VC Daily Digest - 27/11/2023

📮Today’s Major News

• Musk’s Neuralink Raised $43M facing ethical concern

• Prime Minister of UAE Launched VC Fund To Focus On Tech Startup

• Berkshire Hathaway Exited Paytm, Fintech Startup With 40% Loss

• Featured Article: Marc Andreessen "You Can't Build A Successful Company Without Thinking On Idea Maze !"

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💰 Massive Fundings Updates

Neuralink, Elon Musk's brain-machine interface company, secured an additional $43 million in venture capital, increasing its funding to $323 million. Despite advancements in wireless brain implants, the company faces scrutiny for alleged toxic workplace culture and ethical concerns, with U.S. lawmakers requesting an SEC investigation into the omission of details regarding the deaths of animals in surgical trials. More Here

Entropica Labs, a US based startup developing software tools to empower users to design fault-tolerant versions of quantum circuits and algorithms. It has raised some undisclosed amount for Series A round from CerraCap Ventures. More Here

Solar Foods, a six-year-old Finnish startup that has created a synthetic protein powder, raised an $8.7 million Series B round raised via the Springvest Oyj platform, with previous investors Happiness Capital, Lifeline Ventures, VTT Ventures, and Fazer Group also investing. More Here

Kind Designs, A Miami based startup producing the World’s first 3D-printed Living Seawall. Unlike traditional seawalls, which are typically flat, Living Seawalls incorporate biomimicry design principles and function as artificial reefs. Mark Cuban and Anthropocene Ventures join an impressive list of supporters within Kind Design’s $5M seed round. More Here

AppBrilliance, A US based leading platform for real-time Account-to-Account (A2A) payment acceptance, announced today that it has closed a strategic investment from Truist Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of Truist Financial. More Here

Linxup, a U.S.-based GPS tracking, telematics and fleet management provider serving small and mid-size businesse, raised a venture debt of $50M from runway growth capital. More Here

DoorFeed, US based startup aims to simplify the process for investment funds in assembling and managing large-scale portfolios of residential properties. has successfully raised a $7.6 million Seed extension round. This funding, led by Motive Ventures and supported by Stride VC and Seedcamp. More Here

Phare Health, a London startup founded this year that uses large language models to capture data from clinical notes, aiding hospitals in resource management and cost recovery, raised a $3.1 million seed round led by General Catalyst, with additional contributions from KHP Ventures and Bertelsmann Investments. More Here

Vivodyne, a two-year-old Philadelphia startup that grows human tissues in the lab to test potential new therapies before they go to clinical trials, raised a $38 million seed round led by Khosla Ventures, with Bison Ventures, MBX Ventures, Kairos Ventures, and CS Ventures also stepping up. More Here

Privy, a two-year-old New York startup that works with mainstream companies like Resy to build blockchain-based services for consumers that work through Privy's wallet, raised an $18 million Series A round led by Paradigm, with previous investors Sequoia Capital, BlueYard Capital, and Archetype also contributing. More Here

Fence, a Spanish blockchain startup founded this year whose software automates and optimizes debt operations for asset financing, raised a $2 million pre-seed round led by Semantic.vc and including Crane Earth and Actyus. More Here

Intrigue Media, a one-year-old startup based in Washington, DC, that publishes newsletters focused on global affairs, raised a $1.75 million seed round. Autumn Road Capital was the deal lead. More Here

🚀 Venture Capital Highlights

Saviu Ventures, a VC firm based on Francophone Africa, has made an initial close of €12 million for its second fund with the backing of private investors, including French and Kenyan family offices. The VC firm aims to close the fund at between €30 million and €50 million. The VC firm invests in seed stage startups, and is sector agnostic, but, with the current fund, it is keen on fintechs, health-techs and climate-techs, while slowing down on e-mobility, e-commerce and e-logistics. More Here

HSBC has launched a new $228 million venture debt fund aimed at supporting Australian technology startups. The fund will offer flexible loans ranging from $10 million to $30 million, targeting venture capital-backed scaleup companies. This fund will focus on fintech growth companies that is already backed by the VC firm. More Here

