Friday! [Breaks out cigar.] Two quick mentions: in addition to our StrictlyVC in Athens in a couple of weeks, we're headed to London a few days later, May 13 for another night of schmoozing and chatting. Featuring Accel's Sonali De Rycker and TS Anil of the digital banking powerhouse Monzo, among others, we'd love to see our London peeps there. Sincere thanks to partner Paladin Capital for teaming up with us on this one. You can nab a seat here while they're still available.
For those of you looking for a podcast in the meantime, we talked this week with The RealReal founder and former CEO Julie Wainwright, who recently published a book that's part memoir, part leadership guide, and much better than most books we're sent (truthfully -- we loved this one). Wainwright has a new startup; meanwhile, she's pointing the finger at the people who nearly ruined her experience in running the powerful luxury consignment platform.
Top News
Elon Musk's xAI Holdings is reportedly seeking a massive $20 billion in funding, potentially valuing his combined AI and social media venture at over $120 billion. The deal, which could help pay down X's hefty debt, would seem to highlight both AI's investor appeal and Musk's ability to repeatedly tap his loyal circle of backers. It would be the second largest startup funding round in history behind OpenAI's $40 billion funding round earlier this year, notes Bloomberg.
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Deel Files Countersuit Against Rippling as Rivalry Escalates
By Mary Ann Azevedo
In the latest development of an increasingly public dispute between HR and payroll services rivals, Deel has filed a countersuit against Rippling.
To recap: Rippling publicly announced on March 17 that it was suing Deel over alleged corporate espionage, with accusations ranging from violation of the RICO racketeering act (typically used to prosecute organized crime) to misappropriation of trade secrets and unfair competition. Deel is now slamming that lawsuit as part of a “campaign to try to impugn Deel’s reputation.”
That original lawsuit included an affidavit from the alleged spy that reads like a movie script. Deel had previously denied all wrongdoing.
Now the startup is taking things a step further. In a blog post Friday, Deel announced it has filed a civil suit against Rippling in the Superior Court in Delaware.
Deel’s complaint, dated April 24 and reviewed by TechCrunch, paints an unflattering picture of Rippling CEO Parker Conrad, describing the executive as “haunted by his previous failures, and now fueled by suffocating jealousy at his inability to fairly compete with Deel in the marketplace.”
Massive Fundings
Avidicure, a three-year-old Amsterdam startup that is developing a new type of antibody-based treatment to help the immune system fight cancer more effectively, raised a $50 million seed round led by EQT Life Sciences, with Kurma Partners, BioGeneration Ventures, BOM, Curie Capital, and V-Bio Ventures also taking part. More here.
Fora, a four-year-old New York startup that helps people plan and book trips through a network of trained travel advisors, raised a $40 million Series C round co-led by Thrive and previous investor Insight Partners, with prior backers Forerunner and Heartcore Capital also participating. Fortune has more here.
Nous Research, a startup that uses blockchain technology to let people contribute unused computer power to help train large AI models, raised a $50 million Series A round at a $1 billion post-money valuation. Paradigm led and provided almost all of the capital, according to a report in Fortune. SiliconANGLE has more here.
Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings
Manifest, a three-year-old startup based in Westport, CT, that helps organizations manage and monitor the components of their software and AI systems to identify and address security risks, raised a $15 million Series A round led by Ensemble VC and including AE Ventures, Overmatch VC, and Leap435 as well as previous investors First Round Capital, XYZ, and Homebrew. The company has raised a total of $43 million. SecurityWeek has more here.
Push Security, a five-year-old Boston startup that offers a browser extension to help organizations detect and prevent identity-related cyberattacks like phishing and account takeovers, raised a $30 million Series B round led by Redpoint Ventures, with Datadog Ventures also contributing. The company has raised a total of $49.3 million. SiliconANGLE has more here.
Reducto, a two-year-old San Francisco startup that has developed an API to convert complex, unstructured documents like PDFs and spreadsheets into structured data for use in AI applications, raised a $24.5 million Series A round led by Benchmark, with additional participation from previous investors First Round Capital, Y Combinator, and BoxGroup. The company has raised a total of $32.9 million. More here.
