Data Sets
The striking rise of ChatGPT, the chatbot that OpenAI launched in November 2022, along with increased interest in image generators (like DALL-E, Midjourney, and Stable Diffusion), music/sound generators, and code generators, artificial intelligence (“AI”) and generative AI, in particular, has taken the tech world by storm. Not limited to having an impact in Silicon Valley, alone, generative AI – which is a type of AI technology that is trained to produce various types of content, including text, imagery, audio, and synthetic data, in response to user prompts – is bringing with it the potential “to change how everything from the written word to art is created,” as Axios put it not too long ago. It is also raising some interesting and nuanced questions in the legal realm, including in terms of authorship/ownership and infringement.
Against this background (and in light of waning interest in/slowing spending for web3 endeavors), a flurry of funding and acquisition activity is coming to the generative AI space. In addition to tech titans – like Microsoft (which invested $10 billion in ChatGPT developer OpenAI in January 2023) and Google (which backed ChatGPT rival Anthropic with a nearly $400 million investment in February 2023) – pouring money into AI, venture firms have increased their investments in generative AI by 425 percent since 2020 to $2.1 billion, according to Pitchbook’s calculations.
In order to get a handle on what generative AI ventures are garnering the most traction – and funding – and to take the temperature of this space more broadly (and what it means for players in the fashion/retail space), we have compiled a (running) tracker of generative AI-specific funding and M&A. Among the firms on our list are those that focus on using generative AI to compile/analyze environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) data for companies, for instance; those that are looking to bring generative AI to the legal sector; and ones that are angling to deploy solutions to fashion/apparel companies’ complex supply chains using AI …
Verify has raised €1 million in a new funding round with participation from Google for Startups Cloud Program and serial entrepreneurs Niels Bouwman and Chris Hall. The Amsterdam-based AI-powered content verification solution provider will use the new funds to hire AI developers and data scientists and bolster its expansion efforts in Europe and the U.S. Founded in 2024 by Hugo Smits, Verify touts an AI algorithm that embeds invisible fingerprints in images and videos, ensuring their authenticity with 100 percent certainty.
Veesual has raised $7.5 million in a Seed round led by AVP (AXA Venture Partners) and Techstars. The Paris-based AI-powered virtual try-on platform for the fashion industry says that it will use the new funds to fuel growth, including by stepping up its international presence by opening a U.S. office and extending to new markets in the U.S. At the same time, the Maxime Patte and Damien Meurisse co-founded company says it “will be rapidly improving our product suits through the unique technology that we developed, our clients will enjoy even more flexibility and be able to use solutions that allow them or their shoppers to create seamless looks.”
Patte said in a statement, “The global fashion ecosystem is undergoing a seismic shift right now. The industry is increasingly focused on sustainable production, a better, more relevant buying experience and upcycling as a new standard. At Veesual, we’re meeting those changes by drastically improving how shoppers buy online which creates a more inclusive retail experience while also improving fit and reducing waste.”
Spresso has raised “an initial Series A investment” from funds and accounts managed by BlackRock to help “accelerate the company’s global expansion, empowering businesses with a comprehensive suite of data-driven tools to optimize growth, profitability, and operations.” The New York-based provider of AI-powered solutions that empower businesses to optimize pricing, streamline operations, and drive growth in a dynamic e-commerce landscape says that investment “underscores the growing demand for integrated e-commerce solutions,” noting that its “proven track record attracts a diverse clientele, including major international retailers like the AEON Group, Fortune 500 companies, and prominent consumer brands.”
The Brandtech Group has raised a $115 million Series C funding round from new investors Fimalac and NendoLabs and existing investors Mousse Partners and Bansk Group. The New York-based generative AI-focused marketing company, which was founded in June 2015 by former Havas Global CEO David Jones, will use the new funds to “disrupt the traditional advertising industry with AI to create marketing campaigns.” Jones said in a statement, “When OpenAI founder Sam Altman provocatively said, ‘AI Will Handle 95% of Marketing Work Done by Agencies and Creatives,’ the traditional legacy industry was up in arms. We, on the other hand, said: ‘That’s exactly why we built the Brandtech Group.’ The mobile phone made everyone a creator – gen AI makes everyone an ad agency – that may not be very good news for traditional legacy agencies with 100,000 employees. Still, it’s going to be great for the world of marketing in general.”
iCustoms.AI has raised $2.2 million in a Seed funding round from Fuel Ventures, PlugnPlay, Outrun Ventures, Montblu Capital, SyndicateRoom, and leading angels. The London-based company – which aims to simply the notoriously complex customs clearance process for companies by way of AI-powered trade compliance solutions – says it will use the new funds to fuel the company’s growth into ground breaking innovations and further development of its innovative trade compliance platform. “We’re passionate about making life easier for everyone involved in international trade,” said Adnan Zaheer, CEO of iCustoms AI. “Our AI platform eliminates tedious manual tasks, streamlines customs processes, and ensures complete compliance. This funding allows us to expand our tech team, develop new offerings, and make a significant impact on the trade compliance industry.”
Graswald.ai has raised $3.3 million in a new round co-led by Lakestar and Supernode Global with participation from individuals, including Jens Lapinski (Angel Invest), Arnav Bimbhet (former Partner ICONIQ Capital), Chris North (L Catterton), Philipp Klöckner, Patrick Andrae (CEO of HomeToGo), and Andy Lenz (founder of t3n). The German startup, which boasts a 3D content creation platform, enables “brands of all sizes [to] start adopting 3D for their entire product catalogue at low costs without the hurdle of manual processes, complicated logistics and external third-party services.” Founder and CEO Julius Harling said in a statement, “3D is the next generation of medium, but the way it is created is still stuck in the 90s. By leveraging the latest advancements in generative AI, we’re building the future of 3D creation for businesses and individuals.”
