Apollo Eyes $5 billion Investment in Intel & OpenAI News Account on X Compromised, Sends Crypto Posts

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☕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

Apollo Global Management has reportedly offered to invest up to $5 billion in Intel, according to Bloomberg News. The potential investment comes at a challenging time for Intel, whose shares have lost nearly 60% of their value since the start of the year. This development follows reports that Qualcomm has approached Intel to explore a potential acquisition, although both the Apollo investment and Qualcomm discussions are in preliminary stages.

OpenAI's official press account on X was compromised by cryptocurrency scammers, promoting a fake "$OPENAI" token and linking to a phishing site. This incident follows similar hacks of OpenAI executives' accounts in previous months, including CTO Mira Murati and researchers Jakub Pachocki and Jason Wei. The scam is part of a broader trend of cryptocurrency-related frauds, with Americans losing $5.6 billion to such scams in 2023, according to the FBI.

Other Major News

• AI startup Scribenote raises $8.2 M in Andreessen Horowitz-led funding round. (Scroll To Funding Updates)

• US to ban Chinese connected car software and hardware (Scroll To Tech Updates)

• Former Apple Designer Teams Up with OpenAI to Create Next-Gen AI Device. (Scroll To Startups & People Updates)

• Don’t Price Based on Costs, Why? (Scroll To Featured Article)

• VC & Startups Job Opportunities (Scroll To Today’s Opportunities)

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🗞️ Startup Funding Updates

Scribenote, a startup that uses AI to automate medical record documentation for veterinarians, has raised $8.2 million in an early-stage funding round. The company, founded in 2019, secured investments from lead investor Andreessen Horowitz, along with Inovia Capital and Velocity Fund, though the valuation was not disclosed.

Pyka, an Alameda, CA-based electric aviation technology leader that designs and manufactures large-scale autonomous electric aircraft, raised $40M in Series B funding. The round was led by Obvious Ventures, with participation from both new and existing investors, including Piva Capital, Prelude Ventures, Metaplanet Holdings, and Y Combinator.

Invizius, an Edinburgh, Scotland, UK-based biotech company developing breakthrough treatments for patients on dialysis, raised £950k in funding. The round was led by Mercia Ventures and supported by Calculus Capital, Syensqo, the University of Edinburgh’s Old College Capital and Scottish Enterprise.

Letta, a San Francisco, CA based generative AI startup spun out of UC Berkeley’s AI research lab, emerged from stealth with a $10m seed funding. The round was led by Felicis with participation from Sunflower Capital and Essence VC, as well as angels Jeff Dean (Chief Scientist at Google DeepMind), Clem Delangue (CEO of HuggingFace), Cristobal Valenzuela (CEO of Runway), Jordan Tigani (CEO of MotherDuck), Tristan Handy (CEO of dbt Labs), Robert Nishihara (co-founder of Anyscale), and Barry McCardel (CEO of Hex).

MetOx International, a Houston, TX-based developer and manufacturer of high-temperature superconducting (HTS) wire, raised $25M in Series B extension funding. The round was led by Centaurus and New System Ventures. 

Jump, a French startup based in Paris, offers full-time contracts and administrative services to freelancers, providing stability and benefits while allowing them to maintain independence. The company has raised €11 million ($12 million) in a Series A funding round led by Breega, with participation from Index Ventures and Raise Ventures.

Fal.ai, a dev-focused platform for AI-generated audio, video, and images, raised $23 million in funding. It offers privately managed compute and workflows for running models, as well as APIs for open source models. Investors include Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Kindred Ventures, Robin Rombach (Black Forest Labs co-founder), and Aravind Srinivas (Perplexity CEO).

Jump, a Paris, France-based freelancer benefits startup, raised €11m in Series A funding. The round was led by Breega with participation from Index Ventures and RAISE Seed For Good.

Scribenote, a Waterloo, Ontario, Canada-based provider of a AI-powered medical scribe for veterinarians, raised $8M in Seed funding. The round was led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), with additional participation from Inovia Capital, the Velocity Fund, and angel investors.

mbue, an Austin, TX-based AI-first vertical SaaS construction tech startup, raised $1.8M in Pre-Seed funding Backers included Techstars, Geek Ventures, 2045 Ventures, Spatial Capital, Factorial Capital, Everywhere Ventures, and The MBA Fund.

David Energy, a NYC-based gridtech company, raised $23M in funding. The round was led by Cathay Innovation, with participation from Union Square Ventures, Keyframe Capital, Equal Ventures, and BoxGroup, among others.

