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LinkedIn founder Hoffman raises $24.6M for new AI startup & DeepSeek's image generation & reasoning model outperform.

Venture Daily Digest - 28/01/2025

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Venture Daily Digest
January 28, 2025

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📬 What’s in store:

  • Daily Picks: VCs saying no, YC guide, 6000+ VC contacts, PG on pitching, pitch deck tips, financial model template, top startups, failed pitch signs.

  • LinkedIn founder Hoffman raises $24.6M for new AI startup.

  • DeepSeek’s released Janus Pro AI model beats rivals in image generation.

  • Apple is developing visionOS for smart glasses.

  • Alibaba’s Qwen team releases AI models that can control PCs and phones.

  • DeepSeek releases open-source AI reasoning model R1 to rival OpenAI’s o1.

  • Trump says Microsoft is in talks to acquire TikTok.

  • Hedge funds were pausing US AI bets as DeepSeek emerged.

  • VC & Startup Jobs: VC & investors backed startup hiring for remote roles.

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STARTUPS RAISING MILLIONS

💰 Startup funding updates

Manas AI, an AI-powered drug discovery startup co-founded by LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman and cancer researcher Siddhartha Mukherjee, raised $24.6M in seed funding. The round included investments from Hoffman, General Catalyst, and Greylock. Focused on cancers like breast and prostate, the company will leverage Microsoft Azure’s AI capabilities for molecule design and testing

Indigo, a NYC-based provider of an AI-powered platform for home negotiations, raised $8M in Seed funding. The round was led by Pete Flint at NFX, Clelia Warburg Peters at Era Ventures, and Paul Irving at GTM Fund. 1Sharpe Ventures and Jake Seid also participated.

Satisfi Labs, a Tampa, FL-based provider of a conversational experience platform designed to transform customer engagement, raised an undisclosed amount in Growth funding. The round was led by Level Structured Capital.

Brickken, a Barcelona, Spain-based provider of a SaaS platform for creating digital assets and managing investor relations, raised $2.5M in Seed funding, at $22.5M valuation. Backers included SNZ Capital, Mocha, Psalion, Hodl Ventures, Ergodic Fund and Blue Bay Ventures.

Metafuels, a Zurich, Switzerland-based developer of technology for sustainable aviation fuel compatible with existing aircrafts, raised $9M in funding. The round was led by Celsius Industries, with participation from RockCreek, Fortescue Ventures, Verve Ventures, with existing investors Energy Impact Partners (EIP) and Contrarian Ventures.

Progressive Robotics, a Thessaloniki, Greece-based robotics company, raised €1.55M in Seed funding. The round was led by Marathon Venture Capital with participation from existing investors Genesis Ventures.'

Oncomatryx, a Zamudio, Spain-based biopharmaceutical company developing novel ADCs against the tumor microenvironment, raised €25M in funding. The round was led by existing investors and included a €10M strategic investment from Centro para el Desarrollo Tecnológico y la Innovación.

TalentMapper, a London, UK-based company providing a platform that helps identify and develop the skills within an organisation, has raised £2m in funding. Backers included from Mercia Ventures and Haatch.

MarkeTeam.ai, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based developer of advanced artificial intelligence technology for the marketing industry, raised $3M in Seed funding. The round was led by Ocean Azul Partners with participation from Clive Sirkin (former CMO of Kellogg’s and Kimberly-Clark), Dion Joannou (former CEO of Accedian), Mitch Mayers (Founder and Partner at Zipatoni, later acquired by IPG), Tony Weisman (former CMO of Dunkin’ Brands) and others.

Systole Health, a Boston, MA-based tech-enabled group virtual care solution for women’s heart health, announced $2M in pre-seed funding. The round was led by Benchstrength, with participation from January Ventures, J Ventures, and Tom X. Lee, founder of One Medical.

Neko Health, a Stockholm, Sweden-based preventative healthcare technology company, raised $260M in Series B funding. The round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with participation from General Catalyst, O.G. Venture Partners, Rosello, Lakestar and Atomico.

Tapline, a Berlin, Germany-based company providing SaaS financing solutions, raised €20M in Series A funding. The round was led by Karim Beshara, with participation from Antler, and strategic business angels.

Sightline, a London, UK-based provider of a market intelligence platform for the transition economy, raised $5.5M in Seed funding. Backers included Molten Ventures which participated as a co-lead investor.

Optable, a Montreal, Canada-based provider of an identity management and collaboration platform, raised $20M in Series A Acceleration funding. The round was led by TELUS Global Ventures with participation from previous investors, including Hearst Ventures, Brightspark Ventures, Desjardins Capital, Deloitte Ventures, AsterX, and others.

