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☆ 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

☆ Fintech firm Ramp raises $300 mln at lowered valuation of $5.8 bln
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Aug 22 (Reuters) - Ramp, a developer of financial management software, has raised $300 million in its latest funding round to accelerate expansion in new categories, the company said on Tuesday, notching up a valuation of $5.8 billion. The new funding is at a lower valuation from the $8.1 billion achieved by the New-York based startup in a funding round last year, a spokesperson of the company confirmed. The latest funding round was co-led by Thrive Capital and Sands Capital along with existing investors Founder's Fund and General Catalyst among others. Previous investors in the fintech include Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) CEO Satya Nadella, Goldman Sachs (GS.N), Redpoint Ventures and Thrive Capital. The financial management company intends to expand its software into adjacent categories in an attempt to make customer's businesses more "efficient", said Chief Executive Officer Eric Glyman.

Persons: Satya Nadella, Goldman Sachs, Eric Glyman, Pritam Biswas, Shailesh Organizations: New, Sands Capital, Founder's Fund, Catalyst, Microsoft Corp, Redpoint Ventures, Thomson Locations: York, Bengaluru

☆ How $7.75 billion Hopin went from pandemic darling to selling off its flagship business for $50 million and handing back some investor cash
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-10 | by ( Callum Burroughs | Tasmin Lockwood | Michael Cogley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

Virtual-events startup Hopin was a pandemic winner when it hit a $7.8 billion valuation in 2021. Now its CEO is stepping down, it's selling off parts of its business, and is set to hand back investor cash. But as vaccinations arrived and the travel restrictions eased, demand for Hopin's platform waned. "The pandemic was an extraordinary time to be investing," one London-based tech investor who had not backed Hopin said. Armed with more than $1 billion in investor cash, Boufarhat opted to make acquisitions.

Persons: Johnny Boufarhat, Boufarhat, Andreessen Horowitz, Catalyst, Slack, Hopin, Johnny ", Hopin Boufarhat, outsized, Streamyard, Badri Rajasekar, Klarna Organizations: Tiger, UPS, RingCentral, University of Manchester, Financial Times, Venture, Founders, Microsoft, Private Locations: London, Australia, Lebanese, US, Dubai, Papua New Guinea, Switzerland, Hopin

☆ Hopin, last valued at $7.8 billion, has sold its flagship virtual events business with founder set to step down as CEO
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-02 | by ( Callum Burroughs | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Hopin, last valued at $7.8 billion, said on Wednesday it has sold its virtual events business. Hopin founder Johnny Boufarhat is also set to depart his role as CEO next month. Hopin, one of Europe's fastest-growing startups in history, has sold its main events business for an undisclosed fee, the company announced on Wednesday. But a slowdown in demand for virtual events as the world reopened mixed with a broader downturn in tech has hobbled the company's growth. Now, Hopin said it has sold its main events business – Events and Sessions – to RingCentral, a publically-listed cloud communications provider.

Persons: Hopin, RingCentral, Johnny Boufarhat, Andreessen Horowitz, Badri Rajasekar, Boufarhat, StreamYard Organizations: Tiger Global, Catalyst, Financial Times, Sunday Times Locations: Hopin

☆ Here's the 7-slide presentation healthcare startup Helpful used to raise $7.5 million for its management program for family caregivers
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-01 | by ( Samantha Stokes | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Healthcare startup Helpful wants to disrupt the family caregiving industry. Check out the 7-page pitch deck Helpful used to secure $7.5 million from Redesign Health. Helpful launched in July with a 5,000-caregiver waitlist, CEO Wes Donahoe, who was a founder-in-residence at Redesign Health while building the startup, told Insider. Redesign Health is a startup studio that creates, builds, and funds healthcare startups from the ground up. Check out the seven-slide pitch deck Helpful used to raise $7.5 million in seed financing from Redesign Health.

Persons: waitlist, Wes Donahoe, Donohoe Organizations: Health, National Alliance for Caregiving, AARP, Ianacare, Medicare, Senior Health Care, Catalyst, CVS, Aily

☆ Get ready to make a deal for your ride. InDrive is bringing its ride-hailing-haggling business to the US again.
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-20 | by ( Nancy Luna | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

InDrive is a ride-hailing app that lets customers haggle with drivers for fares. Many drivers are Uber and Lyft contractors eager to check out inDrive's promise of letting drivers and passengers negotiate ride prices, Arsen Tomsky, inDrive's CEO and founder, said. In 2022, inDrive was the second most downloaded ride-hailing app globally, behind Uber, according to Data.AI. Though it started in Russia, inDrive fully separated from its Russian business last year after the country invaded Ukraine, the company said. In addition to ride-hailing, inDrive in other global markets has added new business segments, including freight delivery, task assistance, and package delivery.

