Milken, F1, Mega Funds
Thrive Capital, Lightspeed; Palantir, OpenAI, World Orbs Unleashed, Hill & Valley; Persona, True Anomaly, Astronomer
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Hello from LA
Happy Milken Conference 2025 to all of those celebrating. From Beverly Hills mansion parties to members-only club dinners, LA is not short on showing off. If you’re a family office, fund of fund, large capital allocator, VC, or just super cool, well, then you’re probably here. Say hi or shoot me a DM!
“Sourcery is like if Milken & Coachella had a baby.” - Minnie
All I hear is finance and fun. Honored.
The moment we’ve been waiting for.. VC’s as F1 teams
P.S. Shoutout to Andrew Reed of Sequoia for sharing an actual photo of the team in the pit circa 2014.. iconic.
Musings
AI
“Palantir is on fire” - Alex Karp, Q1 2025 Earnings
Must watch: Alex Karp responds to a protestor during opening talk at the Hill & Valley Forum [Pirate Wires] (We accidentally walked right into this)
Check out our visit to Palantir + Wookiee
OpenAI reverses course, says its nonprofit will remain in control of its business operations [TechCrunch]
OpenAI CPO Kevin Weil, Google CIO Ruth Porat, & Emil Michael | How AI is Rewriting America's Future
Joshua Kushner to Jacob Helberg: “In my mind, I hope OpenAI is the leading company, globally in artificial intelligence in a decade. But in my heart, the thing I care most about is that any American company is the leading AI company.”
HardTech
Profile on Anduril’s CEO & Co-Founder Brian Schimpf: Engineer at War [Arena Magazine]
ICYMI
Full Hill & Valley Forum 2025 Panels | Topics: AI Race, Reindustrialization, Manufacturing & Reshoring, Naval and Defense Technology, China-US competition, and Innovation.
Sam Altman & Alex Blania’s eye-scanning company World is now available in the USA | Fresh partnerships with Match, Visa, Circle, Stripe, Kalshi
VC
Thrive Capital announces Thrive Holdings, a permanent capital vehicle dedicated to investing in, acquiring, & operating businesses for the long term [Joshua Kushner]
Lightspeed Is Latest Firm to Shift Away From Classic VC Model [Bloomberg]
We go deeper on this with Lightspeed’s newest Partner Bucky Moore
Sarah Tavel, Benchmark’s first woman GP, transitions to venture partner [TechCrunch]
More
WOW. Who is THAT on TBPN!?!? Crazy.
Want to dress like your favourite celebrity? Ask this new AI shopping agent: OneOff | Congrats on the launch, Emir!
Seen at Hill & Valley:
Alex Karp, Shyam Sankar, Jensen Huang, Eliano Younes, Xander Oltmann, Zak Kukoff, Ben Wagner, Will Manidis, John Coogan, Josh Wolfe, Grace Isford, Chris Power, Shaun Mcguire, Keith Rabois, Kristin McDonald, Augustus Doricko, Erik Torenberg, Fil Aronhstein, Isaiah Taylor, Jordi Hays, Mike Solana, Tarek Mansour, Kevin Weil, Josh Kushner, Delian, Patrick Hsu, Ben Taft, Adam Gefkovicz, Zach Dell, Erik Kriessmann, Dan Ashton, Aaron Slodov, Adrian Aoun, Feliks, Collin Gage
Top Interviews
Leigh Marie Braswell, Partner at $10B+ AUM Kleiner Perkins | The Rise of AI, Windsurf’s $3 Billion Acquisition, Scale AI, ARR BS Detector
BREAKING: Bucky Moore Joins $30B AUM Mega Fund Lightspeed | Trillion-Dollar Outcomes, AI, The Rise & Pushback of Mega Funds
Delian Asparouhov, Founders Fund & Varda | Hill & Valley Forum
Last Week (4/28-5/2):
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.
Big week for recycling companies..
VC Deals
Fintech:
- Rogo, a New York City-based AI financial analyst developer, raised $50 million in Series B funding. Thrive Capital led the round and was joined by J.P. Morgan Growth Equity Partners, Tiger Global, Positive Sum Ventures, existing investors Khosla Ventures, BoxGroup, AlleyCorp, and others.
- Navro, a London-based international payment platform, raised $41 million in Series B funding. Jump Capital led the round and was joined by Bain Capital Ventures, Motive Partners, and Unusual Ventures.
- Pliant, a Berlin-based B2B payment solutions provider, raised $40 million in Series B funding. Illuminate Financial and Speedinvest led the round and was joined by existing investors PayPal Ventures and Motive Ventures.
