Sourcery → Billion $ Deals
(7/8-7/12) Stripe, Wiz, Armada, Infinite Reality, Captions
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Musings
Macro
Coatue’s 2024 EMW Conference [Coatue]
Stripe Valuation Hits $70 Billion in Sequoia Deal [Bloomberg]
Here is the letter that Sequoia sent to its LPs this morning, vis-a-vis Stripe [Dan Primack]
Alphabet is reportedly eyeing its biggest acquisition in history; A deal for cybersecurity specialists Wiz could set the tech giant back ~$23 billion [Chartr]
AI
How Much Energy Will It Take To Power AI? [Foundations & Frontiers]
Meet the AI Agent Engineer [Sierra]
The Red Queen Effect [Jamin Ball of Altimeter]
The artificial intelligence boom, sparked by ChatGPT's success, continues with $24 billion invested in AI startups from April to June, 2X+ the previous quarter, making AI the largest sector for the first time. [Tech Startups]
This surge in funding drove a 16% overall increase in startup investment to $79 billion.
Microsoft has relinquished its observer seat on OpenAI's board, citing significant progress and confidence in OpenAI's direction over the past eight months. [Axios]
Amazon Web Services announced updates to its AI products to outpace competitors, with over 320 generative AI features launched this year, driven by customer demands and aiming to make AWS cloud services more attractive amid a narrowing market lead. [Axios]
HardTech
Report on Satellite Communication [Balerion Space Ventures]
Andreessen Horowitz Is Building a Stash of More Than 20,000 GPUs to Win AI Deals [The Information]
Google's Gemini AI trains robots to navigate and complete tasks by processing long context information, achieving a 90% success rate in executing commands based on video tours of environments and enabling advanced task planning. [The Verge]
AMD plans to adopt glass substrate semiconductor technology for its next-gen chips by 2025-2026. [Tweak Town]
More
AT&T announced a massive hack in 2022 that compromised call and text records for nearly all its mobile and landline customers, marking one of the biggest data breaches in private communications history. [Axios]
Trump’s VP candidate JD Vance has long ties to Silicon Valley, and was a VC himself [TechCrunch]
Southwest Airlines is partnering with Archer Aviation to explore air taxi services using Archer's electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft. [Axios]
This move joins the other major U.S. airlines in exploring electric air taxi operations, with plans to support California airports and surrounding communities.
Favorite Interviews
Mark Suster, Upfront Ventures: Investing in Space, Defense, & Exit Opportunities
Radiant CEO Doug Bernauer on Portable Nuclear Microreactors & the Future of Clean Energy
Exclusive: Chris Power of Hadrian: $10B or Zero, Revitalizing American Manufacturing
Varda's Landing, Peter Thiel, & El Segundo: Delian Asparouhov of Founders Fund
Last Week (7/8-7/12):
Relevant deals include the 90+ deals across stages below.
I've categorized the deals below into eight categories, Fintech, Care, Enterprise / Consumer, HardTech, Sustainability, Acquisition/PE, IPO, and Fund Announcements, and ordered from later-stage rounds to early-stage rounds.
Highlighted VC Deals include:
Helsing, Infinite Reality, Regal, Skild AI, Hebbia, Armada, Captions, Volley, Fireworks AI, Lekko, Rohirrim, Mantle
Acquisitions & PE
Bain Capital/Envestnet, Honeywell/Air Products, Platinum Equity/Héroux-Devtek, Robinhood/Pluto Capital,
Funds
Index Ventures, AE Industrial Partners, Norwest, DFJ Growth, Alliance Consumer Growth, Kearny Jackson
Final Numbers
Inflation has come down but high prices persist, 401(k) balances of Americans by age
VC Deals
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Fintech:
- Rome, a Los Angeles, CA-based platform designed to bring modular Solana services to Ethereum Layer 2 solutions, closed $9M in funding, backed by Hack VC, P2 Ventures, HashKey, Portal Ventures, Bankless Venture, Robot VC, and others.
