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- VC Daily Digest - 17/10/2023
VC Daily Digest - 17/10/2023
Climate tech Investment Declining & FTV Capital filed lawsuit to get it's $61M Back
Venture Daily Digest
October 17, 2023
📮Today’s Major News
Seed deals getting more expensive for investors
FTV Capital filed a lawsuit against the company Solid to get its $61 million investment back
Climate tech startup investment declining
Featured Article: What's Better Than Product Market Fit (PMF)?
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💰 Massive Fundings Updates
Xpanceo, a deep tech startup, raises $40M to focus on smart contact lenses from a single investor. The company wants to make tech more simple, and it believes the way to do that is to make it seamless and more connected to how we operate every day.
Stash, an investing app, is taking advantage of a tool that’s been around for some time – a convertible note. It just raised $40 million through one of these mechanisms, led by early and existing backer T. Rowe Price.
Creative Force, A Denmark based company providing an AI-powered content operations workflow for large e-commerce retailers and brands, secured $8.9 million in Series A funding, on a post-money valuation of $56 million, from Export and Investment Fund of Denmark and Hearst Ventures.
New York-based Leucine raised a $7 million Series A led by strategic investor Ecolab Inc. Participants include returning investors like Pravega Ventures, Axilor Ventures, Techstars and angel investors. Leucine wants to make the compliance process more efficient with its compliance cloud platform for the pharmaceutical industry. It automatically creates digital manufacturing records and uses AI to identify the root cause of deviations.
EV data startup Volteras raised $2.9M valued at $12M, it aims to be the connective tissue between electric vehicles and everything they might touch — from chargers and home batteries to energy retailers and mapping apps. The startup’s investors include Exor (a major stakeholder in Ferrari and Stellantis — convenient!), early-stage VC Long Journey Ventures and Crunchie awardee Scott Banister.
Cincinnati, Ohio-based Pantomath, a data observability and traceability platform, today announced it raised $14 million in a Series A round led by Sierra Ventures with participation from Bowery Capital and Epic Ventures.
🚀 Venture Capital Highlights
Will seed deals ever stop getting more expensive?: The state of the global venture capital market leaves much to be desired, and the United States hasn’t escaped the slowdown: PitchBook and the NVCA both reported that the “third quarter of 2023 nearly saw the lowest overall venture deal value in six years and the lowest deal count in roughly three.” In fewer words: Things are not good. The fact that startups managed to raise roughly the same amount of money in fewer rounds means that each round raised more capital, on average. More Here
FTV Capital filed a lawsuit against the company Solid to get its $61 million investment back: Arjun Thyagarajan and Raghav Lal, the co-founders of fintech startup Solid, are pushing back on Series B investor FTV Capital. FTV Capital’s suit, filed in the Delaware Court of Chancery and made public - claims, among other things, that Thyagarajan and Lal “lied to FTV concerning the company’s revenues, customer churn, and business generally and further deceived FTV.” Founders said it’s a baseless claim. More Here
Climate tech startups get growing share of muted global venture capital -PwC: Investment and grants in climate tech startups have fallen just over 40% over the last 12 months, but that plunge is less precipitous than the broader venture capital industry globally, analysts at PwC said in a report released on Tuesday. The report on the state of climate tech described investors as narrowing their focus to areas that need it most, such as heavy industries; climate tech has a "growing share of a muted market" hobbled by global economic and political conditions. More Here
General Catalyst and La Famiglia Announce Partnership for European Expansion: General Catalyst and La Famiglia have formed a strategic alliance to enhance the European startup ecosystem. Jeannette zu Fürstenberg of La Famiglia will join General Catalyst, aiming for long-term impact in sectors like climate, industry, and defense. While emphasizing "radical collaboration," the success of their joint efforts to boost European tech prominence remains a challenge. The partnership leverages their existing relationship dating back to 2016. More Here
📬 Featured: Today’s Featured Article
What's Better Than Product Market Fit (PMF)?
As a founder, you always hear everyone talking about achieving product-market fit for a startup, but I think the key is to achieve product-market-channel Fit.
The fact is that having a great product is useless unless you also have the right channels to sell it through. For More - check it out 👇
🤖 The Latest In Emerging Tech: AI
AI pioneers Yann LeCun and Yoshua Bengio clash in an intense online debate over AI safety and governance: In a fiery debate that erupted over the weekend, two of the most influential figures in artificial intelligence (AI) and deep learning, Yann LeCun and Yoshua Bengio, fiercely discussed the potential risks and safety concerns surrounding AI. This debate comes as part of a larger discourse on the implications of AI, which has been the subject of increasing attention and concern in the tech industry and beyond. More Here
Mac users are embracing AI apps, study finds, with 42% using AI apps daily: AI adoption among Mac app users is booming, according to a new report from app subscription service Setapp that found that 42% of Mac users today report using AI-based apps on a daily basis, and 63% claim to believe that AI apps are more beneficial than those without AI. In addition, Mac app developers are embracing AI, with 44% having already implemented either AI or machine learning models in their apps while another 28% say they’re working on doing so. More Here
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💡 Startups Snap: The Latest Buzz
Netflix’s cloud gaming service begins tests in US: Netflix is beginning to test its cloud gaming service in the U.S. after initially launching limited trials in Canada and the U.K. The service, an expansion on the company’s mobile gaming efforts which began in 2021, has seen the streamer picking up gaming studios and licensing titles from individual developers with the intention to make gaming another major arm of its business. More Here
Australia fines X for failing to crack down on child abuse content: Australia internet safety watchdog has slapped a A$610,500 ($386,000; £317,360) fine on Elon Musk's X for failing to cooperate with a probe into anti-child abuse practices. More Here
Minecraft becomes first video game to hit 300m sales: Minecraft, the best-selling video game in the world, has broken yet another sales record. During a weekend event, developer Mojang Studios revealed it had now sold more than 300 million copies worldwide. That far surpasses closest rival Grand Theft Auto V, which had sold 185 million copies as of August 2023. More Here
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✍️Written By Sahil R | Venture Crew Team
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