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Kaspersky plans U.S. exit as Huma raises an impressive Series D

Author

Alex Wilhelm
July 16, 2024 • Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes

Top News

  • Kaspersky to shutter US operations: Geopolitics are biting into some software companies’ operations. After the United States banned the sale of cybersecurity giant Kaspersky over cybersecurity concerns, the Russian company is laying off staff and exiting the U.S. market.

  • Byju’s heads to insolvency: Once India’s most valuable startup, Byju’s slide into default is reaching its terminus. TechCrunch reports that an “Indian tribunal court […] initiated insolvency proceedings” against the company this week over unpaid debts. The former unicorn owes the Board of Control for Cricket $19 million, for example.

  • Huma raises $80M: U.K.-based Huma has now raised $300 million thanks to its large Series D. The healthtech company uses digital devices, monitoring, and AI to help monitor and care for patients remotely. And its tech can also be used in clinical trials. Given an aging world and a dearth of care options for seniors in many markets, it’s not hard to spot the TAM here.

TWiST500

There are two categories that we want to dig more deeply into for the TWiST500 in the coming weeks:

  • Spacetech, especially satellites and in-orbit technologies

  • Next-gen power generation and storage startups

If that is you, or you have a favorite startup, send it to me ([email protected]) with the subject line “TWiST500” and I will make sure to dig into what they are working on. We might shout you —or the startup you wish you had founded — out on the show!

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This Week in Startups

E1980: A news roundtable after a historic weekend. Jason and Alex talked social media in the wake of a weekend of political violence, what some venture folks hope to get out of a second Trump administration, the Google-Wiz deal, and how Sequoia is working to cash out some of its LPs who are sitting on Stripe equity that they cannot sell.

E1979: In this news roundtable, Jason and Alex dug into StubHub’s IPO, how cooling inflation could lead to rate cuts — a potential boon for venture capital results — and OpenAI’s five levels of AI. The Microsoft-aligned company thinks that it is still pretty early in its progress in building artificial intelligence software. To close, the pair added a host of new companies to the TWiST500.

E1978: Jason sat down with Anand Nandakumar, the CEO of Halo Car to chat about the startup’s approach to driving autonomy. While many major tech companies are pursuing self-driving cars, Halo Car is more focused on teleoperation to get rental vehicles to customers. As self-driving remains a future product instead of — mostly — a present reality, it’s a timely conversation and a neat startup to boot.

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