Anthropic’s new AI can control your PC & Major publishers sue Perplexity AI for scraping without paying

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☕ Good Wednesday Morning. Welcome to today's quick rundown in the Venture Daily Digest Newsletter.

Scroll down to find out:

• How Anthropic's AI is mimicking human computer use, and

• Why OpenAI just hired its first chief economist,

• The brewing battle between Perplexity and major publishers!

• Plus, Reddit's CEO drops a bombshell about the platform's AI training 'arms race.'

Plus, unlock today's deep dives: Is AI experiencing its own overbuilding crisis? Discover surprising data on unicorn founders' ages and salaries, a revolutionary take on business models beyond B2C/B2B, and BCG's roadmap for AI-powered sales transformation. Fresh VC opportunities await!

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🗞️ Startup Funding Updates

Pantheon AI, a San Francisco-based artificial intelligence-enabled proptech company, exited stealth mode and announced it had secured $25m in funding. The round was led by Andreessen Horowitz with participation from Felicis and 8VC.

Alvara Protocol, a London, UK-based provider of a platform aimed at democratizing asset management within the DeFi space, raised $10M in funding. The round was led by Nimbus Capital.

HealthEx, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of a global consumer preference and consent platform for healthcare to unlock data access, raised $14M in Seed and Series A funding. The round was led by General Catalyst, with participation from Electric Capital.

Reality Defender, a NYC-based provider of a deepfake and AI-generated media detection platform, announced that its Series A fundraising has been expanded, securing a total of $33M. The round was led by Illuminate Financial, with additional participation from Booz Allen Ventures, IBM Ventures, the Jeffries Family Office, and Accenture Ventures, as well as additional participation from original Series A lead investor DCVC and past investors The Partnership Fund for New York City and Y Combinator.

Optiwise.ai, a Newark, CA-based provider of an AI assistant designed for the Walmart Marketplace, raised $2.4M in seed funding. The funding was led by StartupXseed Ventures.

TollBit, a NYC-based company offering a real-time solution for digital publishers to license their content per use and get paid immediately, raised $24m in Series A funding. Backers included Lightspeed and Section 32, with participation from Jeff Dean and Manuel Bronstein. Michael Mignano, Partner at Lightspeed, will be joining TollBit’s board.

Monark Markets, a NYC-based fintech startup that embeds private market investments and trading solutions within traditional brokerage and wealth platforms, raised $2.2M in Seed funding. The round, which brought Monark’s total funding to $3.6M, was led by Garuda Ventures, with participation from K50 Ventures, Grit Capital Partners, Niche Capital, and angel investors including Nik Talreja, the CEO of Sydecar and Shriram Bhashyam, the COO of Sydecar.

BiltOn (fka Beti), a NYC-based construction operations & risk management software provider, closed a $15m Series B funding round. The round was led by PSG Equity, with additional participation from Titan Capital and 97212 Ventures.

Redaptive, a Denver, CO-based Energy-as-a-Service (EaaS) provider, raised $100M in funding. The round was led by Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments).

Azura, a San Francisco, CA-based company developing an interfacing layer for decentralized finance (DeFi), raised $6.9M in Seed funding. The round was led by Garry Tan’s Initialized Capital. Additional investors included Volt Capital, Winklevoss Capital, Alliance, Raj Gokal (co-founder of Solana), Meltem Demirors (former co-chair, World Economic Forum’s Cryptocurrency Council), Stephane Gosselin (co-founder of Flashbots), and others.

CrewAI, a San Francisco, CA-based multi-agent platform, raised $18M in total funding. The round was led by Insight Partners. Additional investors included Blitzscaling Ventures, Craft Ventures, Earl Grey Capital, and angels including Andrew Ng, and Dharmesh Shah.

Passkey Therapeutics, a Cambridge, MA-based developer of synergistic multifunctional therapeutics (SMThs), raised $20M in Seed funding. The round was led by Breakout Ventures along with Innovation Endeavors and Bison Ventures. Additional participants included Wireframe Ventures, Alexandria Venture Investments, and GRIDS Capital.

Authologic, a Warsaw, Poland-based identity verification vendor, raised $8.2M in Series A funding. The round was led by OpenOcean, with participation from YCombinator, and Peak Capital.

DataCrunch, a Helsinki, Finland-based AI computing infrastructure startup, raised $13m in Seed funding. The round, which brought total funding to $18m, was led by byFounders, with participation from J12 Ventures, angels such as Oskari Saarenmaa, Tuomo Riekki, Lasse Espeholt, Henrik Rosendahl, Ari Tulla, Tapio Tolvanen, and Maaike Bryon.

