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B2B Embedded Payments & Streamlined Permits

December 22, 2023

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Welcome to the 39th edition of our newsletter, where we feature the most exciting early-stage startups, job openings, and valuable resources, all in a single newsletter.

Let's dive in...

In partnership with Chargeflow

What is the best way to avoid credit card monitoring programs, payout holds, and payment processor account suspensions as a SaaS entrepreneur?

Two words: Chargeflow Alerts.

The way it works is simple - Chargeflow gets notified before chargebacks occur (disputed transaction), and takes corrective actions before the dispute evolves into a full-blown chargeback.

Why Chargeflow Alerts is different than other alerts chargeback alert services?

  • It takes action on your behalf: Most chargeback prevention services just send you the alert for you to automatically cancel the transaction. Chargeflow does that automatically for you.

  • It automatically cancels duplicated alerts: Chargeflow receives immediate alerts from various sources but also automatically cancels duplications, saving you confusion and headache.

  • Success-based pricing: Chargeflow charges you only when we have automatically prevented a chargeback.

It doesn't matter if you're just getting started - it takes only a 0.65% dispute rate for Stripe to move your account to a Visa Monitoring Program. If you receive 1 Chargeback out of 100, you are already at 1%, so better be safe than having your account suspended.

Startup spotlight

What? Stitch is an embedded payments and financing platform tailored for B2B marketplaces, redefining how businesses handle payments, manage credit, access financing, and enhance their working capital.

Why? B2B payments have remained intricate and largely manual, constraining businesses due to complex transactions and limited financing options. Recognizing this gap, Stitch identified the absence of dedicated payments infrastructure designed for the unique challenges of B2B marketplaces.

Starting with embedded financing, Stitch aims to replicate the seamless consumer experience in the complex realm of B2B payments.

Simplified Credit Management: With Stitch, businesses can abandon the hassle of chasing invoices and fretting over delayed payments. They empower businesses to offer flexible credit terms directly to customers, amplifying sales and fostering customer loyalty. Stitch assumes the late payments and non-payment risk, relieving concerns about bad debts. Beyond merely facilitating payments, Stitch integrates solutions in one place, enabling B2B marketplaces to introduce new payment methods and efficiently manage cash flow while minimizing disruptions.

Founded: 2023 in San Francisco, US

Industries: Fintech

Stage: Pre-seed

Founder: Tim Snyder (CEO) - ex-CTO @ Lean (acq by When I Work), Engineering Lead @ Weebly, Square Capital

Investors: N/A

💼: Founding Engineer (Full Stack) - San Francisco, CA

What? Pulley offers powerful permitting software and local permitting services, so project teams can get to approval faster, with less effort. Developers, contractors, and architects leverage Pulley to accurately identify permitting requirements upfront, collaborate efficiently on submittals, track permit status in real-time, and reduce rounds of comments from city staff. Pulley supports site and building permits for commercial, industrial, hospitality, education, and medical projects.

Why? Permitting hurdles1 are a common concern voiced by developers, architects, and contractors. The current process, which spans months and varies significantly across cities, presents a convoluted maze of ever-evolving requirements unique to each jurisdiction.

This sluggish and costly permitting process is largely due to:

  • Over 19,000 diverse jurisdictions in the US.

  • Enforcing more than 10,000 pages of building codes.

  • Inadequate documentation and frequent requirement changes.

Studies indicate that sluggish permitting can inflate construction costs by up to 15%, ultimately affecting homebuyers, tenants of apartments, and office lessees.

Pulley’s mission is to accelerate the groundbreaking phase, leading to quicker construction completion and enabling increased development—whether it involves new residences, apartment complexes, energy-efficient retrofits, or solar installations.

Founded: 2021 in San Francisco, US

Industries: Construction

Stage: Seed

Founders: Andreas Rotenberg (COO) - ex-Chief Of Staff @ Procore Technologies; Charlie Jacobson (CEO) - ex-Product Manager @ Oasis Labs, Amazon, eero

Which early-stage startup should we feature next? Send us a reply. (Criteria: Pre-Seed, Seed, and Series A startups)

Venture deals

  • Claim (San Francisco, CA) - a platform that is both a rewards app and a social network - secured $4M in Seed funding. Sequoia Capital led the round, joined by Susa Ventures, BoxGroup, 6th Man Ventures, Reflexive Capital, A* Capital, GSW Ventures, The Kraft Group, Theia, Luke deWilde, and others.

  • Pivot (Paris, France) - a procurement automation startup - raised €20M in Series A funding, with backing from Visionaries, Emblem, Anamcara, and Oliver Samwer.

  • SimSpace (Boston, MA) - specializing in military-grade cybersecurity - raised $45M in funding, bringing the total to $70M. L2Point Management led the round.

  • Backer (San Francisco, CA) - a fintech company focusing on tax-advantaged 529 Savings Plans - secured $9.5M in funding, led by WndrCo.

  • Unnatural Products (Santa Cruz, CA) - a biotech company merging AI with chemistry for targeted therapeutics - raised $32M in Series A funding. Merck Global Health Innovation Fund (MGHIF) and ARTIS Ventures led the round, joined by First Spark Ventures, The Venture Collective, Humain Ventures, LongeVC, Not Boring Capital, and existing investors.

