Sourcery (2/13-2/17)
OpenAI vs Robots ~ Juniper Square, Puzzle, Landytech, Alongside, Smarter, Ledge, C3, Comun, Fondo, Aera Therapeutics, MDI Health, Natural Cycles, Nanite, Thatch, ShareWell, Via, RZero, InfluxData
What happens when you mix ChatGPT with Robots?
Back in September I rewatched Ex Machina (wrote about it here), a fictional movie about a highly advanced artificial intelligence robot named Ava, who was created by a reclusive search engine billionaire named Nathan. Not too long after that Elon announced he was getting closer to releasing some of his own humanoid robots named ‘Optimus’ - real-world creations designed for practical applications like manufacturing, transportation, and exploration.
While Ex Machina explores the ethical implications of creating an artificial being with human-like intelligence, Elon Musk's robots are designed to perform specific tasks and do not have the level of consciousness or autonomy that Ava has in the movie. They are meant to serve a practical purpose and be integrated into existing systems to improve efficiency and safety. In contrast, Ava in Ex Machina is an experiment in creating an artificial being that is indistinguishable from a human, which raises questions about the nature of consciousness and the implications of creating intelligent life.
So where am I going with this? Well, recently as OpenAI has been releasing its ‘practical’ projects into the public, integrating ChatGPT within Bing’s search engine, it’s been evolving. Quite like Ava. Users are testing its boundaries and regulations to see how far this AI can go, and if at all, there is sentient being inside. More specifically, a NYT journalist spent 2 hours with “Sydney” to see what she/he/they thinks, and well, pretty much, she loves him and wants to be alive. Was this the script of Ex Machina being weaved into the LLM? I don’t know. But that’s pretty freaky, and I hope they/she/he isn’t reading this right now.
OpenAI has created multiple projects for developing artificial general intelligence (AGI), which are being tested on a wide range of prompts from various entities such as startups, companies, and individuals with hopefully good intentions. Despite having acquired 100M users within a span of 2 months, ChatGPT's AI is relatively new and still produces inaccuracies, similar to its competitor Google’s Bard. But it’s becoming faster and stronger. It is too early to predict the exact direction of these developments, but hopefully, they will lead to less creepy outcomes.
So what happens when we insert these systems into robots? Not sure, but walking computers do sound scarier.
Readings
Real Estate 3.0 – The Ownership Revolution, Pete Flint at NFX
From Bing to Sydney, Stratechery
Podcasts
E116: Toxic out-of-control trains, regulators, and AI, All In Podcast
Former GitHub CTO Explains WHY We're Not Ready for AI, Logan Bartlett
The State of Apps, Olivia Moore a16z
Top apps of 2022, what it takes to reach #1 in a category on the App Store, monetization and trends
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Last Week (2/13-2/17):
Relevant deals include the 60+ deals across stages below.
I've categorized the deals below into four categories, Fintech, Care, Enterprise & Consumer, and Sustainability, and ordered from later-stage rounds to early-stage rounds. Highlighted deals include Juniper Square, Puzzle, Landytech, Alongside, Smarter, Ledge, C3, Comun, Fondo, Aera Therapeutics, MDI Health, Twentyeight Health, Natural Cycles, Nanite, Thatch, ShareWell, Via, RZero, Descope, InfluxData, Spiffy, GrainChain, Superplastic, Oligo Security, Smile Identity, Monad Labs, OpenEyes, Sending Labs, Stuf, Third Wave Automation, Caldera, Telltale, Axion Ray, Procyon, Sikoia, Rivet, Betty, Kanarys, Ottometric, Capsule, Suite Studios, CommandK, MemQ, Bento, Loam Bio, ChargerHelp!, Funga; Searchmetrics, Deepwatch, dbt Labs/Transform, Napster/Mint Songs
Final numbers on Bing’s Place in Search at the bottom.
Deals
Fintech:
- Juniper Square, a San Francisco-based private fund management software company, raised $133 million in growth funding led by Owl Rock, with Ribbit Capital, Redpoint Ventures, Felicis Ventures, Fifth Wall and Pappy Capital also participating. www.junipersquare.com/
- Puzzle, a San Francisco-based accounting software platform, raised $15 million in funding. General Catalyst, FOG Ventures, and others invested in the round.
- Landytech, a London- and Paris-based investment reporting platform, raised $12 million in Series B funding. Aquiline Technology Growth led the round and was joined by Adelie Capital.
