Tell me about your father. Zeplain surprised Cardenas by opening their first meeting with this personal question rather than inquiries about revenue, margins, and market share. Cardenas provided Zeplain a list of everyone close to him—his wife, coworkers, and childhood best friends—and Zeplain called them all. The deal ultimately closed at a $250 million post-money valuation.
Awards may be encouraging and occasionally useful for visibility, but they are weak indicators of validation and poor predictors of long-term success. In the longevity and healthspan industry, where timelines are long and claims are easy to overstate, venture capital ultimately follows alignment and evidence, not applause received at glitzy industry events.
Lots of people say: 'With the policy so messed up in Washington right now, why in the world do you spend so much time thinking about it?' he told Fortune. 'It's because I have a great belief that... the only way to get to large scale is good policy. I see the power of things like the Medicare Modernization Act, which introduced prescription drugs. Believe it or not, before that, prescription drugs weren't part of Medicare at all.'
Just one month after raising $11.75 million in a round led by Joe Lonsdale's 8VC, African defensetech Terra Industries announced that it's raised an additional $22 million in funding, led by Lux Capital. Nathan Nwachuku, 22, and Maxwell Maduka, 24, launched Terra Industries in 2024 to design infrastructure and autonomous systems to help African nations monitor and respond to threats.
Molly O'Shea is a name-dropper. There's good reason for that. I count 29 big names in tech mentioned over our hourlong call. She told me about recently moderating a panel with Kalshi cofounders Tarek Mansour and Luana Lopes Lara. Ken Griffin took the stage after her. O'Shea breezily referenced talking about the state of new media with the TBPN bros in Peter Thiel's house.
When Obvious Ventures launched 12 years ago with a focus on "world positive" companies, the idea was a contrarian bet: that startups tackling climate, health, and economic resilience could deliver big returns, not just feel-good impact. Founded by Twitter cofounder Ev Williams and others, the firm backed companies like Beyond Meat, the AI drug discovery company Recursion Pharmaceuticals, and Diamond Foundry, which makes sustainable lab-grown diamonds.
The AI investing boom (or perhaps bubble) is something Silicon Valley has seen many times before: a gold rush of VC money thrown at the Big New Thing. But one aspect of it is completely unique to these times: startups rocketing from $0 to as much as $100 million in annual recurring revenue, sometimes in a matter of months. Word on the street is that many a VC won't even look at a startup that's not on the ARR superhighway, aiming for $100 million in ARR before their Series A funding round.
SNAK Venture Partners announced Wednesday the close of its oversubsubscribed $50 million debut fund, anchored by the investment firm Pritzker Group (founded by Illinois governor JB Pritzker and his brother, Tony). SNAK founders Sonia Nagar and Adam Koopersmith worked at the firm and helped lead investments in companies like the auto marketplace Backlot Cars and TicketsNow (exited to Ticketmaster). The duo decided to break out on their own and, earlier this year, launched their firm to back digital marketplaces.
This year, 37 up-and-coming investors made the list of rising stars of venture capital. In this live Q&A, hear how the list is put together and learn about the hottest trends in venture capital. Plus, catch an interview with one of this year's winners. Scroll down for the live video on Tuesday at 1:30 p.m. ET.
