Fastest Growing Startup Ever.
Naval, Tariffs, $300B OpenAI, $9.6B Cursor, $113B xAI, Mercury, Underdog, Cerebras, CoreWeave IPO Slump
Today’s Sourcery is brought to you by Archer..
Learn more about how Archer is set to open a new world of opportunity for passengers by providing safe and efficient access to people, places, and events across the communities they live at archer.com
Have a Tariff-ic Week
Source: PwC Tariff Industry Analysis relying on U.S. Census Bureau. * Monthly U.S. imports by NAICS Code Jan-Dec 2024.
Are you ready for ‘Liberation Day’? On April 2nd a new roll out of tariffs are being released in response to ‘balancing’ out America’s reliance on foreign goods. Shared by Axios, PwC has released an analysis on the potential impact of new tariffs on U.S. private equity, urging firms to work with portfolio companies on diversifying supply chains, reassessing sourcing, and considering strategies like tariff engineering and dynamic pricing to stay competitive. 😬
I, for one, will be setting alerts on CEO of Flexport, Ryan Peterson’s X account for active updates.
Upcoming Event:
The Heritage Family Office Summit is back in NYC this May, bringing together private capital, tech, & next-gen wealth.
If you're a founder, investor, or next-gen leader at the intersection of legacy and innovation, this is the room to be in. On May 9, the city will buzz with top family office leaders and builders in finance + tech — including Ryan Serhant, Anthony Pompliano, and Michael Loeb. Expect sharp conversations, real deal-making, and high-impact networking. Last year’s summit drew attendees managing billions in AUM — this year raises the bar. (I’ll be there! - say hi)
Musings
Brain Food
Naval Ravikant: 3hr+ interview, 44 Harsh Truths About Human Nature [Chris Williamson]
Hottest new book → Antimemetics: Why Some Ideas Resist Spreading [Nadia Asparouhova]
Why do some ideas spread like wildfire, while others resist being seen — despite their importance?
AI AI AI AI
Why Nvidia-Backed CoreWeave Stock Is Plunging a Day After Its IPO [Yahoo! Finance]
Makes for a fun start to the 6 month lockup period for existing investors
OpenAI just raised another $40 billion round led by SoftBank, now valued at $300 billion [Verge]
Wow. Studio Ghibli really paid off. Other investors reportedly include Altimeter, Coatue, Founders Fund, & Magnetar Capital.
Runway just dropped Gen-4, their new series of state-of-the-art AI models for media generation & world consistency [Runway]
Musk's X bought by his AI company, xAI, valued at $33 billion [Reuters]
Cerebras Co-Founder & CEO, Andrew Feldman: The AI Chip Wars & The Plan to Break Nvidia's Dominance [20VC]
The fastest growing vibe-coded startup ever, Cursor, just raised $625M at $9.6 billion post..
Meanwhile, it’s getting tired.. the AI coding assistant refuses to write code, tells user to learn programming instead [Ars Technica]
Cursor isn’t the only AI refusing to work.. rate limits due to over-usage, viral image generation, and heavy demand are throttling our productivity & our crippling addiction to LLMs across platforms.. oh no. Remember to be nice and say thank you to your robots
Yikes.
BREAKING: Carta's VC Fund Performance Report | Yikes? flight to quality + which funds are crushing.. Founders Fund, Altimeter, USV, Emergence Capital, Thrive Capital etc.
23andMe (Nasdaq: ME) has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy [Axios]
Top Interviews
- Emergence Capital raised $1B for its seventh fund | From Zoom to Salesforce: How Emergence Capital Picks Billion-Dollar Winners
- LIVE FROM VARDA: Delian Asparouhov, Founders Fund & Varda | Stranded Astronauts, Eric Schmidt, Varda, Hill & Valley Forum, Investing Strateg
- SpaceX, Stripe, X, Ramp, Anduril: Navigating Liquidity in Private Markets | Christian Garrett, 137 Ventures
Last Week (3/24-3/28):
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.
Ark Final Numbers
Waymo vs Tesla, Impending M&A Megacycle?, America’s Massive Debt Bill
VC Deals
Fintech:
- Mercury, a San Francisco-based financial workflow solutions provider, raised $300 million in Series C funding, primary and secondary, at a $3.5 billion post-money valuation. Sequoia Capital led the round and was joined by Spark Capital, Marathon, and existing investors Coatue, CRV, and Andreessen Horowitz.
