Softbank Raised $1.86 Billion To Invest in AI & LinkedIn Co-Founder's Startup Raised $45 Million

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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!

Top News

Andrew Ng's (Founder & CEO of Landing AI, Founder of deeplearning.ai, Co-Chairman and Co-Founder of Coursera) AI Fund, an AI startup incubator, is raising up to $120 million for its second fund, AI Venture Fund II, with $69.75 million already secured from 13 partners. The fund aims to support early-stage AI companies at seed and Series A levels, providing funding and access to Ng's professional network.

LinkedIn co-founder Eric Ly’s startup KarmaCheck, has raised $45 million in a funding round led by Parameter Ventures.

SoftBank Group Corp. has raised $1.86 billion through dollar and euro bond sales, marking its largest foreign-currency debt offering by a Japanese company this year. The funds will be used to retire existing debt and fund operations, particularly as the company expands its investments in artificial intelligence.

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Startup Funding Updates

Hebbia, a startup based in the United States, uses generative AI to search large documents and provide specific answers across various file types. The company has raised nearly $100 million in a Series B round led by Andreessen Horowitz, bringing its total funding to over $120 million. Previous investors include Index Ventures and Radical Ventures. More Here

Synthflow, a Berlin, Germany-based AI voice assistant startup, raised $7.4M in Seed funding The round was led by Singular, with participation from existing investor Atlantic Labs, including the founders of Krisp AI. More Here

MagicSchool AI, a Denver-based startup, develops generative AI tools for educational environments, including products for teachers to plan lessons and create learning materials, as well as tools for students. The company has raised $15 million in a Series A round led by Bain Capital Ventures, with participation from Adobe Ventures, Common Sense Media, and individual investors like Replit founder Amjad Masad and Clever co-founders Tyler Bosmeny and Rafael Garcia. More Here

illumex, a NYC-based provider of a generative semantic fabric platform for structured enterprise data, raised $13M in funding. The round was led by Cardumen Capital, Amdocs Ventures, and Samsung Ventures, with participation from ICI Fund, Jibe Ventures, Iron Nation Fund, Ginossar Ventures, ICON Fund, Today Ventures, and angel investor. More Here

Directo, a startup based in Madrid, has developed a Chrome extension that helps travelers find discounted rates by booking directly with hotels and vacation rentals, bypassing commission fees charged by large booking platforms. The company has raised $1 million in pre-seed funding from investors including Kima Ventures, Calafia, Derive Ventures, and 26 travel industry veterans. More Here

Clearstory, a Walnut Creek, CA-based provider of a construction change order communication platform, raised $16M in Series B funding. The round, which brought the total amount to $16M in Series B funding, was led by Prudence, with participation from Industry Ventures and existing investors including Jackson Square Ventures, Building Ventures, GS Futures and Cloud Apps Capital Partners. More Here

Orby AI, a Mountain View, CA-based technology company which specialises in generative AI solutions for the enterprise, raised $30M in funding. The round was led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Wing VC and WndrCo with additional participation from Pear VC. More Here

gaiia, a Montreal, Canada-based operating system designed for internet service providers (ISPs), raised US$13.2M in a Series A funding. The round was led by Inovia Capital with participation from new investors GTMfund, General Advance, Simon De Baene and Manon Brouillette (ex-CEO of Videotron and Verizon Consumer Group) as well as existing investor YCombinator. More Here

Authentica Solutions, a San Antonio, TX-based company which specializes in data integration and intelligence management solutions for the education sector, raised $6.2M in funding. The round was led by Owl Ventures. More Here

Axelera AI, a Netherlands-based startup, designs AI chips and systems for edge computing applications in sectors like security, retail, automotive, and robotics. The company has raised $68 million in a Series B round, bringing its total funding to $120 million, with investors including the European Innovation Council Fund, Innovation Industries Strategic Partnership Fund, Invest-NL, and Samsung Catalyst Fund. More Here

Pear Commerce, a Minneapolis, MN-based provider of a retail ecommerce enablement platform for omnichannel brands, raised $10M in Series A funding. The round was led by Stage 2 Capital. Other investors included Heartland Ventures, Homegrown Ventures, Dundee Venture Capital, M25, and Daren Cotter. More Here

VenoStent, Inc., a Houston, TX-based clinical-stage medical device company developing a novel therapeutic device for improving dialysis patient outcomes, closed an additional $4M from Norwest Venture Partners to round out its Series A financing at $20M. More Here

