GoPro Laying off 15% of its Employees & AMD is Going After Nvidia with a $5 Billion Acquisition

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☕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

Balaji Srinivasan, former a16z investor and Coinbase CTO, is launching a "Network School" on an island in Singapore. The 90-day program, starting in late September, will focus on crypto, longevity, and establishing "technocapitalist college towns" as part of Srinivasan's vision for creating "network states."

AMD, a leading chipmaker, is acquiring ZT Systems, a compute design and infrastructure provider for AI and cloud computing, for $4.9 billion in cash and stock. The acquisition aims to enhance AMD's position in the AI market by incorporating ZT Systems' expertise in data center systems design and customer enablement.

Other Major News

• GoPro Laying off 15% of its Employees. (Scroll To Layoff Updates)

• X announces closure of Brazil operations, citing "censorship orders" by Judge Alexandre de Moraes.(Scroll To Startups Updates)

• How Should Founders Think When Calculating Market Size? (Scroll To Featured Article)

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🗞️ Startup Funding Updates

Swarmbotics, a startup based in the United States, develops autonomous robot swarms for military and potentially commercial applications. The company has created two platforms: the larger Haul ANT and smaller Fire ANT, designed as versatile, low-cost robotic systems for various payloads and missions. Swarmbotics has raised over $4 million from investors including Quiet Capital, Silent Ventures, LMNT Ventures, and Soma Capital. More Here

Power to Hydrogen Inc., a Columbus, OH-based company which specializes in advanced electrolysis technologies, raised over $18M in Series A funding. The round was led by Rev1 Ventures and Worthington Enterprises, with participation from global investors, including Finindus, JERA, Asahi Kasei, American Electric Power, EDP Ventures, E.ON, ESB, FH Capital, INP Capital, and others. More Here

Waza, a Y Combinator-backed startup based in Africa , is a payment and liquidity platform that facilitates cross-border payments and liquidity management for businesses across six continents. The company has raised $8 million in seed funding, including $3 million in equity from investors such as Y Combinator, Byld Ventures, Norrsken Africa, Heirloom VC, Plug and Play Tech Center, and Olive Tree Capital, as well as $5 million in venture debt from Timon Capital. More Here

Service Express, a Grand Rapids, MI-based provider of data center solutions, received a growth investment from Warburg Pincus. The amount of the deal was not disclosed. More Here

ModelOp, a Chicago, IL-based provider of AI Governance software for enterprises, raised $10M in Series B funding. The round was led by Baird Capital with participation from existing investors. More Here

Svante Technologies, a Vancouver, BC, Canada-based carbon capture and removal solutions provider, received an up to US$100M investment from Canada Growth Fund. More Here

SportAI, an Oslo, Norway-based B2B sports technology company, raised $1.8M in Seed funding. The round was led by Skyfall Ventures. Other participants included Norwegian pension fund MP Pensjon, Dekel Valtzer (ex-pro tennis player and AI startup founder) and Sverre Munck (ex-EVP at Schibsted). More Here

DocPro, a Hong Kong-based legal technology company, raised $500K in Pre-Seed funding. Multiway Industries made the investment. More Here

TEAMology, a University Park, PA-based company which specializes in K-8 social-emotional support solutions, raised $1.2M in seed funding. The round was led by C 414 with additional participation from Supes’ Fund, White Rose Ventures, 1855 VC, and Product 10X. More Here

Mudstack, a Seattle, WA-based provider of file versioning and asset management tools for the game industry, raised $4M in funding. The round was led by Anthos Capital, with participation from Khosla Ventures, A16Z GAMES, Pioneer Square Labs, and Hyperplane. More Here

De Novo Foodlabs, a Raleigh, NC-based food technology company, raised $4M in total funding. Backers included Joyful Ventures. More Here

Cyberbit, a Newburyport, MA-based provider of cybersecurity skill development platforms, raised an undisclosed amount in funding. Charlesbank Capital Partners made the investment. More Here

M3, a Lawrenceville, GA-based provider of hospitality accounting software, received a majority investment from Blackstone. The amount of the deal was not disclosed. More Here

SongPush, a Berlin, Germany-based platform connecting musicians and content creators, raised €2.94m in seed funding from undisclosed investors. More Here

