Anthropic Releases ‘Most Intelligent’ AI Model & Softbank's $150 Billion Blunder

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👋 Hey, Sahil here! Welcome to today's quick rundown in the Venture Daily Digest Newsletter. I've got the scoop on startup fundraising, VC funds, and some cool tech – all in just 5 minutes ☕! Today’s major updates include -

• PayPal Ventures led $20 Million funding round in NYC-based a embedded financing platform - Gynger.

• SoftBank Group founder Masayoshi Son on Friday lamented what turned out to be a $150 billion blunder: selling shares in Nvidia years before the chip maker became one of the world's most valuable companies.

• Oracle plans to invest over $1 billion in AI and cloud computing in Spain.

• Featured Article : MVP is Over. You Need to Think About MVE.

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Startup Funding Updates

Zepto, based in Mumbai, India, is a quick commerce startup that delivers groceries and other items within minutes in urban areas. The company raised $665 million in a Series F round, valuing it at $3.6 billion. Key investors include Glade Brook, Nexus, StepStone Group, Avenir, Lightspeed, and reportedly DST Global. More Here

Day.ai, founded by Christopher O'Donnell and Michael Pici (Ex-HubSpot exec), is a new AI-powered CRM startup that automatically gathers and updates customer information from various sources. The company, which is currently in invite-only beta, raised a $4 million seed round led by Sequoia Capital. More Here

Gynger, a NYC-based embedded financing platform for technology purchases, raised $20m in Series A funding. The round was led by PayPal Ventures, with participation from Gradient Ventures, Velvet Sea Ventures, BAG Ventures and Deciens Capital. More Here

GrayMatter Robotics, a Los Angeles, CA-based robotics company delivering autonomous robotic solutions, raised $45M in Series B funding. The round was led by Wellington Management. Other investors included NGP Capital, Euclidean Capital, Advance Venture Partners, SQN Venture Partners, and other existing investors 3M Ventures, B Capital, Bow Capital, Calibrate Ventures, OCA Ventures, and Swift Ventures. More Here

Speak, based in San Francisco, is an AI-powered language learning app that emphasizes speaking practice. The company raised a $20 million Series B extension, bringing its total funding to $84 million and valuing it at $500 million. Key investors in this round include Buckley Ventures, the OpenAI Startup Fund, Khosla Ventures, Paul Graham, and Jeff Weiner. More Here

Molten Industries, an Oakland, CA-based company that converts natural gas into clean graphite and hydrogen, raised $25M in Series A funding. The round was led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV), with new participation from Sozo Ventures, Mark Heising, and Steelhead Capital. More Here

Vecna Robotics, a Waltham, MA-based provider of flexible material handling automation solutions, raised $100M in Series C funding. Backers included Tiger Global Management, Proficio Capital Partners, and IMPULSE. More Here

Poolside.ai, a Paris-based generative AI startup, is reportedly raising at least $400 million at a $2 billion valuation. The company, founded by Jason Warner and Eiso Kant, is building tools to speed up software development using AI. Bain Capital Ventures and DST are in talks to co-lead the round. More Here

M2X Energy, a Rockledge, FL-based end-to-end developer of modular, transportable gas-to-liquids systems, raised $40M in Series B funding. The round was led by Conifer Infrastructure Partners, with participation from Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Eni Next, Add Ventures by SCG, and Autodesk Foundation. More Here

Pomelo Care, a NYC-based virtual medical practice that improves maternal and newborn health outcomes, raised $46M in Series B funding. The round was led by First Round Capital and Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) Bio + Health with participation from Stripes, SV Angel, Operator Partners BoxGroup, Adam Boehler, and Puneet Singh. More Here

Semperis, a Hoboken, NJ-based company which specializes in identity-driven cyber resilience, raised $125M in Growth funding. The round, which followed a $200M Series C round in 2022 led by KKR, was led by J. P. Morgan and Hercules Capital. More Here

