10 interesting startup deals you may have missed in 2024

This is our annual roundup of excerpts from our monthly column, “5 Interesting Startup Deals You May Have Missed.” See last month’s entries here.

It’s the end of the year and everyone should finally have time to check out some interesting startup funding deals that may have flown under the radar over the past 12 months.

Typically, the biggest funding rounds or the most famous investors grab the headlines, but this year there were plenty of eye-catching deals based solely on the technology being funded.

With that said, let’s check out the long list of them.

Strengthening plants against climate change

Data from WRI’s Tap Water Risk Atlas shows that 25 countries, home to about a quarter of the world’s population, face extremely high water stress each year. In the United States alone, it is estimated that approximately 23% of the landmass is under water stress.

As water becomes increasingly scarce and the stress associated with it occurs more frequently, it is important for populations to somehow supplement their food supplies by enhancing their food supply.

One startup aiming to do just that is Elicit Plant, which has secured $48 million in Series B led by Carbyne Equity Partners.

The startup has developed a phytosterol-based solution to help plants better adapt to climate change. Phytosterols are natural substances produced by plants in response to water stress that enhance resilience and reduce water dependence.

Elicit’s solution can be applied as a spray early in the season and helps crops reduce environmental stress. Farmers who have used this spray have reported a 20% reduction in water consumption and up to a 10% increase in yield.

The company plans to use the new funding to expand its business in the United States, and is partnering with the company on demonstration tests in the country’s corn belt starting in 2022. Elicit says it is ready to launch the product next year and expand its product range to soybeans and other crops by 2027.

Build better AI relationships

A startup has raised seed funding this year to help people create better, more meaningful AI interactions and connections for people.

CharacterX has secured $2.8 million in seed funding at a $30 million valuation from investors including Lightspeed Venture Partners and Spark Digital Capital for its new Web3 AI social network. The Singapore-based startup aims to build augmented social experiences through multimodal AI, including 3D modeling, and create “a rich and democratic world where human-AI interactions are seamless.” Masu.

“Imagine traveling the world with an AI companion that understands not just your words, but your facial expressions, gestures, tone, and real-world environment,” the company wrote in a post on Medium. There is. Our AI agents are built for deep, positive social interactions…”

The company says it already has more than 500,000 users, with each user spending an average of 30 minutes on the app each day.

weeds disappear

Nobody likes weed. This is especially true for farmers, where weeds can eat into profits.

That’s where Seattle-based AI-powered agriculture startup Carbon Robotics comes in. Carbon has secured $70 million in Series D led by new investor Bond. The company plans to use the funding to accelerate the growth of its LaserWeeder software and hardware products.

According to the company, LaserWeeder combines computer vision, AI deep learning, robotics and lasers to identify and remove weeds with millimeter precision using a CO₂ laser. The company claims the machine, which attaches to a tractor and can be moved up and down crop aisles, reduces weed control costs by 80% while increasing crop yield and quality.

Carbon Robotics says its machines can cut approximately 5,000 weeds per minute, and that growers in North America, Europe, and Australia have cut more than 10 billion weeds across 100 crops using AI-powered technology. He says he removed the weeds.

The company also didn’t have a hard time with investors interested in its invention. Founded in 2018, Carbon has raised $157 million, according to the company.

If AI can one day take over the world, it can certainly kill some weeds for now.

power of water

Everyone is looking for cleaner energy sources, especially with the new AI obsession.

CorPower Ocean has secured approximately $35 million in a round led by Japanese-backed venture capital firm NordicNinja VC to help commercialize electricity from an atypical source: ocean waves.

The Sweden-based startup, which has operations in Sweden, Norway, Portugal and Scotland, is focused on two key challenges for wave energy: storm survivability and efficient power generation in normal ocean conditions. We are expanding our operations to the West Coast of the United States to demonstrate our technical capabilities to address this issue.

Wave power is more predictable than wind power, but the industry has yet to achieve large-scale commercialization.

The new funding comes after the company demonstrated that its wave technology project in Portugal can operate with large-scale power generation capacity even in Atlantic storms, potentially increasing the potential for harnessing ocean waves to generate energy. It’s increasing.

Investors seem to think so, as Copower has secured more than $100 million in funding.

Allergy protection in your pocket

Approximately 33 million people in the United States deal with food allergies, which can make eating out anxiety-inducing.

