PIN'd

A newsletter for communities, investors, angels, and founders

Author

Power in Numbers
March 01, 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

After the hassles the fast fashion company has faced with its IPO in New York, they are now considering switching to London. Other potential venues include Hong Kong and Singapore.

Cox Enterprises strikes $1.8 billion deal for government-software provider

Cox Enterprises is buying OpenGov in a deal that values the software provider for cities and state agencies at $1.8 billion. As part of the deal, OpenGov’s management and employees will retain a significant portion of their equity. The company will continue to be led by its existing leadership team, now operating under the Cox Enterprises umbrella.

Klarna Bank AB is in discussions with investment banks to work on an initial public offering in the US. The Stockholm buy-now-pay-later giant is considering a potential listing in the third quarter of this year. Klarna is aiming for a valuation of approximately $20 billion, making it one of the largest listings of the year.

Thrasio, the company that popularized the concept of e-commerce aggregation, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after raising more than $3 billion in equity and debt to fuel its roll-up play. The move was made to reduce its losses on significant debt. This is one of the biggest examples of how even mighty growth-stage tech companies have fallen recently.

Stripe Inc. is valued at $65 billion after striking a deal that allows current and former employees to cash out some of their shares, a move that could ease pressure on the startup to speed up its path to an initial public offering.

Microsoft has recently announced its partnership with the French startup Mistral AI, which includes making Mistral AI's artificial intelligence models available on Microsoft's Azure cloud computing platform. This move is part of Microsoft's efforts to offer a wide range of AI models to attract more customers for its Azure cloud services. The deal is multi-year and includes Microsoft taking a minority stake in Mistral. 


💰 Funding announcement highlights

RobCo, a Munich-based startup that specializes in developing robotic products, including modular robotic arms that are designed for a variety of tasks like machine loading and welding, raised a $42.5 million Series B. The round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with Sequoia Capital, Kindred Capital, and Promus Ventures also contributing.

Matter Neuroscience has raised $26 million for their app that helps individuals to remember and reflect on positive life experiences and can also collect data that can be used for clinical studies. Investors included Polaris Partners, Arch Venture Partners, Exor Ventures, and Collaborative Fund.

Myko AI, a NYC-based startup that sells an AI-powered tool for Salesforce users to get instant sales data insights, raised $2.7 million in a seed round led by Khosla Ventures. Zero Knowledge Ventures, DayDream Ventures, and the AngelList Early-Stage Quant Fund were also part of the round.

Darwin AI, a Brazilian startup specializing in conversational AI assistants for small businesses in Latin America, has recently raised $2.1 million in a seed round by Canary. Investors included H20 Capital Innovation, Dalus Capital, FJ Labs, and Latitude Capital. The company's aim is to help small businesses in the region improve customer engagement and increase their sales.

Photoroom, an AI photo editing app for businesses and consumers, raised a $43 million at a $500 million valuation. Investors included Balderton Capital Aglaé, and Y Combinator.

📚 Interesting reads of the week

What can we expect from the IPO market in 2024 and Reddit's IPO? Will it trigger exits from startups waiting for signs of stability? John S. Kim, co-founder and CEO of Sendbird, weighs in.

NVIDIA has reported a revenue of $22.1 billion for the fourth quarter ending on January 28, 2024, an increase of 22% from the previous quarter and 265% from the same quarter a year ago. The GAAP earnings per diluted share for the quarter was $4.93, up 33% from the previous quarter and up 765% from a year ago. 

Claire Hughes Johnson currently serves as a corporate officer and advisor for Stripe, and in this latest interview with Tim Ferriss, she shares everything from growing Reddit to taking radical ownership of your life.

In this week’s episode of Bg2, Bill Gurley and Brad Gerstner discuss earnings, inflation, interest rates, the impact of AI on Big Tech, NVDA, chips, fabs, Altman’s $7T to meet AI Compute needs, & more.

💪 Tech mafia of the week

Highlights:

💰 Most money raised: Dovetail

🤑 Total money raised by the Atlassian Mafia: $742 million

Weekly tech mafia leaderboard

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

The Atlassian Mafia takes the 44th spot, with 46 companies founded in total and $742 million in total raised.

PS: Are you an Atlassian 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.

Mother Cabrini Health Foundation is looking for a VC Analyst.

Oddity Ventures is looking for a VC Manager.

Female Founders Fund is looking for a Chief of Staff.

Elevate Impact Capital is looking for a Senior VC Associate.

Hopelab is looking for a Principal Investor.

📠 Fun fact of the week

The Band of Angels: Founded in the mid-1990s, the Band of Angels is considered one of the oldest organized angel investing groups in the United States. It consists of former and current high-tech executives who invest their time and money into high-potential startups.

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