VC Daily Digest - 16/11/2023

📮Today’s Major News

• Female Founders Fund to raise $75M for new fund

• Coinbase Cuts Crypto Investment Amid Wider VC Pullback

• Social media companies must face youth addiction lawsuits, US judge rules

• Featured Article: YC Strategy 'Cash In, Cash Out, Milestones Achieved' To Raise Funding

SpaceX Spinning Off Starlink Via IPO as Soon as 2024

Elon Musk’s SpaceX is discussing an initial public offering for its Starlink satellite business as soon as late 2024.

Musk denied the report, calling it “False” in a post on his social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter. The company has been moving the unit’s assets to a wholly owned subsidiary that would ultimately be spun off in the IPO, Bloomberg reported, adding that the listing could also be delayed to 2025. Musk had previously said that he intended to list Starlink when revenue growth and cash flow became smooth and predictable. Earlier this month, he said Starlink had achieved cash-flow breakeven. SpaceX did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment… More Here

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💰 Massive Fundings Updates

Refilled, a Sydney-based startup, wants to help with its smart drink dispensers, which are meant to be used with reusable bottles. It has raised a $1.3 million AUD (about $845,000 USD) seed round led by impact investor Melt Ventures, along with participation from Envato co-founders Cyan Ta’eed and Collis Ta’eed. More Here

Inito, a YC alum that helps women track fertility hormones quickly at home, has raised $6 million in Series A funding led by Fireside Ventures. The startup’s fertility monitor and kit is designed to give users easy-to-read fertility diagnostic results directly on their phone in just 10 minutes. More Here

Sunnyside, the app promoting healthy drinking habits, secured $11.5 million in Series A funding led by Motley Fool Ventures with major participation from Will Ventures. More Here

Tech Spark AI, Toronto based AI company aims to develop school curricula for Black and brown students across North America. It has raised $1.4 million pre-seed round to build out a new generative AI platform called Spark Plug. The round was led by TD Bank, with participation from Salesforce, Canada’s government and NBA Canada. More Here

Vulcan Cyber, a company developing software to help enterprises detect vulnerabilities in their software stack, it raised $55 million in equity financing led by Maor Investments and Ten Eleven Ventures with participation from Dawn Capital and Wipro Ventures. More Here

Tanda, the platform that provides financial resilience and community ties through collective savings. The company closed on $4.5 million in seed capital from Initialized Capital and Arc, Sequoia Capital’s pre-seed and seed-stage catalyst. More Here

Martian, aims to optimize performance and reduce costs for companies using LLMs, filling a niche in the market for efficient model-switching tools. It has raised $9 million in funding from investors including NEA, Prosus Ventures, Carya Venture Partners and General Catalyst. More Here

Kakarot, aims to scale Ethereum by leveraging the capabilities of Cairo and Starkware's technology. OKX Ventures, the investment arm of leading Web3 technology company OKX Makes a Seed Round Investment in Type 2.5 zkEVM Kakarot. More Here

SuperCircle, a New York startup that helps fashion brands and retailers recycle their old clothes and reduce textile waste, raised a $7 million pre-Series A round co-led by Radicle Impact and Ulu Ventures, with additional investors including Earthshot Ventures, BBG Ventures, Lyra Ventures, and Blueprint Ventures. More Here

Resistomap, a five-year-old Helsinki startup that is developing a platform to monitor antimicrobial resistance, raised a $2.2 million seed round led by Ananda Impact Ventures, with Gaingel also joining in. More Here

Radicl, a two-year-old startup based in Boulder, Co., whose software provides SMBs with cyber threat protection and compliance management tools, raised a $9 million round led by Paladin Capital Group, with additional funds provided by Access Ventures and DA Ventures Seed Fund. More Here

Blockchain.com, a 12-year-old London company that operates as both a crypto exchange and a wallet provider, raised a $110 million Series E round at less than half of the $14 billion valuation it secured in a 2022 round, according to Bloomberg. The deal was led by Kingsway Capital, with additional participation from Baillie Gifford, Lakestar, LSVP, GV, Access Industries, Moore Capital, Prudence, Freeman Capital, Coinbase Ventures, and Pledge Ventures. More Here

Urbanic, a five-year-old London startup that says it uses AI to generate "fashion, creativity, and content" for its eponymous fashion brand, raised a $150 million Series C round. Investors included Mirabaud Lifestyle Impact & Innovation Fund, D1 Capital Partners, and JAM Fund. More Here

Tradespace, a four-year-old San Francisco startup that uses AI to help organizations manage their intellectual property portfolios, raised a $4.2 million seed round led by Eniac Ventures, with Abstract Ventures, Amplo VC, and Scrum Ventures also anteing up. More Here

