Moonshot AI Raised $1 Billion & Neuralink's First Patient Can Move a Computer Mouse

👋 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! Today's highlights include...

• Moonshot AI raised over $1 billion round, valuing the company at $2.5 billion.

• Neuralink's First Patient Can Move a Computer Mouse With Their Thoughts.

• Federal Trade Commission investigating potential antitrust violations in Amazon's and Google's investments in Anthropic.

• Sequoia Capital is attempting to remove Michael Moritz, its former leader, as the chair of fintech firm Klarna.

• Featured Article : Paul Graham's 10 Strategies to Get Successful Startup Ideas.

• Daily Digest Board: Reducing Team vs Marketing Cost & What do you value most in a community?

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Startups Funding Updates

Moonshot AI, a Chinese startup focusing on large language models (LLMs) capable of handling long text inputs, has reportedly raised over $1 billion in a Series B round, valuing the company at $2.5 billion from major investors, including Alibaba and HongShan (formerly Sequoia China). More Here

PermitFlow, the California based company aiming to streamline construction permitting processes, has raised $31 million in Series A funding led by Kleiner Perkins. More Here

Elektra Health, a NYC-based digital health platform that empowers women navigating the menopause journey via evidence-based education, medical care, and community, raised $3.3M in new financing. The round, which brings the total amount of equity finance raised to $7.6M, was led by UPMC Enterprises, with participation from Wavemaker 360. More Here

Faddom, an early-stage Israeli startup, helps companies map their infrastructure wherever it lives, and helps them visualize the connections and dependencies, has raised $12M in series A funding led by Viola Ventures, NFX. More Here

Medical Microinstruments, a Pisa, Italy-based robotics company dedicated to increasing treatment options and improving clinical outcomes for patients with complex conditions, raised $110M in Series C funding. The round, which brought the total amount to $200M, was led by Fidelity Management & Research Company. More Here

Ventiva, a Fremont, CA-based company which specializes in active cooling solutions for electronic devices, raised $10M in Series C funding. The round, which brought the total amount to $40M, saw participation of investment funds along with existing investors. More Here

Insamo, a Berkeley, CA-based biotechnology company advancing membrane-permeable and orally available cyclic-peptides, raised $12M in Seed funding. The round saw participation from Playground Global, venBio, MRL Ventures Fund (MRLV), Sahsen Ventures, BEVC, Civilization Ventures, and Axial Ventures. More Here

Orkes, a Cupertino, CA-based provider of a platform for distributed systems, raised $20M in funding. The round was led by Nexus Venture Partners with participation from existing investors Battery Ventures and Vertex Ventures US. More Here

Empowerly, a San Francisco, CA-based data-driven education technology company, raised $15M in funding. The round was led by Conductive Ventures. More Here

Novity, a San Carlos, CA-based provider of predictive maintenance AI for process industry clients, raised $7.8M in funding. The round was led by WERU Investment in a global consortium of investors including Myriad Venture Partners and METAWATER. More Here

HealthSnap, a Miami, FL-based provider of a remote patient monitoring (RPM) and chronic care management (CCM) solution for healthcare providers, raised $25M in Series B funding. The round, which brought the total amount to $48.5M, was led by Sands Capital, with new investments from Comcast Ventures, Acronym Venture Capital, and Florida Opportunity Fund. More Here

Qloo, a NYC-based cultural AI company, raised $25M in Series C funding. The round was led by AI Ventures, with participation from AXA Venture Partners, Eldridge, and Moderne Ventures. More Here

Citrea is the first rollup that enhances the capabilities of Bitcoin blockspace with zero knowledge technology, enabling developers to build everything on Bitcoin. has raised $2.7M in seed funding, led by Galaxy. More Here

Blackbird Health, a Pittsburgh, PA neuroscience-led and technology-backed youth mental health provider, raised $17M in Series A funding. The round, which brought the total amount to $23M, Define Ventures with participation from Frist Cressey Ventures and GreyMatter. More Here

BRIA, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based provider of a responsible visual generative AI open platform, raised $24M in Series A funding. The round was led by GFT Ventures, Intel Capital, and Entrée Capital. More Here

DustPhotonics, a Modi’in, Israel-based developer of silicon photonics technology for data center and AI applications, raised $24M in Series B follow-on funding. The round was led by combination of new and existing investors such as Sienna Venture Capital, Greenfield Partners, Atreides Management, and Exor Ventures. More Here

Loora, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based AI English language learning company, raised $12M in Series A funding. The round was led by QP Ventures, with participation from new investor Hearst Ventures and existing investors Emerge and Two Lanterns Venture Partners, among others. More Here

ZipLines Education, a San Carlos, CA-based education tech company, raised $6.4M in Series A funding. The round was led by Jackson Square Ventures, with participation from existing investors, including Wildcat Venture Partners and WGU Labs. More Here

Tagomics, a Cambridge, UK-based developer of a platform for comprehensive disease insight and diagnosis, raised £6.7M in funding. The round was led by Calculus Capital, with participation from Illumina Ventures, IQ Capital, Agilent Ventures, Mercia Ventures and the MEIF Proof of Concept & Early Stage Fund, Meltwind and OMX Ventures. More Here

AltLayer, a Singapore-based provider of a platform for rollups, raised USD14.4M in funding. The round was led by Polychain Capital and Hack VC, with participation from OKX Ventures. More Here

AtmosZero, a Fort Collins, CO-based company focused on decarbonizing steam, raised $21M in Series A funding. The round was led by Engine Ventures and 2150. More Here

