VC Daily Digest - 22/08/2023

👋 Welcome to Today’s VC Daily Digest!

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 !

📢 Top Venture Capital News

As Venture Market Slows, Fewer Early-Round Unicorns Being Minted: The pace of minting early-stage startups as unicorns has slowed significantly in the venture market. With investors placing more emphasis on profitability and positive cash flow, only 31 early-stage startups are projected to hit unicorn status this year, the lowest count since 2019. Interestingly, half of the early-round unicorns minted this year in the U.S. come from the generative AI sector. Despite the decrease, early-round unicorns make up a greater percentage of all unicorns minted this year compared to past years. More Here

HR Tech Funding Falls To 3-Year Low After Flurry Of VC Interest: The landscape of venture funding in HR tech has seen a significant shift, with startups securing over $10.5 billion in 2021, compared to less than $3.3 billion this year. Despite this slowdown, there are still notable investments like Rippling's $500 million Series E funding and Odoo's $164 million round. However, the focus seems to be shifting towards AI-enhanced productivity tools, with HR tech awaiting its turn. Meanwhile, areas like employee benefits and childcare platforms are witnessing increased interest. More Here

Insight Partners Has Invested More Than $4B Into AI. What’s Next?: Insight Partners, a New York-based investment firm, has been a major player in the AI sector, investing around $4 billion in AI companies over the past five years. George Mathew, a partner at the firm, believes that generative AI models like ChatGPT are setting a new standard that will "reformat all of software." Insight's focus has shifted towards machine-learning operations and generative AI applications, with investments in companies like Weights & Biases, Astronomer, and Acceldata. As they continue to seek out innovative AI companies, they're particularly interested in those building domain-specific models on private data sets, and exploring vertical opportunities in financial services, healthcare, and software. More Here

Cybersecurity Startup M&A On Pace For Weakest Year Since 2017: The cybersecurity M&A landscape has seen a slowdown this year, with dealmaking at its slowest pace since 2017. Rising interest rates, geopolitical tensions, and economic uncertainty have created headwinds for dealmaking. However, experts predict a shift towards increased M&A activity in Q4 and throughout 2024 as valuations become more rational. Key areas of interest include cloud security, AI-related cybersecurity, supply chain security, and identity and DevOps. More Here

The State of Boston Venture Capital: The Boston VC scene is experiencing a shift in 2023, with a 52% decrease in startup investment activity compared to 2021. Despite this, firms are diversifying their geographic focus, with a growing comfort in investing outside of Boston. AI remains a key investment area, but overall deal momentum has slowed. The future of VC in Boston hinges on the city's deep bench of technical talent and the evolving perception of AI in large companies. More Here

📢 Top Startups News

Why the sex tech industry could benefit from today’s politics?: Despite societal taboos and investor hesitations, the sex tech industry is seeing steady growth, with startups raising $111.9 million this year alone. Investors like Jessica Karr, co-founder of Coyote Ventures, are recognizing the potential of this sector as part of a broader focus on women's health and wellness. As we continue to break down barriers and open up conversations, the future of sex tech appears promising. More Here

Friend.tech hype is skyrocketing, but will it actually reach the stars?: In just 11 days since its beta launch, Friend.tech, a decentralized social-focused app, has gained significant traction, attracting big names from the crypto world, NBA, and OnlyFans creators. Built on Coinbase’s layer-2 blockchain Base, the app allows users to tokenize their likeness by selling “shares” of themselves. Despite its early success, with a total volume of 33,596 ether, or about $55.5 million, across 1.29 million transactions, skepticism surrounds its viability due to a lack of privacy policy, a reportedly laggy interface, and unclear operational aspects.

Twiga lays off 33% of its staff, disbands in-house delivery and introduces logistics marketplace: In response to challenging macroeconomic conditions, Kenyan B2B e-commerce platform, Twiga, is implementing strategic operational adjustments to maintain resilience. This includes laying off 33% of its workforce, outsourcing delivery to independent contractors, and consolidating operations to a central warehouse. More Here

📢 Featured: Morning Brew

Morning Brew: The Daily News Trusted By 4M+ Professionals Direct To Inbox.

Morning Brew covers the latest developments across business, tech, finance & more in its quick-to-read daily newsletter that’s perfect for busy professionals.

📢 Top AI News

Snapchat is expanding further into generative AI with ‘Dreams’: Snapchat is set to expand its AI capabilities with a new feature called "Dreams", allowing users to generate images of themselves in imaginative scenarios. The feature, discovered by app researcher Steve Moser, will require clear selfies to create these AI "dream" images. Snapchat is also developing "Dreams with Friends", letting users generate images with their friends included. The discovery of "Dream Packs" hints at potential monetization of the feature. More Here

How any SaaS company can monetize generative AI?: In the SaaS industry, integrating AI into your products can add significant value for your customers. But it's crucial not to overlook the monetization aspect of this integration. The shift to AI isn't just a pricing change, it's a business model change. Companies need to consider usage-based pricing models to accurately monetize AI, taking into account the variability and scale of AI usage. Metering each usage call to AI infrastructure can provide visibility into usage costs and margins, positioning generative AI products as ideal fits with usage-based pricing. More Here