OCOchem, a Richland, Wash.-based startup, raised $5 million to scale its technology for turning carbon dioxide into chemicals that can be used to manufacture clean hydrogen, fertilizer, animal feed and other products. TO VC, an early-stage decarbonization-focused venture fund, led OCOchem’s seed round and was joined by Japan’s INPEX Corp; the LCY Lee Family Office; and Taiwan-based MIH Capital Management. More Here

Bloom, a one-year-old London startup that has developed a career coaching app, raised a $10 million seed round. Octopus Ventures and MMC Ventures were the co-leads. More Here

SpinDrive, an eight-year-old Finnish startup that provides active magnetic bearings for original equipment manufacturers, raised a $4.1 million Series A round. Rhapsody Venture Partners led the transaction, with previous investors Innovestor and Born2Grow also participating. More Here

🚀 Venture Capital Highlights

Female Founders Fund to raise $75M for new fund: Female Founders Fund (FFF) filed with the SEC to start raising $75 million for its fourth fund. That amount is the biggest yet from FFF: Fund I was $6 million, and Fund II was $25 million. In 2021, it closed an oversubscribed $57 million for Fund III, which saw Goldman Sachs, Pivotal Ventures, and Plexo Capital come on as limited partners. More Here

Coinbase Cuts Crypto Investment Amid Wider VC Pullback: Coinbase, a major investor in the cryptocurrency sector, has reportedly reduced its startup funding, reflecting a broader decline in crypto investments. The overall crypto venture funding dropped 63% to $2 billion in Q3, with corporate venture capital units making even more significant cutbacks, signaling a cautious approach and a desire to conserve cash. Coinbase's shift towards supporting startups outside the U.S. is attributed to increased regulatory scrutiny in America. More Here

Material Impact, have raised Material Impact Fund III, an oversubscribed $352M fund that will invest continue building deep tech companies powered by material science innovation. These leading university endowments, foundations, family offices, and fund-of-funds join existing Limited Partners from Fund I and Fund II. More Here

Coatue Management recently raised $1.4 billion for a companion fund to its $7.7 billion VC growth fund, and according to The Information, it's not charging existing investors in the growth fund management fees to invest in the companion fund. More Here

📬 Featured: Today’s Featured Article

YC Strategy 'Cash In, Cash Out, Milestones Achieved' To Raise Funding

There’s a quick litmus-test conversation any early-stage VC will have with the founder and it’s one that you should be as prepared for as your elevator pitch. It goes something like this …

VC: “How much money are you raising?”
Founder: “$8–10 million”
VC: “What’s your current burn rate?”
Founder: “$250k / month.”
VC: “So at a constant rate of burn rate you’d be raising enough for 2.5–3 years. Why are you raising so much?”
Founder: “Um. Let me check my plan.”

Usually, that’s the point in the meeting where a VC realizes that this meeting isn’t going to go very well. Why? Read More Here 👇

💡 Startups Snap: The Latest Buzz

Niklas Adalberth, founder of klarna is betting on Africa: Niklas Adalberth, co-founder of Klarna and founder of the Norrsken Foundation, has invested $125 million, nearly half his wealth, in initiatives promoting impact entrepreneurship. The foundation's Kigali hub, its first in Africa, aims to inspire startups tackling societal challenges, with plans for further expansion in Lagos, Cape Town, and Nairobi. Norrsken supports African startups through its Stockholm accelerator and recently announced a $205 million growth fund, envisioning thriving entrepreneurial ecosystems across the continent in the next 5-10 years. More Here

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🤖 The Latest In Emerging Tech: AI

Microsoft has rebranded Bing Chat to Copilot in Bing, to compete with chatGPT aiming for a unified experience across consumer and enterprise users. Users signing into Bing with a corporate account (Microsoft Entra ID) will receive commercial data protection from December 1, ensuring their data is not saved or used for AI training, and Microsoft won't have access to it. Copilot is now available in Windows and across various Microsoft enterprise subscription plans, with a standalone option for $5 per month for other customers. More Here

Microsoft designing custom AI chips: Microsoft has unveiled its custom-designed AI chips, the Azure Maia 100 AI Accelerator and Azure Cobalt 100 CPU, to address the GPU shortage for AI model development. Maia 100 is a 5-nanometer chip designed for training and running AI models, while Cobalt 100 is a 128-core chip for general-purpose workloads. The move allows Microsoft to optimize performance, diversify its supply chain, and reduce dependency on external chip vendors like Nvidia. More Here

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

• The First Mac Predates Modern Central Banking Read More (Technology)

• Why it’s safe for founders to be nice? by Paul Graham Read More (startups)

• If You Want To Build A Really Big Company, Start A Hard Company. Read More (Tweet: Startups)

• How Does the Venture Capital Fund Cycle Work ? Read More (Startups)

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✍️Written By Sahil R | Venture Crew Team

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