The end of the yr has come and everyone should finally have some time to familiarize themselves with interesting startup financing offers that may have gone unnoticed over the last 12 months.
Typically, it’s the rounds with the most money or the biggest investors that make the headlines, but this yr there have been a variety of deals that caught the eye precisely because of the technology that was being funded.
With that said, let’s try their long list.
Strengthening plants in the face of climate change
Data from Atlas of water hazards in the WRI aqueduct shows that 25 countries – accounting for about a quarter of the world’s population – face extremely high water shortages every yr. In the United States alone, it is estimated that roughly 23% of the land area is water scarce.
As water becomes a scarcer commodity and water-related stress becomes more common, it is essential that populations strengthen their food supply in some strategy to compensate.
One startup trying to do just that is Call the plantwhich closed the 48 million series B in the lead Carbyne Capital Partners.
The startup has developed solutions based on phytosterols that are intended to assist plants higher adapt to climate change. Phytosterols are natural substances produced by plants in response to water stress, increasing immunity and reducing water dependence.
Elicit solutions could be applied as early-season sprays, helping crops alleviate environmental stress. Farmers who sprayed reported reducing water use by 20% while increasing yields by as much as 10%.
The company will use the latest money for expansion in the USA. Since 2022, it has been collaborating on field trials in the country’s corn belt. Elicit says it is able to bring its product to market next yr and expand its product range to incorporate soybeans and other crops by 2027.
Building higher AI relationships
For those that want higher, more meaningful interactions and connections with AI, the startup raised some seed funding this yr to assist with that.
CharacterX has secured $2.8 million in seed financing at a $30 million valuation from investors that include Partners of the Lightspeed enterprise AND Spark Digital Capital for its latest Web3 AI social network. The Singapore-based startup goals to create (*10*) by building enhanced social experiences using multimodal AI, including 3D modeling.
In his post on Mediumthe company asks you to “imagine traveling the world with your AI companion who understands not only your words, but also your expressions, gestures, tone of voice and real environment. Our AI agents are built for deep and proactive social interactions…
The company says it already has over 500,000 users, each of whom spends an average of half-hour a day on the app.
The weeds will disappear
Nobody likes weeds – this is very true for farmers where weeds can eat into their profit margins.
That’s right there Carbon roboticsA Seattle-based AI-powered agriculture startup is entering the market. Carbon closed a $70 million Series D deal led by a latest investor Bond. The company plans to make use of the money to develop LaserWeeder software and hardware.
The company says LaserWeeder combines computer vision, deep artificial intelligence learning, robotics and lasers to discover and eliminate weeds using CO₂ lasers – with millimeter accuracy. The company says the machines, which could be connected to tractors and driven through crop aisles, reduce weed control costs by 80% while increasing yields and crop quality.
Carbon Robotics says its machines can pull about 5,000 weeds per minute, and growers in North America, Europe and Australia have eliminated greater than 10 billion weeds in 100 kinds of crops using AI-powered technology.
The company also had no difficulty in getting investors interested in its invention. Founded in 2018, Carbon has raised $157 million for the company.
If AI takes over the world one day, it will probably actually kill a few weeds for now.
The power of water
Everyone is looking for more clean energy sources – especially with our latest obsession with artificial intelligence.
CorPower Ocean it secured about $35 million in a round led by a Japanese-backed enterprise capital firm NordicNinja VC to assist commercialize energy from an unusual source – ocean waves.
The Swedish startup has operations in Sweden, Norway, Portugal and Scotland and is expanding to the US West Coast to show its technological capabilities to deal with two major wave energy challenges – storm resilience and efficient power generation in normal ocean conditions.
Although wave energy is more predictable than wind energy, the industry has not yet been capable of achieve large-scale commercialization.
The latest money comes after the company showed that its wave technology project in Portugal was capable of operate during Atlantic storms at high generating capability, so perhaps power generation by ocean waves is becoming more likely.
CorPower has secured over $100 million in financing, so investors clearly think so.
Allergy protection in your pocket
In the USA approximately 33 million people treat food allergiesso going outside can probably cause moments of tension.
Allergen detection company Amulet has something that may help. In August, the Madison, Wisconsin-based startup raised $5.8 million in led Series A funding HealthX ventures.
