OpenAI Plans To Launch Google Search Competitor & Mistral AI Raising $600 Million

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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 -

• Mistal AI, Paris-based focused on open source large language models, is raising around $600 million at a $6 billion valuation.

• OpenAI prepares to unveil its AI-based search tool, poised to rival Google and Perplexity.

• Google, under its parent company Alphabet, is contesting a $17 billion lawsuit in the UK over alleged anticompetitive practices in the online advertising market.

• Canadian regulators fined Binance C$6 million for breaching financial regulations, alleging failure to register as a foreign money services business.

• Featured Article : The Best Startup Pitch Deck & How to Present to Investors.

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STARTUP FUNDING UPDATES

Paris-based Mistral AI, focused on open source large language models, is raising around $600 million at a $6 billion valuation. Investors in the round include DST, General Catalyst, and Lightspeed Venture Partners. Mistral aims to compete with OpenAI and Anthropic in the generative AI space. More Here

Triomics, a San Francisco-based generative AI startup, aims to help match cancer patients with clinical trials using its OncoLLM platform that extracts data from electronic health records. It has raised $15 million in Series A funding from Lightspeed, Nexus Venture Partners, General Catalyst, and Y Combinator. More Here

Sikich, a Chicago, IL-based technology-enabled professional services company, received a minority growth investment of $250M from Bain Capital. More Here

Chip City Cookies, a NYC-based provider of a gourmet cookie chain, raised $7.5M in Series B funding. Enlightened Hospitality Investments made the investment. More Here

Fairgen, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based company generating AI responses to surveys, raised $8M in Seed funding. The round was led by Maverick Ventures Israel, with participation from Tal Ventures, IGNIA and Creator Fund. More Here

Bluejay Therapeutics, a San Mateo, CA-based company which specializes in the development of novel therapeutics, raised $182M in Series C funding. The round was co-led by Frazier Life Sciences with participation from both new and existing investors, including RA Capital Management, T. Rowe Price, Wellington Management, Novo Holdings, RiverVest Venture Partners, Octagon Capital, Arkin Bio Ventures, HBM Healthcare Investments and Unicorn Capital. More Here

Little Sparrows Technologies, a Woburn, MA-based neonatal medical device startup, raised $3M in Seed funding. The backers were not disclosed. More Here

CoverTree, a Detroit, MI-based insurtech company specializing in manufactured home insurance solutions, raised $13M in Series A funding. The round was led by Portage, with participation from investors such as AV8, Distributed Ventures, Detroit Venture Partners, Ludlow Ventures, Annox Capital, and others. More Here

Uxuy, a Singapore-based decentralized multi-chain trading platform, raised $7M in Pre-A funding. Backers included Binance Labs, UTXO Management (Bitcoin Magazine), JDI Ventures, Bixin Ventures, SWC Global, Matrix Partners, CMS Holdings, Dewhales Capital, Comma3 Ventures, Satoshi Labs, YBB Capital, GBV Capital, Web3Vision, Pentos Ventures, NGC Ventures, Alti5, Metalpha, GSR and others from across Asia, North America, and Europe. More Here

Kino, a Los Angeles, CA-based provider of an interactive digital cinema platform, raised $2.35M in Pre-Seed Extension funding. The round was led by Cathie Wood’s ARK Venture Fund, with participation from Lightning Capital, Hyperithm, Mindfulness, WAGMI, and others. Previusly, Kino raised a $2M pre-seed round which included Slow Ventures and Sequoia Capital, bringing its total pre-seed raise to more than $4.35M. More Here

DoorSpace, a Houston, TX-based B2B healthcare technology company, raised $2M in Seed funding. More Here

Cheetah Technologies, a San Francisco, CA-based restaurant supply technology and food distribution innovator, raised additional $14M in funding. More Here

Sift Healthcare, a Milwaukee, WI-based provider of AI-powered healthcare payment solutions, raised $20M in Series B funding. The round was led by B Capital, with continued support from existing investors, including Allos Ventures, First Trust Capital Partners and Rock River Capital. More Here

Archive Intel, an Atlanta, GA-based provider of communications archiving and compliance solutions driven by AI, raised $1M in Seed funding. The round was led by Social Leverage. More Here

Triomics, a San Francisco, CA-based company advancing generative AI models to streamline workflows for cancer centers, raised $15M in funding. Backers included Lightspeed, Nexus Venture Partners, General Catalyst and Y Combinator. More Here

