DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ AI provides a very large and vibrant opportunity for investors, says Redpoint Ventures' Geoff Yang
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-17 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailAI provides a very large and vibrant opportunity for investors, says Redpoint Ventures' Geoff YangGeoff Yang, Redpoint Ventures partner and co-founder, joins 'Squawk Box' to discuss investing in AI, how the technology will affect companies, AI's infrastructure plays, Elon Musk's $56 billion Tesla pay package, and more.

Persons: Geoff Yang Geoff Yang, Elon Musk's Organizations: Redpoint, Redpoint Ventures

☆ The AI boom is really something foundational, says Redpoint Ventures' Geoff Yang
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-02 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailThe AI boom is really something foundational, says Redpoint Ventures' Geoff YangGeoff Yang, Redpoint Ventures partner and co-founder, joins 'Squawk Box' to discuss the Big Tech earnings, the AI revolution, impact on the tech sector, and more.

Persons: Geoff Yang Geoff Yang Organizations: Redpoint, Redpoint Ventures, Big Tech

☆ Fintech firm Ramp raises $300 mln at lowered valuation of $5.8 bln
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Aug 22 (Reuters) - Ramp, a developer of financial management software, has raised $300 million in its latest funding round to accelerate expansion in new categories, the company said on Tuesday, notching up a valuation of $5.8 billion. The new funding is at a lower valuation from the $8.1 billion achieved by the New-York based startup in a funding round last year, a spokesperson of the company confirmed. The latest funding round was co-led by Thrive Capital and Sands Capital along with existing investors Founder's Fund and General Catalyst among others. Previous investors in the fintech include Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) CEO Satya Nadella, Goldman Sachs (GS.N), Redpoint Ventures and Thrive Capital. The financial management company intends to expand its software into adjacent categories in an attempt to make customer's businesses more "efficient", said Chief Executive Officer Eric Glyman.

Persons: Satya Nadella, Goldman Sachs, Eric Glyman, Pritam Biswas, Shailesh Organizations: New, Sands Capital, Founder's Fund, Catalyst, Microsoft Corp, Redpoint Ventures, Thomson Locations: York, Bengaluru

Signage and cars are displayed in honor of SentinelOne, a cybersecurity firm’s IPO, outside the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., June 30, 2021. SentinelOne has hired investment bank Qatalyst Partners to advise on discussions with potential acquirers, including private equity firms, the sources said. Private equity firms have been prolific investors in the cybersecurity sector. In November 2021, an investor consortium led by private equity firm Advent International acquired McAfee Corp for $14 billion. Tech-focused private equity firm Thoma Bravo has also been a serial acquirer in the sector, having bought Ping Identity, ForgeRock, Sailpoint Technologies and Magnet Forensics Inc, among others.

Persons: Brendan McDermid, SentinelOne, Qatalyst, SentinelOne's, Daniel Loeb's, Morgan Stanley, Thoma, Milana Vinn, Anirban Sen, Conor Humphries, Jonathan Oatis Organizations: New York Stock Exchange, REUTERS, SentinelOne, Qatalyst Partners, CrowdStrike Holdings, U.S ., Tiger Global, Sequoia Capital, Insight Partners, Redpoint Ventures, Advent International, McAfee Corp, Tech, Thoma Bravo, Sailpoint Technologies, Magnet Forensics, Thomson Locations: New York City, U.S, View , California, New York, Israel, cybersecurity

☆ The scientist behind IBM Watson has raised $60 million for his AI startup in New York
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-17 | by ( Hayden Field | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

David Ferrucci, a prominent artificial intelligence researcher who led the team that created IBM Watson , has raised nearly $60 million for his AI startup called Elemental Cognition, according to a regulatory filing. The filing on Thursday says the company sold $59.95 million worth of equity to 17 investors and plans to raise another $5.75 million. Ferrucci led IBM Watson between 2006 and the end of 2012, during which time the computer system famously won "Jeopardy!" He then ran AI research for Bridgewater Associates, one of the world's largest hedge funds. In January of last year, the company sold its Watson Health unit for an undisclosed amount to private equity firm Francisco Partners.

Persons: David Ferrucci, Watson, Cora, Ferrucci, IBM Watson, David Shepler, Eric Brown, Mike Barborak, Jim Breyer, Sam Palmisano, Greg Jensen, Bridgewater's, Geoff Yang, OpenAI's Organizations: IBM, Bridgewater Associates, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Bridgewater, Breyer Capital, Facebook, Redpoint Ventures, CNBC, Investors, Health, Francisco Partners Locations: New York, New, Helmsley, guardrails, China

With the introduction of new AI features, corporate finance teams will have improved oversight, Ramp CEO Eric Glyman told Reuters. For instance, companies will be able to better detect unusual employee spending in real time, said Ramp investor Logan Bartlett of Redpoint Ventures. The new features also include an accounting co-pilot that makes doing manual tasks much faster. Generative AI has the ability to synthesize large amounts of data and interact using humanlike language. Ramp partnered with OpenAI, the AI behind the chatbot sensation ChatGPT, to build the AI enhancements.