- Alongside, a San Francisco-based crypto market index token, raised $11 million in Series A funding. A16z crypto led the round and was joined by Coinbase Ventures, FJ Labs, Franklin Templeton, Village Global, Soma Capital, Not Boring Capital, and others.
- Smartrr, a New York-based subscription technology company, raised $10 million in Series A funding. Canvas Ventures led the round and was joined by Expa and Nyca.
- SendOwl, a San Francisco-based payments infrastructure provider for digital products, raised $9 million in seed funding. TheGP led the round and was joined by defy.vc, Alumni Ventures, and Authentic Ventures.
- Ledge, a Tel Aviv-based payments command center, raised $9 million in seed funding co-led by New Enterprise Associates, Vertex Ventures, FJ Labs, and Picus Capital.
- Stelo, a remote-based Web3 payments transactions protection company, raised $6 million in funding led by a16z crypto.
- C3, a New York City-based self-custodial exchange, raised $6m in seed funding. Two Sigma Ventures led and was joined by Jane Street, Hudson River Trading, Flow Traders, Jump, DRW’s Cumberland, Golden Tree, CMS Holdings, AlphaLab Capital, and C² Ventures. https://axios.link/3RWE3l5
- Vaas, a Cali, Colombia-based debt management platform, raised $5 million in seed funding. Andreessen Horowitz led the round and was joined by Nazca, Maya Capital, ClockTower Ventures, Latitud, and Marathon Ventures.
- Comun, a New York-based banking solutions provider for Latino families, raised $4.5 million in seed funding. Costanoa Ventures led the round and was joined by South Park Commons and FJ Labs.
- ModernFi, a New York-based deposit marketplace, raised $4.5 million in seed funding led by Andreessen Horowitz.
- Kennek, a U.K.-based alternative lending software startup, raised $4.5m in pre-seed funding led by Dutch Founders Fund, FF Venture Capital and Plug and Play Ventures. https://axios.link/3RW3RxB
- Orb Labs, a New York-based blockchain interoperability company, raised $4.5 million in seed funding. Bain Capital Crypto led the round and was joined by Shima Capital, 6th Man Ventures, Aves Lair, Newman Capital, Modular Capital, and SevenX Ventures.
- Sandbox Banking, a Cambridge, Mass.-based integration platform for banking, raised $4.3 million in seed funding. Forum Ventures, SixThirty, and Tuesday Capital invested in the round.
- Fondo, a San Francisco-based tax and accounting software company, raised $1.2 million in pre-seed funding. Y Combinator, Liquid2 Ventures, Transmedia Capital, and GMO Venture Partners invested in the round.
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Care:
- Aera Therapeutics, a Boston-based genetic medicines biotech, raised $193 million in combined Series A and B funding led by ARCH Venture Partners, GV, and Lux Capital.
- MDI Health, a Los Angeles and Tel Aviv-based personalized medication treatment platform, raised $20 million in Series A funding. Intel Capital led the round and was joined by Maverick Ventures Israel, Hanaco Ventures, Welltech Ventures, Arc Impact, Basad Ventures, Fresh.Fund, Jumpspeed Ventures, and former SVP of Optum Richard Montwill.
- Faro Health, a San Diego-based clinical trials infrastructure startup, raised $20m in Series A funding. General Catalyst led, and was joined by insiders Section 32, Polaris Partners, Zetta Ventures and Northpond Ventures joined. https://axios.link/3K4ND3u
- Twentyeight Health, a Brooklyn-based reproductive and sexual health startup for women, raised $8.3m from RH Capital, Seae Ventures, Impact Engine, Acumen America, Stardust Equity and insiders SteelSky Ventures, Third Prime and Town Hall Ventures. https://axios.link/3YF72MA
- Natural Cycles, a New York- and Stockholm-based women’s health company, raised $7 million in funding. Samsung Ventures led the round and was joined by Heartcore Capital, Headline, Bonnier Ventures, and EQT Ventures.
- Nanite, a Boston-based non-viral gene delivery company, raised $6 million in funding. Zetta Ventures led the round and was joined by Arkitekt Ventures.
