Google Won't Buy Hubspot After All & SoftBank Acquired UK Based Chip Company

☕Hey there, Welcome to today's quick rundown in the Venture Daily Digest Newsletter. We've got the scoop on startup fundraising, VC funds, and some cool tech – all in just 5 minutes!

Top News

SoftBank has acquired U.K.-based chip company Graphcore for an undisclosed amount, with CEO Nigel Toon stating the previously reported $500 million figure is inaccurate. Graphcore will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary, retaining its name and Bristol headquarters.

Elon Musk won dismissal of a $500M severance lawsuit for mass layoffs at Twitter.

HubSpot shares fell 12% on Wednesday after a report indicated that Alphabet is no longer interested in acquiring the software company. According to Bloomberg, Alphabet engaged in preliminary talks with HubSpot earlier this year, but discussions did not advance to detailed due diligence. Despite the drop, HubSpot continues to grow rapidly, achieving over 20% revenue growth for the past six quarters, contrasting with Alphabet's slower growth rate of less than 20% since early 2022.

Other Major News

• Alpine Space Ventures founded by former SpaceX engineers, has closed its first $184 million fund backed by early SpaceX employees. (Scroll To VC News)

• Anthropic launches fine-tuning service and new prompt tuner (Scroll To Tech News)

• Xiaomi unveils new factory that operates 24/7 without human labor Scroll To Tech News)

• How to Create A Value Proposition: A Four-Step Framework (Scroll To Featured Article)

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Startup Funding Updates

Alma, a California-based AI-powered legal tech startup, simplifies the U.S. visa process for technologists, founders, and researchers by providing personal legal advisors and digitizing document processing. Founded by Aizada Marat, the company recently raised $5.1 million in seed and pre-seed funding from investors including Bling Capital, Forerunner, Village Global, NFX, Conviction, MVP, NEA, and Silkroad Innovation Hub. More Here

Switchee, a London, UK-based social housing technology provider, raised £5m in funding. Backers included Octopus Ventures, and existing investor AXA IM Alts. More Here

HerculesAI, a U.S.-based company, specializes in automating professional services through large language models, focusing on intelligent data extraction, transformation, and verification for regulated industries like legal, insurance, and financial services. The startup has secured $26 million in Series B funding to further develop its AI-driven solutions. The investment round was led by Streamlined Ventures, with participation from Proof VC, Thomson Reuters Ventures, Alumni Ventures, and various industry angels. More Here

Tread.fi, a NYC-based high-performance algorithmic trading infrastructure company for institutional digital asset firms, raised $3.5m in pre-seed funding round. The round was led by New Form Capital with participation from Aquanow, and Varys Capital. More Here

Regard, a Los Angeles, CA-based AI-powered clinical insights platform for clinicians, raised $61M in Series B funding. The round was led by Oak HC/FT, with participation from Cedars-Sinai Health Ventures, as well as existing investors TenOneTen Ventures, Calibrate Ventures, and Techstars. More Here

Medal, a NYC-based AI company providing the MedalTV clipping app, raised $13M in funding, at $333M valuation. Backers included Horizons Ventures, OMERS Ventures, peak6, and Arcadia Investments. More Here

3Daughters, a Mansfield, MA-based clinical development company fueling evolutionary healthcare for women, raised $4.7M in Seed funding. Backers included Thairm Bio, Argosy Foundation, Wexford Science and Technology, LLC, UMass Amherst, and new undisclosed investors. Previously, the company had announced the close of the first tranche of this financing round, exceeding $2M. More Here

Element Biosciences, a San Diego, CA-based developer of technologies to empower science, raised over $277M in Series D funding. The round, which brought the total amount to over $680M, was led by Wellington Management with participation from new and existing investors, including Samsung Electronics, Fidelity, Foresite Capital, funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc, and Venrock, among others. More Here

Exein, a Rome-based IoT cybersecurity startup, has raised €15 million in a Series B round led by 33N, with participation from Partech and existing investors United Ventures, eCAPITAL, and Future Industry Ventures. More Here

Soda, a NYC-based AI-enabled data quality company, raised $14M in funding. Backers included Singular and Point Nine. More Here

Sekai, a French startup founded in 2022, has secured official rights to develop Naruto consumer apps globally, except for Japan and China. The company, which aims to create entertainment experiences with anime licenses, raised €10 million from investors including Skycatcher, 776, and TV Tokyo. More Here

lemon.markets, a Berlin, Germany-based provider of a brokerage-as-a-service platform, raised 12M in funding. Backers included CommerzVentures, Heliad, and its existing investors, including Creandum, Lakestar, Lightspeed and System.one. The fintech’s latest capital brings total funding to date to €28M. More Here

Buildots, a Santa Clara, CA-based AI construction software company, raised $15M in funding. The round was led by Intel Capital with participation from OG Tech Partners and previous investors. In conjunction with the financing, Lisa Cohen, Investment Director at Intel Capital, will join as a board observer. More Here

Armada, a San Francisco, CA-based edge computing company, raised $40M in funding. The round, which brought the total amount to $100M, was led by by M12. This funding comes as all Armada products are now available in the Microsoft Azure Marketplace, with Azure customers able to use pre-committed Azure spend on Armada products. More Here

Fireworks AI, a Redwood City-based genAI inference platform provider, raised $52M in Series B Funding, valued at $552M. The round, which brought the total capital raised to $77M, was led by Sequoia Capital, with participation from NVIDIA, AMD, and MongoDB. More Here

