Venture Capital

Venture Capital Startups

Cake Emerges from Stealth with $13 Million to Simplify AI for Mid-Sized Businesses

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Chris McKay• December 4, 2024 • 2 min read

New York-based Cake is launching with $13 million in backing from Google's Gradient Ventures to help mid-sized businesses adopt AI by managing their open-source infrastructure.

Venture Capital Startups Chips AI Infrastructure

Tenstorrent Secures $693M to Challenge NVIDIA's AI Chip Dominance

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Chris McKay• December 2, 2024 • 2 min read

AI chip startup Tenstorrent has raised $693 million in Series D funding, positioning itself as a potential challenger to NVIDIA in the competitive AI hardware market. The round, which values the company at $2.6 billion, drew investment from notable backers including Samsung Securities, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and Hyundai

Venture Capital Startups

Nebius Secures $700M Investment Led by NVIDIA and Accel to Scale AI Infrastructure

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Chris McKay• December 2, 2024 • 3 min read

The company's approach combines building custom data centers with co-location facilities, allowing for flexible expansion in key markets.

Venture Capital Startups Chips

Ubitium Promises Universal Chip to Replace Specialized Processors, Raises $3.7M

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Chris McKay• November 21, 2024 • 2 min read

If successful, Ubitium's technology could eliminate the need for separate CPUs, GPUs, and other specialized chips, significantly reducing costs and complexity in everything from embedded systems to high-performance computing.

Venture Capital Startups Biotech & Health

New Lantern Launches with $19M in Series A Funding, Unveils AI-Powered Radiology Assistant

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Chris McKay• November 21, 2024 • 2 min read

The startup combines two essential tools radiologists use daily – medical image viewing and reporting software – into a single cloud-based platform enhanced by AI.

Venture Capital Startups

Tessl Raises $125M to Build AI Native Software Development Platform

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Chris McKay• November 14, 2024 • 2 min read

Developers express their vision in natural language, while AI handles the complex implementation, maintenance, and improvements.

Venture Capital Startups

Tourlane Raises $26M Series D Led by Sequoia for AI-Powered Travel Planning

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Chris McKay• November 14, 2024 • 1 min read

Tourlane combines AI technology with human travel experts to create custom multi-stop journeys. The platform helps you plan complete trips, bundling flights, accommodations, and activities.

Venture Capital Startups

Medeloop Secures $15.5M to Transform Medical Research with AI

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Chris McKay• November 13, 2024 • 1 min read

Medeloop’s platform uses autonomous AI agents to handle tasks traditionally managed by research teams, significantly accelerating processes.

Venture Capital Startups

Odyssey Raises $18M to Build AI Worlds Using Backpack-Mounted Cameras

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Chris McKay• November 13, 2024 • 1 min read

The startup, founded by self-driving car veterans, Oliver Cameron and Jeff Hawke, is taking an unusual approach to generative AI by sending teams with sensor-packed backpacks to capture the physical world in precise detail.

Venture Capital Startups

11x Raises $50M Series B led by a16z for AI "Digital Workers"

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Chris McKay• November 13, 2024 • 1 min read

Instead of buying software, companies can buy outcomes—fully automated, 24/7 revenue generation.

Venture Capital Startups

Writer Raises $200M to Scale Enterprise Generative AI Platform

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Chris McKay• November 13, 2024 • 1 min read

New and existing investors, including Premji Invest, Radical Ventures, and Salesforce Ventures, are backing Writer's ambition to lead in enterprise AI.

Venture Capital Startups

Voice AI Startup Kardome, raises $10M, Announces Regional HQ in South Korea

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Chris McKay• November 12, 2024 • 1 min read

The expansion to Seoul signals Kardome's push to strengthen partnerships with Asian automotive and consumer tech manufacturers.

Anthropic Amazon Venture Capital

Amazon Eyes Second Multibillion-Dollar Anthropic Deal, Pushes In-House Chips

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Chris McKay• November 8, 2024 • 2 min read

The cloud giant wants the AI startup to use more of Amazon's custom-designed chips instead of the industry-standard NVIDIA GPUs.

