SpaceX is Going to Mars

Author

Alpha
September 09, 2024

In partnership with

TECH IN THE NEWS

Musk to Mars - Elon Musk says SpaceX plans to launch its first uncrewed Starship journeys to Mars in approximately two years.

Crypto Settlement - Robinhood reached a $3.9M settlement with California over issues related to cryptocurrency withdrawals.

Pal-to-Pal - PayPal is expanding into in-person payments by introducing a 5% cashback reward and integrating with Apple.

🚨 PS: INVESTORS

We’ve got some fresh open deals (marked 🔥). Check them out below, and reach out to [email protected] for more info or for an intro. 🤝 

Pre-IPO | The Biggest Disruption to $martphones Since iPhone

  • Turning Smartphones into Revenue for Users.

  • 32,481% Growth in 3 Years.

  • Over $60M+ in Revenue. $1T+ Market Opportunity.

This is a paid advertisement for Mode Mobile Reg A offering. Please read the offering statement at https://invest.modemobile.com/.

FOR INVESTORS
Open Deals

Request an intro to founders - [email protected]

  1. 🔥 Robotics for Agricultural Efficiency - Pittsburgh - Built & deployed robotic hardware for the largest U.S. tree nurseries, reducing costs and increasing efficiency by 50x. Hardware and AI data layer. Beginning to scale globally. Post-revenue, at capacity. (Seed+)

  2. 🔥 Quant Trading Software Company - New Jersey - Large-scale automated day-trading algorithm designed for volatile U.S. equity markets. Profitable through extensive backtesting and live simulation. Seeking equity investment for software company.

  3. Cricket for the Modern World - India - Physical and virtual ecosystem fostering cricket experiences for enthusiasts and upcoming pros. Data-driven, locally proven, globally scaling. (Seed)

  4. ⏱️ AI Agent Employees - New York - Sophisticated workflow automation for businesses towards fully autonomous organizations. Previously-exited founder. Backed by Tribe & Kenetic. (Seed)

  5. Therapy for Baldness - Los Angeles, CA - Developed by ex-Kythera R&D Leader. Virtual development model and world class team seeking to fund POC study. (Seed)

🔥 — hot deal!
⏱️ — leaving soon.

Pre-IPO | The Biggest Disruption to $martphones Since iPhone

  • Turning Smartphones into Revenue for Users.

  • 32,481% Growth in 3 Years.

  • Over $60M+ in Revenue. $1T+ Market Opportunity.

This is a paid advertisement for Mode Mobile Reg A offering. Please read the offering statement at https://invest.modemobile.com/.

FOR EMPLOYERS
Job Candidates

Request an intro to candidates - [email protected].

  1. Struck Capital Venture Associate, ex-West2East (Russell Wilson) Director of Special Projects, ex-Phoenix Holdings Investment Associate. Harvard BA. Vietnamese pro basketball player.

  2. Lockheed Martin Software Engineer, ex-Rutgers Junior Full Stack Developer. Secret clearance. Expertise in C++, PHP, SQL. Rutgers BA in Computer Science.

DEALS WE’RE WATCHING
Closed Deals:

BIG DEALS

Safe Superintelligence - San Francisco AI startup SSI, co-founded by OpenAI's ex chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, raised $1b at ~$5b valuation from Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia, DST Global, SV Angel and NFDG.

Programmable Cell Therapies - San Francisco biotech startup Arsenal Biosciences raised a $325M Series C from ARCH, Milky Way, Regeneron, NVentures, Luma, T. Rowe Price, and Rock Springs and prior backers.

Leasing AI Datacentre Space - Texas startup Applied Digital raised $160M from Nvidia and others to boost its compute leasing service.

Multi-Model AI - Tokyo Foundational AI startup Sakana AI raised a $100M+ Series A co-led by NEA, Khosla, and Lux, joined by Nvidia.

Metabolic Disorders Treatment - Menlo Park startup OrsoBio raised a $67M Series B co-led by Ascenta Capital and Woodline Partners, with support from Eli Lilly.

