Sourcery → Founder Mode vs Ayahuasca

OpenAI, World Labs, Hotel Engine, Flink, Twelve, Wealth.com, Orb, Nomic Bio, Ferrum Health; Blackrock/Microsoft, Headline, Costanoa Ventures, Rethink Impact, Patron, Avid Ventures

Today’s Sourcery is brought to you by Archer.. 

Learn more about how Archer is set to open a new world of opportunity for passengers by providing safe and efficient access to people, places, and events across the communities they live at archer.com

Founder Mode vs Ayahuasca

Tortured Founder seeking mental relief? Maybe ayahuasca isn’t the answer. X went off yesterday on tech’s ties to the substance after Autism Capital posted a video of people mid-ceremony purging from their ayahuasca journey. Something that is close to Silicon Valley’s open-minded, performance-oriented, spiritual-ish culture that went from micro-dosing psychedelics to seeking more intense experience such as ayahuasca (which btw you can do in a controlled clinical environment without the added purging.. people opt for the former because it’s more ‘intense’ & ‘special’).

Almost every corner of tech chimed in with stories of lost friends who spiritually and physically became even more lost after going too far with their mental health ‘treatments’ when they probably needed to take off a month, go on vacation, seek refuge in a cute little suburb, do Wim Hof, or just slow down their lives, brains, & reset. For something that can permanently alter your brain chemistry, lose any ounce of ambition or drive left in you, you’d probably be better off quitting your job. Very much not Founder Mode™.

Musings

AI

• Do startups have a chance vs big tech in the age of AI? History says yes…in due time [Aileen Lee]

More

• After Apple, Jony Ive Is Building an Empire of His Own [NYT]

  • Five years after leaving Apple, the iPhone designer is forging a new life in San Francisco, one imaginative building at a time

• The Mark Zuckerberg Interview [Acquired]

• Does more revenue scale lead to better margins? [Selina Wang @ Altimeter]

All-In Summit

• John Mearsheimer and Jeffrey Sachs, now in the lead replacing Elon’s interview with over 1.2M views on YouTube

• Bari Weiss of The Free Press

• Nikesh Arora on scaling Palo Alto Networks

• Michael Ovitz on building CAA + impressive career in Silicon Valley (Palantir)

• Tekedra Mawakana, Waymo’s CEO

Top Interviews

• Molly Alter, Partner at Northzone, $4B AUM | EU vs USA, Software for Hardware, Vertical AI, VC Biases

• Zamp's Series A: $14M in 15 Months | Fastest Growing FinTech + Multi-Billion-Dollar Opportunity

• Exclusive | Chris Power of Hadrian: $10B or Zero, Revitalizing American Manufacturing.. Hadrian’s $117M Series B

---

Last Week (9/16-9/20):

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: 

OpenAI, World Labs, Hotel Engine, Flink, Twelve, Wealth.com, Orb, Nomic Bio, Ferrum Health

Acquisitions & PE

Workday/Evisort, Farfetch/Violet Grey, Accenture/Martian, Intel/Mobileye

Funds

Blackrock/Microsoft, Headline, Costanoa Ventures, Rethink Impact, Patron, Avid Ventures

Final Numbers

Final numbers on AI usage for teens

---

VC Deals 

Fintech:

- wealth.com, a Phoenix, Ariz.-based estate planning platform, raised $30 million in Series A funding. GV led the round and was joined by Citi Ventures, Outpost Ventures, 53 Stations, and Firebolt Ventures.

- Orb, a San Francisco, Calif.-based billing platform, raised $25 million in Series B funding. Mayfield led the round and was joined by existing investors Menlo Ventures, Greylock Partners, South Park Commons, and others.

- Drift Labs, a decentralized finance platform, raised $25 million in Series B funding. Multicoin Capital led the round and was joined by Blockchain Capital, Primitive Ventures, and Folius Ventures.

- Every, an SF-based HR and spend management startup, raised $22.5m in Series A funding led by Redpoint Ventures, with participation from Y Combinator, Okta Ventures, Base10 Partners, and Formus Capital.

- Roots Automation, a New York City-based AI model for insurance developer, raised $22.2 million in Series B funding. Harbert Growth Partners led the round and was joined by MissionOG, Liberty Mutual Strategic Ventures, and Vestigo Ventures.

- BlackCloak, an Orland, Fla.-based cybersecurity company for executives, high-net worth individuals, and family offices, raised $17 million in Series B funding. Baird Capital led the round and was joined by Blue Heron Capital, existing investors TDF Ventures, TechOperators, and others.

