Sourcery (5/22-5/26)
Succession & Silicon Valley ~ Nymbus, Episode Six, OpenFin, Checkmate, Pesto, Faye, Unlimited, Sixfold, Onyx, BenchSci, Lifeforce, Stepful, Mate Fertility, Anthropic, Builder.ai, Restaurant365
Succession & Silicon Valley
Hope you’ve indulged in some serious rest and recovery this holiday weekend. You deserve it! If you’re curious to hear what crazy adventures we had… see here. (Hint: it involved Rick Rubin 😮)
‘Success is a virtue in this family,’ ..and Silicon Valley
Look I could go very deep into this finale, and if anything, it taught us how thoroughly intense the creative writing was in this series (pay your creatives!). Everything was intentional. Even worth watching from S1:S4 start to finish all over again. I’ll try to keep it much briefer/high level than I’d really like to go and pull out the biggest themes - up to you to draw parallels to the tech/business world around us.
What did this finale teach us?
Lessons on power, ego, loyalty, and ‘seriousness.’
The Roy kids are truly broken and lost. Not once during the entire series did they have one consequential lucid conversation with any strength, just awkward pauses, hesitations and false displays of power. They wanted to run the business but, let’s be clear, it was just for the title.
Money comes with power (good or bad), and sometimes that very power can be accompanied by inflated egos (*overpriced financing rounds*) which the siblings were insecurely acting out of considering their incompetence. However, what each really lacked was a true sense of self, direction, and quite frankly, proven hard work. Ultimately, we were left with empty ego-maniac characters who had nothing to show for it… except for some crumbs of immorality?
In their views of ‘success,’ they all went to zero. Sheesh.
So who’s not evil? Who’s hard working? Has no excessive ego?
Tom. Tom has proven himself over and over as a “do-good” mission critical soul. He has taken Greg empathetically and collaboratively under his underdog wing to raise him up with him - awh the sticker scene 🥲. (Watch this spin-off of their bromance)
Even once he heard of Shiv’s pregnancy he knew what he needed to do (despite her incapacity to love). He invested in his career, maintained his quality of taste/outcomes (no bodega sushi), and set to demonstrate he wasn’t in it for the Roy DNA - but to establish his own independence and self-worth (exemplified by his dedication being in the office instead of her dad’s funeral) to support his child’s & his own future (..maybe Shiv too, idk).
He’ll say yes to the most self-defeating things if it means proving his loyalty and grit. And by all means, he is loyal. Ultimately, this is why he was so ready and able to be a “pain sponge” in the end. Cheers to Tom. Tom is a ‘serious’ person.
And so, in this state of tech/business, we also have to ask ourselves..
How serious are we?
Credits to my coworkers Kesar (healthtech/gaming) & Jacques (aerospace/defense/climate) for all the finale debates and TikToks.
Musings
E130: DeSantis's Twitter Spaces, debt ceiling, Nvidia rips, state of VC, startup failure & more, All-In Podcast
Despite skewing too political and blindly AI-hyped (*Bard boost*) as of late, this episode did bear a meaningful conversation on the current state of tech. If you had to listen to any part of this podcast, check out David Friedberg’s part (1:18:00), topic starts in bold below.
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Last Week (5/22-5/26):
Relevant deals include the 60+ deals across stages below.
I've categorized the deals below into four categories, Fintech, Care, Enterprise & Consumer, and Sustainability, and ordered from later-stage rounds to early-stage rounds. Highlighted deals include Nymbus, Episode Six, OpenFin, Checkmate, Pesto, Faye, Unlimited, Sixfold, Onyx, BenchSci, Lifeforce, Stepful, Mate Fertility, Anthropic, Builder.ai, Restaurant365, Figure, Instawork, Poolside, Logik.io, Datasembly, Kira Learning, Steno, boombox.io, Chamberlain Coffee, Thena, Trebol, RootFi, ConnectDER, Novisto, CTVC; Giphy/Shutterstock, Neeva/Snowflake, Stratasys/Desktop Metal
Final numbers on Top Global VC Deals in AI & ML as well as the Decline in Esports at the bottom.
