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The CatchUp
Q & Alpha
January 29, 2024
Welcome to The CatchUp, a summary of the most important news and deals you may have missed over the weekend or last week.
∆ Tech in the News
Know Your Cloud - The U.S. proposed a KYC regulation for cloud companies to prevent "non-state actors or China” accessing compute to train AI models.
“Risk to National Security” - OpenAI and Google will be required to notify the government about foundational models under the Defense Production Act.
Not Raising… Honestly - Elon Musk denies another report (this from FT) claiming his AI startup xAI is in talks to secure up to $6B at a valuation of $20B.
Biden Deepfake - ElevenLabs reportedly banned the account that cloned Biden's voice with its’ AI tools for a malicious robocall to undermine primaries.
“Human Error” - Anthropic confirms a contractor inadvertently leaked a file with “non-sensitive” customer information to a third party in 2023.
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Deals We’re Watching
Founders to Watch and Opportunities to Catch
Open Deals:
Raising for your startup? Send us your Open Round —> [email protected]
Generative AI Web - Making generative AI accessible to leading companies like Accenture, J.P. Morgan, and Intel via online engagement, employee training, virtual salespeople, and more. Seeking Series B partners now.
Ending Snoring - A contactless AI anti-snoring device. Voted #1 solution by various media platforms, with >100k customers & strong revenue over 5 years. Self-funded and seeking $5M from strategic partners for first equity raise ever.
EV Charging Infrastructure OS - Trusted by Cruise, GM, Hitachi, and more. Notable Angels include Tesla’s ex-Fast Charging head and Mercedes’ NA CEO, Auto Ventures, Connect Ventures, and more. Now Seeking $500K.
Drone SaaS platform - Lets enterprises automate missions, manage pilots and data. Techstars portfolio company, raised $200K so far. Founder built Midwest Aerial Productions. Seeking investment to push drone operations further.
Looking to invest? Let us know if you want a warm intro —> [email protected]
Closed Deals:
The Five Largest Closed Rounds from last week per Crunchbase data:
ElevenLabs - AI audio unicorn raised a $80M Series B valued at $1.1B.
Sion Power - The EV battery maker raised a $75M Series A.
Albedo - The orbital imagery startup raised a Series A-1 of $35M.
Anomalo - Data quality monitoring startup closed a Series B at $33M.
Clerk - The Authentication solutions startup raised a $30M Series B.
Other Closed Rounds:
India’s 1st AI Unicorn - Krutim, a startup by Ola founder Bhavish Agarwal that makes voice-enabled genAI apps, raised $50M at a $1B valuation.
Online Litigation Services - Proof Technology, a Denver startup, raised a $30.4M Series B aiming to expand its Legal Tech litigation services.
ViralMoment - A Startup offering analysis tools for viral videos to create effective social media strategies with clients like Omnicom, and Warner Brothers, raised a $2.5M seed round.
Companies to Watch:
AI Unicorn - OpenAI chairman and ex-Salesforce co-CEO, Bret Taylor, is near to concluding an $85M round led by Sequoia Capital for his enterprise-focused AI startup, Sierra, which will be valued at $1B+ after the round.
In-Snyk - Synk, which sells developer security tools and was valued at $7.4B in 2023, is reported to be preparing to file for an IPO in the next few months.
Cerebras Systems - The chipmaking startup last valued at $4B in 2021, is gearing up for an IPO listing in Q2 this year and is also in talks with investors to raise a private funding round before the listing.
The Funding Buzz
Exit Stage Left - Lightspeed Venture Partners is trying to sell stakes in ten of its portfolio companies via a PE-style $1B continuation fund.
New SPAC Rules - The SEC approved a new set of regulations upping disclosure requirements for SPAC sponsors aimed at protecting investors.
1RoundTable - The Crypto-focused VC firm plans to raise up to $800M for a new fund backing growth-stage infrastructure, blockchain, and financial services startups, as well as web3 gaming, NFTs, and metaverse.
Innovation Endeavors - Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s firm closes its $630M Fund V to invest in startups at the intersection of science and technology.
Tools and Buzzy Tech
OpenAI - New GPT Mentions tool lets users call on any custom GPT in chats to complete specific tasks. Only available to selected users now.
Virtual Incision - A robotic arm is headed to the ISS to test remote surgery.
MagicLab - Somersaulting robot challenges Boston Dynamics’ acrobatic Atlas.
"KEPLERBOT" - Chinese Teslabot competitor surprises with its dexterity.
NSF - Program to boost AI computing access to US researchers/schools.
Adobe ActAnywhere - AI to digitally insert people into video backgrounds.
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It’s a new year, new Buzz! Stay tuned for more of our latest releases and don’t forget to check out Fantasy Buzz if you have not done so already! And be sure to check out our year-end stories for 2023 to recap what you missed last year and our tech to watch in 2024!
Stay buzzy!
The Tech Buzz Team