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☆ Exclusive: Health startup Roon is raising $15 million from Sequoia to replace 'Dr. Google'
▼ + stars: | 2024-10-01 | by ( Sri Muppidi | Rebecca Torrence | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Health startup Roon is raising $15 million at a $65 million pre-money valuation, BI has learned. AdvertisementHealth information site Roon is raising a new funding round, Business Insider has learned. Roon aims to replace "Dr. Google" with its website and app for consumers to ask their health questions and get expert answers. The company provides accessible medical information to users and partners with trained medical professionals to answer specific medical questions about users' health journeys. Related storiesToday, expert health information isn't always easy to find with a simple Google search.

Persons: —, Roon, Vikram Bhaskaran, Arun Ranganathan, Rohan Ramakrishna, OpenAI's, Bhaskaran Organizations: Service, Sequoia Capital, SV Angel, Union Square Ventures Locations: Sequoia

☆ Democratic megadonor Ron Conway took his concerns about Biden directly to Pelosi
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-12 | by ( Brian Schwartz | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Venture capitalist and Democratic megadonor Ron Conway has spoken directly with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi about President Joe Biden's disastrous debate performance, according to three people familiar with the matter. Representatives for both Pelosi and Conway did not deny that the California Democrat and unofficial dean of the House Democratic caucus had spoken to Conway about Biden. "Like many others, since the debate Ron has had many conversations with Democratic party leaders and other major donors about the best path forward for victory. He's given over $400,000 to the Biden Victory Fund throughout the 2024 election cycle, according to Federal Election Commission records. Conway gave over $200,000 to the Nancy Pelosi Victory Fund during the 2022 congressional midterm elections, according to OpenSecrets.

Persons: Nancy Pelosi, Ron Conway, Joe Biden's, Conway, Donald Trump, Pelosi, Conway's, Biden, Ron, He's, Biden's, Kamala Harris, Trump, George Stephanopoulos, bundlers, Stewart Bainum Jr, he's, Abigail Disney, Disney Organizations: SV Angel, Conference, Venture, Democratic, CNBC, MSNBC, California Democrat, House Democratic, Trump, ABC News, Biden, Fund, Commission, House Democrats, Choice Locations: California, San Francisco , California, U.S, Silicon Valley, OpenSecrets, Chicago

☆ Exclusive: Legal AI startup Leya is in talks to raise new funding just weeks after raising a seed round, sources say
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-11 | by ( Callum Burroughs | Riddhi Kanetkar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

AI startup Leya is in talks to raise substantial new funding weeks after its seed round, sources say. download the app Email address Sign up By clicking “Sign Up”, you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . AdvertisementStockholm-based legal AI startup Leya is already in talks to raise a substantial new funding round, weeks after it raised its seed round from US fund Benchmark. Leya, which went through Y Combinator six months after its founding, works with law firms to help them use AI to improve their operations. The startup previously received $10.5 million from Benchmark, accelerator Y Combinator, which also participated in the round, London-based VC Hummingbird, and San Francisco-based SV Angel.

Persons: — Organizations: Service, SV Angel, Business Locations: Stockholm, London, San Francisco

☆ How one rising Miami VC raised more money for his first fund. Other emerging investors haven't been so lucky.
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-16 | by ( Vishal Persaud | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Evans is the founder of Exceptional Capital, which launched in 2022 among the many emerging VC firms that sprouted during the fundraising boom years. Before pursuing a life in venture capital and tech, Evans hoped to make it to the NFL as a linebacker at the University of Michigan. And then in 2022, Evans decided to launch Exceptional Capital and invest as a solo VC. Exceptional CapitalBecause he's been able to increase the size of his fund, Evans has been able to expand his team. "I could see that for Marell as well, just his work with Exceptional Capital and kind of his determination there."

