Marc Andreessen's a16z Launches Private Equity Fund &

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Top News

Initial report about Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) planning to raise it’s first private equity fund is not exactly true. The a16z Perennial Private Equity Fund is part of the firm's wealth management arm, Perennial, which manages money for a16z's general partners, portfolio company founders, and others in the tech ecosystem. This new fund will provide a16z Perennial clients access to curated private equity managers, but a16z itself has no plans to raise a direct private equity fund.

SoftBank's Vision Fund 2 plans to invest $10-$20 million in Perplexity AI at a $3 billion valuation as part of a $250 million funding round, according to Bloomberg. Perplexity AI, based in San Francisco, offers search tools powered by various large language models. Earlier, it raised $73.6 million from investors including Nvidia and Jeff Bezos at a $520 million valuation.

ByteDance, TikTok's parent company, has quietly launched Whee, an Instagram-like photo-sharing app, in 71 countries. Despite minimal marketing, Whee has gained about 23,000 downloads across iOS and Android platforms. The app's launch timing has sparked speculation about it being a potential alternative for ByteDance in case of a TikTok ban in the US, following the company's pattern of experimenting with various social apps.

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Startup Funding Updates

Function, an Austin TX-based provider of a platform that manages lifelong health, closed a Series A funding. The round, which brought the total amount to $53M, was led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) Bio + Health with support from the a16z Cultural Leadership Fund. More Here

Synthflow, a Berlin-based startup, offers a no-code platform for AI voice assistance targeting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The company has raised a $7.4 million seed round, bringing its total funding to $9.1 million led by Singular, with participation from existing investor Atlantic Labs and other investors in the AI space, including the founders of Krisp AI. More Here

Fetcherr, A AI-driven startup based in Israel provides infrastructure for dynamic pricing systems in the airline industry, has raised $90 million in a Series B funding round led by Battery Ventures, bringing its total funding to $114.5 million. More Here

Sonia, San Francisco, California based AI-powered therapy app offering mental health support through chatbot interactions, has raised $3.35 million from investors including Y Combinator, Moonfire, Rebel Fund, and SBXi. More Here

GolfN, a decentralized golf app provider, closed its $1.3m Pre-Seed funding round. Backers included CitizenX, Fourth Revolution Capital, Nom , and Joe McCann, among others. More Here

RISR, a Philadelphia, PA-based provider of a comprehensive business owner engagement platform for financial advisors, raised $1.5M in funding. Backers included Kane Brenan, Angelo Grecco, Kevin Lucey, Scott Hildenbrand, Frank Coates and David Henkin. More Here

Rainforest, an Atlanta, GA-based payment provider for software platforms, raised $20M in funding. The round was led by Matrix Partners. Additional participating investors included Accel, Infinity Ventures, BoxGroup, The Fintech Fund, Tech Square Ventures, and Ardent Venture Partners. More Here

CipherHealth, Inc., a NYC-based company which specializes in patient-centered communication solutions, received an investment from Atalaya Capital Management. The amount of the deal was not disclosed. More Here

Creatio, a no-code CRM and workflow automation platform based in Boston, Massachusetts, has raised $200 million in a funding round to expand its AI capabilities and core no-code features. This round led by Sapphire Ventures, with participation from StepStone Group and existing investors Volition Capital and Horizon Capital. More Here

Care Hires, a London, UK-based provider of a tech platform transforming agency workforce management in social care, raised £1.7M in funding. The round was led by West Hill Capital. More Here

LunchTable, formerly Inphlu, a Cincinnati, OH-based provider of a brand amplification platform, raised $2.4M in funding. The round was led by JumpStart Ventures, with participation from Cintrifuse Capital, Black Tech Nation Ventures, South Loop Ventures, Ohio Gateway Tech Fund, Kobol Fund and angel investors. More Here

Clariti, a Vancouver, BC, Canada-based provider of purpose-built community development solutions for North American local governments, received an $10 Million investment from CIBC Innovation Banking. More Here

OneHouse, a Sunnyvale, CA-based universal data lakehouse company, raised $35M in Series B funding. The round, which brought the total amount to $68M, was led by Craft Ventures. Existing investors Addition and Greylock Partners also participated. More Here

