News/Fundraising
Magic Leap founder raises $20M for new AI startup SynthBee
AI startup SynthBee secures significant seed funding: Rony Abovitz, a seasoned tech entrepreneur, has launched a new AI company called SynthBee, which has successfully raised $20 million in seed funding. SynthBee, based in Fort Lauderdale, has secured the investment led by Crosspoint Capital Partners to support its growth and development of a proprietary computing intelligence platform. The startup aims to focus on enterprise productivity, emphasizing security, transparency, and scalability while preserving intellectual property and know-how. Founder's track record: Rony Abovitz brings a wealth of experience and success to his new venture, having previously founded and led innovative technology companies. Abovitz...
read Oct 15, 2024Decagon lands $65M for agent-powered customer service system
AI-powered customer service breakthrough: Decagon, a startup founded by Jesse Zhang and Ashwin Sreenivas, has raised $65 million in Series B funding for its advanced AI-powered customer service system. The company's AI agents have consistently outperformed competitors in head-to-head evaluations conducted by potential clients, leading to partnerships with notable companies like Notion, Duolingo, Rippling, Bilt, and Substack. Decagon's AI chatbots can handle a wide range of customer service tasks, including answering questions, issuing refunds, canceling subscriptions, disputing transactions, and replacing credit cards. The recent funding round, led by Bain Capital Ventures with participation from prominent investors and VC firms, values...
read Oct 15, 2024AI startup Gladia secures $16M for transcription tech
AI-powered transcription breakthrough: Gladia, a Paris-based startup, has secured $16 million in funding to develop an advanced real-time audio transcription and analytics engine, challenging established players in the industry. Gladia's innovative technology aims to provide multilingual, accent-adaptive transcription services with enhanced accuracy and speed. The funding round was led by XAnge, with participation from several other venture capital firms, bringing Gladia's total funding to $20.3 million since its founding in 2022. The company plans to use the capital to advance its R&D efforts and expand its product offerings, including the development of additional AI models. Technological edge and market positioning:...
read Oct 15, 2024AI-powered Strella raises $4M for automated market research
AI-powered market research startup secures seed funding: Strella, a company leveraging artificial intelligence to automate and accelerate customer research, has raised $4 million in seed funding led by Decibel, with participation from Unusual Ventures. The startup's AI-powered platform aims to deliver human insights up to 10 times faster and at half the cost of traditional research methods. Strella was founded by Lydia Hylton and Priya Krishnan to address the long-standing challenge in market research: balancing speed with depth of customer insights. The company's AI moderator can conduct interviews, analyze responses, and synthesize findings in real-time, significantly reducing timelines for gathering...
read Oct 14, 2024Britain woos global investors at summit without Elon Musk
UK Labour Government's Investment Push: The newly elected Labour Party government in Britain has announced a substantial £63 billion ($82 billion) investment package aimed at boosting various sectors of the UK economy, including artificial intelligence, life sciences, infrastructure, and technology. Prime Minister Keir Starmer addressed approximately 300 executives at a business summit, emphasizing Britain's renewed stability as an investment destination following years of political turbulence under the Conservative government. Starmer pledged to implement a "hard-headed" industrial strategy and stimulate economic growth by reducing unnecessary regulations. Key Investment Deals: DP World announced a £1 billion expansion of the London Gateway container...
read Oct 14, 20244D LiDAR startup Lidwave secures $10M for machine vision advances
Lidwave's breakthrough in LiDAR technology: Lidwave, a startup focused on machine vision, has secured $10 million in funding to develop and commercialize its innovative 4D LiDAR-on-chip technology. Jumpspeed Ventures and Next Gear Ventures led the funding round, with additional investment from a leading Swedish truck manufacturer and other strategic partners. The funding will be used to further develop Lidwave's optical chip, launch the industry's first software-definable 4D LiDAR sensor, and expand the company's market presence. Lidwave's technology aims to revolutionize machine vision by making advanced perception technology more accessible and affordable for mass-market applications. The challenge in current LiDAR systems:...
