Open AI Rejects Musk's Lawsuit & Alphabet's $430 Million Fintech Startup Investment

👋 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!

• Monzo, London-based fintech company raised $430 Million from Google’s Venture Fund.

• Deel has acquired African-based payroll and HR software company PaySpace, marking its largest acquisition to date.

• OpenAI, the $80 billion AI startup, rejects Elon Musk's lawsuit, revealing it raised less than $45 million from Musk.

• Featured Article : VC: "I Don't Care About Your LTV/CAC Ratio!" Why?

• Daily Digest Board: Open AI Vs Musk. As you know, Musk is suing Open AI, and even Open AI has replied, rejecting all the claims by Musk. Who do you support? Why is Musk suing Open AI now?

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STARTUP FUNDING UPDATES

Monzo, London-based fintech company has raised a late-stage funding round of $430 million (£340 million) valued at $5 Billion. CapitalG, the growth fund of Google’s parent company Alphabet, is leading the round. More Here

Yuno, a Colombian payments orchestration startup, has raised $25 million in a Series A round led by DST Global Partners, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz and others. With a valuation of $150 million, Yuno plans to expand its global presence and enhance its payment infrastructure orchestration platform for large enterprises. More Here

Ema, a Mountain View, CA-based developer of next-generation AI solutions for enterprises, raised $25m in seed plus funding. Backers included Prosus Ventures and Accel. More Here

Multiverse Computing, San Sebastian, Spain, manufacturing and finance, wants to forge new efforts to work more closely with AI companies building and operating large language models. called has raised €25 million (or $27 million) in an equity funding round led by Columbus Venture Partners. More Here

Harness Wealth offering financial advice to startup founders and employees, has expanded into the tax advisory space and raised a $17 million extension to its Series A round, bringing that financing to $32 million. Three Fish Capital, the venture arm of the Galvin Family (founders of Motorola), led the latest financing, which included participation from existing backer Jackson Square Ventures & Day One Ventures. More Here

Stevenson Search Partners, a Fort Lee, NJ-based global life sciences executive search firm, received an undisclosed long-term investment from SixSibs Capital. More Here

Fused platform, New geospatial data startup streamlines satellite imagery visualization has raised $1 million pre-seed funding from Fontinalis Partners along with various industry angels. More Here

HData, a Birmingham, AL-based company using AI and automation to help the U.S. energy industry to file, explore, analyze, and leverage regulatory data, raised $10M in Series A funding. The round was led by Buoyant Ventures, with participation from Victorum Capital, Hyde Park Venture Partners, and Firebrand Ventures, among others. More Here

Ubicloud wants to build an open source alternative to AWS has raised a $16 million seed round co-lead by Y Combinator and 500 Emerging Europe. More Here

Taalas Inc., a Toronto, Canada-based innovator in AI and silicon, raised $50M over two rounds of funding. The rounds were led by Pierre Lamond and Quiet Capital. More Here

mPATH Health, a Winston-Salem, NC-based digital health company dedicated to improving cancer screening, raised $1.1M in funding. The round consisted in $706K in angel investments and $400K from a competitive National Cancer Institute Small Business Technology Transfer Grant, and included participation from Atlanta Technology Angels, FCP Ventures, First Launch Capital, RTP Angel Fund, and VentureSouth. More Here

Metaplane, a Boston, MA-based provider of a data observability platform for data teams, raised $13.8M in Series A funding. The round was led by Felicis, with participation Khosla Ventures, Flybridge, Y Combinator, Stage 2 Capital, B37, and SNR. More Here

DTEX Systems, a San Jose, CA-based insider risk management company, raised $50M in Series E funding. The round, which brought the total amount to $138M, was led by CapitalG. More Here

Phase Genomics, a Seattle, WA-based genomics technology development company, raised $1.5M in funding. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation provided the funding. More Here

