Sourcery → Micro, Lake Como
Sourcery → Micro, Lake Como
(5/20-5/24) Radiant Nuclear 🪐 Scale AI, Deepl, Aerodome, H, Suno, Lumos, Majority, Footprint, Plume Network, Expressable, Daffodil Health, Superpower, Coactive Systems, Max Retail, Simr, Verse
Hello from Lake Como 🪐
From one of LA’s leading emerging VC funds, Type One Ventures ..and they might have just set a new standard for tech events.
The team hosted their annual Frontier Formal at the Villa Pliniana in Lake Como this past week with partners Banca Investis and Trousdale Ventures. Combining the elegance of the breathtaking historic villa built over 500 years ago, alongside champions in the new age of mobility, space, and deep tech industries. They showcased live activations from portfolio companies such as Interstellar Labs, Gravitics, Lunar Outpost, and Argo Space, accompanied with out-of-this world panels and an impressive Frontier Gala dinner.
→ Read more in Founding Partner Tarek Waked’s post on the event
Type One Ventures is a multi-stage VC fund envisioning a future civilization that is not only self-sufficient, but also interplanetary. They invest in startups building the technologies, infrastructure, and services that will be integral as we progress towards a Type I Civilization. Portfolio companies include: SpaceX, Space Forge, Neuralink, Anthropic, Gravitics, and OpenAI.
Musings
Micro
New pod dropping soon: Radiant CEO Doug Bernauer on Portable Nuclear Microreactors & The Future of Energy
The [Micro]Plastic Chemicals Hiding in Your Food [Consumer Reports]
This alarming study has been circulating in group chats, on X, made it to the All-in Pod last week (1:02:36), and even Nat Friedman sought to hire someone to do summer research on the topic.
More Resources: Phthalates: metabolism and exposure [2007 Study]; An estimation of the daily intake of di(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate (DEHP) and other phthalates in the general population [NIH]; Effects and Mechanisms of Phthalates’ Action on Reproductive Processes and Reproductive Health: A Literature Review [NIH]; Phthalates exposure of Chinese reproductive age couples and its effect on male semen quality, a primary study [NIH]; Microplastic presence in dog and human testis and its potential association with sperm count and weights of testis and epididymis [Oxford]
Macro
AI investments, VC ecosystem geography, and VC hypocrisy [TWIS]
Software Environment Remains Strained [Jamin Ball, Altimeter]
Introducing: Beyond Benchmarks 2024 - The inaugural edition of our comprehensive, early-stage enterprise cloud market report that goes "beyond" benchmarks {Emergence Capital]
AI
Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang [No Priors with Sarah Guo & Elad Gil]
AI Spending Patterns : It's Not What You Think [Tomasz Tunguz]
Apple’s AI Strategy: Apple Datacenters, On-device, Cloud, And More [SemiAnalysis]
The future of foundation models is closed-source [John Luttig, Founders Fund]
OpenAI has paused the use of its ChatGPT voice "Sky" after Scarlett Johansson raised concerns that it sounded eerily similar to her own voice, despite her declining an offer to work with the company on the project. [CBS News]
News Corp. has partnered with OpenAI to allow its news content to be displayed in ChatGPT, with the deal potentially worth over $250 million. [Washington Post]
HardTech
An NVIDIA Primer: A walk through NVIDIA's product lines [hhhypergrowth]
Nvidia stock pops 9%, tops $1,000 after earnings beat forecasts, announces stock split and dividend hike [YahooFinance]
Wearable AI Startup Humane Explores Potential Sale, Sources Say [Bloomberg]
The Pentagon has warned that Russia launched a satellite into space that is capable of tracking and potentially destroying U.S. technology in orbit, raising concerns about its role as a counter-space weapon. [The Sun]
Amazon Braket has introduced a new 20-qubit superconducting quantum processor from IQM Quantum Computers, enhancing its quantum computing offerings and expanding accessibility for users in Europe. [AWS]
Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin are intensifying their rivalry in space tourism, with Virgin Galactic recently resuming flights after a hiatus and planning regular commercial operations. Blue Origin is working to resume its flights following a previous in-flight failure. [Washington Post]
More
Find LA Tech Events all in one spot, shoutout to Scott Howard from House of Ventures for putting this together
Mind Magic: The Neuroscience of Manifestation and How It Changes Everything, James R. Doty MD
Currently reading this. It’s a fascinating combination of neuroscience, human behavior, and harnessing the power of the subconscious mind. PSA this is not a woo-woo LA manifestation book but an intellectual study on how Doty’s scientific research and personal experience gave him a new perspective and actionable takeaways.