Deals
Fintech:
- Tools for Humanity, the SF-based lead developer of Worldcoin, raised $115m. Blockchain Capital led, and was joined by Bain Capital Crypto, a16z crypto and Distributed Global. https://axios.link/433Uzof
- NYMBUS, a Jacksonville, Fla.-based digital banking solutions provider, raised $70 million in Series D funding. Insight Partners led the round and was joined by ConnectOne Bank, PeoplesBank, The Banc Funds Company, and Mendon Venture Partners.
- Episode Six, an Austin-based payment processing and digital ledger infrastructure provider, raised $48 million in Series C funding. Avenir led the round and was joined by Anthos Capital.
- OpenFin, a New York-based enterprise OS, raised $35m in Series D funding. Bank of America led, and was joined by Pivot Investment Partners, ING Ventures, CME Ventures, CTC Venture Capital, SC Ventures and Tribeca Early Stage Partners. https://axios.link/43mON0v
- Sastrify, a New York-based buying and managing SaaS subscriptions platform, raised $32 million in Series B funding. Endeit Capital led the round and was joined by Simon Capital, HV Capital, FirstMark Capital, and TriplePoint Capital.
- Checkmate, a Los Angeles-based automated savings platform for online shopping, raised $15 million in Series A funding. GV led the round and was joined by Mantis VC, Common Metal, BDuck Capital, Black Angels Group, Wischoff Ventures, Fuel Capital, Blackbird Ventures, F7 Ventures, Night Capital, and Scribble Ventures.
- Pesto, a San Francisco-based asset-backed credit card company, raised $11 million in Series A funding co-led by Activant Capital and Plural.
- Faye, a Tel Aviv-based travel insurance company, raised $10 million in Series A funding. Munich Re Ventures led the round and was joined by Viola Ventures, F2 Venture Capital, and others.
- Nue.io, a San Mateo, Calif.-based quote-to-revenue platform, raised $9 million in seed extension funding. Bluefish Ventures and Penny Jar Capital co-led the round and were joined by NJP Ventures, Operator Stack, Information Venture Partners, and NextWorld Capital.
- Unlimited, a New York-based alternative investing platform, raised $8m in Series A funding co-led by FirstMark and Citi Ventures. https://axios.link/43jZFfJ
- Sixfold, a New York-based generative A.I. tool for insurance underwriters, raised $6.5 million in seed funding led by Bessemer Venture Partners.
- Onyx Private, a Miami-based digital bank focused on affluent young professionals, raised $4.1m from Village Global, YC, Global Founders Capital, One Way Ventures, 186 Ventures and Olive Tree Capital. https://axios.link/3q4aKDm
- Plenty, a San Francisco-based financial management platform for couples, raised $2.75 million in pre-seed funding. Phenomenal Ventures, 35V, former Wealthfront CEO Adam Nash, xtripe angels, and Inovia Capital invested in the round.
- Minoa, a San Francisco-based value and pricing management solutions platform for SaaS sales, raised $2.7 million in pre-seed funding. 468 Capital led the round and was joined by Mischief, AirAngels, Alumni Ventures, Fidi Ventures, and other angels.
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Care:
- BenchSci, a Toronto-based A.I. and machine learning platform for research and drug discovery, raised $70 million in new Series D funding. Generation Investment Management led the round and was joined by Inovia Capital, TCV, Golden Ventures, and F-Prime Capital.
- Lifeforce, a Santa Monica, Calif.-based health optimization platform, raised $12 million in Series A funding. M13 and Peterson Ventures co-led the round and were joined by Ridgeline Ventures, Rosecliff Ventures, and Seaside Ventures.
- Stepful, a Sacramento, Calif.-based virtual medical training startup, raised $7.5m in seed funding. Reach Capital led, and was joined by YC, EO Ventures and Company Ventures. https://axios.link/42bhZ9I
- Thrive Health Tech, a Nashville-based developer of mobile tech solutions for health care, raised $7m from Frist Cressey Ventures, CVS Health Ventures, 25m Health, Shields Health Innovations and Winter Street Ventures. www.thtcorp.com
- Mate Fertility, a Los Angeles-based fertility treatment platform, raised $4.2 million in funding. Struck Capital led the round and was joined by Cortado Ventures, Oklahoma Life Sciences Fund, Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, and others.