Lumenuity, a Los Angeles, CA-based developer of optical technology that enhances the zoom capabilities of smartphone cameras, raised $1.2m in seed funding. Backers included Vest Coast Capital.

Interface.ai, based in North America and India, is a customer automation platform for banks, providing AI agents for customer service tasks. It raised $30 million in a round led by Avataar Venture Partners, with $20 million in equity and $10 million in debt.

Freeform, based in the U.S., provides metal 3D printing as a service with a focus on aerospace, automotive, and industrial sectors. It raised $14 million from Boeing AE Ventures and Nvidia.

📰 Venture Capital Updates

Benchmark Partners, a prominent Silicon Valley VC firm, continues to raise around $425M for its main investment fund, while also raising an additional $170M for a separate Founders' Fund primarily funded by its partners. Benchmark, known for early investments in companies like eBay, Snap, and Uber, allows its partners to double down on their investments without managing LP money. This approach mirrors similar strategies by firms like Homebrew and Sequoia Heritage.

🤖 Latest In Tech

Anthropic has released an upgraded version of its Claude 3.5 Sonnet model, which can control desktop applications through a new “Computer Use” API, allowing it to automate tasks by imitating user inputs like keystrokes and mouse gestures. While the model shows potential in automating complex tasks and web browsing, it still struggles with basic actions and can be error-prone, leading to partial task completions in tests. Despite the risks of misuse, Anthropic believes that giving early access to limited models like 3.5 Sonnet will help mitigate future safety concerns, while the company prepares to release an updated, more affordable version called 3.5 Haiku.

Reddit CEO Steve Huffman stated that the platform is a vital player in the AI "arms race," emphasizing its role in providing high-value training data for artificial intelligence development. The platform's extensive user-generated content has become crucial in shaping AI models, leading Reddit to explore its strategic position within the artificial intelligence sector. In response to large corporations utilizing Reddit data without proper agreements, Huffman revealed ongoing efforts to secure deals and safeguard the platform's valuable information against exploitation.

Major publishers Dow Jones & Co and NYP Holdings have filed a lawsuit against AI search engine startup Perplexity for copying their content without compensation, alleging copyright infringement and trademark violations. News Corporation, representing The Wall Street Journal and New York Post, accuses Perplexity of presenting the scraped material as a substitute for original sources, consequently harming the brands and sometimes providing inaccurate information. News Corp seeks $150,000 for each infringement instance, a sum that could financially devastate Perplexity, highlighting the importance of protecting intellectual property while also showing a willingness to license content for appropriate fees, as demonstrated by their agreement with OpenAI.

🪄 Other News

OpenAI has hired Aaron Chatterji, former chief economist at the Commerce Department, to study AI's economic impacts, including growth and job prospects. Chatterji's experience with the 2022 CHIPS Act may aid OpenAI’s chip design efforts. Scott Schools, Uber’s former compliance head, also joined as chief compliance officer.

🧐 In-Depth Insights

• Overbuilding in AI: A Modern Twist: Tanay Jaipuria explores the challenges of overbuilding in AI, analyzing its impact on product development and business strategies

• Age of Unicorn Founders and Founder Salaries: Data-driven VC explores trends in unicorn founders’ ages and how their salaries stack up in the startup ecosystem

  

• Beyond B2C and B2B: A New Approach to Business Models: Justin Jackson explores a fresh perspective on business models, pushing beyond traditional B2C and B2B frameworks 🛠️

• Future of Sales with AI: BCG's Executive Perspectives explore how AI is reshaping the future of sales, offering key strategies for businesses looking to leverage AI in their sales processes

📬 Venture Daily Digest Picks

• Why LTV/CAC Isn't Great for New Startups (And What to Use Instead)? (Read)

• Marc Andreessen says AI model makers are in ‘race to the bottom’ and it’s not good for business. (Read)

• Writing a Cold Email That Gets VC Funding - Advice from Leading VCs. (Read)

• How to Handle the Exit Strategy Question in VC Meetings. (Read)

• LPs don’t look at past track records. At all. (Read)

• Peter Thiel on the last mover advantage: PayPal, Twitter, and LinkedIn won by being valuable in the future, not the past. (Read)

• Pitch deck has one purpose - to drive enough interest to schedule a meeting. That’s it. (Read)

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