Reddit IPO in March 2024 & General Catalyst Acquiring Indian VC Firm

🗞️ TODAY’S MAJOR UPDATES

• Reddit is reportedly planning to go public in March, joining a wave of IPOs in 2024 that includes Circle and Shein.

• General Catalyst, one of the largest U.S. venture capital firms, is in talks to acquire an India-focused VC - Venture Highway.

• NASA's Ames Research Center has developed a self-assembling robotic structure called ARMADAS.

• Featured Article : Steve Jobs - ‘Don’t Ask Your Customers What They Want, Why?’

• What Do You Think:

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💰 MASSIVE FUNDING UPDATES

Myrealtrip, The Seoul-based travel-tech startup, has raised $56.7 million (75.6 billion KRW) in a Series F equity round of funding. This round co-lead by BlueRun Ventures Korea and IMM Investment. More Here

Ratio Therapeutics, a Boston, MA-based pharmaceutical company, raised $50M in Series B funding. The round, which brought the total amount to $90M, was led by Schusterman and Duquesne and others such as PagsGroup, Bristol Myers Squibb and the Center for Technology Licensing at Cornell University. More Here

Briq, a platform designed to allow all departments of a construction company to automate financial workflows such as accounts payable and payroll, has raised $8 million in an extension round at a $150 million valuation. This round lead by the tiger global management. More Here

Sploot Veterinary Care, a Denver, CO-based technology-driven, and comprehensive veterinary care platform providing an elevated experience to pets, pet parents, and veterinary professionals, received an undisclosed strategic investment from L Catterton. More Here

Klin, French crypto startup closed a $17 million funding round in December 2023; 1kx is leading the round with Crypto.com, IOSG, Wintermute Ventures, KXVC and LBank also participating. Some existing investors also put more money in the company. More Here

SmartLabs, a Boston, MA-based provider of flexible laboratory infrastructure and resourcing solutions, raised $48M in Series C funding. The round included participation from ArrowMark Partners, Winslow Capital Management, and Conversion Venture Capital (CVC2). More Here

Farm-ng, Bay are based farm tech startup wokring on modular concept to work with farmers, announced a $10 million Series A. The round, led by Acre Venture Partners, follows last March’s seed round. More Here

International Battery Company, a Sunnyvale, CA-based product and technology company that specializes in the creation of eco-friendly, large-sized rechargeable Prismatic Li-ion NMC batteries, raised USD 35M in funding. The round was led by RTP Global, with participation from Beenext, Veda VC, and other strategic Korean and US Investors. More Here

Safary, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of a web3 alternative to Google Analytics, raised $2.4M in Pre-Seed funding. The round was led by Lemniscap, with participation from Arca, SevenX, Big Brain Holdings, Saison Capital, Diaspora Ventures, and 20 web3 angel investors. More Here

Kashable, a NYC-based fintech platform that provides socially responsible credit and financial wellness solutions as an employer-sponsored voluntary benefit, raised $25.6m in Series B funding. The round was co-led by Revolution Ventures and Moneta Ventures, with participation from EJF Capital and Krillion Ventures. More Here

DailyPay, a NYC-based on-demand pay company, secured over $175m in debt and equity funding from city bank and carrick capital partner. More Here

Alphathena, a Warrenville, IL-based AI-powered direct indexing platform for Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs), secured a $4m investment. The round was led by ETFS Capital, with participation from Hyde Park Angels. More Here

Cart, a Houston, TX-based provider of unified commerce and logistics solutions that enable merchants to sell and fulfill anywhere, secured a $70m debt facility from Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), a division of First Citizens Bank. More Here

Oleria, a Bellevue, WA-based company providing adaptive and autonomous identity security solutions, raised $33.1M in Series A funding. The round, which brought the total amount to over $40M, was led by Evolution Equity Partners with participation from Salesforce Ventures, Tapestry VC, and Zscaler. More Here

Kusari, a Ridgefield, Conn.-based software supply chain security startup, raised $8m in Pre-Seed and Seed Round funding. The Seed was led by J2 Ventures and co-led by Glasswing Ventures with participation from Unusual Ventures, which previously invested $2m in Pre-Seed funding. More Here

Kiln, a Paris, France-based provider of an enterprise-grade staking platform, closed a $17m funding round. The round was led by 1kx, with participation from IOSG, Crypto, Wintermute Ventures, KXVC, LBank and existing investors. More Here

Reservoir Neuroscience, an Emeryville, CA-based developer of new therapies for age-related neurodegeneration, closed a $4M financing round. The round was led by Kizoo Technology Capital, with additional participation from previous investors R42 Fund and Healthspan Ventures. More Here