Lily AI has raised $20 million in a Series B-1 financing round led by Conductive Ventures with participation from new investors Counterpart Ventures, Cendana Capital, and Transform Capital, and existing investors Canaan, Sorenson Capital, and NEA, bringing its total funding to date is now $62 million. The Mountain View, CA-based retail technology platform, which specializes in AI solutions for retailers and brands, says that it will use this latest funding round to extend its leadership into international markets, expand its social and eCommerce platform integrations, and accelerate the engineering team’s ability to ship enterprise-grade AI solutions across the retail value chain.
“There is tremendous momentum in the market and we are seeing increased demand from retailers looking to leverage proven AI to enhance customer experiences and improve business efficiency,” said Purva Gupta, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, Lily AI.
Frontnow has raised €3.8 million in an extended Seed round led by Peak, with participation from PROfounders Capital and Identity Ventures, which it will use to “further develop its products and expand its sales partner network.” The Berlin, Germany-based tech startup provides “scalable AI solutions for e-commerce,” such as its Frontnow Advisor virtual shopping assistant, which “provides optimal customer advice through relevant information, personalized recommendations, and engaging interaction, enabled by the use of generative artificial intelligence to make communication more effective and ensure long-term competitiveness.”
Raspberry AI has raised $4.5 million in a Seed round from Greycroft, Khosla Ventures, Marigay McKee (former Harrods Chief Merchant Officer), William Detwiler, MVP Ventures, Correlation Ventures, Michael Mente (co-founder and CEO of Revolve), Yael Aflalo (founder of Reformation), and FabFitFun co-founders Michael and Daniel Broukhim. Touting itself as “the future of fashion design,” New York-based Raspberry AI enables users to “precisely visualize trends, fabrics, trims, prints, stitch details, and silhouettes” using generative AI in order to save time on designs and sample costs, increase speed-to-market, and boost sell-through rates and revenue. The fashion-focused AI-powered product development platform was founded in 2022 by CEO Cheryl Liu.
Firsthand has emerged from stealth after raising an undisclosed sum in a Seed funding round led by Radical Ventures, with participation from, Brian O’Kelley (Scope3, AppNexus) and David Rosenblatt (1stDibs.com, DoubleClick), and other “leading technology entrepreneurs.” The New York-based startup says that it enables brands and publishers “to engage with their consumers everywhere, while fully protecting their knowledge assets” via “customizable AI agents and campaign-like distribution.”
The company said in statement, “Until recently, there has been no feasible way for brands and publishers to engage in real-time, one-to-one exchanges with consumers on and off their digital properties — where they can fully control how, when, and where their data and content assets are surfaced to consumers. The introduction of AI agents presents an unparalleled opportunity for companies to connect and interact with their audiences directly at scale through AI exchanges and consumer-directed actions.”
BRIA has raised $24 million in a Series A round co-led led by GFT Ventures, Intel Capital, and Entrée Capital with additional investors including, Publicis Groupe, Getty Images, Samsung Next, IN venture, Atinum Investment, Z Venture Capital, Mirae Asset Venture Investment, J-Ventures, and others. The Tel Aviv, Israel-based company developed a visual generative AI open platform that it says enables companies to “easily tailor their visual requirements and allows developers to seamlessly integrate generative AI capabilities into any existing product, solution, or system as a source code and pre-trained model, API, and SDK.”
“With the rapid adoption of generative AI in commercial operations, and as 70% of CEOs agree with the need to act urgently on generative AI to avoid giving their competitors a strategic advantage, it is vital that final outputs are developed from ethical, unbiased, and licensed sources without holding the foundation models in a walled garden,” said Dr. Yair Adato, founder and CEO of BRIA. “It is essential that companies are equipped with generative AI capabilities as part of their core technology stack so they can seamlessly scale their operations and ensure they own intellectual property and data. This is precisely what BRIA is providing to any company using our licensed-sourced platform and we are thrilled with this opportunity to empower more businesses with the ability to generate AI responsibly.”
Qloo has raised $25 million in a Series C round was led by AI Ventures, with participation from AXA Venture Partners, Eldridge, and Moderne Ventures. The New York-based “pioneer in cultural AI” says that it operates “a sophisticated AI-powered insights engine composed of highly-accurate behavioral data from consumers around the globe, which includes over half a billion attributes such as consumer brands, music, film, TV, podcasts, dining, travel, and more.” Its proprietary AI models are “capable of identifying trillions of connections between these entities, assisting major brands in understanding and acting on customers’ tastes and preferences.”
“Qloo has always been at the forefront of merging cultural knowledge with advanced AI to create a reliable source of truth for insights into consumer tastes and our world,” states Alex Elias, Founder and CEO of Qloo. “For over a decade, we have been committed to refining our cultural data science, and we are now entering an exhilarating phase of expansion fueled by the growing importance of privacy and the democratization of AI technology.”
AI.Fashion has raised $3.6 million in a Seed funding round led by Neo. The Los Angeles, CA-based leader in AI technology for the fashion industry says that it is “committed to ensuring real humans and creatives remain central in fashion’s AI-driven future via a suite of tools fostering collaboration between models, designers and brands.” AI.Fashion – which was launched in 2023 by experts from Google, Microsoft, and MIT – enables virtual photoshoots, advanced design and image customization and real-time interactions, all enhanced by AI.Fashion’s proprietary technology, “Persona” by AI.Fashion, developed with unique advanced AI technology, is tailored to keep human talent and creativity at the forefront of fashion.
