a16z Launched $7 Billion Fund & Tiktok Ban in US.

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

• OpenAI CTO Mira Murati played a key role in ousting Sam Altman from the company last year.

• TikTok alarmed U.S. users with a push notification about a potential total ban by Congress.

• Powerhouse venture capital firm Andreesen Horowitz (a16z) is reportedly weeks away from closing a close to $7 billion.

• Garry Tan of Y Combinator was talking to OpenAI about joining its board.

• Featured Article : Fundraising Is A Sales & Marketing Process In Which The Buyer Is a VC and the Product Is Equity.

• Daily Digest Board: Which side do you support in the ongoing legal battle between Epic Games and Apple regarding app store policies and in-app purchasing methods?

FROM OUR PARTNER

Is startup stress overwhelming you?

Discover mindfulness tools for focus and resilience at the Founder Institute's upcoming live webinar…

A webinar on founder well being with Alex Raymond and Jonathan Greechan.

PARTNERSHIP WITH US

Want to get your brand in front of thousands of founders, investors, executives, and startup operators? For details on our sponsorships, fill up this quick form and we’ll get in touch. (Prices Totally based on the budget, to help your brand reach a wide audience.)

STARTUP FUNDING UPDATES

Greenlyte Carbon Technologies, an Essen, Germany-based direct air capture startup, raised €10.5M in Pre-Series A funding. The round saw participation from Earlybird Venture Capital, Green Generation Fund, and Carbon Removal Partners, Board member Dr. Udo Jung, as well as Partech. More Here

Brevian, Sunnyvale-based wants to make it easier for business users to build custom AI agents has raised $9 million seed funding round, led by Felicis partner Jake Storm. More Here

Sonaverse, an Irvine, CA-based provider of a crypto data infrastructure platform, raised $7M in Seed funding. The round was led by BlockTower Capital with participation from United Overseas Bank, Aglaé Ventures, Third Prime Ventures, Ocular Funds, Aptos, FBG, and FJ Labs. More Here

Cosmology, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of a tech suite that enables developers to build Web3 apps in the Cosmos ecosystem, raised $5M in Seed funding. The round was led by Galileo and Lemniscap with participation from Dispersion, Hashkey, Tuesday Capital, the Osmosis Foundation, Chorus One, Informal Systems, and angels including Kevin Lin, Zaki Manian, Leland Lee, and Ethan Beard. More Here

Defense Unicorns, a Colorado Springs, CO-based software startup providing open source software and AI capabilities for National Security systems, raised $35M in Series A funding. The round was led by Sapphire Ventures and Ansa Capital. More Here

Wobble Genomics, an Edinburgh, Scotland, UK-based company providing a novel approach to RNA sequencing, raised £8.5M in funding. The round, which brought the total amount to $10.5M, was led by Mercia Ventures and BGF and backed by IQ Capital, EOS Advisors and Old College Capital, the university’s venture fund. More Here

Zama , Paris-based startup has secured $73 million in a Series A funding round co-led by Multicoin Capital and Protocol Labs, with a valuation close to $400 million. More Here

Todyl, a Denver, CO-based security and networking company, raised $50M in Series B funding. The round was led by Base10 Partners with participation from Anthos Capital, Tech Operators, and StoneMill Ventures. More Here

Maybell Quantum, a Denver, CO-based quantum infrastructure company, raised $25M in Series A funding. The round was led by an affiliate of Cerberus Capital Management, L.P., with participation from Lavrock Ventures, Caruso Ventures, Mark IV Capital, Decisive Point, In-Q-Tel, and Olive Capital. More Here

Nuke From Orbit, a London, UK-based fintech startup, raised £500K in Pre-Seed funding. The round saw participation from Oliver Bridgen, and Jordan Hallows. More Here

Fijoya, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based personalized platform for employer-sponsored health and wellness services, raised $8.3M in Seed funding. The round was led by Venture-Creation fund of Team8. More Here

Glimpse, a Somerville, MA-based provider of battery quality monitoring solutions for battery producers and electric mobility companies, raised $4M in Seed funding. The round saw participation from Ibex Mobility and Flybridge Capital Partners and a syndicate of battery and EV angel investors. More Here

Cogna, a London, UK-based provider of an AI-driven SaaS platform to create customised software applications, raised £3.76M in funding. The round was led by Hoxton Ventures, with participation from Notion Capital and Octopus First Cheque Fund. More Here

