Amazon announces new AI models & Khloé Kardashian Raising $10 Million for Consumer Startup.

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☕ Good Thursday Morning. Welcome to today's quick rundown in the Venture Daily Digest Newsletter.

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• Amazon announces new AI models

• Brian Singerman to take a step back from Founders Fund.

• Khloé Kardashian and Kris Jenner are seeking to raise $10 million for their new venture Khloud.

• Amazon is building the world's largest AI supercomputer

• Google releases Veo, its first AI model for video creation

Fresh from the analyst desk: Got the fresh scoop on how AI's eating SaaS for breakfast, why skipping VC money might be your secret weapon, and the real tea on what climate tech founders keep messing up (hint: it's not the product). Plus: Big vs small fund drama and a guide to crushing that HR debt before it crushes you. Fresh tech and VC roles just landed!

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Startup Funding Updates

Khloé Kardashian and Kris Jenner are seeking to raise $10 million for their new venture Khloud, having already secured $4.49 million according to an SEC filing. The company, led by K5 Global co-founder Bryan Baum as CEO, has filed trademarks for popcorn, granola, snacks, and protein supplements. K5's Michael Kives, known for his connections to the Kardashian-Jenner family and helping launch Kendall Jenner's 818 Tequila, is also involved in the venture.

Rosy Soil, a NYC-based sustainable soil company created to offset the negative environmental impact of producing traditional peat-based potting mixes, raised $3.6M in Seed funding. Backers included Draper Associates, Superorganism, Climate Capital, and Boost VC.

Cleerly, a NYC-based cardiovascular imaging startup using AI to analyze CT scans for early-stage coronary artery disease, raised $106M in Series C extension funding. Backers included Insight Partners (lead) and Battery Ventures.

Enterpret, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of an AI-enabled customer feedback intelligence platform for product development and CX teams, raised $20.8M in Series A funding. The round was led by Canaan Partners, with participation from Kleiner Perkins, Peak XV Partners (fka Sequoia Capital India), Wing Ventures, and Recall Capital, as well as angel investors including Lauryn Motamedi (Head of Product Growth at Notion), Elena Verna (VP of Growth and Data at Dropbox), Nan Yu (Head of Product at Linear), and Andrew Berman (Director of AI at Zapier) among others.

Fiamma, a Singapore-based Bitcoin and ZK infrastructure company, raised $4M in Seed funding. The round was led by Lightspeed Faction and L2IV. Additional participating investors included Astera Ventures, Contribution Capital, Sat Ventures, Chapter One, FoundersHead, BOB (Build on Bitcoin), alongside various angel investors such as the founders of Satlayer and Daedalus.

Offcall, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of a financial and career platform built for physicians, raised $2M in funding. Backers included Bloomberg Beta, Roar Ventures, as well as 26 physicians across the U.S. including Shiv Rao, MD, Founder and CEO of Abridge, Joseph Habboushe, MD, CEO and co-founder of MDCalc, and Cheri Blauwet, MD, Paralympian and sports medicine physician.

Interlace, a Singapore-based provider of a global card issuance and digital asset management platform, raised $10M in Series B1 funding. The round was led by Bitrock Capital, with participation from other investors.

OneRail, an Orlando, FL-based provider of mile omnichannel fulfillment solutions, raised $42M in Series C funding. The round was led by Aliment Capital. Additional participating firms included new investors eGateway Capital and Florida Opportunity Fund, as well as existing investors Arsenal Growth Equity, Piva Capital, Bullpen Capital, Las Olas Venture Capital, Chicago Ventures, Gaingels and Mana Ventures.

Cleerly, a Denver, CO-based company which specializes in advanced cardiovascular imaging, raised $106M in funding. The round was led by Insight Partners and joined by Battery Ventures with participation from pre-existing investors.

enSights, an Austin, TX-based AI-powered, cloud-based clean energy optimization and management platform company, raised $10M in Series A funding. The round was led by JAL Ventures and XT VC, with the participation of the Menomadin Foundation.

Axiado, a San Jose, CA-based hardware anchored platform security company, raised $60M in Series C funding. The round was led by Maverick Silicon with participation from Samsung Catalyst Fund, Atreides Management, and Crosslink Capital.

ModifyHealth, an Atlanta, GA-based provider of a food-as-medicine platform and medically meals and nutritional counseling, raised $13.5M in Series C funding funding. The round was led by Dohmen Company Foundation (DCF) through its Dohmen Impact Investment Fund with participation from RC Capital and Nashville Capital Network.

HappyRobot, a San Francisco, CA-based company which specializes in AI-powered voice solutions for the logistics sector, raised $15.6M in Series A funding. The round was led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), with participation from Y Combinator and strategic industry investors, including RyderVentures.

Cake, a NYC-based provider of a managed open-source AI infrastructure platform, raised $13M in Seed funding. The round was led by Gradient, with prior pre-seed funding and participation from Primary Venture Partners, Alumni Ventures, Friends & Family Capital, Correlation Ventures, Firestreak Ventures, and others.

Sandbox Wealth, a NYC-based provider of a banking solution for non-bank financial institutions, raised $1.25M in Pre-Seed funding. The round was led by NextGen Venture Partners, with participation from Northwestern Mutual Future Ventures, gener8tor, and RevTech Labs.

