OpenAI Backed Autonomous Driving Startup Shut Down & Uber Eats' Competitor Filed For Bankruptcy

👋 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!

• Ghost Autonomy, a startup specializing in autonomous driving software backed by OpenAI shutdown it's operation.

• ASAP, a food delivery service and former competitor to Uber Eats and DoorDash, shuts down after 11 years due to bankruptcy.

• Amazon's AI checkout tech relies heavily on human review in India.

• AWS layoffs of several hundred employees.

• Trump Media & Technology Group is now the most shorted stock in the country,

• Featured Article : When The VCs Say “No” - By Marc Andreessen.

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Startup Funding Updates

Home From College, a Los Angeles, CA-based provider of a career platform, raised $5.4M in funding. The round was led by GV. More Here

Homebase, a San Francisco, CA-based company providing an HR and team management app, raised $60M in Series D funding. The round was led by Catterton Growth with participation from Emerson Collective, Notable Capital, Bain Capital Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Cowboy Ventures, and PLUS Capital. More Here

SiftHub, an AI startup founded by the former CTO and co-founder of LogiNext, Manisha Raisinghani, has raised $5.5 million in seed funding to build out its AI assistant, which is aimed at helping sales and presales teams focus more on building relationships and less on grunt work. The seed round was co-led by Matrix Partners India and Blume Ventures, with participation from Neon Fund as well as executives and founders from Superhuman, Cloudflare, DevRev, Razorpay and SuperOps. More Here

Gesture, a NYC-based gifting and delivery platform, received an undisclosed growth funding package from Decathlon Capital Partners. More Here

Full Glass Wine, a brand acquisition management startup that specializes in acquiring wine marketplaces, has raised a $14 million Series A round to continue acquiring DTC (direct-to-consumer) wine marketplaces, aiming to lead the DTC wine market. Shea Ventures led the Series A funding. More Here

Brim Financial, a Toronto, Canada-based fintech infrastructure company, raised $85M in Series C funding. The round was led by EDC Investments, and included participation from Vistara Growth alongside return investors White Owl Group, Epic Ventures, and Zions Bank. More Here

Netgain, a Denver, CO-based provider of software for finance and accounting teams, raised $35M in funding. The round was led by Summit Partners. More Here

Oros Labs, a Portland, OR-based thermal solutions company, raised $22M in Series B funding. The round was led by Airbus Ventures, with participation from REI Co-op Path Ahead Ventures, Platinum Mile Ventures, Culper Ventures, Crumpton Ventures, Iron Gate Capital Advisors, Enlightenment Capital, CTK and the Goldwin Play Earth Fund, among others. More Here

Constantinople, a Sydney, Australia-based tech and operations platform for banks, raised AUS$50m (USD$33m) in Series A funding. The round was led by Prosus Ventures, alongside existing investors Square Peg Capital, Airtree Ventures and Great Southern Bank. More Here

Vodex, a Bengaluru, India-based Gen AI company, raised $2m in seed funding. The round was led by Unicorn India Ventures, and Pentathlon Ventures. More Here

Mission Zero, a London, UK-based developer of direct air capture (DAC) technology, raised $21m in Series A funding. Backers included 2150, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, World Fund, Fortescue, and Siemens Financial Services. More Here

Higgsfield AI, a San Francisco, CA-based startup focused on democratizing social media video creation, raised $8m in seed funding. The round was led by Menlo Ventures, with participation from Charge Ventures, Bitkraft Ventures, K5 Tokyo Black, AI Capital Partners (Alpha Intelligence Capital’s U.S.-based fund) and DVC, among others. Angel investors include Nima Khajehnouri, Ilya Gelfenbeyn, Abhay Parasnis, Amar Hanspal, Jack Brody, and others. More Here

Conformation-X Therapeutics, a Canton, MA-based immune-oncology focused drug development company, raised a further tranche of funding of $3.65M. The round, which brought the total amount to $13.5M, saw participation from undisclosed investors. More Here

Medcura, a Riverdale, MD-based developer of hemostatic products for use in surgery, closed a $22.4m in in convertible debt. Backers were not disclosed. More Here

Allure Security, a Boston, MA-based online brand protection-as-a-service company, raised $10M in Series A funding. The round was led by Curql, with participation from Jens Montanana and existing investors Glasswing Ventures, Zetta Venture Partners, Gutbrain Ventures, and PBJ Capital. More Here

Biofidelity, a Cambridge, UK- and Morrisville, NC-based genomic technology company, raised $24M in funding. Backers included Agilent Technologies, Octopus Ventures, BlueYard Capital, and Longwall Ventures. More Here