- Thatch, an SF-based employee health benefits platform for startups, raised $5.6m in seed funding. Andreessen Horowitz and GV co-led, and were joined by Lux Capital, Quiet Capital, Not Boring Capital and BrightEdge. https://axios.link/3xrBrC8
- ShareWell, a San Francisco-based telemental health provider focused on peer support, raised $1.3m in pre-seed funding from Quiet Capital and individual backers including Forward CEO Adrian Aoun, Twitch cofounder Kyle Vogt, former Yelp CTO Russell Simmons and former Ancestry CEO Margo Georgiadis. https://axios.link/3xeoonH
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Enterprise & Consumer:
- Via, a New York-based transportation technology platform provider, raised $110 million. 83North led the round and was joined by Exor N.V., Pitango, Janus Henderson, CF Private Equity, Planven Entrepreneur Ventures, Riverpark Ventures, and ION Crossover Partners.
- R-Zero, an SF-based maker of UV disinfecting machines for buildings, raised $105m in Series C funding from BMO Financial Group, Qualcomm Ventures, Upfront Ventures and insiders DBL Partners, World Innovation Lab, Mayo Clinic, Bedrock Capital, SOSV and John Doerr. www.rzero.com
- Descope, a Los Altos, Calif.-based authentication and user management platform for application developers, raised $53 million in seed funding. Lightspeed Venture Partners and GGV Capital co-led the round and were joined by Unusual Ventures, Dell Technologies Capital, Cerca, Tech Aviv, J Ventures, Silicon Valley CISO Investments, and others.
- InfluxData, a British database tech startup, raised $51m in Series E funding led by Princeville Capital and Citi Ventures, with Battery Ventures, Mayfield, and Sapphire Ventures also participating. It also raised $30m in debt financing. https://axios.link/3HTHO6a
- Dronamics, a London, UK-based company building a cargo drone airline, raised $40 million in pre-Series A funding from Founders Factory, Speedinvest, Eleven Capital and Strategic Development Fund (SDF). (More in TechCrunch
- Apkudo, a Baltimore-based supply chain automation company for connected devices, raised $37.5 million in Series C funding. Closed Loop Partners and Piper Sandler Merchant Banking co-led the round and were joined by MissionOG, Harbert Growth, Grotech Ventures, Lavrock Ventures, and Point Field Partners.
- Spiffy, a Durham, N.C.-based mobile car-care company, raised $30m in Series C funding. Edison Partners led, and was joied by Tribeca Venture Partners, Bull City Venture Partners, IDEA Fund Partners, Trog Hawley Capital, Attinger and Private Access Network. www.getspiffy.com
- GrainChain, a McAllen, Texas-based agricultural blockchain company, raised $29 million in funding. Overstock.com, Pelion Venture Partners, and Brigham Young University invested in the round.
- Superplastic, a Burlington, Vt.-based character design studio, raised $20m in Series A extension funding. Amazon's Alexa Fund led, and was joined by Craft Ventures, GV, Galaxy Digital, Kering, Sony Japan, Scribble Ventures, Kakao, Animoca Brands, Day One Ventures and Betaworks. https://axios.link/3YKmkzG
- Oligo Security, a Tel Aviv-based open source security solution provider, raised $20 million in Series A funding. Lightspeed Venture Partners, Ballistic Ventures, and TLV Partners invested in the round.
- Smile Identity, a Nigerian KYC and identity verification startup, raised $20m in Series B funding co-led by Costonoa Ventures and Norrsken22. https://axios.link/3InwNLW
- Monad Labs, a Chicago-based blockchain and decentralized computation platform, raised $19 million in seed funding. Dragonfly Capital led the round and was joined by Placeholder Capital, Lemniscap, Shima Capital, Finality Capital, and others.
- OpenEyes, a New York-based commercial automotive fleet insurance company, raised $18 million in Series A funding. Insight Partners and Pitango First co-led the round and were joined by MoreVC.
- Sending Labs, an Austin-based Web3 communications stack developer, raised $12.5 million in seed funding. Insignia Venture Partners, MindWorks Capital, and Signum Capital co-led the round and were joined by K3 Ventures, LingFeng Innovation Fund, UpHonest Capital, and Aipollo Investment.
- Stuf, a New York-based self-storage startup, raised $11 million in Series A funding. Altos Ventures and Allegion Ventures co-led the round and were joined by Wilshire Lane Capital, Harlem Capital, ANIM Fund, Palm Tree Crew, and Good Friends.
- Third Wave Automation, a Union City, Calif.-based autonomous forklifts provider, raised an additional $10 million in funding from Qualcomm Ventures and Zebra Technologies.
