Microsoft, Apple Ditched OpenAI Board Observer Seat & Index Venture Raised $2.3 Billion VC Fund

☕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

Index Ventures has raised $2.3 billion in new funds, with $800 million for venture investment and $1.5 billion for growth and late-stage companies. Index Ventures remains focused on global tech ecosystems, with a particular interest in AI opportunities, and has a strong track record of investing in successful tech companies like Figma, Revolut, and Roblox.

Microsoft ditched OpenAI board observer seat, citing improved governance. Apple reportedly won't take expected observer role. OpenAI to host regular meetings with partners like Microsoft and Apple. Regulatory scrutiny continues over Microsoft's influence despite growing competition.

Humane, an AI hardware startup, has faced challenges post-launch of its Ai Pin, including layoffs and sale rumors. Two former Humane executives, Brooke Hartley Moy and Ken Kocienda, have left to found Infactory, a fact-checking search engine focused on data.

Other Major News

• OpenAI's free GPT-4o model drives ChatGPT to new heights with 96% year-over-year growth (Scroll To Tech News)

• Elon Musk's xAI and Oracle have ended talks on a potential $10 billion server deal to expand their existing arrangement for renting Nvidia AI chips. (Scroll To Tech News)

• First Momentum, VC firm, has released a Deep Tech Hardware Napkin. (Scroll To VC News)

• How to Negotiate a VC Funding Round: What to Expect and How to Respond? (Scroll To Featured Article)

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Startup Funding Updates

NovoNutrients, based in the San Francisco Bay Area, uses microbes to convert carbon dioxide into protein for human and animal consumption. The startup raised an $18 million Series A round to build a pilot plant. The funding was led by Woodside Energy and CM Ventures. More Here

BOB, a London, UK-based provider of a hybrid Layer-2 empowered by Bitcoin and Ethereum, raised $1.6M in Strategic funding. The round was led by Ledger Ventures and angels from BlackRock, Rarible, Ordinals, Aave, Curve, Threshold, Magic Eden, Mechanism, Injective, Vessel Capital, Babylon, and Centrifuge, among others. More Here

Enso, offers pre-programmed AI agents for small and medium-sized businesses to handle various tasks across 70 industries. The company raised a $6 million seed round led by NFX, with participation from angel investors including Yossi Matias and Shmil Levy. More Here

Tokinvest, a Dubai, UAE-based marketplace for real-world asset tokenisation, raised $500K in Pre Seed funding. Backers included Michael Ourabah and other undisclosed investors. More Here

Uberdoc, a Boston, MA-based provider of a healthcare platform, received an undisclosed investment from CharmHealth and Bioverge. More Here

Maximum Fidelity Surgical Simulations (MaxFi), a St. Louis, MO-based company providing lifelike cadavers to create highly realistic surgical simulations for medical education, raised $2.25M in Seed funding. The round was led by St. Louis Arch Angels, BioGenerator Ventures and Missouri Technology Corporation (MTC). More Here

DigniFi, a Seattle, WA-based FinTech company specializing in automobile repair financing, raised $175M in funding. The round consisted of up to a $150M credit facility from Encina Lender Finance, while Brigade Capital Management contributed an additional $25M in debt financing. More Here

The Lasso, a NYC-based provider of an online car bidding platform, raised $9.8M in funding. The round was led by Crosslink Capital and Manresa Ventures with participation from Contour Venture Partners, Liquid2 Ventures, Ritual Capital, Correlation Ventures, and others. More Here

Synerise, a Krakow, Poland-based company specializing in AI-driven behavioral modeling and big data solutions, raised $8.5M in Series B+ funding. The round was led by VTEX. More Here

Kodifly, a Hong Kong-based technology company using AI to support infrastructure management and increased safety in the transportation sector, raised $750K in funding. Laidlaw Scholars Ventures made the investment. More Here

Accend, a NYC-based company helping fintechs and banks accelerate business customers’ onboarding process, raised $3.2M in Seed funding. The round was led by Adverb Ventures with participation from Y Combinator, General Catalyst, 645 Ventures, and angels from Brex, Stripe, and Carta. More Here

NOWDiagnostics (NOWDx), a Springdale, AR-based developer of over-the-counter (OTC) and point-of-care (POC) diagnostic tests, raised $22.5M in Series B funding. The round was led by DigitalDx Ventures, alongside Labcorp Venture Fund and Kompass Kapital Management. More Here

Canoe Intelligent, a London, UK-based financial technology company empowering smarter alts management, raised $36M in Series C funding. The round was led by Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives with participation from existing investors F-Prime Capital and Eight Roads. More Here

