Starlink Struggles with Profitability & US Rep. Introduced "AI Copyright Disclosure Act

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👋 Hey, Sahil here! Welcome to today's quick rundown in the Venture Daily Digest Newsletter. I've got the scoop on startup fundraising, fresh VC funds, and some cool tech – all in just 5 minutes!

• US Rep. Adam Schiff introduced the "Generative AI Copyright Disclosure Act" .

• Adobe invests in AI by buying videos at $3 per minute to build AI Model.

• Toyota Ventures, the early-stage VC arm of Toyota, announced two $150 million funds rings the firm's total AUM to over $800 million.

• Starlink's Profitability Woes - SpaceX Struggles with Mounting Costs in Satellite Internet Business.

• ByteDance, TikTok's parent company, saw its revenue grow by around 60% in 2023, reaching $40 billion.

• Meta has unveiled its latest in-house AI chip, the "next-gen" .

• Featured Article : Market Sizing Guide For Founders.

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Startup Funding Updates

Premji Invest, the private investment arm of Wipro founder Azim Premji, is in talks to invest $50-$70 million in the Australian design platform Canva. The investment is part of Canva's recent $1.6 billion secondary market sale, where the company was valued at $26 billion. More Here

ikas, Turkish e-commerce platform aims to provide a simplified "fire and forget" platform for businesses looking to establish an online presence, offering features like fast storefronts, customer service, and bundled payments and shipping. It has raised a $20 million Series A, led by the World Bank's IFC fund and includes participation from Turkey-based venture firms. More Here

FloQast, a Los Angeles, CA-based finance and accounting operations platform provider, raised $100M in Series E funding, at $1.6M Billion valuation. The round was led by ICONIQ Growth, with participation from BDT & MSD Partners and WiL (World Innovation Lab), alongside board member Meritech Capital as well as Sapphire Ventures. More Here

Torus, a Salt Lake City, UT-based energy solutions company, raised $67M in funding. The round was led by Origin Ventures, with participation from Epic Ventures, Cumming Capital, the Larry H. Miller Company, Zions Bank, Pelion and ICONIQ. More Here

Sapien, a San Francisco, CA-based data labeling company, raised $5M in Seed funding. Backers included Primitive Ventures, Animoca, Artichoke Capital, and Yield Guild Games. More Here

Elucent Medical, an Eden Prairie, MN-based medical technology company working in the field of surgical navigation through in-site spatial intelligence (iSI), raised $42.5M in Series C funding. The round was led by Vensana Capital and RC Capital with participation from existing investors. More Here

PVML, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based provider of a platform for secure AI-powered data access, raised $8M in Seed funding. The round was led by NFX with participation from FJ Labs and Gefen Capital. More Here

Sortium, a Miami, FL-based company combining generative AI with gaming, raised $4M+ in funding. The round was led by Signum Growth, with participation form Cathie Wood’s ARK Investment Management LLC, IDG Blockchain, IVC Fund, Polygon, and 1881 S Group AG. More Here

Collaborative Robotics, a Santa Clara, CA-based company which specializes in the development of practical collaborative robots (cobots), raised $100M in Series B funding. The round, which brought the total amount to $140M, was led by General Catalyst and joined by Bison Ventures, Industry Ventures and Lux Capital. More Here

Yoshi Mobility, a Nashville, Tenn.-based tech-enabled mobile car care company, closed a $26m Series C funding round. Backers included General Motors Ventures and Bridgestone Americas, as well as international investors Universal Motors Agencies and Shikra Limited. More Here

Spines, a Miami, FL-based AI publishing platform, raised $6.5M in Seed funding. The round was led by Aleph with participation from previous investor M-Fund, best-selling “Startup Nation” Co-Author Dan Senor, and LionTree LLC. More Here

Guesty, a Covina, CA-based provider of a property management software platform for the short-term rental, raised $130M in Series F funding. The round was led by KKR with participation from Inovia Capital, together with existing investors Apax, MSD and Sixth Street. More Here

