SpaceX Announces To Deorbit 100 Starlink Satellite & OpenAI's Board Member Launch AI Startup

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

• Y Combinator's latest announcement to back healthcare, defense tech and manufacturing startups in upcoming YC batch.

• Tesla's Cybertruck owners report orange rust marks on the stainless steel body after rain exposure, causing concern.

• Cisco to cut 4,000 jobs, Morgan Stanley trims 100 in Wealth Management.

• SpaceX Initiates Controlled Deorbit of 100 Starlink Satellites Amid Safety Concerns and Growing Sustainability Debate.

• Featured Article : How Do Investors Protect Themselves From Downround ?

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💰 MASSIVE FUNDING UPDATES

Artie, a San Francisco, CA-based Database Replication management startup, closed a Seed round of $3.3M. Exponent Founders Capital led the round with participation from General Catalyst, Y Combinator, and angel investors including Benn Stancil, Lenny Rachitsky, and Arash Ferdowsi. More Here

KTrust, a Tel Aviv–based security startup raised $5.4 million seed funding round led by Awz Ventures. More Here

Blue Alliance, a Cincinnati, OH-based operator-led MSP collective, received an undisclosed amount investment from Prairie Capital. More Here

Architect Financial Technologies, a Chicago, IL-based derivatives brokerage services and trading technology company, raised $12M in funding. The round was co-led by BlockTower Capital and Tioga Capital, and new investors including CMT Digital, ParaFi Capital, A Capital, and Twelve Below. More Here

Roam, an EV startup based in Kenya, has raised $24 million in a Series A round, including up to $10 million debt commitment from the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC). More Here

Diraq, a Sydney, Australia-based company which specializes in quantum computing based on silicon quantum dots, raised USD $15M in Series A-2 funding. The round was led by Quantonation, with participation from John Higgins Family Investments and UNSW. More Here

Hippo Harvest, a San Francisco, CA-based controlled environment agriculture (CEA) startup, raised $21M in Series B funding. The round was led by Standard Investments. Congruent Ventures, Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund, Hawthorne Food Ventures, and Energy Impact Partners also participated. More Here

Overworld, a remote first game studio building cross-platform multiplayer RPGs, raised $10M in Seed funding. The round was led by Hashed alongside The Spartan Group, Sanctor Capital and Galaxy Interactive, with participation from Hashkey, Big Brain Holdings and Foresight Ventures. More Here

Rasa, a San Francisco, California-based generative conversational AI platform provider, closed its $30m Series C funding round. The round was co-led by StepStone Group and PayPal Ventures, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Accel, and Basis Set Ventures. More Here

Civic Roundtable, a Boston, MA-based provider of a collaboration platform for government workers, raised $5M in Seed funding. The round was led by General Catalyst. More Here

cPacket Networks, a Milpitas, CA-based provider of an intelligent observability platform, raised $67M in Debt and Equity funding. The round saw participation from by Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital and Trinity Capital Inc. More Here

IPSecure, a San Francisco, CA-based Buy Box brand protection company for brands and e-commerce agencies, raised its second multi seven-figure round of funding. The round was led by Manhattan Venture Partners. More Here

Bold, a Bogotà, Colombia-based financial technology company enabling access to electronic payments in Colombia, raised $50M in Series C funding. The round was led by General Atlantic, with participation from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), and existing investors InQLab and Amador. More Here

Latigo Biotherapeutics, a Thousand Oaks, CA-based clinical-stage biotechnology company developing non-opioid pain medicines that target pain at its source, raised $135M in Series A funding. Westlake Village BioPartners incubated the company and led the round with 5AM Ventures and Foresite Capital as co-leads with participation from Corner Ventures. More Here

Newcells Biotech, a Newcastle, London, UK-based company which specializes in 3D models, raised $2.35M in funding. The round, which brought the total amount to £12M, saw participation from North East Venture Fund, European Regional Development Fund and managed by Mercia Ventures, Mercia’s own funds and Northstar Ventures. More Here

Spacegoods, a London, UK-based wellness brand specialising in functional mushrooms and nootropics, raised £2.5M in Seed funding. The round was led by Five Seasons Ventures, with participation from Redrice Ventures, Slingshot Ventures and G-FUND. More Here

Parlay, an Alexandria, VA-based provider of a small business loan readiness platform, raised $1.3M in Pre-Seed funding. The round was led by Fenway Summer. More Here

Areteia Therapeutics, a Chapel Hill, NC-based clinical stage biotechnology company, raised additional $75M in Series A funding. The round, which brought the total amount to $425M, saw support from Viking Global Investors and Marshall Wace, who joined the original syndicate of investors led by Bain Capital. More Here

PatientFi, an Irvine, CA-based company offering medical practices a comprehensive technology suite of payment and subscription solutions, received an undisclosed growth equity investment from Questa Capital. More Here