Volley, a San Francisco, CA-based creator of voice-controlled games played on TVs and smart speakers, raised $55M in Series C funding. The round was led by Microsoft’s M12 Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners. Causeway Media Partners, General Catalyst, the Amazon Alexa Fund, BITKRAFT Ventures, Y Combinator, Boost VC, Alumni Ventures, Waverley, Gaingels, and Riverside also participated in the latest round. More Here

Scaler, a NYC and Amsterdam, the Netherlands-based platform for decarbonising real estate with machine learning, ESG data collection and reporting, raised $10M in Series A funding. The round was led by Plural with participation from Base10. More Here

ZwitterCo, a Woburn, MA-based company empowering water treatment through advanced membrane technologies, raised $58.4M in Series B funding. The round was led by Evok Innovations with participation from DCVC, BHP, Munich Re Ventures, Siteground, HG Ventures, and Blue Horizon Advisors. More Here

Enso, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based ecosystem of Guided AI Agents offering small to medium-sized business (SMBs) AI-powered Service-as-a-Software, raised $6M in Seed funding. The round was led by NFX with participation from angel investors, including Yossi Matias, and Shmil Levy. More Here

Courier Health, a NYC-based technology company which specializes in chronic conditions or rare diseases, raised $16.5M in Series A funding. The round was led by Norwest Venture Partners with participation from existing investor Work-Bench. More Here

Command Zero, an Austin, TX-based provider of an autonomous and user-led cyber investigation platform, raised $21M in Seed funding. The round was led by Andreessen Horowitz with participation from Insight Partners and over 60 cyber industry thought leaders and executives. More Here

Captions, a NYC-based provider of a generative video creation and editing platform, raised $60M in Series C funding, at $500M valuation. The round, which brought the total amount to $100M, was led by Index Ventures with participation from Kleiner Perkins, Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, Adobe Ventures, HubSpot Ventures, and Jared Leto. More Here

Nala, a London, UK-based fintech company which specializes in payment services, raised $40M in funding. The round was led by Lauren Kolodny of Acrew Capital, with participation from DST Global, Amplo, Norrsken22, HOF Capital, Ryan King, and Vlad Tenev. More Here

Tracebit, a London, UK-based provider of a cloud threat detection and deception platform, raised $5M in Seed funding. The round was led by Accel with participation from Tapestry VC along with angel investors including Guy Podjarny (founder of Snyk), Tim Sadler and Ed Bishop (Tessian Founders), Mandy Andress (CISO of Elastic) and 20SALES. More Here

Endoron Medical, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based medtech company specializing in endograft stapling solutions for the endovascular repair of abdominal aortic aneurysms, raised $10M in Series A funding. The round was led by Sofinnova Partners, with participation from the European Innovation Council Fund (EIC Fund). More Here

Beacon Therapeutics, a London, UK-based ophthalmic gene therapy company, raised $170M in Series B funding. The round, which brought the total amount to $290M, was led by Forbion, with participation from Syncona Limited, Oxford Science Enterprises and the University of Oxford, as well as initial investments from TCGX and Advent Life Sciences. More Here

SciRhom, a Munich, Germany-based biopharmaceutical company developing therapeutic iRhom2 antibodies, raised EUR 63M in Series A funding. The round was co-led by Andera Partners, Kurma Partners, Hadean Ventures, MIG Capital, and Wellington Partners, with participation from new investor Bayern Kapital and existing investors including High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) and PhiFund Ventures from New York, USA. More Here

Gymdesk, an Austin, TX-based provider of member management software for fitness and wellness businesses, raised $32M in funding. Five Elms Capital made the investment. More Here

Biostate AI, a Palo Alto, CA-based scalable biodata foundry startup, raised $4M in funding. The round was led by Matter Venture Partners, with participation from Vision Plus Capital, Catapult VC, the Caltech Seed Fund, Dario Amodei (CEO of Anthropic), Joris Poort (CEO of Rescale), Michael Schnall-Levin (CTO of 10X Genomics) and Emily Leproust (CEO of Twist Bioscience). More Here

Niva, a NYC-based provider of a global business identity platform, raised more than $3.3M in funding. The round was led by Gradient Ventures, Google’s AI-focused venture fund, along with participation from Picus Capital, Canary, Gilgamesh Ventures, and executives from Chime, Deel, Enigma, and Faire. More Here

NodaFi, a San Francisco, CA-based company which specializes in facility operations platforms, raised $3.5M in Seed funding. The round was led by Base10 Partners, with additional support from Stage 2 Capital, MKT1, and FJ Labs. More Here

Venture Capital Updates

First Momentum, a German VC firm, has released a Deep Tech Hardware Napkin based on a survey of 30 deep tech VCs from 8 countries, aiming to provide benchmarks for Europe's deep tech sector. The report reveals that teams led by technical CEOs raise significantly more funding at Seed and Series A stages compared to those led by CEOs with business backgrounds.