read Oct 14, 2024AI startup Document Crunch raises $21.5M for contract analysis
Significant funding boost for AI-powered contract analysis platform: Document Crunch, a construction-focused contract and document compliance technology platform, has secured $21.5 million in Series B funding, led by Titanium Ventures. The funding round saw participation from strategic partner Nemetschek Group, major contractors like Andres Construction and Satterfield & Pontikes, and existing investors including Navitas Capital, Zacua Ventures, Fifth Wall, and Ironspring Ventures. Yash Patel, general partner at Titanium Ventures, will join Document Crunch's board of directors as a new member. This Series B round follows a $9 million Series A round raised less than a year ago, highlighting rapid growth...
read Oct 11, 2024This UK startup’s new chip may make AI a lot cheaper
Revolutionary AI Chip Design Promises Cost and Energy Efficiency: Fractile, a UK-based hardware startup, has emerged from stealth with a novel AI co-processor design that could significantly reduce the cost and energy consumption of artificial intelligence operations. The company has secured $15 million in funding to develop its innovative chip architecture that integrates memory and processing on a single chip. Fractile's approach aims to address the inefficiencies in current computer architectures, which separate memory and processing, leading to high energy consumption in data-intensive AI operations. The startup claims its chips could run AI models up to 100 times faster at...
read Oct 8, 2024DARPA awards university team grant to develop AI-powered turbines
Revolutionizing aerospace engineering: DARPA has awarded a multi-university team a grant to develop AI-enhanced design tools and high-throughput testing methods for next-generation turbomachinery, with a focus on bladed disk (blisk) geometry. Project overview and objectives: The Multiobjective Engineering and Testing of Alloy Structures (METALS) program brings together researchers from MIT, Carnegie Mellon University, and Lehigh University to optimize shape and compositional gradients in multi-material structures. The project aims to develop novel design tools that complement new high-throughput materials testing techniques. Researchers will focus on blisk geometry, commonly found in turbomachinery such as jet and rocket engines, as an exemplary challenge...
read Oct 8, 2024Braintrust raises Series A from A16Z to assess and improve AI tool performance
AI evaluation startup Braintrust secures significant funding: Braintrust, a company specializing in AI product evaluation and monitoring, has raised $36 million in a Series A round led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), valuing the startup at approximately $150 million. Key details of the funding: The round was led by a16z partner Martin Casado Cloud leaders Databricks and Datadog also participated in the funding The investment values Braintrust at about $150 million, according to sources Braintrust's core offering: The startup provides software to evaluate and monitor AI product performance It helps companies identify and fix issues when AI tools produce nonsensical answers...
read Oct 8, 2024Q-CTRL secures $59M to advance quantum computing software
Quantum computing breakthrough: Australian quantum computing infrastructure software company Q-CTRL has raised $59 million in a Series B-2 funding round, bringing its total Series B funding to $113 million and overall funding to $133 million. Funding details and investor landscape: The latest round was led by global late-stage venture firm GP Bullhound, signaling strong confidence in Q-CTRL's potential to shape the quantum industry. New investors include Alpha Edison, Lockheed Martin Ventures, NTT Finance, Salus Group, and TISI, joining existing backers such as Alumni Ventures, DCVC, and Salesforce Ventures. The investment round saw a significant increase in Q-CTRL's valuation, reflecting the...
read Oct 7, 2024Voyage AI secures funding from Snowflake to enhance enterprise RAG
Voyage AI secures funding to enhance enterprise RAG capabilities: Voyage AI, a startup specializing in embedding and retrieval models for enterprise Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) AI use cases, has raised $20 million in a Series A funding round. Cloud data vendor Snowflake is among the investors and plans to integrate Voyage AI's models into its Cortex AI service, specifically the Cortex AI search service based on technology from Snowflake's acquisition of AI search vendor Neeva. Voyage AI's multilingual embedding model supports 27 languages with high accuracy, aiming to improve RAG by enhancing retrieval quality. The company's focus on better embeddings...
