Sam Altman's Worldcoin Project Temporarily Halted & Perplexity Reached $1 Billion Valuation

👋 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!

• Spain's data protection authority temporarily banned Sam Altman's Founded WorldCoin.

• Apple has terminated Epic Games' developer account, reversing its earlier approval and citing a "serious violation" of DMA.

• Perplexity AI is nearing a funding round valuing the startup at $1 billion, double it’s valuation in 2 months.

• Accenture is acquiring online learning platform Udacity in order to launch an online training platform.

• Featured Article : VC: "I Don't Care About Your LTV/CAC Ratio!" Why?

• Daily Digest Board: Perplexity.ai has recently doubled its valuation within two months, reaching unicorn status! I'm curious about how many of you using Perplexity compared to Google's Search Tool.

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STARTUP FUNDING UPDATES

Fluent, a London, UK-based provider of a business data analytics platform, raised $7.5M in Seed funding. The round was led by Hoxton Ventures and Tiferes Ventures. More Here

Ukrainian startup Kurs Orbital, aims to become a leading supplier of rendezvous and docking technology founded by space industry veterans, raised €3.7 million ($4 million) in a seed round led by OTB Ventures to advance its satellite servicing technology. More Here

Jabali, a San Francisco, CA- and Raleigh, NC-based AI company advancing a generative AI game engine, raised $5M in Seed funding. The round was led by BITKRAFT Ventures with participation from Sapphire Sport, Sony Innovation Fund, Canonical Ventures, and angels from Amazon, Google AI, Open AI, and Pinterest. More Here

k-ID aims to helps game developers comply with ever-changing child safety regulations has raised a total of $5.4 million from both pre-seed and seed funding rounds led by Investors include a16z Games Speedrun, Konvoy Ventures and TIRTA Ventures. More Here

Tava Health, a Salt Lake City, UT-based mental health company, raised $20M in Series B funding. The round was led by Catalyst Investors. Existing investors Peterson Partners, Toba Capital, and SpringTide, along with new investor Blue Heron Capital, also participated. More Here

Fluent, U.K. based startup poised to make lumbering business intelligence tools easier and faster to use has closed a $7.5 million seed investment round led by Hoxton Ventures and Tiferes Ventures. More Here

Betr, a Miami, FL-based sports gaming and sports media company, closed $15M in strategic equity financing, at a $375M valuation. The round, which brought the total amount to $100M, was led by Harmony Partners and 10x Capital, with participation from existing investors, Fuel Venture Capital, Aliya Capital Partners, and Roger Ehrenberg/Eberg Capital, alongside others. More Here

Chamber Cardio, a Washington, DC-based provider of a technology-enabled cardiology solution, raised $8M in funding. The round was led by General Catalyst with support from existing investor AlleyCorp and participation from Company Ventures, American Family Ventures, and City Light. More Here

Remofirst, a San Francisco, CA-based HR solution company for employing talent worldwide, raised $25M in Series A funding. The round was led by Octopus Ventures, with participation by existing investors QED, Mouro Capital and Counterpart Ventures. More Here

BRKZ, Saudi Arabia based a construction tech startup has raised $8 million Series A round co-led by Beco Capital and 9900 Capital. Aramco’s Wa’ed Ventures, Knollwood Investment Advisory, RZM Investment and MISY Ventures. More Here

Lettuce Financial, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of a comprehensive solution to manage accounting and tax services for solopreneurs, raised $6m in seed funding. The round was led by Zeev Ventures. More Here

PayShepherd, a Calgary, Canada-based contractor management solution for industrial sites, closed $7m CAD in Seed+ funding. New investor Inovia Capital led the all-equity round, with participation from existing investors Nashville Capital Network, Thin Air Labs, Accelerate Fund III managed by Yaletown Partners with support from A100, as well as undisclosed strategic angel investors. More Here

Claroty, NYC-based cyber-physical systems protection company, raised $100m in strategic growth financing. Participants included lead equity investor Delta-v Capital, as well as AB Private Credit Investors at AllianceBernstein, Standard Investments, Toshiba Digital Solutions, SE Ventures, Rockwell Automation, and Silicon Valley Bank, a division of First Citizens Bank. More Here

Glacier, a San Francisco, CA-based recycling robotics company, raised $7.7m in funding. The round was led by NEA and Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund, with participation from AlleyCorp, Overture Climate VC, and VSC Ventures. More Here

Sweet Security, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based provider of a runtime security suite for the cloud, raised $33m in Series A funding. The round was led by Evolution Equity Partners, joined by Munich Re Ventures and Glilot Capital Partners. More Here

Hunch, a Dubai, UAE-based new-age social discovery app promoting honest and anonymous discussions, raised $23m in Series A funding. The round was led by Alpha Wave, Hashed, and other investors. More Here

Theia Insights, a Cambridge, UK-based deep tech startup, raised $6.5M in funding. The round was led by Unusual Ventures, with participation from Fidelity International Strategic Ventures, and Clocktower Ventures, alongside a number of strategic angels. More Here

