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A Delaware judge has rejected the $55.8 billion pay package Elon Musk received from Tesla in 2018 that made him the world's richest man.
Is the AI bloom off the rose? Microsoft, Alphabet, and Advanced Micro Devices lost $190 billion in market value when analysts were less than impressed with the numbers they reported.
Get ready for a grilling: the heads of TikTok, Meta, Snap, and X are testifying tomorrow at a Senate hearing on child safety.
This is apparently not a joke: Peter Thiel is one of the new investors in the Enhanced Games, which is not only forgoing the drug testing of athletes but possibly encouraging some degree of medical experimentation. The Verge has more here.
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On The Distribution by Juniper Square, David Haber, General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), shared how his entrepreneurial mindset guides his investment strategy for fintech, how he anticipates GenAI will affect the sector, and why now can be a great time to invest in fintech. Listen here now.
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Accompany Health, a two-year-old startup based in Bethesda, Md., that delivers bespoke health care services online or in-person for low-income patients, raised a $56 million Series A round. Venrock, ARCH Venture Partners, IVP, Granite Capital Management, and Evidenced participated in the investment. More here.
Codeium, a three-year-old San Francisco startup whose AI-powered coding platform helps developers by generating code, translating between programming languages, and offering suggestions for code completion, raised a $65 million Series B round at a $500 million valuation. The deal lead was Kleiner Perkins, with General Catalyst and previous investor Greenoaks also anteing up. SiliconANGLE has more here.
Cour Pharmaceuticals, a nine-year-old Chicago startup that is developing treatments that reprogram the immune system to tolerate specific antigens, raised a $105 million Series A round co-led by Lumira Ventures and Alpha Wave Ventures, with Roche Venture Fund, Pfizer, Bristol Myers Squibb, Angelini Ventures, and the JDRF T1D Fund also piling on. BioPharma Dive has more here.
Figure AI, a two-year-old startup based in Sunnyvale, Ca., that is building a humanoid robot designed to perform dangerous jobs that are unsuitable for humans, is in the market to raise $500 million co-led by Microsoft and OpenAI, according to Bloomberg, which has more here.
Inari Agriculture, a startup based in Cambridge, Ma., whose goal is to create seeds that can increase crop yields and use less water and nitrogen fertilizer, raised a $103 million round at a $1.63 billion valuation. Investors included Hanwha Impact, CPP Investments, Rivas Capital, NGS Super, State of Michigan Retirement System, Flagship Pioneering, and Rokos Capital Management. Bloomberg has more here.
Kore.ai, a 10-year-old company based in Orlando, Fl., that provides conversational AI products to assist businesses in automating and improving customer service and other communication tasks, raised a $150 million round led by led by FTV Capital, Nvidia, Vistara Growth, Sweetwater PE, NextEquity, Nicola, and Beedie. The company has raised a total of $223.5 million. TechCrunch has more here.
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| Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings |
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Aqemia, a five-year-old Paris startup that says it is using generative AI and quantum physics to discover cancer drugs, raised a $32.5 million Series A extension round led by Wendel Growth, with previous investors Eurazeo, Bpifrance, and Elaia also investing. Medical Device Network has more here.
Boston Metal, a 12-year-old company based in Woburn, Ma., that sells technology to steel manufacturers to reduce carbon emissions, raised a $20 million Series C extension. Marunouchi Innovation Partners was the deal lead. More here.
Crux Climate, a one-year-old startup based in Dover, De., that operates a marketplace for clean energy tax credits, serving project developers, tax credit buyers, and intermediaries, raised an $18 million Series A round led by Andreessen Horowitz, with additional participation from previous investors Lowercarbon Capital, New System Ventures, Overture, and The Three Cairns Group. The company has raised a total of $27+ million. Latitude Media has more here.
LoanStar Technologies, a nine-year-old startup based in Swarthmore, Pa., that connects lenders with local merchants to offer on-the-spot financing options to customers making purchases, raised a $28 million round. Sageview Capital was the deal lead, with additional funds provided by Launch Credit Union, TruMark Financial Credit Union, Ben Franklin Technology Partners, and Monarch Strategic Advisors. More here.
Newme, an Indian fast-fashion e-commerce startup, is reportedly in talks to raise between $15 million and $20 million in funding, led by Accel. The potential new backing comes just a week after Newme announced it had raised $5.4 million in seed funding led by Fireside Ventures, reports TechCrunch.
Portal, a six-year-old San Francisco startup that is developing a decentralized exchange based on Bitcoin that allows for the exchange of cryptocurrencies and other digital assets without relying on a centralized authority, raised a $34 million seed round. Investors included Coinbase Ventures, Arrington Capital, and OKX Ventures. CoinDesk has more here.
Spark Advisors, a four-year-old New York startup that offers digital tools and services for insurance agencies and brokers, focusing on the Medicare insurance market, raised a $25 million Series B round led by Viewpoint, with previous investors American Family Ventures and Primary Venture Partners also stepping up. More here.
