Altman's Fund Launched Accelerator Program & Google Announced It's First Arm Processor

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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, fresh VC funds, and some cool tech – all in just 5 minutes!

• Alt Capital, a venture capital firm led by Jack Altman, is launching an accelerator program called Generate.

• Cruise, GM's self-driving car division, restarts manual driving of autonomous vehicles in Phoenix, Arizona after a five-month hiatus.

• Google Cloud has announced its first custom-built Arm processor, called Axion.

• Meta is set to release Llama 3, the next generation of its large language model for generative AI assistants.

• Kiki World, a Los Angeles, CA-based community commerce company, raised $7M in funding. Backers included a16z crypto.

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Startup Funding Updates

Cyera, a NYC-based data security company, raised $300M in Series C funding, at $1.4 Billion valuation. The round was led by Coatue with participation from new investors Spark Capital, Georgian, and AT&T Ventures, alongside investment by all existing investors Sequoia, Accel, Redpoint, and Cyberstarts. More Here

Kiki World, a Los Angeles, CA-based community commerce company, raised $7M in funding. Backers included a16z crypto, The Estée Lauder Companies’ New Incubation Ventures (NIV), Double Down, 2Punks Capital, Advancit, digital communities RedDao and OrangeDao, and the digital creator GMoney. More Here

Libretto, the NYC-based platform for rapidly testing, monitoring, and optimizing your LLM prompts, just closed $3.7 million in Seed funding. The round was co-led by XYZ Venture Capital and The General Partnership. More Here

Torg, a Berlin, Germany-based food sourcing startup, raised €2.7M in Seed funding. The round was led by Connect Ventures with participation from FoodLabs, Sondo, Ventures Together, Sameer Singh and Jonas Meynert. More Here

Weenat, a Nantes, France-based agritech startup, raised $8M in Series C funding. The round was led by ECBF, Pymwymic, LIBERSET, and IDIA Capital Investment. More Here

Reshape, a Copenhagen, Denmark–based AI and robotics-powered imaging and analysis platform provider, raised $20m in Series A funding. The round was led by Astanor Ventures, R7, ACME, Y Combinator, Unity Co-Founder Nicholas Francis, and 21stBio. More Here

Sprinto, a San Francisco, California-based provider of an automated risk and compliance platform, raised $20m in Series B funding. The round was led by Accel with participation from existing investors Elevation Capital and Blume Ventures. More Here

Pete, an Orlando, FL-based AI EdTech startup, raised $2M in Seed funding. The round was led by Cofounders Capital with participation from angel investors in the Orlando area. More Here

Waymap, a London, UK-based technology company offering a navigation app that works outdoors, indoors and deep underground, raised £7M in funding. The round was led by TELUS Pollinator Fund for Good with participation from Venrex and Comprador Holdings. More Here

StrikeReady, a Dallas, TX-based company working to advance the way modern security teams operate, announced $12M in funding. The round was led by 33N Ventures, with participation from Hitachi Ventures, Monta Vista Capital, Brian NeSmith, and Rod Beckstrom. More Here

Quintar, a Santa Clara, CA-based extended reality company, raised $8.2M in Series A funding. The round was led by SeventySix Capital and Cowles Company, with participation from Centre Court Capital. As part of the investment Mustafa Ghouse, General Partner of Centre Court Capital, will join the Quintar board. More Here

Bite, a NYC-based provider of intelligent kiosk solutions for restaurants, raised $9M in Series A funding. The round was led by Staley Capital, with participation from Graham Partners, Food-X, One Way Ventures and Tamarisc Ventures. More Here

Ostra Cybersecurity, a Minneapolis, MN-based holistic and managed security as a service platform provider, raised over $4M in Series A funding. The round was led by Rally Ventures, with participation from founding investor Jeff Cowan. More Here

Monad Labs, the NYC-based core developers behind layer 1 blockchain Monad, closed a $225M Series A funding. The round was led by Paradigm with additional funding by investors including Electric Capital and Greenoaks. More Here

Juicer, a San Francisco, CA-based company which specializes in restaurant revenue management and pricing solutions, raised $5.3M in Seed funding. The round was led by York IE with participation from Augment Ventures and Mudita Venture Partners. More Here

Procurement Sciences AI, a Washington, DC-based provider of a bidding-intelligence platform for government contractors, raised $10M in Series A funding. The round was led by Battery Ventures, with participation from Tower Research Capital and K Street Capital and Blu Ventures. More Here

ID5, a London, UK-based identity provider for digital advertising, raised $20M in Series B funding. Backers included TransUnion, S4S Ventures and existing investors Progress Ventures, Seventure Partners, 360 Capital Partners, Axio, and Aperiam Ventures. More Here

Cariloop, a Richardson, TX-based provider of a caregiver support platform, raised $20M in Series C funding. The round was led by ABS Capital with participation from existing investors Noro-Moseley Partners, KCRise Fund, Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, and Patterson Thoma Family Office. More Here

Buyers Edge Platform, a Waltham, MA-based company provider of digital procurement solutions for the foodservice industry, received a $425M equity investment. Backers consisted of a consortium led by General Atlantic Credit’s Atlantic Park fund, alongside funds managed by Blackstone Tactical Opportunities and investment funds managed by Morgan Stanley Tactical Value. More Here

