ElevenLabs raised $250M at $3 Billion valuation & Chinese AI startup DeepSeek overtakes ChatGPT on Apple App Store.

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STARTUPS RAISING MILLIONS

💰 Startup funding updates

Elevanlabs, a New York-based synthetic voice technology startup, raised $250M in Series C funding at a valuation between $3B and $3.3B. The round was led by ICONIQ Growth, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz and other existing investors. ElevenLabs, whose ARR reportedly grew from $25M in 2023 to nearly $90M, powers AI voice solutions for companies like Syntheisa, HarperCollins, and Bertelsmann.

Retro Biosciences, a San Francisco-based biotech startup focused on extending human lifespan, is raising a $1B Series A, with participation from Sam Altman, who previously funded its $180M seed round. The company plans to launch trials targeting diseases like Alzheimer’s and has collaborated with OpenAI to develop stem cell therapies. Retro joins other billionaire-backed longevity efforts like Altos Labs and Unity Biotechnology.

ShopMy, a NYC-based platform transforming creator marketing into a performance channel, raised $77.5M in funding. The round was led by Bessemer Venture Partners and Bain Capital Ventures, with participation from Menlo Ventures and previous investors Inspired Capital, AlleyCorp, Jeremy Levine, Bessemer Venture Partners, Scott Friend, Bain Capital Ventures, Amy Wu, Menlo Ventures, and strategic investors including Geoff Donaker, Eric Chan, Campbell + Jett Puckett, Shea McGee, and Camila Coehlo.

SignalPlus, a Singapore-based provider of software and infrastructure solutions for crypto derivatives, raised US$11M in Series B funding. The round was led by AppWorks and OKX Ventures, with participation from Avenir Group and HashKey.

Allara Health, a NYC-based virtual care platform bridging the care divide for women battling chronic hormonal conditions, raised $26m in Series B funding. The round, which brought total funding to $38.5m, was led by Index Ventures (with partner Martin Mignot joining Allara’s board), with participation from existing investor GV (Google Ventures).

Pipeshift, a San Francisco, CA-based AI infrastructure startup, raised $2.5M in Seed funding. The round was led by Y Combinator and SenseAI Ventures, with participation from Arka Venture Labs, Good News Ventures, Nivesha Ventures, Astir VC, GradCapital, MyAsiaVC and angels like Kulveer Taggar (CEO of Zuess), Umur Cubukcu (CEO of Ubicloud and former Head of PostgreSQL at Azure), and Krishna Mehra (former Head of Engineering at Meta and co-founder of Capillary Technologies).

Tive, a Boston, MA-based supply chain and logistics visibility technology company, raised $40M in Series C funding. The round was led by WiL (World Innovation Lab) and Sageview Capital, with participation from AVP, RRE Ventures, Two Sigma Ventures, Qualcomm Ventures, Fifth Wall, Supply Chain Ventures, and Sorenson Capital.

Spaceium, a Los Angeles, CA-based company building a network of in-space refueling stations, raised $6.3M in funding. The round was led by Initialized Capital, with participation from Zeno Ventures, Olive Tree Capital, DTX Ventures, 16Z Scout Fund, Crosscourt Ventures, Giangels, Calm Ventures, Alumni Ventures, Spacedust Ventures, Capitalize Funds, Outfit ventures, Mergus Ventures, Hydrocarbon Minerals, and angels like Saturning Pugnet (Worldcoin) and Justin Hamilton (Clutterbot).

Amplience, a London, UK-based provider of headless content management solutions, received a £32M senior secured investment from AshGrove Capital.

Swarm Network, a Road Town, British Virgin Islands-based decentralized platform allowing the collaboration among multiple AI agents, raised $3M in Seed funding. The round was led by ZeroStage and Y2Z Ventures, with additional support from a syndicate of private investors.

Attentive.ai, a New Delhi, India-based provider of an AI-based SaaS platform for the construction and outdoor services industry, raised $12M in Series A2 funding. The round was led by Tenacity Ventures with participation from Vertex Ventures, Peak XV Partners, and InfoEdge Ventures.

Clutch, a San Francisco, CA-based FinTech company helping credit unions in their operations, raised $65M in Series B funding. The round was led by Alkeon Capital Management with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, TruStage Ventures as well as Peterson Partners.

ZuriQ, a Zurich, Switzerland-based quantum computers company, raised $4.2M in Seed funding. The round was led by Founderful with participation from SquareOne, First Momentum Ventures, OnSight Ventures and QAI Ventures.

