Not another fucking newsletter

Happy Friday from Traded VC! 

👋 Yoo, Joon here!

First things first: Alphabet is considering buying HubSpot, a public company with a $35B market cap (they are the ones doing the marketing & sales integration tool).

AmazonAI had no AI after all, lmao: Amazon’s cashier-less technology was just a bunch of offshore video reviewers from India. Check out Parik Patel’s meme 😂

VCs are struggling to raise (the least amount since 2013 apparently).

Oh, and if you’re struggling to raise your pre-seed and a bunch of EU FO’s are crawling in your emails, check out our latest meme.

🧠 Dopamine Dealflow

Small Dopamine

• Yes, Snackable Video Games 🎮
  Lil Snack, the startup developing "snackable" video games, raised $3.1M. They release daily games using AI to supercharge their production. Investors included Lerer Hippeau, Waverly Capital, a16z Games, and Powerhouse Capital 💰 read more

• Snap AI Chief is Back 👋
  Former Snap AI Chief, Alex Mashrabov, launches Higgsfield AI, an AI-powered video creation tool that will rival OpenAI’s Sora 🥊 The company raised a $8M seed round led by @menloventures 🔥 read more

• Congratulations to Allermi 👃
  @getAllermi raised $9M in their Series A through Origin Ventures (lead), Headline Ventures, Neman Ventures @shaneneman and Nelstone Ventures. Allermi is the first personalized allergy care subscription service that provides custom prescription medicine (via nasal spray) and relieves all allergy symptoms 🙌

• a16z...SPEEDRUN 🏃

  @andrewchen will be investing $30M via @a16z's SPEEDRUN program. It's more selective than Harvard: 1% of applicants were accepted in the last cohort 🤯 read more

• Autism Impact Fund 🤝

  A VC with a goal to become the “investment and innovation arm of the autism community” 🔥 Autism Impact Fund (first of its kind) closes at $60M and already has 12 portfolio companies 👏 read more

High Dopamine

• Peak AI Frenzy 🫣
  Cognition Labs is potentially raising at a $2B valuation…just weeks after announcing their $21M raise 😂 read more

• Yahoo Acquisition ⚡

  Yahoo is acquiring Artifact (the AI-powered news app by Instagram co-founders @kevin and @mikeyk). The price tag wasn't disclosed, but I remember Artifact said it would wind down operations only recently 🤨 Check out our post here

• Ex-Coinbase, Ex-Sequoia 🙌

  Paradigm is looking to raise between $750M-$850M 💰 The VC was founded by @fehrsam (Coinbase Co-founder) & Matt Huan (ex-Sequoia Partner) 👏 More info in the Deep Dive below

• McLaren 🏎️
  Abu Dhabi-backed investment firm CYVN is considering buying a stake in British luxury carmaker McLaren 🇬🇧 The base cars are total trash. P1 needs no improvements though 🚗 read more

• COYS 🔵 ⚽️

  Premier League @spursofficial is in talks with potential investors over a stake sale 🤝 They just unveiled a $108M loss last year (even after selling Kane lol). Time to replace the entire defense 🛡️ read more

• Gympass → Wellhub 🏋️‍♂️
  @Gympass rebrands as Wellhub and is now preparing for an IPO 🔔 
  Gympass was valued at $2.4B in August after securing $85M in funding 📈 read more

• Hilton on a Spree 🛍️
  Hilton acquires the hospitality firm Sydell Group. This would add the @thenomadhotel brand to Hilton’s offerings. They want to develop up to 100 NoMad Hotels 🤯 read more

🐬 Deep Dive - Coinbase Co-founder Bets $850M on Crypto 🎰

Fred Ehrsam and Matt Huang, the dynamic duo behind crypto VC powerhouse Paradigm, are back at it again.

First thing that came to mind - didn't Paradigm just raise $2.5B in November 2021, right as the bull market was peaking? Yup, so what?

Not another fucking hype VC

Paradigm isn't just any run-of-the-mill VC firm chasing the latest hype.

Ehrsam co-founded a little company called Coinbase, and Huang is an ex-Sequoia Capital partner. These guys have crypto cred for days.

A few key reasons why they are raising now:

Web3 Momentum: Fuck the downturn. Many Web3 projects are chugging along. DeFi, NFTs, DAOs - the building blocks of the decentralized future are falling into place. Paradigm wants to cement its spot as the go-to investor in this space.

Contrarian Clout: Raising a mega-fund in a bear market is a total baller move. For the LPs out there: Paradigm has the conviction and the dry powder to weather any storm. Plus, there's less competition for deals with tourist VCs cheering from the sidelines…or cheering at all.

Bu-but what about SBF?

Paradigm took a major reputation hit with its hefty investment in SBF's FTX/Alameda scheme.

Huang even had to take the stand as a witness in the ongoing fraud trial. Awkward.

What's next?

With fresh capital and a leaner team, expect Paradigm to go hard on backing the next gen of crypto disruptors. DeFi, ZK proofs, blockchain scalability - no Web3 vertical is off-limits. Paradigm is definitely playing the long game.

Now, get back to the grind 💌