PIN'd

A newsletter for communities, investors, angels, and founders

Author

Power in Numbers
October 06, 2023

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

Greylock Partners announced on Tuesday its 17th fund which has secured $1 billion. The fund will focus on pre-seed, seed and Series A founders in the areas of enterprise and consumer software. Another exciting initiative is the launch of Greylock Edge, which will support founders developing their ideas into companies with early revenue and product market fit.

Green hydrogen hasn’t exactly been a hit amongst investors in the past. But, Electric Hydrogen (EH2), a Massachusetts-based green hydrogen technology company, has just become green hydrogen’s first unicorn, with a $380 million Series C raise that brought its valuation up to $1 billion.

OpenAI has announced its Residency, a unique initiative to empower exceptional researchers and engineers from diverse fields to transition into the world of AI and machine learning. Designed to bridge the knowledge gap, the program provides participants with essential skills and expertise.

Section 32, a venture firm founded by ex-Google Ventures CEO Bill Maris, has closed on $525 million in capital commitments across its fifth fund. A portion of the capital will go toward early-stage investments, while the remaining will be reserved for follow-on opportunities.

Investment firm Andreessen Horowitz recently signaled to another firm that it was discussing leading a new equity financing for Ideogram, a startup that uses artificial intelligence to create unique images. The Toronto startup, founded by four former Google AI researchers, has been seeking a $500 million pre-money valuation, but it doesn’t generate any revenue just yet.

Last week, Amazon announced it was investing $4 billion in Anthropic. This week, Anthropic is reportedly in talks to raise $2 billion in funding from Google and others. Watch out OpenAI, you’re looking cheap. 👀


💰 Funding announcement highlights

Accel led an $8.5 million founding round for Rainforest, a payments-as-a-service platform (PaaS) that helps software companies “build and optimize” embedded financial services. Founded in 2022, it has seen impressive growth in a short period of time, securing client commitments representing more than $500 million in processing.

J.P. Morgan Growth Equity Partners and Index Ventures led a $35 million Series B round in Loop, a startup that provides audit and payment systems for logistics companies.

Induced AI, whose two founders are teenagers, scored $2.3 million in funding from the likes of Sam Altman, Peak XV, and Daniel Gross and Nat Friedman’s AI Grant. The startup aims to assist businesses in automating numerous workflows in previously unexplored ways.

South African fintech startup, Stitch, raised a $25 million Series A extension round in a deal led by Ribbit Capital. Stitch focuses on enabling businesses to build, optimize, and scale financial products and providing API gateways to improve the conversion for online payments and optimize payment operations of its clients.

a16z led a $24 million Series A round for Blackbird Labs, a hospitality tech company whose platform helps restaurants stay in touch with guests and incentivize them to dine out more frequently. Other investors that participted were Amex Ventures, QED, Union Square Ventures, Shine, Variant, Quality Branded, Rustic Canyon Family, Souvla, and Brooks Reitz.

📚 Interesting reads of the week

Excellent guide by GoingVC for those looking to break into VC. It breaks down the different roles you can do within the venture capital industry plus tips on how to increase your chances of getting hired.

Ever wondered when a startups is not really considered a “startup” anymore? Mikhail Taver from Taver Capital Partners explains when a company stops being a startup and what determines that.

Bootstrapped companies are an interesting breed, and ones you don’t often hear much about since there’s no crazy fundraising amounts to report on. The Pragmatic Engineer recently interviewed five successful bootstrapped firms founded by former engineers and how they…did it.

What’s life without a little gossip and drama. SBF is back on the radar with his ongoing lawsuit, and Michael Lewis spilled the beans on Bankman-Fried's history and psyche during CBS's "60 Minutes" interview.

💪 Tech Mafia of the week

Highlights:

💰 Most money raised: Cruise

⭐ Favorite rising star: Rye

🤑 Total money raised by the Twitch Mafia: $15.4 billion

Weekly tech mafia leaderboard

The latest addition is the Twitch Mafia. Former employees of Twitch have raised a total of $15.4 billion and founded 42 companies. Gaming, web3, transportation, and AI are the industries that the most startups have been founded in by former employees. The Twitch Mafia ranks on the #9th spot on our leaderboard.

PS: Are you a Twitch 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

In other news, our engineers were wondering how to build a VC from IKEA…

🤝 Inside the Deal

Twitch was initially known as Justin.tv, a platform founded in 2006 by Emmett Shear, Justin Kan, Michael Seibel, and Kyle Vogt. After Justin Kan departed, Emmett Shear's visionary leadership drove the transformation of Twitch into a dedicated live-streaming platform for gamers, capitalizing on the immense potential within the gaming community. This strategic pivot marked the beginning of Twitch's journey toward becoming the gaming giant we know today.

Find out why Bessemer Venture Partners was the first VC investor (Twitch is one of the biggest wins in their portfolio).

Get the full scoop. 

💼 Who’s hiring in VC?

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

Kapor Capital is looking for a Venture Partner. 

Canaan Partners is looking for a Fintech/Consumer Investor.

Nova is looking for an Investment Manager.

3VC is looking for an Associate.

Vorwerk Ventures is looking for an Intern Analyst.

Initialized Capital is looking for a Partner.

📠 Fun fact of the week

Top 10 countries with the most billionaires:

  1. China: 1,058 🇨🇳

  2. United States: 696 🇺🇸

  3. India: 177 🇮🇳

  4. Germany: 141 🇩🇪

  5. United Kingdom: 134 🇬🇧

  6. Switzerland: 100 🇨🇭

  7. Russia: 85 🇷🇺

  8. France: 68 🇫🇷

  9. Brazil: 59 🇧🇷

  10. Thailand: 52 🇹🇭

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