Not another fucking newsletter

Happy Friday from Traded VC! 

👋 Yoo, Joon here!

What a week in VC.
Rumors of Microsoft paying Inflection for heading off with its entire team have been confirmed, and the sum seems to be around $650M 👀 Saudi Arabia made headlines by planning a $40B fund with no other than Andreessen Horowitz. Football star Mario Götze (World Cup GOAT) joins the $5.4M round of fintech startup Xaver, check out our post. Private members-club Soho House is trying to go private.

🧠 Dopamine Dealflow

Small Dopamine

• Soho House...Going Private? 🏠
  @sohohouse is in talks to go private after reporting a loss of $118M last year 👎 CC Capital is considering a bid to acquire the members club. Extremely bearish on Soho House, cannot stand waiting 20min for a g&t lmao read more

• AI Assistants Unite 🤝

  Former @a16z & Sequoia Capital partner Dan Chen raised $2.5M for Quilt, a platform hosting AI assistants for solutions teams 👏 The round was led by Sequoia Capital 🟢 read more

• Zombies...with NFTs🧟‍♂️🇰🇷

  @a16z, Com2uS, Bitkraft Ventures & WAGMI Ventures invested into Carbonated Inc. to develop an NFT post-apocalyptic shooter game, raising $13M 💰 read more

• Cracking Cancer 🧬

  Billionaire Xavier Niel invested into Cure51, a startup that assembles data about cancer survivors. It's basically building a cohort of data to work out why specific cancer patients survive for a long time 👌 The startup raised a total of $16.4M led by Sofinnova 💵 read more

• Cap Table 🔥

  @jeffweiner (LinkedIn), @dylanjfield (Figma) & Akshay Kothari (Notion) invested into The Browser Company 🤝 The startup is building the Arc Browser and raised a total of $50M read more
  

High Dopamine

• Tele-Cash 💸
  Sketchy messenger-app Telegram raised $330M with the goal to become profitable next year 📈The guys have more than 900M users rn 🫡 read more

• New Fund Alert 🚨
  World Fund closes its $324M climate tech fund 🌍LPs include EIF (duh), KfW Capital (also duh), Bpifrance & PwC read more

• Food Delivery is Back 🍔
  @wonder raised $700M to open almost 100(!) delivery-focused restaurants in NYC 🗽Huge congrats to legend @marclore 👏 read more

• Selena’s $2B Beauty Break 💄 (read our Deep Dive below)
  @selenagomez is seeking to sell @rarebeauty valued at $2B💰She started hiring advisers to weigh offers for the cosmetics brand ✨ read more

• 'Murican Dynamism 🇺🇸
  President Joe Biden agreed to fund Intel with $8.5B for computer chip plants around the country 🫡This gov grant is the largest yet to come from the $53B "Chips Act" read more

• King Kong Fund

  The Saudis are planning to launch a King Kong sized $40B fund focused on AI, overseen by @a16z 🦍 a16z's relationship building could really be paying off here 🔥 read more
  

🐬 Deep Dive - Selena Gomez Could be Joining the Billionaires Club 

Selena Gomez, the pop star and actress, has been cooking up something in the beauty realm. Her cosmetics line, Rare Beauty, is exploring a potential sale that could catapult Gomez to billionaire status.

Rare Beauty is seeking a valuation of $2 billion, and Gomez has enlisted advisors to weigh offers from interested buyers. Juicy deal for sure.

I know, I know, celebrity beauty brands are crowded af. But hear me out.

While many have fizzled out or struggled to gain traction, Rare Beauty has blossomed into a respected and beloved cosmetics company (transcending the "celebrity brand" imo).

The popularity can be attributed to a couple ingredients:

Dope Social Media: Rare Beauty has the highest earned media value of all U.S. cosmetic companies (celebrity or not).
 
Industry 🐐s: Sure Gomez is the face of the brand…but the leadership team is STACKED with industry veterans from companies like NYX Cosmetics.

Expansion Potential: Huge. Currently available only online and at Sephora, Rare Beauty has ample opportunity to expand its distribution channels and reach new markets (perf acquisition target).

So yeah, compared to other celebrity beauty brands, Rare Beauty is like a perfectly baked cake – it has the right ingredients, a solid foundation, and just the right appeal.

So what’s next?

If the $2 billion valuation holds true (and Gomez's stake in the company is significant), a potential sale could easily make her a billionaire. This would totally place her in the same league as fellow beauty mogul and singer, Rihanna (Fenty Beauty).

Now, get back to the grind 💌