Mozilla announced it had acquired California-based Pulse, which developed an automated status update tool for Slack, for an undisclosed amount. Pulse had abruptly shut down operations in late October, citing difficulty in raising fresh capital due to prevailing market conditions. In addition to Pulse, Mozilla acquired the Canadian web-based metaverse platform Active Replica. 

More:

• Mozilla acquired Pulse for its team and intends to deploy them across its various machine-learning projects.
  • Pulse’s three founders will also be joining Mozilla. 
• Pulse was initially known as Loop Team before its rebranding last November. 
• The startup was planning to raise a seed round next year. 
  • It has raised $4.7M in pre-seed funding to date.
• The Active Replica acquisition was strategic, with Mozilla poised to leverage the platform to work on its Hubs, VR chatroom service, and another open-source project.  
  • Active Replica was building a virtual event and meeting platform based on Mozilla’s Hub project. 
• Founders Jacob Ervin and Valerian Denis have assumed senior engineering manager and product lead roles at Mozilla.

Zoom out:

• Mozilla is looking to increase its M&A in the next few months now that it is armed with a $35M venture fund, which launched in early November.

TeleClinic's co-founder and seasoned investor Markus Feurecker announced they are opening a new VC focused on investing in early-stage digital health startups. They're calling the VC first "Yzr Capital."  

More: 

• They've already raised 60% of their first €100M fund.  
  • Investors include the European Investment Fund, Bertelsmann Investments, and Beiersdorf.
• Yzr Capital will invest in all kinds of heath-tech startups, such as those building digital medical devices, virtual health services, and software. 
• In describing his reasons for founding the VC, Meier noted, "As a doctor and investor, it is important to me to give ideas a chance that can improve people's health in the long term."

Mobile kitchen startup Wonder reduced its workforce by 7% (130 employees). Wonder has deployed less than 500 mobile kitchens in 75 towns around the tri-state area. In December 2021, Wonder CEO Marc Lore said the company was planning to deploy 1,200-1,300 kitchens by the end of the year. 

More:

• Wonder was valued at $3.5B following a $350M funding round in June.
• The company projects it will generate $100M in 2023, which would mark a 20x increase from 2021.
• This would mark an over 33% drop from the projection it gave investors in June.

Zoom out:

• Lore founded the e-commerce platform Jet.com, which was acquired by Walmart for $3.3B in 2016.
• Following the acquisition, Lore oversaw Walmart's e-commerce before leaving in January 2021.

Sources close to the matter told The Information that Brett Harrison, former president of FTX U.S., is in talks with investors to raise funding for his new crypto startup, the name of which has not been revealed yet. Harrison is looking to raise a $6M round at a $60M valuation. Harrison’s new startup aims to provide a crypto trading platform for professional investors. 

More:

• He left FTX US in September, roughly a month and a half before its rapid decline led to a bankruptcy filing.
• Prior to joining FTX, Harrison had stints at Citadel Securities, Headlands Technology, and Jane Street. 
• Before the FTX fallout, Harrison hinted at starting a new company, but neither the details nor funding talks were previously disclosed.

Zoom out:

• Venture funding for crypto startups has slumped from $8.4B in the first quarter of 2022 to $3.3B in the third.  

The Bay Area and Israel-based startup CommonGround announced it raised $45M in a big to create hyper-realistic avatars using smartphone scans. CommonGround secured the funds about a year ago but waited until the completed stealth mode to make the announcement. 

More: 

• The startup is currently experimenting with iPhones that scan a person's face before transforming them into 3D animations called "TrueSelf" avatars. 
  • CommonGround plans on developing the program for Android phones shortly. 
• Eventually, CommonGround imagines these avatars populating the metaverse. 
  • The startup is also developing virtual meeting software. 
• Marius Nacht led the round with participation from VCs Grove, Matrix, and StageOne.

Fintech startup X1 raised $15M at an undisclosed valuation. The round is an extension from the $25M Series B it raised in July, and CEO Deepak Rao said the company's valuation rose by 50%.

More:

• X1 offers its customers an income-based credit card that enables them to collect rewards points that can be used to purchase stocks.
• The company's monthly revenue increased from $1M in March and April to $3M in October.
• Its monthly GMV is projected to rise from $50M in July to $60M in December.
• X1 was founded in 2017 and has collectively raised $62M, according to Crunchbase.
• Notable investors in the round include Affirm CEO Max Levchin and Box co-founder Aaron Levie.

I'm Kiani from Inside.com, and this week, we asked our startup community, "What are some early signs a startup is going to fail?" and again received dozens of responses! ⭐️

Here are some highlighted responses we received:

• Joshua De La Mata (p/Joshua17 | LinkedIn), Founder of Easy Hire System, wrote, “An early sign of startup failure is not fixing the small problems before they grow. Having a systems mindset and venture that's results-driven helps. This begins by hiring the right folks with the right attitude and aptitude (not with the perfect job history), who are up for the challenges of a new venture.”
• James Spurway (p/james-spurway | LinkedIn), Head of Advisory & Investment Services at Indochina Consulting Pte Ltd, believes not involving customers is detrimental to a startup's success. He writes, “When I see a Founder/team not releasing their first product early to get feedback, or not incorporating customer feedback into an update and releasing that, in other words, not iterating, I get a sinking feeling.”
• Daniel James Scott (p/sparkcatalyst | LinkedIn), Roman Rodriguez (p/roman813 | LinkedIn), Robb Kunz (p/robbkunz | LinkedIn), and many others agree that the issues begin with either a founder’s ego or lack of motivation. Robb included a link to the term “Founder’s syndrome,” which can lead to a wide range of problems within young companies.

We're flattered by all of the startup founders that gather on Inside.com to answer our weekly questions, so thank you to everyone who participated!

Join the conversations at Inside.com, and we may shout out your name and business or contact you for more! ⭐️

Quick Hits:

• Great ideas are recession-proof. See how innovators in every industry are turning their ideas into code faster and cheaper with Crowdbotics.*
• 645 Ventures, an early-stage investor, just secured a fourth fund and first select fund totaling $348M. The firm now has $550M in assets under management. 
• Smoodi, a startup developing a robot that mixes ingredients and turns them into a smoothie, secured a $5M Series A round from a group that includes former Nespresso president Frédéric Levy.
• ShareChat closes fantasy sports platform Jeet11 after not gaining meaningful traction among users and being unable to take on the likes of Dream Sports’ Dream11 and Mobile Premier League.
• KreditBee raised $80M in a Series D round to further build tech products that are easily understood to fill the market need for quick, short-term loans. Premji Invest, Motilal Oswal Alternates, NewQuest Capital Partners, and Mirae Asset Ventures participated in the funding. 
• GoStudent expanded to in-person tutoring by acquiring Studienkreis; this comes just after buying U.K.-based Seneca Learning, Tus Media Group in Spain, and Fox Education from Austria over the last 12 months.  
• Learn how consumers act, think, and what they expect in this special report covering purchasing habits, social media, and more. Get the free report.*

*This is sponsored content.