CAMB.AI has raised $4 million in a Seed funding round led by Courtside Ventures with participation from TRTL Ventures, Blue Star Innovation Partners, Ikemori Ventures, and individual investor Eisaburo Maeda. The Dubai-based company – which provides AI-powered voice translation and video dubbing in over 100 languages, dialects, and accents – will use the new funds to enhance its business operations and pursue further expansion. Co-founded and led by Avneesh Prakash, CAMB.AI’s tech has found applications in various sectors, including the film and sports industries, as well as consumer goods.
Kore.ai has raised $150 million in funding in a round led by FTV Capital, with participation from NVIDIA and existing investors such as Vistara Growth, Sweetwater PE, NextEquity, Nicola, and Beedie. The new funding will be used to accelerate Orland, Florida-based Kore.ai’s market expansion and continuous innovation in AI to deliver tangible business and human value at scale. Raj Koneru, founder and CEO of Kore.ai, which touts itself as “a leader in enterprise conversational and generative AI platform technology,” counts major brands, such as AT&T, Cigna, Coca-Cola, Airbus and Roche, as clients.
Legalyze.ai has raised $100,000 in an Angel round from Bethesda, Maryland-based venture capital firm Payment Ventures. The rising AI startup, which specializes in AI-powered solutions for legal workflows, including GenAI and AI document review, says that it is “poised to revolutionize how legal professionals handle casework.” Legalyze.ai CEO Chris Ford says the “new funding will propel us forward, enhancing our platform’s features and extending our reach in the legal tech market.”
E-commerce personalization platform provider Bloomreach has acquired Radiance Commerce, “a revolutionary, enterprise-grade conversational commerce platform powered by the latest in generative AI.” The parties said in a statement that “using large language models, Radiance guides customers on their shopping journey through expertise-based selling, product search, recommendations, and exploration.” aj De Datta, the co-founder and CEO of Bloomreach, said, “Bloomreach is fully invested in an AI-driven future for e-commerce, and Radiance Commerce is critical in helping us bring that future to life,” said Raj De Datta, co-founder and CEO, Bloomreach. “We have the most robust commerce dataset out there and commerce-specific AI connected to every channel in the shopping journey. Now, we take that unmatched foothold in e-commerce a step further, advancing our conversational capabilities and moving even faster to make Bloomreach Clarity available to businesses around the world.”
Artisse AI has raised $6.7 million in a Seed round led by The London Fund. The New York-based company, which touts itself as a “pioneering force in human-centric AI image technology,” says the funding comes “as it further accelerates the business on its mission towards reshaping the photography industry and the future of digital creativity.” Founded in 2023, Artisse provides AI and blockchain technologies for industries, enabling individuals to “create personalized photos instantly, to choose settings, postures, clothing, hairstyles, and facial expressions to generate outputs in a matter of minutes,” and providing “business solutions across numerous sectors such as advertising, modeling, lifestyle, tourism, and intellectual property.”
Recraft has raised $12 million in a Series A round led by Khosla Ventures and former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman with participation from RTP Global, Abstract VC, Basis Set Ventures, Elad Gil, Zhenya Loginov, Dharmesh Shah, and Akshay Kothari. The London-based AI-powered tools provider will use the new funds for an R&D drive that includes developing its own generative AI foundation model to create assets like images or video from text prompts. Redraft founder and CEO Anna Veronika Dorogush said, “I truly believe that AI has the ability to reshape design and influence the way that we look at the world. Recraft was created to meet the requirements of professional design, generating consistent style images and high-quality vector illustrations suitable for everything from advertising and digital marketing assets to iconography. And the development of our Foundation Model will enable us to improve the quality and consistency of the AI-generated graphic design.”
GreyOrange Inc. has raised $135 million in a Series D round led by Anthelion Capital (formerly Cowen Sustainable Investments) with participation from existing investors, such as Mithril, 3State Ventures, and Blume Ventures. The New York-based leader in AI-driven fulfillment automation says that this investment “reinforces [its] innovative approach to transforming warehouse and retail store operations through a hardware-agnostic software platform and a dynamic range of certified robotic and sensing technologies.” It will use the new funds to “accelerate [its] technology leadership, continue its global expansion, and further support the adoption of GreyOrange’s fulfillment orchestration platform in warehouses, distribution centers, and retail stores.”
“As we scale our technology and enhance customer experiences and operational efficiency, we recognize that keeping the needs of our customers at the center of our product and solution roadmap has proven essential for our customers’ success, as well as our own,” said Akash Gupta, Co-Founder and CEO, GreyOrange. “This Series D funding amplifies our commitment to leadership within the AI and robotics orchestration space and affirms our thought leadership within this market.”
Recraft has raised €11 million in a Series A round led by Khosla Ventures and Nat Friedman, with participation from RTP Global, Abstract VC, Basis Set Ventures, Elad Gil, Zhenya Loginov, Dharmesh Shah, and Akshay Kothari. The London-based generative AI design tool provider will use the new funds to “fuel the new era of AI in professional design.” Founded in 2022 by Anna Veronika Dorogush, Recraft is one of the first generative AI design tools that enables users to generate and edit vector art, icons, 3D images and illustrations within a brand’s style controls, such as the colour palette, geometry of icons, and the style of lines. This enables designers to create branded assets without solely relying on text prompts.
