Wishing everyone a safe, restorative long weekend here in the U.S. As we take a breather, we’ll also be taking a moment to remember our fallen veterans and to appreciate all those who’ve served — and continue to serve — this country. Thank you. 💙

Before we unplug, a quick (and exciting!) heads-up: our next StrictlyVC event is coming together with the help of some fantastic speakers who are joining us in the heart of Silicon Valley.

First up: Baiju Bhatt, co-founder of Robinhood, will be there to talk about his new venture, Aetherflux, a freshly funded, wildly ambitious startup working on space-based solar power. 🚀

Also taking the stage: Ali Partovi, the investor-operator behind Neo, which is rapidly becoming a top contender in the accelerator world. Among Neo’s early bets? Cognition, the company behind Devin, the "AI software engineer" that’s had tongues wagging since its launch. Ali will be joined by Russell Kaplan, Cognition’s president, to talk about the wild ride so far — and where Cognition is headed next.

We’re still curating the full lineup for the night — it takes place June 18th at the Quad on Sand Hill Road — but ticket sales are already moving faster than we expected, so if you’re thinking of joining us, don’t wait too long to snag your spot. Thank you, Mayfield, for raising your hand to partner with us on this one! 

- CL

Top News

President Donald Trump announced in a Truth Social post this morning that Apple will have to pay a 25% tariff on all iPhones not made in the U.S. CNBC has more here. 

Elon Musk's DOGE is apparently using a variant of Grok to analyze U.S. federal government data. Reuters has more here. 

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Landa Promised Real Estate Investing for $5. Now It’s Gone Dark.

By Mary Ann Azevedo & Sean O'Kane

The idea of becoming a real estate investor for as little as $5 may seem too good to be true.

And for many users of Landa, a proptech company that promised just that — it has been.

Landa emerged from stealth in August 2022, announcing a total of $33 million in funding and a pledge to help everyday Americans access residential real estate investment through fractional shares.

CEO Yishai Cohen and former CTO Amit Assaraf founded Landa in 2019 in an effort to make real estate investment more inclusive. The app’s only requirements were that users be over age 18 and U.S. residents. They could start investing with just $5, and buy and sell shares as well as see real-time updates on their properties from the Landa app. (Assaraf left the company in December of 2023, according to his LinkedIn profile. He has not responded to requests for comment.)

Today, Landa’s investment portal site is down and its app is inoperable. Users claim they can’t access their funds and haven’t been paid dividends in months. The startup is embroiled in litigation, including a lawsuit from its early venture investor Viola.

One early user told TechCrunch that Landa stopped paying dividends to him on his shares in January. When he asked Landa about it, they “punted the question,” he said.

“I repeatedly emailed them about it and just got deflecting answers, nothing real,” the user said. “Then a few months after that, the app became unusable. It would not open.”

The user then asked if he could delete his account, which he had opened in 2021, and sell the shares. But he found Landa had disabled his ability to sell shares.

“They have essentially frozen me out of my funds and just shut down the app,” the user said. “Where is the money? Why won’t they return it to me?”

More here. 

Massive Fundings

Monarch, a six-year-old San Francisco startup that offers a personal finance app for budgeting, planning, and managing money, raised a $75 million Series B round. Forerunner Ventures and FPV Ventures were the co-leads. CNBC has more here.

RevenueCat, a seven-year-old San Francisco startup that helps app developers manage subscriptions, billing, and revenue tracking for users on iOS, Android, and the web, raised a $50 million Series C round at a $500 million post-money valuation. The deal was led by Bain Capital Ventures, with Index Ventures, Y Combinator, Adjacent, Volo Ventures, and SaaStr Fund also investing. The company has raised a total of $100 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings

CX2, a one-year-old startup based in El Segundo, CA, that develops electronic warfare technologies for national defense applications, raised a $31 million round led by Point72 Ventures, with Andreessen Horowitz, 8VC, and Pax Ventures also chipping in. Tech in Asia has more here.

Fore Biotherapeutics, a fourteen-year-old Philadelphia company that develops targeted cancer drugs for patients with rare genetic mutations, raised a $38 million Series D-2 round. Investors included SR One, Medicxi, OrbiMed, HBM Healthcare Investments, Wellington Management, Novartis Venture Fund, Cormorant Asset Management, and 3B Future Health Fund. More here.

General Medicine, a two-year-old San Francisco startup that runs a virtual care marketplace connecting patients with doctors and diagnostic services, raised a $32 million round from Matrix Partners, BoxGroup, Founder Collective, VXI Capital, and JSL Ventures. More here.

GrowthX, a one-year-old San Francisco startup that uses AI to help marketing teams analyze data and improve campaign performance, raised a $12 million Series A round led by Madrona. VentureBeat has more here.

Palmstreet, a five-year-old startup based in Menlo Park, CA, that runs a live-streaming marketplace for rare plants, handmade goods, and other niche items, raised a $25 million round co-led by Andreessen Horowitz, Craft Ventures, and Headline. More here.

