Bro Lord Zuck
LA Fires, Thiel, Benioff, Mike Maples, Addepar, Infinite Reality, Karman, Whatnot, SpaceX vs Blue Origin, Captions, Suno
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Hello from SF
Welcome back to Sourcery, this is our first newsletter of the year! It’s going to be longer than the usual ‘Tuesday weekly deals’ considering the backlog in content, but nonetheless it’s the best newsletter to ever exist. First off, last week was a lot, thank you to everyone for your support. After receiving a couple emails from concerned subscribers, though not the typical tech take, we decided to write up an unexpected piece on the fires in LA ..and we still stand by the spicy parts. Today, we have some fire resources & a Silicon Valley plastics report, but after that it’s all biggg deals, M&A (..lots of M&A, over 25+ deals), AI, and dorky VC things ;)
Good news: We’re extending our 70% off subscription offer! Upgrade now to unlock all exclusive content & interviews. We have some exciting things coming up!
Thank you all for subscribing! I hope 2025 can pull it the F together.
LA Fires Resources
L.A. Fires Post Fire Victims To-Do List
Insurance, mortgage, grants, Airbnb, disaster loans, property taxes, FEMA disaster assistance, LA county resources, IRS, +more
Shoutout to our friend & neighbor Solomon Hailu of March Capital for compiling this list!
How toxic is the smoke from L.A. fires right now?
A bit wary of AQI, as it does not count some of the most toxic pollutants, can someone tell us some good news here?
“One study published last year suggests that as many as 55,710 premature deaths between 2008 and 2018 in California can be attributed to the inhalation of fine particles from smoke. Such particles not only get into the lungs but into the bloodstream and brain, causing cancer and heart disease.”
TLDR Stay safe, wear N95 masks outside, high-grade filters indoors, keep buildings sealed. Shoutout to Jordi on Technology Bros bringing light to this.
Donate!
→ Full list of donation sites here, feel free to add more (thank you to Sourcerer, Imtiaz Uddin of Alpine Capital Advisors for sharing!)
Yikes, Plastics
Nat Friedman, former CEO of GitHub, recently published the PlasticList, a project to test 312 Bay Area foods for plastic chemicals.. and the results are a bit horrifying. The findings revealed that 86% of these foods contained plastic chemicals, with phthalates in 73%, and bisphenols in 22% of the products. High levels were found in products from popular local chains like Boba Guys, Starbucks, Shake Shack, Blue Bottle Coffee, and Whole Foods, and more. But the worst part? Plastic concentrates 10-20x more in the brain.. the most sacred organ of silicon valley, and we don’t yet know how to remove it. Can someone please call Bryan Johnson? We’re scared.
“Samples of 22 products, from vendors ranging from Starbucks to Shake Shack to Whole Foods, exceeded the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) intake limits for Bisphenol A. The excess amounts ranged from 450% to 32,571% of EFSA limits for a 70 kg (154 lb) person. Additionally, for 2 bottled water brands, one of the samples exceeded the FDA limit for DEHP phthalate (by 217% and 283% respectively), although all other samples of those brands were under the limit.”
Musings
Hot Takes
Bryan Johnson, Mike Solana, Packy McCormick, Cyan Banister, Arielle Zuckerberg, Dan Wright, Alex Kolicich, Lucy Guo, Michael Mignano, Hunter Walk, JMJ, The Technology Brothers
What Will Happen In 2025 [Fred Wilson]
How to WIN in 2025? (INSANE Predictions List) [Technology Brothers]
Macro
Mark Zuckerberg [Joe Rogan]
A time for truth and reconciliation [Peter Thiel]
Market Predictions, Rates & Inflation, DOGE, CES, AI Compute [BG2 w/ Bill Gurley & Brad Gerstner]
Tech's $370B Paradox: Why Cash-Rich Giants Might Not Lead 2025's M&A Race [Tomasz Tunguz]
AI
Marc Benioff Strikes Back at Satya: “AGI is Not Here” [Logan Bartlett]
The Contrary Research take on why Perplexity becoming an ad-driven business was inevitable and why its going to be an uphill battle… [Kyle Harrison]
More
15 Harsh Truths From History’s Greatest Founders - David Senra [Chris Williamson]
Building Captions: Co-Founders Gaurav Misra & Dwight Churchill [Invest Like The Best]
Mike Maples: Three Frameworks to Evaluate Startups and Founders [20VC]
Mikey Shulman, CEO @Suno: The Future of Music, What is Gonna Happen? [20VC]
These Homes Withstood the LA Fires. Architects Explain Why [Bloomberg]
Understanding INSURANCE Companies (Deep Dive) [Technology Brothers]
Last Week (1/6-1/10):
Relevant deals include the 70+ deals across stages below. I've categorized the deals below into seven categories, Fintech, Care, Enterprise / Consumer, HardTech, Sustainability, Acquisition/PE, and Fund Announcements, and ordered from later-stage rounds to early-stage rounds.