DIEZ Launches venture capital (VC) fund worth US$136 million lead by vice president & prime minister of UAE. This fund will focus on seed to series A startups from fintech and SMBs which align to the growth of Dubai economy. More Here

SEVA, a newly-launched growth equity firm serving customer-centric founders and companies based in New York, today announced the close of its $85 million oversubscribed, debut fund ("SEVA Fund I" or the "Fund"), reaching its hard cap and exceeding its original target of $50 million. It aims to invest in tech growth startup funded by VC funds. More Here

Active Impact Investments, Canada’s largest climate tech seed fund, today announced that it has raised more than $70M in commitments for its third fund — moving towards the ultimate fund goal of $120M. It aims to invest around 20 startup for this fund. More Here

📬 Featured: Today’s Featured Article

Marc Andreessen "You Can't Build A Successful Company Without Thinking On Idea Maze !"

The pop culture view of startups is that they’re all about coming up with a great product idea. After the ‘aha’ moment, the outcome is preordained. However, this overlooks the hard work entrepreneurs put in over many years and the reality that most startups undergo significant changes along the way.

In response to this pop culture misconception, it has become popular in the startup community to say things like “execution is everything” and “ideas don’t matter”.

But the reality is totally different …. Read More Here👇

💡 Startups Snap: The Latest Buzz

Startup Acquisition

CoinGecko Acquires NFT Startup, Enhancing Digital Asset Market Presence: CoinGecko, a prominent cryptocurrency data aggregator, has recently announced the acquisition of a noteworthy NFT startup, solidifying its position in the fast-growing digital asset market to expand their NFT sector. More Here

Engagedly, the pioneering provider of AI-powered cloud-based talent management software for Performance, Learning & Development, and Employee Engagement solutions as acquired theEMPLOYEEapp, an employee communication platform for deskless employees. More Here

Exits

Private equity resorts to buying back companies after IPO flops: Private equity firms such as EQT, Cinven, and Silver Lake are repurchasing companies recently taken public, reflecting challenges in exiting via public markets. With many 2021 IPOs trading below initial prices, firms seize the opportunity to buy back shares cheaply. The trend signals ongoing difficulties in monetizing assets through public listings despite a record 287 companies floated in 2021, valued at nearly $140bn. More Here

Berkshire Hathaway exited Paytm-parent firm One97 Communications at a loss of about 40%. The Warren Buffett firm invested about $260 million in Paytm in 2018, acquiring a 3% stake in the financial services startup at a valuation of about $10 billion. The investment giant — which sold a stake worth $36 million in Paytm in 2021, at a profit — sold its remainder position for $121.6 million. Berkshire secured a return of less than $160 million on its ~$260 million investment in Paytm. More Here

People

Defy vc, a leading early-stage venture capital firm, is announce two significant additions to its team. Medha Agarwal has joined as a General Partner, and Amy Yin has assumed the role of Venture Partner. This strategic expansion comes as Defy.vc remains steadfastly committed to backing extraordinary early-stage founders from its recently established $300M Fund III. More Here

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🤖 The Latest In Emerging Tech: AI

Startups should consider hiring fractional AI officers: The AI skills gap is evident, with job postings for generative AI skills surging by 2,000%, making it the third most sought-after skill set. While large enterprises are appointing Chief AI Officers (CAIOs), startups and scale-ups can benefit from fractional AI officers, experienced executives working part-time across companies, providing diverse expertise and cost-effective solutions. More Here

Anthropic slashes AI pricing amid rising competition: For enterprise companies exploring opportunities in conversational artificial intelligence (AI), a new development promises greater access and affordability. Anthropic, a leading AI model lab, today dropped the per-token pricing of its conversational model Claude 2.1 release in response to growing competition from other large players. More Here

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

• How Can One Build Conviction Over An Idea? By Sam Altman Read More (startups)

• ‘Listen To Customer's Problems & Not Their Solutions’ By Weebly Co-founder David Read More (Startups)

• Where Do The Great Startup Ideas Come From - Airbnb Startup Story? Read More (Venture Capital)

• Autopsy of a SaaS death Read More (Startups & Technology)

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✍️Written By Sahil R | Venture Crew Team

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