lIya Sutskever Leaving OpenAI & Google's I/O 2024 Keynote Updates

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👋 Hey, Sahil here! Welcome to today's quick rundown in the Venture Daily Digest Newsletter. I've got the scoop on startup fundraising, fresh VC funds, and some cool tech – all in just 5 minutes ☕! Today’s major updates include -

• Ilya Sutskever, OpenAI's co-founder and longtime chief scientist, has left the company.

• The federal court ordered Elon Musk to testify again in the SEC's investigation into his $44 billion Twitter takeover.

• Tesla plans to lay off an additional 601 employees in California as part of global job cuts initiated by CEO Elon Musk to slash 20% of the workforce.

• Google's I/O 2024 keynote heavily focused on AI, mentioning it 121 times during the 110-minute presentation.

• Featured Article : Y-Combinator's Framework: How Much Traction Is Needed To Raise Funding?

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STARTUP FUNDING UPDATES

Sona, a London, UK-based intelligent workforce management platform for frontline enterprises, raised $27.5M in Series A funding. The round was led by Felicis with participation from Northzone, Google’s AI-fund Gradient, SpeedInvest, Antler, BAG Ventures, and several angels. More Here

Harness, a software delivery platform company founded by Jyoti Bansal and based in San Francisco, has raised $425 million in total funding, including a recent $150 million debt financing from Silicon Valley Bank and Hercules Capital, Inc. More Here

Sesame, a Valencia, Spain-based HR management startup, raised €23M in funding. Backers included PSG and GP Bullhound. More Here

Infinite Orbits, a Toulouse, France-based new space in-orbit services company, raised €12M in funding. The round was led by Newfund Capital along with the EIC Fund, IRDI Capital Investissement and Space Founders France (a CNES’s venture arm). More Here

Magic Lane, an Amsterdam, The Netherlands-based provider of a mapping and location platform, raised €3M in funding. Backers included No Such Ventures. More Here

Fintech Farm, a London, UK-based fintech startup which provides the tools to create neobanks in emerging markets, raised $32m in funding. The funding included an initial Series B round led by Nordstar and an extension Series B round led London Stock Exchange-listed Bank of Georgia. More Here

STON.fi, a London, UK-based decentralized automated market maker exchange (AMM DEX) built on the TON blockchain, raised an undisclosed amount in funding from CoinFund. More Here

Gausium, a Shanghai, China-based company providing autonomous cleaning solutions, raised USD50M in Series D funding. The backers were not disclosed. More Here

Gorgias, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of a customer experience (CX) platform, raised $29M in funding. The round was led by SaaStr and Alven, with participation from Horsley Bridge, Amplify, Shopify, Sapphire, CRV and Transpose Platform. More Here

Nfinite Nanotech, a Waterloo, Onterio, Canada-based creator of plastic-alternative nanocoatings, raised USD6.5M in Seed funding. The round was led by Collateral Good, with participation from Suzano Ventures as a strategic investor alongside investment from FTW Ventures, MaRS IAF, Overlay Capital, Ponderosa, and Republic Capital, including non-dilutive funding from Next Generation Manufacturing Canada. More Here

Shaed, a Minneapolis, MN-based provider of a platform for mobility, raised $5.7M in Seed funding. The round was led by EnerTech Capital, along with Powerhouse Ventures, Joe Pritchard, CEO of Pritchard Companies, and two undisclosed corporate strategic partners. More Here

Worky, a Mexico City, Mexico-based provider of an HR and payroll software solution for companies, raised $6M in Series A funding. The round was led by Atlántico, a Brazil-based fund, with participation from ADP Ventures. More Here

Data Zoo, a Sydney, Australia-based provider of global identity verification solutions, raised $22.7M in Series A funding. Backers included Ellerston JAADE, an Ellerston Capital fund. More Here

Highperformr, a Wilmington, DE-based GenAI startup providing a Social AI platform, raised $3.5M in Seed funding. The round was led by Venture Highway, with participation from Neon, DeVC, and angel investors. More Here

Lumo, a Napa County, CA-based connected irrigation company, raised $7M in funding. The round was led by Active Impact Investments and Fall Line Capital. Mike Winterfield, Founder and Managing Partner at Active Impact, will also be joining Lumo’s Board of Directors. More Here

