PIN

A newsletter for communities, investors, angels, and founders

Author

Power in Numbers
June 07, 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

MrBeast has a new chief operating officer, Jeffrey Housenbohl, a former SoftBank Vision Fund managing partner. This move suggests high ambitions for MrBeast's growing business empire, including the chocolate bar company Feastables. Housenbohl's background indicates a potential future public offering for individual businesses or the entire holding company.

The Midas Brink List 2024 has just been published. Check out who this year’s up-and-coming VCs are, recognized for their smart investment choices and connections to exceptional companies.

A group of OpenAI insiders is claiming that OpenAI, which started as a nonprofit research lab, is prioritizing profits and growth as it tries to build artificial general intelligence. The group, which includes nine current and former OpenAI employees, is worried that the company has not done enough to prevent its AI systems from becoming dangerous.

Carta, a once-high-flying Silicon Valley startup that loudly backed away from one of its businesses earlier this year, is working on a secondary sale that would value the company at $2 billion.

K33 Research predicts Ethereum spot ETFs will mirror Bitcoin ETF success, attracting $4 billion within five months. This estimate is based on the relative global ETH assets under management (AUM) market share compared to BTC of 28%.

Former OpenAI researcher Leopold Aschenbrenner, fired for allegedly leaking information, has started an investment firm funded by former Github CEO Nat Friedman, investor Daniel Gross, Stripe CEO Patrick Collison, and Stripe president John Collison. The firm's assets are undisclosed.

Shein to file for London IPO at $64 billion valuation

Shein, the fast-fashion company, plans to go public on the London Stock Exchange, an offering that could value the company at around US$63.9 billion. The company is reportedly aiming to raise US$1.3 billion from the IPO. If the offering goes through, Shein could become the second-highest-valued Chinese unicorn, behind ByteDance.

Nvidia passed Apple in market cap on Wednesday as investors continue betting on the chipmaker behind the artificial intelligence boom. It is now the second-most valuable public company, behind Microsoft.

Cisco Investments has launched a $1 billion AI investment fund to support startups and expand the development of generative AI and large language models. The company has also announced its backing of Cohere, Mistral AI, and Scale AI, all of which are startups valued in the billions as a result of ongoing fundraising efforts.

Although VCs are eager to invest in popular AI companies and willing to pay high share prices for coveted spots on their cap tables, most are unable to secure such deals at all. However, small investors, including family offices and high-net-worth individuals, are securing access through special purpose vehicles.

💰 Funding announcement highlights

Avail, a startup that allows blockchain developers to add essential functions like consensus, security, data availability, and execution in separate modules, raised a $43 million Series A round co-led by Cyber Fund. Investors included Dragonfly, Founders Fund, SevenX Ventures, Figment Capital, Nomad Capital, Chapter One, Foresight Ventures, Mirana Ventures, KR1, Alliance, and Hashkey Capital.

Fizz, the buzzy New York-based student debit card startup, has raised $14.4 million in seed funding led by Kleiner Perkins. SV Angel, Y Combinator, New Era Ventures, and others also took part.

Twelve Labs, a San Francisco-based startup that uses AI to process and interpret videos, making it easier for companies to search and extract meaningful information from video data, raised a $50 million round. New Enterprise Associates led the round. Nvidia, Radical Ventures, Index Ventures, and Korea Investment Partners also invested.

AcuityMD, a startup that designed software to help medical technology manufacturers identify market opportunities and streamline their sales processes, raised a $45 million Series B round. Iconiq Growth led the round, which included Atreides Management and Stepstone Group, as well as previous investors Redpoint Ventures, Benchmark Capital, and Artisanal Ventures.

Sword Health, a startup using a digital interface to connect patients with physical therapists, enabling remote therapy sessions and continuous monitoring, raised a $30 million round from Khosla Ventures, General Catalyst, BOND, and Founders Fund.

Ashby, a startup whose hiring platform includes tools for scheduling interviews, tracking candidates, and generating analytics regarding hiring decisions, raised a $30 million Series C. Lachy Groom led the deal, with additional participation from investor Elad Gil, F-Prime, and Y Combinator.

📚 Interesting reads of the week

Startups addressing the global plastic problem have raised quite some money over the years to develop more environmentally friendly substitutes, better manage waste, and create useful products from recycled materials. Here is a list of 31 companies that have raised financing in the past 12 months.

Sam Altman, head of OpenAI, is a personal investor in hundreds of startups with a total value of $2.8 billion. Altman's investments raise conflict of interest questions, as some companies have deals with the company he directs.

We are here for it.

Garry Tan, President & CEO of Y Combinator, visited Washington D.C. to meet with policymakers and advocate for the emerging tech industry, in order to keep our economy dynamic. Tan held discussions with leaders from both political parties and White House officials responsible for tech policy. They discussed the significance of open-source AI, access to talent through immigration, market access through antitrust action, and the elimination of noncompete agreements.

There are many wrong ways to approach seed investing, though most of these approaches can still "make sense" in their specific context. Learn more on the right way to seed in this article.

💪 Tech mafia of the week

Highlights:

💰 Most money raised: Reddit

🤑 Total money raised by the Oculus Mafia: $27 billion

Weekly tech mafia leaderboard

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

The Y Combinator Mafia takes the 13th spot, with 139 companies founded and $27 billion raised.

PS: Are you a Y Combinator 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

💼 Who’s hiring in VC?

Looking to get into VC? Below are this week’s curated VC job openings.

S2 Capital is looking for a Vice President of Investor Relations.

Capital One is looking for a Manager.

Digital Currency Group is looking for a VC Associate.

Pillar VC is looking for a Chief of Staff.

Atel Ventures is looking for a VC Vice President.

📠 Fun fact of the week

The first modern venture capital firm, American Research and Development Corporation (ARDC), was founded in 1946 by Georges Doriot, a Harvard Business School professor, along with Ralph Flanders and Karl Compton. They aimed to encourage private sector investments in businesses run by World War II veterans.

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