Wave Photonics, a Cambridge, UK-based computational photonics design technology company, raised £4.5M in Seed funding. The round was led by The UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund and Cambridge Enterprise Ventures, with participation from the Redstone and QAI Ventures’ Quantum Fund, Kyra Ventures, and Deep Tech Labs. More Here

Ario, a Palo Alto, CA-based AI-powered assistant for parents, raised $16M in Seed funding. Backers included Wing Venture Capital, Floodgate, Bain Capital Ventures, Moxxie, and angels. More Here

CData Software, a Chapel Hill, NC-based provider of data connectivity solutions, received approx. $350M in Growth funding. The round was led by Warburg Pincus, with participation from Accel. More Here

Foodsmart, a San Franciso, CA-based telenutrition company and a provider of a food benefits management platform, raised USD200M in funding. The round was led by The Rise Fund. More Here

Formation Bio, a NYC-based tech-driven and AI-native pharma company, raised $372M in Series D funding. The round was led by a16z with participation from Sanofi, Sequoia, Thrive, Emerson Collective, and Lachy Groom, along with new investors, such as SV Angel Growth and FPV Ventures. More Here

iVerify, a NYC-based company which specializes in advanced mobile EDR solutions, raised $12M in Series A funding. The round, which brought the total amount to $16M, was led by Shine Capital with participation from Exponential Founders Capital, Mischief Ventures, Box Group, Parameter Ventures, Talons Ventures, and Trail of Bits. More Here

Form Health, a Boston, MA-based provider of science-based obesity care, raised $38M in Series B funding. The round was led by Sound Ventures, with participation from M13, SignalFire, and Next View Ventures. More Here

Sensi.AI, a Palo Alto, CA-based company which specializes in care intelligence, raised $31M in Series B funding. The round, which brought the total amount to $53M, was led by Zeev Ventures and Insight Partners, with continued support from existing investors Entrée Capital, Flint Capital, Jibe Ventures and Secret Chord Ventures. More Here

Climate X, a London, UK-based climate risk intelligence company, raised £14.2M in Series A funding. The round was led by GV, with participation from Pale blue dot, CommerzVentures, A/O, Blue Wire Capital, PT1, Unconventional Ventures and Western Technology Investment (WTI). More Here

Valpas, a Helsinki, Finland-based provider of a tech-based solution for bedbug-safe stays in hotels and rentals, raised €4M in Seed funding. The round was led by Zenith VC, with participation from Icebreaker VC, Finnish Industry Investment, Canon Marketing Japan MIRAI Fund, Activum SG Ventures, Houghton Street Ventures, Rockaway Ventures and Morrow Ventures. More Here

HydroX AI, a San Jose, CA-based artificial intelligence (AI) startup providing comprehensive a large language model (LLM) safety and security platform, raised $4M in Angel funding. Backers included Vitalbridge Capital, Atom Capital and Qi Lu, EVP of Microsoft, former COO of Baidu. More Here

Crossover Markets, a London, UK-based digital asset technology firm, raised $12M in Series A funding. The round was led by Illuminate Financial and DRW Venture Capital with participation from Flow Traders, Laser Digital, Two Sigma, Wintermute, and retail brokers such as Exness, Gate.io, GMO, Pepperstone, Trademax and Think Markets. More Here

Arrow, NYC-based healthcare technology company, announced its official launch bolstered by $110M in Series A funding secured in 2022. The round was led by Gradient Ventures. More Here

UroMems, a Grenoble, France- and Minneapolis, MN-based-based company developing implantable mechatronics technology, raised $47M in Series C funding. The round was led by Crédit Mutuel Innovation and joined by the European Innovation Council as well as existing investors Wellington Partners, Bpifrance, Supernova Invest, Hil-Invent, b-to-v Partners and Financière Arbevel. More Here

Adonis, a NYC-based provider of a healthcare financial technology platform, raised $31M in Series B funding. The round, which brought the total amount to $54M, was led by Point72 Private Investments with participation from Kin Ventures, along with existing investors General Catalyst, Bling Capital, and Max Ventures. More Here

Venture Capital Updates

DTCP, a German investment management firm, has closed its third growth fund and launched a new early-stage fund, Incharge Capital, in partnership with Porsche, totaling $450 million. The growth fund, which raised $330 million, focuses on enterprise software companies and aims to make investments of $20-25 million in Series B to late-stage rounds. Deutsche Telekom is the anchor investor, with SoftBank as the second-largest backer. More Here

Featured Article

STARS Framework - To Evaluate Feature Engagement & Satisfaction In SaaS Products.

