Sourcery ✨ Personal Update
(3/4-3/8) Turpentine, Joe Lonsdale, Trae Stephens, TikTok ~ Monzo, Axonius, Defense Unicorns, RapidSOS, IO Research, Maybell, Argyle, Overjet, Health, Limbic
Personal Update!
I’m going all-in on Sourcery. One of my goals for this year has been to dedicate time to meaningfully build out Sourcery’s brand, create valuable content, collaborate with impressive writers like
, share more techno-optimist founders & investors, ..and yes, launch a podcast.That being said, I’m thrilled to announce that Sourcery’s podcast is officially part of Erik Torenberg’s Turpentine network!
Sourcery joins the ‘investing’ group of shows at Turpentine - including
, with Byrne Hobart, & with Ryan Reeves.Sourcery has a ton of amazing interviews lined up including:
Delian Asparouhov, Partner at Founders Fund, & Co-Founder of Varda (releasing this week)
Chris Power, Founder of Hadrian
Nick Abouzeid, Founder of Rivet
Niko Bonatsos, Managing Director at General Catalyst
Morgan Housel, Partner at The Collaborative Fund, & New York Times Bestselling author of The Psychology of Money & Same As Ever
With already amazing episodes:
Downfall of SaaS & Uprising of Vertically Integrated Monopolies: Xander Oltmann, Commodity Capital
- , 8VC: Exodus of Venture Capital, AI Predictions
Finding Alpha in VC & LP Bias: David Weisburd, 10X Capital
If you’d like to support me on my journey..
⬆️ Upgrade to a paid subscription and join the likes of Elad Gil to Alex Paul. We even have an ‘expense it’ tier for your Brex & Centurion cards.
➡️ Share Sourcery with 5 friends, colleagues, group chats, etc.
➡️ Subscribe to our YouTube Channel!
Turpentine will exclusively handle sponsorship for Sourcery - email erik@turpentine.co for more information.
Musings
Macro
Joe Lonsdale: The Future of TikTok; Is it a Danger to US National Security? [20VC]
AI
Yann Lecun: Meta AI, Open Source, Limits of LLMs, AGI & the Future of AI [Lex Fridman Podcast]
Yann LeCun is the Chief AI Scientist at Meta, professor at NYU, Turing Award winner, and one of the most influential researchers in the history of AI.
Tesla FSD 12, Imitation AI Models, Open vs Closed AI Models, Delaware vs Elon, & Market Update [BG2]
Building An Answer Engine with Perplexity’s Aravind Srinivas [Invest Like the Best]
Anthropic’s Claude 3 Is Holding Its Own Among Competitors, + Starlink [Ark Invest]
Media
Tok Blocked! TikTok “Ban” Is Here & Google's Culture of Fear [Pirate Wires]
10 Rules Every Founder Should Know: Inside Anduril’s Secret Comms Strategy [Pirate Wires]
Mike Solana is joined by Lulu Cheng Meservey and Trae Stephens to discuss effective comms strategy. Trae Stephens is a Partner at Founders Fund and Co-Founder of Anduril. Lulu is the former comms at Activision Blizzard and Substack and is the Co-Founder of TrailRunner
Must read: Inside Anduril’s Comms Strategy: 10 Rules for Mission-Driven Founders [PW]
Lulu Cheng Meservey shares the never-before-revealed playbook that shaped Anduril’s early communication strategy and helped its founders turn the company from black sheep to household name
Health
Study Links Tiny Bits of Plastic to Worse Heart Health [Time]
. . .
Last Week (3/4-3/8):
Relevant deals include the 60+ deals across stages below.
I've categorized the deals below into five categories, FinTech, Care, Enterprise & Consumer, HardTech, and Sustainability, and ordered from later-stage rounds to early-stage rounds.
