Saudi Arabia's VC Firm Raise $4 Billions Fund & SocialFi Startup Raised Millions From a16z In 24 Hours.

🗞️ TODAY’S MAJOR UPDATES

• Aramco, Saudi Arabia-based Company Allocated $4 Billion to it's global VC arm.

• With thousands of Disney’s mass layoffs, CEO Bob Iger walked away from 2023 with a salary of $31 million.

• Focus, the decentralized SocialFi app, raised $20 million from a16z and sequoia capital within 24 hours.

• Featured Article : How Do Limited Partners (LPs) Evaluate The Performance Of VC Fund ?

• What Do You Think: Term for adjusting a startup's share value for events or performance changes?

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💰 MASSIVE FUNDING UPDATES

Pomelo, Argentinian payments infrastructure startup has raised $40 million in a Series B round of funding. Kaszek led Pomelo’s latest round, which also included participation from monashees, Index Ventures, S32, TQ Ventures and Endeavor Catalyst. More Here

PredictAP, a Boston, MA-based machine-learning enabled invoice ingestion & coding solution for real estate accounts payable (AP), closed its $8m Series A financing round. The round was led by RET Ventures, with additional participation from Wise Ventures. More Here

Build a Rocket Boy, a Scotland-headquartered game development company founded by one of the former lead developers behind the Grand Theft Auto franchise, has raised $110 million in a Series D round of funding. More Here

Epicore Biosystems, a Cambridge, MA-based digital health solutions company, raised an undisclosed amount in funding. The round was led by Pegasus Tech Ventures, and Denka Company Limited. More Here

BankingON, an Austin, TX-based provider of digital banking solutions, raised an undisclosed amount in Series A funding. The round was led by Eagle Venture Fund. More Here

Cetris Oncology Solutions, a San Diego, CA-based precision oncology and translational science company, raised $10M in Series C funding. The round, which brought the total amount to $42M, saw participation from undisclosed investors. More Here

Element Zero, a Perth, Australia-based green materials platform company, raised US$10M in Seed funding. The round was led by Playground Global. More Here

Timeline, a Lausanne, Switzerland-based consumer health biotech company, raised $64M in Series D funding. The round was led by BOLD (Business Opportunities for L’Oréal Development), L’Oréal Groupe’s strategic innovation venture capital fund. More Here

RocketStar, a NYC-based company which specialized in space exploration and satellite services, raised $2M in Seed funding. The backers were not disclosed. More Here

Prota Therapeutics, a Melbourne, Australia-based biotechnology company focused on the development of novel oral immunotherapy treatments that induce remission of allergy, raised US$21M in equity and debt funding. The round was led by SPRIM Global Investments. More Here

Focus, the revolutionary new decentralized SocialFi app, raised $20 million in less than 24 hours from Coinbase, Sequoia, a16z, Social Capital, and other top funds. More Here

Lightship, a San Francisco, CA-based all-electric RV company, closed a $34m Series B financing. The round was co-led by Obvious Ventures and Prelude Ventures and joined by Allegis Capital and global RV manufacturer THOR Industries and its investment partner TechNexus Venture Collaborative. More Here

Cleveland Diagnostics, a Cleveland, OH-based clinical-stage biotechnology company developing diagnostic tests for the early detection of cancers, raised $75M in funding. The round was led by Novo Holdings, with participation from existing investors as well as a credit facility from Symbiotic Capital. More Here

Vertice, a London, UK-based provider of a SaaS and cloud spend management platform, raised $25M in Series B funding. The round, which brought the total amount to $51M, was led by 83North and Bessemer Venture Partners. More Here

Vicarius, a NYC-based developer of vRx, an autonomous end-to-end vulnerability remediation platform, raised $30M in Series B funding. The round was led by Bright Pixel (formerly Sonae IM). AllegisCyber Capital, AlleyCorp, and Strait also participated. More Here

United Payment Systems, LLC (doing business as Payzli), a Tampa, FL-based end-to-end payment technology company, received a $6M investment from Esquire Financial Holdings (NASDAQ: ESQ), the financial holding company for Esquire Bank, National Association. More Here

AccessParks, a San Diego, CA- and Boston, MA-based provider of croadband connectivity to RV Parks, National and State Parks, and Manufactured Housing Communities (“MHC”) nationwide, raised an undisclosed amount in private equity funding. The round was led by M/C Partners. More Here

Aspen Power, a NYC-based provider of a distributed generation platform, has completed three financings totaling $241M with J.P. Morgan, Lombard Odier, and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Inc. (MUFG). More Here

