firstminute capital

We are beyond thrilled to announce our $55m Series B funding round, led by Balderton Capital, with support from Visionaries Club, Creandum, firstminute capital, and Seedcamp. This marks an important milestone in our mission to deliver radically faster, more reliable clinical trials, and help life science companies achieve their full potential. Thanks to the sponsors we work with, our investors, and our incredible team including advisors Bob Langer and Tim Garnett, we’re continuing to challenge the status quo in clinical trials. This new funding will help us invest further in our AI and eClinical platform, Citrus™ and expand our clinical operations footprint across North America and Europe. Read our full announcement: https://lnkd.in/eqqxwe99 #clinicaltrials #startup #cro #venturecapital #biotech #pharma

ChatGPT Operator is out—so what's next for browser agents? 🤔 I've been tinkering with browser automation recently (e.g., building a bot to search and buy on Amazon), and Operator’s release got me thinking about the future of these tools. Here are 3 key challenges browser agents face today: 1️⃣ Moving from text-only to multi-modal AI models. 2️⃣ Solving authentication without blending in with bad bots. 3️⃣ Enabling human-in-the-loop collaboration that's seamless and smart. Check out my deep dive where I unpack these challenges, share insights, and explore what’s next for browser agents. Would you trust browser agents with your day-to-day tasks? Let me know your thoughts! 👇

🚀 BULLET THESIS 🚀: 2025 will be the year enterprise embraces stablecoins. Just spoke to the founders of one of our portfolio companies Stitch. They're seeing EXPLOSIVE demand from large multinationals for stablecoin payments. Why? These multinationals faced a common problem in South Africa: without local entities or bank accounts, they struggled to move their earned Rand into dollars or euros. Stitch offered an elegant solution. Convert local currency into stablecoins (USDT, USDC) → Transfer instantly to central wallets → Save time & money. The result was instant, cheap, and automatically reconciled. This isn't just an isolated success story. It's a herald of enterprise adoption, and it signals something much larger on the horizon. 💡 Why is this happening NOW? 1) Infrastructure has matured dramatically - Ethereum fees down to $1 (was $12 in 2021) - Layer 2 solutions = sub-cent transactions - Better custody solutions - Streamlined on/off ramps 2) Regulation is clearing up - Europe's MiCA framework goes live - US moving forward with FIT 21 - Banks getting clarity on custody 3) Big players are moving FAST - Stripe dropped $1.1B to acquire Bridge (10x growth in 2024) - PayPal launched their stablecoin - Visa & SWIFT now support stablecoins - Revolut exploring launch 🔮 The next wave isn't retail - it's ENTERPRISE. We're seeing it first in emerging markets, but this is just the beginning. Opportunities I'm watching: - Cross-border trade finance 2.0 - Enterprise-grade custody - Industry-specific payment solutions - Compliance automation Are you building in this space? Let's talk. Liked this analysis? Follow me for more fintech insights! And also subscribe to my substack here: https://lnkd.in/eytvHCYe And read the piece here: https://lnkd.in/e4Jx3eJ7 #Fintech #Stablecoins #VC #Enterprise #Payments #Innovation PS: If you're building something in this space and raising pre-seed/seed, my DMs are open 📩

We are really excited to announce the closing of a $4M seed funding round, with participation from firstminute capital, 2100 Ventures, Vento by Exor Ventures, and a long list of amazing angels! The funds are already being put to good use increasing our commercial efforts, allowing us to expand and onboard more veterinary providers across the country. The entire Lupa team is thankful to our investors, partners and users for their continued support. We will continue to work hard to make the lives of veterinary professionals much simpler as they treat everyone's beloved pets! #Veterinary #VeterinaryCare #VeterinaryBusiness  #Fundraise #AI Nicolò Frisiani Raul Lozano Martin Matei Bjola

