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Musk's $56 Billion Pay Package Approved & Foresite Capital Closed $900 Million VC Fund

Musk's $56 Billion Pay Package Approved & Foresite Capital Closed $900 Million VC Fund

Venture Daily Digest - 13/06/2024

Venture Daily Digest
June 13, 2024

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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, VC funds, and some cool tech – all in just 5 minutes ☕! Today’s major updates include -

Foresite Capital, a San Francisco-based multi-stage healthcare and life sciences firm, closed its sixth fund at $900 million after a two-year fundraising effort.
Friends & Family Capital, a fund founded by ex-Palantir CFO and son of IVP’s founder, launched third $118M fund.
FedEx is implementing job cuts across its back-office and commercial teams in Europe, aiming to reduce headcount by 1,700 to 2,000 employees.
Tesla shareholders voted to approve a massive $56 billion pay package for CEO Elon Musk and to move the electric vehicle maker's legal headquarters to Texas.
OpenAI has doubled it’s revenue to $3.4 billion in ARR.
China's Ant Group invested a record 21.19 billion yuan ($2.92 billion) in technology research and development in 2023, primarily focusing on artificial intelligence.
Featured Article : A Framework For Finding The Right Customers For Your MVP.

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Startup Funding Updates

Canary Technologies, a San Francisco, CA-based company which specializes in hotel guest management technology, raised $50M in Series C funding. The round, which brought the total amount to $100M, was led by Insight Partners, who also led the company’s Series B, with participation from existing investors F-Prime Capital, Thayer Ventures, Y-Combinator, and Commerce Ventures. More Here

InScope, a San Francisco-based startup, provides machine learning-powered financial reporting and auditing processes for mid-market and enterprises. It recently raised $4.3 million in seed funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with participation from individual investors including Vipul Ved Prakash, Jake Heller, Debbie Clifford, Justin Coulombe, and Nadia Asoyan. More Here

CluePoints, a Louvain-La-Neuve, Belgium-based provider of a cloud-based software platform for Risk-Based Quality Management (“RBQM”) and data quality oversight in clinical trials, received a majority investment from EQT. More Here

RetailReady, a Y Combinator winter 2024 cohort startup based in the San Francisco Bay Area, has developed a tablet app that replaces paper warehouse manuals and aims to reduce $40 billion in annual retail compliance losses through AI-powered packing instructions and computer vision validation. The company raised $3.3 million in seed funding led by Wischoff Ventures, with participation from Y Combinator, 640 Oxford, Lombardstreet Ventures, Duke Capital Partners, and angels including Matt Silver, Jacob Boudreau, and Scale Angels Fund. More Here

Avail, a remote provider of a modular blockchain solution, received an investment from HTX Ventures. More Here

HarperDB, a Denver, CO-based company providing a distributed systems platform that combines database, caching, application, and streaming functions into a single technology, received a growth investment from Siren Capital. More Here

Koda Health, a Houston, TX-based company which specializes in digital advance care planning, raised an undisclosed amount in Seed+ funding. The round was led by Ecliptic Capital, with participation from Memorial Hermann Health System, AARP and the Texas Medical Center (TMC) Venture Fund. More Here

Pyte, a Los Angeles, CA-based provider of a computation platform for data-first global enterprises, raised $5M in funding. The round, which brought the total amount to $12M, was led by Myriad Venture Partners with participation from Innovation Endeavors, Liberty Mutual Strategic Ventures and Pillar VC, among others. More Here

Grayce, a San Francisco, CA-based social care platform for families, raised $10.4M in Series A funding. The round was led by Maveron with participation from BBG Ventures and Correlation Ventures, GingerBread Capital, Alumni Ventures, Visible Ventures, Gaingels, and What If Ventures. More Here

Daisy, a Costa Mesa, CA-based home and small business technology installation and services company, raised $11M in Series A funding. The round, which brought the total amount to $13.3M, was led by Goldcrest and Bungalow with participation from Bullish, Burst Capital, and angel investors. More Here

Swift Solar, a San Carlos, CA-based solar technology company, raised $27M in Series A funding. The round was led by Eni Next and Fontinalis Partners. Other investors included Stanford University, Good Growth Capital, BlueScopeX, HL Ventures, Toba Capital, Sid Sijbrandij, James Fickel, Adam Winkel, Fred Ehrsam, Jonathan Lin, and Climate Capital also participated. More Here

