VCA#009: VC should prioritize execution over charisma. 📬
Behind the rounds, beyond the headlines. Your weekly venture intel
💸 This Week’s Biggest Funding Rounds
Cluely raised $15M in Series A funding from Andreessen Horowitz, bringing total funding to $20.3M. The AI-driven education startup—led by a 21-year-old founder is developing interactive learning tools and gained attention with its cinematic approach to announcing fundraising rounds.
Thinking Machines Lab raised $2B in seed funding led by Andreessen Horowitz, at a reported $10B valuation. Founded by former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, the AGI startup has no disclosed product yet, but has quickly become one of the most high-profile early-stage bets in AI history.
Halter secured $100M in Series D funding led by Bond, reaching a $1B valuation. The New Zealand-based agritech startup builds smart cow collars for virtual fencing and will use the funds to fuel expansion into the U.S. cattle industry.
Kalshi raised $185M in Series C funding from Paradigm, Sequoia, Multicoin, Bond, and Neo to expand its regulated prediction market platform. The company is positioning itself as the “Nasdaq for event contracts,” allowing users to trade on real-world outcomes.
Tacta Systems closed a $75M combined seed and Series A round to scale its robotic platform focused on dexterous, human-like manipulation. The Palo Alto-based company remains in stealth but is rumored to be attracting top talent from Boston Dynamics and Tesla.
OpenRouter secured $40M across its seed and Series A rounds, backed by Andreessen Horowitz, Menlo, and Sequoia. The startup is building a unified API for access to multiple foundational AI models, aiming to streamline LLM integrations for developers.
🐣 New Venture Funds
Mudita Venture Partners announced Mudita Venture Fund II, targeting $125M to invest in early-stage B2B AI startups. The Detroit-based fund has closed its first $85M and aims to finalize the remaining $40M within 90 days.
Sorenson Capital closed Ventures III, a $150M early-stage fund focused on cybersecurity and enterprise software. Based in Lehi, Utah, the firm will back 25–30 startups, investing between $1M and $10M in each.
Gradient Ventures, Alphabet’s AI-focused VC arm, is raising a new $200M fund—its fifth—to continue investing at seed and Series A stages in North America and Europe, with a strong focus on cutting-edge AI applications.
Galaxy Ventures, the investment arm of Galaxy Digital, closed its first external VC fund at $175M, exceeding its initial $150M target. The fund will focus on early-stage investments in on-chain infrastructure and blockchain-native technologies.
EnigmaFund – Strategic Solana Reserve (SSR) launched on June 27 as a cross-chain index fund built on Solana. Designed for retail investors seeking diversified DeFi exposure, SSR saw over $28M in trading volume within 24 hours of launch.
Imagine You Know is a newly launched European venture capital fund focused on early-stage startups in cybersecurity and fintech infrastructure. Led by Linda Brunner, Claudio Marforio with a $50M fund.
Cadenza AI Ventures Fund I was closed at $50M by New York–based Cadenza, targeting pre-seed and seed-stage startups in AI and machine learning, with a focus on infrastructure and enterprise applications.
Lotux VC Fund II officially closed this week, continuing its mission to support high-impact, mission-driven startups across Latin America. The fund doubles down on its commitment to tech founders transforming the region’s future.
👑 Who Got Rich This Week? Exits, IPOs & Liquidity Moments
NVIDIA (Insider Stock Sales)
• Total Sold: $150M+ | Market: USA
A massive cash-out week for NVIDIA insiders. CEO Jensen Huang executed two 10b5‑1 sales, unloading 300,000 shares for a combined $44M+. Director Mark A. Stevens sold 608,248 shares, netting $88.4M, while fellow board member A. Brooke Seawell made $16M+ from two separate trades.
🔗 Jensen Huang | Mark A. Stevens | A. Brooke Seawell
Visma Software unicorn backed by Hg, valued at €19 B pre‑IPO, has been doing secondary sales for over +€1 B valuation. Executives and PE backers expected to realize windfalls once listing occurs.
