Morning VC Brief丨2024.09.09

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/ Clean Tech Startup Calyxia raises $35M Series B

2/ AI-Based Compliance Platform Sedric AI raises $18.5M Series A

3/ Spa-Salon Operations Software Mangomint raises $35M Series B

4/ Gaming and Social Companion Platform E-PAL raises $30M Series A

5/ Sales Tax Solution Zamp raises $10M Series A

6/ Replit Launch AI Software Agent

7/ Google DeepMind Unveils Powerful New AI for Designing Protein Binders

01. Venture News

1/ Clean Tech Startup Calyxia raises $35M Series B

Calyxia’s sustainable microparticles and microcapsules offer manufacturers in its target sectors a way to swap out dirty processes with clean ones that involve making products with biodegradable alternatives. This round was led by Lombard Odier Investment Managers and Bpifrance. Link

2/ AI-Based Compliance Platform Sedric AI raises $18.5M Series A

Sedric AI is a compliance-dedicated AI platform for financial institutions. Sedric's revenue has increased fivefold over the last 12 months. This round was led by Foundation Capital with participation from Amex Ventures, StageOne Ventures, The Garage, and more. Link

3/ Spa-Salon Operations Software Mangomint raises $35M Series B

Mangomint creates a seamless client experience and automate daily operations with the booking and management software that salons and spas love.. This round was led by Altos Ventures with participation from SaaStr, and more. Link

4/ Gaming and Social Companion Platform E-PAL raises $30M Series A

E-PAL is a leading gaming and social companion platform. This funding round will be primarily allocated to the development of the Balance infrastructure, which is a major step in E-PAL’s mission to build an open, inclusive, and equitable Web3 ecosystem. This round was led by Andreessen Horowitz and Galaxy Interactive with participation from Animoca Brands, K5, and more. Link

5/ Sales Tax Solution Zamp raises $10M Series A

Zamp is the sales tax solution of choice for over 400 eCommerce and SaaS teams. This round was led by Valor Equity Partners with participation from Day One Ventures, UpHonest Capital, Friends & Family Capital, and more. Link

02. Tech News & Updates

1/ Replit Launch AI Software Agent

Replit has launched an AI agent capable of building entire applications from scratch. Replit has built a significant advantage over its competitors through the massive amount of data it gathers from developers using its platform.

One of Replit’s standout features is its bounty service, where users can request software projects to be built by developers on the platform. These bounties resemble the types of natural language prompts that Replit Agent is designed to handle, giving it valuable real-world data to train on.  Link

2/ Google DeepMind Unveils Powerful New AI for Designing Protein Binders

Protein binders are valuable tools in drug development and biotechnology. They have shown promise in targeting cancer cells, blocking viral infections, and modulating immune responses.

AlphaProteo aims to dramatically speed up this process. The AI was trained on vast protein datasets, including structures from the Protein Data Bank and millions of AlphaFold predictions. Notably, AlphaProteo became the first AI method to design effective binders for VEGF-A, a protein associated with cancer and diabetic retinopathy. Link