• Venture Daily Digest
  • Posts
  • Anthropic raises $3.5 Billion & General Catalyst loses three top investors amid IPO buzz.

Anthropic raises $3.5 Billion & General Catalyst loses three top investors amid IPO buzz.

Venture Daily Digest - 04/03/2025

Author

Venture Daily Digest
March 04, 2025

Starfish are all head, no body. Biologically, they don’t have a torso or a tail, just a brainless, five-armed structure that somehow still thrives. Nature really said, “Who needs organs when you’ve got determination?”

Love or hate this intro? Hit reply and tell us why!

📬 What’s in store:

  • Today’s Picks: SaaS financial model, MVE over MVP, VC fundraising guide, Sam Altman on fundraising, 350+ Indian VC contacts, AI email agent opportunity, Elon Musk’s 5-step algorithm, growth marketing resources, pitch deck guide, top AI resources.

  • Anthropic raises $3.5 Billion from Lightspeed Venture Partners.

  • General Catalyst loses three top investors as the firm expands beyond venture, contemplates IPO.

  • Deutsche Telekom and Perplexity announce new ‘AI Phone’ priced at under $1K.

  • Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian joins Frank McCourt’s TikTok bid.

  • Lenovo’s new concept laptop can be charged by the sun.

  • Private company achieves first moon landing.

  • Trump names five Cryptos for U.S. strategic reserve.

  • VC & Startup Jobs: VC & investors backed startup hiring for remote roles.

⏱️ Read Time: 5 minutes

DAILY PICKS

🗞️ What else is brewing

INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITY WORTH EXPLORING

💡 The AI Shift That Could Disrupt a $300B Market — Why Investors Are Backing New Sapience

Imagine an AI that doesn’t just guess the next word—it actually understands what it means. New Sapience is pioneering Synthetic Intelligence, a breakthrough that moves beyond today’s AI models. Unlike traditional LLMs, which rely on patterns and probability, this technology learns, comprehends, and applies real-world knowledge—just like a human.

Their vision? AI that thinks, reasons, and interacts with true understanding—not just prediction.

Why It Matters:

✅ $300B+ AI market, yet current models still struggle with bias, misinformation, and high costs.
✅ New Sapience’s tech eliminates these issues, creating AI that thinks, not just predicts.
✅ Massive market potential—8B smartphone users could be future customers.

Why I’m Watching:

  • $5M+ raised, backed by the co-inventor of the desktop PC.

  • A team with $350M+ in past exits, including NASA, DARPA, and Lockheed Martin veterans

  • Early investors get up to 35% bonus stock and exclusive perks.

They’re now raising at just $4/share with a $1,000 minimum investment—positioning early investors before AI reaches human-level comprehension.

*Partnership with

FEATURED YOUR STARTUP

💪 Get your startup in front of over 85,000+ audience

Our newsletter is read by thousands of tech professionals, founders, investors (VCs / Angel Investors) and managers around the world. Get in touch today.

STARTUPS RAISING MILLIONS

💰 Startup funding updates

Ramp, a NYC based financial operations platform, announced that new and existing investors including Stripes, GIC, Avenir Growth, Thrive Capital, Khosla Ventures, General Catalyst, Lux Capital, 137 Ventures, and Definition Capital have purchased $150m in Ramp secondaries from employees and early investors, most recently valuing the company at $13 billion.

Anthropic, a San Francisco, CA-based AI startup, raised a $3.5B Series E at a $61.5B valuation, led by Lightspeed Venture Partners. The round included participation from Bessemer Venture Partners, Cisco Investments, D1 Capital, Fidelity, General Catalyst, Jane Street, Menlo Ventures, and Salesforce Ventures.

SimCare AI, a Chicago, IL-based clinical training company using AI patients to bypass regulatory constraints and certify clinical skills with far fewer patient interactions, raised $2M in Seed funding. The round was led by Y Combinator and Drive Capital, with participation from Harper Court Ventures Fund, Singularity Capital, Triple S Ventures, Goodwater Capital, Asymmetry Ventures, Sand Hill North, and Transpose Platform.