Persons: Arsen, Tomsky, InDrive, haggle, inDrive, Arsen Tomsky, Siberia Tomsky, Uber, Catalyst, verticals Organizations: Service, Fort Lauderdale , West Palm Beach, Boca Raton, Taxi, Tomsky, Insight Partners, Bond Locations: Siberia, South Florida, Wall, Silicon, America, Asia, Miami, South Beach, Brickell, Fort Lauderdale , West Palm, New York City, New Yorkers, Pacific, Africa, haggling, Yakutsk, Siberian, Florida, Russia, Ukraine

SAN FRANCISCO, July 8 (Reuters) - Venture capital firm Headline used to be in one of San Francisco's most eye-catching skyscrapers: the pyramidal Transamerica building that has defined the skyline for decades. Venture capital firms are increasingly joining retailers and other businesses in finding homes outside downtown San Francisco. [1/5]People enjoy the afternoon in Presidio, a former military base-turned-national park in San Francisco California, U.S., July 7, 2023. They're actually really excited," said Eurie Kim, whose venture firm Forerunner left downtown for the Presidio in early 2022. "Mayor Breed continues to implement strategic initiatives to help stabilize existing businesses and recruit new ones as part of her Roadmap to Downtown San Francisco's Future plan.

Persons: Mathias Schilling, Schilling, Rex Salisbury, Carlos Barria, They're, Eurie Kim, CBRE, Lisa Petrie, Jon Rehagen, Molly Martell, San Francisco Mayor London Breed, Breed, Colin Yasukochi, Krystal Hu, Peter Henderson, Rosalba O'Brien Organizations: FRANCISCO, Venture, Employees, Presidio, Westfield, San, Felicis Ventures, Forerunner Ventures, Letterman, Cambrian Venture, San Francisco Bay Area, REUTERS, Presidio Trust, Lucasfilm, Walt Disney Family Museum, Catalyst, Brand, San Francisco Mayor London, Downtown San, CBRE's Tech, Thomson Locations: San Francisco, Presidio, San Francisco Bay, San Francisco's, There's, Sand, Silicon Valley, South, downtown San Francisco, San Francisco California, U.S, Marin, San Francisco ., South Park, Downtown

☆ Smaller valuations and a lack of ego helped Spain's startup scene avoid some of Europe's shocking collapse in VC funding, investors say
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-29 | by ( Tasmin Lockwood | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Spain's startup scene has evaded some of the collapse in VC funding that has rocked Europe in 2023. Smaller check sizes and a lack of "ego" has somewhat protected the ecosystem, investors say. Smaller valuations, check sizes, and a distinct lack of ego helped Spain's startup scene evade some of the shocking collapse in venture capital funding that has rocked Europe so far this year. Smaller rounds give Spain's startups an edge in the downturnWhat correction was felt was eased by the fact there is less "ego" in Spain's ecosystem, according to Max Bray, an investor at early-stage firm K Fund. As well as the birth of local growth funds, investors see corporations playing a role in closing the funding gap.

Persons: SoftBank, Catalyst, Pablo Pedrejón, Max Bray, Dalia Silberstein, Pedro Arribas Gridilla, Juliette Simonin, Margarita Albors, Tasmin Lockwood, Bray, Marc Sabas, Fund's Bray, Wallbox cofounders Enric Asunción, Eduard Castañeda, Glovo, Wallbox, Oscar Pierre, Ship2B's Sabas, Danae Vara, Danae Vara Ship2B, hasn't, Sabas, CVCs, There's, Félix Ortega, K Fund's Bray, Sérgio Massano Organizations: Accel, Pedrejón, Venture, Fund, Esade Center, Social, Foundation, Spanish, K Fund, Investors, Danae Vara Ship2B Ventures, Investment, Corporations, Barcelona Activa, Telefónica, BBVA, Proeduca Locations: Europe, Spain, Madrid, France, Germany, Switzerland, Netherlands, Seaya, Bray, Vara, Barcelona, Silicon, London

☆ Apple's Tim Cook calls India 'huge opportunity' after tech meeting at White House with Prime Minister Modi
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-23 | by ( Seema Mody | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

US President Joe Biden looks on as India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks during a meeting with senior officials and CEOs of American and Indian companies, in the East Room the White House in Washington, DC, on June 23, 2023. The tech company execs spent over an hour with Prime Minister Narendra Modi inside the White House on Friday, discussing opportunities and challenges in investing in India. After the meeting concluded at the White House, Apple CEO Tim Cook told CNBC that India represents a "huge opportunity." It was the first state visit to the U.S. for Modi, who became prime minister in 2014. Following Friday's meeting, the White House said Google will be working with the Indian Institute of Science on open sourcing of speech data for artificial intelligence models.

