Hi Everyone. This is Take Off. We're like the cheat codes to your favorite video game - empowering, game-changing, and providing an edge in the tech ecosystem.

Here's what we're serving up today:

• (Funding) Winter is (Still) Here ❄️

• Who's the EV King? 🔋👑

• Trending Tools ⚒️

• Wednesday Wires 💰

(Funding) Winter is (Still) Here ❄️

If you’re an investor, chances are you have some spare cash lying in your wallet because those dollar bills surely aren’t going to startups.

Global venture funding in July, 2023 was the second-lowest monthly total since “The Reset” began more than a year ago.

The Dollar Drought

How low, you ask?

• The funding totalled $18.6 billion this July.

• This is down 20% from the previous month.

• It’s also down 38% compared to July 2022.

Most notably, the early bloomers of the startup world, seed and early-stage startups, saw their allowances get slashed this quarter.

This is a scary sign, as early stage funding had remained relatively insulated from the funding winter.

The Reset

To say that the pandemic was a great time for tech company’s valuations and funding would be a HUGE understatement.

A startup plan created by a Tech Bro on a napkin in 2 days could have easily raised a couple mil in funding during those days.

But when the public markets slipped on a banana peel and started their downslide in December 2021, the private funding markets adjusted as well.

Investors put the brakes on late-stage startups and shifted their focus to early-stage companies, companies that were years away from exiting. But that slowed down as well.

All of this snowballed, and by the third quarter of 2022, the venture capital markets started drying up faster than the Sahara. And the slowdown continued in 2023.

A Brighter Future

However, not all is gloom and doom. Analysts say that we have reached the bottom and HOPEFULLY, can't go any lower.

The public tech market has shown a great rebound this year, and the private markets are expected to follow suit, albeit slowly.

What do you think about when the venture markets will make a comeback?

Who's the EV King? 🔋👑

We have a quick question for you. Ready?

Question: Which company produces the most EVs in the world?

Now, you might be thinking easy-peasy right? Well, whatever you guess is, it’s very likely that it’s wrong. The answer is ….*drumroll*

Answer: BYD.

In case you weren’t aware, BYD, which is short for “Build Your Dreams”, is the Chinese manufacturing giant that’s been taking on Tesla in the EV wars.

Now, we ain’t sure if BYD is building your dream or not but there’s one dream that they are undoubtedly building successfully - Their Own!

Have a look at their EV unit sales in comparison to Tesla.

In the race of EV dominance, BYD has transformed itself from the underdog to Top-Dawg, rising from China’s 5th largest automaker to the largest one in the country, surpassing behemoths like Volkswagen and Toyota.

To be completely accurate though, the above chart is not an exact comparison.

Tesla only produces Batter EVs (BEVs) while BYD manufactures both BEVs and Hybrid EVs.

Even though Tesla still outpaces BYD in BEVs produced, the Chinese maker is quickly catching up.

🥇 Tesla: Still the Usain Bolt of the electric car world, Tesla zapped their sales numbers with a whopping 466K units sold, an 83% increase YoY.

🥈 BYD: BYD is not just tailgating Tesla; they're in the fast lane boasting a faster growth rate of 95% YoY. With 352K units sold, they're at 76% of Tesla's volume, up from 71% last year.

There are a couple of reasons for BYD’s rise to power.

1/ BYD has become the go-to choice for budget-conscious buyers. While Tesla's busy playing the socialite of the electric car world, BYD's bringing EVs to the people.

2/ They control the entire supply chain which helps them to optimize costs.

3/ BYD has also enjoyed a decade of government subsidies that’s helped it go from zero to hero.

☄️ Asteroids ☄️

OpenAI's GPT-4 is being used to aid content moderation, aiming to streamline the process. While AI moderation has had its challenges, OpenAI emphasizes the importance of human oversight. 🤖👀

Netflix is diving deep into gaming. They’re hiring big names, partnering with Ubisoft, and even exploring cloud gaming. 🎮🍿

YouTube Music introduces "Samples," a TikTok-inspired feed for music discovery. Swipe, explore, and dive into full-length videos! 🎶📱

⚒️ Trending Tools ⚒️

📗 Retinello - The AI-powered learning platform for everything

🎤 Vocol - All in one voice collaboration platform

⏺️ Backtrack - Record any meeting including Slack Huddles, Zoom, Teams

🤝 Pitchpower - Generate powerful proposals for consultants in seconds

💰 Wednesday Wires 💰

Voiceflow, a platform for creating conversational AI, secured $15 million in funding, boosting its commitment to AI innovation. 💬💰

Mixlab, focusing on pet prescription solutions, secured an additional $10 million in funding. They're expanding their services and technology for both vets and pet parents. 🐶💊

Virtualitics, born from Caltech and NASA collaborations, offers 3D data visualizations in VR and AR. They've raised $37 million to enhance AI-driven data analysis. 📊🚀

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