Hoodie Analytics, a Chicago, IL-based cannabis data and technology company, raised $5M in Series A funding. The round was led by Measure 8 Partners with participation from Entourage Effect Capital and Satori Investors. Early investors in the series A round also included Greenlight Investors and OlsonUbben via Tony Olson, Founder and Chairman of SPINS. More Here

RareCyte, a Seattle, WA-based Life Sciences company providing precision biology platforms including instruments, reagents, software, and services, raised $20M in funding. The round was led by Forest Road, Arboretum Ventures and F-Prime Capital and investors HealthQuest Capital, 5AM Ventures, Agilent Technologies, Company founder Ron Seubert, Sheatree capital, and GKCC LLC. More Here

Li Industries, a Pineville, NC-based provider of direct recycling technologies for lithium-ion batteries, closed a $42M Series B funding with an additional $6M commitment from investors. New backers included General Motors (GM) Ventures, DNX Ventures, and Tech Energy Ventures. More Here

KarmaCheck, a San Francisco, CA-based technology-based solution for background checks, credentialing, and compliance, raised $45M in Series B in Series B funding. The round was led by Parameter Ventures, with participation from PruVen Capital, Velvet Sea Ventures, GC1 Ventures, and NextView Ventures. More Here

Sila, an Alameda, CA-based battery materials company, raised $375M in Series G funding. The round was led by Sutter Hill Ventures and funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., with participation from new outside investors as well as existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners, Coatue, Perry Creek Capital, and others. More Here

Odaseva, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of an enterprise data security platform for Salesforce, raised $54M in Series C funding. The round, which brought the total amount to $90M, was led by Silver Lake Waterman with participation from existing investors F-Prime, Eight Roads and Serena Capital, and new investors Eurazeo and Crescent Cove. More Here

Axelera AI, an Eindhoven, The Netherlands-based provider of AI hardware acceleration technology for generative AI and computer vision inference, raised $68M in Series B funding. Backers included Invest-NL Deep Tech Fund, the European Innovation Council Fund, Innovation Industries Strategic Partners Fund (backed by Dutch Pension Funds PMT and PME, administered by MN) and Samsung Catalyst Fund, along with existing investors Verve Ventures, Innovation Industries, Fractionelera and the Italian sovereign fund CDP Venture Capital SGR. More Here

Innatera, a Delft, The Netherlands-based innovator in ultra-low power neuromorphic processors, raised $21m in Series A funding round. The Series A extension was led by investors Innavest and InvestNL, who joined existing Series A investors including EIC Fund, MIG Capital, Matterwave Ventures and Delft Enterprises. More Here

AuthZed, a NYC-based startup helping enterprises build user experiences with permissions systems, raised $12M in Series A funding. The round was led by General Catalyst, with participation from returning investors Work-Bench and Amplify Partners. More Here

e-Zinc, a Toronto, Canada-based company enabling energy storage with its zinc-air battery, raised USD 31M in Series A2 funding. The round was led by Evok Innovations, with participation from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Export Development Canada (EDC), Ultratech Capital Partners, Toyota Ventures, Eni Next, Anzu Partners, BDC, and Graphite Ventures. More Here

Better Futures, a Dublin, Ireland-based early-stage engineering and manufacturing artificial intelligence (AI) focused startup, raised €500K in Pre-Seed funding from undisclosed investors. More Here

Heidi, a Bristol, UK-based online tour operator specialising in flexible ski holidays, raised £5.6M in funding The round was led by Mercia Ventures with participation from Active Partners and private investors. More Here

JohnWallStreet, a NYC-based provider of a newsletter service in sports business, raised $1M in funding. The round was led by Bolt Ventures, the family office of David Blitzer, Roger Ehrenberg of Eberg Capital and SportsGrid. More Here

Vertus Energy, an Austria, Vienna-based Waste-to-X industrial biotech startup, raised €8.75M in Seed funding. The round was led by Energy Capital Ventures, joined by Blackbird, the Amadeus APEX Technology Fund and Aussie Angels, alongside all their existing investors. Other participants included Startmate, Icehouse Ventures and Outset Ventures, Aussie Angels and John Wood with NOAB Ventures. More Here

Supercede, a London, UK-based provider of a reinsurance technology platform, raised $15M in Series A funding. The round was led by Alven with contributions from Mundi Ventures and existing investors Outward, Seedcamp, MMC Ventures, and AFG Partners. More Here

Plancraft, a Hamburg, Germany-based company providing a software solution for the digitalization of work processes in the craft industry, raised €12M in Series A funding. The round was led by Creandum. More Here

