Tech Giant's $1 Trillion AI Investment & OpenAI Fund's New AI Investment

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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

Sam Altman's OpenAI Startup Fund is backing Thrive AI Health, a new venture co-founded by Arianna Huffington. The company aims to develop an AI-powered health coach that offers personalized advice on various aspects of wellness.

Elon Musk's $56 billion Tesla pay package was successfully challenged in court by shareholder Richard Tornetta. Now, three law firms are seeking a record $7 billion in attorneys' fees, about $370,000 per hour worked. Tesla's lawyer called it a "real-life lawyer joke," while Tornetta's attorney argues it incentivizes protecting small investors. The case took a new turn when Tesla shareholders voted to ratify Musk's pay in June, potentially impacting the court's decision.

Venture-backed startups faced challenges in 2022-2023, with few raising at higher valuations. In 2024, median early and late-stage deal valuations reached all-time highs, according to PitchBook.

Monzo, a UK challenger bank, saw its valuation increase by nearly 15% to over $5 billion in March 2024. While optimism grows, deal volume remains sluggish, with fewer companies raising new rounds in H1 2024 than typical. Factors driving improvement include potential interest rate cuts, a significant stock market run-up, and high valuations for AI startups.

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Startup Funding Updates

Hebbia, an AI startup that helps businesses analyze all types of data to answer more complex, multi-step questions, raised a $130 million Series B from a handful of big-name investors. The new round was led by Andreessen Horowitz and included participation from Index Ventures, Google Ventures and Peter Thiel. More Here

Vortex IQ, a London, UK-based provider of an AI-powered automation platform for e-commerce, raised £790K in Pre-Seed funding. The round was led by Sure Valley Ventures, with participation from Techstars. More Here

Tembo, a Cincinnati-based startup, provides a platform for deploying and managing Postgres databases in cloud and local environments, catering to the growing demand for database expertise in AI pipelines. The company raised $14 million in a funding round led by GreatPoint Ventures, with participation from Venrock, Grand Ventures, Wireframe Ventures, Defined VC, and Cintrifuse Capital. More Here

Eneida, a Coimbra, Portugal-based company which specializes in neighbourhood grid intelligence for zero emission neighbourhoods (ZEN), raised €10.5M in Series B funding. The round was led by Junction Growth Investors, who led the round, and Santander Alternative Investments. Additionally, Korys, an Eneida investor, increased its stake, alongside participation from current investor HCapital, and the company’s founders. More Here

Digital Iron, a Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK-based provider of an AI-driven platform designed for heavy machinery dealership industry, raised £1.6M in Pre-Seed funding. The round was led by consortium of early stage investors, including Seedcamp, Concept Ventures, RTP Global, C2V, and FJ Labs. More Here

Myricx Bio, a London, UK-based biotech company focusing on the discovery and development of a novel payload class for antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), raised £90M ($114M) in Series A funding. The round was led by Novo Holdings and Abingworth, with additional new investors British Patient Capital (BPC), Eli Lilly & Company, and current investors Sofinnova Partners and Brandon Capital. More Here

Quantum Rise, a Chicago-based startup, provides AI-driven automation and consulting services to companies, helping them integrate AI solutions and automate workflows. The company, founded by Alex Kelleher, has raised a $15 million seed round from Erie Street Growth Partners. More Here

Phaidra, a Seattle, WA-based provider of an AI-based control system for data centers to improve energy efficiency and increase compute infrastructure, raised $12M in funding. The round, which brought the total amount to $60.5M, was led by Index Ventures. More Here

PreActiv, a London, UK-based provider of a prehabilitation platform, raised £500K in Pre-Seed funding. The round was led by Exceptional Ventures, with participation from Bethnal Green Ventures alongside Angel Academe and a group of angel investors. More Here

HarmonyCares, a Troy, MI-based provider of value-based in-home longitudinal care, raised $200M in funding. The round was led by General Catalyst, McKesson Ventures, and a national payor which were joined by K2 HealthVentures and existing investors Rubicon Founders, Valtruis, HLM Capital, and Oak HC/FT. More Here

