Midjourney Bans StabilityAI's Employees & Binance Facing Lawsuit In Nigeria

👋 Hey, Sahil here! Welcome to today's quick rundown in the Venture Daily Digest Newsletter. I've got the scoop on startup fundraising, fresh VC funds, and some cool tech – all in just 5 minutes!

• Midjourney accuses Stability AI of causing a server outage by attempting to scrape its data & bans all Stability AI staffers from its service indefinitely.

• Venture firm Peak XV, formerly Sequoia's India and Southeast Asia arm, is launching the Peak XV Anchor Fund, an "evergreen" fund funded by internal resources.

• Nigeria's central bank alleges Binance of illegal operations and facilitating $26 billion in unidentifiable flows.

• Featured Article : How To Respond When A VC Asks About Your Startup’s Valuation?

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STARTUP FUNDING UPDATES

WealthFeed, NYC-based provider of organic growth platform for financial advisors, raised $2M in funding. The round was led by Thicket Ventures and executives from the Registered Investment Advisor (RIA), Investment Banking and Private Equity sectors. More Here

Polar signal, a startup is setting out to help enterprises cut their cloud costs by writing “more efficient” code — and it has secured $6.8 million in fresh funding from notable backers including Alphabet’s GV, Spark Capital and Lightspeed. More Here

Polar Signals, a Berlin, Germany-based leader in AI-Driven Performance Optimizations, secured an additional $6.8m in funding, bringing its total capital raised to $10.8m. The round was led by Spark Capital, with contributions from GV, Lightspeed, Haystack, Lorimer, and an esteemed group of angel investors including Guillermo Rauch, Julius Volz, Monica Sarbu, Jimmy Zelinskie, Nikhil Benesch, and Erik Bernhardsson. More Here

Tierra Biosciences, the San Leandro-based company has developed a platform for AI-guided, custom protein synthesis has raised $7.2 million in grants from respectable government agencies, including the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, the National Institutes of Health and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. More Here

Loop, a San Francisco, CA-based SaaS provider enabling restaurants to maximize their third-party delivery service profitability, raised $6M in Seed funding. The round was led by Base10 Partners with participation from Afore Capital. More Here

Adaptive ML, a Paris, France- and New York-based startup enabling companies to perpetually improve their generative AI models based on users’ interactions, raised $20m in seed funding. The round was led by Index Ventures with participation from ICONIQ Capital, Motier Ventures, Databricks Ventures, IRIS, HuggingFund by Factorial, and other angel investors. More Here

DBOS, the database-centric operating system aims to revolutionize the software stack by placing the database at the core, enhancing performance and security for data-centric applications in the cloud. It has raised $8.5 million seed investment was was led by Engine Ventures with participation from Construct Capital, Sinewave and Gutbrain Ventures. More Here

Legends, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of a confidence-training platform for kids, raised $6M in Seed funding. The round was led by Floodgate Capital, Reach Capital, and individual investors, including technologist Joe Liemandt. More Here

Nanonets, a startup using AI to automate back-office processes, has raised $29 million in a new funding round led by Accel. More Here

Codezero, a Vancouver, Canada, BC-based secure enterprise microservices development company, raised $3.5M in Seed funding. The round was led by Ballistic Ventures, with participation from Thomas Dohmke (GitHub CEO), Nick Caldwell (Microsoft, HubSpot, and Peloton), Marty Weiner (Pinterest and Reddit), and James Routh. More Here

Axion Ray, a NYC-based provider of an AI-powered observability command center, raised $12.5M in Series A funding. The round, which brought the total amount to $25M, was led by Bessemer Venture Partners including strategic investment from RTX Ventures. Existing investors, Amplo and Inspired Capital also participated. More Here

Airnguru, a Santiago, Chile-based provider of pricing intelligence and execution, fare management, and price automation solutions for airlines, raised USD$1M in Pre-Series A funding. The round saw participation from a group of angel investors formed by senior executives, board members, family offices, and entrepreneurs. More Here

Tavus, a San Francisco, CA-based generative AI video research company, raised $18M in Series A funding. The round was led by Scale Venture Partners, with Rory O’Driscoll joining the company’s board of directors. Sequoia Capital, Y Combinator, HubSpot, and others also participated. More Here

Nanonets, San Francisco, CA-based provider of an AI-based workflow automation platform for business processes, raised $29M in Series B funding. The round, which brought the total amount to $42M, was led by Accel, with participation from existing investors Elevation Capital, YCombinator and others. More Here

Grupago, a Mexico City, Mexico-based fintech startup providing a digital microcredit for small businesses (SMBs) in Latin America, raised $4.3M in Seed funding. The round was led by Deciens Capital and joined by Precursor Ventures, Clocktower Ventures and Twine Ventures, among other venture funds. More Here

