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- VC Daily Digest - 06/10/2023
VC Daily Digest - 06/10/2023
Ex-Google Ventures CEO Launched $525M VC fund & AI Startup Raised $1.7 Billion
Venture Daily Digest
October 06, 2023
📢 Major News
Ex-Google Ventures CEO Launched $525M VC fund
Video Game VC Funding Slumps
This AI Startup Raised $1.7 Billion To Acquire Another AI Startup
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📢 Venture Capital Highlights
3 VCs weigh in on when to follow the hype cycle — and when to ignore it: Hype cycles can spur world-changing innovations like social media and generative AI, but they also build fanfare and ballyhoo for flopped fads like VR goggles, digital scent technology and instant grocery delivery. Investors are open to bandwagon jumpers, but they’re looking for startups with defensible moats and qualified teams that can become market leaders. More Here
Section 32 closes on $525M fund: Section 32, a venture firm founded by ex-Google Ventures CEO Bill Maris, has closed on $525 million in capital commitments across its fifth fund, TechCrunch is first to report. A portion of the capital will go toward early-stage investments, while the remaining will be reserved for follow-on opportunities. The Palo Alto, California firm, which now has $2.3 billion in assets under management, has seen a number of notable exits over its six-year history. More Here
CMCC Global raises US$100 mln to launch Hong Kong Web3 fund: CMCC Global, a Hong Kong-based blockchain-focused venture capital fund, announced Wednesday that it raised US$100 million to launch the “Titan Fund.” CMCC’s new Titan Fund will invest in early-stage blockchain startups along the verticals of infrastructure, fintech and consumer applications such as gaming, metaverse and NFTs. More Here
Video game VC funding slumps as publishers battle Covid hangover: Venture capital funding for video games slumped to a three-year low last quarter, reflecting investors’ growing distaste for risk and rising costs to develop new hits. VC groups invested $700.3 million in gaming in the third quarter, the lowest total since the second quarter of 2020, according to data from PitchBook. The industry attracted more than $2 billion in every quarter for two years ending in mid-2022. More Here
📢 Massive Fundings Updates
AI-powered parking platform Metropolis raises $1.7B to acquire SP Plus: AI-powered parking platform Metropolis today announced that it raised $1.7 billion to acquire SP Plus, a provider of parking facility management services, in a combination of equity and debt. Eldridge Capital and 3L Capital co-led the tranche with participation from BDT & MSD Partners’ affiliated credit funds, Vista Credit Partners, Temasek, Slow Ventures and Assembly Ventures. As a part of the financing, Metropolis will take on $650 million in loans and $1.05 billion in Series C preferred stock financing. More Here
Consumer brand accelerator SuperOrdinary gets $58M Series B at $800M valuation: The Los Angeles-headquartered company works behind the scenes to help American and European consumer brands scale on marketplaces like Amazon, sell through social commerce and break into the Chinese market. SuperOrdinary announced today that it has raised $58 million in Series B funding at a $800 million valuation. Investors in this round included Manzanita, Alliance Consumer Growth, Demira GateUpper90 and SuperOrdinary founder and CEO Julian Reis. More Here
Washington reusable rocket startup Stoke Space raises $100 million: Washington-based startup Stoke Space raised $100 million in new funds, the company announced Thursday, as it aims to develop a fully reusable rocket called "Nova." Stoke's latest investment round was led by Industrious Ventures – with the firm's Steve Angel, chairman of chemicals giant Linde, joining the Stoke board of directors. The space company's fundraise was also joined by investors including the University of Michigan, Sparta Group, Long Journey, Bill Gates' Breakthrough Energy, YCombinator, Point72 Ventures, NFX, MaC Ventures, Toyota Ventures and In-Q-Tel. More Here
Union Square Ventures backs Indian EV infra startup Bolt.Earth in $20M funding: Bolt.Earth, an Indian startup that offers charging infrastructure and software solutions for electric vehicles, has raised $20 million in a funding round to expand its presence within the South Asian nation and enter into new markets. The Bengaluru-based startup has raised fresh capital from its existing and new investors, including Union Square Ventures, Prime Venture Partners and ITIGO Funds, among others. More Here
Observability platform Observe raises $50M in debt, launches gen AI features: Observe, which develops software-as-a-service observability tools for storing, managing and analyzing machine-generated data and logs, has raised $50 million in convertible debt (i.e. debt that converts to equity) led by Sutter Hill Ventures. The financing will be used to grow Observe’s sales and R&D team. More Here
Phaver raises $7M to help make onboarding to web3 social platforms easier: Phaver aims to change that, particularly for web3 social platforms, and has raised $7 million in seed funding to build a service that provides a web3 onboarding experience that’s similar to existing social platforms.Polygon Ventures, Nomad Capital, Symbolic Capital, dao5, Foresight Ventures, Alphanonce, f.actor and Superhero Capital invested in the round. More Here