TORL BioTherapeutics, a Los Angeles, CA-based clinical-stage biotechnology company, raised $158M in Series B-2 funding. The round, which brought the total amount to $350M, was led by Deep Track Capital, with participation from RA Capital Management, Perceptive Advisors, and Avidity Partners. More Here

Proxima Fusion, a Munich, Germany-based developer of fusion power plants based on stellarator, raised €20M in Seed funding. The round was led by redalpine, with participation from Bayern Kapital, DeepTech & Climate Fonds, and the Max Planck Foundation and existing investors including Plural, UVC Partners, High-Tech Gründerfonds, Wilbe, and TOMORROW of Visionaries Club. More Here

Oden Technologies, a NYC-based data and AI software company servicing the manufacturing industry, raised $28.5M in Series B funding. The round was led by Nordstjernan Growth. More Here

Andesite AI, a McLean, VA-based company dedicated to delivering technology to overburdened cybersecurity teams, emerged from stealth with $15.25m in initial funding. Co-developed by Red Cell Partners and General Catalyst. More Here

Seaport Therapeutics, a Boston, MA-based clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, raised $100M in Series A funding. The round was co-led by Arch Venture Partners and Sofinnova Investments along with Third Rock Ventures and Seaport founder PureTech Health. More Here

Gilion, a Stockholm, Sweden-based provider of a growth and funding platform, raised €10M in Equity funding. The round, which brought the total amount to €40M, saw participation from Annika Falkengren, Oscar Werner, Göran and Henrik Garvner, and Andrew Konopelski. More Here

Corlytics, a Dublin, Ireland-based-based company which specializes in regulatory intelligence and policy compliance technology, received a undisclosed amount investment from Verdane. More Here

Rivia Health, a Phoenix, AZ-based healthcare digital payment company, raised $3.25M in Seed funding. The round was led by PHX Ventures with participation from In Revenue Capital. More Here

Carrar, a Sha’ar Hanegev, Israel-based provider of battery modules and thermal management systems for electric vehicles (EVs), raised $5.3M in Series A funding. Backers included new investors Salida B.V., OurCrowd, and NextGear, and current investors Gentherm, Next Leap Ventures, Dive Digital, and others. More Here

Mode, a San Mateo, CA-based company which specializes in providing solutions that advance digital transformation at factories and construction sites through the internet of things (IoT) and generative AI, raised $8.75M in Series B funding. Backers included SBI Investment Co., Ltd., True Ventures, JR East Startup Co., Ltd., and Daiichi Jitsugyo Co., Ltd. More Here

Rally, a NYC-based user research CRM company, raised $8.8M in Seed funding. The round was led by Stage 2 Capital with participation from Y Combinator and TIA Ventures. More Here

Leasecake, a Winter Park, FL-based company which specializes in lease and location management solutions, raised $10M in Series A extension. The round was led by PeakSpan Capital and Las Olas Venture Capital with additional support from a venture debt facility provided by Silicon Valley Bank, a division of First Citizens Bank. More Here

Alethea, a Washington, DC-based technology company which specializes in disinformation detection and mitigation, raised $20M in Series B funding. The round, which brought the total amount to $34M, was led by GV, with participation from Ballistic Ventures, who led Alethea’s Series A funding in 2022, and Hakluyt Capital. More Here

Mezo, a permissionless Bitcoin Economic Layer launched by Thesis, a NYC-based venture studio funding and building brands on Bitcoin, with $21M in funding. The round was led by Pantera Capital with participation from Multicoin, Hack VC, ParaFi Capital, Nascent, Draper Associates, Primitive Ventures, Asymmetric Ventures and Dan Held, DCF God – among others. More Here

Novidea, a Netanya, Israel-based creator of the cloud-based, data-driven enterprise insurance management platform, raised additional $30M in funding. Backers included HarbourVest Partners joining existing investors Battery Ventures, Cross Creek, Israel Growth Partners (IGP), KT Squared, and JAL Ventures. More Here

