Today's Venture Capital Pulse
Clip raises $500M to expand fintech platform
Mexican fintech Clip secured a $500 million funding round, lifting its valuation above $2.5 billion. The capital will fund the rollout of a consumer‑focused wallet and broaden its suite of financial‑services tools.
Also developing:
By the numbers: OpenAI raises $122B in private financing
Definedge Raises Funding Round
Definedge, a Pune-based fintech and brokerage platform that offers trading tools and an investor‑education ecosystem, announced a new funding round with an undisclosed amount. The round was backed by a group of individual investors including Hemant Luthra, Ajay Srivastava, D. Prasad, Nitin Agarwal and Madhusudan N. Sarda. Founders Prashant Shah (CEO) and Rajesh Badiye (CIO) said the capital will be used to expand the company’s operations and accelerate product development. The raise underscores growing investor interest in Indian fintech solutions that combine brokerage services with education.
Gym Teacher's Lesson Becomes VC's Problem‑Solving Fulcrum
A Venture Capitalist’s Ode to His Gym Teacher Michael Eisenberg There is an old adage that those who can’t do, teach. Those who can’t teach, teach gym. The adage has always troubled me. What more enlightened pursuit is there than education? So...
Sterling Investment Partners Closes Over $1.6 Billion in Fifth Fund
Sterling Investment Partners, a Greenwich, Conn.-based middle‑market private‑equity firm specializing in business services and distribution, closed its fifth institutional fund, Sterling Investment Partners V, L.P., with $1.6 billion of committed capital. The fund’s capital base was bolstered by a sizable co‑investment...
How to Do User Research without Users: The Synthetic User Guide. | The Truth About ChatGPT Enterprise Adoption.
Unicorns are back: what founders must understand right now & VC Jobs
Paxos Acquires Fordefi
Paxos, the New York‑based regulated blockchain infrastructure provider, announced the acquisition of Fordefi, an institutional‑grade custody and wallet technology firm also based in New York. While the purchase price was not disclosed, the deal merges Paxos’ licensed, qualified‑custody capabilities with...
PE10X - Lessons From $4.7B in Software Growth Equity with Maitlan Cramer, MD Bow River Capital
Maitlan Cramer, Managing Director at Bow River Capital, explains how their "Capital Plus" playbook scales B2B SaaS firms by taking majority-control positions and actively fixing broken processes rather than just providing capital. He stresses choosing a large, healthy market over...
Ulrik Zeuthen Joins Adalyon as CEO
Adalyon, the Finland‑Denmark AI‑driven speech‑biomarker startup that supports clinical drug development, announced the appointment of Ulrik Zeuthen as its new chief executive officer. Zeuthen brings a track record of leading digital transformation initiatives in the pharmaceutical sector, with expertise in...
Custom Vibe Coding Threatens SaaS Dominance
Vibe Coding Will Kill SaaS: " In a year or two; you'll get to a place where a lot of the current organizational tools that companies are using, you could build your own version. It would make so much more sense to you...
SaaStr AI VC Apps Reach 800K Uses in 60 Days
@bogdaniordache Probably not. Still, the flip side? Our SaaStr AI VC apps have already been used 800,000+ times in < 60 days https://t.co/XOGfNpEPiG
Private Equity : The New Distribution Channel for AI Startups
The post argues that private equity (PE) firms have become the primary distribution channel for AI startups, thanks to the rapid growth of PE‑owned companies—now outnumbering public firms 4:1 in the US. Because PE portfolios consist mainly of mid‑market firms...
Humanoid Chore Bots Under $1000 Launch
.@PiggyRobotics is building mass-producible humanoid robots that can do your chores at iPhone prices. They're full-size and complete with custom muscles, valves, and pumps for less than $1000. Congrats on the launch, @RichardGong17 & @Chenny_Deng33! https://t.co/dTIOKW2u1B https://t.co/8jrZsOZa4r
80% of Founders Fail First Due Diligence, Investors Overlook It
An astounding 80% of founders fail due diligence the first time they go through the process… and many investors aren’t doing ANY confirmatory due diligence at all. On TWiST, we’re chatting with Collin Sebastian of En Vérité about the shocking...
Huha Wear Raises $20M in Funding
Vancouver‑based women's intimate‑apparel brand Huha Wear announced a $20 million financing round led by District Ventures Capital, with participation from Export Development Canada. The capital will be deployed to accelerate product innovation and expand the company's market reach. Founded in 2019...
Pivot Fast: Listen, Adapt, and Find Your Market
Sometimes founders can’t necessarily predict who will embrace their product… that’s why it’s so important to stay flexible and open-minded! On TWiST, Alex and I are chatting with Francisco Cornejo of Familify, maker of the well-reviewed storytelling app Storybook app....
