Venice Italy's VC Boom
Brex, Prada, Anduril/Klas, Cursor's $900M Round, NewLimit, Rainmaker; Heritage Family Office Summit; David Senra
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Hello from Venice, Italy
The original birthplace of Venture Capital, where we’re continuing the global conference tour and attending Type One Ventures “The Frontier” Space Summit in collaboration with Prada and Lorenzo Bertelli, in Venice, Italy. Companies like Axiom, Gravitics and Lunar Outpost are all presenting. Stay tuned.
Silicon Lagoon: Where it all began..
The origins of modern venture capital can be traced back to medieval Venice, between the 10th & 13th centuries, through a financial structure known as the colleganza (also referred to as commenda). This was an early form of investment partnership in which a silent investor, or socius stans, provided capital to a working merchant, or socius procertans, who would undertake a trade expedition—typically by sea. Profits were shared according to prearranged terms, while losses were usually borne by the investor. This structure enabled individuals without capital to pursue entrepreneurial ventures, while investors gained access to high-risk, high-reward opportunities—an arrangement that closely mirrors the principles of modern venture capital.
Beyond the colleganza, Venice also introduced financial innovations such as letters of exchange and early banking tools that facilitated long-distance trade without the need to transport precious metals. These mechanisms reduced transaction risk and increased efficiency, laying the groundwork for today’s equity-based investment systems, including limited liability partnerships and fund structures. In this way, Venice played a foundational role in the evolution of venture finance, pioneering concepts that remain central to the modern startup ecosystem.
Milken & Heritage Recap
Last week was packed with LA’s Milken Conference, and the Heritage NYC Family Office Summit, both of which were phenomenal gatherings. But, honestly, Heritage might’ve taken the cake.. it was more intimate, a well-curated group of family offices, founders, and investors, and high value content (though the Milken interviews below are not too bad either). Speakers at Heritage included Ryan Serhant (CEO, Serhant), Michael Loeb (CEO, Loeb.nyc), Andrew Yang (Forward Party Co-Chair & former presidential candidate), Anthony Pompliano (CEO, Professional Capital Management), Imran Khan (former Chief Strategy Officer, Snapchat), Philip Krim (Co-Founder & CEO, Casper), and **David Senra (Founders Podcast).
**David Senra gave me an on-stage shoutout! Video evidence coming soon.
Musings
Macro
The end of the Mag 7 [Philippe Laffont, Coatue]
Milken Conversations
HardTech
Slate Auto crosses 100,000 refundable reservations in two weeks [TechCrunch]
More
A conversation with Jony Ive [Stripe CEO Patrick Collison]
Meet Casey Means, Trump's Pick for Surgeon General [Honestly w/ Bari Weiss]
The ‘ultra connector’: How Christian Garrett became tech’s quiet diplomat [SF Standard]
Lilly’s Zepbound Trims More Belly Fat Than Novo’s Wegovy [Bloomberg]
Seen at Milken, Heritage, & NYC:
Mo Amdani, Ammar Amdani, David Senra, Henry Ward, Nicole Baer, Nikhil Goel, Adam Goldstein, Vivek Sodera, Sneh Parmar, Xander Oltmann, Brian Yormak, Ashley Zangrillo, Jordan Hudson, Austin Rief, Brent Beshore, Reade Seiff, Jordan Noone, Bill Cramsie, Solly Garber
Top Interviews
BREAKING: Bucky Moore Joins $30B AUM Mega Fund Lightspeed | Trillion-Dollar Outcomes, AI, The Rise & Pushback of Mega Funds
Leigh Marie Braswell, Partner at $10B+ AUM Kleiner Perkins | The Rise of AI, Windsurf’s $3 Billion Acquisition, Scale AI, ARR BS Detector
Christian Garrett, 137 Ventures | State of Liquidity Markets, SpaceX’s Funding History, Hill & Valley Forum, DC & VC, Europe’s Techno-Rise
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Last Week (5/5-5/9):
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.
VC Deals
Fintech:
- Blinq, a Melbourne-based digital business card platform, raised $25 million in Series A funding. Touring Capital led the round and was joined by HubSpot Ventures and existing investors Blackbird Ventures and Square Peg Capital.
- Kintsugi AI, a San Francisco-based tax automation platform, raised $18 million in funding from Vertex and existing investors.
- Glide, an embedded fintech for small banks and credit unions, raised $15m in Series A funding. Acrew Capital led, joined by Pear VC and Pathlight Capital.
- RightRev, a Roseville, Calif.-based automated revenue management platform, raised $13 million in Series A funding. Cheyenne Ventures and Innovius Capital led the round and were joined by existing investors Norwest Venture Partners, Salesforce Ventures, and Snowflake Ventures.
