Good day. Overlap Holdings, a venture firm helmed by Justin Stevens, a former senior partner at Apollo Global Management, has raised $33 million for its first venture fund to invest in early-stage novel tech and manufacturing startups—as well as helping them navigate debt markets.

Overlap is made up of a venture fund, which makes non-lead equity investments in seed, Series A and Series B startups, and also a service that matches startups with lenders. The firm offers the assistance free to its portfolio companies and charges others a fee.

In the last couple of years, startups’ ability to access debt has waned and recently waxed. Last year, total venture debt volume rocketed to a record $53.3 billion in the U.S., according to the latest PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor, almost doubling from $27.4 billion the prior year.

Yet the number of deals to raise that debt actually fell, to 1,341 last year from 1,679 in 2023, an indication that lenders are sending an outsize amount of money to just a few, primarily growth-stage, private companies.

“Financing markets tend to have a herd mentality and they bounce between fear and greed,” said Stevens, Overlap’s founder and chief executive, adding that lenders “are still in the fear area.” But sentiment has been improving. “They are not scared of their shadow and not throwing term sheets at everybody,” he said. “There’s real underwriting going on.”

Read the rest of the article at this link.

And now on to the news...

Tariffs loom over ad industry. President Trump’s new tariffs on China, and those threatened against Canada and Mexico, may slow advertising growth at top digital powers such as Meta Platforms and Google and encourage some major brands to cut ad spending more broadly, The Wall Street Journal reports.

• Trump’s 10% tariffs on imports from China took effect on Tuesday morning, along with an order suspending the de minimis rule that has exempted shipments worth less than $800 from tariffs.

Many in the cryptocurrency industry are optimistic that a new task force formed by the U.S. securities regulator will provide a road map for growth in the industry that contrasts with the regulation-by-enforcement approach under the Biden administration. 

• The Securities and Exchange Commission, under acting Chairman Mark Uyeda, said on Jan. 21 it is launching a task force “dedicated to developing a comprehensive and clear regulatory framework for crypto assets.” Republican SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce, known among crypto enthusiasts as “CryptoMom,” is leading the task force. The regulator announced a few more adviser appointments to the task force on Tuesday.

People

Mitiga, a real-time cloud detection and response startup, appointed Charlie Thomas as chief executive officer. He was previously CEO of Deepwatch.

San Francisco-based AI edtech startup Amira Learning appointed Amy Scholz as chief operating officer. She was previously at Curriculum Associates and Imagine Learning.

Deposit management startup ModernFi named Will Cameron to the post of chief revenue officer. He was previously senior vice president of community and regional banking at nCino.

StackAdapt, a Toronto-based multi-channel programmatic advertising platform, picked up a $235 million growth capital investment led by Teachers’ Venture Growth.

Semgrep, a San Francisco-based application security platform, scored $100 million in Series D funding. Menlo Ventures led the round, with Partner Matt Murphy joining the company’s board.

MagicSchool, a Denver-based technology platform for K-12 educators and students, raised $45 million in Series B funding. Valor Equity Partners led the round, which included participation from Bain Capital Ventures and others.

Protex AI, a Dublin-based workplace safety technology provider, secured $36 million in Series B financing led by Hedosophia.

Archive, a San Francisco-based technology platform that powers resale businesses for brands, landed $30 million in Series B funding. Energize Capital led the round, with Principal Eileen Waris joining the board.

Lula, a Overland Park, Kan.-based rental property maintenance technology startup, closed a $28 million Series A round. PeakSpan Capital led the funding, which included participation from RET Ventures.

TvScientific, a connected TV advertising platform, grabbed $25.5 million in Series B funding led by NewRoad Capital Partners.

Monograph, a San Francisco-based developer of project management software for architecture and engineering firms, snagged $20 million in Series B funding led by Base10 Partners.

Ivo, a San Francisco-headquartered startup providing contract review technology to legal teams, collected $16 million in Series A funding led by Costanoa Ventures.

Beamable, a Boston-based development platform for online games, closed a $13.5 million Series A round led by Bitkraft Ventures.

Qeen.ai, a Dubai-headquartered provider of autonomous AI agents for e-commerce businesses, fetched a $10 million seed investment led by Prosus Ventures.

• Google’s revenue growth slows, sending shares down
   
• AMD’s AI revenue jumps, but misses estimates
   
• Why China’s retaliatory moves aren’t very painful for the U.S. so far
   
• Trump hints at curbs on Musk’s powers after billionaire shakes up Washington
   
• Amazon, king of online retail, can’t seem to make its physical stores work
   
• Robinhood yanks Super Bowl betting contracts after regulator’s pushback
   
• Match Group replaces CEO as growth eludes dating apps
   

• Deepfake videos are getting shockingly good (TechCrunch)
   
• Meet Eva, the AI chatbot based on a woman in prison (Rest of World)

This newsletter was compiled by Yuliya Chernova, 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, Angus Loten and Marc Vartabedian.

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