OpenAI competitor Anthropic has released a new AI model that can control a user's computer. TechCrunch has more here. 

The best founders, found first. Harmonic finds stealth founders six months ahead of the competition.

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By Devin Coldewey

3D printing objects using metal is a well-established technique, but it tends to be too complex, expensive, or imprecise to match traditional methods at scale. Armed with $14 million from Nvidia and Boeing, Freeform aims to change that by building a new metal additive printing process that it says changes the game — and yes, there’s an AI angle, too.

Co-founders Erik Palitsch (CEO) and TJ Ronacher (president) both worked at SpaceX, where they were principal architect and lead analyst, respectively, of the Merlin engines and other programs. While there, they saw the potential of 3D printing parts using metal, but also experienced the method’s shortcomings firsthand.

“We saw the potential of metal printing; it has the potential to transform basically any industry that makes metal things. But adoption has been slow and success has been marginal at best,” said Palitsch. “Why is it not practical to use at scale? Fundamentally, because of three things: crappy and inconsistent quality; speed — commercial printers are very slow; and cost — the price for these printers is astronomical.”

They concluded that if they could operationalize the process to provide a printing service rather than sell a printer, they could crack the whole thing wide open. So they joined up with Tasso Lappas, former CTO of Velo3D, to start Freeform.

More here

AvenCell Therapeutics, a three-year-old startup based in Watertown, MA, that is focused on developing advanced CAR-T cell therapies for treating cancers, particularly blood cancers like acute myeloid leukemia and B-cell malignancies, raised a $112 million Series B round led by Novo Holdings, with F-Prime Capital, Eight Roads Ventures Japan, Piper Heartland Healthcare Capital, and NYBC Ventures as well as previous investor Blackstone Life Sciences also piling on. Endpoints News has more here.

Attention, a three-year-old New York startup that uses natural language processing to analyze sales calls and automatically generate action items, such as follow-up emails and CRM updates, raised a $14 million Series A round led by Alven and including 645 Ventures and Aglae as well as previous investors Eniac, Frst, and Liquid2 Ventures. Business Insider has more here.

Conflux Technology, a Melbourne startup that specializes in the design and manufacturing of high-performance heat exchangers using 3D printing, raised an $11 million Series B round led by Breakthrough Victoria, with AM Ventures and Acorn Capital also opting in. More here.

Counsel Health, a one-year-old New York startup that provides physician-led, AI-powered medical advice via a messaging-based platform, raised an $11 million seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz, with Asymmetric Capital Partners, Floodgate Fund, and Pear VC also taking stakes. More here.

Genmo, a one-year-old San Francisco startup that has built an AI-driven content generation platform that can create videos from text prompts, raised a $28.4 million Series A round led by NEA, with The House Fund, Gold House Ventures, WndrCo, Eastlink Capital Partners, and Essence VC also pitching in. SiliconANGLE has more here.

HealthEx, a two-year-old San Francisco startup that uses AI to streamline patient preferences and consent management and automate security and compliance processes for healthcare systems, raised a $14 million seed and Series A round. The investment was led by General Catalyst, with participation from Electric Capital. More here.

Nesya, a one-year-old Mumbai startup that is creating an AI cloud platform to help businesses build, deploy, and scale AI applications more efficiently, raised a $30 million Series A round. Previous investors NTTVC, Z47, and Nexus Venture Partners co-led the round. TechCrunch has more here.

OneStep, a five-year-old Israeli startup that uses AI to track and improve patients' mobility through a smartphone app, raised a $36 million Series B round co-led by Team8 and Vintage Investment Partners co-led, with LionBird, Aleph, and 10D also taking part. The company has raised a total of $48 million. CTech has more here.

Oriole Networks, a one-year-old London startup that is using photonics technology instead of traditional ethernet to connect AI GPUs in order to increase data transfer speeds and reduce power consumption, raised a $22 million Series A round led by Plural, with previous investors UCL Technology Fund, XTX Ventures, Clean Growth Fund, and Dorilton Ventures also stepping up. EU-Startups has more here.

Rollstack, a two-year-old New York startup that automates the creation and updating of presentations by directly integrating data from tools like Tableau, Looker, and Excel, raised an $11 million Series A round led by Insight Partners and including previous investor Y Combinator. More here.

