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☆ A subsection of tech is set to be worth $1 trillion. But taboos are holding it back
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-12 | by ( Hannah Ward-Glenton | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

watch nowInvestors are ignoring a huge subsection of tech because it's considered "taboo" – despite the fact that it is set to be worth $1 trillion by 2027. But just 3.3% of digital health investment in the U.S. went towards women's health between 2011 and 2020, according to digital consultancy Rock Health. Research by Women's Health Access Matters suggests that a $300 million investment into improving female health could generate around $13 billion. It is now one of the largest companies in the FemTech space and has a revenue of $100 million. The issue of not understanding women's health – and the importance of female-specific health solutions – has deeper roots.

Persons: it's, Agostini, Karen Taylor, Tania Boler, Boler, Valerie Evans, they're, hasn't, Deloitte's Taylor, Brittany Barreto, we're, Barreto Organizations: Rock Health, Women's, Research, Getty, Centre for Health Solutions, Deloitte, CNBC, European Women, McKinsey & Company Locations: U.S

☆ Salesforce unveils AI Cloud offering, doubles fund for AI startups to $500 mln
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

June 12 (Reuters) - Salesforce (CRM.N) on Monday doubled its venture capital fund for generative AI startups to $500 million and unveiled the AI Cloud service that hopes to attract enterprises by offering the company's AI-powered products under one umbrella. AI Cloud will include Salesforce's products from the Einstein service to workplace-messaging app Slack and data analysis software Tableau. The move underscores the race among technology companies to incorporate their tools with generative AI, which can create new text, imagery and other content based on inputs from past data. Along with the company's own offerings, AI Cloud will host the large-language models (LLMs) - the core software of artificial intelligence systems - from providers such as Amazon Web Services, Anthropic and Cohere. Salesforce said it plans to ensure data privacy for businesses using such offerings by helping prevent the LLMs from retaining sensitive customer information.

Persons: Marc Benioff, Salesforce, Einstein, OpenAI, Slack, Tiyashi Datta, Shailesh Organizations: Amazon Web Services, Thomson Locations: Bengaluru

☆ Israeli institutional tech investment down 40% in 2022 - report
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-12 | by ( Steven Scheer | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Over the second half of last year, just 16 investments were made by Israeli institutional investors - four of those being early stage seed deals. But institutional investors have not been a big part of its success, with most investment coming from venture capital funds. Led by mostly foreign VCs, Israeli tech firms raised some $15 billion in 2022. Nimrod Vromen, chief executive of Consiglieri, said that institutions last year had more inclination for early stage investments. "Israeli institutional investors’ experience in early stage investments, combined with the Israeli government’s commitment to supporting the startup ecosystem amidst political legislative turbulence, signals potential for future investment growth," he said.

Persons: Arnon Segev, Yoav Sherman, Nimrod Vromen, Vromen, Steven Scheer, Ed Osmond Organizations: Israel Innovation Authority, Israel Venture Capital, Thomson

☆ Venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz to open first office outside of the US in London as it bets on the UK to become leader in crypto regulation
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-12 | by ( Callum Burroughs | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz is set to open its first office outside of the US in London. The Silicon Valley giant is betting on the UK to become a leader in crypto regulation. Venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz is set to open its first office outside of the US in London as it bets on the British government to become a leader in crypto regulation. Meanwhile, venture capital funding to crypto companies has collapsed over the past year. Andreessen general partner Chris Dixon said that crypto was still in its "early innings" and that technology takes "decades to develop," in a blog post announcing the London office.

Persons: Andreessen Horowitz, Chris Dixon, Sriram Krishnan, Binance, Rishi Sunak, Dixon, Sunak, there's Organizations: Venture, Twitter, Facebook, Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, School from, Catalyst, Bessemer, Lightspeed Venture Partners Locations: London, Europe, School from London, Silicon, Sequoia

☆ European tech fund EQT Growth set to poach investor from Goldman Sachs who will join as a new partner, sources say
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-09 | by ( Callum Burroughs | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

European venture fund EQT is set to hire a Goldman Sachs investor as a partner, Insider understands. A managing director from Goldman Sachs Growth Equity is set to join the fund, sources say. An investor at Goldman Sachs' startup investment arm is set to depart the banking giant to join up with Swedish private equity and venture firm EQT Growth, Insider understands. Kirk Lepke, a London-based managing director at Goldman Sachs Growth Equity, is primed to be poached by the Stockholm investor, two sources familiar with the matter said. Both EQT Growth and Goldman Sachs declined to comment.

