Cruise's cuts, TikTok's terms, and Andreessen Horowitz looks to throw its weight around on Capitol Hill

Thanks to the recent market rally, Apple now boasts a $3 billion market cap.

Andreessen Horowitz is looking to throw its weight around on Capitol Hill. "We believe that advancing technology is critical for humanity’s future," Ben Horowitz writes in an a16z blog post, "so we will, for the first time, get involved with politics by supporting candidates who align with our vision and values specifically for technology."

Researchers at Google DeepMind are claiming that an LLM they created has produced the first scientific discovery generated by an AI.

According to Affinity, VCs need a three-pronged strategy to win at high-quality deal sourcing in 2024: data, relationships, and technology. Turn those ingredients into a recipe for success with their new deal sourcing guide. It features step-by-step guidance and advice from leading dealmakers. Download the guide today.

The hurdle for Series A funding is a lot higher than it was a year ago — and investors in seed-stage companies are having to respond.

They don’t have much choice if they want their startups to survive. When the market abruptly turned in the spring of 2022, late-stage companies were the first to feel the pain. But that downward financial pressure has more recently made its way to much newer outfits, which are getting lower valuations in their next round — 1.6x in the second quarter, the lowest value since the third quarter of 2013, per PitchBook data — and facing choosier Series A investors with plenty of options.

There’s no shortage of ways that VCs are getting creative on this front. The European venture firm Breega touts its “scaling squad” to help support its many seed bets. Pear VC, a Bay Area-based seed-stage venture firm, is constantly rolling out new programming aimed at supporting and educating the nascent teams that it backs.

Even the bigger, stage-agnostic firms are doing more to telegraph that they’re responding to the current market. In October, for example, the investment firm Greylock rolled out Edge, a three-month company-building program “designed to advance select pre-idea, pre-seed and seed founders from inception to product-market fit.”

VC heavyweight Lightspeed Venture Partners is also stepping up its game. The firm has long written early (and sometimes, first) checks to nascent startups, including the messaging app Snapchat; the application performance management outfit AppDynamics (acquired by Cisco just ahead of its IPO); and the publicly traded cloud computing company Nutanix (current market cap: $11.2 billion).

By the firm’s telling, it has long focused on polishing such diamonds in the rough. Still, given the rising standards of Series A investors across the board, Lightspeed tells TechCrunch that it’s now formalizing some of the mentorship it has long offered its portfolio companies through a company-building program for its founders dubbed Launch.

Led by partner Luke Beseda, the purported idea isn’t to attract more founders to Lightspeed but rather to clear the path for the startups it has already funded so they can get to that Series A round.

More here.

Qogita, a two-year-old Dutch startup that operates a two-sided e-commerce wholesale marketplace aimed at retailers largely in the health and beauty sectors, raised an $88 million Series B round led by Dawn Capital, with Accel, Bessemer Venture Partners, and LocalGlobe also taking part. TechCrunch has more here.

Udaan, a seven-year-old Bangalore startup that helps merchants in smaller Indian cities and towns secure inventories from major brands, as well as gain access to working capital, raised a $340 million equity and debt Series E round led by M&G, with additional participation from previous investors Lightspeed Venture Partners and DST Global. TechCrunch has more here.

Urban Sports Club, an 11-year-old Berlin startup that manages employee wellness programs, many involving sports activities, raised a $104.4 million round led by Verdane, with previous investors HV Capital, b2venture, and ProSiebenSat1 also participating. Tech.eu has more here.

Dimensional Energy, a nine-year-old startup based in Ithaca, NY, that produces sustainable aviation fuel from carbon dioxide emissions and water, raised a $20 million Series A round led by Envisioning Partners, with United Airlines’ Sustainable Flight Fund, Microsoft’s Climate Innovation Fund, RockCreek Group’s Smart Aviation Futures Fund, DSC Investment, Delek US, New York Ventures, and Climate Tech Circle as well as previous investors New Climate Ventures, Elemental Excelerator, Chloe Capital, and Launch New York also piling on. TechCrunch has more here.

Ecoworks, a five-year-old Berlin startup that reduces the carbon consumption of building by installing energy efficient facades, raised a $44 million Series A round led by World Fund, with Haniel, Kompas VC, and ISAI also contributing. TechCrunch has more here.

PursueCare, a four-year-old startup based in Middletown, Ct., that provides virtual treatment for patients with substance use disorders, raised a $20 million Series B round co-led by T.rx Capital and Yamaha Motor Ventures, with Seyen Capital and OCA Ventures also pitching in. Behavioral Health Business has more here.

Barnyard Games, a one-year-old startup based in Encinitas, Ca., that is making games on the Unreal Engine Fortnite platform, raised a $3.4 million seed round led by Menlo Ventures, with BetaWorks, Alumni Ventures, and Charge VC also contributing. VentureBeat has more here.

Baseline Vision, a five-year-old Tel Aviv startup that has built an AI-powered game analysis system that provides real-time performance feedback for players and coaches, raised a $2.4 million seed round from a syndicate that included Lalotte Ventures. Fortune has more here.

Datalogz, a three-year-old New York startup that analyzes data usage and activity across various business intelligence tools, pinpointing areas of overlap, underused subscriptions, and inefficient queries, raised a $5 million round led by GreatPoint Ventures, with Graphene Ventures, Squadra Ventures, Berkeley Skydeck, Defined VC, Mana Ventures, and Trajectory Ventures also investing. TechCrunch has more here.

Delphina, a San Francisco startup that helps clients build and deploy predictive AI models through the use of an AI co-pilot, raised a $7.5 million seed round co-led by Costanoa Ventures and Radical Ventures. Bloomberg has more here.

