"Everyone" is in DC
Hill & Valley Forum, Joshua Kushner, Jensen Huang, Alex Karp, Brian Schimpf; xAI, Deel/Rippling, Trade Wars
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Hill & Valley Forum 2025
The Hill & Valley Forum, founded in 2023 by Jacob Helberg, Christian Garrett, and Delian Asparouhov, is back. Hill & Valley has become a key bridge between Silicon Valley and Washington, driving bipartisan dialogue and policy influence around national security and frontier technologies. Its impact includes shaping U.S. tech policy—such as advocating for a TikTok ban and deregulation in AI—and fostering collaboration between tech leaders and lawmakers to align innovation with national interests.
This year its going to be packed. Everyone is in DC. Josh Kushner of Thrive, Keith Rabois of Khosla Ventures, Jensen Huang of Nvidia, Alex Karp of Palantir, Brian Schimpf of Anduril, Kevin Weil of OpenAI, David Friedberg of Ohalo, & many more are all speaking. Delian shares the full agenda here.
Check out our clips with Delian and Christian where they cover the founding of Hill & Valley, and its impact.
Christian, Delian, & Xander Oltmann gave a great recap on Hill & Valley 2024.
→ More information can also be found in our recent interviews Delian Asparouhov and Christian Garrett.
AI Stats
“57.9% of global VC dollars invested in Q1 went to AI and machine learning startups, according to the latest PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor.
The capital is even more concentrated in North America, with 70.2% of deal value going into AI and ML startups. Globally, the sector raised $73.1 billion in the first quarter—more than half of last year’s annual total. Of that, $40 billion came from OpenAI’s recent round led by SoftBank.” - Pitchbook
Musings
Macro
Bill Gurley & Brad Gerstner Break Down Tariffs, Free Trade, Export Controls, H20 & Rare Earth Ban
Niall Ferguson: Will Trade War Become a Real War? [The Free Press]
Exclusive: Secretive VC firm Hedosophia raises over $200m for secondaries fund [Sifted]
AI
Elon Musk’s XAI Holdings Is in Discussions to Raise $20 Billion [Bloomberg]
Wall Street banks sell final portion of Elon Musk's X debt, source says [Reuters]
“Musk's close relationship with U.S. President Donald Trump and prospects of X's improving revenue have allowed banks to offload almost all of the $13 billion they had been holding on their books for nearly two years.”
Media
The State of Startup Media [Investing 101: Kyle Harrison of Contrary]
Health
The Power Shift in Health [Forerunner]
More
Deel Files a Lawsuit Against Rippling in Delaware, as well as Three Motions Addressing Rippling’s Lawsuit [Deel]
Top Interviews
Superpower Raises $30M Series A Led by Forerunner | CEO & Co-Founder Jacob Peters
How Autopilot Hit $500M AUM | Autopilot: $500M AUM, $2B in volume, 9M trades, $6B in connected assets; Co-Founder Chris Josephs
Delian Asparouhov, Founders Fund & Varda | Stranded Astronauts, Eric Schmidt, Varda, Hill & Valley Forum, Investing Strategy
Christian Garrett, 137 Ventures | State of Liquidity Markets, SpaceX’s Funding History, Hill & Valley Forum, DC & VC, Europe’s Techno-Rise
Last Week (4/21-4/25):
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.
VC Deals
Fintech:
- Altruist, a provider of custodian software for RIAs, raised $152m in Series F funding at a $1.9b valuation. GIC led, joined by Salesforce Ventures, Geodesic Capital, Baillie Gifford, Carson Family Office, and Iconiq Growth
- Instrumental, an Oakland-based grant solution for nonprofits and universities, raised $55m from Summit Partners.
- Alpaca, a San Mateo, Calif.-based developer of a stock-trading API, raised $52m in Series C from Derayah Financial, 850 Management, National Investments Company Kuwait, Unbound and Portage Ventures.
- Steadily, an Austin, Texas-based provider of landlord insurance, raised $30m in Series C funding at a $355m valuation. Two Sigma Ventures led, joined by Clocktower Technology Ventures, Belfer Investment Partners, Belfer Investment Partners, Nine Four Ventures, and Matrix Partners.
