventures and Keen Venture Partners
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Pre-Seed • Amsterdam, Netherlands
Naq raises $3.3M led by No Such Ventures
Risk / Security • Venture • Den Haag, Netherlands
unSkript raises $3.8M led by Westwave Capital, First Rays Venture Partners, and Others
Infrastructure / Dev Tools • Pre-Seed • Los Altos Hills, CA
TextQL raises $4.1M led by Neo and DCM
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Pre-Seed & Seed • San Francisco, CA
Crescendo raises $4.5M led by General Catalyst
Future of Work • Seed • San Francisco, CA
HEAL Security raises $4.6M led by Health2047
Risk / Security • Seed • Menlo Park, CA
RagaAI raises $4.7M led by pi Ventures
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Seed • San Francisco, CA
UpSmith raises $5M led by Hannah Gray
HR Tech • Seed • Dallas, TX
Arcee raises $5.5M led by Flybridge, Wndrco and Others
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Seed • Miami, FL
Deeploi raises $6.5M led by Atomico
Infrastructure / Dev Tools • Seed • Berlin, Germany
OpenDialog raises $8M led by Albion VC
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Series A • London, UK
Better Stack raises $10M led by KAYA
Infrastructure / Dev Tools • Venture • San Francisco, CA
Norm AI raises $11.1M led by Coatue
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Seed • New York, NY
Spellbook raises $20M led by Inovia Capital
Collaboration / Productivity • Series A • Toronto, Canada
Qdrant raises $28M led by Spark Capital
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Series A • Berlin, Germany
Clerk raises $30M led by CRV
Risk / Security • Series B • San Francisco, CA
Anomalo raises $33M led by SignalFire
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Series B • San Francisco, CA
Oleria raises $33.1M led by Evolution Equity Partners
Risk / Security • Series A • Bellevue, WA
Kittl raises $36M led by IVP
Collaboration / Productivity • Series B • Berlin, Germany
Blueshift raises $40M led by Runway Growth Capital
Sales / Marketing • Debt • San Francisco, CA
Torq raises $42M led by Bessemer Venture Partners, GGV Capital, and Others
Risk / Security • Series B • Portland, OR
ElevenLabs raises $80M led by a16z, Nat Friedman, and Daniel Gross
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Series B • New York, NY
BillingPlatform raises $90M led by FTV Capital
Future of Work • Venture • Denver, CO
TravelPerk raises $104M led by SoftBank
Future of Work • Series D • Barcelon, Spain
Silverfort raises $116M led by Brighton Park Capital
Risk / Security • Series D • Tel Aviv, Israel
Chronosphere acquires Calyptia for an Undisclosed Amount
Infrastructure / Dev Tools • Acquisition • San Francisco, CA