Persons: —, Marell Evans, Evans, he's, Dave Brandon, Brandon, Ben Horowitz, Andreessen Horowitz, Horowitz, A16z, Okta, Owen Van Natta, Hustling, Melissa Morano Aurigemma, Graham Stoddard, Andrew Van Nest, I've, Cody Coleman, Coleman, what's Organizations: Service, Exceptional, Business, NFL, University of Michigan, NCAA, IBM, Facebook, Vision, SV Angel, A16z, Exceptional Capital Locations: Miami, Michigan, San Francisco, Okta, Silicon Valley, SoftBank, —, Bessemer

☆ Why investing solo lets Refactor Capital's Zal Bilimoria be a 'lifeline' for founders
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-06 | by ( Rebecca Torrence | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Now 42, Bilimoria is the sole partner of Refactor Capital, the early-stage venture-capital firm he launched in 2016. Through Refactor Capital, Bilimoria has backed unicorn companies including the green-chemical manufacturer Solugen and the space startup Astranis. AdvertisementTwo years later, Lee stepped down as a general partner — making Bilimoria the firm's sole investor. Life as a solo partnerAs a solo partner, "all the successes and all the challenges are on my shoulders," Bilimoria said. Refactor Capital invests in about eight companies every year and is deploying capital out of its third fund.

Persons: —, Bilimoria, Andreessen Horowitz —, weren't, Andreessen Horowitz, David Lee, Lee Organizations: Service, University of Pennsylvania, Business, Microsoft, Netflix, Google, Twitter, Fund, SV Angel Locations: Northwest Indiana

☆ AI startup Modular raises $100 mln in General Catalyst-led funding
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Aug 24 (Reuters) - AI startup Modular said on Thursday it had raised $100 million in a new funding round, led by venture capital firm General Catalyst, with participation from existing investors Google Ventures, SV Angel, Greylock and Factory. Modular is among a clutch of AI startups that have benefited from a boom in the hi-tech sector following the runaway success of ChatGPT, attracting strong interest from venture capital firms and other investors. The company did not disclose the valuation at which it raised capital in the new round, but a report by The Information put it at $600 million earlier this month. It had raised $30 million in June last year. "This new funding will enable us to scale to the incredible customer demand we are seeing," co-founder and CEO Chris Lattner said in a statement.

Persons: Catalyst, Chris Lattner, Jaiveer Singh, Tasim Zahid Organizations: Google Ventures, SV Angel, Nvidia, Thomson Locations: Bengaluru

Aug 15 (Reuters) - Artificial intelligence code cleanup startup Grit has raised a $7 million in a seed round, the New York City-based startup said on Tuesday. Founders Fund and Abstract Ventures led the round, with participation from Quiet Capital, 8VC, A* Capital, AME Cloud Ventures, SV Angel, Operator Partners, CoFound Partners, and Uncorrelated Ventures. Grit provides an AI-powered product that automates software maintenance, traditionally a manual and frustrating task for software engineering teams, particularly for large enterprises with antiquated code bases. For example, when new versions of software come out, engineering teams can spend months updating their code to work with the new software version, which Grit uses AI to entirely automate, said the company’s CEO Morgante Pell. In one case, a software project that was supposed to take six months was shortened to one week using Grit, he said.

Persons: Morgante Pell, “, John Luttig, Anna Tong, Tomasz Janowski Organizations: New, Fund, Ventures, Quiet, AME Cloud Ventures, SV Angel, Partners, CoFound Partners, ”, Reuters, “, Thomson Locations: New York City, San Francisco

☆ Check out the pitch deck Maza used to get Andreessen Horowitz to lead its $8 million seed round to help immigrants access financial services in the US
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-28 | by ( Madeline Renbarger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Now, Maza has just raised $8 million in seed funding from investors like Andreessen Horowitz. A year and a half later, and Maza has raised $8 million in seed funding led by Andreessen Horowitz. Customers will have access to Maza's banking services, which include card services, check deposit, and tax services. Down the road, however, the cofounders envision Maza as an "identity" company rather than a banking company, akin to CLEAR in airports, said Arango. Check out the 14-slide pitch deck that Maza used to raise $8 million in seed funding: (Note: certain proprietary information has been redacted.)

