If you want a pulse check on where the venture capital industry is at, consider the software supply chain security startup Chainguard, which has raised $500 million across two rounds in less than a year.
“We’ve never had a fundraising deck,” Ryan Carlson, president of Chainguard, said yesterday on the Future of Venture Capital insight exchange at Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech conference in Park City, Utah. He added later: “We’re not going to create a deck next time either.”
For some companies, deals can’t get done fast enough. OpenAI is reportedly worth some $500 billion these days and raised $40 billion in funding earlier this year. Autonomous weapons startup Anduril notched a $30.5 billion valuation earlier this year, less than a year after its last multi-billion funding round. If you are looking at companies in the cybersecurity, generative AI, and defense tech space, deals are hot. But it’s not everyone.
“Some companies, no matter what you’re doing, you’re not getting any term sheets,” says Aydin Senkut of Felicis Ventures. “And the ones that are getting interest are getting, like, 12, 15—I mean, they’re double digits. And I’ve been in this business for 20 years, and I’m trying to remember the last time when there were double-digit term sheets for the hot companies.”
Investors disagreed about whether we have entered an AI bubble, as OpenAI CEO Sam Altman suggested at a small dinner with reporters last month—or even an era akin to the dot-com boom, in which investors poured capital into any company related to the internet only for many of those companies to end up going under.
The economics for AI companies, in particular, are different. As Sapphire Ventures’ Cathy Gao pointed out, companies are growing to $100 million in ARR faster than ever—and with fewer people. But they are also not as efficient as software companies once were, as they have to spend exorbitant fees on things like compute.
“People are betting on the fact that compute costs will continue to decline, and over time, it’ll be a much more profitable company. So we’ll see if that plays out,” Gao said.
Where will things play out? Adam Zeplain of mark vc had some thoughts on that one. “Here’s what I know—that none of us know shit,” he said. “Two years from now, we’ll all be sitting here, and the competition will be very different, and there’s a lot of humility, and there’s a lot of excitement in that.”
More from Brainstorm Tech… We are out here in Park City, Utah, chatting about self-driving cars, fertility benefits, and ŌURA rings. This week, DoorDash Tony Xu talked about how the path to autonomous deliveries has been filled with “lots of pain and suffering.” Lyft CEO David Risher said that the company would save some $200 million from reduced insurance costs after the union deal it struck with California lawmakers. Jeffrey Katzenberg said legislation to protect children from online harm is unlikely. The Walmart U.S. CEO says staffing levels will remain steady even as A.I. becomes a bigger part of work.
See you tomorrow,
Jessica Mathews
X: @jessicakmathews
Email: [email protected]
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VENTURE DEALS
– Strive Health, a Denver, Colo.-based Kidney Care company, raised $300 million in Series D funding. New Enterprise Associates led the Series A and was joined by CVS Health Ventures, CapitalG, Echo Health Ventures, Town Hall Ventures, Redpoint, and others.
– Harbor Health, an Austin, Texas-based primary and specialty care clinic group and health insurance company, raised $130 million in funding. General Catalyst, 8VC, and Alta Partners led the round and were joined by DFO Management and others.
– Aven, a San Francisco-based home equity-backed credit card company, raised $110 million in Series E funding. Khosla Ventures led the round and was joined by existing investors General Catalyst, Caffeinated Capital, GIC, Electric Capital, and Founders Fund.
– DataCrunch, a Helsinki, Finland-based AI infrastructure company, raised €55 million ($64.4 million) in Series A funding. byFounders, Skaala, Varma PensionFund, and Tesi and were joined by J12 Ventures and angel investors.
– Scientil Photonics, a Grenoble, France-based developer of Heterogeneous Integrated Photonics for AI infrastructure, raised $58 million in Series B funding. Yotta Capital Partners and NGP Capital led the round and was joined by Nvidia.
– Fyxer.ai, a London, U.K.-based AI program for emails and meetings, raised $30 million in Series B funding. Madrona led the round and was joined by Lakestar Capital.
– Teton.ai, a Copenhagen, Denmark-based developer of predictive intelligence technology for health care, raised $20 million in Series A funding. Plural led the round and was joined by Bertelsmann Investments, Antler Elevate, Nebular, and PSV Tech.
