JC Bahr-de Stefano
@jbahrdestefano
Doing things
such as
Investing in fintech @btv_vc 💸
Running 🏃 and playing footy ⚽
Writing ✍️+ thinking out loud 🤔
2.1K Following 4.7K Followers
here we go @AnthropicAI S-1 is live - happy reading to us all
apparently @Muse now at 10.2M US downloads in 40 days per @SensorTower via @TechCrunch (10.9M incl. CAN) --> only the 12th app ever to do that - last one was Threads in ‘23
> DAUs hit 2.5M on Oct 16, up 15% WoW (was 1M+ as of 3 wks ago)
> 30% D7 / 23% D14 retention (vs. 19% / 16% avg for ChatGPT, Claude + Grok)
> ChatGPT had 3.7M US downloads in its first 40 days, Grok 500K, Claude 200K
> #1# on the App Store every day but one since launch
a lot of this is bought --> Meta put 39% of its total ad spend behind Muse in Oct (up from 23% in Sept)
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Also we now have a good amt of data from biz banking platform funding rounds this yr re: how they are valued!
A few obs:
> don't forget @tryramp is actually an AI lab (hence the val premium)
> @mercury seems like best value on the board at 8x given 4 yrs of profitability, most customers, + furthest ahead in the charter race (expect bank to be live next yr)
> based on rev per customer, seems like @slashapp + @FlexSuperApp having success going after high-spend customers
> @meow just raised a $31.6M series B led by @Stifel but couldn’t find any data points on the scale of the biz other than the fact that it’s been profitable since ‘24
exit math check: @CapitalOne paid ~7.5x for @brexHQ ($5.15B on ~$700M rev growing 40% YoY)
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Pretty amazing to see @mercury’s 9yr journey to $1B run-rate
Worth noting:
> Growth looks like it’s re-accelerating at scale - went from $500M in ‘24 rev to a $650M run-rate in Sep ‘25, and is now growing ~50% YoY
> Rev per customer dipped which makes sense as new customers skewed SMB + rates came down
> Customer growth keeps accelerating: +40% in ‘24, +50% in ‘25, then 300K to 450K+ in under 10 mos
Many of the estimates in the table def aren’t perfectly accurate but should be directionally solid
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another massive round in agent land + this one sure to be the talk of the ... town
@TownAI raised a $108M Series B co-led by @ForerunnerVC & @MenloVentures at a $1B val
Town gives everyone on a team a personal AI assistant ("Townie") that connects to their email, docs + calendar, learns how they work, + can now coordinate + hand off work directly w/ other Townies
Some stats on the biz:
- Hit 7 figures of ARR within weeks of its June launch
- Paying customers up 4x since July
- Paying teams up 9x since July
we've been using it at @btv_vc + loving it --> my fave moment so far: it found redundancies across my skills & routines and recommended ways to consolidate them, which means fewer credits & less spend
$181M total raised now
Congrats @jgreze + team!
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it should surprise absolutely no one that @jpmorgan is blocking AI agents like @instinct + @Muse from operating accounts
agents can still READ accounts via @Plaid (which now pays JPM for that access), they just can’t move money
meanwhile JPM is piloting its own agent (Smart Cash) that moves funds to maximize yield
agents that keep deposits at Chase + move bw products = cool. agents that move them out = risky + liability issue
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hey remember way back like a week ago when the annualized revenue was $70B?
it's actually more like $50B
whoopsies!
more data on growth of vai cos
apparently @pacecom has grown ARR more than 15x through the first three quarters of the year
love to see it @jamiecuffe
Wow big fintech + insurtech + vertical AI funding round!
@pacecom raised a $46M Series B co-led by @thrivecapital + @sequoia
Pace builds AI agents for insurance back-office ops that handle submission intake, policy servicing, claims, + data entry, replacing work traditionally outsourced to BPOs
Some stats on the biz:
- Growing 3x every quarter
- Customers include Prudential, WTW + Newfront
- 250K+ critical insurance workflows completed since launching last year
Fast follow as they raised $10M from @sequoia in Jan!
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btw u know what else is a lesson u only have to learn once??
rushing while operating a mandoline...
this is a lesson you only need to learn once 🤣
There’s actually a very good reason I don’t have any white singlets in the lineup anymore
What a day for fintech funding!
