VC Daily Digest

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📢 Top Venture Capital News

South African VC Knife Capital closes $50M Series B fund for startups with high exit potential: South African growth-stage investor, Knife Capital, has successfully closed its $50 million fund, Knife Capital III, aiming to fill a critical funding gap for local growth-stage startups. The fund will primarily focus on South African entrepreneurs in the Series B stage, while also co-investing in businesses from other African countries. With a track record of seven successful exits across its previous funds, Knife Capital is set to continue supporting international expansion of African startups and building a credible venture capital asset class across the continent. More Here

WeWork’s going concern warning is a reminder that VC and low-margin business don’t mix: WeWork's journey has been a tumultuous one, with its market cap now around $130 million and billions in debt. Despite the challenges, the company is exploring several strategies to stay afloat, including reducing costs, limiting user churn, and raising new capital. However, the company's situation serves as a stark reminder of the risks of granting founders too much control and the complexities of financial entities. It also underscores that venture capital, while beneficial for rapidly scaling tech startups, may not be a good fit for lower-margin businesses. Despite a slight increase in revenue and a decrease in net loss, WeWork's free cash flow deficit of $646 million in H1 2023 remains a significant hurdle. More Here

Pretiosum Ventures hits first close on its second fund to back infrastructure startups: Pretiosum Ventures, the London-based solo GP fund founded by Yana Abramova in 2019, has reached the first close of what could be a $20 million second fund. Specializing in "infrastructure" startups, Pretiosum typically invests between $250,000 to $500,000 in a follow-on manner. With Abramova's unique position as one of Europe's few female GPs, the fund has already co-invested with notable entities like Cherry Ventures, Greycroft, Seedcamp, IQ Capital, and Y Combinator. More Here

📢 Top Startups News

Apps Are Rushing to Add AI. Is Any of It Useful?: The rise of AI functionality in apps, particularly email clients like Spark and Canary, has been noticeable since the launch of the ChatGPT API. While these features, which can generate replies or even entire emails, may seem like a solution to our communication overload, they may actually contribute to the problem. The issue isn't solely a tech problem, but a social one - we are simply trying to respond to more people than we feel capable of. Using AI to generate longer, more detailed emails might just add to the overwhelm, and the solution might lie in simplifying our communication rather than complicating it with technology. More Here

📢 Top AI Startup’s News

Messina joins Ride Home Fund’s new $15M AI vehicle, backed by Andreessen, Dixon, Crowley: Tech veterans Chris Messina and Brian McCullough are launching a new $15 million fund aimed at AI startups, backed by renowned investors like Marc Andreessen, Chris Dixon, and Dennis Crowley. The fund aims to capitalize on a "generational reset in how people use technology," focusing on the productization of generative AI in vertical spaces. Despite potential challenges from big tech companies and AI crawler bots, Messina and McCullough are confident that their deep industry knowledge and agility will enable them to seize opportunities in the rapidly evolving AI landscape. More Here

Google’s redesigned Arts & Culture app includes an AI-generated postcards feature, Play tab and more: Google has unveiled a redesigned Arts & Culture app, introducing features like AI-generated 'Poem Postcards', a 'Play' tab with interactive camera tools and games, and a TikTok-inspired 'Inspire' feed for a personalized stream of cultural highlights. The app also includes a 'cultural flywheel', offering related cultural content for continued exploration. The redesign aims to make the app more accessible and intuitive, providing new avenues for users to discover and engage with culture. More Here

Deepset secures $30M to expand its LLM-focused MLOps offerings: Deepset, a platform for building enterprise applications powered by large language models (LLMs), has raised $30 million in a funding round led by Balderton Capital, GV, and Harpoon Ventures. The funding will be used to expand Deepset's products and services and grow its team. Deepset, which was co-founded by Milos Rusic, Malte Pietsch, and Timo Möller, offers tools like Haystack and Deepset Cloud, which enable developers to build and monitor LLM-driven applications. More Here

Microsoft partners with Aptos blockchain to marry AI and web3: In a significant move towards the future of AI and web3, Microsoft has announced a partnership with layer-1 blockchain Aptos Labs. This collaboration will allow Microsoft's AI models to be trained using Aptos' verified blockchain information, enhancing the reliability and security of its services. As AI continues to shape our society, this partnership underscores the growing need for transparency, trust, and verification of AI-generated content, a challenge that blockchain technology is uniquely equipped to address. More Here

📢 Top Startup’s Fundraising News

Matter filters out microplastics, one washer at a time — and raises $10M to go industrial: Microplastics are a pervasive and growing concern, but Matter, a startup armed with $10 million in funding, is taking innovative steps to tackle this issue. Their solution is a reusable filter that captures microfibers before they reach our oceans. The filter, named 'The Gulp', is a Kickstarter-funded aftermarket filter for home washing machines, designed to catch microplastics without needing replacement. More Here

Symmetry raises $18M to bolster organizations’ data security programs: In the face of evolving regulations and data use standards, organizations are increasingly focusing on data security. This shift is fueling the growth of startups like Symmetry Systems, which offers a platform to provide visibility into data access and usage. Symmetry, co-founded by Casen Hunger, Puneet Tiwari, and Mohit Tiwari, aids in defining data flow policies, detecting violations, and automating compliance reporting. More Here

Weights & Biases, which counts OpenAI as a customer, lands $50M: Weights & Biases, a leading platform in AI and machine learning development, has secured a $50 million investment in a strategic round that values the company at $1.25 billion. This funding, led by ex-GitHub CEO Nat Friedman and former Y Combinator partner Daniel Gross, will support the launch of Prompts, a new product designed to monitor and evaluate the performance of large language models. As the demand for AI and machine learning tools grows, Weights & Biases continues to innovate, providing critical solutions for the development of successful machine learning models. More Here

Sweet Security raises $12M seed round for its cloud security suite: Sweet Security, a Tel Aviv-based cloud security startup, has successfully raised a $12 million seed round led by Glilot Capital Partners. Co-founded by security veterans from the Israel Defence Forces, the company offers a real-time cloud-native security suite designed to help security teams quickly halt attacks on cloud workloads. Leveraging eBPF technology, Sweet's solution promises minimal resource usage while providing real-time insights into a company's attack surface. More Here

Atmosfy, an app that helps you discover local businesses through short-form video, raises $12M: Atmosfy, the innovative app that combines the best of Yelp and TikTok, has successfully raised $12 million in seed funding led by Redpoint Ventures. The brainchild of former Air Force Captain and Meta's Global Program Manager, Michael Ebel, Atmosfy was born out of the desire to support local businesses during the pandemic, offering a platform for customers to share real-time experiences through short videos. With a presence in over 10,000 cities across 150 countries, Atmosfy is set to use the new funding to enhance its technology, improve personalization, and expand its offerings. More Here

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