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The state of our current brainspace ...
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The European Court of Justice ruled against two of the largest tech companies in the world, upholding a $13 billion judgment against Apple for using its Ireland offices to avoid taxation and a €2.4 billion ruling against Google for abusing its monopoly power in the online shopping space. CNBC has more here and here.
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The power and promise of data is immeasurable. Unfortunately, most data management efforts are manual, scattered, and inefficient. With fund administration by Juniper Square, top venture firms like Ribbit Capital and Rally Ventures can provide key stakeholders with one easy-to-use platform, breaking free from data silos and reducing the risk of human error. Learn more now.
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By Devin Coldewey
It was reasonable to expect that Apple would do with AI what it has done before with so many features and apps: wait, take notes, and then redefine. But though it has filed off some of the sharper edges of the controversial technology, the company seems to have hit the same wall as everyone else: Apple Intelligence, like other AIs, doesn’t really do anything.
Well, it does do something. A few things, in fact. But like many AI tools, it seems to be an incredibly computationally demanding shortcut for ordinary tasks. This isn’t necessarily bad, especially as inference — that is, performing the actual text analysis, generation, etc. — becomes efficient enough to move to the device itself.
It was billed as much more, however. Tim Cook told us at the outset of Monday’s “Glowtime” event that Apple Intelligence’s “breakthrough capabilities” will have “an incredible impact.” Craig Federighi said it will “transform so much of what you do with your iPhone.”
More here
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Form3, an eight-year-old London startup that provides a cloud-based payment processing platform that enables banks and financial institutions to handle account-to-account payments in real-time, raised a $60 million Series C extension round at a $570 million post-money valuation, according to TechCrunch. British Patient Capital was the deal lead. More here.
Formo, a five-year-old Berlin startup that makes animal-free cheese through microbial fermentation, raised a $61 million Series B round. Investors included Indiposa Investments, Sazaby League, Seven Ventures, The Nature Conservancy, and Woodline Partners as well as prior backers Elevat3 Capital, EQT Ventures, Foodlabs, Grazia Capital, Happiness Capital, Lowercarbon Capital, and M Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
Forterra, a 22-year-old company based in Clarksburg, MD, that develops autonomous vehicle systems for defense and industrial applications, raised a $75 million Series B round co-led by Moore Strategic Ventures, XYZ Venture Capital, and Hedosophia Venture Capital. Standard Investments as well as previous investors Crescent Cove Advisors, Enlightenment Capital, and Four More Capital also participated. More here.
Glean, a five-year-old Palo Alto startup that helps businesses manage and search through large amounts of internal data, raised a $260+ million Series E round at a $4.6 billion valuation. The deal was co-led by Altimeter and DST Global, with Craft Ventures, Sapphire Ventures, and SoftBank as well as previous investors Coatue, General Catalyst, Iconiq Growth, IVP, Kleiner Perkins, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Sequoia Capital also piling on. Fortune has more here.
Qualifyze, a five-year-old Frankfurt startup that helps pharmaceutical and life sciences businesses conduct and organize audits across their supply chains, raised a $54 million Series B round led by Insight Partners, with previous investors HV Capital, HarbourVest Partners, H14, and Cherry Ventures also taking part. The company has raised a total of $84 million. TechCrunch has more here.
Quantum Source Labs , a three-year-old Tel Aviv startup that is focused on developing large-scale, practical quantum computers using photonic technology, raised a $50 million Series A round led by Eclipse, with Standard Investments, Level VC, and Canon Equity as well as previous investors Pitango First, Grove Ventures, 10D, and Dell Technologies Capital also joining in. The company has raised a total of $77+ million. SiliconANGLE has more here.
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| Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings |
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aifleet, a four-year-old Austin startup that focuses on reducing wait times and maximizing efficiency for both drivers and freight customers, raised a $16.6 million Series B round led by Heron Rock, with Volvo Group Venture Capital, Obvious Ventures, Ibex Investors, Compound, Winthrop Square, and Cooley also contributing. The company has raised a total of approximately $50 million. FreightWaves has more here.
Brightflow, a French startup that is developing a fully implantable cardiac pump designed to support patients with severe right ventricular heart failure, raised a $18.2 million Series A round. VIVES Partners, Majycc Innovation Santé, and BNP Paribas Development were the co-leads, with GO Capital and Karista also pitching in. MassDevice has more here.
Darkhive, a three-year-old startup based in San Antonio, TX, that develops autonomous drones for military and security applications, raised a $21 million Series A round led by Ten Eleven Ventures and including Crosslink Capital, RTX Ventures, and Stellar Ventures. SecurityWeek has more here.
Neat, a two-year-old Paris startup whose embedded insurance software allows companies to offer insurance products directly to their customers as part of their service or product, raised approximately $33 million in equity and $22 million in debt. Hedosophia led the Series A financing, with Alma Mundi Ventures, ETFS, and Athletico Ventures also joining in. TechCrunch has more here.
P0 Security, a two-year-old San Francisco startup that provides a cloud-based platform for managing identity governance and access control, raised a $15 million Series A round led by SYN Ventures, with Zscaler as well as previous investor Lightspeed Venture Partners also opting in. The company has raised a total of approximately $20 million. SiliconANGLE has more here.
Retraced, a five-year-old Düsseldorf startup whose platform helps fashion and textile companies track and manage their supply chains for sustainability and compliance purposes, raised a $16.5 million Series A round led by Partech, with previous investors Alante Capital, Alstin Capital, Samaipata, and F-Log Ventures also investing. Tech.eu has more here.