HavocAI, a Providence, RI-based company which specializes in autonomous uncrewed surface vessel technology, raised $11M in Seed funding. The round was led by Scout Ventures and Trousdale Ventures, with participation from Outlander VC, The Veteran Fund, BV.VC, Decisive Point, Alumni Ventures, and New North Ventures.

Kestra Technologies, a Paris, France-based provider of an event-driven orchestration platform, raised $8M in Seed funding. The round was led by Alven, with participation from ISAI, Axeleo Capital, and angels including Tristan Handy (dbt Labs); Michel Tricot (Airbyte); Olivier Pomel (Datadog); Clement Delangue (Hugging Face); Bertrand Diard (Talend); Nicolas Dessaigne (Algolia); and Frédéric Plais (Platform.sh).

Integrum ESG, a London, UK-based provider of a platform offering live ESG data insights for asset managers and their advisors, raised £3.4M in funding. YFM Equity Partners participated in the round with a £3M investment.

Sparrow BioAcoustics, a St. John’s, Canada-based bioacoustic AI technology company, raised $13M in Seed funding. The round was led by Killick Capital, Klister Credit and Pelorus Ventures.

Vicebio, a London, UK-based biopharmaceutical company developing novel vaccines against life-threatening respiratory viral infections, raised $100M in Series B funding. The round was led by TCGX with investment from Goldman Sachs Alternatives, Avoro Ventures, venBio, and participation from UniQuest, and founding investor Medicxi.

GPDQ, a London, UK-based primary healthcare provider, received an investment of £1.2M from IW Capital.

FluoRok, an Oxford, UK-based startup developing luorochemical reagents and battery electrolyte salts, raised £7.7M in funding. The round was led by BGF, Green Generation Fund, with participation from Volta Energy Technologies, Excellis Holding and angels.

arqu, a San Francisco, CA-based tech-enabled wholesale insurance brokerage company, raised $10M in Series A funding. The round was led by Crosslink Capital with participation from Intact Ventures, with participation from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Foxe Capital and Nationwide Ventures.

GC Therapeutics, a Cambridge, MA-based biopharmaceutical company advancing cell therapy-based medicines, raised $65M in Series A funding. The round was led by Cormorant Asset Management with participation from Mubadala Capital, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) Bio + Health, Medical Excellence Capital, Cercano Management and Pear VC, bringing total capital raised to $75M.

Alan, a Paris, France-based health insurer, raised €173m in Series F funding at a $4.5b valuation. The round was led by Belgian Belfius Bank with participation from Teachers’ Venture Growth, Temasek, Coatue, and Lakestar, and other French and international major entrepreneurs.

Agents World, a London, UK-based Web3 AI startup, closed its seed funding round of undisclosed amount. Backers included Dispersion Capital, Maelstrom Capital, Node Capital, CatcherVC, Primal Capital, and Velocity Capital.

Amnis Finance, a liquid staking protocol on the Aptos blockchain, raised US$2M in initial funding. The round was led by OKX Ventures, with participation from Aptos Labs, Arkgrow Pte Ltd, Ambush Capital, Gate Ventures, Sky Vision Capital, Old Fashion Research, Chorus One Venture, Re7 and Flowdesk.

Turneo, a London, UK-based travel tech startup, raised €2M in Seed funding. The round was led by Bessemer Venture Partners, with participation from Underline Ventures.

Permissionless Labs, the San Francisco Bay Area based primary contributor of Pipe Network, a permissionless content delivery network (CDN) on Solana, raised $10m in Series A funding. The round was led by Multicoin Capital with participation from Robot Ventures, Solana Ventures and Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko.

SIRIUS, a Berlin, Germany-based music school startup, raised $4m in Seed funding. The round was led by Market One Capital, with participation from Silicon Gardens, Fund F by Female Founders, New Renaissance Ventures and Angel Invest.

Sorted Wallet, a Hong Kong-based provider of a platform designed to provide easy access to cryptocurrencies for users in emerging markets, raised $1.5M in funding. Tether Operations Limited made the investment.

📰 Venture Capital Updates

All Iron Ventures, a Spanish venture capital firm, has rebranded as Acurio Ventures and closed its third fund of €150 million ($166 million). Based in Bilbao, Madrid, Barcelona, and London, Acurio Ventures will focus on follow-on investments across Europe, with a generalist thesis and no sector focus.

📌 Featured Article

Don’t Price Based on Costs, Why?

