Morning VC Brief丨2024.09.12

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/ Short Form K-drama Firm Spoon Labs raises $89M Series B

2/ Pharmaceutical Supply Chains Solution Qualifyze raises $54M Series B

3/ E-Commerce Conversion Optimization Startup Nostra AI raises $8.9M Series A

4/ Security Layer for Developer Arcjet raises $3.6M Seed Round

5/ ADHD Solution Neurode raises $3.5M Pre-Seed Round

6/ OnlyFans Payments Surged to Record $6.6 Billion in 2023

7/ OpenAI Reportedly in Talks to Raise at $150B Valuation

01. Venture News

1/ Short Form K-drama Firm Spoon Labs raises $89M Series B

Spoon Labs owns an audio platform called Spoon, and recently launched a service dedicated to short-form videos called Vigloo, in particular focusing on K-drama. This round was led by Krafton. Link

2/ Pharmaceutical Supply Chains Solution Qualifyze raises $54M Series B

Recognized for its global coverage of reliable and high-quality auditing services, Qualifyze offers an integrated audit management platform that streamlines compliance audits for Life Science companies. . This round was led by Insight Partners with participation from HV Capital, HarbourVest Partners, H14, and Cherry Ventures. Link

3/ E-Commerce Conversion Optimization Startup Nostra AI raises $8.9M Series A

Nostra AI is a conversion optimization software company for e-commerce brands. The Nostra AI Edge Delivery Engine™ speeds up websites by examining personalized content such as shopping carts and determining what content can be cached to decrease load times. This round was led by High Alpha with participation from Signal Peak Ventures, Sugar Capital, and more. Link

4/ Security Layer for Developer Arcjet raises $3.6M Seed Round

Arcjet is building a suite of core security components which help developers protect their apps in production. Arcjet helps developers tackle security challenges directly in code. This round was led by Andreessen Horowitz with participation from Seedcamp, and more. Link

5/ ADHD Solution Neurode raises $3.5M Pre-Seed Round

Neurode offer some relief to people with ADHD: a wearable headband that can track and treat ADHD symptoms. This round was led by Khosla Ventures with participation from PsyMed Ventures, and more. Link

02. Tech News & Updates

1/ OnlyFans Payments Surged to Record $6.6 Billion in 2023

Porn-friendly creator platform OnlyFans reported record revenue and profits for its 2023 fiscal year — as the number of creators increased 29%, to 4.12 million. Gross payments made through the OnlyFans platform increased by 19% for the year ended Nov. 30, 2023, jumping from $5.55 billion in 2022 to $6.63 billion last year. Link

2/ OpenAI Reportedly in Talks to Raise at $150B Valuation

OpenAI is reportedly in talks with investors to raise $6.5B at a $150B pre-money valuation, according to Bloomberg. The funding round will reportedly be led by Thrive Capital, a major investor of OpenAI in previous rounds. Other reported investors include Microsoft, Apple, and Nvidia. Link