D-Fend Solutions, a Ra’anana, Israel-based field-proven radio frequency (RF) cyber-based, non-kinetic, non-jamming, counter-drone – takeover technology company, raised $31M in funding. The round was led by Israel Growth Partners (IGP), with participation from existing investor Vertex Ventures and new investor Vertex Growth.

Quindi, a Vicenza, Italy-based smart manufacturing company, raised €525K in Seed funding. The round wad led by Open Venture.

Tuskira, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of a threat defense platform leveraging an AI-powered security mesh, raised $28M in funding. The round was led by Intel Capital and SYN Ventures, with participation from Sorenson Capital, Rain Capital, Wipro Ventures, and others.

System Two Security, a Palo Alto, CA-based cybersecurity startup built on an AI agent foundation that advances detection engineering, raised $7M in funding. The round was led by Costanoa Ventures, with participation from Runtime Ventures, as well as The Hive and Webb Investment Network. The round was also joined by individual investors including Scott McNealy (former CEO of Sun Microsystems), Frederic Kerrest (CoFounder of Okta) and Ash Devata (CEO of GreyNoise), among others.

Heirloom, a Brisbane, CA-based Direct Air Capture (DAC) technology provider, raised $150M in Series b funding. The round was led by Future Positive, and Lowercarbon Capital. New investors included Future Positive, H&M Group, Japan Airlines Co., Ltd., Mitsubishi Corporation (Americas), Mitsui & Co., Ltd., MOL Switch LLC, Quantum Innovation Fund, and Siemens Financial Services among others.

OpenPad AI, a Singapore-based provider of a platform harnessing decentralized AI analytics to deliver data-driven investment strategies, raised $2M in funding. The round was led by Basics Capital with participation from Protein Capital, Spicy Capital, Green Arrow Adventures, VivaTech Ventures, Brinc, Boba Network, Avalon Wealth Club, Coin Bold, TechFarm and more.

Refoxy Pharmaceuticals, a Berlin, Germany-based preclinical biotech company developing small molecule activators of the FOXO3 transcription factor for the treatment of age-related diseases, raised €9.1M in Seed extension funding. The round was led by Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund (BIVF), and joined by Apollo Heath Ventures, NRW.Venture, and High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF).

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Venture Capital Updates

1863 Ventures, a nonprofit focused on supporting underrepresented founders, is transitioning to a for-profit entity called New Majority Ventures under founder Melissa Bradley's leadership. The organization, which has helped over 5,000 founders and created 2,000 jobs through its two investment funds, will maintain its charitable mission and existing funds while operating under a fiscal sponsor, potentially the Tides Foundation. While the organization will reduce staff and won't create new funds, it plans to expand its impact by collaborating with ecosystem builders like accelerators and universities, focusing on supporting the field with content and research rather than running its own programs.

Brian Singerman, a 16-year veteran partner at Founders Fund, announced his transition to partner emeritus to improve work-life balance while continuing as an investor and strategic advisor. During his tenure, which began with his interest in the firm's SpaceX investment, Singerman invested in successful companies like Affirm and Oscar Health that went public. His departure follows Keith Rabois's exit from Founders Fund earlier this year, who left to join Khosla Ventures in January.

Latest In Tech

At the re:Invent conference, Amazon announced Nova, a new family of multimodal generative AI models, marking its strong entry into the foundation AI model arena. The Nova lineup consists of six models, including four focused on text tasks and two aimed at creative content generation, with accessibility through Amazon Bedrock for seamless integration. Designed for adaptability and efficiency, Nova models are customizable to meet diverse business purposes, balancing high performance with cost-effectiveness to appeal to various enterprises.

Amazon introduced Project Rainier, an Ultracluster AI supercomputer using its Trainium chips, aiming to offer an alternative to NVIDIA's GPUs by lowering AI training costs and improving efficiency. The Ultracluster will be utilized by Anthropic, an AI startup that has received $8 billion from Amazon, potentially becoming one of the world's largest AI supercomputers by 2025. Amazon is maintaining a balanced approach, continuing its partnership with NVIDIA through Project Ceiba while also advancing its own technologies, like the forthcoming Trainium3 chips expected in 2025.

Other News

Google's new generative AI video model, Veo, is now accessible to businesses via Google's Vertex AI platform, having launched in a private preview ahead of OpenAI's Sora. Veo can create 1080p resolution videos from text or image prompts, employing various visual and cinematic styles, while examples show it's challenging to distinguish them from non-AI videos. Built-in safeguards and DeepMind’s SynthID watermarking are integrated into Veo to prevent harmful content and protect against copyright issues, amid increasing use of AI-generated media in advertising.

In-Depth Insights

• AI: The Future of SaaS Cledara's report on how AI is transforming the SaaS industry and what startups need to know to stay competitive in an AI-driven future.

• Why a Lack of VC Funding Might Be a Startup's Secret Weapon This article explores how not having VC funding can sometimes work to a startup's advantage, allowing founders to retain control and innovate more freely.

• The One Thing Climate Tech Founders Get Wrong: It’s Not the Product! This deep dive into startup strategy reminds founders that the end goal is not just a product, but a thriving company that can scale.

• Big Funds, Small Funds, and the Changing Venture Capital Landscape An exploration of the shift in the venture capital landscape, as both big and small funds adapt to the changing dynamics of the startup ecosystem.

• Reduce HR Debt How startups can tackle HR debt and optimize their team management processes as they grow, avoiding costly pitfalls.

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