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☆ A private-equity takeover is coming for startups
▼ + stars: | 2024-08-12 | by ( Melia Russell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

The European private equity firm had been eyeing the late-stage startup for five years, impressed by its traction and focus on customer success. The speed of the deal, and the flashy multiple, illustrate how private equity funds are able to swallow startups more often lately. But in the face of rising inflation and interest rates, software customers from tech startups to mom-and-pop shops trimmed their budgets. Andreessen Horowitz plans to invest in the private equity asset class through its family office division. With high interest rates and a liquidity crunch reshaping the landscape, private equity is seizing the moment.

Persons: —, Scott Arnold, AuditBoard, Michael Brown, They're, Brown, Derek Hernandez, Aaron Fleishman, Fleishman, they're, Thoma, Yoni, Rechtman, it's, Catalyst, Andreessen Horowitz Organizations: Service, Business, Battery Ventures, Battery, Tola Capital, Thoma Bravo, Vista Equity Partners, Slow Ventures, Eldridge Industries, Sequoia Locations: Southern California, VCs, Big Tech, Metropolis, North America

☆ Crypto startup funding rises slightly in Q2 despite drop in deals: PitchBook
▼ + stars: | 2024-08-12 | by ( Talia Kaplan | Kaan Oguz | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailCrypto startup funding rises slightly in Q2 despite drop in deals: PitchBookPitchBook's Robert Le breaks down the findings of the research firm's Q2 crypto report, which reveals that crypto startups raised slightly more from VC funding compared to Q1, despite a drop in the total number of deals.

Persons: PitchBook, Robert Le

☆ More public healthcare companies will be taken private. Here's what PE firms are betting on.
▼ + stars: | 2024-08-12 | by ( Rebecca Torrence | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Read previewRevenue cycle management company R1 RCM just announced its acquisition by two private equity firms for a whopping $8.9 billion — signaling a long-awaited resurgence of big healthcare deals. Private equity's return to the sceneThe debt market is finally correcting for the types of deals healthcare companies have been waiting for. Revenue cycle management has long been a hot area for private equity firms. AdvertisementSpringer said she thinks private equity firms are "very unlikely to buy a care delivery company in this environment." Sen. Markey introduced the Health Over Wealth Act in July that would limit private equity investment in healthcare providers.

Persons: —, Augmedix, Altaris, hasn't, dealmakers, David Marks, They're, Thad Davis, haven't, Davis, Tanay Tandon, Commure, Athelas, it's, Rebecca Springer, we'll, Shiv Rao, Abridge Springer, she'd, Springer, Steward, Sen, Markey, Brian Snyder, Knight's Marks, I've, Marks Organizations: Service, Business, Holland &, Leerink Partners, Epic, Mayo Clinic, Reuters, Holland, FTC

☆ 'These are not normal;' A new type of dealmaking for AI startups is rattling Silicon Valley
▼ + stars: | 2024-08-10 | by ( Ben Bergman | Sri Muppidi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Google unnerved Silicon Valley last week when it agreed to pay $2.5 billion to license Character.AI's technology, hire its two superstar cofounders and 20 percent of employees. The deal came after AI developers Adept and Inflection both effectively sold themselves to Amazon and Microsoft, respectively, in recent months. It was only last year Character.AI raised $150 million in venture funding, which valued the company at $850 million. Its appeal as a chatbot that uses AI to make virtual characters that interact with users seems decidedly niche. Related storiesMost of the founders and investors Business Insider spoke to for this story say Google has little interest in Character.AI's actual product.

Persons: cofounders, Brent Queener, Kyle Sanford, Character.AI, Iris Sun, Noam Shazeer, Daniel De Freitas, Jack Selby, Peter Thiel's, Steve Brotman, Shazeer, De Freitas, PitchBook's Sanford, they're, Roy Bahat, Arvind Jain, Cameron Lester, Lester Organizations: Service, Microsoft, Bonfire Ventures, Business, Apple, Big Tech, AZ, Biden Administration, Federal Trade Commission, Department of Justice, Alpha Partners, FTC, DOJ, New York Times, Google, Madrona Venture, Bloomberg Beta, Jefferies

☆ Venture capital's new reality check: 'A ton of people looking to get out everywhere'
▼ + stars: | 2024-08-09 | by ( Sri Muppidi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

PitchBook forecast in a May report that venture firms would raise less than $200 billion in 2024, a 48% drop from the industry's peak in 2021. "They may not see any carry dollars for a long time, maybe into full deployment to the next fund," the growth-stage principal said. AdvertisementBut this type of internal competition, including deal theft and sabotage, has always existed, the growth-stage principal added. 'A ton of people looking to get out everywhere'As the market continues to correct itself, more turnover is likely. "I know a ton of people looking to get out everywhere," the growth-stage principal said.

