Good day. Jack Altman has swiftly closed on $275 million for a new venture-capital fund at his firm Alt Capital, which will back artificial-intelligence startups replacing today’s enterprise software with a new generation of technology.

Alt Capital II represents a jump from the $150 million fund the firm closed in February 2024. Altman expects to tap the larger fund to lead more Series A rounds, a stage where he feels his experience is most helpful.

Altman said it took about a week to round up commitments for the fund and roughly a month end-to-end for the fundraising process. That is lightning fast in the venture market: The median time to raise a venture fund reached a 10-year record of 15.3 months for funds closed in the first half of this year, according to research firm PitchBook Data.

“The key thing about Jack is he has founder pull, like a magnet,” said Michael Kim, founder of fund-of-funds firm Cendana Capital, one of the limited partners in the new fund. “Founders want to work with him. He’s an accomplished operator and he’s very well networked.”

LPs in Alt Capital II also include the University of Michigan, TrueBridge Capital Partners and other institutions, Altman said.

Altman became a full-time venture capitalist in early 2024 after he stepped down as chief executive of Lattice, a software company he co-founded. He is a solo general partner at San Francisco-based Alt Capital, which previously managed a couple of earlier funds that Altman used largely to write angel checks.

His brother, Sam Altman, is chief executive and co-founder of AI developer OpenAI. Another brother, Max Altman, is also a venture investor. Kim said that “we didn’t invest in Jack because his brother is Sam.” Sam Altman isn’t an LP in Alt Capital’s new fund, Jack Altman said.

Read the full article.

And now on to the news...

How to foil an AI deepfake. Faced with an onslaught of increasingly sophisticated deepfake scams, some companies are turning to low-tech tactics to foil artificial intelligence-powered audio and video impostors. The tactics, including verbal passphrases, off-topic questions and hand-drawn signs, offer a rare instance of targeted companies getting the upper hand in an escalating AI arms race with deepfake attackers, cybersecurity experts say. Done right, these and other analog tricks can unmask even the most well-trained AI models, they say.

• “If someone’s daughter or granddaughter calls saying she’s being held for ransom, ask her what she had for dinner yesterday,” said VS Subrahmanian, director of the Northwestern Security and AI Lab at Northwestern University.

Climate-focused investment firm Energize Capital has hired former Vista Equity Partners’ executive Alan Glass to co-head its new Endurance strategy to back profitable software companies and help them expand. Glass is joining Energize as a partner and will lead the Chicago-based firm’s Endurance group alongside Partner Kevin Stevens. Glass was previously a vice president at Vista, having worked in the enterprise-software investment giant for over seven years. Energize established Endurance earlier this year to back more mature clean energy-focused technology companies that are already profitable or are expected to be soon.

Macquarie Group’s asset-management unit has backed the expansion of solar-energy company Nexamp with $350 million in debt financing. The company, which focuses on U.S.-based renewable energy projects, plans to use the fresh capital to support the construction of its six gigawatt utility-scale project pipeline. The latest financing builds on a series of other investments the company has garnered in recent years. In 2021, Nexamp received $240 million in an equity investment led by Generate Capital. Earlier this year, PGIM Private Capital provided $340 million in debt refinancing for the company. 

Funds

Credit Saison launched Onigiri Capital through its corporate venture arm, Saison Capital. The $50 million blockchain investment fund focuses on blockchain startups in the financial sector.

People

Cathay Innovation appointed Rose Yuan as a director on the investment team and James Colgan as an operating partner supporting both the investment and ecosystem teams.

Fintech-focused QED Investors promoted Victoria Zuo from principal to partner. Prior to joining the firm in 2022, she was at Gradient Ventures.

Menlo Ventures promoted Deedy Das to partner. Before joining the firm, he was a founding team member at Glean.

Divergent Technologies, a Torrance, Calif.-headquartered digital manufacturing platform, closed a $290 million Series E round at a $2.3 billion valuation. Rochefort Asset Management led the investment, which included $250 million in equity and $40 million in debt.

Lila Sciences, a Cambridge, Mass.-based provider of an AI platform and autonomous labs for life, chemical and materials sciences, scored $235 million in Series A funding at a $1.23 billion valuation. Braidwell and Collective Global co-led the round, which included additional support from Alumni Ventures, Flagship Pioneering, General Catalyst and others.

Dyna Robotics, a Redwood City, Calif.-based startup making general-purpose robots for use in commercial settings such as restaurants, gyms and laundromats, closed a $120 million Series A round led by Robostrategy, CRV and First Round Capital.

SEON, an Austin-headquartered fraud prevention and AML compliance startup, completed an $80 million Series C round. Sixth Street Growth led the funding, with Managing Director Michael Bauer joining the company’s board. 

Luminary Cloud, a San Mateo, Calif.-based startup that helps engineering companies build and deploy physics AI models, secured a $72 million Series B round. N47 led the investment, which included participation from Sutter Hill Ventures and NVentures.

Remedio, a Tel Aviv-based cybersecurity startup, picked up a $65 million investment led by Bessemer Venture Partners.

Arch, a New York-based alternative investment management platform, landed $52 million in Series B funding. Oak HC/FT led the round, which included participation from Craft Ventures and others.

Rodatherm, a geothermal energy startup with offices in Salt Lake City and Canada, grabbed $38 million in Series A funding. Evok Innovations led the investment, which included participation from TDK Ventures, Toyota Ventures and TechEnergy Ventures. Jane Kearns of Evok Innovations and David Delfassy TDK Ventures joined the Rodatherm board.

Terra Security, a Tel Aviv-headquartered agentic AI continuous penetration testing platform, collected $30 million in Series A funding led by Felicis.

Ray Security, a Tel Aviv-headquartered predictive data security platform, emerged from stealth with $11 million in seed funding co-led by Venture Guides and Ibex Investors.

Speedchain, an Atlanta-based provider of commercial card programs and expense management technology, closed an $111 million funding round consisting of $11 million in equity and the remainder in debt. Investors including GTMfund, TTV Capital and K5 Global provided the equity portion.

Fabrix Security, a Tel Aviv-based identity and access management startup, emerged from stealth with $8 million in seed funding from investors including Norwest, Merlin Ventures and Jibe Ventures.

Scalekit, a San Francisco-based startup providing AI developers with authentication and tool-calling infrastructure, was seeded with a $5.5 million investment led by Together Fund and Z47.

• This Podcast Is 11 Months Old. It Just Hired a President to Manage Ad Revenue.

• U.S. Reaches Outline of TikTok Deal With China

• China Says Nvidia Violated Antitrust Law

• TV Industry Bets AI Can Peel Ad Dollars Away From Big Tech

• The Feds Destroyed an Internet Weapon, but Criminals Picked Up the Pieces

• iOS 26: Liquid Glass Is Here and Your iPhone Will Never Be the Same

• Farmers in India Are Tracking Monsoon Season With the Help of AI

• The nine most sought-after startups from YC Demo Day (TechCrunch)
   
• Snap revamps AR glasses software ahead of consumer launch next year (Bloomberg)
   
• OpenAI ramps up robotics work in race toward AGI (Wired)
   
• Here are five fintechs that could be next to IPO after Klarna (CNBC)

This newsletter was compiled by Matthew Strozier and Zachary Cole.

WSJ Pro Venture Capital is a premium service of The Wall Street Journal. We cover venture capital and the global startup ecosystem. Share your tips, comments and questions: vcnews@wsj.com

The Team: Matthew Strozier, Yuliya Chernova, Brian Gormley and Marc Vartabedian.

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