Hello and welcome back to Equity, the Tech Runch Podcast, where we unpacked the numbers and the nuance behind the headlines. Today is January 17, 2024, and this is Alex.

Welcome to our Wednesday show show where we dig into the critical startup

and venture capital stories from the week thus far. As a reminder this is our new format so comments and feedback please to equity pod at techwrench.com if you want.

And if you were a big fan of the interviews we used to do every Wednesday,

don't worry.

We're still doing them just on a bit more of an ad hoc

basis, but we have a couple in the can and a couple more coming that you are going to love.

All right, on the show this morning we have a bevy of funding rounds including very interesting transactions

from Vertis, Electra, and Fancy, and then to close out we have a new fund investing in FinTech and

Cybersecurity and what's going on in one of the most interesting

venture capital markets in the world.

First on the dock this morning, Verdes raises $25 million for AI-based tools to help companies

tackle the software spend.

That's the Tech Runge headline.

What does it mean?

Well, Verdes is a startup that is building tools to help its customers track and

understand their software spend. It provides analytics into how their employees are using

that software and even provides notes on compliance. The idea here is that it

wants to help you save money so Verdes will also help its customers control

their cloud computing spend itself.

Why is this cool?

Well, it uses AI and other advanced tech

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