Morning VC Brief丨2024.10.08

Morning VC Brief is an expert daily curation of tech and venture news. Feel free to forward; the sign-up is here

00. TL;DR

1/ AI-Coding Startup Poolside raises $500M Series B at $3B

2/ Enterprise RAG Solution Voyage AI raises $28M Series A

3/ AI Marketing Content Platform AirOps raises $15.5M Series A

4/ Medical Document Management Platform Stream raises $5.3M Seed Round

5/ Dynamic Safety Solutions for Autonomous Systems 3Laws Robotics raises $4.1M Seed Round

6/ Modern Sourcing Platform Valdera raises $15M Series A

7/ Space Transportation System Argo Space raises $7.9M Seed Round

8/ EV Charging Infrastructure Paren raises $3M Seed Round

9/ Enterprise Avatar Startup Avarra raises $8M Seed Round

01. Venture News

1/ AI-Coding Startup Poolside raises $500M Series B at $3B

Poolside builds artificial intelligence software for programmers. They believe believe software development will be the first major economically impactful capability. This round was led by Bain Capital Ventures with participation from Nvidia, DST Global, StepStone Group and more. Link

2/ Enterprise RAG Solution Voyage AI raises $28M Series A

Voyage AI is on a mission to build the very best RAG and semantic search applications. This round was led by CRV with participation from Wing VC, Conviction, Snowflake, Databricks, and more. Link

3/ AI Marketing Content Platform AirOps raises $15.5M Series A

AirOps simplifies the complexity of building production-grade AI workflows. This round was led by Unusual Ventures with participation from Wing VC, Founder Collective, Alt Capital, and more. Link

4/ Medical Document Management Platform Stream raises $5.3M Seed Round

Stream is on a mission to reduce the time, cost, and effort it takes to manage medical documents. This round was led by Spark Capital with participation from Acrew Capital, TTV Capital, Y Combinator and more. Link

5/ Dynamic Safety Solutions for Autonomous Systems 3Laws Robotics raises $4.1M Seed Round

3Laws Robotics delivers intelligent controls solutions that enhance safety and reliability for automated and remotely operated systems. This round was led by TenOneTen Ventures with participation from Amazon Industrial Innovation Fund. Link

6/ Modern Sourcing Platform Valdera raises $15M Series A

Valdera is an AI-driven sourcing platform for chemicals and raw materials. This round was led by Index Ventures with participation from Susa Ventures, Lerer Hippeau, Box Group, and more. Link

7/ Space Transportation System Argo Space raises $7.9M Seed Round

Argo Space is building a multi-modal logistics architecture using in-space refueling and propellant. This round was led by Crosslink Capital with participation from Type One Ventures, Stellar Ventures, AIR Capital, and more. Link

8/ EV Charging Infrastructure Paren raises $3M Seed Round

Paren is on a mission to unify the fragmented world of EV charging data and accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles. This round was led by Base10 Partners with participation from Founders Network Fund, Luc Vincent, and more. Link

9/ Enterprise Avatar Startup Avarra raises $8M Seed Round

Avarra offers an AI-powered simulation platform designed to enhance sales training and ramp-up processes for sales professionals. This round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners with participation from GTM Fund, Firsthand Alliance, and more. Link

02. Worth Reading

1/ Why Vertical LLM Agents Are The New $1 Billion SaaS Opportunities

In this episode of the Lightcone, the hosts sit down with YC alum Jake Heller, the co-founder and CEO of Casetext (which sold to Thomson Reuters for $650 million in cash in 2023) to discuss what it takes to build a successful vertical AI company and overcome resistance from industry veterans and skeptics. Link