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☆ Many digital health startups are quietly raising down rounds and closing up shop. Here's why.
▼ + stars: | 2024-11-26 | by ( Rebecca Torrence | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Now, VCs say many digital health startups are cutting their valuations to live another day. As of mid-November, PitchBook data shows 327 digital health startups that grabbed funding in 2021 but haven't raised since. Not even the AI boom, which has brought back-to-back fundraises for hot healthcare startups like Abridge, can make up for the discrepancy. "There are more digital health companies that are selling assets, selling people, or whatever they can," said Greg Yap, a partner at Menlo Ventures. AdvertisementVCs told BI they're pushing the next generation of healthcare startups for better discipline in balancing growth with profits.

Persons: haven't, Greg Yap, Doba Parushev, CareFirst, Parushev, Jenny Chang, Rodriguez, Alyssa Jaffee, she's, that's, Ruth, Alison Greenberg, Healthworx's Parushev, Forward's, Rob Price, Axios, LetsGetChecked, Galym, Yap, cofounders Umar Afridi, Sid Viswanathan, VCs Organizations: Healthcare, Business, Menlo Ventures, Healthworx Ventures, Getty, Ruth Health, Carta, Optum Ventures, Lightspeed Ventures Partners, Omada, Walgreens, Walmart Locations: Forward's San Francisco

☆ How Bluesky rose out of Twitter's ashes to challenge X and Threads
▼ + stars: | 2024-11-26 | by ( Jonathan Vanian | In | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +10 min

And while these larger social media platforms still dwarf Bluesky, the startup now has more than 22 million users and is not showing any signs of slowing down. Bluesky had experienced a previous surge in July 2023 after X, then still named Twitter, temporarily limited the number of posts users could read per day. Just days before Musk officially took over Twitter, the Bluesky team publicly unveiled more details about their project and rolled out a waitlist for the Bluesky app. Despite Bluesky starting as a side project within Twitter, the startup has lost its last connection to the original micro-blogging app. Bluesky is looking for ways to support the users "who are actually the ones making the network awesome and fun," Wang said.

Persons: Rose Wang, Elon Musk's, Bluesky, Wang, David Carr, Carr, Jay Graber, Jack Dorsey, Jay, Graber, Daniel Holmgren, Paul Frazee, Dorsey, Parag Agrawal, Musk, Nostr, Jack, we're, Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Johnston, Johnston, Gen, That's, It's, Similarweb's Carr Organizations: Twitter, CNBC, Brazilian Supreme, Google, Yahoo, Myspace, Facebook, Anthropic, Delaware State, PBLLC, Bluesky, Blockchain Capital, Blockchain, cryptocurrency Locations: Brazil, San Francisco

☆ Bluesky CEO Jay Graber says X rival is 'billionaire proof'
▼ + stars: | 2024-11-21 | by ( Jonathan Vanian | In | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

But CEO Jay Graber has some cautionary words for potential acquirers: Bluesky is "billionaire proof." Graber was referring to the way millions of users left Twitter, now X, after Elon Musk purchased the company in 2022. Bluesky now has over of 21 million users, still dwarfed by X and Threads, which Facebook's parent debuted in July 2023. Threads has roughly 275 million monthly users, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in October. Although Musk said in May that X has 600 million monthly users, market intelligence firm Sensor Tower estimates 318 million monthly users as of October.

Persons: Bluesky, Elon Musk's, Jay Graber, CNBC's, Graber, Elon Musk, Meta didn't, Mark Zuckerberg, Musk, Jack Dorsey's, Dorsey, Jack, we're, we've, that's, Nobody's, algorithmically, We're, That's, Trump Organizations: Twitter, Elon, Meta, Blockchain Capital Locations: Brazil

☆ This chart shows how crazy-fast the value of Elon Musk's xAI has grown in 16 months
▼ + stars: | 2024-11-21 | by ( Ana Altchek | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

AdvertisementElon Musk's AI startup xAI has been valued at a reported $50 billion 16 months after its founding. One of his other companies, his artificial intelligence startup xAI, has catapulted from launch just 16 months ago into an AI company now worth a reported $50 billion. Related Video How Elon Musk makes and spends his billionsThe chart below helps put that meteoric rise into perspective. How does that $50 billion valuation compare to the competition? It took OpenAI, last valued at $157 billion in October, around 9 years to pass the $50 billion milestone, according to PitchBook.

