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OpenAI is said to be closing a funding round that could value the company at as much as $150 billion. "Kushner is betting the ranch on OpenAI and Sam Altman just as Masa Son pledged 40% of his Vision Fund on Yahoo and Jerry Yang. "Second, Sam Altman has proven himself to be one of the greatest tech founders of this generation. Sam Altman has said that AI superintelligence could be a reality within "a few thousand days ." "Everybody wants Sam Altman at the helm, and they're willing to do anything to keep him as the CEO.
Persons: OpenAI, , Sam Altman, ChatGPT, Mira Murati, Bob McGrew, Barret Zoph, Murati's, John Schulman's, Joe Aaron, Aaron, Capital's Josh Kushner, Kushner, Masa Son, Jerry Yang, Jerry Yang wasn't, Jai Das, Goldman Sachs, who's, Altman, they've, Ben Narasin, They're Organizations: Service, Research, Post, Reuters, Nvidia, Apple, Fund, Yahoo, Sapphire Ventures, Venture Locations: Silicon, UAE, OpenAI
Palantir alums Arjun Prakash and Derek Ho founded Distyl AI. AdvertisementDistyl AI, a startup applying generative AI to enterprise workflows, has raised a new Series A funding round of $20 million, Business Insider has learned. The new round values the startup at least $200 million, two sources familiar said. Founded in 2022, the company raised a $7 million seed round last April, reported VentureBeat. This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers.
Persons: Palantir alums Arjun Prakash, Derek Ho, , Coatue, Nat Friedman, Brad Gerstner Organizations: OpenAI, Service, Dell Technologies Capital, Business
It's also a sign of just how expensive the business of training and running AI models is getting. AdvertisementGenerative AI is a cash-guzzlerStartups like OpenAI need to raise huge amounts of capital to build smarter AI models. Just look at the spending of Big Tech firms working to improve their AI models. Consolidation has struck the AI industry in recent months, as some top startups trying to build AI models have been gutted. AI startups serious about progressing on LLMs will need to figure out the answer to this pretty quickly.
Persons: , Elon, Sam Altman, ChatGPT, It's, Justin Sullivan, OpenAI, Dario Amodei, Anthropic, Pretty, Amodei's Anthropic, Dario Amodei's Anthropic, Noam Shazeer —, Ben Bergman, Sri Muppidi, it's, Elad Gil, Gil Organizations: Service, Bloomberg, Business, SpaceX, Getty, Microsoft, Big Tech, Street, Nvidia, Apple, Amazon, Samsung, Google Locations: OpenAI, aren't
Women's health unicorn Maven Clinic is raising over $100 million in a new funding round. PE firm StepStone Group is set to lead the round, which would value Maven at $1.7 billion. AdvertisementWomen's health unicorn Maven Clinic is grabbing fresh capital in a new funding round, Business Insider has learned. The startup is raising over $100 million in the round, according to two people with knowledge of the deal. This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers.
Persons: Maven, Organizations: StepStone, Service, Business Locations: Sequoia
Abridge: AI transcription for doctors and providersMarisa Bass (left) is a principal at Primary, and Shravan Narayen is a partner at IVP. Primary; IVPStartup: AbridgeRecommended by: Marisa Bass, Primary Venture Partners; Shravan Narayen, IVPRelationship: Primary has no financial interest in Abridge. IVP is an investor in Abridge. Total funding: $212.5 millionWhat it does: Abridge's generative AI tech transcribes patient-doctor interactions and documents those visits in electronic health records. Narayen and Bass highlighted Abridge's partnership with EHR giant Epic, which could help the startup gain more traction with hospitals this year.
Persons: Marisa Bass, Shravan, Abridge, Bass Organizations: IVP, Primary Venture Partners Locations: Abridge
Read previewThere's been an investor gold rush to find the hottest new startup, causing a new dynamic: larger seed rounds. In some cases, the seed round is getting out of control. Tier one multi-stage firms have decided to allocate more resources to investing at the seed stage, according to several traditional seed investors who Business Insider spoke to. Related storiesMy colleague Sri Muppidi has reported on these supersized seed rounds in AI startups throughout the summer. Other supersized seed rounds this year include a $10.5 million round by Swedish legal AI startup Leya, and Gameplay Galaxy recently announced a $24 million seed round for its Web3 gaming platform.
