StartX’s Post

Top 5 funding rounds of the week: 📌 1. Forge (YC W24)- developed a platform designed to help companies procure computer hardware and other electronic components. Founders: Emir Sahmanovic, Haris Sahmanovic Raised: $2.1 million seed round from Gradient Ventures and Y Combinator. 📌 2. Fizz - New York-based student debit card startup. Founders: Teddy Solomon and Ashton Cofer Raised: $14.4 million seed round from Kleiner Perkins, SV Angel, Y Combinator, New Era Ventures, and others. 📌 3. Liminal - offers security and privacy tools for enterprises using generative AI. Founders: Steven Walchek Raised: $5 million seed round from Fin Capital, High Alpha, Matchstick Ventures, and Craft Ventures. 📌 4. Understory - provides climate-focused insurance, particularly for industries vulnerable to severe weather. Founders: Alex Kubicek Raised: $15 million Series A round from True Ventures and Prelude Ventures. 📌 5. WindBorne Systems - designs and operates atmospheric sensing balloons equipped with AI to improve weather forecasting. Founders: Kai Marshland Raised: $15 million Series A round from Khosla Ventures, Footwork VC, Pear VC, and Convective Capital. Well done to all these founders! 👏 #startups #fundraising #venturecapital

5️⃣ Early stage rounds from across Europe to pay attention to (check link in the comments too 👀): 1️⃣ FLOWPAY 🇨🇿 (Fintech) - Makes SME financing accessible through AI and embedded finance. 💰 Raises €2.1 million in seed funding from Techstars, Soulmates Ventures, DEPO Ventures , and angel investors. 2️⃣ Rendin 🇪🇪 (Proptech) - Eliminates rental deposits for a seamless experience. 💰 Secures €1.2 million from Tera Ventures, Iron Wolf Capital, TrueSight Ventures, Atomico Angel Program, and Startup Wise Guys. 3️⃣ ENAPI 🇩🇪 (Cleantech/EV Infrastructure) - Aims for affordable EV charging connectivity. 💰 Raises €1.2 million in a €2.5 million pre-seed round led by Project A Ventures, Seedcamp, and helloworld. 4️⃣ UpHill Health 🇵🇹 (HealthTech) - Healthcare Autopilot for enhanced clinical efficiency. 💰 Secures €7 million Series A from Explorer Investments, Redstone, EnjoyVenture, Brighteye Ventures, and MSM fund (Mustard Seed Maze). 5️⃣ Pelikan Mobility 🇫🇷 (Cleantech/EV Infrastructure) - Revolutionizes commercial EV leasing. 💰 Raises €4 million in seed funding from Pale blue dot, Frst, and Seedcamp.

🇪🇺 What happened last week in the European startup ecosystem? 🚀 🔍 Here are some of the most interesting rounds: 🇩🇪 LiveEO raises €25 million to leverage satellite data to make industries more sustainable Investors: MMC Ventures, Dieter von Holtzbrinck Ventures, Helen Ventures, Matterwave Ventures, Motu Ventures , Segenia Capital, Hannover Digital Investments GmbH and other notable investors. Founders: Daniel Seidel, Sven Przywarra 🇧🇪 Donna raised €1.5M to enhance its AI assistant for sales reps. Investors: Pitchdrive | Early-stage VC 🚀, Everywhere Ventures, Fortino Capital, Syndicate One, welovefounders and notable angels Founders: Nicolas Christiaen, Jonas Deprez, Xander Berkein, Lander T’Kindt and StarApps 🇩🇪 LillianCare secures €1.5 million in extension round to establish hybrid primary care in underserved regions. Investors: Nina Capital, Ship2B Ventures (through the BSocial Impact Fund, supported by the European Investment Fund (EIF), Banco Sabadell and AXIS Founders: Linus Drop and Markus Liesmann 📥 Source: EU-Startups

The newest issue of The Squeeze, our bi-weekly newsletter for Founders from PreSeed to Series A is out now! 👀 Inside you'll find the seismic shift in the Series A venture landscape, where deal volume has plummeted, except for AI-related investments, creating major challenges for seed-stage startups and their founders. 🤩 Featured investor of the week: Prakash Goswami, MARL Accelerator Read the full issue here: https://lnkd.in/gS3BMNnN

Aileen Lee of @CowboyVC underscores the enduring allure of unicorns in tech, touting AI startups and predicting a vibrant future IPO market. Explore her insights on venture dynamics and innovation.