FlexGen Power Systems, a Durham, NC-based provider of energy storage solutions and software technology, received a $75M revolving credit facility with J.P. Morgan.

NEW VCs IN THE MARKET

🏦 Venture Capital updates

Shift4Good, a Paris, France and Singapore-based global impact investment fund dedicated to decarbonizing the transportation sector, closed its first fund, at €220m. The fund’s diverse investor base includes Tier-1 corporates, institutional investors, and family offices from Europe and Asia. Notable LPs include Renault Group, BNP Paribas Group, Bpifrance, European Investment Fund (EIF), Edenred, PSA Ventures (part of the Port of Singapore Authority), ComfortDelGro, Capricorn, and Candriam.

KEY STORIES IN TECH

📜 Latest in tech

Apple is developing visionOS for smart glasses:

  • Apple is reportedly developing a version of its visionOS for smart glasses, aiming to expand its augmented reality product range beyond the current Vision Pro headset.

  • Apple's Vision Products Group is exploring the launch of smart glasses, similar to Meta's Ray-Ban collaboration, but executives believe it may take three years or more to finalize the product.

  • The company plans to revamp the Vision Pro by introducing a lower-end variant with less expensive components, targeting a price comparable to a high-end iPhone by late 2024.

Alibaba’s Qwen team releases AI models that can control PCs and phones:

  • Alibaba’s Qwen team unveiled the Qwen2.5-VL family, featuring advanced text and image analysis capabilities like parsing files, analyzing multi-hour videos, and controlling software. The flagship Qwen2.5-VL-72B outperformed GPT-4o, Claude 3.5 Sonnet, and Gemini 2.0 Flash on key benchmarks.

  • Available on Hugging Face, Qwen2.5-VL offers models ranging from 3B to 72B parameters, with smaller versions under a permissive license.

  • Like other Chinese AI, Qwen2.5-VL faces regulatory constraints, avoiding sensitive topics like Xi Jinping or Taiwan. Despite this, it stands out for its ability to interact with devices, though struggles with real-world OS benchmarks hint at room for improvement.

DeepSeek releases open-source AI reasoning model R1 to rival OpenAI’s o1:

  • DeepSeek’s R1, with 671 billion parameters, rivals OpenAI’s o1 on benchmarks like AIME, MATH-500, and SWE-bench Verified, offering 90-95% cheaper API pricing and distilled versions for smaller devices.

  • Released under an MIT license on Hugging Face, R1 has inspired 500+ derivative models with 2.5M downloads, five times the official model’s downloads, reflecting its rapid adoption among developers.

  • Despite high performance, R1 faces censorship due to Chinese regulatory restrictions, sparking concerns amid U.S. policy moves to curb Chinese AI development and maintain AI leadership.

DeepSeek releases new image model family that outperform other models:

  • DeepSeek released Janus-Pro, a family of multimodal AI models that outperform DALL-E 3 and other competitors like Stable Diffusion XL on benchmarks like GenEval and DPG-Bench. The models range from 1B to 7B parameters.

  • Janus-Pro, available on Hugging Face under an MIT license, can analyze and generate images, offering flexibility and simplicity while maintaining strong performance despite compact sizes.

  • Funded by High-Flyer Capital Management, DeepSeek’s recent breakthroughs have raised questions about U.S. AI dominance and whether demand for high-end AI chips will remain sustainable.

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LAST COFFEE SIP

☕Other news

Trump says Microsoft is in talks to acquire TikTok:

  • President Donald Trump revealed Microsoft is negotiating to buy TikTok, expressing hopes for a bidding war over the app, which has 170M U.S. users and was briefly taken offline due to a sell-or-ban law.

  • This marks Microsoft’s second involvement with TikTok after its 2020 bid collapsed under Trump’s first-term divestment order; CEO Satya Nadella previously described it as "the strangest thing" he worked on.

  • The talks follow other bids, including one from AI startup Perplexity AI proposing a merger with TikTok, offering the U.S. government up to 50% ownership of the new company.

Hedge funds were pausing US AI bets as DeepSeek emerged:

  • Hedge funds have been retreating from U.S. tech stocks, including AI-related infrastructure firms, as the rise of China's discount AI model questions the profitability of U.S.-led AI advancements, according to Goldman Sachs data.

  • While some hedge funds hold their highest long positions in two years, many remain cautious, selling stocks tied to AI growth amid regulatory uncertainties surrounding U.S. projects like the $38B Stargate initiative from OpenAI and SoftBank.

  • Analysts say China's AI startup DeepSeek has disrupted investor confidence in U.S. dominance, prompting a "wait-and-see" approach as global competition and execution risks weigh on the market.

HIRING ALERT: STARTUPS & VC ROLES

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