Persons: OpenAI, Elon Musk, — Organizations: Elon, SpaceX Locations: xAI

☆ This chart shows how crazy-fast the value of Elon Musk's xAI has risen in 16 months
▼ + stars: | 2024-11-21 | by ( Ana Altchek | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

AdvertisementElon Musk's AI startup xAI has been valued at a reported $50 billion, 16 months after its founding. One of his other companies, his artificial intelligence startup xAI, has catapulted from launch just 16 months ago into an AI company now worth a reported $50 billion. So how does that $50 billion compare to the competition? It took OpenAI, last valued at $157 billion in October, around 9 years to pass the $50 billion milestone, according to PitchBook. Musk said the process took 122 days — and the startup plans to double the amount of AI chips inside it in the coming months.

Persons: OpenAI, Elon Musk, —, It's, Grok, Musk Organizations: Elon, Perplexity, SpaceX, Twitter, Nvidia

☆ Fintech unicorns are watching Klarna's debut for signs of when IPO window will reopen
▼ + stars: | 2024-11-19 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Last week, Klarna made a confidential filing to go public in the U.S., ending months of speculation over where the Swedish digital payments firm would list. Still, the development drew buzz from fintech circles with market watchers asking if the move marks the start of a resurgence in big fintech IPOs. For now, that doesn't appear to be the case — however, founders say they'll be watching the IPO market, eyeing pricing and eventually stock performance. Hiroki Takeuchi, CEO of online payments startup GoCardless, said last week that it's not yet time for his company to fire the starting gun on an IPO. However, Zopa's CEO added that he's seeing signs pointing toward a more favorable IPO market in the next couple of years, with the U.S. likely opening up in 2025.

Persons: Hiroki Takeuchi, Zed Jameson, Klarna, they'll, Takeuchi, GoCardless, Lucy Liu, Airwallex, it's, Liu, Jack Zhang, We're, fintech IPOs, Navina Rajan, It's, Rajan, Jaidev Janardana, Janardana, that's Organizations: GoCardless, Bloomberg, Getty, Portugal —, CNBC, Summit, British, U.S Locations: LISBON, Portugal, U.S, Lisbon, Europe

☆ Verily has a December deadline to cut important ties with Google, leaked documents show
▼ + stars: | 2024-11-18 | by ( Hugh Langley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Verily has told employees it ultimately intends to become an independent company. Verily, Alphabet's life sciences subsidiary, has set a deadline of December 16 to sever multiple ties to Google, according to two people familiar with the matter and internal documents reviewed by Business Insider. Related Video How tech layoffs could affect the economyVerily, formerly known as Google Life Sciences, started life as a moonshot project inside Google X. "Verily is transitioning from Google's infrastructure to our own, as we continue to grow as an independent Alphabet company," said Verily spokesperson Steven Cooper. AdvertisementAn internal Verily FAQ for staff broached the subject of why the company didn't start Flywheel until after its products were more mature.

Persons: Verily, Steven Cooper, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Waymo Organizations: Google, Staff, Business, Sciences, BI

☆ This is the anti-ESG venture capital firm that Donald Trump Jr. is joining instead of taking a White House role
▼ + stars: | 2024-11-16 | by ( Grace Eliza Goodwin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

AdvertisementDonald Trump Jr. will not take on a White House role, opting instead for the VC firm 1789 Capital. The venture capital firm that Donald Trump Jr. is reportedly joining eschews investments that push social and environmental issues and instead focuses on what it calls "EIG," or entrepreneurship, innovation, and growth. Like 1789 Capital, Trump Jr. has long been a proponent of the parallel economy, also called the "patriot economy," a term used by MAGA conservatives to refer to businesses that align with their traditional values. And Trump Jr.'s connection to Malik, the president of 1789 Capital, includes the pair's mutual support of a parallel economy platform called PublicSquare. Representatives for Trump Jr. through the Trump Organization and the Trump transition team didn't respond to a request for comment from BI.

