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A newsletter for communities, investors, angels, and founders
Power in Numbers
June 28, 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
In another sign of Andreessen Horowitz's push into new businesses, the venture capital giant plans to raise its first private equity fund, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission at the end of March. The fund will be called a16z Perennial Private Equity Fund and will “invest in the private equity asset class”.
Ayana Parsons, the co-founder and COO of Fearless Fund, is stepping down. Parsons did not explain her reasons for leaving, but she made it clear that the lawsuit against Fearless by the politically conservative group American Alliance for Equal Rights (AAER) was not a motivating factor.
Etched, a 2-year-old startup founded by Harvard dropouts, has just raised $120 million in venture funding to build a competitive chip and take on Nvidia in artificial intelligence. They are developing a chip called Sohu, which will be used to train and deploy AI models using “transformers,” the core architecture underpinning advancements like OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
The prominent Web3 investor Animoca Brands plans to go public next year. They have held talks with investment banks, but have yet to finalize an adviser. The firm, known for investing in non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and crypto gaming companies, has also not decided on the location for a possible initial public offering.
According to reports, the defense startup Anduril is close to finalizing a $1.5 billion investment co-led by Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund. Sands Capital, known for investments just before public offerings, is a new investor co-leading the deal. The investment will value the 7-year-old company at around $12.5 billion.
According to a securities filing, Redpoint Ventures, an investment firm recognized for backing companies like Snowflake, Stripe, and Twilio, has secured $740 million for its fifth growth-stage venture fund. This fund, named Redpoint Omega V, closed three years after the company’s previous growth fund of $725 million.
💰 Funding announcement highlights
Zyod, a tech platform designed to ease the entire design-to-delivery process for fashion brands, raised $18 million. The series A round was led by RTP Global with Stride Ventures, Stride One, and Trifecta Capital, along with earlier backers Lightspeed Venture Partners and Alteria Capital also joining.
Fantasy Chess, a startup founded by chess champion Magnus Carlsen, building an interactive chess platform, raised $3 million in a pre-seed round. SNÖ Ventures and Coatue co-led the round, with Breakthrough Initiatives and Thiel Capital also stepping in.
Marble Health, a startup connecting teens with licensed therapists in a group setting to provide support and guidance for mental health issues, raised $5 million. Khosla Ventures, Town Hall Ventures, IA Ventures, Daybreak Ventures and Lorimer Ventures all joined in.
Created by Humans, a startup founded this year that helps authors and creators license their creative work for use in AI models, raised a $5 million seed round. Craft Ventures, Floodgate, Launch, Slow Ventures, Garry Tan, and Walter Isaacson were among the investors.
Norm AI, a New York-based AI-powered regulatory compliance platform, has raised $27 million in a Series A. Coatue led the funding round.
📚 Interesting reads of the week
There’s a gap in VCs' perception of their value-add and founders' experience, with 61% of founders rating their value-add experience as below average. This post discusses what investors can do to be helpful, the tools and processes they can use to support their portfolios, the do's and don'ts when helping, and more.
Retailer Toys R Us taps into AI-generated videos with its latest brand video. Made with OpenAI’s non-public generative AI video model Sora, the video gives a quick summary of the origin story of Toys R Us by its real-life founder, Charles Lazarus.
Vinod Khosla, the Sun Microsystems co-founder turned prominent investor, talked in an interview with Connie Loizos at the Collision conference, about how AI is changing tech and government regulation risks. He agrees that some antitrust enforcement is necessary, but too much can be dangerous.
Venture capitalists are advising startups to consider going public earlier than usual. The VC ecosystem is currently experiencing a downturn due to high interest rates and limited exit opportunities. This has made it difficult for VCs to raise funds from their limited partners, slowing down the flow of capital. So, should you go public? If you are burning cash, public markets aren’t likely to help either.
An oldie but a goodie on the power of co-investing as a community. A Silicon Valley school made at least $24 million in profit from a $15,000 punt on messaging app Snapchat. A parent named Barry Eggers, who is a venture capital investor, convinced the private school to invest in Snapchat after watching his children obsess over the app.
💪 Tech mafia of the week
Highlights:
💰 Most money raised: Anrok
🤑 Total money raised by the Airtable Mafia: $73 million
Weekly tech mafia leaderboard
The Airtable alumni network has built some amazing companies, so we took a look at the top companies.
The Airtable Mafia takes the 76th spot, with 10 companies founded and $75 million raised.
PS: Are you an Airtable employee/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
.@jamesbeshara is the founder of Magic Mind, a co-founder and former CEO of Tilt, and former Director of Product at Airbnb.
His company, Tilt, was acquired by Airbnb in 2017.
James is also the author of "Beyond Coffee," a guide to healthier coffee alternatives.
He is… x.com/i/web/status/1…
— PIN (@getpinxyz)
2:25 PM • Jun 25, 2024
💼 Who’s hiring in VC?
Looking to get into VC? Below are this week’s curated VC job openings.
TSV Ventures is looking for a VC Associate.
ICONIQ Capital is looking for a VC Vice President.
M12 is looking for a VC Partner.
LG Ventures is looking for a VC Director.
📠 Fun fact of the week
Peter Thiel was Facebook's first big investor, putting down $500,000. Thiel and his associated investment funds held more than 44 million shares of Facebook when the company went public. He sold off 16.8 million shares in the IPO, netting $640 million.
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