EverythingStartups Weekly

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Let’s get into this week’s edition on what’s happening in startup & VC world + the main highlights.

But first, you might find some of these resources helpful:

• 120+ Active Pre-Seed - Series A investors

• Venture Capital Trends August 2025

• 48 pre-seed accelerators

• Latest VC funds announced

• 350+ SaaS investors

• LPs investing in VC funds 

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Important News + Data 🟣

What people are talking about…

• YZi Labs, the $10 billion fund run by Binance co-founder CZ Zhao, is considering opening to external investors. The move would shift the firm from family office to public-facing fund while it expands beyond crypto into AI and robotics.

• Veteran VC Mike Moritz blasted Trump’s new $100,000 H-1B visa fee as a “brutish extortion scheme,” warning it will drive tech jobs abroad and urging the U.S. to expand, not restrict, skilled immigration.

• The MBA-to-VC pipeline is weakening. Stanford research shows 32% of mid-career VCs now hold MBAs, down from 44% in the early 2000s, as firms favor technical talent from places like OpenAI and SpaceX over elite business schools.

• YC launched Early Decision, a program that lets students secure funding while in school and join after graduation, starting in 2026. The track eases dropout pressure and helps YC compete for young founder talent.

• Oura is raising $875 million in a Series E at a $10.9 billion valuation, doubling last year’s mark. The Finnish wearable maker has sold 5.5 million rings and expects over $1 billion in 2025 revenue, up from $500 million in 2024.

• Layered SPVs are rising in secondaries, giving investors slices of hot startups like OpenAI and SpaceX while raising concerns over fees and transparency. Carta data shows 67% of SPVs above $10 million charged fees in 2023, up from 41% in 2021, as private wealth clients push for access to AI deals despite risks of unclear ownership.

New VC Funds Announced 🟣 

These new venture capital funds have just launched…

• Next Ventures – $60M for Whole-Person Health, Health Sovereignty, AI-Driven Healthcare

• Flybridge – $100M for AI Infrastructure, Agentic Applications, Native AI Products

• VentureSouq – Closed second FinTech Fund for Payments, Credit, Digital Banking, PropTech, InsurTech, Personal Finance

• Yachad Capital Partners – Announced first close of inaugural fund to accelerate Israeli Startups expanding into the U.S.

• Standard Capital – $425M for AI Founders at Series A

• GG Ventures – Announced first close of Fund II for AI, Longevity, Women’s Health and Performance

• Robinhood – Filed to launch Ventures Fund I, a listed vehicle on the NYSE for Retail Investors to access Pre-IPO Stakes

• Alt Capital – $275M for Early-Stage, following $150M debut vehicle in 2024

• Tandem Ventures – $50M for Early-Stage Tech, especially Utah Founders

• BNVT Capital – €126M for AI-First Startups solving Global Challenges

• Scout Ventures – $125M for Defense and Dual-Use Frontier Tech

• T.Rx Capital – $77.5M for Tech-Bio at the intersection of Technology and Biology

• Glilot Capital – $500M for AI and Cybersecurity

🎤 Stop Calling Them Venture Capital 

The hot debate in VC…

Hot take: Andreessen Horowitz isn't a VC fund anymore, and neither are the other megafunds.

Leslie Feinzaig recently shared a great piece on why megafunds are “Consensus Capital” - chasing the same predictable founders, outbidding each other in giant rounds, and competing away their own alpha. They invest in obvious bets, not contrarian ones.

Meanwhile, actual venture capital is alive and well. Real VC:

• Backs crazy ideas that feel too early, too weird, too risky

• Makes money off performance, not fees

• Goes through the trenches with founders

• Creates alpha where culture shifts happen

The problem is that when we call megafunds "venture capital," we mislead non-consensus founders. If you went to the right schools and worked at the right companies, consensus capital will find you easily. If you didn't, there's an entire ecosystem of true VCs looking for outstanding founders like you.

The bottom line: Let's split the data and stop pretending Sand Hill Road speaks for all of venture. They're big finance with a fancy address – and that's fine. But real VC is where the next generation of enduring companies will actually come from.

Interesting Links 🟣

These caught my eye this week…

• LP psychology and family office patterns by David Zhou.

• Databricks launched an AI Accelerator Program and Snowflake launched Snowflake for Startups to help founders.

• How to launch your startup out of stealth. Claire Butler, Figma’s first marketer, shares the prep work that matters more than launch day itself, from picking a date to crafting your announcement post and lining up amplification.

• How to get cited in AI answers. Eli Schwartz explains why old SEO tricks won’t work on LLMs and what will work.

• Mercor scaled from $1M to $500M in revenue run rate in just 17 months. CEO Brendan Foody explains why.

• The Cluely thesis on virality. Founder Roy Lee breaks down why follower counts don’t drive growth on X, how “viral sense” amplifies good posts but can’t save bad ones, and why virality only matters if your product is good enough to retain users.

New Fund Highlight: Alt Capital 🟣

This fund is truly impressive because…

A solo GP, and not just any GP, but Sam Altman’s brother, who has serious founder credibility, just raised $275M in record time.

Alt Capital closed Fund II at $275M in just one week, nearly doubling from their inaugural $150M fund raised in early 2024.

Led by solo General Partner Jack Altman (co-founder and chairman of $3B HR platform Lattice), the fund targets early-stage technology companies across software, AI, and infrastructure. Alt Capital takes a high-conviction approach, focusing on product-driven founders building in sectors with long-term category leadership potential.

Why it's notable:

• Exceptional fundraising velocity. Closing $275M in one week demonstrates extraordinary investor confidence and marks significant scale-up from their debut fund, reflecting strong early performance signals.

• Proven founder-operator advantage. Altman's direct experience scaling Lattice to a $3B valuation provides authentic operational insights, particularly valuable for portfolio companies navigating growth challenges and team scaling.

• Strategic portfolio concentration. The solo GP model enables deeper, more hands-on partnerships with ~20 companies per fund, allowing for meaningful check sizes and active involvement in lead/co-lead rounds rather than spray-and-pray approaches.

PS: Track new VC funds raised here.

Top Pre-Seed to Series A Funding Rounds This Week 🟣

Watch out for these…

• Workfully, a startup helping independent recruiters manage and monetize their talent networks, raised a $4.7 million seed round. Shilling VC, Indico, Pitchdrive, and Secways were part of the deal.

• Track3D, a startup using AI to help construction teams monitor projects, raised a $10 million Series A round. Investors included Ironspring Ventures, Zacua Ventures, Shadow Ventures, and Monta Vista Capital.

• Superpanel, a startup automating legal intake for law firms, raised a $5.3 million seed round. Outlander VC, Field Ventures, LOI Venture, Zenda Capital, 8-Bit Capital, and Behind Genius Ventures were part of the investors.

• InCountry, a startup providing data protection tools for AI, identity, and data sovereignty, raised a $10 million round. Arbor Ventures, Caffeinated Ventures, and Accelerator Ventures were part of the investors.

• Huxe, a startup using audio to generate personalized news briefings and research podcasts with AI hosts, raised a $4.6 million seed round from Conviction, Genius Ventures, Dylan Field, and Jeff Dean.