Persons: Donald Trump Jr, Omeed Malik, Tucker, EIG, —, Tucker Carlson's, Donald Trump's, Omeed Malik —, Christopher Buskirk, Malik, Buskirk, deglobalization, MAGA, Trump, Malik didn't, Tucker Carlson, Jordan Cohen Organizations: The New York Times, Bloomberg, Trump Jr, Bank of America, Farvahar Partners, Trump, Republican National Committee, New York Stock, Time Magazine, Tucker Carlson Network, Fox News, Trump Organization Locations: The Florida, Beach , Florida

☆ Meet the OpenAI mafia: These 23 former employees left the AI juggernaut and founded startups that have collectively raised billions
▼ + stars: | 2024-11-16 | by ( Samantha Stokes | Riddhi Kanetkar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Dario Amodei, Daniela Amodei, Tom Brown, Jack Clark, Jared Kaplan, and Sam McCandlish, cofounders of AnthropicAnthropic's Dario Amodei, Jack Clark, and Daniela Amodei. Since then, the company has received billions in funding from both Google and Amazon in what some have termed an "AI arms race." CEO Dario Amodei, a former Google Brain researcher with a Ph.D. in computational neuroscience, has been writing about the cataclysmic potential of AI since 2016. Constitutional AI is partly the brainchild of two other OpenAI alums and Anthropic cofounders, Tom Brown and Jared Kaplan. Both Kaplan and Brown have worked on Anthropic's efforts to "red team" the company's flagship language model, Claude, probing for misuse possibilities.

Persons: Dario Amodei, Daniela Amodei, Tom Brown, Jack Clark, Jared Kaplan, Sam McCandlish, Anthropic Anthropic's Dario Amodei, Menlo Ventures Anthropic, Amodei's, Anthropic, —, Anthropic cofounders, Brown, Kaplan, Johns Hopkins, Claude, AGI, I'm Organizations: Google, Menlo Ventures, Bloomberg, Johns, OpenAI Locations: OpenAI, GPT

☆ Before politics, JD Vance had a career in venture capital. Here are the startups he's invested in.
▼ + stars: | 2024-11-16 | by ( Madeline Berg | Brent D. Griffiths | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

JD Vance is a man of many careers: attorney, author, senator, vice president-elect, and, perhaps less well-known, venture capitalist. For about six years between graduating from law school and becoming a United States senator from Ohio, Vance held various positions in the space before eventually starting his own fund, Narya Capital. Vance co-founded Narya Capital in 2019After two years, Vance broke out on his own, cofounding Narya Capital in 2019 with investments from Thiel, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, and VC veteran Marc Andreessen. According to his vice president and senate disclosure forms, he has a stake in Narya Capital Fund I, Narya Capital Fund II, and Rise of the Rest Seed Fund. AdvertisementHis stake in Narya Capital Fund I is worth between $500,001 and $1 million.

Persons: JD Vance, Vance, doesn't, Peter Thiel's, Steve Case's, Boston —, Thiel, Eric Schmidt, Marc Andreessen, Narya, Vivek Ramaswamy's, Nayra, Luke Schroeder Organizations: United, Narya, Mithril, Narya Capital, cofounding, II, Narya's Capital, US Space Force Locations: United States, Ohio, New York, Silicon Valley, Boston, Narya, ValueBase, PitchBook

"I just thought [Too Good To Go] was the most genius app, and I loved the concept," she says. "[Food waste] a massive, massive issue, and it's important that we solve it fast," Lykke says. Conviction to stay the courseToo Good To Go, which has nearly $158 million in investment funding, isn't the only for-profit company trying reduce food waste. Some app users like Niles, the dumpster diver in Brooklyn, worry that Too Good To Go "greenwashes" the issue of food waste, giving users false impressions of environmental responsibility. But if every food retailer in the U.S. used a similar markdown mechanism, they'd save one million tons of food annually, according to calculations by Chicago-based nonprofit ReFED.