RepAir Carbon, a four-year-old Tel Aviv startup that develops electrochemical machines that remove carbon dioxide from the air and industrial emissions using electricity instead of heat or chemicals, raised a $12 million Series A extension co-led by Taranis Carbon Ventures and Extantia Capital, with Ormat Technologies and Repsol also stepping up. TechCrunch has more here.
SquareX, a two-year-old Palo Alto startup that has created a browser extension that transforms any standard browser into a secure environment by isolating potential threats like phishing attempts, malicious files, and harmful websites in disposable cloud-based sandboxes, raised a $20 million Series A round led by SYN Ventures, with previous investor Peak XV Partners also pitching in. More here.
Theo, a one-year-old New York startup that lets individuals deposit digital assets into vaults that use advanced trading strategies like arbitrage and hedging typically available only to professional firms, raised a $20 million round. Hack VC and Anthos Capital were the co-leads, with Manifold Trading, Mirana Ventures, Metalayer Ventures, Flowdesk, SCB, MEXC, Amber Group, and Selini Capital also investing. CoinDesk has more here.
Smaller Fundings
ALT Sports Data, a four-year-old San Diego startup that provides real-time betting data and trading tools for niche and emerging sports like Formula 1, surfing, and the X Games, raised a $5 million seed round. Relay Ventures and Eberg Capital co-led the transaction, with Motley Fool Ventures and Scrum Ventures also opting in. Business Insider has more here.
Augur, an 11-year-old San Diego company that predicts and blocks cyberattacks by identifying malicious infrastructure and attacker behavior, raised a $7 million seed round led by General Advance. SecurityWeek has more here.
Kollegio, a two-year-old Palo Alto startup that offers a free, AI-powered platform to guide high school students through the college application process, raised a $2.8 million seed round led by Reach Capital, with additional participation from JFFVentures, ECMC Group, and Tuesday Capital. SiliconANGLE has more here.
Nuclivision, a three-year-old startup based in Ghent, Belgium, that develops AI-powered software to enhance PET scans, enabling faster imaging with lower radiation exposure while maintaining diagnostic accuracy, raised a $5.7 million round from LUMO Labs, Heran Partners, and imec.istart future fund. More here.
WineFi, a two-year-old London startup that enables individuals and family offices to invest in professionally curated portfolios of fine wine by handling sourcing, storage, insurance, and valuation updates, raised a $2 million seed round. CoterieHoldings was the deal lead. Tech Funding News has more here.
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New Funds
Fortson VC, a Seattle venture firm, has raised a $50 million debut fund to invest in pre-seed to Series A deals. "We believe the next generation of software will be defined by products that adapt, anticipate, and operate with greater intelligence, while radically reducing user friction," Fortson founder Cole Younger told GeekWire. More here.
Exits
The food delivery juggernaut DoorDash is looking to increase its presence overseas and has made a $3.6 billion acquisition offer for Deliveroo, its British counterpart. The Wall Street Journal has more here.
Flex, a five-year-old Miami startup that aims to offer an all-in-one finance platform for business owners, has acquired Maza, a three-year-old New York startup designed to help Spanish-speaking solopreneurs and consumers to form businesses and manage both personal and business finances. Terms were not disclosed. As part of the transaction, Wellington Access Ventures has invested $10 million in the combined entity. More here.
Going Public
Good news for Canada's sluggish IPO scene: new rules now let companies file with just two years of financials instead of three, plus they can use the same prospectus for a full year to raise more capital. "That's actually pretty revolutionary," National Bank's Dan Nowlan tells Bloomberg. More here.
People
Phoebe Gates, the youngest daughter of Bill and Melinda Gates, has a new startup. The New York Times has more here.
Billionaire Ken Griffin took aim at President Trump's trade policies during a Stanford talk today, saying tariffs won't revive American manufacturing as promised. "He dreams of giving people their dignity back... But the dream is not going to come true," Griffin said, adding that with 4% unemployment, "America has moved on." Bloomberg has more here.
Essential Reads
According to a report in The Information, Scale AI, a nine-year-old startup backed by Nvidia that provides data labeling for machine learning models, generated $870 million in revenue last year and plans to do a $150 million secondary valuing the company at approximately $25 billion, an 80% increase from a year ago. More here.
TechCrunch takes a hard look at the new Jeff Bezos-backed EV startup Slate Auto and finds its debut analog EV pickup truck to be "decidedly anti-Tesla." More here.
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