Masayoshi Son

$200B, Sequoia, Drones, ServiceTitan, Crusoe, Archer, Waymo, Tesla

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Musings

Macro

• The year in review 2024 [The Economist]

• SoftBank CEO announce $100 billion U.S. investment, in echo of 2016 event [Reuters]

  • The $100B would create 100,000 jobs focused on artificial intelligence and related infrastructure. Masa doubled his investment from Trump's last term, but that wasn’t enough.. Trump pushed for more. Doubling his speech commitment to $200B IRL. Incredible. So, let’s see what happens?

  • Hmm did Trump’s recent ‘promise for expedited permits for $1B+ US investments’ have anything to do with it? Currently, and declining, the U.S. receives $177B a year in new foreign direct investment (mostly into manufacturing).

• State of the Market: Early-Stage VC, IPOs and M&A, Consumer AI [Forerunner]

AI

• AI in 2025: Building Blocks Firmly in Place [Sequoia]

• Marc Andreessen on AI, Tech, Censorship and Dining With Trump [The Free Press]

• Meet Willow, our state-of-the-art quantum chip [Google Quantum AI]

  • Quantum Computing Is Inching Closer To Real-World Applications, Sparking Concerns About Blockchain Technology [Ark Invest]

HardTech

• 2024 LA Hard Tech 50: Highlighting the leaders shaping LA's hard tech ecosystem

• Waymo's market share is now equal to Lyft within SF [Alex Immerman]

• How Archer Takes Defense Tech To New Heights with Anduril Partnership [Bloomberg]

• Tesla goes vertical. Stock booms to new high as analyst ups price target to $515 [Yahoo! Finance]

More

• Elon Musk, The Changing World Order & America’s Future - Marc Andreessen [Chris Williamson]

• The Killer Inside You [Mike Solana @ Pirate Wires]

  • The moral inversion that is celebrating the murder of your tribal enemies, and how it could spell the dawn of a violent, chaotic era

• Who’s that girl? ⬇️ CEO K*ller Luigi Mangione Arrested, Daniel Penny Acquitted, Mystery Drones, Trump & Governor Trudeau [Pirate Wires]

Top Interviews

• How Lucy Guo Is Building A Creator Empire with Shaq, Kygo, & Olivia Dunne

• Dan Wright, CEO Armada | Trae Stephens Next Big Bet, $100M For The New Edge

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Last Week (12/9-12/13):

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:

Crusoe, Lava, Zest AI, Jiko, Atlas Card, Intersect Power

Acquisitions & PE

Archer Aviation, Omnicom/Interpublic, Buzzfeed/First We Feast

IPOs

ServiceTitan

Funds

Centana, Redesign Health

Final Numbers

GLP-1s economic & health impact

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VC Deals

Fintech:

- Zest AI, a Burbank, Calif.-based automated underwriting startup, raised $200m from insider Insight Partners

- Upvest, a Berlin-based investment API, raised €100 million ($105.1 million) in Series C funding. Hedosophia led the round and was joined by Sapphire Ventures, existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners, BlackRock, Earlybird, and others.

- Current, a neobank valued by VCs at $2.2 billion in 2021, raised $30m in equity from insiders a16z, Wellington Management, and Avenir. It also secured $175m in debt.

- Jiko, an SF-based platform for accessing U.S. Treasury bills, raised $29m in Series C funding led by Upfront Ventures, with Airbus Ventures, Red River West and Radicle Impact joining.

- Atlas Card, a New York City-based invite-only concierge service and card, raised $27 million in Series B funding. Michael Gilroy and Gokul Rajaram’s Marathon led the round and were joined by angel investors.

- Stigg, a Tel Aviv-based monetization platform for engineers, raised $17.5 million in Series A funding. Red Dot Capital Partners led the round and was joined by Unusual Ventures, Emerge Ventures, Redseed, and Cerca Partners.

- TrueWind, a bookkeeping co-pilot, raised $13m in Series A funding co-led by Rho Capital and Thomson Reuters Ventures.