Persons: —, Michael Moritz, Combinator, they're, Will Champagne, it's, Ellis, Rebecca Zisser, VCs, Junior VCs, there's, Champagne, I'm, inbounds, I've Organizations: Service, Business, TechCrunch, Venture, Bay Area, Big Law, Kirkland, Haize Labs, Area, Junior

☆ Sybill raised a $11 million Series A to build an AI assistant for sales reps. Here's an exclusive look at the pitch deck it used.
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-30 | by ( Sri Muppidi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

AdvertisementSybill helps sales reps by recording every sales call and generating transcriptions and summaries for future reference. By consolidating information from these interactions, Sybill helps sales reps gain a clearer understanding of the customers' budget, stakeholders, and timeline. With Sybill, sales reps can automatically sync information, providing sales leaders with real-time visibility into deals. AdvertisementOther AI sales tools include Gong, an AI-powered revenue intelligence platform that raised $582.9 million, according to PitchBook. The company helps sales leaders forecast revenue and improve team productivity, targeting enterprise customers like ADP and Snowflake.

Persons: —, Gorish Aggarwal, Aggarwal, Nishit Asnani, Soumyarka Mondal, Mehak, salespeople, Sybill, They're, Slack, Gong Organizations: Service, Stanford, Business, Greycroft Capital, Neotribe Ventures, Powerhouse Ventures, Enterprise, Balto Software Locations: Salesforce, Avoma, Sybill

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

Startups are building AI agents that collaborate to fill out forms, dial customer service reps, and order food delivery. These "multi-agent systems" are the next hot thing, according to investors from NEA, Mayfield Fund, and Foundation Capital. Multi-agent systems are distributed systems of multiple specialized AI agents that work together toward a collective goal. AdvertisementIn contrast, multi-agent systems are built on top of LLMs and are designed to execute a task from start to finish. AdvertisementMayfield Fund's Navin Chaddha is optimistic — AI agents will serve as teammates to workers.

Persons: —, Spike Jonze's, that's, OpenAI's, NEA's Madison Faulkner, Devin, Warren Hui, Nitta, Satya Nitta, Ashpreet Bedi, Faulkner, Mayfield Fund's Navin Chaddha, …, It's Organizations: Service, NEA, Mayfield Fund, Foundation Capital, Business, Soul Ventures, Nvidia Locations: Italy, PitchBook, Japan

☆ Lady Gaga's fiancé is a tech CEO who went to Harvard with Mark Zuckerberg
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-29 | by ( Avery Hartmans | Sarah Jackson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Polansky appears to have been involved in several of Parker's other ventures since 2010. Polansky and Parker's working relationship goes back many years. Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Global CitizenAccording to his LinkedIn page, he's the executive director of the Parker's charity, the Parker Foundation; he's a board member at the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy; he's managing partner at Parker Ventures; and he's CEO of the Parker Group, which serves as the umbrella organization for all of Parker's other endeavors. According to Pitchbook, Polansky is also cofounder of VC firm Hawktail; executive advisor at private equity firm Cove Hill Partners; senior advisor at boutique VC growth investor 7 Global Capital; and partner at investment firm Unless Management. Gaga also founded the nonprofit Born This Way Foundation, which focuses on mental health and youth empowerment, in 2012.