Quaise Energy, a Cambridge, MA-based terawatt-scale geothermal company, raised $21M in Series A1 funding. The round, which brought the total amount to $95M, was led by Prelude Ventures and Safar Partners with participation from Mitsubishi Corporation and Standard Investments. More Here

Bear Robotics, a Redwood City, CA-based company which specializes in service robotics and artificial intelligence solutions, raised $60M in Series C funding. The round was led by LG Electronics. More Here

Pienso, an Arlington, VA-based company offering an interactive AI platform anyone can use to turn text data into insights with no coding required, raised $10m in new funding. The round was led by Latimer Ventures, with participation from Gideon Capital and returning investors SRI, Uncork, and Good Growth Capital. More Here

CodeMatrix, a Boston, MA-based company providing an artificial intelligence (AI) solution focused on healthcare and revenue cycle management, raised $40M in Series B funding. The round was led by Transformation Capital with participation from existing investors SignalFire, and Frist Cressey Ventures. More Here

Prescient AI, a Miami, FL-based company which specializes in AI-powered media measurement and optimization, raised $10M in Series A funding. The round was led by Headline and CEAS Investments. Previous investors Blumberg Capital and Focal VC also participated. More Here

Kaskade finance, a Dubai, UAE-based provider of a gamified incentivization layer protocol, raised an undisclosed amount in Pre-Seed funding. The round saw participation from over 40 investors including Marshland, NxGen.xyz, Artemis Capital, Andromeda Capital, Hercules Ventures, 369 Capital, Crypto Oasis Ventures, as well as influencers, including VirtualBacon, Brian D Evans, CryptoJack and more. More Here

Sooma Medical, a Helsinki, Finland-based provider of effective brain stimulation treatments for psychiatric and neurological disorders, raised €5M in funding. The round was led by Voima Ventures. More Here

Eclipse Labs, a San Francisco, CA-based software firm contributing to the development of the first Ethereum layer-2 using the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM), raised $50M in Series A funding. The round, which brought the the total amount to $65M, was led by Placeholder and Hack VC. More Here

Simera Sense, a Leuven, Belgium-based company providing end-to-end optical solutions for the small satellite Earth observation industry, raised €13.5M in Growth funding. Backers included NewSpace Capital and Knife Capital. More Here

Empathy, a NYC-based company providing a support system for loss, raised $47M in Series B funding. The round, which brought the total amount to $90M, was led by Index Ventures with participation from General Catalyst, Entrée Capital, Latitude (sister fund of existing investor LocalGlobe), and Brewer Lane. More Here

Spacely AI, a Bangkok, Thailand-based provider of a comprehensive interior architecture design platform empowered by generative AI, raised an undisclosed amount in Pre-Series A funding. SCB 10X made the investment. More Here

Foundation Health, a San Francisco, CA-based healthcare technology company, raised $6M in Seed funding. Backers included Garry Tan (CEO, Y Combinator), Transpose Platform, Tuesday VC, Alt Capital, Box Group, Liquid Ventures, Exceptional Capital, Calm/Storm Ventures, and PageOne Ventures, with support from angel investors Paul Johnson (Lemonaid) and Meghan Fitzgerald (Grey Ghost Advisors). More Here

Quantistry, a Berlin, Germany-based leader in chemical simulations, raised €3M in funding. The round was led by Ananda Impact Ventures, with participation from Chemovator. More Here

Applied Intuition, a Mountain View, CA-based vehicle software supplier for automotive, trucking, construction, mining, agriculture, and other industries, raised $250M in Series E funding, at $6 Billion valuation. The round was led by Bilal Zuberi at Lux Capital (Series C lead investor), Elad Gil. More Here

Ocient, a Chicago, IL-based data analytics software solutions company, raised $49.4M in funding. The round was led by Greycroft and OCA Ventures, and included new venture investors Buoyant Ventures, Levy Family Partners, Riverwalk Capital, and Wolf Capital Management, as well as all prior major investors. More Here

Quthero, a Toronto, Canada-based biotech company providing a Q-peptide platform, raised $500K in funding. The round, which was raised in addition to a co-investment of $850K for a total round size of $1.35M, saw participation from Ontario Centre of Innovation’s (OCI) Life Science Innovation Fund. More Here

Milu Health, a NYC-based health tech company that uses AI to drive cost savings in healthcare for employees and employers, raised $4.8M in Seed funding. The round was led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) Bio + Health. BoxGroup, PagsGroup, and 81 Collection, among other investors, also participated. More Here

