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Struck Capital’s Founder Discusses His Foray Into AI Investing
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By Marc Vartabedian, WSJ Pro
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Good day. Adam Struck knows what it's like to invest during hype cycles. In 2017, for instance, the founder and managing partner of Santa Monica, Calif.-based venture-capital firm Struck Capital, launched a $115 million open-ended crypto fund, which gave him a front-row seat to the heady days of crypto investing in the years that followed.
“I have seen funds around me blow up overnight; I have seen VCs rush into deals without the proper diligence,” Struck said.
Last December, Struck made a $3.2 million seed deal into artificial intelligence data startup Nomad Data via the $75 million Struck Capital Fund II LP. Now, he wants to make more deals in the AI sector.
Struck said he isn’t necessarily pivoting away from crypto, rather that AI is becoming an additional focus area.
Struck spoke with WSJ Pro about what it's like to dip into venture’s buzziest sector, a move that many venture capitalists are contemplating. Read the full article here.
And now on to the news...
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The Ant Group headquarters in Hangzhou, China. PHOTO: QILAI SHEN/BLOOMBERG NEWS
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Ant gives investors an opportunity to cash out. China’s Ant Group told its shareholders it will buy back up to $6 billion in stock, offering its international and domestic investors a chance to cash out more than two years after its blockbuster initial public offerings were scuttled by Beijing, The Wall Street Journal reports. The financial-technology giant said on Saturday that it intends to repurchase up to 7.6% of its existing shares at a price that represents a company valuation of around $78.48 billion.
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That is a big comedown from Ant’s $150 billion valuation five years ago, when the financial affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding raised $14 billion from a combination of Chinese and international investors and was minted as one of the world’s most valuable unicorns.
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209,000
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Number of jobs added in June in the U.S., which is likely to leave the Federal Reserve on course to raise interest rates to a 22-year high later this month.
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TPG to Buy Forcepoint Unit From Francisco Partners for $2.45 Billion
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Buyout shop TPG is acquiring a business unit of software provider Forcepoint for $2.45 billion, a price tag that is more than double what technology-focused private-equity firm Francisco Partners paid for Forcepoint in 2021, WSJ Pro reports. The unit TPG is buying is Forcepoint’s government cybersecurity business, known as Forcepoint Global Governments and Critical Infrastructure or Forcepoint G2CI, confirming an earlier report by The Wall Street Journal. It focuses on government and critical infrastructure customers, primarily U.S. government and federal agencies as well as commercial customers that sell directly to the government.
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EV Startup Fisker Is Reborn Into a Crowded, Competitive Field
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California-based Fisker Inc. is finally putting its first cars into the hands of U.S. customers, 2½ years after going public amid a frenzy on Wall Street for electric-vehicle startups, WSJ reports. The question now: Is it too late off the starting line?
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In late June, the young auto company began U.S. deliveries of its first model, the electric Ocean SUV, a vehicle that starts around $37,500 and targets mainstream buyers looking for utility-style models that run on battery power.
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The electric-car maker is Chief Executive Henrik Fisker’s second go at an EV startup after an earlier attempt went bust a decade ago.
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Telexistence, a Tokyo-based robotics startup, secured $170 million in Series B financing from investors including Monoful Venture Partners and Airbus Ventures.
CADDi, a procurement services provider for the manufacturing industry, scored $89 million in Series C funding from DCM and others.
DataGalaxy, a collaborative data governance startup, was seeded with a $10 million investment led by AV8 Ventures.
Shardeum, a Switzerland-based blockchain startup, closed a $5.4 million funding round from J17 Capital, TRGC and others.
Topkey, a Nashville, Tenn.-based financial operating system built for vacation rental and hospitality property management companies, landed $5.1 million in seed funding led by Felicis.
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Snap CEO Evan Spiegel speaks at a 2023 event in Santa Monica, Calif.
PHOTO: FREDERIC J. BROWN/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
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Thanks to AI, San Francisco’s tech companies are hiring again (Bloomberg)
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SVB’s collapse drove 26K customers to Mercury in 4 months (TechCrunch)
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