Persons: Goldman Sachs, Kirk Lepke, Lepke, EQT, Mollie, Lepke's, Julien Bek Organizations: Goldman Sachs Growth Equity, Goldman, DoorDash, Torch, Summit Partners, Apple Locations: Europe, London, Stockholm, New York, Boston, Lithuanian, Crunchbase

☆ AI startup Cohere raises $270 mln in Nvidia-backed funding round
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-08 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

June 8 (Reuters) - Cohere, an AI foundation model company that competes with Microsoft-backed OpenAI, said on Thursday it had raised $270 million in a funding round backed by Nvidia (NVDA.O), Oracle (ORCL.N) and Salesforce Ventures, among others. Generative AI aims to make human-like creations through computer code that has processed vast amounts of data. Cohere did not reveal its valuation after the latest funding round. AI startups are a bright spot in an otherwise subdued market for venture capital funding, particularly for technology companies, amid rising interest rates and increased investor focus on profitability. Last month, Anthropic, another AI startup which has received backing from Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) Google, also raised $450 million in a new round.

Persons: Cohere, Aidan Gomez, Manya Saini, Shounak Dasgupta Organizations: Microsoft, Nvidia, Oracle, Salesforce Ventures, Inovia Capital, Schroders, Thomvest Ventures, ChatGPT, Google, Thomson Locations: Bengaluru

☆ The FOMO is real for venture capitalists paying big premiums to invest in AI startups right now
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-08 | by ( Callum Burroughs | Riddhi Kanetkar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Investors plowed about $25 billion into AI companies in the first three months of 2023. Other US generative AI startups including Adept, Inflection AI, Pinecone and Runway have all raised major rounds in the last few months. AI is minting unicorn-valued companies even in the tech downturnFunding into AI startups was down slightly for the full-year in 2022, matching a broader downturn in tech funding. And VC funding to generative AI startups specifically, many of which are very early-stage businesses, topped $1.7 billion in Q1 2023, per Pitchbook. "No one wants to invest in AI that's going to wipe out humanity," said AlbionVC's Grimm.

Persons: Warren Buffett, OpenAI's ChatGPT, Imran Ghory, Meta, Little, ChatGPT, David Grimm, Nathan Benaich, Benaich, VCs, Geoffrey Hinton, AlbionVC's Grimm Organizations: Blossom, Google, Facebook, Air Street Capital, Investors, EU, Stanford University, Venture Locations: OpenAI, London, Europe, French

☆ Andreessen Horowitz-backed fintech Payrails just raised $14.4 million from EQT and General Catalyst using this 11-slide pitch deck
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-07 | by ( Callum Burroughs | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

German fintech Payrails has brought in a $14.4 million funding extension. The startup has raised the fresh funds from EQT Ventures and General Catalyst. German fintech startup Payrails has raised $14.4 million in a funding extension from EQT Ventures and General Catalyst, the company said on Tuesday. The fresh funds come from EQT Ventures and General Catalyst, confirming previous Insider reportingVC giant Andreessen Horowitz and German investor HV Capital funded a $6.4 million seed round in 2021. "We've grown and now have large enterprises using the product so the fundraising is a decision to help us accelerate our product roadmap."

Persons: Payrails, Catalyst, Andreessen Horowitz, Orkhan, Emre Talay, Nicolas Thouzeau, we've Organizations: EQT Ventures, Capital

Economic challenges and geopolitical tensions have made fundraising and investment difficult, and eaten into global venture funds' returns. "It has become increasingly complex to run a decentralized global investment business," Sequoia said in the statement. Sequoia China will retain its current Chinese name and adopt the name HongShan in English, while Sequoia India and Southeast Asia will become Peak XV Partners, the firm said. Sequoia started to invest in local companies in China, India and Southeast Asia more than 15 years ago, according to the statement. Sequoia China, founded and led by former entrepreneur and investment banker Shen, has invested in more than 1,200 companies in sectors ranging from technology to healthcare.

Persons: Sequoia, Roelof Botha, Neil Shen, Shailendra Singh, Shen, Biden, Weiheng Chen, Wilson, Steven Yu, Yu, Trump, we've, Singh, Oyo, Kane Wu, Julie Zhu, Sriram, Roxanne Liu, Krystal Hu, Bernadette Baum, Mark Potter, Paul Simao Organizations: Sequoia Capital, Economic, Investment, Sequoia, XV Partners, HK, PDD Holdings, Reuters, Global Law, China -, Thomson Locations: HONG KONG, China, India, Southeast Asia, COVID, Sequoia China, Sequoia India, Shanghai, U.S, China - U.S, Hong Kong, Mumbai, Beijing, San Francisco

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sued Coinbase, accusing it of illegally operating without registration with the regulator. That happened a day after the SEC filed a lawsuit against Binance and its CEO, Changpeng Zhao. Coinbase shares were down 13.4% at $50.81 after earlier hitting their lowest level since January. Also, after falling earlier, Bitcoin , the world's biggest cryptocurrency, was up 1.4%. Coinbase had disclosed in March that it received a "Wells notice" from the SEC threatening a potential lawsuit over certain products.

