Phase One closes $2.1m fund + secure your spot at Caffeine's first in person event
Plus: New unicorn minted, farewell to Skype and Alphabet stock tumbles.
Happy Thursday!
We are so excited to bring you more details of Caffeine Daily & BNZ’s breakfast on Wednesday 28th May for founders and the wider start up ecosystem. Better yet, the event will be FREE for Caffeine subscribers. Read on to learn more.
And don’t worry, you’re also getting your usual Daily Shot of news.
Here’s what’s brewing:
Phase One closes $2.1m early stage fund
New report reveals 84% of New Zealand’s fossil fuel machines ready for electrification
New unicorn minted as Statsig raises $100m at $1.1bn valuation
Alphabet stock plunges after comments from Apple exec
Rest in peace, Skype
As always, thank you to everyone who has upgraded to a paid subscription or simply recommended Caffeine to friends and whānau. We couldn’t do any of this without you.
Finn and the CAFFEINE team
The Risk-Reward Equation: How to Innovate Without Derailing Your Startup
We heard loud and clear in your feedback that while you love connecting with the Caffeine community online, you’re eager for some face time. Together with our partners at BNZ we’re so excited to announce our first in-person event for founders and the wider startup community. It’s time to fuel your morning with founders, fireside conversations, and coffee. And best of all, the event will be:
FREE for you Caffeinators
When? - Wednesday May 28, 8:30–9:30AM (plus networking)
Where? - BNZ Auckland HQ – 80 Queen Street, Auckland CBD
Dress code? - Smart casual
Startups are risky - but how do you know which bets are worth making?
Join us for a fun and honest fireside chat with James Hurman (Previously Unavailable) and Tim Wixon (CFA, Head of Technology Industries at BNZ). Together, they’ll unpack what risk looks like from their unique perspectives - and how they determine which risks are worth taking. Expect honest reflections, practical lessons, and a deep dive into the art of balancing bold decisions with smart execution.
Tickets
Free for the Caffeine community (and yes, you can bring a +1 on us – use code CAFFEINEFRIENDS. Just make sure you hit APPLY with promo code)
Otherwise: $81.45
Limited spots – first in, first served.
What’s included?
Barista coffee & tea
Breakfast
Lessons and insights you’ll actually use from James + Tim
Networking with the right people (aka other legends building great things)
Get your ticket and secure your spot HERE.
Phase One closes $2.1m early stage fund: We love to see a successful fund supporting startups in the early stage and the appropriately named Phase One has now announced the final close of their $2.1M NZD early stage venture capital fund.
Launched in April 2021, Phase One Ventures has deployed capital across a portfolio of 14 high-potential technology companies. The fund attracted GD1 as its anchor investor and investment from early team members at Canva and Kami. It’s built an impressive portfolio with 12 out of 14 companies (85%) securing institutional venture capital backing.
"We're extremely proud of what our portfolio companies have accomplished in such a challenging global environment," said Mahesh Muralidhar, Founder and CEO, Phase One. "These companies have collectively attracted between $80-100 million in follow-on investment and created 100-150+ new jobs, many of which are in New Zealand's tech sector."
New report reveals 84% of New Zealand’s fossil fuel machines ready for electrification: For any founders working in the energy and green tech space, thought this support from Rewiring Aotearoa has some interesting details. The first complete inventory of all the fossil fuel machines in New Zealand found that 84% could be feasibly replaced with electric machines that are available in the country today.
Rewiring Aotearoa’s Machine Count report showed that upgrading six million of the most ‘electrifiable’ fossil fuel machines - things like cars, heaters, lawnmowers, road bikes, ovens and stoves - would save the country approximately $8 million every day, or $3.7 billion each year. That would naturally slash 7.5 million tonnes of carbon emissions each year, almost six times the total emissions from domestic aviation in 2023, or more than flying the entire population of Auckland to London and back every year.
New unicorn minted as Statsig raises $100m at $1.1bn valuation: Apparently I was losing control of my calendar and sense of time generally yesterday when I said it was Thursday so I better check in on the global startup scene. Now that it is a officially Thursday, let’s do this properly, and there’s lot happening worldwide including a brand new unicorn being minted.
Founded by a former Facebook engineering leader, Statsig, a US-based software development platform has raised $100 million in a Series C to crack a $1.1 billion valuation. Statsig essentially super charges the classic A/B testing model by giving teams the tools to rapidly test new features, give detailed metrics on their impact and then make a data driven decision on what to roll out.
Alphabet tock plunges after comments from Apple exec: Very interesting, slightly messy story here as the many court cases our tech titans are embroiled in drag on. Google parent company Alphabet saw its stock drop almost 8% this week, erasing about $140b in gains after an Apple executive testified during a Google antitrust trial that traffic through the search engine fell on Apple products. That reportedly hasn’t happened in 20 years.
With search as the seat of Google’s empire, slowing traffic there as well as perceived sluggishness in the AI arms race has now clearly spooked investors.
That’s to say nothing of the fact the actual case where this testimony took place was part of the trial which will determine how Google must address last years landmark ruling by the court that it maintains an illegal online monopoly in search. Some US Government attorney’s are urging the judge to force Google to sell off ifs Chrome browser, which would completely change the game for the internet as we know it. Reuters has a good wrap here.
Rest in peace Skype: We’re all about celebrating the new, brilliant and bold here at Caffeine but let’s also take a moment’s reflection for the once bold ideas now consigned to the dustbin of history.
This week Microsoft officially shutdown Skype, the once world leading video call software, and migrated all existing users to Teams. It was fascinating to watch how thoroughly Zoom managed to eat Skype’s market share of the video calling market during the pandemic, within a few years Skype went from a verb to a redundancy. I’m sure there’s a lesson in there somewhere.
That’s it for today, thanks for reading. Want to get in touch with a news tip, bit of feedback or just to chat? Email hello@caffeinedaily.co