Solo GP Raising Million Dollar VC Fund & Hyperfund Running Billion Dollar Crypto Ponzi Scheme

👋 Hey, Sahil here! Welcome to today’s Venture Daily Digest Newsletter. Every day I share updates on startup funding, new VC funds launched and tech to read in 5 mins! Today we have major updates on -

• Ubiquity Ventures, US based VC firm run by solo GP secured another $75 million.

• Elon Musk has lost the title of the world's richest person to Bernard Arnault.

• The DOJ has filed charges against a crypto fund called HyperFund that allegedly cooked up a Ponzi scheme.

• Featured Article : Never express your ‘Use of Funds’ slide as percentages, why?

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💰 MASSIVE FUNDING UPDATES

Kriya, a London, UK-based provider of a fintech platform providing access to B2B payments, received a $50M funding facility led by viola group. More Here

Leal, a Bogota, Colombia-based retail tech company providing customer engagement in Latin America, raised $5 million in a round that CEO Camilo Martinez called a “pre-Series B.” LEAP Global Partners and Rakuten Capital co-led the round and were joined by Morro Ventures and Salkantay Ventures. More Here

Xampla, a Cambridge, UK-based natural materials company, raised $7M in funding. The round, which brought the total amount to $17.6M, saw participation from Amadeus Capital Partners, Horizon Ventures, Cambridge Angels, Cambridge Enterprise, Martlet Capital and CIECH Ventures. More Here

Airfocus, which co-founded with Valentin Firak and Christian Hoffmeister, provides a modular platform with workspaces and templates for product management use cases, has raised $7.5 million tranche led by Newion with participation from XAnge, Nauta, Riverside Acceleration Capital and Picea Capital. More Here

Cargado, a Chicago, Illinois-based U.S.-Mexico cross-border logistics startup, raised $3m in pre-seed funding. Ironspring Ventures led the round, and was joined by Zenda Capital, Wischoff Ventures, Proeza Ventures, and Sahil Bloom. More Here

Inoviv, a London, UK-based biomarker development company, raised an undisclosed amount in funding. Backers from Hoxton Ventures and Foresight Group. More Here

Cyns, a Sao Paolo, Brazil-based biotechnology company focused on black soldier fly (BSF) farming in Latin America, received an undisclosed investment as a part of its Seed funding from Sumitomo Corporation. Lambarin Investimentos, a Brazilian family office and wealth management firm, also joined the round along with Sumitomo. More Here

Inari, a Cambridge, MA-based SEEDesign™ company, closed a $103M funding round. The round, which brought the total amount to $575M, saw participation from existing investors, including Hanwha Impact,Rivas Capital, NGS Super, State of Michigan Retirement System and company founder Flagship Pioneering, and new investors including RCM Private Markets fund. More Here

Traidy, a Dubai, UAE-based company involved in enhancing the investor experience with AI-driven insights, raised $2M in Pre-Seed funding. The round was led by Three Sigma Ventures and a group of angel investors. More Here

Wisedocs, a Toronto, Canada-based machine learning software-as-a-service (SaaS) for medical record review, indexing, and summarization, raised $9.5M in Series A funding. The round was led by Information Venture Partners, and by Thomson Reuters Ventures and ManchesterStory. More Here

AcuraStem, a Pasadena, CA-based patient-based biotechnology company advancing treatments for neurodegenerative diseases, received a $7M Grant. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Department of Defense (DOD) provided the grant. More Here

VoxelSensors, a Brussels, Belgium-based semiconductor tech startup, raised an additional €3M in Seed funding, led by SFPIM Relaunch with participation from existing investors Qbic Fund. More Here

Cour Pharmaceuticals, a Chicago, IL-based clinical-stage biotechnology company, raised approximately $105M Series A funding. The round was led by Lumira Ventures and Alpha Wave Ventures,. More Here

Generation Lab, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of a test based on clinically relevant biological evidence, raised an undisclosed amount to Pre-Seed funding. Backers included Transpose Platform and Sequoia China Founding Partner. More Here

Roofer.com, a Dallas, TX-based technology company in the roofing industry, raised $7.5M in Seed funding. The round was led by Mucker Capital with participation from Soma Capital, HF0, Asymmetric Capital Partners, Alumni Ventures, HustleFund. More Here

CollisionRight, a Dublin, OH-based provider of automotive collision repair shops in the United States, received an Undisclosed investment from Summit Partners. More Here

PlayGreen, a Brazilian sports media and gaming company, raised $6M in funding. The round was led by Vice Ventures. More Here

Codeium, a Mountain View, CA-based provider of a generative AI-powered coding toolkit, raised $65M in Series B funding. The round was led by Kleiner Perkins with participation from repeat investor Greenoaks as well as General Catalyst. More Here

Haven Energy, a Los Angeles, CA-based climate tech company providing home battery systems, raised $7M in Series A funding. The round was led by Giant Ventures with participation from Lerer Hippeau, and Raven One Ventures, and new investors Comcast Ventures, LifeX, TO VC and Habitat Partners. More Here

VenomAid Diagnostics, a Copenhagen, Denmark-based company developing snakebite diagnostics, extended its seed round to $1.8M. The round saw participation from business angels and Good Ventures. More Here