Persons: Polansky, Theo Wargo, Pitchbook, Gaga, Coco Chanel Organizations: Global Citizen, Parker Foundation, Parker Institute for Cancer, Parker Ventures, Parker Group, Partners, Global, Management, Haus Labs

☆ 'I just wanted to take a break:' Some early-stage founders are putting their startup dreams on hold in the tech downturn to try corporate life
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-24 | by ( Ben Bergman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

download the appSign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. Read previewMehak Vohra has been a startup founder ever since she dropped out of college in 2016. But earlier this year, she shut down Skillbank and joined a bigger tech company as its head of marketing. That has early-stage startup founders who founded companies during the free-flowing boom cycle that ended in 2022 rethinking whether they want to be founders after all. I have a much bigger social life now, and I don't feel bad about going out."

Persons: —, you've, Ishita Arora, Arora, Jacek Prus, Prus, Sri Chandrasekar, Chandrasekar, I've Organizations: Service, Jamocha Media, Business, Instrumentl, Animal, Point72 Ventures Locations: San Francisco

☆ At Camp Female Founders Fund in the Hamptons, women in tech and commerce toast another year of survival, deals, and Taylor Swift
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-24 | by ( Melia Russell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Anu Duggal, a founding partner of Female Founders Fund, launched the event during the pandemic to assuage some of the loneliness founders felt. AdvertisementEmily Middleton and Anu Duggal of Female Founders Fund share a laugh onstage during their opening remarks. Yumi Matsuo StudioSince its pandemic beginnings, Camp FFF has evolved into a rare and necessary sanctuary where female founders can connect and sometimes commiserate. Yumi Matsuo StudioIn the tasting room, guests set down cups of cold brew and picked up notebooks before taking their seats. Anu Duggal of Female Founders Fund traded the venture capital uniform of a Patagonia fleece vest for a flamingo-pink pantsuit.

Persons: —, Candace Bushnell, Anu Duggal, Lydia Fenet, Emily Middleton, Yumi Matsuo, Middleton, ChatGPT, Poppy Harlow, Kyle Leahy, Glossier's, Emily Weiss, Leahy, Taylor Swift, Matsuo, Arey, Allison Conrad, Melanie Goldey, Amanda E, J Morrison, Julie Products, Hayley Barna, Barna, Birchbox, Christie Horvath, Horvath, Stephanie Horton, Marina Organizations: Service, Fund, FFF, Business, Tally Health, Google Locations: Southampton , New York, Patagonia

☆ Nvidia, Amazon, Microsoft, and Paramount execs discuss the use of AI in Hollywood. Here are 9 startups they're watching.
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-24 | by ( Emma Cosgrove | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Read previewStartups are rushing to create the best artificial intelligence video generation tools and convince Hollywood that AI won't decimate the creative industries. But, the most common early use of AI in entertainment is often more mundane than reverse-aging Harrison Ford to simulate a younger Indiana Jones. When top executives at the intersection of AI and entertainment met at the virtual Digital Hollywood summit on Monday, the use cases for AI in Hollywood were decidedly deeper in the details. These are some of the startups AI and entertainment leaders have their eyes on. Justin Sullivan/Getty ImagesLuma AI, another image generation AI startup Bakhtar named, has raised more than $68 million according to Bain, with recent backing from Andreessen Horowitz.

Persons: —, Harrison Ford, Indiana Jones, They're, Panah Bakhtiar, we're, Phil, Alejandro Matamala, Ortiz, Anastasis Germanidis, Cristóbal Valenzuela, Krikey, Bakhtar, Marc Andreessen, Justin Sullivan, Bain, Andreessen Horowitz, Amit Jain, xMentium, Eliot Sakhartov, Speechmatics Michael Kaplan, Oleg Elkov, Nvidia's Kaplan, Sakhartov, Jensen Huang, Reid Hoffman, Huang, Kaplan Organizations: Service, Hollywood, Business, Paramount, Companies, Microsoft, AWS, Nvidia, Runway, Google, Apple Vision Pro Locations: London, New York, Taiwan

Wiz has walked away from a $23 billion deal to be acquired by Google, in what would have been the search giant's largest-ever deal, telling employees it would pursue an initial public offering as it initially planned. The deal would have nearly doubled the $12 billion valuation of the startup from its most recent round of funding. Alphabet's cloud segment has been under pressure to grow amid competition from frontrunners Microsoft and Amazon, something the Wiz deal would have helped with. The shift benefited Wiz, which can flag security issues for applications and data on the Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Oracle public clouds. In an interview with CNBC's Sara Eisen and Carl Quintanilla at the New York Stock Exchange last year, Eisen asked Rappaport if he wants to take the startup public.