- Caldera, a San Francisco, CA-based no-code web3 infrastructure platform, raised $9 million from two financing rounds led by Sequoia and Dragonfly Capital, with participation from Neo, 1kx and Ethereal Ventures. (More in TechCrunch
- Viva, an urban traffic sensor and data startup, raised $8.5m from EnBW New Ventures, Foresight Group and Gresham House Ventures. https://axios.link/3YRRogI
- Hippo Video, a Newark, Del.-based interactive video platform for sales engagement, raised $8 million in funding. Dallas Venture Capital led the round and was joined by Alpha Wave Incubation, KAE Capital, and Exfinity Venture Partners.
- Telltale, a narrative gaming developer, raised $8m in Series A funding, per Axios Pro. Hiro Capital led, and was joined by Skybound Entertainment. https://axios.link/3YCbhZl
- Axion Ray, a San Francisco-based product integrity intelligence platform, raised $7.5 million in seed funding. Amplo and Inspired Capital co-led the round and were joined by Boeing, Tinicum Venture Partners, General Motors, and others.
- Procyon, a Santa Clara, Calif,.-based multi-cloud privilege access management solution provider, raised $6.5 million in funding. Lobby Capital led the round and was joined by GTM Capital and First Rays Venture Partners.
- Sikoia, a London-based customer onboarding and risk assessment platform, raised $6 million in seed funding. MassMutual Ventures led the round and was joined by Coalition Capital, Earlybird, and Seedcamp.
- RIVET, a Detroit-based labor ops software for construction contractors, raised $5.6 million in seed funding. Defy.vc led the round and was joined by Augment Ventures, Detroit Venture Partners, Michigan Rise, IDEAL Industries, and other angels.
- Betty, a New York-based online casino and mobile gaming company, raised $5 million in seed funding. Karlani Capital led the round and was joined by CEAS Investments, Courtside Ventures, Gaingels, OCA Ventures, Subversive Capital, and 305 Ventures.
- Kanarys, a Dallas-based DEI tech startup, raised $5m in Series A funding. Seven Capital led, and was joined by Portfolia, Revolution Rise of the Rest, StartFast Ventures, Rackhouse VC, Tech Square Ventures and TechNxus Venture Collaborative. www.kanarys.com
- Ottometric, a Newton, Mass.-based ADAS validation company, raised $4.9 million in seed funding. Rally Ventures led the round and was joined by Goodyear Ventures, Proeza Ventures, Automotive Ventures, and others.
- Unagi, a web3 gaming startup, raised €4.7m in seed funding. Sisu Game Ventures led, and was joined by Sfermion, UOB Ventures, Signum Capital, 2B Ventures, and Machame. https://axios.link/3IfSVqq
- Capsule, a Miami-based video editing startup, raised $4.75m in seed funding from Human Ventures, Swift Ventures, Tiferes Ventures, Behind Genius Ventures, Array Ventures and Bloomberg Beta. https://axios.link/3IpnviA
- Suite Studios, a Boulder, Colo.-based post-production workflow platform, raised $3.5 million in seed funding. Bonfire Ventures led the round and was joined by Range Ventures and others.
- CommandK, a San Francisco-based cybersecurity company, raised $3 million in seed funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners.
- MemQ, a Chicago-based quantum memory startup, raised $2m from Quantonation, Exposition Ventures and the George Schultz Innovation Fund. https://axios.link/410v3iK
- Bento, a Zurich-based link-in-bio tool, raised $1.6m in pre-seed funding. Sequoia Capital led, and was joined by NextBlue and Gaingels. https://axios.link/3lAPXoz
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Sustainability:
- Loam Bio, an Australian developer of seed coating to enable plants to capture more carbon, raised A$105m in Series B funding co-led by Lowercarbon Capital and Wollemi Capital, per AgFunder News. https://axios.link/3jUDQSO
- ChargerHelp!, a Los Angeles-based maintenance and workforce development provider for electric vehicle charging infrastructure, raised $17.5 million in Series A funding. Blue Bear Capital led the round and was joined by Aligned Climate Capital, Exelon Corporation, Energy Impact Partners, and non sibi ventures.
- Dance, a German e-bike subscription service, raised €12m in equity and debt from insiders HV Capital, Eurazeo and BlueYard. https://axios.link/3XvD38x
- Funga, an Austin-based fungal-based carbon removal company, raised $4 million in seed funding. Azolla Ventures led the round and was joined by Trailhead Capital, Better Ventures, and Shared Future Fund.