- point.me, a New York City-based points and travel reward search platform, raised $15 million in Series B funding. Nyca Partners and Citi Ventures led the round and were joined by Brian Kelly, Samsung Next, RiverPark Ventures, and others.

- TrueX, a New York City-based stable-coin native exchange, raised $9 million in seed funding from RRE Ventures, Reciprocal Ventures, Paxos, and others.

- Kotlin, a Mexico City, Mexico-based private health insurance provider for seniors, raised $7.3 million in Series A funding. Left Lane Capital led the round and was joined by existing investors.

- Infinit, a DeFi abstraction protocol, raised $6m from Electric Capital, Mirana Ventures, Hashed, Faction, Robot Ventures, Nomad Capital, Bankless Ventures, Selini Capital, Tangent, and Presto Labs.

- Vana, a San Franciscio, Calif.-based decentralized AI platform, raised $5 million in funding from Coinbase Ventures.

- Upfront, a New York City-based real estate finance platform, raised $1.5 million in funding. Diagram Ventures led the round and was joined by ROC Venture Group.

Care:

- Nomic Bio, a Montreal, Canada-based protein profiling company, raised $42 million in Series B funding. An undisclosed U.S.-based life-sciences-focused investor led the round and was joined by Amplitude Ventures, AVANT BIO, Lux Capital, and others.

- Ferrum Health, a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based AI deployment platform for health systems, raised $16M in Series A funding. Foundry led the round and was joined by Catalyst by Wellstar, Headwaters Ventures, UnitedHealthcare Accelerator, and existing investors Blumberg Capital, Cercano, GSR, and others.

- Harbor, a Dallas, Texas-based infant care technology developer, raised $7 million in seed funding. Trust Ventures led the round and was joined by Tim Ferriss, Morrison Seger Venture Capital Partners, John Isner, and others.

- Cercle, a San Francisco, Calif.-based women’s healthcare data insights AI company, raised $6 million in seed funding. Outsiders Fund led the round and was joined by FemHealth Ventures, CGHealth Ventures, Rogue Women’s Fund, existing investors Sheryl Sandberg, Tom Bernthal’s SBVP fund, and angel investors.

- Coral Care, which connects parents to childhood development specialists, raised $5.2m in seed funding led by AlleyCorp

- CUDIS, a Los Angeles, Calif.-based wearable technology company, raised $5 million in funding. Draper Associates led the round and was joined by Skybridge, Penrose, SNZ, and others.

- Canopie, a Falls Church, Va., digital preventive maternal health startup, raised $3.7m in seed funding led by Aeroflow Ventures

Enterprise/Consumer:

- OpenAI is expected raise around $6.5 billion at a $150 billion pre-money valuation, while also turning down billions of oversubscribed dollars. Thrive Capital is leading with an investment just north of $1.25 billion, including out of a special purpose vehicle. Other likely backers reportedly include Apple, Nvidia, and Microsoft

- World Labs, a Silicon Valley startup led by "modmother of AI" Fei-Fei Li, raised $230 million from backers like Andreessen Horowitz and Nvidia's venture arm. Other investors include NEA, Radical Ventures, Marc Benioff, Adobe Ventures, Databricks Ventures, Reid Hoffman, and Ashton Kutcher

- Hotel Engine, a Denver hospitality booking company, raised $140m in Series C funding at a $2.1b valuation led by Permira

- Flink, a German quick-commerce startup, raised $115m in equity (plus $35m in debt), from Bond, Mubadala, Northzone, and REWE Group

- Virtuous, a Phoenix, Ariz.-based customer relationship management software provider for nonprofits, raised $100 million in Series C funding from Susquehanna Growth Equity.

- Second Front Systems, a Wilmington, Del.-based software company for government agencies, raised $70 million in Series C funding. Salesforce Ventures led the round and was joined by Battery Ventures and existing investors  NEA, Moore Strategic Ventures, and Artis Ventures.

- Picus Security, a San Francisco, Calif.-based security validation company, raised $45 million in funding. Riverwood Capital led the round and was joined by existing investor Earlybird Digital East Fund.

- Mangomint, an LA-based provider of salon and spa software, raised $35m in Series B funding. Altos Ventures led, and was joined by SaaStr Fund and OpenView Venture Partners

- Intezer, a New York City-based AI-powered autonomous security operations provider, raised $33 million in Series C funding. Norwest Venture Partners led the round and was joined by existing investors Intel Capital, OpenView, Magma, and others.

- Mercor, a San Francisco, Calif.-based job application and hiring AI platform, raised $30 million in Series A funding. Benchmark led the round and was joined by Peter Thiel, Jack Dorsey, Adam D’Angelo, Larry Summers, and others.

