Overview

The venture capital market had a rough September, and the trend of declining financing is expected to continue. As the third quarter of the year progressed, venture and growth investors in private firms drastically reduced their investment pace. 

According to an analysis by Crunchbase News, venture funding dropped to $81 billion in the third quarter of 2022, down $53 billion from the same period the previous year and down $40 billion from the prior quarter.

The decline in global late-stage funding that began in the second quarter of 2022 continued into the third one.

Investments in late-stage venture and private equity to VC-backed firms totaled $40 billion in the third quarter, down 40% sequentially and 63% annually.

Global early-stage funding was $34 billion in Q3 2022, a 25% quarterly and 39% annual drop. Series A funding fell 23% year over year, while Series B fell 54%, according to Crunchbase data.

Artificial intelligence (AI) hardware, manufacturing and equipment, materials, and memory and storage were some of the areas that caught the attention of investors in September.

Namepicks

Battle Motors

Mike Patterson formed Battle Motors to acquire the Crane Carrier Company (CCC) and move toward an electric future. CCC has been manufacturing commercial vehicles for 76 years. Mike discovered the company while pitching Romeo battery packs to Crane “And that’s kind of how I fell in love with the company.”

The merger took place in 2021, making the company a leader in developing electric vehicles (EVs) technology. Following the merge and rebrand of Crane, Battle Motors is rapidly expanding. Patterson has raised a large amount of funding, totaling $270 million in two rounds as of last month. He inherited a workforce, an order book, and some solid equipment designs instead of beginning expenditures.

We are combining the best of last century’s severe duty diesel and compressed natural gas (CNG) technology with best-in-class EV technology to produce full electric trucks for the marketplace. There has been minimal movement and very little fundamental innovation in this space, the merging together of a traditional mainstay of the industry with an innovative and highly advanced technology company will generate a radical shift in this important sector of the transportation industry.

 Mr. Patterson, CEO of Battle Motors

Battle Motors operate on BattleMotors.com. Investing in a .com domain name that matches their brand name ensures their brand is secure online and makes it easy for their customers, business partners, and investors to reach them.

Fazz

Fazz, a Southeast Asian digital financial services company, announced a $100 million Series C fundraising round last month. This includes a $75 million equity investment and a $25 million debt facility. Fazz plans to use the funds to expand its business accounts, which have payment, savings, and credit features.

Fazz was created by merging two companies: Xfers, which broke down barriers to decentralized finance in Singapore, and PayFazz, which provided access to micro businesses in Indonesia. Both companies shared a common goal: to improve financial access. They joined forces under this single-minded vision to strengthen offerings and assist more underserved businesses in Southeast Asia. Payfazz typically serves SMEs, but thanks to Xfers’ API solution, it can now serve startups and large enterprises. Xfers, on the other hand, can offer Payfazz-developed solutions in Singapore.

And that’s the kind of long-term vision we want to build. We want Fazz to be a Southeast Asian company and not confined to any country. And that is something that in the last two years has really materialized. 

Tianwei Liu, CEO of Fazz

They joined forces under this single-minded vision to strengthen offerings and assist more underserved businesses in Southeast Asia. Payfazz typically serves SMEs, but thanks to Xfers’ API solution, it can now serve startups and large enterprises. Xfers, on the other hand, can offer Payfazz-developed solutions in Singapore.

In our next stage of growth, we are aiming to grow our business to a level of valuation of US$1 billion, which will provide us with a scale to serve more businesses in the region.

Hendra Kwik, Fazz CEO for Tech in Asia

Fazz’s units include Fazz Agen, an agent-based financial app for micro- and small businesses in Indonesia; Fazz Business, which serves firms ranging in size from MSMEs to large corporations; Modal Rakyat, a peer-to-peer lending and borrowing service for MSMEs; and StraitsX, a payments infrastructure provider.

Our technology is our key differentiator — we invest a lot in the tech side of our business to ensure that any business from small family shops all the way to big enterprises can access financial tools to build their business.

Hendra Kwik, CEO of Fazz

The name “Fazz” is meant to convey the company’s commitment to working quickly and efficiently in order to give its clients a better chance of success.

Fazz has invested in the exact brand match domain name Fazz.com thus making the most out of their marketing across channels and avoiding security risks. 

Habito

Habito is a digital mortgage broker and unique home-buying business located in London, UK. The company closed its latest round of funding, totaling approximately £5m, led by a consortium of existing investors, including Augmentum Fintech, SBI Investment, and Volution. 

Since its inception in April 2016, the company has filed over £9 billion in mortgage applications and plans to expand into new solutions to support underserved markets with new mortgages. The goal is for the company to handle everything for the consumer, beginning with a mortgage calculator and ending with the buyer receiving the keys to the property. With the introduction of “Habito Plus” in January 2020, it has begun expanding this offering.