Persons: Coinbase, Changpeng Zhao, Matt Stucky, Shannon Stapleton, Binance's cryptocurrency, Paul Grewal, we'll, Grewal, Manya Saini, Shristi, Sinéad Carew, Paul Simao Organizations: Coinbase, U.S . Securities, Exchange Commission, SEC, Binance, Global, Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Company, Coinbase Global Inc, Nasdaq, Times, REUTERS, Mining, Marathon, Thomson Locations: Manhattan, New York, U.S, Bengaluru

☆ We're in the early stage of the A.I. hype cycle, says venture capital fund
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-06 | 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 EmailWe're in the early stage of the A.I. hype cycle, says venture capital fundJay Zhao of Leonis Capital says many Silicon Valley investors are "pouring a lot of capital" into artificial intelligence companies with high valuations.

Persons: Jay Zhao Organizations: Leonis Capital

☆ Sequoia bolsters London office with sixth partner hire as VC firm unveils radical restructure
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-06 | by ( Callum Burroughs | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Venture capital firm Sequoia has hired a sixth partner for its London office, Insider understands. Venture capital firm Sequoia has bolstered its presence in Europe with the hire of its sixth partner in London, Insider understands. "Since Julien joined us as an associate five years ago, he's become a valued member of our London team," Accel partner Sonali De Rycker said. Sequoia will expand in Europe despite a broader contraction in venture capital funding to European startups. Sequoia has closed 21 deals in Europe in the three years since it opened in London, Crunchbase data shows.

Persons: Julien Bek, Accel's Luciana Lixandru, Sequoia's Lixandru, Bek, Julien, he's, Sonali De Rycker, Slay, Matt Miller, George Robson, Anas Organizations: Sequoia, . Venture, Apple, Accel, London, Investment, Investments, Trade Republic, Global Founders Capital, Revolut Locations: Sequoia, Europe, London, California, China, India, Southeast Asia, Geneva, Switzerland, Lixandru

☆ Can Kim Kardashian save private equity?
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-06 | by ( Jeffrey Cane | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

SuperReturn conference gets underway at a time of challenges for private equity. Kim Kardashian joins Harvey Schwartz, Orlando Bravo, and other leaders in speaking at the conference. The uncertainty has made it more difficult for both private equity and venture capital firms to raise money for their funds. Those are bold-faced names in Wall Street's world, but they can't compete with the star power of another conference speaker: Kim Kardashian. It remains to be seen if private equity can keep up.

Persons: Kim Kardashian, Harvey Schwartz, Orlando Bravo, Kardashian, dealmaking, there's, Carlyle's Harvey Schwartz, David Rubenstein, Julian Salisbury, Goldman Sachs, Robert Smith, Orlando Bravo of Thoma, Bennett Goodman, Jay Sammons, Rubenstein, It's, Sammons, Dre Organizations: equity's, Private, SuperReturn International, Vista Equity Partners, Orlando Bravo of Thoma Bravo, SKKY Partners, Bloomberg, Financial Locations: Berlin

☆ 3 California universities are in the top 10 for churning out startup founders who have gotten funding since 2022
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-06 | by ( Vishal Persaud | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Stanford, UCLA and USC are in the top 10 schools with grads who have gotten private startup funding. Stanford University, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Southern California rank among some of the top schools to produce startup founders that recently got private funding, according to Crunchbase. Other California-based colleges to make the list of schools include the University of California, Los Angeles, University of California, San Diego, and the California Institute of Technology. The data also details the business schools that some of the startup founders attended. The fact that hundreds of new startup founders have been able to secure funding is a bit surprising considering the current state of the venture capital industry.

