XOXO, Your Daily Dose of VC Tea

Hey Upper East Siders (and Sand Hill Road dwellers)...

Spotted: Quantum computing having a major moment while Brex takes a walk down the aisle with Capital One. Grab your oat milk latte and settle in, because the VC world served up some serious drama today.

The Headlines You Need to Know

Quantum Gets Its Bag

Word on the street: Quantonation Ventures just closed a $260 million second fund (that's double their first), proving that quantum computing skeptics might want to sit this one out. The Paris-NYC firm is betting big on "picks and shovels" infrastructure for the quantum age. Meanwhile, Finland's IQM announced it's going public via SPAC at a $1.8 billion valuation after selling 21 quantum systems to actual paying customers. ¹²

Sources say: "Quantum computing is a science project no more." We love a glow-up story.

Brex Says "I Do" to Capital One

You didn't hear it from me, but Brex just sold to Capital One for $5.15 billion. Before you pop the champagne, remember: Brex's last priced round valued them at $12.5 billion. For those keeping score at home, that's a significant haircut. Early employees are probably fine, but those who joined during the 2020-2022 valuation party? Let's just say the party favors might be smaller than expected. A cautionary tale in liquidation preferences and the reality of down-round exits. ³

Fintech's Agentic Moment

Spotted on the funding runway: Stacks raised a $23M Series A led by Lightspeed for their agentic AI platform that automates finance workflows. They're helping teams cut close cycles by 50%. In a world where every finance team is drowning in spreadsheets, this one might actually stick. ⁴

The Deals Section

• Coral Care (female-founded!): Raised $13M Series A for developmental pediatric therapy connecting families with in-home therapists. CEO Jen Wirt is building something families actually need. ⁵

• Amari AI: $4.5M seed co-led by First Round Capital and Pear VC to help customs brokers navigate... tariff policies. Timely much? ⁶

• Inscope: $14.5M Series A for AI-powered financial reporting. Accountants, your robot overlords have arrived.

• Second Sight Ventures: The 29-year-old investor who went from selling fake IDs (yes, really) just closed a $75M fund to invest in brands with "cultural edge" like Poppi and Kardashian-backed Lemme. From fake IDs to fake it till you make it. ⁷

What the VCs Are Saying

The X streets were buzzing this weekend, and darlings, the content was piping hot:

Jack Altman joins Benchmark and the whole VC world lost its collective mind. The former Lattice CEO penned a love letter to venture capital (literally saying "I love venture capital") and announced he's joining Benchmark as a GP alongside Peter Fenton, Eric Vishria, Chetan Puttagunta, and his friend Ev. His team from Alt Capital is joining too. Over 1.5M views on X and counting. ⁸

"What I've realized is that I love investing at the Series A, when there's enough going on that an investor can be useful but not so much that you can't have an impact."

Jenny Lee at Granite Asia is making moves in Asia. She partnered with DBS Bank on a $110M AI-focused IPO fund for Southeast Asian high-growth companies, telling Fortune: "The U.S. is amply funded, if not overfunded." A power move for a region hungry for capital. ⁹

Kirsten Green at Forerunner doubled down on Decagon AI's Series D, continuing her streak of betting on consumer-tech innovation. She's been investing in AI-powered customer service platforms transforming enterprise relationships. ¹⁰

SheFi dropped truth bombs on women in venture: "Women-led companies generate 2-2.5x more revenue per dollar raised than male-led companies. They are ~15% more capital efficient. They reach profitability faster." Yet women receive roughly 2% of global VC funding. The math isn't mathing, Upper East Siders. ¹¹

The VC Scaling Debate is heating up. Doug Dyer broke it down: "99th percentile exits: ~$1.4B to ~$10.2B. More $100M+ revenue companies. AI companies raising billions early." The question: Is venture actually scaling or just getting bigger? ¹²

Ankur Nagpal (Teachable founder) went viral with founder-to-founder fundraising advice, calling out that "most fundraising advice is written by investors for founders" when their incentives couldn't be more different. 271 likes, 81K+ views. The truth hurts, doesn't it? ¹³

The Quantum Corner

Because apparently quantum is the new AI (don't tell Sam Altman):

• IQM's CEO Jan Goetz: "Quantum computing is a science project no more." Bold words for a company going public.
• Nvidia's Jensen Huang declared quantum is "reaching an inflection point" in June 2025. The stock market listened.
• China has invested nearly $18 billion in quantum tech. The EU is close behind. This race is just getting started.

Quick Bites

• Nvidia reportedly taking a $30B stake in OpenAI. The GPU king meets the AI king. What could go wrong? ¹⁴

• Mary Meeker's 340-page AI Trends report is making the rounds. Jason Lemkin summarized the B2B takeaways. Peak XV shared insights on AI model iteration moving from "new model every year" to "new model every month." ¹⁵

• Phantom crypto wallet is positioning itself as the superapp for crypto with 22M users, coming for Coinbase and Robinhood. From bubble tea to blockchain empires. ¹⁶

That's all the tea for today, my dears. The quantum hype is real, Brex employees are doing some math, and Jack Altman just became the most eligible bachelor on Sand Hill Road.

You know you love me,

XOXO - Gossip Girl