Apple Buys An AI Startup & Zuckerberg Wants To Give Away a $10B AI Model

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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! Today’s major updates include -

• Sam Altman Invests in Energy Startup Focused on AI Data Centers.

• TabaPay, a SoftBank-backed instant money transfer platform, will acquire the assets of Synapse, an a16z-backed banking-as-a-service startup that has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

• A Russian military court has sentenced Meta spokesperson Andy Stone in absentia to six years in prison for publicly defending terrorism.

• Google has fired over 20 more employees in addition to the initial 28 terminated after last week's protest against the company's $1.2 billion Israeli defense contract, Project Nimbus.

• Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, expressed his willingness to open source a $10 billion AI model.

• Featured Article : Y-Combinator Guide: How to Pitch Your Startup.

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STARTUP FUNDING UPDATES

Shiba Inu, a provider of an interconnected ecosystem of digital assets and solutions built on the Ethereum blockchain, raised $12M in a venture capital funding. Backers included Comma 3 Ventures, Big Brain Holdings, Cypher Capital, Shima Capital, Hercules Ventures, Animoca Brands, Morningstar Ventures, Woodstock Fund, DWF Ventures, Polygon Ventures, Stake Capital, Illuminati Digital Capital, Primal Capital, Mechanism Capital, DWF Ventures and Spirit Dao. More Here

Pomelo, a San Francisco, CA-based consumer fintech to enable international money movement with consumer credit, raised $35M in Series A in venture capital and a $75M expansion of its warehouse facility. This brought the total funds raised to date to $55M in equity capital and $125M for its warehouse facility. Backers included Vy Capital, Founders Fund, and A* Capital. More Here

Rippling, a San Francisco, CA-based workforce management startup, raised $200M in new financing. The financing values the company at $13.5 billion. The financing was led by Coatue with participation from Founders Fund, Greenoaks and other existing investors. Dragoneer is joining the round as a new investor. More Here

Exowatt, a Miami, FL-based renewable energy company, raised $20m in seed funding. Backers included a16z, Atomic, and Sam Altman. More Here

Givebutter, an Austin, TX-based provider go a nonprofit fundraising and CRM platform, raised $50M in funding. The round was led by Bessemer Venture Partners’ BVP Forge, with participation from existing investor Ardent Venture Partners. More Here

Clarity Pediatrics, a San Francisco, CA-based digital health company, raised $10M in funding. The round was led by Rethink Impact with participation from Homebrew, Maverick Ventures, January Ventures, Vamos Ventures, Alumni Ventures and Citylight VC. More Here

Auxa Health, a NYC-based provider of an AI-powered benefit navigation technology solution, raised $5.2M in Seed funding. The round was led by Zeal Capital Partners with participation from existing investor AlleyCorp and new investors K50 Ventures, Laconia Capital Group, and Chaac Ventures. More Here

AccessHope, a Duarte, CA-based cancer benefit company, raised $33M in Series B funding from city of hopes. More Here

iVEAcare, a Roseville, MN-based development stage medical device company, raised $27.5M in Series A funding. The round was led by Vensana Capital, which was joined by Treo Ventures, Hatteras Venture Partners, and an undisclosed strategic partner. More Here

Pelvital USA, Inc., an Eagan, MN-based women’s health company, closed an additional $2.32M in its seed-plus funding round. The round was led by Boomerang Ventures, with participation from Pier 70 Ventures, Life Science Angels, Tech Coast Angels Orange County, and Blue Pacific Fund. More Here

Accacia, a Singapore-based decarbonisation platform focusing on the Real Estate and Infrastructure sectors, closed a US$6.5m pre-Series A funding. The round was led by Illuminate Financial. AC Ventures also participated in this round, alongside continued support from early backers Accel and B Capital. More Here

Rubedo Life Sciences, a Sunnyvale, CA-based biopharmaceutical company committed to developing first-in-class therapies targeting senescent cells which drive age-related diseases, closed a $40M Series A financing round. The round was led by Khosla Ventures and Ahren Innovation Capital, with participation from Hevolution, R42, Modi Ventures, Cerigo Investments, Shanda Group, Refactor Capital, LongeVC, Italian Angels for Growth (IAG), and other investors. More Here

Curio Legacy Ventures, a Washington, DC-based tech development company dedicated to advancing a closed fuel cycle, raised $14M in Seed funding from synergos holding. More Here

HappySignals, a Helsinki, Finland-based human-centric IT experience management company, raised $12M in funding. The round was led by Mandatum Asset Management with participation from existing investors Nauta and Vendep Capital. More Here

Midas, an Istanbul, Turkey-based retail investing startup, raised $45M in Series A funding. The round was led by Portage, with participation from International Finance Corporation, and Spark Capital, Earlybird Digital East Fund, and Revo Capital. More Here

Smart Reporting, a Munich, Germany-based company which specializes in the field of medical reporting, raised €23M in Series C funding. TVM Capital Life Science made the investment. More Here

SynOx Therapeutics, a Dublin, Ireland and Oxford, UK-based late-stage clinical biopharmaceutical company, closed a $75m Series B financing. The round was co-led by Forbion, HealthCap and new investor Bioqube Ventures. More Here

Payflows, a Paris, France-based SaaS platform for finance teams, raised €25m in Series A funding. The round was led by Balderton Capital with participation from existing investors Headline and Ribbit Capital. More Here

