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- VC Daily Digest - 05/10/2023
VC Daily Digest - 05/10/2023
Anthropic AI Startup Raising $2 Billion & Women Left Behind AI VC Investment
Venture Daily Digest
October 05, 2023
📢 Major News
AI Startup Anthropic in Early Talks With Investors to Raise $2 Billion
The global VC market continues to stumble but Europe is proving contrary to the trend
Women left behind in AI venture capital investment
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📢 Venture Capital Highlights
The global VC market continues to stumble but Europe is proving contrary to the trend: The global venture capital market is in a slump. There was some hope that the potential halo effect of several long-awaited tech IPOs in the United States trading well and slowing interest rate hikes could spur VCs to be freer with their checks, but venture investment trends instead dipped, per preliminary data from PitchBook. More Here
At One Ventures’ $375M new fund shows climate tech is still hot: Tom Chi’s three-year-old venture capital firm just raised $375 million.At One rode the two waves, investing in 27 companies, Chi said, and deploying just over half the capital in its $150 million initial fund, according to PitchBook data. Its bets span the gamut of climate tech, from practical startups — like renewable microgrid developer Okra Solar and battery recycler Ascend Elements — to the slightly zany, like de-extinction biotech Colossal Laboratories. More Here
Women left behind in AI venture capital investment: Women are being left behind as only three percent of venture capital (VC) funded AI start-ups are female founders. Within the decade studied, over 80% of total capital invested by VCs in AI was raised by all-male teams, whilst only 0.3% of capital was invested into companies with all-female teams. The 3% of female founded AI start-ups receiving VC funding are also more likely to receive less value per deals than male founded counterparts. More Here
Hong Kong based Web3 and blockchain fintech fund launches with USD100m in first close: Hong Kong's push towards Blockchain enabled Fintech and Web3 innovation received strong tailwind through a new fund that CMCC Global launched this week. CMCC Global, one of Asia's earliest venture capital investors to entirely focus on blockchain technology and Web3 innovation, today announced the launch of a new venture fund that will empower entrepreneurs to build companies in the space. More Here
📢 Massive Fundings Updates
Rainforest raises $8.5M to help software companies embed financial services, payments: Rainforest raised $8.5 million in a seed funding round led by Accel. It also secured a $3.25 million venture debt facility from Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), a division of First Citizens Bank. Infinity Ventures, BoxGroup, The Fintech Fund, Tech Square Ventures, Ardent Venture Partners and a number of strategic angel investors also put money in the seed round. More Here
Pow.bio raised $9.5M to solve biomanufacturing and its continuous fermentation: Pow raised $9.5 million in Series A capital. Re:Food and Thia Ventures led the round and were joined by Hitachi Ventures, Possible Ventures, XFactor, Bee Partners, iSelect, Climate Capital, Vectors, Better Ventures and Cantos. The new investment gives Pow.bio around $13 million in total funding. More Here
Recapitalization, $60M Series D support growth of e-commerce financier Clearco: Clearco announced several recapitalization efforts Wednesday, including a $60 million Series D round and new asset-backed financing. The facility provides up to $100 million in financing capacity and will support $850 million of Clearco originations over the next two years. This supported by investors like Inovia Capital and Founders Circle. More Here
Seattle startup Muir AI, which helps companies calculate complex carbon emissions, raises $3.25M: Muir AI, a Seattle startup providing carbon accounting, has raised a $3.25 million seed round led by Base10 Partners. Existing investors Madrona Venture Labs and Soma Capital also participated in the round. The company has raised $3.75 million to date. Muir’s co-founders are CEO Harris Chalat, who came from aerospace companies SpaceX and Relativity Space, and Chief Technology Officer Peter Williams, who worked in aerospace and at Amazon. More Here
Keep Labs’ smart storage redefines medication management raised $2.18M: Keep Labs built a lockable storage container for medicine, and it doesn’t matter if the meds come in bottles, boxes or dime bags. The Keep is designed to hold them safely and track their use. The company has raised $2.18 million from venture capital sources, including StartUp Health’s Transformer Fund, Plug and Play Tech Center, Onbelay Capital and 001 Ventures. More Here
Defense startup Mach Industries closes $79M Series A at $335M valuation: Defense tech darling Mach Industries has closed a $79 million Series A led by Bedrock Capital in a deal that catapulted their post-money valuation to $335 million. Mach is developing a suite of hydrogen-powered platforms and munitions for the military, including unmanned aerial vehicles and hydrogen generation systems. More Here
Habyt, an Airbnb-style platform aimed at longer stays and ‘flexible living,’ raises $42M: A startup from Berlin called Habyt wants to do the same for people looking to stay in cities for a little longer — typically between six and nine months — living “nomad” lifestyles or taking advantage of more flexible work policies. Today, Habyt is announcing a Series C of €40 million ($42 million) to fuel those ambitions. More Here
