Silicon Valley Funding News - Week of July 10, 2023. Rybit Raised $10M Series A

Hello from sunny and beautiful San Francisco! 

Venture capitalists might have taken some time off this past week with only 4 companies raising $28M, but that is not the case for Mark Zuckerberg. The launch of Meta's Threads was considered as the "May Day" for Twitter. 

P.S. Calling all Hong Kong founders in the Bay Area . I'm super excited to co-host FoundersHK & Investors Summer Social 2023 in San Francisco, and partnering with the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office (HKETO) on July 27. Come meet with Hong Kong and AAPI founders and Investors for a night of networking over drinks at the HKETO office. Click here to sign up!

Here are a few great reads for the week:

• 🧵  Elon must be pissed -  On July 5, Meta has released its text-based messaging app called Threads, positioning it as Instagram's "text-based conversation app. The launch of Threads was a brilliant move by Mark Zuckerberg. The app hit the 30 million mark in just 24 hours after it went public breaking OpenAI launch record of 1M in 5 days. Then it hit 70 Million in 48 hours. 70M users is equal to 15% of Twitter 450M user base. The growth hack is so amazing by allowing users to pre-follow folks who are not here yet. Follow me on Threads 
• 💪 Top 100 companies in AI by CBInsights - Proud to see Vectara, a Race Capital portfolio company on the list. Click here to read more
• 😂 What Databricks' MosaicML Deal Means for the Industry - The world is having an iPhone moment... everyone wants a piece of AI. Just because you want to do AI, doesn't mean you will do it well. Watch my comment on Bloomberg
• 😶 No product, no problem - Mistral AI, the Parisian generative A.I. startup that raised $113 million in seed funding shocked the tech world by notching the largest European seed round ever—with no product yet.
• 🇭🇰 Why Hong Kong Wants to Be a Hub for the Crypto Sector - Hong Kong wants to become an international crypto hub even as jurisdictions such as both the US and EU cast a wary eye on the sector. In June, a new licensing system kicked off to regulate crypto exchanges offering trading in tokens like Bitcoin and Ether. The regiment is part of Hong Kong’s effort to attract fresh capital and talent back to the city, after its reputation was tarnished by years of harsh Covid-19 curbs and a crackdown on political dissent. Read more on Washington Post

This week a total of 4 startups raised $28M in funding, 0 M&As: 

• $2.8M goes to 1 Enterprise startup
• $5.2M goes to 1 FinTech startup
• $10M goes to 1 Logistics startup
• $10M goes to 1 IoT startup