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☆ How Sri Pangulur went from building his own syndicate to co-leading Mayfield's Series B investing practice
▼ + stars: | 2024-10-07 | by ( Sri Muppidi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

He decided to formally create a syndicate called Overtime VC, investing up to $250,000 in seed and Series A rounds. Through Overtime, Pangulur invested nearly $20 million in 65 companies, with a focus on enterprise infrastructure and apps. Related storiesHe also continued investing through his syndicate, Overtime VC, and brought these firsthand experiences to the founders he advised. 'Cooking' at the Series BPangulur began raising his own venture fund based on the success of his syndicate fund, Overtime VC. Earlier this month, Pangulur announced two new investments he led: a $25 million Series B for billing infrastructure startup Orb and a $28 million Series B for TeamBridge, a workforce operating software startup.

Persons: Pangulur, parlayed, Mayfield, —, hackathons, Navin Chaddha, Chaddha, Lehman Organizations: Tribe Capital, Fund, Service, Security, Mayfield Fund, Case Western University, KeyBanc, Markets, Lehman Brothers, TeleSoft Partners, VC, Mayfield, Spring Fund, Chaddha Locations: Silicon Valley, Michigan, Ohio, North America, CloudFlare, —

☆ Multi-agent systems are the next big thing in AI. Here's why VCs at NEA, Mayfield Fund, and Foundation Capital are excited.
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-29 | by ( Sri Muppidi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

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

But, not all AI startups are created equal. AdvertisementBusiness Insider surveyed nine VCs who invest in AI startups at firms like Bain Capital Ventures, Flybridge, and Sapphire Ventures. Startups building AI's "picks and shovels" are a better bet than yet another LLMStep aside, OpenAI and Anthropic. In contrast, unstructured data encompasses various formats such as text documents, images, audio files, emails, social media posts, and videos. Some AI investors say they're shying away from point solutions—think online payment processing or project management—in favor of full-stack solutions.

Persons: —, Harvey, Navin Chaddha, Chip Hazard, they're, Kahini Shah, there's, Rak Garg, Garg, Shah, Lauri Moore, Moore, Chaddha, Capital's Moore, she's Organizations: Service, Accel, Business, Bain Capital Ventures, Flybridge, Sapphire Ventures, Google, Meta, Mayfield Fund, Flybridge Capital Partners, Obvious, Investors, Obvious Ventures, Foundation, Dig Ventures Locations: Mayfield, Hazard, Flybridge

☆ With an intensified focus on AI, VC firm Mayfield is closely watching for 'maturing' early-stage gen AI startups in 2024
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-16 | by ( Madeline Renbarger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

In July, the firm announced its first dedicated seed fund focused on AI called AI Start. Prior to launching AI Start, Mayfield had already backed 25 early-stage startups in the space like MindsDB. Reddy's background makes him a perfect fit to lead the $250 million fund, Chaddha told Business Insider. This year, Chaddha tapped him to lead its new AI seed fund. With the AI Start fund, the team plans to double down and lead deals in seed stage and pre-seed generative AI startups, as well as AI infrastructure startups with an enterprise focus.

Persons: Mayfield, Vijay Reddy, who's, Reddy, Navin Chaddha, Mayfield's, Chaddha, He's Organizations: Business, Intel Capital, Cisco, Clear Ventures, Mayfield Locations: Mayfield

☆ Meet the contrarian VC: Why Mayfield's Navin Chaddha is writing more checks than ever before while other investors pull back
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-26 | by ( Vishal Persaud | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The longtime VC firm just announced a new $250 million seed fund focused on AI. In tough economic times, the firm's leader, Navin Chaddha, believes it's a prime time to invest. That has essentially been Navin Chaddha's mantra since he took over the reins at venture-capital stalwart Mayfield Fund in 2009. With a dedicated $250 million AI seed war chest, Mayfield is now prepared to lean in even more. "We believe that AI will emerge as our teammate and that the Gen.AI wave will create many iconic companies," Chaddha said in a press release.

Persons: Mayfield, Navin Chaddha, it's, Navin, that's, Chaddha, – who's, Forbes, –, Vijay Reddy, Reddy Organizations: VC, Mayfield Fund, Mayfield, Tiger, Insight Partners, Clear Ventures, Intel Capital, Wing Venture Locations: Bessemer, Sequoia

☆ Some venture capitalists were probably a bit too hopeful about hitting fundraising goals this year
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-15 | by ( Vishal Persaud | Melia Russell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Insight Partners and TCV are reportedly scaling back the size of huge venture funds they planned. The amount of money VC firms raised themselves hit $170.8 billion in 2022, according to PitchBook data, up from $158.5 billion in 2021. And it's also evident in two gigantic firms that had lofty fundraising goals but are now scaling back: Insight Partners and TCV. The firm has raised about 50% to 75% less for a $5.5 billion fund it planned for last year, The Information reported. Last month, Mayfield Fund announced that it raised $955 million across two new venture funds.