Highlighted VC deals include
Monzo, Axonius, Defense Unicorns, RapidSOS, IO Research, Maybell, Argyle, Overjet, Health, Limbic, Preemptive AI, Zama, Baseten, Remofirst, Metaplane, Brevian, Tollbit, k-ID, HData
Acquisitions & PE
Cloudflare/Nefeli Networks, Astra Space, Accenture/Udacity
Funds
Spark Capital, Commerce Ventures, The Artemis Fund
Final numbers on Saudi Aramco 25% Drop in Profits and Cybercrime Losses at the bottom.
Deals
Fintech:
- Monzo, London, U.K. digital bank, raised $430M in funding led by CapitalG with participation from GV (Google Ventures), HSG (HongShan Capital), and existing investors Passion Capital and Tencent.
- IO Research, developer of a Solana-based decentralized physical infrastructure network, raised $30M in Series A funding led by Hack VC with participation from Multicoin Capital, 6th Man Ventures, Solana Ventures, OKX Ventures, Aptos Labs, Delphi Digital, and The Sandbox. https://axios.link/3UZjF6q
- Argyle, New York, NY trusted network of income and employment data, raised $20M in funding led by Rockefeller Asset Management with participation from Bain Capital Ventures, SignalFire, and Checkr.
- Synctera, San Francisco, CA provider of embedded banking and finance solutions, raised $18.6M in a Series A extension led by Lightspeed and Fin Capital with participation from NAVentures, and Banco Popular.
- Betr Holdings, Miami, FL fantasy sports betting platform, raised $15M in funding led by Harmony Partners and 10x Capital with participation from Fuel Venture Capital, Aliya Capital Partners, and others.
- Utila, Tel Aviv, Israel crypto operations platform, raised $11.5M in seed funding from NFX, Wing VC, Framework Ventures, and angel investors.
- Theia Insights, Cambridge, U.K. provider of AI-powered insights to the investment community, raised $6.5M in funding led by Unusual Ventures with participation from Fidelity International Strategic Ventures, Clocktower Ventures, and angel investors.
- Lettuce, San Francisco, CA automated tax and accounting system designed for solopreneurs, raised $6M in seed funding led by Zeev Ventures.
- Stack, an on-chain points and rewards startup, raised $3M in seed funding led by Archetype with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Scalar Capital, and A.Capital.
. . .
Care:
- Overjet, Boston, MA developer of AI technology for dentists, raised $53.2M in Series C funding led by March Capital with participation from General Catalyst, Insight Partners, E14 Fund, Crosslink Capital, and others.
- Healthee, New York, NY AI-powered employee health benefits app, raised $32M in Series A funding led by Fin Capital, Glilot Capital Partners, and Group11 with participation from TriNet.
- MoeGo, Los Angeles, CA software platform for pet care businesses, raised $24M in Series A funding led by Base10 Partners with participation from Digitalis Ventures, Conductive Ventures, and Uphonest Capital.
- Tava Health, Salt Lake City, UT provider of electronic medical record and practice management software to therapists, raised $20 million in Series B funding led by Catalyst Investors with participation from Peterson Partners, Toba Capital, SpringTide, and Blue Heron Capital.
- Nalu Medical, Carlsbad, CA developer of miniature neurostimulation devices, raised $20M in Series E extension funding from B Capital.
- Limbic, London, U.K. clinical mental health AI, raised $14M led by Khosla Ventures.
- PreemptiveAI, Seattle, WA developer of AI-powered predictive health technology, raised $6.4M in funding led by Inspired Capital and Meridian Street with participation from Allen Institute and others.
- Bone Health Technologies, Redwood City, CA developer of non-invasive bone health products, raised $5M in seed funding from Esplanade Ventures, Berkeley Catalyst Fund, and Terumo Medical.
. . .
Enterprise & Consumer:
- Axonius, New York, NY provider of cybersecurity asset and SaaS management, raised $200M in a Series E extension led by Accel and Lightspeed Venture Partners with participation from Stripes.
- RapidSOS, New York, NY emergency response data platform, raised $75M in Series D extension funding led by BlackRock.
