These days, raising a new venture fund can seem like an uphill battle. First-time managers are competing with much bigger funds that can lure founders with rich valuations—as well as track records that can wow limited partners.

But what if you had unfettered access to some sage advice from a seasoned investor and executive? 

That’s the case for Ayesha Arora-Hughes, the daughter of Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora. Ayesha is raising her own VC fund, Permanent Partners Collective Fund I, according to a securities filing and people with knowledge of the matter—and she counts Nikesh as an adviser to the firm, one of the people said. 

OpenAI and law firm Cooley co-launched a product, called GO Public, that can draft S-1 filings, the document companies must submit to the Securities and Exchange Commission before they can go public, Cooley said Thursday.

Lawyers at Cooley can prompt GO Public, which also has access to Cooley ...

Zipline, a startup making drones that can deliver small packages like meals and medical supplies, is in talks to raise $1 billion at a valuation of roughly $20 billion, according to three people with knowledge of the fundraise.

The funding round, if it closes, would more than double its valuation from its last funding round, which valued the company at $7.6 billion after the investment. It follows a partnership announced last month with Uber to expand delivery by drones across the U.S. and expectations by investors that the costs of drone delivery are falling, expanding what was once a niche market.

It’s not clear what impact the pledges by Anthropic and OpenAI to slow the pace of AI development will have on their upcoming public offerings. But the comments are having real effects already: more people outside Silicon Valley and Washington are now alert to potential risks from AI in a way they weren’t even very recently. That’s not great news for startups trying to convince consumers and businesses that the tech is worth it, some investors told me.

One venture capitalist, for example, told me about a startup that has recently found customers to be more wary of buying its AI app for small- and medium-sized businesses in the light of news stories about potentially catastrophic AI.

There’s certainly a frenzy among venture capitalists to back the hottest startups before they’ve made a dime of revenue, but one fund is sticking to a proven strategy of investing in startups that have generated at least millions in revenue—often without raising any institutional money.

Focusing on these boot-strapped founders has again resonated with Volition Capital’s limited partners. The Boston-based growth equity firm, which cut its teeth investing in consumer startups like Chewy and enterprise software companies, raised $950 million for its sixth fund, co-founder Larry Cheng told The Information exclusively. The fundraise, Volition’s largest, brings the 16-year-old firm’s assets under management to $2.6 billion.

Applied Compute, a year-old startup that helps companies run and customize open-source models with their own data, is discussing a new funding round that would value it at around $3 billion, more than double its valuation from a round announced four months ago, according to a person with knowledge of the funding.

The financing follows strong revenue growth in recent months. Applied Compute is currently generating around $50 million in annualized revenue, the person said, up nearly four times from what its CEO Yash Patil has said it was generating last November.

Legal AI startup Harvey is in talks to raise at least $500 million at a $15.5 billion valuation including the investment, a 40% premium to its last valuation five months ago. The fundraising follows a revenue surge at the legal AI startup, according to a person with knowledge of the fundraise.

Four-year-old Harvey is currently generating more than $350 million in annualized revenue, up more than 80% from the $190 million in annualized revenue it was generating in January, according to the person. Lightspeed Venture Partners has been interested in leading the round, the person said.

Over the last year, we’ve seen more generalist venture capital firms make forays into defense tech, a niche once relegated to specialized investors comfortable with revenue based on uneven government contracts and who weren’t restricted from investing in weapons makers by their limited partners. 

Furientis, a startup founded last year that builds missiles for intercepting attacks, is close to raising $25 million in a funding round that would value it more than $125 million including the money invested, two people familiar with the investment tell us. And we’re hearing Benchmark, known for backing Uber and Snap in their early days, has been in talks to lead, the people said.

A new venture capital fund called SemiAnalysis Capital Fund I, managed by Dylan Patel, the founder of chip and infrastructure research firm SemiAnalysis, is targeting raising $400 million, according to a securities filing.

The Information reported in February that Patel’s firm SemiAnalysis, ...