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Meta Lays off Employees Across Multiple Teams & OpenAI Quietly Pitches Products to US Military.

Venture Daily Digest - 18/10/2024

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Venture Daily Digest
October 18, 2024

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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!

In today’s newsletter:

  • OpenAI Startup Fund Led $9 Million Round In Accounting AI Agent Startup.

  • Apple reportedly worked with China’s BYD on batteries for its car project.

  • Elon Musk’s X is changing its privacy policy to allow third parties to train AI on your posts.

  • OpenAI quietly pitches products to US military.

  • Worldcoin, founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, has rebranded to World Network.

  • In-Depth Insights: AI Agents For Enterprise Automation, Why Micromanaging is Cool in Silicon Valley & More.

  • Venture Daily Digest’s Picks on Startups, VC & AI.

  • VC & Startups Job Opportunities

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🗞️ Startup Funding Updates

Kick, a Palo Alto, CA-based startup that creates accounting and bookkeeping AI agents, raised $9M in funding. The round was led by General Catalyst and OpenAI Startup Fund, with support from angels likes Lachy Groom (Ex-Stripe), Michael Vaughn (Ex-Venmo), Eric Glyman, Karim Atiyeh (Founders, Ramp), Nick Davidov (DVC), Sahil Lavingia (CEO, Gumroad), Austen Allred (CEO, Bloomtech), Tikhon Berstram (Co-Founder, Parse), Soleio Cuervo (Ex-Facebook), Scott Belsky (CSO, Adobe) Joshua Browder (CEO, DoNotPay) and 50 others.

Tako, a San Francisco, CA-based AI search engine for visualizing and sharing the world’s knowledge, raised $5.75M in Seed funding. The round was led by Kevin Hartz at A* and Ramtin Naimi at Abstract Ventures with participation from Stanley Druckenmiller and Kevin Warsh, Gokul Rajaram, Naval Ravikant, Stan Chudnovsky, Guillermo Rauch (Vercel).

Agency, a Boston, MA-based B2B customer success startup, raised $12m in seed funding. The round was co-led by Sequoia Capital and HubSpot Ventures.

Aerleum, a Paris, France-based climate tech company, raised $6M in Seed funding. The round was led by 360 Capital and HTGF, with participation from Norrsken, Bpifrance, and Marble.

Clerk Chat, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of an AI telecom platform for enterprises, raised $7.0M in Seed funding. The round was led by Race Capital, with participation from HF0, Mento VC and Altair VC.

Canyon Network, a NYC-based Onchain AI Oracle that delivers verifiable AI power for decentralized applications (dApps), raised $6M in funding, at a $60M valuation. Backers included DeData Technologies, DAO Venture, Vinci Labs, and Fission Digital Capital.

inforcer, a London, UK-based Microsoftmulti-tenant management solution, raised £14.6M in Series A funding. The round was led by Meritech Capital.

Solubag, a Hallandale Beach, FL-based provider of a water-soluble alternative solution to single-use plastic, raised $4.5M in Series A funding. The round was led by Exit Ventures with participation from Between the Coasts Ventures, Landon Ainge, a confidential customer, and others.

Hermetica, a Panama City, FL-based creator of USDh, the first Bitcoin-backed, yield-bearing stablecoin, raised $1.7M In Seed funding. The round was led by UTXO Management, with participation from CMS Holdings, Ethos Fund, Trust Machines SPV, Kilowatt Capital, Newman Capital, Silvermine, and strategic angels.

Acquired.com, a London, UK-based provider of a payments platform, raised £4M in funding. Beach Point Capital Management made the investment.

Jüsto, a Mexico City, Mexico-based online grocer, raised USD $70M in Equity and Debt financing. The USD $50M equity round was existing investor General Atlantic with participation from others, while the approximately USD $20M debt facility was arranged by HSBC México.

Simplismart, a Bangalore, India-based provider of a cloud/model-agnostic MLOps workflow orchestration platform, raised $7M in funding. The round was led by Accel with participation from Shastra VC, Titan Capital, and angels, including Akshay Kothari, Co-Founder of Notion.

Diesta, a London, UK-based B2B SaaS company which specializes in payment operations, raised $3.8M in Seed funding. The round was led by FinTech Collective, with participation from Commerce Ventures and existing investors Restive Ventures and SixThirty.

Opacity Labs, a NYC-based data verification platform using zero-knowledge proofs, raised $12m in seed funding. The round was co-led by Archetype and Breyer Capital, with participation from a16z Crypto Startup Accelerator, Finality Capital Partners, Bodhi Ventures, and Escape Velocity.

Pip Care, a NYC-based company that optimizes the surgical journey for care teams and patients, raised $5M in funding. The round was led by A1 Health Ventures, with participation from existing investor UPMC Enterprises.

