Top News | Tesla shareholders approved a compensation plan that could make Elon Musk the world’s first trillionaire if he meets aggressive growth and product goals. TechCrunch has more here. | Internal documents show Meta projected that about 10% of its 2024 revenue, or roughly $16 billion, came from ads for scams and banned goods. Reuters has more here. | Google is reportedly negotiating for a larger stake in Anthropic that could push the startup’s valuation past $350 billion, underscoring how the fight for AI leadership is turning into a trillion-dollar arms race among tech giants. Business Insider has more here. | Peloton is recalling 833,000 of its Bike+ machines after reports of seat post failures and injuries, marking another major setback as the company struggles to rebuild sales and investor confidence. TechCrunch has more here. | | |
Startup financial analysis is an art. Metrics are called different names, defined differently, and selectively reported. | Our Metric Dictionary is your anchor in this complexity - a definitive reference for every startup metric, with definitions, working examples, aliases and other nuances. | We’ve made an interactive network chart for a fun way to explore. Check it out. | | Why Benchmark Made a Rare Crypto Bet on Trading App Fomo with $17M Series A |  | Image Credits: Fomo / Christian Germoso |
| By Julie Bort | Paul Erlanger and Se Yong Park, co-founders of consumer crypto trading app Fomo, took an unusual route to raising capital that is paying off for them. | Their app launched in May and they just announced a $17 million Series A round led by Benchmark — an atypical crypto bet for the top-tier VC firm — bringing total funding to $19 million. | Instead of a classic seed round, the founders drew up a list of 200 people they dreamed of having as angel investors. | “We knew that every single person would be valuable to us in the business,” Erlanger told TechCrunch. | Then they worked their networks for warm intros — both had previously worked at the popular crypto trading platform dYdX. Failing that, they made cold calls. And 140 of their dream angels wrote checks after hearing their pitch. | They landed such big names in the crypto world as Polygon Labs CEO Marc Boiron, co-founder of Solana Raj Gokal, and former Coinbase CTO and super-angel Balaji Srinivasan, the founders said. | “There’s a lot of people we never got to, like Elon Musk,” Park said with a grin, but of the ones who did take their call, less than a handful said no, he said. | | | Massive Fundings | Braveheart Bio, a San Francisco startup that develops therapeutics for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, raised a $185 million Series A round. Investors included Andreessen Horowitz, Forbion, OrbiMed, Enavate Sciences, and Frazier Life Sciences. BioPharma Dive has more here. | Inception, a two-year-old Palo Alto startup that develops diffusion-based large language models for text and code, raised a $50 million seed round led by Menlo Ventures, with Mayfield, Innovation Endeavors, NVentures, M12, Snowflake Ventures, and Databricks Investment also taking part. TechCrunch has more here. | Metropolis, an eight-year-old Los Angeles company that enables checkout-free parking through computer vision, raised a $500 million Series D round at a $5 billion post-money valuation. The round was led by LionTree, with BDT & MSD Partners, DFJ, Eldridge Industries, Slow Ventures, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Tekne Capital, and Vista also participating. The company has raised a total of $3.5 billion in debt and equity. Crunchbase News has more here. | Synchron, a nine-year-old New York startup that develops non-surgical brain-computer interfaces to help people with paralysis control digital devices, raised a $200 million Series D round led by Double Point Ventures, with ARCH Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Bezos Expeditions, NTI, METIS, the Australian National Reconstruction Fund, T.Rx Capital, Qatar Investment Authority, K5 Global, Protocol Labs, and IQT also piling on. The company has raised a total of $345 million. MassDevice has more here. | Upway, a four-year-old Paris startup that refurbishes and sells e-bikes, raised a $60 million Series C round led by A.P. Moller, with Galvanize, and Ora Global as well as previous investor Sequoia Capital also participating. The startup has raised a total of $125+ million. More here. | | Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings | Accipiter Bio, a two-year-old Seattle startup that designs AI-engineered proteins capable of binding multiple disease targets, raised a $12.7 million seed round co-led by Flying Fish Partners and Takeda, with Columbus Venture Partners, Cercano Capital, Washington Research Foundation, Alexandria Investments, Pack Ventures, and Argonautic Ventures also engaging. GeekWire has more here. | DualBird, four-year-old