Today's Venture Capital Pulse
Clip secures $500M to accelerate consumer wallet rollout
Mexican fintech Clip raised $500 million, pushing its valuation above $2.5 billion. The new capital will fund the rollout of a consumer‑focused wallet and broaden its financial‑services platform. Investors were not disclosed and the round remains under review.
Also developing:
By the numbers: Francisco Partners raises $18B for new tech funds
Enodia Therapeutics Raises €20.7M in Seed Funding
Enodia Therapeutics, a Paris‑based biotech, secured €20.7 million in seed funding led by Elaia, Pfizer Ventures and Bpifrance. The capital will accelerate its machine‑learning‑driven small‑molecule platform that selectively modulates the SEC61 translocon to degrade target proteins at synthesis. By intervening upstream of the secretory pathway, Enodia aims to halt disease‑causing proteins before they become functional. The round also includes strategic investors such as Institut Pasteur and Argobio Studio, underscoring confidence in the approach.
Beware Buyer Tactics—Lean on Your Banker
What are some ways buyers try to get an unfair advantage in a process? 1. Create artificial deadlines for the founder to give them exclusivity. 2. Encourage founders to sign an LOI early, without providing much detail on what the...
Vizgen Raises $48M in Funding
Vizgen, a Waltham‑based spatial multi‑omics firm, announced a $48 million financing round. The investment was led by ARCH Venture Partners, M Ventures and Northpond Ventures, with participation from existing backers. The capital will fund global researcher support and scale manufacturing capabilities....
Kevin Hartz: Backing Teens, AI Bubble, PayPal Wisdom
New pod with @kevinhartz - why he backs so many teen founders - lessons from the PayPal Mafia - AI is the mother of all bubbles yet still underhyped - how Palantir, Xoom, and Eventbrite evolved from PayPal - sizing a hidden TAM - having kids...
Start VC Young, Enjoy Returns Decades Later
Ideally, you'd start in venture around 13-14 years old That way, in 20 years, when the carry checks finally get material, you still have time to spend it
Episode 111: Jimmy Wales
In Episode 111, host discusses the evolution of online knowledge sharing with Wikipedia co‑founder Jimmy Wales, covering the platform’s impact on information accessibility, challenges around misinformation, and the future of open‑source collaboration. Wales shares insights on the balance between community...
Stoke Space Targets Near‑Instant Rocket Reusability
Stoke Space is racing to build the world's first fully reusable rockets that can launch, survive reentry, and fly again almost right away. In this episode of Hard Tech, @aaron_epstein sits down with @stoke_space co-founders @AndyLapsa and @Rkt_Da to find out...
Speed Wins: Upstarts Respond, Incumbents Stall
I often cold outbound mega CEOs to come on 20VC: The upstarts who are crushing, taking incumbent share and moving fast; respond and take it themselves. The incumbents; forward it to comms, who send me BS emails a week later...
Keycard: 2026 Is the Year of Agents
In this episode, a16z partner Joel de la Garza talks with Keycard CEO Ian Livingstone about the rapid shift from AI copilots to fully autonomous agents expected in 2026, and why enterprises will be the first adopters. They explore the...
Companies Either Create What They Love or Exploit Customers
The most important division between companies is between those who make things they themselves admire, and those who regard their customers as fools, and cynically give them what they want. Companies sometimes shift from the former to the latter, but...
The $800M Exit that Started with a Single Muffin
In this episode, Katlin Smith recounts how she turned a humble almond‑flour muffin experiment into Simple Mills, a clean‑snack brand that grew into a $800 million exit. She discusses the challenges of scaling a health‑focused food company, the strategic decisions that...
General AI Learning Enables Robots in Unseen Environments
It’s easy to normalize rapid progress, but it’s worth pausing to appreciate how far we’ve come. We now have systems that: 🧠 learn end-to-end 📚 transfer knowledge across domains 🌍 operate in new environments with no explicit programming From vision to language to robotics, this...
Anthropic Hits $350B in Record 4.5 Years
Anthropic from 0 to $350 Billion Valuation. Is this the fastest ever from founding? The data says yes. Time to $350B: 🥇Anthropic: 4.5 years (founded 2021) 🥈OpenAI: ~10 years (founded 2015) 🥉SpaceX: 22 years (founded 2002) Anthropic is reaching SpaceX-level valuations roughly 5x faster. Even crazier:...
Discord and Mercor Investor Niko Bonatsos Departs General Catalyst, Plans New VC Firm
Niko Bonatsos, who built General Catalyst’s seed strategy and backed Discord and the $10 billion AI startup Mercor, announced his departure in January 2026. He plans to start a new early‑stage venture firm with a group of top founders and investors,...
Wealth Tax Flaws Highlight Need for Smarter Policy
Rep. Khanna reached out to me to discuss the proposed California wealth tax; and while I am against the proposed tax, I'm always open to dialogue with our elected leaders. The proposed CA wealth tax is badly designed in so many...