The deeper and more long-term our relationship with our customers becomes, the more we think about different ways that we might make it advantageous for them to own homes. Whether that’s helping them access the equity in their home for credit, for building that extension for the home office, or a broader range of other lending products that sit around that ecosystem of the home.

Dan Hegarty, CEO of Habito for Altfi

The launch of the new service Habito Plus was celebrated with a brand identity redesign, including a new logo, website, and user experience. The new design portrays a beautiful vision of heaven, seeking to create a dream of how acquiring a mortgage may feel.

We loved this aesthetic the moment we saw it. The imagery and user experience at times feel like something from a dream which to me is the perfect antidote to the hell, stress and confusion mortgages can cause. Our advertising deliberately and dramatically reflects a lot of that hell. We want people to feel like they’ve stepped away from that when they come to Habito. Our products and services have been described as out of this world. And this definitely feels other-worldly, yet designed with anyone who wants to own a home in mind.

Abba Newbery, CMO of Habito

Habito, like the majority of top fintech players, has invested in the exact brand match domain name Habito.com on its way to building a powerful brand.

For any business, especially startups, matching the domain name to the company’s brand name is essential because it creates instant credibility, trust, and respect.

Denim

Denim (formerly Axle Payments) is an NYC-based financial enablement platform for the freight and logistics industry. The company announced a $126 million Series B funding led by Pelion Venture Partners, comprising $26 million in equity and $100 million in debt financing. 

Along with its new capital, the company also underwent a complete rebrand and changed its name to Denim. Bharath Krishnamoorthy, co-founder and CEO of Denim, commented on recent fundraising and the transition to its new brand.

Our new brand reflects our broader ambitions to weave ourselves into the everyday fabric of the global freight economy. We are Denim, and we’re on a mission to advance the supply chain by accelerating the movement of money and data.

Bharath Krishnamoorthy, Co-founder and CEO of Denim

We often see businesses rebranding when they have outgrown their name, like Adwisely, Hapana, Deft, and many more. Denim has further increased its brand value by investing in the exact brand match domain – Denim.com. A short and memorable .com domain name incomparably optimizes brand recognition online. 

Wasabi

Wasabi Technologies is a U.S.-based cloud storage company founded in 2015 by David Friend and Jeff Flowers. The company achieved unicorn status in September following $250 million in new funding, bringing the company’s valuation to over $1.1 billion. With the new equity, Wasabi will be able to grow into more vertical markets and geographic areas, improve its channel partnerships, and grow its go-to-market team and global brand strategies.

Closing a large up round in this environment speaks to the spectacular growth of Wasabi, the magnitude of the cloud storage opportunity, and our leadership as the industry’s largest pure-play cloud storage vendor. At Wasabi we focus on just one thing: cloud storage. We do it better than anyone else in the industry. Because of this singular focus, our team has achieved best-in-class performance and security at the lowest prices in the industry.

David Friend, co-founder, and CEO of Wasabi

For almost 25 years, David Friend has been a successful technology entrepreneur. Prior to founding Wasabi, he co-founded Sonexis, FaxNet, Pilot Software, and Computer Pictures Corporation. On top of being a strong, memorable, and global name, Wasabi is also playful and open to great storytelling, skillfully exploited by the brand with its “hottest cloud storage” tagline. A strong domain gives more than SEO benefits; it also conveys an intangible impression of industry leadership.

In this episode of our podcast series, trademark, copyright, and advertising law expert Shane Rumbaugh discusses the legal implications of businesses choosing to use generic terms as part of their brand names.

Highlights

More than half of the companies on the list (495 out of 694) have opted for a global  .com domain name.

26 entries have chosen a .co extension. .co is a top-level domain extension, an acronym for company or corporation.

3 companies operate on the .health, which was introduced in 2017 and quickly became a preferred choice by health-related organizations.

379 firms have invested in an exact match domain name.

16 entries use a dash. Dashes are often included with two-word brand names or added words when the business has to compromise on their domain if the exact brand match name is taken/not within reach. 

While we make every effort to ensure the data on our site is accurate, complete, and up-to-date, we cannot guarantee its reliability. Our data is provided for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as legal, financial, or other advice. We strongly recommend that you independently verify any information before relying on it.

Other resources

• Top 100 Most Inspiring Brands 2022 by Wunderman Thompson and Their Domain Name Choices
• What Domain Extension is Best for a Startup?
• Why Investing in Your Branding is the Best Strategy for Your Business
• Risks and Benefits of Using Country Extension Domain Names

How does your brand name match your company vision? What new horizons can a better name open? Get in touch if you feel your brand deserves a better name, we are always happy to help.

2022 branding business domain domain name domain names domains funding naming september September 2022 Funded Startups startup