Platform Science, a San Diego, CA-based provider of an edge application platform for transportation, raised $125M in growth funding. Bakers included C.R. England, Cummins, Daimler Truck, PACCAR, RyderVentures, Schneider, Activant Capital, BDT & MSD Partners, Manhattan Venture Partners, 8VC, NewRoad Capital Partners, and Prologis Ventures. More Here

Venture Capital Updates

GigaStar, a Chicago, IL-based startup bringing creators and investors together, is launching a $1M YouTube Creator Fund to help accelerate the journey of YouTubers. The new fund will launch in the coming month to provide discretionary grants to established creators earning over $100K in annual YouTube revenue. More Here

Toyota Ventures, the early-stage venture capital arm of Toyota, announced two $150 million funds to expand its investments in startups developing disruptive technologies and business models at the forefront of innovation. The addition of the new funds, Toyota Ventures Frontier Fund II (TVFF II) and Toyota Ventures Climate Fund II (TVCF II), brings the firm's total assets under management to over $800 million. More Here

Featured Article

Market Sizing Guide For Founders.

A startup’s potential scale is bound by its future market size, and consequently “What is your market size?” is one of the determining questions that most VCs ask early-stage entrepreneurs.

• Why does market size matter?

• How to estimate your market size?

• What is the exact definition of market size?

• When should market size be estimated?

Remember - an entrepreneur’s clarity of thought and enduring ambition as more important than the market size number in a pitch deck. The objective of market sizing is to show that you are targeting a big market opportunity that you understand deeply.

Startups have many unknowns and market sizing is a rough estimation, so keep it simple.

Based on a peer VC survey, “it seems that many investors do not like to define TAM/SAM/SOM terms.” So when presenting your market sizing, explicitly state your methodology rather than assume universal definitions..…Read More Here

Startup’s Latest Buzz

Acquisition & Exits

LI-COR Environmental, a Lincoln, NE-based global leader in greenhouse gas measurements, acquired Onset, owner of the HOBO brand, a Cape Cod, MA-based company which specializes in large-scale, spatially-distributed environmental monitoring and water resource management. More Here

Layoffs & Banktuptcy

Checkr, a background check startup valued at $5 billion in 2022, has laid off 32% of its workforce, or 382 employees, in response to economic conditions and reduced hiring by companies. More Here

Startups & People

SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet business continues to burn through more cash than it brings in, with the company at times losing hundreds of dollars on each ground terminal shipped. While Starlink claims to have achieved "breakeven cash flow," insiders say its profitability has been inconsistent. More Here

Former PayPal CEO Dan Schulman Joins Valor Capital as a partner focussing on US and Laatin America startups. More Here

ByteDance, TikTok's parent company, saw its revenue grow by around 60% in 2023, reaching $40 billion. This growth was powered by the success of "TikTok Shop," which helped ByteDance expand into international e-commerce markets. However, TikTok's success also drew the attention of the US Congress, which passed a bill that could force ByteDance to sell the app's US division to an American company. More Here

Latest In Emerging Tech

Adobe invests in AI by buying videos at $3 per minute, facing challenges to build AI model and match OpenAI's advancements. More Here

US Rep. Adam Schiff introduced the "Generative AI Copyright Disclosure Act" to require companies using copyrighted material to train their AI models to publicly disclose the works used. More Here

Google's Cloud Next 2024 event in Las Vegas showcased the company's latest cloud and AI offerings, including Gemini Code Assist, a competitor to GitHub's Copilot Enterprise, and Imagen 2, an enhanced image-generating tool. The event also featured updates to Google Workspace, such as AI-powered features for meetings and security, as well as the introduction of Vertex AI Agent Builder and Gemini in Databases. Google also renewed its focus on data sovereignty and announced new open-source tools for generative AI projects, as well as its custom-built Arm processor, Axion. More Here

Meta has unveiled its latest in-house AI chip, the "next-gen" Meta Training and Inference Accelerator (MTIA), which boasts up to 3x better performance compared to the previous version. While the chip is currently being used for Meta's ad-ranking and recommendation models, the company is exploring its use for generative AI workloads, though it admits the chip will not replace GPUs entirely. More Here

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

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✍️Written By Sahil R - The Venture Crew