We got A TON of requests for founder intros yesterday from our dedicated “Open Deals” send and are still working on connecting everyone. If you reached out for an introduction, it is on its way. And be sure to email us if you have not yet done so to connect with these amazing founders – [email protected].

∆ Tech in the News

Nukes in Space - House Intelligence Chair Michael Turner (R-OH) warned of a "national security threat" rumored to be related to Russian efforts to target U.S. satellites with nuclear weapons.

Apple’s Copilot Rival - Apple is planning a new programming tool with AI code generation and prediction aimed at simplifying app development.

NYC vs Social Media - New York filed a lawsuit against TikTok, Meta, Snap and Google's YouTube over its role in the “nationwide youth mental health crisis."

Space Odyssey - SpaceX launched Houston’s Intuitive Machines’ private-sector lunar lander towards the moon.

The Nvidia Boost - Disclosure of Nvidia’s stakes in healthcare companies Nano-X Imaging and Recursion, and chipmaker Arm, led to stock price surges.

˚The Hottest Thing in Tech this Week

Sports Betting Leads the Way in the US as ‘X’ Makes an Addition

Last week ‘X’/Twitter partnered to make BetMGM its exclusive online sports betting provider and accelerate the growth of the $10B market. The partnership allows X users in the U.S. to see BetMGM’s latest odds on NFL and other major pro and college sports leagues and bet in-app. A huge win for BetMGM who gets to tap directly into sports conversations while they are happening. But this couldn’t come sooner for X, which has struggled to maintain large advertisers like Disney and Apple.

But will this move be enough for X to become the famed “Everything app” and draw users away from incumbents?

DraftKings outperformed the market so far this year, despite posting a $44.6M loss in its Q4 2023 earnings report. The company is also making moves, just yesterday announcing their acquisition of Jackpocket, the leading U.S. lottery app, for $750M.

On the Superbowl alone, 68 million Americans (+35% YOY) planned to wager with $1.5B going to legal outlets in 38/50 states with nearly 15,000 online transactions per second. Elon’s early days accelerating the growth of PayPal clearly gives him an edge and it would not be surprising to see more social networks attempt to follow suit.

Fantasy Buzz Poll

Learn more and see the results and our analysis from January here >>

Deals We’re Watching

Founders to Watch and Opportunities to Catch

Open Deals:

Looking to invest? Let us know if you want a warm intro —> [email protected] 

1. Cybersecurity Raising Seed - Stockton, CA - Delivering secure remote access to private company networks. Completed 2 DoD accelerators. 5 recurring clients in Y1, $2M+ pipeline with BAE Systems & airport.

2. GenAI Medical Intelligence Platform - Washington, DC - Delivering actionable insights from patient data to drive better outcomes. 3x exited unicorn founding team. Serving 23% of Top 30 pharma. Grew 580% last year, crossing $5M in platform revenue. Series A.

3. Micro-Satellite Infrastructure - Akron, PA - Creating a global network monitoring changes in the Earth’s most precious resources in real time. Multiple funded government contracts as well as 2 SBIR grants with the Airforce. Seed – Series A.

4. Qualcomm Competitor AI Chip - Santa Clara, CA - TSMC manufactured AI chip raising to accelerate production of their market-first chip, with less power consumption and enhanced performance for IOT, cellular, wearables, & more. $8M+ in 2024 contract pipeline. Raising Series B.

5. Seed Stage AI Financial Guidance Platform - Rochester, NY - Enables financial firms to increase conversion 10x and improve retention. Ex-JPMorgan exec. $50K ARR with 1 credit union and $7.8MM pipeline. Raising seed to onboard clients and pass security diligence.

Raising for your startup? Send us your Open Round —> [email protected]

Closed Deals:

Cloud Unicorn - San Fran AI compute startup Lambda raised $320M at $1.5B valuation led by billionaire Thomas Tull's VC firm and backed by T. Rowe Price, Super Micro Computer, & Bloomberg Beta.

Non-Opioid Pain Meds - LA Biotech Latigo Biotherapeutics emerged from stealth with a $135M Series A co-led by Westlake Village BioPartners, 5AM Ventures and Foresite Capital.

Oncology Biotech - Boston Startup NextPoint extended its Series B by $42.5M (total $122.5M) to advance immuno-oncology treatments.

Satellite Connectivity - Silicon Valley Space startup Skylo closed $37M in equity from Intel, BMW, Samsung, and Seraphim Space.

Airbnb - Acquired GamePlanner.AI, a stealth AI firm co-founded by Siri’s co-founder, valued at $200M to transition to an intuitive and personalized "ultimate concierge" service.

Companies to Watch:

50M Downloads - Popular San-Fran Conversational AI Assistant building startup Rasa has top banks and telecoms company clients, and just closed a $30M Series C backed by PayPal, Accel, a16z & more.

AI Assistant - San Fran startup Zocks, founded by an ex-Twilio VP, has 100s of Financial services clients on its data extraction LLM, and is now expanding to legal and health with a $5.5M seed from Light Speed.

The Funding Buzz

Accolade Partners - The US VC secured $1B toward three funds-of-funds. a $400M Growth fund, a $131M Venture LP fund, and a $505M flagship venture /growth fund. Most capital will be invested in funds launched by established VCs.

General Atlantic - The U.S. growth equity firm held the final close of its second strategic fund at $2.7B to invest in companies valued at $500M - $2B.

The SEC - Proposed increasing the threshold for qualifying venture funds exempt from the definition of "investment company" from $10M to $12M.

Trending Tools and Buzzy Tech

Trending Tools

Text-to-1080p - OpenAI announced Sora, a GenAI system for realistic high-def videos up to 60 seconds long from text prompts.

Gemini 1.5 - Google’s newest LLM can handle far more data with “long-context understanding” across modalities using a “mixture of experts” method.

Keyframer - Apple’s new GenAI tool to animate 2D images via text prompts.

TikTok - The first social media platform with a native Vision Pro app.

Buzzy Tech

Space Drugs - Varda brings low-gravity manufactured drugs to earth.

Brainstem Glioma Cure? - Cancer drug used to cure the first-ever patient.

Tech Buzz GP 👀

In Case You Missed It - An Exclusive Round we shared in ‘Open Deals’ got funded last week - TECH BUZZ EXCLUSIVE DEAL – and I am pleased to announce that Tech Buzz received an opportunity to syndicate a vehicle alongside a Tier 1 VC and Accenture. If you would like to participate in exclusive deals like this and are accredited, please reach out with your indication of interest via email - [email protected]