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☆ AI-powered devices could drastically change how we interact with technology. But will they catch on?
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-01 | by ( Samantha Stokes | Vishal Persaud | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

"The key isn't hardware but the user experience it enables," Khosla, whose firm Khosla Ventures, is an investor in Rabbit, told Business Insider in an email. This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. At the same time, I don't think the average consumer wants to carry around multiple devices," S. Somasegar, a managing director at Madrona, told Business Insider. That's where we're at," he told Business Insider. Ginsberg said he's excited about the Humnane Pin because AI voice assistants have finally become powerful enough to be useful for average consumers.

Persons: Vinod Khosla, Khosla, Navin Chaddha, Ai, Somasegar, Bernstein, Nielsen, Zachary Ginsburg, Ginsberg, Marc Benioff, Sam Altman, Lachy Groom, Avi Schiffmann, it's, Chaddha Organizations: Khosla Ventures, Software, Business, Mayfield, Microsoft, Calm Ventures, Bond Ventures, Forerunner Ventures, Harvard Locations: Humane's

☆ With an intensified focus on AI, VC firm Mayfield is closely watching for 'maturing' early-stage gen AI startups in 2024
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-16 | by ( Madeline Renbarger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

In July, the firm announced its first dedicated seed fund focused on AI called AI Start. Prior to launching AI Start, Mayfield had already backed 25 early-stage startups in the space like MindsDB. Reddy's background makes him a perfect fit to lead the $250 million fund, Chaddha told Business Insider. This year, Chaddha tapped him to lead its new AI seed fund. With the AI Start fund, the team plans to double down and lead deals in seed stage and pre-seed generative AI startups, as well as AI infrastructure startups with an enterprise focus.

Persons: Mayfield, Vijay Reddy, who's, Reddy, Navin Chaddha, Mayfield's, Chaddha, He's Organizations: Business, Intel Capital, Cisco, Clear Ventures, Mayfield Locations: Mayfield

☆ Meet the contrarian VC: Why Mayfield's Navin Chaddha is writing more checks than ever before while other investors pull back
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-26 | by ( Vishal Persaud | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The longtime VC firm just announced a new $250 million seed fund focused on AI. In tough economic times, the firm's leader, Navin Chaddha, believes it's a prime time to invest. That has essentially been Navin Chaddha's mantra since he took over the reins at venture-capital stalwart Mayfield Fund in 2009. With a dedicated $250 million AI seed war chest, Mayfield is now prepared to lean in even more. "We believe that AI will emerge as our teammate and that the Gen.AI wave will create many iconic companies," Chaddha said in a press release.

Persons: Mayfield, Navin Chaddha, it's, Navin, that's, Chaddha, – who's, Forbes, –, Vijay Reddy, Reddy Organizations: VC, Mayfield Fund, Mayfield, Tiger, Insight Partners, Clear Ventures, Intel Capital, Wing Venture Locations: Bessemer, Sequoia

☆ Some venture capitalists were probably a bit too hopeful about hitting fundraising goals this year
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-15 | by ( Vishal Persaud | Melia Russell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Insight Partners and TCV are reportedly scaling back the size of huge venture funds they planned. The amount of money VC firms raised themselves hit $170.8 billion in 2022, according to PitchBook data, up from $158.5 billion in 2021. And it's also evident in two gigantic firms that had lofty fundraising goals but are now scaling back: Insight Partners and TCV. The firm has raised about 50% to 75% less for a $5.5 billion fund it planned for last year, The Information reported. Last month, Mayfield Fund announced that it raised $955 million across two new venture funds.

Persons: VCs, —, it's, they're, whittle, It's, Insider's Melia Russell, Brian, Lisa Sugar, Turner Novak, Monique Woodward, Navin Chaddha, who's, Chaddha Organizations: Insight Partners, Morning, Insight, Bloomberg, Financial Times, Tiger, Tiger Global, Street, Sugar, Banana, Cake Ventures, Mayfield Fund Locations: Mayfield, Silicon Valley

OAKLAND, California, June 13(Reuters) - Silicon Valley-based AI chip startup SiMa.ai on Tuesday said it raised an additional $13 million from investors including a key fund in Taiwan called VentureTech Alliance, which has a strong strategic partnership with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (2330.TW). This is at least the third investment in U.S. chip startups by VentureTech Alliance in the past month. British AI chip unicorn Graphcore's struggles have been widely reported. Rangasayee also pointed to one recent benchmark testing result by SiMa.ai that beat AI chip giant Nvidia Corp (NVDA.O) in performance and power of chips used on devices like cameras, drones and robots. The testing data is published by MLCommons, an engineering consortium that maintains testing benchmarks widely used in the AI chip industry.

