Is Devin AI Fake? & Musk's Plan to Charge To Post On X Platform

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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 -

• Andreessen Horowitz has closed on $7.2 billion in capital. The firm will invest half of this money in growth deals and rest in AI.

• Devin AI faces credibility doubts over its Upwork tasks and a fake demo video.

• Former Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer launched her startup Sunshine, which focuses on nostalgic, simple apps like contact management, event organizing, and photo sharing.

• OpenAI is expanding to Japan with the opening of a new Tokyo office.

• Elon Musk plans to charge a fee for new X users to post content, a move aimed at curbing bot activity on the platform.

• Featured Article : 5 Steps Framework to Determine Your Startup’s Valuation.

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STARTUP FUNDING UPDATES

PVML, the Tel Aviv-based startup aims to combines an AI-centric data access and analysis platform with differential privacy. It has raised an $8 million seed round led by NFX, with participation from FJ Labs and Gefen Capital. More Here

ShareChat, the Indian social media startup, has seen its valuation fall from nearly $5 billion to $2 billion following a new $49 million convertible funding round. The round was led by existing investors including Lightspeed, Temasek, Alkeon Capital, Moore Strategic Ventures, and HarbourVest. More Here

Pula, an insurtech startup in Kenya, has raised a $20 million Series B funding round led by global investment manager BlueOrchard through its InsuResilience strategy. The IFC, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Hesabu Capital, and existing investors also participated in the round. More Here

Berachain, a Toronto, CA-based provider of an EVM-compatible layer 1 blockchain, raised $100M in Series B funding. The round was led by Brevan Howard Digital, and Framework Ventures. More Here

Draftboard, US based startup lets employers post referral bonuses and have referrers compete to earn them by scouring their networks for talent. It has raised $4.1 million from investors, including Founder Collective and Twelve Below, at a $13 million valuation. More Here

Avalon, an Orlando, FL-based independent game studio, raised $10m in funding. The round was led by Bitkraft Ventures and Hashed, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Spartan Capital, Foresight Ventures, LiquidX, and Momentum6. More Here

The Provenance Chain Network, a Portland, OR-based company providing permissioned access to meaningful product knowledge, manufacturers, suppliers, and regulators, closed the first tranche of Series A equity funding at $4M. The round brought the total amount to more then $12M. More Here

Paraform, a San Francisco, CA-based recruiting marketplace, raised $3.6m in seed funding. The round was led by A*, with participation from Evan Moore and Primer Sazze Partners. More Here

Lawhive, a London, U.K.-based AI legal software startup, raised £9.5m in seed funding. The round was led by GV, with participation from Episode 1 Ventures. More Here

Kode Labs, a Detroit, MI-based autonomous smart building startup, raised $30M in Series B funding. The round was led by Maverix Private Equity, with participation from TELUS Ventures and existing investor I Squared Capital. More Here

NightVision, a Bradenton, FL-based application security provider, raised $5.4M in Seed funding. More Here

Ecotrak, an Irvine, CA-based provider of an intelligent facility management platform, raised $30M in funding. The round was led by Respida Capital, with participation from Carver Road Capital, and existing investor Gala Capital Partners. More Here

Dot Compliance, a Phoenix, AZ-based provider of AI-enabled quality management system (QMS) solutions, raised $17.5M in Series B funding. The round, which brought the total amount to $50M, was led by IGP Capital and Vertex Ventures with participation from TPY Capital. More Here

RAAAM Memory Technologies, a Petach, Tikva, Israel-based company providing solutions to implement on-chip memory, raised $4M in Seed funding. Backers included Serpentine Ventures, J-Ventures, HackCapital, Silicon Catalyst Angels, Claves Investments and large multi-national semiconductor company as a strategic investor. More Here

HumanX, a NYC-based AI strategy company serving as a catalyst for organizations with solutions in the dynamic AI landscape, raised $6M in funding. The round was led by Primary Venture Partners, with participation from Foundation Capital, FPV Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz. More Here

Kamereo, a Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam-based provider of a B2B food-sourcing platform, raised $2.1M in funding. The round was led by Reazon Holdings and Thoru Yamamoto, with participation form Quest Ventures. More Here

Daily Dose, a London, UK-based cold-pressed juice and functional drinks company, raised £3M in follow-on investment from IW Capital. More Here

Bumper International Limited, a London, UK-based fintech company that provides buy-now-pay-later services for car repairs and service, raised £2m in Series B extension funding. Backers included Suzuki Global Ventures and Marubeni Ventures. More Here

Ikas, an Istanbul, Turkey-based e-commerce platform, raised $20m in Series A funding. The round was led by World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Re-Pie Asset Management. More Here