- Cherre, a New York City-based real estate data management platform, raised $30 million in Series C funding. HighSage Ventures led the round and was joined by Intel Capital, CBRE, Nuveen, and others.

- TeamBridge, a provider of HR software for hourly workers, raised $28m in Series B funding. Mayfield led, and was joined by General Catalyst and Abstract Ventures.

- 11x, a San Francisco, Calif.-based AI autonomous digital workers developer, raised $24 million in Series A funding. Benchmark led the round and was joined by Quiet Capital, SV Angel, Abstract Ventures, and others.

- AceUp, a Boston, Mass.-based AI coaching engine, raised $22.5 million in Series A funding. Point Judith Capital led the round and was joined by Water Bear Ventures, Techstars, and others.

- fal, a remote AI-generated media platform, raised $23 million in funding. Kindred Ventures led the $14 million Series A round and was joined by Andreessen Horowitz, First Round Capital, and angel investors. fal also previously raised $9 million in seed funding from Andreessen Horowitz.

- Rebelstork, a Toronto, Canada-based baby gear returns recommerce marketplace, raised $18 million in Series A funding. Maveron led the round and was joined by Serena Ventures, Marcy Venture Partners, and existing investor Golden Ventures.

- Fathom, a San Francisco, Calif.-based AI-powered meeting intelligence platform, raised $17 million in Series A funding. Telescope Partners led the round and was joined by crowdfunding from users of the platform.

- DeltaStream, a Menlo Park, Calif.-based stream processing platform, raised $15 million in Series A funding from New Enterprise Associates, Galaxy Interactive, and Sanabil Investments. 

- RunSafe Security, a McLean, Va.-based cybersecurity company, raised $12 million in Series B funding. Critical Ventures and SineWave Venture Partners led the round and were joined by BMW i Ventures, Working Lab Capital, Lockheed Martin Ventures, and others.

- Supermaven, a New York City-based AI-powered code completion tool, raised $12 million in Series A funding. Bessemer Venture Partners led the round and was joined by John Schulman, Denis Yarats, Eoghan McCabe, and Mike Volpi.

- Mindtrip, an SF-based trip planning and booking platform, raised $12m. Forerunner Ventures led, and was joined by insider Costanoa

- Pie, a real-world socialization and friendship startup founded by Andy Dunn, raised $11.5m in Series A funding. Forerunner Venturesled, and was joined by Origin Ventures, Renegade Partners, and Ev Williams

- e6data, a San Francisco, Calif.-based lakehouse compute engine for enterprise data analytics, raised $10 million in Series A funding. Accel led the round and was joined by Beenext and others.

- Brightband, a remote AI weather forecasting platform, raised $10 million in Series A funding. Prelude Ventures led the round and was joined by Starshot Capital, Garage Capital, and Future Back Ventures by Bain & Company.

- Momos, a customer engagement platform for multi-location brands, raised $10m in Series A funding. 645 Ventures led, and was joined by Alpha Wave Global, Peak XV, Soma Capital, FJ Labs, Taurus Ventures, and Correlation Ventures.

- Knit, an Austin, Texas-based AI-automated consumer research process platform, raised $9 million in funding. Revolutions’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund led the round and was joined by Osage Venture Partners, GFT Ventures, Visible Ventures, Massive Ventures, and existing investors Silicon Road Ventures, Felton Group, and Alumni Ventures.

- Howabout, a calendar sharing startup, raised $8m in Series A funding led by Goodwater Capital, with participation from FJ Labs, Sequel, Harry Maguire, Boost Capital, and Angel Invest.

- c/side, a San Francisco, Calif.-based browser-focused cybersecurity platform, raised $6 million in seed funding. Uncork Capital led the round and was joined by Mantis VC, Scribble Ventures, Roar Ventures, PrimeSet, and others.

- Two Boxes, a Denver, Colo.-based returns process software, raised $5.3 million in funding. Peterson Ventures led the round and was joined by Assembly Ventures and existing investors Vinyl, Range Ventures, and Matchstick Ventures.

- Fermah, a zero-knowledge proof startup, raised $5.2m in seed funding a16z and Lemniscap co-led, and were joined by Bankless Ventures, Longhash Ventures, P-OPS team, Public Works, ZK Validator, Lambda Class, Daedalus, Zero DAO, Velocity Capital, and Daemon Ventures.

- Hydden, a New York City-based identity security platform, raised $4.4 million in seed funding. Access Venture Partners led the round and was joined by Lockstep, Service Provider Capital, and angel investors.