Persons: Maza, Andreessen Horowitz, Maza cofounders Luciano Arango, Robbie Figueroa, Siggy, Arango, Anré Williams, Figueroa, Wells Fargo, Seema Amble Organizations: Maza's, LinkedIn, SV Angel, Restive Ventures, Global Founders Capital, American Express National Bank, William Hockey, Plaid Locations: United States, Bilstein, Maza, Wells, Colombia

☆ 'This is just the beginning of a revolution': DeepMind cofounder says personal AI assistants will make us better at basically everything
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-07 | by ( Cadie Thompson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Personal AI assistants will help make humans more efficient, the cofounder of DeepMind said. Personal AI assistants will also change how people search for information. Personal AI assistants that can do everything from shop and negotiate on your behalf are the future of AI, Mustafa Suleyman, the cofounder of DeepMind and CEO of Inflection AI, said Tuesday during an interview with CNBC. Suleyman, of course, has a vested interest in personal AI assistants. Suleyman isn't the only tech leader that thinks personal AI assistants will mark a profound change in how we use technology.

Persons: DeepMind, Mustafa Suleyman, Suleyman, Pi, isn't, Suleyman isn't, Bill Gates, Goldman Sachs, Bard Organizations: CNBC, Google, AIs, SV Angel

☆ There's plenty of money out there for native AI companies, says SV Angel's Ron Conway
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-22 | 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 EmailThere's plenty of money out there for native AI companies, says SV Angel's Ron ConwayRon Conway, SV Angel founder and managing partner, joins 'Squawk on the Street' to discuss AI opportunities ahead of his panel at the Goldman Sachs and SV Angel AI Forward 2023 conference.

☆ Watch CNBC's full interview with SV Angel's Ron Conway on investing in A.I. boom
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-22 | 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 EmailWatch CNBC's full interview with SV Angel's Ron Conway on investing in A.I. boomRon Conway, SV Angel founder and managing partner, joins 'Squawk on the Street' to discuss AI opportunities ahead of his panel at the Goldman Sachs and SV Angel AI Forward 2023 conference.

☆ OpenAI is exploring collective decisions on AI, like Wikipedia entries
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

May 22 (Reuters) - ChatGPT's creator OpenAI is testing how to gather broad input on decisions impacting its artificial intelligence, its president Greg Brockman said on Monday. At AI Forward, an event in San Francisco hosted by Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) and SV Angel, Brockman discussed the broad contours of how the maker of the wildly popular chatbot is seeking regulation of AI globally. One announcement he previewed is akin to the model of Wikipedia, which he said requires people with diverse views to coalesce and agree on the encyclopedia's entries. "We’re not just sitting in Silicon Valley thinking we can write these rules for everyone," he said of AI policy. Reporting By Jeffrey Dastin in San FranciscoOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Bill Gates says top AI agent will replace search, shopping sites
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

SAN FRANCISCO, May 22 (Reuters) - Bill Gates, Microsoft Corp's (MSFT.O) co-founder, on Monday said the technology race to win is the development of the top artificially intelligent agent, poised to disrupt search-engine, productivity and online shopping sites. "You’ll never go to a search site again," he said. Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O), Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) Google and Microsoft did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Gates said Inflection AI, co-founded by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman, impressed him. "Whoever wins the personal agent, that’s a big thing," Gates said.

☆ Bill Gates says A.I. could kill Google Search and Amazon as we know them
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-22 | by ( Jonathan Vanian | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates reacts during a visit with Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of the Imperial College University, in London, Britain, February 15, 2023. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates believes the future top company in artificial intelligence will likely have created a personal digital agent that can perform certain tasks for people. Gates said there is a fifty-fifty chance that this future AI winner will be either a startup or a tech giant. Until then, companies will continue embedding so-called generative AI technologies akin to OpenAI's popular ChatGPT into their own products. Watch: Bill Gates says OpenAI's GPT is the most important tech advance since the 1980's

April 26 (Reuters) - With more and more lawyers at major law firms using fast-advancing generative artificial intelligence tools, legal AI startup Harvey said Wednesday that it raised $21 million in fresh investor cash. Sequoia Capital, which is leading the Series A fundraising round, said more than 15,000 law firms are on a waiting list to start using Harvey. The company says it builds custom large language models for law firms. Technology companies and investors have rushed to embrace large language model-based generative AI since Microsoft-backed OpenAI's ChatGPT debuted in November. Casetext in March released its AI legal assistant product, CoCounsel, which uses GPT-4 to speed up tasks like legal research, contract analysis and document review.