Persons: David Niles, Niles, He's, Mette Lykke, it's, Thomas Bjørn, Stian Olesen, Klaus Bagge Pedersen, Brian Christensen, Adam Sigbrand, Lykke, Armour, Susan Prunty, Dana Gunders, That's, ReFED Organizations: CNBC, Bank, Venture Locations: Brooklyn , New York, U.S, Copenhagen, Europe, North America, Australia, United States, Medford , Oregon, Brooklyn, Chicago

Buy now, pay later firms like Klarna and Block's Afterpay could be about to face tougher rules in the U.K.Klarna, which is known for its popular buy now, pay later business, announced Wednesday that it's confidentially filed IPO documents with the SEC. The company said the offering would follow the SEC's review process and is subject to market conditions. Analysts recently valued Klarna, which was founded in 2005, in the $15 billion range. Klarna's decision to go pursue a listing in the U.S. represents a major blow to European stock exchanges, which have been trying to encourage local tech companies to list at home. "European IPO markets have seen some recovery as of Q3 this year," she added.

Persons: Block's, it's confidentially, Klarna, Sebastian Siemiatkowski, CNBC's, Siemiatkowski, Siemiatkowski hadn't, Navina Rajan, We've, Rajan Organizations: SEC, SoftBank's Vision, Sequoia Capital, CNBC, Apple, Meta, London Stock Exchange Locations: London, Europe, U.S

☆ How Women Are Building Community to Succeed in the AI Space.
▼ + stars: | 2024-11-05 | by ( Samantha Stokes | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

But others building startups report facing various gender-related obstacles to success, including bias in the fundraising process, limited mentorship opportunities, and difficulty building meaningful business relationships with men. And recent data from the UK shows that only about 4% of AI startups in the country have women founders. Developing relationships with other women working in the AI space has become a vital lifeline, she said. There were plenty of women interested in building AI companies, she said. AdvertisementThis observation was the catalyst for the Female Founder Circles, a community for women engineers interested in building AI startups.

Persons: Saumya Bhatnagar, Bhatnagar isn't, Fei Fei Li, Daniela Amodei, Mira Murati, it's, Bhatnagar, she's, I'm, Vivien Ho, Ho, they're, Forbes, Rejpal, Rajpal, Stephanie Guo, Guo Organizations: Deloitte, Bay Area, FFC, Pear, Zetta Venture Partners, Bloomberg Beta, GitHub, Sapphire Ventures Locations: Bay, San Francisco

☆ Jeff Bezos just made his latest bet in the AI robotics space. Here are the 6 startups he's backed so far.
▼ + stars: | 2024-11-05 | by ( Samantha Stokes | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

BI has compiled a list of which AI robotics startups Bezos has backed so far, per PitchBook. Physical Intelligence is at least the third spatial intelligence startup Bezos has backed this year, according to PitchBook. Related storiesFigure AIFigure AI builds AI robots that can take over unsafe jobs from humans. Bezos invested in an undisclosed funding round in 2021, while Bezos Expeditions invested in its $24 million Series A funding round in 2020. Bezos Expeditions invested in the startup's $30 million Series E in 2017, $40 million Series D in 2015, $30 million Series C in 2012, $20 million Series B in 2010, $7 million Series A1 in 2009, and $5 million Series A in 2008.