Gradient raises $10M to let companies deploy and fine-tune multiple LLMs: Gradient, a startup that allows developers to build and customize AI apps in the cloud using large language models (LLMs), today emerged from stealth with $10 million in funding led by Wing VC with participation from Mango Capital, Tokyo Black, The New Normal Fund, Secure Octane and Global Founders Capital. More Here
Vibrant Planet raises $15M Series A to help PG&E and others trim their wildfire risk: Vibrant Planet has raised a $15 million Series A funding round led by the Ecosystem Integrity Fund, with participation from Microsoft’s Climate Innovation Fund, Citi Ventures, Day One Ventures, SIG Climate, Globivest, Coefficient LP and other investors. More Here
Cobre secures $13M to help CFOs in Colombia automate corporate payments: The Colombia-based startup developed a corporate treasury platform to give chief financial officers more visibility and control over their company’s financial transactions, specifically, to centralize, digitize and automate their payment processes. QED, Atlantico and Canary are all back participating in a new $13 million investment, this time led by Kaszek. The round closed in August and gives Cobre over $30 million in total funding to date. 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
Raleigh based AI startup closes on $7.5M in new financing: Raleigh-headquartered Aampe, an AI-powered user engagement platform, announced a $7.5 million Pre-Series A funding Thursday. The round, led by Matrix Partners India and Peak XV Partners (formerly Sequoia Capital India & SEA), will support product development and fuel growth as the company eyes global expansion. More Here
📬 Featured: Today’s Featured Tweet
Maximize Your Chance Of Raising Money From Investors 🫣
Recently I come across the tweet by Sahil Lavingia, Founder of Gumroad about how founder can maximize their chance of raising money from investors:
📢 The Latest In Emerging Tech: AI
ChatGPT-owner OpenAI is exploring making its own AI chips -source: OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, is exploring making its own artificial intelligence chips and has gone as far as evaluating a potential acquisition target, CEO Sam Altman has made the acquisition of more AI chips a top priority for the company. He has publicly complained about the scarcity of graphics processing units, a market dominated by Nvidia, which controls more than 80% of the global market for the chips best suited to run AI applications. More Here
10 investors talk about the future of AI: sophisticated technologies like AI and deep learning have been around for a long time now, and all this hype around AI is ignoring the simple fact that they have been in development for decades. Still, we can’t deny that AI is enjoying unprecedented levels of attention, and companies across sectors around the world are busy pondering the impact it could have on their industry and beyond. More Here
Advancing generative AI exploration safely and securely: Security concerns are inexorably intertwined with the exploration and implementation of generative AI. According to a recent report featuring data we commissioned, 49% of business leaders consider safety and security risks a top concern, while 38% identified human error or human-caused data breaches arising from a lack of understanding of how to use GPT tools. More Here
AI Shifts Into the Next (Generative) Gear in Healthcare: Artificial intelligence (AI) has been transforming health and medicine for several decades, whether through diagnostics, personalized medicine, data analytics or other innovations. The advent of generative AI is now reshaping drug discovery, diagnostics, clinical decisions and delivery of care. Traditional healthcare companies — whether healthcare providers, payers, technology partners or pharmaceutical companies — recognize generative AI’s potential. More Here
AI copilot enhances human precision for safer aviation: Imagine you're in an airplane with two pilots, one human and one computer. Both have their “hands” on the controllers, but they're always looking out for different things. If they're both paying attention to the same thing, the human gets to steer. But if the human gets distracted or misses something, the computer quickly takes over. Meet the Air-Guardian, a system developed by researchers at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL). More Here
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📢 Startups Snap: The Latest Buzz
How to stretch your venture dollars: If you haven’t found traction with customers and aren’t generating revenue, you should be in fundraising mode already. “Pre product-market fit, you want to have as much runway as possible because that’s really the goal of being a seed stage startup,” Yang said. “It used to be [that] maybe you have six months of runway left, and you go and raise your next round. Now, more is better because of the market being a little bit more volatile.” More Here
Startup selection, success, and sustainability: In business, established companies are facing increasing pressure to embrace sustainability. To address this challenge, many incumbents are turning to corporate venturing, a process that involves collaborating with startups to tap into innovation and explore new markets. 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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