WHAT’S INSIDE

• The latest in Tech: Censorship, SEC crypto shift, EU v US tech, Bybit Hack

• The biggest startup deals closed this week

• The hottest companies on the rise in tech

• The latest exit deals and companies going public

• The latest VC & PE news and funds raised

TECH IN THE NEWS

Tech Censorship Probe — The FTC launches inquiry into platform content moderation practices, seeking public comments until May 21, 2025 on user impacts.

SEC Crypto Shift — The SEC plans to drop Coinbase lawsuit under new Republican leadership, signaling broader changes in crypto regulation.

Google DMA Charges — EU charges Google for violating Digital Markets Act by favoring its services in search results; proposed changes deemed insufficient.

UK Privacy Retreat — Apple discontinued its iCloud Advanced Data Protection in the UK due to government demands, weakening user privacy.

Record Crypto Heist — Bybit reported a $1.4B hack of 401,346 ETH, the largest crypto theft in history, but it claims sufficient reserves to cover losses.

TOGETHER WITH PACASO

Zillow’s co-founder has a big new idea

Spencer Rascoff co-founded Zillow, scaling it into a $16B real estate giant. But everyday investors couldn’t invest until after the IPO, missing early gains.

"I wish we had done a round accessible to retail investors prior to Zillow's IPO," Spencer later said. 

Now he’s doing just that. Spencer has teamed up with another Zillow exec to launch Pacaso. Pacaso’s co-ownership marketplace is disrupting the $1.3T vacation home market. And unlike Zillow, you can invest in Pacaso as a private company.

With $100M+ in gross profits and rapid international expansion, Pacaso is scaling fast. Investors like Softbank, Maveron, and more are already on board. 

Join them as a Pacaso shareholder and lock in the $2.70 share price by Thursday.

DEALS WE’RE WATCHING
Closed Deals:

MASSIVE DEALS

Saronic Technologies — The Austin-based autonomous vessel startup raised a $600M Series C at $4B valuation, led by Elad Gil, with General Catalyst, a16z, Caffeinated, and 8VC.

Lambda — The AI cloud computing firm raised a $480M Series D at $2.5B led by Nvidia, with Andra Capital, SGW, ARK, G Squared, and Super Micro.

Abridge — The healthcare AI startup raised $250M from Elad Gil, IVP, Lightspeed, CVS Ventures, Redpoint, and NVentures. Used in 100+ U.S. healthcare systems.

Mercor — The AI recruiting platform raised a $100M Series B at $2B valuation, led by Felicis, with General Catalyst, DST Global, Benchmark, and Menlo.

Genspark — The AI search engine startup raised $100M at $530M valuation from U.S. and Singapore investors. Their LLM-powered search serves 2M users with Deep Research features.

Hightouch — The AI marketing tools startup raised an $80M Series C at $1.2B valuation, led by Sapphire with NVC, Amplify, ICONIQ, Bain, and YC.

Augury — The AI predictive maintenance startup raised $75M at $1B+ valuation from Lightrock, Insight, Eclipse, Munich Re, Qualcomm, Lerer Hippeau, and Qumra.

OpenEvidence — The AI healthcare startup raised $75M from Sequoia and S&P at $1B valuation. Their doctor-focused chatbot is used by 25% of U.S. physicians.

Luminance — The UK-based legal AI startup raised a $75M Series C led by Point72, bringing total funding to $165M. The platform serves 700+ clients including AMD and Rolls-Royce.

LARGE DEALS

Sanas — A Palo Alto startup that has developed call center accent conversion tech raised a $65M round at $500M+ post-money led by Quadrille and Teleperformance, with Insight, Quiet, Alorica, and DN also joining.

Blockaid — A US-based crypto security firm, raised a $50M Series B led by Ribbit Capital to combat rising cyber-crime in the digital asset space. It plans to expand operations and double its workforce.

Frontera Health — The Denver-based AI-powered autism therapy analysis startup raised a $32M seed co-led by Lux Capital and Lightspeed, with Bison, Menlo, and Inspired Capital joining.

Varo — The digital banking platform has raised $29M of a planned $55M Series G, bringing its total to $1B+, while replacing its founder/CEO.

PropHero — The AI real estate investment platform with 2,000+ customers raised $25M Series A led by Bailador, targeting $50M revenue this year.

SMALLER DEALS

AheadComputing — The RISC-V chip startup led by ex-Intel executives raised $21.5M led by Eclipse Ventures for AI computing challenges.

Karman+ — The autonomous spacecraft startup raised $20M from Plural and Hummingbird for asteroid mining, planning first launch in 2027.

Valar Atomics — The small modular nuclear reactor startup raised $19M to develop "gigafactory" production model, starting with Philippines pilot.

Singulr AI — The Palo Alto-based AI governance and security platform raised $10M seed co-led by Nexus Venture Partners and Dell Technologies Capital.

Fetii — The group rideshare app operating in 68 cities raised $7.35M seed led by Mark Cuban, focusing on college students with QR code-based payments.

Valid — The AI-enabled ad agency automation platform raised $5.5M seed to make sophisticated advertising strategies accessible for all businesses.

Incept AI — The voice AI startup for restaurant drive-thrus raised $3M to expand their 97% accurate neural audio processing technology.

Companies to Watch:

[Open Deal] X — Elon Musk's social platform (ex-Twitter) is in talks to raise funding at a $44B valuation, matching his acquisition price. The funding would be a remarkable turnaround giving it funds for its payments, video products, and debt reduction.

[Open Deal] Safe Superintelligence — Ilya Sutskever's new AGI safety startup is raising $1B+ at $30B+ (a higher valuation than we reported last week).

[OpenDeal] DeepSeek — The viral Chinese AI startup is seeking its first external funding, with Alibaba and state funds showing interest in its low-cost AI models. It aims to boost revenue and profitability.

1X — The Norwegian robotics firm unveiled Neo Gamma, a home-use humanoid robot for tasks like coffee-making and cleaning, focusing on safety and user interaction over industrial applications.

New Unicorns — Six companies (Kikoff, Netradyne, Hippocratic AI, Truveta, Mercor, Loft Orbital) reached $1-2B valuations in January 2025.

Find Deals With Crunchbase — A new AI tool predicts startup success with 95% accuracy, demonstrated by forecasting Coda's acquisition by Grammarly.

DEALS WE’RE WATCHING
The Funding Buzz 

Afore Capital​ — The firm raised a $185M fourth fund with a new Founders-in-Residence program offering flexible funding and mentorship for entrepreneurs at ideation stage.

​Swizzle Ventures​ — The female-focused firm raised a $6.6M inaugural fund (2x target) for women's health/wealth startups, with 70% women investors, targeting 30 companies.

​Andreessen Horowitz​ — Marc Andreessen plans to transform the firm into a lasting investment company like JP Morgan/Goldman Sachs, focusing on structured management.

​Founders Fund​ — Peter Thiel is closing a $3B growth fund by March 2025 for late-stage investments. A previous $3.4B fund invested in Rippling and Anduril.

Exit Watch:

Humane — HP acquires AI Pin maker's assets for $116M, discontinuing device on Feb 28; team joins new AI innovation lab.

Forto — The $2.1B German freight forwarding startup exploring merger/sale with Moelis & Co; previously raised $600M from SoftBank and others.