VC Daily Digest - 07/09/2023

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Your Monday to Saturday Daily Dose of Venture Insights, Funding Updates and Startup Stories Delivered Straight to Your Inbox. Stay Informed, Stay Inspired and Stay Ahead In the World of Venture Capital !

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📢 Top Venture Capital News

Why some investors are sitting out of YC Demo Day: Y Combinator, renowned for its successful startup picks, has seen a shift in perception around its biennial Demo Days. While once a hotbed for investors seeking the next Instacart or Airbnb, some argue that the event has lost its luster due to larger, less selective cohorts and inflated valuations. However, is this truly the case? We sought to find out, asking 15 investors for their thoughts on Demo Day's current standing. More Here

500 Global closes $143M fund for Southeast Asia startups: Venture firm 500 Global has successfully closed $143 million in financing for its largest Southeast Asia early-stage fund to date, 500 SEA III. This fund will primarily invest in businesses and AI-enabled technologies that advance rural digitalization, sustainable cities, and financial inclusivity, among others. With Southeast Asia expected to be a significant source of global economic growth in the coming years, 500 SEA III aims to back 100 pre-seed, seed, and Series A startups across the region. Despite potential regulatory challenges, 500 Global remains confident in the strong potential and opportunities in Southeast Asia, leveraging their global portfolio and local expertise to support the growth of tech companies in the region. More Here

London VC Firm Backed by Spotify CEO Raises $121 Million to Invest in AI Startups: London’s Air Street Capital has seen early wins with startups focused on AI-powered drug discovery, not ChatGPT knockoffs. Air Street Capital, a venture firm focused on early-stage artificial intelligence startups, has raised a second fund worth $121 million with backing from Spotify. More Here

Pentathlon Ventures Launches $55 Million Fund II to Invest in 25 B2B SaaS Start-ups: Pentathlon Ventures, an early-stage B2B SaaS-focused venture capital firm, has announced the launch of its second fund with a target of $55 Million. The fund aims to invest in 25 B2B SaaS start-ups, supporting breakthrough solutions across Enterprise Digital Transformation, E-commerce Enablement, Fintech, Vertical SaaS, Applied AI, Sustainable Tech, and HealthTech. More Here

Air Street Capital Raises $121 Million for AI Startups: AI-focused venture capital firm Air Street Capital says it has closed a new $121 million fund. The London-based company announced Wednesday (Sept. 6) that the funding will allow it to support early-stage artificial intelligence (AI) firms as that sector continues to bloom. “Air Street has grown from a conviction that AI founders deserve an AI-native investor into a first fund of 19 AI-first technology and life science companies across North America and Europe,” Nathan Benaich, the firm's founder, wrote on the company blog. More Here

More private investors take shots at sports, but do they score?: In early 2021, the NBA opened the door to private equity funds for the first time, allowing institutional investors to own up to a 20% stake in a single franchise. Three months later, a young private investment firm struck up a deal with the NBA's Golden State Warriors: a 5% ownership stake at a $5.5 billion valuation. Later that year, Arctos Sports Partners, a private market firm that acquires minority stakes in professional sports franchises. More Here

📢 Top Startups News

Tech companies are finding their profitability groove: The tech industry is evolving, with companies shifting their focus towards profitability over growth. This trend is evident across sectors, including enterprise software, fintech, and direct-to-consumer markets. As startups strive to conserve cash, they're adopting the strategies of their larger counterparts, potentially reshaping the valuation of tech companies. Recent data from Klarna, Amplitude, Asana, and GitLab, along with new IPO filings, indicate that cash generation, rather than cash burn, is becoming a crucial factor in the tech industry, especially for those in the later stages of the private markets. As we reassess these valuations, we must consider the increasing emphasis on profitability. More Here

Blockchain tech needs a ‘ChatGPT moment’ to scale enterprise adoption: While big names like Starbucks and Nike have adopted blockchain technology, its broader acceptance in the enterprise space is still in its early stages, according to Gary Liu, CEO of Terminal 3. Liu suggests that the key to convincing traditional corporations to invest in blockchain is showing them the corporate advantages it brings, such as faster marketing and targeting. An example of this is Cathay Pacific Group, which has been using blockchain for mileage marketing campaigns since 2018, leading to faster settlements and cost savings. More Here

📢 Featured: Today’s Featured Tweet

Great advice here from Spencer Rascoff For Founders

Recently We shared a tweet on - advice by Spencer for founders on “Pay attention to the ratchets, the liquidation preferences, all of the stuff that you don’t really understand but the VCs do…

if things go great, none of that matters. But if things don’t go great, it can matter a lot.” Worth to check 2 min video. Check this out this. 👇

📢 Top AI News

OpenAI will host its first developer conference on November 6: OpenAI has announced its inaugural developer conference, OpenAI DevDay, set for November 6. The event will feature a keynote address, breakout sessions, and a preview of new tools. While updates on the highly anticipated GPT-5 model are unlikely, insights into OpenAI's plans for Global Illumination, its recently acquired AI design studio, and GPT-4's image understanding capabilities are expected. The conference, aimed at the company's 2 million-strong developer community, will also be partially streamed online. More Here

