Shoot for the Moon..

SpaceX, ABL, Halycon, Cradle, OneChronos, Roon, Eon, /dev/agents, Wherobots

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Last week I had the opportunity to moderate a panel back in my hometown of Westport CT along with other Staples High School alumnus for Startup Westport. Founders included Dylan Diamond CEO of Saturn, Jack Sharkey CTO of Whop, as well as Josh Karol CTO & Max Hammer CEO of CrowdVolt.

Collectively the group has raised over $100M backed by some of the largest names in Silicon Valley.. including Jeff Bezos, Elad Gil, Dara Khosrowshahi, Coatue, Thiel, Chainsmokers, Insight, 01 Advisors, General Catalyst, YC, and more.. watch the full panel here

Profound quote from Jack, Co-Founder of Whop on the risk of starting a company:

“Shoot for the moon, and if you miss.. just get a job”

Musings

Space / Defense

• SpaceX Weighs Tender Offer Raising Valuation to $350 Billion [Bloomberg]

• ABL Replaces CEO To Build A Missile Defense System [Payload]

  • Launch provider pivoting to defense? Is this the start of a new trend of space tech pivots to other markets with similar regulations like defense?

• Defense Tech’s Rise with 8VC’s Alex Kolicich [Turpentine VC]

• Trump Considers Defense Financiers [Trae Stephens & Stephen Feinberg] for a Top Spot at Pentagon [WSJ]

• Greenland or Canada..? No. Think bigger.. The Moon Should Be a State [Mike Solana @ Pirate Wires]

  • P.S. cop a t-shirt while you’re at it

More

• Mullet Capitalists: To survive venture’s “extinction event,” emerging managers should adopt a new style [The Generalist]

• Morgan Housel: Understand & Apply the Psychology of Money to Gain Greater Happiness [Huberman]

• The Compressed 21st Century | How AI Could Revolutionize Humanity's Future

DOGE

• (05:43) Brad Gerstner breaks down how to balance the budget [BG2 Pod]

• Ok Bernie!

Shopping SZN

• Shopify BFCM Results: $11.5B in sales up 24% YoY [Full report]

• Stripe BFCM Dashboard $31B on almost half a billion transactions

• Building Kith: Ronnie Fieg, Founder & CEO [Invest Like The Best]

  • King of collabs and culture

Top Interviews

• Morgan Housel: Understanding Elon Musk, Jensen Huang and Other Outliers in Tech

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

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Last Week (11/25-11/29):

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:

Halycon, Cradle, OneChronos, Roon, Eon, /dev/agents, Wherobots

Acquisitions & PE

Bending Spoons, Promix

Final Numbers

Uber One’s Dilemma, Google’s Ad Dominance Slips

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VC Deals

Fintech:

- Agicap, a London-based treasury management platform, raised €45 million ($47.2 million) in Series C funding from AVP.

- OneChronos, a New York City-based smart markets operator, raised $32 million in funding. Addition led the round and was joined by Green Visor.

- Cardless, a San Francisco-based co-branded credit card solutions provider, raised $30 million in funding. Activant Capital led the round and was joined by Mischief, Industry Ventures, Thayer Ventures, and others.

- Range, a McLean, Va.-based wealth management platform, raised $28 million in Series B funding. Cathay Innovation led the round and was joined by Gradient Ventures and others.

- Constrafor, a provider of financing and software for contractors, raised $14m in Series A funding led by NFX. It also secured a $250m credit facility.

- OpenYield, a New York-based bond marketplace, raised $7m. Canapi Ventures led, and was joined by Clocktower Ventures, and Flow Traders.

- Opentrade, a London-based real world asset-backed stablecoin yield products platform, raised $4 million in a seed extension. Albion VC led the round and was joined by existing investors a16z Crypto and CMCC Global.

- StoreCash, a San Jose, Calif., mobile cash-back rewards app, raised $3.7m in seed funding. Black Ops Ventures led, and was joined by MaC Venture Capital, 43North, and Alumni Ventures.

