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- Upcoming Founder & VC Events Happening This Week
Upcoming Founder & VC Events Happening This Week
Upcoming Events & The Week’s 10 Biggest Funding Rounds
Mariane Bekker
April 02, 2024
Featured Events
Founders Panel: Innovative Use Cases with AI (Link)
Saturday April 6th 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM
MongoDB GenAI Hackathon SF (Hosted by Me) (Link)
Saturday April 20 9:30am - 10:00pm
Calling all generative AI Engineers, Software Developers and early stage startups! We are thrilled to bring the GenAI community together for a day-long hackathon at MongoDB’s downtown SF office.
Networking events are a great way to meet fellow founders and investors. Here are events happening in San Francisco this week for founders.
🗓 Tuesday (Apr 2)
📍 Sunnyvale
💬 Come join us for an afternoon of celebration and recognition at our in-person event located at 440 N Wolfe Rd. The Kering Generation Award is all about honoring the next wave of talented entrepreneurs making a difference in the world. Speakers from Kering, Allbirds and amazing startups focusing on sustainable fashion will join and share their insights. Get ready for an afternoon filled with inspiring fireside chats, roundtable discussions, and networking opportunities. Don't miss out on this special occasion to connect with like-minded individuals and be part of something truly remarkable. See you there!
📍 Palo Alto
💬 We are Open Future Forum. We are leaders, investors, founders and engineers based in the Bay Area CA. Featured VC: Keith Chen, Managing Partner SNZ Capital
📍 San Francisco
💬 Network with Fintech Professionals in San Francisco downtown over a drinks and interesting industry discussion.
📍 San Francisco
💬 An honest conversation with GGV Capital US (Jam's Series A lead VC!) on navigating a Seed/Series A round as an AI company.
🗓 Wednesday (Apr 3)
📍 San Francisco
💬 Introducing Hadron Founders Club. An open, collaborative community of passionate founders, builders and creators who want to build the future of the internet of value ~ Together
📍 San Francisco
💬 Whether you're a seasoned runner or just starting, this event is for you. Meet fellow runners, startup founders, and professionals, challenge yourself, and enjoy the conversation with us. We are all about the community and the camaraderie that comes with the group running
📍 San Francisco
💬 Founders, founders-to-be, visionaries, investors - let's connect!The event will be held at Persona's HQ on Sacramento st (Financial District).
📍 San Francisco
💬 Echoher, in partnership with James Gee from Startup Grind HQ and Simran Nath LLC, is hosting a standout event for female founders in Silicon Valley, focusing on networking, pitch perfection, and expert advice.
🗓 Thursday (Apr 4)
📍 San Francisco
💬 This event is exclusive to HealthTech founders and enthusiasts. Please join us for an evening of networking, demo and pizza with other HealthTech professionals, share your perspective on the future of AI and network away!
📍 San Francisco
💬 🎉 The MLOps Community in San Francisco is coming together in person for our 2nd meetup of the year, in partnership with RubberDuckyLabs and Bain Capital Ventures!
📍 Palo Alto
Join distinguished investors, family offices, and fund managers at the Path Ahead Investor Summit, a curated gathering designed to propel you to the forefront of the startup ecosystem. Forge meaningful connections, share collective insights, and collaborate to capitalize on emerging trends, shaping the future of Silicon Valley and beyond.
🗓 Friday (Apr 5)
📍 San Jose
💬 Come join entrepreneurs who eat problems for breakfast®. At a Bootstrappers Breakfast® we have serious conversations about growing a business based on internal cashflow and organic profit: this is for founders who are actively bootstrapping a startup.
📍 Pleasanton
💬 Ready to elevate your startup's digital presence? Join us for an engaging discussion on Marketing and SEO tailored for Pleasanton entrepreneurs!
🗓 Saturday (Apr 6)
📍 Stanford
💬 As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to revolutionize industries across the globe, the legal sector is no exception. LLMs, a foundation model capable of understanding and generating natural language text, have the potential to transform legal research, contract analysis, dispute resolution, and much more.
📍 San Francisco
💬 Creating a way for our machines to remember us is the first and most critical step to a fully personalized future.
📍 San Francisco
💬 We run 5K and 10K with a few pace groups available, or you can choose your own pace and cover custom distance. The most important thing is that we start together and finish at the café. We run at conversational pace, chat along the way, and then we grab coffee together and continue networking.
📍 Palo Alto
💬 April 6th is your chance to meet three extraordinary leaders - Mariane Bekker, Hafsa Tahir, and Jonathan Chan - in the Bay Area. Learn from their experiences, gain valuable insights, and explore the cutting edge of innovation and entrepreneurship together!
