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☆ Nadella, Narayen among tech CEOs investing in cricket's American dream
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-07 | by ( Seema Mody | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Somasegar and Nadella are among the key owners of Seattle's cricket team, named the Orcas. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen are among the executives investing in the new U.S. professional league, Major League Cricket. Other cricket investors include Iconic Ventures, Madrona Venture Group and executives from Google . As the Men's T20 Cricket World Cup , co-hosted by the U.S. for the first time, ramps up, investors have pumped nearly a billion dollars into their American ambition. Venture capitalist Anurag Jain, part owner of Major League Cricket team the San Francisco Unicorns, said the U.S. national team is primarily made up of players in the league.

Persons: Somasegar, They're, Soma Somasegar, Satya Nadella, Shantanu Narayen, Monank Patel, StubHub, Anurag Jain, Satyan Gajwani, Gajwani, Rangaswami, —, Jessica Golden Organizations: Microsoft, CNBC, Madrona, Adobe, Major League Cricket, Iconic Ventures, Madrona Venture Group, Google, U.S, team, ICC, Grand Prairie Cricket, Pakistan, Sunday, The New York Times, Venture, San Francisco Unicorns, U.S ., Times Internet Locations: Bellevue , Washington, America, U.S, Pakistan, Dallas, West Indies, India, Nassau County, New York, of India, North America, South Asia, Australia

☆ Check out the pitch deck productivity startup Read AI used to land $21 million to fuel its meeting-summary generator
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-24 | by ( Samantha Stokes | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The startup, Read AI, closed a $21 million Series A funding round in April. Goodwater Capital led the round, with participation from existing investor Madrona Venture Group, which led the startup's $10 million seed round in 2021. David Shin, who co-founded Read AI alongside Robert Williams and Elliott Waldron, told Business Insider that the generative AI boom over the last year has supercharged what the startup can offer clients. Read AI offers multiple pricing plans, including a basic, free version for individual users as well as enterprise and enterprise plus accounts that cost $22.50 and $29.75 a month per user, respectively. Check out the 23-slide presentation Read AI used to raise $21 million in Series A funding.

Persons: David Shin, Robert Williams, Elliott Waldron, Read Organizations: Goodwater Capital, Madrona Venture Group, Business, Microsoft, Google, Read, Bloomberg Locations: Seattle

☆ 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

☆ DocuSign, Zoom, and Twilio thrived in the pandemic-era stock market. In 2024, they're some of cloud software's most likely M&A targets.
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-19 | by ( Ellen Thomas | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

With the promise of generative AI fueling investment in technology, industry experts expect 2024 to be an active year for cloud software M&A. The market is right for buyers and sellers, as companies like Salesforce and Nvidia enter 2024 with cash on hand and mature startups face a slowed venture market. "There's so much demand for amazing talent in AI," Somasegar said. Deals in 2024 will likely be at smaller valuations, Jaluria noted. Jaluria expects that several companies that flourished during the pandemic — only to lose momentum with the rise in return-to-office mandates — are likely candidates for M&A in 2024.

Persons: Somasegar, Rishi Jaluria, Jaluria, Jaluria's Organizations: Business, Nvidia, Madrona Venture Group, RBC Capital Markets, Activision Locations: Seattle, Figma

☆ With OpenAI's future in limbo, its startup customers are looking to jump ship to other AI models offered by rivals Anthropic and Meta
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-21 | by ( Madeline Renbarger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

With Sam Altman's potential return to OpenAI still in question, one group is also left with a lot of uncertainty: OpenAI's startup customers. Those apprehensions were further worsened Monday, when over 700 of OpenAI's employees threatened to resign if he wasn't reinstated. This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Several startup founders told Business Insider that they were considering switching to an open source model like Meta's Llama 2, or Anthropic's Claude. Still, several customers like Takeoff AI founder McKay Wrigley are switching to Microsoft's Azure service, which sells copies of OpenAI's models and other models.

