PIN

A newsletter for communities, investors, angels, and founders

Author

Power in Numbers
September 19, 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

Nvidia, the world's leading chipmaker, announced on Thursday that it's investing $5 billion in Intel and will collaborate with the struggling semiconductor company. Nvidia said it will spend $5 billion to buy Intel common stock at $23.28 a share. The investment, which is subject to regulatory approvals, comes a month after the U.S. government took a 10% stake in Intel.

Robinhood is launching Robinhood Ventures Fund I, a closed-end vehicle that will trade on the NYSE and invest in private companies. The move gives retail investors rare pre-IPO access (a space typically reserved for institutions), and signals Robinhood’s deeper push into private markets after earlier tokenized equity experiments in Europe.

TikTok’s U.S. business will move under a new company controlled mostly by American investors. Oracle, Silver Lake and Andreessen Horowitz would take about 80%, with Chinese shareholders keeping the rest. The plan also calls for a U.S.-dominated board and a new app for American users, though details are still being finalized.

Jack Altman, co-founder of Lattice, raised a new $275 million early-stage fund for his firm Alt Capital in just a week. His first fund in 2024 was $150 million and backed about 20 startups including David AI and Owner.com. Altman left the CEO role at Lattice in 2024 but remains chairman.

Fiverr is cutting 30% of its staff, about 250 people, as it pivots to become an AI-first company. CEO Micha Kaufman told employees the move will streamline operations and boost productivity with fewer management layers. The platform says core business activities won’t be disrupted and part of the savings will be reinvested in growth.

OpenAI just brought in Mike Liberatore, the former finance chief at Elon Musk’s xAI, as its new business finance officer. He’ll oversee the company’s massive compute spending, including a $300 billion deal with Oracle. The move adds fuel to the bitter feud between Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who were once close allies.

💰 Funding announcement highlights

Vega, a startup providing AI-driven security analytics and threat detection across enterprise data systems, raised $65 million. Accel led the round with Cyberstarts, Redpoint, and CRV also joining.

Console, a one-year-old startup using AI agents to automatically handle IT support tickets and is expanding into HR, finance, and legal workflows, raised a $23 million Series A. DST Global Partners and Thrive Capital co-led the round, with SV Angel and Abstract Ventures also contributing.

Nothing, a London-based smartphone company has closed a $200 million Series C round. Tiger Global led the investment, with previous backers GV, Highland Europe, EQT, Latitude, I2BF, and Tapestry also showing up.

Noble Mobile, a startup founded this year whose MVNO service will pay cellular customers for using less data, raised a $10.3 million seed. Corazon Capital led the round, with Circle Ventures, Idea Fund Partners, Oversubscribed Ventures, Hustle Fund, Brown Angel Group, Acquired Wisdom Fund, Scott Galloway, Jim McKelvey, and David Ko also joining.

Sharp Performance, a Los Angeles startup providing first responders with performance coaching from former Special Ops and public safety professionals, raised a $12 million seed round. Andreessen Horowitz led the investment, with  A*, Commonweal Ventures, Formation, SV Angel, and Liquid 2 joining.

📚 Interesting reads of the week

In under a year, Replit jumped from $2.8M to $150M ARR, fueled by its AI coding Agent and product-led growth playbook. By tying launches to monetization, running segmented campaigns, and amplifying community energy with SEO and content, it turned buzz into durable growth loops.

Y Combinator’s Summer 2025 batch spotlighted more than 160 startups, with AI dominating the stage. Investors highlighted nine standouts: Autumn, an open-source billing tool for AI startups; Dedalus Labs, a “Vercel for AI agents”; Design Arena, crowdsourced rankings for AI-generated designs; Getasap Asia, a fast-growing distributor founded by a teenager; Keystone, an AI that fixes production bugs; RealRoots, an AI friend-matching platform for women; Solva, insurance claims automation; Perseus Defense, counter-drone mini-missiles; and Pingo AI, an AI language tutor growing rapidly.

New PitchBook data shows repeat entrepreneurs are raising more capital and commanding valuations two to three times higher than first-time founders. Investors see them as safer bets in a cautious market shaped by trade uncertainty, weak liquidity, and the rising costs of building AI startups. The gap is most pronounced at the early stage, where check sizes have grown but risk tolerance has shrunk. Some VCs warn this “flight to safety” could stifle innovation by overlooking fresh perspectives.

Social media once promised connection but now feels like endless noise. AI spam, synthetic influencers, and declining engagement have turned feeds into slop optimized for clicks. Users are drifting to smaller, private spaces where authenticity and trust matter more than scale. The future may not be the collapse of the web but its rebirth into slower, more intentional communities.

New data reveals a clear divide in how people use today’s leading AI tools. ChatGPT is used mainly for non-work tasks like tutoring, guidance, and writing help, with nearly 80% of conversations focused on advice or editing text, according to OpenAI. In contrast, Claude is gaining traction in automation, especially coding, as Anthropic reports a surge in businesses trusting it to handle programming tasks on autopilot.

💪Tech mafia of the week

Highlights:

💰 Most money raised: Sentra

🤑 Total money raised by the Datadog Mafia: $126 million

Weekly Tech Mafia Leaderboard

The Datadog alumni has built some amazing companies. This tech mafia group takes the 118th spot on our leaderboard, with 17 companies founded and $126 million raised.

PS: Are you a Datadog 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.

Coinbase is looking for a VC Principal

Antai Ventures is looking for a Managing Partner

ElevenX Capital is looking for a COO

Tower Research Ventures is looking for a VC Analyst

2048 Ventures is looking for a VC Investor

📌 PinPoint - Get paid to refer your friends to great jobs

Want to earn thousands of dollars for referring candidates to top companies? Sign up to PinPoint.

📠 Fun fact of the week

The original Xbox has sound snippets from actual Apollo space missions.