EverythingStartups Weekly

Welcome to all the new visionaries here who signed up last week! Last week we shared a VC trends report for April, in case you missed it, you can download it over here (it’s free! just type in $0).

Let’s get into this week’s edition on what’s happening & the main highlights. But first, check out these resources:

• 120+ Active Pre-Seed - Series A Investors

• Latest VC Funds announced.

• 350+ SaaS investors.

• LPs investing in VC funds.

• Understanding founder vs VC investment memos.

Partnership & collaboration opportunities. 

Cheers,
Ivelina

PS: Liking this? Share this newsletter with your inner circle.

 
Important News 🟣

• Browder Capital Fund IV secures $30M backed by Sequoia Capital and others to fuel commercial real estate investment opportunities.

• Databricks to acquire Neon for $1B in a move to expand its AI-agent capabilities through next-gen database tech.

• Y Combinator slams Google as a monopolist in a newly filed amicus brief supporting the DOJ’s antitrust case.

• Chime files for IPO at $25B valuation and unveils a $33M marketing partnership with the Dallas Mavericks.

• CryptoPunks sold to NODE Foundation as Yuga Labs offloads the iconic NFT collection to a nonprofit.

• Perplexity AI targets $14B valuation in talks to raise $500M as the AI search startup continues to scale.

 
New VC Fund Highlight: Mercury’s Founder Launches a Fund🟣

I’m really excited to cover this fund announcement, and I believe it’s great news for founders. Let's dive in.

So as we know the venture landscape is obsessed with AI hype and mega-funds, but Immad Akhund’s new $26 million early-stage fund feels like a deliberate counterpoint, a bet on human ingenuity over market froth.

Announced this week, the Mercury CEO’s fund formalizes his nine-year run as one of Silicon Valley’s most prolific angel investors, having backed over 350 startups like Airtable, Substack, and Linear since 2016.

The fund is targeting ~60 pre-seed and seed-stage startups with checks averaging $150,000 (and up to $1M for high-conviction bets). Akhund stated he is doubling down on his knack for spotting founders who build transformative products in massive markets.

What’s compelling here isn’t the fund’s size, $26 million is modest compared to the billion-dollar playmoney of a16z or Sequoia, but its strategic positioning. Akhund’s day job running Mercury, a fintech unicorn valued at $3.5 billion after a $300M raise in March, gives him a front-row seat to the financial pulse of startups.

Mercury’s platform, used by over 200,000 businesses, offers real-time insights into how early-stage companies operate, from cash flow to growth pains. This data-driven vantage point could make Akhund’s fund a magnet for founders who value an investor with skin in the game, not just capital.

His focus on “advancing humanity” and $10B+ markets means he is prioritizing impact over chasing the next shiny object like generative AI, which he’s publicly called overhyped.

Early-stage funding has been squeezed as VCs hoard capital for safer, later-stage bets. By targeting pre-seed and seed, Akhund is filling a critical gap, offering founders not just money but the credibility of his Mercury network; think introductions to top-tier VCs like Coatue or CRV, who’ve backed his own ventures. The fund’s LP base, 60% fund-of-funds and 40% entrepreneurs, reflects trust in his vision.

His fund could redefine how operator-investors leverage industry insight to back the next wave of unicorns. I’ll be watching whether his bets match his rhetoric about humanity-driven innovation.

PS: You can track all the latest new VC fund raises here.

 
Interesting Links 🟣

• Marc Benioff on why experimentation beats perfection. Salesforce’s founder reflects on tech’s moral neutrality and the necessity of throwing spaghetti at the wall.

• Can AI replace early-stage VCs? It's already happening. Despite Andreessen’s skepticism, AI is moving fast to fill the associate seat.

• Unanswered questions from inside the AI hype machine. Charles Hudson raises the uncomfortable topics investors aren’t asking in the rush to fund AI.

• Why only 10% of VC firms make it to Fund IV. A brutal breakdown of power-law dogma, poor risk management, and the quiet failure rate in venture.

• The Seed 100: Top early-stage investors of 2025. Business Insider ranks the best early-stage investors: congrats to the VCs who beat Kevin Durant.

• Family offices are stepping up as LPs in VC. With traditional LPs pulling back, family offices are filling the pre-seed funding gap.

• Y Combinator’s Requests for Startups. The accelerator wants to fund companies tackling big, bold, and very specific ideas - check the wishlist.

🎙️ IPO Lens: eToro Goes Public

Massive news for the fintech community.

I feel like eToro’s successful IPO deserves some attention!

eToro’s Nasdaq IPO on May 14, 2025, was truly a standout success. Here’s some stats:

• Raised $620 million by selling 11.9 million shares at $52, above the $46-$50 range.

• Shares jumped 29% to close at $67, valuing the company at $5.6 billion, a 61% increase from its $3.5 billion 2023 valuation.

This performance, backed by strong 2024 financials ($12.6 billion revenue, $192 million net income, up from $3.89 billion and $15.3 million in 2023), highlights eToro’s ability to capitalize on market optimism and deliver a solid debut despite recent tariff-driven volatility.

The IPO’s strength lies in eToro’s global reach and diversified platform, serving 40 million users across 100 countries with social trading features like CopyTrader. Major institutional backing, including BlackRock’s $100 million share purchase and underwriting by Goldman Sachs and UBS, shows investor confidence.

As the first major fintech IPO in four years, eToro’s oversubscribed offering (10x per reports) sets a high bar for peers like Chime, proving fintech can thrive in a cautious market.

Read more here. 

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

• MarvelX, an Amsterdam-based startup building AI-powered tools for insurance claims automation and fraud detection, raised a $6 million seed round from EQT Ventures and Plug and Play.

• Sequen, a New York startup helping consumer-facing companies personalize real-time recommendations and discovery features, raised a $6 million seed round led by Greycroft.

• Stackpack, a San Francisco startup offering AI-powered vendor management software for finance and IT teams, raised a $6.3 million seed round led by Freestyle Capital.

• Upscale AI, a New York startup enabling e-commerce brands to run AI-optimized TV ad campaigns, raised a $5.5 million seed round from NVP Capital, M12, and others.

• Veritree, a Vancouver startup offering data-driven tools to verify corporate reforestation efforts, raised a $6.5 million Series A round led by Pender Ventures.