We are so back (in LA!) ☀️ Zuck vs Vision Pro, Davos in SF
(2/5-2/9) Koloma, Starship, ProducePay, ZEDEDA, Elroy Air, Overflow, Kin, Daedalus, Shepherd, Code, Unlearn, Ezra, NinjaOne, Zum, Mechanical Orchard, StatusPRO, PolyCam, Jam, Saleor, Dexa, Camb.ai
Happy Valentine’s Day! 💐
This is your reminder to send flowers, heart-shaped donuts, or something nice to your loved ones. Maybe even check out that site Temu.. can’t remember where we heard of it, but sounds cool.. 😂
We are so back (in LA!)
Sourcery is a day late due to a coastal move. San Francisco lost the Super Bowl and we stuck to our word to move back to LA, see tweet below. I’m serious. #LongLA !!!
Since we’re back to our quiet uneventful boring life in LA, does anyone know of any particularly large, glitzy, & fun, tech events happening this month around the area? Ok fine, that was a nod to the legendary Upfront Summit.. see you there? If you’re visiting town and want to meet up, or are hosting some events you want to share via Sourcery, reply directly to this email. Happy to connect or spread the word!
FWIW As someone who is obsessed with Planet Earth, Aerial America, nature, or anything David Attenborough, the drive up/down the coast of California was absolutely spectacular. Many tractors, cybertrucks, cows, a couple of sheep, and horses. However, let’s not exclude the expansive landscape with rolling green hills, dramatic shadows, glistening coastline, and active farmland. Bonus points if you wake up at the crack of dawn and get to experience the sunrise through the valleys, or better yet, catch the glowing sunset along the Pacific Coast Highway. Dreamy.
P.S. If you are curious about what I’m up to feel free to shoot me an email.
Musings
AI
-
Thinking through the future of coding agents and task management.
The Truth About Building AI Startups Today [Y Combinator]
In the first episode of the Lightcone Podcast, YC Group Partners dig into everything they have learned working with the top founders building AI startups today. They share the ideas that are working particularly well, mistakes to avoid, and take a look at the competitive landscape among the current AI giants.
AI Abundance: a16z Partners Justine Moore and Anish Acharya Forecast a New Era for Consumers [Cognitive Revolution "How AI Changes Everything"]
VC Macro
Founders Fund's Brian Singerman on building a legendary VC firm, “Adapt or Die” and "Ikigai" [TWIS]
How to Build a Startup Now, Finding PMF, and Navigating the Idea Maze with Dan Romero of Farcaster [Moment of Zen]
SaaS
Software Valuations, Earnings, Immigration with Aaron Levie CEO of Box [BG2 with Bill Gurley & Brad Gerstner|
The New Wedges for Beating Incumbents and Taking Over Your Category [Emergence Capital]
The tech establishment has never been more vulnerable. Read their framework that runs down all the ways you can win.
Hardtech
Is Meta Disrupting The Consumer Hardware Duopoly? +Tesla TAM & Neuralink, [Ark Disrupt]
Zuckerberg fights back at the Apple Vision Pro with a plea for Quest’s superiority [Sheel Mohnot on X]
Google’s Lumiere Could Improve Humanoid Robots And Robotaxis? + Apple Fees [Ark Disrupt]
Why the Opportunity in Energy May be as Large as AI, The Path to Decarbonization, and Fundraising Advice for DeepTech Startups with Raffi Garabedian of Electric Hydrogen [The Full Ratchet]
Events
⛰️ Davos comes to SF → JPM, SVB, HSBC, Mercury, Stifel, & Lead Bank Join As Speakers at Newcomer Banking Summit,
. . .
Last Week (2/5-2/9):
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
Koloma, Starship, ProducePay, ZEDEDA, Elroy Air, Overflow, Kin, Daedalus, Shepherd, Code, Unlearn, Ezra, NinjaOne, Zum, Mechanical Orchard, StatusPRO, PolyCam, Jam, Saleor, Dexa, Camb.ai, Vocode, 222, Mogul, Greyparrot, Amperesand, Glass Imaging, Thea Energy
Acquisitions & PE
Thomas Bravo/Everbridge, BitGo/Brassica, Beamer/Userflow
Funds
Wonder Ventures (#LongLA), RunwayML
Final numbers on Duolingo’s Weird Growth at the bottom.
