Sourcery → Friend.com

(7/29-8/2) Character AI, OpenAI, Friend 🥇 Astranis, Applied Carbon, Bilt Rewards, Flo Health, Spring Health, Altana, Gloo

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

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Hello From The Olympics

Not really. But we are cheering from the sidelines (especially near Snoop Dogg & Martha Stewart). 

Big congratulations to former VC, Kristen Faulkner who has taken home the gold medal in the women's cycling road race for Team USA; the first time in 40 years! She started just 7 years ago as a hobby alongside her job in venture (or as The Cut puts it as an  “Office Worker”).. which leads us all to question our own hobbies. Maybe newsletters aren’t that cool? Glad I started biking last weekend.

The last few weeks have been a bit of a storm.. all leading to hysteria over public equities correcting themselves from their highs. Stocks always go up, right? We’re not going to even attempt to predict this one as the next couple of months are likely to remain quite volatile leading up to the election. (Thank you to KS for this wonderful Fred Again meme).

More importantly, billionaire media tycoon and former mayor of san francisco officially knows I exist. And this tweet converted to 1k+ visits and 100+ new X followers.. so that was cool.

Musings

Macro

• Q2 2024 State of Venture Update, AI Uncertainty, Software Undervaluation, and the Defense Tech Renaissance [Alex Kolicich, 8VC]

  • Fingers crossed we can get Alex back on the pod to break down this one. Highly recommend. + explains the opportunity window for Defense Tech 

AI

• Trio of OpenAI Leaders Depart, Take Leave of Absence [The Information]

  • Everyone has their number, and everyone has their limits. After 9 years, more OpenAI Co-Founders exit for some fresh air.. and even for some competitors.

• Former Google engineers Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas, who founded Character.ai, have rejoined Google through a new AI partnership, with Google planning to invest significantly in their AI chatbot startup. [CNBC]

  • Another large acquihire in the AI books. We can only predict this number will go up as fears of AI startup market saturation & volatility rises alongside innovation pressure from bigco’s to take an active position in this new technology cycle - in most cases not ideal for investors looking for hopeful returns.

    • Xander Oltmann finds similarities between AI hype & predictive analytics hype

    • Eric Newcomer breaks down potential antitrust concerns & macro constraints

• Meta has launched Llama 3.1, the largest open-source AI model in history, with 405 billion parameters, aiming to advance accessibility and performance in AI applications. [Economic Times]

  • It further partnered with major tech companies like Nvidia, Google, and Microsoft to enhance its capabilities.

Software

• Do large software companies receive premium multiples? [Selina Wang of Altimeter]

HardTech

• With over 23M views, 12K likes, 10k retweets, 4k comments & endless X debates, Friend.com’s BFF necklace might’ve just been one of the most viral new product launches in a while.

  • Yes, they spent $1.8M of their $2.5M in funding on the domain

• Neura has unveiled its humanoid robot, 4NE-1, showcasing its advanced capabilities and potential applications. [Techcrunch]

• NASA successfully demonstrated laser communications by streaming 4K video from an aircraft to the International Space Station and back, potentially increasing data transmission speeds by 10-100 times over conventional systems. [Aviation Week]

Top Interviews

• Downfall of SaaS & Uprising of Vertically Integrated Monopolies - Xander Oltmann, Commodity Capital

• Exclusive | Alex Kolicich, 8VC: Exodus of Venture Capital, AI Predictions

• Finding Alpha in VC & LP Bias: David Weisburd, 10X Capital

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Last Week (7/29-8/2):

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, and Fund Announcements, and ordered from later-stage rounds to early-stage rounds.

Highlighted VC Deals include: 

Astranis, Applied Carbon, Bilt Rewards, Flo Health, Spring Health, Altana, Gloo

Acquisitions & PE

Outbrain, Fiverr

Funds

XYZ Venture Capital, Moxxie, Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners

Final Numbers

On the federal funds target rate and Amazon Q2 performance at the bottom.

New Research

Age-associated proteins explain the role of medial temporal lobe networks in Alzheimer’s disease + The untapped potential of cold water therapy as part of a lifestyle intervention for promoting healthy aging

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VC Deals 

This roundup was customized & powered by Wonder. Start your free trial here.

Fintech:

- Bilt Rewards, a New York credit card startup, closed $150M in additional funding led by Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan and supported by Vanderbilt University Endowment, the University of Illinois Foundation and others.

- Gradient AI, a Boston, MA-based artificial intelligence (AI) solutions provider for the insurance industry, completed a $56.1M Series C funding, led by Centana Growth Partners, and joined by MassMutual Ventures, Sandbox Insurtech Ventures, and Forte Ventures.

