General Catalyst Acquires Indian VC Firm & Former Open AI Scientist Sutskever Launches New AI Company

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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 -

• General Catalyst, a Silicon Valley VC firm, partnering with local Indian VC firm Venture Highway and allocated $500 million to $1 billion for investments in Indian startups.

• Ilya Sutskever, former chief scientist at OpenAI, has launched a new AI company called Safe Superintelligence Inc. (SSI) with former Y-Combinator partner.

• India's Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) has imposed a fine of $2.25 million on Binance.

• Featured Article : Sam Altman: Successful Pivots Typically Fall Into Two Category.

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Startup Funding Updates

Decagon, a San Francisco, CA-based generative AI company empowering enterprise customer support, raised $35M in Seed and Series A funding. The Seed round was led by a16z and Series A was led by Accel with participation from A*, Elad Gil, and angels including Aaron Levie (CEO, Box), Howie Liu (CEO, Airtable), Matt MacInnis (COO, Rippling), Aaref Hilaly (Partner, BCV), Mike Vernal (Ex-Sequoia), Frederic Kerrest (Cofounder, Okta), Jack Altman (CEO, Lattice), and Ed Hallen (Cofounder, Klaviyo). More Here

C12, located in Paris, France, is a quantum computing company working on creating quantum computers based on carbon nanotubes. The company recently raised an €18 million ($19.4 million) funding round from investors including Varsity Capital, EIC Fund, Verve Ventures, 360 Capital, Bpifrance's Digital Venture fund, and BNP Paribas Développement. More Here

Butterflies AI, a Bellevue, WA-based social media platform allowing humans and AIs to co-exist, raised $4.8M in Seed funding. The round was led by Coatue with participation from SV Angel and other angels. More Here

LD Carbon, a Seoul, South Korea-based producer of recovered carbon black, raised $28M in Series C funding. The round was led by Toyota’s growth fund, Woven Capital, with participation from Meritz Securities, Investwith, Industrial Bank of Korea, Hyundai Motor Group ZER01NE, Elohim Partners and New Main Capital. More Here

Insightec, a Haifa, Israel- and Miami, FL-based healthcare company dedicated to using focused ultrasound to improve patient care, raised $150M in equity funding. The round was led by Fidelity Management & Research Company and co-led by Nexus Neurotech Ventures and Ally Bridge Group. More Here

PointFive, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based cloud cost optimization platform provider, raised $16M in Seed funding. The round was led by Index Ventures with participation from Entree Capital, Sheva Capital, and Vesey Ventures, and angel investors, including Assaf Rappaport, CEO and Co-Founder at Wiz, Mickey Boodaei, CEO and Co-Founder at Transmit Security, Tamar Yehoshua, Former Chief Product Officer at Slack, Rakesh Loonkar, Amiram Shachar, Guy Podjarni, David Politis, Dean Sysman and others. More Here

MeetRecord, an Austin, TX-based Revenue Automation Platform specifically designed for the service sector, raised $2.7m in Pre-Series A funding. The round was led by SWC Global, with additional support from existing investor All In Capital. More Here

Liquid Instruments, a San Diego, CA- and Canberra, Australia-based reconfigurable test instrumentation company, secured a new round of funding totaling $12m. The round led by a $10m investment from Breakthrough Victoria, with other investors including Lockheed Martin Ventures, Acorn Capital, and Powerhouse Ventures. More Here

ZRG, a Rochelle Park, NJ-based talent advisory firm, raised $120M in Debt funding. Backers included Main Street Capital Corporation and its affiliates. More Here

Huntress, a Columbia, MD-based company which specializes in cybersecurity for small businesses to small enterprises and the Service Providers that support them, raised $150M in Series D funding. The round was led by Kleiner Perkins, Meritech Capital, and existing investor Sapphire Ventures. More Here

DeepJudge, a Zurich, Switzerland-based AI-driven legal search startup, raised $10.7M in Seed funding. The round was led by Coatue, with participation from angel investors such as Gokul Rajaram and Michele Catasta and existing investors Thomas Dübendorfer, Daniel Sauter, and Felix Ehrat. More Here

Submix.io, a San Francisco, CA-based audio technology company, raised $1M in Pre-Seed funding. Backers included Angel Invest Ventures, SCNE, TSIC (Tiny Supercomputer Investment Company) and Vesna Capital. More Here

Iambic Therapeutics, a San Diego, CA-based clinical-stage biotechnology company, raised $50M in Series B extension funding. The round was led by Mubadala Capital and Exor Ventures, with participation from Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), and existing investors Abingworth, Illumina Ventures, Nexus Venture Partners, Coatue, and Tao Capital Partners. More Here

Marea Therapeutics, a San Francisco, CA-based clinical-stage biotechnology company incubated by Third Rock Ventures, raised $190M in combined Series A and B financings. The Series A round was led by Third Rock Ventures and the Series B round was led by Sofinnova Investments and co-led by Forbion, Perceptive Xontogeny Venture Fund and venBio, with the participation of Alpha Wave Global, Omega Funds, Surveyor Capital (a Citadel company) and founding investor Third Rock Ventures. More Here

Trustwise, an Austin, TX-based company which specializes in generative AI application performance and risk management, raised $4M in seed financing. The round was led by Hitachi Ventures with participation from Firestreak Ventures and Grit Ventures. More Here

Vehya, a Detroit, MI-based provider of a mobile app dedicated to automating the installation, repair, and routine maintenance processes for home and small business services, raised $2.1M in Seed funding. The round was led by Community Reinvestment Fund, USA (CRF), with participation from other investors. More Here

