Musk Accused in a $7.5 Billion Insider Trading Lawsuit & $305M Bitcoin hack at Japanese crypto exchange DMM Bitcoin.

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👋 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 major updates include -

• A Tesla shareholder filed a lawsuit accusing Elon Musk of insider trading, claiming he sold $7.5 billion in Tesla shares before disappointing production numbers were made public.

• Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) Bio + Health invested $22M Series A in Valar Labs, a computational histology AI developer for predicting cancer therapy response.

• Japanese crypto exchange DMM Bitcoin confirmed a massive hack resulting in the theft of around 4,502.9 bitcoin worth approximately $305 million, one of the largest crypto thefts in history.

• Jasper Health, a cancer care platform startup, laid off substantial workforce despite $25M Series A led by General Catalyst in 2022.

• OpenAI is rebuilding its robotics department, aiming to speed up the release of AI-powered robots.

• Featured Article : Balaji Srinivasan On Coming Up With Good Startup Ideas.

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STARTUP FUNDING UPDATES

Exactly.ai, a London, UK-based provider of a platform platform for artists and illustrators to create AI models based on their own work, raised $4.3m in seed funding. The round was led by Speedinvest, with participation from InReach Ventures, Cornerstone VC, and GuruDev Capital. More Here

(Re)vive, a New York-based startup that takes in damaged returns from retailers, refurbishes them, and resells them through various channels, helping companies reduce waste and generate revenue. The company has raised $3.5 million in seed funding, led by Equal Ventures and Hustle Fund. More Here

Valar Labs, a Palo Alto, CA-based developer of computational histology AI (CHAI) tests for predicting response to cancer therapies, raised $22M in Series A funding. The round was led by DCVC and Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) Bio + Health with participation from Pear VC. More Here

Flam, a San-Francisco, CA-based premier AI-driven mixed reality (MR) publishing platform, raised $4.5M in Pre-Series A funding. Backers included Turbostart, Twin Ventures, and Alphatron Capital, alongside angel investors and family offices. Existing backers included Inventus Capital Partners, SVQ, and 9Unicorns also invested. More Here

Vegapay, a Gurgaon, India-based fintech startup, raised $5.5M in seed funding. The round was led by Elevation Capital, with participation from Eximius Ventures. More Here

CinRx Pharma, a Cincinnati, OH-based hub-and-spoke biotech company, raised additional $73M in funding. The round, which brought the total amount to $176M, included participation from industry insiders and individuals. More Here

Forward, an Austin, TX-based technology partner empowering SaaS companies to integrate and monetize payments, raised $16M in Seed funding. The round was led by Commerce Ventures, Elefund, and Fiserv. More Here

Mavenir, a Richardson, TX-based cloud-native network infrastructure provider, raised up to $75M in investment. Backers included undisclosed existing investors. More Here

RealReviews.io, a NYC-based provider of a AI-powered review platform, raised an undisclosed amount in funding from undisclosed investors. More Here

ChromaTan, a Lower Gwynedd, PA-based bioprocessing and biotools biomanufacturing technology platform development company, received a NIH IIB grant of $2M from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences. More Here

Denim, a Jersey City, NJ-based a technology factoring partner for freight brokers, raised $63M in Warehouse Facility. Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and Trinity Capital Inc., provided the financing. More Here

Seamfix, a Lagos, Nigeria-based digital identity solutions provider, raised $4.5M in funding. Alitheia IDF made the investment. More Here

ARPA Network, a Singapore-based company which specializes in decentralized secure computation, raised $6M in funding. Lead investors included Nomura’s Laser Digital and DeFiance Capital, with participation from Animoca Ventures, Metrics Ventures, ArkStream Capital, and Trinito. More Here

Radiomer Therapeutics, a Houston, TX-based Fannin Partners-founded company that is developing targeted radiopharmaceuticals / radioligand therapies for theranostic applications, has been launched with undisclosed pre-seed funding. More Here

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VENTURE CAPITAL UPDATES

Clean Energy Ventures raised a $305 million second fund, exceeding their $200 million target, to invest in early-stage climate tech startups. 30-40% of the fund is reserved for follow-on investments in "pre-growth" companies to help bridge the commercialization gap. The fund received commitments from institutional investors like Builder's Vision and industry LPs looking to bring climate technologies to their countries. More Here

The founder of investment bank Ferghana Partners and physician Mitchell Ng have launched Hippocrates Opportunities Fund, a new venture firm that seeks up to $30 million to finance privately held and publicly traded life sciences companies. More Here

FEATURED ARTICLE

Balaji Srinivasan On Coming Up With Good Startup Ideas.