Startups have always had difficulty evaluating what new features to build. The team at Bucket created a useful framework they call STARS to measure user engagement and satisfaction for a feature.

• Segment: Define the target audience for the feature to ensure the results are actionable and comparable across features.

• Tried: Measure feature awareness and determine if the target audience is aware of the new feature.

• Adopted: Measure feature activation by setting a threshold for when an account is considered to have truly adopted the feature, filtering out casual users.

• Retained: Measure feature retention over time to understand how many accounts continue using the feature.

• Satisfied: Measure the satisfaction of retained accounts through qualitative feedback like CSAT scores. This ensures the feature is not just being used, but that customers are truly satisfied with it.

This is an easy way to create groups for your users and correctly evaluate feedback based on where the users are at. I like this framework because it’s structured like a funnel and is very measurable.

Read detailed article in our Venture Curator newsletter.

Startup’s Latest Buzz

Acquisition & Going Public

Funnel, a Stockholm, Sweden-based provider of a marketing intelligence platform, acquired Adtriba, a Hamburg, Germany-based marketing measurement company. More Here

Hyperplane, a San Francisco-based data intelligence startup, has been acquired by Brazil's Nubank just seven months after its $6 million seed funding round. More Here

Webtoon Entertainment (WBTN.O), the online comic platform opens new tab has priced its initial public offering (IPO) at the top of its indicated range, seeking to raise about $315 million. More Here

Layoffs & Bankruptcy

Startups & People

Rishi Shah, former CEO of Outcome Health, was sentenced to 7 ½ years in prison for a $1 billion fraud. Judge Thomas Durkin emphasized that Shah's actions were driven by greed and not an impulsive mistake. Shah plans to appeal the conviction and sentence, while co-founders Shradha Agarwal and Brad Purdy are also set to be sentenced soon.

Mustafa Suleyman, CEO of Microsoft AI, expressed admiration for OpenAI CEO Sam Altman during an interview at the Aspen Ideas Festival. He emphasized the deep partnership between Microsoft and OpenAI, despite their ferocious competition, and dismissed the idea of a "finish line" in AI development. Suleyman also voiced support for AI regulation and a slower pace of development, stating that taking 6 to 18 months to address safety concerns would be "time well spent." Additionally, he called for cooperation with China on AI development while acknowledging differences in values and technological ecosystems. More Here

Flipkart, Indian e-commerce platform has launched Super.money, a new payments app that offers UPI transactions and promises "real cashback" rewards.

Latest In Emerging Tech

The European Union has announced the winners of its "Large AI Grand Challenge," awarding four startups a share of €1 million in prize money and 8 million GPU hours on EU supercomputers. The winning companies are Lingua Custodia, Textgain, Tilde, and Unbabel, each specializing in various aspects of natural language processing and AI-powered language services. This initiative aims to accelerate homegrown AI innovation in the EU by providing startups with access to high-performance computing resources. More Here

OpenAI has delayed the rollout of its advanced Voice Mode for ChatGPT, originally planned for late June, to sometime in July. The company cited the need to improve content detection, refusal capabilities, and user experience while preparing infrastructure to scale. The feature, which allows for nearly real-time, emotionally responsive AI conversations, may not be available to all ChatGPT Plus users until fall. More Here

Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O), opens new tab hit $2 trillion in market value for the first time on Wednesday, becoming the fifth U.S. company to surpass that level as optimism around artificial intelligence and end putting it in the same club as technology heavyweights Microsoft Corp, Apple Inc, Nvidia Corp and Alphabet.

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