Agio Ratings, a London, UK-based risk analytics company, raised $4.6M in Pre-Seed and Seed funding. The round was led by Superscrypt and was joined by Portage, along with MS&AD Ventures and angel investors. More Here

Rios Intelligent Machines, a Menlo Park, CA-based AI-powered robotics company focused on the manufacturing industry, raised $13M in Series B funding. The round was led by Yamaha Motor Corporation and IAG Capital Partners with participation from existing investors including Main Sequence, which doubled its pro-rata investment. More Here

Argyle, a NYC-based provider of direct-source income and employment data, raised $30M in funding. The round, which brought total funding raised to date to over $100M since inception, was led by Rockefeller Asset Management’s Fintech Innovation Fund, with participation from Bain Capital Ventures, SignalFire, and Checkr. More Here

Haiper, a London, UK-based video-generative AI platform building a foundation model for visual content, is coming out of stealth mode with $13.8M in seed funding. The round, which brought total funding to $19.2M ahead of it raising a Series A round in 2024, was led by Octopus Ventures. More Here

Overjet, a Boston, MA-based dental-AI company, raised $53.2M in Series C funding. The round, which brought total funding to approximately $133m, and increases the company’s valuation to $550m, was led by March Capital. More Here

RapidSOS, a NYC-based intelligent safety company, raised $75M in additional funding. The round, which brought the total round amount to $150M, was led by funds and accounts managed by BlackRock, with participation from NightDragon, BAM Elevate, the private investment division of Balyasny Asset Management, Manhattan Venture Partners, Acrew Capital, and Harmonic Growth Partners. More Here

Cellcolabs, Stockholm-based revealed it has now raised $8.7 million, taking the total amount it has raised to $21.5 million. The clinical-stage biotechnology startup raised the round from a number of investors, including Swedish investors Fredrik Österberg and Jens von Bahr. More Here

Growclass, a Toronto, Canada-based provider of courses and community specializing in Growth Marketing, received $1.7M in funding lead by Canadian Marketing Association. More Here

RemotePass, one such business out of the UAE, has raised $5.5 million in Series A funding led by Istanbul-based 212 VC. Other participating investors include Endeavor Catalyst, Khwarizmi Ventures, Oraseya Capital, Flyer One Ventures, Access Bridge Ventures, A15 and the Swiss Founders Fund. More Here

Openprise, a San Mateo, CA-based in revenue operations (RevOps) data automation company, raised $25M in Series B funding. The round was led by Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital. More Here

RemotePass, an Abu Dhabi, UAE-based provider of a HR and fintech platform, raised $5.5M in Series A funding. The round was led by 212 VC with participation from investors in the US, Europe, and the Middle East, including Endeavor Catalyst, Khwarizmi Ventures, Oraseya Capital, Flyer One Ventures, Access Bridge Ventures, A15, and Swiss Founders Fund. More Here

Meo, a Copenhagen, Denmark-based provider of an end-to-end platform helping clients with risk assessment and continuous due diligence, raised additional €1.67M in funding. The round saw participation from Scale Capital and EIFO Ventures, as well as a €1M loan from Gilion. More Here

Atmio, a Hamburg, Germany-based climate tech startup, emerged from stealth raising €1.3m in funding to date. Backers in a pre-seed/angel investor round included HCVC, Robin Capital, and Nucleus Capital, as well as Bernhard Mohr. More Here

Threedy, a Darmstadt, Germany-based spatial computing technology company, raised $10M in Series A funding. Backers included LBBW Venture Capital, Trumpf Venture, Futury Capital, and EquityPitcher Ventures. More Here

Cyclize, a Stuttgart, Germany-based ClimateTech startup, raised €5M in Seed funding. The round was led by UVC Partners. More Here

Arkis, a London, UK-based DeFi prime broker, raised $2.25M in Pre-Seed funding. The round was led by gumi Cryptos Capital, with participation from G1 Ventures, Blocklabs, and Roosh Ventures. More Here

