FTX CTO Avoids Prison Time Despite Pleading Guilty & Microsoft unveils a cloud mini PC

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

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• The FTX drama's latest twist - CTO dodges prison,

• Microsoft's cloud PC getting tiny, and

• OpenAI just deleted some key evidence in that Times lawsuit!

• Plus, SpaceX's Starship catch isn't quite sticking the landing.

Fresh from the analyst desk: CB Insights just dropped their 2025 tech crystal ball, climate tech's hitting rough waters while insurtech's riding the $100M+ round wave. Bonus: We've got the full breakdown of AI data center's next big things and Nvidia's master plan for world domination. Hot startup and VC roles just landed!

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Venture Daily Digest Picks

• How to Talk About Valuation Numbers When Investor Ask? (Link)

• All-In-One Startup Metrics Guide - What to track, when and why. (Link)

• Carta’s Founder's Equity Playbook: Must-Read Guide For Founders. (Link)

• OpenAI Email Archives (from Musk v. Altman) (Link)

• Guide To Pitch Deck Storytelling - Free Template & Curated Resources. (Link)

• Why Brian Chesky doesn’t believe in 1-on-1 meetings (Link)

• Sam Altman’s 9 things the best founders do to build a great company (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)

• Venture firm Profits Are at a Historic Low. (Link)

Startup Funding Updates

Zitadel, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of cloud-native identity infrastructure solutions, raised $9M in Series A funding. The round was led by Nexus Venture Partners with participation from Floodgate.

Federato, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of an AI-native underwriting platform for insurance, raised $40M in Series C funding. The round, which brought total funding to $80M, was led by StepStone Group (NASDAQ: STEP), with participation from existing investors, including Emergence Capital, Caffeinated Capital and Pear VC.

Cortechs.ai, a San Diego, CA-based company which specializes in AI-powered neuroimaging and prostate imaging solutions, announced the close of a Series C funding. The round led by VILAS Ventures.

H (or Runner H), a Paris-based AI startup developing compact LLMs and agentic AI for business process automation, raised $230M in seed funding. The round included participation from Eric Schmidt, Yuri Milner, Xavier Niel, Accel, Creandum, Amazon, Samsung, and UiPath. The company is now also raising a Series A.

Distru, an Oakland, CA-based cannabis industry’s ERP platform provider, raised $6M in Series A funding. Backers included Global Founders Capital.

Theo Ai, a Palo Alto, CA-based provider of a predictive AI platform for litigation, raised $2.2M in Pre-Seed funding. The round was led by NextView and nvp capital with participation from Ripple Ventures, Beat Ventures, and SCVC Fund.

Flywheel Dynamix, a San Francisco, CA-based buyer-centric cloud marketplace designed to simplify software acquisition for buyers and help sellers grow revenue faster, raised $7M in seed funding. Storm Ventures, Foster Ventures, BeeNex​t, FeBe, and Teknos Ventures led the round.

StoreCash, a NYC-based provider of a cashback and financial mobile application, raised $3.7M in Seed funding. The round was led by Black Operator Ventures, with participation from returning investor MaC Venture Capital, 43North, Alumni Ventures, Buffalo Angels, Popular Ventures, and Mucker Capital.

Zarminali Health, a Chicago, IL-based outpatient pediatric destination purpose-built to provide coordinated primary and specialty care nationwide, raised $40M in Seed funding. The round was led by General Catalyst.

Aquaria, a San Francisco and Austin, TX-based company building communities and cities supplied with water from the sky, raised $112M in funding. Backers included Mistletoe, Ciri Ventures, Soma Capital, HF0, Bow Capital, Umami Capital and Dick Gephardt.

BrightAI, a San Francisco, CA-based company which specializes in AI-driven solutions for critical infrastructure, raised $15M in Seed funding. The round was led by Upfront Ventures.

Magma Math, a NYC-based provider of a K-12 instructional math platform for teacher efficiency and classroom management, raised $40M in Series A funding. The round was led by Five Elms Capital, with participation from previous investors, team members, and industry experts.

Konsileo, a London, UK-based chartered commercial broker, raised £8M in funding. The round was led by existing investors ACF Investors and Committed Capital, with participation from Growth Lending.

Magma Math, a NYC-based provider of a K-12 instructional math platform for teacher efficiency and classroom management, raised $40M in Series A funding. The round was led by Five Elms Capital, with participation from previous investors, team members, and industry experts.

Prompt Security, a NYC-based company which specializes in Generative AI (GenAI) security, raised $18M in Series A funding. The round was led by Jump Capital, with participation from Hetz Ventures, Ridge Ventures and major tech companies Okta and F5.

Four Growers, a Turtle Creek, PA-based startup building harvesting robots to reduce the production costs of greenhouse growers, raised $9M in Series A Funding. The round was led by Basset Capital, with contributions from Ospraie Ag Science, Y Combinator, and other existing investors.

FertilAI, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based company that provides doctors with critical AI-driven patient insights, raised $4.5M in funding. The round was led by Longevity Venture Partners and Redseed with additional investment from angel investors.

Cyera, a NYC-based data security company, raised $300M in Series D funding, at $3 Billion valuation. The round was led by Accel and Sapphire Ventures, with participation from Sequoia, Redpoint, Coatue, and Georgian. This funding brings Cyera’s total funding to $760M since its founding in 2021 and valuation to $3 billion.