Founders often struggle with pricing their products correctly early on. Many make the mistake of setting prices based on their costs, especially in non-software startups. While this might seem logical, it's not the best approach. Here's why you should consider "unreasonable" pricing instead:

The Problem with Cost-Based Pricing

1. It doesn't account for the value you're providing to customers.

2. It can limit your growth potential and ability to invest in improving your product.

3. It may attract price-sensitive customers who aren't your ideal target market.

The Benefits of "Unreasonable" Pricing

1. Identifying Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)

   • High initial prices help you quickly identify customers who feel the pain point most acutely.

   • These customers are willing to pay more for a solution, even if it's not perfect yet.

2. Validating Market Demand

   • If people are willing to pay a premium, it confirms there's a strong need for your product.

   • This validation can save weeks of experiments and help you focus on the right target audience.

3. Accelerating Product Development

   • Higher initial revenue allows you to invest more in improving your product faster.

   • You can build specifically for your ICP, ensuring product-market fit.

Real-World Example

I see a lot of founders launch a website, with:

• A logo that was just an emoji

• An onboarding flow using Typeform

• A database in Airtable

Also, set the initial price on the higher end. Despite this - they have seen good outcomes of getting a few people onboard 5-6, why? They felt the pain point so strongly that they wanted it solved at all costs.

The Inverse Relationship

There's an inverse relationship between how painful a problem is and how "perfect" the product needs to be:

• More painful problem = less perfect product + higher willingness to pay

• Less painful problem = needs to be perfect + price sensitivity

When to Launch

Once your product is 70-80% ready for your ICP, they will likely convert. If not, it may indicate that the problem isn't worth investing more time into, as the product will be hard to grow.

Long-Term Strategy

While starting with "unreasonable" pricing can be beneficial, it's important to note that this approach isn't permanent. As you grow and expand your market, you may need to adjust your pricing strategy. However, the initial high pricing helps validate the market, identify your ICP, and provide capital leverage for faster growth.

Remember, don't let perfect be the enemy of good. If you're solving a truly painful problem, your early adopters will be willing to pay a premium for an imperfect solution.

Even in the previous newsletter, I have shared 5 frameworks that can help you to find out if your pricing strategy working.

[Check out our Venture Curator newsletter - to get insights on startups, AI and venture capital from leading founders & investors]

📑 Startup’s Latest Buzz

Acquisition & Going Public

VaLogic Bio, a Frederick, MD-based provider of compliance and SaaS services, acquired Facility Logix, a Burtonsville, MD-based firm specializing in planning, developing, and project management for life sciences facilities.

Lumivero, a Denver, CO-based developer of qualitative data analysis (QDA) software NVivo, acquired ATLAS.ti, a computer-assisted QDA solution for qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-method research.

Layoffs & Bankruptcy

FedEx is implementing an AI transformation that uses a model called "Shipment Eligibility Orchestrator" to handle tasks previously done by humans, following the firing of 22,000 employees globally. This AI model dynamically routes packages in real-time and has been applied to prioritize shipments such as high-priority healthcare deliveries. Despite technological advancements and cost-cutting measures, FedEx reported a decline in revenue and net profit in Q1 2025, worsened by weaker-than-expected U.S. domestic package market demand.

Startups & People

Flow, Adam Neumann's co-living startup, opened a 238-apartment compound in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, with rents starting at $3,500/month for furnished units with hotel-style services. The opening featured an Aztec-themed hot chocolate ceremony and tote bags with "holy s— I'm alive" printed on them; Flow is building three more properties in Riyadh. Despite Neumann's controversial history with WeWork, Flow raised $350 million from Andreessen Horowitz in 2022 and opened its first properties in Florida in April.

Jony Ive, former Apple designer, is collaborating with OpenAI's Sam Altman on a new AI-focused startup. The unnamed company aims to create a less socially disruptive computing experience than the iPhone, with LoveFrom leading the design. The startup is fundraising, with contributions from Ive and Laurene Powell Jobs' Emerson Collective, aiming to raise up to $1 billion by year-end.

🤖 Latest In Tech

The US Commerce Department plans to effectively ban Chinese connected car software and hardware from US roads due to national security concerns over potential surveillance and remote control threats. This decision is part of a broader effort to counter heavily subsidized Chinese vehicles entering the US market, aligning with recent tariffs and pressures on Chinese automakers attempting to establish operations in North America. The proposed trade restrictions would apply starting model year 2027 for software and model year 2030 for hardware, offering a period for automakers to adapt but potentially challenging some manufacturers due to complex supply chains.

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