What's happening: Machina Labs lands $124M Series C to build AI‑driven intelligent factory
Machina Labs closed a $124M Series C round led by Woven Capital, Lockheed Martin Ventures, Balerion Space Ventures and the Strategic Development Fund. The funding will finance its first 200,000‑square‑foot Intelligent Factory in the United States, featuring up to 50 RoboCraftsman cells for defense, aerospace and automotive customers.
Also developing:
In this episode Martin Scherrer of Redstone VC explains how corporate venture arms can exit their investments through secondary sales or managed runoff without eroding value or relationships. He highlights the importance of treating CVCs as true portfolio managers—using proper KPIs, governance structures, and performance‑based fee models—to avoid the typical short‑life, “pet project” pitfalls. Scherrer also shares practical tactics such as spin‑outs, continued follow‑on funding during wind‑down, and ring‑fencing capital to keep corporate sponsors engaged while attracting third‑party LPs.
Every major shift in consumer tech has a moment when it suddenly becomes accessible to millions. Michael Mignano (@mignano) helped spark one of those moments with Anchor, making podcast creation something anyone could do with a tap. Now at Lightspeed,...
Stuart Faught has been acquired 18 times on @acquiredotcom. No plans to build a unicorn. Just trying to escape a corporate job that felt like Office Space. One tiny product at a time. Dentists. Orthodontists. HVAC. Med spas. Home care. Build vertical SaaS....
Bridging finance offers businesses rapid, short‑term funding to close property deals, acquisitions, or cash‑flow gaps. The loan typically spans a few weeks to months and hinges on a clearly defined exit strategy, such as asset sales or refinancing. While interest...
1/ AI has been amazing for all of us mostly EQUITY financed by risk-taking VC + growth equity + tech giants until now DEBT has entered the party (Which @andrewrsorkin in "1929" has shown is often the match 🔥that ignites bubbles📈 + eventually brings...
In 2026, we will be doubling down on our events. Where is a location that you think we should bring one of our founder events to?
Evidium, a San Francisco‑based healthcare AI startup, announced a $22 million financing round. The round was led by Health2047 and WGG Partners, with participation from x.AI, Perplexity, Innovaccer, Interwoven Ventures, and Mindset Ventures. The capital will be deployed to speed product...
Although in most cases, I would not recommend to my founders to fundraise between U.S. Thanksgiving and the year end, it is a really good time to reflect and think about 2026 plans. It's also a great time to plan...
THIS is what startup success looks like - when the team wins too "According to Stewart Butterfield and Allen, 700 employees made $1M or more from their equity. This number would eventually climb to over 1000 people by 2021 as...
Hebbia’s Financial Services Benchmark evaluated leading large language models across core banking workflows, uncovering sizable performance gaps. The study found that many high‑priced, proprietary models underperformed cheaper or open‑source alternatives on domain‑specific accuracy and hallucination rates. Latency and compliance‑related errors...
The only podcast you have to listen to every week. No politics. Just tech. - Anthropic Raises $30BN from Microsoft and NVIDIA - NVIDIA Core Business Threatened by TPU - Sam Altman's "War Mode" Analysed - Sierra Hits $100M ARR: Justifies $10BN Price? Spotify 👉 https://t.co/6JKLLkgQVA Youtube...
I talked to a startup that's not a software company but uses AI quite a lot. They currently have 6 employees. I asked how many more people they'd need to hire if they didn't use AI, and they said about...
Brazilian fintech BHub announced a $10 million funding round led by Next Billion Capital Partners, joining existing backers Valor Capital, Monashees and Hedosophia. The raise extends a prior investment led by the IFC, bringing the company's total capital to a still‑undisclosed...
Figuring out the problem that *you* are uniquely the person to solve as a founder is a big part of the battle in finding product-market fit. Don't force picking a problem to solve just because you want to start a...
The StrictlyVC finale in Palo Alto brought together deep‑tech founders showcasing breakthroughs that remain largely unseen by mainstream markets. Nicholas Kelez presented particle‑accelerator‑based semiconductor tools that could break the $400 million laser monopoly, while Mina Fahmi unveiled the Stream Ring, a...
Chris Rynning and Anulika Malomo discuss how LPs, family offices, and GPs can future‑proof portfolios for 2025 and beyond, focusing on AI risk, liquidity crunches, and the fallout from China’s DeepSeek shock. They highlight the growing reliance on secondaries, new...
Can AI actually help kids learn, or is it just good at giving them the answers? When we think of using AI for education, many people get visions of young people lazily using ChatGPT to do their homework or write...
AI may not take your job in sales like it has take so many jobs in support already. But if you’re not at least a little worried it will, I think your career is at serious risk. We will still...