Lantern Finance, a US financial services and technology company, raised $1M+ Pre-Seed funding. Backers included Orange DAO, Supermoon Ventures, Andover Ventures, angel investors, and others.

Renew Risk, a London, UK-based domain leader in risk modelling and analytics for renewable energy assets, raised £5m in funding. The round was led by Molten Ventures with participation from Lloyd’s, existing investors Insurtech Gateway and angel investors.

Subscript, a San Francisco, CA based provider of an AI-powered billing and analytics software, raised $15m in Series A funding. The round was led by Pelion. Including previous investments from First Round Capital, Kapor Capital, Forum Ventures, and Fresco Capital, this brings Subscript’s total funding to date to $21m.

StepOut, a Bengaluru, India-based Indian sports performance analysis and ecosystem technology startup, raised $500K in Seed funding. The round was led by Rainmatter, founded by Nithin Kamath, CEO of Zerodha, with participation from Misfits Capital, founded by Amit Singh, co-founder of Shuttl, IndigoEdge and Marwah Sports Group, angel investors such as Kaushik Roy, former MD of JP Morgan, along with other CXOs of Fortune 500 companies.

Cloudsmith, a Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK-based provider of a cloud-native artifact management platform, raise d$23M in Series B funding. The round was led by TCV, with participation from Insight Partners and existing investors including MMC, Frontline, Techstart, Sorenson, Tapestry, and Shasta.

Vermillio, a Chicago, IL-based provider of an AI licensing and protection platform, raised $16M in Series A funding. The round was led by Sony Music Entertainment and DNS Capital.

Callio Therapeutics, a Seattle, WA- and Singapore-based biotechnology company focused on developing multi-payload antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) to improve cancer therapy, raised US$187M in Series A funding. The round was led by Frazier Life Sciences with participation from Jeito Capital alongside other life sciences investors including Novo Holdings A/S, Omega Funds, ClavystBio, Platanus, Norwest, Pureos Bioventures, SEEDS Capital and EDBI.

Atmosic Technologies, a Campbell, CA-based provider of ultra-low power compute and connectivity solutions, raised $40M in funding. The round was led by Sutter Hill Ventures with participation from Clear Ventures, Quantum Innovation Fund, and other investors.

Viam, a NYC-based engineering platform for data, AI and automation, raised $30M in Series C funding. The round, which brought total amount raised to $117M, was led by existing investor Union Square Ventures, with participation from Battery Ventures and Italian investment group Neurone.

HeyMilo, a NYC-based provider of an AI-powered candidate screening platform, raised $2.2M in Seed funding. The round was led by Canaan Partners, with participation from Alumni Ventures and Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator.

FairPlay, a NYC-based Fairness-as-a-Service company developing tools that help companies using AI, raised $10M in funding. The round was led by Infinity Ventures, JPMorganChase, and Nyca Partners.

NEW VCs IN THE MARKET

🏦 Venture Capital updates

General Catalyst loses three top investors as the firm expands beyond venture, contemplates IPO:

  • General Catalyst managing directors Deep Nishar, Kyle Doherty, and Adam Valkin have left the firm amid leadership restructuring and a shift in investment strategy.

  • The firm has prioritized cash bonuses over equity, acquired two VC firms, and expanded beyond venture into wealth management and healthcare investments.

  • Amidst these changes, sources suggest General Catalyst is moving closer to an IPO, though the firm is in the “very early stages” of consideration.

KEY STORIES IN TECH

📜 Latest in tech

Deutsche Telekom and Perplexity announce new ‘AI Phone’ priced at under $1K:

  • Deutsche Telekom is developing an AI-powered smartphone with Perplexity, Picsart, and Google Cloud, set to launch in 2026 for under $1,000 in Europe.

  • The phone will feature Magenta AI, a voice assistant built by Perplexity, enabling proactive actions like booking flights, sending messages, and making calls.

  • Perplexity sees this as a step toward AI becoming more proactive, transitioning from answering questions to taking action—a strategy to differentiate itself from OpenAI and Google.