Coeptis Therapeutics, a Wexford, PA-based biopharmaceutical company developing innovative cell therapy platforms for cancer, autoimmune, and infectious diseases, closed on $4.3m in financing. The round was led by led by CJC Investment Trust. More Here

Aikido Technologies, a San Francisco, CA-based floating wind startup whose technology lowers costs, reduces fabrication timelines and brings serial production to the floating wind sector, closed a $4m seed funding round. The round was led by Azolla Ventures with participation from Propeller Ventures, Sabanci Climate Ventures, Cisco Foundation, Anthropocene Ventures, and others. More Here

Kinetic, a Santa Ana, CA-based automotive infrastructure company that delivers digital maintenance and servicing for EVs and AVs through its network of service centers, raised $21m in Series B funding. The round was led by Menlo Ventures, with participation from returning investors Lux Capital, Construct Capital and Haystack Ventures along with new investors Allstate Strategic Ventures and Liberty Mutual Strategic Ventures. More Here

Cadana, a NYC-based global payroll technology company that specializes in emerging markets, raised $7.4m in funding to date. The round was led by Costanoa Ventures with participation by Better Tomorrow Ventures and 500 Startups. More Here

unitQ, a Burlingame, CA-based provider of an AI-powered customer feedback platform, received an investment from Zendesk Ventures. More Here

Wordsmith, an Edinburgh, Scotland, UK-based provider of an AI-powered legal assistant platform, raised $5M in Seed funding. The round was led by Index Ventures, with participation from General Catalyst and Skyscanner CEO Gareth Williams. More Here

Materia, a NYC-based comprehensive generative AI platform built specifically for public accounting firms, raised $6.3M in funding. The round was led by Spark Capital with participation from Haystack Ventures, Thomson Reuters Ventures, Exponential Founders Capital, and the Allen Institute for AI. More Here

Substrate, a NYC-based AI infrastructure startup, raised $8M in Seed funding. The round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with participation from South Park Commons, Craft Ventures, Guillermo Rauch (Vercel), Immad Akhund (Mercury), Will Gaybrick (Stripe), and others. More Here

Pomerium, a Los Angeles, CA-based provider of an access control platform, raised $13.75M in Series A funding. The round was led by Benchmark, and general partner Eric Vishria will join the company’s board. Return investors Bain Capital, Haystack, SNR, and Oleg Rogynskyy, founder of People.AI, also participated. More Here

FairNow, a Mclean, VA-based provider of AI governance software, raised $3.5M in Seed funding. The round was led by Somen Mondal and Shaun Ricci. More Here

Humata Health, a Winter Park, FL-based company creating prior authorizations for payers and providers with AI and automation, raised $25M in funding. The round was led by Blue Venture Fund (representing the majority of BCBS plans) and LRVHealth (representing nearly 30 health systems and payers) with participation from Optum Ventures, .406 Ventures, Highmark Ventures, and VentureforGood. More Here

PQShield, a London, UK-based cybersecurity company specializing in post-quantum cryptography (PQC), raised $37M in Series B funding. The round was led by Addition, with participation from new investors Chevron Technology Ventures, Legal & General and Braavos Capital, together with existing backers, Oxford Science Enterprises. More Here

atmio, a Hamburg, Germany-based provider of an operating system for finding, fixing, and reporting methane emissions, raised €5.1M in Seed funding. The round was led by Notion Capital, with participation from SquareOne. Other investors included HCVC and Robin Capital, as well as angel investment from Bernhard Mohr, former VP Gas Detection at Dräger, and David Rowan’s VOYAGERS Climate-Tech Fund. More Here

Megamod, a Raleigh, NC-based provider of a multiplayer gaming platform, raised $1.9M in funding at a post-money valuation of $27 million. Backers included Alexander Agapitov and his family fund Hand of Midas, as well as Rubylight Fund and other private investors. More Here