- Walrus, an SF-based crypto infrastructure startup, raised $140m via a token sale at a $2b valuation. Standard Crypto led, and was joined by a16z crypto, Electric Capital and Franklin Templeton Digital Assets.
- Rogo AI, a New York-based provider of genAI for banking analysts, is raising $40m at up to a $350m valuation led by Thrive Capital with Khosla Ventures participating
- Mendel, a Mexico City-based enterprise spend management platform, raised $35 million in Series B funding. Base10 Partners led the round and was joined by PayPal Ventures, Endeavor Catalyst, and existing investors Infinity Ventures, Industry Ventures, and Hi.vc.
- Rain, a New York City-based stablecoin-powered card issuing platform, raised $24.5 million in funding. Norwest Venture Partners led the round and was joined by Galaxy Ventures, Goldcrest, Thayer, Hard Yaka, existing investors Lightspeed Venture Partners, Coinbase Ventures, Vinyl Capital, and others.
- EDGE Boost, a San Diego-based banking solution for gambling, raised $17.2 million funding. Bullpen Capital led the round and was joined by Step Stone Group, Suro Capital, Impulsum Ventures, and others.
- Sympera AI, a New York City-based agentic-AI platform for relationship managers in the banking sector, raised $10 million in seed funding from Nyca Partners and Viola Ventures.
Care:
- Navina, a New York City-based clinical AI intelligence provider, raised $55 million in Series C funding. Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives led the round and was joined by existing investors Vertex Ventures Israel, Grove Ventures, and ALIVE.
- Silna Health, a New York City-based prior authorization, benefit checks, and eligibility verification AI-powered management solutions provider for the healthcare industry, raised $27 million in funding. Accel and Bain Capital Ventures led the $5 million seed round and were joined by Activant. Existing investors Accel and Bain Capital Ventures led the $22 million Series A round and were joined by existing investor Activant and angel investors.
- Layer Health, a Brookline, Mass.-based AI-powered medical chart review platform, raised $21 million in Series A funding. Define Ventures led the round and was joined by Flare Capital Partners, GV, and MultiCare Capital Partners.
- Taxo, a San Francisco-based data extraction and reasoning engine for healthcare administration, raised $5 million in seed funding. Y Combinator, General Catalyst, and Character led the round and were joined by angel investors.
- Arlo, a New York City-based AI-powered health insurance provider for small and medium-sized businesses, raised $4 million in seed funding. Upfront Ventures led the round and was joined by 8VC and General Catalyst.
- Marit Health, a San Francisco-based salary sharing platform for clinicians, raised $3.2 million in seed funding. Define Ventures led the round and was joined by others.
Enterprise/Consumer:
- Island, a Dallas-based enterprise workspace developer, raised $250 million in Series E funding at a valuation of $4.8 billion. Coatue Management led the round and was joined by others.
- Nexthop AI, a Santa Clara, Calif.-based AI infrastructure developer for cloud companies, raised $110 million in funding. Lightspeed Venture Partners led the round and was joined by Kleiner Perkins, WestBridge Capital, Battery Ventures, and Emergent Ventures.
- Underdog, a Brooklyn-based sports gaming company, raised $70 million in Series C funding from Spark Capital at a $1.2 billion pre-money valuation.
- n8n, a Berlin-based workflow automation platform for technical teams, raised €55 million ($59.4 million) in Series B funding. Highland Europe led the round and was joined by HV Capital and existing investors Sequoia, Felicis, and Harpoon.
- Sunday, a Boulder-based lawn care products provider, raised $30 million in funding. S2G led the round and was joined by others.
- Arcade, a San Francisco, Calif.-based generative AI marketplace, raised $25 million in Series A funding from Canaan Partners, Forerunner Ventures, Adverb Ventures, Factorial Funds, existing investors Reid Hoffman, Offline Ventures, Sound Ventures, angel investors, and others.
- Straiker, a Sunnyvale-based AI-native security solutions provider, raised $21 million in funding from Lightspeed Ventures and Bain Capital Ventures.