Alsym Energy, a Woburn, MA-based developer of non-flammable rechargeable batteries for stationary storage, marine and mobility applications, raised $78M in funding. The round was led by Tata Limited and General Catalyst. Thrive Capital and Toronto-based Thomvest also joined in the round, as well as existing investor Drads Capital. More Here

Obsidian Therapeutics, a Cambridge, MA-based clinical-stage biotechnology company, raised $160.5M in Series C funding. The round was led by Wellington Management. Additional new investors including Foresite Capital, Janus Henderson Investors, Novo Holdings A/S, Paradigm BioCapital, RTW Investments, Woodline Partners LP, Atlas Venture, Blue Owl Healthcare Opportunities. More Here

NobleAI, a San Francisco, CA-based company which specializes in science-based AI solutions for chemical and material informatics, raised over $10M in Series A extension funding. The round was led by Sway Ventures joined by Dorilton Ventures. More Here

Permiso, a Palo Alto, CA-based threat detection company, raised $18M in Series A funding The round was led by Altimeter Capital with participation from Point72 Ventures. More Here

Aiorde, a UK based developer of advanced artificial intelligence (AI) investment analysis tools, raised $1M in Seed funding. The round saw participation from a group of private undisclosed investors. More Here

Nucleai, a Chicago, IL- and Tel Aviv, Israel-based spatial AI biomarker company, raised $14M in funding. The round was led by M Ventures, and supported by existing investors. More Here

TrojAI, a Saint John, NB-based provider of enterprise artificial intelligence (AI) security solutions, raised $5.75M in Seed funding. The round was led by Flying Fish with participation from current investors including Build Ventures and Techstars, as well as new investors Alteryx Ventures and Flybridge Capital Partners. More Here

Aico Group, an Espoo, Finland-based end-to-end financial close software platform for large enterprises, received majority equity investment from Accel-KKR. More Here

Miach Orthopaedics, a Westborough, MA-based company transforming the treatment of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tears from reconstruction to restoration with the Bridge-Enhanced ACL Restoration (BEAR®) Implant, raised $20M in Series B funding. Backers included Major League Soccer Players Association (MLSPA), SV Health Investors and Aperture Venture Partners. More Here

actnano, a Malden, MA-based company which specializes in surface protection technologies for automotive, consumer, and industrial electronics, raised $30M in funding. The round was led by Anthelion Capital. More Here

dappOS, a Singapore-based intent execution network operator, raised $15.3M in Series A funding, at a $300M valuation. The round was led by Polychain. Other investors included Nomad Capital, IDG, Flow Traders, IOBC, NGC, Amber Group, Uphonest, Taihill, Waterdrip, Bing Ventures, Spark Digital Capital, Satoshi Lab and Metalpha among others. More Here

HawkEye 360, a Herndon, VA-based provider of space-based RF data and analytics, received $40M in debt financing from Silicon Valley Bank. More Here

Raven SR, a Pinedale, WY-based renewable fuels company, raised $15M in funding. The round was led by Ascent Funds, with participation from existing investors Chevron New Energies, ITOCHU Corp. and Stellar J Corp. More Here

Delivery Collective, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of a merchant-first delivery infrastructure, raised $3.8M in funding. The round was led by defy.vc and Bling Capital with participation from Pathbreaker Ventures, GTM Fund, and 640Oxford Ventures. More Here

Datavolo, a Phoenix, AZ-based company which specializes in multimodal data pipelines for AI, raised over $21M in funding. The round was led by General Catalyst, with participation from investors including Citi Ventures, Human Capital, Rob Bearden, and MVP Ventures. More Here

Agora, a Jersey City, NJ-based provider of a digital dollar (aka stablecoin), raised $12M in Seed funding. The round was led by Dragonfly, with participation from General Catalyst, Hack VC, Kraken Ventures, as well as other funds and angels. Related strategic investors include Mirana Ventures, Mantle EcoFund, Foresight Ventures, Wintermute Ventures, Galaxy, and Consensys. More Here

Venture Capital Updates

Adenia, a Beau Plan, Mauritius-based private equity firm focused on growth opportunities in Africa, closed its fifth fund, Adenia Capital V, at $470M. AC(V) received commitments from new and existing investors globally. More than half (60%) of commitments secured came from investors, including DEG, EIB, FMO, IFC, Proparco, SIFEM and South Suez. More Here

DCVC's first climate-focused fund, DCVC Climate Select, faced fluctuating target goals, initially set at $500 million but later lowered to $300 million and then potentially around $400 million. Despite fundraising challenges, climate investing remains a hot spot attracting increasing VC attention. More Here

Maniv, a seed-stage VC firm originally focused on Israeli startups, expands globally with its $140 million fund Maniv III, emphasizing decarbonization and digitization in transportation. With a diverse investor base including Shell and BNP Paribas, it ventures into climate tech with investments in green hydrogen, chip design, e-motorcycle battery-swapping, and recycled plastic initiatives. More Here

Featured Article

When The VCs Say “No”...