Deals
Fintech:
- ProducePay, Los Angeles, CA financing and marketplace platform for the fresh produce market, raised $38M in Series D funding led by Syngenta Group Ventures with participation from Commonfund, Highgate Private Equity, G2 Venture Partners, Anterra Capital, Astanor Ventures, Endeavor8, Avenue Venture Opportunities, Avenue Sustainable Solutions, and Red Bear Angels. [TechCrunch]
- Overflow, San Francisco, CA giving and donation platform raised $20M in Series B funding led by Wesleyan Investment Foundation with participation from Uncork, R7, and TheGP.
- Kin, Chicago, IL home insurance provider, raised $15M in funding from Activate Capital.
- Adroit Trading Technologies, Stanford, CT solutions provider for investment managers, raised $15M in Series A funding from Centana Growth Partners.
- Shepherd, San Francisco, CA insurance tech platform for commercial construction, raised $13.5M in Series A funding led by Costanoa Ventures with participation from Intact Ventures, Era Ventures, Greenlight Re, and Spark Capital.
- Compa, Newport Beach, CA provider of market data for compensation teams, raised $10M in Series A funding led by Storm Ventures with participation from Penny Jar Capital, HR Tech Investments, NJP Ventures, Base10 Partners, and Acadian Ventures.
- finally, Miami, FL platform accounting and finance automation platform, raised $10M in funding led by PeakSpan Capital with participation from Active Capital.
- Code, Waterloo, CA micropayments platform, raised $6.5M in seed funding led by M13 with participation from Union Square Ventures.
- Flood, San Francisco, CA protocol for order routing, management, and settlement, raised $5.2M in seed funding co-led by Archetype and Bain Capital Crypto with participation from Robot Ventures.
- SUMA Wealth, Los Angeles, CA financial tools for young U.S. Latinos and their families, raised $2.2M in seed funding led by Radicle Impact with participation from Vamos Ventures and others.
. . .
Care:
- Unlearn, SF platform for creating "digital twins" of clinical trial participants, raised $50M in Series C funding led by Altimeter Capital, with participation from Insight Partners, 8VC, DCVC, DCVC Bio and insiders Radical Ventures, Wittington Ventures, Mubadala Capital, Epic Ventures, and Necessary VC. [Axios]
- Ezra, New York City provider of AI-powered full body cancer screening services, raised $21M led by Healthier Capital and FirstMark Capital with participation from Allianz Life Ventures, the Schwazman family, and others.
- Headlight, San Diego, CA mental health care platform raised $18M in funding from Matrix and EPIC Ventures. [MobiHealthNews]
- Elemind, Cambridge, MA developer of wearable neurotechnology that augments sleep, attention, and ultimately the human experience, raised $12M in seed funding from Village Global, LDV Partners, Embark Ventures, E14 Fund, and others.
- Stellar Sleep, San Francisco, CA sleep therapy app for chronic insomnia, raised $6M in seed funding led by Initialized Capital with participation from Y Combinator, Lombardstreet Ventures, Switch Ventures, Moonfire Ventures, Scrum Ventures, 8vdx, and Goodwater.
. . .
Enterprise & Consumer:
- NinjaOne, Austin, TX IT automation platform, raised $231.5M in Series C funding led by ICONIQ Growth with participation from Snowflake’s Frank Slootman, Amit Agarwal, and others.
- Züm, Redwood City, CA transportation service for students, raised $140M in Series E funding led by GIC with participation from Climate Investment, Sequoia, and SoftBank Vision Fund 2.
- IONIX, Tel Aviv, Israel platform designed to identify and remediate risks across all of an enterprise’s network, raised $42M in Series A funding from Maor Investments, Hyperwise Ventures, Team8, and U.S. Venture Partners.
- Screendragon, London, U.K. and Cork, Ireland workflow automation platform, raised $27M in funding from Kennet Partners and Federated Hermes Private Equity.
- Mechanical Orchard, San Francisco, CA GenAI-native technology company that modernizes critical legacy applications without disrupting what they’re doing and move them onto the cloud, raised $24M in Series A funding led by Emergence Capital with participation from Industry Ventures, Spider Capital, Bloomberg Beta, Cendana Capital, and Webb Investment Network.
- Colossyan, London, U.K. AI-powered video platform for workplace learning, raised $22M in funding led by Lakestar with participation from Launchub, Day One Capital, and Emerge Education.
