Apple's AI features will be late & Canva Acquired Gen AI Startup

☕Hey there, Welcome to today's quick rundown in the Venture Daily Digest Newsletter. We've got the scoop on startup fundraising, VC funds, and some cool tech – all in just 5 minutes!

Top News

Canva has acquired Leonardo.ai, a generative AI startup, to enhance its AI capabilities. Leonardo.ai, founded in 2022, offers tools for AI-powered image creation and has over 19 million users.

Apple's research paper reveals that the company used Google's tensor processing units (TPUs) instead of Nvidia chips to build key components of its AI infrastructure for upcoming features. For its AI model training, Apple utilized 2,048 TPUv5p chips for device-based AI and 8,192 TPUv4 processors for server-based AI.

From Our Partner Berkeley SkyDeck

Apply to the Berkeley SkyDeck Accelerator Batch 19!

📣 Calling all early-stage founders: apply to join Berkeley SkyDeck to take your startup to the next level!

SkyDeck is a leading global accelerator, dedicated to fostering entrepreneurship worldwide. Come to SkyDeck, where visionaries take flight, and join the ranks of SkyDeck alums such as MindsDB, Hayden AI, and Loft.

🚀Register for SkyDeck's information sessions to learn more! 

Partnership With Us

Want to get your brand in front of 50,000+ founders, investors, executives, and startup operators? For details on our sponsorships, fill up this quick form or reply to this email as “Advertise” and we’ll get in touch.

Startup Funding Updates

Astranis, a San Francisco, CA-based geostationary satellite maker, raised $200m in Series D funding. The round was led by a16z and BAM Elevate, with participation from Blackrock, Fidelity and Baillie Gifford also participating. This brought the total capital raised to $750m. More Here

GovWell, a New York-based startup, provides a customizable workflow automation system for small and medium-sized governments to streamline tasks like building permits, zoning, and inspections. The company raised a $4.5 million seed round led by Work-Bench, with participation from existing investor Bienville Capital. More Here

Bee AI, a startup (location not specified), is developing a wearable AI assistant that listens to users, takes notes, provides contextual reminders, and builds lists, along with a companion Apple Watch app. The company has raised $7 million in total funding, including a recent round led by Exor, with participation from Greycroft, New Wave VC, Banana Capital, and Brian Bedol. More Here

Altana, a NYC-based provider of a value chain management system, raised $200m in Series C funding. The round was led by Thomas Tull’s US Innovative Technology Fund (USIT) with participation from March Capital, Generation Investment Management, Salesforce Ventures, Friends and Family Capital, and each of Altana’s key existing investors, including GV (Google Ventures), Activate Capital, Floating Point, and OMERS Ventures. The funding brings Altana’s valuation to $1 billion. More Here

S64 Ventures, a London, UK-based global alternatives fintech and solutions partner to the wealth management industry, closed its Series A funding round of undisclosed amount. Backers included HPS Investment Partners and Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank. More Here

unspun, an Oakland, CA-based 3D weaving technology company, raised $32M in Series B funding. The round led by DCVC, with participation from Lowercarbon Capital, E12, Decathlon and SOSV. More Here

Clearly, a Kyiv, Ukraine-based psychological startup, secured a non-dilutive funding from Google for Startups Ukraine Support Fund. More Here

OnSight Technology, a San Francisco, CA-based leader in advanced solar monitoring and inspection, received a strategic investment from Convective Capital. The amount of the deal was not disclosed. More Here

Wed Society, an Oklahoma City-based wedding industry franchise, closed its Series A funding round, at a $5.775m valuation. The backers were not disclosed. More Here

Oats Overnight, a Tempe, AZ-based high-protein oatmeal brand, raised $35M in Series B funding. The round was led by Enlightened Hospitality Investments (EHI) with participation from new investor Sonoma Brands Capital and from existing investors including Impatient Ventures, Singh Capital Partners, Morrison Seger Venture Capital Partners, and BFG Partners. More Here

Spear Bio Inc., a Woburn, MA-based biotechnology company enabling the measurement of protein molecules down to dozens of copies with ubiquitous qPCR equipment, closed a $45m Series A financing. The round was co-led by Foresite Capital and Bio-Techne Corporation, with additional participation from existing investors including Maverick Ventures, Yonjin Capital and CDH Investments. More Here

Axle Automation, Inc., a San Francisco, CA-based provider of AI-powered solutions for compliance teams, closed its $2.5m seed funding round. The round was led by Diagram Ventures, with participation from Mistral Ventures, Uphonest Capital, StreamingFast and other strategic angels. More Here

Helpt, an Irvine, CA-based technical and customer service solution provider, raised $850k in seed funding. Dealbrook Holdings II made the investment. More Here

Trio Mobil, a Philadelphia, PA-based provider of AI and IoT solutions for workplace safety and efficiency, raised $26.5M in growth financing. The round was led by NewSpring through its dedicated growth equity strategy, NewSpring Growth, with participation from existing investors 212 and TIBAS Ventures. More Here

ZeroTier, an Irvine, Calif.-based network security startup, raised $13.5m in Series A funding. The round was led by Battery Ventures, with participation from Bonfire Ventures, Anorak Ventures, Grand Enterprises B.V., Airbridge Equity Partners and First In Ventures. More Here

bunch, a Berlin, Germany – based fintech company that enables funds and private investors to securely set up and manage their investment entities, closed its $15.5m Series A funding. The round was led by FinTech Collective, with participation from existing investors Cherry Ventures, Motive Ventures, Broadhaven Ventures, TinyVC, as well as angel investors including founders and executives of Klarna, Moonfare, and Kinnevik participated. More Here