Digital Archiving Services - Austin online regulatory compliance startup MirrorWeb raised $63M from Mainsail Partners as sole investor.

Internal SWE Dev Portal - IT startup Cortex Applications raised $60M at a $470M valuation led by Scale VP, with Sequoia, YC , and Stripe co-founders joining.

Remote Payroll, benefits & HR - North Carolina HR startup Oyster raised a $59M Series D at a $1.2b valuation led by Silver Lake Waterman, with returning prior investors.

SMALLER DEALS

AI Productivity Agents - Palo Alto AI search/agents startup You.com raised a $50M Series B to build a “productivity engine” led by Georgian, with Day One, DuckDuckGo, Nvidia, Salesforce and SBVA.

Real Estate One Stop - AZ company HomeLight raised a $20M Series D extension led by Zeev, with Stereo Capital and Menlo joining. The platform has agent search, instant valuations, and pre-sale purchasing.

Software Documentation Management - New York startup Mintlify raised an $18.5M Series A round led by Andreessen Horowitz, with Bain Capital Ventures and YC joining.

AI Financial Compliance Monitoring - New York financial institution tools startup Sedric AI raised a $18.5M Series A led by Foundation Capital, with Amex Ventures joined by previous investors.

Smart Home/Office Tech - Costa Mesa design and installation startup Daisy raised a $7M Series B co-led by Goldcrest and Bungalow, with Bullish and Burst Capital joining.

IPO Watch

Rebellions - Korean AI semiconductor startup eyes IPO by end of 2025 at ~$750M valuation. It’s backed by Saudi Aramco’s VC arm, Temasek’s Pavilion and KT and is working with Samsung on chip production.

BioAge Labs - Pre-revenue obesity therapy startup with an Eli Lilly partnership on an experimental drug has filed for a US IPO.

Exit Watch:

Salesforce - Acquired data management firm Own for $1.9b in cash to enhance its data security capacity. This is its largest acquisition since Slack.

Airbnb - Acquired Gameplanner.AI, a four-year-old stealth AI startup started by a Siri founder, for almost $200M . The deal will help Airbnb in its transition to becoming a full service "travel concierge."

Paylocity - Is acquiring Menlo and Bain-backed corporate spend startup Airbase for $325M to enable it to offer products that cater to CFOs’ offices.

Companies to Watch:

Drip Capital - Palo Alto SMB capital solution fintech serves ~10k SMBs and targets 40% y-o-y growth. It just raised $113M ($23M in equity from Japanese investors and $90M in debt financing led by the World Bank's IFC.)

Ziina - YC 2024 alumni and Dubai fintech for both p2p + business money sending in UAE has seen 34% m-o-m customer growth to 50k and 10x revenue growth over 12mths. It just raised $22M led by Altos Ventures.

Zilch - The UK ad-subsidised payments network hit $130M revenue as of July (2x y-o-y), went profitable. Hit 4M users and generated $3b+ sales for merchant partners like checkout.com. AI data use is helping boost efficiency.

The Funding Buzz

PruVen Capital - fintech and insurtech-focused VC raised $378.5M for its fund II backed by Prudential, TIAA, Lincoln, Mutual of Omaha and others. It plans to invest in financial services and enterprise-focused startups

Slauson & Co. - The inclusive diversity-focused Georgia-based VC raised $100M for its second fund to back consumer or SMB tech.

Mayfield - The Menlo Park early-stage deeptech VC is launching the "AI Garage," a $100M “entrepreneur-in-residency” program to support "AI teammate" startups with funding and coaching.

Wischoff Ventures - New York VC firm has raised $50M for its third fund to invest in fintech, logistics, and manufacturing startups, has raised $50M for its third fund.

Halo Capital - New York VC firm raised a $25M debut fund to invest in early-stage crypto projects by taking a data-focused approach.

Google - Committed $10M to improve AI literacy among young people in 17 countries and across 13 different languages.

The Cosmos Institute - The US nonprofit is launching a venture program and research institute at Oxford to bring a philosophical approach to AI.