🌎 Fluent Ventures bets on startup clones—with a twist

San Francisco–based Fluent Ventures is out to prove that the best startup ideas aren’t born—they’re adapted. The firm backs founders in emerging markets who localize proven models from the West, a strategy it proudly calls “geographic alpha.”

❓ What they’re doing differently
• Backing founders in Latin America, Africa, MENA, Southeast Asia, and select U.S. markets
• Investing $250K to $2M in early rounds via a $40M fund + co-investment vehicle
• Focusing on fintech, healthtech, and commerce, but with local product-market fit
• Portfolio includes Sabi (Nigeria), Prima (Brazil), BRKZ (Saudi Arabia), and Minu (Mexico)

🎤Not just copy-paste, says founder Alexandre Lazarow
Fluent avoids simple cloning and looks for deep local adaptation—like how Go-Jek built a motorbike-based super app in Indonesia rather than replicating Uber directly.

🧠 Why this matters now
• Unicorns are now emerging from 150+ cities globally
• IPOs like Nubank, UiPath, Swiggy show global outcomes are real
• Fluent’s backers include Nubank’s David Vélez, Sea Group’s Nick Nash, and LPs across multiple continents

📣Takeaway:
In a world oversaturated with U.S.-centric VC bets, Fluent is placing smart capital where localized innovation is just getting started. Are clone+local wins the future of global venture?

✔️Powered by @Technco

💧 Flow raises $100M+ at $2.5B valuation as Neumann returns to the spotlight

Former WeWork CEO Adam Neumann’s new venture, Flow, has raised over $100M, doubling its valuation to $2.5B. Flow is reimagining residential real estate with a vertically integrated platform combining AI, property management, and community building.

✅What’s inside the deal
• $100M+ raised with Andreessen Horowitz increasing its stake from 20% to 25%
• $2.5B current valuation, up from $1B in 2022
• Active expansion in Miami with major property acquisitions
• International footprint with teams in New York, Palo Alto, and Riyadh
• Focus on AI-driven residential management without third-party operators

📈 Why it matters
• Investors are betting on Neumann’s "second act," seeing potential beyond his WeWork legacy
• Flow’s model targets the $3.5T residential real estate market, far larger than WeWork’s office niche
• Heavy integration of AI signals a shift toward fully automated community management
• A patient, cashflow-positive approach could avoid WeWork’s hypergrowth mistakes

Neumann is making a comeback — but will investors’ patience outlast the ghosts of WeWork?

✔️Powered by @Technco

🛜 Creator Ventures raises $45M to bet on consumer AI, social apps, and microdrama

The firm co-founded by YouTube creator Caspar Lee and investor Sasha Kaletsky has closed a $45M Fund II—doubling down on the thesis that consumer internet, powered by AI and culture, is far from dead.

✅ What’s in the fund
• $45M Fund II—more than 2x the size of their $20M debut
• Backed by LPs across Europe and the U.S., including family offices and founders
• Seed and pre-seed focus, with checks from $250K to $2M
• Early wins: Wild (acquired by Unilever), Runna (acquired by Strava)
• Portfolio also includes ElevenLabs, Beehiiv, Praktika, and Status

📱 Why it matters now
• Consumer startups are rebounding—AI, app stores, and social shifts are driving demand
• Creator Ventures focuses on what traditional VCs often miss: user-centric, culturally fluent startups
• Investing early in new behaviors—from AI tutors to TikTok-native media

🧠 A uniquely positioned team
• Caspar Lee brings an insider’s lens as a YouTuber with 6.5M subscribers
• Kaletsky combines operator and investor experience with a consumer-first edge
• Together, they back founders fluent in both tech and attention

Creator Ventures is betting that consumer internet is entering its next golden age—just with a lot more AI and a lot less VC groupthink.

✔️Powered by V3V Ventures

🚀 Panorama of African Startups: Funding, Acquisitions and Key Developments (June 2025) 🌍

The African tech ecosystem continues to transform rapidly, driven by dynamic innovation and strategic investments. Here are the key developments of the moment:

💸 Major funding:

• BURN raises $80 million for its clean stoves in Africa

• Aruwa Capital: $35 million to support women-led businesses

• KERA (e-health in Senegal): $10 million for AI in healthcare

• Nile, MyNextCar, Octane, PaidHR, Open Access Energy, Salpha Energy and many others have raised between $1M and $11M

• Egypt leads fundraising

📉 A report highlights that African startups remain undervalued due to a lack of storytelling. It's time to better tell the story of African tech.