Arcane has raised $5 million in a Seed funding round led by Accel, with participation from Cocoa, Firstminute Capital, Kima Ventures and Seedcamp. Angel investors included Meta’s VP Product for generative AI Connor Hayes, Monzo founder Tom Blomfield, Supercell CEO Ilkka Paananen and WeWork President Anthony Yazbeck. The London, UK-based provider of an AI co-pilot for modern marketers will use the new funds to expand its engineering and data teams ahead of an open beta launch. Co-founder and CEO Ben Hacking said in a statement, “The vast majority of marketers’ time is spent on work other than copy generation, so we see significant potential in augmenting and automating these tasks. To do this, we’ve combined the latest AI technologies (retrieval augmented generation, autonomous agents and multi-modal models) to chain together workflows that capture more of marketers’ repetitive activities, giving them time back to focus on higher impact tasks.”
Myth.AI has raised $1.3 million in a Seed funding round from backers, including Birkan Kül of Getir.com, Emre Kozlu, and the founder of Turkish textiles firm Faik Ulutas. The Turkish startup, which provides an AI-driven pattern design tool to help designers fight textile waste, will use the new funds to grow further in the market in the United Kingdom and start expanding in additional markets, as well. Led by founder Özgecan Üstgül, Myth.AI offers “a generative AI solution that uses visual or text prompts to streamline the design of new and unique patterns for brands across Europe.” Üstgül said in a statement, “Our technology currently allows brands to create distinctive patterns within minutes, setting them apart in an industry often reliant on fabric suppliers. By drastically streamlining the process, we’re not only enhancing efficiency but also addressing fashion’s sustainability issues by significantly reducing fabric swatches and prototypes.”
Signum.AI has raised an undisclosed sum in a Seed funding round from investors, including RTP Global, AngelsDeck Global Ventures, and US-based angels associated with Open.AI. The New York-based AI startup, which specializes in automating B2B customer insights research, will use the new funds to “fuel its growth initiatives, including expanding its market presence and improving its technological capabilities.” In a statement, Signum.AI said that its platform “meticulously tracks key changes within target industries, companies, and individuals, including job vacancies and social media activity, and summarizes this vast data to offer actionable insights.”
Pimento has raised €3 million in a Seed funding round led by Partech and Cygni Capital, alongside many business angels, including Julien Chaumond (Hugging Face), Stanislas Polu (Dust), Thibaud Elzière (Hexa), Jean-Charles Samuelian (Alan), Igor Manceau (creative director, ex-Ubisoft), Jonathan Widawski (Maze), Alessandro Sabatelli (ex-Apple) and Nicolas Steegmann (ex-Stupeflix). The Paris-based generative AI system provider will use the new funds to “enhance its interface and develop models specifically designed for the creative process, surpassing the limitations of generic solutions currently in existence.” Co-founder Florent Facq says, “Being creative is not just about generating an image; it’s about creating a coherent and relevant universe, defining clear and powerful aesthetic intentions. Current generative AI models don’t meet these challenges. We need to push technology and interfaces even further.”
On has raised $25 million in a new round from Equiam, B3 Capital, Commonwealth Financial Network, and Mirae Asset Venture Investment, bringing the company’s total funding to date to $80 million. The San Francisco, CA-based AI chat platform provider, which is led by Alex Beckman, Kalin Stanojev, and Nate Simmons, provides an AI chat platform designed for enterprise-level use. On says that it enables its partners, including brands like Armani and Valentino, and sports teams like the Philadelphia 76ers, to “create new and sustainable revenue streams backed by AI while connecting with their customers and fans.”
AutogenAI AutogenAI has raised $39.5 million in a Series B round co-led by Salesforce Ventures and Spark Capital, with participation from Blossom Capital. The New York-based enterprise-level artificial intelligence company says that the funding – which marks the company’s second fundraise in four months and brings its total funding to date to $65.3 million – will enable it to “further develop its bid-writing product suite helping businesses more efficiently win more work.”
Syrup has raised $17.5 million in a Series A round led by Accel Partners with participation from existing investors Gradient Ventures and 1984 Ventures. The New York-based company, which provides AI-powered planning, buying, and inventory optimization for omni-channel commerce, will use the new funds to “support expansion,” including by “building on its foundation of world-class machine learning talent, growing its team across engineering, product, and sales.” James Theuerkauf co-founded and led Syrup said in a statement, “Increased accuracy in forecasting takes the guesswork out of merchandise planning, helping reduce overproduction,” asserting that the “Syrup solution connects inventory data with a unique mix of historical, transactional, and real-time data so that planning teams can make optimal decisions with confidence.”
Haut.AI has raised €2 million in a Seed funding round from LongeVC and the VC arm of Grupo Boticário shareholders to “support [it] in expanding and scaling its no-code skincare e-commerce personalization software, and R&D will focus on multimodal generative AI for skin analysis.” Tallinn, Estonia-based Haut.AI says that its “technology, rooted in scientific precision, enables retailers and brands to provide accurate digital skin assessments and tailored product suggestions, both in-store and online.” Co-founder and CEO Anastasia Georgievskaya said in a statement, “Using innovative AI, we’ve made a selfie a potent diagnostic tool for online businesses, followed by a personalized product journey. It’s not just about recommendations; it’s a precise skincare analysis ensuring everyone can be served, regardless of age, gender, or location.”
Urbanic has raised $150 million in a Series C funding round from Switzerland’s Mirabaud Lifestyle Impact and Innovation Fund, New York-based public-private hybrid investment firm D1 Capital Partners, JAM Fund and other global investors and European luxury fashion families. Previous backers include Nexus Venture Partners and Sequoia Capital. The London, UK-based fashion brand will use thew new funds to “support [its] mission to transform the fashion industry by leveraging AI and machine learning-based models, which are supported by its proprietary large language model that is trained on a variety of codebases to “systematically generate fashion designs, AIGC-based creatives and content, and improve overall supply chain efficiency to the next level for the fashion industry.” Founder James Wellwood said in a statement, “We will continue to leverage groundbreaking technology and partnerships with manufacturers and suppliers who comply with the highest standard of international working conditions that protect our people and our planet. We are grateful for the support of our investors whose funding will meaningfully accelerate our ability to bring new designs and clothing to our customers across our markets globally.”
