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☆ See the 20-slide pitch deck that got Merck to back an AI-powered biotech creating drugs for untreatable diseases
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-14 | by ( Rebecca Torrence | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Pepper Bio wants to reduce those costs by getting drug developers to the right targets faster, using what it calls a "transomics" approach. Pepper Bio also looks at protein phosphorylation, an indication of how and when proteins are active. Pepper Bio CEO Jon Hu said working with Merck gave the startup insight into the needs of the pharma firms to which Pepper Bio hopes to sell its software. "It allows us to understand, truthfully, what drug developers are struggling with," he said. Here's the 20-slide pitch deck that got Pepper Bio $6.5 million in seed funding.

Persons: Pepper, Pepper Bio's cofounders, Jon Hu Organizations: Business, NFX, Silverton Partners, Mana Ventures, Tensility Ventures, VSC Ventures, Merck, Merck Digital Sciences, pharma

Zubale/Handout via REUTERS Acquire Licensing RightsMEXICO CITY, Nov 30 (Reuters) - E-commerce startup Zubale is setting its sights on expanding throughout Brazil and Mexico with a fresh $25 million capital injection, the company said on Thursday. In Mexico, the startup already operates in 90 cities and is eyeing another 40 over the next two years, said Monroy. He added that Zubale plans to first boost the technology behind its gig service in Mexico, Latin America's second-largest economy, to increase both workers' productivity and earnings. Zubale is also going to "speed up market penetration" of its software in Mexico, where the products are "still really green," Monroy said. The $25 million investment announced on Thursday comes from backers such as QED Investors and NFX, and follows a $40 million Series A funding round last year.

Persons: Sebastian Monroy, Zubale, Thiego Goularte, Goularte, Monroy, Kylie Madry, Rashmi Organizations: Reuters, REUTERS Acquire, MEXICO CITY, Carrefour, Sao Paulo, Thomson Locations: Sao Paulo, Brazil, Handout, MEXICO, Mexico, Sao, Rio de Janeiro

☆ Washington reusable rocket startup Stoke Space raises $100 million
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-05 | by ( Michael Sheetz | In Michaeljsheetz | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Washington-based startup Stoke Space raised $100 million in new funds, the company announced Thursday, as it aims to develop a fully reusable rocket called "Nova." Stoke's latest investment round was led by Industrious Ventures – with the firm's Steve Angel, chairman of chemicals giant Linde , joining the Stoke board of directors. While a number of U.S. companies are aiming to develop reusable rockets to compete with the success of Elon Musk's SpaceX, Stoke is taking a different approach from its rivals. Stoke is developing Nova to be a "medium" class rocket that can deliver 5,000 kilograms to low Earth orbit. That puts Nova in the middle of the launch market, between Rocket Lab's "light" Electron and SpaceX's "heavy" Falcon 9 in terms of capability.

Persons: Steve Angel, fundraise, Bill Gates, Andy Lapsa, Elon, Lapsa, Nova Organizations: Stoke Space, Linde, Stoke, University of Michigan, Sparta Group, Breakthrough Energy, Point72 Ventures, MaC Ventures, Toyota Ventures, CNBC, SpaceX Locations: Washington, Stoke

☆ These retailers are bucking the trend and opening stores in San Francisco despite the city's 'doom loop'
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-21 | by ( Tom Carter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Some retailers are fleeing San Francisco as fears grow over rising crime and a worsening economic environment. They continued, "We are excited to strengthen our presence in San Francisco and intend to test and try different formats to meet the needs of our San Francisco consumers for many years." Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty ImagesChanel is also making moves in downtown San Francisco. The move came despite luxury stores in downtown San Francisco being targeted by a series of high-profile robberies. "We recently invested in renovating our Downtown San Francisco hub where our teams come together to develop new consumer experiences and product innovations.

Persons: Tayfun, Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent, Jay Watson, Alexander Spatari, Henrique Dubugras, Michael Tannenbaum, Brex's, Tannenbaum, It's, it's, Angela Hoover, Andi, Hoover Organizations: Foods, Service, Nordstrom, Westfield San Francisco Centre, Ikea US, Ikea, Bay Area, Anadolu Agency, Getty, Real, Arpels, Gap's San, Gap Inc, Navy, Gap, Downtown, San Francisco Locations: San Francisco, Wall, Silicon, Francisco, Westfield, San Francisco's, Bay, Union, Gap's, Gap's San Francisco, Banana, Sutter, Downtown San Francisco, Miami

☆ A VC firm has built an AI-powered pitch deck generator for startup founders — and is giving it away for free
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-31 | by ( Madeline Renbarger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Growth Warrior Capital is launching a new tool Elevo, an AI-powered pitch deck generator. For Phelon as an investor, the sheer amount of pitch decks that she was sorting through began to become overwhelming. Elevo will then generate a pitch deck for them with the key details that VCs are looking for. Elevo's interface allows founders to input details about their startup and generate a short pitch deck. Growth Warrior CapitalThe designs are typically simple and the slide numbers are short, but that's oftentimes what investors who see dozens of decks a week prefer.

