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∆ Tech in the News

50 x Faster Than 5G - The U.S., Japan, and eight other nations endorsed new principles for the global development of 6G networks.

AI In Court - OpenAI claiming the NYT “hacked” ChatGPT to find evidence of use of copyright material. Three more publishers have also now sued OpenAI.

Not “Consistently Candid” - The SEC is investigating whether OpenAI CEO Sam Altman misled investors after being abruptly fired last year.

AI News Tool - Google is raising concerns by paying publishers to test an unreleased AI tool that scrapes articles to craft news content

Data Deal - Tumblr and WordPress parent Automattic is about to sell its user data to OpenAI and Midjourney to help train their AI models.

The Hottest Thing in Tech this Week

Robotic AI-Agents: the Deployment Vector for AGI

There’s an industry-wide push for an AI-integrated workplace, and a trillion-dollar-market emerging as AI agents replace 300M jobs according to a 2023 Goldman Sachs report. However, an emergent synergy is in the sweet spot between AI agents and robotics that hasn’t got much attention until recently.

New AI unicorn Figure.ai is changing that with its LLM-based humanoid robot AI agents for workplaces, primarily focused on heavy and manual labor-focused industries such as warehouse and retail work. The startup just closed a $675M Series B at $2.6B valuation with backing from a star-studded lineup including Microsoft, OpenAI, Nvidia, Intel, Jeff Bezos, ARK, Align, & Parkway VC.

Figure also just announced a collaboration with OpenAI to develop new robotics LLMs. OpenAI has already stated its mission is to move toward an 'AI Agent' vision and AGI, and this partnership could accelerate the process. Figure CEO Brett Adcock believes robotics is key to the AGI problem, saying LLM’s are good at semantics but poor with geometry/physics. He has also said: “if not obvious yet, Figure’s humanoid robot is the ultimate deployment vector for AGI”.

Figure recently showed off their F01 robot learning to be a barista in 10 hours simply by watching humans. This ability to learn visually is the key to how its robotic agents could take over workplaces much quicker than most realize.

“WordPress” for AI agents

An emerging player in this space of LLM-powered digital employees is Newo.ai. The Silicon Valley startup integrates AI agents into the physical realm of robots, blurring the lines between digital and human workers. Newo CEO David Yang claims building AI Agent models on Newo is “10 times faster than other competitors” thanks to its flexible wordpress-inspired customizable presets. Rather than focus on hardware, Newo lets you inserts an LLM-like Agent brain into any robot, with a default of fellow startup Embodied’s Moxie. Alternatively, it can be used in non-humanoid robots, or for purely digital agents.

Deals We’re Watching

Founders to Watch and Opportunities to Catch

Open Deals:

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1. Democratizing Financial Planning - NYC, NY - VC-backed, “SEC-registered AI RIA” making complex financial planning accessible for underserved. Led by fintech entrepreneurs, post-revenue. Seed Stage. Fintech.

2. AI-Powered Personalized Health Insights - Prague - Enabling personalized health insights, telehealth consultations and recurring at-home tests to provide tailored lifestyle advice. (Closing pre-seed). Health Tech.

3. AI-agent for Professional Intros - Irvine, CA - Existing Tech/finance media company looking for growth funding to launch autonomous co-pilot that introduces founders/builders to individuals that can support their growth. Audience of ~600k active members. (Open to financing discussions).

4. Seeking to partner with 1 Real Estate Developer looking to optimize their workflow - Building an AI Copilot for Parcel Identification. Experienced engineering/cybersecurity team, currently engaged in active DOD contracts. (Stakeholder Equity). Proptech.

5. Seed Stage AI Financial Guidance Platform - Rochester, NY - Enables financial firms to increase conversion 10x and improve retention. Ex-JPMorgan exec. $50K ARR with 1 credit union and $7.8MM pipeline. Raising seed. Fintech.

6. Uber for staffing - Cincinnati, OH - $40M ARR technology staffing marketplace specializing in blue collar placements. Raising for tech-optimized M&A of recruiting firm. (Open to financing discussions). Staffing.

Raising for your startup? Send us your Open Round —> [email protected]

Closed Deals:

Farming Goes Vertical - New Jersey vertical farming startup closed a $134M Series B round backed by Mitsubishi and other major Japanese investors.

Revealing Insights - California AI health-tech data and analytics company Reveleer raised a $65M round led by Hercules Capital.

Cover Up - New York startup Coverdash raised a $13.5M Series A to expand its platform for SMEs to find and buy insurance policies tailored to company needs.

Streamlining Construction - Ca. startup Parspec raised a $11.5M seed to streamline the construction materials procurement process.

AI "Control Layer" - Boston’s Enkrypt AI raised a $2.38M seed round to develop a safety control layer for the use of generative AI.

Companies to Watch:

Perplexity-Rival - Palo Alto Enterprise-focused AI search startup Glean has 4x’d sales to $39M ARR adding clients like Canva and Sony. It also just closed a $200M Series D at a $2.2B from Kleiner Perkins, Lightspeed & Databricks.

A16z-Backed Midjourney Rival - Ex-Google Brain AI researchers founded Toronto AI image startup Ideogram which differentiates itself with curated image styles and better UX. It just closed a $80M Series A led by a16z.

IPO Watch

Klarna - The pre-IPO BNPL Fintech giant is seeking to turn around a $241M 2023 loss with its 24/7 AI customer service chatbot, which handled 2.3M chats in Feb (equivalent to 700 FTEs), and will drive $40M in profit in 2024.

Bullish News - Online trading platform Webull will go public in the U.S. via a SPAC deal that values the firm at $7.3B.

The Funding Buzz

Inspired Capital - The NY VC closed its Inspired Capital Fund III at $330M to back early stage “fearless founders solving the hardest challenges facing humanity” with $1M-$15M cheques.

Zacua Ventures - Landed $56M from Procore, Volvo, & Cemex towards its inaugural fund to invest in early-stage construction tech startups.

Black Tech Nation Ventures - The Pittsburgh VC closed a $50M debut fund backed by Alphabet, BoA & Mark Cuban to back Black founders of pre-seed & seed stage fintech, health tech, climate tech, edtech, & AI startups.

Trending Tools and Buzzy Tech

Trending Tools

Microsoft - AI 'Copilot for Finance' revolutionizes spreadsheets.

Nothing - New low-budget Nothing Phone 2a at MWC.

Meta and LG - Partnering on a Quest Pro 2 Headset with smart home features.

Google - announces “Genie” video game generation tool.

Buzzy Tech

MIT - Tech streamlines warehouse robot ops with road traffic learnings.

Tesla/SpaceX - Next Gen Roadster will do 0-60 in 1 Second flat.

SambaNova - 1T parameter “composition of experts” enterprise AI model.

Toyota - Testing a hydrogen car that sucks CO2 from the air as it drives.

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