- Dinari, a San Francisco-based investment platform, raised $12.7 million in Series A funding. Hack VC and Blockchange Ventures led the round and were joined by VanEck Ventures, F-Prime, Blizzard the Avalanche Fund, and others.
- Ravio, a London-based compensation data startup, raised $12m in Series A funding. Spark Capital led, joined by Blackbird Ventures and Cherry Ventures.
- Agree, an SF-based invoicing and payments platform, raised $7.2m in seed funding. Pelion Venture Partners led, joined by Blank Ventures and Gokul Rajaram.
- Trust & Will, a San Diego-based digital estate planning company, raised $4.5 million in funding from Curql.
Care:
- NewLimit, an SF-based longevity drug startup, raised $130m in Series B funding at an $810m valuation. Kleiner Perkins led, joined by Khosla Ventures, Human Capital, and Valor Equity Partners.
- Wonderskin, a London-based beauty brand, raised $50m in Series A funding led by Insight Partners.
- Grüns, a Beaverton, Ore.-based nutritional gummy company, raised $35 million in Series B funding from Headline.
- Inductive Bio, a New York City-based developer of AI models for small molecule drug discovery, raised $25 million in Series A funding. Obvious Ventures led the round and was joined by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) Bio + Health, Lux Capital, S32, Character, and Amino Collective, and angel investors.
- Koala Health, a Boston-based pet medication delivery group, raised $20m in Series B funding led by Valspring Capital
- Carta Healthcare, a San Francisco-based provider of AI-powered clinical data abstraction, raised $18.3 million in Series B1 funding. UPMC Enterprises led the round and was joined by MemorialCare Innovation Fund, Rex Health Ventures, Tampa General Hospital Ventures, and existing investors Memorial Hermann Health System, Frist Cressey Ventures, Storm Ventures, Paramark Ventures, CU Healthcare Innovation Fund, and Mass General Brigham Ventures.
- Kouper, a New York City-based health technology platform, raised $10 million in funding from General Catalyst, 25Madison, and CVS Health Ventures.
- Trilobio, a San Francisco-based lab hardware and software provider for biologists, raised $8 million in seed funding. Initialized Capital led the round and was joined by Argon Ventures and Lowercarbon Capital.
- FoodHealth, an SF-based nutrition intelligence platform, raised $7.5m in Series A funding co-led by Reach Capital and Ulu Ventures
Enterprise/Consumer:
- Anysphere, maker of AI coding assistant Cursor, raised $900m at around a $9b valuation. Thrive Capital led, joined by a16z and Accel
- Wonder, a New York City-based food hall and delivery company, raised $600 million in funding. NEA led the round and was joined by existing investors Accel, GV, Forerunner Ventures, and Amex Ventures.
- Sequoia Capital is leading a secondary tender for portfolio company Clay, a sales automation software firm, at a $1.5b valuation
- Parloa, a Berlin-based AI agent management platform, raised $120 million in Series C funding, bringing the company’s valuation to $1 billion. Durable Capital Partners, Altimeter Capital, and General Catalyst led the round and were joined by EQT Ventures, RPT Capital, Senovo, and Mosaic Ventures.
- Unrivaled Sports, a New York City-based youth sports experiences company, raised $120 million in funding. DICK'S Sporting Goods led the round and was joined by Dynasty Equity, LionTree, Miller Sports & Entertainment, and existing investor The Chernin Group.
- Statsig, a Bellevue Wash.-based product development platform, raised $100m in Series C funding at a $1.1b valuation. Iconiq Growth led, joined by Sequoia Capital and Madrona
- Toloka, an AI data solutions business, raised $72m led by Bezos Expeditions, with participation from Nebius and Shopify CTO Mikhail Parakhin.
- OX Security, a New York City-based application security company, raised $60 million in Series B funding. DTCP led the round and was joined by IBM Ventures, Microsoft, Swisscom Ventures, Evolution Equity Partners, and Team8.
- Gruve.ai, a Redwood City, Calif.-based AI services platform, raised $37.5 million across seed and Series A rounds. The $17.5 million seed round was led by cofounders Tarun Raisoni and Sushil Goyal while the $20 million Series A round was led by Mayfield and joined by Cisco Investments and others.
- Recraft, a London-based generative AI design platform for businesses, raised $30 million in Series B funding. Accel led the round and was joined by Madrona Ventures and existing investors Khosla Ventures, Nat Friedman, Elad Gil, and RTP Global.