Purple Dot, a London, UK-based provider of an e-commerce pre-order and waitlist platform, raised $10M in Series A funding. The round was led by OpenOcean, with participation from Commerce Ventures and existing investors Unusual Ventures, Connect Ventures, Moxxie Ventures, and Paul Forster, former CEO and co-founder of Indeed. More Here

Crosby Health, a NYC-based healthtech company providing a proprietary AI to automate administrative tasks, raised $2.2M in Pre-Seed funding. The round was led by Amplo Ventures, with participation from NOMO Ventures and angel investors. More Here

Truveris, a Wilmington, DE-based company which specializes in pharmacy cost containment and program performance, raised $15M in Series E funding. The round was led by two lead investors, Canaan Partners and New Leaf Venture Partners. More Here

Harness, a San Francisco, CA-based modern software delivery platform company, raised $150M in financing. Backers included Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), a division of First Citizens Bank, and Hercules Capital, Inc. (NYSE: HTGC). More Here

Steno, a Los Angeles, CA-based tech-enabled provider of legal support and court reporting services powered by AI, raised $46M in additional funding from undisclosed investors. More Here

Ndustrial, a Raleigh, NC-based provider of a AI-powered energy intensity platform for industry, raised $18.5M in Series B funding. The round was led by ABB and GS Energy, joining existing partners such as Clean Energy Ventures and ENGIE New Ventures. More Here

SmarterDx, a NYC-based company which specialises in clinical AI for revenue integrity and care quality, raised $50M in Series B funding. The round, which brought total funding to $71m to date, was led by Transformation Capital, with participation from Bessemer Venture Partners, Flare Capital Partners and Floodgate Fund. More Here

Brixton Biosciences, a Cambridge, MA-based clinical stage life sciences company developing novel therapies for chronic and acute pain, raised $33M in Series B funding. The round was led by Schooner Capital with participation from SV Health Investors, Sparta Group, Excelestar Ventures, PV Capital Management, and Catalyst Health Ventures. More Here

ChainML, a Silicon Valley-based AI and ML development and research lab that recently launched its Agentic Base Layer, Theoriq, raised $6.2m in seed extension funding. The round, structured as equity with token warrants, was led by Hack VC with participation from Foresight Ventures, Inception Capital, HTX Ventures, Figment Capital, Hypersphere Ventures and Alumni Ventures. More Here

Grasp, a Stockholm, Sweden-based AI assistant for investment banks and management consultants, raised $1.9M in funding. The round was led by Yanno Capital, in partnership with Philian Invest. More Here

Uxlink, a Singapore-based provider of a Web3 social infrastructure, raised over $15m in funding. Backers included SevenX Ventures, INCE Capital, and HashKey Capital. More Here

ArgusEye, a Stockholm, Sweden-based provider of innovative sensor solutions for real-time monitoring of biological systems, raised €2.8M in funding. The round was led by Voima Ventures and existing investor Eir Ventures. More Here

All Things Butter, a London, UK-based butter brand, raised £2.2M in Seed funding. The round was led by Access Industries, and further supported by Active Partners. More Here

VENTURE CAPITAL UPDATES

PeakBridge, a global fund manager in the agri-foodtech sector based in Luxembourg, recently closed on $187 million in capital commitments for its PeakBridge Growth Fund II. The firm, founded by Erich Sieber and Nadav Berger in 2020, focuses on investing in innovation in the agri-food sector to address climate change challenges related to food production and consumption. One of its investments is in Win-Win, a company developing a cacao replacement to address the rising prices and sustainability issues associated with traditional cacao production. More Here

Accion, a global nonprofit, has launched the Accion Digital Transformation Fund, a $152.5 million fund aimed at providing growth capital and strategic support for digital transformation to large financial institutions, including microfinance companies serving small businesses currently excluded from the financial system. The fund will make equity investments ranging from $12 million to $15 million in companies across South and Southeast Asia, Latin America, and Africa. More Here

Blisce, a Paris-based VC firm, is launching a new €150 million (about $162 million) fund dedicated to climate tech startups. The firm has hired Pierre-Edouard Berion to lead the fund, and Lucie Basch, co-founder of Too Good To Go, will serve as a venture partner. The new fund will invest in tech startups that have a positive impact on climate change, particularly in polluting industries like materials, food, construction, mobility, and energy. More Here

FEATURED ARTICLE

Y-Combinator's Framework: How Much Traction Is Needed To Raise Funding?

“Can I raise funding based on an idea without building any product?" This is a common question among founders.

