Anthropic’s Claude surpasses $1M in mobile app revenue & Microsoft's New Open-Source AI Model

Access Investors Contacts || Advertise 

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

Top News

Anthropic's AI app Claude crossed $1 million in gross mobile app revenue in 16 weeks, with nearly half from U.S. users. Despite this milestone, Claude lags behind ChatGPT, ranking 95th in downloads and 68th in revenue in the U.S. Productivity category. However, Claude reached $1 million faster than competitors like Microsoft's Copilot and Perplexity.

Other Major News

• A newly unsealed court document reveals Musk owns 75% of X's parent company. (Scroll To Tech Updates)

• Over 1,000 venture capitalists, managing $276 billion in assets, have signed a pledge supporting Kamala Harris for the U.S. presidency.. (Scroll To People Updates)

• Microsoft releases new Phi-3.5 models, beating Google, OpenAI and more. (Scroll To Tech Updates)

• VCs Incentives. (Scroll To Featured Article)

🤝 A Message from Our Partner: Blaze

Discover high-intent leads and personalize outreach with AI

Is it becoming harder and harder to get positive responses to your outbound email? Blaze turns online signals like social interactions into sales and $$$, helping you find new customers.

Blaze helps you stand out from the crowd and reach the right leads at the right time with:

• AI powered signals like who's evaluating your competitors, investing heavily in AI or recently announced a relevant strategy pivot

• Personalized DM sequences on LinkedIn and X leveraging AI to generate more relevant messaging that resonates with your target’s strategic priorities

• An AI agent managed unified inbox, enabling you to scale your lead gen without hiring more sales reps or SDRs

Partnership With Us

Want to get your brand in front of 50,000+ founders, investors, executives, and startup operators? For details on our sponsorships, fill up this quick form or reply to this email as “Advertise” and we’ll get in touch.

🛠️ Latest AI Trending Tools - You can’t miss

Blaze leverages AI to revolutionize outbound sales, transforming online signals into actionable leads. By analyzing competitor evaluations, AI investments, and strategic shifts, it identifies prime prospects and crafts personalized messaging for LinkedIn and X. (Try Blaze for free)

Jazon AI: 100% Autonomous AI Sales development representative that does the research on each prospect and send hyper personalized emails, replies to their concerns and follows up until it books a meeting. (Try Jazon for free)

🗞️ Startup Funding Updates

Story (San Francisco, CA) is a blockchain-based platform helping IP owners track and monetize usage more effectively. The startup raised $80 million in a Series B round led by Andreessen Horowitz's a16z crypto division, with participation from Polychain Capital, Stability AI's Scott Trowbridge, and others. More Here

Openmart, a San Francisco-based AI startup co-founded by Kathryn Wu, helps businesses find sales leads by aggregating data on local businesses. The company recently raised a $2.75 million seed round with investors including Y Combinator, Rebel Fund, and Afore Capital. More Here

Lettuce Financial, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of an automated accounting and tax solution for solopreneurs, raised $15M in Series A funding. The round was led by Zeev Ventures. More Here

Bolt, a one-click checkout startup based in San Francisco, is raising $450 million, led by The London Fund, a U.K. venture firm with over $1 billion in AUM. The raise includes $250 million from The London Fund, led by CEO Ashesh Shah, who sees Bolt as a "hidden gem" with significant growth potential. More Here

Fanton Fantasy Football, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based provider of a blockchain-based fantasy sports platform, raised $1M in Seed funding. The round was led by Animoca Brands, Delphi Ventures, and Kenetic Capital with participation from Hashkey x TON Accelerator, PAKA Fund, and Sign VC. More Here

SleekFlow, a Singapore-based provider of omnichannel conversational AI suite for customer engagement, raised US$7M in Series A+ funding. The round was led by Atinum Investment, with participation from existing investors (AEF Greater Bay Area Fund, managed by Gobi Partners GBA and Transcend Capital Partners) and a new investor, Moses Tsang (Former General Partner of Goldman Sachs Group and Chairman of Goldman Sachs (Asia) LLC). More Here

Cairn Surgical, a Lebanon, NH-based medical technology firm, raised $4.5M in funding. The round was led by Morningside Ventures. More Here

Great Many, a NYC-based company creating a dedicated place for hair growth, raised $3.6M in Pre-Seed funding. The round was led by BrandProject, with participation from Midnight Venture Partners and Tonic Ventures, with Angel investments from Lukas Keindl, Andy Grover, Elizabeth Cutler, and Meghan Maupin, and current CEO of OurX. More Here

