PIN

A newsletter for communities, investors, angels, and founders

Author

Power in Numbers
October 25, 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

New VC firm Chemistry raised $350 million for its debut fund, Forbes reported on Wednesday. The firm was launched by Mark Goldberg, former partner at Index Ventures; Kristina Shen, former general partner at Andreessen Horowitz; and Ethan Kurzweil, former partner at Bessemer.

Perplexity AI, the artificial intelligence search engine startup trying to get a piece of Google’s market, is reportedly expecting a valuation of $9 billion in its next funding round. The company started the year with a roughly $500 million valuation. Since then, they have continued to attract investor interest alongside the bigger boom in generative AI, raising three funding rounds this year.

Paris-based GenAI startup LightOn to IPO at a €50 million valuation

LightOn, the French GenAI startup, is planning to list publicly on the Euronext Growth stock exchange in Paris this year, targeting a €10 million capital increase at a valuation of €50m. The French financial regulator has already approved the registration document, marking the first step for an IPO. The listing remains subject to market conditions and further regulatory approvals.

'Content kleptocracy': News Corp outlets sue Perplexity over scraped stories

News Corp’s Dow Jones and the NY Post are suing Perplexity over what they describe as a “content kleptocracy.” In the lawsuit, the media organization claims that Perplexity engages in copyright violations on a “grand scale,” simultaneously duplicating and misrepresenting original content created by others.

Benchmark is raising $170M for its latest partners-only fund

Despite the industry-wide surge in fund sizes, Benchmark Partners, one of Silicon Valley’s most successful investors, has remained relatively small, consistently raising around $425 million in capital every few years. According to two regulatory filings, the firm is currently raising an additional $170 million for a fund called Benchmark Partners Founders’ Fund I.

Stripe has finalized a deal to buy stablecoin platform Bridge for $1.1 billion. The company which has raised $54 million in funding, was founded by Square and Coinbase alumni Zach Abrams and Sean Yu, and counts SpaceX and Coinbase among its customers.

💰 Funding announcement highlights

Counsel Health, a one-year-old New York startup that provides physician-led, AI-powered medical advice via a messaging-based platform, raised an $11 million seed. The round was led by Andreessen Horowitz, with Asymmetric Capital Partners and Floodgate Fund also joining.

Genmo, an AI-driven content generation platform that can create videos from text prompts, raised a $28.4 million Series A. NEA was the main investor, with The House Fund, Gold House Ventures, WndrCo, Eastlink Capital Partners, and Essence VC also showing up.

HealthEx, a startup using AI to streamline patient preferences and automate security and compliance processes for healthcare systems, raised a $14 million Seed and Series A round. General Catalyst led the investment with Electric Capital also participating.

Rollstack, a startup automating the creation and updating of presentations by directly integrating data from tools like Tableau, Looker, and Excel, raised an $11 million Series A. The round was led by Insight Partners as well as previous investor Y Combinator.

Authologic, a Polish startup that provides a digital identity verification platform that consolidates multiple e-ID systems into a single API, allowing companies to streamline KYC processes and prevent fraud, raised an $8.2 million Series A. OpenOcean led the round with Y Combinator, Peak Capital, and SMOK VC also contributing.

🎙️ Something New Podcast

What happens when peer mentorship meets mental health care?

This week on Something New, Steph and Leeor sit down with Patrick Gilligan, founder of Somethings, a mental health startup aimed at providing peer support to teens. Patrick shares his personal journey of overcoming mental health challenges and explains how it led him to create a platform that offers teens a relatable and accessible alternative to traditional therapy through peer mentoring.

Not to be missed!

📚 Interesting reads of the week

Brian Chesky, CEO, and co-founder of Airbnb, shares his perspective on leadership and the importance of founder engagement in driving company culture and success.

The latest report reveals a surge in mega-rounds for AI-powered tools, particularly in areas like AI writing assistants, revenue cycle management, and administrative automation. Additionally, AI-as-a-Service providers are witnessing record sales and rapid return on investment, comparable to traditional SaaS models.

After meeting with more than 100 people in the SF tech community, Andrew Yeung shares his main observations on their entrepreneurial approaches and how they compare to those from New York.

Learn how to to find out if emerging fund managers can deliver on their promises.

This post breaks down 13 ways founders get scammed when raising funds, from the most innocuous to the most destructive scam.

In this View From The Top interview, Roelof Botha, Managing Partner of Sequoia Capital shares his journey from South Africa to Stanford, taking PayPal public at the age of 28, and now leading Silicon Valley’s most iconic venture capital firm.

💪Tech mafia of the week

Highlights:

💰 Most money raised: Cronos Group

🤑 Total money raised by the Babson College Mafia: $16 billion

Weekly tech mafia leaderboard

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

Babson College takes the 19th spot, with 1,199 companies founded and $16 billion raised.

PS: Are you a Babson 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.

Hamilton Lane is looking for a VC Associate.

TDK Ventures is looking for an Investment Analyst.

Care First is looking for a VC Manager.

Acumen is looking for a Chief of Ventures.

Connecticut Innovations is looking for an Executive VC.

📠 Fun fact of the week

Stripe, Square, Robinhood, Revolut, and Chime are among the fastest-growing fintechs of all time, amassing millions of users and reaching multi-billion-dollar valuations within just a few years.

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