- Lava, a New York-based Bitcoin lending platform, raised $10m in Series A funding from Khosla Ventures and Founders Fund

- FINNY, a New York City-based w platform for financial advisors, raised $4.3 million in seed funding. Maple VC and HNVR led the round and were joined by Crossbeam Ventures, Liquid 2, Y Combinator, and others.

- Superform Labs, a New York City-based onchain wealth app, raised $3 million in funding. VanEck Ventures led the round and was joined by Polychain Capital, CMT Digital, Amber Group, and others.

Care:

- Capstan Medical, a Santa Cruz-based minimally invasive solutions developer for heart valve disease, raised $110 million in Series C funding. Eclipse led the round and was joined by Gideon Strategic Partners and existing investors Yu Galaxy and Intuitive Ventures.

- Veradermics, a New Haven-based dermatologic conditions treatment developer, raised $75 million in Series B funding. Suvretta Capital Management led the round and was joined by Longitude Capital, Surveyor Capital, Osage University Partners, PhiFund, and existing investors JW Childs Associates, Connecticut Innovations, and Vlad Coric.

- Players Health, a Minneapolis-based risk services and insurance provider for athletes and sports organizations, raised $60 million in Series C funding. Bluestone Equity Partners led the round and was joined by Mosaic General Partners, RPM Ventures, SiriusPoint, and TriplePoint Capital.

- One Bio, a Sacramento-based nutrition technology developer, raised $27 million in Series A funding. Alpha Edison led the round and was joined by Leaps by Bayer, Mitsui E12, Morado, existing investors iSelect, Skyview Life Sciences, Collaborative, Acre, and others.

- Biomemory, a Paris-based DNA data storage company, raised $18 million in Series A funding. Crédit Mutuel Innovation led the round and was joined by Blast, Paris Business Angels, Sorbonne Venture, existing investor Bpifrance, and others.

- 1m, a New York City-based risk management provider for healthcare organizations, raised $7.3 million in funding. Banner Health led the round and was joined by Cleveland Clinic, Stanford Health Care, St. Charles Health System, and others.

- LaNua Medical, a Dublin-based blood flow technology developer, raised $6.3 million in seed funding. Elkstone and Atlantic Bridge led the round and were joined by Enterprise Ireland and Furthr VC.

- BioSapien, a San Diego-based drug delivery platform, raised $5.5 million in pre-Series A funding. Global Ventures led the round and was joined by Dara Holdings.

- Tuva Health, a New York City-based open-source healthcare data platform, raised $5 million in seed funding. Virtue led the round and was joined by Box Group, Y Combinator, and angel investors.

- MoldCo, a Boston-based mold toxicity care, treatment, and testing provider, raised $3 million in pre-seed funding from Starship Ventures, SALT, Conscience VC, and others.

- Rowan, a Boston-based molecular design and simulation tools developer, raised $2.1 million in pre-seed funding from Pillar VC, AI Grant, and angel investors.

Enterprise/Consumer:

- Ayar Labs, a San Jose-based optical interconnect solutions provider for AI infrastructure, raised $155 million in Series D funding. Advent Global Opportunities and Light Street Capital led the round and were joined by AMD Ventures, Intel Capital, NVIDIA, existing investors Applied Ventures, Axial Partners, Boardman Bay Capital Management, and others.

- Speak, a San Francisco-based AI language tutor, raised $78 million in Series C funding. Accel led the round and was joined by existing investors Khosla Ventures, the OpenAI Startup Fund, Y Combinator, and others.

- Gigs, a San Francisco-based mobile services operating system, raised $73 million in Series B funding. Ribbit Capital led the round and was joined by Gradient, YC, Speedinvest, and all other existing investors.

- Sublime Security, a Washington D.C.-based, AI-powered email security platform, raised $60 million in Series B funding. IVP led the round and was joined by Citi Ventures and existing investors Index Ventures, Decibel Partners, and Slow Ventures.

- Evinced, a Palo Alto-based accessible web and mobile development software company, raised $55 million in Series C funding. Existing investor Insight Partners led the round and was joined by Vertex Ventures and existing investors M12, BGV, Capital One Ventures, and Engineering Capital.

- Astrix Security, a New York City-based non-human identities security platform, raised $45 million in Series B funding. Menlo Ventures led the round and was joined by Workday Ventures and existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners, CRV, and F2 Venture Capital.

