VC Daily Digest - 01/12/2023

📮Today’s Major News

• Elon Musk's Controversial Remark On Media Advertisers

• ChatGPT's mobile apps have topped 110M installs

• IBM Ventures has launched a $500 million enterprise AI fund

• Featured Article: “ Y-Combinator Called Me Cockroach During Interview ” Airbnb Founder — Why?

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💰 Massive Fundings Updates

Amini, a Kenya-based climate-tech startup bridging the environmental data gap in Africa, has raised $4 million in a seed funding round led by Salesforce Ventures and the Female Founders Fund. Climate-tech VC Satgana also participated, alongside other investors, including Pale Blue Dot and Superorganism. More Here

Zubale, a Mexico-based company providing tools to retailers to scale their digital channels, brought in another $25 million series A round. QED Investors led the investment and was joined by an investor group that included NFX and Kevin Efrusy. More Here

Layla, AI startup taps into creator content to build a travel recommendation app. The company has secured a €3 million ($3.2 million) seed investment led by firstminute capital — which was set up by lastminute.com’s co-founder Brent Hoberman and M13. Other investors include Booking.com’s co-founder Andy Phillips, Skyscanner co-founder Barry Smith and entertainment star Paris Hilton. More Here

Braincube, a 16-year-old French company that provides software tools for manufacturers that are designed to enhance operational efficiency, quality, and sustainability in factories, raised a $91.1 million round. Scottish Equity Partners and Bpifrance were the co-leads. The company has raised in excess of $104 million. More Here

Wormhole, a spinoff of Jump Trading Group whose developer platform allows different blockchain networks to communicate with each other, raised a $225 million at a $2.5 billion valuation. Investors included Jump Trading Group, Brevan Howard, Coinbase Ventures, and Multicoin Capital. More Here

Aro Biotherapeutics, a six-year-old Philadelphia startup that is focused on developing a drug to treat Pompe disease as well as treatments for new autoimmune disorders, raised a $41.5 million Series B round led by Cowen Healthcare Investments, with additional participation from previous investors Johnson & Johnson Innovation and Northpond Venture. More Here

Modo Energy, a four-year-old London startup that supplies energy asset owners with benchmarking, forecasts, data, and insights for new energy assets, raised a $15 million Series A round led by MMC Ventures, with Triple Point Ventures, Fred Olsen Limited, and Catalyst Capital also pitching in. More Here

PayGround, a five-year-old startup based in Gilbert, AZ, that says that it provides individuals and families with a dedicated digital wallet so that they can manage and pay their healthcare provider bills in one place, raised a $19.7 million Series A round led by SixThirty, with Rally Ventures, IA Capital, FCA Venture Partners, and Plug and Play Ventures also contributing. More Here

Revela, a two-year-old Detroit startup whose property management platform handles accounting, maintenance, leasing, and investor relations, raised a $9 million Series A round led by FirstMark Capital and including Detroit Venture Partners, MetaProp, and Assurant Ventures. More Here

MYX, a crypto startup that is building a decentralized platform to facilitate the trading of derivatives, specifically perpetual contracts, raised a $5 million seed round. HongShan was the deal lead, with additional funds provided by Consensys, Hack VC, OKX Ventures, Redpoint China, HashKey Capital, Foresight Ventures, GSR Markets, Alti5, Leland Ventures, Cypher Capital, Bing Ventures, and Lecca Ventures. More Here

Stensul, a multi-channel marketing creation platform providing tools to help customers more easily create campaigns. The company has now raised $34.5 million in Series C funding led by Sageview Capital. Existing investors including USVP, Javelin, Uncork and Lowercase also participated. In addition, Edith Harbaugh, co-founder at LaunchDarkly, came in as an angel investor. More Here

Pepper Bio, a US based biotech drug discovery startup raised $6.5 million seed round is led by NFX - early backer at seed stage. More Here

Clayful, a platform that enables students aged eight to 18 to connect with a mental health expert within 60 seconds when they need it. The startup said it had raised $7 million in funding from investors, including Google Latino Founders Fund, Reach Capital, Ovo Fund, Common Sense Ventures, Charter School Growth Fund and Wisdom Ventures. More Here

Huboo, a UK based tech enabled warehousing startup, it has raised a further £29 million ($36.6 million) from existing investors including Ada Ventures and Maersk. There’s also been further, unspecified, debt investment from HSBC and Blackrock. This means it’s now raised a total on £122 million ($154 million) in equity. More Here

Letterhead, a software platform for automating the creation and management of email newsletters, streamlines newsletter creation, distribution, and monetization for publishers and marketing teams to help produce meaningful content at scale. It has raised a undisclosed amount of the seed funding round, led by LOVC, is joined by Reign Ventures with participation from BDMI, Florida Opportunity Fund, and McClatchy. More Here

Darkhive Inc., aims to Scale Development of Low-cost Autonomous Drones for Defense and Public Safety closing of a $4M Seed round led by Crosslink Capital and joined by MVP Ventures, Capital Factory, and existing investor Stellar Ventures. More Here