- StatusPRO, Miami, FL VR sports tech and gaming company, raised $20m in Series A funding led by GV led with participation from Dream Sports, Wise Ventures, JDS Sports, Alumni Ventures, LeBron James, Drake, Maverick Carter, Main Street Advisors, and Haslam Sports Group. [Sportico]
- Polycam, San Francisco, CA 3D image creation tool for smartphones, raised $18M in Series A funding led by Left Lane Capital and Adjacent with participation from Adobe Ventures and angel investors.
- Synthetaic, Delafield, WI provider of AI-powered visual data analysis software, raised $15M in Series B funding led by Lupa Systems and TitletownTech with participation from IBM Ventures and Booz Allen Hamilton.
- Jow, Paris, France grocery shopping platform, raised $13M in a Series A extension led by Northzone with participation from Eurazeo.
- Closinglock, Austin, TX fraud prevention technology provider for the real estate industry, raised $12M in Series A funding led by Headline VC with participation from LiveOak Ventures, RWT Horizons, and GTMfund.
- LimaCharlie, Covina, CA security operations cloud platform, raised $10.2M in Series A funding led by Sands Capital with participation from CoFound Partners, Long Journey Ventures, Lytical Ventures, and others.
- Upstash, San Jose, CA serverless data platform, raised $10M in Series A funding led by a16z with participation from Earlybird and Mango Capital.
- Reken, San Francisco, CA AI cybersecurity startup, raised $10M in seed funding co-led by Greycroft and FPV Ventures, with participation from Firebolt Ventures, Fika Ventures, Omega Venture Partners, Homebrew, and JAZZ Venture Partners. [SecurityWeek]
- Jam, a product development collaboration startup, raised $8.9M in Series A funding led by GGV Capital U.S., with participation from Figma Ventures and insiders USV, BoxGroup, Version One Ventures, and Village Global.
- Saleor, open-source headless commerce builder, raised $8M in seed extension funding co-led by Target Global and Zalando with participation from Cherry Ventures and TQ Ventures. [TechCrunch]
- Blush, invite-only dating app, raised $7M in seed funding from individuals like Naval Ravikant. [TechCrunch]
- Dexa, New York City, NY AI-powered search engine for podcasts and videos, raised $6M in seed funding led by Abstract Ventures and The General Partnership with participation from Maple VC and others.
- Mesh, B2B identity startup focused on e-commerce fraud, raised $5.7M in seed funding led by Greycroft. [BusinessWire]
- Perigon, Austin, TX AI-powered data and news curation company, raised $5M in seed funding from LiveOak Ventures.
- CAMB.AI, Dubai, U.A.E. AI language translator and voice dub program, raised $4M in seed funding led by Courtside Ventures with participation from TRTL Ventures, Blue Star Innovation Partners, Ikemori Ventures, and Eisaburo Maeda.
- Galileo AI, San Francisco, CA GenAI tool to turn text prompts into UI designs, raised $4.4M in seed funding led by Khosla Ventures.
- AI.Fashion, Los Angeles, CA platform for virtual fashion photoshoots and image customization, raised $3.6M in seed funding led by Neo with participation from Swift and Y Combinator.
- dataroomHQ, New York City, NY AI-powered data and metrics analysis platform, raised $3.5M in funding led by Oceans and Bling Capital with participation from Garuda Ventures, Cortical Ventures, and others.
- Vocode, San Francisco, CA phone call automator, raised $3.3M in seed funding from Base10 Partners, Google Ventures, Gradient, Accel, Liquid2, and angel investors.
- 222, a New York-based "IRL social" startup, raised $2.5M in seed funding from 1517 Fund, General Catalyst, Best Nights VC, Scrum Ventures, Upfront Ventures, and Arash Ferdows. [Business Insider]
- Mogul, a music royalties tracking startup, raised $1.9M in seed funding from Wonder Ventures, United Talent Agency, and AmplifyLA. [TechCrunch]
- Flaunt, Indianapolis enterprise loyalty management platform, raised $1.8M in funding led by High Alpha with participation from Square Deal Capital, Service Provider Capital, and others.
- Cimba.AI, Seattle, WA platform designed for custom enterprises AI agents, raised $1.3M in pre-seed funding led by Ripple Ventures with participation from SeaChange, PackVC, and angel investors.