Photon Health, a New York City-based electronic prescription startup, raised $9m in funding. The round was co-led by Notation Capital and Flare Capital Partners with participation from Floating Point, GG1, Ritual, Headwater, Scrub Capital, Susa Ventures, BoxGroup, Long Journey, and Cendana, as well as angel investors including the founders of PillPack, Commure, Carbon Health, Quartet, Forward, Summer Health, Hone Health, Candid Health, Healthie, and other digital health veterans. More Here

Eschatology Entertainment, a Nicosia, Cyprus-based gaming studio, raised €10.2m in funding. The round was led by KRAFTON, with participation from GEM Capital and The Games Fund. More Here

Re:Build Manufacturing, a Cambridge, MA-based company that manufactures technologically advanced products from concept through production at scale, reportedly raised $120m in funding. General Catalyst was the sole investor in the round. More Here

WSPN, a Singapore-based provider of stablecoin infrastructure, raised $30M in Seed funding. The round was led by Folius Ventures and Foresight Venture, with participation from investors including Hash Global, Generative Ventures, RedPoint Capital, and a consortium of investment companies, exchanges and foundations. More Here

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📰 Venture Capital Updates

NextGen Growth Partners, a Chicago, IL-based private investment firm, closed its third fund, at $165m. NextGen Growth Partners Fund III, LP, received capital commitments from new institutional partners alongside continued support from its existing partners. More Here

📌 Featured Article

How Should Founders Think When Calculating Market Size?

I've previously written about proving market size to investors and evaluating market opportunities (You can check out the archive page). However, I've recently noticed a troubling trend in startup decks. While many teams have strong experience and are solving significant problems, founders often stumble when asked about market size. Some even struggle to explain their approach to calculating it. This lack of clarity is a major red flag for any startup. Remember -

Without a market, a business doesn’t have much of a future. Understanding the potential size and shape of the market is a critical step in the early stages of developing a business, as it will help to inform everything from your short and medium-term objectives, and product development, right through to the way you pitch to investors. 

Here's a beautiful example of market research in action, at the genesis of a business. Facebook (now Meta) is almost ubiquitous in modern life. However, it wasn’t always like that. When Facebook was new, the entire social media sphere was effectively untested and unproven. Facebook (then TheFacebook) needed to prove a lot—not least that there was an actual audience for it. Here’s an actual slide from those early days:

It makes a pretty compelling argument, right? Without Facebook having such a successful proposition early in its life, it may have never had the opportunity to grow into what it is today, but investors bought into the promise of tapping into the college students market, and the rest is history.

So how did Facebook arrive at those numbers, and how can you do the same for your startup? Being able to do this for your startup idea comes down to three acronyms: TAM, SAM & SOM.

We haves shared in detailed writeup in our Venture Curator newsletter, Check out here…

📑 Startup’s Latest Buzz

Acquisition & Going Public

Lumivero, a Denver, CO-based company which specializes in data-intelligence software, acquired Risk Decisinons, an Oxford, UK-based developer of the Predict! suite of software.

Danaher Corporation (NYSE: DHR) (“Danaher”), a Washington, DC-based life sciences and diagnostics innovator, acquired Genedata AG, a Basel Switzerland-based provider of software solutions for biopharmaceutical R&D.

Layoffs & Bankruptcy

GoPro announced it would cut about 15% of its workforce, roughly 139 jobs, as part of a restructuring plan aimed at reducing operating expenses. The company expects to incur charges of $5 million to $7 million, with most costs recognized in the fourth quarter of 2024. This move comes after GoPro reported a 22.7% drop in second-quarter revenue and a 5% increase in operating expenses.

General Motors is laying off over 1,000 salaried employees in its software and service units worldwide, including around 600 at its Detroit tech campus. The layoffs, which are part of an operational review following the departure of executive Mike Abbott, are not due to cost-cutting but to streamline and prioritize key investments. Earlier in 2023, GM had offered buyouts to 5,000 salaried workers as part of a $2 billion cost-cutting effort.

Startups & People

X announces closure of Brazil operations, citing "censorship orders" by Judge Alexandre de Moraes. The company claims Moraes secretly threatened its legal representative with arrest for non-compliance. X states it will protect staff safety but maintain service availability in Brazil.

🤖 Latest In Emerging Tech

ElevenLabs, an AI-powered synthetic voice startup, has expanded its Reader app globally, now supporting 32 languages. The app, which converts text content into audio, is the company's first consumer product and is powered by its latest Turbo v2.5 model.

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