Yahoo laid off around 25% of its cybersecurity team & Meta donates $1M to Trump’s inaugural fund

☕ Good Friday Morning. Welcome to today's quick rundown in the Venture Daily Digest Newsletter.

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• Meta releases AI model to enhance Metaverse experience

• Carta is making it too difficult to cancel subscriptions, some founders say.

• Yahoo laid off around 25% of its cybersecurity team.

• Microsoft has launched Phi-4, AI model to improve math solving capabilities.

• DOJ asks court to reject TikTok’s bid to temporarily block sell-or-ban law.

• Meta donates $1M to Trump’s inaugural fund.

• Google announces Android XR, a new OS for headsets and smart glasses.

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Venture Daily Digest Picks

•  A Must-Read Guide for Aspiring Venture Capitalists. (Link)

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• Cap Table Guide for Founders (Link)

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• Why you shouldn’t giveaway startup equity to advisors (Link)

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• Why “wrappers” may not get swallowed by foundation models (Link)

• Definitive list of things startups did that didn’t scale (Link)

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• Marc Andreessen on the importance of startup timing (Link)

• Positive signals to look for when hiring engineers (Link)

• The 3 things your company needs to make AI act like an engineer (Link)

• Sam Altman on the early, difficult times at OpenAI (Link)

• Download Startup Fundraising Pitch Deck Templates. (Link)

• Join Founder Institute CEO Jonathan Greechan and top pre-seed startups at the Founder Showcase - Silicon Valley's premier pitch event. Watch global founders pitch live, get funding insights, and network with investors online. (Sign up here for free)

Startup Funding Updates

Vapi, a San Francisco, CA-based developer platform for deploying Voice AI agents, raised $20m in Series A funding. The round was led by Bessemer Venture Partners with participation from Abstract Ventures, AI Grant, Y Combinator, Saga Ventures, and Michael Ovitz.

Pin, a NYC-based provider of an AI-powered recruitment tool, raised $3M in funding. The round was led by Expa Ventures.

Upvest, a Berlin-based white-label investment platform provider used by major European fintech companies like Bunq, N26, Revolut, and others, raised €100 million ($105M) in Series C funding. The round was led by Hedosophia, with participation from Sapphire Ventures and existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners and BlackRock.

Electrified Thermal, a Boston, MA-based electrified ehermal solutions company, raised $19M in funding. Backers included Holcim Ventures, Vale Ventures, TechEnergy Ventures, EDP Venturesm Tupras Ventures, GVP Climate, Clean Energy Ventures, Starlight Ventures, Mass Ventures and Clean Energy Venture Group.

Eureka Robotics, a Singapore-based robotics and AI research company, raised USD 10.5M in Series A funding. The round was led by B Capital, with participation from new investors Airbus Ventures, Maruka Corporation, G. K. Goh Ventures, and returning investors UTEC and ATEQ.

1m, a NYC-based data and analytics technology company, raised $10M in Series A funding. The round consisted of $7.3M in venture funding and $2.7M in converted securities. Funding was led by Banner Health, with participation from Cleveland Clinic, Stanford Health Care, St. Charles Health System, Carle Foundation, and First Derivative Capital.

Nanoramic, a Boston, MA-based advanced battery technology company, raised $44M in funding. The round was led by General Motors Ventures and Catalus Capital, with participation from Samsung Venture Investment Corporation, Top Material, and existing investors, including Fortistar Capital and WindSail Capital Group.

Pleno, a San Diego, CA-based clinical and multi-omics diagnostics company, raised $25M in Series B funding. Backers included Deerfield Management, Foresite Capital and Medical Excellence Capital.

Stigg, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based provider of a monetization platform for engineers, raised $17.5M in Series A funding. The round, which brought the total amount to $24M, was led by Red Dot Capital Partners, with participation from Unusual Ventures, Emerge Ventures, Redseed, and Cerca Partners.