Persons: Joe Biden, Narendra Modi, Biden, execs, Modi, Elon Musk, Tim Cook, Sam Altman, Altman, Hemant Taneja, Catalyst, Taneja, Kenneth Juster, who's Organizations: India's, Apple, Microsoft, Tesla, White, CNBC, Google, Indian Institute of Science, U.S, Micron, Applied Materials, Research, Council, Foreign Relations, Biden Locations: Washington ,, India, U.S, Washington, China, Gujarat

But all the deals and pomp of the visit — including an address to Congress and a lavish state dinner — may not have accomplished what the White House had wanted. U.S. leaders gave Modi a hearty welcome, as Washington seeks to nudge India further into the American sphere of influence. “The partnership is among the most consequential in the world,” Biden said at a news conference on Thursday. Biden and Modi largely brushed off criticism of the Indian government’s crackdown on human rights and religious freedom. And Modi made no pledges to endorse U.S. efforts to restrain China, nor to cut ties to Russia.

Persons: Modi, ” Biden, Dave Calhoun, Larry Culp, G.E, James Taiclet, Lockheed Martin, Sam Altman, OpenAI, Tim Cook, Sanjay Mehrotra, Sundar Pichai, Lisa Su, Ken Chenault, Jane Fraser, Adena Friedman, Deven Parekh, Hemant Taneja, ” Taneja, DealBook, Biden Organizations: White, General Electric, chipmakers, Micron, Materials, World Trade Organization, America, Boeing, Lockheed, Tech, Apple, Citigroup, Nasdaq, Insight Venture Partners, Catalyst, The Times, House Locations: India, China, Russia, U.S, Washington, portobello, United States

☆ See photos of tech's elite all dressed up at the White House
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-23 | by ( Grace Mayer | Hasan Chowdhury | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Some of the tech and business industries' top CEOs attended a White House dinner Thursday. Take a look at the CEOs and industry giants who made the guest list and dressed up in their finest. The White House invited leaders from across the tech and business industries for a dinner held for Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi's visit to Washington. The visit has been a crucial one for Biden, as the White House looks to build closer ties with India. Here's a look at the CEOs and industry giants who made the guest list and dressed up in their finest.

Persons: OpenAI, India Narendra Modi's, Biden, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Tesla, Dana White, James Murdoch, Rupert Murdoch's, Jane Fraser, Adena Friedman, Deven Parekh, Hemant Taneja, Catalyst, Ralph Lauren, M, David Calhoun, Larry Culp, Doug McMillon Organizations: White, Apple, Google, Morning, Microsoft, White House, Meta, Twitter, UFC, Citigroup, Nasdaq, Insight Partners, Boeing, Electric, Walmart Locations: Washington, India, China, Taiwan

☆ He was employee No. 8 at Stripe. Now, he's taking on Salesforce and AWS with $50 million in new funding for his startup Render. Here's the pitch deck it used.
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-20 | by ( Melia Russell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

That led to Render, a cloud provider that has now raised $50 million in Series B funding. That's the idea behind Render, a tech startup that makes a modern cloud to build and run apps and websites. RenderBefore Render, Goel got hired as the eighth employee of a then-unknown tech startup called Stripe. It serves more than half a million developers, an increase from just under 100,000 developers in July of 2022, Goel said. The latest funding will allow Render to hire its first chief of marketing and expand its engineering team.

Persons: Anurag Goel, Elliott Robinson, Mary D'Onofrio, Catalyst, Goel, Salesforce, It's, They've Organizations: Investors, Bessemer Venture Partners, Fund, Web Services, Microsoft, Google, Developers

☆ Investors shut out of traditional funding rounds are scouring secondary markets to snap up shares in buzzy AI startups like Dataminr, Hugging Face, and Anthropic
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-12 | by ( Leena Rao | Ben Bergman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

As the AI craze continues, investors are eager to buy shares of these startups on secondary markets. AI startup shares have been the top in demand sector every month this year, according to EquityZen. It seems that every week there's a new hot AI startup that's raising a big round. ForgeGlobal, a marketplace for secondary transactions of startup shares, is seeing similar excitement from investors in AI startups. Sequoia, General Catalyst, Andreessen Horowitz and many others have been aggressively investing in AI startups.

