Sourcery → Airchat, Udio, Sam Altman
(4/8-4/12) Monad Labs, FloQast, Anrok, Summer, Growth Therapy, Ciera, Guesty, Dude Perfect, Factorial, Oden Technologies, Symbolica, Alethea, Sprinto, Uplink, Udio, Spines, Writ, PeerDB
Tech Hype Cycles, AI Disruption & the Future of Work
The tech world is continuing to ride a wave of hype and excitement around generative AI. While some view it as an existential threat to industries like consulting and creative work (The Death of Deloitte?), others see opportunities for new AI-enabled services and business models.
Viral launches like Udio's "Sora for music" product spark debates around content rights and the creative process. While spread throughout text message invites and X chatter, Naval Ravikant's audio-based Airchat goes mainstream.
The hard tech sector pushes forward with launches like SpaceX's military weather satellite, as well as an intensified chip race continues with AI demand driving innovations from Meta, Google, Intel and Apple.
Meanwhile, expert decision maker Annie Duke reminds us, great investors know when to quit cherished ideas too. Navigating these waters requires smart decision-making to separate reality from blissful delusion.
Musings
Macro
Hype Deflation & Inflation, The Endless Ebb And Flow [Kyle Harrison,
]Inspired by a deleted tweet from Harry Stebbings, Kyle shares his thoughts on tech hype cycles
Female Founders 250, Only the Strong Survive: The Inspiring Women Rewriting the Rules of Business [Inc]
AI
Sam Altman & Brad Lightcap: Which Companies Will Be Steamrolled by OpenAI? [20VC]
Great interview
With 3.5M views, 5.8K likes & over 760 comments, Udio had quite the viral X launch for it’s ‘sora for music’ generative AI product, creating fun conversations on the All-In Pod and Ark Invest over content rights and the creative process
The Death of Deloitte: AI-Enabled Services Are Opening a Whole New Market [Emergence Capital]
Companies combining AI & humans are not only loosening the grip of services behemoths, they're overtaking them with solutions never before seen 🤖 💪
Weekend Fund RFS: The End of The Back Office [Vedika Jain]
Adobe is Buying Videos to Train Its New AI Tool, But is it Paying Enough? [ZDNet]
Adobe is sourcing videos at approximately $3 per minute to train its new text-to-video AI generator to accurately depict human activities and emotions, sparking debates over whether this compensation is fair for creators.
Consumer Social
Naval Ravikant’s Airchat is a social app built around talk, not text [TechCrunch]
Airchat swept X this past weekend as it went mainstream. It seemed like everyone and their friends were fighting for invites. And honestly, it’s beautifully designed, has a strong initial user base, does take some time getting used to hearing people’s voices, but overall, super fun. Great to see a new format ship so eloquently. (ps big fan of the interactive rainbow paint splashes around the active users)
SaaS & Data
A Look Back at Q4 '23 Public Cloud Software Earnings [Clouded Judgement,
]
PostgreSQL Extensions or Protocols: Architecture Roulette [Materialized View,
]Should new infrastructure use PostgreSQL as a query engine, or aim for protocol compatibility instead?
HardTech
SpaceX Launches U.S. Military Weather Monitoring Satellite [SpaceNews]
SpaceX successfully launched the USSF-62 mission, deploying the U.S. Space Force's first Weather System Follow-on Microwave (WSF-M) satellite from Vandenberg Space Force Base.
The satellite, developed by Ball Aerospace, will enhance military weather monitoring capabilities.
Chips, Chips, Chips - The Chip Race is well on its way with the help of AI demand (& it’s safe to say we can now stop talking about them, let them cook!)
Meta’s new AI chips run faster than before; Google introduces Axion Processors their new Arm-based CPUs [Google]; Intel unveils latest ‘Gaudi 3 chip’ AI chip as Nvidia competition heats up; Apple plans Mac line overhaul with AI-focused M4 chips
More
Manufacturing Bliss, experience psychedelics without taking any substances [Nadia Asparouhova]
Making Smarter Decisions & Why Great Investors Are Great Quitters w/ Annie Duke [WSB]
As an expert in decision making working with top tier VC funds, Annie covers base rates, using kill criteria, and dissociating ourselves from our cherished ideas. The conversation also covers using a quitting coach to let go of things we hold onto for too long and more.
