32 Silicon Valley Startups Raised $5 Billion - Week of November 25, 2024
🪓 How would DOGE Work? 🔨 DOJ Wants Google to Sell Chrome 🇭🇰 Jensen in Hong Kong 🔊 Bluesky’s Usage 3X 🛍️ Amazon Launched on JD.com
Happy Monday!
Here are a few great things to read/watch this week:
🪓 How would DOGE Work? Elon on Wednesday referenced famed economist Milton Friedman's opinion from decades ago, about how bloated the government had become. In this video, Friedman went through a list of specific federal agencies that should never have been created in the first place, as well as those that he felt were important. Elon and Vivek Ramaswamy also shared their plans to reduce the size of the U.S. federal bureaucracy on WSJ Opinion.
🔨 DOJ: Google Must Sell Chrome to End Monopoly - The Department of Justice argued Wednesday that Google should divest its Chrome browser to help break up the company’s illegal monopoly in online search, according to a filing with the U.S District Court of the District of Columbia. Also click here to watch the 30 years of web browser market growth and how Eric Schmidt thinks this is a terrible idea.
🇭🇰 Jensen Huang Receives Honorary Doctorate from HKUST - Jensen has pledged to maintain the company’s presence in mainland China despite rising geopolitical tensions, while highlighting the country’s unique strengths in capitalizing on AI and trends that have upended industries from medicine to robotics. Read more and Watch his full speech.
🔊 Bluesky’s Usage 3X As Users Abandon X — Bluesky app usage in the US and UK grew ~300% to 3.5M DAUs after Nov. 5; Threads now has 1.5x Bluesky's DAUs in the US, down from 5x. More accustomed to it than any political stance, I am still on X, and have yet to use Bluesky or Threads. Read more on FT.
🛍️ Amazon Global Store Launched its Flagship Store on China’s JD.com — This launch gives Chinese consumers access to more than 400,000 international products from over 12,000 brands. Amazon first entered China in 2004 by acquiring Joyo.com, a books and media retailer. It later expanded to include domestic e-commerce, cross-border shopping, cloud services, and Kindle e-readers. However, facing stiff competition from local giants Alibaba and JD.com, Amazon began scaling back operations in China in 2019. Read more on Technode.
P.S. You can also listen to this newsletter.
Last week a total of 32 startups raised $4.76B in funding, 1 M&As:
$4.67B goes to 17 Enterprise startups
$4M goes to 1 FinTech startup
$10.7M goes to 2 Web3/Crypto startups
$40M goes to 1 InsurTech startup
$132.5M goes to 4 Healthcare startups
$10M goes to 1 BioTech startup
$7M goes to 1 Marketplace startup
$14.5M goes to 1 Wireless Telecommunications startup
$12M goes to 1 Waste Management startup
$53M goes to 2 Robotics startups
$6M goes to 1 Cannabis startup
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Edith
X, LinkedIn
Funding (300 miles radius from Silicon Valley)
Enterprise
Anthropic (AI research) $4B from Amazon
Kong (API management) raised $175M Series E led by Tiger Global & Balderton
Cresta (generative AI platform for contact centers) raised $125M Series D led by Qatar Investment Authority, World Innovation Lab
Enfabrica (AI networking solutions) raised $115M Series C led by Spark Capital
Spectro Cloud (kubernetes management platform) raised $75M Series C led by Goldman Sachs Alternatives
Rox AI (AI agent solution for sales teams) raised $50M Series A led by General Catalyst
SuperAnnotate (AI data platform) raised $36M Series B led by Socium Ventures
Selector (AIOps solution) raised $33M Series B led by Ansa Capital
Wordware (full-stack operating system for AI development) raised $30M Seed led by Spark Capital
Aviz (AI-driven networking solutions) raised $17M Series A led by Alter Venture Partners
BrightAI (infrastructure IoT copilot platform) raised $15M Seed led by Upfront Ventures
Arcade (AI interactive content generation) raised $14M Series A led by Kleiner Perkins
Trustero (AI-powered security and compliance) raised $10.4M Series A led by Bright Pixel Capital
Anomalo (unstructured data monitoring platform) raised $10M Series B extension from Smith Point Capital
Zitadel (cloud-native identity infrastructure) raised $9M Series A led by Nexus Venture Partners
Apideck (real-time unified API platform) raised $7.5M Series A led by Airbridge Equity Partners
FinTech
Kintsugi AI (sales tax automation platform) raised $4M Series A led by Airwallex
InsurTech
Federato (RiskOps platform) raised $40M Series C led by StepStone Group
Web3/Crypto
Shinami (move-based blockchain developer platform) raised $5.7M Seed led by Race Capital
OpenLayer (web3 AI data layer) raised $5M Seed from a16z CSX, Geometry, IOSG Ventures
Healthcare
Oura (wellness wearable rings) raised $75M from Dexcom
Zenflow (medical device for enlarged prostate symptoms) raised $24M Series C led by Cook Medical
New Lantern (AI radiology imaging analysis platform) raised $19M Series A led by Benchmark
Citizen Health (AI-powered consumer health platform) raised $14.5M Seed led by Transformation Capital
BioTech
iMicrobes (bio-based chemicals) raised $10M Seed led by First Bright Ventures, Universal Materials Incubator
Marketplace
Flywheel Dynamix (buyer-centric cloud marketplace) raised $7M Seed led by Storm Ventures, Foster Ventures, BeeNex, FeBe and Teknos Ventures
Wireless Telecommunications
Aira (AI defined networking) raised $14.5M Series B from AT&T Ventures, Intel Capital and In-Q-Tel
Waste Management
Epic Cleantec (water reuse solutions for commercial real estate) raised $12M Series B led by Dr Garry Rayant, Kathy Fieldsl
Robotics
UnitX (manufacturing inspection automation) raised $46M Series B led by UP Partners
Cannabis
Distru (cannabis ERP platform) raised $6M Series A led by Global Founders Capital
IPO & M&A (300 miles radius from Silicon Valley)