Alphabet Likely To Buy Hubspot For $30 Billion & Neuralink Implant Malfunctioned.

Advertise || Join The Community

👋 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 ☕! Today’s major updates include -

• Neuralink's brain implant chip in their first human patient had some problems a few weeks after surgery.

• Alphabet, Google's parent company, is reportedly in talks to acquire marketing software provider HubSpot in a potential $30 billion deal.

• Elon Musk's AI startup X.AI Corp. is set to close a funding round of $6 Billion at a valuation of around $18 billion.

• The bankruptcy lawyers representing FTX customers have announced that the vast majority of victims will receive their money back, plus interest.

• Featured Article : Y Combinator Advises Founders to Avoid These Startup Ideas.

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH

We Write, Design And Model Your Pitch Deck Into Storytelling Book

Deck don’t get you funded, they get you meeting. Without meeting you have no shot at getting funded. Investor meeting get you funded.

An investment associate gets 2000 decks in a year and they spend On average, 4 min on a deck. You have only few minutes to wow investors. But don’t worry

We are here to help you to create a pitch deck into storytelling book within 4-5 days that get investors attention.

PARTNERSHIP WITH US

Want to get your brand in front of thousands founders, investors, executives, and startup operators? For details on our sponsorships, fill up this quick form and we’ll get in touch.

STARTUP FUNDING UPDATES

Altera, a Los Angeles, CA-based artificial intelligence company creating digital human beings, closed a $9m seed funding round. The round, which brought total funding to $11.1m since inception in December 2023, was led by Patron and First Spark Ventures with participation from a16z SPEEDRUN, Mitch Lasky, Stephen Lim, Greg Harper, Bob Meese, Rich Aldrich, Vamos Ventures, Alumni Ventures, etc. More Here

RunPod, a Mount Laurel, NJ-based company that empowers developers to deploy custom full-stack AI applications, raised $20M in Seed funding. The round was led by Intel Capital and Dell Technologies Capital with participation from Julien Chaummond, Nat Friedman, and Adam Lewis. More Here

XTEND, the Tel Aviv, Israel-based developer of XOS, an AI-driven operating system for humans to interact with drones and robots, raised $40M in Series B funding. The round was led by Chartered Group, with further participation from its existing and new strategic investors, including Clal-Tech. More Here

Elementary, a Los Angeles, CA-based AI-powered machine vision company, received an undisclosed investment from Rockwell Automation. More Here

Rapid Liquid Print, a Boston, MA-based additive manufacturing startup, raised USD7M in Series A funding. The round was led by HZG Group with participation from existing investors BMW i Ventures and MassMutual. More Here

Testmate Health, a Lausanne, Switzerland-based company which specialises in at-home testing solutions, raised $6M in Seed funding. The round was led by RH Capital, with participation from The Helm, Zürcher Kantonal Bank, Amboy Street Ventures, Lichtsteiner Foundation, and Dartlabs.io. More Here

Greenboard, a NYC-based compliance and operations software company for financial services, raised $4.5M in Seed funding. The round was led by Base 10 Partners, with participation from Y Combinator, General Catalyst, Wayfinder Ventures, Liquid2 Ventures, Twenty Two Ventures, Rogue Capital, Transpose Platform, and others. More Here

Provable Markets, a NYC- and Amsterdam, the Netherlands-based provider of front, middle, and back-office technology solutions for Securities Finance, raised $8M in Series A funding. The round was led by Dialectic Capital Management. More Here

In-House Health, a Denver, CO-based provider of an AI-driven scheduling and management platform for modern nursing teams, raised $4M in Seed funding. The round, which brought the total amount to $5.4M, was led by NEA and TMV, with participation from pre-seed investors Vine Ventures and Longevity Venture Partners. More Here

Lucid Bots, a Charlotte, NC-based company which specializes in robotics for labor-intensive tasks, raised $9.1M in Series A funding. The round was led by Cubit Capital, with participation from Idea Fund Partners, Danu Venture Group, and existing investors Y Combinator’s Growth Fund and Gratus Capital. More Here