Last Week (4/8-4/12):
Relevant deals include the 50+ deals across stages below.
I've categorized the deals below into five categories, FinTech, Care, Enterprise & Consumer, HardTech, and Sustainability, and ordered from later-stage rounds to early-stage rounds.
Highlighted VC deals include: Monad Labs, FloQast, Anrok, Summer, Growth Therapy, Ciera, Guesty, Dude Perfect, Factorial, Oden Technologies, Symbolica, Alethea, Sprinto, Uplink, Udio, Spines, Writ, PeerDB, JARS AI, Collaborative Robotics, Captura
PE & Acquisitions: Automattic/Beeper, Wiz/Gem Security, eBay/Goldin, Empower Finance/Petal & Cashalo
Final numbers on Insidious Inflation at the bottom.
New research on AI prompt injecting & AVs at the way, way bottom.
VC Deals
The below roundups were powered with help from Wonder. Start your free trial here.
Fintech:
- Monad Labs, the NYC-based core developers behind layer 1 blockchain Monad, closed a $225M Series A funding, led by Paradigm, with participation from Electric Capital and Greenoaks.
- Parafin, a San Francisco, CA-based fintech infrastructure startup, closed a $125M warehouse facility deal from Silicon Valley Bank and Trinity Capital (Nasdaq: TRIN).
- Platform Science, a San Diego, CA-based provider of an edge application platform for transportation, completed a $125M growth funding round, backed by C.R. England, Cummins, Daimler Truck, PACCAR, RyderVentures, Schneider, Activant Capital, BDT & MSD Partners, Manhattan Venture Partners, 8VC, NewRoad Capital Partners, and Prologis Ventures.
- FloQast, a Los Angeles, CA-based finance and accounting operations platform provider, completed a $100M Series E funding at a $1.6 Billion valuation, led by ICONIQ Growth, with participation from BDT & MSD Partners and WiL, Meritech Capital, and Sapphire Ventures.
- Auradine, a Santa Clara, CA-based provider of web infrastructure solutions, such as blockchain, security, and AI, completed a $80M Series B funding, backed by StepStone Group, Top Tier Capital Partners, MVP Ventures, Maverick Capital, Celesta Capital, Mayfield Fund, and Marathon Digital.
- Novidea, an enterprise insurance management platform, raised $30M in Series C extension funding from HarbourVest Partners.
- Anrok, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of a sales tax platform for software companies, closed a $30M Series B funding, led by Khosla Ventures with participation from Sequoia Capital, Index Ventures, Karen Peacock, David Faugno, and Alex Estevez.
- Thesis, a New York City-based venture studio that funds and builds brands on Bitcoin, has launched Mezo, a permissionless Bitcoin Economic Layer, with a funding of $21M, led by Pantera Capital with participation from Multicoin, Hack VC, ParaFi Capital, Nascent, Draper Associates, Primitive Ventures, Asymmetric Ventures and Dan Held, and DCF God, among others.
- Pactio, a London-based provider of private markets transaction software, raised $14m in Series A funding led by EQT Ventures.
- Summer, a New York-based provider of student loan solutions for employers, raised $9m. Rebalance Capital and SemperVirens co-led, and were joined by General Catalyst, QED, Flourish Ventures, Partnership Fund for NYC, Fenway Summer, and Gaingels.
- Tabs, a NYC-based provider of an accounts receivable (AR) platform for B2B businesses, closed a $7M Seed funding, backed by Lightspeed Venture Partners.
Care:
- Grow Therapy, New York, NY mental health startup, raised $88M in Series C funding led by Sequoia Capital led, and was joined by Goldman Sachs, Plus Capital, Transformation Capital, SignalFire, and TCV
- Elucent Medical, Eden Prairie, MN medical technology company working in the field of surgical navigation through in-site spatial intelligence (iSI), completed a $42.5M Series C funding, led by Vensana Capital and RC Capital, with participation from existing investors.