Hyperplane, a one-year-old San Francisco startup that is building foundation models to help banks predict customer behavior, raised a $6 million seed round led by investor Lachy Groom, with SV Angel, Clocktower Technology Ventures, Liquid2 Ventures, Soma Capital, Latitud, Atman Capital, Crestone VC, and Norte also chipping in. TechCrunch has more here.

Inductive Bio, a New York startup that says it is developing a machine learning platform designed to accelerate the compound optimization process for new drugs, raised a $4.3 million seed round co-led by Andreessen Horowitz and Lux Capital, with Character, Bessemer Venture Partners, and Alleycorp also anteing up. More here.

Lolli, a five-year-old startup based in Durham, N.C., whose rewards app lets consumers earn Bitcoin or cash back on everyday purchases, raised an $8 million Series B round led by BITKRAFT Ventures, with participation from Sfermion, Prisma Ventures, Hypersphere Ventures, 2 Punks Capital, and MZ Web3 Fund as well as previous investors Seven Seven Six, Founders Fund, Bain Capital Ventures, Serena Ventures, MrBeast’s Night Media, and Logan Paul. TechCrunch has more here.

NeoCarbon, a one-year-old Berlin startup that retrofits industrial sites to remove CO2 from the atmosphere, raised a $3.5 million seed round led by Raise Seed For Good, with additional investors including Proptech1 Ventures, Speedinvest, and Antler. Silicon Canals has more here.

NodeKit, a two-year-old startup based in Ames, Ia., that helps crypto developers avoid sequencing delays, raised a $1.2 million pre-seed round led by Borderless Capital, with Blizzard Fund, Polygon Ventures, and Wormhole Cross-Chain Ecosystem Fund also stepping up. The Block has more here.

Paynest, a four-year-old Lisbon startup that offers employees a range of financial products and services, including personalized articles on personal finance management and coaching, raised a $2.2 million seed round led by Lince Capital, with BlueCrow Capital, TechTree CTT, and M4 Ventures also chipping in. FinTech Global has more here.

Prevu, a six-year-old, New York-based real estate tech startup that gives home buyers cash-back rebates, has raised $6 million in Series A funding. Backers in the round included Citi, Alpaca Ventures, Winklevoss Capital, RiverPark Ventures, Metropolis Ventures, Simplex Ventures and Liebenthal Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Stairs Financial, a three-year-old Texas startup that has built a mortgage marketplace that is licensed in 40 U.S. states, raised a $3.5 million round led by Zigg Capital and including Y Combinator, Antler, and Exceptional Capital. Forbes has more here.

SupportPay, a five-year-old startup based in Charlotte, N.C., that claims its platform enables divorced, single, step, co-parents, and caregivers to easily manage and exchange child support, shared expenses, payments, communications, custody, and schedules, raised a $3.1 million seed round led by HearstLabs, with Michigan Capital Network, Victorium Capital, Rendar Capital, Connetic Ventures, and Stage Next Ventures also investing. More here.

Valuebase, a 1.5-year-old, Durham, N.C.-based startup looking to use land-first models to create mass appraisal modeling and property valuations, is raising a $7.8 million round, per an SEC filing. The startup raised earlier seed funding from Sam Altman and former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman, among others; we wrote about the company earlier this year.

Woola, a three-year-old startup based in Tallinn, Estonia, that supplies protective packaging produced from unused sheep wool, raised a $2.7 million round led by Metaplanet, with additional funding from previous investors Future Ventures and Lemonade Stand. Packaging Gateway has more here.

700+ investors say deal volume is back for 2024. Read the 2024 Private capital investment predictions report for a healthy dose of cautious optimism today.

Today, a handful of investment firms announced new funds: Artis Ventures, BoxGroup, Playground Global and Singular all closed on funds, while Partech said it was launching a €360 million venture fund. Against a backdrop of layoffs and continuing economic uncertainty, the announcements — particularly in such quick succession — are something of a shock. But they point to a few underlying truths about the market right now.

After a year when most biotechs had given up on going public in the near term, the IPO window will “gradually reopen” next year—at least that’s what analysts at PwC are betting on.

Wired takes a peek into Mark Zuckerberg's $100 million Hawaii compound, which will soon feature a huge underground bunker.

A federal judge has ruled that Elon Musk must testify in the SEC's ongoing probe of his Twitter purchase. "You’ve got one more four-hour deposition, one more day of depositions to survive, and it’s over," the judge remarked.

Speaking of Elon Musk, he's planning to start a university in Austin, per tax filings spied by Bloomberg. More here.

Just in time for Christmas, Cruise is laying off 900 workers, nearly 24% of the company, in an effort to slash costs and revamp the company. TechCrunch has the scoop here.

E-commerce and fintech company Bolt, which was at one time the subject of a federal probe, confirmed to TechCrunch today that it has laid off 29% of its staff. This latest round of layoffs, which the spokesperson said happened last week, follow a handful of other layoffs made by the company since 2022. More here.

U.S. regulators are concerned about the potential financial risks of AI.

TikTok quietly changed its terms of service to make it harder for users to sue the company.

Open source chip design takes hold in Silicon Valley.

Google's new AI search tool is proving a "traffic-destroying nightmare" for publishers.

What your luggage sees when you check it. 

"Yep, this supporting character is definitely about to die ..."

A Japanese startup successfully tested a rocket powered by cow dung.

Why morning people are Neanderthals.

Grimes has a new line of interactive AI plush toys, one of which happens to be named "Grok."

Relive your halcyon days with this spiffy new Atari 2600+ gaming console.