- Foundry Technologies is in talks to raise money at a valuation of $350 million, a significant increase from its previous valuation of $50 million.
- The increase in valuation highlights the trend of hot companies in the AI sector raising money at rapidly escalating valuations.
- Foundry is one of many AI startups that have experienced a meteoric rise in valuation this year.
- The company plans to rent servers to companies for running AI software.
- The risky pandemic-era fundraising trend of rapidly increasing valuations in short periods of time has returned.
Main topic: DynamoFL, a privacy- and compliance-focused generative artificial intelligence (AI) solutions startup, has raised $15.1 million in a series A funding round.
Key points:
1. The funding round was led by Nexus Venture Partners and Canapi Ventures.
2. The capital will be used to expand DynamoFL's team of machine learning scientists and privacy experts.
3. The startup aims to scale its team in India and expects to have 25 percent of its workforce there.
Main topic: Funding announcement for Caden's data AI platform
Key points:
1. Caden has raised $15 million in a Series A funding round led by Nava Ventures.
2. The funding will accelerate the development and go-to-market of Caden's data AI platform.
3. Caden empowers users to monetize their personal data and provides enterprise customers with a unique data set through its intelligence suite, CadenOS.
Main Topic: Largest startup funding deals in the US in 2023
Key Points:
1. Abcuro raises $155 million in a Series B financing round for biotech.
2. Teamshares secures $124 million in a Series D round for fintech.
3. Pivotal Commware receives $102 million in a Series D round for telecommunications.
### Summary
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is allocating $130 million to purchase computer chips to power artificial intelligence and build an "AI Research Resource" in the United Kingdom.
### Facts
- 🧪 The United Kingdom plans to establish an "AI Research Resource" by mid-2024 to become an AI tech hub.
- 💻 The government is sourcing chips from NVIDIA, Intel, and AMD and has ordered 5,000 NVIDIA graphic processing units (GPUs).
- 💰 The allocated $130 million may not be sufficient to match the ambition of the AI hub, leading to a potential request for more funding.
- 🌍 A recent report highlighted that many companies face challenges deploying AI due to limited resources and technical obstacles.
- 👥 In a survey conducted by S&P Global, firms reported insufficient computing power as a major obstacle to supporting AI projects.
- 🤖 The ability to support AI workloads will play a crucial role in determining who leads in the AI space.
California-based startup Genesis Therapeutics has raised $200 million in Series B funding, led by Andreessen Horowitz Bio + Health and an unnamed US-based life-sciences-focused investor, to further develop its AI platform for small-molecule drug discovery and expand its pipeline.
Main topic: Genesis Therapeutics' $200 million Series B funding round for its AI-powered drug discovery platform in the biotech sector.
Key points:
1. Genesis Therapeutics closed a $200 million Series B funding round, led by Andreessen Horowitz Bio + Health and an unnamed U.S.-based life-sciences-focused investor.
2. New investors in the round included Fidelity Management & Research Co., BlackRock, and Nvidia’s venture arm NVentures.
3. Genesis Therapeutics plans to use the funding to evolve into a clinical stage company, invest in its AI platform, and expand its discovery pipeline.
AI startup Datagen, which raised $50 million in funding, is facing closure after the rise of generative AI made its solution less relevant, leading to layoffs and failed acquisition talks with Meta. Only a small team is now brainstorming a new direction for the company.
The main topic is the funding raised by Ramp, a corporate card and expense automation platform.
Key points:
1. Ramp raised $300 million in funding at a $5.8 billion post-money valuation, which is a 28% drop from its previous valuation of $8.1 billion.
2. Existing investors such as Thrive Capital, Sands Capital, General Catalyst, and Founders Fund participated in the new financing round.
3. Ramp plans to use the funds for product development, hiring, and expansion into the procurement space.
Main topic: Portkey.ai raises $3 million in funding to support the development of generative AI apps.
Key points:
1. Portkey.ai enables businesses to quickly create generative AI apps.
2. The startup targets midmarket and enterprise companies, as well as generative AI startups.
3. The funding round was led by Lightspeed and will be used to make it easier to adopt large language models (LLMs) when launching an app.
Main topic: AI startup Hugging Face raising $200 million funding round at a $4 billion valuation.
Key points:
1. Hugging Face is raising approximately $200 million in funding.
2. The funding round is led by Salesforce Ventures at a valuation of $4 billion.
3. Hugging Face allows companies to store and use AI software and hosts open-source AI models for developers.
Hugging Face, an AI startup, has raised $235 million in a Series D funding round, with participation from tech giants such as Google, Amazon, Nvidia, and IBM, and now has a valuation of $4.5 billion, signaling the growing demand for AI platforms and tools.
