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A newsletter for communities, investors, angels, and founders
Power in Numbers
January 31, 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
The rise of Chinese AI startup DeepSeek caused a huge drop in tech stocks, particularly impacting Nvidia and Oracle. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's net worth fell by $20.8 billion, while Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison's dropped by $27.6 billion, as investors questioned the future of AI spending.
OpenAI suspects Chinese AI startup DeepSeek of using "distillation," a technique to train smaller models using the output of larger ones, potentially violating OpenAI's terms of service. This comes as DeepSeek's cost-effective AI model has shaken the market, raising questions about the need for expensive hardware and concerns about intellectual property theft.
Manas AI, a new AI-driven drug discovery platform, has launched with $24.6 million in seed funding. Co-founded by LinkedIn's Reid Hoffman, Manas AI will use its AI technology to accelerate treatments for cancer, autoimmune diseases, and rare conditions. This launch comes amidst a surge in AI drug discovery, with initiatives like Project Stargate also aiming to leverage AI for medical breakthroughs.
8VC, a venture firm led by Palantir founder Joe Lonsdale, is seeking nearly $1 billion for its sixth fund, according to a regulatory filing. The Austin-based firm’s latest fund aims to raise nearly 14% more than its previous $880 million flagship vehicle, which closed in February 2023.
Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) is closing its London office, just a year after launching it as a cryptocurrency hub. The Silicon Valley investor will now focus on the US market, following the election of a president considered favorable to cryptocurrency. Despite expressing confidence in the UK's crypto potential, a16z attributed the closure to favorable policy changes in the US.
💰 Funding announcement highlights
Mercor, a startup connecting experts in fields like law, medicine, and chemistry with contract positions to assist in developing AI models, raised a round of approximately $75 million. Though the round is still open, Benchmark, General Catalyst, and the Anthology Fund, as well as Peter Thiel, Jack Dorsey, and Larry Summers have already invested.
TravelPerk, a business travel management platform, has raised $200 million in a Series E. Atomico led the round, with participation from EQT Growth, Noteus Partners, Kinnevik, General Catalyst, and others.
Allara Health, a virtual healthcare platform providing personalized care for women with chronic hormonal conditions like polycystic ovarian syndrome, endometriosis, and hypothyroidism, raised a $26 million Series B. Index Ventures led the round, with participation from previous investor GV.
Manas AI, a company using AI to speed up the discovery and development of new medicines, focusing initially on aggressive cancers like breast cancer, prostate cancer, and lymphoma, raised a $24.6 million round. Hoffman and General Catalyst co-led the round, with Greylock also joining.
Tive, an 11-year-old company allowing companies to monitor their shipments in real time, raised a $40 million Series C. The round was co-led by WiL and Sageview Capital, with AVP, RRE Ventures, Two Sigma Ventures, Qualcomm Ventures, Fifth Wall, Supply Chain Ventures, and Sorenson Capital also showing up.
📚 Interesting reads of the week
The rising influence of retail investors, now accounting for 20% of U.S. equity trading volume, is transforming how companies approach IPOs and corporate governance. Looking ahead to 2025, companies are expected to prioritize retail investors through private capital raises and direct engagement. Regulatory changes like expanding the accredited investor definition and increasing Regulation A+ funding limits could further boost retail investor participation in the markets.
DeepSeek has disrupted AI with its R1 model, which matches OpenAI's performance at just 3-5% of the cost by prioritizing reinforcement learning over traditional supervised fine-tuning. The breakthrough has demonstrated that cutting-edge AI performance can be achieved more efficiently than previously thought.
Marc Andreessen joins Lex Fridman for a chat on power, tech, AI, and the future of America.
Cleo Abram’s latest episode is with none other than NVIDIA's CEO Jensen Huang, where he shares the story of how his company grew from making video game graphics to becoming one of the world's biggest tech companies powering AI, robots, and self-driving cars. The interview was recorded on January 7th, before the big stock crash.
Don’t miss the latest report from AngelList and its insightful look into venture performance throughout the past year, with actionable data and analysis for GPs, LPs, and founders.
In a venture landscape where global investment reached $314 billion in 2024 (up only 3% from 2023), early-stage founders should avoid toxic investors who attempt to impose unfavorable terms such as demanding 35-40% equity stakes, requiring refunds upon failure, or seeking excessive control over operations. According to venture investor Murat Abdrakhmanov, these arrangements can severely impact a startup's ability to attract future investors, demotivate founding teams, and create detrimental conflicts that hinder business growth.
💪Tech mafia of the week
Highlights:
💰 Most money raised: Xendit
🤑 Total money raised by the Ripple Mafia: $1 billion.
Weekly Tech Mafia Leaderboard
The Ripple alumni has built some amazing companies. This tech mafia group takes the 57th spot on our leaderboard, with 19 companies founded and $1 billion raised.
PS: Are you a Ripple alumn 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
The most profitable angel investments in startup history 👇
Startup investing is high-risk, high-reward, and when it pays off, it can change lives.
Here’s a look at some of the most legendary angel investments ever made + the returns they created:
— PIN (@getpinxyz)
2:18 PM • Jan 27, 2025
💼 Who’s hiring in VC?
Looking to get into VC? Below are this week’s curated VC job openings.
Nasdaq is looking for a VC Analyst.
Better Tomorrow Ventures is looking for a Chief of Staff.
Powerhouse Ventures is looking for an Operations Associate.
Market X Ventures is looking for an Operations Manager.
Epic Ventures is looking for a VC Investor.
📠 Fun fact of the week
DeepSeek was founded in May 2023 and launched as a spin-off from High-Flyer hedge fund, prioritizing fundamental AI research over quick profit, much like early OpenAI.
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