- Sett, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based agentic AI platform for mobile gaming studios, raised $27 million in funding from Bessemer, F2, Saga VC, VGames, and Akin Babayigit.
- Relevance AI, developer of an AI agent operating system, raised $24m in Series B funding. Bessemer Venture Partners led, joined by insiders King River Capital, Insight Partners, and Peak XV
- WisdomAI, a San Francisco-based agentic data insights platform, raised $23 million in funding. Coatue Ventures led the round and was joined by Madrona, GTM Capital, The Anthology Fund, and angel investors.
- Valarian, a London, U.K.-based enterprise infrastructure company, raised $20 million in seed funding. Scout Ventures and Artis Ventures led the round and were joined by Gokul Rajaram.
- StackOne, a London-based enterprise AI agents and SaaS integrations platform, raised $20 million in Series A funding. GV led the round and was joined by Workday Ventures, XTX Ventures, existing investors Episode 1 and Playfair, and angel investors.
- Fastino AI, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based developer of task-focused language models for the enterprise, raised $17.5m in seed funding. Khosla Ventures led, joined by Insight Partners and Valor Equity Partners.
- StackAI, a San Francisco-based enterprise AI agents developer, raised $16 million in funding from Lobby VC, LifeX Ventures, Guillermo Rauch, Bob Van Luijt, existing investors Gradient, Y Combinator, Epakon Capital, angel investors, and others.
- Jericho Security, a New York-based cybersecurity training platform, raised $15m in Series A funding. Era Fund led, joined by Lux Capital, Dash, Gaingels Enterprise, and Gaingels.
- Duna, an Amsterdam-based business identity platform, raised €10.7 million ($12.1 million) in seed funding. Index Ventures led the round and was joined by others.
- Doubleword, a London, U.K.-based self-hosted inference platform for enterprises, raised $12 million in Series A funding. Dawn Capital led the round and was joined by others.
- Row Zero, a Seattle-based cloud-based spreadsheet company, raised $10 million in seed funding. IA Ventures led the round and was joined by Trilogy Equity Partners, Founder's Co-op, Ludlow Ventures, and others.
- Fuse Games, a Turkish mobile gaming studio, raised $7m. Griffin Gaming Partners led. joined by Lakestar, NFX Capital, and Actera also participated.
- Skillvue, a Milan-based AI-powered HR processes platform, raised $6.3 million in funding. 360 Capital led the round and was joined by Orbita Verticale and existing investors Italian Founders Fund and 14Peaks Capital.
- Alice.Tech, a Copenhagen, Denmark-based AI-powered study assistant, raised $4.8 million in seed funding from Cherry Ventures, Y Combinator, and angel investors.
- FirmPilot, a Miami-based AI marketing solutions for law firms, raised $4.7 million in funding from Thomson Reuters Ventures and HubSpot Ventures.
- Hostie, a San Francisco-based AI-powered customer experience platform for restaurants, raised $4 million in seed funding. Gradient led the round and was joined by others.
- Tesseral, a San Francisco-based open source authentication infrastructure for business-to-business (B2B) software companies, raised $3.3 million in seed funding from Y Combinator, Jessica Livingston and Paul Graham (YC co-founders), Calvin French-Owen (co-founder and former CTO of Segment), Steve Bartel and Nick Bushak (co-founders of Gem), and Mike Wiacek (founder of Stairwell).
- Marveri, a Cambridge, Mass.-based Ai-powered corporate diligence platform, raised $3.2 million in funding from Alven, Day One Ventures, Lightscape Partners, angel investors, and others.
- Operand, a San Francisco-based developer of AI-powered consulting agents, raised $3.1 million in seed funding. Felicis led the round and was joined by Y Combinator, SV Angel, Soma Capital, and angel investors.
- diio, a Puerto Varas, Chile-based AI-powered sales assistant, raised $2.5 million in seed funding from Base10 Partners.
- CodeAnt AI, a San Francisco-based AI-powered code review platform, raised $2 million in seed funding. Y Combinator, Brian Shin, and Uncorrelated Ventures led the round and were joined by DeVC, Transpose Platform, Entrepreneur First, and angel investors.
HardTech:
- Apex, a Los Angeles-based satellite bus platforms developer, raised $200 million in Series C funding. Point72 Ventures and 8VC led the round and were joined by Washington Harbour Partners, StepStone Group, existing investor Andreessen Horowitz, and others.
- Quantum Systems, a Gilching, Germany-based AI-powered defense and emergency services aerial intelligence systems developer, raised €160 million ($181.5 million) in Series C funding. Balderton Capital led the round and was joined by Hensoldt, Airbus Defence and Space, Bullhound Capital, LP&E, and existing investors HV Capital, Project A, Peter Thiel, and others.