read Oct 3, 2024Biden administration to invest $100M in AI-driven semiconductor tech
Biden-Harris Administration announces major AI investment for sustainable semiconductors: The U.S. Department of Commerce has issued a Notice of Intent for a competition to accelerate the development of sustainable semiconductor materials using artificial intelligence, with up to $100 million in funding available. Key details of the initiative: The program aims to demonstrate how AI can assist in developing new sustainable semiconductor materials and processes within a five-year timeframe. Funding will be awarded to university-led, industry-informed collaborations focusing on AI-powered autonomous experimentation (AI/AE) for sustainable semiconductor manufacturing. The initiative is part of the CHIPS for America program, which seeks to bolster...
read Oct 3, 2024OpenAI’s valuation soars to $157B after massive fundraise
OpenAI's meteoric rise: OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, has nearly doubled its valuation to $157 billion in a new funding round, reflecting its rapid growth and potential in the AI industry. The company raised $6.6 billion in its latest funding round, up from its previous valuation of $86 billion. Venture capital firm Thrive Capital led the round with a $1.25 billion investment, while Microsoft contributed just under $1 billion. New investors include SoftBank ($500 million), Nvidia ($100 million), and UAE-based MGX. Funding with strings attached: The new investment comes with a significant condition that highlights OpenAI's ongoing transformation. Investors have...
read Oct 3, 2024OpenAI secures $6.6B for ambitious AI model expansion
OpenAI's record-breaking funding round: OpenAI has secured a staggering $6.6 billion investment at a $157 billion valuation, marking a significant milestone in the company's pursuit of artificial general intelligence (AGI). The funding round was led by Thrive Capital, which committed $1 billion and reportedly received a special deal allowing for an additional $1 billion investment next year if OpenAI meets certain revenue goals. The investment values OpenAI at approximately 40 times its reported revenue, underscoring the immense hype surrounding AI in Silicon Valley. OpenAI's monthly revenue reached $300 million in August, with projected annual sales of $3.7 billion for this...
read Oct 1, 2024Reconciling SoftBank’s AI strategy with the Vision Fund’s investment in OpenAI
SoftBank's dual AI approach: SoftBank Group is pursuing a multifaceted strategy in the artificial intelligence space, with distinct focuses for its core business and its investment arm. The company's main AI strategy centers on downstream applications of generative AI technology, targeting companies that can leverage these advancements in practical, market-ready solutions. In contrast, SoftBank's Vision Fund has made a notable investment in OpenAI, a leading developer of foundational AI models and technologies. This bifurcated approach allows SoftBank to participate in both the development of core AI technologies and the commercialization of AI-powered products and services. Strategic implications: The distinction between...
read Sep 30, 2024Apple is no longer considering an investment into OpenAI
Apple withdraws from OpenAI investment talks: Apple has decided not to participate in a funding round for OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, despite previous discussions about a potential investment. The funding round for OpenAI is expected to raise approximately $6.5 billion and is set to close this week. Apple's reasons for exiting the negotiations remain unclear, leaving room for speculation about the company's AI strategy. The decision comes just a month after reports suggested Apple was considering an investment in OpenAI as part of a fundraising effort that could value the AI company at over $100 billion. Competitive landscape in...
read Sep 30, 2024Wispr secures $12M to make voice dictation to text even better
Voice-to-text revolution: Wispr, a technology company focused on natural voice interaction, has secured $12 million in funding to launch Wispr Flow, an advanced voice-first productivity tool for Apple Macs. Wispr Flow allows users to speak naturally into a microphone and see their words appear on screen almost instantly, potentially tripling text input speed compared to traditional typing. The software can be activated by pressing the Fn key twice, making it easily accessible across various applications like Microsoft Word, Apple Mail, and even ChatGPT. Wispr Flow's beta version has shown impressive capabilities in filtering out verbal tics such as "um" and...