Persons: , Greylock, they've, Let's, Sri Muppidi, Ed Sim, whiff, Sim, Sim postured, Shruti Gandhi Organizations: Service, Business, Q2 Venture Monitor, Sequoia, Felicis Ventures, Galaxy, Boldstart Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Canaan Partners, Instacart's, Ventures, Founders Locations: Canaan
Lam aims to change that with NEX, which develops AI image tools for entertainment, gaming, and marketing. Founded in late 2023, the company recently raised a $3.5 million seed round led by Foundation Capital, with participation from Point72 Ventures. NEX does this by enabling users to generate images inspired by other images, not just text inputs, in a "real-time canvas." The startup's tech can also tailor the AI models based on a customer's existing data, a process called finetuning, or even develop models from scratch. Lam's vision for NEX is to be the "visual media tool for the AI era."
Persons: , Darius Lam, Lam, NEX Ikon, NEX, OpenAI's Organizations: Service, Business, Foundation Capital, Point72 Ventures, NEX, Cerebras Systems, Adobe, Autodesk
Let's make a dealThere's no one way to get promoted in venture capital. Amanda "Robby" Robson became a partner at Cowboy Ventures at 29 years old, making her the youngest partner in the firm's history. Network your way to a promotionFundraising for venture firms has become increasingly competitive, with dollars concentrated into fewer legacy funds. Firms might be faster to hire or promote young investors who land deals in the desired category. The next day, the fund promoted him to senior associate and Brenner made it LinkedIn-official.
Persons: , Dan Miller, Abigail Johnson, Michael Larsen, It's, Clara Brenner, Larsen, Amanda, Robby, Robson, Jill Chase, Chase, Miller, " Miller, Johnson, Jenieri Cyrus, Julie Lein, Brenner, Cyrus Organizations: Service, Business, True, Sapphire Ventures, Cambridge Associates, Urban Innovation Fund, Investors, Google, Cowboy Ventures, TechCrunch, intel, Urban, Northwestern Kellogg, LinkedIn Locations: Northwestern
But Lucy Guo, the 29-year-old cofounder of data labeling startup Scale AI blurs the line between the two archetypes. Yet this is the persona many have come to know since Guo left Scale AI in 2018. But, midway through the program, they pivoted again, this time to what would eventually become Scale AI. Lucy GuoThe idea of Scale AI came from a suggestion by one of their YC roommates, who proposed creating an "API for humans." Advertisement"The itch to build"After Scale AI, Guo decided to apply her learnings to a new entrepreneurial opportunity: investing.
Persons: , Lucy Guo, Billie Eilish, Charlie XCX, Guo, she's, Adam D'Angelo, Alexandr Wang, Alex, Wang, Guo's, Cruise, Dave Fontenot, Kylie Jenner's lipsticks, Jake Paul's, Passes Organizations: Service, Business, Fry's Electronics, Carnegie Mellon University, Thiel, Facebook, Multicoin, Bond Locations: Miami, Fremont , California, San Francisco, China, hackathons, Quora
Slingshot AI raised about $30 million in an Andreessen Horowitz-led round, per multiple sources. The startup grabbed a fast-follow from Menlo Ventures shortly after the initial round, sources say. Go to newsletter preferences Thanks for signing up! Slingshot AI, which launched this year to build large-language models for behavioral health, just grabbed about $30 million in a fresh funding round led by top VC firm Andreessen Horowitz, according to three people with knowledge of the deal. Two sources said the round valued Slingshot at more than $100 million.
Persons: Andreessen Horowitz, Organizations: Menlo Ventures, Service, Business
In today's big story, we're looking at how the startup landscape is drastically changing thanks to the entrance of private-equity firms and the rise of acquihires . Private equity is filling the gap left by a frozen IPO market and corporates unwilling or unable to cut deals, writes Business Insider's Melia Russell. Perhaps most importantly, a PE deal means equity holders get cash immediately, unlike an IPO that has some holding periods. Acquihires where the brains behind buzzy AI startups sell themselves (instead of the entire company) to bigger players are in vogue, writes BI's Ben Bergman and Sri Muppidi. Depreciation costs to massive GPU chip investments pose a huge risk for AI companies .