Zoth, a Singapore-based stablecoin and yield company, raised $2.5m in funding. The round was led by Blockchain Founders Fund with participation from Momentum 6, Borderless Capital, Mindfulness Capital, Yap Capital, Singularity DAO, Aztlan Capital, Outlier Ventures, Orbit Startups, Graviton Web3 Accelerator, and others. More Here

OpenTrade, a London, UK-based institutional crypto lending platform provider, raised $3.2m in seed funding. Backers included from a16z Crypto Startup Accelerator (CSX), CMCC Global, Draper Dragon, Ryze Labs, and Plassa Capital. More Here

TaxDown, a Madrid, Spain-based tax planning and filing platform provider, raised €5m in funding. Backers included Base10, JME Ventures, Abac Nest, 4Founders Capital, and ENISA. More Here

Cellula, a developer of a fully on-chain artificial life simulation game, raised $2m in pre-seed funding. The round was led by SevenX Ventures, and OKX Ventures, alongside Mask Network and Foresight Ventures. More Here

Zeus Network, a developer of a permissionless communication layer on Solana for Bitcoin, raised over $8m in funding. Backers included Mechanism Capital, OKX Ventures, and Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko, among others. More Here

CleanFiber, a NYC-based materials science company, raised $28M in Series B funding. The round was led by Spring Lane Capital, with participation from Climate Innovation Capital, AXA IM Alts, Tokyu Construction/Global Brain, Ahlström Invest and other family offices. More Here

VENTURE CAPITAL UPDATES

Andreessen Horowitz has closed on $7.2 billion in capital. The firm will invest half of this money in growth deals; the rest will be deployed across various sectors, such as AI infrastructure; AI apps; "American Dynamism," which a16z defines as founders and companies supporting the national interest in aerospace, defense, safety, education, and manufacturing; and gaming. More Here

AlleyCorp, a NYC-based tech venture capital firm, closed a $250M fund. The vehicle was backed by a small group of carefully selected LPs. More Here

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals launches Regeneron Ventures, a $500 million biotech investment fund led by former executives Jay Markowitz and Michael Aberman. The fund aims to support emerging biotech, life sciences device, and tool technologies. More Here

The New Mexico State Investment Council commits $50 million to DCVC's climate fund, aiming to attract investment and bolster the state's tech sector. With a focus on climate solutions, DCVC plans to invest in New Mexico-based ventures. More Here

FEATURED ARTICLE

5 Steps Framework to Determine Your Startup’s Valuation

Many founders ask me, "How do I know what my startup's valuation should be?" Here's a simple framework that you can use to determine your startup's valuation:

1. Identify your key milestones

2. What's Your Expected Burn

3. Your Round Size ?

4. Calculate Your Valuation

5. Double Check the Markets Right Now

1. Identify your key milestones:

   Remember, raising capital from VCs relies on hitting milestones that expand your startup's growth potential. At later stages, this is driven by metrics like ARR, active users, retention, and growth rate. But at pre-seed, seed, and Series A, milestones are more narrative-driven.

   
   The first step in planning a fundraise is understanding what milestones you'll need to hit before your next round. That will shape the growth strategy you pitch to investors now.
   

2. What's Your Expected Burn….Read More Here

STARTUP’S LATEST BUZZ

ACQUISITION & EXITS

Karma Wallet, a Raleigh, NC-based sustainable consumer spending company, acquired DoneGood, a marketplace for sustainable shopping for undisclosed amount. More Here

Argmax, a Ramat Gan, Israel-based leader in AI service provision, acquired Ginzi, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based innovative startup specializing in AI solutions for customer support teams. More Here

LAYOFFS & BANKRUPTCY

MMA Law Firm, a Texas-based law firm, has filed for bankruptcy in Houston after being the subject of FBI and state police investigations for allegedly committing the largest insurance fraud in Louisiana history. The firm is accused of signing up storm victims as clients without their knowledge and collecting millions in insurance payments without sending the money to policyholders. More Here

STARTUPS & PEOPLE

A U.S. district judge ruled that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is not personally liable in a class-action lawsuit over Meta's allegedly addictive products for children. More Here

LATEST IN EMERGING TECH

OpenAI is expanding to Japan with the opening of a new Tokyo office and plans for a GPT-4 model optimized for the Japanese language. More Here

Devin AI, a software engineer AI, has been the subject of controversy due to questions about the authenticity of its Upwork tasks and a fake demo video. Some argue that the company is lying about Devin's achievements, while others claim that the video is a marketing stunt to attract funding. More Here

Elon Musk plans to charge a fee for new X users to post content, a move aimed at curbing bot activity on the platform. The details of the fee and implementation timeline are still unclear, but it's part of Musk's efforts to address the growing bot problem on X. More Here

HOW CAN I HELP YOU?

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

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