General Catalyst Launches $6 Billion Fund & Binance Founder Sentenced To Four Month Prison

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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 -

• General Catalyst is on the verge of closing a new $6 billion VC fund to focus on international market.

• A trio of seasoned venture capitalists from Bessemer Venture Partners, Andreessen Horowitz and Index Ventures are forming Million Dolalr a new early-stage investment firm called SVCI (Silicon Valley Capitalist Initiative).

• Binance founder Changpeng "CZ" Zhao has been sentenced to four months in prison for violating U.S. money-laundering statutes.

• Roger Ver, the crypto personality nicknamed "Bitcoin Jesus," has been charged with mail fraud and evading $50 million in taxes.

• Featured Article : How to Improve Your Odds of Getting to Yes with a VC — “Land and Expand” Strategy?

• Essential Reads On Startups, Venture Capital, AI & Tech.

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STARTUP FUNDING UPDATES

Midi Health, a San Francisco-based telehealth platform for women in midlife, recently raised a $60 million Series B round led by Emerson Collective, with participation from Google Ventures, SteelSky Ventures, and Muse Capital, bringing its total funding to $99 million. More Here

Apptega, an Atlanta, GA-based end-to-end cybersecurity compliance platform company, raised $15M in Growth funding. Mainsail Partners made the investment. More Here

Seam, a San Francisco-based startup, provides an AI interface for customer data, allowing business users to access and analyze data through natural language queries, without the need for SQL knowledge. It has raised a $5 million seed round led by Bessemer Venture Partners, with participation from Colle Capital, F7 Ventures, Ritual Capital, and Umami Capital. More Here

Integrity Orthopaedics, a Maple Plain, MN-based company providing solutions for soft tissue repair, raised $20.6M in Series B funding. The round was led by Piper Sandler Merchant Banking and an undisclosed existing investor. More Here

Surf Bio, a Palo Alto, CA-based biopharmaceutical company commercializing a novel drug stabilization platform, has received a $1.6M grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. More Here

Teleskope, a San Francisco-based startup, provides an automated data protection tool that helps identify, isolate, and redact sensitive data across various data sources for enterprises. It has raised a $5 million seed round led by Primary Venture Partners, with participation from Lerer Hippeau, Plug and Play Ventures, and Essence VC. More Here

Swap, a London, UK-based e-commerce operating system, raised $9M in Series A funding. The round was led by QED Investors, with participation from Cherry Ventures, 9900 Capital, 2100 Ventures, and Ed Hallen, the Co-Founder of Klaviyo. More Here

AiDash, a San Jose, CA-based enterprise SaaS company that enables critical infrastructure industries to become climate resilient and sustainable via satellites and AI, raised $58.5M in Serious C funding. The round, which brought the total amount to $91.5M, was led by Lightrock with participation from Lightsmith Group, Marubeni Corporation, Duke Energy, National Grid, Edison International, Sabanci Ventures, Marubeni Corporation, SE Ventures, G2 Venture Partners, Benhamou Global Ventures, and Shell Ventures. More Here

Chowdeck, a Lagos-based food delivery startup, has raised $2.5 million in seed funding from investors including Y Combinator, Goodwater Capital, FounderX Ventures, HoaQ Fund, Levare Ventures, True Culture Funds, Haleakala Ventures, and founders from Rappi and Paystack. More Here

SafeBase, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of a platform for security reviews, raised $33M in Series B funding. The round was led by Touring Capital with participation from Zoom Ventures, NEA, Y Combinator, Comcast Ventures, Cerca Partners, as well as prominent cybersecurity executives including former Salesforce Chief Trust Officer, Jim Alkove. More Here

Arbol, a NYC-based climate risk solutions provider, raised $60M in Series B funding. The round was led by Giant Ventures and Opera Tech Ventures with participation from Mubadala Capital. More Here

neuroClues, a French-Belgian medtech startup, developing high-speed, AI-driven eye-tracking technology to support the diagnosis of neurodegenerative conditions, starting with Parkinson's disease, by analyzing eye movements captured through its proprietary portable headsets. based in Paris, has raised €5 million in pre-Series A funding led by White Fund and the European Commission's EIC Accelerator program, with participation from existing investors like Invest.BW and business angels. More Here

Vitestro, an Utrecht, The Netherlands-based autonomous blood drawing company, raised $22M in funding. The round was led by Sonder Capital and new investor NYBC Ventures, with participation from Invest-NL, the European Innovation Council Fund (EIC Fund), and existing private investors. This brought its total funding raised to $50M (€46M) from both equity investments and grant funding. More Here

SynOx Therapeutics Limited, a Dublin, Ireland- and Oxford, UK-based late-stage clinical biopharmaceutical company developing emactuzumab for the treatment of Tenosynovial Giant Cell Tumour (TGCT) and other diseases, raised up to $35M in Debt funding. Hercules Capital, Inc. (NYSE: HTGC) provided the financing. More Here