One Week Left: Apply for Impactful Graduate Internship
One week left to apply to our graduate internship program! I love working with our interns and they get to work on projects that directly impact the direction of our firm! https://lnkd.in/g6A7_phA
The 2045 Superintelligence Timeline: Epoch AI’s Data-Driven Forecast
Epoch AI researchers discuss a data‑driven timeline for superintelligence, arguing that Anthropic could build the first gigawatt‑scale AI datacenter and that breakthroughs like solving the Riemann hypothesis may arrive within five years. They challenge the notion of "energy bottlenecks," framing...
Investment Banks Connect Non‑hub Founders to Buyers
Who you know matters. If you own a software company that isn't headquartered in a city known for being a tech hub, one of the greatest benefits of hiring an investment bank is access to buyers. #founders #pathtoexit
Celebrating a Near‑Miss Investment in Interface’s Vision
Congrats to Thomas Lee Young , Aaryan Mehta , and the whole Interface team on today's announcement! This is an investment that almost didn't happen - thankfully, a friend nudged me to meet with them before the round closed. I've...
She Sold Her Startup for $500 Million, Here’s Her Next Idea
In this episode, Brynn Putnam discusses how her personal frustration with screen‑driven family disconnection inspired Board, a face‑to‑face gaming console designed to reunite families, and reflects on her previous ventures like Mirror that also emerged from personal needs. She emphasizes...
Forge Slowly, Thrive as AI Automates Speed
“Move Fast and Break Things” vs “Move Slow and Forge Things” “Move fast and break things” was a something we invented at Facebook to get a bunch of entitled Ivy League kids to grind for us. It worked. Then, all of...
Allocate 10% to a 30x Winner for 3x Fund
How do you create a 3x venture fund? For a smaller fund, in theory there are many ways, but most likely is: 1️⃣ Put 10% of your fund into your very best investment 2️⃣ It does 30x = 3x the whole...
Hippocratic AI Expands Leadership Team
Palo Alto‑based Hippocratic AI, which builds generative AI agents for the healthcare sector, announced a major expansion of its executive team, adding seasoned veterans to oversee product, engineering, and commercial functions. The hires come shortly after the company closed a...
Success No Longer Dependent on Silicon Valley Location
6. Why Base44 Is Helped & Not Hurt by Not Being in Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is no longer mandatory for building important companies or accessing opportunity. The war on talent is tough in Silicon Valley: If you don’t have deep pockets,...
Base44 Lets Anyone Build Products, Outpacing Cursor
5. How Does Base44 Beat Cursor in the End? I started Base44 for non-technical people: no API keys, no Supabase links… As models improve, even developers care less about editing files or seeing code. When you can build whole products inside Base44, most...
20VC: Base44's Maor Shlomo on How Vibe Coding Will Kill SaaS and Salesforce | Why It Is BS that Vibe...
Maor Shlomo, founder of Base44, argues that AI‑driven "vibe coding" platforms will disrupt traditional SaaS and CRM tools like Salesforce by offering faster, low‑code development with superior user experience. He challenges the notion that these platforms lack defensibility or margins,...
Outdated Travel Policies Force Meetings Away From Tel Aviv
As I mentioned, we had to do our LP meeting in London because many firms' travel policies have not been updated to show how safe Tel Aviv is and we always want to see our partners in person. We appreciate...
Sharing Select Slides: Israel vs UK Insights Unveiled
Every year, at our annual meeting with our LPs, I do a State of the Union. It is pretty wide ranging. It covers Geopolitics, VC, Investment Themes, Opportunities, State of Aleph and more. For years I have debated whether to share...
Epstein Files Fallout, Nvidia Risks, Burry's Bad Bet, Google's Breakthrough, Tether's Boom
The episode opens with a deep dive into the fallout from the Epstein files, focusing on the lingering questions about the source of his wealth. It then shifts to market dynamics, highlighting Tether's rapid growth, Michael Burry's contentious bet versus...
AI Lowers Founder Bar, Sparks Career Reinvention
Aileen Lee 's in conversation with Reid Hoffman , Stacy Brown-Philpot , & Van Jones sharing prescient thoughts on how this AI revolution has lowered the bar for founder entry and career re-imagination. #MastersofScale
High‑Profit 3M‑User Portfolio Hits $1M Revenue
An amazing portfolios of apps just landed on @acquiredotcom > $1M TTM revenue > $595K TTM profit > 2.95M monthly active users Lean team, diversified revenue mix, and strong recurring base. Love rare portfolio listings like this: Check more here: https://t.co/iqotQkQkUE https://t.co/aAtqSU3dIs
The Hot Mic: Should You Start a Venture Fund?
In this Hot Mic episode, three listeners pose their top questions to seasoned venture capitalists, who discuss whether starting a venture fund is advisable, the key criteria they use to evaluate pitches, and the one startup they wish they'd invested...
