VC Daily Digest

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📢 Top Venture Capital News

Google Launches Fund For Female Founders In Asia-Pacific, Focusing On AI Startups: Google has launched the Google for Startups Women Founders Fund, a dedicated initiative to support female-founded startups in the Asia-Pacific region. The fund will initially focus on startups in India, Japan, and South Korea, providing $100,000 in equity-free cash to six startups this year. The initiative aims to level the playing field for underrepresented founders, particularly women, and will initially focus on the rapidly growing field of artificial intelligence. More Here

Fintech VC Firm Ribbit Capital Raises $800 Million Fund: Silicon Valley venture capital firm, Ribbit Capital, known for backing successful startups like Brex and Robinhood, has successfully raised $800 million for its tenth fund, as per recent regulatory filings. Founded by seasoned entrepreneur Meyer “Micky” Malka in 2012, Ribbit continues to strengthen its focus on financial businesses. This new fund, although smaller than the $1.15 billion raised in 2022, underscores Ribbit's ongoing commitment to fueling innovation in the fintech sector. More Here

Whatever happened to Katie Haun and her $1.5 billion crypto fund?: In 2022, Katie Haun, a former Department of Justice prosecutor turned venture capitalist, raised a record $1.5 billion for her first-time crypto fund, making headlines in the crypto industry. However, following the crypto crash, Haun has adopted a more cautious investment approach, extending her deployment schedule from two to three years. Despite the industry's downturn, Haun Ventures continues to invest, splitting its bets between digital tokens and traditional equity, and focusing on startup investments in 2023. More Here

📢 Top Startups News

Will we see any IPOs happening this year at all?: In the midst of technological advancements and economic shifts, the tech industry is showing promising signs of growth and stability. With inflation easing off in the U.S. for the 12th consecutive month, tech valuations are experiencing relief, and the venture capital market is performing better than anticipated. While the timeline for a new wave of IPOs remains uncertain, the overall market conditions continue to improve, fostering optimism for the future of the tech industry. More Here

EventMobi acquires a16z-backed virtual events platform Run The World: EventMobi, a leading event management software provider, has announced its acquisition of Run The World, an online events platform backed by Andreessen Horowitz. This strategic move allows EventMobi to expand its reach, diversify event formats, and solidify its position as an industry leader. As we transition into a new era of blended in-person and virtual experiences, EventMobi is committed to enabling customers to choose the best format for their attendees to learn, connect, and exchange ideas year-round. More Here

📢 Top AI Startup’s News

GoStudent adds another $95M to its war chest to go after VR and AI-enhanced tutoring: GoStudent, the late-stage tutoring marketplace, has raised an additional $95 million in a strategic fundraise, bringing its total funding to $686.3 million. The funds will be used to enhance hybrid learning solutions in the DACH region, expand the use of its virtual reality language learning platform, GoVR, and develop AI-driven tools, including an "AI lesson plan generator". The company, valued at an estimated €3 billion, is committed to creating a bespoke learning path for each child, combining AI-driven study support and virtual reality lessons with traditional tutoring. More Here

GitHub Copilot can now tell developers when its suggestions match code in a public repository: GitHub Copilot has launched a new code referencing feature in private beta, offering developers more control over the use of matching public code. Rather than automatically blocking matching code, Copilot will now display it in a sidebar for developers to decide its use. This feature, aimed at enhancing code discovery and attribution, also extends to Copilot Chat and is part of GitHub's commitment to refining its tools based on user feedback. More Here

Europe’s AI Startups Look to Capitalize on the Continent’s FOMO: Europe has effectively sat on the sidelines during the development of the modern internet economy, as Silicon Valley and China built the world’s largest consumer technology and cloud computing companies. As the consensus builds that artificial intelligence is tech’s next inflection point, European business leaders and public officials fear history will repeat itself, with potentially disastrous strategic and economic consequences. More Here