Li Industries, a Pineville, NC-based developer of lithium-ion battery recycling technologies, raised $36M in Series B funding. The round was co-led by Bosch Ventures, Khosla Ventures and LG Tech Ventures with Formosa Smart Energy Tech Corp., Anglo American Decarbonization Ventures and Chevron Technology Ventures coming in as new investors. More Here

Aardvark Therapeutics, Inc., a San Diego, CA-based clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, raised $85m in Series C financing. The round was led by Decheng Capital, with participation from Cormorant Asset Management, Surveyor Capital, SymBiosis, Tetragon Financial Group, Walleye Capital, Laurion Capital Management, LG Technology Ventures, Cantor Fitzgerald & Co., Silver Arc Private Capital. More Here

Iconic Arts, a Los Angeles, a CA-based transmedia entertainment studio, raised $3.1M in funding, at a $20M Pre-Seed valuation. Backers included Eric Roth, Chris Heatherly, Mark Caplan, and Motoki Tani. More Here

Nami Surgical, a Glasgow, Scotland, UK-based company which specializes in robotic-assisted surgery, raised $4M in investment and grant funding. Eos Advisory (Eos) led the seed $3.1M round alongside the Investment Fund for Scotland. More Here

Lagrange Labs, a NYC-based company which specialises in scaling blockchain computation, raised $13.2M in Seed funding. The round was led by Founders Fund, with participation from Archetype Ventures, 1kx, Maven11, Fenbushi Capital, Volt Capital, CMT Digital, Mantle Ecosystem Fund and various angels. More Here

Commit Biologics, an Aarhusm, a Denmark-based company which specializes in activating the complement system to treat cancer and autoimmune disease, raised €16M in Seed funding. Backers included Bioqube Ventures and Novo Holdings. More Here

Zenas BioPharma, a Waltham, MA-based biopharmaceutical company developing inflammation and immunology-directed therapies, raised $200M in Series C funding. The round was led by SR One, NEA, Norwest Venture Partners, and Delos Capital with participation from Enavate Sciences, Longitude Capital, the Federated Hermes Kaufmann Funds, and Arrowmark Partners, along with existing investors, Fairmount, Wellington Management, Rock Springs Capital, Pivotal bioVenture Partners, Vivo Capital, Quan Venture Fund, and Superstring Capital. More Here

Pascal, a Cambridge, MA-based startup developing heat pumps, air conditioners and refrigerators based on solid refrigerants, raised $8M in Seed funding. The round was led by Engine Ventures, with participation from Khosla Ventures and previous investor Blindspot Ventures. More Here

Outpave, a Frisco, TX-based spend management startup, raised $1.2M in Seed funding. The round was led by Fritz-Pak Corporation. More Here

ArkeaBio, a Boston, MA-based ag-biotech startup, raised $26.5M in Series A funding. The round was led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV), with participation from The Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment, AgriZeroNZ, Rabo Ventures, Overview Capital, and The51 Food & AgTech Fund. More Here

Hysata, a Wollongong, Australia-based company developing electrolysers that aim to produce green hydrogen, raised USD$111M in Series B funding. The round was led by bp Ventures and Templewater, with participation from IP Group Australia, Kiko Ventures (IP Group plc’s cleantech platform), Virescent Ventures on behalf of Clean Energy Finance Corporation, Hostplus, Vestas Ventures, BlueScopeX, POSCO Holdings, POSCO E&C, IMM Investment Hong Kong, Shinhan Financial Group, Twin Towers Ventures, Oman Investment Authority’s VC arm IDO and TelstraSuper. More Here

FleetPulse, a Chicago, IL-based trailer telematics solution provider, announced its launch as an independent company with $11M in seed funding. The round was led by Four More Capital. More Here

Mycocycle, a Chicago, IL-based nature-inspired, woman-owned biotechnology company, raised $3.6M in funding. The round was led by Closed Loop Partners’ Ventures Group, with participation from TELUS Pollinator Fund for Good, U.S. Venture, and the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity INVENT Fund. More Here

BlockBooster, a Hong Kong-based venture studio facilitating the development of protocols and software infrastructure in Web3, raised US$1.5M in Seed funding. The round was led by OKX Ventures with participation from Conflux Network, Neighbor Capital Series, IceRiver Venture, and Bitcoin Lab, among others. More Here

RunPod, a Mount Laurel, NJ-based company that empowers developers to deploy custom full-stack AI applications, raised $20M in Seed funding. The round was led by Intel Capital and Dell Technologies Capital with participation from Julien Chaummond, Nat Friedman, and Adam Lewis. More Here