Natural Capital Research Limited (Natcap), a London, UK-based company delivering nature data, raised $10M in Series A funding. Backers included André Hoffmann, Norinchukin Capital, Yeo Ventures, Pelican Ag, David Craig, Oxford Science Enterprises, MW&L Capital Partners, and Alea Iacta Es. More Here

Astria, a blockchain ecosystem company, raised $12.5M in funding. The round was led by dba and Placeholder VC, with participation from RockawayX, Maven11, 1kx, Figment Capital and Batu. Angels included Yuki, DCBuilder, Hasu, Will Price, Robert Miller, Mert, Jason Yanowitz, Mike Ippolito, and Bankless Ventures also participated. More Here

FreeBnk, a Lithuania-based provider of a fintech app offering services for crypto investors, raised $3M in a combined equity and token funding. Backers included Founderheads, ChaiTech Ventures, LVT Capital, and Lavender Capital. More Here

QED Protocol, a Hong Kong-based zk-native execution layer empowering the Web3 ecosystem emerging on Bitcoin, raised $6M in funding. The round was led by Blockchain Capital. More Here

Granza Bio, a San Francisco, CA-based therapeutic delivery platform developer, raised $7M+ in Seed funding. The round was led by Felicis and Refactor, with participation from Y Combinator, Metaplanet, Zeno Ventures, Ritual Capital, Pioneer Fund, Oxford Angel Fund, North South Ventures, Richard Aberman, JJ Fliegelman, Eric Migicovsky, Eric Eldon, Eli Brown, Eoghan Mccabe, Benjamin Bryant, Yotam Rosenbaum, Will Olsen and Joel Meyer. More Here

InSpacePropulsion Technologies GmbH (ISPTech), a Hardthausen, Germany-based propulsion technology company, raised €2M in Pre-Seed funding. The round was led by HTGF and backed by co-investments of First Momentum Ventures and Possible Ventures. More Here

Gendo, a London, UK-based provider of an AI platform for architects and designers, raised €1M in Pre-Seed funding. The company intends to use the funds to Concept Ventures with participation from Ascension Ventures, Carles Reina’s Baobab Ventures and a range of angels. More Here

Zeti, a London, UK-based provider of fintech solutions for clean transport adoption, raised £5M in Series A funding. HYCAP Group made the investment. More Here

Polystyvert, a Montréal, Canada-based company specializing in recycling technologies and the circular economy of styrenic plastics (polystyrene and ABS), raised $16M in funding. The round was led by Infinity Recycling with participation from SWEN Blue Ocean, and Earth Foundry, an existing shareholder. More Here

Apriori Bio, a Boston, MA-based biotechnology company providing innovations against viral threats, raised US $1.1M in funding. CEPI made the investment. More Here

Venture Capital Updates

The European Investment Fund (EIF) is committing €350 million to Kembara Fund I FCR, a €1 billion Deep Tech and climate-focused fund managed by Spain-based Alma Mundi Ventures. Kembara is part of the European Tech Champions Initiative (ETCI), which has mobilized €10 billion for investment in European tech champions. The fund will make equity investments in European Deep Tech and climate companies at the growth stage, primarily in Germany, Spain, France, and Sweden.

Lunate, a new Abu Dhabi investment vehicle, has taken control of the China-focused 42XFund previously managed by AI firm G42. Both entities are overseen by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a powerful member of Abu Dhabi's royal family. This move comes as G42 shifts its focus from China to Western markets, though concerns remain in Washington about G42's ties to China and the implications of Lunate's involvement.

Featured Article

Metrics are Important, But They're Not the Only Thing That Matters.

One of the biggest challenges founders face is choosing the right metrics for their startup. Jason Cohen of “A Smart Bear” have shared this interesting approach to selecting KPIs that resonate with all of your stakeholders, not just the product or sales team.

Quite a few of the common KPI mistakes I see:

• No alignment with business objectives

• Not SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Reliable, Time-bound)

• Not understood or agreed to by stakeholders

There are lots of frameworks to help you define your KPIs: Objectives & Key Results (OKRs), North Star Metric, or Balanced Scorecard.