Furaha, a Dubai, UAE-based provider of a financial services platform, raised $10M in funding. SC Ventures invested $7M, while Yabx BV (a company of Tech Mahindra (NSE: TECHM) group) contributed through technology transfer.

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NEW VCs IN THE MARKET

🏦 Venture Capital updates

QDNL Participations, an Amsterdam, the Netherlands-based quantum-focused VC firm, announced the first close of its new fund, at €25M. Investors include family offices, high-net-worth individuals, funds-of-funds and endowments, along with continued support from the Quantum Delta NL Foundation. The final close target is €60m.

Madrona, a Seattle, WA-based venture capital firm, closed Fund X and Acceleration Fund IV, raising USD770M in total. The funds will be deployed in the next several years in new companies and support them through their life cycle. They target innovative founders building transformational companies in a broad range of technology areas including Applied AI, Developer Tools, Cloud, and AI-Enabled Biology across enterprise and consumer audiences.

KEY STORIES IN TECH

📜 Latest in tech

OpenAI’s Stargate project reportedly doesn’t have the money it needs:

• OpenAI's Stargate project, backed by SoftBank and MGX, aims to invest $100B–$500B in U.S. data centers but has yet to secure full funding or a comprehensive plan.

• Initial commitments include $15B each from OpenAI and SoftBank, with hopes to raise more through equity and debt from existing investors.

• Elon Musk criticized Stargate’s financial claims, sparking White House frustration despite President Trump’s attempts to minimize the controversy.

iOS 18 adoption reaches 68% of devices, iPadOS 18 trails at 53%:

• Apple reports iOS 18 is now installed on 68% of compatible devices, climbing to 78% on iPhones released in the past four years.

• Older iPhones see 19% on iOS 17 and 13% running earlier versions, reflecting trends among early adopters and older hardware.

• iPadOS 18 adoption lags behind, with 53% of all iPads running the update, rising to 63% on models from the last four years.

Humanity's last exam:

• International researchers have created a benchmark named "Humanity's Last Exam" to evaluate the limitations of large language models, where even the most advanced AI systems currently fail 90% of the time.

• The exam consists of 3,000 questions across over 100 specialized fields, with a significant focus on mathematics, developed with contributions from nearly 1,000 experts from 500 institutions worldwide.

• AI models like GPT-4o and OpenAI's o1 struggle with this challenging test, and the models often exhibit overconfidence with calibration errors over 80%, highlighting the gap between their confidence and accuracy.

Chinese AI startup DeepSeek overtakes ChatGPT on Apple App Store:

• DeepSeek's AI Assistant, powered by the DeepSeek-V3 model, became the top-rated free app on Apple’s U.S. App Store, overtaking ChatGPT just weeks after its January 10 release, according to Sensor Tower.

• The Hangzhou-based startup claims it trained the model using Nvidia's H800 chips for less than $6M, raising questions about the effectiveness of U.S. tech export controls targeting China's AI capabilities.

• Praised by U.S. tech leaders, DeepSeek is the first Chinese AI model recognized as rivaling or surpassing cutting-edge U.S.-developed models, reshaping perceptions of global AI leadership.

Meta to spend up to $65 Billion in 2025 to drive AI leadership:

• Meta plans to invest $60-65 billion in AI infrastructure in 2025, surpassing Wall Street's $50.25 billion estimate. The initiative includes hiring for AI roles and building a 2-gigawatt data center, key to its competition with OpenAI and Google.

• CEO Mark Zuckerberg highlighted the urgency to lead in AI following the $500 billion Stargate initiative, a joint venture by OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank announced by President Trump earlier this week.

• Meta’s AI assistant, now with 600M monthly users, is projected to reach 1 billion users by the end of 2025, leveraging Meta’s open-source Llama models and Ray-Ban smart glasses to outpace rivals.

LAST COFFEE SIP

☕Other news

Banks sell X debt at a discount:

• Elon Musk acknowledged that X's financial performance is weak, with the company barely breaking even and experiencing stagnant user growth and underwhelming revenue.

• Wall Street banks, including Morgan Stanley and Barclays, are attempting to sell off $13 billion in debt from Musk's 2022 acquisition of X, needing to persuade investors of the company's future prospects.

• Despite facing user attrition due to Musk's political involvement and legal disputes with advertisers, X has managed to regain some advertisers, though competitors like Bluesky and Meta's Threads are seeing significant growth.

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