Persons: Sam Altman's, OpenAI, Altman, wasn't, Claude, James Blackwell, McKay Wrigley, Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, Morgan Stanley, Wrigley, Charlie Dolan, he's, Anthropic, Guillermo Rauch, Matt McIlwain, We've, McIlwain, Alistair Barr Organizations: Business, Google, Services, Microsoft, OpenAI, Bank Locations: Anthropic

☆ OpenAI is hiring former Twitch CEO Emmett Shear to run company two days after ousting Sam Altman
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-19 | by ( Jordan Novet | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Emmett Shear, former CEO of Twitch, in a Bloomberg Television interview in San Francisco, California, U.S., on Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2016. OpenAI is bringing in former Twitch CEO Emmett Shear to run the artificial intelligence company, two days after the sudden ouster of Sam Altman, CNBC has confirmed. Unlike most Silicon Valley startups, OpenAI wasn't structured like a typical corporation with large chunks of equity controlled by the founders. Shear stepped down as CEO of Twitch, the livestreaming service now owned by Amazon , in March. — CNBC's Ari Levy contributed to this reportWATCH: Madrona's Matt McIlwain talks Sam Altman's departure as OpenAI CEO

Persons: Emmett Shear, Twitch, OpenAI, Sam Altman, Shear, Altman, Mira Murati, didn't, Murati, — CNBC's Ari Levy, Matt McIlwain, Sam Altman's Organizations: Bloomberg Television, CNBC, Bloomberg, Microsoft, Tiger, Sequoia Capital, Amazon, OpenAI Locations: San Francisco , California, U.S

☆ OpenAI chaos is good for Google, Amazon, and others trying to catch the AI leader
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-18 | by ( Alistair Barr | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The chaos is good for Google, Amazon, and others trying to catch OpenAI. Especially Google and Amazon, which were caught flat-footed by ChatGPT's rapid success and the impressive capabilities of GPT-4 and other OpenAI models. "In a fast-moving race, this lap has the advantage going to Google and Amazon but it's a marathon, not a sprint." Microsoft has invested billions of dollars in OpenAI and provides cloud infrastructure that runs the startup's AI products. Interestingly, Google and Amazon recently invested billions of dollars in Anthropic, an AI startup that is probably the closest rival to OpenAI in terms of talent and product capabilities.

Persons: OpenAI, Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, —, ChatGPT, OpenAI's, Altman, pic.twitter.com, Guy, @buccocapital, Oren Etzioni, there's Organizations: Google, Service, Employees, Madrona Venture, Microsoft, Amazon Locations: Silicon

☆ Madrona's Matt McIlwain talks Sam Altman's departure as OpenAI CEO
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-17 | 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 EmailMadrona's Matt McIlwain talks Sam Altman's departure as OpenAI CEOMatt McIlwain, Madrona managing director, joins 'Closing Bell Overtime' to talk Sam Altman being forced out at OpenAI and what it means for the company and Microsoft moving forward.

Persons: Matt McIlwain, Sam Altman's, Sam Altman Organizations: Microsoft Locations: OpenAI

☆ Amazon dominated the first cloud era. The AI boom has kicked off Cloud 2.0, and the company doesn't have a head start this time.
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-04 | by ( Alistair Barr | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

There's a new stack of hardware, software, tools, and services that will power AI applications for years to come. Cloud 2.0Another key point here: Most AI developers already know how to use CUDA and Nvidia GPUs. Arguably, Nvidia has already created an AI cloud platform – as AWS once did for the Cloud 1.0 era. James Hamilton is an AWS cloud infrastructure genius who can take on Nvidia, even if the chipmaker has a major head start. Her startup spent months building a data center from scratch to help customers train AI models.

Persons: —, Jensen Huang, Nvidia Rick Wilking, Andrew Ng, CUDA, Michael Douglas, Bernstein, Douglas, Luis Ceze, Ceze, It's, Andy Jassy, Adam Selipsky, James Hamilton, Oren Etzioni, Claude, Dario Amodei, Anthropic Anthropic, Noah Berger, Sharon Zhou, Zhou, Lamini didn't, Etzioni Organizations: Amazon Web Services, Nvidia, Service, Home Depot, AWS, VMware, Cloud, Madrona Venture, Amazon, Amazon Web, Annapurna Labs, Intel, AMD Locations: San Francisco, Seattle, Selipsky

☆ Being underweight stocks would be a 'mistake' if a recession is avoided: JPMorgan's Phil Camporeale
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-23 | 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 EmailBeing underweight stocks would be a 'mistake' if a recession is avoided: JPMorgan's Phil CamporealePhil Camporeale, JPMorgan Asset Management portfolio manager and Matt McIlwain, Madrona Venture Group managing director, join 'Closing Bell Overtime' to talk the day's market action, Big Tech earnings, what to expect from the Fed at Jackson Hole and more.