Tradespace Inc. has raised $4.2 million in a Seed funding round led by Eniac Ventures with participation from Abstract Ventures, Amplo VC, and Scrum Ventures, bringing the company’s total raised to $5.2 million. The San Francisco, CA-based provider of an AI-powered IP management platform will use the new funds to “deliver the first IP platform powered by a purpose-built large language model (LLM) trained on the largest dataset of open-source and proprietary IP data.” Tradespace founder and CEO Alec Sorensen said in a statement, “IP has long been one of our economy’s most valuable assets, but it’s also been one of the most underutilized,” noting that “while IP now accounts for 90 percent of the S&P 500’s total valuation, companies rarely commercialize it. Instead of driving groundbreaking innovations, most IP is trapped on the shelf, gathering dust.”
Atlas has launched from stealth in the wake of raising $6 million in Seed funding: a $4.5 million round led by 6th Man Ventures (6MV) and a $1.5 million round led by Collab+Currency. Other participants include a16z Scouting Fund via Shrapnel, Contango, Gaingels, GFR Fund, New Renaissance Ventures, Square Enix, and Wagmi Ventures. The Los Angeles-based 3D generative AI platform — which partners with game developers and brands to build virtual worlds and experiences in a fraction of the time — will use the new funds to accelerate the expansion of its suite of developer solutions and the buildout of a self-service 3D AI creator platform. “We’re thrilled to partner with such innovative leaders who share our vision for the future of content creation,” said Ben James, CEO, Atlas. “With our official launch and round close, Atlas will continue to develop our 3D AI using our unique, creator-first systemic approach so we can help more builders create the next evolution of gaming and virtual experiences.”
Zelig has raised $15 million in a Series A round led by Hilco Global with participation from global luxury investor Bezikian Zareh, bringing the company’s valuation to a $100 million. Launched by MadaLuxe Group co-founders Sandy Sholl and Adam Freede, Los Angeles-based Zelig says that its “patented technology is the first to offer a hyper-personalized online shopping experience that recreates the in-store fitting room experience,” stating that its “B2B2C technology platform combines AI, machine learning and computer vision to show shoppers high-quality images of how clothes, footwear and accessories would look on their body type.” The company will use the new funds to “deepen its personalization capabilities and build out additional features.” Sholl said in a statement, “The technology provides a high-quality, virtual try-on experience that allows online consumers to create different looks and see themselves in those outfits as they shop across an e-commerce site. This first-of-its-kind solution gives consumers more confidence in their selections and the ability to make more qualified purchase decisions, which will significantly increase AOV and reduce returns. Zelig also provides brands with valuable data insights they can use to automate personalized marketing that drives customer retention and loyalty.”
Connectly, the “leader in conversational commerce,” has raised $7.85 million in a Series A round led by Volpe Capital, with participation from RX Ventures and Saurabh Gupta, managing partner of DST Global, bringing its total funding to date to $17.25 million. Founded by industry veterans from Facebook, Google, Uber, and NASA, and backed by Unusual Ventures, Connectly uses proprietary artificial intelligence (AI) models to automate how businesses communicate with their customers and sell their products. “This investment marks a critical milestone in Connectly’s journey,” said Stefanos Loukakos, co-founder and CEO, Connectly. “Not only does it provide us the opportunity to expand our platform and continue developing state-of-the-art AI models, but it also marks our entrance into the U.S. market. What’s more, this funding round will aid our expansion onto new messaging platforms and further our position as a leader in conversational AI. This is just the beginning of an exciting new chapter for us.”
1337 (pronounced “Leet”) has emerged from stealth with the announcement of a $4 million Pre-seed round with participation from Credo Ventures, GFR Fund, Treble Capital, Roosh Ventures, and individuals including Hugging Face CEO Clément Delangue and impact investor Natalia Vodianova. The New York-based generative AI platform, which is “committed to connecting niche communities through hyper-personalized interests,” will use the new funding to develop a scalable platform that will facilitate the expansion of its Entity ecosystem to thousands of niche communities in the near future, while also broadening its global creator community. “Niche communities collectively represent a massive audience of people online,” said 1337 co-founder and CEO Jenny Dearing. “1337 is building a new way for these deeply engaged community members to collaborate and interact with each other thanks to the addition of multimodal large language models.”
Direqt has raised $4.5 million in funding from a private consortium of entrepreneurs and executives, including Todd Parker, former Global Head of Business Development for Business Messaging at Google, NFL Hall of Famer Dan Marino, Peter Callahan, Former CEO of American Media, Ron Antevy, Founder & CEO e-Builder and Dave Walsh, Partner at Kayne Anderson. Used by leading publishers, including ESPN, GQ, WIRED, Vogue, and Cosmopolitan, the funding will enable Seattle, Washington-based Direqt to expand its customizable AI chatbot solution. “With the rise of generative AI, consumers are increasingly interfacing with chat, presenting new opportunities for publishers. But building AI chatbots from scratch is not only time and cost-intensive, but existing solutions like ChatGPT are trained on data across the internet, raising legal and accuracy concerns,” said John Duffy, co-founder and CEO at Direqt.
