Built By Berkeley

Deal of the Week

New feature: each week, I’ll pick one deal and break it down. This week it’s Sperm Racing’s $10M round, founded by a Berkeley grad Shane Fan.

So what does the company do? Exactly what it says on the tine — racing people’s sperm on a microscopic track.

Why might this be interesting and get funded? Prediction markets and sports betting are booming, with Kalshi and Polymarket reportedly in talks to raise at $5B and $9B valuations respectively. Robinhood recently announced it has processed 4 billion event contracts since launch — 2 billion in just Q3 2025. Wow! Letting users bet on everything from Oscar nominations to NFL games.

So maybe that’s the play here: become a live-viewing platform and monetize through prediction / betting markets. There is also the the worry on plummeting sperm counts, and Sperm Racing is positioning themselves as a platform for men’s health. So maybe they become a supplement/health platform.

The ERP Wars

like the drone wars but for Venture Capital

Over the past few months, venture capitalists have been aggressively funding ERPs, especially accounting-focused ones. Notable examples include Campfire ($43M raised), DualEntry ($100M), and Rillet ($109M). My best guess is these three are probably each doing under $10M in revenue, yet together command a combined valuation of around $1.3B — a 130x+ revenue multiple. I hear the founders are all amazing, but….Spicy! 🌶️

So what even is an ERP? It stands for Enterprise Resource Planning. Essentially the system of record for a company. The big target here is NetSuite, owned by Oracle, which generates roughly $4.7B in annual revenue. The prize is big.

Many startups have tried (and failed) to go after this market before, though there have been wins in the lower market like Odoo (last valued at $5.3B). Legacy ERPs are notoriously sticky for a few reasons:

• They’re mission-critical — companies only switch during major inflection points (like prepping for an IPO or outgrowing QuickBooks). That makes timing a costly GTM challenge.

• Once implemented, everyone touches them daily — retraining staff while running the business isn’t easy.

• Migrations can take months and are expensive.

• They typically require deep customization.

So why might this time be different? AI has catalyzed a new wave of software adoption. “AI-native” ERPs claim they can migrate in days, not months, and be far easier to customize and deploy.

The opportunity is massive, but execution is brutal, especially with the GTM I suspect. The market’s now cashed up. Let the games begin.

OpenAI Wants To Be The Everything Store?

OpenAI has acquired personal finance platform Roi. I don’t know much about the scale of the acquisition yet, but it clearly signals OpenAI’s push further into the application layer.

We touched on this before with OpenAI targeting $25B of new product revenue by 2029. OpenAI seems intent on becoming the everything app. If I were running an AI company in a major vertical, I’d be watching this very closely…

Hot Takes

• We spoke about Nvidia and OpenAI last week - interesting article by Tomasz Tunguz on what to look for in circular financing.

• One of my favourite Berkeley grads Masayoshi Son said Nvidia was undervalued in Oct 29 2024. Since then the marketcap has gone from $3.5T to $4.6T (31% up)

Summary by the #️⃣ & 💰:

• 12 Berkeley-founded companies funded

• $204M of capital raised from the 29th Sept to 5th Oct

💡 Got any ideas or feedback on how to improve this weekly digest? Just hit reply.

Acquisitions

🚀 Gojob. $143.1M Acquisition 🇫🇷 online job‑recruitment platform. 💰 Persol

🐻 Pascal Lorne, Founder & CEO. MS Molecular Genetics Article

Closed Rounds

🧬 Ansa Biotechnologies. $54.4M Series B 🇺🇸 DNA synthesis platform. 💰 Cerberus Capital Management, Mubadala Investment Company, SoftBank Group

🐻 Dan Lin‑Arlow, Co‑Founder & CSO. PhD Biophysics Article

📺 Vibe.co. $50.0M Series B 🇺🇸 programmatic ad platform. 💰 Hedosophia, Quantum Light Management

🐻 Arthur Querou, Co‑Founder & CEO. BS CS Article

🧬 Angiex. $22M Series B 🇺🇸 vascular‑targeted therapeutics. 💰 K5 Global, Starling Ventures, Thiel Capital

🐻 Paul Jaminet, Founder & President. PhD Physics Article

🧠 AGI, Inc. $20.0M Seed 🇺🇸 AI / cognitive automation. 💰 Calm Ventures, General Catalyst, Menlo Ventures

🐻 Steve Frey, Co‑Founder & Product. BA Neuroscience

📈 Augment Markets. $16.52M Seed 🇺🇸 private equity trading. 💰 Accel, Neo, New Enterprise Associates

🐻 Noel Moldvai, CEO & Founder. BS EECS Article

🤖 InOrbit. $10.0M Series A 🇺🇸 robotics management SaaS. 💰 ANIMO Ventures, Yamaha Motor Ventures

🐻 Florian Pestoni, Co‑Founder & CEO. Haas MBA Article

🏁 Sperm Racing. $10.0M Seed 🇺🇸 live sperm racing platform. 💰 FalconX, Figment Capital, Spartan Investment Group

🐻 Shane Fan, Co‑Founder & Swimmer Relations. BS EECS Article

💉 Tulea Health. $10.0M Seed 🇺🇸 ambulatory infusion systems. 💰 LRVHealth, Maverick Ventures

🐻 Alon Kranshinsky, Co‑Founder. BS Business Administration Article

🔄 Reveni. $8.79M Series A 🇪🇸 returns/refund fintech. 💰 Banco Santander, Fin Capital

🐻 Pablo Molinero, Co‑Founder & COO. Haas MBA Article

🧮 BoltWise. $2.50M Seed 🇺🇸 AI quoting software. 💰 Fractal Software, Range Ventures, SpringTime Ventures

🐻 Jie Min Wong, CTO & Co‑Founder. BS EECS Article

🧬 AccufyDx. $0.20M Angel 🇺🇸 multiomic cancer detection. 💰 Undisclosed

🐻 Jeffrey Hung, Co‑Founder & CEO. Haas MBA Article

🗺️ Niantic Spatial. Undisclosed 🇺🇸 geospatial 3D AI mapping. 💰 Undisclosed

🐻 John Hanke, CEO & Founder. Haas MBA

Our goal is to document the startup ecosystem of Berkeley-founded companies. Please share this newsletter with any Cal Bears in your network so we can crowdsource information about all investment rounds and job opportunities.

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Built By Berkeley, where we announce all the funding rounds by Berkeley-founded companies. This is a community effort, so please let us know if we missed a company here. 🐻