TollBit, a NYC-based company that offers AI bots and data scrapers a compliant way to compensate websites directly for content, has raised $7m in funding. The round was led by Sunflower Capital with participation from AIX, Lerer Hippeau, Operator Collective, and Liquid 2 Ventures. More Here

Hari Mari, a Dallas, TX-based sandal brand, raised $10M in Equity funding. The round was led by financial services entrepreneur Landon Smith. More Here

Enzzo, a Seattle, WA-based company focused on accelerating new hardware product development, raised $3M in Seed funding. The round was led by Unlock Venture Partners with participation from PSL Ventures and the newly created Mayfield/Pioneer Square Labs AIStudio Fund. More Here

Efficient Computer, a Pittsburgh, PA-based computer architecture and software stack company, raised $16M in Seed funding. The round was led by Eclipse. More Here

Good Trouble, a San Francisco, CA-based games studio, raised $1.8M in funding. The round was led by Skycatcher and included games investors Mitch Lasky and 1Up Ventures. More Here

FitLab, a Newport Beach, CA-based asset management firm specializing in investing and partnering with medium-sized businesses, raised $65M in funding from Atlas Credit Partners. More Here

C₂N Diagnostics, a St. Louis, MO-based brain health diagnostics company, received up to USD15M in investment from Eisai. More Here

Rakuten Medical, a San Diego, CA-based biotechnology company developing and commercializing precision, cell targeting therapies based on its proprietary Alluminox™ platform, raised $119M in Series E funding. The round, including $45M in new capital and the conversion of $74M of convertible promissory notes with accrued interest, saw participation from Hikma, Mizuho Bank and Dai-ichi Life, as well as additional investments by SBI Group,

Zama, a Paris, France-based open source cryptography company, raised $73M in Series A funding. The round was led by Multicoin Capital and Protocol Labs, with participation from Metaplanet, Blockchange Ventures, VSquared, and Stake Capital. More Here

Cultivated Biosciences, a Zurich, Switzerland-based biotech food startup, raised $5M in Seed funding. The round was led by Navus Ventures. More Here

Alumis, a San Francisco, CA-based clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, raised an upsized $259M Series C funding. The round was led by existing investor Foresite Capital, and new investors, Samsara BioCapital and venBio Partners. More Here

Sionna Therapeutics, a Boston, MA-based clinical-stage life sciences company, raised $182M in Series C funding. The round was led by Enavate Sciences. More Here

BrainCheck, an Austin, TX-based digital health provider, raised $15M in funding. The round was led by Next Coast Ventures, S3 Ventures, and UPMC Enterprises. More Here

Nextron, a São Paulo, Brazil-based climate tech company, raised US$5.3M in Series A funding. The round was led by Vox Capital and Copel Ventures. More Here

Altro, a Los Angeles, CA-based provider of a credit-building app, raised $4M in funding. Backers included Tinashe, Quavo, Chris Paul, Marshawn Lynch & more. More Here

StackOne, a London, UK-based provider of an embedded integration platform as a service (embedded IPaaS), raised $3.6M in Seed funding. The round was led by Episode 1, with participation from Playfair Capital, Portfolio Ventures, Charlie Songhurst, Sequoia’s Scout fund, and other investors. More Here

Sostengo, a San Salvador, El Salvador-based insurtech company, raised $3.8M in Seed funding. PeopleFund made the investment. More Here

Moxy.io, a Seattle, WA-based provider of a blockchain empowered tournament platform and infrastructure in the competitive gaming and web3 space, received an investment from GDA Capital. The amount of the deal was not disclosed. More Here

Fluent, a London, UK-based provider of a business data analytics platform, raised $7.5M in Seed funding. The round was led by Hoxton Ventures and Tiferes Ventures. More Here

Jabali, a San Francisco, CA- and Raleigh, NC-based AI company advancing a generative AI game engine, raised $5M in Seed funding. The round was led by BITKRAFT Ventures with participation from Sapphire Sport, Sony Innovation Fund, Canonical Ventures, and angels from Amazon, Google AI, Open AI, and Pinterest. More Here

Tava Health, a Salt Lake City, UT-based mental health company, raised $20M in Series B funding. The round was led by Catalyst Investors. Existing investors Peterson Partners, Toba Capital, and SpringTide, along with new investor Blue Heron Capital. More Here

VENTURE CAPITAL UPDATES

Powerhouse venture capital firm Andreesen Horowitz (a16z) is reportedly weeks away from closing a close to $7 billion raise for new funds. The Menlo Park firm is expected to finalize the raise for a larger feeder fund come April from anywhere between $6.5 billion to $7 billion. More Here