startup based in Westborough, MA, that develops FPGA-powered software to accelerate data processing workloads, raised a $25 million round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with Bessemer Venture Partners, Angular Ventures, and Uncork Capital also contributing. SiliconANGLE has more here. | Evotrex, a one-year-old Los Angeles startup that builds hybrid RV travel trailers with integrated gas engines, raised a $16 million seed round. Investors include Anker, Unity Ventures, Kylinhall Partners, and Vision Plus Capital. TechCrunch has more here. | Flint, a two-year-old New York startup that personalizes learning for K-12 students through AI-powered classroom tools, raised a $15 million Series A round co-led by Basis Set Ventures and Patron, with participation from Afore Capital, Y Combinator, and Matt Pittinsky. More here. | Truffle Security, a six-year-old San Francisco startup that helps organizations detect and remediate leaked credentials and other nonhuman identities, raised a $25 million Series B round co-led by Intel Capital and Andreessen Horowitz, with Abstract Ventures and Lytical Ventures also pitching in. SiliconANGLE has more here. | | Smaller Fundings | CommanderAI, a one-year-old Los Angeles startup that develops AI-powered sales software for waste haulers, raised a $5 million seed round co-led by 11 Tribes Ventures and Watchfire Ventures. Waste Today has more here. | Freeda, a one-year-old Paris startup that uses AI to detect hidden errors in construction blueprints within 48 hours, raised a $3.9 million round led by Frst, with Brick & Mortar Ventures also anteing up. Tech Funding News has more here. | Harmonic, a New York startup that is developing an open block-building system to increase the speed and efficiency of the Solana blockchain, raised a $6 million seed round led by Paradigm. The Block has more here. | Hepta Bio, a three-year-old startup based in Foster City, CA, that uses epigenetic analysis of cell-free DNA to detect chronic diseases, raised a $6.7 million seed round co-led by Felicis Ventures and Illumina Ventures and including SeaX Ventures, Alumni Ventures, and AME Cloud Ventures also participating. GenomeWeb has more here. | LambdaVision, a seven-year-old startup based in Woodbridge, CT, that develops protein-based artificial retinas manufactured in microgravity to restore sight in patients with retinal diseases, raised a $7 million seed round co-led by Seven Seven Six and Aurelia Foundry Fund, with Seraphim Space also investing. Tech Funding News has more here. | Subtle Computing, a three-year-old San Francisco startup developing voice-isolation tech that helps AI systems understand users in noisy environments, raised a $6 million seed round led by Entrada Ventures, with Amplify Partners and Abstract Ventures also chiming in. TechCrunch has more here. | | |
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Learn how data-driven investors are staying ahead. | | New Funds | CMT Digital, an eight-year-old Chicago VC firm that backs blockchain and fintech startups, raised its fourth fund in the amount of $136 million and has already deployed approximately 25% of the fund into stablecoin ventures. CoinCentral has more here. | | Going Public | BillionToOne, a Menlo Park company that develops precision diagnostics for prenatal and cancer testing, raised $273 million in an upsized IPO that valued it at $4.4 billion after shares surged 67% in their debut. Bloomberg has more here. | | People | After White House AI czar David Sacks responded to remarks by OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar by saying there would be “no federal bailout” for AI companies, Friar clarified that she was not seeking a federal backstop but instead urging cooperation between government and private capital to build U.S. tech capacity. CNBC has more here. | Speaking of OpenAI, in a long post on X, Sam Altman wrote today that the company says it expects to finish the year above $20 billion, has roughly $1.4 trillion in data-center commitments, and could “sell compute capacity to other companies (and people).” TechCrunch has more here. | According to a report in ProPublica, after Marc Andreessen donated $5 million to Trump’s campaign, federal probes into several a16z-backed fintech and crypto companies were quietly dropped. ProPublica has more here. | | Post-Its | | | Essential Reads | Microsoft AI chief Mustafa Suleyman outlined an ambitious plan to build “superintelligent” models independent of OpenAI, signaling a push for greater control over AI development. The Wall Street Journal has more here. | Tech layoffs surged to 33,000 in October, nearly six times September’s total, as companies restructured around AI and tightened spending, marking the sector’s sharpest job-cut spike in more than two decades. CNBC has more here. | |
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