Qureight, a Cambridge, UK-based biotech company providing a drug development platform, raised $8.5M in Series A funding. The round was led by Hargreave Hale AIM VCT with participation from XTX Ventures, Guinness Ventures, Playfair Capital, Meltwind, Ascension Life Fund and Cambridge Angels. More Here

VENTURE CAPITAL UPDATES

TLcom Capital, African Venture capital firm has closed its second fund, TIDE Africa Fund II, at $154 million, making it Africa's largest investor across seed and Series A stages. The oversubscribed fund attracted over 20 limited partners, including the European Investment Bank and Visa Foundation. TLcom maintains a consistent strategy of backing early-stage startups in sectors like fintech, mobility, and healthcare, while also considering opportunistic deals at later stages. More Here

Seraphim Space, UK based Venture Capital firm is launching its second early-stage VC fund, which aims to be larger than its previous £70 million fund and will build a global portfolio of 30 space tech startups. The fund is backed by major aerospace players and will focus on areas like AI for space data, in-orbit computing, space-enabled communications, and microgravity research. With its first fund generating 3x returns, Seraphim hopes to stand out in the increasingly competitive space tech investment market. More Here

FEATURED ARTICLE

Y-Combinator Guide: How to Pitch Your Startup.

Most founders don't really understand what investors are looking for when they pitch their startup ideas. Because of this, they end up talking about stuff that doesn't really matter.

So, Y-Combinator partners have made it simpler by breaking down the pitch process into seven key questions. If you can give clear and straightforward answers to all seven questions, you'll be way ahead of most other pitches.

The Seven Questions are:

• What do you do? - Explain your product/service in the simplest terms possible.

• How big is the market? - Estimate the market size using a bottom-up or top-down approach.

• What's your progress? - Highlight your achievements and speed of execution.

• What's your unique insight? - Explain your deep understanding of the problem you're solving.

• What's your business model? - Describe how you plan to make money.

• Who's on your team? - Introduce the founders, their backgrounds, and the equity split.

• What do you want? - Clearly state your ask (e.g., investment, advice)…..Read More Here

STARTUP’S LATEST BUZZ

ACQUISITION & EXITS

TabaPay, a SoftBank-backed instant money movement platform, will acquire the assets of a16z backed banking-as-a-service startup Synapse, which has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Synapse faced challenges, including layoffs and disputes with partners. More Here

Apple acquired Paris-based AI startup Datakalab in December 2023, specializing in data compression and image analysis. The acquisition aligns with Apple's stance on user privacy and data security. Apple is expected to incorporate AI features into its iOS 18 and macOS 15 operating systems, potentially including an on-device AI chatbot and updates to apps like Photos and iMovie. More Here

Triple Private Equity acquired SmartSearch, a Ilkley, UK-based provider of digital compliance and anti-money laundering (AML) software. More Here

Aurionpro Solutions, a Navi Mumbai, India-based provider of advanced technology solutions for enterprise transformation, announced the acquisition of banking and insurance focused PaaS startup Arya ai. More Here

Infosys a Bengaluru, India-based company which specializes in digital services and consulting, announced a definitive agreement to acquire in-tech, a Munich, Germany-based engineering R&D services provider focused on German automotive industry. More Here

LAYOFFS & BANKRUPTCY

Google has fired over 20 more employees in addition to the initial 28 terminated after last week's protest against the company's $1.2 billion Israeli defense contract, Project Nimbus. According to Jane Chung from No Tech for Apartheid, these latest firings included "non-participating bystanders," bringing the total number of terminated employees to over 50. More Here

Express, a clothing retailer based in Columbus, Ohio, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and plans to close nearly 100 of its 500 retail locations across the U.S. and Puerto Rico. More Here

STARTUPS & PEOPLE

The European Union has launched a probe into TikTok's Lite app and threatened to suspend its "addictive" rewards feature over child safety concerns. TikTok faces potential fines and penalties if it fails to provide a risk assessment and defend the feature. This is the EU's second probe against TikTok under the new Digital Services Act. More Here

A Russian military court has sentenced Meta spokesperson Andy Stone in absentia to six years in prison for "publicly defending terrorism," citing his comments about temporarily allowing calls for violence against the Russian military amid the Ukraine invasion. More Here

Former Meta executive Jason Taylor is joining Microsoft's AI supercomputing team as corporate vice president and deputy CTO to help build systems that will advance AI capabilities. More Here

LATEST IN EMERGING TECH

Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, expressed his willingness to open source a $10 billion AI model, provided it is safe and beneficial for all parties involved. He believes that open sourcing can mitigate the dependency on a few companies controlling AI technology, fostering innovation and competition. Zuckerberg highlighted Meta's strong open-source legacy with projects like PyTorch and the Open Compute Project, which have significantly reduced costs and expanded supply chains by making their designs available to the public. More Here

is closing its Prime Air drone delivery program in Lockeford, California, while launching a new location in Tolleson, Arizona. More Here

Tesla is slashing prices by around $2,000 in key markets like China and Germany, following recent price cuts in the U.S. and a reported drop in global vehicle deliveries. Elon Musk cited the need to align production with demand as the reason for these frequent price adjustments. Tesla plans to lay off over 10% of its workforce, bracing for its first annual drop in deliveries. More Here

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That’s It For Today! Will Meet You Tomorrow. Happy Tuesday! 🥂

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