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OpenAI's $30 Million Investment In Six Year Old AI Startup & Apple debuts AI-boosted iPhone 16

OpenAI's $30 Million Investment In Six Year Old AI Startup & Apple debuts AI-boosted iPhone 16

Venture Daily Digest - 10/09/2024

Venture Daily Digest
September 10, 2024

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☕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!

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🗞️ Startup Funding Updates

Open AI & Thrive Capital invested $30 Million in Chai Discovery, an artificial intelligence biology startup founded six months ago, to bring AI to drug discovery.

PIN AI, a pioneering AI infrastructure company, announces $10 million in pre-seed funding to develop the world’s first open-source Personal Intelligence Network (PIN). A16z CSX, Hack VC lead this round.

Mangomint, a Los Angeles, CA-based salon and spa software provider, raised $35M in Series B funding. The round was led by Altos Ventures, with participation from Jason Lemkin’s SaaStr Fund and existing investor OpenView Venture Partners. In addition to the equity round, Mangomint also secured $12M in venture debt issued by Avidbank.

Superluminal Medicines, a Boston, MA-based company that uses generative biology, chemistry and machine learning approaches to create medicines, raised $120M in Series A funding. The round was led by RA Capital Management with participation from existing investors Insight Partners, NVentures (NVIDIA’s venture capital arm), and Gaingels.

CardiaTec, a Cambridge University spinout based in the UK, uses AI to analyze biological data for cardiovascular disease drug discovery. The startup raised $6.5 million in seed funding led by Montage Ventures, with participation from Continuum Health Ventures, Laidlaw Ventures, Apex Ventures, and angel investors.

double jump.tokyo, a Tokyo, Japan-based startup that specializes in Web3 solutions and developing blockchain games, raised $10M in funding. The round, which marked the first closing of double jump.tokyo’s Series D, was led by SBI Investment with participation from Gate Ventures, Sony Group Corporation, Taisu Ventures, and Kitadenshi Inc., among others.

Odigos, a NYC-based provider of an eBPF-based observability platform, raised $13M in funding. The round was led by Venture Guides with participation from Salesforce Ventures, Mango Capital and Firestreak Ventures, and angel investors including Martin Mao, CEO and Co-founder of Chronosphere, Christine Yen, CEO and Co-founder of Honeycomb and Ben Sigelman, Co-founder and CEO of Lightstep (acquired by ServiceNow).

CSA Medical, a Boston, Ma-based developer of The RejuvenAir® System, a medical device advancing liquid nitrogen spray cryotherapy for the treatment of chronic bronchitis, raised $53M in Series D funding. The round was co-led by TVM Capital Life Science and Yonjin Venture, with participation from SV Health Investors, Ascension Ventures, First Analysis, Blue Heron, and Intersouth Partners.

Cercli, a Dubai, UAE-based provider of an HR and Payroll platform for direct employees, contractors and EOR in MENA, raised $4M in Seed funding. The round was led by Afore Capital, with participation from COTU Ventures, Y Combinator and Rebel Fund, alongside Karim Atiyeh, Sebastian Mejia, Tony Dong, Tony Jamous, Allison Pickens, the founders and executives from unicorns Kitopi, Careem and other MENA-based startups.

Calyxia, a Paris, France-based industrial B2B Cleantech innovator, certified B Corp, specializing in advanced and biodegradable microcapsules and microparticles for use in Consumer Goods, Crop Protection and Advanced Materials, raised $35m in Series B funding round. The round was led by Lombard Odier Investment Managers, through its Plastic Circularity Fund and Bpifrance, through its Large Venture Fund, with participation from existing investors including Astanor.

OrsoBio, Inc., a Menlo Park, CA-based clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing treatments for obesity and obesity-associated disorders, closed a $67m Series B financing. The round was co-led by new investors Ascenta Capital and Woodline Partners, with significant participation from existing investors Samsara Biocapital, Longitude Capital, Enavate Sciences, NuevaBio, and Eli Lilly and Company.

NetNow, a Toronto, Canada-based provider of a trade credit automation platform that automates the credit and collections process for wholesalers and distributors, raised $1.8M in Pre-Seed funding. The round was led by Ripple Ventures, with participation from Centre Street Partners, Antler, Motivate Venture Capital, and Day One Ventures.

Candid Therapeutics, a San Diego, CA-based biotechnology company dedicated to developing potentially transformative drugs to address autoimmune diseases, raised $370M in funding. The round was co-led by Venrock Healthcare Capital Partners, Fairmount, TCGX, and venBio Partners.