The startup created the Allergy Amulet. The company says this small device, which looks like a USB drive, allows people to check for food allergens on the go. The device has portable sensors containing rapid on-site molecular detection technology that can detect allergens, toxins and contaminants.
The startup also has one other industrial device aimed at helping restaurants, suppliers and manufacturers discover food toxins and environmental pollutants.
If you have allergies, not knowing what’s in your food could be scary. Perhaps carrying this in your pocket will provide some peace of mind.
Seedless blackberries
Almost everyone likes some style of fruit – but let’s face it, they’d be higher without the seeds. Enter Plants in pairsa gene editing company attempting to improve plant breeding for specialty and industrial crops. The Durham, North Carolina-based startup closed a $40 million Series C led by him Deerfield Management along with other investors equivalent to Bayer’s jumpsin addition to a giant in the agricultural industry Corteva Agricultural Science.
The company will use the money injection to expand its offering of revolutionary products, including seedless blueberries and seedless cherries. Pairwise already has a seedless blackberry variety that is announced in June.
However, Pairwise is not the only one developing seedless fruit. Its gene-editing technology also allows crops to be more resilient and adaptive, which is needed in the face of the deepening effects of climate change.
As a part of the investment, Corteva and Pairwise have entered into a five-year three way partnership to speed up the development of gene editing technology.
The world is changing, our food must follow suit.
Check your eyes
Typically, when we talk about healthcare and artificial intelligence, it refers to biotechnology that uses the technology to enhance treatments or aid in the clinical trial process.
However, Okobot closed $6 million in a round led by AlleyCorp AND Ubiquitous ventures for a different business model. A Boston-based startup desires to build a network of AI-equipped kiosks that provide 90-second eye tests.
Yes, self-service, quick eye tests without an ophthalmologist. Hey, if you can scan your personal groceries, why not turn into your personal eye doctor? The prescription that the kiosk spits out is finalized by the teledoctor, but that still eliminates the need for a traditional eye visit – which could also be a good thing considering optometry labor shortage.
The startup began rolling out its kiosks – which appear to be old-school slot machines – in places like shopping malls and pharmacies in October in the Northeast, with plans to scale them up next yr.
Keep an eye out!
Voice prompts
Now, moving from seeing to speaking, Canarian speech is next on the list after raising a $13 million Series A funding round led by Capital of Cortes.
Provo, Utah-based healthtech startup using artificial intelligence uses patented voice evaluation to screen for mental health and neurological disorders.
Canary’s vocal biomarker technology can capture and analyze speech data in seconds to discover abnormal behavioral and cognitive changes – exceeding current clinical testing standards and before users experience noticeable symptoms of diseases equivalent to anxiety, depression and dementia.
Canary’s ambient listening tools can’t only assess patient health, but also assess physicians’ health at the same time – which is more essential than ever for American Medical Association reporting that at the end of 2021, nearly 63% of doctors experienced symptoms of burnout.
Makes it rain
One thing humanity still hasn’t found out is how one can control Mother Nature.
Nevertheless, an El Segundo, California-based startup is trying it when it involves rain.
Rainmaker Technology raised a seed round price $6.3 million from a large group of investors to which it belongs Long journey expeditions, Champion Hill Ventures AND Garry Tan. The startup’s goal is to develop cloud seeding techniques, a weather modification tool discovered last century that goals to insert ice nuclei into clouds and cause, well, rain.
Cloud seeding can work, but the query is normally how well it really works. Also appeared in news Lately.
Rainmaker has hired its first engineers this yr and it appears it’s able to make it rain.
Cleaning the space
We normally stay away from the big rounds on this list, but we do make exceptions.
Italian space start-up D orbit in January, it raised over $108 million led by: Marubeni. The startup is principally a space logistics and garbage cleanup company. It desires to satisfy the must move the satellite to a precise location after it has been put into orbit by e.g SpaceX.
The company is also looking at ways to wash up space – it gets crowded there – by helping to interrupt up satellites in the atmosphere or move them further away.
The company hasn’t announced the valuation of the round, but a SPAC deal two years ago that was later canceled valued D-Orbit at about $1.3 billion.