Persons: Phelon, Ashley Pilipiszyn, TapInfluence, Lizzie Widhelm, Elevo's waitlist, Elevo, I'm Organizations: Morning, OpenAI, Growth

☆ Lending startup Captain raised $107 million in the boom times. Now it's up for sale amid layoffs and a capital drought.
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-25 | by ( Melia Russell | Rob Price | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Captain, a startup that aimed to quicken home repairs after natural disasters, is winding down. The Louisville-based company had previously raised $107 million across venture and debt equity. CartaMany early-stage startups such as Captain, which had raised $107 million across equity and debt capital, have struggled to raise new funding as a drought in venture capital spreads through Silicon Valley. Liabilities pile upThe company relies on debt financing to pay contractors upfront for materials, supplies, and labor costs. In his email, Gray said prospective buyers were aware of the outstanding liabilities and the sale price would be used to satisfy those liabilities, "with wages being the most paramount," he said.

Persons: Demetrius Gray, Gray, Captain, Red Swan, Pete Flint, Flint, PATRICK T, FALLON, Talent, Melia Russell, Rob Price Organizations: quicken, Carta, TechCrunch, GGV, fintech, Munich Re, San Francisco Superior Court Locations: The Louisville, Silicon Valley, Carta, Louisville , Kentucky, NFX, CoVenture, Munich, Maui

☆ AI companies are flocking to San Francisco — giving the city's commercial real-estate market a much-needed boost
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-10 | by ( Beatrice Nolan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The city may have the recent AI boom to thank for the boost, experts say. According to data from VTS, San Francisco saw a recent boom in demand, experiencing a 10.2% demand increase in the most recent quarter. It's perhaps unsurprising that AI companies seem to have San Francisco in their sights. Quinn said JLL had 10 AI clients eyeing around 750,000 to one million square feet of San Francisco real estate. One AI company, Hive, recently announced it was subleasing three floors of a downtown San Francisco office — taking over space previously occupied by software company Okta, Bloomberg reported.

Persons: Alexander Quinn, Jones Lang LaSalle, Nick Romito –, –, There's, Romito, It's, Quinn, JLL, —, VTS's Romito, He's Organizations: Morning, PayPal, ChatGPT, San Francisco's Mission, San Francisco's, Economic, Workforce Development, Bloomberg Locations: Francisco, VTS, San Francisco, San Francisco's

Unlike past tech booms that have touched San Francisco, the generative AI craze brings fewer jobs, because AI firms excel at staying lean and automating work. "I think we should curb our optimism that San Francisco commercial real estate will bounce back because of AI," said Silicon Valley investor Jeremiah Owyang. Eleven of the country's top 20 AI companies are in San Francisco and have raised $15.7 billion collectively between 2008 and 2023. That amount is just 2.3% of the estimated 150,000 daily workers that downtown San Francisco lost during the pandemic. Reporting by Anna Tong in San Francisco; Editing by Sayantani Ghosh, Anna Driver and Matthew LewisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Carlos Barria, San, Jeremiah Owyang, Erin Price, Wright, OpenAI, Matt Schlicht, Mike Grabowski, Grabowski, Owyang, Lee Edwards, Daron Acemoglu, Anna Tong, Sayantani Ghosh, Anna Driver, Matthew Lewis Organizations: Intelligence, REUTERS, FRANCISCO, Reuters, Francisco, San Francisco Mayor London Breed's, San, Microsoft, Octane, Google, Nordstrom, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Thomson Locations: San Francisco, California, U.S, Valley, NFX, Dubai

June 8 - Legal AI company EvenUp has raised an additional $50.5 million in Series B funding from new investors including Bessemer Venture Partners and Bain Capital Ventures, the San Francisco-based company said Thursday, valuing the company at $325 million. EvenUp provides a product to personal injury law firms that automates the workflow for demand letters, using generative AI and a proprietary legal dataset. These have been boom times for the legal AI market, as legal firms have lined up to embrace generative AI. Law is an ideal use case for generative AI because what lawyers do – analyze content and then synthesize it in prose – is exactly what generative AI products like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which was trained on reams of text, do best, said Bessemer partner Sameer Dholakia. He estimated there are about 300,000 personal injury attorneys and 20 million personal injury cases per year.