Rabbit is building an AI model that understands how software works raised $20M: Rabbit, a rebranding of Cyber Manufacture Co., which is building a custom, AI-powered UI layer designed to sit between a user and any operating system. Rabbit — which has $20 million in funding contributed by Khosla Ventures, Synergis Capital and Kakao Investment, which values the startup at between $100 million and $150 million. More Here
Resy and Eater co-founder raises $24M for Blackbird, a restaurant loyalty platform: Blackbird Labs, a hospitality tech company whose platform helps restaurants stay in touch with guests and incentivize them to dine out more frequently, today announced that it raised $24 million in a Series A round led by Andreessen Horowitz with participation from QED, Union Square Ventures, Shine, Variant and others, as well as restaurant groups Quality Branded, Rustic Canyon Group, Soulva and Brooks Reitz. More Here
CoPilot, a training app that matches users with remote fitness coaches, raises $6.5M: CoPilot, a digital training app that matches users with one-on-one remote fitness coaches, has raised $6.5 million in Series A-1 funding led by Jackson Square Ventures. The app, which has seen more than 1.5 million workouts completed on the platform, matches users with a coach they connect with in order to receive a custom fitness plan. More Here
Opsera, a DevOps platform geared toward enterprises, raises $12M: Opsera, a DevOps platform geared toward enterprise clients, today announced that it raised $12 million in a funding round — a tranche smaller than Opsera’s previous raise — led by Taiwania Capital with participation from Clear Ventures, Felicis Ventures and others. More Here
Open banking led to a fintech boom — as Brite raises $60M, account-to-account payment grows: Brite Payments, which today announced a Series A fund-raise of $60 million led by specialist B2B software investor Dawn Capital. Also joining the round was global VC Headline (the re-branded e.ventures) out of their European practice Headline, and existing investor Incore (out of Sweden). More Here
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📢 The Latest In Emerging Tech: AI
AI Startup Anthropic in Early Talks With Investors to Raise $2 Billion: Artificial intelligence startup Anthropic is in early talks to raise $2 billion, shortly after Amazon.com Inc. agreed to invest up to $4 billion in the company, people familiar with the matter said. The deal, which has not yet been finalized, represents an industrywide rush to claim a piece of Silicon Valley’s AI boom.If the funding round closes, it would be the latest huge financing for a startup building so-called foundation models, which take in large amounts of data to provide the basis of many AI tools. More Here
Lemurian Labs is building a new compute paradigm to reduce cost of running AI models: Lemurian Labs, a startup founded by former Google, Intel, and Nvidia alumni, aims to develop a high-power, cost-effective chip to meet the soaring demand for generative AI models. The company secured a $9 million seed investment, signaling investor confidence in their ambitious venture. More Here
Google Photos’ AI-powered Magic Editor feature to ship with Pixel 8 and 8 Pro: Google Photos’ AI-powered Magic Editor feature to ship with Pixel 8 and 8 Google is bringing generative AI to its popular Google Photos app with the arrival of the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro smartphones. The feature, first announced at the company’s I/O developer conference in May, allows for more complicated edits — like filling in gaps in a photo, repositioning the subject and other edits to the foreground or background of a photo. More Here
Meta debuts generative AI features for advertisers: Meta announced today it’s rolling out its first generative AI features for advertisers, allowing them to use AI to create backgrounds, expand images and generate multiple versions of ad text based on their original copy. The launch of the new tools follows the company’s Meta Connect event last week where the social media giant debuted its Quest 3 mixed-reality headset and a host of other generative AI products, including stickers and editing tools, as well as AI-powered smart glasses. More Here
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📢 Startups Snap: The Latest Buzz
Employee liquidity isn’t a myth, but it isn’t easy to provide either: Startups have traditionally used employee stock options to attract strong talent who could otherwise likely land a higher salary at a more-established company. But pitches that promise significant upside don’t always live up to their potential grandeur. As 2021’s lofty valuations have come crashing back down to earth, many employees are slowly realizing that the stock options they have been banking on are essentially worthless. More Here
FTX an empire ‘built on lies’ or a startup that ‘grew too quickly’?: The criminal trial of Sam Bankman-Fried, former cryptocurrency magnate, completed its second day on Wednesday. The prosecution and defense both gave opening statements and interviewed the first two witnesses, including a customer of FTX and Bankman-Fried’s former friend and ex-Alameda and FTX employee Adam Yedidia. More Here
Seattle startup introduces innovative beanless coffee to combat environmental impact of coffee production: A Seattle-based startup backed by some of the investors behind Beyond Meat is launching the world's first beanless coffee this week as it bids to slash the environmental impact of the popular brew. The innovation has caught the eye of investors, who have poured $51.6 million into Atomo Coffee in the hope that its brew - which uses superfoods and upcycled ingredients to mimic the molecular structure of coffee - will be a hit with consumers. More Here
🗞️ Today’s Must Read On: Startup, Technology & VC
What Do You Think Of Today's News Updates? 🤓
✍️Written By Sahil R | Venture Crew Team
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