What 2,000+ Early Rounds Reveal About Venture🤔, 9 Ways Growth is Different in AI Companies✨, EU Leaders Back Pan-European Startup Entity 📑
If you're building, investing, or just trying to stay ahead of the curve, you're in the right place. Every week, we break down the latest insights, funding news, and founder-friendly gems. Just what matters. Plus, we track the freshest VC funds deploying capital so you know where the money’s moving.
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In-Depth Insights 🔍
9 Ways Growth is Different in AI Companies ✨
AI startups re-earn PMF repeatedly, with activation often just a prompt box. Growth comes from founder-led social, brand strength, and product loops instead of traditional playbooks. [Elena Verna]
Distribution Is the Final Moat 🏰
The best founders pick one channel early, master it, and scale it relentlessly. Distribution is treated as a core product function from the first day. [GTMnow]
The Great Unlock of Time and Brand 🔥
AI is making every minute more productive, changing how people work and spend attention. Brand continues to shape meaning, trust, and consumer choices in this new environment. [Scott Belsky]
What 2,000+ Early Rounds Reveal About Venture 🤔
Mega-funds are leading larger Seed and Series A checks while boutiques dominate mid-sized deals. LP capital is concentrated, competition is higher, and selection standards are rising. [Elizabeth "Beezer" Clarkson]
The Economics of Chips and GenAI ⚡
Surging demand is driving semiconductor growth cycles across the industry. Adoption speed, inference costs, and production efficiency will define long-term market stability. [Gauthier Roussilhe]AI as Normal Technology: A Guide 🔍
AI follows the same path as other transformative technologies shaped by institutions and choices. Outcomes depend on how it is deployed, governed, and integrated into society. [Arvind Narayanan and Sayash Kapoor]
Trending News ⚡
Klarna’s IPO to Create 40+ Employee Millionaires 💰
Shares priced at $40 will mint dozens of new millionaires among staff and execs. CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski is holding his full $1B stake as Klarna goes public. [Swift]
Speedinvest Raises €30M for Continuation Fund 🔄
The first in a planned series of continuation vehicles gives LPs liquidity in a slow exit market. Secondary structures are becoming central to how VCs return capital. [Swift]
ASML Invests $1.5B in Mistral at $11B Valuation 🇪🇺
The chipmaker will become Mistral’s largest shareholder, anchoring a $2B Series C. The deal positions Mistral as Europe’s most valuable AI startup and sovereignty bet. [CTECH]
ElevenLabs Eyes $6B Valuation in Employee Secondary 🗣️
The voice AI company is nearly doubling its valuation while offering early liquidity. With $90M ARR and major media clients, it is laying groundwork for a future IPO. [TechFundingNews]
OpenAI and Oracle Strike $300B Cloud Deal 🤖
Starting in 2027, OpenAI will buy $300B in compute from Oracle, one of the largest contracts ever. The agreement ties into the $500B Stargate data center project. [TechCrunch]
Replit Raises $250M at $3B Valuation 💰
The coding platform tripled its valuation while launching Agent 3, its newest autonomous system. With $150M ARR and 40M users, Replit is scaling toward enterprise adoption. [replit]ByteDance Launches Seedream 4.0 Image Model 🖼️
The new release combines text-to-image and editing while outperforming DeepMind benchmarks. ByteDance is positioning itself as a direct challenger in AI image generation. [SCMP]
Judge Pauses Anthropic’s $1.5B Book Settlement ⚖️
A federal judge halted approval, questioning the $3,000-per-book payout to authors. The case covers ~465K works and will be revisited in late September. [The Verge]
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Your Pitch Deck is Worth $0 if it Raises $0 🚫
Most founders lose investors before slide two because decks are graded like exams. The six investor tests are Hook, Pain, Clarity, Math, Evidence, and Use of Funds. [Burak Buyukdemir]
EU Leaders Back Pan-European Startup Entity 📑
Macron and Scholz support a unified EU legal structure to streamline startup operations. The EU INC proposal is designed to cut friction for founders and speed cross-border growth. [EU–INC]
New Funds 💰
Yachad Capital Partners held the initial close of its inaugural fund to back early-stage ventures.
CoreWeave Ventures launched a corporate venture capital arm to invest in cloud and AI-focused startups.
Vireo Ventures closed €50M Electrification Fund I to support energy transition and electrification solutions.
TVM Capital Healthcare reached first closing of its $150M Southeast Asia-focused healthcare fund.
Sora Ventures introduced a Bitcoin Treasury Fund to support blockchain projects and digital assets.
Legion VC launched to back breakout startups across multiple industries.
JVP closed a $290M continuation vehicle with TPG to support portfolio company Earnix.
Solaire Partners set to manage a $28M IPTV-focused investment fund.
Corenest Capital launched a global accelerator in El Salvador with a $25M tokenized VC fund.
VCUK rolled out a new private equity and VC initiative with a Europe-focused strategy.
Accion Venture Lab closed its $61.6M second fund to back inclusive fintech innovations.
That’s a wrap for this week.
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Really sharp roundup.....appreciate how you cut through the noise and keep it focused on what actually matters.
"Mega-funds are leading larger Seed and Series A checks while boutiques dominate mid-sized deals."
It's just the basic step on the path toward rising market concentration and thus, one step closer to oligopoly.
I don't expect the appetites of a16zs and such to be sated like ever, so being a small fish in the VC pond will increasingly become less and less attractive. And with less competition on the investment end, it will suck to be a startup in need of money even more.