Persons: Sundar Pichai, Wiz, Assaf Rappaport, Rappaport, Thomas Kurian, Brendan Burke, It's, Doug Leone, Covid, Sid Trivedi, CNBC's Sara Eisen, Carl Quintanilla, Eisen Organizations: Alphabet Inc, Government, Society, Google, CNBC, Microsoft, Index Ventures, Insight Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Sequoia, PitchBook, Intuit, Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Wiz's, Wiz, Oracle, Foundation Capital, Motorola, Lenovo, New York Stock Exchange Locations: Stanford , California, Sequoia

☆ AI startup Cohere cuts staff after $500 million funding round
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-23 | by ( Hayden Field | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Cohere, the artificial intelligence startup founded by ex-Google AI researchers and backed by Nvidia , cut about 20 roles on Tuesday, CNBC confirmed. Despite the cuts, Cohere is hiring in areas such as customer operations, partnerships, revenue, sales, product design and modeling, according to its website. In June 2023, Cohere raised $270 million at a $2.2 billion valuation, with Salesforce and Oracle participating in the funding round. Many customers include businesses in banking, financial services and insurance, Kon told CNBC in the past. In November, Cohere told CNBC it saw an uptick in customer interest after OpenAI's sudden and temporary ouster of CEO Sam Altman.

Persons: Aidan Gomez, OpenAI, Cohere, Fortune, It's, Anthropic, Claude chatbot, Martin Kon, Kon, Sam Altman Organizations: Cohere Inc, Economic, Cohere, Google, Nvidia, CNBC, AMD, Oracle, Salesforce, Company, White, Enterprise Locations: Davos, Switzerland, Cohere, Cohere's

☆ AI Forge promised to help founders build their dream startups. Some say the incubator was a chaotic disappointment.
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-23 | by ( Riddhi Kanetkar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

In September, about a dozen founders arrived in Miami to participate in AI Forge, a new startup incubator. Courtesy of an AI Forge Miami participantJackson said that none of the Miami founders had complained about developers turning work in late. AI Forge agreed to take over 9% of their businesses, "but that means they've got the other 91%," he said. Two Miami founders said they were considering taking legal action against AI Forge over their late and missing payments. AdvertisementAI Forge discontinued its Miami program after the first run, but it launched its third London program in May.

Persons: They'd, Kevin Jackson, —, hadn't, Jeffrey Greenberg, Slack, Jackson, Forge, PitchBook, they'd, Forge hadn't, didn't, they've, Craig Massey, Massey, Forge's, Heradio Luces Organizations: Service, Founders, Six Miami, Universal, Getty, Forge, Miami, London Locations: Miami, Italy, Miami Bay, Turkey, Los Angeles, Pennsylvania, London

☆ VSim, a Manchester-based compute startup founded by ex-Nvidia engineers, is raising funding from EQT Ventures
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-22 | by ( Callum Burroughs | Riddhi Kanetkar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Manchester-based VSim is raising funding from EQT Ventures. VSim, founded by former Nvidia engineers, focuses on simulation infrastructure for computing. AdvertisementVSim, a Manchester, UK-based startup, is raising funding from EQT Ventures, Business Insider has learned. VSim's funding round, which is listed as its first round per PitchBook, is led by Stockholm-based EQT Ventures, four sources familiar with the company told Business Insider. This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers.

Persons: — Organizations: Manchester, EQT Ventures, VSim, Nvidia, Service, Business Locations: Manchester, UK, Stockholm

☆ As the super-rich pile into alternatives, a top investment manager reveals how others can too
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-22 | by ( Amala Balakrishner | In Amala-Balakrishner | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Private market assets or alternative investments are those that do not fall into the conventional categories of stocks, bonds, commodities and cash. Prequin, which provides data on the alternative assets market, says it expects assets under management to hit $23.21 trillion by 2026 . Listed companies related to private markets He advised investors to consider listed companies in "the business of private markets management." These include the likes of KKR and Blackstone , which invest in a range of alternatives like real estate, credit and capital markets. Listed private market funds Another way to gain exposure to the alternatives space is through private market funds which are available in some countries.