Last Week (5/20-5/24):
Relevant deals include the 80+ deals across stages below.
I've categorized the deals below into eight categories, Fintech, Care, Enterprise / Consumer, HardTech, Sustainability, Acquisition/PE, IPOs, and Fund Announcements, and ordered from later-stage rounds to early-stage rounds.
Highlighted VC deals include
Scale AI, Deepl, Aerodome, H, Suno, Lumos, Majority, Footprint, Plume Network, Expressable, Daffodil Health, Superpower, Coactive Systems, Max Retail, Simr, Verse
Acquisitions & PE
Accenture/Udacity, CyberArk/Venafi, ExponentL
Final Numbers
Student Loan Interest Rates, and U.S. Semiconductor Facility Growth
New Research
Inflammaging Drugs, Global Quality of Life Scores, and NMN Intake for Longevity
VC Deals
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Fintech:
- Vitesse, a London, UK-based treasury and payment solutions provider for the insurance industry, secured $93M in Series C funding, led by KKR and joined by Hannover Digital Investments.
- Majority, a Miami, FL-based mobile banking and international services platform provider for immigrants, closed $20M in funding, led by Victor Jacobsson and Hjalmar Winbladh, with support from Magnus Nilsson, Jacob de Geer, Valar Ventures, Heartcore Capital, and Avid Ventures.
- CBiGroup, a NYC-based global financial services company for businesses, secured a $15M Series A funding round, led by Alpol Capital Family Office.
- Footprint, an NYC-based technology company built to help banks, marketplaces, and fintechs onboard their users, received $13M in Series A funding, led by QED Investors, with support from Index Ventures, Lerer Hippeau, Operator Partners, BoxGroup, Palm Tree Capital, Definition, Neo, and Animal Capital.
- Traction Ag, an Auburn, IN-based farm cloud-based accounting solutions provider, received $10M in Series A funding, led by Cooperative Ventures and joined by Plymouth Growth and other existing investors.
- Plume Network, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of a modular EVM Layer-2 built to bring any real-world asset (RWA) on-chain, closed $10M in Seed funding, led by Haun Ventures and joined by Galaxy Ventures, Superscrypt, A Capital, SV Angel, Portal Ventures, Reciprocal Ventures, and other angel investors.
- Teal, an NYC-based accounting infrastructure company for vertical SaaS businesses, secured $8M in Seed funding, led by Torch Capital and joined by Basis Set Ventures, General Advance, Dash Fund, and executives from Service Titan, Plaid, Brex, Unit, and Gusto.
Care:
- Atropos Health, a Palo Alto, CA-based platform translating real-world clinical data into high-quality personalized real-world evidence for care, closed a $33M Series B funding round, led by Valtruis, with support from Cencora Ventures, McKesson Ventures, Merck GHI Fund, Breyer Capital, Emerson Collective, and Presidio Ventures.
- Expressable, an Austin, TX-based research-based and family-centered speech therapy care provider, completed a $26M Series B funding round, led by HarbourVest Partners, and joined by Digitalis Ventures, F-Prime Capital, and Lerer Hippeau.
- SamaCare, a San Francisco, CA-based cloud-based patient access platform for specialty medications, secured a $17M Series B funding round, led by Questa Capital, with support from Vive Collective and South Park Commons.
- Amino Health, a San Francisco, CA-based digital healthcare navigation company, received $10M in funding, led by Transformation Capital.
- Hamilton Health Box, a Houston, TX-based provider of a microclinic operating model, secured $10M in Series A funding, led by 1588 Ventures, with support from Memorial Hermann Health System, Impact Ventures by Johnson & Johnson Foundation, Texas Medical Center Venture Fund, and the Sullivan Brothers.
