Good day. Tim Davies isn’t your typical startup founder. At 51, he has been working more years than many founders have been alive. That track record helped in 2019, when he and two partners—both older than he—founded HiiROC, a British company that is developing a system to produce low-cost, zero-emission hydrogen that could replace natural gas or be used as  a fuel. Last week, HiiROC won the KPMG Private Enterprise 2022 Global Tech Innovator competition, beating more than 1,000 contestants from around the world.

HiiROC raised more than $30 million in a Series B round late last year and will likely go back to investors in the second half of next year. We spoke with Mr. Davies about running a startup in the current stop-and-start economic environment.

Quite a time to try and nurse a startup toward a growth trajectory. How’s that going?

Every day we have something like chip shortages or people out with Covid. There are two things that have made it doable. The first is having a motivated team willing to innovate and find ways around things, whether it's alternative suppliers or stepping up for a sick colleague. The second is we deliberately picked strategic investors rather than financial investors, and they have been absolutely brilliant in helping us with suppliers when we've had issues and understanding when we've had delays.

How has your extensive work experience informed your decisions since founding the company?

Being older, I’ve made a lot of mistakes. I’ve learned that not being completely transparent doesn’t help. Overpromising and underdelivering doesn’t help. Our model is as much as possible to stay under the radar screen, underpromise, overdeliver and prove the tech works rather than have a big marketing story.

You’re bucking the conventional wisdom that founders must be young because of the energy needed to get a startup off the ground.

The three of us are pretty high-energy and very, very motivated. If you watch videos from the KPMG competition, I’m hyperactive because that’s who I am. It’s not an act. At my age, you need to be massively motivated in what you’re doing, otherwise you’re going to collapse pretty quickly.

And now on to the news...

Down to the wire. With several key races still to be decided, Republicans remained favored to take control of the U.S. House, though the results fell short of the sweeping gains some in the GOP anticipated, WSJ reports.

• Control of the Senate remained up for grabs, with contests in critical states such as Georgia too early to call.
   
• Democrat John Fetterman won the Senate race in Pennsylvania and will take a seat currently held by a Republican, the Associated Press projected, giving Democrats a boost in their effort to retain control of the Senate.
   
• Democrats flipped governorships in two states, while two of the nation’s most prominent Republican governors, Florida’s Ron DeSantis and Texas' Greg Abbott, cruised to re-election. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp also held on to his seat, holding off a challenge from rival Stacey Abrams.

Cryptocurrency exchange FTX, just months removed from looking like a shining survivor in a struggling industry, succumbed Tuesday to a sudden liquidity crunch of its own and was taken over by rival Binance, WSJ reports. The deal signals a power shift in the crypto world, which has been decimated by rising interest rates and investors’ retreat from risk. The pact marks a victory for Binance founder Changpeng Zhao and a humbling comedown for Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of FTX, which had been growing in size and recognition before a clash between the two men set off a series of events that shook investor confidence in his firm.

A federal judge denied Elizabeth Holmes’s bid for a new trial, the latest setback for the Theranos Inc. founder who was convicted of fraud in January, WSJ reports. U.S. District Judge Edward Davila said in a ruling late Monday that the arguments in Ms. Holmes’s three motions for a new trial didn’t introduce material new evidence or establish government misconduct. Ms. Holmes is scheduled for sentencing on Nov. 18.

People

Crowdsourced cybersecurity startup Bugcrowd promoted Dave Gerry to chief executive. Before joining the company, he was at WhiteHat Security. San Francisco-based Bugcrowd is backed by Blackbird Ventures, Costanoa Ventures, Industry Ventures, Paladin Capital Group, Rally Ventures, Salesforce Ventures and Triangle Peak Partners.

Plant-based meat company Impossible Foods Inc. appointed Leslie Sims as chief marketing and creative officer. She will join the company on Jan. 1 from Deloitte Digital. Redwood City, Calif.-based Impossible Foods is backed by investors including Mirae Asset Global Investments, Khosla Ventures, GV, Horizons Ventures, Temasek Holdings and Coatue Management.

Threat detection marketplace SOC Prime appointed Jeff Moon as chief financial officer. Mr. Moon was previously head of finance and operations at Tetrate. Based in Boston, SOC Prime counts DNX Ventures, Streamlined Ventures and Rembrandt Venture Partners as backers.

Exits

SirionLabs, an artificial intelligence-powered contract lifecycle management provider, acquired contract automation platform Zendoc for an undisclosed amount. In May, SirionLabs said it secured an $85 million Series D round from Partners Group, Avatar Growth Capital, Sequoia Capital India and Tiger Global Management.