Stanly, a Los Angeles, CA-based provider of a platform designed for fans to connect, engage, and celebrate their favorite fandoms, raised $8M in Pre-Series A funding. The round was led by Adrian Cheng’s C Capital, with participation from AppWorks, Goodwater, Palm Drive Capital, and others. More Here

Learn to Win, a Redwood City, CA-based provider of enterprise training software, raised $30M in Series A funding. The round was led by the Westly Group, with participation from Norwest Venture Partners and Pear VC. More Here

CargoSense, a Reston, VA-based provider of a ‘Visibility OS’ platform for supply chain automation using visibility data, raised $8M in Series A funding. The round was led by Lanza techVentures. Other investors included Merck Global Health Innovation Fund (MGHIF) along with SmoothBrain, channel partner The Pallet Alliance, and other previous private investors. More Here

BlinqIO, a Delaware-based provider of a generative-AI software testing platform, raised $5M in funding. The round was led by Flint Capital with participation from Inovia Capital Precede Fund I, TAL ventures and SeedIL. More Here

Aidentified, Inc., a Boston, MA-based AI-powered prospecting and relationship intelligence platform for financial services professionals, raised $12.5m in Series B funding. FactSet made the investment. More Here

ResVR, a Calgary, Canada-based proptech startup that enables homebuilders and developers to sell more upgrades through a visualization platform, announced a series of financings that closed a total of $1.7M CAD in aggregate. This included $1.43M in pre-seed and seed funding and $270K in non-dilutive capital. More Here

Apex, a Los Angeles, CA-based spacecraft manufacturing company, raised $95m in Series B funding. The round was led by XYZ Venture Capital, and co-led by CRV, alongside new investors Upfront, 8VC, Toyota Ventures, Point72 Ventures, Mirae Asset Capital, Outsiders Fund, GSBackers, existing investors Andreessen Horowitz, Shield Capital, J2 Ventures, Ravelin, angels Baiju Bhatt, co-founder of Robinhood, and Avalon Capital Group, private investment company founded by Ted Waitt, co-founder of Gateway, Inc. More Here

ElectronX, a Chicago, IL-based new energy exchange created to help accelerate the U.S. grid transition to renewable sources, raised $15m in seed funding. The round was led by Innovation Endeavors with participation from DCVC, Amplo, BoxGroup and Lightning Capital. More Here

Canary Speech, a Provo, UT-based AI-powered voice biomarker health tech company, raised $13m in Series A funding. The round was led by Cortes Capital (Love’s Private Equity), with participation from Sorenson Communications, SMK, and Hackensack Meridian Health. More Here

Light, a Copenhagen, Denmark-based creator of a fully automated general ledger for multinationals, raised $13M in seed funding. The round was led by Atomico, with participation from Entrée Capital, Cherry Ventures and Seedcamp, as well as Professional Athlete Mario Götze. As part of this round, Atomico Partner Andreas Helbig will join Light’s board. More Here

Alida Biosciences, a San Diego, CA-based innovator in epigenomic research tools, raised $7.5m in Series A funding. The round was led by Genoa Ventures with participation from FusionX Ventures and Vertical Venture Partners. More Here

Restate, a Berlin, Germany-based startup that takes the guesswork out of building distributed applications, raised $7m in seed funding. The round was led by Redpoint Ventures, with participation from Essence VC, firstminute.capital, and several prominent angels including Jay Kreps and Neha Narkhede (co-founders of Confluent), Oli Pomel (founder of Datadog), Shawn “Swyx” Wang, and others. More Here

SaleSqueze, a Skofja Loka, Slovenia-based provider of a visual CPQ (configure, price, quote) platform, raised $1.5M in Seed funding. The round was led by Underline Ventures, with participation from Robin Capital, Fortech Investments, and angels Super-Angels, Klub 20, Xenia Muntean, Christoph Zoeller, and Björn W. Schäfer. More Here

Arya, a NYC-based provider of a holistic sexual wellness platform, raised $7.5M in Seed funding. The round was led by Patron and Play Ventures, with participation from At.inc/, Heracles Capital, Neil Parick, Harpreet Rai, Yasmin Lukatz and Naama Breckler. More Here