Persons: , You've, Alyssa Powell, Insider's Melia Russell, shivers, Samantha Lee, BI's Ben Bergman, Sri, acquihires, they'll, VCs, it's, Taylor Swift, Tyler Le, Fisker, Zuck, Elon Musk's, Mark Zuckerberg, Jenny Chang, Rodriguez, Biden, Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Dan DeFrancesco, Jordan Parker Erb, Hallam Bullock, Amanda Yen Organizations: Service, Business, SV Getty, Tech, guardrails, Character.AI, Getty, UBS, Mega, Revenue Locations: Europe, New York, London
MemGPT helps users "build LLM agents with long term memory and custom tools." Sign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. AdvertisementMemGPT, a toolkit for developing AI agents, has raised a $10 million round at a $70 million valuation, Business Insider has learned. MemGPT helps users "build LLM agents with long term memory and custom tools," according to its associated GitHub page. This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers.
Persons: MemGPT, Organizations: Service, Felicis Ventures, Business
Google unnerved Silicon Valley last week when it agreed to pay $2.5 billion to license Character.AI's technology, hire its two superstar cofounders and 20 percent of employees. The deal came after AI developers Adept and Inflection both effectively sold themselves to Amazon and Microsoft, respectively, in recent months. It was only last year Character.AI raised $150 million in venture funding, which valued the company at $850 million. Its appeal as a chatbot that uses AI to make virtual characters that interact with users seems decidedly niche. Related storiesMost of the founders and investors Business Insider spoke to for this story say Google has little interest in Character.AI's actual product.
Persons: cofounders, Brent Queener, Kyle Sanford, Character.AI, Iris Sun, Noam Shazeer, Daniel De Freitas, Jack Selby, Peter Thiel's, Steve Brotman, Shazeer, De Freitas, PitchBook's Sanford, they're, Roy Bahat, Arvind Jain, Cameron Lester, Lester Organizations: Service, Microsoft, Bonfire Ventures, Business, Apple, Big Tech, AZ, Biden Administration, Federal Trade Commission, Department of Justice, Alpha Partners, FTC, DOJ, New York Times, Google, Madrona Venture, Bloomberg Beta, Jefferies
In today's big story, turns out being a venture capitalist can be really hard, and some VCs want out . The big storyWe were promised big returnsiStock; Rebecca Zisser/InsiderFor venture capitalists, when the going gets tough, the tough get going…toward the exits. Some VC workers are reconsidering their future as the industry goes through a rough patch, writes Business Insider's Sri Muppidi. The ink was barely dry on a deal before startups were raising another round, doubling their VCs' investment (on paper) along the way. One Bay Area partner told Sri junior investors need to meet dozens of companies a week.
Persons: , Rebecca Zisser, It's, That's, VCs, dobi, Goldman Sachs, duMond, Chip Somodevilla, Alyssa Powell, Jamie Dimon, we're, Jamie, David Zalubowski, Chelsea Jia Feng, Meta's Instagram, Grzegorz Wajda, Elon Musk, Musk's X, he's, Grimes, Sam Altman, Kamala Harris, Dan DeFrancesco, Jordan Parker Erb, Hallam Bullock, Amanda Yen Organizations: Service, Business, VCs, Tiger Global, Area, JPMorgan, YouTube, Dell, Getty, Elon, Federation, Global Alliance, Responsible Media, UK Prime, Democratic, Trump, Disney Locations: Patagonia, Dimon, Anaheim , California, North Carolina, Virginia, New York, London
PitchBook forecast in a May report that venture firms would raise less than $200 billion in 2024, a 48% drop from the industry's peak in 2021. "They may not see any carry dollars for a long time, maybe into full deployment to the next fund," the growth-stage principal said. AdvertisementBut this type of internal competition, including deal theft and sabotage, has always existed, the growth-stage principal added. 'A ton of people looking to get out everywhere'As the market continues to correct itself, more turnover is likely. "I know a ton of people looking to get out everywhere," the growth-stage principal said.
Persons: , Michael Moritz, Combinator, they're, Will Champagne, it's, Ellis, Rebecca Zisser, VCs, Junior VCs, there's, Champagne, I'm, inbounds, I've Organizations: Service, Business, TechCrunch, Venture, Bay Area, Big Law, Kirkland, Haize Labs, Area, Junior
We asked top venture capitalists to name the most promising US startups so far in 2024. VCs named portfolio companies as well as startups that they have no financial ties to. Go to newsletter preferences Thanks for signing up! download the app Email address Sign up By clicking “Sign Up”, you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . AdvertisementThere's an adage in venture capital that great companies are born out of hard times.
