Know What's Happening in Venture Capital
Know What's Happening in Venture Capital
Venture Capital Pulse
EMAIL DIGESTS
Daily
Every morning
Weekly
Tuesday recap
EMAIL DIGESTS
Daily
Every morning
Weekly
Tuesday recap
Mistral secures $830M debt raise to build Europe’s first AI data centre
Mistral obtained an $830 million debt financing, the largest single funding round for a European generative‑AI firm. The capital will be used to construct its inaugural AI data centre. The round underscores growing investor appetite for AI infrastructure in Europe.
Also developing:
The post highlights a podcast episode where Andrew Ross Sorkin discusses his new book on the 1929 Wall Street crash and draws parallels to the speculative bubble and AI‑driven disruptions of 2025. Key takeaways include the historical setup and players of the 1929 crash, how today’s market dynamics, rising socialism, and potential AI‑related unemployment echo past risks, and whether a modern “New Deal” is needed. The hosts frame the conversation as a lesson‑focused analysis, blending journalistic insight with market‑participant perspectives to extract actionable warnings for today’s investors.
The episode dissects three headline‑making deals: Goldman Sachs’ $665 million acquisition of Industry Ventures, the former Thinking Machines co‑founder’s $2 billion raise and subsequent move to Meta, and SoftBank’s $5 billion ARM‑backed loan to double‑down on OpenAI. Harry and guests analyze what these...
The EUVC podcast roundup highlights four recent episodes that dissect current trends in European venture capital, from the $100 billion corporate‑venture‑capital surge and data‑driven deal sourcing (Charlie Hayward) to the rise of structured secondaries as a liquidity tool (Kristaps Ronis), the...
This part in this piece on @JoshuaKushner really rings true to me. I'm a gut-driven, intuition-first person, so I know exactly what he's saying here: --- “My deepest insecurity is that I have these intuitions about things that I cannot explain to...
Just seen @SetterVC's latest report on the most in-demand secondaries for private companies in Q3: Top 3 Risers in the Top 30: 1. @canva up 8 places to #12 2. @CrusoeAI up 7 places to #11 3. @AnthropicAI up 2 places to #1 and...
In this episode of the Venrock podcast "Running Through Walls," Sam Kulkarni, PhD, CEO of CRISPR Therapeutics, explains how gene‑editing technology is being pursued as a near‑science‑fiction cure and the business strategies behind it. He offers practical advice on raising...
Founders are often interested in minority transactions for one reason: Control. In a founder's mind, if they retain majority ownership in the company, then they'll fully control the strategic direction of the company, even if they give up a seat...
Just wrapped a Riverside session with the Intro folks. Cannot wait for you to hear this. Dropping all kinds of startup advice and war stories. https://t.co/9l04HG9cYC
In this "Boss Talk" episode, Ben Horowitz and Databricks co‑founder Ali Ghodsi recount their founder war stories, from building Loudcloud during the dot‑com bust to steering Databricks through a crisis and scaling it to a $100 billion valuation. They discuss practical...
New seller insights and analytics coming soon to @acquiredotcom! https://t.co/V2mQKaoOFj
Two reasons why 99% of seed stage companies don’t make it to Series A: 1. They don’t build something people want. 2. Co-Founder breakup. Avoid these two and you are the 1%.
Original Sunshine’s founders Brad and David used a covert blind‑taste test of their gluten‑free‑but‑tasting‑like‑wheat bagels to win over the investors on The Pitch, highlighting a novel flour technology that replicates gluten’s texture. They traced rapid traction from early adopters like...
Boss talk is back: https://t.co/RJR1ph1oAS
"Boring" businesses print money while everyone is distracted chasing the next shiny thing. The unsexy plumbing always delivers.
The post previews EUCVC Summit 2025 episode E631, where Marcus Behrendt of BMW iVentures and Nicole LeBlanc of Woven Capital discuss the next wave of innovation in the European automotive sector, from electrification and autonomous tech to new financing models. They argue that Europe’s...
Structured AI (@getstructuredai) is an AI workforce for pre-construction design engineering. They save engineers 30% of their time by automating documentation and validating designs directly inside the software teams already use. Congrats on the launch, @stingrayzz22, @Green181024 and @brandonstarxel!
Woz (@WithWoz1) has raised $6M to launch the first AI Product Factory. AI prototyping is easy. Building apps that real businesses can trust? Not so much. Woz changes that. Start building your mobile app today: https://t.co/MurBc2oV2a Congrats @BenjaminT007 & @ChefEckert on...
In this episode, Jatin Desai, Managing Partner at Inflexor Ventures, explains why profitable giants like Meta and Amazon are executing "quiet layoffs" despite record earnings, attributing the trend to the Great AI Re‑allocation, a permanent Year of Efficiency, and lingering...
Fernstone is an AI-powered insurance brokerage for businesses. Their platform handles the back and forth with carriers, autonomously files paperwork, and instantly responds to customer requests. Congrats on the launch, @lukebbutton, @James_R_Chen, and @BryantLe18! https://t.co/iuDWVaTy8N
This week's Uncapped guest was @roelofbotha, who runs Sequoia. We talked about his psychology leading the firm, how Sequoia makes decisions, and his views on the state of technology markets today. Unsurprisingly, I learned a ton. Hope you enjoy listening. https://t.co/07mb26KEBC
Sequoia Capital published guidance urging founders to treat runway as a dynamic strategic metric, not just cash divided by burn, recommending use of net cash (cash minus drawn debt) and monthly cash burn (cash in minus cash out) to get...
