🕶️ Are you the ’typical founder’?

Six bullets of updates

1. 📈 #Shift Amid a 34% surge in crypto users this year, ecommerce giants Adidas, Etsy, and H&M are now accepting crypto payments.

2. #Fintech Nearly a third of the fastest-growing UK startups are in fintech, with Allica Bank boasting a whopping 1,438.91% CAGR.

3. 🗺️ Mapping the future, Vibrant Planet uses AI to digitize land mapping, aiding in fire-risk management and climate resilience.

4. 💼 #BaaS startup Synctera trims workforce by 15%, surviving in a sector where layoffs are becoming the norm.

5. 🖌️ Canva acquires UK-based creative tools firm Affinity for $380M, aiming to enhance its offerings and compete with Adobe.

6. 🚀 Five innovative startups are leveraging AI to drive positive change, from promoting inclusivity at work to managing water consumption.

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Unraveling the Myth of the ‘Typical Founder’

A recent study by Defiance Capital delves into the "DNA" of unicorn founders, examining data from 2013 to 2023. The findings reveal a majority (70%) are "underdog founders" including immigrants, women, and people of color. A shift toward gender diversity is highlighted, with 17% of unicorns having a female founder in 2023, up from previous years.

Interestingly, over half of these founders hold degrees from the world's top 10 universities, and most have a background in STEM. The report also disrupts the notion of investment monopoly at the early stages, indicating a fragmented market with no single venture capitalist dominating unicorn investments. Learn more about the study!

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Startup Events and Deadlines

1. SaaStock: USA | Conference | May 13-15 | Austin, TX ➡️ Redeem free tickets! 🔥

2. How Much Money Should You Raise? | Webinar | April 12 | Online

3. Financial Modeling Course  | Course | April 15 | Online 

4. SaaSiest Sweden Conference | April 16 | Malmö, Sweden   

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These companies just raised money

1. 🏢 Pipedreams, a startup buying and scaling mom-and-pop HVAC companies, raises $25.5m Series A and plans expansion.

2. 🩺 Paris-based startup Metyos raises €2.3mn to advance its biowearable tech for chronic kidney disease.

3. 🔍 Data observability startup, Observe, rakes in $115M in Series B funding, raising the company's value up to $500M.

4. 🚀 Indonesian insurtech startup Qoala reels in $47M from PayPal Ventures and others, taking total funding past $130M.

5. 🛡️ Cyera is set to triple its valuation with a nearly $300M funding round, as it bets on AI for enterprise data protection.

6. 🚗 Peruvian fintech Leasy bags $28M Series A to pump up its vehicle financing ops in Mexico and Peru.

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Elon did it again - Grok chatbot goes big!

Elon Musk's AI company, xAI, has expanded access to its Grok chatbot to more premium subscribers on X, the platform previously known as Twitter. This signals a move to compete with other chatbot providers like OpenAI's ChatGPT and Anthropic's Claude, and seems to be an effort to boost subscriber figures as X continues to struggle with user retention. According to Sensor Tower, X's usage in the U.S. was down 18% YoY in February and has dropped 23% since Musk's acquisition.

Musk's controversial stance against advertisers has also impacted X's revenue prospects, with 75 of the top 100 U.S. advertisers ceasing to spend their ad budget on the platform.

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NEVER make an MBA your co-founder