- Cariloop, a Richardson, TX-based provider of a caregiver support platform, raised $20M in Series C funding, led by ABS Capital with participation from Noro-Moseley Partners, KCRise Fund, Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, and Patterson Thoma Family Office.
- Rivia Health, a Phoenix, AZ-based healthcare digital payment company, raised $3.25M in Seed funding, led by PHX Ventures with participation from In Revenue Capital.
- Magnetic Insight, an Alameda, CA-based magnetic particle imaging (MPI) company, closed a $3M NIH SBIR Phase II Grant, backed by the National Institutes of Health.
- Huddle Up, a Denver, CO-based pediatric digital health company, closed an undisclosed amount in Series C funding, led by Kayne Anderson Growth Capital, with participation from New Capital Partners, LRV Health, HealthX Ventures, and OSF Ventures.
Enterprise / Consumer:
- Buyers Edge Platform, a Waltham, MA-based company provider of digital procurement solutions for the foodservice industry, received a $425M equity investment, co-led by General Atlantic Credit, Blackstone Tactical Opportunities, and Morgan Stanley Tactical Value.
- Cyera, an NYC-based data security company, raised $300M in Series C funding, at a $1.4B valuation, led by Coatue with participation from Spark Capital, Georgian, AT&T Ventures, Sequoia, Accel, Redpoint, and Cyberstarts.
- Guesty, a Covina, CA-based provider of a property management software platform for short-term rental, Closed a $130M Series F funding, led by KKR with participation from Inovia Capital, Apax, MSD, and Sixth Street.
- Dude Perfect, a group of sports and comedy show hosts, raised more than $100M from Highmount Capital.
- Factorial, a Barcelona, Spain-based provider of a business and HR management platform for SMBs globally, closed an $80M funding, backed by General Catalyst.
- Raft, a Reston, VA-based modern technology and data-focused, advanced software engineering firm, received a $60M Growth investment from Washington Harbour Partners.
- Symbolica, an SF-based foundation model startup, raised $33m led by Khosla Ventures with participation from Day One Ventures, General Catalyst, Abstract Ventures, and Buckley Ventures.
- Abre, a Cincinnati, OH-based K-12 data solution company, completed a $24M Series A funding, led by PeakSpan Capital, with participation from JumpStart Ventures, JobsOhio Growth Capital Fund, and Golden Angels Investors.
- Alethea, a Washington, DC-based technology company that specializes in disinformation detection and mitigation, raised $20M in Series B funding, led by GV, with participation from Ballistic Ventures, and Hakluyt Capital.
- Sprinto, a San Francisco, California-based provider of an automated risk and compliance platform, raised $20M in Series B funding, led by Accel with participation from Elevation Capital and Blume Ventures.
- Nova Farms, an MA-based integrated cannabis operator, received a $20M Loan Facility from Chicago Atlantic.
- StrikeReady, a Dallas-based cybersecurity platform, raised $12m in Series A funding led by 33N Ventures with participation from Hitachi Ventures and Monta Vista Capital.
- Trident IoT, a Carlsbad, CA-based silicon provider and RF technology company focused on decreasing time-to-market for connected device manufacturers, raised $10m in funding, led by Todd Pedersen.
- Uplink, an NYC-based company focused on democratizing internet access, raised $10M in funding, led by Framework Ventures, with participation from Blockchange, Stratos, Mustard Seed Maze, and Outlier Ventures.
- Bored Slot, a real live slots gaming venture by Sunrise, Florida-based Spin City, completed a $10m funding, backed by Plutus VC and LD Capital.
- Udio, an NYC-based company that leverages AI to easily create extraordinary and original music, reportedly raised $10M in Seed funding, led by a16z, with participation from angel investors, such as will.i.am, Common, Kevin Wall, Tay Keith, Steve Stoute’sUnitedMasters, Mike Krieger, and Oriol Vinyals.
- Simbian, a Mountain View, CA-based company providing AI solutions for business operations across diverse IT environments, completed a $10M seed funding, led by Cota Capital, Icon Ventures, Firebolt and Rain Capital with participation from Olivier Pomel, Pankaj Patel, Diogo Mónica, Joe Sullivan, Bharat Shah, Suresh Batchu, and Paul Albright, among others.