Persons: EvenUp, Rami Karabibar, Sameer Dholakia, Karabibar, Anna Tong, David Gregorio Our Organizations: Bessemer Venture Partners, Bain Capital Ventures, NFX, Reuters, Thomson Locations: San Francisco

☆ The SVB fallout has been a wake up call for startup founders. Many are rethinking their VC relationships: 'There's certain people I wouldn't want to take money from now.'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-21 | by ( Stephanie Palazzolo | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Startup founders are wary of some VCs after their actions during the SVB crisis. Some founders were disheartened by investor advice on what to do with their money in SVB. "There's certain people I wouldn't want to take money from now," Sami Khan, cofounder and CEO of mobile games company Atlas Reality told Insider. He adds that it's difficult to blame people, both investors and founders, for the decisions they make in fast-moving situations. Without access to the dependable venture debt SVB offered, more founders may be forced to turn to dilutive venture capital for financing instead.

☆ Why stablecoin company Circle is set to be the big winner in crypto after the collapse of Signature Bank and Silicon Valley Bank
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( April Joyner | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The collapse of three crypto-friendly banks is a boon for stablecoin issuer Circle, investors said. Slivergate Bank, Silicon Valley Bank, and Signature all imploded in the space of a week. Circle keeps its reserves at BNY Mellon, which helped its stablecoin USDC recover after SVB's fall. Circle, the company behind the stablecoin USDC, is set to come ahead in the aftermath of the collapses of Silvergate Bank, Silicon Valley Bank, and Signature Bank, according to several investors and founders. One risk, however, is that recent bank failures prompt regulators to bar crypto companies, including Circle, from accessing the US banking system altogether.

☆ The ChatGPT and generative AI 'gold rush' has founders flocking to San Francisco's 'Cerebral Valley'
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Thomas Maxwell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Because of pandemic-era closings, San Francisco became somewhat of a ghost town for two years. Now, a race to succeed in the fledgling space of generative AI has founders flocking back. Generative AI takes training data — for instance, a vast corpus of written text — and teaches itself how to produce completely new, unique works. After giving New York a try for several weeks, the generative AI boom picked up. Thomas Maxwell/InsiderPerez said that the sense of urgency to get working on building better AI models comes from how generative AI improves with more data.

☆ From writing malicious code to creating deepfakes, generative-AI tools like ChatGPT are being used for harmful purposes. Here's how founders and VCs are thinking about policing them.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-21 | by ( Stephanie Palazzolo | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

In the past few months, some have raved about the capabilities of generative AI tools like ChatGPT. Startups policing themselvesSome startups have taken it upon themselves to ensure their products aren't being used for the wrong purposes. In 2020, Resemble AI, a company that can generate voices using AI, released Resemblyzer, an open-source package that can verify speakers and detect fake speech. Despite their bad rap, the majority of deepfakes are used for marketing or entertainment, rather than malicious purposes, Riparbelli told Insider. But already, US government officials are collaborating with AI startups to form partnerships and fund research around these concerns, Ahmed told Insider.

☆ Bill Gates' climate investment firm is backing this reusable rocket startup
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( Diana Olick | In Dianaolick | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Stoke Space is developing a clean-fueled, rapidly reusable rocket that can deliver satellites into earth's orbit, while protecting the earth itself by creating fewer emissions. Stoke Space is still in the first stages of testing the rocket and is a long way off from taking satellites into space. But its plans are ambitious and built around the idea of launching more satellites to combat climate change. We started thinking many years ago around how do we deploy more satellites focused on climate problems? In addition to Breakthrough Energy, investors include Spark capital, Toyota Ventures, Point72 Ventures, MaC Venture Capital and NFX Ventures.

☆ Here's the exclusive 14-slide pitch deck that Veriti used to raise a $12 million Series A for its AI-cybersecurity platform
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-06 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Veriti uses AI to strengthen companies' cybersecurity defense. But even with multiple security tools, the coverage can be incomplete, and that's where Veriti comes in, Veriti CEO Adi Ikan said. Investors are also interested in Veriti's mission of finding holes in companies' cybersecurity coverage. Veriti says that its technology works with other popular cybersecurity tools in the market from Microsoft, Crowdstrike, and others. See the pitch deck that Veriti used to raise its $12 million Series A round.

☆ Andreessen Horowitz's buzzy tech publication Future is shutting down
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-01 | by ( Rob Price | Melia Russell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

A source familiar with Andreessen Horowitz's content strategy confirmed to Insider that Future is shutting down. An Andreessen Horowitz spokesperson declined to comment on the record. Joe LonsdaleIn this new climate, many tech and venture firms' media strategy has shifted from glorified marketing to a more full-fledged editorial operation. In 2021, an army of more than two dozen marketers at Andreessen Horowitz doubled down on this approach. Disclosure: Melia Russell's husband is a former employee of Andreessen Horowitz.

☆ 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:

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