In 2023 VCs returned the lowest level of capital to their investors since 2011 & Google could be forced to sell Chrome

☕ Good Wednesday Morning. Welcome to today's quick rundown in the Venture Daily Digest Newsletter.

Scroll down to find out

• Why Google could be forced to sell Chrome,

• What's behind VCs' lowest capital returns since 2011, and

• How Apple's throwing $100M at Indonesia to save iPhone 16!

• Plus, GitHub's $1.25M open source move, Microsoft's AI agent rollout, and

• Mistral AI's bold challenge to ChatGPT.

Listen up: Battery Ventures just dropped the crystal ball on cloud's future, Andrew Chen's spilling tea on what killed growth hacking, and we've got the inside scoop on why those job listings might be fake (spoiler: it's wild). Oh, and if you're riding the AI wave, there's a fresh take on the "agentic revolution" you can't miss. Speaking of jobs - we've got some real ones waiting for you!

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Startup Funding Updates

Ample, a San Francisco, CA-based EV battery swapping startup, received a $25M investment from Mitsubishi Corporation.

OneChronos, a NYC-based technology company leveraging advances in auction theory and computer science to optimize financial markets, raised $32M in funding. The round was led by Addition.

Kong, a San Francisco, CA-based developer of cloud API technologies, raised $175M in Series E funding, at $2 Billion valuation. The round, which brought the total amount to $345M, was led by Tiger Global and Balderton, with participation from Teachers’ Venture Growth, and 137 Ventures among others and continued support from Andreessen Horowitz, Index Ventures, CRV, Sapphire Ventures, and Notable Capital.

Codecrafters is a Y Combinator-backed startup that provides an advanced coding platform for experienced developers to build complex projects from scratch. The company has raised $1.8M in seed funding for its platform that lets developers create their own versions of tools like Redis, Git, and Docker. Key investors include Mike Krieger (Instagram), Arash Ferdowsi (Dropbox), Kevin Van Gundy (ex-Vercel), Paul Copplestone (Supabase), Alana Goyal (Basecase Capital), and Jitendra Vaidya (PlanetScale).

Twenty, a Paris, France-based open source CRM startup, raised $5M in Seed funding. The round was led by Runa Capital with participation from the founders of HubSpot, Front, Cal.com, Sentry and Photoroom among others.

Jimini Health, a NYC-based digital health company, raised $8M in Pre-Seed funding. Backers included Zetta Venture Partners, LionBird, PsyMed, BoxGroup, Arkitekt Ventures, SCB, and others.

Tract, an Amsterdam, the Netherlands-based provider of a SaaS platform dedicated to enhancing sustainability in agricultural supply chains, raised $11.2M in funding. Backers included Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM), Cargill, Louis Dreyfus Company (LDC), and Olam, alongside new partners The Working Capital Fund and Rabo Investments.

Levanta, a Seattle, WA-based provider of an affiliate marketing platform for Amazon sellers, raised $20M in Series A funding. The round was led by Volition Capital.

Agentio, a NYC-based provider of an ad platform that scales, measures, and streamlines creator content advertising, raised $12M in Series A funding. The round, which brought the total capital raised to $16M, was led by Benchmark in addition to investments from existing investors Craft Ventures, AlleyCorp, and others.

minu, a Mexico City, Mexico-based employee wellness platform provider, raised $30M in Series B funding. The round was led by Next Billion Capital Partners, Flourish Ventures, Promotora Impact Ventures, Endeavor Catalyst, Clocktower Technologies and Working Capital Fund. Existing investors QED Investors, FinTech Collective, Redwood Ventures, Salkantay and Nazca participatedin the round.

ThoroughCare, a Pittsburgh, PA-based company which specializes in care coordination solutions, raised $5M in Series A funding. The round was led by Empactful Capital.

Vitara Biomedical, a Philadelphia, PA-based company developing technology intended to transform neonatal care, raised $50M in additional funding. The round was led by Sands Capital with participation from Google Ventures (GV), First Spark Ventures, Flerie and Khosla Ventures.

Kalder, a NYC-based fintech company which specializes in customer loyalty, raised $10.5M in Seed funding. The round was led by Javelin Venture Partners with participation from 8VC, Human Capital, Gingerbread Capital, Emergence Capital and Formus Capital as well as angel investors including Harry Maguire of Manchester United, Shuo Wang of Deel, former FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski.

Spectro Cloud, a San Jose, CA-based company which specializes in modern multi-cluster Kubernetes management at scale across a variety of deployment environments, raised $75M in Series C funding. The round was led by Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives with participation from existing investors. Michael Reilly, an Investor at Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives, will be joining Spectro Cloud’s Board of Directors.