Notably, pre-seed and Series A deep tech hardware rounds were larger in 2023 than in 2022, indicating growing investor appetite. This aligns with the global trend where deep tech now claims a 20% share of venture capital funding, up from 10% a decade ago. However, the sector faces unique challenges, with only 29% of deep tech startups reaching a repeatable sales motion and meaningful revenue at Series A stage.

Lunate, a new Abu Dhabi investment vehicle, has taken control of the China-focused 42XFund previously managed by AI firm G42. Both entities are overseen by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a powerful member of Abu Dhabi's royal family. This move comes as G42 shifts its focus from China to Western markets, though concerns remain in Washington about G42's ties to China and the implications of Lunate's involvement.

Frumtak Ventures, an Icelandic VC firm, has closed an oversubscribed $87 million fourth fund, significantly larger than its previous $57 million fund. The firm invests in Icelandic startups or those run by Icelandic entrepreneurs, focusing on sectors like ocean tech, healthcare, travel, energy, and climate. More Here

Featured Article

How to Negotiate a VC Funding Round: What to Expect and How to Respond?

Top Founders know that fundraising is a critical skill that’s much harder than meets the eye. But what’s rarely discussed is

Fundraising is a learned skill And VCs almost always have the upper hand because they deal with it all day, every day.

In reality, knowing what to expect from VCs – the negotiation dynamics Founders are likely to encounter – is half the battle.

Before you start communicating with VCs, take the time to learn how to detect and manage these 8 little-known fundraising dynamics. Let’s dig in. ( We are sharing this in more conversation format….)

1. The Portfolio Trap

VC: "I'd like you to meet with one of our portfolio companies in your space. They can provide valuable insights, and we'd appreciate their perspective on your venture."

This request often puts founders in a tricky position. Sharing your plans with a potential competitor can be risky, and the existing portfolio company has little incentive to endorse your startup. They may tell the VC they're planning to expand into your area, making it challenging for the investor to back you. While VCs might have good intentions, this practice can sometimes backfire or be used to gather intelligence for their existing investments.

Founder’s Reply: If the suggested company is too close to your business, politely decline:

"I appreciate the offer and value your network. However, given the significant overlap between our business and this portfolio company, I'm not comfortable sharing our strategic plans. Perhaps we could meet with other industry experts who aren't directly in our space?"

If the portfolio company isn't a direct competitor, consider accepting:

"Thank you for the introduction. I'd be happy to meet with them. It would be valuable to hear about their experience working with your firm and get their industry insights."

We have shared 7 strategy that will help founder in negotiation. Check out it in our recent Venture Curator newsletter….

Startup’s Latest Buzz

Acquisition & Going Public

ConverseNow, an Austin, TX-based provider of a voice AI technology platform, acquired Valiant AI, a Denver, CO-based company which speciliazes in restaurant drive-thru automation technology. More Here

Layoffs & Bankruptcy

Startups & People

Elon Musk and X Corp. won a lawsuit over severance pay for thousands of fired Twitter employees. The suit claimed $500 million was owed under ERISA, but the judge ruled ERISA didn't apply as the company had specified only cash payouts for layoffs after Musk's takeover. Other similar cases by former Twitter employees are still ongoing.

Latest In Emerging Tech

ChatGPT set a new traffic record in June 2024 with 2.9 billion visits to chatgpt.com, an increase of 15.6% month-over-month and 96% year-over-year. The mobile app also saw growth in daily active users.

• The competition can't keep up with ChatGPT's growth. Google's AI chatbot Gemini saw a 16.6% month-over-month drop in visitors in June, but is up 150% year-over-year. However, with approximately 400 million monthly visits, Gemini has little chance against ChatGPT.

• Character.ai, a chatbot system focused on personalization and entertainment, increased its visits by 62 percent year-over-year and 11.5 percent month-over-month to 309 million in June. With two million daily active users in the U.S., Character.ai's mobile application is approaching ChatGPT's 3.2 million.

Anthropic introduced new features in Console to help developers with prompt engineering for Claude 3.5 Sonnet. The tools can generate, test, and evaluate prompts, potentially streamlining the process of creating effective AI applications.

Elon Musk's xAI and Oracle have ended talks on a potential $10 billion server deal to expand their existing arrangement for renting Nvidia AI chips. Musk stated xAI is building a system using Nvidia's H100 GPUs "for fastest time to completion". The talks were hindered by issues like Musk's demands for faster supercomputer construction and concerns about inadequate power supply at xAI's preferred location.

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