Persons: VCs, , Uber Organizations: Service, Business
Read previewReflection AI, a startup building AI agents, has raised new funding at a $100 million valuation, Business Insider has learned. AI agents promise to execute difficult tasks, like booking an appointment or updating Salesforce. Laskin conducted AI research at the Berkeley Artificial Intelligence Research Lab and most recently worked at Google DeepMind, the company's AI research lab. AdvertisementReflection isn't the only startup building AI agents. In June, Amazon hired away the cofounders of AI agent startup Adept, which raised more than $400 million in funding, and licensed its technology, reported GeekWire.
Persons: , cofounders, Misha Laskin, Ioannis Antonoglou, DeepMind, Laskin, Anthropic's Claude, OpenAI's, Antonoglou, Ioannis Organizations: Service, Sequoia Capital, Sequoia, Business, Berkeley Artificial Intelligence, Google, Amazon Locations: DeepMind
Read previewWhile some Silicon Valley investors and startup leaders are going red hoping for a more "tech-friendly" White House, Michael Moritz, a storied Sequoia Capital investor, believes that does not reflect the Valley overall. "Fortunately, at least in Silicon Valley, Trump will not prevail," Moritz wrote in a Financial Times opinion piece, which was also posted on LinkedIn. Like the rest of the nation, Silicon Valley is deeply divided over whom to support in the upcoming presidential race. In his piece, Moritz chided Trump supporters in Silicon Valley. Moritz added that Trump had historically not performed well among Silicon Valley voters.
Persons: , Michael Moritz, Trump, Moritz, Kamala Harris, Donald Trump, Doug Leone, Shaun Maguire, Roelof Botha, Andreessen Horowitz, Marc Andreessen, Ben Horowitz, Fund's Peter Thiel, David Sacks, Chamath, Vance, Sen, JD Vance, Palmer Luckey, Elon Musk, VCs, Kamala, Harris, Vinod Khosla, Reid Hoffman, Mark Cuban, Ron Conway Organizations: Service, Sequoia Capital, LinkedIn, Business, Google, PayPal, Democratic, Republican, Tech, Trump, VR, Bloomberg, PAC, Street Journal, Netflix, Harris, Politico Locations: Silicon Valley, Sequoia, Park City , Utah, Silicon, Palo Alto , California, Newport Beach , California, Washington ,, Francisco, San Jose
AdvertisementSybill helps sales reps by recording every sales call and generating transcriptions and summaries for future reference. By consolidating information from these interactions, Sybill helps sales reps gain a clearer understanding of the customers' budget, stakeholders, and timeline. With Sybill, sales reps can automatically sync information, providing sales leaders with real-time visibility into deals. AdvertisementOther AI sales tools include Gong, an AI-powered revenue intelligence platform that raised $582.9 million, according to PitchBook. The company helps sales leaders forecast revenue and improve team productivity, targeting enterprise customers like ADP and Snowflake.
Persons: , Gorish Aggarwal, Aggarwal, Nishit Asnani, Soumyarka Mondal, Mehak, salespeople, Sybill, They're, Slack, Gong Organizations: Service, Stanford, Business, Greycroft Capital, Neotribe Ventures, Powerhouse Ventures, Enterprise, Balto Software Locations: Salesforce, Avoma, Sybill
Startups are building AI agents that collaborate to fill out forms, dial customer service reps, and order food delivery. These "multi-agent systems" are the next hot thing, according to investors from NEA, Mayfield Fund, and Foundation Capital. Multi-agent systems are distributed systems of multiple specialized AI agents that work together toward a collective goal. AdvertisementIn contrast, multi-agent systems are built on top of LLMs and are designed to execute a task from start to finish. AdvertisementMayfield Fund's Navin Chaddha is optimistic — AI agents will serve as teammates to workers.
