Sourcery → Elon + Tarzan
LA Tech Week, Tesla, SpaceX, Europa; Auger, Farther, Noetica AI, EvenUp, Maven Clinic, TrueLayer, Q-CTRL, Blue Energy
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Real Life Tarzan
A week ago I attended a “top secret”, high-powered, Silicon Valley CEO summit nestled between the hills of Carmel Valley in a luxurious 500 acre resort. Attendees included Sergey Brin, Stephen Wolfram, Richard Socher, Joshua Browder, Augustus Doricko, Isaiah Taylor, Laura Deming, and more.
Of the most interesting speakers at the event, one stood out. Real life Tarzan. (Please don’t tell me Tarzan is canceled). His name is Paul Rosolie, and recently he’s been making waves speaking on huge podcasts with 2.2M views on Lex Fridman & 1M views on Joe Rogan (just made ‘top 10 episodes’ on Spotify). Paul has dedicated his life to protecting the Amazon by living, breathing, climbing, and sharing its beauty. Of his pursuits down in Peru, they’ve protected ~100k acres of rainforest so far and are on a mission to raise ~$30M (today’s pre-seed round) to cover the 250k remaining acres.
You can watch Paul swinging from the trees, read their 2023 annual report, book a stay in their breathtaking luxury treehouse hotel suite, or maybe even drink the sacred jungle nectar the tech community loves.. ayahuasca. Which by the end of his presentation, he convinced us all. The group is now committed to taking a trip down to the rainforest to drink the almighty ayahuasca so we can leave our bodies, come back to life, & see who’s able to keep their job the longest. No cap.
Special thank you to Masha Bucher & the Day One Ventures team for organizing the most extraordinary tech event I’ve ever been to & for the invitation. If you want a sneak peek into the top secret event, check it out here.
Musings
Wow.
Mechazilla has caught the Super Heavy booster! [SpaceX]
Tesla debuts the Robotaxi and Robovan (“rah-boh-vin”) [Tesla]
NASA JPL launches Europa Clipper to travel 1.8B miles to explore Europa, Jupiter’s icy ocean moon [Elon]
Shoutout to Emerging LA for the private JPL tour on the day of launch [check out BTS pictures]
More
Software multiples declining x forward growth [Selina Wang @ Altimeter]
Google’s DeepMind researchers among recipients of Nobel prize for chemistry [Economist] The award honours protein design and the use of AI for protein-structure prediction
Abrupt reduction in shipping emission as an inadvertent geoengineering termination shock produces substantial radiative warming [Nature]
Key Takeaways From The Senate Hearing on Health & Nutrition + What Happens Now? [Jason Karp]
#1 show on Netflix: Shoutout to Oversubscribed Ventures’ GPs Sara & Erin Foster for their blockbuster Netflix series “Nobody Wants This”
This is a must watch. Couldn’t recommend more
Events
(Say hi if you see me around!)
Cerebral Valley AI Summit
The AI space's top venture capitalists and hottest founders & innovators are going to the Cerebral Valley AI Summit on November 20 in San Francisco. Apply to attend at cerebralvalleysummit.com
Top Interviews
Alex Kolicich, 8VC | AI & Defense Tech Renaissance: Palantir, Anduril, SpaceX, OpenAI
Impulse Labs, Trojan Horse for Battery-Powered Homes | Backed by Lux Capital, $25M Raised to Date
Masha Bucher, Day One Ventures: Investing in The Biggest Ideas Possible | $150M Solo GP Fund III, $450M AUM
→ Get it while you can!
