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Kubeark raises $2.8m pre-seed to scale software products and speed up cloud adoption

by Anamaria Iuga
This post is by Anamaria Iuga from Seedcamp

The pandemic has been one of the most powerful accelerants for digital transformation in recent years. At record speed, CIOs, CFOs, and CTOs were forced to adopt flexible cloud strategies and tools that enabled them and their teams to take control of their mission-critical workloads and data management. However, fast adoption is only the first step in the process of delivering software products at scale.

This is why we are excited to back Kubeark, an early-stage startup founded in April 2022. Based in New York and Bucharest, the company’s mission is to support enterprises fix their scalability, delivery, and lifecycle management challenges.

Bogdan Nedelcov, Kubeark’s CEO and co-founder, emphasizes:

“Software vendors currently struggle with their hybrid cloud infrastructure and the transformation of products from on-premises to cloud on a large scale. Kubeark helps them achieve operational excellence regardless of where their infrastructure resides: on-prem, public cloud, or private cloud. Our platform ushers in a new era in which software products are delivered as true Saas products, helping vendors speed time-to-value, hyper-scale their distribution, and SaaSify any piece of software instantly.”

On why we invested, our Managing Partner Reshma Sohoni comments:

“We are excited to back Kubeark, a company founded by an incredibly experienced team with roots at Seedcamp-backed UIPath. Their holistic yet versatile solution has the potential to supercharge scalability in an efficient and secure way.”

The six-strong founders’ team includes CEO Bogdan Nedelcov, CTO Teofil Harapcea, VP of Engineering Adrian Tudoran, VP of Customer Success George Dumitrascu, (Read more...)

Charging access is still the “new” problem for Electric Vehicle commercial fleets

by Anamaria Iuga
This post is by Anamaria Iuga from Seedcamp

Our Managing Partner Carlos Espinal’s Q & A with Niall Riddell and André Pinho, founders of Paua, on the interoperability of an ever-expanding yet fractured charging network and making Electric Vehicle (EV) charging user-friendly 

On a recent epic road trip across the UK this summer, I had my high hopes of a seamless charging experience shattered. Besides having to queue up at some stations, finding others out of service, and installing at least 15 apps to cover all the services on offer, I found the cost of electricity for EV charging to be all over the map – ranging from 28p to nearly £1 depending on where the stations were based and their speed of charge.

This cost variance is much wider than in petrol/diesel vehicles and feels like an unfair penalty for those wishing to help the environment through cleaner vehicles. To aggravate things further, charging speeds range from dead slow to 50x faster depending on where the charger is. These further exacerbate the problem of range and cost anxiety for EV owners – after all, time is money. The reality is most people and businesses care more about their time when they are travelling from A to B than p/kWh.

Despite current geopolitical and energy market developments, the demand for Electric Vehicles is on the rise. Customers’ demands are also changing, putting pressure on EV infrastructure providers to offer higher-quality services. In particular, for commercial fleets, for which reliability and cost efficiency are make-or-break factors, improved (Read more...)

Our investment in Yavin’s €5M round for its smart payment terminal

by Natasha Lytton
This post is by Natasha Lytton from Seedcamp

FinTech + France = a winning combination. While financial services continues to be one of our most active sectors at Seedcamp, the wave of exceptional entrepreneurial talent emerging from France is also a trend that shows no signs of slowing down.

Just six months after leading their initial €1.2M round, we’re very excited to double down on our support in Alfred and Samuel, co-founders of Yavin, to supercharge their in-store payment platform and accelerate international development.

Yavin co-founders Alfred Bourély and Samuel Manassé

Founded in 2020, Yavin has been reinventing the in-store payment experience for local businesses. Co-founders Samuel Manassé (CEO), former CEO of SumUp challenger Smile&Pay, and Alfred Bourély (CTO) created Yavin to empower SMBs and help merchants get the best service, at the best price, while keeping freedom and control. With its no-commitment transparent offer, Yavin wants to free local shops from hidden fees and lock-in contracts of banks. For a monthly subscription fee, merchants can accept all payments (including contactless, QR-codes, crypto, pay-in-3, etc.), connect Yavin to their existing PoS system, and benefit from competitive transaction fees.

Samuel Manassé, CEO and Co-founder of Yavin, comments: “Merchants were forced to use outdated solutions for years. At Yavin, we are building with our customers and partners the in-store payment solution they have been waiting for. Payment will evolve enormously over the next few years. We will be at the side of merchants, so they can benefit from the next revolution”.

Yavin launched its first offer in France, bringing (Read more...)

Synctera raises $33M Series A to pair fintechs with banks

by Mary Ann Azevedo

Synctera, which aims to serve as a matchmaker for community banks and fintechs, has raised $33 million in a Series A round of funding led by Fin VC.

The raise comes just under six months after the fintech raised $12.4 million in a seed round of funding.

New investors Mastercard and Gaingels also participated in the latest round, which included follow-on investments from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Diagram Ventures, SciFi Ventures and Scribble Ventures. Several angel investors put money in the Series A including Omri Dahan, Marqeta’s Chief Revenue Officer, Feedzai Chairman and CEO Nuno Sebastiao and Greenlight co-founder and CEO Tim Sheehan. 

