📶 Europe becomes unlikely Gen AI hot spot

Europe breaks record for Gen AI investments, why a16z isn't actually expanding into PE, SpaceX is valued over $200b, and Point72 lays off its fintech team

June 28, 2024 • Estimated Reading Time: 7 minutes

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Good morning 👋

And Happy Friday.

It’s officially summer, and it seems like everybody is dealing with ~100 degree weather (Miami included). Not complaining … we’ll take the heat over the cold any day of the week.

Switching gears, here are some of the top headlines from yesterday:

  • Europe breaks record for Gen AI investments

  • Why a16z isn't actually expanding into PE

  • SpaceX is valued over $200b

  • Point72 lays off its fintech team

Let’s get into the rest.

TL;DR:

HEADLINES
Europe is becoming a Gen AI hot spot 🇪🇺 

  • Europe breaks another record for VC investment in Gen AI (Pitchbook)

  • Andreessen Horowitz isn't really expanding into private equity (Axios)

  • VC firm focused on "sweat equity" raises $300 million for second fund (Axios)

  • Billionaire Steve Cohen's Point72 Ventures Lays Off Fintech Team In Pivot Towards AI (Forbes)

  • Elsewhere Partners Banks $285 Million for Small Software Deals (WSJ)

  • Obesity Telehealth Startup Form Health Raises $38 Million (WSJ)

  • Reddit is taking a stand against AI crawlers (TechCrunch)

  • SpaceX Tender Values Company Near $210 Billion (The Information)

  • SoftBank to invest up to $30 million in search engine startup Perplexity AI at a $3 billion valuation (Techstartups)

  • Robotics Startups On The Rise In 2024 (Crunchbase)

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FUNDS

Name

Fund Size

Fund Number

A*

$315m

II

Columna Capital

$310m

III

Zendesk

$10.2b

I

Charlesbank Capital Partners

$1.3b

II

The Engine

$398m

III

Hamilton Lane

$5.6b

VI

RECS

RECAP

📶 a16z targets new PE strategy

a16z wants to start competing for PE deals, Anduril nears a $12.5b valuation, why VC is weighed down by its 2021 vintage, and funding for self-driving cars is starting to pick up

confluencevcweekly.beehiiv.com/p/a16z-private-equity

📶 Code war: Stack Overflow users push against OpenAI partnership

Plus H.I.G. raises fresh funds, what changes when transitioning from operator to VC, what worries Vinod Khosla, and Tim Tebow joins a venture fund

confluencevcweekly.beehiiv.com/p/stack-overflow-openai

📶 Where wealthy Canadians are investing ...

Plus Apple might partner with Meta on AI, Deel's latest valuation numbers, and why seed investors have stopped investing alongside blue-chip firms

confluencevcweekly.beehiiv.com/p/canadian-lps

Thanks for reading this far and giving us a little bit of your attention this week.

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RESULTS

Here are the results from our poll question in yesterday’s piece:

What are your thoughts on electric vehicles (EVs)?

 

🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ Not for me ❌ (6)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 I'd buy one in the future but not right now 🤷‍♂️ (8)

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ I'd buy one (but only a Tesla) ✅ (5)

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ I'd buy one (but not a Tesla) 🔌 (5)

24 Votes

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