VC Daily Digest - 27/10/2023

📮Today’s Major News

• Seed deals are getting more expensive!

• Middle East VC Looking to Invest in African Startups Increasing

• Zuck’s Thread is Not Dead

• Featured Article: Why it's Better To Raise Less Capital In The First Round?

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💰 Massive Fundings Updates

Nectar AI, wants to provide direct-to-consumer and e-commerce brands with an easier way to connect with consumers. The company recently closed on $2 million in pre-seed funding in a round. It was led by Flying Fish Ventures’ Heather Gorham and included BAM Ventures, Trust Fund’s Sophia Amoruso, XRC Ventures, Fab Ventures, Yale Index Ventures, CMDN, Dash VC and a group of angel investors, including Jennifer Dulski. More Here

Insurtech startup AgentSync is taking on the same slice of the economy, but with a very different model, focusing on helping federate information via APIs between different parties. That, it appears, is a more viable model: AgentSync recently raised a $50 million Series B extension, Prior investors led the round, and Craft and Valor returned as lead investors. More Here

Gozen, a turkey based startup which aims to build the lab grown leather has now raised a $3.3 million seed funding round led by Happiness Capital (lead investor) with participation from Accelr8, Astor Management, and Valley-based SOSV. More Here

Censys, which provides customers with insights about critical internet-connected infrastructure. It raised $50 million in a Series C funding round plus a $25 million debt round, bringing its total raised to $128.1 million. Decibel Partners led the round with participation from GV, Greylock and Intel Capital. Other participants included Ascension Ventures, Four Rivers Partners V, L.P. and accounts managed by Hamilton Lane. More Here

Arteria AI, a Canada based company taking a data-first approach to all that unstructured data, focusing on contracts for institutional finance. It has raised $30 million Series B financing round led by GGV Capital U.S., with participation from all existing major investors, including Illuminate Financial, Information Venture Partners, BDC Capital and Citi. This brings Arteria AI’s total funding to $50 million to date. More Here

Credal.ai, a Y Combinator-backed startup that gives enterprises a way to connect their internal data to text-generating, cloud-hosted AI models, has raised $4.8 million in a seed round led by Spark Capital. More Here

Outset, a Y Combinator-backed company, Outset autonomously conducts — and synthesizes — interviews. Outset, which recently raised $3.8 million in a funding round led by Adverb Ventures with participation from Weekend Fund and Jack Altman. More Here

Ola Electric has raised $384.43 million in a funding round, which included about $240 million in debt. The new round values the Bengaluru-headquartered electric vehicle startup. Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund Temasek led the funding round, whose name Ola Electric didn’t disclose, and Indian government-backed lender State Bank of India bankrolled the debt, the startup said in a statement. More Here

50inTech, building a software-as-a-service product to measure diversity with concrete metrics and identify the immediate changes that can lead to improvements. the company recently raised a $1.6 million (€1.5 million) seed round from Inco Investissements, Evolem, Super Capital, Altalurra, AIV Ventures as well as several business angels, such as Corinne Vigreux, Florian Douetteau, Alexandre Fretti and Gimena Diaz. More Here

1337 (pronounced Leet), is leveraging generative AI to build a community of AI-driven micro-influencers, smaller content creators with hyper-personalized interests and diverse backgrounds who want to connect to people from niche communities like gardening, emo music, vintage fashion, classical literature and more. It has raised $4M led by redo Ventures, GFR Fund, Treble Capital, Roosh Ventures, as well as angels Hugging Face CEO Clément Delangue and impact investor and model Natalia Vodianova. More Here

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🚀 Venture Capital Highlights

Why seed deals are so expensive today?: Seed deals remain expensive due to rapid revenue growth in early-stage startups, making them attractive despite a contracting venture market. Startups with strong growth potential are maintaining high valuations, indicating that the venture model is adapting to market realities. Although seed deals are becoming rarer, startups meeting high growth criteria are raising capital at elevated valuations. More Here

African VCs and startups are eyeing the Middle East for new capital: African startup funding has decreased by over 50% in the past three quarters compared to the previous year, reaching $2.5 to $3.4 billion, a decline attributed to global VC retracement. Middle Eastern investors, particularly from the UAE, have become vital funding sources for African startups, with Dubai's efficient business setup attracting both early-stage and established companies, signaling a shift from traditional Western funding avenues. More Here

📬 Featured: Today’s Featured Article

Why it's Better To Raise Less Capital In The First Round?

When you're just beginning your startup journey, should you go all-in and raise a massive amount of capital, or is there wisdom in starting small?

Most of the founder makes mistake while raising the first round. Read More Here 👇

💡 Startups Snap: The Latest Buzz

SaaS follow-on rounds see a slowdown: Global venture funding, especially for SaaS startups, saw a decline in Q3 due to reduced budgets, higher borrowing costs, and low investor confidence. SaaS extension rounds dropped significantly, with exits declining since 2021 and high valuations making ROI difficult. Despite recent positive trends in Q2 and Q3, a full recovery depends on market stability and renewed investor confidence. More Here

Zuck’s Threads isn’t dead, aim to reach 1B Users: Instagram Threads, Meta's rival to Twitter, has introduced polls and GIFs to boost user engagement. With features similar to Twitter's, including audio and video calls, Threads aims to compete with Twitter's functionalities, although it currently has just under 100 million monthly active users. The addition of polls and GIFs aligns Threads more closely with Twitter and sets it apart from some other competitors like Bluesky. More Here

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🤖 The Latest In Emerging Tech: AI

OpenAI forms team to study ‘catastrophic’ AI risks: OpenAI has launched a new team called Preparedness, led by MIT's Aleksander Madry, to assess and protect against potential catastrophic risks posed by advanced AI systems. The team will study various threats, including persuasive techniques and malicious code generation, with a focus on both pre- and post-model deployment phases. OpenAI is also seeking community input on risk studies, offering a $25,000 prize and job opportunities within the Preparedness team. More Here

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

• The Math Behind Starting a Successful Software Startup Read More (Startups)

• 18 mistakes that kill startup by Paul graham Read More (Startups)

• The top ideas in your mind by Paul graham Read More (startups & venture capital)

• How Do Investors Protect Themselves from Downrounds ? Read More (Startups & Venture Capital)

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✍️Written By Sahil R | Venture Crew Team

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