Ubirider, a Porto, Portugal-based mobility fintech company, raised $1.95M in Seed funding. The round was led by Techtree Investments, and Cedrus R&D III. Existing investor Grupo Barraqueiro also participated, as well as two angel investors Jose Santos from the United States and Andrés Alcalá from Colombia. More Here

Catalog wants to build a software-as-a-service product that seamlessly manages B2B sales across several sales channels. It has raised a €3 million funding round (around $3.3 million at today’s exchange rate), with LocalGlobe leading the round. More Here

VENTURE CAPITAL UPDATES

Silas Capital, a NYC-based equity and venture capital firm, closed its Fund II, at $150M. The fund received support from prominent institutional investors including endowments, fund-of-funds, insurance companies, global asset managers, family offices and multi-national CPG companies. More Here

Corran Capital, an Edinburgh, Scotland, UK-based clean energy private equity firm, raised £80M for Corran II, its second fund. Investors in Corran II include US fund Lexington Partners, Strathclyde Pension Fund’s Direct Impact Fund and SSE plc. More Here

FEATURED ARTICLE

VC: "I Don't Care About Your LTV/CAC Ratio!" Why?

“I don't care about LTV/CAC ratio, what I care about is the velocity with which invested CAC comes back in the form of LTV which I called CACD.” Says Venture Capitalist.

What is D stand for in CACD. It’s doubled - CACD answers the question, “If we spend $12 in customer acquisition activities, how long does it take for us to get $24 back?”…. Read More Here

STARTUP’S LATEST BUZZ

ACQUISITION & EXITS

CapitalBox, a Stockholm, Sweden-based alternative financing company for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), acquired Omniveta, a Copenhagen, Denmark-based invoice purchasing company. More Here

Deel, a $12 billion HR startup, has acquired African-based payroll and HR software company PaySpace, marking its largest acquisition to date. More Here

LAYOFFS & SHUTDOWN

The Vancouver based Home fitness company BowFlex has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and agreed to sell the company to Johnson Health Tech for $37.5 million. The company experienced a surge in demand for its products during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 but faced challenges in managing excess inventory as demand waned and competition increased in the post-pandemic market. More Here

STARTUPS & PEOPLE

Miles Grimshaw has rejoined Thrive Capital as a general partner after a three-year stint at Benchmark. Thrive Capital, founded by Joshua Kushner, highlighted Grimshaw's past successes in leading investments in companies like Airtable and Monzo. The move comes amid reports that Thrive is seeking at least $3 billion in fresh capital to support its significant investments in technology startups. More Here

LATEST IN EMERGING TECH

OpenAI, the $80 billion AI startup, rejects Elon Musk's lawsuit, revealing it raised less than $45 million from Musk out of a promised $1 billion. The legal dispute revolves around OpenAI's transition to a for-profit model, with annual AGI development costs reaching billions. Musk claims OpenAI deviated from its open-source principles, while the company cites Musk's awareness of the shift and emphasizes its commitment to AGI benefiting humanity. More Here

Bitcoin reached a new all-time high exceeding $69,000 in March, marking a 60% monthly increase and a 205% surge in 2024. The rally is attributed to heightened demand post-U.S. spot bitcoin ETF approvals and anticipation of the upcoming bitcoin halving in mid-April. The total cryptocurrency market cap is now $2.55 trillion, with bitcoin comprising 52%, fueled by increased institutional interest and the approval of 11 spot bitcoin ETFs by the SEC in January. More Here

VENTURE DAILY DIGEST PICKS

• Two simple methods that can help founders to find whether they have achieved Product-Market Fit (PMF). Read Here

• How Do Convertible Notes Work? Read Here

• Klarna AI assistant handles two-thirds of customer service chats in its first month. Read Here

• What Happens When AI Performance Asymptotes? by Tomasz Tunguz. Read Here

DAILY DIGEST BOARD

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Yesterday’s Poll: 🤨 ( I don’t know why people are supporting the decision to require government permission just to release an AI model.)

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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