Stanford Professor's AI Startup Hits $1 Billion in 4 Months & US considers historic break up of Google

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Top News

World Labs, an AI startup founded by Stanford professor Fei-Fei Li (Known as “Godmother of AI”) , raised two rounds ($100 Million) of financing in quick succession, reaching a $1 billion valuation within four months of its founding. The company aims to create AI models that can accurately estimate 3D physicality of real-world objects and environments, potentially revolutionizing fields like gaming and robotics.

A US judge ruled that Google illegally monopolized the search market through agreements making its search engine the default on devices. The Justice Department and state attorneys general argue these practices block competitors. As a result, the Justice Department is considering proposing remedies, including potentially breaking up Google's units or imposing restrictions on its business practices.

Other Major News

• Former Google CEO blames remote work for company's struggles. (Scroll To Tech Updates)

• Anthropics prompt caching makes your long prompts much cheaper. (Scroll To Tech Updates)

• Social media platform Bluesky has seen a 60% surge in signups in the UK, following Elon Musk's controversial comments on recent nationwide riots.(Scroll To Startups Updates)

• Pitch Framework. (Scroll To Featured Article)

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🗞️ Startup Funding Updates

Consensus, a Boston, MA-based a provider of an AI-powered search engine for scientific research, raised $11.5M in Series A funding. The round was led by Union Square Ventures, whose previous Series A investments include Twitter, Coinbase, and MongoDB. More Here

Sahara AI, a Los Angeles, CA-based provider of a decentralized blockchain platform built for open and equitable AI, raised $43M in funding. The round was led by Pantera Capital, Binance Labs, and Polychain Capital, with participation from Samsung NEXT, Matrix Partners, dao5, Geekcartel, Nomad Capital, SCB 10X, Canonical Capital, Mirana Ventures, Foresight Ventures, Dispersion Capital, Aegis Ventures, Alumni Ventures, and Tangent Ventures, among others. More Here

Sling Money, an Amsterdam, The Netherlands-based provider of an app designed to make the global transfer of money instant, raised $15M in Series A funding. The round was led by Union Square Ventures, Ribbit Capital, and Slow Ventures. More Here

Moximed, a Fremont, CA-based medical device company that aims to improve the standard of care for people with knee osteoarthritis (OA), closed a $61m Series D financing with an option to close on up to an additional $30m. The round was led by Elevage Medical Technologies, a Patient Square Capital platform, with participation from new investors Cormorant Asset Management and Warren Point Capital and existing investors New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Future Fund, Advent Life Sciences, Gilde Healthcare, Vertex Ventures HC, GBS Venture Partners, and Morgenthaler Ventures. More Here

Kiteworks, a San Mateo-based startup that provides tools for securing email communications and sensitive data, has raised $456 million from Insight Partners and Sixth Street Growth. The investment values the company at over $1 billion. Kiteworks plans to use the funds for acquisitions, hiring, R&D, and business development. More Here

EliseAI, a New York City-based startup, has developed a suite of AI-powered property management tools for landlords. The company's technology includes chatbots for tenant communication and a dashboard for property managers to handle various aspects of rental operations. EliseAI has raised $75 million in a Series D round, bringing its total funding to $140 million and valuing the company at $1 billion. The latest round was led by Sapphire Ventures, with participation from Point72 Private Investments, Divco West, Navitas Capital, and Koch Real Estate Investments. More Here

Kalm Therapeutics, a Huntsville, AL-based pre-clinical drug development company, raised $700K in Seed funding. Backers were not disclosed. More Here

Range Media Partners, a NYC-based diversified global talent representation & production firm, secured a minority investment from Verance Capital. The amount of the deal was not disclosed. More Here

CruxOCM, a CA-based company which specializes in co-pilot technology for control room operators, raised $17M in Series A funding. The round was led by M12 (Microsoft’s Venture Fund), with participation from new investors, including ONEOK, Raven Indigenous Capital Partners and EIC Rose Rock Fund and existing investors Angular Ventures, Bullpen Capital, Root Ventures, Industry Ventures, Cendana Capital, Pipeline Capital Partners, and Golden Ventures. More Here

Voiceline, a Munich, Germany-based provider of a smart voice messaging platform for remote and hybrid teams, raised €2.4m in seed funding. The latest round, which brought total funding to €4.2m, was led by Venture Stars and Scalehouse Capital, with participation from angels. More Here