Bisly, a Tallin, Estonia-based provider of smart building automation solutions, raised €6.2M in Series A funding. Backers included Foxway founders Urvo Männama and Paul Padrik, who joined Aconterra, SmartCap Green Fund, Pinorena Capital and angel investors. More Here

Jogo Health, a NYC-based medtech company treating chronic pain and neuromuscular disorders, raised $5.5M in funding. The round was led by Hourglass Ventures. More Here

ZA Tech, a Singapore-based insurance core system SaaS provider, has rebranded as Peak3 and raised US$35M in Series A funding. Backers included EQT (lead investor) and Alpha JWC Ventures. More Here

Aymium, a St.Paul, MN-based producer of renewable biocarbon products, raised $50M in Debt funding. Backers included Fortress Investment Group and Kilonova Capital. More Here

Berg Enteprises, Inc., a Houston, TX-based provider of mechanical, plumbing and pipefitting services, raised $2.5M in funding. The round, structured in a combination of private debt and equity, was led by Antina Capital. More Here

Venture Capital Updates

General Catalyst merges with Venture Highway in India push

General Catalyst, a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm, is expanding its presence in India by partnering with local venture firm Venture Highway. They have earmarked $500 million to $1 billion for investments in Indian startups over the next three years. The deal will see the combined entity plot a multi-stage investment strategy, spanning early- and growth-stage startups across industries. More Here

Featured Article

Sam Altman: Successful Pivots Typically Fall Into Two Category.

“Pivoting in the business world has become a bit of a buzzword, hasn't it?

It's almost like a shiny badge of honour that some wear proudly. The whole concept revolves around changing course when things aren't going as planned, and there are people out there who actually brag about how many times they've pulled off a pivot. But let's just pause for a moment and really think about what this means.

Pivoting, in essence, is a sign that things didn't go according to plan, in simple words - it’s a failure!

It's a recognition that the initial strategy or idea didn't pan out as expected. And you're right, failure is undeniably part and parcel of the entrepreneurial game. It's important to be tolerant of failure, not holding it against anyone, and certainly not turning it into a celebration.

However, there's a fine line between acknowledging failure and glorifying it as a success. Some entrepreneurs proudly wear the badge of multiple pivots, almost boasting about how many times they've changed direction.

But here's the thing – pivoting a startup is sucks, plain and simple.

The focus should be on learning from it and avoiding the repetition of the same mistakes, rather than treating it as a badge of honour.

Great startups, the ones that truly succeed, don't necessarily see pivoting as a badge of honour. They view it as a learning experience that contributes to building a potentially successful business.

Not all pivots are created equal, and the distinction lies in the reasons behind them.

If you look at some great startups that pivot you will find that - there are two types of pivots that tend to be more successful and make total sense.

First, there's the pivot where the founder ends up building something they were passionate about from the start.

Take Instagram's Kevin Systrom, for example. His initial venture, Bourbon, wasn't working out. During a vacation, he built something he was genuinely passionate about—photography with filters. This pivot worked because it aligned with his true interests.

The second type of pivot that makes sense is born out of necessity.

Consider Airbnb's founders during the financial crisis. They were broke, maxed out credit cards, using plastic sheets to keep track of them—real desperation. In this dire situation, they rented out a spare room to make ends meet. This pivot was out of sheer survival, and it worked. Today, Airbnb is known for more than just spare rooms; it's a significant player in affordable housing.

However, the common type of pivot, where founders sit down, realize their startup isn't working, and brainstorm a new idea on a whiteboard, rarely succeeds.

Why? Well, if you're rushing to come up with an idea, chances are it won't be a good one. Moreover, if you already have investors, you need a plausible-sounding idea to present to them.

It's fine to have a good idea that initially sounds bad, but pivoting into such an idea is tougher.” Sam Altman Here

Read detailed article in our Venture Curator newsletter.

Startup’s Latest Buzz

Acquisition & Going Public

Accenture (NYSE: ACN) has agreed to acquire Fibermind, a Rovigo, Italy-based network services company specializing in fiber and mobile 5G networks deployment.

Société Générale announced plans to sell Shine, a French fintech startup offering bank accounts for freelancers and small businesses, to Ageras. More Here

Fengate, an alternative-asset manager, will hold over two-thirds of the equity in eStruxture Data Centers through a transaction totaling 1.8 billion Canadian dollars, or the equivalent of $1.3 billion, marking a big bet on increasing demand for storage capacity with the growing use of artificial intelligence. More Here

Layoffs & Bankruptcy

Startups & People

Ilya Sutskever, former chief scientist at OpenAI, has launched a new AI company called Safe Superintelligence Inc. (SSI). 

SSI is co-founded by Sutskever, former Y Combinator partner Daniel Gross, and ex-OpenAI engineer Daniel Levy. The company's sole focus is advancing AI capabilities while ensuring safety remains ahead, free from commercial pressures. Based in Palo Alto and Tel Aviv, SSI is designed as a for-profit entity and is currently recruiting technical talent. More Here

Latest In Emerging Tech

India's Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) has imposed a fine of $2.25 million on Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange, for operating in the country in violation of local anti-money laundering regulations. Binance had registered with the FIU in May to resume operations in India, but the watchdog had previously issued show-cause notices to nine offshore exchanges operating illegally. More Here

Perplexity AI is lying about their user agent: WIRED and developer Robb Knight found that Perplexity's crawler ignores the Robots Exclusion Protocol, accessing content from sites that have blocked it, including Condé Nast properties. Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas describes the product as an "answer engine," but the chatbot has been found to paraphrase articles without proper attribution and sometimes fabricate information entirely. An experiment by WIRED demonstrated that Perplexity sometimes generates content without accessing the actual webpage, raising concerns about the accuracy and ethics of its information-gathering methods. More Here

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