- Zama, Paris, France open source cryptography company developing blockchain and AI privacy solutions, raised $73M in Series A funding led by Multicoin Capital and Protocol Ventures with participation from Metaplanet, Blockchange Ventures, VSquared, and Stake Capital.
- DTEX Systems, Saratoga, CA insider risk management platform, raised $50M in Series E funding from CapitalG.
- Todyl, Denver, CO security and networking company, raised $50M in Series B funding led by Base10 Partners with participation from Anthos Capital, Tech Operators, and StoneMill Ventures.
- Baseten, San Francisco, CA AI infrastructure company, raised $40M in Series B funding led by IVP and Spark Capital with participation from Greylock, South Park Commons, Lachy Groom, and Base Case.
- Sweet Security, Tel Aviv, Israel cloud security platform, raised $33M in Series A funding led by Evolution Equity Partners with participation from Munich Re Ventures and Glilot Capital Partners.
- Ema, San Francisco, CA developer of an AI employee designed to automate workflows and emulate human employees in specific roles, raised $25M in funding led by Prosus Ventures, Accel, and Section 32 with participation from Wipro Ventures, Venture Highway, AME Cloud Ventures, Frontier Ventures, Maum Group, and Firebolt Ventures.
- Remofirst, a remote-based human resources and employee management platform, raised $25M in Series A funding led by Octopus Ventures with participation from QED, Mouro Capital, and Counterpart Ventures.
- Reach Security, Sunnyvale, CA AI-powered cybersecurity platform, raised $20M in funding led by Ballistic Ventures with participation from Artisanal Ventures.
- Topsort, San Francisco, CA auction based advertising platform using AI/ML instead of third-party cookies, raised $20M in Series A funding from Upload Ventures, Quiet Capital, and Pear Ventures.
- Pro Shop, a golf media and commerce startup, raised $19.25M co-led by Powerhouse Capital and the PGA Tour. It also will acquire Skratch, a digital and social media brand launched by the PGA Tour to appeal to younger consumers. [Yahoo]
- Haiper, London, U.K. generative AI video products, raised $13.8M in seed funding led by Octopus Ventures.
- Metaplane, Boston, MA data observability platform, raised $13.8M in Series A funding led by Felicis with participation from Khosla Ventures, Flybridge, Y Combinator, Stage 2 Capital, B37, and SNR.
- Relish, Newbury, OH enterprise applications procurement, raised $10M in Series A funding led by Volition Capital.
- Brevian, Sunnyvale, CA no-code enterprise platform for building AI agents, raised $9M in seed funding led by Felicis.
- TollBit, Boston, MA marketplace designed for AI bots and data scapers to compensate websites for licensing their content, raised $7M in funding led by Sunflower Capital with participation from AIX, Lerer Hippeau, Operator Collective, and Liquid 2 Ventures.
- appCD, San Francisco, CA generative infrastructure from Code software automatically, raised $6M in seed funding from Thomvest Ventures, Westwave Capital, FireBolt, and Secure Octane.
- Sahara, Los Angeles, CA decentralized AI network, raised $6M in seed funding. Polychain Capital led the round and was joined by Samsung Next, Matrix Partners, Motherson Group, dao5, Geekcartel, Canonical Crypto, Nomad Capital, and others.
- k-ID, Singapore safety and privacy technology for children and teenager online games, raised $5.4M across pre-seed and seed rounds from A16Z GAMES SPEEDRUN, Konvoy, and TIRTA Ventures.
- Louisa AI, New York, NY AI-powered sales enablement and deal prompt platform, raised $5M in seed funding from Palm Drive VC, Evolution VC, Nucleus VC, and Gaingels.
- Firewall, a blockchain security infrastructure firm, raised $3.7M in pre-seed funding from North Island Ventures, Breyer Capital and Hack VC. [The Block]
- PeakMetrics, Los Angeles, CA helping governments and companies identify media manipulation and online narrative threats, raised $3 million in funding led by York IE with participation from Argon Ventures, Parameter Ventures, and CEAS Investments.