Persons: grads, Crunchbase, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Apple, Steve Wozniak, Gordon Moore, Marc Benioff, That's Organizations: Stanford, UCLA, USC, Morning, Stanford University, University of California, University of Southern, Berkeley, Los Angeles , University of California, California Institute of Technology, Stanford Business School, UCLA Anderson School of Management, Haas School of Business, Google, Intel, Salesforce, Tech, Venture Locations: Six California, Berkeley, University of Southern California, California, Los Angeles, San Diego, North America

☆ Meet the 8 Black and Latina female founders whose startups have topped a $1 billion valuation
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-04 | by ( Jennifer Ortakales Dawkins | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

A report found nine Black and Latina female founders have reached a $1 billion or higher valuation. The biennial report, which Project Diane and the organization DigitalUndivided released Wednesday, compiled data from more than 750 Latina and Black female founders who have received outside funding. The report also found that there are now more than 350 Black and Latina female founders who have raised at least $1 million in funding, and at least nine Black and Latina female founders have reached a $1 billion valuation. Here are eight Black and Latina female founders who have achieved this feat, in order of the highest current valuation. Each company on this list has at one point achieved a $1 billion valuation, but some have lost that value over time.

Persons: Jessica Alba, Pat McGrath, who've, —, Diane Organizations: Latina, Service

London generated $2 billion in venture capital funding in the first quarter of 2023, compared to Berlin's $800 million, a DEEP Ecosystems analysis of Dealroom data showed. Reuters Graphics Reuters GraphicsTOUGHER TIMESIn 2022, 501 startups were founded in Berlin, a fifth of Germany's total. About a fifth of openings at startups were vacant and more than half were struggling to fill posts, German Startups Association said. In Germany, it has been accompanied by the sharpest contraction in venture capital funding in Europe in the past 12 months, down 42%. The funding crunch is hitting Germany's push to encourage the growth of new renewables businesses, given manufacturing startups are particularly capital intensive.

Persons: Avitosh Sawhney, Christian, headwinds, Katharina Beck, Lindner, Maximilian Tayenthal, Christoph Stresing, Tobias Lechtenfeld, Chancellor Olaf Scholz's, Maria Martinez, Riham Alkousaa, Matthias Williams, Mark John, Edmund Blair Organizations: Wall, Greens, Reuters, Startup Heatmap, Reuters Graphics Reuters, Manpower, Association, European Central Bank, Tech, Zero Alliance, Free Democratic Party, Thomson Locations: Berlin, London, BERLIN, Paris, Germany, Europe

☆ Edtech startup VC funding has slowed to a crawl. The number of deals done so far this year has dropped more than 50% year-over-year.
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-01 | by ( Madeline Renbarger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The number of new funding deals so far this year is less than last year's Q1 total. The trend is in line with the larger VC funding slowdown in 2023, with the exception of AI deals. That's more than a 50% drop in the number of deals and total deal value from Q1 2022, which had 161 edtech venture deals totaling about $1.3 billion. Reach Capital recently raised a $215 million fund to fund both early and later stage edtech startups. Amid dismal funding for startups this year, the one bright spot has been for AI startups with some generative AI startups raising rounds well over $100 million.

Persons: That's, Katelyn Donnelly, Andressen Horowitz, Kira, Avalanche's Donnelly, there's, Donnelly, Sosnik Organizations: edtech, Reach Locations: edtech

MiniMax was founded in 2021 by some former employees of SenseTime (0020.HK), including Yan Junjie - a former vice president at the Chinese AI firm, two other people said. Wang Huiwen, co-founder of on-demand service giant Meituan (3690.HK), said he has founded a new AI company called Beijing Lightyear Technology with $50 million from investors. Google China's former chief, Kai-Fu Lee, has unveiled his new startup - Project AI 2.0. Wang Xiaochuan, founder of China's No.2 search engine Sogou, said in April that he had founded Baichuan Intelligence with a startup capital of $50 million. Its other early investors include China's Yunqi Partners and Future Capital, statements from the venture capital funds show.

Persons: MiniMax, Yan Junjie, Wang Huiwen, Kai, Fu Lee, Wang Xiaochuan, China's, MiHoYo, Charlie Chai, ERNIE Bot, Chai, Roxanne Liu, Josh Ye, Himani Sarkar Organizations: Microsoft, HK, Huawei, Baidu, Beijing Lightyear Technology, Google, Baichuan Intelligence, China's Yunqi Partners, Future, 86Research, Thomson Locations: BEIJING, HONG KONG, China, Beijing, miHoYo, Hong Kong

☆ China's Baidu launches $145 million venture capital AI fund
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-31 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