Persons: Phil Camporeale Phil Camporeale, Matt McIlwain, Jackson Organizations: JPMorgan, Management, Madrona Venture Group, Big Tech, Fed

☆ This is the start of a new tech bull market, says Dan Ives after Big Tech earnings
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-25 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

In this videoShare Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailThis is the start of a new tech bull market, says Dan Ives after Big Tech earningsDan Ives, Wedbush and Matt McIlwain, Madrona Venture Group managing director, join 'Closing Bell Overtime' to talk Microsoft and Google quarterly earnings reports.

Persons: Dan Ives, Wedbush, Matt McIlwain Organizations: Big Tech, Madrona Venture Group, Microsoft

June 29 (Reuters) - Typeface, a generative AI platform for enterprise content creation, said on Thursday that it was valued at $1 billion after an oversubscribed Series B funding round led by Salesforce's (CRM.N) global investment arm, bringing the total capital raised to $165 million. The $100 million round also saw participation from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Madrona, GV (Google Ventures), Menlo Ventures, and M12, Microsoft's Venture Fund, the company said. In February, Lightspeed Venture Partners, GV, Menlo Ventures, and M12 invested $65 million when Typeface emerged from stealth and launched publicly. AI startups have emerged as a bright spot for investments this year amid a wider slowdown in funding caused by rising interest rates and high inflation. Editing by Gerry DoyleOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Salesforce's, Gokul, Krystal Hu, Gerry Doyle Organizations: Lightspeed Venture Partners, GV, Google Ventures, Menlo Ventures, Microsoft's Venture Fund, Google, Thomson Locations: Bengaluru, Toronto

☆ AI startup cloud deals by Microsoft, Google and Amazon ring 'accounting alarm bells' across Silicon Valley over revenue 'round-tripping'
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Eugene Kim | Stephanie Palazzolo | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

Some investors question whether these arrangements are artificially juicing cloud revenue growth. When Microsoft announced a multibillion-dollar investment in OpenAI earlier this year, the deal made Azure the ChatGPT-maker's "exclusive cloud provider." There's another deal in the works with similar attributes involving Runway AI and a major cloud company. But they are drawing more scrutiny lately because they could artificially inflate cloud revenue, a key driver of growth for Microsoft, Google, and Amazon, according to Ted Mortonson, managing director of financial-services firm Baird. Is OpenAI a regular cloud customer that is getting no investment money from Microsoft?

☆ Inside the AI talent wars: Tech companies are ransacking university AI programs at Stanford, MIT, and Cornell in search of engineers
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Stephanie Palazzolo | Melia Russell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

Driven by the recent AI boom, companies are raiding top college campuses for rare technical talent. She's currently on leave from her Stanford AI Ph.D. program to focus on Moonhub. In 2011, new AI Ph.D. graduates took jobs in the tech industry and academia in about equal measure. But since then, the majority of new grads have headed to the AI industry, with nearly double the percentage of AI Ph.D. grads taking industry jobs versus academic roles in 2021, according to Stanford's Institute for Human-Centered AI's 2023 AI Index Report. "All AI companies have roles for people with Ph.D.s and without," said Attaluri, the soon-to-be researcher at DeepMind.

☆ Exclusive: AI startup LangChain taps Sequoia to lead funding round at a valuation of at least $200 million
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Stephanie Palazzolo | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

AI startup LangChain is raising between $20 and $25 million from Sequoia, Insider has learned. The latest round scored the hot upstart a valuation of at least $200 million, according to sources. Just a week after announcing a $10 million seed investment from Benchmark, AI darling LangChain has scored even more capital from yet another top-tier VC. As an open-source project, LangChain is especially known for its strong community — one that Chase is personally involved in. Chase's dedication to openness and collaboration is a major differentiator for the founder's community, and therefore, his startup, Turow said.