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Airfocus, a seven-year-old Hamburg startup that makes project management software for customers like Caterpillar, The Washington Post, and Orange, raised a $7.5 million round led by Newion, with XAnge, Nauta, Riverside Acceleration Capital, and Picea Capital also participating. The company has raised a total of $15 million. TechCrunch has more here.
Aster, a San Francisco startup founded last year that says it enables women’s health practices to manage, grow, and scale their practices while also improving clinical outcomes, raised a $2.4 million pre-seed co-led by Cake Ventures and Cornerstone VC, with participation from Zeal Capital Partners, Octopus Ventures, Sterling Road, Blueprint, and Everywhere Ventures. More here.
Attune, a four-year-old New York startup that offers digital services to banks and credit unions to help them serve their customers better, raised a $2.225 million round led by Tribeca Early Stage Partners, with CastleCreek Launchpad, and ICBA also contributing. More here.
Compa, a four-year-old startup based in Newport Beach, Ca., that provides real-time compensation data to help companies like like Airbnb and Nvidia manage job offers and salaries, raised a $10 million Series A round led by Storm Ventures and including Penny Jar Capital, Indeed Ventures, NJP Ventures, Base10 Partners, and Acadian Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
Coxwave, a Seoul startup that helps businesses analyze and understand user interactions with AI-powered conversation systems like chatbots, raised a $3.5 million round. Investors included KB Investment, Danal, and Seoul Techno Holdings. More here.
GreenSpark, a three-year-old New York startup that offers tools to help metal recycling businesses improve operations and revenue, raised a $9.4 million round co-led by Zero Infinity Partners and Third Prime, with Bienville Capital also chipping in. The company has raised a total of approximately $19 million. More here.
Inngest, a San Francisco startup that makes it easier for developers to build and manage serverless backends, says it raised a $6.1 million funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz, with follow-on investments from GGV, Afore Capital and Vercel CEO and co-founder Guillermo Rauch, who all participated in the company’s $3 million seed round. TechCrunch has more here.
Marstone, an 11-year-old company based in Providence, RI, that provides tools for investment management and financial planning to financial institutions like banks, wealth management firms, and insurance companies to help them better engage with their clients, raised an $8 million Series B financing co-led by Mendon Venture Partners and South Rose Capital, with Castle Creek Launchpad Fund also anteing up. More here.
Mesh, a four-year-old San Francisco startup that enables companies to include crypto transactions in their operations, avoiding the need for customers to switch between platforms,
raised a $6.5 million round from PayPal Ventures via PayPal’s in-house stablecoin. PYMNTS has more here.
MIC Global, a four-year-old New York startup that provides embedded microinsurance products tailored for underserved individuals and businesses, raised a $6 million seed round led by Launchpad Capital, with Greenlight Re and Ironsides Partners also pitching in. InsurTech Analyst has more here.
p0, an Indian startup that uses LLMs to help developers identify and fix serious issues in their software before it is released, raised a $6.5 million round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with Alchemy Ventures also joining. TechCrunch has more here.
Wisedocs, a six-year-old Toronto startup whose platform sorts, summarizes, and reviews medical documents, reducing processing time for insurance companies, raised a $9.5 million Series A round. Information Venture Partners led the transaction, with Thomson Reuters Ventures and ManchesterStory also investing. The company has raised a total of $16 million. BetaKit has more here.
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UK-based Giant Ventures has raised a $250 million fund, its second. The firm will invest $100 million of this amount in seed startups and the remaining $150 million in Series B climate deals. TechCrunch has more here.
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Ramp, a unicorn startup that makes spend management software, announced its August acquisition of Venue, a two-year-old startup that manages the onboarding of new vendors. Venue had raised $1.2 million from investors such as Sequoia Capital. TechCrunch has more here.
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Raspberry Pi, a favorite of geek hobbyists the world over for the programmable computers that it makes, is planning an IPO on the London Stock Exchange. In November, the company was valued at approximately $500 million. Ars Technica has more here.
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PayPal is axing 2,500 employees or 9% of its workforce in an effort to "right-size," according to CEO Alex Chriss.
Block has begun the process of laying off 10% of its workforce, which should reduce headcount from 13,000 to 12,000 by the end of this year.
Google shelled out $2.1 billion last year on severance and expenses and $700 million this month alone. The Verge has more here.
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On X, Elmo asked how everyone was doing. The answers weren't pretty.
George Carlin's estate is suing a podcast called Dudesy for creating an AI version of the late comedian. But it turns out that's only half the story.
LA's jeweler to the stars is a dentist.
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A new Banksy is up for auction - an aerosol painting on a car door. Bids start at $25,000, but the artwork does come with a custom display stand and accompanying paint-splattered traffic cone.
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