- Tread.fi, an NYC-based algorithmic trading infrastructure startup for institutional asset firms, secured a $3.5M pre-seed funding round, led by New Form Capital alongside Aquanow and Varys Capital.
- Accend, an NYC-based company accelerating business customers’ onboarding process
for fintechs and banks, closed $3.2M in Seed funding, led by Adverb Ventures and joined by Y Combinator, General Catalyst, 645 Ventures, and angels from Brex, Stripe, and Carta.
- Vequity, a Denver, CO-based retail real estate investment and development company, raised an undisclosed amount in Seed funding, backed by Common Forge Ventures.
Care:
- HarmonyCares, a Troy, MI-based value-based in-home longitudinal care provider, closed $200M in funding, led by General Catalyst, McKesson Ventures, and a national payor, with support from K2 HealthVentures, Rubicon Founders, Valtruis, HLM Capital, and Oak HC/FT.
- Regard, a Los Angeles, CA-based AI-powered clinical insights platform for clinicians, secured $61M in Series B funding, led by Oak HC/FT and joined by Cedars-Sinai Health Ventures, TenOneTen Ventures, Calibrate Ventures, and Techstars.
- Adona Medical, a Los Gatos, CA-based developer of heart failure solutions, closed $33.5M in Series C funding, co-led by Cormorant Asset Management and TCP Health Ventures, with participation from Excelestar Ventures, the PA MedTech VC Fund II, Unorthodox Ventures, and AMED Ventures.
- Courier Health, an NYC-based purpose-built patient CRM platform for managing the end-to-end patient journey, raised $16.5M in Series A funding, led by Norwest Venture Partners and joined by Work-Bench.
- Nagish, an NYC-based startup using AI to enhance communication for individuals with hearing loss, raised $16M in funding, led by Canaan Partners and joined by K5 Global, Tokyo Black, Cardumen Capital, Vertex Ventures Israel, Contour Venture Partners, Precursor Ventures, and the founders of Datadog and Looker.
- Maximum Fidelity Surgical Simulations (MaxFi), a St. Louis, MO-based En Vivo Perfused Cadaver system provider for creating highly realistic surgical simulations for medical education, raised $2.25M in Seed funding, led by St. Louis Arch Angels, BioGenerator Ventures, and Missouri Technology Corporation (MTC).
- Roga, a Los Angeles, CA-based neurotech and mental healthcare startup, completed a $1.2M Pre-Seed funding round from Exceptional Ventures, ODX by On Deck, Minded Ventures, the AngelList Fund, The Centre for Aging + Brain Health Innovation (CABHI), the Ontario Brain Institute and other angel investors from notable companies.
- ProofPilot, an NYC-based clinical experience platform (CXP), closed an undisclosed amount in Series C funding, led by Sopris Capital and joined by Mitsui & Co. (U.S.A.), Inc.
- Uberdoc, a Boston, MA-based healthcare platform provider, secured an undisclosed investment amount from CharmHealth and Bioverge.
Enterprise/Consumer:
- Helsing, a Munich, Germany-based company that provides governments and industries with AI tools designed to promote democracy, secured €450M ($488.8M) in Series C funding, led by General Catalyst and joined by Elad Gil, Accel, Lightspeed, Plural, and Greenoaks.
- Infinite Reality, an NYC-based platform for building Metaverse experiences, completed a $350M funding round at a $5.1 billion valuation backed by a private multi-family office. In addition, Infinite Reality acquired Landvault for $450M.
- Regal, a Knoxville, TN-based theatre circuits company, closed $250M in funding from undisclosed investors.
- Hayden AI Technologies, Inc., a San Francisco, CA-based AI vision solutions company for smart cities, secured $90M in Series C funding, led by The Rise Fund, alongside Drawdown Fund and Autotech Ventures.