5 neat AI startups from Y Combinator’s Summer 2023 batch: The latest Y Combinator cohort features a diverse range of AI startups, despite a general slump in VC enthusiasm. Notably, AI sector funding has outperformed others, accounting for nearly a fifth of total global venture funding. Startups like Shadeform, Cerelyze, Sweep, Nowadays, and FleetWorks are leveraging AI to tackle challenges from cloud infrastructure to corporate event planning. These companies represent the innovative potential of AI, even in a challenging investment climate. More Here

AI chip startup d-Matrix raises $110 million with backing from Microsoft: Silicon Valley-based artificial intelligence chip startup d-Matrix has raised $110 million from investors that include Microsoft Corp at a time when many chip companies are struggling to raise cash. Nvidia's dominant position in the AI chip market due to a powerful combination of hardware and software has scared off potential investors in some startups, according to sources Reuters interviewed. Nvidia declined to comment. More Here

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📢 Top Startup’s Fundraising News

SimpleClosure raises $1.5M in less than 24 hours to help companies shut down faster and cheaper: It’s easy to start a startup. But it’s far more difficult to shut one down. An estimated 90% of all startups fail, so there is no question that the problem is a widespread one. Yet the process to wind down a company is largely manual and bureaucratic. That’s something three-time founder Dori Yona realized when building his last company and was tasked by a board member to create a “shutdown analysis.” But to even get to that realization took a while. More Here

Amy Schumer, Mark Wahlberg among SkinnyDipped’s star-studded $12M Series-A: SkinnyDipped, a snack company known for its healthier offerings, recently secured $12 million in Series A funding to expand into new retail spaces and product categories. Founded by a mother-daughter duo, the company has evolved from a direct-to-consumer almond brand to a diverse snack powerhouse, now available in over 25,000 retail stores nationwide. CEO Breezy Griffith attributes their success to their ability to innovate and appeal to a broad market. With this new funding, SkinnyDipped is set to continue its growth, focusing on retail expansion, philanthropic efforts, and product innovation. More Here

Akur8 raises another $25M and introduces new investor Fintlv: Akur8, the AI-powered insurance pricing solution, has raised $25m in a new funding round, bringing its total funding to over $60m. This round introduces a new investor, FinTLV, a global Insurtech and fintech VC fund, joining Guidewire Software, Inc. and historical investor BlackFin Capital Partners. This partnership will be inaugurated with a joint event at the Insurtech Israel 2023 Global Summit, aiming to foster the new relationship. More Here

Voiijer’s new app offers a social community for nature-lovers and explorers raised $1M: Introducing Voiijer, a new social app designed to connect nature enthusiasts with the world's wonders. Unlike traditional social media, Voiijer encourages exploration and community-building, offering a platform for users to share their adventures and collaborate on expeditions. From photos and videos to augmented reality (AR) scans, the app allows for a multi-faceted documentation of journeys into the natural world. More Here

Bandana is building a platform to help hourly wage workers find better jobs raised $3.8M: Bandana’s co-founder and CEO Timothy Makalinao grew up in a working class household and saw firsthand how hard it can be for hourly wage employees to find decent work and support a family. When he launched his company last year with two friends he met at college a decade ago — COO Caleb Lee and CTO Larry Zhang — he decided to build a solution aimed specifically at this group of job seekers. More Here

API security startup Pynt raises $6M: Pynt hopes to do this by helping developers and security professionals more easily — and automatically — test their API security. The Tel Aviv-based company today announced that it has raised a $6 million seed funding round led by early-stage fund Joule Ventures, with participation from Dallas VC and Honeystone VC. In addition to Shneider, the company’s co-founders include CTO Ori Goldberg, CSO Golan Yosef and CPO Ofer Hakimi. Together, this same team previously built Harman’s automotive cybersecurity solution. More Here

Y Combinator-backed Automat turns videos into workflow automations raised $3.7M: Lucas Ochoa and Gautam Bose were hired together out of college at Google Creative Lab, Google’s tech and culture incubator, and spent three and a half years launching products like the AI Test Kitchen, Teachable Machine and Google Pixel Buds Pro. In early 2020, their team was tasked with finding consumer applications of Google’s LaMDA large language model, and they built more than 50 prototypes integrating LaMDA across Google’s apps and services. More Here

Firstcard raises seed funding to help college students build better credit: Kenji Niwa, an immigrant entrepreneur, experienced the challenges of getting financial products, including a credit card, without a credit history when he moved to the U.S. in 2017 to get his MBA at UC Berkeley. The three-year-old outfit said today it has raised a $4.7 million seed round, which brings its total raised to $7.7 million. More Here

🗞️ Interesting Weekday Reading On: Startups, Technology & VC

• 📰 Why it's Better To Raise Less Capital In The First Round? Read More

• 📮 The Game-Changing Clause For Entrepreneur Read More

• 📑 How Do LPs Evaluate VC Fund Performance? Read Here

• 📜 Decoding Startup Valuations with the Venture Capital (VC) Valuation Method Read More

• 📪Hidden Trap Of Convertible Note and Liquidation Preference Multiples Read More

• 📑 Decoding Sequoia Capital: How Do They Dominate the VC Landscape? Read Here

• 🗃️ How Do Investors Protect Themselves from Down rounds ? Read Here

• 📮How Much Should You Raise For Your Startup? Read More

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