- 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: Generative AI startups and their funding in Europe.
Key points:
1. Generative AI startups in Europe have raised a record $620m this year.
2. Investors are showing a strong interest in these startups, with FOMO-driven deal-making.
3. Some notable generative AI startups in Europe include Charm Therapeutics, Nanograb, Dust, ElevenLabs, DeepSearch Labs, IOMED, Lucinity, Auto-Pilot, Gladia, PhotoRoom, Cradle, Orbital Materials, Sereact, Beam AI, Qdrant, QuantPi, Humanloop, Co:Helm, Briink, Eilla, and Embedd.
Prins AI, a provider of AI-driven digital persona training products, has raised $22 million in a Series A+ funding round to advance deep learning technologies, expand the team, and enhance marketing and sales efforts.
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: 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.
Paris-based startup Poolside AI has raised $126 million in a seed round led by French billionaire Xavier Niel and US VC Felicis, to develop an AI model that can write software code and eventually enable users to create applications without coding experience, with the company also opening a French subsidiary and relocating its HQ to Paris in a boost to the country's AI ambitions.
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: Recognition of top startups in the ed tech, generative AI, retail tech, and fintech sectors
Key points:
1. Uppy, a Turkish ed tech startup, received the title of "Second Best Ed Tech Startup" at the G-20 DIA Summit.
2. Syntonym, a pioneer in generative AI, raised $900K in a seed funding round to protect privacy in the face of facial recognition technologies.
3. REM People, a provider of AI-based retail analytics, invested $1 million in Hoopla, a B2B e-commerce platform, to become a hub for AI-powered retail technology.
4. Craftgate, a payment orchestration platform, secured a $1 million investment to enhance its fintech portfolio and support e-commerce partners.
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.
Imbue, a woman-led AI research startup, has raised $200 million in a Series B funding round led by the Astera Institute, valuing the company at over $1 billion, but it could be years before it reveals a product. Imbue's focus is on developing AI "agents" that can simulate human decision-making to complete complex tasks, and it has access to 10,000 Nvidia H100 GPUs to build these agents. The startup is still in the early stages and has not yet released a demo of its agents.
The trading volume of AI tokens showed a moderate increase last month, reaching around $870 million, despite controversy surrounding Worldcoin's launch, but there was a significant decrease compared to the beginning of the year.
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.
Ernst & Young has invested $1.4 billion in AI technologies and launched a new AI-powered platform, EY.ai, to help organizations adopt AI and unlock economic value responsibly.
Artificial intelligence and analytics firm Databricks has raised over $500 million in a Series I funding round, including strategic investor Nvidia, as it prepares for an anticipated IPO and expands its partnership with Nvidia to focus on generative AI. The fundraising round values Databricks at $43 billion and positions it as the eighth-most valuable private company globally. The company is closely monitoring the IPO market but will not be quick to go public, waiting for the macro environment to stabilize.
LastMile AI has raised $10 million in a seed funding round to develop and integrate generative AI models into apps, aiming to democratize generative AI for software engineers and simplify the AI developer journey.
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.
Full-stack generative AI platform, Writer, has secured $100 million in a Series B funding round led by ICONIQ Growth, with participation from WndrCo, Balderton Capital, and Insight Partners, as well as Writer customers Accenture and Vanguard; the funding will be used to invest in industry-specific language models and add capabilities to its models, enabling organizations to accelerate growth, increase productivity, and ensure governance.
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.
Israeli cybersecurity startup Legit Security has raised $40 million in a Series B funding round led by US venture capital firm CRV to help businesses protect their AI-based applications from cyberthreats and security breaches. The funds will be used to boost sales, R&D, and address the emerging threat posed by AI and large language models in application development.
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.
The Washington Post analysis reveals that over 1,000 publicly traded companies mentioned AI in their recent earnings calls, indicating the growing interest and investment in the industry, with ETFs such as the First Trust Nasdaq Artificial Intelligence & Robotics ETF (ROBT 0.10%) and the Global X Autonomous & Electric Vehicles ETF (DRIV -0.48%) providing a diversified and lower-risk investment approach for those looking to capitalize on the AI boom.
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.
Braintrust, a Bay Area startup, has raised $3 million in funding to develop its AI software that helps engineers avoid bad results from AI models and ensure accurate performance, attracting investors such as Elad Gil, Adam D'Angelo, and Greg Brockman.
European AI startups, including Mistral, ElevenLabs, and Synthesia, have attracted significant investment from venture capitalists, with investors pouring $51.9 billion into AI startups in 2023, surpassing the $65.5 billion invested in the sector in 2022. Notable investors in the European AI startup scene include Simon Menashy of MMC Ventures, Amelia Armour of Amadeus Capital, Mish Mashkautsan of Phoenix Court, and Remy Minute of Ascension.
Character.AI, a startup specializing in chatbots capable of impersonating anyone or anything, is reportedly in talks to raise hundreds of millions of dollars in new funding, potentially valuing the company at over $5 billion.
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.
Induced AI, a startup founded by teenagers, has raised $2.3 million in seed funding to develop a platform that automates workflows by converting plain English instructions into pseudo-code and utilizing browser automation to complete tasks previously handled by back offices. The platform allows for bi-directional interaction and can handle complex processes, making it distinct from existing models in the industry.
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.