AI Mentions on the Rise in Tech Earnings Calls as Recession Talk Fades: Tech firms in the US are talking less about recession and more about artificial intelligence this earnings season, signaling that companies are increasingly optimistic about a soft economic landing. With nearly half of the Nasdaq 100 firms having reported, executives are less frequently using words like headwinds, inflation, and recession in calls with analysts and investors, according to a Bloomberg analysis. More Here

AI + Carbon = Funded Startups: Artificial intelligence (AI) and carbon removal are two of the hottest areas for startup funding, and many companies are combining these two areas of expertise. In the past two years, over $400 million has been invested in startups focusing on these two areas, with companies like Sylvera, Pachama, Emitwise, Plan A, Saildrone, Arloid Automation, and BluWave-ai leading the charge. These companies are leveraging AI to track and reduce carbon emissions, optimize energy use, and even monitor oceanic ecosystems, showing that AI is not just an ingredient in everything, but a key tool in tackling complex challenges like carbon reduction. More Here

📢 Top Startup’s Fundraising News

Meet Lula, a startup that aims to be the ‘Stripe for insurance’ and just raised $35.5M: Lula, the startup aiming to be the "Stripe for insurance," has successfully raised $35.5 million in a Series B funding round, following a significant surge in its customer base. From just 99 businesses in February 2022, Lula now serves nearly 4,000 companies, offering a range of tools including risk management, claims management, and policy management. With plans to expand beyond the "wheels" industry and into logistics, Lula's capital-efficient approach and innovative offerings look set to continue driving its impressive growth. More Here

Endor Labs, which helps companies secure their open source packages, raises $70M: Endor Labs, a platform assisting developers in managing and securing their open source dependencies, has successfully closed a $70 million Series A round. The funding will be utilized to expand the workforce and enhance the startup's technical capabilities. Endor Labs aims to address the growing security threats in the open source ecosystem, where 97% of apps leverage open source software, and vulnerabilities are often found in transitive dependencies. More Here

Datasaur lets you build a model automatically from a set of labels raised $4 Millions: Datasaur, a company specializing in machine learning models, has announced a new feature that allows for model creation directly from label data, making AI more accessible to non-technical audiences. This comes alongside a $4 million seed extension, further fueling the company's mission to democratize AI, particularly in the realm of natural language processing. Founder Ivan Lee emphasizes the importance of operating leanly, fostering a diverse, cross-cultural workforce, and maintaining a scalable growth model. More Here

CoreWeave, which provides cloud infrastructure for AI training, secures $2.3B loan: The surge in demand for AI is putting a strain on cloud providers like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, Google, and Oracle, leading to a limitation in server chip availability. Amidst this, CoreWeave, a GPU-focused cloud compute provider, has secured $2.3 billion in debt financing after raising $421 million in Series B funding. The company plans to use these funds to expand its capacity, aiming to reach 14 data centers by the end of the year, and continue to deliver where others cannot, according to CEO Michael Intrator. More Here

Pockit, an all-in-one financial services app for UK consumers, lands $10M: Pockit, a financial services app dedicated to those underserved by traditional banks, has announced a $10 million funding round led by Puma Private Equity. This funding will enable Pockit to enhance its credit building tools, introduce a buy now, pay later product, and extend its platform into investments, insurance, and savings accounts. Despite criticisms of some services, Pockit remains committed to becoming the financial champion for millions, with a customer base of over 800,000 and processing around $5 billion across 73 million transactions. More Here

Haus, which helps companies measure marketing ROI, raises $17M: Zach Epstein, former Google marketer, has developed a "growth intelligence" platform called Haus, designed to help brands measure their media spend impact more effectively. Amid increasing scrutiny on digital marketing, Haus offers on-demand regional experiments and demand forecasts, enabling companies to evaluate their marketing effectiveness using their own internal data. Since its launch in 2021, Haus has grown to serve 25 brands and recently raised $17 million in funding, which will be used to expand its team and scale its market efforts. More Here

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