PreciseDx®, a NYC-based innovator in oncology diagnostics leveraging Artificial Intelligence, raised $20.7M in Series B funding. The round was led by Eventide Asset Management, with participation from Labcorp, Quest Diagnostics, and GenHenn Capital Venture, along with existing investors. More Here

Symmera, a Stamford, CT-based early-stage company for device authentication and data protection, received an investment from Emerson Ventures. The amount of the deal was not disclosed. More Here

XII Medical, a Union City, CA-based clinical-stage medical technology company, raised $45M in Seris B funding. The round was led by Omega Funds and joined by new investor Intuitive Ventures. More Here

Grid Status, a Chicago, IL-based modern data and analytics platform for the electric grid, raised $8M in funding. The round was led by Energize Capital. Investors joining the round included Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross (NFDG Ventures), Rayburn Electric Cooperative, Evergreen Climate Innovations and other individual investors. More Here

Your Money Line, an Indianapolis, IN-based leader in employee financial wellness benefits, raised $4.5M in Series A funding. The round was led by Allos Ventures, with participation from First Trust Capital Partners, CareSource, and Elevate Ventures. More Here

AstroForge, a Huntington Beach, Calif.,-based asteroid mining startup, raised $40m in Series A funding. The round, which brought total funding raised to date to raised to date to $55M, was led by Nova Threshold with participation from 776, Initialized, Caladan, YC, Uncorrelated Ventures, and Jed McCaleb. More Here

Onebrief, a Honolulu, HI-based provider of a software platform for military staff workflows and collaboration, raised an undisclosed amount in Series B funding. The round, which brought the total amount to $53M, was led by Human Capital, with participation from 9Yards Capital and Caffeinated Capital. More Here

Admiral, a NYC-based visitor relationship management (VRM) company, raised $19M in funding. The round was led by Harbert Growth Partners joined by Bridge Bank and others. More Here

Skyfire Systems, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of a payment network for AI, raised $8.5M in funding. Backers included Neuberger Berman, Brevan Howard Digital, Intersection Growth Partners, DRW, Inception Capital, Arrington Capital, RedBeard Ventures, Sfermion, Circle, FBG, Gemini, Crossbeam Venture Partners, EveryRealm, Draper Associates, ARCA, and Ripple. More Here

DL Software, a NYC-based company providing software products, raised $2M in Pre-Seed funding. The round was led by dao5, Naval, and Evolve Ventures. Other participants included Kevin Zhou, Meltem Demirors, Balaji, and co-founders from Anduril, Rippling, Flexport, Intercom, Lambda, Replit, Ankr, and Akash. More Here

Vandria, a Lausanne, Switzerland-based mitochondrial therapeutics company, raised an undisclosed amount in its second Series A funding. The round, which brought the total amount to $30.7M, saw participation from Hevolution Foundation and Dolby Family Ventures joined ND Capital. More Here

Agrizy, a Bangalore, India-based provider of a B2B agri-processing platform, raised $9.8M in Series A funding. The round was led by Accion and Omnivore, with participation from new investors Capria Ventures, Thai Wah Ventures, and existing investor Ankur Capital. More Here

TransBnk, a Mumbai, India-based transaction banking platform, raised $4M in Series A funding. The round was led by 8i Ventures and Accion Venture Lab, with participation from GMO Venture Partners, Ratio Ventures, Force Ventures along with a group of family offices, institutions, and angel investors. More Here

Ambrosia Biosciences, a Boulder, CO-based drug discovery company, raised $16M in Series A funding. The round wads led by BVF Partners and Boulder Ventures. More Here

Optiml, a Zurich, Switzerland-based provider of a digital platform for Net Zero real estate investment and renovation planning, raised $4M in Pre-Seed Extension funding. The round was led by BitStone Capital, with participation from KOMPAS VC. Existing investors, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s VC Innovation Endeavors and Planet A Ventures, also participated. More Here

Fresha, a London, UK-based beauty and wellness marketplace, raised €27.8m in debt financing. J.P. Morgan provided the financing. More Here

📬 Access Curated Resources, Support Our Newsletter

• 1000+ Euro Tech Angel Investors & VC Firms Database (Access Here)

• 2700+ US Angel Investors & VC Firms Contact Database (Email + LinkedIn Link) (Access Here)

• 400+ French Angel Investors & Venture Capital Firms Contact Database (Email + LinkedIn Link) (Access Here)

• 350+ Indian Angel Investors & Venture Capital Firms Contact Database (Email + LinkedIn Link) (Access Here)

• Building Cap Table As A Founder: Template to Download (Access Here)

• Early Stage Startup Financial Model Template For Fundraising (Access Here)

📰 Venture Capital Updates

BEVC, a Berkeley-based life sciences investor, is raising a $25 million fund focused on climate-related startups, according to an SEC filing. Founded in 2023, the firm’s co-founders, all with PhDs in life sciences, have previously invested in health-focused startups. BEVC's new fund marks a shift toward investing in planetary health alongside human health. More Here

📌 Featured Article

VC Incentives

VCs live in a cutthroat world.

