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☆ Shopify divests logistics arm to Flexport in strategic reversal
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Krystal Hu | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

May 4 (Reuters) - Shopify Inc (SHOP.TO) has divested the logistics arm it built over the past few years, in a reversal of its strategy of aggressively investing in fulfillment networks, the Canadian e-commerce platform said on Thursday. Flexport was last valued at $8 billion in a $935 million funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz and MSD Partners in February 2022. The move to expand into logistics services was part of Shopify's ambition to support merchants selling on its platform with one-stop service. Shopify President Harley Finkelstein said the shift in strategy was a result of prioritizing product acceleration. San Francisco-based Flexport will expand into fulfillment and last-mile delivery through the deal as the official logistics partner for merchants on Shopify.

☆ Silicon Valley Founders and VCs Are Making Sobriety Popular
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Samantha Stokes | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Sellers is among a growing contingent in the tech community that's going alcohol-free. From founders to investors, members of the startup community are eschewing booze in the name of staying sharp — and healthy. "About six months ago, I stopped drinking alcohol. That's really hard because in this industry, you have to be high energy. That's really hard because in this industry, you have to be high energy.

☆ More layoffs hit Tom Brady's NFT startup Autograph, which just cut nearly a third of its workforce
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Ben Bergman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Autograph is a star studded NFT platform cofounded by retired NFL quarterback Tom Brady. This new round of layoffs occurs months after the company laid off dozens of staffers in December. The NFT market has has cooled, with sales expected to plunge 72% this year, according to one estimate. Autograph, the star studded NFT platform cofounded by retired NFL quarterback Tom Brady, has laid off about a third of its workforce, Insider has learned. The NFT market has has cooled considerably, with sales expected to plunge 72% this year, according to one industry estimate.

☆ 10 Things in Tech: AI-generated Drake songs, discounted startups, and Amazon’s upgraded Alexa
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Diamond Naga Siu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

I'm Diamond Naga Siu, and in this turbulent economy, I definitely want stability over most other things. And my colleague Grace Mayer highlights how retail, finance, and other (seemingly more stable) industries are piquing our interest instead. A leaked document viewed by Insider revealed that Amazon wants to focus on entertainment features for Alexa. The upgrade will feature Amazon's own generative AI technology instead of using OpenAI's technology (like how Microsoft paired ChatGPT with Bing). Bell dished to my colleague Ashley Stewart on why he made the move, how he met Satya Nadella, and more.

☆ Tech groupthink could hinder AI competition
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NEW YORK, May 1 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Everyone wants a piece of OpenAI, the startup behind artificial intelligence-powered chatbot ChatGPT. Now that OpenAI has the support of venture capital’s biggest names, that norm will make life harder for smaller challengers - especially given the steep costs of training AI models and how stretched venture funding is now. Rivals could look to the other tech goliaths; competitor Anthropic, backed by Microsoft nemesis Google, recently completed a similarly sized fundraise. By planting its flag in Silicon Valley early, OpenAI may have won a lasting edge in the AI race. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

☆ The World Wide Web Turns 30: A History of the Internet Technology
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-30 | by ( Matthew Riva | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The Mosaic browserThe most popular early browser was released eight days before CERN unleashed the web's source code. The move enabled people for the first time to see text and photos side-by-side, and encouraged growth of the fledgling web. One of Mosaic’s developers was Marc Andreessen, who went on to co-found Netscape and Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. National Center for Supercomputing Applications/University of Illinois Board of Trustees

☆ This startup that automates SME invoices with AI just raised $8 million. Check out the 10-slide pitch deck Triver used to raise the fresh funds.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( Callum Burroughs | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

The startup was founded by former Funding Circle executive Jerome Le Luel and is backed by Stride.vc. A London-based startup that will provide instant working capital to SMEs has emerged from stealth with an $8 million funding round. Like most forms of short-term working capital, financing solutions for the SME market are often expensive and time-consuming. Most providers run checks based on e-commerce data, but Le Luel believes that Open Banking data allows for better risk and analytics modeling. The company wants to launch its platform within this quarter and said that it had a "line-of-sight" to a very profitable business by 2027.

☆ Hot AI startup ElevenLabs, founded by ex-Google and Palantir staff, is set to raise $18 million at a $100 million valuation. Check out the 14-slide pitch deck it used for its $2 million pre-seed.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( Riddhi Kanetkar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

London-based ElevenLabs is set to raise $18 million after securing a $2 million round in January. ElevenLabs, a hot artificial intelligence startup, is set to raise $18 million at a $100 million valuation, months after announcing its $2 million pre-seed round in January. ElevenLabs synthesizes speech "that takes context into account and conveys it accordingly," Staniszewski told Insider in January after the firm announced its pre-seed round. The pre-seed round was led by Czech-based early-stage venture capital firm Credo Ventures, which has previously backed UiPath and Apiary. Check out the 14-slide deck ElevenLabs used to raise its pre-seed funding.