Persons: VentureTech, Ethernovia, SiMa.ai, Navin Chaddha, Mayfield, Chaddha, they're, Moshe Gavrielov, Krishna Rangasayee, MLCommons, it's, David, Goliath, Jane Lanhee Lee, Lisa Shumaker Organizations: VentureTech, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, VentureTech Alliance, Ayar Labs, Nvidia Corp, Nvidia, Thomson Locations: OAKLAND, California, Taiwan, British

☆ AI startup MindsDB aims to help every developer be a machine learning engineer. Here's the pitch deck it used to raise $25 million from investors like Mayfield Fund and Benchmark.
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-01 | by ( Vishal Persaud | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

AI startup MindsDB just raised a $25 million seed extension round led by Mayfield. The round comes less than three months after it raised a $16.5 million round led by Benchmark. The founders of MindsDB aims to help software developers worldwide perform the roles of machine-learning engineers. Founded in 2017, MindsDB is now gaining the interest of investors as AI has become the talk of the town in tech. In February, the startup announced $16.5 million in funding led by Benchmark.

Persons: Mayfield, MindsDB, Navin Chaddha, Chaddha, MindDB's cofounders Jorge Torres, Adam Carrigan, Torres, Chetan Puttagunta Organizations: Benchmark, Mayfield Fund, Ventures, Australian National University Locations: San Francisco, Europe

☆ India's INOX Leisure loss halves as box office income picks up
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BENGALURU, Oct 19 (Reuters) - INOX Leisure Ltd (INOL.NS), India's No.2 multiplex cinema operator, on Wednesday said its second-quarter loss more than halved, as box office and food and beverage revenues inched closer to pre-pandemic levels. This has helped offset some pressure from a lacklustre slate of releases with the likes of "Raksha Bandhan" and "Laal Singh Chaddha" flopping at the box office. Still, net box office revenue of 2.09 billion was far higher than 270 million rupees in the pandemic-hit quarter a year ago, while food & beverage revenue jumped to 1.10 billion rupees from 150 million rupees. Box office revenue was 3.11 billion rupees in the corresponding pre-pandemic quarter, while food and beverage revenue was 1.41 billion rupees. The jump in box office and food sales helped overall revenue from operations surge eight-fold to 3.74 billion rupees and offset a 155.1% jump in total expenses.

☆ 9 top cloud VCs share the trends they're following and how founders can pitch them right now
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-29 | by ( Paayal Zaveri | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

After a boom over the last two years, the venture capital market for cloud startups has slowed. Insider spoke to nine cloud VCs across a variety of firms about how to pitch them right now. So, venture capitalists are considering investments at a slower, more measured pace, several VCs told Insider. Insider spoke to nine venture capitalists across different firms who focus on cloud infrastructure, software, and enterprise technology. Here's what 9 top VCs look for in a founding team, what trends they're following right now, and how to pitch them:

New Delhi CNN —Movie theaters in Indian-controlled Kashmir have reopened their doors, more than two decades after they were forced shut during an armed rebellion that saw multiple threats and attacks on crowded public places. The lieutenant governor of Jammu and Kashmir, Manoj Sinha, inaugurated the disputed region’s newest cinema on Tuesday, in a ceremony marked with much hype and fanfare. The movie theater will open to the public on September 30, according to businessman, Vijay Dhar, who has partnered with Indian cinema chain Inox Leisure Ltd., to open the theater in Srinagar. In the late 1980s, a violent insurgency in Indian-controlled Kashmir claimed the lives of more than 9,000 civilians according to the Indian government, though estimates vary. Last year, the government implemented a policy aimed to promote Indian-controlled Kashmir as a popular filming destination.

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