Arbelos Markets, a NYC-based principal liquidity provider in crypto derivatives markets, raised $28m in a mix of seed equity and debt financing. The round was led by Dragonfly Capital with participation from Room40 Ventures, Selini Capital and Breed VC, corporate partners FalconX, Circle Ventures, Paxos, P2 Ventures (formerly Polygon Ventures), Deribit, Chorus One, StarkWare and Immutable, and angel investors at Aevo, Cega, Talos, Amberdata, and Framework. More Here

Token Security, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based machine-first identity security platform provider, emerged from stealth, announcing $7m in Seed funding. The round was led by TLV Partners and SNR as well as a range of angel investors including Shlomo Kramer, one of the founding fathers of cybersecurity in Israel. More Here

Ciba Health, a NYC-based digital health company, raised $10M in Series A funding. The round was led by DigiTx Partners, with participation from E12 Ventures, 3CC Capital, Plug and Play Ventures and angel investors. More Here

ChangeEngine, a San Francisco, CA-based Internal Marketing & People Design Platform that enables companies to deploy best-in-class programs without requiring employees to log in to separate systems, raised $10m in Series A funding. The round was led Threshold Ventures and joined by Struck Capital and Bonfire Ventures. Josh Stein and Adam Struck joined ChangeEngine’s Board of Directors. More Here

Xona Space Systems, a Burlingame, CA-based company developing a network of small satellites to provide high-precision navigation services, raised $19m in Series A funding. The round led by Future Ventures and Seraphim Space with participation from new investors NGP Capital, Industrious Ventures, Murata Electronics, Space Capital, and Aloniq. More Here

Atlan, a San Francisco, CA-based data and AI governance company, raised $105m in Series C funding. The round, which brought total raised to more than $206m, was led by GIC, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, along with co-investor Meritech Capital, and existing investors Salesforce Ventures and PeakXV Partners. More Here

Panax, a NYC-based provider of an AI-driven cash flow management platform, raised $15M in funding. Backers included Team8 and TLV Partners. More Here

Futura, a Milan, Italy-based edtech company, raised €14M in Series A funding. The round was led by Eurazeo, with participation from existing investor United Ventures and new investor Axon Partners Group. More Here

Insempra, a Munich, Germany-based biotechnology company raised $20M in funding. Backers included EQT Ventures, BlueYard Capital, Possible Ventures, Taavet Sten, Acequia Capital Henkel dx Ventures, Bayern Kapital and Alante Capital. More Here

Optix, a Beijing, China-based XR tech startup, raised US$15M in funding. The round was led by Primavera Venture Partners. Existing investors Lanchi Ventures also participated. More Here

Eleos, a London, UK-based provider of an embedded life and income insurance, raised $4M in Seed funding. The round was led by Fuel Ventures and Indico Capital with participation from APX. More Here

Definely, a London, UK-based legaltech company focused on making legal documents easy to read, edit and understand, raised $7M in Series A funding. The round was led by Octopus Ventures, with participation from Cornerstone VC, Zrosk Investment Ltd., and angerls Claire Hughes Johnson, Comron Sattari, Ajay Patel, and Babatunde Soyoye. More Here

Blackwell Security, an Ann Arbor, MI-based provider of specialized cybersecurity solutions for the healthcare sector, raised $13M in funding. The round was led by General Catalyst and Rally Ventures. More Here

Bleach Cyber, a San Francisco, CA-based company which specializes in cybersecurity for startups and small businesses, raised $2M in Pre-Seed funding. Backers included Everywhere VC, The Fund Austin, Rain Tree Roots Capital, BlueWing Ventures, Concept Ventures, Tynrose, and Acadian Capital Ventures, with support from angel investors including Don Douglas, Scott Nicholson, Nick Santora, Sam Murdoch, and Bill Tyndall. More Here

Acclinate, a Birmingham, AL-based company which specializes in mobilizing diverse communities for enhanced health equity, raised $17M in Series A funding. The round was led by Cencora Ventures, with notable contributions from Labcorp and Latimer Ventures. More Here