Sigo Seguros, a six-year-old Austin startup that provides car insurance designed specifically for immigrant and Spanish-speaking communities, raised a $10.5 million Series A round co-led by Varco Capital and Listen, with additional funds provided by Angeles Ventures, Flintlock Capital, Zeal Capital, Rise of the Rest, and Fiat Ventures. FinTech Global has more here.
Smartcat, an eight-year-old Boston startup that uses AI to enabled businesses to manage and automate translations across different languages and file formats, raised a $43 million Series C round. Left Lane Capital led the transaction. The company has raised a total of $70 million. TechCrunch has more here.
Spare, a Vancouver-based startup that says its software can improve cities’ paratransit systems and bring more on-demand services into the mix, has closed a $30 million ($42 million CAD) Series B round led by Inovia Capital, with participation from Kensington Capital and Nicola Wealth, TechCrunch exclusively learned. More here.
StackGen, a one-year-old San Francisco startup that helps developers by reading an application's code and automatically building the necessary environment (e.g. servers and networks) to run it, raised a $12.3 million seed round led by Thomvest Ventures, with WestWave Capital, FireBolt, and Secure Octane also stepping up. TechCrunch has more here.
Viome, an eight-year-old startup based in Bellevue, WA, that offers health tests that analyze your microbiome and gene expressions to provide personalized nutrition and supplement recommendations, raised a $25 million Series D round. Prior backers Khosla Ventures, Bold Capital WRG Ventures, and Marc Benioff participated in the financing. The company has raised a total of $200 million. GeekWire has more here.
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Ammalgam, a two-year-old Singapore startup that allows users to lend out their digital assets to earn interest or participate in market-making by providing liquidity to decentralized exchanges, raised a $2.5 million seed round co-led by Lightspeed Faction and Framework Ventures, with Robot Ventures, Bodhi Ventures, NGC Ventures, DeWhales, and Blockchain Founders Fund also participating. More here.
CardiaTec, a three-year-old startup based in Cambridge, UK, that is using AI and large-scale multiomics data to discover new treatments for cardiovascular diseases, raised a $6.5 million seed round led by Montage Ventures and including Continuum Health Ventures as well as previous investors Laidlaw Ventures and APEX Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
Illuma Labs, an eight-year-old startup based in Plano, TX, that provides voice authentication and fraud prevention technology for credit unions and community banks, raised a $9 million Series A round led by LiveOak Ventures, with Forefront Ventures, Curql Fund, UsNet, Capital Factory, Connexus, and TDECU also joining in. More here.
Mother Games, a one-year-old New York startup that is developing games designed to help players gain new perspectives or insights about themselves or the world around them through interactive gameplay, raised a $5 million pre-seed round from Box Group, Shine, and Lerer Hippeau. GamesIndustry.biz has more here.
Neurode, a three-year-old Sydney startup that has developed a wearable headband designed to treat and track symptoms of ADHD, raised a $3.5 million pre-seed round led by Khosla Ventures, with PsyMed Ventures also taking part. TechCrunch has more here.
Optimotive, a six-year-old startup based in Windsor, Canada, that builds mobile robots designed for use in industries operating in extreme environments, such as oil and gas, mining, and construction, raised a $2 million seed round led by Version One Ventures and including Garage Capital and Newlab. Private Capital Journal has more here.
Pin AI, a San Francisco startup founded this year that is building a decentralized, on-device AI platform designed to give users control over their personal data, raised a $10 million pre-seed round from Andreessen Horowitz, Hack VC, Anagram Ventures, Symbolic Capital Partners, DCbuilder, Foresight Ventures, Blockchain Builders Fund, and Alumni Ventures Group. SiliconANGLE has more here.
Protégé, a New York startup founded this year that connects data holders with AI developers who need high-quality training data, raised a $10 million seed round led by CRV, with SV Angel, Liquid 2 Ventures, Bloomberg Beta, and Flex Capital also taking stakes. More here.
Spotter, a five-year-old, L.A.-based startup that underwrites creators and offers AI tools, raised $7.4 million, according to a Form D filing viewed by TechCrunch. A representative for Spotter confirmed the filing’s legitimacy, but did not offer further details. The additional funding is much smaller than Spotter’s most recent raise, a $200 million Series D round led by SoftBank in 2022. TechCrunch has more here.
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Digital banking startup Mercury quietly announced it has acquired Teal, a seed-stage startup that builds accounting products and recently raised $8 million.
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Elon Musk's misleading tweets about voter fraud are leading to calls to purge the voter rolls, election officials say. The Washington Post has more here.
John Hering, a college dropout and co-founder of Vy Capital, has committed more than half of his firm's $8 billion in assets under management to Elon Musk's companies. The Wall Street Journal has more here.
At this week's All-In Summit, Google co-founder Sergey Brin said that he is working on AI at Google "pretty much every day." TechCrunch has more here.
The owner of an $85 million waterfront home in Miami’s Indian Creek Village is suing his real estate agent for allowing him to accept a $6 million price cut from an anonymous buyer who later turned out to be none other than Jeff Bezos. The Wall Street Journal has more here.
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A coalition of 42 state and territory attorneys general are asking Congress to require social media companies to post warning labels about the danger their platforms pose to children. The Verge has more here.
SpaceX is about to launch a mission that could "seriously impact [commercial human spaceflight], if not kill it," according to a former astronaut. Business Insider has more here.
Waymo robotaxis in Phoenix and San Francisco are recording 48% fewer crashes per mile than human drivers.
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