Happy Holidays!

Congrats to Ali Ghodsi & Databricks team for closing $10 billion Series J round!

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

🤓 AI's Biggest Annual Event: NeurIPS - Over the past week, more than 16,000 computer scientists gathered in Vancouver, B.C. for NeurIPS, the Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems. Once a niche gathering, the conference has evolved into a major industry event. The conference has grown far beyond its early days, when a small group of outliers could fit into a hotel bar. It now serves as a fertile ground for Alphabet, Apple, Nividia, Meta, and Microsoft to make their announcements plus 26 papers presented at NeurIPS 2024 this year. My colleague at Race Capital also hosted a super busy luncheon with over 800 people waitlisted!

🎮 Is Extended Reality (XR) Still Happening? The global VR and MR headset market is expected to grow steadily this year, with shipments projected to reach 9.6M units, an 8.8% increase year-over-year, according to a new report by TrendForce. Launched in 2024, Apple Vision Pro has already claimed 5% of the market, a significant achievement given its high price of $3,499. Meta dominates with a 73% market share, largely thanks to its affordable Quest 3S, which retails for just $299.

💰 Predictions: US to Establish Bitcoin Reserve by End of 2025 - The resurgence of crypto will be driven by regulatory clarity, increased institutional adoption, and the establishment of a US Bitcoin Reserve by the end of 2025. The United States is currently the largest holder of Bitcoin, with approximately 207,189 bitcoins in its possession. This effort will be bolstered by this massive stockpile, which is now valued at over $20 billion at current prices. Watch my comment on Bloomberg.

💰 Tough Time for Non-AI Startups - VCs are excited to back AI companies with red-hot valuations, “but everything else is really challenged. Non-AI companies that raised a Series A round 18 months ago are likely facing challenges in securing Series B funding, even with decent revenue growth. Read more on Techcrunch.

💰 The 10 Most BULLISH Crypto x AI 2025 Predictions - 2024 was a breakout year for crypto. This Bankless podcast probably a bit too optimistic, but definitive provides informative predictions.

Last week a total of 10 startups raised $260.1M in funding, 2 M&As:

• $71.2M goes to 4 Enterprise startups

• $119M goes to 2 FinTech startups

• $30M goes to 1 InsurTech startup

• $9.5M goes to 1 ClimateTech startup

• $25M goes to 1 AgTech startup

• $5.4M goes to 1 Robotics startup

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Edith
X, LinkedIn

Funding (300 miles radius from Silicon Valley)

Enterprise

• Databricks (AI & data platform) raised $10B by Thrive Capital

• Decart (AI video model) raised $32M Series A led by Benchmark

• Bureau (risk intelligence platform) raised $30M Series B led by Sorenson Capital

• Tenor (AI leadership development solution) raised $5.4M Seed led by Base10 Partners

• Hamming AI (AI voice agent reliability platform) raised $3.8M Seed led by Mischief

FinTech

• Parafin (small business financial services) raised $100M Series C led by Notable Capital

• Anatomy Financial (financial automation solutions for healthcare) raised $19M Series A led by Canapi Ventures

InsurTech

• Stand (home insurance for climate-impacted properties) raised $30M Series A from Inspired Capital, Lowercarbon, Equal Ventures & Convective Capital

ClimateTech

• Mojave Energy Systems (energy efficient commercial air conditioner) raised $9.5M Series A led by At One Ventures, Fifth Wall

AgTech

• Sound Agriculture (bioinspired crop nutrition) raised $25M Series B led by BMO Capital Markets, S2G Ventures

Robotics

• T-robotics (no code robotic programming) raised $5.4M Seed led by Emergent Ventures, Engine Ventures

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

• Grammarly acquired Coda (document collaboration platform)

• Storyland acquired PreSkale (presales AI)