Persons: —, Juan Delgado, Moreira, Hamilton Lane, Delgado Organizations: CNBC Pro, Nvidia, KKR, Blackstone, London Stock Exchange, Oxford Tech, Venture Capital Trust, Temasek, Asset Management Locations: U.S, Hamilton Lane, Singapore

☆ Online Health Providers Are Making Money on Young Men's Sense of Shame
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-18 | by ( Emily Stewart | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

The pandemic accelerated the rise of telehealth, which these DTC companies are a part of both culturally and legally. Hims & Hers Health has a market cap of over $4 billion. Those at the forefront of the DTC health revolution have American guys right where they want them: insecure, on edge, and ready to open their wallets. Plenty of doctors have sounded the alarm about DTC telehealth companies, and some firms have gotten into legal trouble, too. For all the issues with DTC companies, it's fair to note that traditional healthcare settings are far from perfect.

Persons: Paul, he'd, who's, He's, doesn't, Nobody, didn't, Matthew McCoy, what's, Ashwini Nagappan, Joshua Halpern, Halpern, Nagappan, McCoy, Hims, —, you've, They're, men's, Ro, Emily Stewart Organizations: View Research, Department of Medical, University of Pennsylvania, UCLA's Fielding School of Public Health, Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine, telemedicine, of Justice, Business Locations: Hims

☆ Exclusive: AI coding startup Anysphere is raising a new funding round with at least a $400 million valuation from A16z
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-16 | by ( Sri Muppidi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

A16z is investing in Anysphere at a valuation of at least $400 million, sources say. Anysphere's investors include OpenAI Startup Fund, Sequoia Capital, and BoxGroup. AdvertisementAnysphere, a startup creating an AI code editor called Cursor, is raising a new funding round with at least a valuation of $400 million from A16z, Business Insider has learned. Founded in 2022, Anysphere last raised $8 million in seed funding at a valuation of $56.5 million, according to PitchBook data. This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers.

Persons: —, Anysphere, Nat Friedman, Arash Ferdowsi Organizations: OpenAI, Sequoia Capital, Service, OpenAI Startup, Business Locations: Anysphere, A16z

☆ The CEO of Cerebras, which could go public soon, takes on Nvidia in a David and Goliath battle for AI chip supremacy
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-15 | by ( Emma Cosgrove | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Few would envy the task of competing against market leader Nvidia, which has between 70% and 90% market share, according to Mizuho Securities. Still, Nvidia gets most of the hype — and the revenue. Though the company will not confirm it, The Information reported last month that Cerebras has confidentially filed for an IPO. Still, Feldman expects that even consumer-directed AI models will grow larger, and larger models need faster chips. Competing with that mindshare is an uphill battle as Nvidia faces more competition and goes on defense.

Persons: —, Andrew Feldman, I'm, Feldman, Cerebras, David, He's, Cerebras's, Ramsey Cardy Cerebras, Susan Organizations: Service, Palo, Nvidia, Mizuho Securities, Business, Big Tech, Intel, Google, AMD, GSK, AstraZeneca, IBM, Eclipse Ventures Locations: California, Palo Alto , California, It's

☆ Software security startup Chainguard is raising a new funding round at a $1.1 billion valuation, sources say
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-08 | by ( Sri Muppidi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

It will be valued at $1.1 billion in a new funding round, sources say. AdvertisementChainguard, a startup that boosts the security of customers' software supply chains, is raising a new funding round at a $1.1 billion valuation, Business Insider has learned. The latest fundraise would triple the startup's valuation from its last funding round, a $61 million Series B last November that valued it at $411 million, according to PitchBook data. Founded in 2021, Chainguard's investors include Spark Capital, Sequoia Capital, Amplify Partners, The Chainsmokers' Mantis VC, and Banana Capital. This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers.

Persons: — Organizations: Sequoia, Spark, Service, Sequoia Capital, Banana, Business

☆ Investors Pour $27.1 Billion Into A.I. Start-Ups, Defying a Downturn
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-03 | by ( Erin Griffith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

For two years, many unprofitable tech start-ups have cut costs, sold themselves or gone out of business. Investors poured $27.1 billion into A.I. start-ups in the United States from April to June, accounting for nearly half of all U.S. start-up funding in that period, according to PitchBook, which tracks start-ups. In total, U.S. start-ups raised $56 billion, up 57 percent from a year earlier and the highest three-month haul in two years. companies are attracting huge rounds of funding reminiscent of 2021, when low interest rates pushed investors away from taking risks on tech investments.

