Industry News

Musk’s xAI shows there’s more money on the sidelines for AI startups

We’re off to an AI-heavy start to the week. OpenAI has a new deal with the Financial Times that caught our eye. Sure, it’s another content licensing deal, but there appears to be a bit more in the tie-up than just content flowing one way and money the other. We also dug into the xAI […]

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Ethiopian plastic upcycling startup Kubik gets fresh funding, plans to license out its tech

Kubik, a plastic upcycling startup, has raised a $1.9 million seed extension, months after announcing initial equity investment. The startup’s latest investment is from African Renaissance Partners, an East African venture capital firm; Endgame Capital, an investor with a bias for technologies around climate change; and King Philanthropies, a climate and extreme poverty investor. The […]

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Deal Dive: Givebutter is turning a profit making tech for nonprofits

Givebutter recently raised $50 million for its CRM platform for nonprofits as startups building tech for that industry gain momentum.

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The ‘valley of death’ for climate lies between early-stage funding and scaling up

It’s easier for climate companies to get enough funding to get started. It’s much harder once they need money to scale.

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How Rubrik’s IPO paid off big for Greylock VC Asheem Chandna

Asheem Chandna says he was so impressed with founder Bipul Sinha’s grit and tech, he led Rubrik’s $40 million Series B in 2015.

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OpenAI Startup Fund quietly raises $15M

The OpenAI Startup Fund, a venture fund related to — but technically separate from — OpenAI that invests in early-stage, typically AI-related companies across education, law and the sciences, has quietly closed a $15 million tranche. According to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, two unnamed investors contributed the $15 million in […]

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Good news for Rubrik, bad news for TikTok and medium news for early-stage startups

Rubrik’s strong IPO pricing and warm reception by the public markets after its listing add more weight to the perspective that the public markets are not as closed to tech startups as some thought. If Rubrik’s result isn’t enough to break the logjam, well, maybe there’s something else going on. But there was a lot more that […]

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Global Founders Capital will deploy Rocket Internet’s cash instead of raising a new fund

Global Founders Capital, the Berlin-based early-stage VC firm with close ties to the German startup factory Rocket Internet, is going to become the venture arm of Rocket Internet. The VC previously raised two $1 billion funds and, just a few years ago, its name appeared in dozens of deals per year. But then, things quietened […]

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xAI, Elon Musk’s OpenAI rival, is closing on $6B in funding and X, his social network, is already one of its shareholders

xAI, Elon Musk’s 10-month-old competitor to the AI phenom OpenAI, is raising $6 billion on a pre-money valuation of $18 billion, according to one trusted source close to the deal. The deal — which would give investors one quarter of the company — is expected to close in the next few weeks unless the terms […]

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The FTC’s ban on noncompete clauses could be good for startups. But it also might be struck down.

The Federal Trade Commission voted 3-2 to ban the use of most noncompete agreements on Tuesday. This ruling means companies can’t require employees who aren’t senior executives to wait a set amount of time before joining a competitor or launching their own company in the same category. While the FTC’s ruling will impact industries like […]

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