Edition #8: 31 New Funds, Lightspeed’s $9B Bet, 2025 Fundraising Data, 2026 Big Ideas
Hey folks,
Happy New Year to everyone!
This is Pavel and welcome to the 8th edition (December, 2025) of Murph Capital newsletter.
This is my monthly brain-dump of the most useful stuff I’ve come across as an operator in the GP/LP world.
Follow me on X and LinkedIn for more frequent insights.
5 Best Tweets
“Megafunds vs specialist seeds: what LPs say actually matters“
By Pavel Prata from R136 Ventures
“What if the best founders never meet a VC?“
By Ed Suh from Alpine VC
“A quiet year for venture capital“
By Bryce Roberts from Indie VC / Katie Roof from The Information
“Are you building a portfolio or riding someone else's wake?“
By Dan Gray from Equidam
“The 2025 early-stage fundraising cheatsheet“
By Peter Walker from Carta
5 Best Linkedin Posts
“VCs taking 17.4 months to close funds in 2025“
By Pavel Prata from R136 Ventures
“The AI bubble narrative is wrong“
By David Clark from VenCap International plc
“Lightspeed raised $9B. Here’s why it matters“
By Pavel Prata from R136 Ventures
“10 charts from Carta's 2025 Fund Economics Report“
By Chris Harvey from Harvey Esquire
“Every AI report that actually mattered this year”
By Denis Efremov from R136 Venture
5 Best Reports / Stories
By Hamza Shad / Kevin Dowd from Carta
”The Great Recalibration: Small VC Fundraising 2025”
By Dan Gray from Equidam
By Julian Weisser from Solo Founders
”SPV Fees Are Shifting Beyond 2&20”
By Sydecar
31 New VC Funds
View all other funds by clicking the button below.
Emerging Managers Interviews
Husband-wife duo Nick Davidov and Marina Davidova replaced their analysts with AI and raised $75M Fund I. I asked Nick 10 questions about how they did it 👇
20 VC/LP Events
3 Best Podcasts
Greylock General Partner Saam Motamedi joins Jack Altman to unpack how a 60‑year‑old venture firm endures through changing markets, talent generations, and AI platform shifts. He explains Greylock’s apprentice model, founder‑first “best supporting actor” ethos, and disciplined approach to incubations and early‑stage enterprise AI investing.
If you’re curious how AI roll‑ups actually look when done at platform scale, this convo between Marc Bhargava and Molly O’Shea is worth your time. Marc walks through GC’s $1.5B Creation sleeve, why they incubate applied‑AI platforms first and only then buy distribution, and how portfolio companies like Crescendo, Long Lake, Titan MSP, and Eudia are using 20–30% task automation to move “boring” services from 10–15% to ~30% EBITDA.
And the last one: Felicis founder Aydin Senkut makes the case that being a true generalist is a structural edge, not a branding choice. He walks through why Felicis runs 50–70 names per fund, how a broader opportunity set plus aggressive follow‑ons can de‑risk the downside while still backing outliers like Shopify, Canva, Adyen, and Skild AI across cycles.
Personal Notes
Scaling Murph. This year, our team grew to 6 people, and we’ve been deliberately shifting Murph from a scrappy project into something more institutional. The goal hasn’t changed: to build leading infrastructure and a community for emerging managers and LPs, helping capital flow more intelligently in the emerging VC arena. In early 2026, we’re planning a major product and platform update – with more visibility, transparency, and sharper positioning. If you want to see where this is going, keep an eye on the site.
The Manifesto. This year I spoke with 50+ emerging GPs and a wide range of LPs (especially during the R136 Ventures fundraising) and kept hearing the same tension from different sides of the table. The market structure is changing, but incentives and behavior haven’t fully caught up. That led me to a contrarian conclusion I’ve been pressure-testing for months: the next wave of LPs will be hands-on LPs. This idea has drawn plenty of skepticism from both GPs and LPs – which is usually a decent signal. I’ve decided to put it out publicly in a manifesto, because this belief is the real reason Murph exists in the first place.
TBPN Mention. Last month was our most active content period since launch: 200,000+ impressions breaking down fundraising timelines, mega-funds vs specialist seed strategies, how reference calls actually work, and data dives on funds like Accel and Haystack. That momentum led to our first mention on TBPN. Hopefully next time Jordi and John go beyond the analytics and dig into Murph’s underlying philosophy, not just the charts.
Year-in-Review. This year was objectively wild. I started Murph in May, and in just eight months it stopped being a “side project” and became a full-blown platform. Along the way: 150+ fund managers, 200+ LPs, 10,000+ followers, a media engine, co-hosted VC/LP events, an exceptional early team, and — most importantly – clarity on what I’m building and why. A Spotify-style Wrapped is coming, but for now: thank you to everyone who’s been part of this journey so far.
Christmas in NYC. Growing up in a post–Soviet country and watching “Home Alone” on VHS every single year, Christmas in New York felt like a childhood side quest finally completed. The energy was unreal — also far more crowded than I expected. As much as I loved it, Chicago still feels more cozy and home-like to me. Either way, it was a magical way to close the year. Wishing everyone a strong start to the next one and see you soon!
Previous Editions
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