YC Review💪, What VC ‘Value-Add’ Really Looks Like🧭, Private Markets Outlook📈

Dec 14, 2025

Another week, another pulse check on venture.

From top insights and reports to new funds, VC jobs, resources, and the hottest deals, here’s everything you need to stay ahead.

Let’s dive in 👇

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In-Depth Insights 🔍

VC Fundraising Just Can’t Keep Up 📉
New vehicle formation and capital closes are lagging prior cycles despite headline interest in cutting-edge sectors. Managers without differentiated access or exit pathways face extended timelines and tougher terms. [The Information]
YC Review: The One Trait That Predicted Startup Outcomes 💪
After analyzing 8,000 applications, standard filters like idea quality, market size, résumé depth, and early traction proved weak signals. The strongest indicator was grit under pressure, leading evaluators to probe it from multiple angles rather than over-indexing on initial metrics. [Jason Freedman]
The Fed Cuts Rates by 0.25%, Staying a Gradual Course 🏛️
A measured policy step supports dealmaking stability and nudges sentiment toward a healthier reopening of public markets. Sponsors anticipate more constructive conditions for pipelines into 2026. [PitchBook]
Meesho Soars 53% on $603M Mumbai IPO Debut 🚀
The marketplace’s reception underscores appetite for profitable growth stories in India’s consumer internet. Strong demand arrives despite mixed post-listing performance elsewhere this year. [Yahoo Finance]
OpenAI Fires Back at Google with GPT-5.2 🤖
New “Instant,” “Thinking,” and “Pro” tiers push reasoning, coding, and long-context capabilities to win enterprise workflows. The performance race heightens compute cost pressure as agentic use cases scale. [TechCrunch]
World Launches Its ‘Super App’ with Encrypted Chat and Crypto Pay 🪙
World adds end-to-end messaging cues tied to verified identities and expands wallet rails to drive engagement. Lower-friction verification hardware aims to accelerate network effects for the “real human” graph. [TechCrunch]
Disney Strikes Three-Year Deal to Bring Characters to Sora 🎬
The partnership unlocks licensed creative tooling across franchises while excluding talent likenesses and voices. Disney will also tap OpenAI APIs to prototype new product experiences. [TechCrunch]
Bezos and Musk Race to Put AI Data Centers in Space 🛰️
Blue Origin and SpaceX explore orbital compute platforms to bypass terrestrial constraints on power and cooling. If feasible, off-Earth inference could redefine latency tradeoffs for global networks. [WSJ]
What VC ‘Value-Add’ Really Looks Like 🧭
Founders benefit most from structured involvement: governance rigor, operating cadence, and early professionalization. Rhythm beats rhetoric. Consistent updates and clear decision triggers align execution.

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Interesting Reports 📊

Private Markets: 2026 Outlook 📈
A survey of nearly 300 private-capital professionals shows firms doubling down on data consolidation and AI to sharpen sourcing and evaluation. With fundraising conditions improving, managers emphasize efficiency and demonstrable value creation to stand out. [Affinity]

Enterprise GenAI: 8 Takeaways from 500 Execs 💸
Buy‑over‑build is accelerating as off‑the‑shelf tools like Claude, ChatGPT Enterprise and Copilot dominate adoption and drive measurable ROI. Startups lead in horizontal, departmental and vertical apps while incumbents still hold infrastructure; coding tops departmental spend and healthcare leads verticals. [Deedy Das]
Europe’s VC Edge: Returns, Scale, Momentum💼
Over the last decade, the region has deployed €162B across 26,000+ companies and delivered 10‑year net performance ahead of North American funds. As policy support expands across AI, climate, defence and more, managers are backing home‑grown champions with strong TVPI and durable outcomes. [Invest Europe]

Recently Launched Funds 💸

Integrity Growth Partners just closed a $220M fund to back high-growth software and tech-enabled companies.
ALM Ventures is going all in on humanoid robots with a $100M fund focused on embodied AI and spatial intelligence.
6 Degrees Capital wrapped a €154M third fund to go deep on deep tech across Europe.
Brainworks Ventures launched a $50M AI-native fund for startups where AI isn’t a feature, it’s the foundation.
Hiro Capital is back with Hiro III to fund European scaleups and brought on Sir Nick Clegg as general partner.
Holly Ventures dropped a $33M fund to guard the digital gates with early cybersecurity plays.
Factorial Capital just raised $25M for Fund II to back early-stage deep tech builders.
Castle Fund is kicking things off with plans to raise $20M for its first fund focused on early consumer tech.
Page One Ventures is turning the page with plans for a second fund backing women-led startups.
Fitz Gate Ventures closed its third fund to keep backing Princeton-linked founders building the future.

Fundraising?

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These are the startups raising NOW

VC Jobs 💼

FirstMark Capital (New York City, NY): VC Investor (apply here)
Techstars (London, England): VC Manager (apply here)
eBay Ventures (Toronto, Canada): Senior VC Manager (apply here)
Antler (San Francisco, CA): VC Associate (apply here)
UVC Partners (Munich, Germany): VC Associate (apply here)
Cold Start Ventures (New York City, NY): Head of Operations (apply here)
YZI Labs (EMEA): VC Lead (apply here)
Yuwell Global (Remote): VC Director (apply here)
The First Thirty (London, England): VC Associate (apply here)
Unity Growth (Washington, DC): Head of IR (apply here)

Hottest Deals 💥

DayOne received up to €1B in mezzanine financing to scale its European biotech development platform. (read more)
Mirum Pharmaceuticals is acquiring BlueJay Therapeutics in a deal worth up to $820M. (read more)
Saviynt raised $700M in Series B at a ~$3B valuation to fuel growth in enterprise identity security. (read more)
Fervo Energy secured $462M in Series E to supercharge its next-gen geothermal power projects. (read more)
Castelion closed $350M in Series B to continue building its advanced solid rocket systems. (read more)
Airwallex raised $330M in Series G at an $8B valuation to double down on global fintech infrastructure. (read more)
Boom Supersonic raised another $300M to bring faster-than-sound air travel closer to reality. (read more)
K2 Space landed $250M in Series C at a $3B valuation to scale next-gen satellite systems. (read more)
Harness scored $240M in Series E to expand its DevOps and software delivery platform. (read more)
QuEra Computing secured over $230M to build scalable quantum computing platforms. (read more)
Impulse Dynamics closed $158M to accelerate commercial expansion of its heart failure treatment tech. (read more)
Highland Electric Fleets received a $150M investment from AIGA Capital to electrify school bus fleets. (read more)
FAL raised $140M in Series D to grow its defense tech and intelligence capabilities. (read more)
D3 Bio secured $108M in Series B to advance its precision oncology pipeline. (read more)
Quantum Art raised $100M in Series A to power generative AI content creation tools. (read more)