Good day. Today’s fundraising environment is challenging for smaller venture-capital firms. Sub-$100 million funds accounted for less than 5% of all capital raised by U.S. venture firms in the first quarter of this year, according to the PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor.

So San Francisco venture firm Mighty Capital deployed several strategies to raise its third fund, a $91 million vehicle.

Founded in 2018 by SC Moatti and Jennifer Vancini, the firm seeks to identify products that are generating buzz among product managers. It backs early-stage startups selling to business customers.

Limited partners in the third fund include asset manager GCM Grosvenor, venture firm Inovia Capital and community bank Five Star Bank, among others.

“I’ve been an investor in Mighty Capital since Fund I because I believe SC and Jennifer do what investors hope for and few deliver in their market: investments in companies that can provide consistent, outsized liquidity events,” said Anthony Grillo, a public company director and former senior managing director at Evercore and Blackstone Group.

Mighty highlighted its ability to generate cash-on-cash returns. It has had six portfolio companies go public, including Amplitude, DigitalOcean and Netskope, and six get acquired, out of a portfolio of 33 across two funds. Nvidia licensed the technology of its portfolio company Groq in a $20 billion deal last year.

Mighty also had to persuade LPs that its portfolio had more than a couple of winners.

“What LPs want to know is, is this performance accidental? Is it repeatable?” Moatti said.

Read the rest of the article at this link.

And now on to the news...

New prediction-markets lawsuits. New York Attorney General Letitia James filed lawsuits against crypto exchanges Coinbase and Gemini, accusing them of operating prediction markets that violate state gambling laws.

• The suits filed Tuesday are notable for whom they left out: Kalshi and Polymarket, which have dominated the rapidly growing world of “event contract” markets that the companies say are more akin to trading. The “yes/no” contracts allow people to bet on what might happen with everyday events, such as the economy or election results.

SpaceX said it secured the right to buy artificial-intelligence coding startup Cursor for $60 billion. In a post on X Tuesday, SpaceX announced the companies were working closely together on coding and AI, and that it had an option to purchase Cursor later this year. “The combination of Cursor’s leading product and distribution to expert software engineers with SpaceX’s million H100 equivalent Colossus training supercomputer will allow us to build the world’s most useful models,” SpaceX said. Colossus is an AI computing complex Elon Musk’s xAI developed in Memphis, Tenn.

Education investor Achieve Partners has raised a $450 million fund to tackle artificial intelligence-related labor displacement in the technology and healthcare sectors, betting on on-the-job training to help close skill and experience gaps.

• “Apprenticeship programs have remained very strong in the trades and other blue-collar jobs,” Achieve Managing Director Daniel Pianko said. “What we believe is that early-learning pathways are going to be increasingly important for white-collar jobs as well.”

Funds

Pegasus Tech Ventures expanded its corporate venture capital fund in partnership with Japanet Holdings, bringing the total fund size to $200 million. The vehicle will focus on generative AI, physical AI and space technology.

People

Newo, a startup building human-like AI receptionists and agents for small and medium-sized businesses, appointed Jason Luo as chief executive officer. He was most recently chief revenue officer at Actabl.

Blue Energy, a Chevy Chase, Md.-based developer of prefabricated nuclear power plants, snagged $380 million in equity and debt funding. VXI Capital led the investment, which included additional support from At One Ventures, Tamarack Global and others.

Reliable Robotics, a Mountain View, Calif.-headquartered autonomous aircraft systems provider, scored a $160 million investment. Nimble Ventures led the funding, which saw participation from Eclipse, Socium Ventures and others. Nimble’s John Burbank will join the company’s board.

Afresh, a San Francisco-based AI platform for the grocery industry, picked up a $34 million investment co-led by Just Climate and HighSage Ventures.

Monk, a New York-based accounts receivable platform, raised $25 million in Series A funding co-led by Footwork and Acrew Capital.

Humble, a startup making autonomous, electric haulers designed for commercial freight transportation, emerged from stealth with $24 million in seed funding led by Eclipse.

BetHog, a New York-based crypto casino and sportsbook startup, secured $10 million in Series A financing. Will Ventures and RockawayX co-led the round, which included participation from Bullpen Capital, Advancit Capital and others.

Octen, a developer of search infrastructure for generative AI, emerged from stealth with a $10 million seed round led by Square Peg. The company is headquartered in San Francisco and Singapore.

BuildForever, an AI email startup based in San Francisco and New York, landed $9.5 million in seed funding from investors including Felicis, Abstract and SV Angel.

Seapoint, a Dublin-headquartered financial operations platform for startups, nabbed €7.5 million (almost $9 million) in seed funding led by 13books. Michael McFadgen, a partner at 13books, will join the company’s board.

Crewline, a San Francisco-based startup that upgrades existing construction vehicles to self-driving, was seeded with a $7.1 million investment co-led by Initialized Capital and Nebular.

DOJO AI, an intelligent marketing system provider with offices in London and Lisbon, was seeded with a $6 million investment. Armilar Venture Partners led the funding, which included participation from Heartfelt.

• Tim Cook Built Apple Into a $4 Trillion Powerhouse. He Leaves Big Challenges on AI
   
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• China’s Cyberspying Targets Western Defense Industry, Dutch Intel Chief Says
   
• How a Half-Empty NYC Tower Became the Hottest Office on the Market
   
• UPS Doesn’t Want to Deliver Every Package, But It Really Likes Returning Them

• Meta to start capturing employee mouse movements, keystrokes for AI training data (Reuters)
   
• Anthropic’s ID verification imperils Chinese founders (The Information)

This newsletter was compiled by Yuliya Chernova, Matthew Strozier and Zachary Cole.

Share your tips, comments and questions: vcnews@wsj.com

The team: Matthew Strozier, Yuliya Chernova, and Brian Gormley.

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