Persons: Jeff Bezos, —, Andreessen Horowitz, Bezos, OpenAI Organizations: Service, Khosla Ventures, Intelligence, The New York Times, Bezos Expeditions, New York Times, Sentinel, HAHN Group

☆ Chinese driver-assist startup announces $100 million in funding, touts 'deep cooperation' with Nvidia
▼ + stars: | 2024-11-05 | by ( Evelyn Cheng | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

David Kirton | ReutersBEIJING — Deeproute.ai, a Chinese startup developing autonomous driving systems, announced a $100 million funding round Tuesday from an undisclosed automaker, while emphasizing close ties with chipmaker Nvidia . The startup is also in "deep cooperation" with Nvidia, Zhou said, noting "in-depth discussions" with the chipmaker's CEO Jensen Huang. Zhou spoke on "Commercializing mass-produced autonomous driving solutions" at Nvidia's closely watched GTC AI conference in March. Those maps, used by autonomous driving companies such as Alphabet's Waymo, give a car a detailed picture of city streets. Chinese autonomous driving software developer WeRide went public on the Nasdaq last month, while robotaxi operator Pony.ai has filed for a U.S. IPO.

Persons: David Kirton, It's, Maxwell Zhou, Zhou, Jensen Huang, Deeproute, Orin, Japan Deeproute, Tesla, Elon, WeRide, Pony.ai Organizations: Reuters, Nvidia, Wall, CNBC, Huawei, Nasdaq, Industry Locations: Shenzhen, Guangdong province, China, Reuters BEIJING, Deeproute, U.S, Japan, California

☆ Gwyneth Paltrow's Goop undergoes second round of layoffs in two months
▼ + stars: | 2024-11-01 | by ( Madeline Berg | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Gwyneth Paltrow's lifestyle brand Goop conducted another round of layoffs, Business Insider learned. AdvertisementGwyneth Paltrow's Goop has conducted its second round of layoffs in as many months, Business Insider has learned. Goop Beauty revenue is up 21% over last year, and G. Label revenue is up 45%, she said. Earlier this year, the company hired consultants from a company called WestView to streamline business, the company told BI. These include in-house clothing brand G. Label, beauty lines Goop Beauty and Good Clean Goop, and delivery-only Goop Kitchen restaurants.

Persons: Gwyneth Paltrow's, —, Gwyneth Paltrow's Goop, Goop, Lauren Johnston, Gwyneth Paltrow, Paltrow, WWD, Felix Capital, you've, I've, It's Organizations: Business, Service, NEA, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Forbes, Netflix Locations: WestView

☆ Meet the billionaires battling it out in the 2024 World Series
▼ + stars: | 2024-10-26 | by ( Madeline Berg | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The Dodgers and Yankees will face off in the MLB 2024 World Series. AdvertisementWhen the Dodgers and Yankees take the field to battle it out for the 120th World Series championship, the players won't be the only ones with trophies on the line. The financier is worth $6 billion, according to Forbes. Now, the team is owned by George's kids, Hank Steinbrenner, Jessica Steinbrenner, Hal Steinbrenner, and Jennifer Steinbrenner Swindal. Related storiesThe bulk of the Steinbrenners' fortune is tied up in the Yankees, which is MLB's most valuable franchise, worth $7.93 billion, according to Sportico.

Persons: Mark Walter, Steinbrenner, —, Walter, Magic Johnson, Stan Kasten, I'm, Johnson, George Steinbrenner, Hank Steinbrenner, Jessica Steinbrenner, Hal Steinbrenner, Jennifer Steinbrenner Swindal, Forbes, I've, Marc Lasry, Sportico, Banks, Goldman Sachs, Ivo Voynov Organizations: Dodgers, Yankees, Sports, Service, Guggenheim Partners, Forbes, Atlanta Braves, Los Angeles, MLB, Los Angeles Times, CBS, franchise's YES, Major League Soccer's New, Major League Soccer's New York City FC, Legends Hospitality, Italian soccer, AC Milan, Professional, Yankee, Milwaukee Bucks, Citi Private Bank Locations: Major League Soccer's New York, Italian

☆ Tiger Grandcubs on AI: How investors Dan Sundheim and Mala Gaonkar are thinking about the space
▼ + stars: | 2024-10-25 | by ( Bradley Saacks | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

D1's Dan Sundheim and SurgoCap's Mala Gaonkar spoke about investing in AI a Chicago conference. Sundheim said it won't be private companies leading this tech change for once. Gaonkar said the most promising industry for short-term AI advances is the medical technology field. Sundheim, whose portfolio has billions invested in both public and private companies, believes the best way to tap into the AI frenzy is through public companies. PitchBook notes that the firm has made 228 investments in private companies since six years ago.