Finom, an Amsterdam, The Netherlands-based startup that provides financial solutions for entrepreneurs and freelancers combining business account benefits with multiple services, raised €50m in Series B funding. The round was co-led by Northzone and current investor General Catalyst, with participation from Target Global, Cogito Capital, Entrée Capital, FJLabs, and S16vc. More Here

💰 VENTURE CAPITAL UPDATES

Y Combinator's latest Request for Startups (RFS) includes a focus on spatial computing, climate tech, and AI applications, emphasizing areas like healthcare, defense technology, and manufacturing. The call for startups aligns with emerging trends, reflecting interest in mixed reality, AI technology, and solutions for healthcare challenges. Y Combinator looking to backed startups in this space in upcoming batch. More Here

Earlybird Venture, Germany-based has closed its second healthcare-focused fund at €173 million, more than twice the size of its first fund. The fund will predominantly invest in European health tech startups, focusing on medical devices, diagnostics solutions, R&D tools, and biopharma. More Here

𝕏 FEATURED: TODAY’S FEATURED ARTICLE

How Do Investors Protect Themselves From Downround ?

This Startup valuation has dropped from $90 billion to $50 billion.......

When a startup's valuation goes down, it can be a bit worrying for investors because it usually means they end up owning less of the company and might have to deal with more dilution.

To safeguard against the impact of a down round, investors commonly employ a "Antidilution Protection." This helps to protect the value of investors' shares by adjusting the conversion price or issuing additional shares to compensate for the decrease in valuation… Read More Here

💡 SARTUP’S LATEST BUZZ

Acquisition & Exits

ResultsCX, a Fort Lauderdale, FL-based provider of transformational CXM (Customer Experience Management) services to global brands, acquired Huntswood, a Berkshire, UK-based consulting and customer solutions company. More Here

Armis, a San Francisco, CA-based asset intelligence cybersecurity company, acquired CTCI (Cyber Threat Cognitive Intelligence), a Beaverton, OR-based company specializing in AI-powered pre-attack threat hunting technology. More Here

SchoolStatus, a Ridgeland, MS-based provider of K-12 data-driven solutions that empower student success, acquired SchoolNow, a unified digital publishing platform for K-12 that streamlines how schools engage families and their communities. More Here

Layoffs & Shutdown

Internet networking pioneer Cisco Systems is jettisoning more than 4,000 employees, joining the parade of technology companies in a trend that has helped boost their profits and stock prices. More Here

Morgan Stanley expected to lay off several hundreds of employees from its wealth-management team cutting 1% of staff. More Here

Startups & People

OpenAI board members, Former Salesforce co-CEO Bret Taylor and ex-Google employee Clay Bavor have launched Sierra, a conversational AI company for customer service. Sierra claims its agents go beyond FAQ responses, taking actions within enterprise systems and addressing hallucination issues. More Here

Global dating app downloads grew only 1.9% YoY to 128 million installs, with the U.S. experiencing a 2.38% YoY increase to 12.7 million installs in January 2024. Match Group reported a 5% YoY decline in paying customers, and Tinder's paying customer growth dropped 8% to 10 million. More Here

Tesla's Cybertruck owners report orange rust marks on the stainless steel body after rain exposure, causing concern. Some argue it may be contaminants, while Tesla's manual acknowledges susceptibility to corrosion and advises prompt cleaning. Owners explore restoration methods, drawing parallels with stainless steel issues faced by the DeLorean, and some embrace the unique patina or opt for wraps to address the concerns. More Here

🤖 LATEST IN EMERGING TECH

Buyers of Apple's $3,500 Vision Pro are returning the high-priced headsets, citing discomfort due to the clunky weight, making extended use inconvenient. Reviews emphasize that, while the device excels in specific tasks like movie watching, its limited practicality for day-to-day computing contributes to buyer's remorse, despite initial excitement for future iterations. More Here

SpaceX plans to intentionally "deorbit" about 100 older Starlink satellites due to a common issue that may increase the risk of future failures, with 17 already non-maneuverable. This proactive move aligns with Starlink's commitment to space safety and sustainability. Despite SpaceX's assertion of success, with only 406 of its nearly 6,000 satellites previously deorbited, critics argue that over 8% of the company's satellites needing decommissioning within six months raises concerns about the sustainability of its satellite fleet. More Here

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

• Plan For Europe's Huge New Particle Collider Takes Shape. Read Here

• Inflation Was Far Worse Than Expected In January. Read Here

• Investors Are Looking for Market Opportunity, Not Just Size. Read Here

• Steve Jobs - ‘Don’t Ask Your Customers What They Want, Why?’ Read Here

• Paul Graham: Are You Building Fake Product-Market Fit ? Read Here

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• Techpresso: Get the most important tech news in a free daily email.

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

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✍️Written By Sahil R - Venture Crew Team