- dub, a New York City-based copy-trading platform, raised $30 million in Series A funding. Notable Capital and Neo led the round and were joined by Sandberg Bernthal Venture Partners, Peak6 Strategic Capital, Correlation Ventures, and Tusk Venture Partners.
- Zoe, a New York City-based wealth platform for RIAs, raised $29.6 million in Series B funding. Sageview Capital led the round and was joined by CAPTRUST, Creative Planning, Mariner Wealth Advisors, and others.
- Growers Edge, a Johnston, Iowa-based financial products and tools provider for agricultural retailers, manufacturers, and lenders, raised $25 million in funding. S2G Investments, Cibus Capital, and Lowercarbon Capital led the round and were joined by Otter Creek, iSelect, and Jeff Ubben.
- Miden, a New York City-based blockchain system, raised $25 million in seed funding. a16z crypto, 1kx, and Hack VC led the round and were joined by Finality Capital Partners, Symbolic Capital, P2 Ventures, angel investors, and others.
- Theo, a New York City-based crypto trading infrastructure provider, raised $20 million in funding. Hack VC and Anthos Capital led the round and were joined by Manifold Trading, Mirana Ventures, Metalayer Ventures, angel investors, and others.
- Bloom Credit, a New York City-based credit data platform, raised $10.5 million in funding. Crosslink Capital led the round and was joined by CT Innovations and existing investors Allegis Capital and Commerce Ventures.
- Particula, a Munich-based digital assets rating and data platform, raised $5.5 million in funding. SixThirty Ventures, Vanagon Ventures, and Futury Capital led the round and were joined by TX Ventures, Blackwood Ventures, Tenity, angel investors, and others.
- Ceto, a Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, England-based maritime insurance company, raised $4.8 million in funding. Dynamo Ventures led the round and was joined by Howden Ventures, Signal Ventures, and Motion Ventures.
- Deferred, a Los Angeles-based technology-powered qualified intermediary for real estate investors, raised $3.6 million in seed funding. B Capital and Fika Ventures led the round and were joined by others.
Care:
- Plenful, a San Francisco-based AI-powered healthcare workflow automation platform, raised $50 million in Series B funding. Mitchell Rales and Arena Holdings led the round and were joined by Notable Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, TQ Ventures, Susa/Kivu Ventures, and clothes.
- Blooming Health, a New York City-based technology platform for social care organizations, raised $26 million in Series A funding. Insight Partners led the round and was joined by existing investors Afore Capital, Crossbeam Venture Partners, and Metrodora Ventures.
- Chipiron, a Paris-based MRI technology developer, raised $17 million in Series A funding. Blast led the round and was joined by the EIC Fund, iXcore, and others.
- Stately Bio, a Palo Alto-based regenerative medicine machine learning developer, raised $12 million in seed funding. AIX Ventures led the round and was joined by Dimension Capital, Foothill Ventures, Village Global, and others.
- Basil Systems, a Boston-based AI-powered life sciences product lifecycle intelligence platform, raised $11.5 million in funding. Golden Ventures led the round and was joined by Hearst Ventures and Argosy Capital.
- Trek Health, a San Mateo, Calif.-based AI-powered healthcare contract negotiation platform, raised $11 million in Series A funding. Madrona led the round and was joined by Accrete Health Partners, LifeX Ventures, Correlation Ventures, and others.
Enterprise/Consumer:
- Persona, a San Francisco-based verified identity platform for businesses, raised $200 million in Series D funding, bringing the company’s valuation to $2 billion. Founders Fund and Ribbit Capital led the round and were joined by existing investors BOND, Chemistry, Coatue Management, and others.
- Cast AI, a Miami-based Kubernetes automation platform, raised $108m in Series C funding. G2 Venture Partners and SoftBank co-led, joined by Aglaé Ventures and insiders Cota Capital, Hedosophia, Creandum, and Vintage Investment Partners.
- Veza, a Redwood Shores, Calif.-based identity security startup, raised $108m in Series D funding. NEA led, joined by Atlassian Ventures, Workday Ventures, Snowflake Ventures and insiders Accel, GV, True Ventures, Norwest, Ballistic Ventures, JPMorgan, and Blackstone.
- Astronomer, a New York City-based DataOps platform developer, raised $93 million in Series D funding. Bain Capital Ventures led the round and was joined by Salesforce Ventures and existing investors Insight, Meritech, and Venrock.
- Lightrun, a New York City-based developer observability platform, raised $70 million in Series B funding. Accel and Insight Partners led the round and were joined by Citi, Glilot Capital, GTM Capital, and Sorenson Capital.