VisionAI has raised €5 million in a Seed round led by HV Capital with participation from Christian Reber (founder at Pitch, Superlist, Wunderlist, and Interface Capital), Niklas Jansen (co-founder at Blinkist), Oliver Flaskämper, Philipp Westermeyer (founder at OMR). The Bielefeld, Germany-based startup uses AI to provide e-commerce merchants with better search results and cross-selling opportunities. “When selling online, it is crucial that the right person finds the right item immediately. Our tools open the eyes of online shops and thus ensure more sales,” explained VisionAI founder Melvin Schwarz. “With our cross-selling tool, partner shops were able to increase their sales by more than 10 percent.”
Reality Defender has raised $15 million in a Series A round led by DCVC, with participation from Comcast, ex/ante, Partnership Fund for New York City, Rackhouse Venture Capital, and Nat Friedman’s AI Grant. Co-founded by Ben Colman (CEO), Ali Shahriyari (CTO), and Gaurav Bharaj (Head of R&D) New York-based Reality Defender touts itself as “the premier deepfake and AI-generated media detection platform.” The company said in a statement that it “provides enterprises, content platforms, and governments with bleeding-edge solutions to proactively detect deepfake and AI-generated content across audio, video, images, and text. In just two years, the company has partnered with enterprises, governments, and platforms to detect millions of deepfakes, deflect state-sponsored attackers, stop disinformation, and prevent advanced voice fraud in real time.”
Harmony has raised an undisclosed sum from Connetic Ventures. The Minneapolis, MN-based digital platform utilizes AI to personalize workplace communications.Co-founded by Zach Gunderson and David Barta, Harmony provides an AI driven platform that helps translate personality and communication styles through behavioral psychology.
Invoke AI has raised $3.75 million in a Seed funding round led by Storm Ventures, with participation by SignalFire and Universe Software. The Atlanta-based company, provides open-source generative artificial intelligence software built for artists and creative teams, will use the new funds to “expand the support of the open-source software project’s community of architects, ad agencies, artists, game designers, graphic and product designers, build out the technology and bring to market an enterprise SaaS platform for creative teams, and expand a Generative AI ecosystem that equips visual artists and creatives with the latest in AI research.” CEO Kent Keirsey said in a statement, “It’s been decades since computer automation was introduced to graphic arts and product design, bringing tremendous productivity improvements. Today, AI brings the same potential to augment the creative work of artists and creative professionals. We started our project as an open-source tool built to empower creatives instead of having this technology undermine them. AI needs to amplify the humanity found in creative work, letting people focus on realizing their vision while reducing the work with which technology can assist.”
Prins AI has raised $100 million in a Series B round led by AAB VC. The Lakewood, Colorado-based tech company utilizes advanced AI to create digital identities for enterprises, brands, celebrities, and individuals that can be deployed in various online and offline scenarios including broadcasting media, brand marketing, e-commerce live streaming/short videos, educational entertainment, and AR/VR. In a statement, PRINS AI said, “Following our previous rounds,” including a $22 million Series A+ in August 2023 and a $10 million Series A before that, “this injection of capital significantly fortifies our financial position. The funds will be directed towards ramping up our research and development efforts in deep learning technology, expanding our talented team, and broadening the functionalities of our platform across various scenarios including broadcasting media, brand marketing, and more. We are on a mission to redefine digital identity through AI, and this funding propels us closer to that vision.”
Yaysay has raised $10.3 million in a Seed funding round led by Alex Taussig at Lightspeed Venture Partners with participation from Kevin Hartz, Founder of Eventbrite and A* Star; Alexandra Wilkis Wilson, Founder of Gilt Group; Rati Sahi, President/COO of The RealReal; Julie Bornstein, Founder of The Yes; Shira Suveyke, Executive from ShopBop, Outnet, and Gilt Groupe; Gaurav Jain, Founder of Afore; Moshe Lifschitz, Co-Founder of Shrug Capital; and Emily Heyward, Founder of Red Antler. The New York-based company will use the funds to launch its “first-of-its-kind shopping app combines AI-driven personalization with gamification to transform the off-price shopping experience,” which is currently in Beta mode. Founded by Philip Krim, Co-founder and former CEO of Casper, and CEO Lindsay Ferstandig, former Stitch Fix executive, Yaysay said in a statement that it is “pioneering a new mobile shopping paradigm, tailoring the shopping experience for each user by leveraging AI to curate a personalized fashion feed and present shoppers with the perfect items at irresistible prices.”
“While mobile shopping is convenient, it is generally uninspiring for brands and consumers alike. With Yaysay, we are creating an elevated brand experience that brings the joy back to shopping, transforming deals from the most covetable brands into addictive bites of fun,” says Yaysay CEO Lindsay Ferstandig.
Darrow has raised $35 million in a Series B round led by B2B specialist Georgian, with F2 and previous backers Entrée Capital and NFX also participating bringing its total funding to date to $54 million. The New York and Tel Aviv-headquartered company leverages generative AI to “ingest large amounts of publicly available documents to search for class action litigation potential across areas like data privacy violations and environmental contamination,” per TechCrunch. Founded in 2020 by CEO Evyatar Ben Artzi, CTO Gila Hayat, and Elad Spiegelman, Darrow says that “every day, countless legal violations slip through the cracks, from harmful pollution affecting poor communities to data breaches endangering people’s sensitive information. It’s not humanly possible for lawyers to sift through endless amounts of data to detect every potential case. Darrow helps you cut through the noise.” The company will use the new funds to onboard new employees in engineering and business development, bulk up its search and analytics tools, and expand the capabilities of its large language models.