No, really.

There are only a few true breakout companies each year, and a limited amount of desirable jobs in VC to find them.

As a result, VC behaviour is entirely driven by the incentives governing success in the role (i.e. finding and backing the winners).

Before a VC invests, they’re incentivized to gather as much information about the opportunity as possible. The quickest way to do this is to show intense interest to the founder.

You’ll never have trouble building a relationship with a VC if they’re interested in what you’re doing.

But once they decide for sure that they don’t want to invest, they pull back and move on.

And this continues even after they invest — if your startup is failing and the VC is writing it off as a losing investment, they’re not going to go down with the ship with you. They’re going to spend time helping their potential winners.

It’s a tough pill for some founders to swallow, but it isn’t personal — it’s just the nature of the game on their side.

We haves shared in detailed writeup in our Venture Curator newsletter, Check out here…

📑 Startup’s Latest Buzz

Acquisition & Going Public

BioIVT, a Baltimore, MD-based research partner and biospecimen solutions provider for drug and diagnostic development, acquired ZenBio, a Durham, NC-based company which specializes in advanced cell products and services.

Transit Technologies, a Knoxville, TN-based company which specializes in mobility solutions, acquired Bytecurve, a provider of a software platform that is transforming student transportation operations through scheduling, dispatch, time and attendance, and payroll software.

Scandit, a Zurich, Switzerland-based company which specializes in smart data capture, announced the asset acquisition of shelf audit automation technology from MarketLab, a Polish image recognition and AI software company specializing in the retail industry.

Layoffs & Bankruptcy

Cisco has announced a second round of layoffs this year, planning to cut 7% of its workforce after letting go around 4,000 employees in February. Affected employees will not be notified until September 16, leading to frustration and a reportedly toxic work environment. Despite lower-than-expected earnings, CEO Chuck Robbins received $31.8 million in total compensation for 2023.

Startups & People

Over 1,000 venture capitalists, managing $276 billion in assets, have signed a pledge supporting Kamala Harris for the U.S. presidency. Led by Shila Nieves Burney and Leslie Feinzaig, the initiative has gained backing from prominent figures like Mark Cuban and Steve Wozniak. The VCs emphasize democracy and equality as key reasons for their support. Their efforts include organizing events and fundraisers to promote Harris's campaign.

🤖 Latest In Emerging Tech

OpenAI opposed California's AI bill SB 1047, arguing it would stifle innovation and push talent out of the state. Senator Scott Wiener dismissed this claim, stating the bill impacts all AI companies doing business in California, not just those based there. Despite amendments, OpenAI remains unconvinced, and SB 1047 is headed for a final vote, with Governor Newsom's stance still unclear. The bill's outcome could significantly impact California's AI landscape.

Google will face a class action lawsuit accused of collecting Chrome users' data without their consent, after a federal appeals court reversed a 2022 dismissal that failed to evaluate Google's disclosures for user understanding. Filed in 2020, the lawsuit claims Google collected data such as browsing history and IP addresses from Chrome users, irrespective of whether they enabled the Chrome sync feature.

A newly unsealed court document reveals the full list of investors in Elon Musk's X, including big names like Sean "Diddy" Combs, Larry Ellison, and Jack Dorsey. The document outlines the backers behind Musk's $44 billion acquisition of Twitter in 2022, now known as X, which he aims to transform into an everything-app. The filing, part of a lawsuit by former Twitter employees, doesn't detail the stakes but shows Musk owns 75% of X's parent company. More Here

Microsoft introduced three new open-source AI models, named mini-instruct, MoE-instruct, and vision-instruct, which excel in logical reasoning and support multiple languages but face challenges in factual accuracy and safety. The Phi series aims to deliver highly efficient AI models for commercial and scientific purposes using quality training data, though specifics of the Phi-3.5 training process remain undisclosed by Microsoft. All the new Phi 3.5 models are accessible under the MIT license on Hugging Face and Microsoft's Azure AI Studio, but they require specialized GPU hardware like NVIDIA A100, A6000, or H100 for optimal performance.

☕ How’s Today’s Coffee?

Thanks Blaze for sponsoring today’s newsletter.

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.