- Nous Research, an open-source AI lab, raised $65m. Paradigm led, joined by Together AI, Distributed Global, North Island Ventures, Delphi Digital, and Solana co-founder Raj Gokal
- Utilidata, a Providence-based edge AI technology company, raised $60.3 million in Series C funding. Renown Capital Partners led the round and was joined by Quanta, NVIDIA, and existing investor Keyframe Capital.
- Supio, a Seattle-based AI legal solutions provider, raised $60 million in Series B funding. Sapphire Ventures led the round and was joined by Mayfield and Thomson Reuters Ventures.
- Minimus, a Baton Rouge-based application security company, raised $51 million in funding from YL Ventures and Mayfield.
- Nuvo, a San Francisco-based B2B trade platform, raised $45 million in funding from Sequoia Capital, Spark Capital, Founders Fund, angel investors, and others.
- Reco, an Altamonte Springs, Fla.-based SaaS security platform, raised $25 million in funding from Redseed and existing investors Insight Partners, Zeev Ventures, boldstart ventures, and Angular Ventures.
- Reducto, a San Francisco-based AI document processing solution provider, raised $24.5 million in Series A funding. Benchmark led the round and was joined by existing investors First Round Capital, BoxGroup, and Y Combinator.
- P-1 AI, a San Francisco-based engineer AI agent developer, raised $23 million in seed funding. Radical Ventures led the round and was joined by Village Global, Schematic Ventures, Lerer Hippeau, and others.
- Ravenna, a Seattle-based AI-powered help desk in Slack, raised $15 million in funding. Madrona led the $12 million seed round and was joined by existing investors Khosla and Founders Co-op and angel investors. Khosla led the $3 million pre-seed round and was joined by Founders Co-op and angel investors.
- LayerX, a New York City-based browser security solution, raised $11 million in Series A extension funding. Jump Capital led the round and was joined by existing investors Glilot Capital Partners and Dell Technologies Capital.
- Cheehoo, a Los Angeles-based AI-powered animation platform company, raised $10 million in funding. Greycroft, Point72 Ventures, Basis Set, and Headline Asia led the round and were joined by Powerhouse Capital, Playground Productions, and Rideback.
- Paramark, a San Francisco-based marketing spend analytics platform, raised $8 million in funding. Greylock led the $6 million seed round and was joined by angel investors. WndrCo, Recall Capital, Recall Capital, and others invested in the $2 million pre-seed round.
- Cloud Capital, a San Francisco and London-based cloud cost management platform, raised $7.7 million in funding. Backed Ventures and Middlegame Ventures led the $5.4 million seed round and were joined by DFF Ventures and angel investors. Connect Ventures led the $2.3 million pre-seed round and was joined by Notion Capital, Concept Ventures, and angel investors.
- Hopper, a New York City and Tel Aviv-based open-source software risk management solution, raised $7.6 million in seed funding. Meron Capital and New Era led the round and were joined by the Sequoia Scout Fund, M-Fund, and others.
- TeamOhana, a San Francisco-based AI-powered headcount management software, raised $7.5 million in seed funding. Lerer Hippeau and Collide Capital led the round and were joined by Sierra Ventures and Recall Capital.
- SixMap, a Columbia, Md.-based attack surface management solutions provider, raised $7 million in funding. IAG Capital Partners led the round and was joined by TRE Advisors and existing investors DataTribe and California Innovation Fund.
- Pistachio, an Oslo-based cybersecurity awareness training platform for businesses, raised $7 million in Series A funding. Walter Ventures led the round and was joined by dékapital, Angel Invest, MP Pensjon, and J12 Ventures.
- GigSafe, an Austin-based compliance automation platform, raised $4.8 million in funding. Brand Foundry Ventures and Informed Ventures led the round and were joined by existing investor Rally Ventures.
- Structify, a New York City-based dataset provider, raised $4.1 million in seed funding. Bain Capital Ventures led the round and was joined by 8VC, Integral Ventures, and angel investors.
- Solda.AI, a Middletown, Del.-based AI voice sales agents developer, raised $4 million in seed funding. Accel led the round and was joined by AltaIR Capital.
- Pallie AI, a San Francisco-based AI-powered companion developer, raised $2 million in pre-seed funding. True Ventures led the round and was joined by Palta.
HardTech:
- True Anomaly, a Centennial, Colo.-based developer of autonomous spacecraft and software for U.S. national security, raised $260m in Series C funding. Accel led, joined by Meritech Capital and insiders Eclipse, Riot Ventures, Menlo Ventures, 645 Ventures, ACME Capital, Space VC, Champion Hill Ventures, and Narya.