OpenAI Unveils Five-level Roadmap to AGI & Alphabet To Acquire Wiz at $23 Billion

☕Hey there, Welcome to today's quick rundown in the Venture Daily Digest Newsletter. We've got the scoop on startup fundraising, VC funds, and some cool tech – all in just 5 minutes!

Top News

Alphabet, Google's parent company, is reportedly in advanced talks to acquire cloud security company Wiz for around $23 billion, potentially marking its largest acquisition to date. Wiz, founded four years ago by former Microsoft employees, offers an all-in-one cloud security solution and recently raised $1 billion at a $12 billion valuation.

OpenAI has developed a five-level scale to measure progress toward AGI. The levels range from chatbots, reasoners, and agents to innovators and systems that can do the work of entire organizations. According to one source, OpenAI is on the cusp of level 2, or "reasoners." These systems should be able to solve problems as well as a human with a Ph.D., without the need for additional tools. OpenAI CTO Mira Murati recently predicted PhD-level AI in 1.5 years, while Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman believes it will take another two generations, or GPT-6/Level 3, for AI agents to act reliably.

Other Major News

• Synapse's collapse and bankruptcy freeze $160M in deposits, impacting 100 fintechs and 10M users, raising questions about the BaaS. (Scroll To Startup News)

• Canadian private equity firm PartnerOne has acquired HeadSpin, a mobile app testing company, in a fire sale following the company's founder being sentenced to prison for fraud. (Scroll To Startup News)

• Amazon Decision-Making Framework for founders. (Scroll To Featured Article)

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Startup Funding Updates

Mitti Labs, based in New York City with a subsidiary in Bengaluru, India, develops technology solutions to reduce methane emissions and water wastage in rice farming.Mitti Labs has raised $3 million in equity investment, with funding co-led by Lightspeed and Voyager, along with early support from Harvard Innovation Labs. More Here

Spotlight Medical, a Paris, France-based startup developing AI-driven prognosis tests, raised €6.2M in Seed funding. The round was led by Kurma Partners and Heal Capital. More Here

Miridih, a Seoul, South Korea-based company providing a SaaS-based design platform, raised $15M in Series B funding. The round was led by Kiwoom PE, Industrial Bank of Korea(IBK), Shinhan Venture Investment, and G.N. Tech Venture Capital. With this investment, Miridih’s post-money valuation has been recognized at KRW 280. More Here

Exein, a Rome, Italy-based embedded IoT cybersecurity company, raised €15M in Series B funding. The round was led by 33N with participation from Partech and existing investors United Ventures, eCAPITAL, and Future Industry Ventures. More Here

F1 Arcade, a Chicago, IL-based F1® experiential hospitality brand, raised $130M in growth funding. Backers included Cheyne Capital, Liberty Media Corporation, Permira Credit and OakNorth. More Here

Byway, a London, UK-based travel tech startup, raised £5M in Series A funding. The round was led by Heartcore Capital, with participation from Eka Ventures and re-investing angels. More Here

InvestBev, a Chicago, IL-based private equity firm which specializes in venture and growth investments in the adult beverage industry, received $50M facility from Victory Park Capital. More Here

Earned Wealth, a NYC-based tech-enabled financial services firm focused exclusively on the needs of medical professionals, raised $200M in funding. The round was led by Summit Partners and Silversmith Capital Partners with participation from existing investors Juxtapose, Hudson Structured Capital Management, and Breyer Capital. More Here

Switchee, a London, UK-based social housing technology provider, raised £5m in funding. Backers included Octopus Ventures, and existing investor AXA IM Alts. More Here

Tread.fi, a NYC-based high-performance algorithmic trading infrastructure company for institutional digital asset firms, raised $3.5m in pre-seed funding round. The round was led by New Form Capital with participation from Aquanow, and Varys Capital. More Here

Venture Capital Updates

Alpine Space Ventures, a Munich-based VC firm founded by former SpaceX engineer Bulent Altan and investor Joram Voelklein, has closed its first $184 million fund dedicated to space technology. The fund, backed by early SpaceX employees and major institutions like the European Investment Fund and NATO Innovation Fund, aims to invest in 10-15 companies building the space industry supply chain. More Here

Featured Article

Amazon Decision-Making Framework

In 2015 Amazon was a big company and no longer a startup, but their framework for decision-making is arguably more relevant for startups.

Founders need to make quick decisions, even amidst a lot of uncertainty, so it’s important to not only recognize which decisions are reversible or not, but also to use an entirely different decision-making process for both respective types.

• Reversible decisions → Emphasize speed. Make educated decisions but being fast is more important than being right.

• Irreversible decisions → Emphasize correctness. Take your time and gather all the necessary information. It’s better to be precise than aggressive with these.

Jeff Bezos laid this out in his 2015 shareholder letter when talking about Amazon’s “invention machine” process:

Previously we have shared this in our venture curator newsletter…. subscribe to it to get daily updates on startup tips….

Startup’s Latest Buzz

Acquisition & Going Public

Formlabs, a 3D printing company, has acquired Wisconsin-based startup Micronics to expand its accessible SLS printing technology. More Here

Nordic Capital, a German sector-specialist private equity investor, acquired a majority share in Sensio, an Oslo, Norway-based company which specializes in monitoring technology. More Here

insightsoftware, a global provider of reporting, analytics, and performance management solutions, acquired LeaseAcelerator, a Reston, Virginia-based provider of automated solutions for lease accounting, real estate lease administration, competitive lease sourcing, and lease lifecycle management.

Infor, a NYC-based industry cloud company, acquired Albanero, a data migration and management partner, and Acumen, a revenue growth management consulting company.

Layoffs & Bankruptcy

Startups & People

Synapse, a San Francisco-based BaaS fintech, collapsed after raising $50 million in VC funding. The startup filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in April 2024, later converting to Chapter 7 liquidation. Nearly $160 million in customer deposits remain frozen, affecting up to 100 fintechs and 10 million users. The collapse has raised questions about the banking-as-a-service model and impacted numerous other fintechs. More Here'

Canadian private equity firm PartnerOne has acquired HeadSpin, a mobile app testing company, in a fire sale following the company's founder being sentenced to prison for fraud. HeadSpin had previously raised $117 million and was valued at $1.1 billion in 2020, but the acquisition price is estimated to be between $20 million and $40 million. The sale has left most former employees with canceled stock options and no compensation, while former executives reportedly received severance packages.

Latest In Emerging Tech

Generative AI is widely believed to be transformative for businesses, but companies are seeking concrete metrics to justify their investments. CIOs face a paradox: they need to adopt AI to stay competitive, yet struggle to directly correlate AI implementation with improved business performance or revenue. This leaves decision-makers in a difficult position, having to invest in AI without immediate proof of its value, or risk falling behind competitors who are embracing the technology. As Jamin Ball suggests, companies may have to take a leap of faith, investing in AI for better user experiences and potential long-term benefits, even if short-term financial gains aren't immediately apparent.

A bipartisan group of senators has introduced the COPIED Act, which aims to protect artists, songwriters, and journalists from having their content used to train AI models without consent. The bill requires AI companies to implement content provenance information within two years, allowing content owners to set terms of use and seek compensation. Additionally, the legislation mandates the creation of standards for watermarking and synthetic content detection, giving creators more control over their work and the right to sue platforms that use their content without permission.

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