Locations: United States, U.S

☆ AI startup Abnormal Security is set to be valued at $5 billion in new funding round, sources say
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-01 | by ( Ben Bergman | Sri Muppidi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Abnormal Security uses AI to guard users from cyber threats across email and apps. It is set to be valued at $5 billion in a fresh funding round, according to two sources. The company was valued at $4 billion in a 2022 funding round led by Greylock Partners. AdvertisementAbnormal Security, a startup that uses artificial intelligence to guard users from cyber threats across email and apps, is set to be valued at $5 billion in a fresh funding round, according to two sources familiar with the deal. The company has raised a total of $374 million in venture funding.

Persons: — Organizations: Security, Greylock Partners, Service, Insight Partners, Menlo Ventures, The Syndicate Group, Business

☆ VCs clamor to invest in the red-hot early-stage round for AI safety startup Haize Labs
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-29 | by ( Sri Muppidi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Read previewHaize Labs, an AI safety startup, is raising an early-stage round that investors are clamoring to invest in, Business Insider has learned. However, for hot startups, there can be more investor demand than a startup can accommodate, as with Haize Labs' round. One source indicated that Haize Labs received term sheets with valuations ranging from $30 million to over $100 million. Haize Labs is building automated red-teaming and stress-testing algorithms to identify risks in AI models and agents. AI safety has increasingly become a concern, especially as AI usage increases among both consumers and enterprises.

Persons: —, Leonard Tang, VentureBeat, OpenAI, Sama, Steve Li, Richard Liu, Tang Organizations: Service, Business, Haize, Haize Labs, Soma, Google, Netflix, Harvard, Carnegie Mellon, Washington Post

☆ How some venture capitalists are trying to lift the profile of LGBTQ+ founders
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-27 | by ( Kevin Schmidt | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

Some venture capitalists are trying to change the equation and are backing minority founders to help them scale their companies and create jobs within their communities. The largest cities that lack any LGBTQ+ founders are Orlando, Florida; Charlotte, North Carolina; and Birmingham, Alabama. One organization trying such solutions is Chasing Rainbows, a venture capital fund that works with LGBTQ+ founders to connect them with capital. Stokes said the LGBTQ+ community historically has experienced some form of discrimination when trying to access these types of services. An angel investor himself, Stokes founded Chasing Rainbows in 2021 after recognizing that underrepresented founders are seen as riskier investments.

Persons: Charlotte ,, Brian Richardson, Richardson, Ben Stokes, Stokes, outsized, Bill No Organizations: Gallup, CNBC, StartOut, University of California Locations: StartOut's State, San Francisco , New York, Los Angeles, Denver, Austin , Texas, Orlando , Florida, Charlotte, Charlotte , North Carolina, Birmingham , Alabama, Texas, North Carolina, Alabama, Massachusetts, New York, California, Berkeley

☆ College dropouts raise $120 million to take on Nvidia's AI chips
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-25 | by ( Kif Leswing | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

A 2-year-old startup founded by Harvard dropouts has just raised $120 million in venture funding to try and build a competitive chip and take on Nvidia in artificial intelligence. Co-founder and CEO Gavin Uberti said that as AI develops, most of the technology's power-hungry computing requirements will be filled by customized, hard-wired chips called ASICs. "We're making the biggest bet in AI," Uberti said in an interview. Other chip startups taking on Nvidia include Cerebras Systems, which is building a physically larger AI chip, and Tenstorrent, which is using a trendy technology called RISC-V to build AI chips. Venture capitalists invested $6 billion in AI semiconductor companies in 2023, up slightly from $5.7 billion in 2022, according to data from PitchBook.

Persons: Gavin Uberti, Uberti, we'll, Peter Thiel, Stanley Druckenmiller, Kyle Vogt, we've, Robert Wachen Organizations: Nvidia, Harvard, Apple, Venture Partners, Cerebras Systems, Semiconductors, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, Venture Locations: Cupertino , California, PitchBook

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