Venture Capital Updates

Breega, a Paris-based VC firm, has launched a $75 million fund called "Africa Seed I" to invest in early-stage startups across Africa. The fund will focus on pre-seed to Series A investments in various sectors, including fintech, health tech, proptech, logistics, and edtech. Led by partners Melvyn Lubega and Tosin Faniro-Dada, Breega plans to invest $100,000 to $2 million in startups across major African markets, with backing from institutions like Bpifrance and the Dutch entrepreneurial development bank FMO. More Here

Wind, a French early-stage VC founded by serial entrepreneurs Thierry Vandewalle and Xavier Gury, has closed a first €90m of a targeted €130m fund dedicated to European deeptech startups in the climate sector. The fund will back up to 30 seed and series A companies with tickets ranging from €500k to €5m; almost half of the money will be set aside for follow-on investments. More Here

Featured Article

MVP is Over. You Need to Think About MVE.

(Hint: V isn’t for viable — it’s for valuable)

Most startups fail because first-time founders either under-invest and create something untested based on gut instinct, or over-invest without validating if it provides value.

The crucial question is not "how can I solve this problem?" but "how can I create a valuable experience that people desperately need and will pay for?"

The example of Thomas Edison's light bulb invention highlights this - existing bulbs were viable but not valuable as they didn't last long. Edison focused on creating a Minimum Valuable Experience (MVE) by making affordable, durable bulbs that provided the illumination people craved.

To identify an MVE, use the A.C.T. framework:

• Audience - Deeply understand your ideal customer segment, their behaviours, goals, and what they seek.

• Communication - Craft messaging using language and formats that resonate with your audience.

• Touchpoints - Design triggers and channels to move your audience to action effectively.

The startup Webflow exemplifies mastering A.C.T. The founders envisioned empowering designers through no-code web design. They intimately knew this audience, positioned Webflow's unique value and gained explosive traction via platforms like Hacker News. Though facing numerous setbacks, their clarity of vision and customer focus ultimately led to billions in valuation.

Startups must relentlessly pursue creating meaningful experiences, not just viable products. Continuously adapt based on audience feedback. Success stems from this laser focus on delivering an MVE that genuinely improves customers' lives in ways they'll pay for. Must recommend reading this article by Pete Sena.

Read detailed article in our Venture Curator newsletter.

Startup’s Latest Buzz

Acquisition & Going Public

Bullhorn, a Boston, MA-based provider of cloud-based software for the staffing and recruitment industry, has acquired Textkernel, an Amsterdam, The Nethertlands-based industry leader in Sourcing AI solutions. More Here

Layoffs & Bankruptcy

Startups & People

Masayoshi Son calls the 2019 sale of stake in chip maker 'the fish that got away'

—SoftBank Group founder Masayoshi Son on Friday lamented what turned out to be a $150 billion blunder: selling shares in Nvidia years before the chip maker became one of the world's most valuable companies. More Here

Ali Rathod-Papier left her role as global head of compliance at Brex to join Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) as a partner and compliance officer. More Here

PayPal (PYPL.O), opens new tab has hired one of Walmart's top tech executives Srini Venkatesan to head up the company's push into artificial intelligence as its new chief technology officer. More Here

Latest In Emerging Tech

Anthropic claims its latest model is best-in-class

Anthropic has released Claude 3.5 Sonnet, a new generative AI model that outperforms its predecessors on various benchmarks for reading, coding, math, and vision tasks. The model, which can analyze text and images as well as generate text, is twice as fast as Claude 3 Opus and offers improved understanding of complex instructions and concepts. Alongside the new model, Anthropic introduced Artifacts, a workspace for editing and adding to AI-generated content. More Here

Oracle plans to invest over $1 billion in AI and cloud computing in Spain over the next decade. The investment will establish a new cloud region in Madrid, Oracle's third in the city, in partnership with Telefonica España. More Here

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