VC Daily Digest - 08/11/2023

📮Today’s Major News

• Tiktok shutting down it’s $1Billion Creator Fund

• A16z Made First Investment in UK Crypto Startup

• Former Twitter Execs' Launch VC Firm

• WeWork Saga Cost Masayoshi Son $13.7 Billion and His Credibility

Japanese billionaire Masayoshi Son's reputation suffered a blow after WeWork Inc.'s bankruptcy filing, which cost SoftBank over $13.7 billion, including $11.5 billion in equity losses and $2.2 billion in debt. Son's aggressive investment style inflated WeWork's valuation to $47 billion in 2019, despite warnings from advisers and WeWork founder Adam Neumann. The debacle, coupled with the Vision Fund's record loss of $32 billion, raised concerns about Son's judgment. Despite recent financial restraint, SoftBank's past investments have raised questions about its future strategies…. More Here

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💰 Massive Fundings Updates

ReturnGO is the world’s leading sustainable returns management platform, helping companies turn a profit while tackling waste. the company secured an additional $4.8 million in growth capital, led by Trestle Partners. More Here

Xpressbees, an Indian logistics firm that works with several e-commerce firms in the country, has raised $80 million in a new funding round led by Ontario Teachers’ late-stage venture growth fund amid a surge in the country’s online shopping activity. More Here

Spill, a social media app started by formal twitter employees for black american and LGBTQ Community. It has raised a total of $5 million in pre-seed funding, including a recent $2 million extension round led by Collide Capital. More Here

Fabric, an AI-powered service that helps you organize your documents and other files, and works as a home for all your information that you can then query against using an AI assistant.. The startup has raised a pre-seed round of $1 million led by Seedcamp, with Acequia Capital and other angels participating, including those from Figma and others with AI expertise. More Here

Refurbed, a six-year-old Vienna startup that operates a marketplace for refurbished and upgraded electronics, raised a $57 million Series C round co-led by previous investors Evli Growth Partners and C4 Group, with All Iron Venture and Speedinvest also pitching in. More Here

Pimlico, a London based startup - building the infrastructure for developers to make more user-friendly decentralized applications or dApps. The seed investment from a16z, which totals $4.2 million, came soon after Pimlico’s founder and CEO Kristof Gazso graduated from the investment firms’ Crypto Startup School. More Here

Integration app, with the goal of helping engineering teams more easily integrate their company’s products with third-party apps. Integration.app today emerged from stealth with $3.5 million in funding led by Crew Capital, with participation from Seedcamp and Cortical Ventures. More Here

Enable, a platform that businesses — specifically manufacturers, distributors and retailers — can use to keep track of their business-to-business (B2B) rebates. It raised $120 million in a Series D funding round that values the company at $1 billion pre-money. Lightspeed Venture Partners, Menlo Ventures, Norwest Venture Partners, Insight Partners and Sierra Ventures participated, bringing Enable’s total raised to $276 million. More Here

Cast AI - designed to abstract away cloud orchestration and optimization tasks.Cast AI, which today announced that it raised $35 million in a Series B round led by Vintage Investment Partners with participation from Creandum and Uncorrelated Ventures. More Here

QuickNode, a blockchain deployment platform aiming to bring Web 2.0 services into web3. QuickNode has raised around $115 million. Upon raising $60 million from 10T Holdings, Tiger Global and others, the company was valued at $800 million in January. More Here

Summer, which helps customers buy — and rent out — vacation homes, raised $18 million in a funding round led by backers including QED and Viola Group alongside a $50 million debt facility from Setpoint Capital. More Here

Appetite, an app for discovering and booking restaurants, is aiming to streamline the process of planning nights out with friends and family. It has raised $2 million seed round from a few angel investors, including Sarah Maxwell, Jonathan Grad, Alok Oberoi and Lisa Tchenguiz. More Here

Dreamfarm, a startup based in Parma, in the Food Valley of Italy, is hoping to change that. It’s cooked up a plant-based mozzarella using a base of fermented almonds. Dreamfarm is announcing the close of a €5 million pre-seed round of funding today, with investment coming from a couple of local business angels. More Here

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🚀 Venture Capital Highlights

01 Advisors Capital closed on $395M Fund: 01 Advisors, an outfit founded in 2018 by former Twitter CEO Dick Costolo and former Twitter COO and president Adam Bain, closed down $395 million in capital commitments for a third fund based on the traction the team has enjoyed by investing primarily in Series B-stage startups that sell business software and fintech services. More Here

IBM Launch Entreprise AI Fund: BM plans to invest $500 million in generative AI startups catering to business customers, signaling its commitment to the evolving tech landscape. The company aims to support startups focused on specific verticals or business processes, emphasizing a shift towards AI solutions for sustainable business models, with a global investment approach. IBM's move underscores the company's transformation and willingness to collaborate with innovative ventures in the AI space. More Here

Congruent starts raising fresh $250M early-stage climate tech fund: Congruent, a climate tech-focused VC firm filed paperwork with the SEC to start raising for a $250 million fund. Congruent typically focuses on early-stage investments, so it’s likely that the new fund, the firm’s third, will follow suit. More Here

Yellow VC Fund, Founded by Oscar Pierre and Sacha Michaud, the founders of Glovo, as well as Adam Lasri, a former investor for VC giant Atomico, Yellow is a new €30 million pre-seed fund that wants to invest at the earliest stage possible. More Here

Private equity firm KKR & Co Inc has successfully raised $2.8 billion for its second global impact fund, focusing on investments promoting sustainability and social equity. The fund, led by Ken Mehlman and Robert Antablin, targets initiatives aligning with the UN's 17 sustainable development goals, including clean energy, resource recycling, and workforce development. KKR's global impact team has made 18 investments, including CoolIT Systems and Graduation Alliance, supporting environmentally friendly and socially beneficial ventures. More Here

💡 Startups Snap: The Latest Buzz

Black founders still care for Silicon Valley Bank: Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) faced criticism for sponsoring AfroTech, a Black tech conference, after its dramatic collapse led many Black founders to leave. While some attendees appreciate SVB's support, others find its presence in poor taste, citing the bank's past impact on the community. The bank is working to rebuild trust, but many Black founders remain cautious, diversifying their financial partners for stability. More Here

TikTok is shutting down its $1B Creator Fund: TikTok is discontinuing its $1 billion Creator Fund in the US, UK, France, and Germany starting December 16, shifting focus to the new Creativity Program. The program offers higher payouts for creators with at least 10,000 followers and 100,000 views in the last 30 days, rewarding original videos longer than one minute, aiming to enhance monetization opportunities for TikTok's community. More Here

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🤖 The Latest In Emerging Tech: AI

Microsoft partners with VCs to give startups free AI chip access: Microsoft is offering select startups free access to Nvidia-based GPU clusters on its Azure cloud for AI model development. The initiative, part of the Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub, begins with Y Combinator startups and aims to lower barriers for early-stage companies in developing AI solutions. While time-bound, the program sets out to provide unique opportunities for startups to train and test their AI models, potentially giving Microsoft an edge in the competitive AI ecosystem. More Here

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

• Only The Dogged Thrive : More Good News in Startupland Read More (Startups)

• Why Top 1% Of Founders Quit Their Startup? Read More (startups & venture capital)

• Do the things, that don’t scale by Paul Graham (My Fav.) Read More (Startups)

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✍️Written By Sahil R | Venture Crew Team

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