PIN

A newsletter for communities, investors, angels, and founders

Author

Power in Numbers
August 16, 2024

Welcome to PIN’d - our weekly newsletter where we pin (lol, bear with us) the most important tech/startup news of the week for aspiring angels, vc’s, startup investors, founders, etc. Expect a new weekly roundup from us every Friday morning!

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📰This week’s best news

Jeff Pinner, former Lyft tech head, is now the new CTO of neobroker Robinhood. In this new position, he is expected to accelerate the product roadmap, scale infrastructure, enhance customer experiences, and drive operational efficiencies.

Andreessen Horowitz was the only firm to hit double digits in the number of funding rounds for U.S.-based startups during July. Here’s a look at everything that happened during this very slow month.

Uniswap, a major decentralized crypto exchange, is facing increased regulatory pressure. Several venture capital funds, including Andreessen Horowitz and Union Square Ventures, have received letters from the SEC regarding their involvement with the firm. It appears that regulators may accuse Uniswap of being an unregistered exchange.

Antler, an early-stage venture capital firm based in Singapore, has successfully closed its second Southeast Asia-focused fund, Antler SEA Fund II, raising $72 million. This fund will continue to support tech-enabled startups across Southeast Asia, offering pre-launch, pre-seed, and seed capital to promising ventures.

The techies who went out of office to chase Olympic glory

Many athletes who participated in the Paris Olympics are balancing demanding jobs in tech, media, and finance with their sports pursuits. They maintain rigorous daily routines and have made significant sacrifices to excel in both their professional and athletic lives. Read their stories in this article.

In collaboration with TrueBridge Capital Partners, Forbes has revealed their list of the 25 promising U.S. venture-backed companies with the potential to achieve a $1 billion valuation. This year's selection, dominated by companies leveraging artificial intelligence across various applications, was curated from over 150 nominations.

💰 Funding announcement highlights

Boostly, a startup developing a text message marketing platform designed specifically for restaurants to increase customer orders, generate reviews, and track performance, raised a $5.6 million seed round. Trestle Partners led the round, which also included Relish Works, Singularity Capital, and Y Combinator.

Encord, a startup on the mission to help organizations efficiently label and manage large datasets, allowing AI systems to learn and improve from accurately tagged data, raised a $30 million Series B round. Next47 was the deal led, with Y Combinator, CRV, and Crane Venture Partners also joining.

Ragie, a newly founded startup that designed a product to streamline data ingestion, chunking, and indexing, making it easier for AI applications to access and use relevant information, raised a $5.5 million seed. Craft Ventures, Saga VC, Chapter One, and Valor participated in the round.

Reforged Labs, a company using generative AI to help game marketers create and optimize video advertisements, raised a $3.9 million seed round. DCM led the rounds, with Y Combinator, Epakon Capital, Goodwater Capital, Phoenix Fund, and Asymmetry Ventures also contributing.

Spline, a startup that developed a platform for designers and developers to create 3D models, animations, and interactive experiences that can be easily integrated into web projects, raised a $10 million Series A round. Third Point Ventures was the main investor, with Y Combinator, Gradient Ventures, and Firestreak also taking part.

📚 Interesting reads of the week

Mark Zuckerberg recently showcased his love for his wife, Priscilla Chan, by commissioning a statue of her “the way the ancient Romans did.” Zuckerberg shared the picture of the sculpture, crafted by artist Daniel Arsham, on Instagram with the caption, “Bringing back the Roman tradition of making sculptures of your wife.”

VCs are facing performance pressure, leading to a record number of “pay to play” provisions inserted into term sheets, according to law firm Cooley. Data shows that 8.7% of all Q2 deals included such language, the highest mark since Cooley began tracking in 2014 and the first time since Q1 2017 that it topped 8%.

This Figma file shows every step of Stripe’s Go To Market strategy.

In 2018, venture capital firm Greylock Partners invested $50 million in Roblox at its Series-F funding round. The investment memo, shared publicly in 2021 after Roblox's IPO, show clearly Greylock's reasoning behind the investment and the platform's potential.

Deep-Live-Cam has been going viral on social media because it can take the face of a person extracted from a single photo and apply it to a live webcam video source while following the pose, lighting, and expressions performed by the person on the webcam. This has sparked concerns about the potential for fraudulent use, as it allows someone to impersonate your appearance in a video chat using just one photo and free software.

The curated list features the 100 top LP-GP networking events of 2024 and 2025, with details on expected audience types, dates, cities and more.

Same old, same old.

💪Tech mafia of the week

Highlights:

💰 Most money raised: Apollo GraphQL

🤑 Total money raised by the Asana Mafia: $248 million

Weekly tech mafia leaderboard

The Asana alumni network has built some amazing companies, so we took a look at the top companies.

The Asana Mafia takes the 70th spot, with 17 companies founded and $248 million raised.

PS: Are you an Asana employee/alum interested in getting your community together to invest in the community (and earn carry/other benefits along the way)? Or are you a member of another community that you think would make for an amazing startup investment community? 

Learn more about us and sign up for the waitlist here.

📌PIN tweet of the week

💼Who’s hiring in VC?

Looking to get into VC? Below are this week’s curated VC job openings.

B Capital is looking for an Investor Relations Associate.

Arc Ventures is looking for a Venture Capital Associate.

Newlab is looking for a Venture Operations Lead.

Mission BioCapital is looking for an Investment Analyst.

Digital Currency Group is looking for a VP, Token Investments.

📠Fun fact of the week

Howard Schultz, the former CEO and founder of Starbucks, visited Milan and was captivated by the vibrant coffee culture there, particularly the way espresso bars served as social hubs. This experience led him to envision Starbucks as a “third place” between home and work, where people could relax, socialize, and enjoy a great cup of coffee. This concept became a cornerstone of Starbucks' brand identity.

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