Persons: Dan Sundheim, Mala Gaonkar, Sundheim, Gaonkar, —, Lone, medtech, Julian Roberston's, Elon Organizations: Service, D1 Capital Partners, Tuesday's Invest, Kids, Business, Lone Pine, SurgoCap Partners, Institutional Investor, Tiger Cub, Viking Global, Tiger, Elon Musk's SpaceX, D1 Locations: Chicago

☆ These tech investors are trawling UC Berkeley to fund the next Perplexity or Databricks
▼ + stars: | 2024-10-21 | by ( Melia Russell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The University of California, Berkeley, is the top producer of alumni starting tech companies. Founded by Jeremy Fiance, The House Fund targets Berkeley-affiliated startups like Databricks. Related stories"I was learning more and more about what The House Fund is from the outside in," Hargreaves said. His move from Founders Fund to The House Fund hasn't been previously reported. The House Fund said it can write checks up to $10 million.

Persons: Jeremy Fiance, Zachary Hargreaves, —, Jeremy, Aravind Srinivas, Hargreaves, it's, Fund hasn't Organizations: University of California, Fund, Berkeley, House Fund, Service, College of Computing, Data Science, Society, The, SpaceX, Founders Fund, Investors, Stanford, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Berkeley Endowment Management Company, UC Investments, Ahoy Locations: Berkeley

☆ Exclusive: The cofounder of GroupMe and Splice is taking on the $180 billion supplement industry with new startup SuppCo
▼ + stars: | 2024-10-17 | by ( Rebecca Torrence | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Steve Martocci, cofounder of GroupMe, Blade, and Splice, is back with a new consumer health app. His startup, SuppCo, helps people find trusted supplements and track their health progress. The startup, called SuppCo, just raised a $5.5 million seed round co-led by Union Square Ventures and True Ventures, and including BoxGroup and Compound. SuppCoBuilding consumer trustMartocci first started taking supplements after GroupMe sold to Skype, when he was struggling with his health and weight. He clarified that SuppCo will never sell its users' data, and won't rely on ad revenue or notch partnerships with supplement companies.

Persons: Steve Martocci, —, Martocci, he's, Martocci's, she'd, Nick Michlewicz, Bryan Johnson, Joe, Adam D'Augelli, GroupMe, SuppCo's, Michlewicz, SuppCo, Nick Michlewicz's, what's, Andy Weissman Organizations: Union Square Ventures, True Ventures, Service, East, TechCrunch, Skype, Square Ventures, Ventures, Food and Drug Administration Locations: New York

☆ AI labs are fragmenting because of ego clashes and commercial pressures. It's about to drive a wave of new startups.
▼ + stars: | 2024-10-15 | by ( Riddhi Kanetkar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

There is an impending wave of new startups spinning out of larger AI labs, per Air Street Capital's State of AI report. AI labs are fragmenting due to ego clashes, philosophical disagreements, and commercial pressures. But as AI labs work towards the sector's holy grail, known as artificial general intelligence, those personalities have clashed — sometimes leading to a very public parting of ways. They are just some of the examples in a long line of AI labs that have fractured away from their juggernaut predecessors to form new startups. The exception would be if AI labs pivot toward building a niche model within a specific vertical, he said.