Digital Onboarding, a Boston, MA-based SaaS customer relationship company, raised $58M in Growth funding. The round was led by Volition Capital. More Here

HutanBio, a Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, UK-based biotechnology company, raised £2.25M in funding. The round was led by Clean Growth Fund. More Here

Recraft, a London, UK-based professional AI graphic design generator, raised $12M in Series A funding. The round was led by Khosla Ventures and Nat Friedman, with participation from RTP Global, Abstract VC, Basis Set Ventures, Elad Gil, Zhenya Loginov, Dharmesh Shah, and Akshay Kothari. More Here

💰 VENTURE CAPITAL UPDATES

General Catalyst, one of the largest U.S. venture capital firms, is in talks to acquire an India-focused VC - Venture Highway as part of efforts to expand its presence in the fast-growing South Asian startup market and planning to invest $500M in next two years. More Here

Act One Ventures, a Los Angeles, CA-based early stage venture capital firm, closed its third fund, at $73m. Act One Ventures Fund III will allow Act One to continue to invest in business software companies at the Seed stage, specifically those in vertical SaaS, fintech, compliance, and ecommerce infrastructure, with initial checks ranging from $1m to $2m. More Here

Windjammer Capital Investors, a Waltham, MA- and Newport Beach, CA-based private equity investment firm, closed its sixth fund, Windjammer Capital Fund VI, at $1.3 Billion. More Here

𝕏 FEATURED: TODAY’S FEATURED ARTICLE

Steve Jobs - ‘Don’t Ask Your Customers What They Want, Why?’

Jobs’ product-creation philosophy was to avoid asking customers what they wanted because their answers would be predicated on what they already knew based on existing products.

On the contrary, instead of focusing just on the functional needs of customers, he observed what they were trying to accomplish on a social and emotional level as well.

“If I’d done what my customers wanted, then I would have built a faster horse,” he famously declared.… Read More Here

💡 SARTUP’S LATEST BUZZ

Going Public

Reddit is reportedly planning to go public in March, joining a wave of IPOs in 2024 that includes Circle and Shein. While Reddit's consumer-focused model is different from most tech unicorns, a successful IPO could boost confidence for companies across various sectors looking to go public. More Here

Acquisition

The European Union's competition watchdog plans to block Amazon.com's (AMZN.O), opens new tab $1.4 billion acquisition of robot vacuum maker iRobot (IRBT.O). More Here

Kindeva Drug Delivery, a Woodbury, Minnesota-based global leader in drug-device combination products, acquired Summit Biosciences Inc., a Lexington, KY-based intranasal drug-delivery contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO), from its founding family shareholders. More Here

Nextiva, a Scottsdale, AZ-based provider of customer experience solutions, acquired Thrio, a Calabasas, CA-based contact center software company with expertise in AI-driven customer experience. More Here

LiveRamp (NYSE: RAMP), a San Francisco, CA-based provider of a data collaboration platform, acquired Habu, a San Francisco, CA- and Boston, MA-based data clean room software provider, in a cash and stock transaction valued at approximately $200M. More Here

Layoffs & Shutdown

Los Angeles Times plans to lay off a "significant" number of journalists, around 100 journalist or 20%. More Here

🤖 LATEST IN EMERGING TECH

Figure announced a commercial agreement to deploy its humanoid robot, Figure 01, at a BMW manufacturing facility in South Carolina. The robot, with a focus on dexterous manipulation, will initially perform tasks like box moving and pallet loading. Figure plans to ship its first commercial robot within a year, employing a Robotics as a Service (RaaS) model. More Here

NASA's Ames Research Center has developed a self-assembling robotic structure called ARMADAS (Automated Reconfigurable Mission Adaptive Digital Assembly Systems) for constructing buildings on the moon or Mars. The system uses two types of robots, one transporting cuboctahedral frames called voxels and another fastening them in place. The robots can work autonomously, and the technology is adaptable for constructing communication towers, shelters, and other structures in austere environments. More Here

📰 TODAY’S MUST READ ON: STARTUP, TECH & VC

• Steve Jobs: 'The Half-Truth of First-Mover Advantage' Read More (Startups)

• One Type of Founder Investors Hate Funding Read More (Startups)

• TAM - that's Totally A Made Up Number. Read More (Startups)

• Don't track LTV/CAC; Instead track LTV/CACD, Why? Read More (Startups)

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That’s It For Today! Will Meet You Monday!
Happy Weekends! 🥂

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✍️Written By Sahil R | Venture Crew Team