PIN

A newsletter for communities, investors, angels, and founders

Author

Power in Numbers
May 23, 2025

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!

If you’re receiving this, it’s because you’ve signed up for our waitlist and/or for newsletter updates.

Got a friend that wants to learn more or stay up to date on angel investing/VC? Help us spread the word and forward this email to them ;)

Subscribe here.

📰 This week’s best news

Sebastian Siemiatkowski is leaning all the way into the idea that his buy-now-pay-later, IPO-bound startup Klarna is an AI company. When Klarna delivered updated quarterly earnings on Monday, it was his AI avatar that presented the highlights, according to the company’s YouTube video.

OpenAI, maker of leading artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT, is about to get physical. The company announced that it is buying a device startup called io, launched by former Apple designer Jony Ive, in a deal worth just under $6.5 billion. It's OpenAI's biggest acquisition to date.

Stock-picking isn’t Thrive’s only foray outside of venture, a few weeks ago, Kushner announced its own version of a PE roll-up play. Thrive Holdings, a new permanent capital vehicle, will integrate AI into legacy industries by creating new companies and buying up existing ones.

After a quiet stretch, venture-backed IPOs are heating up again. With eToro’s strong public debut, companies like Stripe, Databricks and Chime are eyeing the markets. PitchBook highlights the top names to watch as startups test investor appetite.

Despite reports of acquisition talks with Coinbase and Ripple, Circle says it’s not for sale. The stablecoin issuer reaffirmed its focus on going public, pushing back against claims it was exploring a $5B deal while preparing for its IPO.

The feud between Deel and Rippling just escalated. Deel is now demanding unredacted court documents and agreements tied to a former Rippling employee who admitted to spying, allegedly for Deel. In a new twist, Deel claims Rippling may have secretly paid the same employee to testify in their favor.

💰 Funding announcement highlights

Biostate AI, a startup using generative AI to predict how patients will respond to diseases and drug treatments, raised a $12 million Series A. Accel led the round, with Gaingels, Mana Ventures, and InfoEdge Ventures as well as previous investors Matter Venture Partners, Vision Plus Capital, and Catapult Ventures also joining.

Catena Labs, a Boston startup building a financial institution to serve AI agents anticipating a future where autonomous software systems act as economic participants on behalf of individuals and businesses, raised an $18 million round. Andreessen Horowitz was the main investor, with Breyer Capital, Circle Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, CoinFund, Pillar VC, and Stanford Engineering VF also contributing.

Miter, a startup building tools to help companies manage hourly field teams, track labor costs, and handle workforce expenses more efficiently, raised a $23 million round. Bessemer Venture Partners and Coatue Management were the co-leads.

Mura, a New York startup helping companies with large field service operations plan and manage jobs more efficiently, raised a $6 million seed round. Level One Fund and Lerer Hippeau co-led the investment.

ThriveAI, a one-year-old startup developing an AI-powered junior product manager to help teams automate planning and decision-making in software development, raised a $1.2 million pre-seed round. 500 Global was the main investor, with Iterative and Hustle Fund also joining.

📚 Interesting reads of the week

Chime is finally going public and it’s bringing swipe economics to center stage. With $1.67 billion in revenue, 8.6 million active users, and a model built on volume and trust (not fees), Chime proves there’s a profitable path to serving everyday Americans. But with 90% of revenue tied to interchange, public investors are about to find out if this fintech darling can scale its loyalty engine without slipping on margin.

AI isn’t just a tool anymore. It’s becoming the foundation for how software gets built. From AI-native Git and asynchronous agent workflows to smart dashboards and auto-generated app scaffolds, developers are redefining everything from version control to documentation.

What can you learn from reading every shareholder letter Jeff Bezos ever wrote? According to David Senra, host of Founders, a lot. From bold bets and long-term thinking to customer obsession and operational excellence, you’ll learn about the mindset that turned Amazon into one of the most valuable companies on earth.

Forget giant models. The real advantage in AI is owning messy, hard-to-get data no one else wants to deal with. Startups that quietly capture this kind of friction-filled information are building the strongest, most defensible moats in the industry.

With no product and almost no runway, Jason Citron got scrappy. He made mockups in Photoshop, launched a landing page, and raised a bridge round based on a product that didn’t exist yet. That bet led to the launch of Discord.

In today's capital-competitive environment, how well your narrative resonates with investors directly determines not just your valuation, but whether or not you can secure funding at all. Companies with strategic investor relations command premium valuations and maintain funding options even in downturns, while those without a deliberate approach often find themselves unable to create interest with investors when capital access matters most.

In this interview with David Friedberg, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai discusses how Google is rethinking search in the age of AI, its edge in infrastructure and foundational models, and the future of human-computer interaction. He also addresses energy constraints, advances in quantum computing and robotics, and whether Alphabet is still in the hunt for its next $100 billion business.

💪Tech mafia of the week

Highlights:

💰 Most money raised: Constructor

🤑 Total money raised by the Tumblr Mafia: $105 million

Weekly Tech Mafia Leaderboard

The Tumblr alumni has built some amazing companies. This tech mafia group takes the 107th spot on our leaderboard, with 31 companies founded and $105 million raised.

PS: Are you a Tumblr 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.

Plug and Play is looking for a VC Counsel. 

Temasek is looking for a Senior VC Associate.

Women’s Impact Fund is looking for an Executive Director.

Construct Capital is looking for a VC Investor.

DCG is looking for a VC Lead.

📌 Have you signed up? :)

PIN is launching an investor database. Currently in beta mode, but we’d love to give our community of subscribers early access to try it out. PIN’s investor database is the best way to find angel investors & VCs who are actively investing, relevant to your stage/industry, and recommended by top VC-backed founders.

📠 Fun fact of the week

Before formal VC firms, wealthy families like the Rockefellers and Whitneys provided most of the risk capital for new ventures.

Want to learn more about investing in startups with your community through PIN’s platform? Simply reply to this email.