Lars Albright’s Post

Zip has raised $190 million in new funding, valuing the AI software startup at $2.2 billion. The funding round was led by Bond Venture Partners, with participation from DST Global, Y Combinator, and CRV. Zip's technology streamlines procurement processes for businesses, replacing manual tasks and simplifying approvals. The company plans to use the funds for engineering, research and development, and expansion in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. Zip's clients include Snowflake, OpenAI, Reddit, Inc., and Databricks. The funding reflects a broader recovery in enterprise software investment, driven by AI advancements. Read more: https://lnkd.in/gjwVfD4e #ai #artificialintelligence #aistartup #aifunding

🚨 The AI Gold Rush: Big Tech's New Strategy Needs a Better Path Forward 🚨 It's no secret that Google, Microsoft, and Amazon have discovered a goldmine by leveraging the talents and technologies of AI start-ups. They're cleverly sidestepping full acquisitions, instead snapping up key employees and tech, often leaving these burgeoning enterprises with no room to thrive independently. But should we celebrate this tactic, or is it time to rethink the game plan? ### My Take: 👩💼 This needs to change. We need to protect innovation and ensure that start-ups have a fighting chance at making transformative contributions to the world. The current wave of talent and technology acquisition is squeezing the life out of promising young ventures, leaving the landscape increasingly barren. It’s time for entrepreneurs, investors, and regulators to push back. Let’s fight for a level playing field where creative ideas can flourish without being prematurely harvested. Because at the end of the day, it’s the innovations born from spirited start-up cultures that truly propel industries forward. 🛡️ And if we’re talking about protecting futures, let's not forget about safeguarding financial futures too. 🌟 If you’re considering sound investment options, look no further than Sprott Money. They offer unparalleled expertise in gold and silver investments that can add stability to your portfolio. Discover more at https://lnkd.in/gY8b-CxP. #AIRevolution #TechTakeover #InnovationProtection #FutureOfTech #SprottMoney #SilverSqueeze #FinancialFreedom

Introducing GovSignals - Find government contracts and generate the perfect proposal. What a great use case for AI! Even better - started by founders who are super authentic to the problem and have a winning operating track record. Congratulations to Derek, Ethan, Connor, and Jeremy! To others thinking about starting their own company, GovSignals is a great example of going beyond the high gloss of AI to really dive deep on a super manual workflow that could benefit from AI’s unique ability to scour the collection of human knowledge, find patterns and present curated insight and, in this case, real business opportunity to the customer.

Inflection acquired by Microsoft for $650m after raising $1.3B; last round $4B valuation Inflection was the consolidation salvo of the GenAI industry. The model list is getting pretty long: GPT-4, Claude 3, Gemini, Llama2, Falcon, Mistral/Mixtral, Groq, Cohere, Falcon, DBRX, Ernie, StableLM, Jurassic, Aleph ... many others ... and Pi. Quo vadis post acquisitionem, Pi? Interesting quotes of the acquisition: - Reid Hoffman, "good day for everyone involved in Inflection"; I suppose everyone except the investors - Mustafa Suleyman, "Inflection had not succeeded in finding an effective business model"; the candour is refreshing The WSJ estimates that the GenAI industry spent about $50B buying chips last year and brought in about $3B in revenue. And Inflection, a very well funded startup, could not find a business model in the hottest tech trend ever. We shall soon see who is investing wisely and who is delivering value to customers at unsubsidised prices. Bloomberg article: https://lnkd.in/dYKKbQes WSJ article (paywall): https://lnkd.in/d47HSgNN

Learn more about Scaleout's journey as a deep tech startup in this video with CEO Andreas Hellander and CTO Salman Toor. https://lnkd.in/ddQRZCAZ Big thanks to the host Temy!