☆ Inside the AI talent wars: Tech companies are ransacking university AI programs at Stanford, MIT, and Cornell in search of rare talent
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( Stephanie Palazzolo | Melia Russell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

☆ In the midst of the AI boom, investors are doubling down on diligence. Here are the five questions VCs are asking every generative AI startup during pitches.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( Stephanie Palazzolo | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Buzzy generative AI startups have so far avoided the troubles plaguing the rest of the tech world. Here are the five diligence questions investors are asking generative AI startups, according to VCs. But for generative AI startups, 2023 has been much of the same — and that hasn't been a bad thing. Insider spoke with eight of these VCs about the top five questions they're asking generative AI startups during diligence processes. One hallmark of generative AI startups are their eye-staggering round sizes.

☆ Amazon CEO says ChatGPT is 'exciting,' but that Amazon has been working on similar tech for a long time
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( Sawdah Bhaimiya | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Amazon's CEO Andy Jassy said generative AI like ChatGPT presents "exciting" possibilities. He told the Financial Times that Amazon has been working on generative AI for a long time. Amazon company supporters are worried the company is falling behind in this area, per the FT.Sign up for our newsletter for the latest tech news and scoops — delivered daily to your inbox. "I think it's exciting, what's possible with generative AI," Jassy told the FT. "And it's part of what you're seeing with models like ChatGPT. But most large, deeply technical companies like ours, have been working on these very large, generative AI models themselves for a long time."

☆ Watch CNBC's full interview with Matt McIlwain
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | 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 EmailWatch CNBC's full interview with Matt McIlwainMatt McIlwain, Madrona Venture Group managing director, joins 'TechCheck' to discuss the future of M&A and investing in cloud in 2023.

☆ See the pitch deck this company used to raise $21.5 million and help small landlords prepare for tough times by guaranteeing rent
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Alex Nicoll | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The property-management company Doorstead raised funds in a tough venture-capital market. The company's cofounders walked Insider through the pitch deck they used to raise $21.5 million. It was late 2021, and the founders of Doorstead, a tech-focused property-management company, were losing sleep. "One customer lost $20,000 in rent because their former property manager sold a promise that couldn't be fulfilled by the market," Waliany said. The combination of the rental guarantee and property-management services has helped the company attract property owners seeking passive income.

☆ Pitch Decks That Advertising Tech Startups Used to Raise Millions
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-10 | by ( Business Insider | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +19 min

Check out these pitch decks that they've used to sell their vision and raise millions from private equity and VC investors. Blocking ad fraudAdtech startup Lunio, announced a $15 million Series A funding round in September 2022. In May 2022, the software-as-a-service startup raised a $30 million Series B round, led by Insight Partners. Marketing in the metaverseAnima, an augmented-reality startup, raised a $3 million funding round from investors in Janury. He raised $50 million in Series D after closing a $34 million Series C last year, bringing its total raised to $100 million.

☆ After a very quiet 2022, these are the five tech startups that could go public in 2023, according to bankers and tech market experts
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-03 | by ( Stephanie Palazzolo | Ben Bergman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

In a bleak market, some startups are turning to sellsides or letting go of IPO lawyers. Many companies that were looking to go public are now pausing IPO efforts due to falling public and private valuations, according to five investors, bankers, and tech market experts Insider spoke with. This year hasn't been a total wash for the tech IPO market. Some expected Mobileye's IPO to open the public market floodgates. Here are five companies that could end the 2022 IPO winter, according to people close to the tech markets who spoke with Insider.

Capital One's new partnership with PRIOR can help Venture X cardholders book exclusive tours to places like Napa Valley. Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card cardholders now receive a free PRIOR subscription ($149 value). Capital One is now enhancing this entertainment portal for anyone with the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card. Rewards Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Bottom lineThe Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card is already an extremely compelling travel credit card.

Meanwhile, the number of "mega-deals" — or funding rounds of more than $100 million — dropped to its lowest level since 2018, CB Insights also reported. According to CB Insights, the volume of payments-related dealmaking reached nearly $4 billion, or slightly less than a third of all fintech funding. And while that's not a record-breaking amount, payments are accounting for a larger amount of the fintech funding pie. One year ago, when third-quarter fintech funding topped $36 billion in the midst of a bull market, payments accounted for roughly 20% of overall funding volume. But even amid a relative pullback in broader fintech funding, payments represent a safe, evergreen thesis because it is a largely complicated and analog space.

☆ Fintechs have been getting crushed this year, but the sector's biggest investors say payments are a key area to watch in 2023. Here's what they are most excited about.
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( Emilia David | Carter Johnson | Bianca Chan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

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