Twine, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based cybersecurity company, raised $12M in seed funding. The round was co-led by Ten Eleven Ventures and Dell Technologies Capital, with participation from angel investors including the CEO and Co-Founder of Wiz, Assaf Rappaport as well as the company’s Co-Founder and VP R&D, Roy Reznik; the CEO and Co-Founder of Endor (who previously sold RedLock to Palo Alto Networks where he became SVP, Prisma Cloud), Varun Badhwar; and others.

Lightyear, a NYC-based provider of enterprise telecom management software, raised $31M in Series B funding. The round was led by Altos Ventures, with participation from existing investors Ridge Ventures, Amplo, Zigg Capital, and Susa Ventures.

Apideck, an Antwerp, Belgium- and San Francisco, CA-based provider of real-time Unified APIs, raised $7.5M in Series A funding. The round was led by Airbridge Equity Partners, with participation from PMV, angel investors, and executives from Atlassian, Rocketreach, Aikido, Teamleader, and Proxyclick.

Qminder, a London, UK-based provider of a customer service flow management platform for physical locations, raised €3M in Seed funding. The round was led by Practica Capital, with participation from Jaan Tallinn’s Metaplanet, BADideas.fund syndicate, and strategic angel investors from Toggl, Veriff, Pipedrive, Wise, and Twilio.

Revv, a NYC-based provider of a B2B SaaS business improving the auto repair industry with AI, raised $20M in funding. The round was led by Left Lane Capital, with participation from Soma Capital, 1984, and Agalé Ventures.

OneCell Diagnostics, a genomics-based precision oncology startup developing cell biopsy technology for cancer recurrence detection, raised $16M in Series A funding. The round was led by Celesta Capital, with participation from Tenacity Ventures, Cedars Sinai, Eragon, and Singularity Ventures.

New Lantern, a startup that streamlines radiology workflows by combining PACS and reporting software into a single cloud-based AI-powered platform, raised $19M in Series A funding. The round was led by Benchmark.

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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.

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

OpenAI engineers accidentally deleted crucial search data from a virtual machine being used by The New York Times and Daily News lawyers to investigate potential copyright infringement in AI training sets. While most of the data was recovered, the loss of folder structure and file names made it impossible to determine how the publishers' articles were used in building OpenAI's models. Though the deletion wasn't believed to be intentional, this incident comes amid ongoing legal battles over AI training data usage, where OpenAI maintains its practice falls under fair use while simultaneously securing licensing deals with various publishers.

Microsoft has announced the Windows 365 Link, a $349 mini desktop PC, designed specifically to connect to the Windows 365 cloud service and not run Windows locally. The device features a minimalist black plastic design, equipped with ports including USB-A, USB-C, HDMI, and Ethernet, allowing connection to various peripherals and two 4K displays. Built as a fanless thin client with an Intel processor, 8GB RAM, and limited storage, it connects to the Internet using Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 for network and accessory integration.

Other News

Gary Wang, the former CTO of collapsed crypto exchange FTX, avoided prison time despite pleading guilty to four felony counts of fraud and conspiracy. U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan spared Wang from incarceration, citing his extensive cooperation with federal authorities, including his testimony against former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried. This outcome differs from other FTX executives' sentences, as Bankman-Fried received 25 years in prison, and former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison was sentenced to two years.

SpaceX launched its sixth suborbital test of the Starship from the Boca Chica site, but chose a water landing for the booster, avoiding the 'chopsticks' catch for safety. The Super Heavy booster executed an automated divert and soft splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico following an abort of the catch attempt due to health checks during its return phase. Starship continued its mission solo, demonstrating critical in-flight capabilities and landing in the Indian Ocean, providing valuable visual and telemetry data during daylight for future analysis.

In-Depth Insights

• 2025 Tech Trends By CB Insights: Recently CB Insights published trend playbook. It provides a concrete roadmap for founders and tech leads to navigate important technology shifts in the year ahead.
  

• State of Climate Tech Q3’24 Report Climate tech funding hits a multi-year low alongside a sharp decline in M&A activity.

• State of Insurtech Q3’24 Report Insurtech funding holds steady, buoyed by multiple $100M+ mega-rounds. We break down the global insurtech landscape to help leading insurers and investors understand emerging players and areas of activity.

• The AI data center value chain: 12 high-momentum technologies powering the future of AI We explore emerging technologies in energy production, AI computing hardware, support infrastructure, and AI cloud services that data center stakeholders should invest in for growth.

• Analyzing Nvidia’s growth strategy: How the chipmaker plans to usher in the next wave of AI We mined Nvidia's acquisitions, investments, and partnerships since Q2’23 to discern the company's strategic priorities.

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Today’s VC & Startup Job Opportunities

• Portfolio Management Lead - Atlassian Venture | USA - Apply Here

• Internships - Dallas Ventrue Capital | India - Apply Here

• MBA Associate - Founder Collective | USA - Apply Here

• Internship/Stage - VC Analyst & Program Manager - Sopra Venture | France - Apply Here

• Associate - 360 Once| India - Apply Here

• Investment Director (AI) - TDK Venture | USA - Apply Here

• Investor - Camber Partner | USA - Apply Here

• Partner 20, Compensation, Carried Interest - a16z | USA - Apply Here

• Investment Analyst (MatSci) - TDK Venture | USA - Apply Here

• Investment Team Intern - Antler | Germany - 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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