Last Week (10/7-10/11):
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:
Auger, Farther, Noetica AI, EvenUp, Maven Clinic, TrueLayer, Q-CTRL, Blue Energy
Acquisitions & PE
Butterfly Equity/Duckhorn, Zeta Global/LiveIntent, Infinite Reality/Zapper
Final Numbers
Robotaxis: Tesla vs Waymo
VC Deals
Fintech:
- Asaas, a Joinville, Brazil-based financial automation solutions provider for small and medium-sized enterprises, raised R$820 million ($148.2 million) in Series C funding. BOND led the round and was joined by Softbank, 23S Capital, and Endeavor Catalyst
- Farther, a New York City-based wealth management firm, raised $72 million in Series C funding. CapitalG and Viewpoint Ventures led the round and were joined by Lightspeed, Bessemer, Khosla
- Noetica AI, a New York City-based AI-powered software platform for benchmarking deal terms, raised $22 million in Series A funding. Lightspeed Venture Partners led the round and was joined by Thomson Reuters Ventures, Bling Capital, Flybridge Capital
- Zeal, a San Francisco-based payroll platform, raised $15 million in Series B funding. Portage led the round and was joined by existing investors Spark Capital and Commerce Ventures
- Quartr, a Stockholm-based qualitative public market research software and data provider for finance and investor relations professionals, raised $6 million in funding from Altos Ventures
- 100, a New York City-based multifamily rental software platform, raised $5.2 million in funding from MetaProp, Freestyle Capital, RiverPark Ventures
- FutureMoney, a Boston-based micro-investing platform for families to invest in their children, raised $2.5 million in pre-seed funding from Serac Ventures, Hustle Fund, Telegraph Hill Capital
Care:
- EvenUp, a San Francisco-based AI platform developer for personal injury cases, raised $135 million in Series D funding. Bain Capital Ventures led the round and was joined by Premji Invest, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners
- Maven Clinic, a New York City-based women’s and family health virtual clinic, raised $125 million in Series F funding. StepStone Group led the round and was joined by existing investors General Catalyst, Sequoia, Oak HC/FT
- Glooko, a Palo Alto-based connected care and life sciences platform for patients, providers, biopharma, and medical device partners, raised $100 million in Series F funding. Georgian led the round and was joined by Health Catalyst Capital, Canaan
- ShiraTronics, a Minneapolis, Minn.-based neurostimulation therapies developer for chronic migraine patients, raised $66 million in Series B funding. Norwest Venture Partners led the round and was joined by Seroba, OSF Ventures, the Global BioAccess Fund, existing investors U.S. Venture Partners, Amzak Health, Treo Ventures
- Arda Therapeutics, a San Carlos, Calif.-based targeted cell depletion therapies developer for chronic diseases, raised $43 million in Series A funding. Andreessen Horowitz led the round and was joined by Two Sigma Ventures, RV Invest, Eli Lilly
- Eleanor Health, a Waltham, Mass., addiction treatment startup, raised $30m in Series D funding. General Catalyst led, and was joined by Town Hall Ventures, Echo Health Ventures, Northpond Ventures, Rethink Impact, and Emerson Collective
- Centaur Labs, a Boston-based health data annotation platform, raised $16 million in Series B funding. SignalFire led the round and was joined by Samsung Next, Alumni Ventures, and existing investors Y Combinator, Accel, Susa Ventures
- SPRY Therapeutics, a Wilmington, Del.-based AI practice management platform developer for physical therapy, raised $15 million in funding. Flourish Ventures led the round and was joined by Together Fund, Eight Roads, and F-prime Capital
- RadiantGraph, a San Francisco-based AI platform for consumer engagement in the healthcare industry, raised $11 million in Series A funding. M13 led the round and was joined by XYZ Ventures and True Ventures
- clock.bio, a Cambridge, England-based healthspan biotech company, raised $5.3 million in seed funding. LocalGlobe led the round and was joined by BlueYard Capital, Onsight Ventures, and Dr. Jonathan Milner
- Stream, a San Francisco-based AI-powered processing platform for workers’ compensation medical documents, raised $5.3 million in seed funding. Spark Capital led the round and was joined by Acrew Capital, TTV Capital
- LEVY Health, a Dover, Del.-based personalized reproductive care platform for women’s health providers, raised $4.5 million in seed funding. XYZ Venture Capital led the round and was joined by Atlantic Labs and Possible Ventures
Enterprise/Consumer:
- Auger, a Bellevue, Wash.-based AI-powered supply-chain developer, raised $100 million in Series A funding from Oak HC/FT
- TOCA Football, a Costa Mesa, Calif.-based soccer experience company, raised $100 million in Series F funding from Jim Kavanaugh, Bill Anderson, Jared Smith, existing investor Harry Kane
- TrueLayer, a London-based pay-by-bank network, raised $50m in Series E extension funding led by Northzone, with participation from Tencent, Tiger Global, Temasek and Stripe
- Human Security, a New York cybersecurity startup, raised over $50m led by WestCap, with participation by Goldman Sachs, ClearSky, NightDragon, and Vertex
- Relyance AI, a San Francisco-based AI-powered data governance platform, raised $32 million in Series B funding. Thomvest Ventures led the round and was joined by M12, Microsoft Ventures Fund, Cheyenne Ventures, and existing investors Menlo Ventures and Unusual Ventures
