Venture Daily Digest - 13/12/2023

🗞️ TODAY’S MAJOR UPDATES

• Smaller Funds Outperforming Large Funds In 2023..

• NVIDIA, Most active investors in AI Startups in 2023 Than VC Firms

• VCs Getting Cautious To Invest In Indian Startups, VCs Leaving India

• Startup Events Unlock: Join The Free Online Event By Hustle Fund Founder - On Startup Fundraising In 2024.

• Featured Article: “Great Ideas Look Bad At Early Stage” By Sam Altman

• What Do You Think: What's Your Biggest Concern About The Current State Of The VC Industry?

  
   🤗 Build Your MVP 🤝 Advertise 👉 Follow Us

🤝 In Partnership With Founder Institute

🚀 Unlock VC funding in 2024!

Hear from early-stage investor Eric Bahn on what founders need to know about fundraising in 2024. Eric is the founder of Hustle Fund. They have written the first cheque to over 220 companies.

→ Don't miss out on this insightful online event.

💰 MASSIVE FUNDING UPDATES

Rokid, a nine-year-old Chinese startup based in Redwood City, Ca., that makes headsets for AR applications, raised a $112 million Series C round at a $1 billion valuation. NetDragon was a strategic investor in the deal. More Here

True Anomaly, looking to fill a critical gap in space situational awareness and defensive operations through software and hardware, including the line of autonomous spacecraft capable of rendezvous and proximity operations. It has raised $100 million in new funding. The new round was led by Riot Ventures, with participation from Eclipse, ACME Capital, Menlo Ventures, Narya, 645 Ventures, Rocketship.vc, Champion Hill Ventures and FiveNine Ventures. More Here

Quaise Energy, Geothermal startup is seeking to tap heat deep inside the earth by drilling boreholes and extracting that heat to the surface using a working fluid. The company filed new paperwork yesterday with the SEC, stating that it had raised $13 million of an expected $25 million. More Here

Dimensional Energy, A New York based startup produces sustainable aviation fuel from carbon dioxide emissions and water, raised $20 million in a Series A round. Envisioning Partners led the latest funding, which brings its total raised to $28 million, with strategic participation from investors including United Airlines’ sustainable flight fund, Microsoft’s climate innovation fund, RockCreek’s smart aviation futures fund, DSC Investment, Delek US, New York Ventures and existing investors like Elemental Excelerator and Chloe Capital. More Here

Spore Bio, a French startup that has developed a new pathogen-detection methodology, raised €8 million in pre-seed funding led by London’s LocalGlobe VC. Also participating was EmergingTech Ventures, No Label Ventures, Famille C (Clarins Family Office), Better Angle, Plug & Play Ventures, Entrepreneur First, Kima Ventures, Raise Sherpas, Fair Equity, Sharpstone Capital and angels. More Here

Laredo Labs, a startup developing an AI-driven platform for code generation. It has raised $8.5 million in a seed round co-led by Radical Ventures and Horizons Ventures. More Here

Durable, a startup based out of Vancouver, Canada that has built an AI website creator and number of other AI-powered tools to help small business owners plan, create and run business apps more easily — has raised $14 million. Spark Capital is leading the round, and Torch Capital, Altman Capital (the VC founded and run by Jack Altman, the brother of OpenAI’s Sam Altman), Dash Fund, South Park Commons, Infinity Ventures and Soma Capital — all previous backers — are also participating. The startup has now raised $20 million in total. More Here

Comun, The New York-based neobank aims to provide banking services customized to the needs of immigrants. It has raised $4.5 million in funding to give it $9 million raised in total. The latest investment was led by Costanoa Ventures with participation from a group of existing investors, including Animo Ventures, South Park Commons and FJ Labs. More Here

Jitjatjo, a gig marketplace through which businesses can book workers with as little as an hour’s notice, it raised $30 million in a Series B funding round led by Morningside Technology Ventures. More Here