- FundThrough, a Houston and Toronto-based invoice platform for small and medium-sized businesses, raised $25 million in Series B funding. Klister Credit led the round and was joined by existing investors, Canadian Business Growth Fund, Urbana, and others.
- Salsa, a New York City-based embedded payroll provider, raised $20 million in Series A funding. Altos Ventures led the round and was joined by Greycroft, SemperVirens, Definition, and Better Tomorrow Ventures.
- Theo, a New York-based trading infrastructure startup, raised $20m led by Hack VC and Anthos Capital, with participation from Manifold Trading, Mirana Ventures, Metalayer Ventures.
- Arch Labs, a Bitcoin infrastructure startup, raised $13m in Series A funding led by Pantera Capital at a $200m valuation.
- Bloom Credit, a cashflow reporting and credit data infrastructure platform, raised $10.5m led by Crosslink Capital
- ROH, a payments management platform for hospitality, raised $9.2m from Highgate Tech Ventures and Acrew Capital
- Tally, a New York-based provider of software for onchain organizations, raised $8m in Series A funding from AppWorks, Blockchain Capital, 1kx, Cyberfund, Placeholder, BitGo and Bloccelerate.
- Cloud Capital, a fintech platform for cloud usage costs, raised $5.4m in seed funding. Backed Ventures and Middlegame Ventures co-led, joined by DFF Ventures
Care:
- Neuralink, Elon Musk's brain-computer interface startup, is seeking to raise around $500m at an $8.5b pre-money valuation [Bloomberg]
- Nourish, a New York City-based nutrition counseling services provider, raised $70 million in Series B funding. J.P. Morgan Growth Equity Partners led the round and was joined by Thrive Capital, Index Ventures, Y Combinator, and others.
- Healthee, a New York-based health benefits navigation startup, raised $50m in Series B funding. Key1 Capital led, joined by Fin Capital, Glilot Capital Partners, and Group11
- Superpower, a health early detection app, raised $30m in Series A funding. Forerunner led, joined by Day One Ventures, Susa Ventures, Long Journey Ventures, Family Fund, Opal Ventures, Valia Ventures, Visible Ventures, Vanessa Hudgens, Steve Aoki, and Giannis Antetokounmpo
- Overture Life, a Palo Alto-based fertility treatments automation company, raised $20.6 million in funding from Overwater Ventures, GV, and Khosla Ventures.
- Ascertain, a New York City-based AI-powered case management assistant for healthcare, raised $10 million in Series A funding. Deerfield Management led the round and was joined by Northwell Health.
- NiaHealth, an Edmonton, Canada-based preventative healthcare company, raised $2.5 million in pre-seed funding. Version One Ventures led the round and was joined by Garage Capital and Union Capital.
Enterprise/Consumer:
- Chainguard, a Kirkland, Wash.-based open source security startup, raised $356m in Series D funding at a $3.5b valuation, per Fortune. Kleiner Perkins and IVP co-led, joined by Salesforce Ventures, Datadog Ventures and insiders Sequoia Capital, Spark Capital, Amplify, Redpoint Ventures, Lightspeed, and Mantis VC
- Supabase, a Postgres database management system, raised $200m in Series D funding at a $2b valuation. Backers include Coatue, YC, Craft Ventures, and Felicis.
- Manychat, a New York-based provider of customer and e-commerce service automation for brands, raised $140m led by Summit Partners.
- Endor Labs, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based software supply chain security company, raised $93m in Series B funding. DFJ Growth led, joined by Salesforce Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Coatue, Dell Technologies Capital, Section 32, and Citi Ventures
- Fora, a New York City-based travel platform, raised $60 million in funding. Thrive and Insight Partners led the $40 million Series C round and were joined by existing investors Forerunner and Heartcore Capital. Insight Partners led the $20 million Series B and was joined by Forerunner and Heartcore Capital.
- Goodfire, a San Francisco-based AI Interpretability research company, raised $50 million in Series A funding. Menlo Ventures led the round and was joined by Lightspeed Venture Partners, Anthropic, B Capital, and others.