Portal, a San Francisco, CA-based company advancing financial self-sovereignty with technology for access to Bitcoin and diverse cryptocurrency markets, raised $34M in Seed funding. The round saw participation from Coinbase Ventures, Arrington Capital, OKX Ventures and Gate.io, as well as other fintech and crypto investors. More Here

Kore ai, an Orlando, FL-based enterprise conversational and generative AI platform technology company, raised $150M in funding. The round was led by FTV Capital, with participation from NVIDIA and existing investors such as Vistara Growth, Sweetwater PE, NextEquity, Nicola and Beedie. More Here

💰 VENTURE CAPITAL UPDATES

VIVES, a Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium-based high-tech early-stage firm, raised €38M ($41.3M) in the second closing of VIVES IUF, bringing total funding to €70M ($76M). The European Investment Fund (EIF), a current shareholder in VIVES I (€15M – $16.3M) and VIVES II (€42M – $45.7M), committed €25M ($27.2M), alongside current and new blue-chip investors. More Here

Ubiquity Ventures, US based VC firm run by solo GP secured another $75 million in capital commitments for its third fund aims to invest in deeptech and SaaS. More Here

Acadian Ventures, a Madison, CT-based early-stage venture capital firm specializing in the future of work, closed its second fund, at $30m. Acadian Ventures Fund II is anchored by ServiceNow Ventures and Connecticut Innovations. More Here

Giant Ventures, a U.K.-based VC that has made a habit of investing on both sides of the Atlantic, is launching two new funds, totaling $250 million. Its previous fund totaled $100 million. The firm invests across climate, health and what it calls “purpose-driven” startups and some used to call “impact” or “mission-driven.” More Here

𝕏 FEATURED: TODAY’S FEATURED ARTICLE

Never express your ‘Use of Funds’ slide as percentages, why?

You’re raising for milestones, not for percentages or runway......

The truth is that your funding amount includes a very literal deadline: If you run out of money, that’s the end of your company. So, before you run out of money, one of three things needs to happen: Exit event, reach breakeven, raise another funding round.

For early-stage companies, the first two options are off the table, which means you need to paint a compelling picture for another round of funding. That’s where startups often fall. Here’s how to fix that. … Read More Here

💡 SARTUP’S LATEST BUZZ

Acquisition & Exits

Ramp, Spend management startup has acquired AI-powered startup Venue as it expands its procurement offering. More Here

BaseMap, Inc., a Sandpoint, Idaho-based GPS hunting, outdoor planning and navigation app, acquired HuntScore, an Arkansas-based provider of hunt planning tools and research analytics. More Here

Accenture (NYSE: ACN) has completed the acquisition of Ammagamma, a Modena, Italy-based firm that helps companies advance their uses of AI and generative AI technologies. More Here

Link11 Group, a Frankfurt, Germany-based provider of provider of IT security solutions, acquired Reblaze Technologies, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based provider of cloud-native web application and API protection (WAAP). More Here

Layoffs & Shutdown

Aurora Solar, software startup in solar industry has laid off 20% of its staff of about 500 people after reportedly missing growth targets. More Here

Startups & People

Fidelity has cut the value of its holding in Indian E-Commerce startup , Meesho by 33.6% since the original investment, giving the Indian social commerce startup a valuation of $3.25 billion down from $4.9 Billion. More Here

The DOJ has filed charges against a crypto fund called HyperFund that allegedly cooked up a Ponzi scheme involving cryptocurrency to the tune of $1.9 billion. More Here

Elon Musk's Neuralink has implanted its first device in a human brain. More Here

Elon Musk has lost the title of the world's richest person to Bernard Arnault, chairman and CEO of LVMH, according to Forbes Real-Time Billionaire List. Musk's wealth has been declining due to Tesla stock challenges, while Arnault and Jeff Bezos have seen gains, with Amazon and LVMH performing well in cloud computing and skincare markets. More Here

🤖 LATEST IN EMERGING TECH

Elon Musk's platform, X (formerly Twitter), faced criticism and a content moderation failure after AI-generated deepfake pornographic images of Taylor Swift went viral. The incident revealed platform inadequacies in handling abuse, leading to a temporary ban on the search term "taylor swift." Experts argue for a comprehensive overhaul of content moderation on social platforms and increased transparency in decision-making. More Here

Instagram Threads experienced a resurgence with a threefold increase in downloads in December, reaching the top 10 on both the App Store and Google Play. The app, with around 160 million users, rebounded after a decline in daily downloads, possibly boosted by Meta's promotions and integration into the "fediverse." Meanwhile, Instagram became the most downloaded app in December, surpassing TikTok, while X (formerly Twitter) had lower download numbers following its rebranding. More Here

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

• The Fastest Growing Software Sectors in 2024 by Tomasz Tunguz. Read Here

• Guy Kawasaki: Get High And To The Right On Uniqueness-Value Graph Read Here

• 5 Mistakes That Founders Make in Investor Meetings That Kills Chances of Success. Read More

• Wearing A Black Turtleneck Doesn’t Make You Steve Jobs. Read More

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• Transacted: Get the latest trends and transactions with the Street’s most informative M&A update.

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

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✍️Written By Sahil R | Venture Crew Team