My answer is always "Yes, you can." However, you need to tick off certain criteria that can convince investors of your idea's potential, even without a built product. Many founders make the mistake of underestimating this aspect.

If you’re a regular reader of this newsletter, previously I shared - "For some founders, having a compelling idea and reputation is enough, but for most, they need a combination of idea, market understanding, traction, and a strong team."

Most founders get confused about how much traction is enough and whether they need to build a product to gain traction. In today's write-up, we'll dive into these questions using the Y-Combinator framework.

Some startups like Asana, Zillow, Reddit, Wufuu, and Zenefits managed to raise millions of dollars from leading investors like Y Combinator based solely on their ideas, without having written a single line of code or built a product. What made them stand out and secure funding even without a built product?

The key differentiator lies in answering this simple question: What makes a startup different from other businesses?

A startup is a company designed or created to grow rapidly. If you're not building a company that can scale very, very quickly, then you're essentially building a small business, which is not inherently wrong. However, investors are typically not interested in such companies. Read More Here

WHAT DO YOU THINK? - YESTERDAY’S POLL

STARTUP’S LATEST BUZZ

ACQUISITION & EXITS

GitKraken, a Scottsdale, AZ-based company which specializes in developer tooling, today announced it has acquired CodeSee, a San Francisco, California-based code health innovator. More Here

LAYOFFS & BANKRUPTCY

Tesla plans to lay off an additional 601 employees in California as part of global job cuts initiated by CEO Elon Musk to slash 20% of the workforce. The latest round follows previous layoffs in California, Texas, and New York, totaling over 6,000 employees. These job cuts come amid falling sales and intense price competition faced by the electric vehicle maker. More Here

STARTUPS & PEOPLE

Ilya Sutskever, OpenAI's co-founder and longtime chief scientist, has left the company. He is being replaced by Jakub Pachocki as the new director of research.

Sutskever's departure comes after internal conflicts with CEO Sam Altman over the direction of OpenAI. He plans to work on a new "personally meaningful" project. More Here

The federal court ordered Elon Musk to testify again in the SEC's investigation into his $44 billion Twitter takeover. This is the latest dispute between Musk and the SEC, dating back to 2018. The SEC claims Musk broke securities laws and wants additional testimony after receiving new documents. More Here

Go Digit, an Indian insurance startup, has raised $141 million from prominent investors as part of its initial public offering (IPO) that starts on Wednesday. The startup, which simplifies insurance processes through its digital platform, aims to raise around $313 million in the IPO and is seeking a valuation of about $3 billion. More Here

Glue is a new employee chat app created by David Sacks, co-founder of Yammer, and Evan Owen, aimed at solving "Slack channel fatigue." It is designed around topic-based threads and uses AI assistance from models like ChatGPT and Claude. The company, incubated and funded by Sacks' Craft Ventures, has emerged from stealth and will charge $7 per employee per month after a three-month trial period. Glue's AI can suggest thread topics, summarize conversations, and provide information about employees based on their chat history. More Here

LATEST IN EMERGING TECH

Google's I/O 2024 keynote heavily focused on AI, mentioning it 121 times during the 110-minute presentation. The company's new LLM-based platform, Gemini, was the highlight, being integrated into various Google offerings like Android, Search, and Gmail.

Google had to compete with OpenAI's recent GPT announcement and Apple's expected incorporation of OpenAI's technology at WWDC next month. Here are more updates:

• Gemini AI updates: Gemini 1.5 Pro, Gemini 1.5 Flash for smaller tasks

• Google Search enhancements: AI Overviews, assistant-like planning capabilities

• New AI tools: Audio Overviews, AI Sandbox

• Project Astra: Advancement towards AI assistant like J.A.R.V.I.S.

• Trillium TPU: Sixth-generation TPU for Cloud customers

Product Launches:

• Gemini 1.5 Flash: Lightweight model for low latency tasks

• Veo and Imagen 3: Video generation, high-definition text-to-image

• Audio Overviews, AI Sandbox: Audio discussions, generative AI tools

• AI Teammate: Google Workspace integration for analysis and summaries

• Trillium TPU: Sixth-generation TPU, improved performance and efficiency

A Cruise autonomous taxi in San Francisco. General Motors Co.'s autonomous taxi unit has reached an $8 million to $12 million settlement with a pedestrian who was dragged by one of its self-driving vehicles in San Francisco. More Here

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HOW’S TODAY’S COFFEE ?

That’s It For Today! Will Meet You Tomorrow. Happy Wednesday!☕

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