SHANGHAI, May 31 (Reuters) - Chinese search giant Baidu Inc (9988.HK) will set up a venture capital fund of 1 billion yuan ($145 million) to back start-ups focused on content generated by artificial intelligence applications, it said on Wednesday. The company will also launch a competition for developers to build applications off its ERNIE large language model (LLM) or integrate the model into their existing products, it added. E-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (9988.HK) was among the other Chinese companies that followed quickly. In response to the surge of LLMs, China published draft regulations in April on the use of generative AI. ($1=6.9121 Chinese yuan renminbi)Reporting by Josh Horwitz, Samuel Shen and Jason Xue; Editing by Clarence FernandezOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Ernie Bot, Josh Horwitz, Samuel Shen, Jason Xue, Clarence Fernandez Organizations: Baidu Inc, HK, Baidu, Alibaba, Holding, Thomson Locations: SHANGHAI, China, United States

☆ The average startup CEO now makes $142,000 — down from $150,000 last year
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-22 | by ( Aaron Mok | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

CEOs of early-stage startups now make, on average, $142,000 — down from $150,000 last year, WSJ reports. CEOs in crypto, e-commerce, and direct-to-consumer industries are most impacted by the pay cuts. In the first quarter of 2023, global venture funding reached $58.6 billion — a 13% drop from the same quarter last year, according to a report from CB Insights, a research firm. CEOs on the losing end of the funding spectrum will feel the brunt of the pay cuts. The consulting firm's findings on salary cuts come as CEOs across major corporations are taking pay cuts this year.

☆ Microsoft's venture capital arm, M12, has faced months of turmoil over a change in strategy and pay, insiders say
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Ashley Stewart | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

Microsoft's M12 changed its strategy to become less like a VC and more like a business development team. "As with any leadership and strategy change, we aligned our team in a way that helps us meet our future direction. The problem with that shift, sources said, is that a corporate fund needs people who have very different career goals than an independent venture fund does. "Over the last year and half, we brought on new leadership at M12 and intentionally changed our corporate VC strategy. Employees who went along with the strategy change are generally happy at the fund, two of the people said.

☆ ServiceNow targets enterprise-software startups with $1 bln investment in venture arm
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

May 17 (Reuters) - Cloud-computing firm ServiceNow Inc (NOW.N) said on Wednesday it would invest $1 billion in its venture arm by 2026 to back enterprise software-focused startups in artificial intelligence and automation, among others. The investment in ServiceNow Ventures comes at a time when funding for early-stage technology companies has dried up due to rising interest rates and high inflation. Since its inception in 2015, the venture arm has invested about $300 million across 45 companies. "Enterprise software is more mission-critical than ever before, as companies look to drive innovation, efficiency and productivity," the California-based company said. Last month, ServiceNow became a strategic partner and anchor investor in Smith Point Capital Fund I, an enterprise software-focused venture investment firm founded by former Salesforce Inc (CRM.N) co-CEO Keith Block.

☆ Researchers found a surefire predictor of success — and what separates those who find it from those who keep failing
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-12 | by ( Susie Allen | Kellogg Insight | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

Using this insight, the researchers are able to successfully predict an individual's long-term success with just a small amount of information about that person's initial attempts. Indeed, in another recent study, Wang himself found that an early career setback often set up scientists for later success. In all three datasets, an individual's second-to-last attempt did tend have a higher probability of success than their very first effort. Rather, there's a singular learning threshold that separates eventual successes from the rest. "Thomas Edison said, 'people give up because they don't know how close they are to success,'" Wang explains.

☆ Young Cyber Companies Face Uncertain Economy
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( James Rundle | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +4 min

Newer cybersecurity companies are grappling with uncertain economic conditions as they find it harder to raise capital, continue to trim their workforces and refocus on profits after long periods of chasing growth. Fed by a glut of venture-capital investment, many private cybersecurity providers hired widely and expanded their operations significantly in recent years. Newsletter Sign-up WSJ Pro Cybersecurity Cybersecurity news, analysis and insights from WSJ's global team of reporters and editors. Cybereason, a Boston-based security company, raised $100 million in Series G financing in early April, led by SoftBank. The company’s chief executive, Lior Div, was replaced by SoftBank executive Eric Gan, with Mr. Div taking on an advisory role.

☆ How Singapore's giant sovereign wealth fund is investing in generative AI technology
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Alistair Barr | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

As CEO of GIC, Singapore's sovereign wealth fund, he must keep the country's savings growing ahead of inflation. AI retoolingThe 2 investors were most animated when discussing the recent explosion of generative AI technology, including large language models. Chris Emanuel, head of the Technology Investment Group at GIC, Singapore's sovereign wealth fund GICThere's already a generative AI startup feeding frenzy among venture capital funds. Secondary market actionFinally, GIC is keen on doing more in the secondary market, where private stakes in startups and VC funds change hands. That means general partners, the people running VC funds, already know GIC and are more comfortable dealing with the organization, Lim explained.

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