- Videra Health, an Orem, UT-based AI-driven mental health assessment platform, secured $5.6M in Seed II funding, led by Peterson Ventures and joined by Mercato Partners, Epic Ventures, and Philo Ventures.
- StrokeDx, a Pasadena, CA-based stroke detection technology company, secured $5M in Seed funding, led by DigiTx Partners and joined by Freeflow Ventures and other existing investors.
- Daffodil Health, a San Francisco, CA-based healthcare pricing and administration AI-powered solutions provider, closed a $4.6M Seed funding round, led by Maverick Ventures, with support from Epic Ventures.
- OncoveryCare, a Boston, MA-based company providing whole-person care to cancer survivors, received $4.5M in Seed funding, led by .406 Ventures and joined by McKay Institute for Oncology Transformation at Tennessee Oncology.
- Superpower, a San Francisco, CA-based healthcare platform provider, closed a $4M Pre-Seed funding round, led by Susa Ventures, with support from Long Journey Ventures, Family Fund, Atman VC, 24 Carrot VC, Focalpoint Partners, Seaside Ventures, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, Balaji Srinivasan, Scott and Cyan Banister, and Evan Charles Moore.
- TadHealth, a Newport Beach, CA-based provider of a mental health platform, raised $1.6M in funding, led by Halcyon Venture Partners, and joined by USC Viterbi School of Engineering Venture Fund, Halcyon Angels, and RevFund.
- Carl, an NYC-based AgeTech company and provider of dementia-friendly products, secured $1.15M in Pre-Seed funding from undisclosed investors.
- Wayspring, a Nashville, TN-based value-based care company focused on substance use disorder (SUD) populations, raised an undisclosed funding led by CVS Health Ventures.
Enterprise/Consumer:
- Scale AI, a San Francisco, CA-based data foundry for AI, completed a $1B Series F funding round at a $13.8B valuation, led by Accel, with support from Y Combinator, Nat Friedman, Index Ventures, Founders Fund, Coatue, Thrive Capital, Spark Capital, NVIDIA, Tiger Global Management, Greenoaks, Wellington Management, Cisco Investments, DFJ Growth, Intel Capital, ServiceNow Ventures, AMD Ventures, WCM, Amazon, Elad Gil, and Meta.
- DeepL, a Cologne, Germany-based language AI company, received a $300M financing investment at a $2B valuation, led by Index Ventures, with support from ICONIQ Growth, Teachers’ Venture Growth, IVP, Atomico, and WiL.
- H, a Paris, France-based global foundation model and agentic AI company, completed a $220M Seed funding round, backed by Accel, UiPath Inc., Bpifrance, Eric Schmidt, Xavier Niel, Amazon, FirstMark, Elaia Partners, Eurazeo, Yuri Milner, Bernard Arnault’s Aglaé Ventures, Creandum, Motier Ventures, Samsung, and Visionaries Club, among others.
- Suno, a Cambridge, MA-based music creation platform, closed $125M in funding from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Matrix, Founder Collective, Nat Friedman, and Daniel Gross.
- AssetWatch, a Columbus OH-based condition monitoring and predictive maintenance company, received $38M in Series B funding, led by Wellington Management, and joined by G2 Venture Partners, Triangle Peak Partners, Standard Investments, Osage University Partners, and JobsOhio Growth Capital Fund.
- Lumos, a San Francisco, CA-based software company centralizing the management of apps and identities for IT and security teams, secured $35M in Series B funding, led by Scale Venture Partners, with support from Andreessen Horowitz, Harpoon Ventures, Neo and others.
- Hydrolix, a Portland, OR-based streaming data lake platform, completed a $35M Series B funding round, led by S3 Ventures, with participation from Nava Ventures, Wing Ventures, AV8 Ventures, and Oregon Venture Fund.
- Coactive Systems, a San Jose, CA-based AI-powered analytics platform for unstructured image and video data, completed a $30M Series B funding round at a $200M valuation, co-led by Emerson Collective and Cherryrock Capital, with support from Bessemer Venture Partners, Greycroft, and Andreessen Horowitz.
