Hello from Saudi Arabia! 🇸🇦

I am speaking at FII (Future Investment Initiative) Riyadh on the topic of “When will the IPO outlook turn positive?” and “How will Women Drive the 5th Industrial Revolution”. I hope to catch up with some of you there!

P.S. Apply to attend 👉 How to Recruit, Build, and Scale World Class Engineering Teams on November 6.

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

• 💰 How AI Dealmakers Are Sidestepping Regulators - Startups like Inflection, Adept and Character.AI use a number of tricks to get their total assets below $23.9M to strike deals with Microsoft, Amazon and Google, respectively, to avoid antitrust scrutiny. Under the US’ Hart-Scott-Rodino Act, antitrust authorities don’t need to be notified if the value of an acquisition is below $119.5 million. If the deal’s value is higher—between $119.5 million and $478 million—the parties involved only have to notify authorities if one company (likely the acquirer) has at least $239M in annual net sales and the other company has at least $23.9M in annual net sales or total assets. Read more here and here.

• 💰 Biggest Crypto Acquisition for $1.1B - Stripe acquired the stablecoin platform Bridge for $1.1 billion gave some credence to the idea that stablecoins might be the killer use case for crypto. This acquisition comes a few days after Stripe formally announced it had re-enabled crypto payments in the US with stablecoins. Stablecoins show promise for money transfers and payments — and Solana’s north star of being fast and cheap makes the blockchain an intuitively good fit. See this analysis on implications for Solana and crypto VC.
  (Full disclosure: I am an investor in Solana)

• 👶 Could Your Baby be Smarter? US Startup Promises Higher IQs in Embryos for $50,000 - Heliospect Genomics, has worked with more than a dozen couples undergoing IVF. The company is marketing its services at up to $50,000 for clients seeking to test 100 embryos, and claiming to have helped some parents select future children based on genetic predictions of intelligence. Read more.

• ☀️ The Rise of Small Language Models - SLMs are pared-down versions of the large language models that underpin generative AI technology—are gaining traction and opening investment opportunities. These models are everything LLMs like ChatGPT and Claude aren’t. They’re considered “small” because they’re trained using less data. They’re cheaper to run and can be deployed on local devices. They don’t have access to an internet’s worth of knowledge, but what they lack in breadth they make up for in depth. Read more here and here

• 🗞️ No Presidential Endorsement for Jeff Bezos & Patrick Soon-Shiong - The Washington Post and Los Angeles Times both won’t endorse a presidential candidate, ending decades of tradition. Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post for $250 million in 2013 and Patrick Soon-Shiong bought the LA Times for $500 million in 2018. Los Angeles Times editorials editor resigns after owner blocks endorsement.

• 🖐️ Every Board Member Resigned from 23andMe - Seven of eight members of 23andMe’s board have resigned in yet another blow to the struggling genetics company. Co-founder and CEO Anne Wojcicki is now the only remaining member. The independent directors were quitting the company’s board after not receiving a satisfactory buyout offer from the CEO. Read here.

Last week a total of 20 startups raised $748.9M in funding, 3 Exits:

• $364.4M goes to 7 Enterprise startups

• $98.3M goes to 3 FinTech startups

• $15M goes to 1 Blockchain startup

• $85.5M goes to 4 Healthcare startups

• $2.5M goes to 1 BioTech startup

• $2.2M goes to 1 Renewable Energy startup

• $50M goes to 1 Robotics startup

• $106M goes to 1 Logistics startup

• $25M goes to 1 Construction startup

If you love this newsletter, forward it to someone who would also enjoy it and have them subscribe.

Edith
X, LinkedIn

Funding (300 miles radius from Silicon Valley)

Enterprise

• Zip (AI-enhanced procurement platform) raised $190M Series D led by Bond Capital

• Concentric AI (autonomous data security posture management) raised $45M Series B led by HarbourVest Partners, Top Tier Capital Partners

• Nooks (AI sales assistant platform) raised $43M Series B led by Kleiner Perkins

• Socket (developer-first security platform) raised $40M Series B led by Abstract Ventures

• Genmo (AI creative content generation platform) raised $28.4M Series A led by New Enterprise Associates

• Crew AI (AI multi-agent platform) raised $12M Series A led by Insight Partners

• Oloid (access and identity management) raised $6M Series A led by Yaletown Partners

FinTech

• Finix (full-stack payment processor) raised $75M Series C led by Acrew Capital, LEAP Global Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners

• Interface AI (customer automation platform for banks) raised $20M Series A led by Avataar Venture Partners

• Uprise (wealth management services for SMBs) raised $3.3M Seed led by Blank Ventures

Blockchain

• Bluesky (decentralized social network) raised a $15 million Series A led by Blockchain Capital

Healthcare

• Infinitus Systems (healthcare phone call automation platform) raised $51.5M Series C led by Andreessen Horowitz

• Archy (cloud automation software for dental practices) raised $15M Series A led by Entrée Capital

• HealthEx (patient preference and consent management platform) raised $14M Series A led by General Catalyst

• Pharos (hospital quality reporting platform) raised $5M Seed led by Felicis

BioTech

• Avenue Biosciences (novel protein engineering) raised $2.5M Seed led by Voima Ventures

Robotics

• Simbe Robotics (store intelligence platform) raised $50M Series C led by Goldman Sachs Alternatives

Logistics

• Nimble (autonomous fulfillment technology) raised $106M Series C led by Cedar Pine, FedEx

Construction

• Pantheon AI (AI-enabled property design solution) raised $25M Seed led by Andreessen Horowitz

Renewable Energy

• TurnOnGreen (EV charging and advanced power solutions) raised $2.2M Seed

IPO & M&A (300 miles radius from Silicon Valley)  

• Septerna (GPCRs-focused biotech company) went IPO

• Stripe acquired Bridge (stablecoin platform) for $1.1 Billion

• Applied Intuition acquired Ghost Autonomy (autonomous driving software)