🔗 Visma CEO Jacob de Geer | Øystein Moan | Merete Hverven
Javier Fondevila | Bernat Ripoll Joris Van Der Gucht Hg Capital | Warburg Pincus | TPG | CPPIB Jane Street | Altaroc
🌍 Regional Highlights
🇺🇸 United States
U.S. VC activity surged this week, with total funding approaching $374 M across 31 deals, up from just $57 M the previous week. Despite a year-over-year dip in May (down ~27.5% to $10.15 B), the number of funded companies increased by 25.5%, suggesting investors are spreading capital across more startups. Overall, U.S. firms continue to dominate global venture, comprising roughly 57% of global VC deal value
🇸🇦 MENA
MENA startup funding remains resilient: Q1 saw triple-digit percentage growth, strategically bolstered by sovereign capital and sector-focused events. Yet progress for female founders lags significantly—April, for example, saw female-only teams raise just $500K, or 0.2% of total regional VC that month. This structural gap persists despite overall growth, highlighting a key inclusion challenge
🇲🇽 LATAM
Major Mexican players such as Clip and Justo, while securing significant rounds, face risks due to a lack of liquidity and a weak IPO market, with only five listings in the region in 2024 raising US$28 million, compared to US$16.26 billion in 2021. Other examples of startups that have failed to achieve IPOs include Rappi (Colombia), which, despite reaching break-even in 2023 and planning an IPO in 2025, faces challenges from gig sector regulations and tight valuations; Kavak (Mexico), whose valuation fell from US$8.7 billion to US$2.2 billion after expansion difficulties; and Creditas (Brazil), which has delayed its IPO due to lower valuations and high interest rates. These companies reflect the market's caution, where valuation multiples have fallen from 8.8X to 3.7X in two years.
🇪🇺 Europe
Last week, experts at JP Morgan Asset Management in London highlighted Europe’s attractiveness as an investment destination relative to Wall Street, driven by lower valuations (P/E of 14x vs. 22x in the US), defense and infrastructure stimulus, and ECB rate cuts (projected to 2% in 2025), which support 1.5% economic growth in the Eurozone by 2026. However, the fragmentation of European capital markets and low liquidity are limiting IPOs, with only 10 venture-backed IPOs in 2024, pushing startups like Klarna to list in the US for more capital and analyst coverage. Despite volatility over US tariffs, the Stoxx 600 rose 2.8% versus a 1.2% decline in the S&P 500, as the rise of AI and evergreen funds (projected to account for 20% of private markets within a decade) provide liquidity alternatives, although reforms such as the Savings and Investment Union are needed to strengthen European competitiveness.
📊 Recent Publications & Reports
The Rise of ‘Pre‑Plan’ Venture Capital – Financial Times
FT explores the rise of billion-dollar rounds for AI startups with no product or business plan, driven by founder prestige. Read more
Global M&A & VC Trends Q2 2025 – Axios
Global M&A volume hit $1.89T in Q2, with VC deals fewer but larger as investor selectivity grows. Read more
What Beauty Investors Want in 2025 – Vogue Business
Beauty VCs are now prioritizing science-backed skincare, retention metrics, and bolt-on M&A. Read more
Corporate VC Survey Q1 2025 – Morgan Lewis
Corporate VCs are staying active in AI, biotech, and industrials—despite macro headwinds and valuation shifts. Read more
🎙️ Voices in Venture
Insights from Industry Leaders
Investor Stories 409: Key Advice – The Full Ratchet
Jon Terbell, Ted Clark, Mathias Schilling, and Godard Abel share the most critical lessons they’ve learned as early-stage investors. Listen here
Investor Stories 410: Why I Passed – The Full Ratchet
Kevin Stevens, Manish Patel, and Han Shen discuss the companies they chose not to invest in—and the reasoning behind those decisions. Listen here
Recruiting Secrets, Second-Time Founders & Product–Market Fit – This Week in Startups
Jason Calacanis speaks with Doug Leone (Sequoia) and Gili Raanan (Wiz) about team dynamics, equity splits, and founder mistakes in 2025. Listen here
Johannes Reck (CEO, GetYourGuide) – 20VC
Recounts raising a $450M round led by SoftBank and shares insights into scaling a global travel tech company post-pandemic. Listen here
Smartest Takes This Week
Sharp quotes from top VCs, founders, or LPs reacting to industry trends.