Rhino Federated Computing, a five-year-old Boston startup that helps organizations in regulated industries use AI without moving sensitive data by deploying federated learning infrastructure, raised a $15 million Series A round. AlleyCorp was the deal lead, with LionBird, Fusion Fund, Arkin Digital Health, Qiming Venture Partners USA, and Telus Global Ventures also investing. More here.

StackHawk, a six-year-old Denver startup that helps software teams find and fix security bugs in their APIs before code goes live, raised a $12 million round led by Sapphire Ventures and Costanoa Ventures. More here.

Smaller Fundings

Axle Health, a five-year-old Los Angeles startup that helps home care providers organize their staff and appointments more efficiently, raised a $10 million Series A round led by F-Prime Capital, with Y Combinator, Pear VC, and Lightbank also stepping up. More here.

Freshflow, a four-year-old Berlin startup that helps grocery retailers reduce food waste by predicting demand and optimizing inventory, raised a $7.4 million round. Investors included World Fund, Capnamic, Venture Stars, and Caesar Ventures. PYMNTS has more here.

Parkade, a seven-year-old San Francisco startup that provides software for apartment buildings and offices to manage, rent out, and share parking spots more easily, raised a $10 million Series A round co-led by Navitas Capital, MassMutual Ventures, and 9Yards Capital, with previous investors CRV, Heartland, and Box Group also opting in. The Registry has more here.

Penfold, a seven-year-old London startup that offers a digital pension platform for self-employed workers and small businesses, raised a $5.3 million round led by Gresham House Ventures. EU-Startups has more here.

PiLogic, a one-year-old Los Angeles startup that builds AI software to interpret radar signals and support real-time decision-making in aerospace and defense operations, raised a $4 million seed round co-led by Scout Ventures and Seraphim Space, with Sovereign's Capital, Flex Capital, FN Fund, and GokulRajaram also taking part. SiliconANGLE has more here.

RoboForce, a two-year-old startup based in Milpitas, CA, that develops AI-driven robots to automate physically demanding industrial tasks, raised a $5 million round. Investors included Myron Scholes and Gary Rieschel. The company has raised a total of $15 million. More here.

Tamtam, a two-year-old Paris startup that helps sales teams close complex B2B deals by using AI to map decision-makers and customize outreach strategies, raised a $2 million seed round led by Varsity, with Kima Ventures also pitching in. Vestbee has more here.

Throne, a four-year-old Austin startup that makes a smart toilet designed to monitor gut health and detect potential medical issues through AI analysis, raised a $4 million seed round led by Moxxie Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

VOYA Games, a two-year-old Berlin startup that develops multiplayer online games with a focus on community-driven storytelling and player creativity, raised a $5 million round co-led by 1kx and Makers Fund, with RockawayX also chipping in. EU-Startups has more here.

WellTheory, a four-year-old startup based in Atherton, CA, that helps people with autoimmune conditions get easier access to care by using AI to match them with treatment plans and support, raised a $5 million round. Investors included Samsung Next, Opal Ventures, and Up2 Fund as well as previous investors Accel, OVO Fund, and BoxGroup. MobiHealthNews has more here.

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New Funds

CreatorVentures, a three-year-old UK-based VC firm co-founded by former YouTube star Caspar Lee, raised $45 million for its second fund. The firm invests in early-stage startups within the creator economy and consumer tech sectors. IMDB has more here. 

Going Public

Pantera Capital’s Dan Morehead says the U.S. crypto IPO floodgates are about to open, with firms like Circle and Figure prepping listings as friendlier regulations lure blockchain companies back from overseas. Benzinga has more here. 

People

Following the example of Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski,, Zoom CEO Eric Yuan used an avatar to deliver a portion of his company's earnings call. Zoom is making a custom avatar add-on feature available to all users this week. TechCrunch has more here. 

The New York Times profiles Demis Hassabis, "the man who 'AGI-pilled' Google." More here. 

Kevin Rose, co-founder of the newly revived Digg, has publicly offered to buy Pocket after Mozilla announced plans to shut down the read-it-later app, suggesting Digg could use it to jumpstart user engagement. TechCrunch has more here. 

Data

The Economist details the worrying decline in investor distributions thanks to the steepdecline in IPOs and M&As. More here. 

Essential Reads

Khosla Ventures has become the latest venture firm to dabble in private equity-style rollups, joining peers like General Catalyst, Thrive Capital, and Elad Gil in buying up mature service businesses and layering in AI — part experiment, part customer pipeline for the startups they already back. TechCrunch has more here. 

Detours

Looking for a cure for brainrot? The Internet Archive is livestreaming its digitization of government records — set to lo-fi beats, of course.

Retail Therapy

TAG Heuer has reissued its classic Monaco watch that Steve McQueen made famous in the 1971 racing movie, Le Mans. 

This newly constructed 29,000-square-foot, $55 million Lake Minnetonka mansion boasts a movie theater, a bowling alley, two docks, and a Himalayan salt room.