– Lightspun, a Boston-based AI-powered dental insurance administration platform, raised $13 million in Series A funding. Brewer Lane led the round and was joined by Virtue, Cambrian, and Industry Ventures.
– Runware, a San Francisco-based performance & price-focused AI-as-a-Service provider, raised $13 million in funding. Insight Partners led the round and was joined by existing investors a16z Speedrun, Begin Capital, and Zero Prime.
– Nuclearn, a Phoenix, Ariz.-based AI platform designed for nuclear professionals and critical infrastructure operators, raised $10.5 million in Series A funding. Blue Bear Capital led the round and was joined by SJF Ventures and existing investors AZ-VC and Nucleation Capital.
– Sphinx, a New York City-based developer of AI software designed for data scientists, raised $9.5 million in seed funding. Lightspeed led the round and was joined by Bessemer Venture Partners, Box Group, K5, Impatient VC, and others.
– wehandle, a São Paulo, Brazil-based SaaS platform for third-party workforce management, raised $6 million in funding. Canary led the round and was joined by ONEVC, Valutia, Blustone, and Quartzo.
– Candid Intelligence, a San Francisco, Calif.-based developer of AI agents for engineering, procurement, and construction projects, raised $5.5 million in pre-seed funding. Quiet Capital led the round and was joined by MIT’s E14 Fund, Liquid 2 Ventures, Flexcap Ventures, Yann LeCun, and others.
– Dig Energy, a Manchester, N.H.-based developer of geothermal-specific drilling technology, raised $5 million in seed funding. Azolla Ventures and Avila VC led the round and was joined by Drew Scott.
– Metal, a New York City-based AI-powered research platform for private market investors, raised $5 million in funding from Base10 Partners.
– Pathwork, a San Francisco-based AI-powered life and health insurance distribution platform, raised $3.5 million in seed funding. Costanoa led the round and was joined by Logos Fund, American Family Ventures, Meridian Ventures, and angel investors.
– OpenHealth, a Berlin, Germany-based lab data company, raised $3 million in seed funding. GoHub Ventures, xdeck ventures, Edenbase, and Exceptional Ventures led the round and were joined by YZR Capital, Octopus Ventures, and calm/Storm Ventures.
– Marloo, a London, U.K. and Auckland, Australia-based AI assistant designed for financial advisers, raised $2.7 million in ore-seed funding. Blackbird led the round and was joined by angel investors.
– Aurva, a Sunnyvale, Calif. and Bengaluru, India-based AI-powered data security program, raised $2.2 million in seed funding. Nexus Venture Partners led the round and was joined by DeVC and angel investors.
PRIVATE EQUITY
– Vitruvian Partners invested $637 million in DeepIntent, a New York City-based health care demand-side platform.
– Polycorp, a portfolio company of Arsenal Capital Partners, acquired Burke Industries, a San Jose, Calif.-based custom elastomeric product supplier. Financial terms were not disclosed.
– Shenandoah, backed by GenNx360 Capital Partners, acquired Nu-Pipe LLC, a St. Petersburg, Fla.-based pipe rehabilitation company. Financial terms were not disclosed.
– TMA Systems, a portfolio company of Silversmith Capital Partners, acquired Facil-it, a Williston, N.Y.-based facilities maintenance platform. Financial terms were not disclosed.
EXITS
– Ariel Alternatives acquired Groome Industrial Service Group, a Denville, N.J.-based specialty maintenance services company, from Argosy Private Equity. Financial terms were not disclosed.
– Bansk Group agreed to acquire a majority stake in BYOMA, a New York City-based skin health brand, from Yellow Wood Partners. Financial terms were not disclosed.
– Chamberlain Group, backed by Blackstone, acquired Arrow Tru-Line, a Archbold, Ohio-based manufacturer of garage door hardware components, from MiddleGround Capital. Financial terms were not disclosed.
– Minute Media acquired VideoVerse, a San Francisco and Los Angeles-based video editing platform, from Bluestone Equity Partners. Financial terms were not disclosed.
PEOPLE
– Percheron Capital, a San Francisco and New York City-based private equity firm, hired Manish Goyal as a managing director and head of the firm’s portfolio support group. He was formerly with Berkshire Partners.