Persons: , Spike Jonze's, that's, OpenAI's, NEA's Madison Faulkner, Devin, Warren Hui, Nitta, Satya Nitta, Ashpreet Bedi, Faulkner, Mayfield Fund's Navin Chaddha, , It's Organizations: Service, NEA, Mayfield Fund, Foundation Capital, Business, Soul Ventures, Nvidia Locations: Italy, PitchBook, Japan
"These conditions have allowed, in some instances, the biggest technology companies to get a layup in the AI space," Khan said. In particular, Khan called for AI models' weights to be publicly available. In the age of AI, Khan said both consumers and enterprises are uncertain of their data's protections when using foundation models. "We only focus on deals that have problems…it's a narrow set of deals that satisfy a narrow set of criteria." In March, Microsoft paid $650 million in a licensing deal to Inflection AI, an emerging OpenAI rival, to use its AI models and hire most of its employees.
Persons: , Lina Khan, Khan, We've, you've, Jonathan Kanter, Kevin Dietsch, Kanter, execs Organizations: Service, Federal Trade Commission, FTC, Big Tech, Microsoft, Google, Business, Meta, Antitrust, Department of Justice, DOJ, Apple, Tech, New York VC, YC, Amazon Locations: OpenAI, America
Vitable Health aims to make healthcare more affordable for hourly employees at small businesses. Joseph Kitonga, the founder and CEO of Vitable Health, saw this problem firsthand through his parents' small business, where only 10% of employees opted for health insurance. The average health insurance premium of $500 per individual and over $1,000 per family is simply too costly for blue-collar hourly employees, said Kitonga. This realization led to the creation of Vitable Health, an affordable digital health plan for small businesses. This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers.
Persons: , Joseph Kitonga Organizations: Cherryrock Capital, Service, Vitable, Health, Business
Andreessen and Horowitz are the latest and most prominent members of the startup investing community to publicly support Trump. Up until now, there have been pockets of vocal Trump support within Silicon Valley, including conservative provocateur Peter Thiel, the pugnacious hosts of the All-In podcast, and Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale. WE HAVE A FORMER TECH VC IN THE WHITE HOUSE. Most of the VCs Business Insider spoke to were unanimously against Kahn. "If it is Biden vs. Trump officially, I think many '"never Trumpers" will go with Trump," said a Bay Area VC.
Persons: , Andreessen Horowitz, Ben Horowitz, Marc Andreessen, Donald Trump, Sen, JD Vance, Peter Thiel's, Steve Case, Andreessen, Horowitz, provocateur Peter Thiel, Palantir, Joe Lonsdale, Elon Musk, who's, Joe Biden, Vance, Trump, IT'S JD VANCE, WE, MAGA, he's, Bradley Tusk, Chuck Schumer, Tusk, Lina Khan, That's, what's, Kahn, Lina Kahn, Khan, Biden, they're, David Hornik Organizations: Service, The Little, Business, Trump, Wall Street, Founder's Fund, TECH, Democratic, Biden, FTC, SEC, Bay, Republican, Sequoia Capital, Lobby Locations: America, Silicon Valley, New York, Delian, San Francisco, Silicon, There's
A16z is investing in Anysphere at a valuation of at least $400 million, sources say. Anysphere's investors include OpenAI Startup Fund, Sequoia Capital, and BoxGroup. AdvertisementAnysphere, a startup creating an AI code editor called Cursor, is raising a new funding round with at least a valuation of $400 million from A16z, Business Insider has learned. Founded in 2022, Anysphere last raised $8 million in seed funding at a valuation of $56.5 million, according to PitchBook data. This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers.
Persons: , Anysphere, Nat Friedman, Arash Ferdowsi Organizations: OpenAI, Sequoia Capital, Service, OpenAI Startup, Business Locations: Anysphere, A16z
The US issues just 140,000 employment-based visas and 85,000 H-1B visas a year. The O-1 visa has eight criteria; applicants must meet three out of eight to qualify. "A lot of it is a storytelling exercise about yourself to meet the criteria of the O-1," Wehden said. AdvertisementGabriel Petersson, a Midjourney engineer and high school dropout, initially considered an H-1B visa before realizing it required a college degree. While 85% of the company's petitions have been for O-1 visas thus far, it also supports green card applications.
Persons: , Joe Biden, Donald Trump, Lisa Wehden, Wehden, Lisa, Justin Bieber, Plymouth's, Gabriel Petersson, Petersson, Minn Kim Organizations: Service, Plymouth, Business, Immigrants, Microsoft, Nvidia, Google, Immigration, Employers, O1, Institute for Progress, Schmidt, Emergent Ventures, Talent Mobility Fund Locations: Plymouth, America
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