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The Big One: The South sees it share of VC rise
The percentage of startup funding concentrated in Silicon Valley has been steadily declining for years. And a new report shows the West Coast's overall share of venture-capital dollars is also on the decline as other regions of the country prove to be more than capable hubs for startup growth.
Four years ago, the share of startup capital in the South was just 10%. Last quarter, that number shot up to 20%, according to Carta, an equity-management platform. That's the highest percentage of funding that companies from the South have raised on Carta since 2018, when Carta's data begins.
The South's growth comes as the share of VC dollars in the West has shrunk. Four years ago, in the second quarter of 2019, companies in the West saw 59% of all U.S. VC investment. Last quarter, that number was just 44%. That's the lowest figure for the West since Carta began tracking data in 2018. The West's highest percentage of venture funding was 64% in early 2018.
In the past four years, the Northeast has also seen its share of venture funding rise, growing from 25% in Q2 2019 to 30% last quarter. In the Midwest, its VC funding percentage has held steady at 6%.
READ THE FULL REPORT: VC funding share rises in the South amid a challenging economy
Startups to Watch
- Weights & Biases, an artificial intelligence startup building software that helps other businesses develop machine learning platforms and products more responsibly, raised $50 million in new funding. The round was led by former Github CEO Nat Friedman. Weights & Biases helps other AI and machine learning developers automate a lot of processes so that their repositories of code aren't so-called black boxes. Instead, the tools from Weights & Biases help developers track and monitor their code so that it can be more easily observed, debugged, audited and explained, which is important for keeping code organized as well as ensuring compliance with regulations, Bay Area Inno reports.
- WMIIR – or Music Intelligence Impact Retrieval – has discovered what it says is the “DNA of music” with a tech that can pinpoint the moments in songs that trigger the greatest emotional responses in the brain. The most impactful clips in songs can enhance the power of advertisements or movie trailers, they can have positive effects on pain management and depression or they can be touted out front of a new album release, the company says.. The company's chief science adviser is music neuroscientist Daniel Levitin, author of the book "This is Your Brain on Music" and a former producer and sound engineer for musical artists like Blue Öyster Cult and Stevie Wonder. Others on the team have also have ties throughout their careers to artists like Prince, Steely Dan and Janet Jackson. Minne Inno reports.
- Ryse Aero Technologies, a startup building a single occupancy, ultralight aircraft – which its owners can operate sans pilot license – has launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise $5 million. Its flagship product, the Recon, an eVTOL capable of taking off and landing on water, has up to a 20- to-25-mile range with the ability to reach a top speed of 63 mph, Cincy Inno reports.
- About four months on from his appearance on the hit investor TV show "Shark Tank," the CEO of Santa Fe-based death care startup Parting Stone said his company has seen a "general increase in everything" across the business as it enters what he called a "new normal" for the startup. The startup, which makes solidified remains from the ashes of deceased people or pets by partnering with funeral homes or receiving orders directly from families, has seen a 100% increase in monthly direct-to-consumer sales since the episode aired, New Mexico Inno reports.
- Atlanta startup Tractian, which is using artificial intelligence to predict when machines need maintenance, has raised $45 million. Its monitoring software and sensors are used in more than 1,000 industrial plants, Atlanta Inno reports.
SoftBank sues startup CEO
Less than two months after a San Francisco-based social media company shut down, SoftBank is suing the former CEO and several of his family members for allegedly defrauding the venture firm.
Legally known as Get Together Inc., IRL shut down in June after its own board of directors launched an internal investigation into the company's metrics and found 95% of its users were fake.
The suit names IRL's co-founder and CEO Abraham Shafi as a defendant, along with several of his family members who were involved with the company, and alleges they misled and defrauded the Japanese firm's Vision Fund 2. SoftBank invested $150 million into IRL during the company's Series C round in May 2021, the complaint says. That investment included $7.5 million worth of shares that SoftBank bought from Shafi, the complaint says.
Shafi did not respond to requests for comment from the San Francisco Business Times.
FULL STORY: SoftBank sues former CEO of failed San Francisco startup
Weird and Wired: Caffeinated eye drops
Need a boost? Try an eye drop.
Revitalize Energy, a Pittsburgh-based startup that makes caffeinated eye drops to prevent vision fatigue commonly caused by computer screens, has received its first bulk order of the product and has begun offering direct sales to consumers.
The startup, whose product has been cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, has raised about $300,000 since its founding.