Socket, a four-year-old San Francisco startup that helps developers and organizations detect and block security vulnerabilities in open-source software packages, raised a $40 million Series B round led by Abstract Ventures, with additional participation from Elad Gil and Andreessen Horowitz. TechCrunch has more here.

Stream.Security, a four-year-old Tel Aviv startup that continuously models an organization's cloud infrastructure and provides security teams with visibility into current and potential vulnerabilities across multi-cloud environments, raised a $30 million Series B round led by U.S. Venture Partners, with Citi Ventures as well as previous investors Energy Impact Partners, Cervin Ventures, TLV Partners, and Glilot Capital Partners also contributing. The company has raised a total of $55 million. CTech has more here.

Tennr, a three-year-old New York startup that has built an AI-powered platform to automate administrative tasks like patient intake, scheduling, and billing for medical practices, raised a $37 million Series B round at a $200 million to $250 million post-money valuation. The deal was led by Lightspeed Ventures, with previous investors Andreessen Horowitz and Foundation Capital also participating. The company has raised a total of $61+ million. Reuters has more here.

TollBit, a one-year-old New York startup that operates a two-sided marketplace that connects digital publishers with AI companies, allowing publishers to license their content for AI training, raised a $24 million Series A round led by Lightspeed, with Section 32 also joining in. More here. 

Authologic, a four-year-old Warsaw startup that provides a digital identity verification platform that consolidates multiple e-ID systems into a single API, allowing companies to streamline KYC processes and prevent fraud without requiring traditional document uploads, raised an $8.2 million Series A round led by OpenOcean, with Y Combinator, Peak Capital, and SMOK VC also investing. Silicon Canals has more here.

Averi AI, a New York startup founded this year whose marketing management platform combines generative AI with human experts to help businesses streamline their marketing operations, raised a $2 million pre-seed round led by led by Right Side Capital Management and Singularity Capital, with participation from Riverside Ventures and Integral. More here.

Qpoint, a two-year-old San Francisco startup that uses eBPF technology to monitor and secure outbound traffic from applications, providing real-time visibility into interactions with external services, raised a $4 million pre-seed round led by Mango Capital, with Preface Ventures, Scribble Ventures, and Bloomberg Beta also chiming in. More here.

Ramdam, a four-year-old French startup that helps brands, agencies, and mobile apps scale their creator ad campaigns by using AI to optimize everything from matching creators to setting prices, raised a $3.15 million seed round co-led by The Moon Venture, Paris Region Venture Fund, and Data Tech Fund, with support from Banque Publique d’Investissement. More here.

Uprise, a three-year-old San Francisco startup that provides an embedded financial advisory platform tailored for small businesses, raised a $3.3 million seed round led by Blank Ventures and including Graham & Walker, Hustle Fund, and Dash Fund. TechCrunch has more here.

Is deal sourcing a priority for you this year? Tune into Affinity’s discussion with Stage 2 Capital on October 29. You’ll hear from Sakib Dadi, Partner, as he shares how to identify high-growth opportunities in emerging sectors and regions and unique deal sourcing strategies. Don’t miss the expert insights, save your spot now.

Infinity Ventures, a three-year-old venture firm with offices in San Francisco and New York, has raised a second fund in the amount of $184 million. Infinity is targeting  pre-seed through Series A deals in fintech and commerce enablement. More here. 

Andreessen Horowitz co-founder and general partner Marc Andreessen is notably wary about AI startups that are developing large language models. “Maybe all of these companies are in a race to the bottom,” he said at the Ray Summit conference earlier this month. TechCrunch has more here. 

Aaron Chatterji, a former chief economist at the U.S. Commerce Department and a professor of business and public policy at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, has been hired by OpenAI to the company's chief economist. The New York Times has more here. 

For the first time since the 1940s, The Federal Aviation Administration has created a new category of aircraft: electric, hybrid, and hydrogen-powered air taxis. Fast Company has more here. 

An airport in New Zealand has instituted a "max hug time" for goodbyes in its drop-off zone. 

Speaking of airports, American Airlines is coming down hard on "gate lice." 

An Australian woman who was looking for her iPhone fell headfirst between two boulders and was stuck in place for seven hours.

Can a conference really be "fun"?

Sotheby's is auctioning off a portrait of famed British mathematician and computer scientist Alan Turing that was created by an AI-powered humanoid robot.