The Week’s 10 Biggest Funding Rounds
In an eventful week for startups, significant investments have been made across various sectors, including energy, artificial intelligence, biotech, agtech, healthcare, apps, and publishing. Here's a recap of the top funding rounds shaping the future of their respective industries:
Celestial AI: Powering Semiconductors with Optical Interconnectivity
Sector: Semiconductors
Funding: $175M
Celestial AI, a leader in optical interconnectivity, secured a monumental $175 million Series C funding round led by Thomas Tull’s US Innovative Technology Fund. Their photonic fabric platform separates compute and memory, enhancing the efficiency of extensive AI processing. Since its founding in 2020, Celestial has raised nearly $339 million.
Avenzo Therapeutics: Advancing Oncology Treatments
Sector: Biotech
Funding: $150M
Avenzo Therapeutics, an oncology startup, closed the largest biotech raise of the week with a $150 million Series A-1 financing led by Deep Track Capital, New Enterprise Associates, Sands Capital Ventures, and Sofinnova Investments. Founded in August 2022, the San Diego-based firm aims to advance treatments for metastatic breast cancer and other advanced solid tumors.
The Brandtech Group: Transforming Marketing with AI
Sector: Marketing
Funding: $115M
New York-based The Brandtech Group, an AI marketing company, secured a $115 million Series C funding round from new investors Fimalac Group and Nendo Labs, along with existing investors Mousse Partners and Bansk Group. The company, founded in 2015, utilizes machine-generated content and AI to drive marketing initiatives, accumulating a total funding of $725 million.
Observe: Revolutionizing Data Integration
Sector: Data Integration
Funding: $115M
Observe, an observability cloud solution, raised a $115 million Series B funding round led by Sutter Hill Ventures. The San Mateo, California-based startup helps companies manage data effectively by breaking down silos, with a reported valuation of $400 million to $500 million. Since its inception in 2017, Observe has raised $277 million.
Coro: Reinventing Cybersecurity for SMEs
Sector: Cybersecurity
Funding: $100M
New York-based Coro, a cybersecurity platform tailored for small and medium-sized enterprises, announced a $100 million Series D led by One Peak. Founded in 2014, Coro has raised a total of $255 million, addressing the evolving cybersecurity needs of businesses.
FundGuard: Transforming Investment Accounting with AI
Sector: Accounting
Funding: $100M
FundGuard, an AI-powered investment accounting platform for asset managers, raised $100 million led by Key1 Capital and new investors including Euclidean Capital and funds managed by Hamilton Lane. The round was reportedly raised at a valuation of up to $400 million. Since its establishment in 2018, FundGuard has raised over $150 million.
Lightshift Energy: Innovating Utility-Scale Energy Storage
Sector: Energy
Funding: $100M
Arlington, Virginia-based Lightshift Energy secured $100 million from Greenbacker Group. Formerly known as Delorean Power, Lightshift focuses on utility-scale energy storage development across various sectors in the U.S. Since its founding in 2019, the company has raised over $121 million.
Eliyan: Advancing Chiplet Interconnect Technology
Sector: Semiconductors
Funding: $60M
Eliyan, based in Santa Clara, California, raised $60 million in a round co-led by Samsung Catalyst Fund and Tiger Global Management. Founded in 2021, Eliyan specializes in chiplet interconnect development, marking its first announced round.
HeyGen: Revolutionizing AI Video Platforms
Sector: Artificial Intelligence
Funding: $60M
Los Angeles-based HeyGen, an AI video platform, reportedly raised $60 million led by Benchmark at a $500 million post-money valuation. Established in 2020, HeyGen has raised $69 million, focusing on AI-driven video solutions.
Pelago: Transforming Substance Use Management in Healthcare
Sector: Healthcare
Funding: $58M
Pelago, headquartered in New York, announced a $58 million round led by Atomico. Founded in 2017, Pelago specializes in substance use management, accumulating a total funding of $151 million.
This March witnessed a surge in significant funding rounds, with seven rounds exceeding $100 million in the final week. While no exceptionally large rounds were recorded compared to the previous week, investments were diversified across various sectors, including AI, biotech, marketing, and more. Let's see if April continues the trend of increasing large raises.
Hi! I'm Mariane Bekker, a tech executive with over a decade of experience building high-performing engineering teams at leading startups such as New Relic and Mindbody. I've led engineering through 5 acquisitions and 1 IPO.
I'm passionate about promoting diversity and inclusion in the tech industry and helping founders succeed. That's why I founded Founders Bay, a female-focused incubator for AI-powered startup