Electra, a Paris, France-based provider of a charging network for electric vehicles, raised €304M in equity funding. The round was led by PGGM. Bpifrance, Eurazeo, RIVE Private Investment, the SNCF group, and Serena, also participated. More Here

Trojan Energy, an Aberdeen, Scotland, UK-based on-street electric vehicle charging specialist, received £26M in funding from growth investors like BGF and Scottish National Investment Bank. More Here

Quantinuum, a Broomfield, Colorado-based integrated quantum computing company, closed a $300m equity funding at a pre-money valuation of $5 billion. The round was anchored by Quantinuum’s strategic partner JPMorgan Chase, with additional participation from Mitsui & Co., Amgen and Honeywell (NASDAQ: HON), which remained the company’s majority shareholder. More Here

Blueshift, a Menlo Park-based company that helps brands automate and personalize engagement across every marketing channel, using a combination of Customer AI & Generative AI, received a $40M growth investment from Runway Growth Capital. More Here

💰 VENTURE CAPITAL UPDATES

Aramco, a Saudi Arabia-based global integrated energy and chemicals company, allocated an additional $4 billion to its global venture capital arm, Aramco Ventures.The new allocation will take Aramco’s overall venture capital allocation to $7.5bn, which also includes the $500m venture capital fund Wa’ed Ventures that focuses on the startup ecosystem in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. More Here

Top Tier Capital, the San Francisco-based VC and private equity firm, raised $1.05 billion more to invest with global venture funds and tech companies in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. More Here

Inception Capital, early-stage-focused web3 firm, formerly known as OP Crypto, has closed its inaugural fund at $30 million. This capital is in addition to the firms’ existing $50 million Venture Fund I. The fund, OP Fund of Funds I LP, targeted family offices and high-net-worth individuals who want “diversified” exposure to early-stage crypto venture deals. It is backed by investors including Mirana, FJ Labs and Serafund. More Here

KSL Capital Partners, a Denver, CO-based investor in travel and leisure businesses, held the final closing of its latest travel and leisure focused private credit fund, KSL Capital Partners Credit Opportunities Fund IV, L.P., with total commitments of $1.26 Billion, including the commitment of the General Partner. More Here

𝕏 FEATURED: TODAY’S FEATURED ARTICLE

How Do Limited Partners (LPs) Evaluate The Performance Of VC Fund ?

LP use these three key terms to evaluate the performance of a VC fund. What are they? 👇

• Distribution Paid In Capital (DPI)

• Residual Value Paid In Capital (RVPI)

• Total Value Paid In Capital (TVPI

Let’s understand this with a simple example… Read More Here

💡 SARTUP’S LATEST BUZZ

Acquisition

Visa (NYSE:V) completed its acquisition of Pismo, a São Paulo, -Brazil-based global cloud-native issuer processing and core banking platform at $1 billions in cash. More Here

RocketStar, a NYC-based company which specialized in space exploration and satellite services acquired Miles Space, a space propulsion and spacecraft manufacturer. More Here

Parse Biosciences, a Seattle, WA-based provider of accessible and scalable single cell sequencing solutions, acquired Biomage, a Glasgow, UK-based data analysis software company. More Here

CIVC Partners, L.P., a Chicago, IL-based middle market private equity firm focused on investments in the business services sector, acquired Datavail Corp., a Broomfield, CO-based data managed services provider, from a group of growth investors led by Catalyst Investors. More Here

Layoffs & Shutdown

After laying off over 1,000 workers across multiple divisions and cutting 100 jobs at YouTube, Google CEO Sundar Pichai Warns more Staffs layoff soon. More Here

Pitchfork, known for its eclectic criticism and coverage of independent artists, will now be merged under GQ in an organizational restructuring at Condé Nast that also involved the layoffs of several Pitchfork staffers. More Here

People

Disney’s budget cuts and mass layoffs are anticipated to continue in 2024. However, CEO Bob Iger walked away from 2023 with a salary of $31 million, raising scrutiny over the growing disparity between CEO and average employees’ wages. More Here

🤖 LATEST IN EMERGING TECH

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

Amazon's $1 billion Industrial Innovation Fund, launched in 2022, is expanding geographically and thematically, targeting AI, bipedal robots, and autonomous vehicles for improved delivery. The fund, led by Franziska Bossart, has invested in startups like Veo Robotics and Agility Robotics, emphasizing generative AI's potential in robotics. More Here

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

• Why Asking For An NDA Make You Look Like An Amateur? Read More (Startups)

• Why Your Startup Idea Isn’t Big Enough for Some VC ? 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)

🤔 WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Yesterday’s Poll:

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

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✍️Written By Sahil R | Venture Crew Team