Highlighted VC Deals include:
Addepar, Infinite Reality, Karman, Whatnot, Innovaccer, XOCEAN, Inari
Acquisitions & PE
Anduril/Numerica Corporation, Wonder Group/Grubhub, Later/Mavely, Battery Ventures/RetailNext, Walt Disney Co./FuboTV, Flowers Foods/Simple Mills, New Enterprise Associates/NeueHealth, CCC Intelligent Solutions/EvolutionIQ, H.I.G. Capital/Quisitive, Darktrace/Cado Security, NVIDIA/Run:ai, SoftBank/Ampere Computing
Funds
Ares Management, FTV Capital
Final Numbers
SpaceX vs Blue Origin
VC Deals
Fintech:
- Addepar, a Mountain View, Calif., provider of wealth management software for RIAs, is in talks to raise $250m at a $3.25b valuation. Insiders would include 8VC, Valor Equity Partners and WestCap. Previously raised ~$500m, last round in late 2021 at a $2.2b post-money valuation
- OnPay, an Atlanta-based payroll and benefits startup, raised $63m in Series B funding led by Carrick Capital Partners, with participation from AB Private Credit Investors
- NomuPay, a Dublin-based unified payments platform, raised £37 million ($45.7 million) in funding. Endeit Capital led the round and was joined by Uneti Ventures and existing investors.
- Matic Insurance Services, a Columbus-based insurtech platform, raised $30 million in funding from Vistara Growth.
- Parsyl, a Denver-based supply chain insurer, raised $20m Series C funding. The Lightsmith Group led, and was joined by insiders HSCM Ventures, GLP Capital Partners, Lineage Ventures, and FirstTracks Ventures.
- Anatomy Financial, a provider of financial automation tools for health care, raised $19m in Series A funding led by Canapi Ventures.
- Jones, a New York City-based AI-powered insurance verification software developer, raised $15 million in Series B funding. NewSpring Capital led the round and was joined by existing investors Hetz Ventures, Camber Creek, Khosla Ventures, and others.
- Flagright, a Singapore-based AML compliance and risk management AI platform, raised $4.3 million in seed funding. Frontline led the round and was joined by existing investors Y Combinator, Pioneer Fund, Moonfire Ventures, and others.
- Fazeshift, a San Francisco-based accounts receivable AI agent, raised $4 million in seed funding. Gradient led the round and was joined by Y Combinator, Wayfinder, Pioneer Fund, angel investors, and others.
Care:
- Innovaccer, a health-care data platform, raised $275m in Series F funding from B Capital Group, Banner Health, Danaher Ventures, Generation IM, Kaiser Permanente, and M12.
- Evergreen Nephrology, a Nashville-based kidney care provider, raised $130 million in funding. Rubicon Founders, Oak HC/FT, and existing investors led the round and were joined by K2 HealthVentures.
- Torch Dental, a New York-based dental supply startup, raised $17m. Amex Ventures and Raga Partners co-led, and were joined by Alumni Ventures, Parameter Ventures and insiders Bessemer Venture Partners and Health Velocity Capital.
- General Proximity, an SF-based developer of induced proximity medicines, raised $16m in seed funding. Felicis led, and was joined by YC, age1, Modi Ventures, and Wilson Sonsini.
- Nema Health, a New Haven-based virtual PTSD care provider, raised $14.5 million in Series A funding. Deerfield Management led the round and was joined by CVS Health Ventures and existing investors Optum Ventures, .406 Ventures, and GreyMatter.
- AerWave Medical, a New York City-based ultrasound-based therapies developer for respiratory diseases, raised $12 million in funding. Lucius Partners led the round and was joined by others.
- Twentyeight Health, a New York City-based women’s healthcare digital platform, raised $10 million in Series A funding. Seae Ventures led the round and was joined by Impact America Fund, The Social Entrepreneurs' Fund, RH Capital, and others.
- Grove AI, an SF-based developer of clinical trial tools, raised $4.9m in seed funding. A* led, and was joined by Afore Capital, LifeX Ventures, Pear VC, and Upfront Ventures.
- Red Rover Health, a Des Moines-based electronic health record integration technology developer, raised $4 million in seed funding from NewShore Partners.