Peppermint raised a $4.7M seed led by @MoxxieVentures (+ we @btv_vc participated)
Peppermint is building AI-powered fin ops for clinical research sites that plugs into their trial mgmt software, reconciles visits against contracts + payment history, invoices continuously, & runs collections on their behalf
Some stats on the biz:
- Their partners "collected revenue 3x faster, reduced overdue invoices threefold and reclaimed 20% of the staff time they were spending on billing"
- Studies under mgmt tripled in the last 3 mos
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Another big fintech round, AI-meets-mortgage edition (feel like there has been a lot here recently)
@usevesta raised a $30M Series B led by @conversioncap
Vesta offers an AI-native mortgage loan origination system that lets lenders deploy agents to handle processing, document review, + even UWing decisions, w/ every action logged for compliance
Some stats on the biz:
- Revenue up 12x+ YoY
- Customer count up 50%+ YoY
- Lenders on or moving to Vesta originate $100B+ in loans per year
Founded by @blendlabsinc alums
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More fintech funding!
@meanwhile raised $37.5M in new funding led by @BainCapCrypto at a $350M val
Meanwhile is a Bermuda-licensed life insurer that writes policies entirely in bitcoin, so premiums, policy value, loans + death benefits all stay in BTC
Some stats on the biz:
- Revenue (premiums paid) on track to more than double this year
- Total assets grew 437% to 1,183 BTC in '25 w/ 20.89 BTC in net income
- SSigned 15 brokers serving wealthy families, including in Singapore, Hong Kong, the UAE + Switzerland
CEO @ztownsend previously founded Standard Treasury (acq. by SVB)
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Fintech x healthcare funding to start the day
@AblePayHealth raised a $20M Series A led by @FPrimeCapital
AblePay lets patients pay medical bills over time at 0% interest while guaranteeing providers non-recourse payment (Americans paid $591B out of pocket for healthcare in '25)
Didn't see great biz metrics in any of the press
Founded in '16 by a former hospital network CFO/COO - rare to see Series A decade post founding!
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"what's your moat" is a lazy question to ask an early stage founder
the better version is "what compounding + durable advantages can you build into the biz over time"
i liked how @jgreze said on @20vcFund that moats are a luxury problem... no one has them in the early days lol
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"what's your moat" is such a shitty question in the AI era
of course others could just go build it. why ask in the first place if that's your response?
imma start asking VCs "okay, then what's your moat vs Sequioa? whats stopping Benchmark from winning deals from you?"
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I do think there will be specialized agents, but feels like the unbundling should happen on the backend
where people keep one assistant (@instinct, @Muse) + it hands jobs off to specialized agents behind the scenes
which agent did the work should be invisible to the user
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we’re currently in the bundling era of agents since every cycle now is faster than ever before. general purpose agents are all the rage because they can theoretically do everything but that also creates an intense usability problem.
for normal ppl no amount of proactivity, suggested prompts, or feeds of ideas completely fixes that esp when the entire capability surface is hidden behind a chat box.
i think we’ll see the pendulum swing back very quickly. the product layer will rapidly unbundle into specialized agents built around specific jobs, contexts, triggers, & interfaces. there is so much empty room still.
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Another product update from Instinct today 😮💨
I've always been skeptical people will let agents actually buy flights for them as it's a high-consideration purchase + people want the final say
but the comparison part? no one ENJOYS that imo they just feel obliged to do it
so having a travel planner in ur pocket do the digging + hand you a few options to pick from is sick. same with the rebooking / cancellation / lost bag stuff
I do think Expedia + Google Flights will likely try to bolt on their own AI assistants that are good enough for most people but they'll appeal to different users and there's plenty of surface area for both
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We spend a lot of our time at Instinct on things that go well beyond the classic use cases. But the classic use cases still have to work.
Last month, more than 20% of our users had Instinct help with their flights.
So we rebuilt the flight search and booking experience from the ground up. Your Instinct can now find you the best deals, book with a single tap, and take care of the messy parts of flying, like lost baggage, missed connections, and cancelled flights.
The team put a lot of care into the design, so we hope you like it.
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ya so @ChatGPT is MILES ahead of @claudeai on image gen + Claude too risk averse to even try
asked for an ad riffing on The Accountant and got: 'I can't put Ben Affleck or his character from The Accountant in the ad, since that's a real person's likeness and a studio's character'"
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i mean, this would be sooooo good @trybasis @mitch_troy
Look at him, thats my Qual.
Your what?
My Qualitative! My vibe specialist. Look at him, you notice anything different about him? Look at his face.
I'll give you a hint, his name is Jayden. He won a local poetry competition in bushwick! Yeah I'm sure of the vibe.
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