Is this the end of SaaS???, Venture debt investments swell in Europe??, Navigating Corporate Venture Capital??

Welcome to The VC Corner, your weekly dose of Venture Capital and Startups to keep you up and running! ??

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In-Depth Insights ??

• Why some European startups are picking debt over equity. Venture lending is nearing a record high in Europe as equity rounds decline—even as high interest rates add to borrowing costs ?? [ PitchBook ]

• SaaS: Have reports of my death been greatly exaggerated? Sentiment is brewing in the public and private markets that it's the end of SaaS. Is a mass extinction event really imminent for the industry? ?? [ Janelle Teng ]
• Venture capital's money model is shifting. The Yale Model, which has undergirded modern venture capital, may be dying ?? [ Dan Primack ]
• 89% of corporate investors plan to increase or maintain level of startup investments. CVCs now participate in one in four startup deals in Europe ?? [ Sifted ]

• Defense tech and ‘resilience’ get global funding sources: Here are some top funders ??? [ TechCrunch ]
• Perplexity Is a Bullshit Machine. An investigation shows that the AI-powered search startup Forbes has accused of stealing its content is surreptitiously scraping—and making things up out of thin air ?? [ WIRED ]
• Investing in the Age of Generative AI. Current AI investment landscape and present a framework that a typical early-stage fund (funds in the $100-500m scale) might want to adopt ?? [ Kevin Zhang ]

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Interesting Reports ??

• AI Europe report 2024. Startup and VC data in the AI arms race ?? [ Dealroom.co , Roosh ]

• Navigating Corporate Venture Capital ?? [ Mountside Ventures , Love Ventures , Dealroom.co ]

Recently Launched Funds ??

• OSS Ventures, a Paris, France-based industrial startup studio, raised €8.5m. The latest €8.5m boost brings OSS Ventures’ total capital to €11m, enabling five startups annually focused on expanding in Europe and the US, aiming for significant international clientele by 2027
• Connexa Capital, a Miami, FL-based venture capital firm, closed its debut venture capital fund, Connexa Capital Fund I, L.P., with over $20m in commitments. The fund invests in early-stage technology and software companies with strong fundamentals
• Soft2Bet, a Sliema, Malta-based iGaming company, launched Soft2Bet Invest, a 50M EUR iGaming Innovation Fund
• OurCrowd, Israel’s venture investor, was selected by the South Korean government to co-manage a bilateral investment fund that will invest in startups in both countries. The fund’s target is $80M, $48M of which has already been raised by the Korean partners of the fund
• Freeflow Ventures, a Pasadena, CA-based early stage venture capital firm that invests in science-driven solutions to human and planetary health challenges, raised $90M for its funds
• Kleiner Perkins Pulls in More Than $2 Billion for New Funds. The Silicon Valley firm will look for startups leveraging AI for growth
• Identity.vc is bringing capital and community to Europe’s LGBTQ+ venture ecosystem. The Berlin-based firm is currently raising €50 million for its debut fund and has closed on €15 million thus far.

Hottest Deals ??

• Rohlik Group, a Prague, Czech Republic-based food retail technology and online grocery company, raised $170M in growth capital
• Sila, an Alameda, CA-based battery materials company, raised $375M in Series G funding. The round was led by Sutter Hill Ventures
• EvolutionaryScale, a NYC-based artificial intelligence powered biology startup, raised $142m in seed funding
• Li Industries, a Pineville, NC-based provider of direct recycling technologies for lithium-ion batteries, closed a $42M Series B funding with an additional $6M commitment from investors
• SmartHR, a Tokyo, Japan-based provider of a cloud-native human resources management platform, raised US$140M in Series E funding
• Zoi Capital, a NYC-based venture capital firm specializing in artificial intelligence (AI) solutions for healthcare, announced their fundraising goal of?$200M?for their Health AI Fund I
• beehiiv Acquires AI-Based Website Builder, Typedream