- Captions, an NYC-based generative video creation and editing platform, completed a $60M Series C funding round, at a $500M valuation, led by Index Ventures and joined by Kleiner Perkins, Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, Adobe Ventures, HubSpot Ventures, and Jared Leto.
- Volley, a San Francisco, CA-based creator of voice-controlled games played on TVs and smart speakers, closed $55M in Series C funding, led by Microsoft’s M12 Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners, with support from Causeway Media Partners, General Catalyst, the Amazon Alexa Fund, BITKRAFT Ventures, Y Combinator, Boost VC, Alumni Ventures, Waverley, Gaingels, and Riverside.
- Fireworks AI, a Redwood City-based generative AI inference platform startup, closed $52M in Series B Funding, at a $552M valuation, led by Sequoia Capital, and joined by NVIDIA, AMD, MongoDB, Benchmark, Databricks Ventures, Frank Slootman, Sheryl Sandberg, Airtable CEO Howie Liu, Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang, and other notable executives.
- Athletic Brewing Company, a Milford, CN-based non-alcoholic brewery, secured $50M in funding, led by General Catalyst and joined by existing investors.
- Volumez, a Santa Clara, CA-based cloud-aware data infrastructure company, completed a $40M Series A funding round, led by Koch Disruptive Technologies (KDT), Samsung Venture Investment Corporation, and J-Ventures, with support from Pitango First and Viola Ventures.
- Canoe Intelligence, a New York-based reporting workflow automation platform
for alternative investments, raised $36M in Series C funding, led by Goldman Sachs, F-Prime Capital, and Eight Roads.
- Command Zero, an Austin, TX-based autonomous and user-led cyber investigation platform, closed $21M in Seed funding, led by Andreessen Horowitz and alongside Insight Partners and more than multiple cyber industry thought leaders and executives.
- Soda, an NYC-based AI-powered data quality company, closed $14M in funding, led by Singular and Point Nine.
- Medal, an NYC-based AI-powered MedalTV clipping app, secured $13M in funding, at a $333M valuation, from Horizons Ventures, OMERS Ventures, peak6, and Arcadia Investments.
- Phaidra, a Seattle, WA-based AI-based control system provider for improving the energy efficiency and compute infrastructure of data centers raised $12M in funding, led by Index Ventures.
- The Lasso, an NYC-based online car bidding platform, completed a $9.8M funding round, led by Crosslink Capital and Manresa Ventures, with support from Contour Venture Partners, Liquid2 Ventures, Ritual Capital, Correlation Ventures, and others.
- Vee, an NYC-based AI-powered nonprofit management platform, raised $7M in seed funding, led by TLV Partners and joined by SOMV, Oryzn Capital, Meitav Dash, Disruption Ventures, and existing investors.
- Dora, an NYC-based multi-ecosystem search engine, raised $5.5M in funding, led by Dragonfly Capital and Lemniscap, with support from Robot Ventures, Ethereal Ventures, Maven11, and Arche Capital.
- Lekko, a San Francisco, CA-based company enabling the dynamic configuration of software without redeployments for developers, raised $4.5M in Seed funding, led by Addition and LUX Capital, with support from BoxGroup, SV Angel, Abstraction Capital, and other angel investors.
- Biostate AI, a Palo Alto, CA-based scalable biodata foundry startup, secured $4M in funding, led by Matter Venture Partners, with support from Vision Plus Capital, Catapult VC, the Caltech Seed Fund, Dario Amodei (CEO of Anthropic), Joris Poort (CEO of Rescale), Michael Schnall-Levin (CTO of 10X Genomics) and Emily Leproust (CEO of Twist Bioscience).
- NodaFi, a San Francisco, CA-based facility operations platform, raised $3.5M in Seed funding, led by Base10 Partners, with support from Stage 2 Capital, MKT1, and FJ Labs.
- Niva, an NYC-based global business identity platform, closed over $3.3M in funding, led by Gradient Ventures and joined by Picus Capital, Canary, Gilgamesh Ventures, and executives from Chime, Deel, Enigma, and Faire.