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Enterprise & Consumer:
- Anthropic, a SF-based AI research firm, raised $450m in Series C funding. Spark Capital led, and was joined by Google, Salesforce Ventures, Sound Ventures and Zoom Ventures. The company's prior round, a $580m Series B infusion last April, had been led by Sam Bankman-Fried with Caroline Ellison also participating. https://axios.link/3BQWQXD
- Builder.ai, a London-based modular app development platform, raised $250m in Series D funding. Qatar Investment Authority led, and was joined by Iconiq Capital, Jungle Ventures and Insight Partners. Earlier this month it announced an undisclosed amount of funding from Microsoft. https://axios.link/3BO4ORB
- Restaurant365, an Irvine, Calif.-based restaurant enterprise management software, raised $135 million in funding. KKR and L Catterton co-led the round and were joined by ICONIQ Growth and Bessemer Venture Partners.
- Figure, a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based A.I. robotics company, raised $70 million in Series A funding. Parkway Venture Capital led the round and was joined by Aliya Capital, Bold Capital, Tamarack Global, Audeo VC, FJ Labs, and others.
- Instawork, a San Francisco-based platform for connecting businesses with hourly workers, raised $60 million in Series D funding. TCV led the round and was joined by 9Yards Capital, former NFL athlete Larry Fitzgerald Jr., Benchmark, Spark Capital, Craft Ventures, and Greylock.
- FlowX.AI, a London-based AI enterprise application modernization platform for financial services firms, raised $35m in Series A funding. Dawn Capital led, and was joined by insiders PortfoLion, SeedBlink and DayOne Capital. https://axios.link/3MOvIPo
- Elementl, an SF-based data orchestration platform, raised $33m in Series B funding. Georgian Partners led, and was joined by 8vc, Human Capital, Hanover and insiders Sequoia Capital, Index Ventures, Amplify Partners and Slow Ventures. https://axios.link/43mfdj5
- ClearMotion, a Billerica, Mass.-based user experience software development company for vehicles, raised $32 million in funding. NewView Capital, Acadia Woods, BAI Capital, NIO Capital, Liberty Street, and others invested in the round.
- Poolside, an AI coding startup, raised $26m in seed funding led by Redpoint Ventures (where company co-founder Jason Warner is a managing director), per Newcomer. https://axios.link/3OL6P8u
- Infinite Uptime, a Pune, India-based predictive maintenance solutions provider for industrial machinery, raised $18.85 million in Series B3 funding. Tiger Global led the round and was joined by GSR Ventures, VenturEast, Mayfield, and THK.
- Logik.io, a Chicago-based B2B buying experience company, raised $16 million in Series A funding. Emergence Capital led the round and was joined by ServiceNow Ventures and Salesforce Ventures.
- Datasembly, a Tysons, Va.-based product pricing, promotions, and assortment data provider for retailers and CPG brands, raised $16 million in funding. Noro-Moseley Partners led the round and was joined by Grotech Ventures, Topmark Partners, and Staley Capital.
- Kira Learning, a San Francisco-based computer science teaching and learning platform, raised $15 million in Series A funding from NEA and the AI Fund.
- Steno, a Los Angeles-based legal support services provider, raised $15 million in Series B funding. Left Lane Capital led the round and was joined by Clio Ventures.
- Laced, a London-based online sneaker marketplace, raised $12 million in Series A funding. Talis Capital led the round and was joined by H&M Group Ventures.
- Volition, a San Francisco-based online industrial parts marketplace, raised $11 million in seed funding co-led by Newark Venture Partners and Quiet Capital.
- Spellbook, a Toronto-based legal tech startup, raised $10.9 million in funding. Thomson Reuters, Moxxie Ventures, and others invested in the round.
- Memcyco, a Ramat Gan, Israel-based website impersonation detection and prevention solution, raised $10 million in seed funding co-led by Capri Ventures and Venture Guides.