- WitnessAI, a San Mateo, CA-based platform provider for safe AI use, received $27.5M in Series A funding, led by GV and Ballistic Ventures.
- SOCRadar, a Newark, DE-based provider of enterprise-grade, end-to-end threat intelligence and brand protection solutions, closed a $25.2M Series B funding round, led by PeakSpan Capital and joined by Oxx.
- Codesphere, a Redwood City, CA- and Karlsruhe, Germany-based combine cloud/online integrated development environment (IDE) and DevOps platform, raised $18M in funding, led by Creandum, with support from LEA Partners, Begin Capital, 42CAP, and 468.
- Patronus AI, a San Francisco, CA-based automated evaluation and security platform, secured $17M in Series A funding, bringing the total amount to $20M, was led by Glenn Solomon at Notable Capital, with support from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Datadog, Gokul Rajaram, Factorial Capital, and other software and AI executives.
- Max Retail, a West Palm Beach, FL-based marketplace for independent retailers and brands to sell excess inventory, completed a $15M Series A funding round, led by Nosara Capital and joined by Rethink Impact, M13, The Artemis Fund, StandUp Ventures.
- Bolster, a Santa Clara, CA-based multi-channel phishing protection company, received $14M in Series B funding, led by M12, with support from Thomvest Ventures, Crosslink Capital, Liberty Global Ventures, Cheyenne Ventures, Cervin Ventures, and Transform Capital.
- Ketos, a San Francisco, CA-based water intelligence company, raised $10M in additional equity funding, led by Tenfore Holdings and joined by Danu Venture Group, Broadway Angels, Plum Alley Ventures, Plug and Play Ventures, and Accenture.
- Averlon, a Redmond, Wa-based cloud security company, completed an $8M Seed funding round, bringing the total amount to $10.5M, led by Voyager Capital, with support from Salesforce Ventures and Outpost Ventures, along with CISOs and industry leaders.
- Tenon, an Indianapolis, IN-based ServiceNow-built marketing solutions provider, closed $8M in Series A funding, led by High Alpha and StepStone Group, with support from ServiceNow Ventures.
- Userfront, a San Jose, CA-based B2B authentication and identity platform, closed $5.3M in Seed funding, led by Heavybit.
- Superlegal, an NYC-based AI platform for legal contract review for SMEs, secured $5M in Seed funding, led by Aleph and Disruptive AI fund, with support from Alicorn Venture Capital, and Tom Glocer.
- Skribe.ai, an Austin, TX-based legaltech platform, received $3.5M in funding from undisclosed investors.
- Volt, a Tulsa, OK-based Messaging Operations (Ops) infrastructure platform, raised $3M in Seed funding, led by Mercury, with support from Atento Capital, Uncorrelated Ventures, Stout Street Capital, and Yellow Rocks.
- RootNote, an Indianapolis, Indiana-based creator and athlete data startup, secured a $1.5M Pre-Seed funding round, led by Elevate Ventures.
HardTech:
- Aerodome, a Los Angeles CA-based Drone-As-First-Responder (DFR) technology company, closed a $21.5M Series A funding, bringing the total amount to $28M, led by CRV and joined by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Karman Ventures, Immad Akhund (CEO, Mercury), and Ford Street Ventures.
- Expedera, a Santa Clara, CA-based licensor of edge inference artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductor intellectual property (IP), secured a $20M Series B funding round, led by indie Semiconductor and joined by other investors.
- Simr, a Los Altos, CA-based company advancing SimOps for manufacturers, completed a $20M Series A funding round, led by Uncorrelated Ventures, and joined by BMW i Ventures and Earlybird Venture Capital.
- Overland AI, a Seattle, WA-based company developing off-road ground vehicle autonomy for the defense sector, closed $10M in Seed funding, led by Point72 Ventures and joined by Shasta Ventures, Ascend VC, Pioneer Square Labs, Voyager Capital, and Cubit Capital.
- Subeca, a Richardson, TX-based Internet of Things (IoT) startup providing low-cost water technology, received $6M in Series A funding, led by SUEZ and joined by Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund and Burnt Island Ventures.