- VitVio, a London-based AI-powered operating rooms efficiency and safety platform developer, raised $2 million in pre-seed funding. LDV Capital led the round and was joined by Bek Ventures, Tiny Supercomputer Investment Company, and angel investors.
Enterprise/Consumer:
- Infinite Reality, powering the next generation of digital media and e-commerce through extended reality (XR), artificial intelligence (AI), and other immersive technologies raised $3 Billion at a $12.25 billion valuation from a private investor. Previous investors include RSE Ventures, Liberty Media, Lux Capital, Lerer Hippeau, MGM, CAA, T-Mobile Ventures, Courtside VC, Exor, Terracap, IAC, Live Nation, as well as notable individuals such as Steve Aoki, Imagine Dragons, and NBA player Rudy Gobert.
- Anthropic, an AI hyperscaler, in in advanced talks to raise $2 billion led by Lightspeed Venture Partners at a $60 billion post-money valuation [WSJ]
- Whatnot, a Los Angeles-based live shopping platform, raised $264 million in Series E funding. Greycroft, DST Global, and Avra led the round and were joined by Lightspeed Venture Partners, Durable Capital Partners, and existing investors Andreessen Horowitz, CapitalG, BOND, and Y Combinator.
- Buk, a Santiago, Chile-based HR technology company for Latin America raised $50 million in Series B funding. Headline led the round and was joined by Workday and existing investors Greenoaks and Base10.
- Air, a New York City-based creative operations platform, raised $35 million in Series B funding. Avenir Growth led the round and was joined by XFund, Good Friends, and others.
- Grand Games, a Sisli, Istanbul-based gaming studio, raised $30 million in Series A funding. Balderton Capital led the round and was joined by existing investors Bek Ventures, Laton Ventures, and an angel investor.
- PrettyDamnQuick, a Tel Aviv-based checkout optimization platform, raised $25 million in Series A funding. Peakspan Capital led the round and was joined by existing investors TLV Partners and Moneta.
- Dataships, a Dublin and San Francisco-based data compliance platform for Shopify stores, raised $7 million in Series A funding. Osage Venture Partners led the round and was joined by existing investors.
HardTech:
- XOCEAN, a Dublin-based ocean data provider for offshore energy operations, raised €115 million ($118.7 million) in funding from S2G, Climate Investment, Morgan Stanley’s 1GT fund, and an affiliate of the Crown Family’s CC Industries.
- Gridware, a San Francisco-based electrical grid safety technology developer, raised $26.4 million in Series A funding. Sequoia Capital led the round and was joined by Fifty Years, Lowercarbon, True Ventures, and Convective Capital.
- RoboForce, a Milpitas, Calif.-based robotic labor system developer, raised $10 million in funding from Myron Scholes, Gary Rieschel, and Carnegie Mellon University.
- Biosphere, a Oakland, Calif.-based bioreactor developer, raised $8.8 million in seed funding. Lowercarbon Capital and VXI Capital led the round and were joined by Founders Fund, GS Futures, Caffeinated Capital, and B37 Ventures.
- Karman Industries, a Long Beach, Calif.-based electric industrial thermal energy technology developer, raised $7.5 million in funding from Wonder Ventures, 8090 Industries, and existing investors Riot and Space.VC.
- StruxHub, a San Francisco-based construction operations platform, raised $4 million in seed funding. Brick and Mortar Ventures led the round and was joined by FJ Labs, Holcim, and angel investors.
- Starpower, a DePIN protocol for a decentralized energy network, raised $2.5m led by Framework Ventures.
Sustainability:
- Inari, a Cambridge, Mass.-based seed developer, raised $144 million in funding from the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, existing investors Hanwha Impact, NGS Super, the State of Michigan Retirement System, and others.
- Tangible, a maker of carbon emissions software for the construction market, raised $3m co-led by Prologis Ventures and Pi Labs
Acquisitions & PE:
- Anduril agreed to acquire the radar and command and control businesses of Numerica Corporation, a Fort Collins, Colo.-based defense technology developer. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Wonder Group, the dining super-app led by Marc Lore, completed its $650m purchase of food delivery service Grubhub from Just Eat Takeaway
- Later, backed by Summit Partners, acquired Mavely, a Chicago, Ill.-based shopping influencer platform, for $250 million.
- Battery Ventures acquired a majority stake in RetailNext, a Campbell, Calif.-based in-store shopping analytics provider. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) and FuboTV (NYSE: FUBO) have agreed to merge their live television streaming businesses, with Disney to own around 70% of Fubo. This creates the country's second-largest live television streamer, behind YouTube TV, with 6.2 million North American subscribers. Hulu + Live TV is part of the deal,
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