ICYMI: Startup news and resources from the week that was
What you might have missed last week on Caffeine.
Welcome to Monday!
As always, on Monday we recap a few of our favorite stories or resources from the week that was then tomorrow kick back into our full newsletter from Tuesday.
Have a great start to your week,
Finn and the Caffeine team
‘Never be satisfied’: Bowen Pan on having a relentless drive to win, minus the ego
I’m very lucky in this job. I get to speak to people a lot more successful and interesting than me and then translate a little of their wisdom for you guys.
Mara Bio Secures $1m Investment to Scale Climate-Positive Protein Production: Producing enough protein to fuel the world without destroying it is one of the great challenges of our time so we love to see startups tackling that problem head on.
Hastings Biotechnology company Mara Bio has hit the headlines with a $1m strategic funding round led by Climate Venture Capital Fund, with support from the Stephen Tindall-founded K1W1 and existing shareholders. The investment will accelerate its pioneering fermentation platform that turns food industry by-products into high-value, clean-label protein ingredients.
Mara Bio’s mission is to provide a climate-positive, allergen-free alternative to traditional proteins, unlocking new sustainable pathways for food, nutraceutical, and pharmaceutical manufacturers.
“At Mara Bio, we're harnessing cutting-edge technology to unlock more nutrition from existing food systems while reducing the industry's environmental impact, or ‘foodprint,’” said Mark Balchin, CEO and co-founder of Mara Bio as they announced the news.
Congrats to the team and can’t wait to see what the funding unlocks for you.
Factor co-founder Jessica Venning Bryan on giving energy the respect it deserves: As I’ve said many times on Caffeine, we don’t get to build the future we’re all so excited about if we don’t build the energy infrastructure systems required to power that future. One startup doing the hard mahi of making that possible is Factor, which recently secured $3 million of investment to accelerate the development of its pricing automation platform for energy companies globally.
Factor is developing a suite of plug-and-play tools that automate what has traditionally been a clunky, spreadsheet-based pricing process for energy retailers, distribution networks, and other energy tech companies. The company's AI-powered solution addresses a critical gap in the energy sector, where 70% of electricity is consumed by industry with complex needs, but where pricing management remains largely manual and inefficient.
I had a great chat with Factor co-founder Jessica Venning Bryan about how energy is upstream of so many other problems, why energy is ‘sexy’ and we should give it the respect it deserves. Read in the link below.
Factor co-founder Jessica Venning Bryan on giving energy the respect it deserves
·As I’ve said many times on Caffeine, we don’t get to build the future we’re all so excited about if we don’t build the energy infrastructure systems required to power that future. One startup doing the hard mahi of making that possible is Factor, which recently secured $3 million of investment to …
Event: Enterprise Angels Pitch Nights - Check out the upcoming Pitch Nights from the team over at Enterprise Angels. Tuesday, 26 August in Tauranga and Wednesday 27 August in Hamilton, aimed at attracting both investors and founders.
For Founders:
Are you an entrepreneur with a groundbreaking idea? Secure your pitch slot by reaching out to us at deal_team@enterpriseangels.co.nz. This is your chance to present your innovative projects, receive invaluable feedback, and potentially secure investment. Don't miss this fantastic opportunity to showcase your vision! Check out our resource page here and how our capital raise process works here.
For Investors and Innovative Thinkers:
Join us to discover the next big investment opportunity! Register using a guest code to attend and scout for promising ventures. This is an excellent occasion to network, exchange ideas, and support the innovative community.
Register here. Guest promo code is: GUEST25PN. Here are some quick insights into what to expect on the night.
Carta’s State of VC 2025 drops, packed full of fascinating insights: The team at Carta have released their State of VC 2025 presentation and it’s packed with 30 slides of fascinating insights into all things startup.
Head of Insights Peter Walker handily summarised the toplines thusly:
Funding dollars are up, but number of rounds is stubbornly low. Mega rounds doled out to mostly AI companies have painted a rosier-than-accurate picture of current VC landscape.
Metrics required to raise have gotten steep. Data from SVB shows that median ARR at Series A is about 2.2x higher than it was in 2021.
Team sizes are shrinking. The average number of full-time employees at a Series A company was 15 in 2024, down from 22 in 2022. By the end of 2025, I'd expect that to be more like 13 or 12.
But employees, even the earliest ones, aren't really seeing bigger equity packages. Will the gold rush for AI engineers change this dynamic at the early stages?
Many AI companies are sticking to old patterns of venture, raising rounds at high valuations for lots of cash and doing so quickly. Seed-strapping must be out there but we aren't seeing it too often.
You can request the entire deck yourself by following this link.
Pod Pick: From Aotearoa to the world: How Wai Mānuka is going global - We love a Business is Boring new episode drop around these parts and also love an episode that diversifies the kind of founder voices we hear from. We talk a lot aobut the frothier end of tech startups here at Caffeine but it’s great to hear some wisdom from founders outside of software ecosystem and building businesses with more tangible products because they have just as much wisdom to share. Wai Mānuka founder and CEO Joseph Harawira joins Simon Pound to discuss the premium beverage brand’s journey from humble origins to FMCG markets around the world. Listen to the full ep here.
You can store a PNG in…birdsong?: Okay this one isn’t necessarily founder specific but good lord is it a weird and cool bit of science. A Youtuber by the name of Benn Jordan converted a sketch of a bird into an audio wave form, played it to a bird who mimicked the sound and then re downloaded that png from the birdsong. Doing so, he discovered a bird can ‘store’ and transfer data at approximately 2 MB/s. We are living through wild times, team. Check out the video here.
Want to get in touch with a news tip, a slice of feedback or just to chat? Email hello@caffeinedaily.co