One area of tech that's particularly hopeful is startups fighting cancer — and getting venture funding to do so. Biotech startup Granza Bio is one of these and raised a $7 million seed from Felicis, Refactor, and Y Combinator to advance delivery of cancer treatments.
Granza Bio is a winter 2024 Y Combinator grad, and YC wants to back more startups like it. YC's request for startups (RFS) shared in February included a call for "a way to end cancer." The main focus of that RFS was on startups that can reduce the cost of MRIs — not a perfect answer since MRIs are known to produce false positives. So it's noteworthy that the accelerator is actually approaching the battle against cancer from multiple angles, including biotech.
Another interesting note: Felicis is a generalist VC firm but invests 10% to 15% of its capital into biology-focused startups. That's also a sign that biotech is going mainstream and is another reason to keep an eye on new startups emerging in this space.
Look up: Hebbia, a startup using generative AI to search large documents and return answers, has raised a nearly $100 million Series B led by Andreessen Horowitz, sources told TechCrunch.
New centaur: HR tech is in high demand everywhere, including in Japan, where SmartHR raised a $140 million Series E round of funding after its annual recurring revenue (ARR) reached $100 million.
Material world: French deep tech startup Altrove raised some $4 million to leverage AI models and lab automation to create new materials.
Cart path: Robotics startup Cartken raised $10 million in a recent funding round led by 468 Capital. It also found that demand for its small autonomous robots goes beyond sidewalk delivery and is exploring indoor use cases.
Happy days: Apiday raised €10 million in a Series A funding round that will help it double down on Europe, where regulatory tailwinds are boosting its ESG (environmental, social, and governance) reporting platform.
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