Parkinson's disease could be detected early with AI scans, scientists say: In a remarkable study, scientists analyzed data from optical coherence tomography (OCT), a 3D scan that provides highly detailed images of the retina. This extensive research involved a cohort of 154,830 patients aged 40 and over, who visited eye hospitals in London from 2008 to 2018. The power of technology in advancing our understanding of the human eye is truly astounding. More Here

BingX Announces Strategic Investment in AI and Web3 Startup Moonbox: BingX, a global cryptocurrency exchange, has made a strategic investment in Moonbox, an AI and Web3 startup, via its investment arm, Bing Ventures. Moonbox, with rights to the IP of popular Stephen Chow films, plans to launch AI-powered NFTs and applications, aiming to enhance user engagement and content creation. This investment will boost Moonbox's product growth and its core technology, which utilizes generative AI for the evolving Web3 and NFT ecosystem. BingX's move underlines their commitment to advancing the Web3 ecosystem and supporting projects that shape the future of technology. More Here

📢 Top Startup’s Fundraising News

Andreessen Co-Leads $200 Million Investment in Biotech Startup Genesis Therapeutics: Genesis Therapeutics, a startup leveraging AI for drug discovery, has successfully closed a $200 million Series B funding round. This round was co-led by Andreessen Horowitz Bio + Health and an anonymous U.S.-based life-sciences-focused investor, with participation from new and existing investors. The funds will be used to transition Genesis into a clinical stage company, enhance its AI platform, and expand its discovery pipeline. This marks a significant milestone for Genesis, which has now raised over $280 million since its inception in 2019. More Here

Axiom Space Locks Up Huge $350M Round From Aljazira Capital and Boryung: Despite a downturn in space tech funding, Houston-based startup Axiom Space has secured $350 million in a funding round led by Aljazira Capital and Boryung Pharmaceutical. This places Axiom's valuation at over $1 billion as they progress towards their goal of building a commercial space station by 2026. Axiom's raise is the largest nonsecondary offering in the space tech sector this year, highlighting the continued investor interest in this field. More Here

Zanifu raises $11.2M to scale its inventory financing offering in Kenya: Kenyan fintech Zanifu, which provides inventory financing to micro, small, and medium-sized businesses, has raised $11.2 million in a pre-Series A round. The funding will enable Zanifu to expand its services to distributors, in addition to retailers. Zanifu's unique approach to credit extension, based on collected data and direct supplier payment, has already benefited 13,000 micro-businesses and 500 distributors. With a reported 99.2% repayment rate, Zanifu is making strides in addressing the $19 billion financing gap for MSMEs in Kenya. More Here

B2B inventory marketplace Ghost reappears with $30M Series B to expand outside US: Ghost, the B2B marketplace for surplus inventory, has successfully raised $30 million in a Series B funding round. Over the past year, the platform has seen impressive growth, doubling its team, expanding its membership base to over 1,000, and increasing its inventory by 500%. With this fresh funding, co-founders Josh Kaplan and Dee Murthy plan to expand their team, venture into new markets, and enhance their product with a focus on automation and personalization. More Here

Customer engagement platform Beamer raises $20M: Beamer, the no-code platform for monitoring product engagement, has secured a $20 million investment from Camber Partners. The funding will be used to expand product lines and drive growth, with a focus on AI-related developments. Beamer's mission is to aid companies globally in building better products, and this investment is a testament to their potential in the evolving software landscape. Despite a declining venture capital trend, this move signifies a strong belief in Beamer's future. More Here

Arkifi raises over $9 million for AI-powered financial analyst tools: Arkifi, an artificial-intelligence startup that provides workflow automation tools for financial institutions including hedge funds and investment banks, said on Monday the company had raised over $9 million in seed financing. The financing was co-led by Khosla Ventures and Nyca Partners, with participation from Soma Capital, MVP Ventures, Valiant Capital Employee Fund, Correlation VC and G&H Partners. More Here

Dallas-based startup raises $3.3M seed round led by Boston venture capital firm: The round of funding, led by Boston-based Underscore VC, will allow Aircon to invest in expanding partnerships across the air cargo and freight markets, global gateway expansion, growing its AI tech infrastructure and growing its team. More Here

Join 2300+ Readers to receive daily updates on Venture Capital, Startup Fundraising and Major Economic News in Your Inbox! 🗞️

🦄 Join Our 1500+ Founders & Investors Community Space.

Join the community of 1500+ investors to get the weekly startup deals, collaborate with other investors & learn from each other.

Read The Venture Crew’s VC Newsletter 🗞️

• 🗈 Why Brand Building Is So Important For Startups? Read Here

• 🚀 How Do Investors Protect Themselves from Down rounds Through Weighted Average Anti-Dilution Protection? Read Here

• 🪧How VCs Evaluate & Make High-Quality Investment Decisions? Read Here

• 🚀 How to Start A Startup By Paul Graham? Read Here

• 🪧The Secrets Behind Market Sizing! Read Here

• 🗈 Why Do VC Firms Want an Option Pool Before the VC Round? Read Here

• 🚀 Making a financial model for your early-stage startup?
   Read Here

• 🗈 Hidden Trap Of Convertible Note and Liquidation Preference Multiples Read Here

✍️Written By The Venture Crew Team

🤗Join Community 🗈 Want to Feature 📢 Sponsor Us 👉 Follow Us