read Sep 30, 2024OpenAI’s $150B fundraise has big implications for the entire AI industry
OpenAI's Ambitious Funding Round Faces Challenges: OpenAI's pursuit of a massive funding round, reportedly aiming for $6.5 to $7 billion at a $150 billion valuation, is encountering significant obstacles that could potentially derail the entire effort. The financial landscape: OpenAI's aggressive fundraising strategy reflects its urgent need for capital to support its resource-intensive approach to AI development. The company is rumored to be losing money on each query when factoring in training costs, highlighting the financial pressures it faces. OpenAI's primary strategy for improving its models involves scaling them up significantly, which requires substantial investments in GPU hardware. Last year's...
read Sep 28, 2024AI-powered 911 tech firm Prepared secures $27M funding
Innovative emergency dispatch technology receives significant funding boost: Prepared, a company specializing in emergency dispatch technology, has secured $27 million in a Series B funding round led by prominent venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. The funding brings Prepared's total investment to approximately $57 million since its founding in 2019. This latest round of investment demonstrates growing interest in modernizing public safety technology, particularly in the realm of 911 call responses. AI-driven enhancements in emergency response: Prepared aims to leverage artificial intelligence to improve the efficiency of 911 call responses, addressing the evolving needs of emergency dispatch centers in the mobile...
read Sep 26, 2024Blackstone commits £10bn to AI data centre in Blyth
Major AI investment in UK: Private equity giant Blackstone has confirmed a £10bn investment to build one of Europe's largest artificial intelligence data centers in Blyth, Northumberland, creating approximately 4,000 jobs. The investment marks a significant boost for the UK's AI sector and economy, with the government hailing it as a demonstration that the country is "open for business." The Blyth site was previously earmarked for an electric car battery factory by Britishvolt, which collapsed earlier this year. Construction of the data center is expected to commence in 2024, with about 1,200 jobs dedicated to the project's construction phase. Economic...
read Sep 26, 2024Mixed reality startup raises $11.2M for glasses-free enterprise tech
Breakthrough in mixed reality technology: Distance Technologies, a Helsinki-based startup, has secured $11.2 million in seed funding to advance its glasses-free mixed reality applications for automotive, aerospace, and defense sectors. The funding round, led by GV (Google Ventures) with participation from FOV Ventures and Maki.vc, comes just three months after the company's $2.7 million pre-seed round. Distance Technologies' innovative approach transforms transparent surfaces into windows for experiencing mixed reality without the need for headsets or wearable devices. The technology uses a computer-generated 3D light field that seamlessly blends with the real world, offering infinite per-pixel depth and covering the entire...
read Sep 26, 2024AI startup Runway may fund your next film if you use AI
AI startup Runway launches ambitious film fund: Runway, a generative AI company, is offering grants of up to $1 million to filmmakers who incorporate AI technology into their projects, marking a significant push to integrate artificial intelligence into mainstream filmmaking. The Hundred Film Fund aims to support the production of up to 100 short films and feature-length movies that utilize generative AI technology in storytelling. Grants will range from $5,000 to $1 million, with decisions on applications typically made within 14 days of submission. Runway is also offering up to $2 million in credits for filmmakers to use its gen-AI...
read Sep 19, 2024AI Startup ‘With’ Raises $10M to Improve Community Engagement
Community engagement tech firm With secures $10M investment: The U.S.-Israeli company has raised new funding to expand its reach and develop AI-based tools for local governments. Key details of the investment: The funding round included participants such as Boaz Amiti, Tal Ventures, Iron Nation, Unicorn Technologies, Ariel Maislos, and Yuval Bar Gil Notable investors also include Zac Bookman, co-founder and CEO of OpenGov, and Eyal Feder-Levy, co-founder and CEO of Zencity The capital will be used to expand With's presence in North America and develop AI-powered capabilities With's community engagement platform: The company offers an end-to-end solution for local governments...
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