- Mezo, Thesis’s permissionless Bitcoin economic layer, secured $7.5M funding, bringing the total funding raised to $30M, led by Ledger Cathay Fund and the Ledger Cathay Innovation Fund, supported by ArkStream, Aquarius Fund, Flowdesk, GSR, Origin Protocol, and Mantle’s EcoFund.

- Powder, a Los Altos, CA-based fintech startup providing AI agents for precise document analysis, closed $5M in seed funding, backed by YCombinator, General Catalyst, Funder’s Club, Elefund, Liquidity Ventures, Script Capital, Jon Xu, and Bryant Chou.

- FranShares, a Chicago, IL-based franchise investing platform, secured $4.1M in Seed funding, led by Chicago Ventures with support from other investors.

- Mintify, a Uniondale, NY-based NFT trading platform, completed a $3.4M funding round, backed by ARCA, Cumberland, Psalion, Master Ventures, Zeneca, and others.

Care:

- Flo Health, a London, UK-based women’s health app provider, secured over $200M in Series C funding, bringing its valuation to more than $1B, led by General Atlantic.

- Spring Health, an NYC-based mental health solution for employers and health plans, closed $100M in Series E funding at a $3.3B valuation., led by Generation Investment Management and joined by Kinnevik, William K Warren Foundation, RRE, and Northzone.

- MedScout, an Austin, TX-based revenue acceleration platform for medtech and life science businesses, completed a $15M Series A funding round, led by Fulcrum Equity Partners and joined by Stage 2 Capital and LiveOak Ventures.

- Medicom, a Raleigh, NC-based enterprise imaging interoperability health tech startup, raised an undisclosed amount in a strategic financing round, backed by UPMC Enterprises, Tampa General Hospital (TGH) Ventures, Cone Health Ventures, Oval Park Capital, Grayhawk Capital, the Carolina Angel Network, and the Triangle Tweener Fund. 

Enterprise/Consumer:

- Altana, an NYC-based value chain management system, secured $200M in Series C funding. The round was led by Thomas Tull’s US Innovative Technology Fund (USIT), and joined by March Capital, Generation Investment Management, Salesforce Ventures, Friends and Family Capital, GV (Google Ventures), Activate Capital, Floating Point, and OMERS Ventures.

- Gloo, a Boulder, CO-based faith-focused and religious connecting and outreach technology platform, raised $110M in funding from undisclosed investors.

- Agrovision, a Los Angeles, CA-based healthy superfruit platform, secured $100M in equity financing at over $1B valuation, backed by Aliment Capital and Steve Kaplan, Co-Founder of Oaktree Capital Management.

- Contextual AI, a Mountain View, CA, enterprise AI company, closed $80M in Series A funding, led by Greycroft and supported by Bain Capital Ventures, Lightspeed, Lip-Bu Tan, Conviction, Recall Capital, Bezos Expeditions, NVentures, HSBC Ventures, and Snowflake Ventures..

- Protect AI, a Seattle, WA-based artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) security company, secured $60M in Series B funding, led by Evolution Equity Partners and joined by 01 Advisors, StepStone Group, Samsung, Acrew Capital, boldstart ventures, Knollwood Capital, Pelion Ventures, and Salesforce Ventures.

- Ema, a San Francisco, CA-based generative AI-enabled universal employee platform, raised an additional $36M to its Series A funding, bringing the total to $50M, led by Accel and Section 32, with support from Prosus Ventures, Sozo Ventures, Hitachi Ventures, Wipro Ventures, SCB 10X, Colle Capital, and Frontier Ventures.

- Oats Overnight, a Tempe, AZ-based high-protein oatmeal brand, closed $35M in Series B funding, led by Enlightened Hospitality Investments (EHI) and supported by Sonoma Brands Capital, Impatient Ventures, Singh Capital Partners, Morrison Seger Venture Capital Partners, and BFG Partners.

- unspun, an Oakland, CA-based 3D weaving technology company, secured $32M in Series B funding, led by DCVC, with support from Lowercarbon Capital, E12, Decathlon, and SOSV.

- Faye, a Richmond, VA-based travel tech startup, closed $31M in Series B funding, bringing the total funding to $49M, led by Portage, and joined by Lumir Ventures, F2 Venture Capital, Viola Ventures, and Munich Re Ventures.

- Trio Mobil, a Philadelphia, PA-based AI and IoT solutions provider for workplace safety and efficiency, raised $26.5M in venture funding, led by NewSpring and joined by 212 and TIBAS Ventures.

- Axiad, a Santa Clara, CA-based identity-first enabler of the zero-trust enterprise, completed a $25M funding round led by Invictus Growth Partners.