Shiprocket, Indian New Delhi based startup operates an e-commerce logistics and shipping software solution for courier services. Tribe Capital is in talks to lead a $75 million to $100 million funding round into the logistics aggregator Shiprocket. More Here

Actility, a 13-year-old Paris company that provides networking software to connect IoT devices, raised a $17.2 million round. Investors included Bpifrance, BNP Paribas, Bosch, Cisco, and Swisscom. More Here

Armada, a San Francisco startup that offers edge computing to SpaceX as well as oil rigs, mines, and distant battlefields, raised a $40 million Series A round at a valuation approaching $250 million, a 5x increase over the valuation of a $15 million round it closed in January, according to Forbes. 8090 Industries was the deal lead, with Felicis, Contrary Capital, Marlinspike Partners, Valor, and Koch Industries as well as previous investors Founders Fund, Lux Capital, and Shield Capital also taking part. The company has raised a total of $55 million. More Here

Zafrens, a two-year-old San Diego startup that claims its platform can test many different drugs at once, raised a $23 million round led by Prime Movers Lab, with additional participation from BlueYard Capital, KOFA Healthcare, and Global Brains. More Here

Invert Robotics, a 12-year-old New Zealand company based in Dublin, Ireland, that makes industrial robots that can perform inspections in hazardous and toxic industrial environments, raised a $13.9 million round co-led by Business Venture Partners and TechNexus Venture Collaborative. The company has raised a total of $26.9 million. More Here

Helicity Space, a Pasadena, CA-based commercial space company, specializes in fusion propulsion and its applications to advance space exploration efforts, it has raised $5M in Seed funding. The investors includes Airbus Ventures, TRE Ventures, Voyager Space Holdings, E2MC Space, Urania Ventures and Gaingels. More Here

Relevance AI, An Australia-based startup aims to help companies of all sizes build custom AI agents for any use case or function to maximize productivity. It has raised $10 million (AUD 15 million) in a Series A funding round led by King River Capital with participation from global investors Peak XV’s Surge, Galileo Venture and its previous investor Insight Partners. Relevance AI will use the new capital, which brings its total raised to $13.2 million. More Here

💰 VENTURE CAPITAL UPDATES

VCs Getting Cautious To Invest In Indian Startups: High-flying venture investors in India, managing hundreds of millions of dollars, are becoming increasingly cautious amid a shifting mood. Faced with a glut of capital, top VC firms like Peak XV Partners and Lightspeed are taking longer to scrutinize and choose investments, as the Indian startup ecosystem sees a significant decline in funding, with late-stage funding experiencing a 73% YoY drop. The devaluation of top Indian startups, such as Byju’s and Ola, and growing skepticism about Southeast Asia's potential are contributing to a more conservative investment approach. More Here

Strategic Investors Are Most Active Investors In AI: According to Dealroom, Nvidia invested $872 million in AI deals in 2023, making it the most active large-scale investor in AI, beating out firms like Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia. The company's bets include Inflection AI, Cohere, Hugging Face, CoreWeave, and Mistral AI. More Here

Smaller venture funds continue to outperform the largest ones In 2023: Venture funds between $200 million and $350 million are found to be optimal, with a 50% higher likelihood of generating a 2.5x return compared to funds exceeding $750 million. Despite this, the trend of larger funds persists due to factors such as management fees and a misunderstanding of venture returns, posing challenges for investors seeking optimal returns in the current market dynamics. More Here

China venture capital, private equity funds rattled by proposed changes: China's proposed rules to triple the investment threshold for private equity and venture capital funds face criticism for potentially harming small players and stifling financing to struggling startups. The regulations, aiming to protect small investors, could lead to the elimination of many private fund management firms, impacting the already challenging fundraising environment for PE and VC funds in China. Industry players argue that the rules may hinder government-backed support for early-stage tech startups and worsen the financial outlook for smaller, early-stage venture funds. More Here

𝕏 FEATURED: TODAY’S FEATURED TWEET

“Great Ideas Look Bad At Early Stage” By Sam Altman

Recently Sam Altman shared an interesting perspective on great ideas look bad at early stage.