RIIG, a Charlottesville, VA-based risk intelligence and cybersecurity solutions provider, raised $3M in Seed funding. The round was led by Felton Group.

Selector AI, a Santa Clara, CA-based AIOps solution company, raised $33M in Series B funding. The round was led by Ansa Capital joined by Two Bear Capital, Atlantic Bridge, and Sinewave Ventures, as well as AT&T Ventures, Bell Ventures, Singtel Innov8, and Hyperlink Ventures.

Enfabrica Corporation, a Mountain View, CA-based company which specializes in high-performance networking silicon for artificial intelligence (AI) and accelerated computing, raised $115M in Series C funding. The round was led by Spark Capital. New investors included Arm, Cisco Investments, Maverick Silicon, Samsung Catalyst Fund, and VentureTech Alliance, with support from existing investors.

Lightsynq Technologies, a Boston, MA-based startup developing quantum interconnect technology solutions for commercial use, raised $18M in Series A funding. The round was led by Cerberus Ventures, with participation from Murata Electronics North America Inc., IAG Capital Partners, Safar Partners, QVT, Element Six and In-Q-Tel (IQT).

Osyte, a Seattle, WA-based developeer of AI-powered multi-asset portfolio management technology, raised $4M in Seed funding. The round was led by Moneta Ventures, and included participation from Fintech investors SixThirty Ventures, Altari Ventures, Tacoma Venture Fund, and Sigmas Group Family Office.

Citizen Health, a San Mateo, CA-based AI-powered consumer health platform, raised $14.5M in Seed funding. The round was led by Transformation Capital, with participation from Wavemaker 360 and angel investors.

Distyl, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of automation solutions for AI processes, raised $20M in Series A funding. The round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with participation from Khosla Ventures, Coatue, Dell Technologies Capital, Nat Friedman and angel investors.

Chroma, a San Francisco-based startup specializing in audiovisual entertainment for mobile devices, has been acquired by London-based Bronze, an AI music technology company. Chroma, which raised $7.19M across two seed rounds, was backed by notable investors including 14W, Adjacent, Hidden Ventures, Singular, SpotiAngels, as well as high-profile tech entrepreneurs Biz Stone (Twitter/Medium co-founder) and Pinterest co-founders Evan Sharp and Ben Silbermann.

Superscale, a Bratislava, Slovakia-, London, UK and Gdańsk, Poland -based game business analytics company, raised $1.2M in funding. The round was led by Across Private Investments, LevelUp Ventures, Zero One Hundred, and Venture to Future Fund, along with Strecko Investments.

Heim Health, a London, UK-based provider of a software platform empowering at-home healthcare, raised £2.2M in Seed funding. The round was led by Heal Capital and joined by Form Ventures, Portfolio Ventures and Houghton Street Ventures.

PeLocal, a Mumbai, India-based payment solutions provider within Whatsapp, raised $2M in Seed funding. The round was led by Unicorn India Ventures.

Venture Capital Updates

Bling Capital, a San Francisco-based seed-stage VC firm founded by Ben Ling (former Khosla Ventures GP) in 2018, has raised $270 million for its fourth fund, with half allocated for follow-on investments through its opportunity fund. The firm, which leverages its Product Council network of advisors from companies like Notion, OpenAI, Scale AI, and Stripe, has invested in 170 companies to date, including notable startups like Rippling and Vise.

GitHub has launched the GitHub Secure Open Source Fund with a $1.25 million commitment from major tech companies including American Express, 1Password, Shopify, Stripe, Microsoft, and others. The fund will distribute $10,000 each to 125 open source projects, along with providing a three-week program offering mentorship, certification, and education workshops through January 7, 2025.

In 2023, the U.S. venture capital industry experienced its most significant liquidity challenge, with VCs investing $60 billion more into startups than they received back in returns - the largest deficit in PitchBook's 26-year history. VCs returned only $26 billion worth of shares to their investors, marking the lowest return level since 2011, despite the past three years recording historically high venture funding totals. However, potential relief may be on the horizon with companies like Klarna and ServiceTitan preparing for IPOs, which could help address the growing liquidity gap in the venture capital ecosystem.

Latest In Tech

Microsoft is introducing autonomous Copilot AI agents to help businesses create software agents for various tasks, which are now available in a public preview. Microsoft 365 Copilot agents can perform roles like handling customer service queries, project management, and more, and are designed to reduce workload on employees so they can focus on strategic tasks. Copilot Studio provides customization options for agent behavior, allowing for independent operation through templates and integrations with Azure AI services, while ensuring responsible AI practices with human oversight where needed.