- ThinkLabs AI, a NYC-based startup focused on developing technology to help enhance grid planning through intelligent automation and AI, secured $5M in Seed funding, co-led by Powerhouse Ventures and Active Impact Investments, as well as joined by Blackhorn Ventures, Amplify Capital, Mercuria Energy, and a national US energy company.
Sustainability:
- 280 Earth, a Mountain View, CA- and The Dalles, OR-based company that removes CO2 from the air, secured a $50M Series B funding round, led by Builders VC.
- Verse, a San Francisco, CA-based advanced analytics platform for planning and managing clean energy, secured $20.5M in Series A funding, led by GV and joined by Coatue, CIV, and MCJ Collective.
- XGS Energy, a Palo Alto, CA-based geothermal energy technology company, received $20M in Series A funding, led by Valo Ventures and VoLo Earth Ventures, and supported by B Current Impact Investment, MIH Capital, individual inside investors, and Thin Line Capital.
- Harbinger, a Los Angeles, CA-based electric truck manufacturer, closed an additional $13M in funding, bringing the total amount to $73M, and was backed by the Coca-Cola System Sustainability Fund, managed by Greycroft.
- Novata, an NYC-based sustainability management tech company, closed a new financing round of an undisclosed amount from Hamilton Lane, S&P Global, and Motive Ventures.
Acquisitions & PE:
- Accenture (NYSE: ACN) acquired Udacity, a digital education company, for an undisclosed amount.
- AuditBoard, a Los Angeles, CA-based provider of a connected risk platform for audit, risk, compliance, and ESG management, is to be acquired by Hg, an investor in compliance, risk, and accounting software, for over $3B.
- Admiral Acquisition Limited agreed to acquire Acuren, a Tomball, TX-based provider of engineering and lab testing services, from American Securities for $1.9B.
- CyberArk (NASDAQ: CYBR), a Newton, MA-based identity security company, acquired Venafi, a Salt Lake City, UT-based machine identity management company, from Thoma Bravo, for $1.54B.
- Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) has agreed to acquire Proteologix, Inc., a Redwood City, CA-based biotechnology company, for $850M in cash.
- Merck KGaA agreed to acquire Mirus Bio, a Madison, WI-based provider of transfection products, from Gamma Biosciences, backed by KKR, for $600M in cash.
- KPS Capital agreed to acquire a 49.7% stake in Primient, a Schaumburg, IL-based producer of plant-based food and industrial ingredients, and renewable resources, from Tate & Lyle for $350M.
- Glassbox (TASE: GLBX), a London, UK-based AI-powered customer intelligence solutions company, is set to be acquired by Alicorn Venture Partners, in an all-cash transaction valued at about $150M.
- OneStock, a Toulouse, France-based order management systems (OMS) provider, received a $72M investment from Summit Partners.
- Easy Metrics, a Bellevue, WA-based labor analytics platform provider, received a $31M investment from Nexa Equity.
- Cover Whale Insurance Solutions, an NYC-based insurtech company for commercial automobiles, secured $27.5M in debt and equity, from investment funds managed by Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital.
- Forward Consumer Partners acquired a 50% stake in Xochitl, an Irving, TX-based tortilla chip and salsa company, for an undisclosed amount.
- UL Solutions (NYSE:ULS), a Northbrook, IL-based applied safety science company, acquired BatterieIngenieure, a battery testing company based in Aachen, Germany, for an undisclosed amount.
- Aduro Advisors, a Denver, CO-based fund administrator to VC and PE firms, received an undisclosed strategic growth investment from Vitruvian Partners.
- South 8, a San Diego, CA-based lithium-ion battery provider, received an undisclosed investment from Porsche Ventures.
- Blackstone has agreed to acquire a majority stake in Priority Software, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based provider of mission-critical business software, for an undisclosed amount.
- Accenture Federal Services, a wholly owned subsidiary of Accenture (NYSE: ACN), has acquired Cognosante, a Falls Church, VA-based digital transformation and cloud modernization solutions provider in the government sector, for an undisclosed amount.
- Centivo, an NYC-based healthcare company for employers and their employees, acquired Eden Health, an employer-centered virtual-first medical provider, for an undisclosed amount.
- Spiritus, a Los Alamos, NM-based climate tech company received an undisclosed investment from Aramco Ventures.
