MAJOR competition coming in Search, Fintech’s 100 most promising startups, the biggest winners of Stripe's $1.1B bridge deal + new open deals 🔥
Fall crisp temperatures aside, it's getting hot in here!
Welcome to Issue #48 of Startup Deal Desk!
Here’s what you can expect in today’s edition:
Everyone wants to be a search engine these days, crypto traders rejoice as BTC reaches near-record high, and Hollywood says, if you can’t beat ‘em, join' em.
Fintech startups rising to the top, the infosec space bounces back with big deals and a loaded IPO pipeline, and digital heal’s vitals are finally stabilizing.
3 new open deals:
🌱 Ready To Grow, 🧥 Drape Fit and 🍸 Juan Pistolas
and much more 👇
Keep reading to see the latest deals, news and trends 👇.
And don’t forget to subscribe!
The search engine market is heating up - Meta doesn’t like that it relies on Google and Microsoft to power its AI chatbot for search queries. That’s going to change. The company is reportedly working on its own AI-powered search engine that provides search summaries of recent events. Alongside this, Meta has also been working on gathering location data that may help it compete with Google Maps in the future. The space is heating up, as big tech companies are looking for a slice of the search engine pie, including OpenAI’s development of SearchGPT.
Bitcoin tops $71K – thank the elections - Crypto traders rejoice as BTC added 5% in a 24-hour span – breaking out of a key $70K resistance with $48B in trading volume. Why the surge though? Besides substantial inflows into Bitcoin ETFs, the spike is due to the upcoming US elections, with traders betting on bullish market conditions regardless of the outcome. QCP Capital co-founder Darius Sit said “We see some shorts against the 70k getting liquidated as the market seems to be pricing in increasing certainty of a Trump victory,". I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
Hollywood studios hop on the AI train - Following Lionsgate, which struck a deal with AI company Runway in September, Disney will be next to announce a major AI deal that will transform its creative output. Investors? Thrilled. LightShed Ventures analyst Rich Greenfield says “It makes a tremendous amount of sense…” But creatives? Most likely, appalled. An imminent announcement of an AI partnership will surely produce blowback from the creative community, especially if the initiative will mean cuts to creative departments that are already feeling the pinch.
Fintech’s 100 most promising startups of 2024 - As we reported last week, the fintech space experienced their lowest quarterly level of both funding and deal count since 2017. But, that doesn’t stop promising startups to rise to the top. The 2024 Fintech 100 winners have raised $7.2B across 370+ disclosed equity deals as of 10/23/2024. Nearly 50% are early-stage companies, primarily seed/angel or Series A.
Infosec finally rebounds - The information security vertical is bouncing back after a flat VC funding climate, raising $8.8B so far this year. Unlike others, this vertical has a loaded IPO pipeline and is on track to surpass the previous year’s total funding of $10.9B. Talk about a rebound.
Digital health’s vitals are stabilizing - After a period of explosive growth, the consumer-oriented health vertical has held steady, with quarterly deal value hovering around $1.5B since late 2022. The telehealth segment continues to dominate dealmaking, but AI is making its way in here too.
Ready To Grow: Sustainable agriculture and plant nutrition - Specializing in sustainable agriculture solutions and plant nutrition products, offering growers sustainable methods to increase yields and a farm’s ROI. Their flagship product, Micro Provide, has passed 50 field trials in farms across Michigan with a 100% success rate, experiencing up to 28% increase in yields. Consequently, farmers have achieved 10x in ROI. The company is post-revenue, post-profit, and now raising between $3M-$10M.
Meet the Founder and find out more about Ready To Grow here.
Drape Fit: An effortless personal styling service - A personal styling service that provides curated fashion boxes tailored to individual preferences and budgets. In combination with actual stylists, Drape Fit’s proprietary AI technology provides better, faster and lower-cost style matching and inventory management, offering a high-quality service at a lower cost than its competitors. A big team of ~300 people on track to ship 160K Fit Boxes in 2025 with $18.4M in forecasted revenue. Now raising a Seed round.
Connect with the Founder and learn more about Drape Fit here.
Juan Pistolas: Premium, portable tequila double shots - An importer, distributor and retailer of premium Tequilas as well as other fine wine and spirits. Selling the first to market tequila double shot six packs – portable, shatterproof shot vessels containing premium tequila. Selling in 20 stores in New Jersey and Philadelphia, and their Tequila Paloma Seltzers were just accepted in 10 PA State stores. Raising up to $1M in its Seed round to expand their footprint and diversify their product lineup.
Book a meeting with the Founder and learn more about Juan Pistolas here.
The biggest winners of Stripe’s $1.1B Bridge deal - VCs are ecstatic over Stripe's acquisition of Bridge. With hundreds of millions at play, how could they not be? Sequoia Capital, which owns 16% of stablecoin platform Bridge, may rake in over $100M. Other VC firms set for hundreds of mils are Ribbit Capital, Haun Ventures, Index Ventures and Bedrock Fund Management.
Crypto companies can’t get a break - The DOJ is investigating whether Tether violated money laundering and sanctions laws through its use by global criminal networks for drug trafficking, terrorism, and hacking. Naturally, the company is denying these ‘reckless allegations’. The US government has been going after the crypto industry hard over the past two years, so it’s no surprise that they’ve come after Tether’s $120B market cap too.
No one is ready for AGI - Artificial General Intelligence aka human-level AI is something no company is ready for, not even OpenAI, says OpenAI senior advisor for the readiness of AGI, Miles Brundage as he announced his departure on Wednesday. With so many high-profile people voluntarily leaving OpenAI, it really makes you wonder what they’re scheming over there.
Robotaxis get a $5.6B injection - Robotaxi service provider Waymo just closed a $5.6B funding round led by mama Alphabet to expand beyond LA, SF and Phoenix. Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Fidelity, Perry Creek, Silver Lake, Tiger Global and T. Rowe Price also participated in the Series C round.
Armis raises $200M at $4.2B valuation - The cyber exposure management & security company raised a $200M Series D round led by General Catalyst and Alkeon Capital, and is gearing up for an IPO in 2026.
Customer service AI startup raises $175M - Sierra, the AI startup co-founded by OpenAI chairman Bret Taylor and longtime Google exec Clay Bavor, has raised $175M in a funding round that values the startup at $4.5B.
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Until next time!