PIN'd

A newsletter for communities, investors, angels, and founders

Author

Power in Numbers
December 22, 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

Due to increasing regulatory scrutiny in the UK and EU, Adobe and Figma announced on Monday that both companies are mutually terminating their merger agreement, which would have seen Adobe acquire the Figma product design platform for $20 billion. As a result of the termination, Adobe will be required to pay Figma a reverse termination fee of $1 billion in cash.

ServiceTitan Inc, a Los Angeles-based startup that makes software to help contract workers manage their businesses, has reportedly revived preparations for an initial public offering (IPO) in 2024.

The company, which had been preparing to go public in 2022 before the market for IPOs soured, is working with investment banks Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley on its latest preparations for a stock market listing that could come as early as the second quarter of 2024, sources said.

Bird has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, capping off a turbulent year for the electric scooter company. Bird confirmed that it had entered into a “financial restructuring process aimed at strengthening its balance sheet,” with the company continuing to operate normally in pursuit of “long-term, sustainable growth.”

Founded in 2017 by former Lyft and Uber executive Travis VanderZanden, Bird is one of numerous startups to introduce dockless micromobility platforms worldwide, allowing city-dwellers to pay for short-term access to electric scooters or bikes.

Metaverse company Improbable has sold one of its key gaming ventures to London-listed video game developer Keywords Studios for $97 million. Based in Ireland, Keywords owns more than 70 studios in Los Angeles, France, Brazil, Mexico and Spain. The firm mainly develops games for third-party developers.

Turnspire Capital Partners, a NYC-based private equity firm, closed Turnspire Value Fund II, L.P. , at $275 million in capital commitments.

Backers in Fund II included a diverse group of high-caliber institutional investors across North America and Europe, including corporate and public pension funds, endowments and foundations, asset managers, funds of funds, family offices, and high-net-worth individuals.

Fund II also includes significant participation from the general partner and Turnspire’s executive operator network members.

SoftBank is selling its Open Opportunity Fund to its chairman and managing partner, Paul Judge, and Marcelo Claure, who is being appointed the fund’s vice chairman and general partner.

Judge and Claure will fully own the firm’s $100 million Open Opportunity Fund 1, the $150 million Fund 2, as well as the entire portfolio. Fund 2, launched earlier this year, will also increase its target to $200 million.


💰 Funding announcement highlights

Breakr, a three-year-old Austin startup whose platform connects emerging musicians with social media influencers, has successfully raised a $1.9 million round at a $20 million valuation. Andreessen Horowitz, Precusor Ventures, Plexo Capital, WndrCo, Quiet Capital, and Marc Benioff led the round. The company has raised a total of $8.7 million. 

Claim, a Boston-based startup that offers a social network allowing users to earn and trade rewards with friends, has raised $4 million in seed funding. Sequoia Capital was the lead investor in the round. The company has raised a total of $6 million.

Halcyon, an Austin-based startup that offers various tools to protect businesses from ransomware attacks, including anti-tamper protections and anti-data exfiltration software, has raised $40 million in Series B funding. The round was led by Bain Capital Ventures, bringing the company's total funding to $84 million. 

Harvey.ai, a San Francisco-based startup founded a year ago that automates and streamlines various complex legal tasks and processes for law firms, has raised $80 million in Series B funding at a valuation of $715 million. The round was led by Elad Gil and Kleiner Perkins, with participation from the OpenAI Startup Fund and Sequoia. Harvey.ai has raised over $100 million in total.

Anthropic, a San Francisco-based AI startup, is reportedly in talks to raise $750 million in funding. The funding round, led by Menlo Ventures, could value the company up to $18.4 billion, three times its valuation this spring.  

📚 Interesting reads of the week

Take a look at this compilation of fundraising pitch decks used by renowned unicorns such as Canva, Uber, and LinkedIn.

TikTok creator has reportedly been using OpenAI's tech to create a ChatGPT competitor in China code-named 'Project Seed'.

Sajith Pai, VC at Blume Ventures, Indi, shares his first-hand experience, advice, and inputs to candidates aspiring to break into venture capital, specifically valuable for those looking for early-stage VC.

This piece offers useful advice to craft some killer cold email subject lines – the kind that will make you stand out in the 361 billion emails sent daily.

The company released a set of guidelines explaining how they plan to deal with AI risks in four categories: potential cybersecurity and chemical, nuclear, and biological threats.

💪 Tech Mafia of the week

Highlights:

💰 Most money raised: Settle

🤑 Total money raised by the Affirm Mafia: $3 billion

Weekly tech mafia leaderboard

Affirm’s alumni network has built some amazing companies, so we took a look at the top companies.

The Affirm Mafia takes the 24th spot, with 15 companies founded in total and $3 billion raised.

PS: Are you an Affirm 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.

Greycroft is looking for an Operating Associate.

Headline is looking for a Junior Software Investor.

Fifth Down Capital is looking for an Investment Associate.

ICONIQ Capital is looking for a Family Office Advisory, Vice President.

📠 Fun fact of the week

The term “carried interest” was coined in the 1400s. As voyagers explored Asia and the Americas, the captain of the ship would eventually take a 20% share of the profit from the carried goods, which is where we get the term “carried interest.”

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