He shared that - “Initially great ideas look bad - if it's not then everyone could go for that one idea and be super competitive..” Read More Here

→ Follow us on twitter - to get daily tactical advice from the greatest founders & Investors.

🤝 Partnership With US!

Want to promote your startup to our community of 20,000+ entrepreneurs and investors? Reply ‘Advertise’ on this email , I’ll share my media kit.

🎉 Offer: Ad price based on your budget! Offer till Dec 14th. 

💡 STARTUP’S LATEST BUZZ

Going Public

General Atlantic, the investment firm whose bets have included Facebook and Airbnb, has confidentially filed for an initial public offering. The outlet reports that the firm is considering listing as soon as next year depending on market conditions. If it moves forward, the New York-based outfit would join peers Blackstone and KKR as a public company. More Here

Lawsuit

Google lost an antitrust lawsuit filed by Epic Games, accusing it of monopolistic practices in the Android app distribution market and in-app billing services. The jury found evidence of anticompetitive conduct, including restrictive agreements with potential competitors and OEMs. The verdict may empower smaller developers, set a precedent for future cases, and signal potential trouble for Google in the face of multiple antitrust challenges. More Here

People

Elon Musk and Sandy Hook conspiracy theorist Alex Jones co-hosted a livestream chat on X on Sunday that included alleged rapist Andrew Tate and disgraced Trump appointee Michael Flynn, among others. Musk recently reinstated Alex Jones on X, which banned him more than five years ago for posting harassing messages. More Here

Tribe Capital’s Arjun Sethi has relinquished the role of CEO to Boris Revsin, and assumed the role of chairman and chief investment officer. Sethi made the change in order to focus on investments and products, he said in a memo to investors. More Here

🤖 LATEST IN EMERGING TECH

Sports Illustrated publisher fires CEO Ross Levinsohn after AI scandal: CEO Ross Levinsohn of The Arena Group, publisher of Sports Illustrated, has been fired amid a scandal where the magazine was accused of publishing AI-generated articles. The termination is stated as an effort to enhance operational efficiency, and Manoj Bhargava will take over as CEO, though a spokesperson denies the firing's connection to the AI issue. Sports Illustrated faced criticism after tech outlet Futurism revealed the publication of articles with fake author names and AI-generated content, raising concerns about AI in journalism. More Here

A federal oversight report reveals that the US government is lagging in developing policies for responsible acquisition and use of artificial intelligence (AI) from the private sector. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) highlighted the lack of government-wide standards on AI purchases, potentially undermining American security. The report cataloged over 200 current non-military AI applications and identified more than 500 planned AI uses across 23 federal agencies, emphasizing the need for consistent AI policies to align with key practices for the welfare and security of the public. More Here

📰 TODAY’S MUST READ ON: STARTUP, TECH & VC

• How Did The Great Startups Like Airbnb or Instagram Make Pivot Decisions? Read More (Startup)

• Andreessen Horowitz's $415M Mistral investment rounds out AI strategy Read More (Startups & AI)

• Hidden Trap Of Convertible Note and Liquidation Preference Multiples Read More (Startups)

🤔 WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Previous Poll: 54.29% of readers vote for "Strong Leadership - Team." Even investors generally prefer to look for the "team" when investing in early-stage startups…

→ Join With early-stage investor Eric Bahn (Founder of Hustle Fund) on what founders need to know about fundraising in 2024. Sign Up For Free..

That’s It For Today! Will Meet You Tomorrow!
Happy Wednesday! 🥂

✍️Written By Sahil R | Venture Crew Team

  🤗 Build Your MVP 🤝 Advertise 👉 Follow Us