📊 More on: https://go.ros.cg/dAPqG

🔁 Share this watch to give visibility to the continent's innovations.

#Startups #TechAfrica

Figma moves closer to a blockbuster IPO that could raise $1.5B

Source:
https://techcrunch.com/2025/07/01/figma-moves-closer-to-a-blockbuster-ipo-that-could-raise-1-5b/

🛸 xAI Raises $10B to Scale Grok and Build a Supercomputer Rival to OpenAI

Elon Musk’s AI startup xAI has raised $10 billion—split evenly between debt and equity—to supercharge development of its Grok chatbot and build out “Colossus,” a supercomputer aiming to rival OpenAI and Google DeepMind. Morgan Stanley led the raise, bringing xAI’s total funding to ~$17B just one year after launch.

✅ Inside the round
• $5B in equity from investors including a16z, Sequoia, Fidelity, BlackRock, and Kingdom Holding
• $5B in debt—secured notes and term loans underwritten by Morgan Stanley
• Funds will expand Grok’s model family and build data centers powered by NVIDIA and AMD chips
• Total valuation reportedly approaches $80 billion, with Colossus designed to scale up to 1 million GPUs

xAI isn’t just training a model—it’s building the compute, capital, and channels to challenge AI’s current leaders head-on.

✔️Powered by Technco

Paymenow Bags $22.4M to Expand On-Demand Salary Services Across Africa

South African fintech startup Paymenow has secured a R400 million ($22.4 million) working capital facility from the Standard Bank Group, providing the company with fresh runway to scale its earned wage access (EWA) services across Africa.

The funding, structured under a sustainable finance format, is one of the largest institutional bets to date on the…

https://techbuild.africa/paymenow-22-4m-demand-salary-across-africa/

Bfree Attracts $3M in Fresh Funding from Verdant Capital Hybrid Fund

Verdant Capital is pleased to announce that its Verdant Capital Hybrid Fund (the “Fund”) has completed a USD 3 million investment loan in Bfree.

This investment will be used for distressed loan portfolio financing whereby Bfree will be purchasing distressed loan portfolios from inclusive financial institutions in Africa. Bfree will benefit from initiatives supported by…

https://techbuild.africa/bfree-3m-funding-verdant-capital-hybrid-fund/

Samsung Pushes Smartphone Boundaries with Unveiling of Galaxy Z Fold7 and Flip7 Series

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. has announced Galaxy Z Fold7, a device that brings together the best of Galaxy design, camera functionality and AI innovation in the thinnest and lightest Galaxy Z Fold series to date.

It delivers the premium performance and experience of an ultra-smartphone, while unlocking new levels of efficiency and productivity with a…

https://techbuild.africa/samsung-smartphone-galaxy-z-fold7-flip7-series/

After raising over $3M, popular VC-backed beauty brand Ami Colé is shuttering

Diarrha N’Diaye-Mbaye, one of the first among the small number of Black women to raise more than $1 million in venture capital, announced on Thursday the closure of her award-winning beauty startup Ami Colé.

Ami Colé creates makeup for those with darker skin colors, as those consumers often struggle to find makeup that matches their skin tone. It launched in 2021, sold through Sephora, and became a celeb favorite among the likes of singer Kelly Rowland and actress Mindy Kaling. But the 4-year-old company will now officially shutter in September. Read Entire Article

Windsurf CEO opens up about ‘very bleak’ mood before Cognition deal

Source : https://nlab.cg/VikCC

Xara wants to make banking in Nigeria as easy as chatting

Xara, a multi-modal, artificial intelligence banking bot launched in June by Nigerian payments technology specialist Sulaiman Adewale, allows users to manage their money in real time, pay bills, and analyze their spending while texting a friend. The bot is based entirely on WhatsApp, which is used by 95% of Nigeria's 31.6 million social media users.

Read the full article https://nlab.cg/bxHAW

Figma’s Dylan Field will cash out about $60M in IPO, with Index, Kleiner, Greylock, Sequoia all selling, too

https://news.nzokolab.com/figma-s-dylan-field-will-cash-out-about-60m-in-ipo-with-index-kleiner-greylock-sequoia-all-selling-t-2346.html

ChatGPT users send 2.5 billion prompts a day


https://news.nzoko.com/chatgpt-users-send-2-5-billion-prompts-a-day-2409.html