Trump Vows To Reach Mars + Startup & VC News

TECH IN THE NEWS

MAGA Musk - Tech billionaire Elon Musk appeared on stage and gave a speech at a Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, the site of the recent assassination attempt. Trump publicly vowed to go to Mars within his term if he is elected.

Mental Privacy - New California Law protects consumers’ brain data from “mind-reading” technologies that track brain activity. Some think it doesn't go far enough.

Rockbridge Network - The J.D. Vance-linked, Silicon Valley-backed donor organization has around a $75 million budget to finance MAGA-friendly news, voter turnout operations and election polls according to an investigation by Reuters.

Goldilocks Zone - Asian stocks rose Monday after stronger-than-expected US jobs data reduced recession fears and boosted optimism over a soft or “no landing”.

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DEALS WE’RE WATCHING
Closed Deals:

MASSIVE DEALS

Code Automation - San Francisco startup Poolside raised a $500M Series B at $3B post-money led by Bain and joined by eBay Ventures and Nvidia Ventures.

Infrastructure-as-a-Service - Nvidia-backed New Jersey startup CoreWeave is selling $400M to $500M in secondary shares to Cisco Systems at a $23B valuation.

Metabolic Disease Therapies - Boston startup Kailera Therapeutics raised a $400M Series A co-led by Atlas, Bain Life Sciences, and RTW Investments.

Targeted Radiopharmaceuticals - Boston-based Aktis Oncology raised a $175M a Series B co-led by RA Capital, RTW, and Janus Henderson with T. Rowe Price, Avidity Partners, Bristol Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, and MRL Ventures Fund.

Cloud Data Automation - Israeli and New York-based Eon raised $127M across seed, Series A, and Series B rounds at $750M post-money from Sequoia, Vine Ventures, Meron Capital, Eight Roads, Lightspeed, Sheva, Greenoaks, and Quiet.

Satellite Optimization - Redondo Beach-based Impulse Space raised a $150M Series B led by Founders Fund with DCVC, 137, Airbus, Alumni, Balerion Space , Elysium, Tamarack Global, Lux, Spring Tide and more.

LARGE DEALS

Asian Food Delivery - London-based delivery app startup HungryPanda raised $55M at a $500M valuation led by Mars Growth Capital bringing its total to $275M.

AI Customer Service - San Fran startup Crescendo raised a $50M Series C at a $500M valuation led by General Catalyst and joined by Celesta Capital and Alorica.

AI Sales Automation - San Fran startup 11x.ai raised a $50M Series B at a $350M post-money valuation led by Andreessen Horowitz.

Analytics & AI Infrastructure - Mountain View startup DataPelago raised $47M in seed and Series A funding from Eclipse, Taiwania Capital, Qualcomm Ventures, Alter Venture Partners, Nautilus Venture Partners, and Silicon Valley Bank.

Code Generation & Testing - Israeli AI coding startup Qodo (formerly CodiumAI), raised $40M in a new round led by Susa Ventures and Square Peg.

SMALLER DEALS

AI Troubleshooting - San Fran AI code startup Resolve AI raised a $35M seed round led by Greylock.

Gen AI Gaming Platform - San Fran AI gaming studio startup Series Entertainment raised a $28M Series A from Netflix, Dell, & Andreessen Horowitz.

AI Content Prediction - Boston customer engagement startup Vizit raised a $25M Series B led by Industry Ventures, with participation from eGateway & Highmount.

Generative AI for Finance - New York AI financial questions startup Rogo raised $18.5M in a Series A led by Khosla Ventures.

Smart Building Infrastructure - San Francisco cloud-based infrastructure startup for eco-minded developers, Neeve raised $15M from Cantor Fitzgerald and RXR.

Water-Powered-Spacecraft - California in-space transfer startup Argo Space raised $7.9M for its development of a moon-water fueled craft.

Voice Dictation AI - San Fran startup Wispr raised $12M led by Matt Kraning with NEA, 8VC for its tool integrated with apps to assist with dictation, edits, commands.

AI-Powered Sales Teams - San Francisco startup Artisan raised a $7.3M seed round led by Oliver Jung, with Sequoia Scout, YC, Soma Capital, and others. 

Exit Watch:

Cerebras Systems - The Coatue/Altman-backed US AI chip startup has filed for an IPO at a $7-8B valuation. It reported a 3x revenue jump in its filing with sales of $136.4M a net loss of $66.6M in H1 2024, 87% of it coming from just one customer.

Ingram Micro - The IT Services & Supply Chain Solutions company has publicly filed for a U.S. IPO which it hopes will tap into investor demand for tech services. 

WuXi AppTec - The China-based pharmaceutical services giant is reportedly exploring the sale of some of its pharma units due to U.S. restrictions. 

Omada Health - The San Francisco-based healthcare & diabetes management startup has confidentially filed for an IPO.

Companies to Watch:

Cerebras Systems - The Coatue/Altman-backed US AI chip startup has filed for an IPO at a $7-8B valuation. It reported a 3x revenue jump with sales of $136.4M and a net loss of $66.6M in H1 2024. 87% of its H1 revenue came from just one customer.

ElevenLabs - The AI audio applications tools startup is being pushed by existing and new investors to launch a new round valued as high as $3B. ARR grew from $25M in Dec to ~$80M.

Oura - The Finnish health ring startup expects to see its annual sales double to ~$500M this year and sees “healthy” growth in 2025, according to Bloomberg.

Joby Aviation - Toyota is doubling down on the California electric air taxi company with another $500M to add to its original $394M to help it get certification and ramp up commercial production.

Impulse Space - Last week the in-space transportation startup raised a $150M Series B led by Founders Fund. Now it has landed a $34.5M contract with the U.S. Space Force for two ultra-mobile spacecraft missions.

The Funding Buzz

Lightspeed Venture Partners - The California VC firm is aiming to raise $7b for three new funds, with about 40% allocated to a follow-on “opportunity fund“ for portfolio companies and late-stage startups like Stripe and Rippling.

Blackstone - The world's largest alternative asset manager is raising a third Asia-focused PE fund, targeting at least $10B, focused on India, Japan and Australia.

DCVC - The veteran Palo Alto VC firm that invests in early stage deep tech startups like life sciences, has raised a third bio fund in the amount of $400 million.

Thrive Capital - Josh Kushner’s VC firm has raised $391.3M in new capital for a SPV investment vehicle associated with its $3.5b growth fund launched in August.

The Cancer AI Alliance - A $40M collaboration between major medical institutions and tech giants like Microsoft, AWS, Nvidia, and Deloitte to drive AI in cancer care.