- AstrixSecurity, an access management startup, raised $45m in Series B funding. Menlo Ventures led, and was joined by Workday Ventures and insiders Bessemer Venture Partners, CRV, and F2 Venture Capital.

- WaveForms AI, an audio LLM startup, raised $40m in seed funding led by a16z.

- LambdaTest, a San Francisco-based cloud-based unified testing platform, raised $38 million in funding. Avataar Ventures led the round and was joined by Qualcomm Ventures.

- Flare, a Montreal, Canada-based threat exposure management provider, raised $30 million in Series B funding. Base10 Partners led the round and was joined by Inovia Capital, White Star Capital, and Fonds de solidarité FTQ.

- Twelve Labs, a San Francisco-based video understanding company, raised $30 million in funding from Databricks, SK Telecom, Snowflake Ventures, and others.

- Stainless, a New York City-based SDKs provider for API users, raised $25 million in Series A funding. a16z led the round and was joined by existing investors Sequoia, The General Partnership, and others.

- NeuBird, a San Mateo, Calif.-based generative AI-powered IT operations engineer developer, raised $22.5 million in funding. M12 led the round and was joined by Mayfield, StepStone Group, and Prosperity7 Ventures.

- Cartesia, an SF-based developer of state-space models, raised $22m led by Index Ventures

- Vapi, a San Francisco-based voice AI agent deployment platform, raised $20 million in Series A funding. Bessemer Venture Partners led the round and was joined by Abstract Ventures, AI Grant, Y Combinator, and others.

- Aampe, a San Francisco-based AI agents developer for consumer apps, raised $18 million in Series A funding. Theory Ventures led the round and was joined by Z47.

- Ask Sage, an Arlington, Va.-based GenAI platform for DoD and other government agencies, raised $17m in Series A funding. Sapphire Ventures led, and was joined by Mucker Capital.

- RapidCanvas, an Austin-based provider of AI agents for data scientists, raised $16m in Series A funding. Peak XV led, and was joined by Titanium Ventures, Accel, and Valley Capital Partners.

- BRM, a San Francisco-based AI-powered vendor management and procurement platform, raised $15 million in Series A funding. Caffeinated Capital led the round and was joined by existing investors Base10 and Definition Capital.

- Exabits, a San Mateo, Calif.-based "investment bank of GPUs," raised $15m in seed funding at a $150m valuation. Hack VC led, and was joined by insider Portal Ventures

- RapidCanvas, an Austin-based data and engineering-focused AI agents developer, raised $16 million in funding. Peak XV led the round and was joined by Titanium Ventures and existing investors Accel and Valley Capital Partners.

- Cake, a New York City-based AI infrastructure platform, raised $13 million in funding. Primary Venture Partners led the $3 million pre-seed round and was joined by angel investors. Gradient led the $10 million seed round and was joined by Alumni Ventures, Friends & Family Capital, Correlation Ventures, Firestreak Ventures, and existing investor Primary Venture Partners.

- Ethyca, a New York City-based data privacy compliance firm, raised $10 million in funding. Aspenwood Ventures and AVP led the round and were joined by Des Traynor, Guillermo Rauch, Abstract Ventures, and IA Ventures.

- Silent Push, a Reston, Va.-based preemptive cybersecurity platform, raised $10 million in Series A funding. Ten Eleven Ventures and Stepstone Group led the round and were joined by others.

- Gentrace, a San Francisco-based AI-testing platform, raised $8 million in Series A funding. Matrix Partners led the round and were joined by Headline and K9 Ventures.

- Embeddable, a London-based embedded analytics developer tool, raised €6 million ($6.3 million) in seed funding. OpenOcean led the round and was joined by existing investors Four Rivers, TechStars, and others.

- GovSignals, a New York City-based government contracting AI automation platform, raised $5.5 million in seed funding from Unusual VC.

- Mainframe, a San Francisco-based productivity software developer, raised $5.5 million in seed funding. Peter Boyce II and Lachy Groom led the round and were joined by Alana Goyal, Akshay Kothari, Weekend Fund, and others.

