- 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.
- The venture capital landscape for AI startups has become more focused and selective.
- Investors are starting to gain confidence and make choices in picking platforms for their future investments.
- There is a debate between buying or building AI solutions, with some seeing value in large companies building their own AI properties.
- With the proliferation of AI startups, venture capitalists are finding it harder to choose which ones to invest in.
- Startups that can deliver real, measurable impact and have a working product are more likely to attract investors.
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: Elemental Cognition's AI startup, led by David Ferrucci, secures nearly $60 million in funding.
Key Points:
1. David Ferrucci, former IBM Watson team leader, has raised $59.95 million in equity sales from 17 investors.
2. Elemental Cognition aims to create AI with advanced reasoning capabilities and offers two chatbot solutions, Cogent and Cora, for various applications.
3. The company's hybrid AI platform integrates large language models with an AI-driven reasoning engine for precise and controlled responses.
Main topic: Security automation startup Cerby raises $17M for go-to-market efforts
Key points:
1. Cerby has raised $17 million in new funding to scale up its go-to-market efforts and invest in generative artificial intelligence.
2. Cerby offers an access management platform for nonstandard and disconnected applications, utilizing identity providers to remove the need for enterprise password managers.
3. The platform automates security policies, saves time and money, and provides deep visibility and control of employee-onboarded applications.
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: 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.
Venture capital firm Vessel Capital has launched a $55 million fund to invest in Web3 infrastructure and applications, aiming to assist early-stage crypto founders in launching and growing their projects by providing guidance and advice. The fund's resources will be deployed over a five-year period, and the team's experience as startup founders will enable them to better understand entrepreneurs' needs.
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.
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.
AI21 Labs, a leading AI and language model start-up, has raised $115 million in a Series C funding round to further develop its text-based generative AI services for enterprise applications, bringing its total capital raised to $283 million and its valuation to $1.4 billion. The funding round, which included investors such as Google and NVIDIA, highlights the increasing interest and investment in the field of artificial intelligence.
Salesforce is donating $11 million to San Francisco and Oakland public schools to prepare students for careers in artificial intelligence, as part of a larger $20 million investment in education, aiming to advance students' digital skills and provide better access to tech and AI careers.
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.
Craigslist founder Craig Newmark has donated $3 million to Common Sense Media to fund an artificial intelligence (AI) and education initiative, focusing on AI safety for children and providing AI literacy courses for parents and educators. Newmark is concerned about the potential for generative AI to amplify and spread disinformation, and the lack of effort by tech companies to combat dishonesty.
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.
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.
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.
Amazon has invested $4 billion in the AI startup Anthropic, OpenAI is seeking a valuation of $80-90 billion, and Apple has been acquiring various AI companies, indicating their increasing involvement in the AI space. Additionally, Meta (formerly Facebook) is emphasizing AI over virtual reality, and the United Nations is considering AI regulation.
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.
Visa has launched a $100 million venture fund for generative artificial intelligence (AI) startups, recognizing the potential of this technology to transform commerce.
More than 40 startups specializing in artificial intelligence (AI) across various industries will be pitching at the finals of the Expand North Star event in Dubai, where they will compete for a prize fund of $200,000.
Chinese AI startups Baichuan has raised $300 million in financing from Alibaba, Tencent, Xiaomi, and other investors to compete with giants like Microsoft and OpenAI in developing generative AI models.
Alibaba, Tencent, and other major Chinese companies have invested $342 million in Zhipu AI, a Beijing-based startup, as the artificial intelligence sector in China continues to attract funding. Zhipu AI aims to compete with Microsoft-backed OpenAI in the field of generative AI, and the funding will be used to further develop its large language model technology.
Eve, a new startup in the legal AI market, has raised $14 million in seed funding to offer a personalized AI legal assistant for tasks like document review and legal research, joining other startups in the increasingly competitive space.
One in five of the new billion-dollar startups joining The Crunchbase Unicorn Board in 2023 were AI companies, collectively adding $21 billion in value and led by generative AI companies in various domains.