Every company starts with a story that’s truer than the product. Over time, the product gets attention, the story gets diluted, and the truth that built it gets buried under metrics. The founder’s real job is to keep digging it...
If all founders started off with 10-year vesting, I suspect this would reduce and minimize like 50% of co-founder issues * It forces you to have the tough conversation up front * It protects the ones that stay from the ones that quit *...
TechCrunch is offering significant discounts on passes for its annual Disrupt conference, with potential savings of up to $624 available until October 17 at 11:59 p.m. PT. Scheduled for October 27-29 in San Francisco, the event will host over 10,000...
The best founders are optimistic to the point of being completely unreasonable and that’s exactly why they win.
IC follow-up #28: "Please evaluate the founder's Spotify playlist curation process as it relates to finding product market fit."
In this episode, Nathan Labenz and a16z host Erik Torenberg examine whether AI progress is truly slowing or simply becoming less sensational, questioning the hype around a potential GPT‑5. They explore the current state of AI reasoning, automation, and the...
Just finished keynoting at Canvas by Miro . My talk was all about transforming your company from SaaS to AI, and what a great crowd both IRL and online. Thanks to Andrey for the invite My next few events (if...
Why was the Fivetran-dbt merger all but inevitable? Fivetran & dbt Labs announced their merger yesterday. The all-stock deal combines two companies into an entity approaching $600 million in ARR. The beauty of the modern data stack was the explosion...
Always inspiring to see a founder step out to tackle a new challenge: from lab to commercialization; to realize a personal vision that could have global impact for our warming planet. Very happy that Granite Asia is on this exciting...
In terms of valuation, it's important to consider a buyer's historical track record. Understanding how buyers have valued businesses in the past will give you clues to whether they're a value buyer or premium buyer. Also, in the event that...
"Who exactly is making money in AI?" with @HarryStebbings @rodriscoll + me https://t.co/DzkGrW3qMu
Congrats to @fleetworksai on their $15M Series A! FleetWorks matches truckers with cargo faster, automating the manual coordination that bogs down small carriers. They've onboarded 10k+ carriers & dozens of brokers (incl. Uber Freight) in just 6 months. https://t.co/t2YmM7YPrM
10% for all existing investors together for OpenAI feels like brutal dilution Even if the IRR and absolute gains are still epic
It's official for OURA: • $11B valuation • New $900M in funding led by Fidelity Hard-earned success for a team that's on track for $1B in revenue this year, 2x'ing for the 2nd year in a row. The vision and execution from @ouraring...
Good Products Are Hard to Vary. https://t.co/5EGzOpQ9xr
Congrats to @reductoai on their $75M Series B! Reducto is the leading AI document intelligence platform, and has now processed over a billion pages for leading startups and global enterprises. Startups can get started with 15k in free credits at https://t.co/88zX5ajAId. https://t.co/DE51kgRs6w
Ergo (@joinergo) is building the AI layer Salesforce forgot to ship. They turn messy CRMs into reliable revenue engines for companies like @rhobusiness, @getdelve, and @WhopIO - updating data, surfacing at-risk deals, and delivering the insights GTM teams actually need. https://t.co/6sgtv7jZ8d
Europe has some of the best young founders in the world. They are hungrier, they are more ambitious and they are more talented than ever. Charles is one of the best of the best. LFG Europe 🚀
New experiment: Looking for early-stage investors that meet with 5+ founders/week. Reply here if you want to try the beta and I’ll DM you. :)
Bravi (@BraviApp) is building AI voice & chat assistants for home service companies. Their platform helps installers & manufacturers capture every lead, respond instantly, and close more jobs. https://t.co/wwixfsipaX https://t.co/uIbSlD0B4W
Every business has one thing that makes everything else possible. Find it, and protect it with your life. The mistake most founders make is trying to give everything equal weight. Focus feels unfair because it is. But nothing compounds until...
The Problem Folks Don’t Talk About Enough: The Stressful Legal Micro-Dramas That Come Just as Thing Start Getting Good When you’re building your B2B startup, you’re laser-focused on product-market fit, customer acquisition, and scaling your team. But there’s a hidden...
There are many good reasons to say “No” to a strong M&A offer. Many of our top leaders in tech had multiple M&A offers on the way at a small fraction of their current value. Ross Perot famously offered to buy...
So @Atlassian is on a fricking tear. In the last few months they have spent $1.6BN on M&A. - DX Labs: $1BN - The Broswer Company: $610M - Cycle: Undisclosed I think @mcannonbrookes is one of the most exceptional leaders in technology. The man has...
Tons of words have been written about the Trump Administrations war on Science in Universities. But few people have asked what, exactly, is science? How does it work? Who are the scientists? What do they do? And more importantly, why...
The myth is that founders chase risk. In truth, they chase control. The kind that only comes from creating the environment where their instincts can prove themselves. The rest is just entropy management dressed up as leadership.
Don't go into fundraising ... in the dark Try the NEW SaaStr AI Pitch Deck Analyzer Find out in seconds: - Where you stand - Odds of getting funded - Where to improve your deck ...
The smart move for founders isn't to raise venture capital, it's to build to a few million in revenue, and get acquired for a life changing amount.
ComplyDo (@ComplyD0) automates how enterprises comply with hundreds of global regulations. Already used by leading global players to replace months of manual work, reduce consulting hours, and accelerate market access. Without a fleet of consultants. https://t.co/VpcLqrcbeT Congrats on the launch, @SchuhmannLeo, Moritz, and...
