Newcomer

A newsletter focusing on startups and venture capital, authored by Eric Newcomer.

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We're Headed to London. Here's the Agenda for Our Cerebral Valley AI Summit Next Week.

1 week ago | newcomer.co | Eric Newcomer

I have to admit that I’m guilty of the ultimate American vice: hubris. I’ve been planning a cornerstone artificial intelligence event in London but I haven’t set foot in London outside Heathrow since I was a child. I’m in Rome right now. I’ll be in London Sunday evening. Thankfully, the European startup community has rallied around the Cerebral Valley AI Summit — and with my co-hosts at Volley — we’re so excited to bring our mid-year summit to London this coming Wednesday.
AI Roll-Up Deals Accelerate as Top VC Firms Edge Towards Private Equity

1 week ago | newcomer.co | Madeline Renbarger

Paid subscribers get access to a table with the top venture AI roll-ups at the bottom of this post in addition to our in-depth reporting on deal activity. Subscribe to read the full story and see our reporting on the key AI roll-ups. The AI roll-up has officially gone mainstream. Large VC firms like General Catalyst, Thrive Capital, and 8VC are increasingly running the private equity playbook of buying legacy businesses and trying to improve their performance.
SCOOP: Substack in Talks to Raise Financing as It Taps Into the Zeitgeist of Trump II

1 week ago | newcomer.co | Eric Newcomer

Substack is quietly fundraising on the back of exploding usage of its mobile app and a reignited enthusiasm for new political newsletters, thanks to President Donald Trump. The company believes its mobile application is becoming a powerful force for driving paid subscribers to the 500,000 creators now on its platform.
AI Moguls Vie for Leadership Crown

2 weeks ago | newcomer.co | Jonathan Weber |Madeline Renbarger

The Week in ShortSam Altman and what it takes to be the next Steve Jobs. Behind the paywall: Newly minted Y Combinator companies get funded as agents and dev tools storm the latest batch. Elon Musk rolls the dice with Austin robotaxis. Chime’s IPO a big win for some investors, not others, while Stripe and Automattic help ease the M&A drought.
Scale AI's Alexandr Wang in the Driver's Seat With Meta Deal

2 weeks ago | newcomer.co | Tom Dotan |Eric Newcomer

Once news of Meta’s investment in Scale broke, the myriad discussions rattling around the startup and AI world — and even among Scale’s own investors — could be boiled down to this: is this an Inflection, or is it an OpenAI? That is to say, did Meta invest approximately $15 billion in Scale to supercharge an outside startup while reaping some of the benefits and casting off its image as an AI stumbler (Microsoft-OpenAI).
My Conversation with Roy Bahat As Bloomberg Beta Announces New $75M Fund

2 weeks ago | newcomer.co | Eric Newcomer

Full transparency: I like the team at Bloomberg Beta. I worked at Bloomberg as a technology reporter for nearly six years before I started this newsletter. During my time at Bloomberg in San Francisco I got to know the team, including its leader Roy Bahat. So when Bahat came to me with the news that the firm is announcing its fifth fund — another $75 million fund from Bloomberg LP to back the earliest of early startups — I said he should talk about the decision exclusively on our Substack Live.
A Week of Confrontation: Trump & Musk (Obviously) + OpenAI & Anthropic Collide on Coding

3 weeks ago | newcomer.co | Jonathan Weber |Madeline Renbarger

This Week in ShortOpenAI’s move to buy Windsurf prompted Anthropic to cut off the coding app — a sign of whats to come. One thing we can be confident of is crazy AI growth, per Mary Meeker’s “Trends” report. A wave of IPOs continued with a big pop for stablecoin provider Circle on Thursday, and M&A is picking up too. AI video is suddenly everywhere as both Hollywood dealmaker Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meta back tools for AI video ads.
Secret SpaceX Projections Show Growing Starlink Business Will Insulate Musk's Space Company from Trump Retaliation

3 weeks ago | newcomer.co | Tom Dotan |Eric Newcomer

Let’s get the obvious out of the way: The Trump-Musk breakup was inevitable, dramatic and — no matter your politics — deeply entertaining. What it portends for the future of the so-called “tech right” and its alliance with Trump is something that will likely play out in the coming months. But the question pinging around the many people who are invested in the constellation of companies that make up Musk Inc., has been: How bad will it be? Tesla is in real trouble.
Health tech is hopping

4 weeks ago | newcomer.co | Madeline Renbarger

The Week In ShortHinge Health’s IPO was a big win for early investors Insight Partners, Atomico, 11.2 Capital, and Bessemer Venture Partners, but less so for late-stage ones. Now, other healthtechs are cautiously awaiting their public debuts. Emerging fund managers are in dire straits, per Bloomberg’s Kate Clark and Katie Roof. The team at Grammarly gets a billion dollar boost from Pranav Singhvi’s Customer Value Fund. Plus, our investor spotlights featuring Jim Breyer and Leigh Marie Braswell.
SCOOP: OpenEvidence, an AI Assistant for Doctors, in Talks to Raise a New Round of Funding at a $3 Billion Valuation

1 month ago | newcomer.co | Eric Newcomer |Madeline Renbarger

The race to back the next big AI startup for healthcare is heating up. OpenEvidence, a Sequoia-backed AI medical assistant for doctors, is raising over $100 million in fresh funding at a $3 billion valuation, sources tell us. GV and Kleiner Perkins are in talks to lead the funding round. The round isn’t finalized and the total amount of funding could increase, sources tell us. OpenEvidence works like a more medically-savvy ChatGPT.