- Orca AI, a London-based shipping operations platform, raised $72.5 million in Series B funding. Brighton Park Capital led the round and was joined by existing investors Ankona Capital and Hyperlink Ventures.
- mPower Technology, an Albuquerque, N.M.-based space solar company, raised a $21m Series B led by Razor's Edge Ventures and joined by Shield Capital
- Posha, a San Francisco-based developer of an AI-powered home booking robot, raised $8 million in Series A funding. Accel led the round and was joined by existing investors Xeed Ventures, Waterbridge Ventures, and more.
- Alta Resource Technologies, a Boulder-based mining technology developer, raised $4.4 million in a seed extension. DCVC and Voyager Ventures led the round and were joined by Orion Industrial Ventures and In-Q-Tel.
Sustainability:
- Rainmaker, a startup that uses drones to enhance rain, raised $25m in Series A funding. Lowercarbon Capital led, joined by Starship Ventures, 1517 Ventures, Long Journey Ventures, Garry Tan, and Naval Ravikant
- Exterra, a Montreal-based carbon removal company, raised $20 million in Series A funding. Clean Energy Ventures and BDC Capital led the round and was joined by the Government of Quebec, Investissement Quebec, MOL Switch, and Karpowership.
- Kind Designs, a Miami-based 3D-printer of seawalls, raised $5m in seed funding led by Overlay Capital with Mark Cuban participating.
- CNaught, a San Francisco-based carbon credit platform, raised $4.5 million in seed funding. Bow Capital led the round and was joined by FJ Labs, Silence VC, Karman Ventures, and Marketplace Capital.
Acquisitions & PE:
- Anduril, the defense-tech company valued by VCs at $14b, acquired Klas, an Irish edge computing and tactical comms company.
- A new company founded by Ariel Emanuel agreed to acquire Frieze, a London-based contemporary art organization, from Endeavor. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Thoma Bravo invested $100 million in HubSync, a Franklin, Tenn.-based tax and accounting platform.
- SKY Leasing acquired JetBlue Ventures, a San Francisco-based venture capital firm, from JetBlue Airways. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- DoorDash agreed to acquire Deliveroo, a London-based food delivery service, at an enterprise value of approximately £2.9 billion ($3.9 billion).
- TPG and Corpay agreed to acquire AvidXchange, a Charlotte-based accounts payable automation software provider, in a cash transaction that values the company at $2.2 billion.
- DoorDash agreed to acquire SevenRooms, a New York City-based CRM, marketing, and operations platform for restaurants, for approximately $1.2 billion in cash.
- IntoTheBlock, a Miami-based institutional DeFi solutions provider, merged with Trident Digital, a London-based digital asset management services provider, to form Sentora, a Road Town, British Virgin Islands-based DeFi platform. Sentora raised $25 million in Series A funding. New Form Capital led the round and was joined by Joint Effects, Tribe Capital, Ripple, and others.
- Anthropic to Buy Back Employee Shares at $61.5 Billion Valuation [The Information]
- ServiceNow (NYSE: NOW) agreed to acquire Data.World, an Austin, Texas-based data catalog and data governance platform that had raised more than $130m from firms like Alumni Ventures, Prologis Ventures, Vopak Ventures, and Shasta Ventures.
- AppLovin (Nasdaq: APP) sold its mobile games business to Tripledot, a London-based gaming studio that's raised around $170m from firms like Eldridge Industries, The Raine Group, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Access Industries. Considerations are $400m in cash and a 20% equity stake in Tripledot
- The FTC lost its antitrust appeal over Microsoft's (Nasdaq: MSFT) $69b acquisition of gaming company Activision Blizzard, which closed in 2023
Funds:
- Coatue is launching a fund to back high-growth public and private tech companies, with a $50k minimum investment. It's seeded by $1b from the family offices of Jeff Bezos and Michael Dell.
SPACs:
- Gores Holdings X, a Beverly Hills-based blank check company owned by The Gores Group, raised $358.8 million in an offering of 35.88 million units priced at $10 on the Nasdaq.
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The material presented on Molly O’Shea’s website are my opinions only and are provided for informational purposes and should not be construed as investment advice. It is not a recommendation of, or an offer to sell or solicitation of an offer to buy, any particular security, strategy, or investment product. Any analysis or discussion of investments, sectors or the market generally are based on current information, including from public sources, that I consider reliable, but I do not represent that any research or the information provided is accurate or complete, and it should not be relied on as such. My views and opinions expressed in any website content are current at the time of publication and are subject to change. Past performance is not indicative of future results.