Jay Hoag (Co-founder, TCV)
“Money sort of chases momentum … possibly like 7-year-olds playing soccer — the ball goes over there, everybody goes over there.”
📌 A warning on the AI gold rush distracting from undervalued sectors.
Mira Murati (Founder, Thinking Machines Lab)
“VCs are this deal drunk… the V arguably stands for vibes these days.”
📌 Commentary on her $2B moonshot push—challenging VC expectations and betting on founder reputation over metrics.
Bryan Kim (Partner, Andreessen Horowitz)
“In consumer AI, momentum is the moat. Slow development risks obsolescence in the fast-moving AI landscape.” Drawing from his background in viral social apps, Kim clearly values speed, growth loops, and user retention. That said, in our view, this investment leans more on founder charisma and rapid execution than on product depth or polish. 📌 This mindset helps explain a16z’s bold bet on Cluely—the controversial “cheat on everything” app that’s making waves for both its utility and ethical questions.
✍️ Our Take: AI Isn’t the Moat. Execution Is.
2021 was a record-shattering year for venture capital, with global investments surging to $643 billion, according to VC Archive. Of that, $93 billion went to artificial intelligence—a staggering 70% jump from 2020. But let’s be clear: the dollar signs aren’t the story. The real question is whether AI is a genuine value engine or just another speculative gold rush, echoing the hubris of the dot-com era.
Look past the headlines and you’ll see the cracks. Reports like KPMG’s Venture Pulse reveal a volatile return profile for AI startups. Many are still chasing product-market fit with shaky economics and little more than a pitch deck and a fine-tuned demo. Remember CMGI? Don’t remember. Just look at today's hype darlings:
Stability AI laid off staff, ousted its CEO, and faced lawsuits over IP disputes. The once-iconic open-source image startup is now struggling to stay relevant, with internal chaos and a stalled commercial strategy.
Runway raised at a $1.5B valuation, but its burn rate and reliance on expensive GPU infrastructure make profitability elusive. In recent weeks, investor confidence has reportedly cooled as usage plateaus despite flashy GenAI demos.
Inflection AI, once a $1.3B mega-bet backed by Microsoft and Nvidia, quietly pivoted—only for its core team to be absorbed into Microsoft. What started as a moonshot ended up as a talent acqui-hire.
Character.AI, valued at $1B+, boasts high engagement—but monetization lags behind. Recent leaks revealed users drop off fast after initial novelty, raising doubts about its long-term stickiness.
Here’s the hard truth: the problem isn’t AI. The problem is capital chasing charisma over competence.VCs need to stop funding the performance of vision and start rewarding disciplined execution. It’s not about who speaks best on stage—it’s who ships, iterates, and survives.
A good example is Lovable: $60M ARR in just over six months. Fewer than 50 employees. No bloated org charts. No “wait for sign-off” culture. Just ruthless velocity, full ownership, deep customer love, and high-trust decision making. This is what post-hype AI excellence looks like. They’re not riding a trend—they're defining the new standard.
The VC firms that will win the next decade won’t be the loudest. Actually, the biggest top funds, like a16z, Tiger, Benchmark, Accel, Bessemer Venture Partners, Greylock, Coatue, and Founders Fund, are already delivering worse returns—many LPs are seeing a maximum of 3x over years, far below expectations.
For this shift to happen, there must be a reduction in fund sizes and greater concentration of capital on proven strategies, rather than sprawling investments. It will be less about chasing IPOs and more about backing efficient companies that deliver consistent value, regardless of market hype.
To break the cycle of hype and bust, investors must go beyond term sheets. Strategic capital must come bundled with real value—networks that open doors, advisors who roll up their sleeves, and the kind of operational support that accelerates learning curves, not just valuations.
In a world flooded with artificial intelligence, what we need is more authentic intelligence—especially on the cap table.
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