PIN

A newsletter for communities, investors, angels, and founders

Author

Power in Numbers
March 14, 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!

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📰 This week’s best news

European tech leaders are rallying behind Project Europe, a €10M fund focusing on keeping young talent from going to the U.S. The initiative, led by VC Harry Stebbings, will offer €200K grants to entrepreneurs aged 18-25, with backing from over 125 top founders.

Intel has appointed Lip-Bu Tan, a major figure in the semiconductor industry, as CEO, the company announced late Wednesday. Tan succeeds interim co-CEOs David Zinsner and Michelle Johnston Holthaus. He’ll also rejoin the Intel board of directors after stepping down from the board in August 2024, Intel said. Zinsner will remain Intel’s CFO, while Johnston Holthaus will remain CEO of the company’s Intel Products division.

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt is making a surprise return to the executive chair, taking over as CEO of Relativity Space after acquiring a controlling stake. The struggling rocket startup had raised over $2 billion but failed to deliver on key projects. Now, Schmidt aims to revamp the company and prove that space startups can still be a winning bet.

OpenAI is revolutionizing AI development with a new API and an open-source SDK, making it easier for developers to build and manage AI agents. The company also introduced game-changing tools for web search, file retrieval, and GUI interactions, pushing AI capabilities even further.

AI startup Moveworks was acquired by ServiceNow for $2.85 billion in cash and stock, marking the biggest private tech acquisition of the year. Backed by Lightspeed and Bain Capital, Moveworks proved that AI unicorns can still attract major buyers despite a cooling market.

Bessemer Venture Partners, an early backer of Swiggy (SWIG.NS), has raised $350 million for an India-focused fund to invest in AI-enabled businesses, fintechs and direct-to-consumer brands among others, the company said in a statement on Wednesday. The United States-based venture capital firm said it will allocate this fund from mid-2025 to continue making fresh bets in young Indian businesses. The firm's 80% of investments in the country over the last five years have been in early-stage startups.

💰 Funding announcement highlights

Cartesia, a startup whose voice generation tool enables developers and businesses to integrate natural-sounding speech into applications such as virtual assistants, customer support, and content creation, raised a $64 million Series A. Kleiner Perkins led the round, with Index Ventures, Lightspeed, A*, Factory, Greycroft, Dell Technologies Capital, and Samsung Ventures also joining.

Podqi, an AI-powered platform designed to help brands protect their intellectual property by automating the detection of infringements, initiating takedown requests, and seeking compensation, raised a $3.2 million seed round. General Catalyst was the main investor. Soma Capital and Afore Capital also contributed.

Uthana, an AI-powered platform enabling users to create 3D character animations quickly and easily, raised a $4.3 million round. IA Ventures was the main lead, with Andreessen Horowitz, Acequia Capital, Cursor Capital, Hustle Fund, MetaVision, and JonesTrauber also investing.

AvatarOS, a startup developing advanced 3D interactive human avatars for creators, studios, brands, and marketers, raised a $7 million seed round. M13 led the deal, with Andreessen Horowitz, HF0, Valia Ventures, and Mento VC also showing up.

Nirvana Insurance, a San Francisco startup providing commercial trucking insurance that utilizes AI and telematics to enhance fleet safety and offer personalized coverage, raised an $80 million Series C round. General Catalyst was the main investor. Lightspeed Venture Partners and Valor Equity Partners were also part of the deal.

Flock Safety, an Atlanta startup developing surveillance technology to help law enforcement and businesses tackle crime, raised a $275 million funding round. Andreessen Horowitz led the investment, with participation from Greenoaks Capital and Bedrock Capital. The funding will support a new manufacturing facility and the launch of U.S.-made drones in 2025.

 📚 Interesting reads of the week

*but first, happy birthday YC

According to its CEO, fintech startup Mercury is seeing a sharp rise in signups from AI search, nearly tripling in two months - though still under 2% of total users. Notably, ChatGPT converts better than Perplexity, likely because it provides a single recommendation rather than a list.

Given how much money VCs are pouring into AI startups these days, it may seem like VCs have decided: If it’s not AI, they won’t write a big check. But that’s not exactly what’s happening. Dealmaking at the moment is more nuanced, said VC Insight Partners Managing Director Ryan Hinkle during a recent Equity podcast.

Y Combinator founders raising less money signals a ‘vibe shift,’ VC says

A new trend is emerging among Y Combinator startups - raising less venture capital despite investor interest. Lean AI startups are hitting millions in revenue with small teams, prompting founders to rethink traditional funding strategies. While some VCs argue that more capital fuels faster growth, others see a shift towards sustainable scaling with minimal dilution.

A new study from the Tow Center reveals that AI search engines are not citing news sources correctly, often fabricating links or misattributing content. Despite partnerships with publishers, chatbots like ChatGPT and Perplexity struggle with accuracy, sometimes bypassing crawler restrictions.

Venture capital may follow private equity’s path to becoming a publicly traded powerhouse. As firms expand into diverse offerings beyond early-stage funding, a future IPO for a major VC firm could be worth at least $5.5 billion. With growing assets and high management fees, VC firms may soon rival private equity giants in valuation and market influence.

Fundraising is changing, and startups need to do something about it. Early-stage founders must master storytelling, while growth-stage companies focus on traction and financial efficiency. With funding rounds stretching beyond 24 months, securing the right investors and avoiding overfunding is more critical than ever.

"Vibe coding" is gaining traction, as in, using AI to generate code without fully understanding it. While it speeds up prototyping, experts warn that blindly accepting AI-generated code can lead to unreliable software and technical debt. As AI tools improve, the debate grows: will developers still need deep coding knowledge, or is programming becoming more about managing AI outputs?

Retail investors beware: historically, most IPOs underperform in the first six months. While institutional investors cash in on IPO pops, 64% of software IPOs since 2018 dropped below their first-day closing price within half a year. Long-term winners exist, but they’re rare. The takeaway? Rushing into IPOs isn’t a winning strategy for most investors.

Vertical AI startups are scaling faster than traditional SaaS, reshaping early-stage venture dynamics. With AI lowering adoption barriers and enabling seamless integration, some startups are hitting $2M ARR on <$2M paid-in within two years. As growth patterns shift, VCs relying on old playbooks may struggle to keep up with the next wave of AI-driven disruption.

Manus AI is making waves on Twitter/X as a general-purpose AI agent, able to research, plan, and execute complex tasks. While it relies on existing models like Claude Sonnet 3.5 and Qwen, its unique tool integrations give it an edge. Read on to find out what the hype is about.

💪Tech mafia of the week

Highlights:

💰 Most money raised: Gordian Software

🤑 Total money raised by the Skyscanner Mafia: $1.6 billion

Weekly Tech Mafia Leaderboard

The Skyscanner alumni has built some amazing companies. This tech mafia group takes the 53rd spot on our leaderboard, with 25 companies founded and $1.6 billion raised.

PS: Are you a Skyscanner 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.

MongoDB Ventures is looking for a VC Analyst.

25Madison is looking for a VC Associate.

Altos Ventures is looking for a VC Investor.

Kruncher is looking for a VC Partner.

TrueBridge Capital is looking for an IR Analyst.

📠 Fun fact of the week

The widely known Firefox logo, a red fox, is actually a red panda. The name "Firefox" is actually a nickname used for the red panda, and Mozilla chose this name because of the animal's unique characteristics and association with fire.

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