PIN'd

A newsletter for communities, investors, angels, and founders

Author

Power in Numbers
October 20, 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!

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📰 This week’s best news

A US congressional committee is targeting Sequoia Capital after starting investigations into several other venture capital firms for their investment in Chinese technology companies. The House Select Committee on China is seeking information about Sequoia’s investments into AI, semiconductor and quantum computing companies.

Microsoft has completed its $69 billion takeover of Call of Duty maker Activision Blizzard in the gaming industry's biggest ever deal. It comes as Microsoft, which owns the Xbox gaming console, was given the green light for the global deal after UK regulators approved it.

KKR, a global investment powerhouse, held a final close of its third and latest tech growth fund — KKR Next Generation Technology Growth Fund III — with roughly $3 billion in capital commitments, $400 million of which came from KKR’s own employees. The team, which includes more than 35 investors focused on growth-stage companies in North America, Europe and Israel, with another dozen focused on the APAC region, has been raising the fund since early last year.

Uncle Elon is considering removing X/Twitter from Europe in response to a new internet platform regulation. The European Union in August adopted the Digital Services Act (DSA), which sets forth rules for preventing the spread of harmful content, banning or limiting certain user-targeting practices. X has not responded to this yet, and whether or not it will really happen.

Greycroft, a New York venture capital firm that has backed Bumble, Venmo and Axios, is laying off five investors, after it failed to reach fundraising targets earlier this year. It’s also backing away from healthcare and fintech investing. Near the height of the tech bull market in January 2022, Greycroft set a $1 billion target for its fourth growth fund in what would have been its largest fund yet, according to a securities filing. Last year it also set a $600 million target for its seventh early-stage venture fund. Instead, it raised a combined $980 million for the two funds.


💰 Funding announcement highlights

Morty, an an app for discovering, booking, and tracking escape rooms, raised a $2.2 million seed round led by Protagonist, with General Catalyst, Animo VC, Marketplace Capital, Wedbush Ventures, Unpopular Ventures, Wonder Ventures, and several angel investors.

Bluebirds, a startup from former LinkedIn leaders, announced $5 million in seed funding from Lightspeed Venture Partners. Founded in 2022, Bluebirds stands out in the crowd by leveraging AI to discover unique triggers that give go-to-market (GTM) teams relevant insights on prospects they should target.

Allara, a New York–based telehealth startup, raised $10 million in a Series A round led by Google Ventures with participation from Great Oaks Venture Capital, Humbition, Vanterra, Gaingels and angel investors like One Medical founder Tom Lee and Maggie Sellers.

Jiraaf, a fixed income platform, raised $8.7 million in its Series B funding round co-led by Accel and Harmony Partners. Founded in September 2021 by Saurav Ghosh and Vineet Agrawal, Jiraaf curates and offers fixed income investment opportunities through a customer friendly digital platform.

Riffusion, an AI-generating music app, closed a $4 million seed round led by Greycroft with participation from South Park Commons and Sky9. Riffusion is also launching a new, free-to-use app — an improved version of last year’s Riffusion — that allows users to describe lyrics and a musical style to generate “riffs” that can be shared publicly or with friends.

📚 Interesting reads of the week

According to a recent article published by Bloomberg, Stanford University’s $40.9 billion investment fund returned 4.4% during the 12 months ending June 30, topping results at other elite colleges despite headwinds from venture capital and private equity. The performance of the fund, which includes Stanford’s endowment of more than $36 billion, outpaced returns of less than 2% at Yale University and the University of Pennsylvania during the period.

A nice chart summarizing all the best diverse-friendly funds. The chart is organized according to women-focused VCs, BIPOC-focused VCs, diversity-focused VCs, and VCs investing in diverse founders without a specific thesis.

A list of the top investors in September, with a16z topping the list. Only a16z made more than a dozen investments, and human and planetary health investor SOSV was the only other firm to hit double digits. The numbers are not that different from September 2022. At that time, the venture market was well into its lull and only about a half-dozen firms announced 10 or more deals apiece.

A great blog post on why it’s important to diversify your portfolio with private company investments too. When it comes to building a diversified investment portfolio, most people think of traditional assets like public stocks, bonds, and real estate.

While these are undoubtedly essential components, savvy investors are increasingly recognizing the value of including private company investments in their portfolios. Private company investments can be a valuable addition to your investment strategy, driving both diversification and higher returns, especially as companies stay private longer.

Marc ruffled some feathers this week with a controversial 5,200-word manifesto on why technology is the solution to environmental degradation and that artificial intelligence is a “philosopher’s stone” that can cure illnesses and stop pandemics.

💪 Tech Mafia of the week

Highlights:

💰 Most money raised: Affirm

⭐ Startup to keep an eye on: Partiful

🤑 Total money raised by the Palantir Mafia: $11.6 billion

Weekly tech mafia leaderboard

The Palantir Mafia ranks on the #11th spot on our leaderboard. Former employees have raised more than $11 billion and founded 111 companies. Fintech is the industry with the highest number of companies founded by ex employees.

PS: Are you a Palantir 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

🤝 Inside the Deal

This week we took a look at Snapchat’s biggest VC winners. To support their viral growth of Snap, the founders decided to seek funding. Sequoia Capital passed on the opportunity. It was only when Barry Eggers, a partner at Lightspeed Ventures, noticed his daughter and her friends using Snapchat that the tide turned.

Later on, Snap's IPO marked a significant financial success story for venture capital firms Benchmark and Lightspeed Venture Partners. Other participants in Snap's IPO included SV Angel, Mitchell Lasky, and General Catalyst.


💼 Who’s hiring in VC?

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

Eniac Ventures is looking for a Tech Investor.

Bowery Capital is looking for an Analyst/Associate.

M13 is looking for an Investment Associate.

Emerson is looking for a Venture Intern.

Goodwater Capital is looking for an Analyst.

📠 Fun fact of the week

The term SAFE, which stands for simple agreement for future equity, was invented by Y Combinator lawyer Carolynn Levy. A SAFE is an agreement that can be used between a company and an investor. The investor invests money in the company using a SAFE. In exchange for the money, with a SAFE, the investor receives the right to purchase stock in a future equity round (when one occurs) subject to certain parameters set in advance in the SAFE.

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