Gorilla, a Antwerp, Belgium-based technology company that enables energy retailers to gather and process vast amounts of critical data, raised €23M in Series B funding. The round was led by Headline with participation from existing investors Beringea and the Flemish investment company PMV. More Here

Gener8, a London, UK-based provider of an app empowering people to control and be rewarded from their data, raised £2M in funding, at £39M valuation. Backers included Tinie Tempah, Harry Redknapp, Peter Jones, Touker Suleyman, Tej Lalvani, among others. More Here

Finsall, a Bangalore, India-based insurance-first BNPL startup, raised INR 15 crore in a bridge funding. The round was led by Unicorn India Ventures and Seafund with additional involvement from other institutional investors. More Here

Danelfin, a Barcelona, Spain-based company developing AI-technology to enhance stock selection and portfolio management for retail investors, raised €2M in funding. The round was led by Nauta Capital, with participation from existing investors. More Here

Auxilius, a NYC-based provider of clinical trial financial management (CTFM) software, raised $10M in funding. The round was led by SignalFire. More Here

Upbots, a Kingstown, St. Vincent and the Grenadines-based provider of a crypto trading platform, received $4M in commitments from Sandstorm. More Here

Kardium Inc., the Vancouver, BC, Canada-based developer of the Globe® Mapping and Ablation System for the treatment of atrial fibrillation, raised US $104m in new financing. The round was led by existing investor Fidelity Management & Research Company, together with follow-on participation by funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc. and T. Rowe Price Investment Management, Inc. as well as new investor Durable Capital Partners LP. More Here

Rivia, a Zurich, Switzerland-based startup specializing in AI-driven analytics and clinical trial data infrastructure for Biotechs, raised €3M in Seed funding. The round was led by Speedinvest alongside Amino Collective and Nina Capital. More Here

Symbiotic, a developer of a shared security protocol that serves as a thin coordination layer, empowering network builders to control and adapt their own (re)staking implementation in a permissionless manner, raised $5.8M in Seed funding. The round was led by Paradigm and cyber•Fund. More Here

Venture Capital Updates

Foresite Capital, a San Francisco-based multi-stage healthcare and life sciences firm, closed its sixth fund at $900 million after a two-year fundraising effort. Despite its strong track record with 47 IPOs, 28 M&As, and 58 FDA-approved drugs, the firm faced challenges in raising the new fund due to limited partner constraints. The fund will back around 20 companies, with investments ranging from a couple of million up to $75 million, focusing on areas like genomics and artificial intelligence in healthcare. More Here

Friends & Family Capital, a Silicon Valley-based venture firm founded by Colin Anderson and John Fogelsong, announced a $118 million third fund, bringing their total capital to over $350 million. The firm focuses on rapidly growing B2B enterprise software and hardware companies with recurring revenue models, leveraging their expertise in building finance teams. Their approach aims to provide trusted partnership and support akin to a family-and-friends financing round. More Here

Parquest, a Paris, France-based independent mid-market private equity firm, closed its Parquest III, with total limited partner commitments of €414M. The fund received commitments from existing limited partners, as well as fifteen new investors from across France and internationally. More Here

InTandem Capital Partners, a NYC-based middle-market private equity firm focused exclusively on healthcare services, closed InTandem Capital Partners Fund III, LP, with $715m in total capital commitments. Fund III secured commitments from a globally diversified group of existing and new investors, including leading endowments, foundations, family offices, healthcare and pension systems, and financial institutions. More Here

Featured Article

A Framework For Finding The Right Customers For Your MVP.

The foundation of any MVP is a problem, but it’s also critical that the user is aware of this problem.

While building MVP (Minimal Viable Product), Founders act like the “minimal” part is the goal. Or worse, that every potential customer should want it. In the real world, not every customer is going to get excited about your minimum feature.

The reality is that the MVP is -

a tactic to reduce wasted engineering hours (code left on the floor).
to get the product in the hands of early visionary customers as soon as possible.
You’re selling the vision and delivering the minimum feature to visionaries not everyone.

Why A Minimal Viable Product (Minimum Feature Set)?