Allergen detection company Amulet has something that may help. In August, the Madison, Wisconsin-based startup raised $5.8 million in Series A funding led by HealthX Ventures.

The startup has developed the Allergy Amulet. The company says the small device, which looks like a USB drive, allows people to test for food allergens on the go. The device is equipped with a portable sensor with rapid on-site molecular detection technology that can detect allergens, toxins, and pollutants.

The startup is also developing another commercial device aimed at helping restaurants, suppliers and manufacturers identify food poisoning and environmental contaminants.

If you have allergies, not knowing what’s in your food can be worrying. Having this in your pocket might give you some peace of mind.

seedless blackberry

Almost everyone prefers some type of fruit, but let’s be honest, it’s better without seeds. Enter Pairwise Plants, a gene editing company aiming to improve the breeding of specialty and commercial crops. The Durham, North Carolina-based startup has completed a $40 million Series C led by Deerfield Management, along with other investors including Bayer’s Leap and agricultural science giant Corteva Agriscience.

The company plans to use the capital injection to expand its innovative product pipeline, including seedless berries and seedless cherries. Pairwise has already developed a seedless blackberry variety, which it announced in June.

But Pearwise isn’t the only one developing seedless fruit. The company’s gene editing technology also makes crops more resilient and adaptable. This is necessary as the effects of climate change take hold.

As part of the investment, Corteva and Pairwise entered into a five-year joint venture partnership focused on accelerating gene editing technology.

As the world changes, our food must follow.

check your eyes

Typically, when we talk about healthcare and AI, it pertains to biotechnology, which uses technology to improve treatments or aid in the clinical trial process.

However, Eyebot raised $6 million in a round led by AlleyCorp and Ubiquity Ventures for a different business model. The Boston-based startup aims to build a network of AI-powered kiosks that offer 90-second vision tests.

Yes, a quick self-service vision test is available that does not require an optometrist. Hey, if you can scan your own groceries, why not be your own eye doctor? Prescriptions dispensed from the kiosk are ultimately determined by a remote doctor, but it still eliminates the need for traditional eye appointments . Considering the workforce shortage in optometry, this may be a good thing.

The company began rolling out kiosks, which look like old-school arcade machines, in shopping centers, pharmacies and other locations across the Northeast in October, with plans to expand next year.

Please pay attention!

audio clues

Now moving from seeing to speaking, Canary Speech is next on the list after raising $13 million in a Series A funding round led by Cortes Capital.

The Provo, Utah-based AI-powered audio biomarker healthtech startup uses patented audio analytics to screen for mental health and neurological disorders.

Canary’s audio biomarker technology can actually capture and analyze audio data within seconds to identify irregularities in behavioral or cognitive changes. This exceeds current clinical screening standards and can be achieved before users experience significant symptoms of diseases such as anxiety, depression, and dementia.

Canary’s ambient listening tools can not only assess the health status of the patient, but also the health status of the doctor. This is more important than ever as the American Medical Association reported that nearly 63% of physicians experienced symptoms of burnout at the end of 2021.

make it rain

One thing humanity still hasn’t figured out is how to control Mother Nature.

Nevertheless, an El Segundo, California-based startup is giving it a try when it comes to rain.

Rainmaker Technology has raised $6.3 million in a seed round from a large group of investors including Long Journey Ventures, Champion Hill Ventures, and Garry Tan. The startup aims to develop cloud seeding technology. This is a weather modification tool discovered in the last century that aims to introduce ice cores into clouds to induce rain.

Cloud seeding can work, but the question is usually how well it works. It’s been in the news recently.

Rainmaker hired its first engineer this year and looks ready to make it rain.

cleaning the space

Generally, we stay away from the big rounds on this list, but there are exceptions.

Italian space startup D-Orbit raised more than $108 million in January, led by Marubeni. This startup is basically a space logistics and debris cleaning company. The company aims to meet the needs of SpaceX and others to move satellites to precise locations after they are placed in orbit.

The company is also looking at ways to ease space’s increasingly crowded space by breaking up satellites in the atmosphere or moving them further afield.

The company did not announce a valuation for this round, but D-Orbit was valued at about $1.3 billion in a SPAC deal two years ago that was later scrapped.

Illustration: Dom Guzman