- Wald, a Palo Alto-based context-aware data protection platform, raised $4 million in seed funding from Inventus Capital, Entrada Ventures, and angel investors.

- Sekai, a Palo Alto-based AI-powered storytelling platform, raised $3.1 million in seed funding. Hashed led the round and was joined by a16z CSX, Azuki, Orange DAO, and Zypsy.

- Pin, a New York City-based AI-powered recruitment platform, raised $3 million in seed funding from Expa Ventures.

- AIMon, a Palo Alto-based LLM app development solutions platform, raised $2.3 million in pre-seed funding. Bessemer Venture Partners and Tidal Ventures led the round and were joined by angel investors.

HardTech:

- Crusoe, a Denver-based AI infrastructure provider, raised $600 million in Series D funding. Founders Fund led the round and was joined by Fidelity, Long Journey Ventures, Mubadala, and others.

- ANYbotics, a Zurich-based AI-powered robotic inspection solutions provider, raised $60 million in funding. Qualcomm Ventures and Supernova Invest led the round and were joined by TDK Ventures and others.

- Oxford Flow, an Oxford, England-based valve technologies manufacturer, raised $25 million in Series C funding. bp Ventures and Energy Impact Partners led the round and were joined by others.

- Pixxel, an LA-based developer of a hyperspectral satellite constellation, raised $24m in Series B extension funding that includes new investors M&G Catalyst and Glade Brook Capital Partners

- Prima, a Mexican manufacturing and supply chain integrator, raised $23m in Series A funding from Acrew, Nazca, and Quona Capital.

- Albert Invent, an Oakland, Calif.-based materials science research and development platform, raised $22.5 million in Series A funding. Coatue led the round and was joined by TCV, Index Ventures, F-Prime, and Homebrew.

- Cofactr, a New York City-based supply chain and logistics management platform for hardware manufacturers, raised $17.2 million in Series A funding. Bain Capital led the round and was joined by existing investors Y Combinator, Floating Point Ventures, Broom, and DNX.

- Vooma, a San Francisco-based freight brokers and carriers logistics AI agent, raised $13 million in Series A funding. Craft Ventures led the round and was joined by Definition Capital, HOF Capital, Soma Capital, and others.

- Mach9, a San Francisco-based automated geospatial data production AI platform for infrastructure providers, raised $12 million in seed funding. Quiet Capital led the round and was joined by Kyle Vogt, Amar Hanspal, Scott Belsky, and Gokul Rajaram.

- Spexi, a Vancouver-based drone imagery network, raised $11.5 million in Series A funding. Blockchange Ventures led the round and was joined by Moonshots Capital and existing investor Protocol Labs.

- Reveal Technology, a Bozeman, Mont.-based defense technology developer, raised $11.2 million in Series A funding. Next Frontier Capital led the round and was joined by defy.vc and 8VC.

- Flocean, an Oslo-based desalination technology developer, raised $9 million in Series A funding. Burnt Island Ventures, Nysnø Climate Investments, and Freebird Partners led the round and were joined by Katapult Ocean, MP Pensjon, and others.

Sustainability:

- Intersect Power, a remote low-carbon solutions provider, raised $800 million in funding. TPG Rise Climate and Google led the round and were joined by Climate Adaptive Infrastructure and Greenbelt Capital Partners.

- Terradot, a Stanford, Calif., carbon removal startup, raised $58.2m in seed and Series A funding from Google, Microsoft, John Doerr, George Roberts, Sheryl Sandberg, Floodgate, Kleiner Perkins, Acre Venture Partners, Gigascale Capital, Valor Capital, and Ponderosa Ventures.

- Next Sense, an Amsterdam-based real estate decarbonization solutions platform, raised €11.5 million ($12.2 million) in Series A funding. ABP and ETF Partners led the round and were joined by existing investors Edge, SHAPE Capital, and Timeless Investments.

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Acquisitions & PE:

- Archer Aviation (NYSE: AHCR) raised $430m from Wellington Management, 2PointZero and insiders Stellantis and United Airlines. It also launched a new defense program, in partnership with Anduril.

- Omnicom Group (NYSE: OMC) has agreed to acquire Interpublic Group (NYSE: IPG) for around $13.3 billion in stock.