Paxton AI has raised $6 million in a Seed round led by WVV Capital, with participation from Kyber Knight and 25Madison, as well as former Citigroup chairman Richard Parsons and former Goldman Sachs international compliance head Robert Mass. The Portland, Oregon-based startup says that its AI platform “compiles a comprehensive spectrum of regulatory information, including all state and federal laws and regulations, and provides the capability for users to upload and leverage additional proprietary documents” in order to “lighten the load of legal research and drafting, allowing your team to accomplish more with higher accuracy, in less time.” Going beyond “mere search functions,” Tanguy Chau-co-founded and led Paxton “can answer intricate regulatory queries, draft a range of legal materials, and provide insightful feedback on various types of documents.”
Writer has raised $100M in a Series B round led by ICONIQ Growth with participation from WndrCo, Balderton Capital and Insight Partners, Aspect Ventures and Writer customers Accenture and Vanguard. The round brings the total funding to date for San Francisco, CA-based provider of a generative AI platform for enterprises to $126 million and values the company at between $500 million and $750 million post-money. Led by CEO May Habib, Writer says that it “combines LLMs, NLP, and ML with your brand and knowledge to build AI into all your business processes.” Habib told TechCrunch,“Many enterprises are still just scratching the surface on generative AI, mostly building internal ‘CompanyX-GPT’-type of applications. The harder, more impactful use cases require a lot more know-how on retrieval augmented generation, data gathering and cleaning and workflow construction, and they’re realizing that that’s 90% of the work. That’s the part that Writer makes much easier — and all of the data plus the large language model (LLM) can be hosted in an enterprise virtual private cloud, which makes it workable for enterprises.”
Pixis has raised $85 million in a Series C1 round led by Touring Capital with participation from Grupo Carso, General Atlantic, Celesta Capital and Chiratae Ventures. The round brings Pixis’ total funding to $209 million. The “leading codeless AI infrastructure company focused on enabling brands to enhance performance marketing,” Pixis says it will use the new funds to “deepen [its] AI capabilities, accelerate global expansion, invest in R&D to refine and launch a generative AI-powered creative studio, and build strategic product and business partnerships.” The San Francisco-based company “develops accessible AI technology for growth marketing and has a rich product suite that includes targeting, in-flight performance optimization and generative AI capabilities.” It counts more than 200 global brands, including DHL, Carsome, JOE & THE JUICE, Kavak, HDFC Bank, as clients.
“With this capital raised, we will continue to concentrate on strategic channel partnerships with renewed vigour, and invest heavily in our R&D efforts,” said Shubham Mishra, Pixis’ co-founder and CEO said in a statement.
Databutton has raised $5.1 million in a Seed round was led by Skyfall Ventures and Maki.vc. The Oslo, Norway-based provider of an online app builder for innovators and entrepreneurs will use the new funds to “further refine its offer in close collaboration with its expanding user community.” Founded by Trygve Karper, Martin Røed, and Viral Shah, Databutton provides a platform with AI-assisted tools to build AI apps that can help businesses work smarter and make better decisions. Users can chat with Databutler, discuss and build code together, problems, ask advice and get inspiration. They can connect to online models and frameworks – includes Open AI’s GPT-4, Streamlit (the open-source app framework used to build and share apps), Langchain’s language model app framework, and more. Databutton CEO and co-founder Trygve Karper said, “We’re excited to have secured this funding, which will allow us to bring Databutton to market and revolutionise the way businesses create and share AI apps. Our AI-assisted product will empower anyone with domain knowledge and ideas to unleash their inner superheroes, enabling them to build amazing productivity tools in record time.”
DRUID has raised $30 million in a Series B round led by TQ Ventures, with participation from new investors Smedvig Capital, Endeavor, and Verve Ventures, and existing investors GapMinder, Hoxton Ventures and Karma Ventures. The Bucharest-based leader in conversational AI technology will use the new funds to continue accelerating its international expansion, particularly its footprint in the U.S. market, which already accounts for 60% of its current revenue. Liviu Dragon-led DRUID said in a statement that its platform gives enterprises the tools to build and design conversational business applications (CBA) to provide the most natural employee-customer experience. “DRUID capitalizes on recent advancements in generative AI, which seamlessly integrate into our conversational business applications platform. We believe our platform will, for large international enterprises, ignite a new era of productivity and tangible business outcomes. Bolstered by our latest investment round and against the backdrop of this technological revolution, we are well positioned and excited to work hard to offer technology solutions that empower our customers to unlock maximum value,” Dragan said.
Logility, Inc. has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Garvis, an SaaS startup that combines large language models (ChatGPT) with AI-native demand forecasting. Atlanta, Georgia-based Logility, which is “a leader in prescriptive supply chain planning solutions,” said that the acquisition “will enable a new supply chain planning paradigm with DemandAI+ that moves beyond conventional methods to plan demand and inventory at the speed of the market.” Logility said in a statement, “Instead of relying on traditional models, Garvis designed from the ground up an AI-first forecasting solution now called DemandAI+. Fusing Generative AI with machine learning algorithms, DemandAI+ creates a modern, more inclusive, and intuitive planning paradigm that quickly digitizes supply chain relationships and exposes that data to any stakeholder across the organization. By simply asking questions planners, executives, and non-planners alike get answers to unanticipated queries in real-time, providing transparency for more informed decisions that saves precious planning time.”
“We are at the precipice of a significant transformation in supply chain planning with advancements in technology, generational shifts of planners, and the significant speed of market changes and disruptions,” said Allan Dow, president of Logility. “With an AI-driven approach at their core, Garvis revolutionized the way companies forecast demand in very dynamic market. We’re bringing them into Logility’s portfolio to accelerate our shared vision to break the boundaries of traditional myopic supply chain planning solutions.”
