EU Investigating Microsoft's Investment In Open AI & Quora Raised Funding from a16z After Seven Years

🗞️ TODAY’S MAJOR UPDATES

• Quora, the questions and answers website raising $75M funding for the first time in nearly seven years.

• Indian Government banning eight crypto exchanges Including Binance

• Unity, A US based startup involve in making the video game engine to lay off 1,800 employees.

• Featured Article : Don't track LTV/CAC; Instead track LTV/CACD, Why?

Carta Exiting Secondary Share Trading Business, Downfall?

Carta's decision to exit the secondary share trading business was prompted by customer backlash over privacy concerns.

The controversy raised questions about data security and the company's product focus. Cloudflare's CEO suggested that Carta justified its valuation by building the world's largest secondary market based on customer data. 

Carta's CEO, Henry Ward, revealed annual revenues of $373 million, with the secondary trading unit contributing only $3 million. Despite the exit, Carta is left with a solid $370 million in annual revenue, positioning it favorably for a potential public market debut, especially with reported 2022 revenue of $272 million.

The challenge lies in rebuilding customer trust after the secondary trading controversy.… More Here

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💰 MASSIVE FUNDING UPDATES

AppDirect, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of a B2B subscription commerce platform, raised additional $100M investment from CDPQ. More Here

Quora, the questions and answers website raising funding for the first time in nearly seven years. It nabbed $75 million from Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), which will be used to power the growth of Poe, Quora’s AI chat platform. More Here

Conta Simples, Brazil based expense management and corporate card company in Brazil, raised a Series B round of $41.5 million, or more than R$200 million. Base10 Partners led the round and was joined by Conta’s Series A investors, including Valor Capital, Jam Fund, Y Combinator, Big Bets, Broadhaven and DOMO. More Here

Trice, an Austin, TX-based provider of a cloud-native API-first platform enabling direct connectivity for real-time bank payments, raised an undisclosed amount in Seed funding. Backers included Diagram Ventures, Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), and JAM FINTOP. More Here

Deco, an open source front-end development platform for Deno, JSX and Tailwind that runs websites on a global edge infrastructure. It has raised $2.2 million for a seed round. The investment was led by MAYA Capital and included FJ Labs, Lanx and Crivo Ventures. More Here

Bolden Therapeutics, a Providence, RI-based company developing therapeutics to promote neurogenesis for the potential treatment of central nervous system diseases, raised undisclosed amount from LifeSpan Vision Ventures. More Here'

Impact Analytics, a Linthicum Heights, MD-based provider of retail, grocery, CPG and supply chain-focused planning and merchandising software built with native AI, raised $40M in Growth funding. The round was led by Sageview Capital with participation from Vistara Growth. More Here

ArenaX Labs, a Toronto, Canada-based technology company that aims to teach the world about artificial intelligence (AI) through the play, raised $6M in funding. The round was led by Framework Ventures. Other investors included SevenX Ventures, FunPlus / Xterio, and Moore Strategic Ventures. More Here

Via Scientific, a Boston, MA-based developer of a platform enabling pharmaceutical companies, bio-techs and academic researchers to discover novel biological insights, raised $5M in Seed funding. The round was led by G20 Ventures and Innospark Ventures. More Here

Mesenbio, a University of York (UK) spin-out that is developing a novel treatment for arthritis created from engineered human stem cells, raised £1.4m in funding. The round was co-led by DSW Ventures and NG Bio alongside grant funding from Innovate UK. More Here

PerformYard, an Arlington, Va.-based leader in employee performance management, closed a $95m equity investment from Updata Partners. More Here

ExtraHop, a Seattle, WA-based company which specialises in cloud-native network detection and response (NDR), raised $100M in Growth Capital from undisclosed existing investors. More Here

Keepit, a Copenhagen, Denmark-based SaaS backup and recovery company, received a $40m refinancing package from HSBC Innovation Banking in partnership with The Export and Investment Fund of Denmark (EIFO). More Here

MedaSystems, a Menlo Park, CA-based provider of software for access to pre-approval medicine, received undisclosed additional funding from Debiopharm Innovation Fund. More Here

FLEXeCHARGE, a Copenhagen, Denmark-based provider of load and energy management services in the e-mobility sector, raised an undisclosed amount in Seed funding from Greencode Ventures, Link Capital and Vireo Ventures. More Here

Xaba, a Toronto, Canada-based developer of an AI-powered cognitive software solution to automate programming and deployment of robotics and CNC machines, raised $2M in Seed extension. The round was led by BDC Capital’s Deep Tech Venture Fund with participation from Hitachi Ventures and existing investor Hazelview Ventures. More Here

Rewst, a Tampa, FL-based provider of a purpose-built automation platform for Managed Service Providers (MSPs), raised $31M in Series B funding. The round led by Meritech Capital, which joined existing investors OpenView, TDF Ventures, and Florida Funders. More Here

Burro, a Philadelphia, PA-based autonomous mobility company, raised $24M in Series B funding. The round was co-led by Catalyst Investors and Translink Capital, along with existing investors S2G Ventures, Toyota Ventures, F-Prime Capital, and Cibus Capital. More Here

Umoja, an Atlanta, GA-based DeFi startup, raised $2M in funding. This round led by Quantstamp, Blockchain Founders Fund, Orange DAO, Hyperithm, Psalion, and Blizzard (Avalanche), among others. More Here

