Silicon Valley Bank Failed To Sell VC Business & Unicorn Startups Becoming Zombies

🗞️ TODAY’S MAJOR UPDATES

• Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) failed to sell it’s VC Business - Creditor will takeover $10 Billion of assets

• Elon Musk Starting Own University In Austin…

• FM Capital and Automotive Ventures aim to raise millions for two new funds focusing on the auto industry and mobility technology.

• Featured Article: Why Founders Are Afraid to Talk About MOAT?

• What do you think: What's Your Startup Funding Forecast For 2024 - Boom or Bust?

The Unicorn startups are becoming Zombies at pace.

Numerous well-funded tech start-ups, including WeWork and Olive AI, are filing for bankruptcy or shutting down, marking a surge in failures after years of cost-cutting.

Approximately 3,200 U.S. venture-backed companies have closed in 2023, raising concerns among investors about the broader impact of the tech industry's downturn.

The collapse is attributed to overinvestment, untested business models, and a shift in investor sentiment from promises to tangible results. More Here

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💰 MASSIVE FUNDING UPDATES

PursueCare, a four-year-old startup based in Middletown, Ct., that provides virtual treatment for patients with substance use disorders, raised a $20 million Series B round co-led by T.rx Capital and Yamaha Motor Ventures, with Seyen Capital and OCA Ventures also pitching in. More Here

Barnyard Games, a one-year-old startup based in Encinitas, Ca., that is making games on the Unreal Engine Fortnite platform, raised a $3.4 million seed round led by Menlo Ventures, with BetaWorks, Alumni Ventures, and Charge VC also contributing. More Here

NodeKit, a two-year-old startup based in Ames, Ia., that helps crypto developers avoid sequencing delays, raised a $1.2 million pre-seed round led by Borderless Capital, with Blizzard Fund, Polygon Ventures, and Wormhole Cross-Chain Ecosystem Fund also stepping up. More Here

Paynest, a four-year-old Lisbon startup that offers employees a range of financial products and services, including personalized articles on personal finance management and coaching, raised a $2.2 million seed round led by Lince Capital, with BlueCrow Capital, TechTree CTT, and M4 Ventures also chipping in. More Here

Stairs Financial, a three-year-old Texas startup that has built a mortgage marketplace that is licensed in 40 U.S. states, raised a $3.5 million round led by Zigg Capital and including Y Combinator, Antler, and Exceptional Capital. More Here

SupportPay, a five-year-old startup based in Charlotte, N.C., that claims its platform enables divorced, single, step, co-parents, and caregivers to easily manage and exchange child support, shared expenses, payments, communications, custody, and schedules, raised a $3.1 million seed round led by HearstLabs, with Michigan Capital Network, Victorium Capital, Rendar Capital, Connetic Ventures, and Stage Next Ventures also investing. More Here

Baseline Vision, a five-year-old Tel Aviv startup that has built an AI-powered game analysis system that provides real-time performance feedback for players and coaches, raised a $2.4 million seed round from a syndicate that included Lalotte Ventures. More Here

Inductive Bio, a New York startup that says it is developing a machine learning platform designed to accelerate the compound optimization process for new drugs, raised a $4.3 million seed round co-led by Andreessen Horowitz and Lux Capital, with Character, Bessemer Venture Partners, and Alleycorp also anteing up. More Here

Parse Biosciences, a five-year-old Seattle startup that claims its lab kits simplify complex single-cell analysis, raised a $50 million Series C equity and debt round led by Soleus Capital, with additional participation from Janus Henderson Investors, Marshall Wace, Sahsen Ventures, and Saras Capital. More Here

ANNEA, a four-year-old Hamburg startup that claims it provides a digital twin platform for automated predictive maintenance and performance optimization of renewable energy infrastructure, raised a $2.9 million seed round led by Voyager Ventures, with previous investors Innoport and Faber Ventures also joining in. More Here

Arbonics, a one-year-old startup based in Tallinn, Estonia, that leverages AI and satellite imagery to quantify forest carbon capture, enabling corporations and investors to offset their emissions through forest conservation projects, raised a $6 million seed round. Participants in the financing included NordicNinja, Plural, and Tilla Impact Ventures. The company has raised a total of $7.9 million. More Here

Arcane, a two-year-old London startup that says it automates repetitive marketing tasks and offers real-time analytics and insights, raised a $5 million seed round led by Accel, with participation from Cocoa, Firstminute Capital, Kima Ventures, and Seedcamp. More Here

CurbWaste, a five-year-old New York startup that provides waste service companies with customer and order management, real-time dispatch, and automated billing, raised a $10 million Series A round round led by Flourish Ventures, with TTV Capital, Mucker Capital, and B Capital also stepping up. The company has raised a total of $20 million. More Here

Maka, a two-year-old Lagos startup that aims to create an e-commerce platform to simplify the purchase of fashion and beauty products in Africa, raised a $2.7 million pre-seed round co-led by 4DX Ventures and Janngo, with Palm Drive Capital also chipping in. More Here

Amide Technologies, a seven-year-old startup based in Cambridge, Ma., that says it provides reliable linear synthesis of peptides up to 120 amino acids, raised a $7.5 million Series A extension in July that was led by previous investor Engine Ventures, with Forcefield Venture Fund also taking part. The company has raised a total of $16.5 million. More Here