Legion Technologies, a Santa Clara, CA-based workforce management (WFM) company, raised $50M in Growth funding. The round, which brought the total amount to $145M, was led by Riverwood Capital with participation from existing investors, including Norwest, Stripes, Webb Investment Network, and XYZ. More Here

VENTURE CAPITAL UPDATES

Vance Street Capital, a Los Angeles, CA-based private equity firm, closed Vance Street Capital IV, at $775m. Fund IV will continue the firm’s strategy of partnering with founder-owned companies, multi-generational family businesses, and corporate carve-outs in critical B2B manufacturing businesses across the medical, life science, industrial technology, and aerospace & defense sectors. More Here

FEATURED ARTICLE

Y Combinator Advises Founders to Avoid These Startup Ideas.

In the search for startup ideas, it often happens that founders come across some seemingly obvious and simple ideas. These are ideas that seem great at first, but end up being a major drain on your time and resources. These type of ideas know as "Tarpit Idea".

So what's the difference between Tarpit & Bad Ideas?

The only difference between a bad idea and a Tarpish idea is that

“You would know when to stop pursuing a bad idea. But A Tarpit Idea is identified a little bit too late — when money is already spent on developing it. Looks scary, right?”

Most founders fall under the Tarpish Ideas trap — assuming it to be a good idea.

We have shared a detailed write-up on how to identify the Tarpish idea, factors to consider in identifying it, and how to pivot from it….Read More Here

STARTUP’S LATEST BUZZ

ACQUISITION & EXITS

Alphabet, Google's parent company, is reportedly in talks to acquire marketing software provider HubSpot in a potential $30 billion deal. More Here

Corlytics, a Dublin, Ireland-based company which speicliazes in regulatory intelligence and policy compliance technology, has acquired a digital RegTech platform from Deloitte UK. More Here

iyzico, an Istanbul, Turkey-based financial technology company, acquired Paynet, a provider of B2B payments and collections services in the Turkish fintech landscape, for USD87M from Arena Group. More Here

Akamai Technologies (NASDAQ: AKAM), a Cambridge, MA-based cloud company that empowers and protect life online, acquired Noname Security, a San Jose, CA-based API security company, for approx. $450M. More Here

LAYOFFS & BANKRUPTCY

STARTUPS & PEOPLE

Line Man Wongnai, a Thai on-demand food delivery service, is considering an IPO in 2025, either on a Thai exchange or in the U.S. The company has raised over $372 million and has a valuation exceeding $1 billion, aiming to leverage its partnership with Line messenger and its understanding of local markets. More Here

Elon Musk's AI startup X.AI Corp. is set to close a funding round at a valuation of around $18 billion as soon as this week. The round is expected to raise $6 billion, with participants including Sequoia Capital. More Here

LATEST IN EMERGING TECH

The bankruptcy lawyers representing FTX customers have announced that the vast majority of victims will receive their money back, plus interest. Approximately 98% of creditors will receive 118% of the value of their FTX-stored assets in cash, while the remaining creditors will receive 100% of their funds, along with compensation for the time value of their investments. The FTX estate plans to distribute between $14.5 and $16.3 billion in cash to resolve disputes without costly litigation. More Here

Microsoft announced a $3.3 billion investment in cloud computing and AI infrastructure, including a new datacenter campus in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin. The company will also establish the country's first manufacturing-focused AI Co-Innovation Lab and provide AI skills training to over 100,000 Wisconsin residents. More Here

Neuralink's brain implant chip in their first human patient had some problems a few weeks after surgery. some of the electrode-studded threads that sit in the brain tissue began to retract from that tissue, the company said, resulting in the device not working properly. More Here

HOW CAN I HELP YOU?

• Build Your Pitch Deck : We write, design and model your pitch deck into a storyteller book within 4-5 days.

• Get Your MVP In 15 Days: Have an Idea? Turn your idea into Reality. Move fast before your competitors.

• Break Into VC: Join Our VC Enthusiast slack Community to learn, network and craft path to venture capital.

That’s It For Today! Will Meet Tomorrow. Happy Thursday! ☕

  Advertise || Join The Community