Mistral AI takes on ChatGPT: Mistral AI has launched a major update to Le Chat, introducing features like web search with citations, image and document understanding, and image generation for free, positioning it against ChatGPT and Google's Gemini. Le Chat’s updates include the new Pixtral Large multimodal model for enhanced performance and a partnership with Black Forest Labs for image generation using the Flux model. Mistral aims to make advanced AI features more accessible with a generous free tier, in contrast to competitors who reserve premium features for paid users.

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Other News

Meta has hired former Salesforce AI CEO Clara Shih to lead its new Business AI group, focusing on developing AI tools for businesses using Meta's platforms. The initiative will utilize Meta's Llama models to create AI products for businesses advertising on Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp, though specific tools haven't been announced. Adam Evans will replace Shih at Salesforce as the new executive vice president and general manager of AI.

The Department of Justice is urging a judge to mandate Google's sale of its Chrome browser to dismantle the company's alleged search market monopoly. Antitrust officials propose that Google uncouple Android from other products, while considering additional remedies including data licensing requirements and sharing more advertiser information. The court hearing in April 2025 aims to determine corrections for Google's violations, potentially influencing the future of search and AI sectors significantly.

Indonesian government banned iPhone 16 sales after Apple failed to meet its promised $109 million investment target, falling short by $14 million. While Apple initially proposed a $10 million investment to lift the ban, they have now increased their offer to $100 million to be invested over two years, though the Indonesian Ministry of Industry hasn't yet decided and suggests Apple focus on local R&D.

In-Depth Insights

• The Agentic Revolution A deep dive into the "agentic" revolution in startups, examining how founders can leverage agency-driven decision-making to build resilient organizations in today’s dynamic landscape.

• 10 Years After Growth Hacking Reflecting on a decade of growth hacking, Andrew Chen provides insights into how the growth hacking landscape has evolved and what modern startups need to focus on for sustainable growth.

• OpenCloud 2024: The Future of Cloud Computing Battery Ventures’ comprehensive report on OpenCloud 2024 delves into the latest trends in cloud computing, exploring key insights and predictions for the evolution of the cloud industry.

• Why Companies List Fake Jobs This article explores why companies list fake job openings—from talent pipelining to boosting brand perception. A revealing look at a widespread HR tactic and its implications for both job seekers and employers.

Venture Daily Digest Picks

• Are early SaaS or AI companies ever defensible early? What is the basis for competition for a startup? (Link)

• Foundational Equity guide for founders by Carta. (Link)

• This former founder is looking for early-stage startups to invest in (Link)

• The playbook to grow consumer mobile apps (Link)

• 8 keys to making Meta ads work for founders (Link)

• 34 growth tactics to get your first 1000 customers (Link)

• The Power of Collaborative Product Development. (Link)

Today’s VC & Startup Job Opportunities

• 2025 Venture Capital Summer Analyst - Stepstone Group | USA - Apply Here

• Legal Counsel - Wavemaker Partners | Singapore - Apply Here

• Chief of Staff - Akkadian Venture | USA - Apply Here

• Accounting & Finance Associate - Redalpine | Swiss - Apply Here

• Partner 18, Deal Operations - a16z | USA - Apply Here

• Partner 18, Digital Community Manager - A16Z | USA - Apply Here

• Director, NYS Innovation Venture Capital Fund - NWyVenture | USA - Apply Here

• Associate Investor - The Westly Group | USA - Apply Here

• Venture Capital Associate - Octave | USA - Apply Here

• Associate - 360 Once | India - Apply Here

• Internships - Dallas Ventrue Capital | India - Apply Here

RESOURCES

• Get access to our all-in-one VC interview preparation guide—check it out. For a limited time, we are offering a 30% discount. Don’t miss this. (Access Here)

• Early Stage Startup Financial Model Template For Fundraising (Access Here)

• Building Cap Table As A Founder: Template to Download (Access Here)

• 2700+ US Angel Investors & VC Firms Contact Database (Email + LinkedIn Link) (Access Here)

• 1000+ Euro Tech Angel Investors & VC Firms Database (Access Here)

• 400+ French Angel Investors & Venture Capital Firms Contact Database (Email + LinkedIn Link) (Access Here)

• 350+ Indian Angel Investors & Venture Capital Firms Contact Database (Email + LinkedIn Link) (Access Here)

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