R136 Ventures Growth Digest #1: The Great Capital Concentration, IPO Explosion, Bootstrap Beats Billions
Your monthly snapshot of late-stage venture: top rounds, valuations, exits, and market insights
The Operator’s Lens
Another venture newsletter. I know.
But here's what we're not doing: chasing every seed round, celebrating every raise, or pretending every startup will change the world. The early-stage game has enough voices.
The late-stage conversation remains surprisingly quiet. This newsletter exists for those who think beyond the next round.
The founder approaching Series B questioning growth at all costs.
The investor evaluating late-stage dynamics.
The operator who knows that scaling isn't just about adding zeros.
R136 has spent a decade in these trenches. We've seen capital concentration create deserts.
Each month, we’ll cut through the chaos to find what actually matters. The late-stage rounds that signal where markets are heading. The M&A deals that reveal who's really winning. The private companies building while others are pitching.
Signal Through Noise 📡
The smartest takes on tech and venture capital this month, pulled from the Twitter chaos, because the best insights often come in 280 characters.
Top 5 Late-Stage Funding Rounds (by stage) 💸
Here's where the late-stage VC money went in the past month:
Series B
€189M for Multiverse Computing, a Spain-based quantum computing and software company, led by Bullhound Capital, HP Tech Ventures, and SETT,
$100M for Mach Industries, a Huntington Beach, CA-based defense tech company, raised led by Khosla Ventures with participation from Bedrock.
$75M for Nominal from Los Angeles with funding from Founders Fund, General Catalyst and more.
€73.8M for Animaj, a Paris-based AI-powered kids' media company, led by HarbourView Equity Partners with participation from Bpifrance Large Venture, JP Morgan, and others.
$66M for Actio Biosciences, a San Diego-based life sciences company led by Regeneron Ventures with participation from Deerfield Management, Canaan, and others.
Series C
$900M for Anysphere, maker of AI coding assistant Cursor, led by Thrive Capital, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, Accel, and DST Global.
$100M for Seekr Technologies based in Vienna, VA led by Danu Venture Group with participation from AMD Ventures.
$70m for Onebrief from Austin, TX with funding from General Catalyst, Insight Partners, and more.
$70M for Hex, a San Francisco startup with funding from Amplify, BOX Group, Redpoint, Sequoia Capital and more.
$70M for Nabla, a Paris-based AI tool provider for doctors, led by Highland Europe with participation from DST Global, Cathay Innovation, and others.
Series D
€600M for Helsing, a Munich-based defense unicorn, led by Prima Materia with participation from Accel, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and others.
$200M for Persona, a San Francisco-based company led by Founders Fund with participation from Ribbit Capital, BOND, and others.
$140M for GRIN Therapeutics, Inc., a New York biotech company co-led by Angelini Pharma and returning investor Blackstone.
$130M for Juniper Square, San Francisco-based real estate investment platform, led by Ribbit Capital with participation from Fifth Wall, Redpoint Ventures, and others.
$80M for Canary Technologies, a San Francisco-based hotel tech provider, led by Brighton Park Capital with participation from Insight Partners, F-Prime Capital, and others.
Series E
$540M for Cyera from San Mateo, CA with funding from Sequoia Capital, Accel and eight more.
$300M for Harvey AI co-led by Kleiner Perkins and Coatue, with participation from existing investors.
$300M for Abridge, an AI healthcare company, led by Andreessen Horowitz and joined by Khosla Ventures
$200M for Ramp, led by Founders Fund, with participation from Thrive Capital, D1 Capital Partners. General Catalyst.
$150M for Coralogix, an Israel-based full-stack observability platform provider, led by NewView Capital, with participation from CPPIB, NextEquity, and all existing investors
Market Makers & Breakers: The Top 10 Private Market Companies 🔥
The 10 companies whose valuations dictate what everyone else thinks they're worth
OUR TAKE
Geography Determines Destiny
US assets: Limitless valuations (SpaceX $350B, OpenAI $300B)
China assets: Deep discounts (ByteDance -12%, Ant -66%)
Regulatory risk is real—Ant went from $300B to $78B overnight
AI Broke Venture Math
OpenAI is up 971% in two years
Traditional metrics are dead
We've moved from revenue multiples to imagination multiples.
The Missing Middle
Winner-Take-All Dynamics Are Intensifying.
You're either worth $100B+ or fighting for scraps.
The $1-10B company segment (where real returns live) is being ignored
For Late-Stage Investors
Don't compete with these giants.
Find value in the chaos they create.
While we chase the next OpenAI, profitable growth companies trade at discounts; that's where the opportunity is.
Top 5 M&A Deals 🎉
While everyone tracks funding rounds, exits show where true value lives.
Here’s five of the M&A deals from the past month that we think matter:
1. Oxford Ionics → IonQ | $1.07B
IonQ bought the ability to make quantum chips in standard fabs. Physics is hard. Manufacturing is harder.
Built, scaled, sold. 180 days. No VCs. $189K monthly profit. While AI giants burn billions, Base44 built real value with customer dollars.
3. Hotshot → xAI | Undisclosed
xAI adding video generation shows the next phase, vertical integration. Small AI startups face a choice: sell now or get steamrolled later.
4. Symbiosys → DoorDash | $175M
Ad tech bought by food delivery. DoorDash realized its data is worth more than its deliveries. New buyer pool changes exit calculus.
5. Aeponyx → Pasqal | Undisclosed
Optical networking meets quantum computing. Not sexy, but essential. Infrastructure plays often outlast the platforms they serve.
Top 5 IPOs 🎊
Real public market pricing, no more private market fantasy. Here’s five significant IPOs from the past month.
eToro Group Ltd. |$52 →$63.78 (+22.65%)
Social trading platform raised $620M. While crypto platforms implode, eToro built sustainable revenue from copy-trading. Human psychology pays.
Circle Internet Group |$31 →$222.65 (+618%)
USDC stablecoin issuer had the IPO of the decade. Regulatory compliance beats innovation—Circle played by the rules while others rebelled.
Chime Financial |$27 →$29 (+7.41%)
Digital banking reality check. $25B private valuation in 2021, $11.6B public debut. The venture discount is real.
AIRO Group Holdings |$10 →$24.27 (+142%)
Defense tech unmanned systems doubled on debut. Ukraine changed everything, hard problems need hard solutions.
Voyager Technologies |$31 →$43.94 (+41%)
Space and defense convergence, $3.8B valuation. SpaceX's success created infrastructure demand that actually pays.
This Month at R136 Ventures ⚡️
🎯 Portfolio Milestone: eToro Goes Public
A decade-long journey from startup to public markets. The retail trading revolution we backed in 2015 just rang the bell.
💰 New Investment: Airwallex | Global B2B Fintech
Banks retreated from cross-border commerce. Airwallex built what they abandoned., $720M ARR, 90% YoY growth, Operating in 30+ countries
🎙️ New Podcast Episode: Jim Pulcrano: Europe vs. Silicon Valley
Learn why this IMD professor and investor closes his laptop during pitches and why Europe's 15-year industrial bets beat Silicon Valley's quick flips.
📅 Upcoming Webinar
Learn which AI agents are already automating fund operations, how banks are navigating regulatory compliance, and why 2026 will be the breakout year for financial automation.
That’s all for this month. See you in July.