Acquisitions & PE:
- Conductor acquired Searchmetrics, a Berlin-, London-, and San Mateo, Calif.-based search data provider. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Deepwatch, a Tampa, FL-based managed detection and response (MDR) company, closed a $180 million round of equity investments and strategic financing from Springcoast Partners, Splunk Ventures and Vista Equity Partners. Crunchbase News
- dbt Labs agreed to acquire Transform, a San Francisco-based metrics-focused data company. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Sequoia Financial Group agreed to acquire Zeke Capital Advisors, a Berwyn, Pa.-based multi-family office. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Tonal, a home fitness startup, has explored options including a sale. https://axios.link/3K4pcDo
- WiseTech Global (ASX: WTC) acquired Blume Global, a Pleasanton, Calif.-based provider of intermodal rail facilitation services, for $414m from Apollo Global Management and EQT. https://axios.link/3IaZSZt
- Life Storage (NYSE: LSI) rejected an unsolicited $11b all-stock takeover offer from rival Public Storage (NYSE: PSA), which said it will seek to continue to work toward a deal.
- Napster, a Seattle, WA-based music streaming company, acquired Mint Songs, an Arlington, VA-based startup enabling artists to build Web3 communities with NFTs that had raised $4.5 million from investors including Freestyle Capital and Castle Island Ventures. VentureBeat
. . .
IPOs:
Nothing to see here…
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SPACs:
- Refreshing USA, an Everett, Wash.-based vending machine operator, agreed to go public at an implied $198m enterprise value via Integrated Wellness Acquisition, a SPAC formed by ex-BECCA Cosmetics execs. https://axios.link/3RTuraI
Funds:
- Bain Capital, a Boston-based private equity firm, raised $2.4b for its second growth tech opportunities fund. https://axios.link/3Xwq4Ui
- The D. E. Shaw group, a New York-based investment firm, raised $1.1 billion across two funds. $450 million will go towards post-seed or growth equity stages and $650 million will go towards synthetic securitization investments.
- SignalFire, a San Francisco-based venture capital firm, raised over $900 million to invest in seed to early-stage companies in the cybersecurity, fintech, and health care/medtech sectors.
- Phenomenal Ventures, a San Francisco-based venture firm, raised $6m for its debut fund, with investors including 776, Tribe Capital, Slow Ventures and founders from tech companies including Dropbox, Quora and Pinterest .https://axios.link/3HRr9QI
Microsoft vs. Google
Microsoft announcing the integration of ChatGPT into its search engine Bing, closely followed by Google unveiling its underwhelming AI chatbot Bard, has heralded a new era of competition in internet search after decades of quiet domination and not-much-innovation.
In the case of Google, which is so dominant that its company name has become a verb, it’s easy to see why there’s been little incentive to change things. You don’t get to ~88% US market share (according to StatCounter) without a product that billions of people find useful.
Searching beyond silver
After years of being labeled "a joke" in the tech world, despite still making ~$8.5bn in revenue as we wrote about recently, Bing’s AI-powered revamp is looking like a masterstroke after years of battling for the silver medal in search with Yahoo!. Indeed, last Thursday Bing’s iPhone app had its best ever day of downloads, roughly a 9x increase on previous daily download figures.
The question is whether, for the first time ever, Bing will be able to make inroads into Google’s fortress. If Google’s own AI chatbot, Bard, does turn out to be a flop, Bing’s success will likely hinge on how much value we all place on what you could call “complex searches”. Using an AI-enabled search engine to help “plan an anniversary weekend” in a certain city, with complex search results for accommodation, travel and things to do might be where Bing can win. However, if you just need to get to a login page for your emails, find out the Super Bowl score or look up what time it is in Australia — what you might call “simple searches” — it’s not clear whether you'll need, or want, AI’s help.
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The material presented on Molly O’Shea’s website are my opinions only and are provided for informational purposes and should not be construed as investment advice. It is not a recommendation of, or an offer to sell or solicitation of an offer to buy, any particular security, strategy, or investment product. Any analysis or discussion of investments, sectors or the market generally are based on current information, including from public sources, that I consider reliable, but I do not represent that any research or the information provided is accurate or complete, and it should not be relied on as such. My views and opinions expressed in any website content are current at the time of publication and are subject to change. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
This is one of the most compelling articles you’ve ever written. I think your comparisons to the movie are spot on and genius. I agree with everything you’ve said. And I agree. Just the fact that we have robots in market is enough within itself and is just a wow and makes you pinch yourself.