☆ Meta spins out customer service startup Kustomer amid 'year of efficiency'
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Jonathan Vanian | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Visitors take photos in front of the Meta (Facebook) sign at its headquarters in Menlo Park, California, on December 29, 2022. Meta has spun out the enterprise startup Kustomer, which it bought in 2020 for roughly $1 billion. Kustomer announced the spin-out in a blog post published Monday, pitching the deal as the startup's "next chapter as an independent company." Kustomer's original investors, which include Battery Ventures, Boldstart Ventures and Redpoint Ventures, have invested an additional $60 million into the startup, which now has a reported valuation of $250 million. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has described 2023 as the company's "year of efficiency" and plans to lay off roughly 21,000 workers by early summer.

☆ Microsoft's $13 billion bet on OpenAI carries huge potential along with plenty of uncertainty
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-08 | by ( Jordan Novet | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +10 min

Microsoft's cumulative investment in OpenAI has reportedly swelled to $13 billion and the startup's valuation has hit roughly $29 billion. What does that mean for Microsoft's investment and broader arrangement? The structure changed in 2019, when two top executives published a blog post announcing the formation of a "capped-profit" entity called OpenAI LP. Microsoft has an exclusive license on GPT-4 and all other OpenAI models, the OpenAI spokesperson said. When considering potential exits for OpenAI, Microsoft — which does not hold an OpenAI board seat — would be the natural acquirer given its close entanglement.

☆ 23 of the most promising B2B marketplaces of 2022, according to investors
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( Stephanie Palazzolo | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

We asked top venture capitalists to name the most promising B2B-marketplace startups of 2022. That's meant a new receptiveness for alternative hiring approaches like labor marketplaces, Jenny He, the founder and general partner at Position Ventures, told Insider. So B2B marketplaces for both tangible goods and labor became an innovative method to combat these issues. Insider asked top investors to nominate the most promising B2B-marketplace startups they'd come across, both within and outside their portfolios. Here are the 23 most promising B2B-marketplace startups of 2022, according to VCs, listed from least to most capital raised:

☆ Andreessen Horowitz bets millions on emerging startup MotherDuck to build data analytics tech for companies that don't need all the oomph pushed by cloud giants
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Matthew Lynley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

CEO Jordan Tigani says it won't replace Snowflake but can carve its own niche in the data market. DuckDB, an open source database and analytics technology, was launched by the DuckDB foundation in 2019 to tackle this problem. It's designed for work with smaller chunks of data, which is the size most companies are actually typically analyzing, Tigani said. The round comes at a $175 million valuation with combined a $35 million series A funding round led by Andreessen-Horowitz and a $12.5 million seed funding round led by Redpoint. It could also be compared to the emerging Snowflake-endorsed data technology Iceberg (3,600 stars).

☆ Women in venture capital are writing the rules of maternity leave and bending the male-dominated culture to their will
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-31 | by ( Melia Russell | Madeline Renbarger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

And with more women entering the male-dominated venture industry, firms are being forced to craft maternity leave policies on the fly to accommodate new mothers. Forty years ago, the clubby male world of venture capital admitted so few women that maternity leave as a benefit was effectively nonexistent. "There is no playbook about how to take maternity leave or raise a family while also accelerating your career as an investor." Lux CapitalLike in many male-dominated industries, maternity leave as a benefit for investors doesn't come up in conversation until someone needs it. Though, the best policies, investors said, give women choices about how they operate on leave, rather than prescribing a one-size-fits-all leave.

☆ Credit Suisse bankers are preparing for 'Uli the Knife' to carve up the investment bank.
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-26 | by ( Aaron Weinman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

It's a tense time for many insiders at Credit Suisse. One person told me it's a case of "rinse and repeat," as Credit Suisse undergoes its second strategic review in less than a year. Law firm sued Credit Suisse over claims it misled investors on business dealings related to Russian oligarchs. Among the plans reported to be under consideration are a three-way split of the investment bank, according to the Financial Times. Under Chief Executive Ulrich Körner, Credit Suisse wants to transform its investment bank into a "capital-light, advisory-led banking business."

AcuityMD helps medtech companies sell their products to doctors more efficiently. Total funding: $38 millionWhat it does: AcuityMD provides software to medical-device companies designed to improve how they sell their products to doctors. AcuityMD assists teams in marketing their products to doctors and training those doctors to use the devices. "As B2B enterprise sales scale in sophistication, medical-technology companies have been underserved by their software," Effron said. "AcuityMD changes this and brings best-in-class enterprise software tools to the medical-technology industry."

Hi, I'm Matt Turner, the editor in chief of business at Insider. (If that term is new to you, it's "a state, society, or group governed by old people.") A new four-month investigation from our politics team looks at the disastrous effect it's having on American democracy. But our government has never been older than it is today. Rebecca Zisser/InsiderWith warm temperatures and low living costs, Florida has been a haven for retirees for decades.

Search resuls for: "Redpoint Ventures"

14 mentions found