SmartLoC, a Hamburg, Germany-based startup focused on developing a digital B2B payment solution, raised €1.8M in Seed funding. The round was led by High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF). More Here

Quickcode.ai, a McLean, VA-based provider of artificial intelligence software for the trade compliance industry, raised $1.1M in Seed funding. Backers included PS27 Ventures, and DataTribe. More Here

Orby AI, a Mountain View-based startup, has developed a generative AI platform that automates various business workflows by observing and learning from workers' actions. The company has raised $30 million in a Series A funding round co-led by New Enterprise Associates, WndrCo, and Wing, bringing its post-money valuation to $120 million. More Here

Venture Capital Updates

Ironspring Ventures, an Austin-based venture firm, has raised $100 million for its second fund to invest in industrial startups across sectors like manufacturing, construction, transportation, and energy. The firm plans to invest in 20 startups, writing checks of $2 million to $4 million each, and has already deployed about a quarter of the fund across six companies. More Here

Featured Article

Should I Fire Myself As A CEO?

Andreessen famously said, “If you don’t have anyone on your founding team who is capable of being CEO, then sell your company.”

It’s true early on — having a “professional CEO” is a bad idea. They won’t have as much skin in the game as a founder. There’s a reason founder-led companies grow faster.

With that said, it isn’t true forever.

Speed is your biggest advantage early in your startup’s journey, but the delta between its importance and the importance of other things like..

At some point, you need to expand your skillset and evolve from “founder” to “CEO,” and not every founder pulls it off.

Even if you’re not the CEO, your actual responsibilities will naturally change as the team expands from under 10 to over 100 or 1,000. But how do you know when it’s time (if ever)?

Anand Sanwal, the co-founder and former CEO of CB Insights, created a framework to help.

Consider how excited you are about the company’s future and how equipped you are to execute it. These are variants on skill vs will or attitude vs aptitude frameworks if you've seen those

If you fall into quadrant 3 (above), it may be time to consider stepping aside. Cuz sometimes, "different wars need different generals".

Read detailed article in our Venture Curator newsletter.

Startup’s Latest Buzz

Acquisition & Going Public

Fractal, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of artificial intelligence and advanced analytics solutions to Fortune 500® companies, announced the merger of Eugenie.ai, an AI company dedicated to providing AI-driven products for climate change and industrial sustainability. More Here

Nokia is set to acquire Infinera Corp for $2.3 billion, aiming to expand its optical network business, particularly in North America. The deal offers a 26.4% premium on Infinera's shares, with a mix of cash and Nokia's American Depositary Shares as payment. More Here

Layoffs & Bankruptcy

Startups & People

Flipkart, Indian e-commerce platform has launched Super.money, a new payments app that offers UPI transactions and promises "real cashback" rewards.

Tesla is contesting the rescission of Elon Musk's $56 billion pay package, arguing that a recent shareholder vote to ratify the 2018 compensation plan should override a Delaware judge's January ruling to void it. The company claims this vote demonstrates shareholder support for Musk's compensation, despite the judge's earlier decision that the negotiation process was improperly controlled and shareholders were misled about key details. More Here

Rishi Shah, former CEO and co-founder of Outcome Health, has been sentenced to 7 ½ years in prison for leading a $1 billion fraud scheme. The fraud involved inflating the number of doctors' offices with Outcome's advertising screens, overcharging pharmaceutical companies, and misrepresenting revenue figures to secure loans and investments.

Latest In Emerging Tech

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the rollout of AI characters created by Meta AI studio on Instagram, starting with tests in the U.S. These AI avatars, clearly labeled as AI, will primarily appear in messaging and are designed to help creators engage with their communities. The company is initially testing the feature with about 50 creators and a small percentage of users, aiming for a full launch by August, as part of Meta's broader strategy to integrate AI into its social media platforms. More Here

SoftBank Group and Tempus have established a joint venture called SB Tempus to develop AI-powered personalized medical services in Japan. The venture, set to begin operations in August Both companies have invested equally in the venture, with SoftBank committing 30 billion yen (about $188 million). More Here

Time magazine has entered into a multi-year content deal with OpenAI, granting the AI company access to its archive of news content for use in ChatGPT. More Here

Elon Musk's SpaceX will sell insider shares in a tender offer that values the private space company at over $200 billion, according to a report. Citing people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg reported that SpaceX will sell insider shares at $112 apiece, valuing the company at close to $210 billion. More Here

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