- Crio, a Boston, Ma-based provider of eSource and other eClinical technologies, secured an undisclosed investment from The Riverside Company.
- Adams Clinical, a Watertown, MA-based clinical trial site network provider, secured an undisclosed investment from InTandem Capital Partners.
- Velotix, an NYC-based AI-powered data security platform (DSP), secured an undisclosed investment from Barclays Bank and Capri Ventures.
- XponentL, a Philadelphia, PA-based data and AI consultancy company, received an undisclosed strategic investment from Databricks Ventures and Inoca Capital Partners.
- VersiFi, a NYC-based digital asset trading and lending firm, acquired Ather Digital, an Abu Dhabi, UAE-based systematic quantitative investment firm, for an undisclosed amount.
- Dream Exchange, a Chicago, IL-based minority-controlled stock exchange in the United States, received an undisclosed amount of investment from Harvey Catchings.
Fund Announcements:
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- Carlyle (NASDAQ: CG), a Washington, DC-based private equity firm, secured ¥430 billion ($2.8 billion) for its fifth Japanese buyout fund focused on Japanese companies in the technology, media and telecom, consumer, retail, healthcare, and other industries.
- Paceline Equity Partners, LLC, a Dallas, TX-based private equity manager, raised its Paceline Equity Partners Opportunity Fund II with $780M in commitments from global institutions, including public pension plans, sovereign wealth funds, endowments and foundations, insurance companies, and family offices.
- Eir Partners, a Miami, FL-based middle market private equity firm focused on healthcare technology and tech-enabled services, closed its second fund, Eir Partners Investment Program II, at $496M backed by financial institutions, insurance companies, family offices, funds-of-funds, endowments and foundations, and seasoned industry executives.
- ETF Partners, a London, UK-based venture capital firm, raised €285 million ($310 million) for its fourth fund focused on companies with a positive environmental impact.
IPOs:
- Bowhead Specialty Holdings, a NYC-based property and casualty insurance company, raised $128M in an offering of 7.5 million shares priced at $17 on the New York Stock Exchange.
Final Numbers
Data: Higher education expert Mark Kantrowitz; Chart: CNBC COTD
The U.S. Department of Education announced that the interest rate on Direct PLUS loans for parents will rise to 9.08% for the 2024-2025 academic year, the highest in over 30 years. This increase comes as college costs continue to rise, leading more parents to borrow alongside their children. [CNBC]
Mark Kantrowitz noted that the last higher rate was 9.34% in 1991-92, and current parent PLUS borrowers have significantly higher debt compared to a decade ago. “In the 2019-2020 academic year, the average parent PLUS borrower had a balance of more than $40,000 when their child graduated, compared with around $26,000 in 2010-2011, after adjusting for inflation,” Kantrowitz found. [CNBC]
Data: McKinsey & Company; Chart: McKinsey & Company
U.S. semiconductor companies are planning to invest between $200 billion and $350 billion in new facilities over the next decade, primarily in Arizona, New York, Ohio, and Texas, which are expected to create jobs and significantly increase domestic semiconductor production. [McKinsey]
The largest announced investments in U.S. semiconductor manufacturing are in Arizona ($62 billion), Texas ($52 billion), New York ($21 billion), and Ohio ($20 billion), while the smallest are in Colorado and Oregon ($1 billion each), and Indiana ($2 billion). [McKinsey]
New Research
Everolimus alleviates CD4+ T cell inflammation by regulating autophagy and cellular redox homeostasis
Aging triggers multiple diseases often due to chronic low-grade inflammation, known as inflammaging, partly caused by reduced autophagy, the process that cleans out damaged cells. Enhancing autophagy is seen as protective against aging-related issues. This study found that Everolimus, a drug known to promote autophagy, reduced inflammatory cytokines in T cells from older adults, suggesting it may help manage inflammaging by restoring cellular balance. [PubMed]
This makes Everolimus a promising candidate for addressing age-related inflammation and diseases.
Comparative Analysis between Quality of Life and Human Labor in Countries Belonging to G7 and BRICS Blocks: Proposition of Discriminant Analysis Model
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