Promethean Particles, a Nottingham, UK-based chemical manufacturing company specializing in metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), raised £8M in Series A funding. The round was led by Mercia Ventures and Aramco Ventures, with participation from existing investors including the Midlands Engine Investment Fund I (Equity Finance fund, managed by Foresight), the University of Nottingham, TSP Ventures, and the East Midlands Early Growth Fund (managed by the British Business Bank). More Here

Capitalize, a NYC-based provider of a platform that helps consumers and financial institutions digitally find and transfer retirement assets, raised $19M in Series B funding. The round was led by RRE Ventures with participation from existing investors including Canapi Ventures and Bling Capital, and new investors including Industry Ventures. More Here

Reforged Labs, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of a video ad creation automation platform for games, raised $3.9M in seed funding. The round was led by DCM, with participation from Y Combinator, Epakon Capital, Goodwater Capital, Phoenix Fund, Asymmetry Ventures, and angel investors, including executives from Niantic and Pocket Gems, and the founders behind King and Sky Mavis. More Here

VoyceMe, a NYC-based provider of a manga and webtoon creator platform, raised an undisclosed amount in new funding, bringing the total capital to $10M. Redpoint Ventures led the latest round with participation from existing investors Torch Capital, Red Sea Ventures, and Clara Vista Partners. More Here

Spline, a NYC-based provider of a collaborative 3D design platform, raised $10M in Series A funding. The round was led by Third Point Ventures, with participation from Gradient Ventures, Y Combinator, Firestreak, Jorn van Dijk (CEO of Framer), and Guillermo Rauch (CEO of Vercel). More Here

definity, a Chicago, IL-based provider of a data application observability & remediation platform for Spark data analytics environments, raised $4.5M in Seed funding. The round was led by StageOne Ventures, with participation from Hyde Park Venture Partners and additional strategic angel investors. More Here

FuseBase, a Cleveland, OH-based provider of a comprehensive AI-powered workflow optimization platform, raised $700K in Seed funding. The round was led by AltaIR Capital, Yellow Rocks, Smart Partnership Capital, and I2BF Global Ventures. More Here

GoWit, an Irvine, Calif.- and Newark, Delaware-based provider of a retail media advertising platform, raised $1.3M in funding. The round was led by Formus Capital, APY Ventures, Mindvest, and DCP. More Here

Actuate, a NYC-based innovator in computer vision technology for remote video guarding, raised $11.5M in funding. The round was led by Gray Line Partners, with contributions from existing investors Tribeca Venture Partners, Bling Capital, Tensility Venture Partners, and Upside Partnership. More Here

EliseAI, a NYC-based provider of a conversational AI platform for the housing industry, raised $75M in Series D funding, at a valuation in excess of $1 billion. The round was led by Sapphire Ventures, with participation from existing investors Navitas Capital, Point72 Private Investments, DivcoWest Ventures, and Koch Real Estate Investments. More Here

Plaio, a Reykjavik, Iceland-based provider of an AI-assisted decision support platform for the pharmaceutical industry, raised €4.3M in funding. The round was led by Iðunn, with participation from existing investors Frumtak Ventures and Dr. Agon. More Here

Companion Protect, a Kansas City, MO-based pet health administration company, raised $20.25M in Series A extension. Backers included Avanta Ventures, Liberty Mutual Insurance, Old Republic International Corporation, and Stray Dog Enterprises. More Here

Pentagon Games, a remote zkEVM Web3 AI-based game publisher, raised $6m in seed funding. Backers included Animoca Brands, Binance Labs, Hyperedge, NFX, Polygon, Republic, Spartan, Tess Ventures, and Yield Guild Games. More Here

Encord, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of an AI data development platform for advanced vision and multimodal teams, raised $30M in Series B funding. The round was led by Next47, with participation from existing investors Y Combinator, CRV, and Crane Venture Partners. More Here

Farmako, India-based medicine delivery startup, raised USD 1.6M in funding. Backers included Unpopular Ventures, Goodwater Capital, 535 West Capital, Bayhouse Capital, and Jude Gomila. More Here

