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A newsletter for communities, investors, angels, and founders
Power in Numbers
December 13, 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
GM will no longer fund Cruise, the self-driving car company they acquired in 2016, focusing instead on integrating its technology into personal vehicles. While the company's technology is expected to continue development, the specific impact on jobs and roles remains unclear.
The OpenAI Startup Fund, an early-stage AI investor linked to OpenAI, has raised over $44 million for its fifth Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), the largest one to date. This fund, while not directly funded by OpenAI, has received backing from Microsoft and other OpenAI partners.
2024 saw a subdued tech IPO market with few standout performers. Reddit leads tech IPOs with a 332% gain, while CG Oncology tops biotech with a 90% increase. Despite more companies above offer price, overall performance lags major market indexes.
Blackstone aims to raise $5B for its latest life sciences fund, focusing on late-stage drug development. Their strategy involves providing capital to drugmakers in exchange for upfront payments and performance-based payouts.
Three insiders revealed that Kleiner Perkins, Founders Fund, and Lightspeed Venture Partners are planning to participate in a $7 billion funding round for the AI company Databricks, which will bring its valuation to $61 billion.
Nvidia stock could get a boost from new cloud service providers such as CoreWeave, which get access to AI chips. CoreWeave plans a 2025 IPO.
💰 Funding announcement highlights
Stainless, a startup that automatically generates software development kits from API specifications in multiple programming languages, raised a $25 million Series A. The round was led by Andreessen Horowitz, with Sequoia, The General Partnership, Felicis, Zapier, and MongoDB also contributing.
Astrix Security, a startup that specializes in securing non-human identities such as service accounts, API keys, and machine credentials across various environments, raised a $45 million Series B round. Menlo Ventures was the main investor through the Anthology Fund, a strategic partnership between Menlo and Anthropic.
Zimi, a cross-border e-commerce platform helping businesses from emerging markets such as Africa sell products in the U.S., raised a $2 million seed round. Fearless Fund led the deal with Y Combinator also taking part.
Nowadays, an AI-powered platform that automates corporate event planning, raised a $2 million seed round. Y Combinator, Basis Set Ventures, Hike VC, VentureUs, Underdog Labs, Decacorn Capital, SBXi, and E14, were part of the investors.
Speak, an app using AI to help users practice speaking new languages aloud, providing instant feedback to improve pronunciation and conversational skills, raised a $78 million Series C. Accel led the deal, with previous investors OpenAI Startup Fund, Khosla Ventures, and Y Combinator also joining.
🎙️ Inside the Deal
PIN 🤝 Sandhill Markets.
PIN's team has partnered up with Sandhill Markets to bring you a brand new podcast called Inside the Deal.
In this week’s episode the team dives into the importance of staying engaged with investors post-check, strategies for building transparency and trust during the fundraising process, and how founders can maximize value from investor relationships.
📚 Interesting reads of the week
50 a16z partners bet on one big idea that will spur innovation in 2025. From external “AI brains” to infinite games, the future is here.
Raising capital, especially for first-time funds, is a complex process. Building a strong reputation, unique value proposition, and trust is key.
Stephen Jurvetson highlights the enduring impact of Moore's Law, forecasting that future innovations, such as custom ASICs and in-memory computing, will further accelerate AI capabilities. This means Moore's Law will continue to drive exponential growth for at least the next two decades, revolutionizing industries and shaping the future of technology.
Anduril Industries and OpenAI will partner to develop advanced AI solutions for national security. The collaboration aims to improve counter-unmanned aircraft systems (CUAS) by leveraging OpenAI's cutting-edge AI models with Anduril's defense systems and data.
Marc Benioff, Salesforce founder, spills all in this 20VC episode, from management lessons to the future of labor.
Pedro Franceschi, CEO and founder of Brex, reviews the last 10 months after implementing major changes to increase intensity, quality, and speed.
💪Tech mafia of the week
Highlights:
💰 Most money raised: Poolside
🤑 Total money raised by the Github Mafia: $840 million
Weekly Tech Mafia Leaderboard
The Github alumni has built some amazing companies. This tech mafia group takes the 61st spot on leaderboard, with 64 companies founded and $1.4 billion raised.
PS: Are you a Github 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
15 years ago, Uber hit the scene.
Today, it’s valued at $150B.
In 2010, Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp struggled to secure $1.25M for their seed round & were turned down many times.
A $10,000 check back then?
It would be worth millions today.A few angels decided to take… x.com/i/web/status/1…
— PIN (@getpinxyz)
1:58 PM • Dec 10, 2024
💼 Who’s hiring in VC?
Looking to get into VC? Below are this week’s curated VC job openings.
Connecticut Innovations is looking for a Managing VC Director.
Digital Currency Group is looking for a VC Lead.
VC Lab is looking for a Fund Controller.
Finatal is looking for a VC Manager.
Healthworx is looking for a VC Lead.
📠 Fun fact of the week
Slack is the fastest-growing unicorn in history to reach a valuation of $1 billion. It took them approx. 1.25 years according to PitchBook data.
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