- DreamFlare AI, a San Francisco-based AI-generated content platform, raised $1.65M in pre-seed funding from FoundersX and others.
- Lucid Green, an NYC-based smart product identifier (SPI) platform for the cannabis supply chain, completed a $1.4M funding round from undisclosed investors.
- Rohirrim, a Reston, VA-based request for proposal (RFP) AI automation platform, secured an undisclosed investment amount from Bessemer Venture Partners and IBM Ventures.
HardTech:
- Skild AI, a Pittsburgh, PA-based AI robotics company, closed $300M in Series A funding, at a $1.5B valuation, led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, Coatue, SoftBank Group, and Jeff Bezos (through Bezos Expeditions), alongside Felicis Ventures, Sequoia, Menlo Ventures, General Catalyst, CRV, Amazon, SV Angel, and Carnegie Mellon University.
- Hebbia, a New York City-based enterprise generative AI platform, raised $130M in Series B funding, led by Andreessen Horowitz, with support from Index Ventures, Google Ventures, and Peter Thiel.
- X-Bow, an Albuquerque, NM-based non-traditional producer of advanced manufactured solid rocket motors (SRMs) and hypersonics technologies, completed a $70M Series B funding round, led by Razor’s Edge and joined by Lockheed Martin Ventures, Boeing Ventures, Crosslink Capital, and Balerion Space Ventures.
- ZwitterCo, a Woburn, MA-based company empowering water treatment through advanced membrane technologies, closed $58.4M in Series B funding, led by Evok Innovations and joined by DCVC, BHP, Munich Re Ventures, Siteground, HG Ventures, and Blue Horizon Advisors.
- Armada, a San Francisco, CA-based edge computing company, secured $40M in funding, led by M12 and Dragon Global.
- Mantle, a San Francisco, CA-based metal 3D printing technology company for precision tooling, closed a $20M Series C funding round, led by Schooner Capital and joined by Fine Structure Ventures, Foundation Capital, Corazon Capital, 11.2 Capital, and Build Collective.
- Buildots, a Santa Clara, CA-based AI construction software company, completed a $15M funding round, led by Intel Capital and joined by OG Tech Partners and previous investors.
- Jacobi Robotics, a Berkeley, CA-based AI-powered technology developer for programming and deploying robots more efficiently, closed $5M in seed funding, led by Moxxie Ventures, with participation from Foothill Ventures, Humba Ventures, The House Fund, Swift Ventures, Berkeley SkyDeck Fund, and LDV Partners.
- Active Membranes, a Moorpark, CA-based electrically-conducting membrane developer used in desalination, raised an undisclosed amount of Seed funding from Natural Ventures, Echo River Capital, and Pacifica Water Solutions.
Sustainability:
- Scaler, an NYC and Amsterdam, the Netherlands-based machine learning, ESG data collection, and reporting platform for decarbonizing real estate, closed $10M in Series A funding, led by Plural and joined by Base10.
- Kuva Systems, a Cambridge, MA-based camera-based methane emissions monitoring company for the oil and gas industry, secured $8.7M in funding, led by PrairiesCan and other prior investors.
Acquisitions & PE:
- Bain Capital is set to acquire Envestnet (NYSE: ENV), a Berwyn, PA-based wealth management technology provider for investment advisors and banks, for $4.5B.
- Honeywell (Nasdaq: HON) is set to acquire the liquefied natural gas business of Air Products (NYSE: APD), an Allentown, PA-based industrial gas company, for a total cash consideration of $1.81B.
- Platinum Equity Advisors is set to acquire Héroux-Devtek, a Longueuil, Québec-based manufacturer of aerospace products and landing gear, for about $1.35B.
- Duolingo (Nasdaq: DUOL) acquired Hobbes, a Detroit, MI-based animation and motion design studio, for an undisclosed amount.
- Blackstone acquired a 30.2% stake in Kansas energy infrastructure firm Tallgrass
Energy from Spain's Engas (Madrid: ENG) for $1.1B.