Kapital, a four-year-old Mexico City startup that offers Latin American SMBs bookkeeping and budgeting software, access to loans, and financial guidance, raised a $40 million Series B equity round and $125 million in debt. The lead was Tribe Capital, with Cervin Ventures, Tru Arrow, MS&AD Ventures, and Alumni Ventures also participating. More Here

Meniga, a 14-year-old London company whose platform helps banks leverage AI and machine learning to understand customer spending patterns, predict financial needs, and build personalized features, raised a $16.5 million Series D round. Investors included Groupe BPCE, Crédito Agrícola, and Omega ehf. The company has raised a total of $59.9 million. More Here

Mootral, a seven-year-old UK startup that is trying to stop cows from burping methane, raised a $20 million Series B round led by King Philanthropies, with previous investors Lowercarbon Capital, Earthshot Ventures, Kindred Ventures, Third Derivative, Climactic, and Climate Capital also investing. The company has raised a total of $48.9 million. More Here

Encellin, a seven-year-old San Francisco startup that is developing cell encapsulation platforms to treat endocrine disorders, raised a $9.9 million round led by Khosla Ventures, with additional investment from Y Combinator. More Here

Lolli, a bitcoin and cashback rewards application, has raised an $8 million Series B round. The Series B round was led by BITKRAFT Ventures, with participation from Sfermion, Ulta Beauty’s Prisma Ventures, Hypersphere Ventures, ZebPay’s CEO Rahul Pagidipati, 2 Punks Capital, MZ Web3 Fund and others. More Here

💰 VENTURE CAPITAL UPDATES

SVB Failed To Sell Business: SVB Financial's attempt to sell its venture-capital arm, SVB Capital, has failed as bids from front-runners SkyBridge Capital and Vector Capital were deemed too low. Now, creditors plan a potential takeover of SVB Capital, with approximately $10 billion in assets, including venture capital funds and tech company investments. If no new bidders emerge, the venture capital business may remain with the reorganized SVB Financial, controlled by creditors after bankruptcy proceedings. More Here

Motivate Venture Capital Launches $81 Million Fund II to Empower the Next Generation of Trailblazing Startups. Motivate’s founding partners have been investing together for more than a decade, generally focusing on B2B software and financial technology. More Here

FM Capital and Automotive Ventures plan to raise millions for two new startup investment funds targeting auto industry and mobility technology. FM Capital is in the process of raising $200 million for a fund focused on automotive technology startups, while Automotive Ventures aims to raise $15 million for a fund focused on mobility technology. Both firms believe that the current market conditions, with lower startup valuations, present a profitable opportunity for venture capital investments in the automotive sector. More Here

Alabama is actively fostering innovation and entrepreneurship through the efforts of the Alabama Innovation Commission and Innovate Alabama. With a focus on improving access to venture capital, Innovate Alabama has implemented a $10 million supplemental grant program benefiting 50 small businesses, particularly women and minority-owned. The state aims to strengthen its business ecosystem, offering programs like the State Small Business Credit Initiative with $98 million in federal funding to support high-growth innovative companies. More Here

𝕏 FEATURED: TODAY’S FEATURED ARTICLE

Why Founders Are Afraid to Talk About MOAT?

“Generational companies are not built on the latest technologies but in bold statements.” This statement define the MOAT for many successful companies.

But most of the founders do not get the real meaning of this statement and eventually failed to build a successful companies. Why? … Read More Here

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💡 STARTUP’S LATEST BUZZ

Exits

Scooter company Superpedestrian is shutting down its U.S. operations just 18 months after raising $125 million. More Here

DocuSign is looking to sell to a private equity firm or technology company, which is no mean feat given the company's $11 billion market cap. More Here

Layoffs

Flyhomes, a Seattle startup that helps home-buyers secure purchases with all-cash offers, is laying off an undisclosed number of employees. It has raised more than $200 million, including a $150 million round in 2021. More Here

Glowforge, another Seattle startup that makes 3D laser engravers, is cutting 30 employees despite raising a $20 million Series E extension in May. (The company has raised a  total of $135 million.) More Here

People

Western intelligence officials now suspect that Jan Marsalek, the former COO of payment processing startup Wirecard, was a Russian spy who stole $2 billion from Wirecard's balance sheet. More Here

Opendoor co-founder Eric Wu is stepping down from the real estate tech company, according to an SEC filing. Now he will be serve as the president for the Opendoor. More Here

Speaking of Elon Musk, he's planning to start a university in Austin, per tax filings spied by Bloomberg. More Here

🤖 LATEST IN EMERGING TECH

Large enterprise buyers are cautiously exploring generative AI, with only 4% having launched significant projects, according to a Morgan Stanley survey. While pressure from internal customers and CEOs is driving interest, CIOs are balancing the desire to deliver transformative experiences with the need to proceed cautiously, setting up structures and organization for implementation. Companies like Liberty Mutual, Battelle, Principal Financial Group, and Juniper Networks are taking measured approaches, starting with proof of concepts and use case exploration. More Here

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

• YC Strategy 'Cash In, Cash Out, Milestones Achieved' To Raise Funding Read More (Startups)

• How Did The Great Startups Like Airbnb or Instagram Make Pivot Decisions? Read More (Startups)

• A GP’s View on VC Fund Performance (When It’s “Early”) Read More (Venture Capital)

🤔 WHAT DO YOU THINK?

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

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✍️Written By Sahil R | Venture Crew Team