LiNova Energy, a Monrovia, CA-based ultra-high-energy batteries developer, raised $15.8M in Series A funding. The round was led by Catalus Capital, who were joined by Saft, a subsidiary of TotalEnergies, Chevron Technology Ventures, and a syndicate of investors. More Here

Ansa, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of a fintech infrastructure solution enabling merchants to launch branded customer wallets, raised $14M in Series A funding. The round was led by Renegade Partners with participation from Bain Capital Ventures, B37 Ventures, Box Group, and Wischoff Ventures. More Here

SpinEM Robotics, a Saint-Martin d’Hères, France-based deep tech startup specializing in navigation solutions for robotic spinal surgery, closed a Series A2 funding round, securing a €10M ($11M) strategic investment from Spineart. More Here

Urban Jungle, a London, UK-based insurance technology startup, raised $14M in funding. Backers included Intact Ventures, Ingka Investments, Mundi Ventures, Eka Ventures, and Sony Innovation Fund, as well as angel investors including former Prudential UK CEO Rob Devey. This round brought the total amount raised by the business to $55M. More Here

Invent Analytics, a Philadelphia, PA-based global retail planning solutions provider, raised $17M in funding. The round was led by LFX Venture Partners, with participation from existing investors European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and Collective Spark. More Here

beehiiv, a NYC-based provider of an email newsletter platform, raised $33M Series B funding. The round was led by NEA with participation from Sapphire Sport and others. More Here

Island, a Dallas, TX-based company which specializes in enterprise browsers, raised $175M in Growth funding. The round, which btought Island’s valuation to $3 Billion, was led by Coatue and existing investor Sequoia Capital, with additional funding from other existing investors. More Here

Arris, a Berkeley, CA-based advanced manufacturer with technology enabling high-performing fiber-reinforced composites at scale, raised $34m in funding. Backers included ST Engineering, Zebra Technologies, Youngone, Standard Industries, Vertex Exploratory Fund, NEA, XN, Taiwania Capital, Bosch Ventures, Modern Venture Partners (MVP), and Alumni Ventures Group (AVG). More Here

Trovo Health, a NYC-based provides an AI-powered platform helping health providers extend their capabilities, raised $15M in Seed funding. The round was led by Oak HC/FT. In conjunction with the funding, Andrew Adams, co-founder and managing partner at Oak HC/FT, will join the board of directors at Trovo Health. More Here

Qlaris Bio, a Dedham, MA-based clinical-stage biotechnology company, raised $24M in Series B funding. The round was led by Canaan and New Leaf Venture Partners, with participation from funds managed by abrdn Inc., as well as existing investors Mayo Clinic Ventures and Correlation Ventures. More Here

Inhabitr, a San Francisco, CA-based AI-powered commercial real estate furnishing platform, raised $27m in Series B funding. The round was led by Hamilton Ventures, alongside other commercial real estate owners and operators. More Here

Elisity, a San Jose, CA-based company which specializes in identity-based microsegmentation, raised $37M in Series B funding. Backers included Insight Partners, with participation from AllegisCyber Capital and Two Bear Capital. More Here

Wisdomise, a Zug, Switzerland-based provider of an AI infrastructure and investment platform, raised $9.5M in funding. Backers included Chainlink Labs, SingularityDAO, VentureSouq, Pontinova Invest, Cetacean Capital, and ODE Capital. More Here

Ory Corp, a Doylestown, PA- and Munich, Germany-based provider of an access control, authorization and identity platform, raised $5M in Series A funding. The round was led by Insight Ventures and Balderton Capital. More Here

Enlaza Therapeutics, a La Jolla, CA-based covalent biologic platform company, raised $100M in Series A funding. The round was led by Life Sciences group of J.P. Morgan Asset Management’s Private Capital division, with participation from existing investors Frazier Life Sciences, Avalon Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Samsara BioCapital and new investors Amgen Ventures, Regeneron Ventures, Bregua Corporation, Pappas Capital, and Alexandria Venture Investments. More Here

Corelight, a San Francisco, CA-based open network detection and response (NDR) company, raised $150M in Series E funding. The round was led by Accel, with participation from Cisco Investments and CrowdStrike Falcon Fund. More Here

PsiQuantum, a Palo Alto, CA-based provider of fault-tolerant quantum computing systems, is to receive $940M AUD ($620M USD) through a financial package, comprised of equity, grants, and loans from the Australian Commonwealth and Queensland Governments. More Here

VENTURE CAPITAL UPDATES

Gideon Valkin, the former Monzo and ClearScore commercial leader, investor and entrepreneur, is launching Andrena Ventures with a $12m solo GP fund. More Here

Intuition, Paris-based VC firm founded by Hugo Amsellem and Etienne Boutan, focusing exclusively on consumer tech startups in Europe and the U.S. They have raised an initial €15 million fund and plan to invest between €100,000 and €500,000 in over 40 companies. More Here

General Catalyst is on the verge of closing a new $6 billion fund. The 24-year-old firm has broken with VC convention by expanding internationally and doubling down on sectors like education and health care that have well-entrenched incumbents. More Here

A trio of seasoned venture capitalists, Ethan Kurzweil (Bessemer Venture Partners), Kristina Shen (Andreessen Horowitz), and Mark Goldberg (Index Ventures), are forming a new early-stage investment firm called SVCI (Silicon Valley Capitalist Initiative), leveraging their shared expertise and connections in enterprise tech and Silicon Valley. More

FEATURED ARTICLE

How to Improve Your Odds of Getting to Yes with a VC — “Land and Expand” Strategy?