The MVP is the inverse of what most sales and marketing groups ask of their development teams. Usually, the cry is for more features, typically based on “Here’s what I heard from the last customer I visited.”

The premise is that a very small group of visionary customers will guide your features until you find a profitable business. Rather than asking customers explicitly about features X, Y or Z. One approach to defining the minimum features set is to ask “What is the smallest or least complicated problem that the customer will pay us to solve?”

This rigour of “no new features until you’ve exhausted the search for a business model” counters a natural tendency of people who talk to customers – you tend to collect a list of features that if added, will get one additional customer to buy. Soon you have a ten-page feature list just to sell ten customers.

Most customers will not want a product with a minimal feature. In fact, the majority of customers will hate it. So why do it? Because you are selling the first version of your product to Earlyvangelists.

Earlyvangelists = Early Adopter + Internal Evangelist

“Earlyvangelists are risk-taking customers who envision your startup's potential to solve a critical problem for them, and have the budget to buy in early.”

Earlyvangelists can be identified by these characteristics (attached image):

They have a problem.
They understand they have a problem.
They are actively searching for a solution and has a timetable for finding it.
The problem is painful enough that they have cobbled together an interim solution.
They have, or can quickly acquire, dollars to purchase the product to solve their problem.

Early evangelists buy into the vision before the product itself. They need to fall in love with the idea. This vision will keep them committed through the inevitable mistakes and challenges.

But early evangelists will stick with you through good and bad because they share your vision.

Read detailed article in our Venture Curator Newsletter….

Startup’s Latest Buzz

Acquisition & Going Public

Pluxee, a Paris, France-based company which specializes in employee benefits and engagement, acquired Cobee, a Spanish employee benefits digital-native player. More Here

AlphaSense, NYC-based provider of a market intelligence and search platform, acquired Tegus, a Chicago, IL-based provider of expert research, private company content, and financial data and workflow tools, for $930m. More Here

Layoffs & Bankruptcy

FedEx is implementing job cuts across its back-office and commercial teams in Europe, aiming to reduce headcount by 1,700 to 2,000 employees as part of its cost-cutting measures. More Here

Startups & People

Tesla shareholders voted to approve a massive $56 billion pay package for CEO Elon Musk and to move the electric vehicle maker's legal headquarters to Texas. The vote marks a significant victory for Musk and Tesla's board, despite opposition from major investors. However, the result faces scrutiny from a Delaware court, which had previously invalidated the pay plan, saying the board was "beholden" to Musk. The shareholder approval aims to bolster Tesla's appeal, but legal experts question whether the court will allow the vote to be effective. More Here

Terraform Labs reached a $4.47 billion civil settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission after being found liable for defrauding cryptocurrency investors when the TerraUSD and Luna tokens collapsed in 2022, leading to estimated losses of $40 billion. The settlement includes $4.05 billion in disgorgement, a $420 million civil fine for Terraform, and an $80 million fine for founder Do Kwon, who agreed to be banned from crypto transactions. More Here

Latest In Emerging Tech

OpenAI is on track to achieve a staggering $3.4 billion in annual revenue, with $3.2 billion coming from its AI products and services, and $200 million from providing access to its AI models through Microsoft Azure. More Here

Helen Toner, a former OpenAI board member and director of strategy at Georgetown's Center for Security and Emerging Technology, expressed concerns about the potential for a "knee-jerk" reaction from Congress in AI policymaking due to the current gridlock. She highlighted the lack of comprehensive federal AI legislation and the increasing patchwork of state-level AI laws, which could lead to uncertainty for industry and consumers. Toner suggested that even a high-level federal mandate would be preferable to the current state of affairs, as it could provide common-sense guardrails and prevent the need for poorly-thought-through responses in the future. More Here

China's Ant Group invested a record 21.19 billion yuan ($2.92 billion) in technology research and development in 2023, primarily focusing on artificial intelligence. The firm received approval to release products powered by its "Bailing" AI language model, which is currently powering various AI assistants on its Alipay platform, including a "smart healthcare manager" and "smart financial manager". More Here

Apple once again surpassed Microsoft to become the world's most valuable company, with a market capitalization of $3.29 trillion, driven by a surge in its stock price following the unveiling of AI-enabled features and software enhancements for its devices. More Here

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