- Sentra, a New York City-based cloud-native data security platform, raised $50 million in Series B funding. Key1 Capital led the round and was joined by existing investors: Bessemer Venture Partners, Zeev Ventures, Standard Investments, and Munich Re Ventures.
- Ocient, a Chicago-based data analytics software solutions provider, raised $42.1 million in Series B extension funding from Allstate Strategic Ventures, Blue Bear Capital, Solidigm, and others.
- Fora, a New York-based travel agent startup, raised $40m in Series C funding from Thrive Capital, Insight Partners, Forerunner Ventures and Heartcore Capital
- Cynomi, a Herzliya, Israel-based vCISO platform, raised $37 million in Series B funding. Insight Partners and Entrée Capital led the round and was joined by existing investors Canaan, Flint Capital, and S16VC.
- Push Security, a Boston-based identity threat detection startup, raised $30m in Series B funding. Redpoint Ventures led, joined by Datadog Ventures
- Listen Labs, an SF-based autonomous user interview tool, raised $27m led by Sequoia Capital
- Reco, a Miami-based SaaS security startup, raised $25m from Redseed and insiders Insight Partners, Zeev Ventures, Boldstart, and Angular Ventures
- Reducto, an SF-based startup that helps LLMs read documents, raised $24.5m in Series A funding. Benchmark led, joined by insiders First Round Capital, YC, and BoxGroup.
- Uniqus Consultech, a San Jose-based consulting platform, raised $20 million in Series C funding. Nexus Venture Partners led the round and was joined by Sorin Investments.
- SquareX, a Palo Alto-based browser detection and response company, raised $20 million in Series A funding. SYN Ventures led the round and was joined by existing investor Peak XV Partners.
- Deep Infra, a Palo Alto-based AI model inference services provider, raised $18 million in Series A funding. Felicis and Georges Harik led the round and were joined by angel investors.
- Miggo Security, a New York City-based application detection and response solutions provider, raised $17 million in Series A funding. SYN Ventures led the round and was joined by existing investor YL Ventures.
- Manifest, a Westport, Conn.-based software supply chain security solutions provider, raised $15 million in Series A funding. Ensemble VC led the round and was joined by AE Ventures, Overmatch VC, Leap435, and existing investors First Round Capital, XYZ, and Homebrew.
- Ravenna, a Seattle-based provider of enterprise service management software, raised $15m in pre-seed and seed funding co-led by Madrona and Khosla Ventures
- Lace AI, a Mountain View, Calif.-based AI-powered call center automation technology developer, raised $14 million in seed funding. Bek Ventures led the round and was joined by Horizon VC, Launchub, Marcin Zukowski, and Heini Zachariassen.
- Scamnetic, a Tampa-based AI-powered digital threat protection technology provider, raised $13 million in Series A funding. Roo Capital led the round and was joined by 1st and Main Growth Partners, SaaS Ventures, and Riptide Ventures.
- Khloud, a snackmaker formed by Khloé Kardashian and Kris Jenner, raised $12m from K5 Global, Serena Ventures, WME, and Shrug Capital.
- VanishID (fka Picnic), a Chevy Chase, Md.-based provider of digital executive protection for enterprises, raised $10m. Dell Technologies Capital led, joined by Crosslink Capital, Rally Ventures, Energy Impact Partners, Lockstep Ventures, and Bright Pixel
- Terra Security, a Tel Aviv and New York-based agentic-AI web application penetration testing platform, raised $8 million in seed funding. SYN Ventures and FXP Ventures led the round and was joined by Underscore VC and angel investors.
- MagicBlock, a real-time engine for decentralized games and apps on Solana, raised $7.5m in seed funding. Lightspeed led, joined by Maven11, Delphi Digital, Robot Ventures, Mechanism Capital, Equilibrium, and Pivot Global
- Adaptive, a San Francisco-based AI-powered computing personalization solution, raised $7 million in seed funding. Pebblebed led the round and was joined by Conviction Partners, Anti Fund, Radical Ventures, and David Baszucki
- Augur, a San Diego-based AI-powered threat prevention company, raised $7 million in seed funding. General Advance led the round and was joined by others.