☆ Lawmakers meet with Apple, Disney CEOs as part of talks on competition with China
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-07 | by ( Lauren Feiner | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

High-profile tech and media executives shared their experiences of working in and competing with China with lawmakers who visited California this week. Over the three-day trip that kicked off on Wednesday, lawmakers were scheduled to meet with Disney CEO Bob Iger and Apple CEO Tim Cook, as well as high-level executives from Google , Microsoft , Palantir and Scale AI. The trip highlights the key role tech and media industries play in America's increasingly complex relationship with China. In Hollywood, the group of lawmakers from the select committee learned about a range of topics related to competition with China. The group was also slated to meet with venture capitalists on Thursday, including Andreessen Horowitz, Khosla Ventures and SV Angel.

☆ Ex-Google employees' A.I. chatbot startup valued at $1 billion after Andreessen Horowitz funding
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( Jennifer Elias | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Character.AI, an artificial intelligence start-up founded by two former Google employees, is capitalizing on venture capitalists' unquenchable thirst for deals in technology's hottest space. The two-year-old company said on Thursday that it raised $150 million at a $1 billion valuation in a funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz. Andreessen Horowitz has been a significant player in driving up prices in both markets. The firm announced a $4.5 billion crypto fund in mid-2022 as the digital currency market was in freefall. A year earlier, it added to its investment in audio app Clubhouse, valuing the early-stage startup at $4 billion.

☆ The former FTX US president just raised money from Anthony Scaramucci and Coinbase Ventures for his new crypto startup
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( Morgan Chittum | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Former FTX US president Brett Harrison started a new crypto infrastructure trading startup called Architect. The firm raised $5 million in a pre-product financing round, with backing from Coinbase Ventures. After nearly four months since stepping down as president of FTX US, Brett Harrison has raised $5 million for his new crypto trading infrastructure startup. The company, called Architect, is building software that aims to make trading in crypto markets easier for large investors and institutions. He served as FTX US president for 17 months before he stepped down in late September of 2022.

☆ Check out the pitch deck that payroll startup Comprehensive used to raise a $6 million seed round from investors like Inspired Capital
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-17 | by ( Madeline Renbarger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Comprehensive is a new HR startup that wants to simplify employee compensation and raises. The startup just launched from stealth and raised a $6 million seed round led by Inspired Capital. Employers can also easily toggle to view employee compensation data by gender and race, along with the dates of each last employee's raise to increase transparency around pay equity. Comprehensive has already secured high profile clients like fintech startups Mercury and Titan, which attracted the attention of the venture team at Inspired Capital. Here's an exclusive look at the 10-slide pitch deck Comprehensive used to raise $6 million from Inspired Capital, Floodgate, SV Angel, and several angel investors:

☆ See the 23-slide pitch deck used to raise $6 million by a software startup seeking to make science faster, cheaper, and more transparent
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-28 | by ( Yeji Jesse Lee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

The company just raised a $6 million seed round led by Hummingbird Ventures and Dimension. This frustration eventually led to the founding in November 2021 of Kaleidoscope, a New York software company focused on addressing inefficiencies in biotech. The company announced Wednesday that it had raised a $6 million seed round led by Hummingbird Ventures and Dimension. Knezevic created Kaleidoscope along with Ahmed Elnaiem and David Yen, who hail from the engineering and product-design worlds respectively. See the presentation Kaleidoscope used to raise a $6 million seed round from investors such as Hummingbird Ventures and Dimension.

☆ NYC Mayor Eric Adams asks tech executives at private dinner to keep companies in the city
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-16 | by ( Brian Schwartz | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

At a private dinner Wednesday at New York's swanky Le Pavillon, New York City Mayor Eric Adams called on tech executives to keep their companies in the city, even as industry leaders raise concerns to city officials of soaring rents and an increase in violent crime. He told the more than two dozen tech leaders: "New York City needs and wants technology companies," another attendee said, adding that city officials want tech companies to "help grow the economy of this city." Adams' spokesman Fabien Levy confirmed the mayor spoke to the tech executives, but said, "Mayor Adams wasn't there for dinner." "While we don't discuss private conversations, Mayor Adams always welcomes and encourages businesses to come to NYC," Levy said in an email. Conway said in an interview, noting that it's important for tech leaders and companies to be civically engaged.

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