The Nordic startup ecosystem is experiencing a rapid expansion, highlighted at Helsinki’s Slush conference. Valuations now exceed half a trillion dollars, and venture capital poured over $8 billion into regional firms in 2024. Founders cite strong social safety nets and proactive...
Many first-time founders consider the signing of a term sheet as the signal that the deal is nearing its close and the majority of the terms are set in stone. These founders are then surprised when, during exclusivity, the buyer...
great NYC event for AI founders/engineers. Eli Badgio from extend knows what's up
The finale revisits four of the seven Napa pitches, providing deep‑dive updates on each founder’s progress and highlighting a dramatic $48 million acquisition that reshapes the competitive landscape. Listeners learn how one startup’s “mad scientist” approach to AI drove rapid product...
I’ve been thinking seriously about starting a daily newsletter for founders. I’ve written weekly newsletters for more than a decade. I’ve recorded hundreds of podcast episodes. I’ve done videos, interviews, and everything in between. None of that momentum prepared me...
Just landed in the most powerful startup city on earth. Eager to make some new investments! https://t.co/IoVBJ2W8J2
EcoG, a Munich‑based B2B electric‑vehicle charging provider, announced a €16 million funding round. The round was led by GET Fund, Extantia Capital, and Bayern Kapital. The capital will be used to scale its charging platform and accelerate international deployment of commercial...
You don't see DTC startups like this up for sale often! Shopify DTC swimwear brand built over 10 years on @acquiredotcom. > $1.21M TTM revenue > $179K TTM profit > 120K+ social following > 46K+ customers Full listing: https://t.co/O02iOV89uE https://t.co/fUU6KzOgcv
Unless you are absolutely on the bleeding edge, technology for many startups is largely a commodity now. It is so important to differentiate on distribution, brand, and customer experience.
Social Links, a Dutch tech firm specializing in AI‑risk mitigation, announced a $3 million funding round led by Yellow Rocks!. The capital will accelerate the rollout of new defensive tools and expand its AI Defender Autopilot platform. The company positions itself...
The team you build is the company you build, so getting the DNA right early on is critical. I wrote a three part series on how to get it right. Here’s Part 1. Parts 2 & 3 are exclusive for KV...
You don’t need a notable cofounder. You don’t need a warm intro. You don’t need a perfect pitch deck. You need a prototype that works and a one-way ticket to SF. Everything else is noise :). Happy Thanksgiving!
ExploMar, a Shanghai‑based maker of high‑performance electric outboard motors, secured over USD 10 million in a funding round led by DCM Ventures. The capital will fund global distribution and service network expansion, supply‑chain optimization, and further product development. Founded in 2021, the...
From a lot of experience with lots of founding teams: 50/50 deadlock cap tables are considered harmful
Our food system is broken. We deserve better. And yes, robots can help. That’s why I’m excited about @area2farms ( @sevensevensix co). They’re rethinking vertical farming to bring staple crops back into the places people actually live. Drop your top veggie in...
YC is the YC for crypto
New!! "How Hard It Is to Be a Great VC? Vencap’s Real Hard Numbers from 1,900+ Funds" https://t.co/3tte0v474Q
@HarryStebbings Invest in things that are weirder and you won’t be so circumspect about these rounds. The outliers are rarely consensus at seed
i just used geminiii on what i felt was a complicated business problem and it blew me away with its answer
Founders after a life changing exit on @acquiredotcom: https://t.co/xbmuxEeJqh
tough model but if you know how to do it, works really well great writeup from Marina Temkin, CFA https://lnkd.in/gbNsa-GK
Office Hours: GTM Leadership in the AI Era: Pricing, Hiring, and Compensation Thursday, December 11 5:30–7:30 PM PDT As AI-native companies scale, GTM leaders are being forced to rethink long-standing assumptions about pricing, hiring, incentives, and how revenue organizations should operate in a...
Office Hours: GTM Leadership in the AI Era: Pricing, Hiring, and Compensation Thursday, December 11 5:30–7:30 PM PDT As AI-native companies scale, GTM leaders are being forced to rethink long-standing assumptions about pricing, hiring, incentives, and how revenue organizations should...
@GChen99729 100% - There is research on it. It's why second-time founders who are starting a brand new company again actually don't have that much more success than a first-time founder.
@RobertoCroci Sure, to be clear, avoiding the 0 to 1 phase does not imply laziness. It just means having that experience and knowledge to shape decision-making.
@TheUtilizeApp We do invest pre-seed and pre-revenue. I'm talking about from the perspective of running a business and my learnings as a founder.
@excapite The multiples are higher on SaaS for sure. But even if you were bootstrapping the business, SaaS still gives you that predictability.
If a tech startup founder apologizes for their prototype looking ugly, yet their demo works perfectly then seriously consider it. They spent their time on the physics, not the paint.
YC kept funding people through 2023 when many VCs scaled back

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@lpolovets Serious question: what if you raised at $1B+?