- Brandlight, a Tel Aviv-based AI-powered brand visibility platform, raised $5.8 million in funding. Cardumen Capital and G20 Ventures led the round and were joined by others.
- Respondology, a Boulder, Colo.-based social media comment management platform, raised $5m in Series A extension funding from Iron Gate Capital, SJF Ventures, Zelkova Ventures, Boulder Heavy Industries, and RLB Holdings
- Kenzo Security, a San Francisco-based agentic security platform, raised $4.5 million in seed funding from The General Partnership and Michael Coates.
- Recce, a San Francisco-based code review solution for data teams, raised $4 million in funding. Heavybit led and was joined by Vertex Ventures US, Hive Ventures, and angel investors.
- Finch, a New York City-based pre-litigation platform for personal injury law firms, raised $3.8 million in funding. Sequoia Capital led the round and was joined by Jason Boehmig and others.
- Wonder, a London-based AI-powered creative studio, raised $3 million in pre-seed funding. LocalGlobe and Blackbird led the round and were joined by Mati Staniszewski, Laura Modiano, Ross Dinerstei, and others.
- Kollegio, a Palo Alto-based AI-powered college counseling platform, raised $2.8 million in seed funding. Reach Capital led the round and was joined by JFFVentures, ECMC Group, and Tuesday Capital.
- Tella, a screen-recording startup, raised $2.1m in seed funding led by Gradient Ventures
HardTech:
- Electra, a Manassas, Va.-based hybrid-electric aircraft developer, raised $115 million in Series B funding. Prysm Capital led the round and was joined by Honeywell Ventures
- Northwood, an El Segundo, Calif.-based satellite ground station developer, raised $30 million in Series A funding. Alpine Space Ventures and a16z led the round and were joined by lso Capital, Founders Fund, and Stepstone.
- Nyobolt, a Cambridge, England-based charging technology developer, raised $30 million in funding. IQ Capital and Latitude led the round and were joined by Scania Invest and Takasago Industry.
- UbiQD, a Los Alamos, N.M.-based quantum dot technology company, raised $20 million in Series B funding. Phoenix Venture Partners led the round and was joined by Builders VC, Azura Group, Builders Vision, and others.
- Emmi AI, an Austrian developer of simulation tech for industrial engineering, raised €15m in seed funding from Speedinvest, 3VC, Serena, and PUSH.
- Isembard, a London-based software-powered manufacturing company, raised $9 million in seed funding. Notion Capital led the round and was joined by 201 Ventures, Basis Capital, Forward Fund, angel investors, and others.
- MirSense, a Paris-based developer of a quantum cascade laser and mini gas sensors, raised €7m in Series A funding. Safran Corporate Ventures led, joined by Supernova Invest, Polytechnique Ventures, and C2AD.
- Theseus, a San Francisco-based drone navigation technology developer, raised $4.3 million in seed funding. First Round Capital led the round and was joined by Y Combinator and Lux Capital.
- Durin, an El Segundo, Calif.-based mining automation startup, raied $3.5m in pre-seed funding led by 8090 Industries
- Chassy, a Seattle-based robotics platform for software testing, deployment and ops, raised $1.2m in preseed funding led by Schematic Ventures.
Sustainability:
- Omnidian, a Seattle-based solar energy monitoring and maintenance startup, raised $87 million in Series C funding. B Capital led, joined by Marunouchi Innovation Partners, BNP Paribas, Citi Impact Fund, Alumni Ventures and insiders Activate Capital, Liberty Mutual Investments, National Grid Partners, and Wind Ventures.
- OnePlanet, a Jacksonville, Fla.-based recycler of solar panels for critical metals, raised $7m in seed funding led by Khasma Capital.
Acquisitions & PE:
- PlayVS acquired Generation Esports, a Kansas City-based esports platform, and Playfly College Esports, a Philadelphia-based esports advertising solutions provider. Financial terms were not disclosed.