Rapid Liquid Print, a Boston, MA-based additive manufacturing startup, raised USD7M in Series A funding. The round was led by HZG Group with participation from existing investors BMW i Ventures and MassMutual. More Here

VENTURE CAPITAL UPDATES

Investcorp, a London, United Kingdom-based alternative investment firm, closed its Investcorp Technology Partners V fund, at $570m in total commitments. The fund received commitments from new and existing LPs in Europe, North America, Asia, and the GCC. More Here

EnCap Energy Transition, a Houston, TX-based provider of growth capital to the independent sector of the U.S. energy industry, closed its Energy Transition Fund II, at $1.5M Billion. The firm’s second energy transition fund is focused on low carbon power infrastructure, low carbon fuels, and carbon management investments. More Here

Silver Lake, the global technology investor, closed Silver Lake Partners VII, at $20.5 billion in capital commitments. Investors in Silver Lake Partners VII include public and corporate pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, insurance companies, endowments, foundations, funds of funds, family offices, technology industry leaders and individual investors across the Americas, Asia-Pacific, and EMEA. More Here

FEATURED ARTICLE

The Best Startup Pitch Deck & How to Present to Investors.

Pitch deck has one purpose - to drive enough interest to schedule a meeting. That’s it. And the goal of the first meeting is to get another meeting.

So as a founder it's important to build the right pitch deck and present the right things in the first call. The attached pdf will give you an idea on building the right pitch deck and how to present to investors.

It includes:

1. The “Best” Pitch Deck Template – What slides to include. Scalable: 5-30 slide deck options.

2. Slides Example

3. The “Best” Pitch Deck – What to include on each slide

4. Top Pitch Deck Guidelines

5. Before The Pitch

6. How To Pitch Effectively

7. Top Investor Questions : Company and Capital raising questions.

Things to remember while fundraising:

1. There are no right number of slides, only critical points you need to cover! 2. Be 10x better (at one thing vs. doing 10x more things). Being 2-3x better isn’t good enough!

2. Focus on your customers #1 problem, not 10th problem

3. Prepare yourself for rejection, ask why and learn (don’t take it personally)

4. Biggest competition to raising capital: Companies with equally great (or better) ideas and teams, but more traction at your stage (If you were a VC, which would you pick?)

5. Best Opportunity: A big growing market, with a big problem, and an elegant solution, where you can achieve LTV > CAC

6. You don’t know, the market does! Ask often. ….Read More Here

STARTUP’S LATEST BUZZ

ACQUISITION & EXITS

Alphabet, Google's parent company, is reportedly in talks to acquire marketing software provider HubSpot in a potential $30 billion deal. More Here

LAYOFFS & BANKRUPTCY

STARTUPS & PEOPLE

Eva Ho, co-founder of Fika Ventures, plans to step back from her role as general partner for personal reasons after Fund III. She'll maintain control over existing investments and remain active while the fund deploys the rest of its capital. More Here

LATEST IN EMERGING TECH

OpenAI prepares to unveil its AI-based search tool, poised to rival Google and Perplexity. More Here

Google, under its parent company Alphabet, is contesting a $17 billion lawsuit in the UK over alleged anticompetitive practices in the online advertising market. The lawsuit, seeking damages of up to £13.6 billion, is brought by publishers in the UK who claim losses due to Google's dominance. Despite the accusations, Google argues that the case lacks coherence and fails to demonstrate how its conduct caused harm to the publishers. More Here

Canadian regulators fined Binance C$6 million for breaching financial regulations, alleging failure to register as a foreign money services business and not reporting over 5,900 crypto transactions above $10,000. This follows Binance's $4.3 billion fine in the U.S. for anti-money laundering violations and its former CEO's four-month prison sentence. Binance is also embroiled in legal battles in Nigeria, accused of money laundering and tax evasion, with an American executive charged with similar crimes. More Here

Reddit introduces a new Public Content Policy to regulate access to its data, aiming to balance licensing agreements and user privacy. While non-commercial access for research purposes will continue, commercial entities will now require contracts to use Reddit's data, including for AI training. More Here

TikTok is now automatically labeling AI-generated content from other platforms using Content Credentials, ensuring transparency for viewers globally. This move comes as part of TikTok's commitment to combat deceptive AI and provide clarity for creators and viewers alike. More Here

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 On Monday. Happy Weekend! ☕

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