. . .
HardTech:
- Defense Unicorns, Colorado Springs, CO continuous delivery for National Security systems, spanning cloud, on-prem, and edge environments in land, sea, air, and space domains, raised $35M in Series A funding from Sapphire Ventures and Ansa Capital.
- Maybell, a Denver-based quantum infrastructure developer, raised $25M from Cerberus Capital Management.
- Neural Propulsion Systems, Pleasanton, CA software-defined radar startup, raised $17.5M in Series B funding led by Cota Capital with participation from GM Ventures and RTX Ventures.
- HData, Birmingham, AL AI technology designed to help the U.S. energy industry file, explore, analyze, and leverage regulatory data, raised $10M in Series A funding led by Buoyant Ventures with participation from Victorum Capital, Hyde Park Venture Partners, and Firebrand Ventures.
- Safety Radar, Tulsa, OK AI job site accident prevention startup, raised $1.5M in seed funding led by EIC Rose Rock with participation from Helmerich & Payne and others.
- Fused, San Francisco, CA code-to-map geospatial data infrastructure company, raised $1M in pre-seed funding from Fontinalis, Wes McKinney, Michael Driscoll, and other angel investors.
Acquisitions & PE:
- Cloudflare (NYSE: NET) acquired Nefeli Networks, a Berkeley, CA multi-cloud networking startup. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Astra Space (Nasdaq: ASTR), an Alameda, CA rocket launch company, agreed to be taken private by its CEO and CTO for under $7M, or $0.50 per share. It had gone public in 2021 via SPAC at a $2.1B valuation, after having raised around $500m from VCs. https://axios.link/3IppIK2
- Accenture (NYSE: ACN) agreed to buy Udacity, a Mountain View, CA learning platform once valued by VCs at $1.1B. Udacity backers include CRV, Andreessen Horowitz, Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments, Cox Enterprises, GV, Recruit Strategic Partners, Aeon, SharesPost, MicroVentures, Drive Capital, Baillie Gifford, and Emerson Collective. https://axios.link/48J4268
- Deel, backed by BAM Elevate and Coatue Management, acquired PaySpace, a South Africa provider of payroll technology and HR services. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- L Catterton agreed to acquire AmaWaterways, a Calabasas, CA luxury river cruise line. Financial terms were not disclosed.
. . .
IPOs:
- Reddit is targeting an IPO share price between $31 and $34, giving it a valuation of up to $6.5B, per multiple outlets. [WSJ]
Funds:
- Capitol Meridian Partners, a Washington, D.C. private equity firm, raised $900M for its first fund focused on companies in the government technology, aerospace & defense, government services.
- Spark Capital, a San Francisco, New York City, and Boston, MA venture capital firm, raised $2.3B across one early-stage and one venture-growth fund.
- Team8, a New York, NY and Tel Aviv, Israel venture capital fund, raised $500M across three funds focused on companies in cybersecurity, data & AI, fintech, and digital health.
- Silas Capital, a New York, NY growth equity and venture capital firm, raised $150M for its second fund focused on consumer brands.
- Commerce Ventures raised $150M for its fifth fund. www.commerce.vc
- Fathom Fund, Houston, TX deep tech VC firm, raised over $100M for its debut fund.
- Prudence, New York, NY VC firm focused on property tech, raised $80M for its third fund.
- The Artemis Fund, a VC firm focused on underrepresented founders, raised $36M for its second fund.
Final Numbers
Pumping profits
Saudi Aramco reported a 25% drop in profits yesterday, as lower oil prices filtered through to a shrunken bottom line for the state-controlled oil giant, which is 95% owned by Saudi Arabia. However, after Aramco's record-breaking $161bn profit last year — the largest ever for a public company — even a 25% decline leaves an eye-watering sum of $122bn, more than triple what US oil giant ExxonMobil managed.