Prudence, a NYC-based early-stage venture firm investing in technology companies, closed its third fund, at $80m. Founded in 2009 and led by Gavin Myers, Managing Partner, Prudence is an early-stage venture capital firm investing in technology companies leading the global transformation of the built world. More Here

Conducive Capital, majority black-owned, South African venture capital company investing in early- and growth- stage disruptive technologies Launches $50 Million Venture Fund. More Here

AI2 Incubator, which spun out of the Allen Institute for AI in 2022, has secured $200 million in compute resources for startups in its program. Startups in the AI2 portfolio can receive up to $1 million worth of dedicated AI-style compute from data centers owned by an undisclosed partner. More Here

FEATURED ARTICLE

Fundraising Is A Sales & Marketing Process In Which The Buyer Is a VC and the Product Is Equity,

“Before you set out in fundraising mode, understand that -

fundraising is a sales & marketing process and needs to be managed. Somehow many first-time founders equate “sales” with something that is beneath them.

As a founder, you need to understand that -

An investors job is to deploy capital and make a return. If you truly believe that you, your company and your products are exceptional and your company will be valuable then you’re actually doing them a FAVOR by helping them invest in your startup.

If you don’t believe in your bones that you’re amazing then it’s no wonder you don’t want to sell them on making the investment.”…. Read More Here

STARTUP’S LATEST BUZZ

ACQUISITION & EXITS

Lensrentals, a titan in the online rental service for photo, video, audio and lighting equipment, has announced its acquisition of BorrowLenses, a key competitor in the space of photographic and video equipment rentals. More Here

Qonto, paris based startup originally started with online business accounts with debit cards specifically tailored for small and medium businesses has acquired Regate, an accounting and financial automation platform. More Here

LAYOFFS & SHUTDOWN

Turnitin, a plagiarism detection company, has confirmed a set of layoffs, aligning with CEO Chris Caren's earlier prediction of a 20% headcount reduction within 18 months due to AI efficiencies. More Here

STARTUPS & PEOPLE

The University of North Carolina (UNC) System President, Peter Hans, plans to block popular anonymous social apps like Yik Yak, Sidechat, Fizz, and Whisper on campus due to concerns about their promotion of bullying, harassment, and illegal activities. More Here

Garry Tan of Y Combinator was talking to OpenAI about joining its board. More Here

According to reporting from The New York Times, OpenAI CTO Mira Murati played a key role in ousting Sam Altman from the company last year. More Here

LATEST IN EMERGING TECH

The European Union is investigating Apple's decision to terminate Epic Games' developer account, citing potential breaches of the Digital Markets Act (DMA), Digital Services Act (DSA), and platform-to-business regulation (P2B). Epic Games accuses Apple of violating the DMA by preventing the launch of its app store, and the EU is evaluating the compliance of Apple's actions with the mentioned regulations. More Here

TikTok alarmed U.S. users with a push notification about a potential total ban by Congress, prompting a surge in support calls to congressional offices. However, the bipartisan bill advocating ByteDance's divestment of TikTok unanimously advanced in a 50-0 vote by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, suggesting a potential setback for the social media platform. More Here

VENTURE DAILY DIGEST PICKS

• Break Into VC: Develop Your Opinion / Thesis About The World. Read Here

• Marc Andreessen's Guide to Finding Product-Market Fit! Read Here

• Hidden Trap Of Convertible Note and Liquidation Preference Multiples. Read Here

• Steve Jobs - ‘Don’t Ask Your Customers What They Want, Why?’ Read Here

DAILY DIGEST BOARD

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Yesterday’s Poll: We have lots of Perplexity's superfan 🤗 (if you haven’t used Perplexity, try it once. It’s amazing , _{(Not sponsored but hope some day}😁 ₎

HOW CAN I HELP YOU?

• Get Your MVP In 15 Days: Have an Idea? Turn your idea into Reality. Move fast before your competitors…. Want to build SaaS platform, mobile or web app - we are here to help you. Build Your MVP

• Pitch Deck Design: We write, design and model your pitch deck into storyteller book within 4-5 days. Get Your Storyteller Book

FEATURED NEWSLETTERS

• Techpresso: Get updates on latest tech trends direct to your inbox.

• Transacted: Get the latest trends and transactions with the Street’s most informative M&A update.

That’s It For Today! Will Meet You Monday!
Happy Weekends! 🥂

  Advertise || Investor Database || Break Into VC

✍️Written By Sahil R - The Venture Crew 8