- Orbital Witness, a London-based generative-A.I. platform for real estate lawyers, raised £7.5 million ($9.33 million) in Series A funding. Parker89 led the round and was joined by LocalGlobe, Outward VC, Seedcamp, Portfolio Ventures, and Realty Corporation.
- boombox.io, a San Francisco-based collaboration platform for music makers, raised $7 in seed funding. Forerunner led the round and was joined by super{set} startup studio and Ulu Ventures.
- Chamberlain Coffee, a Beverly Hills-based coffee brand founded by YouTuber Emma Chamberlain, raised $7m from Blazar Capital, United Talent Agency, Volition Capital and Electric Feel Ventures. https://axios.link/3q0mIO5
- Strike Graph, a Seattle-based compliance automation startup, raised $7m. Bamcap led, and was joined by Madrona Venture Group and Information Venture Partners. https://axios.link/3MOmYsq
- Opus, a New York-based frontline worker training platform, raised $6.8m in Series A funding. Stage 2 Capital led, and was joined by Gutter Capital, NextView Ventures and Bling Capital. www.opus.so
- WireMock, a San Francisco-based API platform for developer productivity, raised $6.5 million in seed funding. Ridge Ventures led the round and was joined by First Rays Venture Partners and Scribble Ventures.
- Kigo, a St. Paul, Minn.-based crypto loyalty subsidiary and NFT engagement platform, raised $6.5 million in funding. Valor Siren Ventures led the round and was joined by Auego.
- Gan.ai, a Perrysburg, Ohio-based generative A.I. video platform, raised $5.25 million in seed funding. Surge and Sequoia Capital India and Southeast Asia co-led the round and were joined by Emergent Ventures and others.
- Thena, a Palo Alto-based customer communications and intelligence platform, raised $5 million in seed funding co-led by Lightspeed and First Round Capital.
- Ballerine, a Tel Aviv-based risk decision platform, raised $5 million in seed funding. Team8 led the round and was joined by Y Combinator and Vera Equity.
- Jotelulu, a Madrid-based cloud services platform, raised €4 million ($4.32 million) in Series A funding. Adara Ventures led the round and was joined by G2A Investment Partners, Fundación Bankinter, and Big Sur Ventures.
- BebopBee, a Seattle-based mobile game development studio, raised $4 million in funding. BITKRAFT Ventures, Courtside Ventures, Andover, GOAL Ventures, and other angels invested in the round.
- Syrup, a Cleveland, OH-based product-led email marketing platform built for SaaS, raised $3.3 million in a Seed funding round led by High Alpha Capital and individual investors. Yahoo!Finance
- Trébol, a Bogotá-based business identity verification automation platform, raised $3 million in seed funding. Better Tomorrow Ventures and Canaan Partners co-led the round and were joined by Y Combinator, SOMA Capital, Unpopular Ventures, and other angels.
- RootFi, an Austin, Texas-based B2B consumer data SaaS startup, raised $1.5m in seed funding from YC, Pioneer Fund and Soma Capital. https://axios.link/3IBhoqP
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Sustainability:
- ConnectDER, a Falls Church, Va.-based home decarbonization startup, raised $27m in Series C funding. Energy Innovation Capital led, and was joined by LG Technology Ventures, Evergy Ventures, Riverstone and insiders Skyview Ventures, Clean Energy Ventures and Avista Development. www.connectder.com
- Novisto, a Montreal-based ESG data management software company, raised $20 million in Series B funding. Inovia Capital led the round and was joined by Portage Ventures, SCOR Ventures, White Star Capital, and Diagram Ventures.
- Waterplan, a San Francisco-based water risk climate platform, raised $11 million in Series A funding. Base10 Partners led the round and was joined by Giant Ventures, Transition Global, YCombinator, MCJ Collective, the Branson Family, and others.
- CTVC, a New York-based climate tech market intelligence platform, raised $1.75 million in pre-seed funding. John Doerr, Tom Steyer, and AccelR8 invested in the round.