- Spines, Boynton Beach, FL AI book publishing platform, raised $6.5M in seed funding led by Aleph with participation from M-Fund, Dan Senor, and LionTree.
- Patlytics, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of an AI-powered patent workflow platform, raised $4.5M in Seed funding, led by Gradient with participation from 8VC, Joe Montana’s Liquid 2 Ventures, Tribe Capital, Vermilion Ventures, Gaingels, Alumni Ventures, Position Ventures, and other angel investors.
- Writ, a San Francisco, C-based startup that enables companies to use data to make decisions, raised $3.8M in Seed funding, led by Gradient Ventures, with participation from Defy.vc, High Alpha, Toba Capital, and numerous angel investors.
- PeerDB, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of a data movement platform for PostgreSQL, completed a $3.6M Seed funding, backed by 8VC, Y Combinator, Wayfinder Ventures, Webb Investment Network, Flex Capital, Rogue Capital, Pioneer Fund, Orange Collective, and several angel investors.
- Knostic, a Reston, VA- and Tel Aviv, Israel-based provider of need-to-know access controls for Generative AI, completed a $3.3m Pre-Seed funding, backed by Shield Capital, Pitango First, DNX Ventures, and Seedcamp, as well as other angel investors.
- E Tech Group, a West Chester, OH-based automation system integrator, raised an undisclosed amount of investment, backed by Graham Partners.
- Cohesity, a San Jose, CA-based AI-powered data security and management company, raised an undisclosed investment amount from IBM.
- Upstream Security, an Ann Arbor, MI-based provider of cybersecurity extended detection and response (XDR) for connected vehicles and IoT, received an undisclosed investment amount from Cisco Investments.
- Libretto, a tool for monitoring and testing AI prompts, raised $3.7m in seed funding co-led by XYZ VC and The General Partnership.
- JARS AI, a platform for creating and watching interactive shows, raised $3m in seed funding, per Axios Pro. Gradient Ventures led, and was joined by Bessemer Venture Partners and South Park Commons.
- Coda, an SF-based collaborative workplace software company, received funding from data company Snowflake.
HardTech:
- Collaborative Robotics, a Santa Clara, CA-based company that specializes in the development of practical collaborative robots (cobots), completed a $100M Series B funding, led by General Catalyst with participation from Bison Ventures, Industry Ventures, Lux Capital, Sequoia Capital, Khosla Ventures, Mayo Clinic, Neo, 1984 Ventures, MVP Ventures, and Calibrate Ventures.
- Torus, a Salt Lake City, UT-based energy solutions company, raised $67M in funding, led by Origin Ventures, with participation from Epic Ventures, Cumming Capital, the Larry H. Miller Company, Zions Bank, Pelion, and ICONIQ.
- Oden Technologies, an NYC-based data and AI software company servicing the manufacturing industry, closed a $28.5M Series B funding, led by Nordstjernan Growth, with participation from Klarna founder Sebastian Siemiatkowski’s investment company, Flat Capital, and Recurring Capital Partners, Atomico, and EQT Ventures.
- Yoshi Mobility, a Nashville, Tenn.-based tech-enabled mobile car care company, closed a $26M Series C funding round, backed by General Motors Ventures, Bridgestone Americas, Universal Motors Agencies, and Shikra Limited.
- Archetype AI, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based foundation model for physical-world AI, raised $13M in seed funding led by Venrock with participation from Amazon Industrial Innovation Fund, Hitachi Ventures, Buckley Ventures, Plug and Play Ventures.
Sustainability:
- Windrose Technology, a Hong Kong-based electric heavy-duty truck developer, closed a $110M Series B funding, backed by HITE Hedge Asset Management, Goodman Group (ASX:GMG), and others.
- Arcadia, a Washington-DC-based provider of a utility data and community solar platform, closed a $50M funding, backed by Macquarie Asset Management, Energy Impact Partners, J.P. Morgan Asset Management, BoxGroup, G2 Venture Partners, Camber Creek, Triangle Peak Partners, and Broadscale Group.