- Perchwell, an NYC-based data and workflow platform for the residential real estate industry, closed $25M in Series B funding, led by Lux Capital and joined Starwood Capital Group, Flex Capital, Stellar MLS, REcolorado MLS, and California Regional MLS (CRMLS).

- Credo AI, a Palo Alto, CA-based AI governance software provider, secured $21M in funding, led by CrimsoNox Capital, Mozilla Ventures, and FPV Ventures, with support from Sands Capital, Decibel VC, Booz Allen Hamilton, and AI Fund.

- Haus, a San Francisco, CA-based decision science and marketing measurement solutions provider, completed a $20M additional funding round, led by 01 Advisors, and joined by Rahul Mehta, Gokul Rajaram, Insight Partners, Baseline Ventures, Haystack Ventures, Octave, and Mantis Venture Capital.

- Lineaje, a Saratoga, CA-based continuous supply chain security management software provider, secured a $20M Series A funding round, led by Prosperity7 Ventures, Neotribe, and Hitachi Ventures, with the participation of Tenable Ventures.

- Gigpro, a Charleston, SC-based on-demand labor marketplace for the hospitality industry, raised $16M in Series A funding, led by Foundry, with support from Stage 1 Ventures, Stage 2 Capital, and Detroit Venture Partners.

- Rillet, a Palo Alto, CA-based automation-first ERP provider for high-growth companies, closed $13.5M in funding, led by First Round Capital and Creandum, alongside Chad Byers (Susa Ventures), Kevin Hartz (founder of Eventbrite and Xoom), among other individual investors.

- ZeroTier, an Irvine, CA-based network security startup, completed a $13.5M Series A funding round, led by Battery Ventures, with support from Bonfire Ventures, Anorak Ventures, Grand Enterprises B.V., Airbridge Equity Partners, and First In Ventures.

- Leaf, an NYC-based unified farm data API and farm data processing platform, raised $11.3M in Series A funding, backed by all existing investors.

- Sybill, a Mountain View, CA-based B2B AI sales assistant, secured $11M in Series A funding, led by Greycroft, with support from Neotribe Ventures, Powerhouse Ventures, and Uncorrelated Ventures.

- Tezi, a Menlo Park, CA-based autonomous AI recruiter, closed $9M in Seed funding, led by 8VC and Audacious Ventures, with support from Liquid 2, Afore, Prime Set, South Park Commons, the founding CEOs of Instacart and Thumbtack, as well as other angels.

- Batbox, a Dallas, TX-based baseball entertainment experience provider, raised $7.3M in Series A funding, led by Emerging Fund and MG Partners.

- Hyperbolic, a San Francisco-based open-access AI computing and interference service provider, closed $7M in Seed funding, led by Polychain Capital and Lightspeed Faction and joined by Chapter One, LongHash, Bankless Ventures, Republic Digital, and others.

- When, a Chicago, IL-based AI-powered offboarding solution for navigating post-employment transitions, raised $4.6M in Seed funding.

- Look North World, a Los Angeles, CA-based video game studio and publisher, secured $4.5M in Seed funding, led by London Venture Partners, with support from Bandai Namco Entertainment 021 Fund, Overwolf, Crush Ventures, and others.

- GovWell, a New York-based govtech software platform, closed $4.5M in Seed funding, led by Work-Bench, with support from Bienville Capital.

- Rhombus, a Sacramento, CA-based cloud-managed physical security provider, secured $4M in Series C funding, led by NightDragon, with support from Bluestone Equity Partners, Caden Capital, Cota Capital, Tru Arrow Partners, and Uncorrelated Ventures.

- Endari, a San Francisco, CA-based cybersecurity company, closed $4M in seed funding from undisclosed investors.

- SafeGuard Privacy, an NYC-based SaaS-based compliance platform enabling the assessment, audit, and compliance with global privacy laws, raised $3.6M in funding, led by TechOperators, Dynamism Capital, Sidekick Partners, and other existing investors.

- Streamkap, a San Francisco, CA-based real-time data exchange platform, completed a $3.3M Seed and Pre-seed funding round, led by InReach Ventures, and joined by TEN13, Haatch Ventures, Begin Capital, and angel investors.

- Axle Automation, Inc., a San Francisco, CA-based AI-powered solutions provider for compliance teams, raised $2.5M in Seed funding, led by Diagram Ventures and supported by Mistral Ventures, Uphonest Capital, StreamingFast, and other angel investors.

- Not Diamond, a San Francisco, CA-based intelligent AI query router for developers, raised $2.3M in funding, led by defy.vc, with support from Jeff Dean (Google), Julien Chaumond (Hugging Face), Zack Kass (OpenAI), Ion Stoica (Anyscale, Databricks), Tom Preston-Werner (Github), Scott Belsky (Adobe), and Jeff Weiner (LinkedIn), and among others.