- Browser Use, a San Francisco-based AI agent browser interaction interface, raised $17 million in seed funding. Felicis led the round and was joined by A Capital, SV Angel, Nexus Venture Partners, Paul Graham, and others.
- GetReal Security, a San Mateo, Calif.-based generative AI-focused cybersecurity company, raised $17.5 million in Series A funding. Forgepoint Capital led the round and was joined by Ballistic Ventures, Evolution Equity, K2 Access Fund, and others.
- DeepIP, a New York- and Paris-based AI-powered patent assistant for IP professionals, raised $15 million in Series A funding. Resonance led the round and was joined by Headline, Serena Capital, and Balderton Capital.
- Brisk Teaching, a San Francisco-based AI-powered teaching assistant, raised $15 million in Series A funding. Bessemer Venture Partners led the round and was joined by existing investors Owl Ventures, South Park Commons, and Springbank Collective.
- Yutori, a San Francisco-based personal AI assistants developer for digital tasks, raised $15 million in seed funding. Radical Ventures led the round and was joined by Felicis and angel investors.
- Lucky Energy, an Austin-based energy drink company, raised $14.2 million in Series A1 funding. Maveron led the round and was joined by Daily Mail Ventures, Second Sight Ventures, and existing investors Imaginary Ventures, Brand Foundry Ventures, Sapphire Ventures, and Sugar Capital.
- Paid, a London-based business platform for AI agents, raised €10 million ($10.8 million) in pre-seed funding from EQT Ventures, Sequoia, and GTMFund.
- Pro Padel League, a North American sports league prepping for its second season, raised $10m led by Left Lane Capital.
- Charm Security, a New York City-based AI-powered customer security solutions provider, raised $8 million in seed funding from Team8.
- WunderGraph, a Miami-based open-source GraphQL federation platform developer, raised $7.5 million in Series A funding. Karma Ventures led the round and was joined by eBay Ventures and Aspenwood Ventures.
- SplxAI, a Dover-based offensive AI security platform, raised $7 million in seed funding. LAUNCHub Ventures led the round and was joined by Rain Capital, Inovo, Runtime Ventures, and others.
- Chord Commerce, a New York City-based customer data platform for commerce brands, raised $5.5 million in funding. M13 led the round and was joined by Act One Ventures and GR0 Capital.
- Nace.AI, a Palo Alto-based precision enterprise AI models developer, raised $5 million in seed funding. General Catalyst led the round and was joined by .406 Ventures, MVP Ventures, and Coalition Partners.
- Voiceops, a New York City-based AI-powered phone call analysis and insights provider for marketing, raised $5 million in seed funding. Bonfire Ventures and Twelve Below led the round and were joined by Precursor Ventures, Not Boring Capital, Village Global, and others.
- Camber, a San Francisco-based scientific research computing platform, raised $4 million in funding from Base10 Partners.
- Ethos, a London-based AI-powered expert and client matching platform, raised $3.3 million in funding. General Catalyst led the round and was joined by 8VC, Conviction, Common Magic, Interface Capital, and angel investors.
- Hook, a music remixing platform, raised $3m from Khosla Ventures, Kygo's Palm Tree Crew, Raine Group, Imaginary Ventures, Point72 Ventures, KSHMR, and Waverley Capital
HardTech:
- The Bot Co., a robotics startup founded by former Cruise CEO, Kyle Vogt, raised $150m at a $2b valuation led by Greenoaks
- BuildOps, a Los Angeles-based business platform for commercial contractors, raised $127 million in Series C funding at a $1 billion valuation. Meritech Capital Partners led the round and was joined by BOND Capital, SE Ventures, existing investors Fika Ventures, Next47, StepStone Group, Titanium Ventures, and others.
- Also, a Palo Alto-based small electric vehicles technology developer, raised $105 million in Series B funding from Eclipse.
- Marvel Fusion, a Munich-based fusion energy company, raised €50 million ($54 million) in funding from EQT Ventures, Siemens Energy Ventures, the European Innovation Council Fund, and existing investors Tengelmann Ventures and Bayern Kapital.
- Allen Control Systems, an Austin, Texas-based gun turret startup, raised $30 million in Series A funding. Craft Ventures led the round and was joined by existing investors Inspired Capital and Rally Ventures.