FA Bio, a Harpenden, UK-based bio-tech company with a vision to protect natural ecosystems by identifying microbial bio-products, raised £5.3M in funding. The round was led by Clean Growth Fund and Pymwymic with participation from Ship2B Ventures. More Here

DigitalOwl, a Tel Aviv, Israel- and NYC-based insurance technology company that utilizes advanced AI to interpret and transform medical records into a comprehensive and interactive digital underwriting abstract, received a $12M investment from RGA. More Here

Anecdotes, a Palo Alto, CA-based enterprise GRC (Governance, Risk and Compliance) technology company, raised $25M in Series B funding. The round was led by Glilot Capital Partners, with participation from existing investors Red Dot Capital Partners, Vintage Investment Partners, and Shasta Ventures, with participation from Vertex and DTCP. More Here

SynMax, a Houston, TX-based data intelligence company, raised $13M in funding. The round was led by Bill Perkins, with participation from Alex Moore, co-founder of Palantir. More Here

Resalis Therapeutics, a Torino, Italy-based ncRNAs and RNA-targeted therapeutics company, raised €10M in Series A funding. The round was led by Sunstone Life Science Ventures with participation from existing investors including Claris Ventures and angel investors. More Here

CRISPR QC, a San Diego, CA-based biotechnology startup, secured funding from Xcellerant Ventures in its ongoing Series A funding round. The amount of the deal was not disclosed. More Here

💰 VENTURE CAPITAL UPDATES

TorQuest Partners, a Toronto, Ontario, Canada-based private equity firm, announced the final closing of TorQuest Partners Fund VI, at $2.1 Billion. Investors in Fund VI were a diverse group of institutional investors from around the globe, including public and private pension plans, endowments, sovereign wealth funds, financial institutions, insurance companies and family offices. More Here

Keith Rabois is returning to Khosla Ventures after leaving in 2019 to join Founders Fund. Rabois cited dissatisfaction with the in-person culture at Khosla Ventures and a preference for a more distributed model. He emphasized the differences in fund strategy, team composition, and personal aspirations between Khosla Ventures and Founders Fund. More Here

𝕏 FEATURED: TODAY’S FEATURED ARTICLE

Don't track LTV/CAC; Instead track LTV/CACD, Why?

You read it right - successful startups track LTV/CACD, rather than LTV/CAC, why? What does D stand for in CACD? Why it’s better to track LTV/CACD than LTV/CAC?

LTV/CACD, formula gets to the heart of an inherent flaw in the LTV/CAC ratio: it doesn’t include a time factor… Read More Here

💡 SARTUP’S LATEST BUZZ

Acquisition

Sandbox AQ, the AI and quantum firm spun out of Google parent company Alphabet in 2022, has acquired Good Chemistry, a Vancouver-based quantum and computational chemistry startup, for an undisclosed sum. More Here

Acquia, a Boston, MA-based digital experience leader, completed its previously announced acquisition of Copenhagen, Denmark-based provider of Monsido, a website accessibility and optimization solution. More Here

Delinea, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of solutions that seamlessly extend Privileged Access Management (PAM), acquired Authomize, an Alpharetta, GA-based innovator in the detection and elimination of identity-based threats across the cloud. More Here

360training, an Austin, TX-based online regulated training provider specializing in financial services education, acquired Mortgage Educators and Compliance (MEC), an American Fork, UT-based mortgage lending training company. More Here

Bullhorn, a Boston, MA-based company which specializes in software for the staffing and recruitment industry, acquired Mployee, a provider of Salesforce-based solutions for recruitment agencies, which is headquartered in the Netherlands. More Here

Layoffs & Exits

Unity, A US based startup involve in making the video game engine to lay off 1,800 employees, representing 25% of its workforce to improve financial performance. More Here

Treasure Financial, fintech startup based in San Francisco has laid off 14 employees even after explosive growth and after raising $7.5 Millions from investors. More Here

🤖 LATEST IN EMERGING TECH

The European Union is investigating whether Microsoft's investment in OpenAI is subject to merger regulations. The scrutiny follows a leadership upheaval at OpenAI, with Microsoft intervening to hire the ousted CEO. The EU is seeking input on competition issues in generative AI and virtual worlds, and is examining agreements between digital market players and AI developers. While there are no identified concerns yet, the EU is assessing whether Microsoft's investment in OpenAI could trigger a review under the EU Merger Regulation. More Here

Indian Government banning eight crypto exchanges including Binance, Kraken, Mexc and Kucoin which will disappeared from Apple’s App Store in India, less than two weeks after the global firms were flagged for operating “illegally” in the country. More Here

Elon Musk's X announces plans for peer-to-peer payments and AI integration, aiming to transform into an "everything app." The roadmap addresses brand safety concerns and highlights xAI's role in powering innovative features on the platform. More Here

📰 TODAY’S MUST READ ON: STARTUP, TECH & VC

• Gordian Knots in Software Engineering By Tomasz Read Here (Technology)

• How to raise money by Paul Graham? Read Here (Startups)

• How to Improve Your LLM : Combine Evaluations with Analytics Read More (Technology)

• What Does It Take To “Do Things That Don’t Scale” For Your Startup? Read More (Startups)

🤔 WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Previous Poll: 66.67% readers vote for the “company in healthcare/biotech” space known for first-ever VC funded startup. But this is not true. Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) in 1957 is widely considered one of the earliest documented instances of a startup receiving significant venture capital funding from ARDC.

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• TLDR: TLDR covers the most interesting tech, startup, and coding stories in just 5 minutes.

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

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✍️Written By Sahil R | Venture Crew Team