Aisti, a Jyväskylä, Finland-based technology company focused on developing acoustic tiles made of renewable wood fibres, raised €29M in Series A funding. The round was led by Voima Ventures, Maki.vc, and the Valve Ventures consortium, alongside private investors.

ANYbotics, a Zurich, Switzerland-based AI-driven robotic inspection solutions company, raised additional $60M in funding. The round was led by Qualcomm Ventures & Supernova Invest with participation from new investors including TDK Ventures and existing investors Walden Catalyst, NGP Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, Swisscanto, and Swisscom Ventures.

Azimuth AI, a Sacramento, CA- and India-based startup producing highly customized silicon products for edge and embedded computing markets, raised $11.5M in funding. The round was led by Cyient, and Moneta Ventures, with participation from Growth Factory and AUM ventures.

Flare, a Montreal, Canada-based threat exposure management (TEM) company, raised $30M in Series B funding. The round was led by Base10 Partners with participation from Inovia Capital, White Star Capital, and Fonds de solidarité FTQ.

Cofactr, a NYC-based provider of a supply chain and logistics management platform, raised $17M in Series A funding. The round was led by Bain Capital with participation from existing seed investors Y Combinator, Floating Point Ventures, Broom and DNX.

SkySQL, a San Francisco, CA-based database management company with AI and serverless capabilities, raised $6.6M in funding. It was backed by Eniac Ventures, Good Capital, and WTI.

Embotech, a Zurich, Switzerland-based innovator in autonomous driving solutions for industrial logistics, received 23.5m CHF (~$27m USD) in Series B funding. The round was led by Emerald Technology Ventures and Yttrium, with participation from BMW i Ventures, Nabtesco Technology Ventures, Sustainable Forward Capital Fund, RKK VC and existing investors.

Terradot, a San Francisco, CA-based climate company, raised $58.2m in funding. The funding includes $4.2m in seed funding and a $54m Series A round, which recently closed. Backers included Lead, John Doerr; Sheryl Sandberg & Tom Bernthal, George Roberts; Strategics, Microsoft’s Climate Innovation Fund, Google, Cisco; and Floodgate, Kleiner Perkins, Acre Venture Partners, Gigascale Capital, Valor Capital, Ponderosa Ventures and others.

Atlas Card, a NYC-based members-only concierge service and charge card provider focused on delivering access to coveted experiences through a seamless spending experience, raised $27M in Series B funding. The round was led by Michael Gilroy and Gokul Rajaram’s Marathon with participation from angel investors including Eric Schmidt, Olaf Carlson-Wee, and Anton Levy.

Sublime Security, a Washington, DC-based provider of an adaptive, AI-powered email security platform, raised $60M in Series B funding. The round was led by IVP, with participation from new investor Citi Ventures, as well as existing investors Index Ventures, Decibel Partners, and Slow Ventures.

Evinced, a Palo Alto, CA-based software company powering accessible web and mobile development, raised $55M in Series C funding. The round was led by Insight Partners, with participation from existing investors M12 (Microsoft’s venture fund), BGV, Capital One Ventures, and Engineering Capital. Evinced also added a new investor, Vertex Ventures, bringing its total funding to-date to $112M.

Capstan Medical, a Santa Cruz, CA-based developer of robotic-enabled minimally invasive solutions to address heart valve disease, raised $110M in Series C funding. The round was led by Eclipse, with participation from existing investors Yu Galaxy and Intuitive Ventures, and new investment from Gideon Strategic Partners.

Tuva Health, a NYC-based company providing an open-source healthcare data transformation platform, raised $5M in Seed funding. The round was led by Virtue, with participation from Box Group and Y Combinator, and health tech angel investors.

Twelve Labs, a San Francisco, CA-based video understanding company, raised $30M in funding. Backers included Databricks, SK Telecom, and Snowflake Ventures, as well as HubSpot Ventures and In-Q-Tel.