- AMD (NASDAQ: AMD) agreed to acquire Silo AI, a Helsinki, Finland-based private AI lab, for about $665M in cash.
- Ørsted, a Denmark-based renewable energy company purchased a 50% stake in Eversource Energy's (NYSE: ES) 924 MW Sunrise Wind offshore wind project in New York, for $230M.
- Earned Wealth, an NYC-based tech-enabled financial services firm serving medical professionals, secured $200M in funding, led by Summit Partners and Silversmith Capital Partners, joined by Juxtapose, Hudson Structured Capital Management, and Breyer Capital.
- Madison River Capital recapitalized JDC Power Systems, an Armonk, NY-based electrical equipment and services provider for data centers, for $190M.
- QX Global Group, a London, UK-based business process management (“BPM”) services provider, secured a £100M ($129M) growth investment from Long Ridge Equity Partners.
- Impel, backed by Silversmith Capital Partners, acquired Outsell, a Minneapolis, MN-based SaaS provider, for more than $100M.
- Upwell Water, a San Francisco, CA-based tech-enabled water resource and infrastructure company, raised $100M from Climate Adaptive Infrastructure.
- Gymdesk, an Austin, TX-based member management software provider for fitness and wellness businesses, received $32M in funding investment from Five Elms Capital.
- Sharon AI, a Sharon, PA-based provider of data center infrastructure for AI GPU computing, HPC, and cloud storage, acquired Distributed Storage Solutions, an Australian Filecoin storage provider, for $25M in stocks.
- Seismos, an Austin, TX-based advanced acoustic technology provider offering enhanced subsurface intelligence and proprietary data analytics to the oil and gas sector, secured a $15M strategic investment from Edison Partners.
- Pay Ready, a Las Vegas, NV-based post-resident recovery software for the property management industry, acquired EvictionAssistant, a Rockville, MD-based eviction software company, for an undisclosed amount.
- Sparq, an Atlanta, GA-based outsourced digital engineering provider for tech companies, acquired Amplify Consulting Partners, a Seattle, WA-based data-first consulting firm, for an undisclosed amount.
- Thrive, a Boston, MA-based technology outsourcing provider for cybersecurity, cloud, and IT managed services, acquired The Longleaf Network, an NC-based IT managed services provider, for an undisclosed amount.
- Infor, an NYC-based industry cloud company, acquired Albanero, a data migration and management partner, and Acumen, a revenue growth management consulting company, both for undisclosed amounts.
- insightsoftware, a reporting, analytics, and performance management solutions provider, acquired LeaseAcelerator, a Reston, Virginia-based automated solutions provider for lease accounting, real estate lease administration, competitive lease sourcing, and lease lifecycle management, for an undisclosed amount.
- Benchmark Analytics, a Chicago, IL-based SaaS-based, data-driven enterprise analytics platform, secured an undisclosed strategic growth investment from PSG Equity.
- Medicus IT, an Alpharetta, GA-based healthcare-focused IT managed services provider, received an undisclosed investment from FFL Partners.
- Series Entertainment, a San Francisco, CA-based game development company, acquired Pixelberry, an interactive fiction mobile game studio, for an undisclosed amount.
- Accuhealth and Signallamp Health, both healthcare technology companies, announced their merger, backed by an additional undisclosed investment amount from Sunstone Partners.
- BlueConic, a Boston, MA-based customer data platform (CDP), is set to acquire Jebbit, a first-party data-capture and experience-creation software for marketers, for an undisclosed amount.
- Accenture (NYSE: ACN) acquired Cientra, a NJ-based silicon design and engineering services company, for an undisclosed amount.
- Formlabs, a Somerville, MA-based 3D printing company, acquired Micronics, a Wisconsin-based 3D printing company, for an undisclosed amount.
- ConverseNow, an Austin, TX-based voice AI technology platform, acquired Valiant AI, a Denver, CO-based restaurant drive-thru automation technology company, for an undisclosed amount.