Persons: VCs, —, it's, they're, whittle, It's, Insider's Melia Russell, Brian, Lisa Sugar, Turner Novak, Monique Woodward, Navin Chaddha, who's, Chaddha Organizations: Insight Partners, Morning, Insight, Bloomberg, Financial Times, Tiger, Tiger Global, Street, Sugar, Banana, Cake Ventures, Mayfield Fund Locations: Mayfield, Silicon Valley

☆ 6 years ago, AI startup MindsDB was an open source project that few took seriously. Now it's worth $160 million and on a growth rocketship.
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-14 | by ( Vishal Persaud | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

MindsDB helps developers apply machine learning to their data to build AI applications. Founded in 2017, the startup began as an AI open source project that some doubted in its early days. But six years ago, MindsDB was just an abstraction and later an open source AI project that few paid attention to. "'You're going to be able to automate the work of a machine learning engineer? "After YC, we became an actual company," Torres said.

Persons: MindsDB, Jorge Torres, he's, Torres, cofound, Adam Carrigan, Aneesh Chopra, Barack Obama, Carrigan, Michael Seibel, Y, Seibel, Luck, There's, It's Organizations: Mayfield Fund, Benchmark, Forbes, Investors, CareJourney, Mayfield Locations: London

☆ AI startup MindsDB aims to help every developer be a machine learning engineer. Here's the pitch deck it used to raise $25 million from investors like Mayfield Fund and Benchmark.
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-01 | by ( Vishal Persaud | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

AI startup MindsDB just raised a $25 million seed extension round led by Mayfield. The round comes less than three months after it raised a $16.5 million round led by Benchmark. The founders of MindsDB aims to help software developers worldwide perform the roles of machine-learning engineers. Founded in 2017, MindsDB is now gaining the interest of investors as AI has become the talk of the town in tech. In February, the startup announced $16.5 million in funding led by Benchmark.

Persons: Mayfield, MindsDB, Navin Chaddha, Chaddha, MindDB's cofounders Jorge Torres, Adam Carrigan, Torres, Chetan Puttagunta Organizations: Benchmark, Mayfield Fund, Ventures, Australian National University Locations: San Francisco, Europe

☆ ‘I am personally sticking with SVB.’ Prominent tech figures pledge support for bank
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( Catherine Thorbecke | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —After a rollercoaster week for Silicon Valley Bank’s customers, some prominent voices in the tech world are now publicly saying they will keep their money with the embattled lender – and they’re urging others to do the same. It also comes after the regional bank’s saga sent shockwaves across global financial markets. The push to continue doing business with Silicon Valley also highlights the unique relationship between the tech lender and the startup community, and their mutual dependence on each other. The bank has worked with nearly half of all US venture-backed tech and health care companies. But not everyone shares the desire to stay loyal to the bank after its implosion.

☆ Time series data startup InfluxData, used by Tesla and IBM, just raised $81 million in debt and equity with this 19-slide pitch deck
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( Callum Burroughs | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Time series data startup InfluxData has raised $81 million in debt and equity. We got an exclusive look at the 19-slide pitch deck InfluxData used to raise the fresh funds. A startup that provides time series data analytics for the likes of Tesla, Cisco, and IBM has raised $81 million in a mix of debt and equity. Time series data refers to information gathered from sources ranging from temperature sensors to high-frequency trading data. In addition, the company has brought in a $30 million debt facility from Silicon Valley Bank.

☆ Startup Workspan raised $30 million to keep growing as it helps top tech companies like Microsoft, Cisco, and SAP manage relationships with partners
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-05 | by ( Paayal Zaveri | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Ecosystem management tool Workspan has raised a $30 million Series C round. Workspan's tools help companies like Microsoft and Amazon Web Services co-sell with partners. It was there that he came up with the idea for what would become his next company, WorkSpan. Workspan was able to gain momentum quickly because of how necessary its tool is to large technology companies, Bawa said. Workspan has raised a total of $66 million in funding from investors like Insight Partners, Mayfield Fund, M12, and Redline Capital Management.

☆ 9 top cloud VCs share the trends they're following and how founders can pitch them right now
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-29 | by ( Paayal Zaveri | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

After a boom over the last two years, the venture capital market for cloud startups has slowed. Insider spoke to nine cloud VCs across a variety of firms about how to pitch them right now. So, venture capitalists are considering investments at a slower, more measured pace, several VCs told Insider. Insider spoke to nine venture capitalists across different firms who focus on cloud infrastructure, software, and enterprise technology. Here's what 9 top VCs look for in a founding team, what trends they're following right now, and how to pitch them:

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