Acquisitions & PE:
- Shutterstock (NYSE: SSTK) agreed to buy Giphy, a platform of sharable animated images and microvideos, from Meta (Nasdaq: META) for $53 million in cash.
- Snowflake (NYSE: SNOW) agreed to buy Neeva, a Mountain View, Calif.-based search engine startup led by former Google Ads boss Sridhar Ramaswamy. Neeva had raised around $70m from backers like Greylock and Sequoia Capital. https://axios.link/3q8C5Ek
- PSG acquired a majority stake in 4me, a Palo Alto-based IT service management and enterprise service management software vendor. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Stratasys, an Eden Prairie, Minn.- and Rehovot, Israel-based polymer 3D printing solutions provider, and Desktop Metal, a Burlington, Mass.-based 3D printing solutions provider, agreed to a merger valued at approximately $1.8 billion.
- Blackstone is in talks to buy a majority stake in New Tradition Media, a New York-based billboard operator that could be valued at between $500m and $750m, per Bloomberg. https://axios.link/3MNXrjm
- Mike Cannon-Brookes, co-founder and co-CEO of Atlassian, agreed to buy the $20 billion Sun Cable renewable energy project out of bankruptcy. His investor group includes Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners. https://axios.link/3qevXdN
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IPOs:
- Cava, a fast-casual Mediterranean restaurant chain with over 250 locations, filed for a $100m IPO. It plans to list on the NYSE (CAVA) and reports a small profit on $564m in revenue for fiscal 2022. Shareholders include Ariel Investments, T. Rowe Price, SWaN & Legend and Revolution Group. https://axios.link/3MiyydS
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SPACs:
Nothing to see here. . .
Funds:
- OpenAI raised $175m for a venture capital fund, per an SEC filing.
Data: PitchBook; Chart: Axios Visuals
Four of the top 10 global VC investments in AI and machine learning in 2023 were in just two companies, per PitchBook data.
Why it matters: As interest in generative AI reaches a fever pitch, OpenAI and Anthropic have a significant lead over other startups in the sector, notes Axios Pro's Kerry Flynn.
On pause
The e-sports world, which was booming before the pandemic kicked the industry into overdrive, is beginning to slow down.
As reported by the NYTimes, owners of e-sports teams — who assemble a roster of talent similar to traditional sports teams — are looking for an exit. Expensive player contracts and waning viewership for some of the industry’s flagship competitions are leaving owners on the hook for major losses.
Viewership figures for the League Championship Series, the largest e-sports league in the US that sees gamers compete in League of Legends, have fallen. Data from Esports Charts reveals that fans tuned in for nearly 15 million hours of the 2023 spring season — a staggering number, but one that was down 13% on last year, down 32% on 2021, and less than half of the 33m hours watched in 2017. The season-ending championship event for the game Rainbow Six Siege, known as the Six Invitational, has also seen 2 years of viewership decline, and the same is true of many other games.
Even the highly popular video-game streaming site, Twitch, is now showing signs of stagnation. The total number of hours watched on Twitch peaked two years ago, and has fallen in most months since — though more than 1,700 million hours of content is still consumed every month on the platform.
Boss mode
A significant challenge for e-sports is the misalignment of incentives between team owners, star players and game publishers. Unlike traditional sports leagues, which secure lucrative broadcast deals, content in e-sports is primarily watched for free on YouTube and Twitch, platforms where individual players distribute their own content. Game publishers also have competing incentives. They may choose to invest in competitions, but probably only if they see the event generating more sales or subscriptions. The same goes for rule or format changes which may engage a casual player base — but aren’t necessarily the best for the accompanying e-sports.
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The material presented on Molly O’Shea’s website are my opinions only and are provided for informational purposes and should not be construed as investment advice. It is not a recommendation of, or an offer to sell or solicitation of an offer to buy, any particular security, strategy, or investment product. Any analysis or discussion of investments, sectors or the market generally are based on current information, including from public sources, that I consider reliable, but I do not represent that any research or the information provided is accurate or complete, and it should not be relied on as such. My views and opinions expressed in any website content are current at the time of publication and are subject to change. Past performance is not indicative of future results.