Heatmap, a NYC-based provider of a data analytics tool for e-commerce websites, raised $4M in Seed funding. The round was led by Vine Ventures, with participation from Hawke Ventures, Pari Passu Venture Partners, el cap, and Mu Ventures. They joined Codie Sanchez (Contrarian Thinking Capital), Power One Capital, Quikr, and innovative marketing experts like Nik Sharma (Sharma Brands), Oliver Kenyon & Andy Haskins (Conversionwise), the co-founders of gr0, and more. More Here

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📰 Venture Capital Updates

Radical Ventures, a Canadian venture capital firm that has invested early in a number of popular artificial intelligence startups, has raised nearly $800 million in commitments for a new fund, people familiar with the plans said. The firm is currently approaching the close of a new fund, which will increase its assets under management to approximately $1.8 billion. More Here

📌 Featured Article

Pitch Framework

Have you ever heard an investor say that they can get a feel for how likely they are to invest in a startup within the first few minutes of a pitch, or sometimes even the first minute?

What do they mean by that? And what should you, as a founder, focus on during those first few minutes?

It’s unavoidably subjective to a degree, as each investor may look for different things from founders, but I like this framework from Jean de La Rochebrochard:

Your pitch is about getting the investor from a state of uncertainty to a state of conviction. In the chart above, the “Pitch” column is how you want to speak and deliver information, while the “Emotion” column is what you want the investor to feel (look for body language for signals of this!).

Some important callouts:

The credibility stage is the easiest because it’s largely factual. You either have a relevant and credible background to go after this market or you don’t.

The impression and conviction stages are more subjective — you need to assess on the fly what each particular investor values most from founders.

It’s easier to recover from mistakes in the conviction stage because you’ve already built up some capital from the last two stages of the pitch.

The impression stage is very hard to recover from — so be to the point about yourself, what you’re building, and where you’re at very concisely.

We haves shared in detailed writeup in our Venture Curator newsletter, Check out here…

📑 Startup’s Latest Buzz

Acquisition & Going Public

Valsoft, a Montreal, Canada-based company specializing in the acquisition and development of vertical market software businesses, acquired Equinox Information Systems, Inc., a Nashville, Tennessee-based software provider known for its expertise in fraud management, business assurance, and network monitoring within the telecommunications industry.

Layoffs & Bankruptcy

Cisco Systems announced a 7% global headcount cut to focus on AI and cybersecurity, following rebounding demand for its networking equipment. The company forecasts first-quarter revenue higher than analysts' expectations, supported by its diversification efforts and the $28 billion acquisition of cybersecurity firm Splunk.

Startups & People

Byju's, once India's most valuable startup, faces renewed crisis as the Supreme Court stays a tribunal ruling that halted insolvency proceedings. The decision allows U.S. creditors to resume efforts to recover $1 billion from the edtech firm. Byju's troubles include missed financial deadlines, governance issues, and conflicts with investors. The company, which raised over $5 billion in equity and debt, has seen its valuation plummet from $22 billion to effectively zero by some investors.

Social media platform Bluesky has seen a 60% surge in signups in the UK, following Elon Musk's controversial comments on recent nationwide riots. The increase in activity includes several Members of Parliament joining, as people seek alternatives to X after Musk's misleading posts sparked criticism and calls for stricter online content laws.

🤖 Latest In Emerging Tech

Eric Schmidt, former Google CEO, criticized the company's work-from-home policy, blaming it for Google's AI struggles and asserting that work-life balance was prioritized over competitiveness. During a talk at Stanford University, Schmidt highlighted that startups succeed because employees work intensely and implied that Google should adopt a more in-office work culture to remain competitive in AI.

Anthropic has introduced prompt caching for Claude models, reducing costs by up to 90% and latency by 85%. The feature allows developers to cache context between API calls, enhancing Claude's background knowledge. Currently in public beta for Claude 3.5 Sonnet and Claude 3 Haiku, it's useful for various applications including chat agents, coding assistants, and document processing.

Elon Musk's xAI has launched Grok-2 and Grok-2 mini in beta, featuring improved reasoning and image generation on the X social network, available to Premium and Premium+ users. The models will be available to developers via an enterprise API later this month. Concerns have arisen over the lack of guardrails for creating images of political figures, especially with the U.S. presidential election approaching.

Intel sold its 1.18 million share stake in British chip firm Arm Holdings, raising about $146.7 million. The sale aligns with Intel's restructuring efforts, which include cutting over 15% of its workforce and suspending its dividend to focus on AI chips and manufacturing. Intel's stock has dropped over 59% this year.

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