Not another fucking newsletter

Happy Tuesday from Traded VC! 

👋 Yoo, Joon here!

Stable Diffusion’s founder, Emad Mostaque, was allegedly kicked out of his own company (by none other than VCs, lol). Intel with a massive W: the company secured the largest CHIPS Act funding ever ($8.5B)! Check out our post here.

Big shoutout to Turner Novak (Banana Capital) for asking Chris Bakke a Traded-exclusive question. You can watch it here. This story is actually nuts (hint: it’s Bitcoin, YC & Github related).

Oh wait-wait, don’t forget our latest startup meme. 😁

Let’s get to the deals 👇

🧠 Dopamine Dealflow

Small Dopamine

• Capturing Air Carbone 🌱
  AirMyne is a team of baller engineers & scientists building a system to remove carbon dioxide 👏 They raised $6.9M from investors including Alumni Ventures, @somacapital & @ycombinator 🟠 read more

• Incoming: Defense Tech 🛡️
  @lockheedmartin invests into Firestorm Labs, a Unmanned Aerial System (e.g. drones) manufacturer 🇺🇸 The company raised $12.5M and already won a bunch of U.S. DOD contracts for its modular UAS and xCell manufacturing product line 🫡 read more

• Roblox Fund Lmao 🎮
  @roblox officially unveiled its own $35M creator fund 🪀 The fund will focus on developer studios and users who want to build things beyond games on the server 👀 read more

High Dopamine

• Cameo’s Valuation Plunge ⚓
  @cameo raised $28M that will drastically reduce its valuation (apparently less than $100M)....that's a 90% drop from its peak $1B valuation in 2021 🤨 read more

• YC is Raising Billions 🟠 (read full Deep Dive below)
  @ycombinator, the 🐐 SF accelerator, is targeting at least $2B under the leadership of @garrytan 🤝 read more
  

🐬 Deep Dive - Y Combinator Expected to Raise $2B in New Funding

Garry Tan and the YC crew are cooking up something massive - a monumental $2 billion+ fundraise across three new funds. This would be YC's biggest raise ever.

I know what you're thinking - $2 billion is a shit ton of money, even for YC. But hear me out.

The funds include:

• The main fund for initial $500k checks into YC's next 800+ companies.

• A fund for the remaining committed first checks.

• A follow-on fund to double down on breakout grads.

A.k.a., this fundraise is strategic.

But here's the biggest difference: This follow-on fund will be managed by Tan's core team, doing more systematic pro-rata investments instead of trying to lead huge growth rounds (...or go ultra-concentrated like Continuity).

Wtf are ‘Stapled’ Funds? 

What’s the play here? YC is 'stapling' all three funds - investors who want access to the coveted early startup batches must also back the follow-on fund. This structure could work out waaayyy better for YC than investors. YC is keeping a juicy 30%+ blended carry, at the absolute top of the market.

What's Next?

YC is betting BIG that LPs will pay up for premium access and the ability to get into those coveted early rounds. And with YC's recent alumni successes (Yooo Reddit), my big brain says they likely won't have issues finding takers.

Now, get back to the grind 💌