Not Another Fucking Newsletter

Happy Friday from Traded VC! 

What a week for AI (again).
CS grads getting nervous: Cognition AI went viral with Devin, the first AI software engineer. Here’s footage of young Scott Wu (CEO) at a math contest. Be sure to check out our post about this insane startup here.

🧠 Dopamine Dealflow

Small Dopamine

• Empowering women in engineering👩‍💻

  The New Club raised $3.1M to build a next-gen network for female engineers 🤝 Investors include Sierra Ventures, Operator Collective, Dragonfly Cap (shoutout to Ani) and Stanford GSB's 2021 Fund 🎓 Huge congrats @laurayd.x 👏 read more

• Simplifying ETFs 🇩🇪

  La Famiglia VC (aka General Catalyst) & Robin Capital participated in $3M round for fintech startup, Naro 👏 The company is building fund infrastructure with a fair redistribution of ETF and fund earnings 💵 read more

• Brand plug 🔌

  Adobe & Behance legend @scottbelsky invested into ShopMy, a platform that connects influencers with dope brands and monetizes their content 🤝 The startup raised $18.5M with investors including Inspired Capital & AlleyCorp 💰 read more

• Apple pushing into AI 🍏

  Apple acquired DarwinAI, an AI startup with an expertise on making artificial intelligence systems smaller and faster. 🤔 DarwinAI raised $15M back in 2022....how much do you think they received? 👀 read more

• Small EV 🚙 (read our Deep Dive below)

  Neo and Spero Ventures, invested into Telo Trucks, a pint-sized pickup that looks so sleek and racked up almost 3k reservations 🛻 Huge congrats to Telo Trucks for the $5.4M round 🔥 read more

High Dopamine

• Nicooo 🏁

  @Nicorosberg, Elad Gil, a16z & Porsche Investments Management invested in Applied Intuition founded by legend Qasar Younis 🫡 The startup creates software to develop autonomous vehicle solutions and raised a total of $250M, valuing the startup at $6B 💸 read more

• Logan Roy 👀

  Rupert Murdoch is in talks to take over The Telegraph 📰 People are concerned considering Murdoch owns The Times & The Sun 🇬🇧 read more

• Campbell Soup 🥫

  Campbell Soup Co. acquired Sovos Brands Inc. which included Rao’s Homemade for $2.7B 🍝 The sauce is a spin-off from "Rao's," a legendary restaurant that was owned by Frank Pellegrino Sr.(Goodfellas & Sopranos) 🇮🇹 read more

🐬 Deep Dive - A better Cybertruck?

“Small is the new big…”  said Ali Partovi, CEO of Neo, the VC fund that led the new $5.4M seed round of Telo Trucks, the automotive startup making small, sleek EV mini-trucks. Is he just trying to make himself feel better 🍆? Unconfirmed.

But what does seem to be true is that even in a slowing EV market, the two cars that have garnered the most hype are the Rivian R3 and Telo’s pickup. Both compact SUV/pickup type EVs, which is a market segment legacy automakers have been ignoring for quite a while. 

One of the actual co-founders and the person who named the company Tesla is Marc Tarpenning. He was just announced as a new board member of Telo. What a plot twist. From founding Tesla to being on the board of its direct competitor. 

Telo targets both everyday customers who want a small electric pickup truck and fleet operators in major cities. "Closing this fundraising round has further validated our prediction of where the EV industry is headed," said Jason Marks, co-founder and CEO of Telo. And the traction is there, as with not much more than a render of the prototype, they already have 3,000+ reservations. 

Telo’s game plan differs from other EV makers. They are not trying to take on the large incumbents and compete in the SUV and large pickup truck markets. Instead, Telo wants to own the compact electric pickup market. While this is obviously a small market segment, it is also a market segment that seems to be forgotten by the large car manufacturers, giving them some extra breathing room to work things out and not get crushed by the big boys.

Now, get back to the grind 💌