Hey Insiders, 

Today we are taking a look at why defense tech VC funding has defied the slump, the PE and VC funding outlook for India, and British VC firm Illuminate's new $235M fund. We have also rounded up the top leadership changes in startups this week. 

Scroll down for some quick hits, and then let us know what other content you'd like to see in future issues. 

Karan
p/karan-chafekar

What the numbers say: U.S. defense tech startups secured $14.5B in VC funding in Q1 2023, setting a new quarterly record. Q1's tally helped push the total funds deployed in the five months of the year over the $17B mark, more than the sum invested in the entirety of 2019. 

What happened: Funding for the industry surged despite a backdrop of VC funding decline due to the global tense political landscape, reiterating the importance of defense startups. As a result, defense startups are expected to rake in a larger share of the U.S. $886B defense budget for 2024. 

Where to see the impact: Institutional VCs, such as Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital, that previously shied away from defense startup deals have also begun investing in the sector. Sequoia made its first defense tech investment last week, leading a $5.7M seed round into Mach Industries. Andreessen Horowitz is the largest backer of Anduril Industries, a defense tech startup valued at $9B. Earlier this April, General Catalyst established a "global resilience" practice to back defense and intelligence startups.

Indian startups nabbed private equity and venture capital investment to $3.5B in May 2023, down 44% from $6.2B in the same month last year, per a new report by IVCA and EY. Funding slumped 52% MoM from $7.4B in April 2023. 

More:

• Despite the recent dip, EY partner Vivek Soni is optimistic about prospects in the latter half of the year, expecting the overall deployments to surpass last year's tally. 
• Real estate-focused startups raked in the majority share of capital in the month, nabbing $1.2B from seven deals. 
  • The technology sector nabbed the second largest share of capital, with $864M invested across 15 deals, up 159% YoY. 
• 20 exits in the month provided $1.8B to investors, a slight improvement over the preceding month's tally of $1.6B. 
• PE and VCs raised funds worth $2.2B in the month, more than twice the $745M raised in the same month last year.

Indonesian VC firm Go-Ventures secured $240M in capital commitments from limited partners toward its second fund. Additionally, the firm rebranded to Argor Capital "to reinforce the investment firm's independence" from the Indonesian super app and e-commerce firm GoTo. 

More:

• GoTo, which initially backed the firm in 2018, remained an investor in Argor's latest fund. 
• Partner Aditya Kamath said, "While we are rebranding at a time of expansion, the word 'Go' embedded in our name is an important reminder for us of the strong support we have received from GoTo and our other investors since we started this journey back in 2018."
• The new fund will enable the firm to invest in early and mid-stage B2B marketplace, consumer, environmental tech, fintech, and digital transformation startups in Southeast Asia. 
• The recent fund is larger than its predecessor, which closed at $175M in 2020. 
• Since then, the firm has backed 19 companies, the most notable of which are Vara, KitaBeli, Juragan Materia, eFishery, and SafeBoda.

Today's Funding: 

AI

• British voice AI startup ElevenLabs raised $19M in Series A funding led by Andreessen Horowitz, GitHub CEO Nat Freidman, and Daniel Gross. 
• AI-powered speech-to-text transcription platform Parrot AI nabbed $11M in Series A funding co-led by Amplify Partners and XYZ Venture Capital. 

Biotech

• French medtech startup CorWave held the second close of its Series C round at €61M ($66.6M). The firm has developed a heart pump based on breakthrough technology. Bpifrance and Exor Ventures provided the funding. 
• Alamar Biosciences and Frazier Life Sciences formed a new biotech startup called Attovia Therapeutics to focus on immune-mediated disease and cancer treatment biotherapeutics. The firm launched with $60M Series A funding led by Frazier, with participation from venBio and Illumina Ventures. 
• Israeli women's health-focused biotech startup ConTIPI Medical secured a $40M structured financing from Capital IP Investment Partners and Ghost Tree Partners. 
• MassMutual Ventures invested €5.5M ($6M) into biopharma R&D user cell simulations startup Turbine. The funding extends the Series A round to €25.5M ($27.8M). 

Healthcare

• Diabetes management startup Clivi raised $10M in seed funding co-led by Dalus Capital and Foundation Capital. 

SpaceTech

• Indian spacetech startup Digantara raised $10M in Series A1 funding led by Peak XV Partners, formerly known as Sequoia Capital India and Southeast Asia. 

Transportation

• Transportation management software maker Rose Rocket closed its Scale Venture Partners-led Series B round with $38M in capital. Addition Capital, Shine Capital, Funders Club, and Y-Combinator backed the funding round.

Quick Hits:

• Notion combines traditional project management with your docs, knowledge base, and AI. Try it for free.*
• British early-stage VC firm Boost Capital Partners held the first close of its debut fund at $30M. The fund will back startups that focus on improving user experience in pre-seed and seed stages. 
• Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth fund ADQ was in talks to acquire investment bank Lazard and take it private. However, negotiations have been called off as the latter is focused on retaining operating independence. 
• TDK Ventures announced a $150M third fund dubbed EX1 to invest in early-stage energy transition, electrification, and decarbonization startups across the U.S. and Europe. 
• Laundry and dry cleaning service provider 2ULaundry acquired competitor The Folde for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition comes just months after 2ULaundry raised $20M in Series B funding from Level 5 Capital Partners. 

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