. . .
HardTech:
- Starship Technologies, San Francisco, CA provider of autonomous delivery services, raised $90M in funding from Plural and Iconical.
- ZEDEDA, San Jose, CA edge AI and computing company, raised $72M in Series C funding led by Smith Point Capital with participation from Hillman Company, LDV Partners, Endeavor Catalyst Fund, and others.
- Elroy Air, San Francisco, CA maker of air cargo drones, raised nearly $50M in new funding led by Shield Capital.
- Daedalus, Karlsruhe, Germany company using AI to build precision parts factories, raised $21M in Series A funding led by NGP Capital with participation from Addition and Khosla Ventures.
- Interlune, a lunar resource harvesting startup led by ex-Blue Origin execs, raised $15.5M, per an SEC filing. [TechCrunch]
- Greyparrot, London, U.K. AI-powered analytics platform for sorting facilities in the waste industry, raised $12.8M in funding from Bollegraaf.
- Amperesand, Singapore grid infrastructure solutions provider, raised $12.5M in seed funding led by Xora Innovation and Material Impact with participation from TDK Ventures and Foothill Ventures.
- 10Beauty, Burlington, MA maker of manicure robots, raised $17M in Series A extension funding led by Shine Capital with participation from Imaginary Ventures, Lerer Hippeau, and Red Sea Ventures.
- Glass Imaging, Los Altos, CA developer of AI to extract the full image quality potential from hardware on current and future smartphone cameras by reversing lens aberrations and sensor imperfections, raised $9.3M in a seed extension. Google Ventures led the round, with participation from Future Ventures, Abstract Ventures, and LDV Capital.
- Biofire, Broomfield, CO smart gun maker, raised $7M in Series A extension funding from CAZ Investments, Valhalla Ventures, Serafund, K2 Global and insiders Founders Fund, Liquid 2 Ventures, Break Trail Ventures, and Gaingels.
- Neatleaf, San Francisco, CA developer of an autonomous robot designed to manage agricultural crops, raised $4M in funding from AgFunder.
- RealReports, New York City, NY AI-powered property reports, raised $2M in seed funding from TTV Capital, Moderne Ventures, Erez Capital, and others.
- First Bite, a Redwood City, CA Foodservice prospecting, tracking, and forecasting, raised $2M in seed funding led by Bread and Butter Ventures with participation from Leadout Capital and Pathbreaker Ventures.
. . .
Sustainability:
- Koloma, a Denver-based geologic hydrogen startup, raised $245M in Series B funding, per Axios Pro. Khosla Ventures led, and was joined by United Airlines Ventures and Amazon's climate fund. [Axios]
- Thea Energy, Princeton, N.J. company commercializing fusion energy as a sustainable alternative, raised $20M in Series A funding led by Prelude Ventures with participation from 11.2 Capital, Anglo American, Hitachi Ventures, Lowercarbon Capital, Mercator Partners, Orion Industrial Partners, and Starlight Ventures.
Acquisitions & PE:
- Thoma Bravo agrees to buy Everbridge (Nasdaq: EVBG), a Burlington, MA provider of critical event management and national public warning solutions, for $1.5B, pr $28.60/ pps (20% premium over Friday's closing price). [MarketWatch]
- BitGo, backed by Focus Opportunity Fund and Valor Equity Partners, acquired Brassica, a remote-based provider of alternative asset investment infrastructure. Financial terms were not disclosed. [PRweb]
- Beamer, backed by Camber Partners, acquired Userflow, a San Francisco, CA platform for building in-app tours, checklists, and surveys, for more than $60M. [Userflow]
. . .
Shutdowns:
- Weaveworks, San Francisco, CA cloud-native development tooling company, has decided to shut down. Weaveworks had raised ~$65M from VCs like Accel, GV, Ericsson Ventures, and Orange Ventures. [TechCrunch]
Funds:
- Wonder Ventures of LA raised $57M for its 4th pre-seed fund and $45M for an opportunities fund. #LongLA [TechCrunch]
- Voyager Ventures, a San Francisco and New York City venture capital firm, raised $100M for its first fund focused on software, hardware, and biotech companies with decarbonization efforts.
- Runway, popular GenAI startup that's raised ~$300M, is now raising its own VC fund focused on early-stage AI startups. [Axios]