Bambusa Therapeutics, a Boston, MA-based biotechnology company focused on developing bispecific antibodies for the treatment of immunological and inflammatory (I&I) disorders, raised approx. $15M in Series Seed funding. The round was co-led by BVF Partners L.P. and Dawn Biopharma, with participation from Salvia GmbH and INCE Capital.

Korint, a Paris, France-based insurtech startup, raised €5m in funding. The round, which brought total funding raised to date to €7m, was led by Ventech with participation from 360 Capital.

Citroniq Chemicals, a Houston, TX-based producer of carbon-negative materials, raised $12M in Series A funding. Backers included a large multi-national energy technology company providing large rotating equipment across oil & gas, energy and industrial customers in over 120 countries, Lummus Technology Ventures, and in partnership with the State of Nebraska.

Espislogen, a London, UK-based company which specializes in the development of immunoglobulin E (IgE) antibodies to treat cancer, raised £12.5M in Series B funding. The round, which brought the total amount to £43.25M, included participation from British Patient Capital, Novartis Venture Fund, Epidarex Capital, 3B Future Health Fund and ALSA Ventures.

MirrorWeb, an Austin, TX-based leader in the digital communications archiving, supervision, and surveillance software space, raised $63M in funding. The round was led by Mainsail Partners.

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📰 Venture Capital Updates

Atomico, a major European VC firm, has raised $1.24 billion across two new funds: $485 million for early-stage and $754 million for growth-stage investments. This split approach allows Atomico to cater to different investor risk appetites and focus on both early and later-stage startups.

Alpha Partners, founded by Steve Brotman in 2014, specializes in helping early-stage VCs maintain ownership in promising startups during later funding rounds. The firm recently announced a $153 million third fund, nearly tripling its previous fund size. Alpha Partners typically invests $5-10 million in Series B or later rounds, focusing on companies with over $10 million in revenue, 50% annual growth, and leadership in their category.

📌 Featured Article

How to Validate Your Startup Idea Before Building Anything?

Did you know that over 35% of startup failures happen because they launch products that ultimately have no market need? This is an avoidable risk. It’s not just about talking to users and gathering insights—it’s more than that. Every product development journey follows a familiar pattern:

Day 1: 'This is going to be huge.'
Day 90: 'This is terrible...'

Many founders today focus solely on building products and testing them. But there are other, more effective ways to validate your business ideas with the market.

Market validation is the process of confirming that people will buy your product or service.

Doing this early on can save you from wasting time and resources on something that won’t work. It also increases your chances of attracting investor interest.

Once you’ve validated your idea, you’ll have a clearer understanding of how your product can meet your customers’ needs. The insights you gain will allow you to create an offering that not only solves their problems but also converts them into paying customers.

How To Test Your Business Ideas With Low-To-No Budget

You could spend tens of thousands of dollars on detailed market surveys or focus groups, but assuming you’re not a multinational conglomerate you’ll probably be wanting to validate your market more cost-effectively. Luckily, there are some very effective ways to do this. Here are 4 ways you can do market validation for less than.. Read Here

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📑 Startup’s Latest Buzz

Acquisition & Going Public

Indus Valley Partners, a NYC- and Noida, India-based provider of software and technology solutions, acquired IntegriDATA, a NYC-based company which specializes in alternative investment software solutions.

Wunder Mobility, a Hamburg, Germany-based provider of software and hardware solutions for vehicle sharing, acquired GoUrban, a Vienna, Austria-based software provider for vehicle-sharing operators.

Layoffs & Bankruptcy

Italian app developer Bending Spoons plans to lay off 75% of WeTransfer's staff, following its acquisition of the file-sharing platform in July. The exact number of layoffs is yet to be determined, according to CEO Luca Ferrari.

Startups & People

SpaceX's Polaris Dawn mission, set to launch Tuesday, aims to conduct the first-ever private spacewalk and reach the farthest distance from Earth since Apollo. The four-person crew, including a billionaire entrepreneur and SpaceX employees, will use new spacesuits and a redesigned spacecraft during the five-day mission.

🤖 Latest In Tech

Elon Musk announced that SpaceX plans to launch its first missions to Mars with the Starship rocket in November 2026, utilizing the next Earth-Mars transfer window. The announcement comes just two days after China’s space agency pushed forward its own mission to Mars by two years, rescheduling the Tianwen-3 sample return mission to 2028 instead of the original date. SpaceX's ambitious Mars mission timeline hinges on the development of the Starship, aiming to carry 100 people, with hopes of creating a self-sustaining colony on Mars by 2050.

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