Main topic: AI startup Modular raises $100 million in funding round.
Key points:
1. Modular has raised $100 million in a funding round led by General Catalyst, with participation from Google Ventures, SV Angel, Greylock, and Factory.
2. The company did not disclose the valuation at which it raised capital, but a report by The Information put it at $600 million.
3. Modular aims to provide a more affordable alternative to AI development for enterprises through its software, bypassing the need for expensive chips from tech companies like Nvidia.
Main topic: AI startup Hugging Face raises $235 million in Series D funding round.
Key points:
1. Hugging Face's latest funding round brings its total capital raised to $395.2 million, valuing the firm at $4.5 billion.
2. Hugging Face provides data science tools and a model hub with over a million repositories.
3. The startup aims to be the open platform empowering the paradigm shift towards AI.
Main topic: AI startup Hugging Face's $4.5 billion valuation in a $235 million funding round.
Key points:
1. Hugging Face's funding round is supported by major tech players, including Salesforce, Google, and Nvidia.
2. The rapid growth of AI adoption and investments in AI startups indicate its potential as the next technology frontier.
3. Hugging Face plans to use the funds to expand its team and invest in technology, with revenue projected to increase fivefold this year.
AI21 Labs, a text-generating AI startup, has raised $155 million in a Series C funding round, bringing its total raised to $283 million and valuing the company at $1.4 billion, with plans to expand its workforce and accelerate its R&D efforts.
AI has garnered immense investment from venture capitalists, with over $40 billion poured into AI startups in the first half of 2023, raising concerns about who will benefit financially from its potential impact.
Silicon Valley-based AI chip startup d-Matrix has raised $110 million in funding, including investment from Microsoft, as it aims to compete with Nvidia in the AI chip market by focusing on the "inference" portion of AI processing.
Cathie Wood's Ark Invest predicts that AI software revenue will reach $14 trillion by 2030, and believes that Salesforce and The Trade Desk are attractive investments due to their potential in the AI market and their current valuations.
European AI startup Druid has raised $30 million in a Series B funding round to support its U.S. growth, which currently accounts for the majority of its revenue, as it expands its conversational business applications powered by generative AI.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is predicted to generate a $14 trillion annual revenue opportunity by 2030, causing billionaires like Seth Klarman and Ken Griffin to buy stocks in AI companies such as Amazon and Microsoft, respectively.
Databricks raises over $500 million in a Series I, Generate Biomedicines secures $273 million in a Series C, and Lyten raises $200 million in a Series B, among other large funding rounds for U.S.-based startups in the week of Sept. 9 to Sept. 15, 2023.
San Francisco-based AI startup Writer has raised $100 million in a funding round led by Iconiq Growth, bringing its valuation to $500 million, and aims to help businesses use large language models to generate content across different departments.
AI startup Darrow has raised $35 million in funding for its AI-powered data engine that searches for class action litigation potential, with active cases resulting from its insights currently totaling around $10 billion in claims, and plans to use the funding to expand its team, add new legal domains to its tools, and invest in technology assets.
Pryon, an AI-powered platform for enterprise knowledge bases, has raised $100 million in funding to support its growth and expansion of its team, partnerships, and international presence, with a valuation between $500 million and $750 million.
In 2023, the largest startup funding deals in the U.S. included Mapbox raising $280 million for location-mapping AI, Openly securing $100 million for insurance coverage, and Pryon and Writer each raising $100 million for their AI platforms.
Market intelligence platform AlphaSense has raised $150 million in a funding round, increasing its valuation to $2.5 billion, reflecting the high demand for AI startups and prompting speculation about possible plans for an initial public offering.
AI Clearing, an AI-powered platform, has raised $14 million in a Series A funding round led by Prudence to expand its construction progress tracking and quality control technology for large infrastructure projects.
AI startup Anthropic is reportedly in talks with investors, including Google, to raise an additional $2 billion in funding at a valuation between $20 billion and $30 billion, just weeks after securing a $4 billion investment from Amazon. Meanwhile, rival OpenAI is said to be considering selling shares at a staggering $90 billion valuation, a significant surge from its valuation of $29 billion just a few months ago. Other AI startups, such as Character.AI and Prins AI, are also seeking significant valuation jumps in their funding rounds.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has announced a $30 million investment in an AI platform in Africa to aid scientists in developing solutions for healthcare and social issues, aiming to make AI more accessible and ensure equitable development.