But, even choosing the right framework can be challenging. Jason’s visual is particularly effective:

• Addressing multiple stakeholder needs and securing their buy-in

• Making a clear distinction between top-line must-measure metrics and the supporting detail-oriented operational data (he calls them “maximisers” and “satisficers”)

But as essential as KPIs are, it’s too easy to get lost in trying to define the “perfect set of KPIs”. There’s no such thing. Here’s why.

Marketing is a science. This is how to approach a campaign:

Hypothesis → Experiment → Analyze → Improve → Iterate

The same approach applies to your KPIs. Just as important as KPIs are your business fundamentals. There’s nothing to measure if your business fails to get off the starting block.

• How aware is your target customer of your brand? Brand awareness is key to growing your customer base, fostering trust and emotional connections, and driving engagement.

• How is your brand perceived? Entire businesses are built (or lost) on reputation. Delivering a reliable, high-quality product, following through with your promises, and communicating honestly put your business in good standing with your customers and help reduce churn.

• How loyal are your customers? Long-term retention strategies offer better payback than short-term customer acquisition strategies. Ensuring your value proposition is clear and understood by the end user and that you consistently deliver a great UX/UI are major factors to keep customers coming back for more.

KPIs are the common language that all of your stakeholders should be speaking – your teams, executives, investors, and to a degree, customers. But numbers are just numbers. You also need a healthy dose of intuition and willingness to take action.

Startup’s Latest Buzz

Acquisition & Going Public

Anacura, a Ghent, Belgium-based company offering medical and pharmaceutical analytical services, acquired OHMX.bio, a Ghent University spin-off specialized in advanced -omics technology. More Here

Private equity firm Bain Capital is nearing a deal to acquire Envestnet (ENV.N), opens new tab, a U.S. financial software vendor with a market value of about $3.5 billion. More Here

GrubMarket, a San Francisco, CA-based company specializing in technologically advanced B2B food eCommerce and enterprise artificial intelligence solutions for the food supply chain industry, acquired Brothers Produce, a Houston, TX-based foodservice distributor in Texas and the broader Southwestern U.S. More Here

Layoffs & Bankruptcy

Startups & People

Delivery Hero, the Berlin-based food delivery giant, has warned investors it may face an antitrust fine of up to €400 million from the European Union. The potential sanction follows unannounced raids on Delivery Hero and its Spanish subsidiary Glovo's offices, with the EU expressing concerns over possible breaches of competition laws.

Latest In Emerging Tech

Tech giants to invest over $1 trillion in AI, but profitability is questionable, say Goldman Sachs experts.

• Goldman Sachs shows experts are divided on whether the technology industry's planned investment of over $1 trillion in AI infrastructure will pay off, with some economists estimating only modest productivity and GDP growth gains over the next decade.

• Chip and power supply shortages could limit AI growth in the coming years, as demand for AI chips is expected to exceed supply, and shortages of High-Bandwidth Memory (HBM) and special chip packaging technologies like CoWoS will be limiting factors.

• The rapid expansion of data centers and electrification driven by AI could increase US and European power demand significantly by 2030, with some experts warning that utilities are not prepared for this increase, potentially leading to power shortages that could limit AI growth.

Apple has approved Epic Games' third-party app marketplace for launch in the EU after initial rejections. The approval comes with conditions that Epic must make design changes to differentiate its store from Apple's App Store.

This high-profile case highlights Apple's stringent approach to implementing new EU rules allowing third-party app stores. Epic's marketplace and Fortnite are set to return to iOS in Europe under the Digital Markets Act.

Apple has removed several VPN apps from its App Store in Russia at the request of Roskomnadzor, the country's internet regulator. VPN providers like Red Shield VPN and Le VPN received notifications from Apple about their apps' removal, citing non-compliance with Russian law. This move is part of a broader crackdown on VPNs in Russia, following a ban on VPN advertising introduced before the country's March election.

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