- Captura, a Pasadena, CA-based direct ocean capture company, increased its Series A to a total of $45.3M, with participation from the National Grid Partners and Japan Airlines Innovation Fund/Translink Capital.
Acquisitions & PE:
- Automattic, the parent company of WordPress.com and Tumblr, acquired messaging app Beeper, which had raised around $16M from backers like Garry Tan, Samsung NEXT Ventures, Liquid2Ventures, and SV Angel. Automattic backers include BlackRock, Wellington Management, and Iconiq.
- Wiz, a New York cloud security firm valued by VCs at $10.3B, confirmed reports that it will buy Gem Security, an Israeli cloud detection and response startup that raised $34M from GGV Capital, Team8, IBM Ventures and Silicon Valley CISO Investments.
- eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY) agreed to buy Goldin, an auction house for high-value trading cards and collectibles, from Collectors, which is valued at over $4B by VC firms like Chernin Group, Stripes and D1 Capital Partners.
- Accenture (NYSE: ACN) acquired Unlimited, a London, UK-based integrated customer engagement agency. The deal amount was not disclosed.
- Postman, a San Francisco, CA-based API collaboration company, acquired Orbit, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of a community growth platform for developer companies. The amount of the deal was not disclosed.
- Empower Finance, a San Francisco, CA-based financial technology company, acquired Petal, a NYC-based consumer credit card and financial technology company, for an undisclosed amount. Empower also completed the acquisition of Cashalo, a Manila, Philippines consumer credit and lending company, for an undisclosed amount.
- LI-COR Environmental, a Lincoln, NE-based global leader in greenhouse gas measurements, acquired Onset, owner of the HOBO brand that specializes in large-scale, spatially-distributed environmental monitoring and water resource management, for an undisclosed amount.
- Multiverse, a NYC-based tech company that delivers apprenticeship that combines education, work, and technology to create equitable access to economic opportunity, acquired Searchlight, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of a talent intelligence and skills assessment platform, for an undisclosed amount.
- Entrust, a Minneapolis, MN-based company that specializes in payments, identities, and data security, acquired Onfido, an identity verification company, for an undisclosed amount.
- Restaurant365, an Irvine, CA-based provider of a restaurant enterprise management platform, acquired ExpandShare, a provider of a proprietary learning management system built for restaurants, for an undisclosed amount.
Funds:
- Lone View Capital, a Los Angeles, CA-based private equity firm investing across the technology ecosystem, raised $850M for its inaugural fund, Fund I, backed by university endowments, sovereign wealth funds, charitable foundations, pension funds, asset managers, insurance companies, and family offices.
- AlleyCorp, a New York-based VC firm, raised $250M for a new fund
Final Numbers
The endless escalator by Chartr
Inflation is that one unwanted guest that just won’t leave: headline inflation (CPI) in March rose to 3.5% annually, up from 3.2% the month before.
Investors didn’t love the news initially as it pushed expectations of rate cuts further out, but markets have short memories — the S&P 500 is now actually flat this week, thanks to a better day (+0.7%) yesterday.
On a personal level, though, you might be wondering: what’s still going up in price?
The bad news: The cost of buying a new car hasn’t changed much… but insuring it has. Indeed, auto insurance prices have gone nuts — rising more than 22% per the latest release. Insurers are shifting the blame onto the increasing cost of “repairing and replacing cars”, which has also risen (some 12%), though not quite to the same extent.
The other bad news: Your household bills are likely still stubbornly climbing, with rent, housing, and electricity costs all up ~5-6% in the last year.
The good news: If you’d rather fly than drive, it's a different story. Indeed, if you catch a plane across the country and rent a car on arrival, you should pay less than a year ago for both the flight (down 7%) and the rental car (down 9%). The cost of eating at home is only up 1% in the last year, and buying a massive TV has never been cheaper... which is perhaps why no-one goes to the movies anymore.
Love Sourcery? Want some merch? Check out our shop: sourcerymerch.com
P.S. we just got some Holographic Stickers that ship faster than the Apple Vision Pro, plus if you upgrade to an ‘annual paid’ subscription you get a free hat of your choosing.
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.
great summary for the week