- ContextSDK, a New York City-based mobile app user experience personalization platform, raised $4 million in seed funding. Speedinvest led the round and was joined by First Momentum Ventures and Heracles Capital.

- Gamebeast, a Seattle, Wash.-based tooling platform for the user-generated content video game industry, raised $3.7 million in pre-seed funding. J2 Ventures led the round and was joined by a16z SPEEDRUN, The Mini Fund, and Le Zhang.

- Wayfaster, a hiring interviews startup, raised $2.6m from backers like Slow Ventures and South Park Commons

HardTech:

- Twelve, a Berkeley, Calif., sustainable aviation fuel startup, raised $200m in Series C funding. TPG Rise Climate, Capricorn Investment Group and Pulse co-led, and were joined by Fifth Wall, Northstar VC, TGVP, Alaska Airlines, DCVC, Munich Re Ventures, and Emerson Collective. Twelve also secured $445m in project equity financing and credit facilities

- ZeroAvia, a Kemble, England-based hydrogen-electric aircraft developer, raised $150 million in Series C funding. Airbus, Barclays Sustainable Impact Capital, and NEOM Investment Fund led the round and were joined by  UK Infrastructure Bank and existing investors Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Horizons Ventures, Ecosystem Integrity Fund.

- Air Company, a vodka distiller turned aviation fuel maker, raised $69m in Series B funding. Avfuel led, and was joined by Lowercarbon Capital, In-Q-Tel, Alaska Airlines, Connecticut Innovation's Climate Tech Fund, Duncan Aviation, JSSI, and the owners of Sheltair Aviation

- GreenLite, a New York City-based construction technology company, raised $28.5 million in Series A funding. Craft Ventures led the round and was joined by 53 Stations, Trust Ventures, and LiveOak Ventures.

- LiquidStack, a Carrollton, Texas-based liquid cooling developer for data centers, raised $20 million in a Series B extension from Tiger Global.

- Inbolt, a Paris, France-based robot guidance solutions provider, raised €15 million ($16.7 million) in Series A funding. Exor Ventures led the round and was joined by Bpifrance, Yann Fleureau, and existing investors MIG Capital, SOSV, and BNP Paribas Développement.

- Cybord, a Wilmington, Del.-based AI component analytics solution for electronic manufacturing, raised $8.7 million in Series A funding. Capri Ventures led the round and was joined by Ocean Azul Partners and existing investors IL Ventures and NextLeap Ventures.

- Safire Technology Group, a Knoxville, Tenn.-based battery technology developer for government and automotive markets, raised $8 million in funding. Canaan Partners led the round and was joined by Correlation Ventures, Higher Life Ventures, Ajinomoto, and others. 

- Track3D, a San Francisco, Calif.-based AI platform for the construction industry, raised $4.3 million in seed funding. Endiya Partners led the round and was joined by Shadow Ventures, Monta Vista Capital, and others.

- Pickommerce, a Petah Tikva, Israel-based warehouse automation technology developer, raised $3.4 million in funding. IL Ventures led the round and was joined by InNegev, Fusion VC, the Israel Innovation Authority, and ZIM Ventures.

- PinPoint Analytics, a Manalapan, N.J.-based AI platform for the road construction industry’s bidding and estimating process, raised $3.2 million in seed funding. HG Ventures led the round and was joined by Compose VC.

Sustainability:

- AIR COMPANY, a New York City-based carbon conversion technology company, raised $69 million in Series B funding. Avfuel led the round and was joined by Lowercarbon Capital, IQT, Alaska Airlines, and others.

- Hgen, a Los Angeles, Calif.-based clean hydrogen developer, raised $5 million in seed funding. Seven Seven Six led the round and was joined by Founders Fund and Fontinalis Partners.

---

Acquisitions & PE:

- Workday (Nasdaq: WDAY) agreed to buy Evisort, a a San Mateo, Calif.-based document intelligence platform that had raised over $150m from TCV, General Atlantic, M12, Amity Ventures and Vertex Ventures.

- Farfetch, a subsidiary of Coupang (NYSE: CPNG), sold beauty e-commerce company Violet Grey back to founder Cassandra Grey

- Accenture acquired a minority stake in Martian, a San Francisco, Calif.-based LLM router developer. Financial terms were not disclosed.

- Advantive, backed by Insight Partners and others, acquired Comsense, a Toronto, Canada-based ERP software provider for architectural opening distributors. Financial terms were not disclosed.

- Altas, a PE firm, is investing in Sedgwick in a deal that values the claims management provider at $13.2 billion. Carlyle and Stone Point Capital remain as investors with Carlyle maintaining its control position. Altas has committed to invest $1 billion as part of the transaction.