The Dregs of the SPAC Boom: A Critical Look at the SPAC Market

Table of Contents

Alex Wilhelm, Mary Ann Azevedo, Theresa Loconsolo

August 11, 2023
32 minutes

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Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups. We unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines in this show. This is our Friday episode, and we’re discussing the week’s biggest startup and tech news, as well as having some fun.

Note: This week, Mary Ann and Alex recorded as a duo. That meant a mix of growth stories and some less-than-stellar updates on startups that aren’t having the best 2023:

Lula: A Frugal Insurtech Startup with Big Ambitions

Mary Ann’s recent reporting on Lula was perfect Equity material, as it dealt with capital in motion and a quickly growing startup. Even more notably, Lula operates within the insurtech space, which is part of the fintech world that has had an up-and-down few years.

Lula’s focus on being frugal sets it up for a massive up-round in 2023. By prioritizing cost-cutting measures and efficient use of capital, Lula can conserve its resources and allocate them more strategically when needed. This approach is particularly important in the insurtech space, where competition is fierce, and startups must be agile to stay ahead.

Weights & Biases Raises $50M

Back in the day, if a startup raised a big round and then a smaller round afterwards, we would have worried a little. Today’s venture market feels different, though. So, MLOps startup Weights & Biases has added $50 million more to its coffers without our concern. This is not surprising, given that anything related to ML and AI is hot today, and Weights & Biases is well-known in the industry.

This round was not a shocker. The company’s previous traction, combined with the growing demand for MLOps solutions, made this funding a predictable move.

BlueJeans Folds

Remember when Verizon bought a Zoom competitor during the pandemic? It seems that customers didn’t take to it either. BlueJeans is shutting down, which serves as a reminder that even in the best of times, some startups don’t make it.

Sendy Shuts Down and Proterra Seeks Bankruptcy Help

While insurtech and MLOps are showing vigor, Kenyan logistics startup Sendy is no more. An EV startup that went public via a SPAC is trying to restructure its accounting so it can stay in business. This isn’t exactly the best news.

The Latest from WeWork and SoftBank

We closed out the week with updates on WeWork (not good) and its erstwhile partner, SoftBank, which is getting busier with its checkbook again. It’s been a strange week, to say the least, and one that flew by quickly.