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A newsletter for communities, investors, angels, and founders
Power in Numbers
October 18, 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!
If you’re receiving this, it’s because you’ve signed up for our waitlist and/or for newsletter updates.
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📰 This week’s best news
20VC has raised its third fund, sized at $400 million, to be split between Seed ($125 million) and Series A ($275 million). The London-based investment firm run by Harry Stebbings announced a 2.5x increase in fund size from 20VC’s second fund of $140 million in June 2021. MIT Investment Management Company, Horsley Bridge, and Rothschild-backed RIT Capital Partners are part of the investors.
Josh Buckley, the former CEO of Product Hunt, plans to raise a $250 million fourth fund for Buckley Ventures. This target is lower than his previous goal of $500 million for his third fund, which raised $337 million during a bear market in February 2022, according to PitchBook data.
Uber has explored a possible bid for Expedia, the nearly $20b US travel booking website, in what would be by far the ride-hailing company’s largest acquisition as it looks to diversify further and find new avenues for growth.
AI startups are experiencing pretty good dealmaking conditions, but this benefit is not evenly distributed. According to the recent PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor, there is a growing disparity between the types of deals AI companies are securing compared to the broader startup ecosystem.
About a year ago, Torres founded Agency, an AI-powered startup designed to automate tasks traditionally handled by customer success managers. These professionals provide personalized support to users of complex B2B software, ranging from onboarding and training to upselling new features. Agency just came out of stealth and announced that it raised a $12 million seed round led by Sequoia and HubSpot Ventures.
OpenAI is definitely struggling to recruit and retain top AI researchers. A significant setback was the departure of former CTO Mira Murati on October 4, who is engaging current employees to join her new, undisclosed venture. This adds to the dissatisfaction that the promotion of Liam Fedus within OpenAI has stirred among some researchers, prompting thoughts of leaving the company.
💰 Funding announcement highlights
FullyRamped, a newly founded San Francisco startup using AI to help train sales representatives in realistic virtual environments, raised a $2.3 million pre-seed. The round was co-led by BoxGroup, MaC Venture Capital, and NOMO Ventures. Greylock and Sequoia also participated.
Tebi, an Amsterdam platform for independent retail and hospitality businesses integrating functions such as point of sale, payments, inventory management, reservations, and bookkeeping, raised a $21.8 million Series A. Index Ventures led the round.
Omnea, a London startup automating procurement processes like purchase order creation, vendor onboarding, supplier risk management, and contract renewals, raised a $20 million Series A round. Accel was the main investor. First Round Capital and Point Nine also joined in.
Concourse, a startup that provides AI-powered tools to automate financial reporting and analysis for corporate finance teams, raised a $4.7 million round. Investors include Andreessen Horowitz, Y Combinator, CRV, and Box Group.
Keep, a startup whose mission is to integrate with existing tools to help IT teams reduce noise from alerts, and automate workflows for faster response times, raised $2.9 million pre-seed round. Y Combinator, Runa Capital, and Firestreak all pitched in.
🎙️ Something New Podcast
What happens when tech meets spirituality?
In this week’s episode of Something New, Steph and Leeor talk to Alex Jones, the founder of Hallow—an app changing how millions of people connect with their faith. Hallow started as part of Alex's personal journey to reconnect with his faith but quickly became the world's leading Christian app.
Alex explains how he realized that a startup was the perfect way to expand Hallow and why the combination of technology, a clear mission, and faith has deeply resonated with users.
Not to be missed!
📚 Interesting reads of the week
Former investor at Cowboy Ventures, Amanda Robson, discusses in her latest piece how to make better decisions when investing. The post breaks down her thoughts on picking, and how great decision-making in venture capital is harder than it seems.
The Weekend Fund is giving $1,000,000 to founders and operators that want to build and fund the future. Applications open until 25 October.
Brex CEO Pedro Franceschi shares how they build moats in highly competitive and crowded markets. For starters, software alone is becoming a commodity. As he points out, anyone can build great software, but few companies can build great software and financial services.
A memo by Harry Stebbings on raising venture capital funds. He also covers common mistakes VCs make during fundraising, strategies to attract new limited partners, and how to build strong, lasting relationships with them.
New data on swing states, stablecoins, AI, builder energy, and more.
Shaan Puri asks Elad Gil exactly how he has managed to invest in 40+ unicorns, including Airbnb, Anduril and Coinbase.
💪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
.@emilykramer, former Head of Marketing at Carta and Asana, and co-founder and partner at @mkt1cap, is an expert marketer for early and growth-stage B2B startups.
Emily was also featured on Lenny Rachitsky's podcast where she shared her secrets on how to build a powerful… x.com/i/web/status/1…
— PIN (@getpinxyz)
1:35 PM • Oct 15, 2024
💼 Who’s hiring in VC?
Looking to get into VC? Below are this week’s curated VC job openings.
Cambridge Associates is looking for a Senior Investment Director.
Samsung Ventures America is looking for an Investment Manager.
Starlight Ventures is looking for a VC Associate.
MUSC Health is looking for a Managing VC Director.
CAZ Investments is looking for a Senior Vice President.
📠 Fun fact of the week
Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Accel, Tiger Global, and SoftBank Vision Fund are the top VCs with the most unicorn investments. They've backed some of the biggest names like Uber, Airbnb, Facebook, and TikTok.
Want to learn more about investing in startups with your community through PIN’s platform? Simply reply to this email.