AI Wealth Strategist Offers Elite Strategies Free
The founders of Paperspace (YC W15) just announced Autonomous (@a____t____g), an AI-native wealth strategist that brings elite strategies used by the ultra-wealthy, now available to everyone at 0% advisory fees. Millions of people already ask AI what to do with money....
STRM.BIO Raises $8M in Series Seed 2 Financing
STRM.BIO, a Cambridge‑based biotech specializing in non‑viral delivery platforms for cell and gene therapies, announced an $8 million Series Seed 2 financing. The round is led by Recordati and includes continued participation from Boehringer Ingelheim Ventures and Delos Capital, with new capital...
Storytelling Powers Finance Leadership in Modern SaaS
Storytelling is often an underappreciated strength of a great finance leader, and Samsara 's Dominic Phillips is one of the best. Tune in to tomorrow's Run The Numbers to hear some bangers and learn more about building a durable finance...
Five Years of Growth Leads to Strategic Exit
After Sarah Rowell and Scott Mackenzie spent five years increasing Kantola Training Solutions' revenue, client retention, and learner engagement, they saw the market starting to consolidate and decided to make a strategic move to maximize value; either through acquisition or...
DayOne Raises US$2.0 Billion in Series C Funding
DayOne Data Centers Limited announced a US$2 billion Series C funding round. The round was led by Coatue with participation from Indonesia Investment Authority, Indonesia’s sovereign wealth fund. Combined with the earlier US$1.9 billion equity raises and a €1 billion mezzanine facility, total capital...
Global Founders Drive Innovation; Scaling Worldwide Is Essential
2025 reinforced what I've always believed: the best ideas and founders emerge from everywhere. We at Notable Capital backed founders building companies that transcend borders and categories—I am excited for dub and K Health for democratizing financial investing and personal...
Choose Speed over a Higher Multiple for Faster Exit
Every day a deal stays in due diligence is another day for "market events," "cold feet," or "competitor moves" to blow it up. For a fast-growing marketing agency recently listed on @acquiredotcom, the goal was a premium 3.8x EBITDA multiple. We hit...
Sigrid Raises USD5M in Funding
Swedish consumer‑health startup Sigrid announced a $5 million financing round, though the investors remain unnamed. The capital will fuel both operational scaling and intensified research and development. Sigrid’s core offering is its patented SiPore technology, a non‑systemic, mechanically active platform that...
Filtrabit Raises €2M in Funding
Filtrabit, a Finnish cleantech firm specializing in dust‑extraction systems, secured €2 million in a financing round led by Ajanta Innovations 2 Ky. The capital will accelerate research and development while funding geographic expansion across the Nordics, Central Europe and India. The technology removes...
Linker Vision Raises US$35M in Series A Funding
Linker Vision, a Taipei‑based AI software platform, closed a $35 million Series A round led by Abico Group, with participation from NVIDIA and several Taiwanese venture funds. The capital will fund a rapid global expansion into the United States, Latin America, Asia,...
E677 | Michael Brehm, Redstone: One Investment, 200 Ventures — The New Blueprint for European VC Access
In this episode, Michael Brehm of Redstone explains how the firm backs a single investment across 200 European ventures, creating a new model for VC access that spreads risk and capital efficiently. He discusses the rationale behind concentrating capital, the...
Build Trust with Prospects to Boost Acquisition Odds
Getting to know potential acquirers in your space does increase the odds they acquire you — if you do it for the right way. Why? Because it builds trust. And a big part of M&A is trust. Will the team we just...
Big AI Firm Should Acquire Tailwind, Retain Its Developers
One of the big AI companies should consider acquiring Tailwind, or do a strategic investment. And maybe rehire all the devs. They’ve given the ecosystem so much.
Interos Lands $20M Funding Round
Interos.ai announced a $20 million funding round led by Blue Owl Capital and Structural Capital. The new capital will accelerate development of its AI‑powered Operational Resilience Cloud, which visualizes and monitors global supply chains down to individual suppliers. The platform also...
Prioritize Purposeful Quests Over Pure Returns
I want great quests, not just great returns - companies I’ll be proud to tell my daughters about because of how they changed in the world for the better. IIRC Founders Fund coined this "choose good quests" meme and I...
Speed Replaces Moats: Gaps Define Today's Leaders
There are no moats anymore. Yesterday's product moats are today's Claude prompts. There are only current gaps, headstarts, and leaders and laggers. And there is speed. No one can rest on their laurels. Act accordingly.
How World Cup Champion Mario Götze Built a Parallel Career as an Angel Investor
Mario Götze, the 2014 World Cup hero, has built a parallel career as an angel investor through his vehicle Companion M, which now backs more than 70 startups. Two of those companies, Danish fintech Flatpay and German AI firm Parloa,...