Persons: Phil Haslett, Haslett, Avlok Kohli, Howe Ng, Ng, Catalyst, Andreessen Horowitz, Javier Avelos, OpenAI, Anthropic, Avelos Organizations: sixfold, SamBaNova Systems, Microsoft, Google Locations: secondaries, Sequoia, Caplight

☆ 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

☆ 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

☆ Marc Andreessen Has a Plan to Use 'AI to Save the World'
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-06 | by ( Vishal Persaud | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Marc Andreessen writes that AI can "make everything we care about better" in a new blog post. He believes AI companies should be able to build fast and aggressively without regulation. The current AI wave wouldn't be complete without a pithy missive from famed venture-capitalist and entrepreneur Marc Andressen. To help avert those risks, Altman recommended to lawmakers that a new agency should be created to police AI projects, particularly ones that operate at higher levels of capabilities. He also says his firm is eager to fund AI startup founders.

Persons: Marc Andreessen, Marc Andressen, Andreessen Horowitz, he's, Andreessen, Sam Altman, Altman, Andreeseen, Catalyst, Nat Friedman Organizations: OpenAI Locations: China, Coactive, London

☆ From Wall Street to Washington: Which finance execs would make the best public servants?
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-01 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

There has long been speculation that America's most-famous banker has plans to run for some sort of public office. The path from Wall Street to Washington is well worn, with plenty of high-profile executives taking up positions in the government. When most Wall Street executives were still afraid of the public cloud, she was ready to embrace it with open arms. Jon Gray — Treasury SecretaryBlackstone's president and chief operating officer has already had a brush with public office. The idea of him holding public office doesn't seem far-fetched.

Persons: Dan DeFrancesco, TikTok, I'm, we've, nabbing, Joe Biden's, Kevin McCarthy's, Jamie Dimon, Larry Downing, hasn't shied, Dimon, Dimon's, Bill Ackman, Kenneth Chenault —, Kathy Hochul, she's, Chenault, He's, Larry Fink —, We've, Larry, Fink, Adena Friedman, Friedman, Jon Gray —, Gray, Donald Trump, Gray's, Wall, Sen, Elizabeth Warren, Ken Griffin, Griffin, hasn't, Griffin hasn't, Ron DeSantis, he'll, Brian Moynihan —, Moynihan, Dan Schulman —, PayPal — he's, Taylor Swift, Kevin Mazur, Larry Fink, Franklin Templeton, It's, Rockefeller, Stephen Schwarzman, Warren Buffett, Cliff Asness, that's, Here's, Jeffrey Cane, Nathan Rennolds Organizations: JPMorgan, REUTERS, Bloomberg, American Express, Catalyst, Washington Post, BlackRock, SEC, CFTC, OCC, Nasdaq, Wall, Democrat, GOP, Florida Gov, Commerce, PayPal, Express, Virgin Mobile, Rockefeller Capital Management, Putnam Investments, Blackstone, Credit Suisse, UBS, Reuters, LinkedIn Locations: NYC, Washington, New York, Florida, Chicago, Miami, Ohio, Swiss, London

☆ BlackRock is spending 'a huge amount of time' on AI, CEO Larry Fink says
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-31 | by ( Rebecca Ungarino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said the firm is spending a lot of time analyzing artificial intelligence. The firm's experts believe AI will increase productivity by 30%, Fink said on Wednesday. A BlackRock team called AI Labs that works on natural language processing and other areas. If AI can meaningfully increase productivity, Fink said, then "you don't have to own just these AI companies. Bank of America research analysts have called AI a "baby bubble" for the investment mania around the tech.

Persons: Larry Fink, Fink, " Fink, He's, Deutsche Bank CEO Christian Sewing, OpenAI's ChatGPT, ChatGPT, Catalyst, Andreessen Horowitz Organizations: BlackRock, Deutsche Bank, Deutsche Bank CEO Christian, of America Locations: BlackRock, New York, Palo Alto , California, Edinburgh, Scotland

☆ UK fintech bank Monzo more than doubles revenue but marginally narrows losses to $143 million, results show
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-31 | by ( Callum Burroughs | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

London-based fintech bank Monzo more than doubled its revenue last year, results show. The company, founded in 2015, also narrowed losses marginally to £116.3 million ($143.4 million). British fintech bank Monzo more than doubled its revenue last year and marginally narrowed losses to £116.3 million ($143.4 million), according to results published on Wednesday. Monzo, famous for its bright coral pink debit cards, added another 1.6 million customers with the bank now servicing around 7.4 million users. The company's results come after fellow London-based fintech bank Starling, announced a pre-tax profit of £195 million ($241 million).