HEN Nozzles, a Hayward, CA-based company which specializes in firefighting innovation, raised $8M in funding. Backers included O’Neil Capital Partners, Cthulhu Ventures, Z21 Ventures, TiE Silicon Valley Angels, Sacramento Angels, and Shasta Angels.

Drop Protocol, a NYC-based provider of a liquid staking protocol for Interchain assets and an inaugural member of the Lido Alliance, raised $4M in Seed funding. The round was led by CoinFund, with additional backing from CMS Holdings, Anagram, Interop Ventures, Cosmostation, and others. Angel investors included Vasiliy Shapovalov (Co-founder of Lido DAO), Mustafa Al-Bassam (Co-founder of Celestia Labs), and Jon Kol (CEO of Abacus Labs, a core contributor to Hyperlane).

Cymbiotika, a San Diego, CA-based wellness and supplement brand, received $30M in Debt financing. RevTek Capital provided the growth capital.

Neuphonic, a London, UK-based human-AI communication startup, raised £3M in Pre-Seed funding. The round was led by Moonfire VC, with participation from Tiny VC, Salica Oryx Fund, and Cur8 Capital.

📰 Venture Capital Updates

Victor Capital Partners, a NYC-based middle market private equity firm that partners with branded businesses in the specialty consumer, industrial technology, and business services sectors, closed Victor Capital Partners Fund II, at $310M.

🤖 Latest In Tech

X, formerly Twitter, updated its Privacy Policy to allow third-party "collaborators" to use user data for training AI models unless users opt out. This move follows Elon Musk's use of X data to train xAI’s Grok AI chatbot and signals X's interest in licensing data to AI companies as a potential revenue stream. The policy changes will take effect on November 15, adding an opt-out option for users.

Worldcoin, founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, has rebranded to World Network and is expanding efforts to scan every human's iris using its "orb" devices. The company's core offering, World ID, is a "digital passport" that distinguishes real humans from AI chatbots online. Despite having over 6.9 million sign-ups since July 2023, the project faces scrutiny over its data collection practices, with temporary bans issued in Spain and Portugal.

OpenAI is exploring military and national security opportunities by partnering with government contractors and modifying its usage policies to allow for defense applications. The company hired Dane Stuckey as Chief Information Security Officer, who previously worked with Palantir, a firm known for its military projects, indicating a shift towards defense collaboration. Debate continues about the implications of using AI for military purposes, as OpenAI's involvement in projects like those with the Department of Defense raises ethical concerns.

Apple worked with Chinese automaker BYD to develop advanced lithium iron phosphate batteries for its electric car project, aiming to enhance battery safety and vehicle autonomy. The collaboration involved Apple selecting specialized engineers for the project, while BYD provided its expertise in battery manufacturing and early versions of its "Blade" battery technology. Despite years of collaboration and investment, Apple eventually withdrew from the partnership with BYD and has since abandoned its ambitious car project, facing challenges and high costs.

Eric Council Jr. was arrested in Alabama for his role in hacking the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's X account on January 9, 2024. The hack involved a SIM swap that led to a false post about Bitcoin ETFs, causing the cryptocurrency's price to spike by $1,000. Council is charged with conspiracy to commit aggravated identity theft and access device fraud.

🪄 Other News

Farewill, a U.K.-based end-of-life services provider, has been acquired by funeral service provider Dignity in an all-shares deal valuing Farewill at £12.9 million ($16.8 million). The acquisition aims to help Dignity drive its digital transformation while benefiting from Farewill’s online tools for writing wills and organizing probate.

Meta confirmed that several departments faced layoffs on Wednesday, aiming to adjust resource allocation to align with long-term goals, including relocating teams and revising employee roles. Impacted teams include Reality Labs, Instagram, and WhatsApp, while divisions like Threads, recruiting, and legal operations were unaffected by the restructuring, according to Meta's spokesperson. Amid these changes, some employees were offered new roles or severance packages, with over a dozen workers informed of their layoff through video calls, receiving six weeks of severance pay.

🧐 In-Depth Insights

  • Execution 

    Sriram Krishnan shares key insights into execution, one of the most critical elements of startup success and growth.

  • Resignation Letter. An interesting resignation letter from Jerry Neumann, diving into personal reflections on venture capital.

📬 Venture Daily Digest Picks

  • Khosla Venture's Guide: Pitch the way VCs think. (Read)

  • 20+ VC & Startup Job Opportunities (Read)

  • Don’t give away startup equity to advisors. (Read)

  • Can subscription model kill your startup? (Read)

  • Y Combinator's Startup Playbook by Sam Altman! (Read)

  • How to find customers on reddit - All-in one strategy? (Read)

  • Startup Playbook for Ideation, Execution & Growth. (Read)

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