Nova Farms, a MA-based integrated cannabis operator, received a $20M in Loan Facility from Chicago Atlantic. More Here

Basemark, a Helsinki, Finland-based provider of automotive AR software that enables original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to develop AR applications for their cars, raised €22M in Series B funding. The round was led by ETF Partners. More Here

Avenir, a London, UK-based wealth management solutions provider, raised $530K in Pre-Seed funding. Backers included SFC Capital, Techstars, and angel investors with financial institutions such as FNZ, JP Morgan, and Morgan Stanley. More Here

Adro, a NYC-based fintech company making financial services accessible for international students and workers, raised $1.5M in Pre-Seed funding. The round was led by Era, with participation from Ex Nihilo Ventures and the Cornell Tech Syndicate. More Here

Bright Ascension, a Dundee, UK-based space software technology provider, raised £2.25M in funding. Backers included Scottish Enterprise, Capital for Colleagues (C4C) and others. More Here

ayora, a London, UK-based provider of an AI revenue management platform for professional services, raised £1.27M in Pre-Seed funding. The round was led by J12, with participation from Twin Path Ventures and a group of angel investors including Farah Ballands, Roger Siddle and Abhijat Saraswat. More Here

GoodGist, a Foster City, CA-based company which specializes in corporate skills development and knowledge management automation, raised $1M in funding. Backers included FortyTwo.VC, Cedar Ridge Ventures, DX Partners, and angel investors from tech companies such as Microsoft and Amazon. More Here

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Venture Capital Updates

Verod-Kepple Africa Ventures (VKAV), a pan-African venture capital firm, has raised $60 million for its first fund to invest in growth-stage startups across the continent. The fund aims to provide much-needed capital to Series A and B startups, as well as explore opportunities in underserved markets. More Here

Metalab, a Canadian interface design firm, has launched Metalab Ventures, a $15 million venture capital fund. It will invest in 25 to 35 startups at the pre-seed, seed, and Series A stages, leveraging its in-house expertise in design, technology, product, and research to support its portfolio companies. More Here

Alt Capital, a venture capital firm led by Jack Altman, is launching an accelerator program called Generate to support business software startups developing artificial intelligence technologies. The program will provide startups with access to Microsoft's computing infrastructure, including GPU clusters and cloud computing credits, as well as mentorship from experienced advisors like Jack's brother, Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI. Unlike most accelerators, Generate targets more mature startups that have raised up to $10 million in seed and Series A funding, aiming to complement programs like Y Combinator. More Here

Startup’s Latest Buzz

Acquisition & Exits

Automattic, the parent company of WordPress.com, is acquiring Beeper, a company that developed a solution for using iMessage on Android devices for $125 Million. More Here

Alvar Pet, a Helsinki, Finland-based direct-to-consumer pet food brand, announced the acquisition of Verkkokauppa Kivuton, a Finnish online store focusing on pet health. More Here

Restaurant365, an Irvine, CA-based provider of a restaurant enterprise management platform, acquired ExpandShare, a Fairlawn, Ohio-based provider of a proprietary learning management system built for restaurants. More Here

Entrust, a Minneapolis, MN-based company which specializes in payments, identities, and data security, acquired Onfido, a London, UK-based identity verification company. More Here

Layoffs & Bankruptcy

Netflix, the streaming giant is cutting hundred jobs and making changes to its film division. More Here

Amphibious Plane Company build car-plane-boat hybrid Files for Bankruptcy with $173M Debt. More Here

Startups & People

Cruise, the self-driving car division of General Motors, is resuming manual driving of its autonomous vehicles in Phoenix, Arizona after a nearly five-month pause. This shift comes after an incident in San Francisco last year where a Cruise robotaxi struck and dragged a pedestrian, leading to regulatory scrutiny and a change in Cruise's leadership. More Here

Arm, the chip-design company’s CEO, is urging more energy efficiency in artificial intelligence applications as the power demands of AI models like ChatGPT continue to rise. Arm is partnering with the U.S. and Japan to fund a $110 million program for AI research at universities, with the goal of developing more sustainable solutions. The growing power consumption of AI data centers is a concern, as it could account for up to 25% of U.S. power requirements by the end of the decade if left unchecked. More Here

Latest In Emerging Tech

Meta is set to release Llama 3, the next generation of its large language model for generative AI assistants, within the next month. The company aims to make Llama-powered AI the "most useful assistant in the world" and is taking a more cautious approach compared to OpenAI's ChatGPT. More Here

Google is introducing two new $10/month/user AI-powered add-ons for its Google Workspace productivity suite, including an AI meetings and messaging add-on and an AI security package, as companies look to monetize advanced AI features in their software offerings. More Here

Google Cloud has announced its first custom-built Arm processor, called Axion, based on Arm's Neoverse 2 designs. Google claims Axion instances offer 30% better performance than other Arm-based instances and up to 50% better performance and 60% better energy efficiency than comparable x86-based instances, but has not provided any documentation to back up these claims. More Here

Microsoft is investing $2.9 billion over the next two years to expand its cloud computing and AI infrastructure in Japan. The investment aims to support Japan's digital transformation by increasing computing capacity, training 3 million people in AI skills, and opening Microsoft's first Research Asia lab in Tokyo. More Here

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Happy Wednesday! 🥂

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✍️Written By Sahil R - The Venture Crew