PIN'd

A newsletter for communities, investors, angels, and founders

Author

Power in Numbers
February 02, 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

Ramp, a finance automation platform, has acquired procurement startup Venue, backed by Sequoia Capital. The acquisition expands Ramp’s procurement capabilities and aims to automate and streamline workflows and vendor management.

US authorities announced criminal charges against two people and a guilty plea from a third for running a $1.9 billion global cryptocurrency Ponzi fraud scheme known as HyperFund. The scam caused the collapse of a crypto pyramid scheme in 2022.

Acadian Ventures raises $30 million for VC fund focused on the future of work

Acadian Ventures has raised $30 million for its second venture capital fund, which will focus on future work technologies. The New York-based early-stage venture capital company reported that the capital commitments for its second fund were oversubscribed.

Reddit is considering an IPO with a possible listing in March. The company is targeting a mid-single-digit billion valuation and is considering a minimum valuation of $5 billion based on feedback from early meetings with potential investors.

Elon Musk's $56 billion compensation package was declared unfair by a Delaware judge, voiding the largest compensation deal in corporate history. Judge Kathaleen McCormick of the Delaware Court of Chancery made the decision on Tuesday, meaning that Musk can't keep the 2018 compensation package. The ruling can still be appealed.


💰 Funding announcement highlights

Inngest, a San Francisco startup, raised $6.1 million in funding. The round was led by Andreessen Horowitz, with follow-on investments from GGV, Afore Capital, and Vercel CEO and co-founder Guillermo Rauch. Inngest aims to simplify building and managing serverless backends.

Wondercraft, a London-based startup, raised $3 million in seed funding. Its AI-powered platform transforms written content into podcasts, audiobooks, and audio ads. Will Ventures led the deal, with Y Combinator and Eleven Labs also participating.

pO, an Indian startup that uses LLMs to save enterprises from code catastrophes, raised $6.5 million. The investment round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with Alchemy Ventures also joining.

Finvest raised $2.7 million in funding from an investor group that includes Bayhouse Capital, Unpopular Ventures, Y Combinator, Olive Tree Capital, Pioneer Fund, Fractal Ventures and a group of angel investors, including former Airbnb executive Oliver Jung. The app aims to make it a cinch to invest in U.S. Treasury Bills.

Crux Climate, a startup that operates a marketplace for clean energy tax credits based in Denver, has raised $18 million in a Series A funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz. Previous investors also participated in the round.

📚 Interesting reads of the week

IPO Watchlist: The fintech unicorns likely to go public

Klarna's CEO, Sebastian Siemiatkowski, teased a possible US public listing last week. The company raised $639M in 2021 at $45.6 billion valuation, but took an 85% valuation discount in 2022. However, Klarna turned a profit in November, positioning itself for an IPO.

AI will be the dominant theme in the innovation economy. The 'Magnificent 7' companies, each deeply involved in AI, have significantly contributed to the success of the equity markets. Additionally, AI is playing a crucial role in revitalizing the Venture Capital market as it becomes increasingly dominant amidst the waning opportunities in cloud, social, mobile, AR, and BioTech ventures.

Peter Thiel has invested in a seed round of the Enhanced Games, also known as “the modern reinvention of the Olympic Games that does not have drug testing.” The investors “see the vision of a new model of sports, that openly celebrates scientific innovation and honestly represents the use of performance enhancements in sports today,”.

US investors pare back exposure to European VC deals

US investors are decreasing their involvement in European venture capital deals. PitchBook's Q3 Annual European Venture Report shows that US-based venture investors participated in 1,863 European rounds last year, which is a 40% decrease from 2022.

💪 Tech mafia of the week

Highlights:

💰 Most money raised: Airtable

🤑 Total money raised by the Salesforce Mafia: $91 billion

Weekly tech mafia leaderboard

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

The Salesforce Mafia takes the 2nd spot, with 471 companies founded in total and $91 billion in total raised.

PS: Are you a Salesforce 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.

Sapphire Ventures is looking for a Vice President.

The College Board is looking for an Associate.

Partnership Fund for New York City is looking for an Associate.

NextGen Venture Partners is looking for a VC Associate. 

G2 Venture Partners is looking for an Analyst.

📠 Fun fact of the week

2021 was the year that AI startups raised the most money, a total of $78.5 billion in funding, followed by $50 billion in 2023.

Want to learn more about investing in startups with your community through PIN’s platform? Simply reply to this email.

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