A relative deep-dive from a media perspective into the funding of Anthropic. What's wrong with this type of financing from my perspective: 1) The original financing for both OpenAI and Anthropic were reported to be for altruistic purposes. Neither had anywhere near as much as we do (product, systems) at KYield for their first rounds of financing, and ironically our KOS is far more altruistic. What they did have were scientists with demonstrated knowledge on how to build, run, and improve LLMs, and they had massive ambition. 2) However, they didn't have a sustainable business or even plan as far as I can tell, and still don't. Moreover, the data they train on is owned by others and subject to very high legal and regulatory risk. 3) The science involved with LLMs has inherent flaws for accuracy, safety, and security. 4) Most of the funds are from vendors in the form of products and services, which should have a much lower valuation for other investors as the contribution is not the same value as cash. For example, a cloud service provider has pretty good margins -- particularly for elastic computing resources that are unused, so rather than pumping up the valuations they should actually be heavily discounted. 5) There is nothing necessarily wrong with vendors investing in customers as long as it isn't for exclusive use like the OpenAI/MSFT relationship, which has serious market power implications when involving big tech, hence the antitrust investigations. If MSFT wouldn't have done the deal otherwise the deal shouldn't have been done. Bottom line is these financings and valuations were crafted less by market forces than the principals and partners, and not much at all as far as I can tell regarding the risk or sustainability of the technology employed and/or the businesses. These deals are not at all what 95% of what VCs and CVCs claim to be seeking as investments.

Exciting News! 🚀 DataCortex is now part of the Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub! 🎉 This partnership will help us push the boundaries of data analytics and innovation. Stay tuned for what’s next! #DataCortex #MicrosoftForStartups #DataInnovation

We are excited to announce our $6M pre-seed round led by NFX and followed by Darkmode Ventures and top angel investors, founders and executives from OpenAI, Natural Intelligence, ironSource, Google and others. “Running a small business means constantly being in survival mode, lacking the resources and expertise that larger businesses have,” said Mickey Haslavsky, founder and CEO of enso “Small businesses are the backbone of our economy, yet they have passed by the AI revolution,” said Gigi Levy-Weiss, Partner at NFX. “While larger businesses speed by leveraging AI to maximize productivity gains, small businesses struggle to perform the most basic of administrative tasks. Enso is one of the first companies recognizing this need and putting enterprise-grade AI in the hands of emerging companies, democratizing AI by providing access and scalability. We are thrilled to support Enso as it transforms the business landscape and empowers traditional businesses to thrive.” Read more: https://lnkd.in/dDx_AKZh

We are excited to announce our $6M pre-seed round led by NFX and followed by Darkmode Ventures and top angel investors, founders and executives from OpenAI, Natural Intelligence, ironSource, Google and others. “Running a small business means constantly being in survival mode, lacking the resources and expertise that larger businesses have,” said Mickey Haslavsky, founder and CEO of Enso “Small businesses are the backbone of our economy, yet they have passed by the AI revolution,” said Gigi Levy-Weiss, Partner at NFX. “While larger businesses speed by leveraging AI to maximize productivity gains, small businesses struggle to perform the most basic of administrative tasks. Enso is one of the first companies recognizing this need and putting enterprise-grade AI in the hands of emerging companies, democratizing AI by providing access and scalability. We are thrilled to support Enso as it transforms the business landscape and empowers traditional businesses to thrive.” Read more: https://lnkd.in/dDx_AKZh

Yesterday, Berber J. from the The Wall Street Journal wrote an article on how OpenAI's Sam Altman is pushing the boundaries of traditional #corporategovernance. The article explores how much of Altman's wealth is tied up in outside ventures other than in OpenAI itself, turning the economic model that most startup founders grow up, on its head. The model raises critical questions about motivations and potential conflicts of interest, especially as OpenAI raises billions and navigates its governance structure. As #artificialintelligence continues to reshape the business landscape, being cautious along the way forward is crucial for both entrepreneurs and investors. Make sure to check it out here - https://lnkd.in/dkt5DsXN #mergersandacquisitions #openai #innovation #techlaw #vc #foleyforward #garage2global Foley & Lardner LLP