NitroVolt, a Copenhagen, Denmark-based small-scale ammonia synthesis company focused on the agricultural sector, raised €750K in Pre-Seed funding. The round was led by BackingMinds. More Here

Nalu Medical, a Carlsbad, CA-based private company focused on innovative, minimally invasive, and non-pharmacologic solutions for chronic neuropathic pain, announced the closing of an incremental $20M in equity in Series E funding from new investor B Capital. The round, which brought the total amount to $85M was led by Novo Holdings. More Here

Nocion Therapeutics, a Watertown, MA-based clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, raised $62M in Series B funding. The round, which brought the total amount to $122M, was led by Arkin Bio Capital and Monograph Capital. More Here

Taiko, an Ethereum Layer 2 scaling solution provider, raised US$15M in Series A funding. The round was led by Lightspeed Faction, Hashed, Generative Ventures, and Token Bay Capital. More Here

Yuno, a NYC-based provider of a payments orchestration platform, raised $25M in funding. Backers included DST Global Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Tiger Global, Kaszek Ventures and Monashees. More Here

Limbic, a NYC- and London, UK-based clinical mental health AI technology company, raised $14M in funding. The round was led by Khosla Ventures with participation from Gaingels and Illusian. More Here

appCD, a San Francisco, CA-based company that generates Infrastructure from Code (IfC) based on application code, raised $6M in Seed funding. Backers include Thomvest Ventures, WestWave Capital, FireBolt, and Secure Octane. More Here

VENTURE CAPITAL UPDATES

Team8, a ten-year-old Israeli venture firm, has raised $500 million from Microsoft, Walmart, Cisco, Moody’s, and Temasek to invest in local startups focused in areas such as cyber, data infrastructure, artificial intelligence, and digital health. More Here

FEATURED ARTICLE

Two Simple Methods To Evaluate, Whether You've Achieved The PMF.

The First is the Retention Curve, "The retention curve is what percentage of your users keep coming back over some time while using your product/service."

Essentially, there are 3 kinds of retention curves, and you should plot this curve by day, week, or month, once you launch your product.

Another question that the founder should ask is - Do Customers Love Product….. Read More Here

STARTUP’S LATEST BUZZ

ACQUISITION & EXITS

Razor Group, a Berlin, Germany-based technology-driven e-commerce company, has acquired Perch, a Boston, MA-based Amazon aggregator in the US, solidifying its position as a global leader in the aggregation of online marketplace consumer brands. More Here

Accenture is acquiring online learning platform Udacity in order to launch an online training platform. More Here

LAYOFFS & SHUTDOWN

Fantasy sports platform Sorare laid off 22 employees in its New York office, centralizing product development in Paris for improved collaboration. An additional 11 New York employees were asked to relocate. Despite not being financially driven, Sorare faces challenges as web3 companies, including gaming-focused ones, experience declining investor interest amid a broader industry downturn. More Here

STARTUPS & PEOPLE

Apple has terminated Epic Games' developer account, reversing its earlier approval and citing a "serious violation" of the Digital Markets Act (DMA). Epic Games alleges Apple is retaliating for its criticism and efforts to bring competition to the App Store, calling it a threat to Apple's ecosystem. The move comes amid the ongoing legal battle between the two companies over antitrust concerns, with Apple stating it has the right to terminate Epic's account based on a 2021 judgment. More Here

Perplexity AI is reportedly close to securing a funding round that would value the AI search startup at approximately $1 billion, nearly doubling its valuation from two months ago. More Here

LATEST IN EMERGING TECH

Spain's data protection authority has ordered Sam Altman’s founded Worldcoin, the eyeball-scanning blockchain crypto project, to temporarily halt the collection and processing of personal data in the country. The regulator cited concerns over information transparency, data collection from minors, and lack of consent withdrawal options. World-coin has faced scrutiny for its biometric system and use of blockchain, with ongoing investigations by privacy regulators in France and Germany as well. More Here

Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange, has launched a fragrance called "CRYPTO" to celebrate International Women's Day and encourage women to get into crypto. Described as having notes of ozone, salt, moss, mandarin, oud, precious woods, amber, and musk, the perfume is part of a campaign offering a sample to women at pop-ups in Bahrain. More Here

Google is implementing significant changes to its search ranking systems, aiming to reduce "unhelpful content" & AI generated content by up to 40%. The updates target spammy practices such as mass-producing low-quality articles, site reputation abuse, and exploiting expired domains. More Here

VENTURE DAILY DIGEST PICKS

• Reddit's offering marks return of 'junk stock IPO,' New Constructs says. Read Here

• VC: "I Don't Care About Your LTV/CAC Ratio!" Why? Read Here

• An In-Depth Look at Elo and MMLU Scores for Leading Language Models. Read Here

• Successful Startups Follow Quadratic Growth, Not Exponential. Read Here

• Hidden Trap Of Convertible Note and Liquidation Preference Multiples. Read Here

DAILY DIGEST BOARD

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Yesterday’s Poll: 🙂 (It's good to see people supporting AI. If you still believe that Musk is right, I would suggest reading this blog post by OpenAI. Hats off to people who are on the AI side! 😁)

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

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✍️Written By Sahil R - The Venture Crew