Cagent Vascular, a Wayne, PA-based commercial stage medical device company, raised $30M in Series C funding. The round was led by Venture Partners, with participation from new investors Blue Ridge Medical, and existing investors including Sectoral Asset Management. More Here

BridgeCare, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of a data and technology infrastructure platform for early care and education, raised $10M in funding. Avenue Growth Partners made the investment. More Here

Kairos Aerospace, a Sunnyvale, CA-based company which specializes in high-frequency aerial methane detection for the energy industry, raised $52M in Series D in funding led by Blackrock. More Here

Oula, a NYC-based maternity care company, raised $28M in Series B funding. The round was led by Revolution Ventures and Maverick Ventures with participation from GV and existing investors including the Female Founders Fund, 8VC, Alumni Ventures, and Great Oaks. More Here

Juniper, a London, UK-based reproductive healthcare insurance provider, raised £1.5M in Pre-Seed funding. The round was led by Insurtech Gateway, with participation from 2100 Ventures, Exceptional Ventures, and Heartfelt. More Here

Varaha, Agri-climate startup based in India aims to help farmers reduce climate-harming practices like burning crop residue and flooding rice fields company, has raised $8.7 million in an investment round led by RTP Global. More Here

Venture Capital Updates

Keystone Capital, a Chicago, IL-based lower middle market alternative investment manager, closed Fund III, at $630M. Founded in 1995, Keystone invests primarily in North American businesses across five industry sectors: Engineering and Technical Services, Tech-enabled Services, Commercial Services, Industrial Technology and Food and Beverage. More Here

Ibex Investors, LLC, a Denver, CO-based multi-stage and multi-strategy investment firm, closed its fourth Israel focused fund, Ibex Israel VC II LP, with $106m in capital commitments. The roster of limited partners includes founders and current and former executives across a wide range of sectors. More Here

Featured Article

Paul Graham's 10 Strategies to Get Successful Startup Ideas.

"Live in the future and build what seems interesting." Paul Graham.

In November 2012, Paul Graham shared an essay on 'How to get a startup idea?' which is still relevant today like -

Utility vs. Novelty Ideation, Build for the few, who want a lot, Live in the future, build what’s missing, But what’s missing? Build what’s interesting, Scratch your own itch, and Explore new domains and competitors, .… Read More Here

Startup’s Latest Buzz

Acquisition & Exits

Conscia, a Brøndby, Denmark-based provider of IT infrastructure within networking, cybersecurity and cloud solutions, acquired ITGL, a Portsmouth, UK-based digital transformation provider. More Here

Podium Education, an Austin, TX-based experiential education company for universities, acquired Untapped, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of an early career talent platform that connects students with companies. More Here

Archer, an Overland Park, KS-based company providing an integrated risk management solution, acquired Compliance ai, a provider of artificial intelligence (AI)-driven regulatory change management solutions. More Here

Layoffs & Shutdown

Build a Rocket Boy, an eight-year-old London game development studio, is laying off staff less than a month after it raised $110 million. More Here

Startups & People

Sequoia Capital is attempting to remove Michael Moritz, its former leader, as the chair of fintech firm Klarna, citing governance concerns as the company prepares for a public listing. Moritz, a crucial ally of Klarna's CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski, faces removal in what some see as a move to potentially replace Siemiatkowski. Sequoia, Klarna's largest shareholder, holds a 22% stake and claims the effort is about board composition for the company's future. More Here

Anthropic, an AI start-up, has raised an astonishing $7.3 billion in a year, with notable investments from Google, Salesforce, Amazon, and Menlo Ventures. The funding deals, totaling five, are unconventional, involving agreements for the use of technology from the investing companies. Anthropic, known for its chatbot Claude, has seen its valuation triple to $15 billion, reflecting the intense competition among AI start-ups to secure funding and partnerships. However, regulatory scrutiny has emerged, with the Federal Trade Commission investigating potential antitrust violations in Amazon's and Google's investments in Anthropic. More Here

Latest In Emerging Tech

Change Healthcare, a leading U.S. healthcare technology firm, faces a cyberattack causing a network interruption, impacting login pages and resulting in nationwide outages for local pharmacies. Handling 15 billion healthcare transactions annually, the disruption is expected to last the day, affecting patient payments across the U.S. healthcare system. The incident comes after the 2022 $7.8 billion merger with Optum under UnitedHealth Group. More Here

Elon Musk revealed that the first person to receive a brain chip from Neuralink, Musk's company, can control a computer mouse simply by thinking. The patient, who underwent the transplant last month, has reportedly made a full recovery with no adverse effects. More Here

Reddit has reportedly struck a $60 million per year deal with Google, allowing the social media platform to make its content available for training Google's AI models. This move comes as Reddit aims to generate additional revenue ahead of its upcoming IPO, facing competition from platforms like TikTok and Meta's Facebook. More Here

Venture Daily Digest Picks

• When Should You Raise Funding For Your Startup? Read Here

• Pitch deck has one purpose, to drive enough interest to schedule a meeting. Read Here

• How great founders source their purpose and stay motivated through good times and bad by BVP. Read Here

• Startups in 13 sentences By Paul Graham. Read Here

Daily Digest Board

Yesterday’s Poll

45% of readers think that they will reduce 'Marketing Cost' if they ever face a situation to cut expenses for their startup. But honestly, when you face reality, you will go with the team, not marketing. Believe me…

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✍️Written By Sahil R - The Venture Crew