“ Raising capital is a sales & marketing process. As a founder - Your company is the product and you’re selling an equity ownership in your company but much more broadly you’re selling trust & confidence that you’re going to build something enormously valuable and that you’re going to be enjoyable to work hand-in-hand with over the coming decade of each other’s lives.

To understand how to “get to yes” with a VC you first need to -

VC Partners

Start by understanding how many partners are at the firm you are approaching. It’s pretty easy since nearly every VC lists its partners on the website. Some firms are trickier since they artificially call everybody “partner” but they’re not all “investment partners.” It’s super easy to suss all this out.

Find a portfolio company or two that they’ve invested in. Find one that’s on the earlier-stage size or one that was raised a long time ago and never scaled and get to know the founder & CEO.

They can likely give you the entire playbook of the partnership if you build a meaningful relationship with them and they trust you. The key to your “consigliere” is that they can’t be crazy busy because they’re scaling at meteoric rates.

What do you want to know?

• How many partners are there?

• Which partners are active and which are less active?

• Who in the firm has the “pull” to get deals done when they want to?

• Which partners work well with which other partners?

• Who are the most optimistic partners and who are the most generally skeptical partners?

• How does the partnership typically make its final investment decisions Read More Here

(We have shared this writeup in our Venture Curator Newsletter)

STARTUP’S LATEST BUZZ

ACQUISITION & EXITS

Rippl, a Seattle, WA-based dementia-focused specialty care provider, announced it has acquired Kinto, a Boston, MA-based provider of an AI-enabled dementia caregiver support platform. More Here

Hologic (Nasdaq: HOLX), a Marlborough, MA-based company which specialises in women’s health, is to acquire Endomagnetics Ltd, a Cambridge, UK-based developer of breast cancer surgery technologies, for approximately $310M. More Here

LAYOFFS & BANKRUPTCY

Fisker Inc., an EV startup, is laying off more employees to conserve cash and explore potential sale or capital infusion options. More Here

Ola, the Indian ride-hailing startup, has let go of its CEO Hemant Bakshi after just four months and is cutting around 180 additional jobs. The move, aimed at "improving profitability," comes as the company undergoes a "restructuring exercise" to prepare for its "next phase of growth" and a planned IPO later this year. Ola recently ceased operations in the U.K., Australia, and New Zealand as part of its cost-cutting efforts. More Here

Getir, a Turkish "instant delivery" startup once valued at $12 billion, announced it will shut down operations in the U.S., U.K., and Europe to focus solely on its home market of Turkey. The move will impact at least 6,000 jobs across the closing markets and follows a series of cost-cutting measures amid the struggling quick commerce industry. More Here

STARTUPS & PEOPLE

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission fined the four major wireless carriers (AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint) around $200 million in total for illegally selling customers' real-time location data to third-party companies without their consent. More Here

Binance founder Changpeng "CZ" Zhao has been sentenced to four months in prison for violating U.S. money-laundering statutes, 32 fewer months than what prosecutors were recommending. He will be the richest inmate ever, notes Bloomberg. More Here

Roger Ver, a noted crypto figure known as "Bitcoin Jesus," has been charged with mail fraud and evading taxes to the tune of $50 million. More Here

LATEST IN EMERGING TECH

TikTok appears to be routing some users to a website for purchasing coins used for tipping creators, potentially circumventing Apple's 30% commission on in-app purchases. This move may violate App Store rules and could lead to potential action from Apple, though TikTok's current legal status in the U.S. is uncertain due to the recent ban signed by President Biden. More Here

MORE READS

• Why Do Great Ideas Often Fail The 'Elevator Pitch' Test? More Here

• How Investors Will Grade Your Startup: A Sample VC Memo On A $5M Seed Round. More Here

• Ask Slide In Pitch Deck: How Can We Explain What The Funds Will Be Used For? More Here

• Don't Include Your Startup Valuation Number On The Slide. More Here

HOW CAN I HELP YOU?

• Build Your Pitch Deck : We write, design and model your pitch deck into a storyteller book within 4-5 days.

• Get Your MVP In 15 Days: Have an Idea? Turn your idea into Reality. Move fast before your competitors.

• Break Into VC: Join Our VC Enthusiast slack Community to learn, network and craft path to venture capital.

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

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