Cyber insurtech company BOXX Insurance Inc. purchased cyber threat intelligence platform Templarbit for an undisclosed sum. Toronto-based BOXX is backed by investors including Cyber Mentor Fund and SixThirty Ventures. Templarbit’s website lists Okapi Venture Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, 205 Capital and Y Combinator as investors.

Samba TV, a provider of television technology and omniscreen advertising and analytics, bought artificial intelligence and machine learning startup Disruptel. Terms weren’t disclosed. Samba TV is backed by investors including Union Grove Venture Partners, MDC Ventures, Draper Associates and Ambition.VC. Disruptel is listed in the portfolios of PJC, Progress Ventures and Capital Innovators.

Agriconomie, a France-based multi-service online platform dedicated to farmers, closed a €60 million ($60 million) Series B round. Treïs, Temasek and Aliment Capital led the investment, which included participation from Eurazeo.

Laika Inc., a New York-based compliance platform, completed a $50 million Series C round. Fin Capital led the investment, which included contributions from Centana Growth Partners, J.P. Morgan Growth Equity Partners, Canapi Ventures and Third Prime.

AutoLeadStar, a Jerusalem-based digital customer data and experience platform for the automotive industry, secured a $40 million round of growth financing. Riverwood Capital led the round, with Principal Ramesh Venugopal joining the board.

Atomica Corp., a Santa Barbara, Calif.-based micro electro-mechanical systems startup, landed $30 million in Series C funding led by Cerium Technology Ventures, Novo Tellus Capital Partners and St. Cloud Capital.

Infinitum, an Austin, Texas-based creator of sustainable air core motors, added $30 million in growth funding from Riverstone Holdings, Alliance Resource Partners, Caterpillar Ventures and Cottonwood Technology Fund.

Glow, a San Francisco-based digital insurance agency for small businesses, closed a $22.5 million Series A round. Led by Cota Capital, the investment included contributions from AV8 Ventures, Markd, Startup Venture Capital and others.

Fordefi, a DeFi wallet and security platform with offices in New York and Tel Aviv, was seeded with an $18 million investment. Lightspeed Venture Partners led the round, which included additional support from Electric Capital, Alameda Research, Jump Crypto, Castle Island Ventures, Pantera Capital, Illuminate Financial and others.

Equals, a San Francisco-based spreadsheet startup, raised $16 million in Series A funding. Andreessen Horowitz led the round, with General Partner Kristina Shen joining the company’s board. Additional investors including Craft Ventures and BoxGroup also participated in the round.

Wib, a Tel Aviv-based cybersecurity startup, picked up a $16 million investment. Lead investor Koch Disruptive Technologies was joined by Kmehin Ventures, VentureIsrael, Techstars and others in the round.

Veriti, another Tel Aviv-based cybersecurity startup, emerged from stealth with $18.5 million in funding, including a $12 million investment led by Insight Partners.

Apheris, a Berlin-based platform for creating collaborative data ecosystems, secured €8.7 million ($8.8 million) in seed extension funding led by Octopus Ventures.

Mov.ai, an autonomous mobile robots software startup, fetched an $8.2 million investment. Bowe Group led the round, which saw participation from State of Mind Ventures, NFX and Viola Ventures. Bowe Group’s Joachim Koschier and Red Ledge North America’s Mike Swift will join the board. The company has offices in Lisbon, Tel Aviv and Germany.

• Netflix explores investing in sports leagues, bidding on streaming rights
   
• Goldman Sachs, eager to grow cards business, courted credit-card technology firms
   
• EU to probe Microsoft’s $75 billion deal for Activision Blizzard more deeply
   
• Lucid to raise up to $1.5 billion on share sales
   
• Nvidia offers alternative chip for China to clear U.S. export hurdles

• A beginner’s guide to Mastodon, the open source Twitter alternative (TechCrunch)
   
• Salesforce cut hundreds of employees this week (CNBC)
   
• What to expect when your tech firm is downsizing (Axios)

This newsletter was compiled by Eric Sylvers and Zachary Cole.

WSJ Pro Venture Capital is a premium service of The Wall Street Journal. We cover venture capital and the global startup ecosystem. Share your tips, comments and questions: vcnews@wsj.com

The Team: Matthew Strozier, Yuliya Chernova, Brian Gormley, Angus Loten, Eric Sylvers and Marc Vartabedian.

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