September 5th Newsletter

Recent Deal Announcement

Stepmark Partners is pleased to serve as Exclusive Sell-side Advisor to Tobiko Data, the open source transformation company behind SQLMesh and SQLGlot, in connection with its acquisition by Fivetran.

Gold broke $3,600 to an all-time high this week as investors bet on Fed rate cuts, amid dollar weakness, and inflation uncertainty. Meanwhile, U.S. consumer sentiment hit a three-month low in August at 58.2, and there are now more Americans out of work than there are jobs open for the first time since April 2021. In tech, a judge blocked Google’s exclusive search deals but allowed it to retain Chrome and its Apple partnership. Figma stocks tanks 14% after-hours in it first post-IPO Earnings. Lastly, Tesla offers an unprecedented $1 trillion pay package to Musk.

Monthly AI Financing Report: See the August update here.

Top 5 AI Highlights

[1] 💰 Anthropic has secured $13B in Series F funding led by ICONIQ, valuing the company at $183B. It now serves over 300,000 businesses, with large accounts growing nearly 7x YoY. Claude Code, launched in May, has already hit a $500M run-rate, with usage surging more than 10x in three months. Read more from Anthropic.

[2] ⚙️ OpenAI is acquiring product testing startup Statsig for $1.1B in stock. Founder Vijaye Raji becomes CTO of Applications, as OpenAI reshapes leadership to expand its AI-powered product ecosystem. Separately, OpenAI is set to launch its own AI chips in 2026 with Broadcom under a new $10B deal. More from OpenAI, Statsig and CNBC.

[3] 🌐 Atlassian to acquire The Browser Company for $610M in cash, aiming to launch an AI-powered work browser, rivaling traditional tools. Dia browser to grow independently post-deal, the deal is planned to close in FY26 Q2. See from TechCrunch.

[4] 📚 Mistral AI is finalizing a €2B raise at a $14B valuation, making it one of Europe’s top tech startups amid a 55% surge in European AI investments in early 2025. Details from TechCrunch.

[5]⚡President Trump and the First Lady hosted tech leaders to advance U.S. AI leadership, highlighting the Administration’s AI Action Plan and public-private efforts driving major infrastructure and innovation growth. Read more from the White House.

Founder’s Corner

Startup headcount growth has slowed to its lowest

What We Read This Week

• MrBeast plans to launch a branded mobile service by 2026 via the MVNO model, aiming to leverage his 400M+ YouTube fans, mirroring celebrity telecom plays like Ryan Reynolds’ $1.35B Mint Mobile sale. (BI)

• Kraft Heinz will split into two companies by 2026, separating global condiments from North American staples like Oscar Mayer and Lunchables, reversing its 2015 megamerger amid declining sales and shifting consumer tastes. (WSJ)

• Aldi plans its largest U.S. expansion yet, adding 200+ stores in 2025, including a 25,000-sq-ft Times Square location, targeting inflation-hit shoppers with low prices, private labels, and urban growth. (WSJ)

• Jane Street smashed records with $10.1B Q2 trading revenue, beating Wall Street’s biggest banks, amid tariff-driven volatility, pushing H1 revenue to $17.3B and Q2 net income to $6.9B. (BBG)

AI Fundraising news (Aug 29 — Sep 4)

• Anthropic: Frontier model developer, raised a $13B Series F

• Artificial Societies: AI-driven virtual populations for testing marketing ideas, raised a $3.35M Seed

• OpenPipe: Customized AI agent training via reinforcement learning, acquired by CoreWeave

• Exa: Search engine designed for AI systems, raised a $85M Series B

• Fermi America: Multi-source-powered AI data center campus developer, raised a $100M Series C

• HappyRobot: AI agents for freight operator automation, raised a $44M Series B

• LayerX: AI to automate Japanese back-office tasks, raised a $100M Series B

• Loman AI: AI phone agent for restaurant customer service, raised a $3.5M Seed

• Mistral: Frontier model developer, is finalizing a €2 billion raise

• Orchard Robotics: AI and cameras to monitor fruit crops, raised a $22M Series A

• Predoc: AI to organize patient medical records, raised a $30M Seed and Series A

• Sierra: Custom AI agents for enterprise customer service, raised a $350M

• You.com: APIs to build AI-powered applications, raised a $150M Series C