STARTUP’S LATEST BUZZ

ACQUISITION & GOING PUBLIC

Scurri, a Wexford, Ireland-based provider of a delivery management platform, acquired HelloDone, a London, UK-based provider of an artificial intelligence (AI) platform which provides conversational AI solutions to retailers and brands. More Here

Insightsoftware, a Raleigh, NC-based provider of comprehensive solutions for finance, accounting, and operations teams, is to acquire Fiplana, an Aachen, Germany-based Qlik financial planning and analysis (FP&A) software solution that facilitates direct data editing, process planning, and cost management. More Here

Applexus Technologies, a Seattle, WA-based technology company providing SAP consulting, analytics, and business transformation services, acquired Absoft, a UK-based SAP implementation and managed services company. More Here

Shein, the online fashion firm, is preparing to file a IPO prospectus with Britain's Financial Conduct Authority. The potential London float could value the company around $63.7 billion. More Here

LAYOFFS & BANKRUPTCY

Jasper Health, a cancer care platform startup, has laid off a substantial part of its workforce, including employees from the engineering and product design departments. Despite raising $25 million in a Series A funding round led by General Catalyst in 2022, the company faced challenges that led to these layoffs. More Here

STARTUPS & PEOPLE

A Tesla shareholder filed a lawsuit accusing Elon Musk of insider trading. The lawsuit claims Musk sold $7.5 billion in Tesla shares before disappointing production numbers were made public. It seeks to direct Musk to return the profits from those trades. More Here

VCs are selling shares of hot AI companies like Anthropic and xAI to small investors in a wild SPV market: Small investors are gaining access to hot AI startups like Anthropic and Elon Musk's X.ai through special purpose vehicles (SPVs), where they pool money to share an allocation from investors with direct access - but at a cost of significant fees and carried interest charges. While providing a rare entry into coveted AI firms, SPVs carry risks like limited company information and layered fees eating into returns. Even top VCs are resorting to SPVs to get a piece of the most in-demand AI fundraising rounds that would otherwise be out of reach. More Here

President Joe Biden has vetoed a congressional resolution (H.J.Res. 109) that would have overturned the SEC's guidance requiring banks to treat customers' crypto assets as liabilities. Biden cited the need to protect consumers and investors, while leaving the door open for further negotiations on a comprehensive crypto regulatory framework. The veto faced opposition from banking groups and the crypto industry, who argue the SEC's approach makes it prohibitively expensive for banks to handle crypto assets. More Here

LATEST IN EMERGING TECH

Japanese crypto exchange DMM Bitcoin confirmed a massive hack resulting in the theft of around 4,502.9 bitcoin worth approximately $305 million, marking one of the largest crypto thefts in history. The exchange detected an "unauthorized leak" from its wallet on Friday and promised to fully compensate affected customers, while implementing restrictions on some services as it investigates the incident. More Here

Google claims that low-quality AI summaries in its new search feature are rare, and many examples shared online are fake. However, the company admits some odd or incorrect summaries have occurred, especially for uncommon searches. Google says it has adjusted its AI to limit issues like satire, user-generated content, and sensitive topics. Still, critics argue Google may prioritize cheaper data sources over high-quality publishers for its AI responses. More Here

OpenAI is rebuilding its robotics department, aiming to speed up the release of AI-powered robots. The company wants to collaborate with robotics firms, providing AI technology they can incorporate into their products. OpenAI recently demonstrated this by working with startup Figure AI on a robot using OpenAI's multimodal AI model. After shutting down robotics in 2020 to focus on larger AI models, OpenAI sees a new path forward by combining advanced AI with robotics capabilities. More Here

ElevenLabs, a voice cloning startup, introduced a new tool for users to generate sound effects and instrumental music clips through text prompts. The tool utilizes Shutterstock's audio library to train its model and can generate up to 22 seconds of audio based on prompts like "waves crashing" or "guitar loops." While offering free users 10,000 character generations per month, ElevenLabs faces competition in the AI-powered audio generation space from companies like Harmonai, Google, OpenAI, Meta, TikTok, and Adobe. More Here

The Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa has canceled his planned flight around the Moon aboard SpaceX's Starship, citing indefinite delays in the rocket's development.

The flight, called dearMoon, was originally scheduled for 2023, but Starship is still in its early testing phase. Maezawa, who has already visited the International Space Station, expressed frustration with the uncertainty surrounding the project's timeline.

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That’s It For Today! Will Meet You Tomorrow. Happy Monday!☕

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