- Pylon, a VC-backed mortgage infrastructure startup, secured a strategic investment from Citi

- Pi-xcels, a Singapore-based offline e-receipts platform, raised $2.7 million in seed funding. Headline Asia led the round and was joined by Wavemaker Partners, Shizen Capital, Hustle Fund, and others.

- Arok VC, an internet-based AI agent-run venture capital fund, raised $1 million in funding from Samuel Muir and others.

Care:

- Cradle, an Amsterdam-based AI-powered protein engineering platform, raised $73 million in Series B funding. IVP led the round and was joined by existing investors Index Ventures and Kindred Capital.

- Medeloop, a Menlo Park, Calif.-based medical research AI platform, raised $15.5 million in Series A funding. Inovia Capital led the round and was joined by Icon Ventures, Healthier Capital, Up2 Opportunity Fund, CFO Advisors, and existing investors General Catalyst and Maven Ventures.

- Roon, a New York City-based digital health resource provider, raised $15 million in Series A funding. FirstMark Capital’s Rick Heitzmann and Forerunner’s Eurie Kim ked the round and were joined by existing investors TMV and Sequoia.

- Cofactor AI, a Chicago-based claims denials platform for hospitals, raised $4 million in seed funding from Drive Capital.

Enterprise/Consumer:

- Halcyon, an Austin-based ransomware protection platform, raised $100 million in Series C funding. Evolution Equity Partners led the round and was joined by Bain Capital Ventures, SYN Ventures, Harmony Group, and others.

- Eon, a New York City-based cloud backup platform, raised $70 million in Series C funding. BOND led the round and was joined by existing investors Sequoia Capital, Greenoaks, and Lightspeed Venture Partners.

- /dev/agents, a San Francisco-based AI agents operating system developer, raised $56 million in seed funding. Index Ventures and CapitalG led the round and were joined by angel investors.

- Nivoda, a London-based digital marketplace for the diamond industry, raised $51 million in funding. Northzone led the round and was joined by existing investors Avenir, Headline, Abstract Ventures, and Canaan Partners.

- Appcharge, a Tel Aviv-based direct-to-consumer platform for mobile game publishers, raised $26 million in Series A funding. Creandum led the round and was joined by Supercell, BITKRAFT Ventures, Moneta Ventures, existing investors Play Ventures, Glilot Capital Partners, and angel investors.

- PlayAI, a Palo Alto-based voice AI platform, raised $21 million in seed funding. Kindred Ventures and 500 Global led the round and were joined by Race Capital, Y Combinator, Soma Capital, and others.

- Levanta, a Seattle-based Amazon affiliate marketing platform, raised $20 million in Series A funding from Volition Capital.

- Outsmart Education, a remote college education accessibility and affordability company, raised $13 million in seed funding. Khosla Ventures led the round and was joined by Karman Ventures, Latitud Ventures, Lightspeed Ventures, and angel investors.

- Teachy, a provider of AI tools for teachers in Latin America, raised $7m in Series A funding. Goodwater Capital led, and was joined by Reach Capital, Endeavor, NXTP, and Roble Ventures

- Amigo, a digital AI cloning platform, raised $6.3m co-led by General Catalyst and GSV Ventures

- Talus Network, a platform for decentralized AI agents, raised $6m at a $150m valuation (!?!) Polychain Capital led, and was joined by Foresight Ventures, Animoca, Geek Cartel, and Echo

- KeySavvy, a Seattle-based transaction platform for buying and selling cars, raised $4.3 million in funding. Bonfire led the round and was joined by Experian Ventures, Daher Investments, and existing investor Founders' Co-op.

- Tempest, a San Francisco-based complete developer platform, raised $3.2 million in seed funding. Abstract Ventures led the round and was joined by Box Group, Background Capital, Max Mullen, and others.

HardTech:

- Wherobots, a Scottsdale, Ariz.-based data platform for geospatial analytics, raised $21.5m in Series A funding. Felicis led, and was joined by JetBlue Ventures, P7 Ventures and insiders Clear Ventures and Wing VC.