VNTR Newsletter July 6: AI Frenzy xAI Raises $10B, Unicorn M&A Picks Up, Sequoia Leads Deals

Venture Capital, Web3, and Private Equity – News, Events, and VC Reads

Jul 06, 2025

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VNTR Global Investor Summit, Lisbon on Nov 11

Join us for a full day of keynotes, panel discussions, thematic roundtables, company showcases, the annual VNTR Awards, networking at the VNTR Club lounge, and dedicated breakout sessions for LPs, CVCs, and Family Offices. (sponsorship packages)
Extend your experience by joining the VNTR Retreat to Porto and the Douro Valley, November 13–16.
👉 Apply here to speak at the VNTR Summit

👉 Apply here to showcase your company

As The Generative AI Wars Heat Up, Elon Musk’s xAI Secures $10B In Debt, Equity

Elon Musk’s generative AI startup, xAI, has raised $10 billion in debt and equity, reported CNBC. The company secured $5 billion through a strategic equity investment, according to Morgan Stanley as cited by CNBC. The remainder of the capital was obtained through term loans and secured notes. The raise comes just over six months after xAI raised $6 billion in a Series C round of funding at a $50 billion valuation. That financing included participation from Valor Equity Partners, Vy Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, Fidelity Management & Research Co., and Kingdom Holding Co., among others.

AI startups gobbling more than a third of venture debt dollars this year

AI and ML startups are taking a greater share of venture debt funding, receiving 38.4% of the $30 billion total in US and European value so far this year, according to PitchBook data. Driven by soaring infrastructure costs and the pressure to sustain high valuations, the venture debt industry is coalescing around AI and ML companies as startups are seeking debt financing at earlier stages.

AI Spurs More Unicorn Acquisitions As Clio, Grammarly Make M&A Deals

This has been a busy week for unicorns making acquisitions. On July 1, Canada-based legal software company Clio revealed its plans to acquire Spain’s vLex from Oakley Capital for $1 billion. And, Grammarly — which has been on a buying spree as of late — announced its intent to acquire Superhuman, an AI-native email app. Clio plans to use cash and stock to fund its purchase of vLex. In a blog post, Clio CEO Jack Newton said the buy is an example of Clio “laying the foundation for the first and only cloud-based, AI-powered platform that seamlessly connects the business and practice of law.”

Sequoia Was Busiest Startup Investor In June, While Meta Spent The Most

Venture investors kept busy in June, with a handful of firms leading the charge. The list of most-active U.S. investors by deal count and dollars invested this past month includes mostly familiar names such as Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz and Founders Fund. We also saw Meta join the ranks for spendiest, thanks to its $14.3 billion investment in Scale AI.

VNTR Investor Forums

This year, we successfully hosted five VNTR Investor Forums in Bahrain, Riyadh, Dubai, London, and Cannes. These gatherings have proven highly valuable for our members, offering insights from top-tier speakers and fostering meaningful connections with relevant co-investors through thematic roundtables and curated networking sessions.

Join us at the upcoming VNTR Investor Forums:

The Operator Edge: Rethinking Venture Capital’s Talent Pipeline

In venture capital’s emerging manager landscape, manager selection is everything, but institutional investors consistently make a critical error: reflexively backing spinouts from established VC firms while overlooking operators-turned-investors. This misallocation of capital doesn’t just represent missed opportunities. It actively reinforces homogeneity in an industry that thrives on contrarian thinking, leaving alpha on the table.

2025 State of AI Report: The Builder’s Playbook
AI has entered a new chapter: from hype to hands-on. Creating and scaling AI products is becoming the pivotal arena for competitive edge. Our 2025 State of AI report, The Builder’s Playbook, shifts focus from AI adoption to the how-to of AI execution, unpacking what it takes to conceive, deliver, and scale AI-powered offerings end-to-end.
Drawing on proprietary April 2025 survey results of 300 executives at software companies and in-depth interviews with AI leaders across the ICONIQ community1, this report offers a tactical roadmap for translating generative AI intelligence into a durable business advantage.

How To Keep Your Team Motivated After An Exit Without Jeopardizing The Deal
Buyers invest in teams, not just products. Post-exit performance is key — and motivation is your responsibility.

California Share Of Startup Funding Is Still On The Rise
California continues to dominate VC funding across sectors, reaffirming its position as the heart of global tech.

Europe’s Most Ambitious Startups Aren’t Becoming Global; They’re Starting That Way
European founders are focusing globally from day one, reshaping the traditional “local-first” scaling model.

Should VCs Invest In ‘Jockeys’ Or ‘Horses’?
The classic VC dilemma: back strong founders or strong ideas? A debate as old as venture capital itself.

Here’s what the SEC has been up to in 2025
Under new leadership, the SEC is easing restrictions, opening private markets to retail and favoring deregulation.

Competition heats up as crypto exchanges vie for European market
MiCA regulation is spurring crypto exchanges to secure licenses across the EU and compete on equal footing.

Meta has found another way to keep you engaged: Chatbots that message you first
Meta’s new AI chatbots proactively reach out to users, blending recommendation engines with direct engagement.

There’s growing anxiety about missing the AI party’
VCs are flooding AI deals in core markets, while much of Europe remains left out of the current boom.

When not to take VC advice
Founders caution: many European VCs lack operating experience, so filter their advice with care.

VCs are the worst run businesses, they never take their own advice
They tell founders that competition is for losers, but they sell an undifferentiated product that is insanely competitive with some of the smartest people in the world.
they tell founders to have 1 CEO and they have 5 CEOs

LPs want their liquidity and they want it now

The nature of his fundraising mandates follow a pretty typical pattern: the PE manager is either raising a new fund, or upsizing a preexisting position, and turns to existing LPs and says “who wants in?” (just like they’ve done in the past). Except this time around, the LPs are responding along the lines of “definitely not us,” or more politely, “we’d love to, but we still haven’t seen any money back from funds I-IV, so we’re going to have to pass on Fund V.”

Why Investors Don’t Care About Your Business
Founders looking to approach VCs for investment need to understand the four forces that influence how and where VCs invest:
1) how VCs make money, 2) the Lemming Effect, 3) the current economic climate and 4) Secondaries.

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