Venture Capital Updates

Humba Ventures, a sister-firm to Susa Ventures, has raised $40 million to invest in deep tech and defense tech startups, entering a sector that has attracted nearly $3 billion in venture funding in 2024. Led by Susa Ventures' co-founder Leo Polovets, Humba distinguishes itself by focusing on technical feasibility rather than go-to-market strategies, carefully selecting U.S.-allied investors, and leveraging its sister-fund structure to access greater resources despite its relatively smaller fund size.

KHP Ventures is launching a new £20 million ($25.5 million) fund focused on mental health startups, with Wellcome Foundation committing £8 million as anchor investor, to support companies developing solutions for depression, anxiety, and psychosis in the U.K. market. The fund, which plans to invest between £250,000 to £1 million in startups following a 12-week immersion program, stands out by offering access to clinical trials, healthcare systems, and the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, addressing the rising demand for mental health services that has seen 3.8 million people seeking NHS support in the past year.

Latest In Tech

Microsoft has launched Phi-4, a 14 billion parameter AI model available through Azure AI Foundry, which claims improved performance particularly in math problem solving due to high-quality synthetic datasets and post-training improvements. The model, competing with other small language models like GPT-4o mini and Claude 3.5 Haiku, is Microsoft's first Phi-series release since the departure of key developer Sébastien Bubeck to OpenAI, and is currently limited to research purposes under Microsoft's license agreement.

Meta contributed $1 million to President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration fund, marking a significant development in repairing its relationship with him, following a private meeting between Mark Zuckerberg and Trump at Mar-a-Lago. The donation signals a turnaround from the past, as Meta had previously banned Trump from its platforms after the January 6, 2021, insurrection, showing a shift in dynamics between the company and the former president. Mark Zuckerberg, alongside other major tech executives, has been seeking closer ties with Trump, potentially aiming for a role in shaping technology policy under the new administration.

Google has introduced Android XR, a new operating system developed for extended reality devices, including headsets and smart glasses, collaborating with Samsung and other manufacturers to advance this technology. Android XR will feature immersive applications like Maps, Photos, and YouTube, and support Chrome for multiwindow browsing, aiming to integrate existing mobile applications from the Play Store. The new OS places Google’s Gemini AI at its core, enhancing user experiences across a range of devices, and a Samsung device codenamed Moohan is expected to launch with the system next year.

Other News

Carta, a leading cap table management software company, is facing criticism from startup founders who claim they are unable to cancel their subscriptions before renewal dates due to limited availability of mandatory cancellation meetings, with some founders reporting the next available slots being after their renewal dates. While Carta attributes this to a "one-time staffing challenge," competitors like AngelList and Pulley highlight that they don't require cancellation meetings and allow simple email-based cancellations. Despite these concerns, some founders still praise Carta's product quality, though the company has previously faced scrutiny over other practices, including a January 2024 incident regarding private cap table data sharing.

The founders of SlideShare have launched Jaunt, a new AI-powered social document-sharing platform that allows users to upload files, interact through comments, and utilize AI tools like Claude, Gemini, and OpenAI for generating summaries and translations. While currently web-only and smaller than established platforms like SlideShare's 80 million monthly users, Jaunt plans to expand with features like direct messaging, verification, video embedding, and a mobile app within the next year.

The DOJ has opposed ByteDance and TikTok's emergency request to delay the U.S. ban deadline of January 19, citing national security concerns over Chinese ownership, while TikTok seeks time for Supreme Court review and potential relief from the incoming Trump administration.

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• Venture Partner - Maroon Invest Global | USA - Apply Here

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• Head of TS Bridge - Turbostart | India - Apply Here

• Partner 18, Deal Operations - a16z | USA - Apply Here

RESOURCES

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• 2700+ US Angel Investors & VC Firms Contact Database (Email + LinkedIn Link) (Access Here)

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• 400+ French Angel Investors & Venture Capital Firms Contact Database (Email + LinkedIn Link) (Access Here)

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