EverythingStartups Weekly

Welcome to everyone new here who signed up last week!

Let’s get into this week’s edition on what’s happening in startup & VC world + the main highlights. There’s A LOT that happened so the news section is pretty long this week.

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 

Partnership & collaboration opportunities. 

New Instagram account with more great startup & VC content.

Cheers,
Ivelina

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Important News + Data 🟣

What people are talking about…

• Crypto exchange Gemini raises $425M in heavily oversubscribed IPO. In a rare move, Gemini and its underwriters capped proceeds at $425M, even though the sale could have raised up to $433M without the limit.

• Serial founders still have a fundraising edge over first-timers, this trend has been especially sharp in recent times as cautious investors have looked to safer bets, and it comes with potential consequences on the ecosystem.

• Mistral AI raised a $2 billion Series C led by ASML, doubling its valuation to $13.7 billion and setting a record for Europe’s largest AI venture round. The Paris-based startup is the only GenAI player near the top of Europe’s biggest financings, pitching enterprise tools for content, data analysis, and coding.

• Klarna raised $1.4 billion in its New York IPO, pricing shares at $40 and popping to a $15 billion valuation. Most of the stock came from existing investors, with Sequoia Capital emerging as the biggest winner while co-founder CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski held his stake.

• CoreWeave has launched CoreWeave Ventures, a new CVC arm to back AI-linked startups across all stages with a focus on seed and Series A. The move comes as corporate venture capital already accounts for nearly 75% of AI investment this year, with CoreWeave stock up 150% since its March IPO.

• Bending Spoons will acquire Vimeo for $1.38 billion, taking it private after more than four years on the public market. Shareholders will receive $7.85 per share in cash, a 63% premium over the last close, marking the largest deal in the Italian firm’s history.

• OpenAI signs a $300 billion deal with Oracle to build 4.5 gigawatts of cloud capacity under Project Stargate, one of the largest cloud contracts ever. The move comes despite OpenAI generating only $10 billion in revenue, well below its $60B annual spend commitments.

• Replit has raised a $250 million round, valuing the company at $3 billion. Unlike other fast-growing vibe coders, Replit has not been running to VCs every few months, though we’ll see if that changes.

Interesting Links 🟣

These caught my eye this week…

• Ramp just joined the $1 billion revenue club. Packy McCormick tells the story of how the fintech grew faster, lasted longer, and stayed cash flow positive while most peers burned out.

• San Francisco’s tech scene is sliding into a 996 rhythm. Ramp’s Economics Lab dug into corporate card data and found a clear Saturday surge in restaurant and delivery spend, showing that the city’s workers are clocking a sixth workday while the rest of the country rests.

• Snap is restructuring into small “startup squads” of 10 to 15 people as ad revenue growth stalls at 4% and North American daily active users drop 2% to 98 million. CEO Evan Spiegel highlights Snapchat+ subscriptions, now at $700M ARR, as the fastest-growing bright spot.

• SAFEs were supposed to simplify early fundraising but they didn’t. This article shows how stacking too many of them has the opposite effect, quietly blowing up founder ownership and leaving teams with less than 40% post-Series A.

• Retention never lies. Andrew Chen shares why curves always decay, why you can’t fix bad retention, and why only high-retention categories create durable products.

• Europe goes big. Seb Johnson recaps a wild week with Revolut at $75B, Mistral AI near $12B, ElevenLabs at $200M ARR, plus fresh raises from ReOrbit, Fyxer AI, Proxima Fusion, and Teton.

• Cloud hits $1.1T. Bessemer’s 2025 Cloud 100 report shows the top private cloud and AI companies now top $1.1 trillion in value, with AI firms making up 42% of the list and hitting Centaur status in record time.

New Fund Highlight: Eagle Freedom Fund II 🟣 

This fund is truly impressive because…

Eagle Venture Fund is addressing one of society's most pressing challenges through their second dedicated fund targeting $50M to invest in tech solutions fighting human trafficking.

Led by General Partner Wes Lyons, with Tim Tebow joining as General Partner, the fund focuses on B2B SaaS, AI-enabled software, fintech, and tech-enabled services that combat human trafficking, poverty, and economic injustice globally.

Why it's notable:

• Proven impact at scale. Fund I portfolio companies have trained 6,000+ medical professionals to identify trafficking victims, protected 50,000+ children from online exploitation, assisted 149 victim escapes, and contributed to 39 trafficker arrests.

• Purpose-profit alignment demonstrated. Portfolio companies show strong financial growth alongside measurable social impact, proving the viability of impact investing in this sector.

• High-profile LP backing. Operating from Dallas, Zurich, and Singapore, with backing from wealth management firm Keel Point ($4.12B AUM) and The Tebow Group's purposeful investing platform.

• Industry-building approach. Positioned to grow the counter-trafficking industry after successfully seeding it through Fund I, targeting early-stage companies that align profit with purpose.

PS: Track new VC funds raised here.

🎙️ Fund Manager Operations Checklist

You can have the best thesis in the world & a hot pipeline of founders, but in venture, trust is everything.

Raising capital for a VC fund is hard, yet the real work begins once you start running the fund. Legally and operationally there is a lot going on.

And if you have a sloppy fund structure or chaotic cap calls, LPs will quickly lose faith in your ability to steward millions of dollars for 10+ years.

For emerging GPs, especially first-timers, knowing the legal mechanics is the difference between "fun project" and "institutional-grade fund."

Here’s a practical checklist of what to get right 👇

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

Watch out for these…

Adaptive Security, a startup that helps organizations defend against AI-powered scams like deepfake impersonations, phishing, and voice-cloning attacks, raised a $12 million Series A extension from OpenAI Startup Fund.

Architect AI, a startup that builds websites able to adapt content and interactions in real time based on visitor behavior, raised a $4.75 million seed round from Project A, Concept Ventures, and Insiders Ventures.

LightSpun, a startup that uses AI to automate dental insurance administration, raised a $13 million Series A round from Brewer Lane, Virtue, Cambrian, and Industry Ventures.

Dazl, a startup that uses AI to turn early prototypes into fully built applications, raised a $10 million seed round from 40RTY Fund and Wix.

Maeving, a startup that makes electric motorcycles with removable batteries, raised a $14.9 million Series A round from Venrex, Future Planet Capital, and Elbow Beach.