Silicon Valley's veteran VC firm, Menlo Ventures, has announced a substantial $1.35 billion capital raise. This fund has a clear focus on AI technology investments. Menlo aims to support the next generation of AI startups. Their commitment reflects a belief in AI's potential to revolutionize technology and human experiences. This fundraising comes during a big week for the venture capital industry, with other major firms like Khosla Ventures and Coatue also securing significant funds. Despite a general downtrend in venture markets, there's a growing sentiment of opportunity, particularly in AI. What impact will these substantial investments have on the AI sector, and how might they shape future technological innovations? #VentureCapital

🚀 START Lisbon Fireside Session – tonight!   Tonight I'm invited to the START Lisbon Fireside Session. A valuable initiative where founders, investors and other experts from the ecosystem are invited to share their knowledge and answer your questions – in a more personal and real setting.   ⚡Start: 8pm (Lisbon’s time zone)⚡   Looking forward to my session – “Lessons learned: Navigating the Founding Journey Right Out of University”   See you tonight!   #startup

Here's some handy milestone guidance for deep tech hardware founders out there from First Momentum Ventures

🚀🇪🇺 Here are the most interesting early stage rounds making waves these days 👇 1️⃣ Rivero 🇨🇭 (fintech) is a SaaS products for all players in the payment ecosystem to digitalise and automate their payment processes. 💰 Raises an impressive 6.3 million EUR seed round from 6 Degrees Capital, Inference Partners, Kraken Ventures, Seed X Liechtenstein AG and PostFinance. 2️⃣ shaka 🇬🇧 (b2b) enables businesses and brands to offer mobile packages at the click of a button to increase ARPU and customer loyalty. 💰 Raises 1.2 million EUR pre-seed round backed by Haatch, Purple Ventures, and Antler. 3️⃣ Kosmik 🇫🇷 (collaboration tools) introduces a collaborative visual canvas, redefining the way users interact with information. 💰 Raises an impressive 3.3 million EUR seed round, with support from Creandum, Alven, betaworks, Kima Ventures, and other notable investors. 4️⃣ einwert 🇩🇪 (proptech) disrupts the real estate valuation landscape with its hybrid appraiser, offering a fresh, ESG-compliant valuation experience. 💰 Raises a 4 million EUR seed round from 468 Capital, Auxxo Female Catalyst Fund and Ventech 5️⃣ CloudTalk 🇸🇰 is an "AI-powered calling solution and call center software for modern businesses". 💰 Raises a 28 million EUR Series B from LEAD VENTURES, KPN Ventures Point Nine and Presto Ventures in a historic round for the Slovak ecosystem. 6️⃣ elv.ai 🇸🇰 (disinformation prevention) secured a commendable 500k EUR from CB Espri. They use both AI and human agents to combat misinformation and hate speech in the public domain; a necessary technology for the current times. 💰 Raises 0.5 million EUR seed from CB ESPRI.

Nothing more deflating for founders than pitching to VCs...only to find out they have no capital left to invest. That won’t be a problem if you pitch the funds below, they’ve all just closed new money👇 🔴 San Francisco based ICONIQ Growth closed its seventh $5.75B fund to support extraordinary leaders. 🔴 Budapest based Lead Ventures launched its €100M fund to back startups in Central and Eastern Europe. 🔴 Menlo Ventures and Anthropic launched a $100M fund to back early-stage startups, and get them using Anthropic’s AI technology. 🔴 London based 13books Capital raised a €121M fund to back financial technology disruptors.