Stability AI and Arm bring AI-powered audio generation to mobile:

  • Stability AI partnered with Arm to bring Stable Audio Open, an offline AI audio generation model, to mobile devices, demoing it at MWC Barcelona.

  • The optimized model generates 11-second sounds in 8 seconds on Armv9 chips, running entirely on-device, reducing cloud dependence and IP risks.

  • Stability AI, under new leadership, is pushing for broader adoption, aiming to integrate its generative models into consumer apps and devices.

Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian joins Frank McCourt’s TikTok bid:

  • Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian has joined Frank McCourt’s bid for TikTok as a strategic adviser focused on social media.

  • McCourt’s Project Liberty formed The People’s Bid to acquire TikTok’s U.S. assets, promising users more control over their data.

  • Other potential buyers include Microsoft, Oracle, Perplexity AI, Jesse Tinsley’s group, and Bobby Kotick, as Trump extended TikTok’s ban deadline by 75 days.

Lenovo’s new concept laptop can be charged by the sun:

  • Lenovo introduced a solar-powered Yoga laptop concept at the Mobile World Congress, featuring a solar panel in the lid that can convert over 24% of energy, making it one of the most efficient in the sector.

  • The concept laptop includes a 14-inch OLED display, an Intel Core Ultra processor, up to 32GB of RAM, and a 50.2 WHr battery, all while weighing just 2.29 pounds and maintaining a thickness of 0.6 inches.

  • Additional concepts unveiled by Lenovo include the ThinkBook Flip with an 18.1-inch outward-folding screen, a 3D laptop with a "directional backlight," and the Solar Power Kit for existing Yoga devices.

Private company achieves first moon landing:

  • Firefly Aerospace's unmanned Blue Ghost lander successfully touched down on the moon, marking the first time a private spacecraft has made a stable lunar landing on its initial attempt.

  • The lander carries NASA equipment for experiments, including lunar drilling, sample collection, X-ray imaging, and dust mitigation, to aid future space exploration and a sustained human presence on the moon.

  • The mission, which took 45 days and covered 2.8 million miles, was commissioned by NASA for over $140 million, and aims to enhance commercial lunar capabilities through extensive surface operations.

Google’s Gemini gets screenshare and video search for real-time AI assistance:

  • At MWC 2025, Google introduced Screenshare, allowing Gemini users to ask AI questions about content on their phone’s screen in real time.

  • A new video search feature lets users film a video and query Gemini as they record, enhancing interactive AI capabilities.

  • These features will roll out to Gemini Advanced users on Android via the Google One AI Premium plan later this month.

LAST COFFEE SIP

☕Other news

Trump names five Cryptos for U.S. strategic reserve:

  • Trump named XRP, SOL, ADA, Bitcoin, and Ether as part of a new U.S. strategic crypto reserve, boosting their prices.

  • Ripple (XRP), Solana (SOL), and Cardano (ADA) saw the biggest gains, with ADA surging over 70% after the announcement.

  • Trump’s crypto-friendly stance continues, following his own Solana-based token launch and Ethereum-based World Liberty Financial venture.

HIRING ALERT: STARTUPS & VC ROLES

💼 Today’s VC & startup job opportunities

  • Principal - Azolla Venture | USA - Apply Here

  • Growth Associate - B Capital Group | USA - Apply Here

  • Director of Corporate Development - Aegis Venture | USA - Apply Here

  • Value Creation Associate Open Opportunity Fund | USA - Apply Here

  • Analyst, Office of the CEO - Energy Impact Partner | USA - Apply Here

  • VC Senior Analyst - Toyota Venture | USA - Apply Here

  • Venture Capital Associate - Connecticutt Innovation | USA - Apply Here

  • Ventures Intern - Applied Venture | USA - Apply Here

CURATED RESOURCES

🎁 Don’t miss - Curated Resources for Founders.

WHEN YOU’RE READY, HERE’S HOW I CAN HELP:

💁 You might need our help!

Do you have any news to share about your Startup or VC fund?
Please email us.

We’ll be back in your inbox on Tomorrow.

Reply

or to participate.