Persons: —, Ilya Sutskever, Andreessen Horowitz, StabilityAI's, H's cofounders, Sam Altman, Noel Hurley, they're, Nathan Benaich, Samir Kumar, Kumar, Peter J, Liu, Hurley, Benaich Organizations: Service, Sequoia, Black, Labs, TechCrunch, Accel, UiPath, NEA, Founders, Air Street Capital, Literal Labs, Touring Capital, Meta, Google Locations: Capital's, Paris, Sutskever

☆ AI coding startups are becoming a hotspot for VCs. Here are the 12 copilots that have landed funding from funds like a16z, Lightspeed, and Menlo Ventures.
▼ + stars: | 2024-10-14 | by ( Samantha Stokes | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

VCs are investing in generative AI coding and copilot startups. AI coding tools automate coding tasks, allowing developers to focus on creativity. BI has identified which startups in the space have so far raised the most funding from VCs. AdvertisementThe AI revolution shows no signs of slowing down, and some VCs are turning their attention to a new corner of the market: generative AI coding and copilot startups. "I'm really high on AI coding assistants," Menlo Ventures partner Tim Tully recently told Business Insider.

Persons: —, Tim Tully, Kanu Gulati, PitchBook, Elad Gil Organizations: Service, Menlo Ventures, Business, Khosla Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners Locations: VCs, Korbit, PitchBook

☆ Cloud-API startup Kong valued at around $2 billion in a new funding round led by Tiger Global
▼ + stars: | 2024-10-09 | by ( Ben Bergman | Sri Muppidi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

It's valued at about $2 billion in a new funding round led by Tiger Global Management, sources say. AdvertisementKong, which offers cloud-based application programming interfaces, was valued at about $2 billion in a new funding round led by Tiger Global Management, two people familiar with the matter said. Tiger Global declined to comment. Kong last raised $80 million in Series D funding in 2020, which valued the startup at $1.4 billion. Sapphire Ventures, Lombardstreet Ventures, Index Ventures, CRV, Andreessen Horowitz, and Notable Capital also participated in that round.

Persons: Kong, Tiger, —, Andreessen Horowitz, Goldman Sachs, Augusto, Aghi, Marietti, Marco Palladino Organizations: Tiger Global Management, Service, Kong, Tiger, Sapphire Ventures, Lombardstreet Ventures, Index Ventures, CRV, Capital, PayPal, Nasdaq, Volvo

☆ AI startup Writer, currently fundraising at a $1.9 billion valuation, launches new model to compete with OpenAI
▼ + stars: | 2024-10-09 | by ( Hayden Field | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

San Francisco-based AI startup Writer debuted a large artificial intelligence model Wednesday to compete with enterprise offerings from OpenAI, Anthropic and others. The company cuts costs using synthetic data, or data created by AI. Waseem Alshikh, Writer's co-founder and CTO, told CNBC that Writer has been working on its synthetic data pipeline for years. The generative AI market is poised to top $1 trillion in revenue within a decade. To date in 2024, investors have pumped $26.8 billion into 498 generative AI deals, according to PitchBook, and companies in the sector raised $25.9 billion in 2023, up more than 200% from 2022.

Persons: May Habib, That's, It's, Waseem, Writer's, Alshikh Organizations: Work Summit, Porsche, Raffles London, CNBC, Meta, Microsoft, Accenture, Uber, L'Oreal, Vanguard Locations: London, England, San Francisco, OpenAI, Anthropic

Grabango, a venture-backed startup that was vying to take on Amazon in cashierless checkout technology, is shutting down after it was unable to raise enough money to stay afloat. Based in Berkeley, California, Grabango was seen as one of the primary rivals to Amazon's cashierless checkout offering, called Just Walk Out. Amazon in April pulled its cashierless checkout technology from its U.S. Fresh stores and Whole Foods supermarkets. Glaser said Grabango eschewed shelf sensors in favor of computer vision which put it on a path for "widespread adoption." WATCH: Amazon is making a big bet on selling its cashierless tech to outsiders

Persons: Grabango, Will Glaser, Grabango's, Peter Thiel's, Glaser, Axios, CNBC's Ari Levy Organizations: CNBC, longtime, LinkedIn, Commerce Ventures, Fund, Unilever, Honeywell, Aldi, Amazon, Foods Locations: U.S, Berkeley , California

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