VENTURE CAPITAL UPDATES

Venture firm Peak XV, formerly Sequoia's India and Southeast Asia arm, is launching the Peak XV Anchor Fund, an "evergreen" fund funded by internal resources. The perpetual fund aims to enhance accountability, alignment with limited partners, and facilitate global collaboration, according to an internal memo. More Here

Ada Ventures, a U.K.-based venture capital firm, has closed its second fund at $80 million, with a focus on inclusivity and diversity. The fund has attracted diverse LPs, including British Business Bank and Atomico, and uses a unique approach of engaging a diverse Scout and Angel network for sourcing investments. More Here

Eckuity Capital, a New York and London-based growth and venture capital investor Closes $150 Million Fund and Appoints New Partner - Top Clinical Oncologist, Dr Victoria Manax Rutson. More Here

FEATURED ARTICLE

How To Respond When A VC Asks About Your Startup’s Valuation?

Rule one: Don't throw out a number

There is one trick question that investors almost always ask, and it’s guaranteed to make founders uneasy: “What are your expectations surrounding valuation?” For most founders, it’s the perennial Goldilocks scenario.

Throwing out a number that’s too high might push investors away, while an amount that’s too low might trigger the question, “Why so low? What’s wrong with this business?” and leave shareholder value on the table.

So, instead of having to throw out specific numbers that will inevitably be challenged, here’s a solution… Read More Here

STARTUP’S LATEST BUZZ

ACQUISITION & EXITS

Request Finance, a Paris, France-based finance platform for crypto and fiat operations, is to acquire Consola Finance, a Vienna, Austria-based provider of a cryptoaccounting platform. More Here

Civo, a Stevenage, Hertfordshire, UK-based pure-play cloud-native service provider, acquired Kubefirst, a Greenwich, CT-based open-source GitOps powered platform for Kubernetes, from its parent company Kubeshop. More Here

LAYOFFS & SHUTDOWN

IBM is back in the layoff headlines after reportedly slashing jobs in its marketing and communications divisions. More Here

Workhorse stock are plunging lower by over 10% after the electric vehicle (EV) and drone manufacturer reported its fourth-quarter earnings, revealing a round of layoffs of 20% workforce. More Here

STARTUPS & PEOPLE

OpenAI responded to Elon Musk's lawsuit, denying the existence of a founding agreement and describing Musk's claims as "often incoherent." Musk had sued OpenAI, alleging a breach of commitment to keeping the company open-sourced and not-for-profit. OpenAI has hired legal representation, including a firm previously sued by Musk, to defend itself in the case. More Here

A report from RevenueCat reveals that the top 5% of mobile apps generate 200 times the revenue of the bottom quartile after their first year, with the median monthly revenue for apps after 12 months being less than $50 USD. The analysis, based on data from over 29,000 apps and 18,000 developers, shows that only 3.5% of apps reach $10,000 in monthly revenue, while health and fitness apps outperform other categories. The report also predicts a rise in subscription prices, increased use of AI for personalization, and the combination of subscription models with other monetization methods in the coming year. More Here

Meta Platforms has sued a former vice president of infrastructure for allegedly stealing confidential documents about Meta and its employees as he jumped ship for a secretive data center startup operating in the Middle East. More Here

LATEST IN EMERGING TECH

Nigeria seeks transaction history and details of top 100 users from Binance amid a crackdown on crypto exchanges, detaining executives Tigran Gambaryan and Nadeem Anjarwalla. The central bank alleges Binance of illegal operations and facilitating $26 billion in unidentifiable flows, raising concerns about tax revenue loss. In response, Binance halted naira services, facing regulatory scrutiny and parliamentary threats in Nigeria. More Here

Midjourney accuses Stability AI of causing a server outage by attempting to scrape its data, citing "botnet-like activity" from paid accounts linked to Stability AI employees. In response, Midjourney bans all Stability AI staffers from its service indefinitely and implements a policy against companies engaging in "aggressive automation" or causing service outages. Stability AI CEO Emad Mostaque denies ordering the actions, stating the alleged scraping was unintentional, and the situation is under investigation. More Here

VENTURE DAILY DIGEST PICKS

• Notes on AI Bias by Benedict Evans. Read Here

• The Adjacent User Theory by Andrew Chen. Read Here

• What Does It Take To “Do Things That Don’t Scale” For Your Startup? Read Here

• Steve Jobs - ‘Don’t Ask Your Customers What They Want, Why?’ Read Here

DAILY DIGEST BOARD

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That’s It For Today! Will Meet You Tomorrow!
Happy Wednesday! 🥂

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✍️Written By Sahil R - The Venture Crew