Seeking Series A+ Leaders' Feedback on Cursor 2.0
A portfolio co is building Cursor 2.0. If any Series A+ founders or eng leaders are open to sharing early feedback as a favor for me, DM me. :)
Europe’s Booming Entrepreneurs Signal Strong Investment Opportunities
If you are not bullish on Europe right now I can categorically tell you, you have s*** dealflow and need to improve. Never been more great entrepreneurs building mega European businesses.
Meritz Securities Selects WNSTN as Strategic AI Partner for Next-Gen Investing Platform
Meritz Securities announced a strategic partnership with AI‑focused firm WNSTN to embed compliant, infrastructure‑grade artificial intelligence into its next‑generation digital investing platform. The collaboration makes Meritz the first major Korean brokerage to deploy WNSTN’s real‑time, multi‑agent financial AI across client‑facing...
Project Europe Poised to Lead EU Entrepreneurship
Project Europe has been live for 10 months. 12 Project Europe companies. 4 have raised significant up rounds from Tier 1s. 1 has been acquired by category leader. Never been more confident that Project Europe will be the dominant entry...
Liquidity Gap Lets Jensen Pay Estate Tax, Others Can't
Jensen is liquid. As odious as the precedent is, he can pay it. His competitors, startup founders, are illiquid. Their paper valuations can't be cashed in. Even a "five year payment plan" wipes them out. Clever framing designed to normalize the estate...
VC10X - Gamification of Consumer Apps - Phylicia Koh, GP, Play Ventures
Phylicia Koh, GP at Play Ventures, explains how gaming mechanics are becoming the operating system for consumer apps, with in‑app purchases in non‑gaming sectors now outpacing traditional gaming spend. She outlines Play Ventures' $142 M thesis focused on "playable apps" that...
Roofle Acquired by SalesRabbit: A New Growth Chapter
Congrats to Travis Harvego , Joe Hoffman , and the ROOFLE team for their recent acquisition by SalesRabbit . Best of luck as you kick off the next stage in your journey. Glad we could help. Check out the press...
Stop Parenting Your Startup; Treat It as an Organization
Your business is not your baby, child, or another human you are in a relationship with. It is an organization. That distinction matters more than founders want to admit. Organizations exist to convert decisions into outcomes at scale. They rely on clear...
Insight Partners Sued by Former Vice President Kate Lowry
Kate Lowry, a former vice president at Insight Partners, filed a lawsuit in San Mateo County alleging disability discrimination, gender discrimination, and wrongful termination. She says her supervisor demanded constant online availability, subjected her to harassment, assigned redundant tasks, and...
Real‑World M&A Lessons: Offer Private, Objective Guidance
I’ve been around long enough to see how most M&A paths actually unfold. Some work exactly as hoped. Others resolve quietly. A few fall apart late for reasons that never make it into a postmortem. I’ve been on the acquiring side, the...
Predictable Revenue Drives Higher SaaS Valuations
Valuations of software companies are highly dependent on the predictability of revenue. In other words, different classes of revenue are valued differently depending on their predictability. The more predictable, the better. To help founders distinguish between the different classes of...
Inflated ARR Misleads Investors and Cash Flow
An issue I’m seeing pop up with new AI companies - they pay reps on “ARR” that’s really a series of three month pilot deals. The rep sells something for $3K and they call it $12K in ARR. Oh, and...
Prepare Your Startup for Exit, Not Luck
Not every startup is ready to sell the first time it hits the market. In 2022, a founder listed a promising startup on @acquiredotcom that went nowhere. No real buyer interest. No momentum. The issue wasn’t demand. It was structure. So they...
AI Accelerates Design: 3‑D Renders in 30 Seconds
💥 Now that we’ve packed up the holidays and turned the corner into 2026, it’s a good time to take stock of the spaces we live in. This The New York Times piece highlights how Havenly Brands (Havenly, Interior Define,...
History Guides Real Insight Into AI Investing
I sat down with @mjmauboussin to connect his unconventional career to Runnin’ Down a Dream—then used history, not hype, to frame the current AI investment world. Pre-order the book to unlock the full video here: https://t.co/HlNDfpEy66 #runnindownadream https://t.co/AhjQL3BGAO
Variant Bio Launches $200M‑plus Pharma Collaborations with New Platform
1/ Big news today from Lux family co Variant Bio 🧬📈@VariantBio Announced its new Inference platform is now available to research partners + has collaborations with several pharmaceutical companies in deals totaling more than $200 million including Boehringer + Novo...
Effective Strategy Demands Painful Trade‑offs and Clear Ownership
strategy should hurt. if you aren't making painful trade-offs, you haven't prioritized. • one goal, one owner • shared ownership = no ownership molly graham on @lennysan: https://t.co/RW7eAWk6kI
Show AI Benefits and Address Fears to Win Race
A good reminder that outside of the tech bubble, we must expand our efforts to (1) show tangible AI superpowers to many people, and (2) address the concerns and fears they have about AI growth, both environmentally and economically. Failing...