- Liner, a Seoul-based AI search engine for students and researchers, raised $29 million in Series B funding. Intervest and Atinum Investment led the round and was joined by Samsung Venture Investment
- Noetica AI, a New York-based provider of benchmarking software, raised $22m in Series A funding. Lightspeed Venture Partners led, and was joined by Thompson Reuters Ventures, Bling Capital, Flybridge Capital, Company Ventures and TheLegalTech Fund
- Distributional, a San Francisco-based enterprise AI testing platform, raised $19 million in Series A funding. Two Sigma Ventures led the round and was joined by Andreessen Horowitz, Operator Collective, NextEra Energy
- Unify, a San Francisco-based go-to-market technology company, raised $19 million in Series A and seed funding. Emergence Capital and Thrive Capital led the round and were joined by OpenAI Startup Fund
- FlexFactor, a Dover, Del.-based decline recovery solutions provider for eCommerce brands, raised $16.8 million in Series A funding. Bessemer Venture Partners led the round
- Claim, a Boston-based brand discovery social app, raised $12 million in Series A funding. VMG Technology led the round and was joined by Sequoia Capital, Susa Ventures, and Lightbank
- Lightdash, a London-based open-source business intelligence platform, raised $11 million in Series A funding. Accel led the round and was joined by Operator Partners, Shopify Ventures, and existing investor Y Combinator
- ApertureData, a San Francisco-based unified data layer provider for multimodal data, raised $8.3 million in seed funding. TQ Ventures led the round and was joined by Westwave Capital, Interwoven Ventures
- Driver, a Austin-based technology decoding and interactive documentation automation AI platform, raised $8 million in seed funding. Google Ventures led the round and was joined by Y Combinator
- Lovable, a Stockholm-based developer of autonomous software for engineers, raised $7.5 million in pre-seed funding from Hummingbird, byFounders, angel investors, and others
- CYRISMA, a Rochester, N.Y.-based risk management platform for managed service providers, raised $7 million in Series A funding. Blueprint Equity led the round and was joined by SaaS Ventures, Golden Venture Partners, LaunchNY, and Eddie Lou
- Kiva AI, a San Francisco-based data solutions platform for specialized AI applications’ development, raised $7 million in seed funding. CoinFund led the round and was joined by Protagonist, Hashkey, Peer VC
- Cove, a Palo Alto-based AI collaborative visual workspace, raised $6 million in seed funding from Sequoia Capital, Elad Gil, Homebrew
- Prime Security, a New York City-based design-stage security solution provider, raised $6 million in seed funding. Foundation Capital led the round and was joined by Flybridge Capital Partners
- Loot Labs, a Seattle-based digital collectibles platform developer, raised $6 million in seed funding. BITKRAFT Ventures led the round and was joined by Sfermion, Fabric Ventures, and Everyrealm
- Drawer AI, an Austin-based AI-powered estimating system, raised $5 million in seed funding. Brick & Mortar Ventures led the round and was joined by Base 10 Partners
- Vultron, a San Francisco-based AI-powered proposal development solution for the public sector, raised $4.9 million in seed funding. Craft Ventures and Long Journey Ventures led the round and were joined by South Park Commons, Conviction Embed
- Windwalk, a Salt Lake City-based social software platform developer, raised $4.5 million in seed funding from a16z SPEEDRUN, YCombinator, and Tirta Ventures.
- Infactory, a search tool for building AI apps, raised $4m in seed funding. Bee Partners led, and as joined by FJ Labs, Andressen Horowitz's Scout Fund, Alumni Ventures, and the co-founders of Rappi
- Vectorize, a Boulder, Colo.-based AI-powered data integration platform, raised $3.6 million in seed funding. True Ventures led the round and was joined by angel investors
- Anam.ai, a London-based real-time AI personas developer for businesses, raised $2.3 million in pre-seed funding. Concept Ventures led the round and was joined by Torch Capital
HardTech:
- Q-CTRL, a Sydney-based quantum infrastructure software developer, raised $59 million in Series B-2 funding. GP Bullhound led the round and was joined by Alpha Edison, Lockheed Martin Ventures, NTT Finance, existing investors Alumni Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, John Eales, and others
- Blue Energy, a Washington D.C.-based nuclear power plant company, raised $45 million in Series A funding. Engine Ventures and At One Ventures led the round and were joined by Angular Ventures, Tamarack Global, Propeller Ventures
- Paebbl, a Stockholm-based company converting CO2 into permanent, carbon-storing materials, raised $25 million in Series A funding. Capnamic led the round and was joined by The Climate Pledge Fund, Holcim, Aurum Impact, existing investors 2050, Pale Blue Dot, the Grantham Foundation
- Document Crunch, an Alpharetta, Ga.-based document compliance platform for the construction industry, raised $21.5 million in Series B funding. Titanium Ventures led the round and was joined by Nemetschek Group, Andres Construction, Satterfield & Pontikes, existing investors Navitas Capital, Zacua Ventures, Fifth Wall, Ironspring Ventures
- Corvus Robotics, a Mountain View, Calif.-based autonomous inventory management systems provider, raised $18 million in Series A funding. S2G Ventures and Spero Ventures led the round and were joined by Y Combinator
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