ProofPilot, a NYC-based provider of clinical experience platform (CXP), raised an undisclosed amount in Series C funding. The round was led by Sopris Capital with participation from Mitsui & Co. (U.S.A.), Inc. More Here

Seismos, an Austin, TX-based company that leverages AI-powered acoustic sensing to provide insights for any enclosed structure from drill-holes to pipelines, received a $15M investment from Edison Partners. More Here

Hui, a Pescara, Italy-based company developing tools for workers, received an equity investment of $25M from Nimbus Capital. More Here

Pan Cancer T, a Rotterdam, the Netherlands-based biotech startup developing T cell therapies for solid cancer treatment, raised €4.25M in Seed extension funding. The round, which brought the total amount to approx. €11M, was led by InnovationQuarter with participation from existing investors Van Herk Ventures, Thuja Capital, Swanbridge Capital and Erasmus MC O&O Holdings. More Here

Active Membranes, a Moorpark, CA-based developer of electrically-conducting membranes used in desalination, has closed an initial round of Seed funding. More Here

Venture Capital Updates

Alpine Space Ventures, a Munich-based VC firm founded by former SpaceX engineer Bulent Altan and investor Joram Voelklein, has closed its first $184 million fund dedicated to space technology. The fund, backed by early SpaceX employees and major institutions like the European Investment Fund and NATO Innovation Fund, aims to invest in 10-15 companies building the space industry supply chain. More Here

Featured Article

How to Create A Value Proposition: A Four-Step Framework

Your value proposition is at the heart of all your go-to-market activities in the startup stages of the business. If you get it right, and truly nail it, then it becomes this inspiring thing that will help you sell more, raise more, and clarify for everyone—including your people, what the urgent problem that you’re solving is.

The value proposition is what defines the business model of your company, and explains how it will generate revenue and profit. It explains who your customers will be and why they will use your product.

Investors won’t look twice at a company that hasn’t nailed the value proposition. After all, if you don’t know what is going to make your startup unstoppable, why should they back it?

So, if you want your startup to get off the ground and fly, you’re going to want to put some effort into the value proposition right at the start.

The value proposition canvas tool looks like this:

The next question you’re going to have is how you go about getting the paint onto the canvas. Here’s a simple approach:

1. Start With the problem.

2. Ask yourself what is the risk associated with the problem

3. Now it's time to look at your product through the lens of problem-solving.

4. Finally, prove it

Check out in our recent venture curator newsletter….

Startup’s Latest Buzz

Acquisition & Going Public

Formlabs, a 3D printing company, has acquired Wisconsin-based startup Micronics to expand its accessible SLS printing technology. More Here

Infor, a NYC-based industry cloud company, acquired Albanero, a data migration and management partner, and Acumen, a revenue growth management consulting company. More Here

Thrive, a Boston, MA-based technology outsourcing provider for cybersecurity, Cloud, and IT managed services, acquired The Longleaf Network, a NC-based IT managed services provider. More Here

Sparq, an Atlanta, GA-based provider of outsourced digital engineering for technology driven and Fortune 1000 companies, acquired Amplify Consulting Partners, a Seattle, WA-based data-first consulting firm. More Here

Pay Ready, a Las Vegas, NV-based provider of post-resident recovery solutions for the property management industry, acquired EvictionAssistant, a Rockville, MD-based eviction management software company. More Here

Layoffs & Bankruptcy

Startups & People

Photo-sharing startup Retro spots Google Photos copying its idea and design: Retro, a photo-sharing app, faces potential competition from Google Photos' new "My Week" feature. The feature, still in testing, bears similarities to Retro's design and functionality. Retro's CEO remains cautiously optimistic, emphasizing their app's unique focus on privacy and simplicity compared to Google Photos' broader use cases.

Latest In Emerging Tech

Anthropic launches fine-tuning service and new prompt tuner

• Anthropic launches two new services: Fine-Tuning for Claude 3 Haiku and a Prompt Tuner in the Developer Console. Both are designed to help organizations develop and optimize AI applications more efficiently.

• With Fine-Tuning, organizations can train Claude with their own data and requirements. This results in better results for specialized tasks, faster response times, and lower costs compared to larger models.

• The new Prompt Tuner simplifies the creation and optimization of prompts. Developers can use Claude 3.5 Sonnet to generate prompts, create test cases, and compare the output of different prompts to test quality before deploying to production.

U.S. Republican lawmakers are seeking a probe into Microsoft’s MSFT -2.48% decrease; red down pointing triangle $1.5 billion investment in artificial intelligence firm G42, citing concerns about the transfer of advanced technology and possible ties the Abu Dhabi-based company may have with China. More Here

Elon Musk won dismissal of a $500M severance lawsuit for mass layoffs at Twitter. Judge Trina Thompson ruled ERISA irrelevant. Twitter's 2019 plan promised more than the post-buyout one month of pay without benefits. Plaintiffs may amend the complaint.

Xiaomi has launched a new autonomous smart factory in Beijing that can produce 10 million handsets annually and self-correct production issues using AI technology. The 860,000-square-foot facility includes 11 production lines and manufactures Xiaomi's latest smartphones, including the MIX Fold 4 and MIX Flip, at a high constant output rate. Operable 24/7 without human labor, the factory utilizes the Xiaomi Hyper Intelligent Manufacturing Platform to optimize processes and manage operations from material procurement to product delivery.

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