Many founders come across posts like 'Startup founder secures funding after pitching to 100 VCs' and feel motivated to pitch to as many investors as possible.

I agree that one "no" doesn’t mean anything—the VC could just be having a bad day. But If you meet with five or six or eight VCs and they all say no, it’s not a coincidence. There is something wrong with your plan.

In fact, many founders are inspired by stories of startup founders securing funding after pitching to numerous VCs, but they often overlook the fact that these successful founders continuously refined their plans with each pitch.

Meeting with more VCs after a bunch have said no is probably a waste of time. Instead, retool your plan. How? ..…Read More Here

Startup’s Latest Buzz

Acquisition & Exits

Colohouse, a Tampa, FL-based portfolio company of Valterra Partners and a player in the colocation, cloud, hosting, and network services sector, has announced the acquisition of Hivelocity, a provider of bare metal hosting. More Here

ServiceTitan, a Los Angeles, CA-based software platform built to empower trades, acquired Convex, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of a sales and marketing platform purpose-built for the commercial services industry. More Here

Layoffs & Banktuptcy

Ghost Autonomy, a startup specializing in autonomous driving software, has ceased operations due to funding uncertainties. Despite raising $220 million and partnering with OpenAI, the company's shift in focus from consumer kits to crash prevention tech couldn't secure long-term viability. More Here

ASAP, a food delivery service and former competitor to Uber Eats and DoorDash, shuts down after 11 years due to bankruptcy, leaving customers without access. Originally known as Waitr, ASAP held 3% of the US food delivery market before ceasing operations. More Here

Elon Musk confirmed that his xAI artificial intelligence startup has been poaching engineers from another of his companies, Tesla. Musk used yet another of his companies, X, to explain, saying that one such Tesla engineer, Ethan Knight, was on the verge of going to OpenAI, “so it was either xAI or them.” More Here

Chicago Public Media, encompassing WBEZ and the Chicago Sun-Times, faces layoffs amidst financial challenges despite earlier assurances, sparking scrutiny over CEO Matt Moog's significant pay raise amid declining revenue and listenership. More Here

Amazon Web Services, which recently introduced palm payments for physical retail, just announced AWS layoffs of several hundred employees. More Here

Startups & People

Higgsfield AI, founded by former Snap head of generative AI Alex Mashrabov, launches Diffuse, a mobile-first video creation app powered by custom text-to-video models, targeting a wide range of creators with realistic scene generation and personalization features. Despite competition from OpenAI and others, Higgsfield aims to differentiate with its social-forward approach and plans to enhance its platform with advanced editing tools and tailored video generation models for social media marketing. More Here

Fresh off of going public last week via a SPAC merger, Trump Media & Technology Group is now the most shorted stock in the country, according to financial data company S3 Partners. More Here

Latest In Emerging Tech

The European Union and the U.S. are set to announce cooperation on AI at an upcoming EU-U.S. Trade and Technology Council meeting, focusing on AI safety, standardization, and AI for public good. More Here

Amazon has spent years promoting its AI-based checkout-free Just Walk Out technology. But a new report suggests that most Just Walk Out sales are reviewed by real people in India. Amazon is rolling back Just Walk Out at Amazon Fresh stores, shifting instead to smart shopping carts. More Here

Venture Daily Digest Picks

• YC’s Winter 2024 Demo Day confirms that we are indeed in an AI bubble. Read

• The One Slide, Most Founders Get Wrong When Fundraising. Read

• Product/Market Fit (PMF): Experience & Data by A Smart Bear. Read

• How Did Successful Startups Use Paul Graham’s “Do Things That Don’t Scale” Strategy? Read

How Can I Help You ?

• Build Your Pitch Deck : We write, design and model your pitch deck into a storyteller book within 4-5 days.

• Get Your MVP In 15 Days: Have an Idea? Turn your idea into Reality. Move fast before your competitors.

• Break Into VC: Join Our VC Enthusiast slack Community to learn, network and craft path to venture capital.

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

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✍️Written By Sahil R - The Venture Crew