Cofounder Breakups Kill Startups More than PMF
Startups die from cofounder breakups/tensions more often than not finding product market fit. We just blame PMF because "irreconcilable differences" sounds too much like divorce court jargon.
Microbiome Model Predicts Drug Response, Boosts Efficacy
Anto (@anto_f25) is building a foundation model for microbial communities that predicts how drugs work across diverse populations. By uncovering how the microbiome drives drug response and failure, they're optimizing molecules for broader efficacy and reduced toxicity. https://t.co/WkL4bmIahO
AI Investment Drives Half of GDP Growth, Reversal Risks Recession
According to today’s WSJ, AI-related investment accounts for half of GDP growth. A reversal would risk recession. We can’t afford to go backwards.
Model Prices Expected Near Zero, Margins Become Irrelevant
" The margins are the least thing that I'm worried about. We're taking into consideration that the prices of models will go down to zero." @MS_BASE44 How do you think about model costs over time? Right to assume close to zero? @destraynor...
Spotlight on USV’s Star Entrepreneur and Portfolio Success
Great read about a fantastic entrepreneur and @usv portfolio company (also featuring @BradUSV)
Tiny Carry, Massive Payout: VC Economics Explained
That new VC partner on your board? They might have say 5% carry in the fund Let's say you sell for an incredible $500,000,000 after 10 years. WOW! And the fund owns 15% The new partner then makes ... $750,000 $500m x 15% x...
Key Investable Themes Highlighted in Slide
This is a slide I showed last year as well. These are investable themes. /2 https://t.co/Ahu2RPdjuo
What It Takes for OpenAI to Reach $500B
A spicy thought experiment: What would OpenAI have to do to hit $500 billion in annual revenue within the next five years? https://t.co/jxxTIIIqgC https://t.co/blAVz6cHUP
AI Boom Thrives, Business Models Still Uncertain
Everyone in AI feels the same tension right now, but this piece finally names it clearly. The tech is real. The progress is real. The spending is real. The business models aren’t. Not yet. This is the best breakdown I’ve...
JAMF Deal Highlights SaaS Growth’s Brutal Reality
Francisco Partners announced this week they're taking JAMF private for $2.2 billion at $13.05 per share. The headlines trumpet a "50% premium" to recent trading prices. The press releases talk about "strategic flexibility" and "accelerating growth." But here's what the...
AI Music SaaS Hits $621K ARR, Profitable
This is the future of music right here. Live on @acquiredotcom: AI music creation SaaS that turns vocals and text into full songs with voice. > 3M+ users > $621K ARR > $559K TTM profit > 80% margins Bootstrapped and profitable. Full listing: https://t.co/Obvm9zKtc6 https://t.co/W1RRxUq9Oj
Fresh, Focused AI Memory Beats Massive, Outdated Datasets
I know ‘memory’ is a big deal in AI — what I don’t know is how >much< of it you really need to have a great AI experience. The more I learn about how our own AI Agents work, the...
AI Startups Must Master Unit Economics to Survive
🔥 AI startups are burning cash faster than you think. You see Series A AI companies burning $500K/month on GPUs while showing zero profit margins. More users = more GPU usage = bigger losses. But the survivors won't have the...
Brace for a Major M&A Wave Within Six Months
Here’s why I say we’re going to see a “major M&A moment” in the next six months. There’s a business-friendly administration in the White House. (Everyone knows the President LOVES DEALS… he wrote a book about it.) $GOOG got off...
NVDA‑OpenAI Agreements Are Merely Non‑binding Letters of Intent
We’re reading the fine print on those $NVDA/@OpenAI “deals”… and they’re not EXACTLY deals. It turns out, at least according to Nvidia chief Jensen Huang, either company can essentially walk away at any time, and it’s more of an aspirational...
Great Startup Ideas Feel Like Bad Ideas at First
The intersection of “seems like a bad idea” and “is actually a good idea” is the sweet spot for startups. "If a good idea were obviously good, someone else would already have done it. So the most successful founders tend to...
AI Market Sizzles: Rapid Change Fuels Excitement
The AI market today is bacon in a hot skillet. Everything is sizzling, moving, & changing at an incredible pace. We’re all watching it closely. Market share is fluid because no one yet knows what AI can do & the...
Choose a Sell‑side only Bank to Avoid Conflicts
What does it mean to be an unconflicted investment bank? Unconflicted means that a bank doesn't take revenue from anyone who could be a potential buyer, or who doesn't trade favors with someone who could be a potential buyer. Conflicts...
Purpose‑Driven Founders Outperform Fame‑Seeking Entrepreneurs
This is my single biggest disagreement with YC. Starting a startup to get famous, or to do better than those around you, or for vanity, or yes even just to get rich, is worse for society and worse for founders. It's...