- Nasuni, a Boston-based enterprise data platform provider, received a majority investment of an undisclosed amount at a valuation of about $1.2B, from Vista Equity Partners, with support from TCV and KKR.
- Robinhood Markets, Inc. (NASDAQ: HOOD) acquired Pluto Capital Inc., a Los Angeles, CA-based AI-powered investment research platform, for an undisclosed amount.
- Accenture (NYSE: ACN) acquired Openstream Holdings (Japan-based) and its subsidiaries, Open Stream and Neutral, for an undisclosed amount.
- GrubMarket, a San Francisco, CA-based food tech/eCommerce company for the food supply chain industry, acquired Brothers Produce, a Houston, TX-based foodservice distributor in Texas and the broader Southwestern U.S., for an undisclosed amount.
- AirX Climate Solutions, backed by Gryphon Investors, acquired AboveAir Technologies, a Frederick, MD-based HVAC company for data centers, for an undisclosed amount.
IPO:
- Launch One Acquisition, a health care SPAC chaired by Ryan Gilbert (Launchpad Capital), raised $200M in its IPO.
Fund Announcements:
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- Index Ventures, a San Francisco, NYC-, and London, UK-based venture capital firm, closed $2.3B across a venture and growth fund focused on AI and tech companies.
- Monomoy Capital Partners, an NYC- and Greenwich, CT-based private equity firm, closed its fifth fund focused on manufacturing, distribution, and business services companies with a total capital commitment of $1.6B.
- Avesi Partners, a Stamford, CT and Richmond, VA-based private equity firm, raised $1.35B for its second fund focused on healthcare and business services companies.
- AE Industrial Partners, a Boca Raton, FL-based private equity firm specializing in national security, aerospace, and industrial services, closed its third flagship private equity fund, AE Industrial Partners Fund III, LP, at $1.28B, backed by a diverse mix of institutional investors, such as public and corporate pensions, financial institutions, funds of funds, family offices, and sovereign wealth funds.
- Norwest Capital Advisors closed its Norwest Equity Partners XI LP and Norwest Mezzanine Partners V funds, with a total capital of about $1B and $400M, respectively.
- DFJ Growth, a Menlo Park, CA-based growth equity firm, raised over $1B for its fifth fund.
- Alliance Consumer Growth, a Los Angeles, CA-based growth equity firm focused on enterprise, consumer, and disruptive technologies, raised $160M for its fifth fund.
- Kearny Jackson, a San Francisco, CA-based early-stage VC firm, raised $65M for its third fund.
- Sovereign Capital, an Atlanta, GA-based venture capital firm, secured its fourth venture capital fund focused on seed and Series A stage technology companies led by faith-driven founders, with a total capital commitment of $60M.
Final Numbers
Data: US Bureau of Labor Statistics; Chart: Statista
Inflation has significantly decreased from its peak of 9.0% in June 2022 to a year-over-year rate of 3.0% in June 2024, with consumer prices showing a monthly decline for the first time since 2021. [Statista]
Despite this progress, overall consumer prices remain 21% higher than January 2020 levels, indicating that while the rate of increase has slowed, prices are not expected to return to pre-pandemic levels. [Statista]
Data: Fidelity; Chart: CNBC
While Americans estimate needing around $1.46 million to retire comfortably, and millennials expect a little over $1.6 million, the median 401(k) balance for people in their 30s is only $22,100 as of Q1 2024. [CNBC]
As of Q1 2024, the average 401(k) balances in the U.S. increase significantly with age: $17,700 in the 20s, $56,200 in the 30s, $124,400 in the 40s, and $212,400 in the 50s, while the median balances are notably lower at $6,700, $22,100, $41,600, and $64,300 respectively. [CNBC]
New Research
Association between dietary (poly)phenol intake and the ATHLOS Healthy Ageing Scale in the Polish arm of the HAPIEE study
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