☆ Alphabet's A.I. frenzy hits startup scene as CapitalG unit leads $100 million investment in AlphaSense
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-11 | by ( Jonathan Vanian | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Google's hefty investment in artificial intelligence and the latest boom in generative AI doesn't end with its homegrown products. Alphabet's late-stage venture capital arm, CapitalG, told CNBC that it just led a $100 million investment in corporate data firm AlphaSense, valuing the company at $1.8 billion. Generative AI wasn't a talking point in the prior two rounds because the term hadn't yet jumped into the popular lexicon. Generative AI has been the one bright spot this year, turning rather frothy in some corners. He said the money will also help AlphaSense improve its technology, taking advantage of advances in generative AI.

☆ 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.

☆ The next big thing in Big Tech career path is an AI-based 'bilingual' job skillset
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-02 | by ( Eric Rosenbaum | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

Microsoft unveiled new versions of its Bing internet-search engine and Edge browser powered by the newest technology from ChatGPT maker OpenAI. But the biggest one of all may be next, he says, through the combination of artificial intelligence and branches of science involved in medicine. But the opportunity won't translate into achievement without a new form of collaboration between the classic big tech talent and the medical field. One of her portfolio companies, Insitro, was founded by Stanford AI researcher Daphne Koller (Koller co-founder edtech company Coursera). "There is lots of exciting big talent opportunities coming from big tech and big cap pharma," she said.

☆ Base10 Partners is offering its limited partners direct access to investing in unicorn startups in order to compete against VC firms with much bigger funds. Here's how.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-31 | by ( April Joyner | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Limited partners, the investors that back VC firms, are seeking out more direct deals in startups. But often LPs don't get in until long after the VC firms have invested, so they get smaller returns. VC firm Base10 Partners has launched a program to give LPs earlier access and more upside. As the exuberance in venture capital has crashed to a halt, the institutions that back VC firms, known as limited partners, have had plenty to grouse about. The VC firm Base10 Partners seeks to offer its own limited partners a remedy to this dilemma.

☆ Fetch.ai helps companies build and deploy autonomous smart agents. Check out the 19-slide pitch deck it used to raise $40 million.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( Riddhi Kanetkar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Check out the 19-slide deck it used to raise the fresh funds. A startup that uses AI to improve the autonomy of digital agents has raised $40 million as investors continue to pile in on the breakthrough tech. Cambridge-based Fetch.ai, founded in 2017, has developed technology that can help digital agents communicate with one another. Any transactions or activities between these various agents, who work with their own independent services, are recorded on the blockchain using Fetch.ai's native token, FET. With the fresh funds, Fetch.ai will develop and build out its technology.

☆ AI is so hot that top-tier funds are fighting to back tiny seed-stage startup ElevenLabs at valuation of around $100 million, sources say
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( Riddhi Kanetkar | Callum Burroughs | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

A16z is among a raft of top-tier funds battling to invest in a tiny British AI startup, sources say. London-based ElevenLabs closed a $2 million pre-seed round two months ago but is set to raise again. The deal is testament to the hype that surrounds AI startups following the release of ChatGPT last year. Andreessen Horowitz is among a raft of top-tier investors fighting to lead a round into a tiny AI startup that will value it at around $100 million as investor hype around the technology intensifies, sources say. Now, the startup is set to raise new funds again, in part due to its rapid growth in revenue, three London-based investors said.

☆ How I became one of 9 Black and Latina female founders whose startup reached $1 billion valuation
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( Jennifer Ortakales Dawkins | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Iman Abuzeid is one of nine Black and Latina female founders with a startup valued at $1 billion. That made Abuzeid one of nine Black and Latina female founders whose startups have reached a billion-dollar valuation. Black female founders must focus on winningThe statistics are bad, and they demonstrate a real structural bias in the system. When you narrow it down to Black female founders, it's 0.2%, which is effectively zero. I have a therapist, and I'm a huge fan of all CEOs and founders getting a therapist.

☆ AI startup Pinecone was just valued at $700 million. Here's why VCs like Andreessen Horowitz are obsessed with it and other vector databases.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( Stephanie Palazzolo | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Vector database startups like Pinecone have received term sheets from top-tier VCs, Insider has learned. Similar to the investor excitement around generative AI, VCs are now flocking to another area within the buzzy AI ecosystem. Instead, a vector database can store and quickly find past responses to similar questions by understanding the meaning behind the statements without having to call the base model. Because the vector database space is so intertwined with LLMs, it's benefitted greatly from recent hype around generative AI and LLMs. "The LLM tax is real," one VC said, referring to the high valuations for buzzy vector database startups like Chroma, Weaviate, and Pinecone.

☆ Amazon sellers are using ChatGPT to help write product listings in sprawling marketplace
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( Annie Palmer | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesChad Rubin was looking for a way to spice up his Amazon listing for a vacuum hose. For assistance, Rubin turned to ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence chatbot that's gone viral since its launch late last year. Rubin asked ChatGPT to "generate 5 insanely clever and catchy headlines" for an infographic promoting his vacuum cleaner hose. A stream of YouTube videos, articles and LinkedIn posts have appeared in recent months touting the benefits of ChatGPT for Amazon sellers. Rubin said he plans to incorporate ChatGPT into a new tool that will help sellers quickly fine-tune their product listings.