Alongside the Series A, Synctera is also announcing its commitment to the new Cap Table Coalition – which includes funding from Gaingels, Neythri Futures Fund, Plexo Capital and over 20 angels – alongside other startups by allocating 10% of all funding rounds to “traditionally marginalized,” or underrepresented, investors via an SPV. (Fellow fintech Finix led the initiative earlier this year before forming this coalition but more on that later).

Fintech startup Finix closes on $3M in Black and Latinx investor-led SPV

“This has exposed us to find great folks who we otherwise might not have known,” said Synctera’s co-founder and CEO Peter Hazlehurst. “That’s why we pledge to reserve 10% of this round and all future rounds to diverse investors.”

In a nutshell, San Francisco-based Synctera has developed a platform designed to help facilitate partnership banking. It was founded on the premise that some community banks and (Read more...)

Meet Justos, the new Brazilian insurtech that just got backing from the CEOs of 7 unicorns

by Mary Ann Azevedo

Here in the U.S. the concept of using driver’s data to decide the cost of auto insurance premiums is not a new one.

But in markets like Brazil, the idea is still considered relatively novel. A new startup called Justos claims it will be the first Brazilian insurer to use drivers’ data to reward those who drive safely by offering “fairer” prices.

And now Justos has raised about $2.8 million in a seed round led by Kaszek, one of the largest and most active VC firms in Latin America. Big Bets also participated in the round along with the CEOs of seven unicorns including Assaf Wand, CEO and co-founder of Hippo Insurance; David Velez, founder and CEO of Nubank; Carlos Garcia, founder and CEO Kavak; Sergio Furio, founder and CEO of Creditas; Patrick Sigris, founder of iFood and Fritz Lanman, CEO of ClassPass. Senior executives from Robinhood, Stripe, Wise, Carta and Capital One also put money in the round.

Serial entrepreneurs Dhaval Chadha, Jorge Soto Moreno and Antonio Molins co-founded Justos, having most recently worked at various Silicon Valley-based companies including ClassPass, Netflix and Airbnb.

“While we have been friends for a while, it was a coincidence that all three of us were thinking about building something new in Latin America,” Chadha said. “We spent two months studying possible paths, talking to people and investors in the United States, Brazil and Mexico, until we came up with the idea of creating an insurance company that can modernize the sector, starting (Read more...)

Meet Justos, the new Brazilian insurtech that just got backing from the CEOs of 7 unicorns

by Mary Ann Azevedo

Here in the U.S. the concept of using driver’s data to decide the cost of auto insurance premiums is not a new one.

But in markets like Brazil, the idea is still considered relatively novel. A new startup called Justos claims it will be the first Brazilian insurer to use drivers’ data to reward those who drive safely by offering “fairer” prices.

And now Justos has raised about $2.8 million in a seed round led by Kaszek, one of the largest and most active VC firms in Latin America. Big Bets also participated in the round along with the CEOs of seven unicorns including Assaf Wand, CEO and co-founder of Hippo Insurance; David Velez, founder and CEO of Nubank; Carlos Garcia, founder and CEO Kavak; Sergio Furio, founder and CEO of Creditas; Patrick Sigris, founder of iFood and Fritz Lanman, CEO of ClassPass. Senior executives from Robinhood, Stripe, Wise, Carta and Capital One also put money in the round.

Serial entrepreneurs Dhaval Chadha, Jorge Soto Moreno and Antonio Molins co-founded Justos, having most recently worked at various Silicon Valley-based companies including ClassPass, Netflix and Airbnb.

“While we have been friends for a while, it was a coincidence that all three of us were thinking about building something new in Latin America,” Chadha said. “We spent two months studying possible paths, talking to people and investors in the United States, Brazil and Mexico, until we came up with the idea of creating an insurance company that can modernize the sector, starting (Read more...)

SESO Labor is providing a way for migrant farmworkers to get legally protected work status in the US

by Jonathan Shieber

As the Biden administration works to bring legislation to Congress to address the endemic problem of immigration reform in America, on the other side of the nation a small California startup called SESO Labor has raised $4.5 million to ensure that farms can have access to legal migrant labor.

SESO’s founder Mike Guirguis raised the round over the summer from investors including Founders Fund and NFX. Pete Flint, a founder of Trulia joined the company’s board. The company has 12 farms it’s working with and negotiating contracts with another 46.

Working within the existing regulatory framework that has existed since 1986, SESO has created a service that streamlines and manages the process of getting H-2A visas, which allow migrant agricultural workers to reside temporarily in the U.S. with legal protections.

At this point, SESO is automating the visa process, getting the paperwork in place for workers and smoothing the application process. The company charges about $1,000 per application, but eventually as it begins offering more services to workers themselves, Guirguis envisions several robust lines of revenue. Eventually, the company would like to offer integrated services for both farm owners and farm workers, Guirguis said.

SESO is currently expecting to bring in 1,000 workers over the course of 2021 and the company is, as of now, pre-revenue. The largest industry player handling worker visas today currently brings in 6,000 workers per year, so the competition, for SESO, is market share, Guirguis said.

America’s complicated history of immigration and agricultural labor

The (Read more...)