Rillet, a Palo Alto, CA-based provider of an automation-first ERP specifically built for high-growth companies, raised $13.5m in funding. Backers included First Round Capital and Creandum, with participation from individual investors including Chad Byers (Susa Ventures), Kevin Hartz (founder of Eventbrite and Xoom), the former Chief Accounting Officer of Facebook and Stripe, and the Controller at Ramp. More Here

osapiens, a Mannheim, Germany-based ESG Platform and provider of compliance and sustainability reporting solutions, closed a $120M Series B financing. The round was led by Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives. More Here

RetiSpec Inc., a Toronto, Canada-based innovator in AI-driven eye diagnostics for brain health, closed a $10M USD Series A financing. The round was led by iGan Partners and included new strategic investors, Eli Lilly and Company and Topcon Healthcare, Inc., More Here

ReviR Therapeutics, a Brisbane, CA-based AI-enabled biotechnology company focused on developing small molecule RNA modulators for neurogenetic diseases, closed a $30m Series A financing. The round, which brought total raised so far to $54m, was led by Lapam Capital with participation from existing investors CDH Investments, 5Y Capital, and Yael Capital, as well as new participants XtalPi and the Charcot-Marie Tooth Research Foundation (CMTRF). More Here

Access Curated Resources, Support Our Newsletter

• 2700+ US Angel Investors & VC Firms Contact Database (Email + LinkedIn Link) (Access Here)

• 400+ French Angel Investors & Venture Capital Firms Contact Database (Email + LinkedIn Link) (Access Here)

• 1000+ Euro Tech Angel Investors & VC Firms Database (Access Here)

• 350+ Indian Angel Investors & Venture Capital Firms Contact Database (Email + LinkedIn Link) (Access Here)

• Building Cap Table As A Founder: Template to Download (Access Here)

• Early Stage Startup Financial Model Template For Fundraising (Access Here)

Venture Capital Updates

J.D. Vance, Trump's 2024 VP pick, has a mixed venture capital background. While at Mithril Capital, he reportedly closed no deals, focusing on his book. At Revolution, he helped close AI and military tech investments. Vance later founded Narya Capital, investing in Rumble. His VC experience may aid fundraising, but some question his impact in the field.

Featured Article

Y-Combinator Partner: Some Of The Best Startup Ideas Live In A Grey Area of Legality.

When you aren’t a known brand yet, the risk of action being taken against you is much lower. How much you lean into this risk, and where the line is for you, is a personal decision.

But many successful companies flirt with the line often — many could see this working at startups like Uber, Airbnb etc.

A big learning is that, in many cases, the law is less black and white than you’re led to believe.

Check out our Venture Curator newsletter for such more insights.

Startup’s Latest Buzz

Acquisition & Going Public

MiQ, a London, UK-based global programmatic media partner, announced plans to acquire Pathlabs, a Missoula, Montana-based Media Execution Partner (MEP) that provides end-to-end digital media execution services to independent agencies. More Here

Deepnote, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of an AI-powered data workspace, acquired Hyperquery, a San Francisco, CA-based competitor in the data science and analytics space. More Here

Layoffs & Bankruptcy

Startups & People

Twitch, acquired by Amazon for nearly $1 billion in 2014, remains unprofitable despite experiencing periods of significant popularity, according to employees and financial insiders. Documents and data reviewed by the Wall Street Journal reveal that Twitch's highest-paying users are spending less, and new user growth and engagement have slowed, contributing to its financial struggles. Following layoffs and operational changes, insiders worry Twitch may become a sidelined "zombie brand" at Amazon, while CEO Dan Clancy admitted the platform is not profitable and recently increased subscription prices.

Latest In Emerging Tech

Apple has unveiled a technical paper detailing its Apple Foundation Models (AFM), which power Apple Intelligence, a suite of generative AI features coming to iOS, macOS, and iPadOS. The company emphasized its responsible approach to training data, using a combination of publicly available and licensed data, including web content, open-source code, and specialized datasets for mathematics. Apple's training dataset comprises about 6.3 trillion tokens, and the company employed additional data for fine-tuning to mitigate undesirable behaviors.

Apple's upcoming AI features, part of Apple Intelligence, are reportedly delayed and will miss the initial launch of iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 in September. The company plans to roll out these features by October through software updates, a few weeks after the initial release. Apple is expected to make Apple Intelligence available to developers for early testing this week via iOS 18.1 and iPadOS 18.1 betas.

Meta has introduced Segment Anything 2 (SA2), a sequel to their successful Segment Anything model, which can now quickly and reliably identify and outline objects in video. CEO Mark Zuckerberg unveiled SA2 at SIGGRAPH, demonstrating the rapid advancement in the field of machine learning and computer vision. The new model applies natively to video, offering more efficient processing compared to running the original model on individual frames.

Synchron, a competitor to Neuralink, has integrated OpenAI's ChatGPT into its brain-computer interface (BCI) to help people with paralysis more easily control digital devices. The company's CEO, Tom Oxley, highlighted the potential of ChatGPT to enhance BCI capabilities, while the cost of Synchron's implant is estimated to be between $50,000 and $100,000, similar to other medical implants.

How’s Today’s Coffee?

Do you have any news to share about your Startup or VC fund?
Please email us.

We’ll be back in your inbox Tomorrow.