Silicon Valley Funding News - Week of March 25, 2024. Foundry Raised $80M Series A

Hello from Hong Kong!

I am super excited to host the FoundersHK Spring Social and Founder Forum this week bringing together the biggest growth stage startup founders into the same room for the first time in years! I personally believe Hong Kong can be the next Silicon Valley – if, and only if, we get the right types of people on board. To me, there are only two types: the start-up investor and the geek. Hong Kong has plenty of rich people and “wantrepreneur” investors, but most made their fortune in real estate, finance or manufacturing. To be the next Silicon Valley, Hong Kong must focus on people, not real estate. Read my op-ed in the South China Morning Post. 

P.S. Don't forget to tell your favorite early-stage enterprise founders to apply for Topline - my 8-week enterprise accelerator, focusing on revenue growth! Application deadline is coming up soon.

P.P.S. Starting next week, I am going to send out this newsletter via Substack instead of Mailchimp. You may get a different look and feel of this newsletter. Stay tuned!

Here are a few great things to read/watch this week:

• 💪 Political Economy of Technology - I really enjoyed reading this article written by Bill Janeway, the author of Doing Capitalism in the Innovation Economy.  Bill has been an active growth equity investor for more than 40 years at Warburg Pincus. In this article, he discusses how economic outcomes we experience have never been wholly the consequence of markets efficiently allocating resources to their optimal uses. On the contrary, the costs and benefits of technological progress are distributed is a matter of social choice. I am so excited to interview Bill at the upcoming Race Capital Venture Summit 2024. 😃

• 💪 How to Get Ahead of 99% of Software Engineers - My friend Jean, the 19th software engineer at WhatsApp, created some awesome content for engineers. Check out her videos on 7 Steps on How to Get Ahead, Don’t Be An ML/AI Engineer If You’re Like This... and her latest class called “Software Engineering Careers in the Age of AI”.

• 💰  The Complete History & Strategy of Renaissance Technologies - Renaissance Technologies is the best performing investment firm of all time. They were able to achieve a 68% gross and a 40% net over the past 34 years, while never once losing money. This is an incredible story of a small group of rebel mathematicians who didn’t just beat the market, but in the words of author Greg Zuckerman:  “solved it.” Listen to this latest Acquired Episode.

• 🎵 The Woodstock of AI - Watch the March 2024 Keynote with NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang.  

• 💪 Techcrunch Early Stage - I am excited to speak at Techcrunch Early Stage next month in Boston. Join me there!

 
This week a total of 19 startups raised $422.55M in funding, 4 M&As:

• $122.65M goes to 9 Enterprise startups
• $143M goes to 3 Web3/Crypto startups
• $54.8M goes to 2 Healthcare startups
• $80M goes to 2 BioTech startups
• $3.2M goes to 1 Electric Vehicle startup
• $6.9M goes to 1 CleanTech startup
• $12M goes to 1 Construction startup