Persons: Anil, Monzo, Starling, Y Combinator, Tom Blomfield, Combinator Organizations: Catalyst, Abu Dhabi Growth Fund Locations: British, London, Abu Dhabi

☆ See the 19-slide presentation that got General Catalyst to back a startup tackling a $25 billion problem for hospitals
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Rebecca Torrence | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The startup used this pitch deck to get backing from top healthcare VC firm General Catalyst. The Magoons' new startup, Adonis, raised $5.6 million in seed funding in October to solve that problem with tech. Just under seven months later, Adonis has raised $17.3 million more in Series A funding, led by top healthcare VC firm General Catalyst. "Given all the work we do with health systems, we know how complicated and poorly organized these systems are, despite all the money they're collecting," she said. Check out the pitch deck Adonis used to get $17.3 million led by General Catalyst.

☆ Andreessen Horowitz and General Catalyst lead $50 million seed round in Hippocratic AI to deliver large language models to healthcare providers
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Stephanie Palazzolo | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Hippocratic AI is a large language model company aiming to serve healthcare providers. Now, the entrepreneur is marrying his interest in healthcare with his experience as a multi-time AI founder to create Hippocratic AI, a healthcare-focused large language model company. First, Hippocratic AI tested its large language model against 114 different healthcare certifications, 105 of which its model outperformed OpenAI's GPT-4 on, Shah told Insider. Despite its intensive model training efforts and recent hefty capital infusion, Hippocratic AI has yet to release a product. "This language model business has turned software development back into a capital intensive business," he said.

May 16 (Reuters) - Hippocratic Health, a startup building artificial intelligence models for the healthcare industry, has raised $50 million in a larger-than-usual seed funding round, signaling strong investor interest in betting on AI models for specific industries. Large language models are AI systems that mine vast amounts of data to summarize information and generate content. Also known as foundation models, large language models can perform tasks from writing essays to generating codes. Our focus is to build the safest language model for healthcare," said Shah, who previously founded insurance startup Health IQ. A16z said it is one of the largest seed checks it has written in the healthcare industry.

☆ 7. Anduril Industries
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Cnbc.Com Staff | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Anduril Industries operates in an increasingly complex security environment, where science and technology innovation are needed for the U.S. military to keep an edge. Throughout 2022, defense technology specialist Anduril Industries supplied drones, artificial intelligence software and training to help the Ukrainian Armed Forces conduct surveillance and reconnaissance missions. With a recent round of venture financing directed toward cutting-edge autonomous militaristic products, Anduril Industries stands to help fill this gap and scale it up. Building on that acquisition, last year Anduril Industries partnered with the U.S. Special Operations Command on a 10-year, $967 million contract to provide systems for shooting down drones. Anduril also bought startup Dive Technologies, a maker of underwater vehicles, to expand its suite of autonomous vehicles.

☆ Bowery: 2023 CNBC Disruptor 50
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Cnbc.Com Staff | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Founded in 2015 in New York City, Bowery is among several urban plant factories that are changing food supplies, and attracting substantial funding. The need to grow produce more efficiently, and closer to end markets, is represented in Bowery and the concept of vertical agriculture. Early last year, Bowery secured a $150 million credit investment from KKR & Co. Overall, Bowery increased its retail distribution 40% in 2022, with supermarket chains Albertsons, Giant Food, Walmart and Whole Foods on board. Almost a decade on from its founding, the idea behind Bowery remains novel, but skeptics say vertical farming remains closer to a DIY niche than a grown up, globally scalable agtech industry.

☆ The former president of Tesla and COO of Lyft just raised a new $40 million fund and wants to fix venture capital's "addiction to fees"
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( Darius Rafieyan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Jon McNeill served as president of Tesla, COO of Lyft, and has started and sold six companies. Over the same period the number of new funds closed has fallen by more than 75%, meaning capital is concentrating in fewer and larger funds. "That's all about addiction to fees," said McNeill, "it's not like they've got twenty times the amount of opportunities to fund, they don't." It's a venture fund, but it also bears resemblance to a private equity fund, an incubator, and a sort of "private Berkshire Hathaway" as McNeill puts it. The fund takes 100% of the company up front, as opposed to the 20% stake a VC fund would typically take.

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