🤯 $13 trillion. That's how much governments worldwide spend annually on procurement. That’s 13 thousand billion dollars that are up for grabs every year from the government. In the EU alone, over 250k public institutions oversee around $2 trillion annually across millions of contracts for goods, services and public works. But here's the shocking part, and where we at firstminute capital have a thesis and see an opportunity: Companies are still spending WEEKS manually parsing hundreds of pages of dense RFP documents, coordinating with suppliers, and preparing bids. Thanks to AI, the game is about to change. 🎯 We're seeing a new wave of AI-native startups transforming this space: - Stotles: $6.5m led by Headline (Jun ‘22) - Govly: $9.5m led by Insight Partners (Nov ‘23) - GovDash: $10m led by Northzone (Apr’24) - TENGO: €3m led by Point Nine (Jun ‘24) - Odo: $500k led by YC (Jun ‘24) - Sweetspot (YC S23): $2.2m led by 1984 Ventures (Aug ‘24) 🔥 The real opportunity though? 1) It's not just about winning bids. The companies that will dominate this space are building the operating systems for the entire supply chain: - Automating bid discovery and writing - Managing supplier relationships - Ensuring regulatory compliance - Delivering real-time cost insights 2) There are hundreds of vertical companies to be built. We are excited about companies like Scalera in construction, but there is more to do in defence, health and other verticals. 💡 Key insight: When government spending meets AI automation, we're not talking about incremental improvements. We're talking about turning weeks of work into hours. Who else is excited about the future of procurement tech? 🚀 Read the full article here: https://lnkd.in/eWK2iucU And if you want more thesis from the early stage of venture, subscribe to Venture Thesis: https://lnkd.in/eg69h6NQ #AI #Procurement #StartUps #Innovation #GovTech #SupplyChain Lorcan Delaney Sam Endacott Adriana Vitagliano

Today we're celebrating a $9M funding round for Beams to make home renovation simpler and greener. We co-founded this company with a champion CEO - and Giant Ventures venture partner - Hayden Wood. The renovation market is full of outdated and frustrating processes. Beams has developed software that simplifies the entire renovation process. Homeowners get advanced planning tools that predict costs and timelines accurately, using data from over 6,000 projects. The platform also offers personalised interior design services, AI-powered tools, and 3D virtual tours. Beams connects homeowners with trusted contractors, who are motivated to deliver quality work through the promise of repeat business. There are 28 million homes in the UK, and 70% have poor energy ratings. Beams offers free Home Energy Assessments, helping homeowners make greener upgrades to lower energy bills and reduce carbon emissions. Customers have already seen a 12% drop in annual energy costs. Hayden is building an incredible culture of excellence at Beams. I cannot recommend it highly enough as a place to learn and improve. Drop me a line if you'd like to discuss joining the team. Congrats Hayden, Minesh Shah and team - so well deserved. Cameron McLain, Spencer Crawley, Lucy Rands

BIG NEWS AT VOLUME! 🚀 We raised $6 million to drive internet payment fees to zero and reshape how businesses and consumers pay and get paid! I’m incredibly proud of the Volume team for the dedication and innovation that made this milestone possible. Raising funds is not just about capital. It’s a testament to the hard work, resilience, and belief in our mission to transform payments with account-to-account (A2A) technology. A huge thank you to our investors. United Ventures, Fabrick, firstminute capital , Seed X Liechtenstein AG and Haatch for their trust and support. Your confidence in our vision drives us to push the boundaries even further💪 At Volume, our goal is to kill the hidden payment fees of the internet to empower businesses of all sizes, and deliver seamless, transparent payment experiences for consumers. With over $126 million in annualized GMV processed in under eight months, we’ve shown that pay-by-bank is not just a nice thought, it’s a reality. And we’re scaling it rapidly! Looking ahead, we’re focused on expanding across the UK and Europe, launching new products for cross-border businesses, and scaling our team as we work to become the new standard for global payments. To read more, head over to TechCrunch (link to the article in the comments). Special thanks go out to Mike Butcher for breaking the news. Still lots of more exciting things ahead, so stay tuned!