☆ Bitcoin is a solution looking for a problem
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-24 | by ( Anita Ramaswamy | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Since his Miami proclamations, bitcoin’s price has fallen by nearly 40%, though in the last few weeks after Silicon Valley Bank’s failure it has had a resurgence. At first glance, his prediction seems wildly optimistic but directionally reasonable – bitcoin has surged by over 35% since SVB’s collapse on March 10. What’s more, bitcoin may never have surpassed $60,000 to reach its highest-ever price level in 2021 had the Fed not kept interest rates consistently low. It’s the prospect of lower rates – not the lack of government stability – that is opening the door to riskier bets like those on bitcoin. Gold is a tangible asset, unlike bitcoin, and that’s precisely what makes it an inflation hedge.

☆ Exclusive: $7 billion tech unicorn Carta bet big on managing employee equity for public companies. Now it's telling them to get off its platform.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( Darius Rafieyan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

$7 billion unicorn Carta is officially retreating from its equity management software for public companies, according to multiple sources Insider has spoken to. Thousands of private companies use the platform to track company and employee ownership, process venture investments, and administer employee stock programs, among a slew of other services. Carta had seen the company through its 2017 public listing on the London Stock Exchange, helping its employees and shareholders navigate the complex world of public stock markets. Transfer agents are regulated entities that all public companies are required to use to track stock ownership. "I guess getting into the public markets is something that they sort of dipped their toe in and now want to withdraw," he said.

☆ 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.

☆ Silicon Valley Bank became the go-to bank for startups with a network of top-tier VCs. Underrepresented founders say that created barriers to access for them.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( April Joyner | Ben Bergman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

But some early-stage founders told Insider they had trouble getting access to SVB's services. SVB's reliance on VC networks made it less accessible to some underrepresented founders, they said. With its focus on venture-backed startups, Silicon Valley Bank provided loans and lines of credit to businesses that often wouldn't qualify for such services at a larger bank. But the earliest-stage companies — those without significant venture funding or a notable VC backer — were still sometimes shut out, founders told Insider. Jean-Charles and Alvarez-Bailey said they didn't believe bias or discrimination was at play in SVB's decisions — they simply didn't meet the bank's VC funding threshold.

March 23 (Reuters) - Character.AI has raised $150 million in a new funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz that valued the AI chatbot startup at $1 billion, and it's in talks with cloud providers for more strategic investment, the company told Reuters. The billion-dollar valuation for a company with zero revenue is another example of the continued AI funding boom since OpenAI's ChatGPT became a widely recognized name. AI investment in 2023 to date has surpassed the full-year amount in 2020 of $1.5 billion, according to PitchBook data. While not currently generating any revenue, Character.AI plans to launch a paid subscription "in the not distant future", while keeping the current free version available, Shazeer said. Founded in 2021 by former Google researchers Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas, Character.AI had attracted backers including former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman.

☆ A 27-page report breaks down where the money is flowing in sports tech and the investors to watch. Here were 5 key takeaways.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Ashley Rodriguez | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Investment bank Drake Star broke down dealmaking in 2022 and what it means for the year ahead. Sports tech M&A activity in 2022, from Drake Star's Global Sports Tech Report 2022. Drake Star Global Sports Tech Report 2022The fourth quarter saw a surge in M&A volume with 67 deals, the most in the sector's recent history. More sports tech companies could explore public listings in the second half of the year. "Some of the IPO ready sports tech companies are expected to explore IPO/SPAC listings."

☆ An exclusive look at how AI startup Coactive scored $10.4 million in funding from Andreessen Horowitz and Bessemer to analyze unstructured visual content
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-21 | by ( Stephanie Palazzolo | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Coactive helps companies glean insights from unstructured visual content like photos and videos. Media and consumer retail customers can flag inappropriate content or search through visual data. On a Thursday afternoon, Cody Coleman told me that he was looking forward to a rare weekend vacation to Hawaii with an unexpected guest — his high school trigonometry teacher. With the rise of e-Commerce and creator platforms, visual content has exploded, and with the increasing usage of generative AI, it'll only become easier for consumers to create their own video and image content, Coleman told Insider. The startup largely serves media and consumer retail companies through its closed beta, Coleman told Insider.

☆ Premarket stocks: Silicon Valley Bank left a void that won't easily be filled
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-20 | by ( Nicole Goodkind | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

There’s no doubt that the failure of Silicon Valley Bank left a large void in tech. To find out, Before the Bell spoke with Ahmad Thomas, president and CEO of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group. Before the Bell: What’s the feeling on the ground with tech and VC leadership in Silicon Valley? Ahmad Thomas: Silicon Valley Bank has been a key part of our fabric here for four decades. FDIC sells most of failed Signature Bank to FlagstarFrom CNN’s David GoldmanA week after Signature Bank failed, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation said it has sold most of its deposits to Flagstar Bank, a subsidiary of New York Community Bank.

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