The Dealflow by Founders Capital - Edition 12

Key News and Trends

They disrupted travel. Next stop: your entire itinerary. Airbnb’s 2025 Summer Release introduces “Airbnb Services” (bookable chefs, trainers, spa treatments) and expands “Experiences” to 650 cities - now including premium celebrity-led events under “Airbnb Originals.” It’s a major step toward becoming a full-service travel and lifestyle platform. Read more here.

Google’s feeling less lucky - Perplexity’s coming for the search crown. AI search startup Perplexity is finalising a $500M funding round led by Accel, boosting its valuation to $14B, a 56% increase from December. The San Francisco-based company, offers a conversational search engine and is developing Comet, an AI-powered browser aimed at challenging Google Chrome. With over 30M users and annualised revenue reaching $35M, Perplexity is also in talks with Apple to integrate its search capabilities into Safari. Read more here.

Claude’s legal citation was 80% correct - which is 100% a problem in court. In a copyright lawsuit with major music publishers, Anthropic’s AI, Claude, generated a flawed legal citation in an expert report: correct link, wrong authors, and a made-up title. Anthropic’s lawyer called it an “embarrassing” formatting error missed during manual checks. Read more here.

Neon’s Postgres isn’t built by humans. And now, it’s not owned by them either. Databricks has acquired AI-native database startup Neon for $1B in a mostly stock deal. Neon rearchitects Postgres for AI agents - 80% of its databases are built by AI, not humans. It’s Databricks’ third billion-dollar buy, following MosaicML (2023) and Tabular (2024), as the $62B company doubles down on AI-native infrastructure. Read more here.

Founder’s Take: When Giants Move, Markets Shift

At a certain size, adding a new revenue line or pivoting becomes less about chasing market fit and more about shaping enterprise value. Every move must align with a coherent strategy: Will it unlock a new category or stretch the company too thin? At scale, execution demands more than just building. It’s about making high-conviction bets, backed by enough weight to match the noise they generate.

You don’t pivot lightly when you’ve reached this velocity. For Airbnb, this move signals a clear ambition to own the full travel and lifestyle stack. But when platforms expand into adjacent categories, the challenge becomes staying focused. Lifestyle moves like these can grow TAM, but they also risk brand dilution and strategic distraction.

But what does it mean for the rest of the market?

For startups, it’s validation. A signal that there’s room to play, and profit, in adjacent spaces Airbnb is now entering. But it’s also a challenge: how do you respond when a $100B+ player steps into your lane? Some will pivot, others will push harder. When a category matures, the incumbents will come - and when they do, your moat better be more than just being “first.”

Top Venture Deals

AI21 Labs – $300M Series D (Google, Nvidia)

• AI21 Labs, an eight-year-old Israeli startup based in Tel Aviv, has raised $300 million in a Series D round led by Google and Nvidia. The company builds large language models and generative AI tools for enterprise use cases including content creation, summarisation, multilingual communication, and broader AI infrastructure - part of its push to scale enterprise-grade AI solutions. Read more here.

Classiq – $110M Series C (Entrée Capital)

• Quantum software startup Classiq raised $110M in a Series C - the largest ever round for a quantum software company. The five-year-old Tel Aviv firm helps enterprises design and scale quantum applications, with new backing from Entrée Capital, HSBC, Samsung Next, Hamilton Lane, and others. Total funding now stands at $173M. Read more here.

Addepar  –  $230M Series G (Vitruvian Partners, WestCap)

• Wealth management platform Addepar raised $230M in a Series G at a $3.25B valuation. The 16-year-old Mountain View firm builds portfolio tools for RIAs and wealth professionals. Vitruvian Partners and WestCap co-led the round, joined by EDBI, 8VC, and Valor Equity. Read more here.

Upcoming Public Offerings

Chime

• Mobile banking platform Chime has officially filed to go public, highlighting strong revenue growth, a $33M jersey sponsorship with the Dallas Mavericks, and a near-profitability narrative aimed at winning over cautious IPO investors. Read more here.

eToro

• Israeli trading platform eToro went public on Nasdaq this week, pricing shares at $52 and opening at $69.69 - a 34% pop that pushed its valuation to $5.64B. The company, which offers social investing features and crypto trading, reported 2024 revenue of $12.64B, up from $3.89B in 2023. Read more here.

See you in the next edition,
Sam Scott and the Founders Capital Team