  • Lightmatter (Boston, MA) - specializing in photonics-enabled technologies - raised $155M in Series C-2, at a valuation of $1.2B. GV and Viking Global Investors led the round.

  • Halcyon (Austin, TX) - a ransomware-defeating platform - closed a $40M Series B funding round led by Bain Capital Ventures (BCV). Enrique Salem (former Symantec CEO) will join the Board of Directors, and Jeff Williams will join as Chief Revenue Officer.

  • Formless (Cambridge, MA) - building decentralized network infrastructure for property rights management - secured $2.2M in Pre-Seed funding. Notable backers included a16z Crypto CSS, Beacon web3 accelerator, Sandeep Nailwal (Co-Founder of Polygon Network), Ryan Fang (Co-Founder and COO of Ankr), Dharmesh Shah (Founder and CTO of HubSpot), and Dallas Austin (Grammy-award winning producer and CEO of Dallas Austin Distribution).

  • Axelspace (Tokyo, Japan) - a micro-satellites technology company - raised $44M in Series D funding, with backing from various entities including Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, SMBC Venture Capital Management Co., Global Brain Corporation, Mitsui Fudosan, EPSON X Investment Corporation, Keio Innovation Initiative, Tokyo University of Science Innovation Capital, The Nanto Bank, and The Seibu Shinkin Bank.

  • Vestwell (New York City, NY) - a savings and investment platform previously backed by Goldman Sachs - secured $125M in new funding. Lightspeed Venture Partners led the round, valuing the company at $1B according to Bloomberg.

  • ScaleOps (Tel Aviv, Israel) - a startup specializing in a fully-automated platform for optimizing and managing cloud-native resources during runtime - raised a $15M Series A round. Lightspeed Venture Partners, NFX, and Gilot Capital Partners were the co-leads in this round, bringing the total raised by the company to $21.5M.

  • Medallion (New York City, NY) - a platform empowering artists with a dedicated digital hub for promoting album releases, tour dates, merch drops, selling digital collectibles, and sharing exclusive content to connect deeply with fans - raised a $13.7M Series A round. The round was co-led by Dragonfly and Lightspeed Faction.

Other

  • Partech, a Paris, France-based tech investment firm, launched its €360M venture fund. The fund's focus areas span Application Software, Deep Tech Software (covering Data & AI Infrastructure, Cybersecurity, DevOps), B2B & B2B2C Vertical Platforms, and Fintech & Insurtech Applications. Partech maintains its strategy to lead investments in 22 to 24 European companies at Series A/Series B stages, with revenues ranging from €1 to €10M annually.

What we're reading

  • Adobe has abandoned its $20 billion acquisition of Figma following mounting pressure from regulators in the UK and EU. Adobe will pay a termination fee of $1 billion. (Reuters)

  • OpenAI strengthens safety protocols to fend off the threat of harmful AI. A new “safety advisory group” will sit above the technical teams and make recommendations to leadership, and the board has been granted veto power. (TechCrunch)

  • According to The Information, Anthropic, the San Francisco, CA-based artificial intelligence startup, is reportedly in talks to raise $750 million in funding at a valuation of as much as $18 billion led by Menlo Ventures. That's three times what it was valued at this spring.

  • Bird Global Inc., the company that flooded major cities' sidewalks with electric scooters, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Southern Florida, listing assets and liabilities of between $100 million and $500 million in a court filing that protects the company from creditors while it seeks court approval of a plan to repay them. (Bloomberg)

  • SoftBank is selling its Open Opportunity Fund to its chairman and managing partner, Paul Judge, and Marcelo Claure, who is being appointed the fund’s vice chairman and general partner. Judge and Claure will fully own the firm’s $100 million Open Opportunity Fund 1, the $150 million Fund 2, as well as the entire portfolio. Fund 2, launched earlier this year, will also increase its target to $200 million. (TechCrunch)

  • Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount are in discussions for a potential merger. The combination would create a news and entertainment behemoth that would likely trigger further industry consolidation. (Axios)

  • Apple has lost its bid to delay an import and sales ban on the Watch Series 9 and Watch Ultra 2. In a filing on Wednesday, the US International Trade Commission (ITC) denied Apple’s motion to stay the ban while awaiting an appeal. Apple announced its plans to pull the Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 from store shelves in response to an October ruling from the ITC, which said the company’s SpO2 sensors infringed on patents from medical device maker Masimo. (The Verge)

  • Blue Origin has successfully relaunched the New Shepard booster, inching closer to offering space trips to more people after a previous mission failure. (The Verge)

Job opportunities

Interested in any of these jobs? Send us a reply for more info or a referral.

That's a wrap for this week.

Thank you for sticking with us until the finish.

We're open to hearing your suggestions for future newsletter topics, so feel free to share what you're grappling with or what you'd like to see from us in upcoming editions.

Happy holidays! 🥳 (Yes, this is the last of our regular editions this year.)

Kenneth ✌️

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