Enfuce, aims to build embedded financing has raised $9.3 million to expand into new markets. The Finnish firm’s follow-on investment round was led by Vitruvian Partners, with participation from Maki.vc and Visa. More Here

🚀 Venture Capital Highlights

Flagship to raise $3B for new fund: Flagship Pioneering aims to raise $3 billion for its eighth venture fund, emphasizing sustained investor interest in biotechnology despite market challenges. The Cambridge-based firm, renowned for launching companies like Moderna, has recently initiated biotech startups such as Empress Therapeutics and Quotient Therapeutics. Despite the current biotech sector struggles, the National Venture Capital Association highlights continued robust capitalization in the venture ecosystem. More Here

IBM Ventures has launched a $500 million enterprise AI fund, aiming to invest between $2 million and $5 million in early-stage deals, focusing on challenges in the enterprise AI space. Led by Roger Premo, IBM Ventures employs a "venture champion model" that pairs leaders from IBM product teams with the investing team to ensure alignment with IBM's product strategy. The fund seeks both strategic and financial returns by fostering commercial collaborations with startups. More Here

Failup Ventures, a Helsinki-based, seed-stage venture firm, says it has held a first close of €30 million for a debut early-stage fund that is targeting €50 million in capital commitments altogether. Founded by three previous Finnish entrepreneurs – Jesse Heikkilä, Topias Soininen, and Oscar Andersin – Failup Ventures backs early-stage startups in the Nordics and U.S., writing initial checks ranging in size from €200k to €1 million. More Here

📬 Featured: Today’s Featured Article

“ Y-Combinator Called Me Cockroach During Interview ” Airbnb Founder — Why?

Recently, Airbnb founder shared his experience of applying for the Y-combinator and getting an interview call with Paul Graham. He shared that - Paul Graham called me ‘Cockroach’ and I took it as a complement. Why? Read More Here👇

💡 Startups Snap: The Latest Buzz

Startup Acquisition

Yieldstreet to acquire real estate investment platform Cadre: Alternative investment platform Yieldstreet is acquiring real estate-focused platform Cadre, with the deal's financial terms undisclosed. Yieldstreet, founded in 2015, broadens investment access, while Cadre, established in 2014, connects accredited investors with real estate opportunities. The combined companies boast over $9.7 billion in investment value, serving 500,000 members across institutional and retail channels. More Here

Johnson & Johnson MedTech acquires Laminar, Inc., a pioneer in addressing left atrial appendage (LAA) issues related to atrial fibrillation. With an upfront payment of $400 million and FDA approval for a U.S. pivotal study in 2024, Santé's early-stage support played a pivotal role in advancing Laminar's innovative LAA closure device, aiming to improve health outcomes for the 38 million people worldwide affected by AFib. More Here

People

Epirus, a defense startup specializing in directed-energy weapons, sees a leadership change as CEO Ken Bedingfield departs for an undisclosed public company after less than a year. COO Andy Lowery steps into the role immediately. The Torrance-based company recently secured a $66 million U.S. Army contract for its Leonidas prototypes, utilizing high-power microwave technology to counter aerial threats. More Here

X CEO Linda Yaccarino publicly supports Elon Musk despite his controversial remarks, including explicit language directed at departing advertisers and endorsing antisemitic content on the platform. Musk apologized during an interview and claimed reports from Media Matters and others were scaring advertisers away, leading to major brands exiting the platform. Yaccarino's endorsement of Musk's "free speech" stance, stating X welcomes those comfortable with its positioning, contrasts with advertisers prioritizing brand safety concerns and further complicates her role in maintaining advertiser relationships. More Here

Israeli venture capital fund Cyberstarts named Hila Zigman as general partner. Before joining Cyberstarts, Zigman worked closely with Cyberstarts portfolio company Noname Security as chief product office also worked as the Israel defence technology. More Here

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🤖 The Latest In Emerging Tech: AI

ChatGPT's mobile apps have topped 110M installs: In its first year, ChatGPT's mobile apps, launched in May 2023, have surpassed 110 million combined installs and generated nearly $30 million in consumer spending, primarily driven by the $19.99/month ChatGPT Plus subscription, according to data.ai. While not the top chatbot by revenue, ChatGPT's downloads consistently exceed 4 million weekly, with India and the U.S. leading in downloads, and data.ai projects continued growth in installs and revenue by year-end 2023. More Here

🗞️ Today’s Must Read On: Startup, Technology & VC

• Startup founders going from zero to one have three jobs by Garry Tan Read More (Venture Capital)

• How Does Airbnb Build Around Design Thinking? Read More (Startups)

• When Do You Know You Have PMF? By Elad Gill Read More (Startups)

• Great Ideas Look Bad At Early Stage - By Sam Altman Read More (Venture Capital)

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✍️Written By Sahil R | Venture Crew Team

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