- PortfolioPilot.com, a San Francisco, CA-based AI-driven financial advisory platform, secured $2M in Seed funding, backed by Morado Ventures, NEA Angel Fund, Unpopular Ventures, and other angel investors.

- DecoverAI, a Washington, DC-based legal technology company, secured $2M in seed funding, led by Leo Capital alongside other prominent investors.

- Naturaz, a Philadelphia, PA-based beauty company that formulates, manufactures, and distributes vegan hair care products, completed a $1M Seed funding round, backed by Philadelphia Community Impact Fund, the Bucks County IDA, and other investors.

- Helpt, an Irvine, CA-based technical and customer service solution provider, closed $850k in Seed funding, led by Dealbrook Holdings II.

- Wed Society, an Oklahoma City-based wedding industry franchise, secured an undisclosed Series A funding round from undisclosed investors at a $5.775M valuation.

- Reason Automation, a Portland, OR-based enterprise e-commerce data technology startup, raised an undisclosed amount in Seed funding, backed by Verify Ventures.

- Halcyon, an Austin, TX-based ransomware security platform, secured an undisclosed strategic investment from Cisco Investments.

- FleetPulse, a Chicago, IL-based trailer telematics innovator, closed additional funding of an undisclosed amount from NFI Ventures and Ironspring Ventures.

HardTech:

- Astranis, a San Francisco, CA-based geostationary satellite maker, secured $200M in Series D funding, led by a16z and BAM Elevate, with support from Blackrock, Fidelity, and Baillie Gifford.

- TS Conductor, a Huntington Beach, CA-based advanced electric power line manufacturer, raised $60M in growth funding, led by Wellington Management, and joined by Quanta Services, Gates Frontier, Energy & Environment Investment, Inc., Blue Earth Capital, Edison International, National Grid Partners, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, and a subsidiary of NextEra Energy Resources.

- Applied Carbon, a Houston, TX-based automated in-field agricultural crop waste-to-biochar production machine and technology developer, raised $21.5M in Series A funding, led by TO VC and joined by Congruent Ventures, Grantham Foundation, Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund, S2G Ventures, Overture.vc, Wireframe Ventures, Autodesk Foundation, Anglo American, Susquehanna Foundation, US Endowment for Forestry and Communities, TELUS Pollinator Fund for Good, and Elemental Excelerator.

- Athena Security, an Austin, TX-based concealed weapons detection system solution, raised $10M in Seed funding, led by its founders, President Lisa Falzone and CTO Chris Ciabarra.

- AeroShield Materials, a Waltham, MA-based MIT spin-out developing technology for energy efficiency applications in the built environment, closed $5M in additional funding, led by Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, MassVentures, and MassMutual Ventures.

Sustainability:

- osapiens, a Mannheim, Germany-based ESG platform and compliance and sustainability reporting solutions provider, secured a $120M Series B financing, led by Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives.

- Type One Energy, a Knoxville, TN-based sustainable fusion power provider, raised $82.4M in Seed funding, backed by Centaurus Capital, GD1, Foxglove, and other funds from Australia.

- Graphyte, a Pine Bluff, AR-based durable carbon removal startup, raised $30M in Series A funding, co-led by Prelude Ventures and Carbon Direct Capital, with support from Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV) and Overture.

- Onepak Inc., a Boston, MA-based digital supply chain and reverse logistics platform that facilitates the flow of used IT hardware and e-waste for responsible repurposing, raised $20M backed by Nuveen.

- Sora Fuel, a Cambridge, MA-based startup producing sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) using water, air, and renewable energy, secured $6M in Seed funding, led by The Engie Ventures, with support from Wireframe Ventures.

- Matereal, a Denver, CO-based plastic replacements technology company, raised $4.5M in Seed funding, led by the Collaborative Fund, with support from Better Ventures, Alante Capital, One Small Planet, Climate Capital, Sandy Spring Climate Partners, Pachamama Ventures, and PDS Ventures.

- Raad Labs, an NYC-based blockchain climate tech startup, closed $2.25M in funding, led by CoinFund, with support from Tribe, EV3, and Protagonist.

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Acquisitions & PE:

- Outbrain is set to acquire Teads, a New York City-based omnichannel video platform, for approximately $1B.

- Fiverr acquired AutoDS, a Denver, Co-based subscription-based end-to-end solution for dropshippers, for an undisclosed amount.

- Blue Yonder, a Scottsdale, AZ-based leader in digital supply chain transformations, acquired One Network Enterprises, at an enterprise value of about $839M.