Venture Capital Startups Robotics

Physical Intelligence Raises $400M to Build Universal AI Brain for Robots

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Chris McKay• November 4, 2024 • 2 min read

The funding represents a dramatic increase from the company's $70 million seed round raised earlier this year.

Venture Capital Startups Media & Entertainment

Decart Unveils Real-Time AI Game Engine, Raises $21M to Make AI-Generated Worlds More Affordable

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Chris McKay• October 31, 2024 • 2 min read

Unlike traditional game engines, Oasis directly processes user inputs like keyboard and mouse movements to simulate gameplay, including physics, graphics, and environment, all without relying on pre-coded scripts.

Venture Capital Startups

Sierra Lands $175M as Enterprise AI Race Heats Up, Hits $4.5B Valuation

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Chris McKay• October 28, 2024 • 1 min read

The funding round, led by Greenoaks Capital with participation from ICONIQ and Thrive Capital, represents a more than fourfold increase from Sierra's $1 billion valuation in January.

Venture Capital Startups Healthcare

Pharos Raises $5M to Automate Hospital Quality Reporting with AI

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Chris McKay• October 25, 2024 • 2 min read

Pharos's AI technology automatically pulls required data from unstructured medical records, enabling real-time quality monitoring instead of the weeks-long delays typical with manual reporting.

Waymo Auto Venture Capital

Waymo Secures $5.6 Billion to Expand Robotaxi Service Across U.S. Cities

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Chris McKay• October 25, 2024 • 2 min read

The funding comes as Waymo's ride-hailing service gains significant traction. You can now catch a Waymo robotaxi in San Francisco, Phoenix, and Los Angeles, with rides reaching over 100,000 trips weekly – ten times more than last year.

Venture Capital Startups

Granola Raises $20 Million for AI-Powered Notetaking

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Chris McKay• October 23, 2024 • 2 min read

Granola works by installing locally on your Mac and connecting to your calendar. It captures audio from popular meeting platforms like Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams without requiring any meeting bots to join.

Venture Capital Startups Retail

Sensei Secures $16M to Expand Contactless Store Tech in Europe

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Chris McKay• October 23, 2024 • 3 min read

The company has set an ambitious goal of powering 1,000 autonomous stores by 2026.

Venture Capital Startups

Freeform Secures $14 Million to Scale AI-Driven Metal 3D Printing

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Chris McKay• October 22, 2024 • 1 min read

Rather than selling printers, the company offers manufacturing as a service, using AI-powered systems that monitor and adjust the printing process in microseconds.

Venture Capital Startups

Socket Raises $40M to Combat Open Source Security Threats

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Chris McKay• October 22, 2024 • 2 min read

Socket's platform scans open source components for security risks like backdoors and malicious code before they can cause damage. The company reports blocking over 100 software supply chain attacks weekly and now protects more than 7,500 organizations.

Venture Capital Startups

Interface.ai Raises $30M in First External Funding Round, to Expand AI Banking Solutions

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Chris McKay• October 22, 2024 • 2 min read

The company's AI technology resolves up to 60% of customer inquiries automatically through voice, chat, and co-pilot experiences. This automation helps smaller financial institutions compete with larger banks by offering faster customer service while reducing operational costs.

Venture Capital Startups AI Infrastructure

Lightmatter Secures $400M, Valuation Soars to $4.4B as AI Fuels Demand for Photonic Computing

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Chris McKay• October 16, 2024 • 2 min read

The investment, led by T. Rowe Price Associates with participation from existing backers Fidelity Management & Research Company and GV (formerly Google Ventures), brings Lightmatter's total funding to $850 million.

Venture Capital Startups

Fable Secures $25M to Make AI and Digital Products More Accessible

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Chris McKay• October 16, 2024 • 2 min read

While AI has the potential to bridge accessibility gaps, it also risks perpetuating digital exclusion if not developed with inclusivity in mind.