Gleen has raised $4.9 million in a funding round led by Slow Ventures, with participation 6th Man Ventures, South Park Commons, Spartan Group, Script Capital, CoinShares, Krust Group, and angel investors, including former Facebook/Meta Platforms’ VP of product management Sam Lessin. The Palo Alto-based generative AI startup provides “cutting-edge AI and enterprise-ready generative experiences into day-to-day workflows,” which include an anti-hallucination data layer to hedge against the rising trend of AI chatbots providing inaccurate responses to users. “What we do is, when we send data [from a user] to an LLM, we give facts that can create a good answer,” Gleen co-founder and CEO Ashu Dubey said. “If we don’t believe we have enough facts, we won’t send the data to the LLM.”
Alias Technologies has raised $3 million in a Seed round led by Khosla Ventures, and joined by Next Coast Ventures, Maveron, Peter Thiel, Joe Lonsdale, and WS Investments, among other, and emerged from stealth mode with the launch of BeFake, an AI-driven, zero-pressure social media app that “gives users the power of AI to creatively transform everyday moments with their friends.” BeFake offers “a fun alternative to existing social media platforms and allows users to give their photos an ‘AI lift,’” according to San Francisco-based Alia. “With BeFake, users can level up their photos with style prompts, transport themselves to curated locations, or explore their creativity with custom text prompts.”
BeFake co-founder and CEO Kristen Garcia Dumont said in a statement, “BeFake introduces AI to people in a fun and simple way. It’s the antidote to overly curated social media. Anyone, from anywhere, can now have fun with social media, and the focus is rightfully on creativity and creative expression rather than real-world appearance. Turns out, being fake is incredibly liberating.”
Traide has raised a “seven-figure euro” sum in a new funding round led by High-Tech Gründerfonds with participation from Smart Infrastructure Ventures, Prequel Ventures, and angel investors, including the founders of Taxdoo and Byrd. The Berlin, Germany-based startup, which was founded in 2021 by Leonie Althaus, Philipp Friebertshäuser and Hendrik Niemann, provides customers with an AI-powered B2B SaaS platform to automate customs processes. Traide said in a statement that its platform “leverages the globally established customs tariff and uses advanced AI models to translate companies’ specific product information into required customs data. This creates the ability to create automated and error-free customs declarations that were previously handled manually.”
Starcart has raised €3.5 million in a Seed round led by Nordic early-stage investor Inventure with participation from Finnish angel investors and Business Finland. The Helsinki-based e-commerce startup – which says that it is “leading the next wave of online shopping” – will use the new funds to scale up its AI-powered shopping platform and launch to customers across Europe. As the “only end-to-end shopping platform in the market,” Pasi Ilola-founded and led Starcart enables consumers to buy items from multiple stores with just one click, using one single interface. Ilola said in a statement, “Over the past two decades, online shopping has surged in popularity, but it has also become much more time-consuming for consumers. The vast amount of products and stores available online means that people must navigate through a huge amount of options when buying anything. Starcart was created to solve this problem, and to make online shopping easy and enjoyable.”
Ideogram has raised $16.5 million in a Seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and Index Ventures, with participation from AIX Ventures, Golden Ventures, and Two Small Fish Ventures, Raquel Urtasun, Sarah Guo, and Tom Preston-Werner, among others. The Toronto, Canada-based generative AI text-to-image startup, which is led by CEO Mohammad Norouzi, said in a statement, “Our mission is to help people become more creative through generative AI. We are developing state-of-the-art AI tools that will make creative expression more accessible, fun, and efficient. We are pushing the limits of what’s possible with AI, with a focus on creativity and a high standard for trust and safety.”
Irreverent Labs has received a strategic investment from Samsung Next, the South Korean electronics giant’s venture capital arm. The Bellevue, WA-based AI company, which is building highly advanced AI models to generate 3D animated videos from simple text prompts, will use the new funds to launch its video foundation model later this year. Founded by Rahul Sood and David Raskino, Irreverent Labs raised $45 million in funding last year, led by Andreessen Horowitz. Sood said in a statement, “At Irreverent, we’re on a mission to make it possible for anyone to create compelling short-form video entertainment with AI. Users can visit the website and upload a short video prompt like a live photo. We will then predict a short, high-quality video from these frames. It’s super simple.”
Modyfi has raised $7 million in seed funding led by New Enterprise Associates, Inc. and with participation from previous investors, including General Catalyst. The AI-native design platform and image editor, which “brings next-generation technology to design through a high-performance, web-based AI-powered application that enables greater creativity, teamwork and collaboration,” will use the new funds “to fuel early user adoption and continued product development.” Joe Burfitt, founder and CEO of Modyfi said in a statement, “At Modyfi, we inspire today and tomorrow’s creatives by simplifying the design process, removing mundane tasks, making teamwork easier and making image creation faster than ever. We want creators to be creative 100% of the time, not just 40% of the time.”
Writerly has raised $2 million in an oversubscribed initial fundraising round, which it will use to “further fuel the development and expansion of EKOM, a first-of-its-kind digital asset creation and optimization engine, allowing the platform to accelerate its robust product roadmap of cutting-edge automated solutions.” Jon Ricketts, CEO of the Nashville-based pioneer in AI-powered writing tools, said in a statement, “We’re committed to leveraging natural language processing to build software that delivers real economic value for users. Products like EKOM exemplify this. Its automation and real-time data capabilities enhance workflows and customer experiences while unlocking new revenue opportunities. We aim to harness advanced technology to provide tangible benefits that make a significant difference for our customers.”
leonardo has raised €555,000 in a Pre-Seed round led by Beteiligungs-Managementgesellschaft Hessen with participation from eight business angels. The Frankfurt, Germany-based impact measurement startup – which provides software to enable organizations and their capital providers to measure, verify and report their sustainability impact according to recognized global standards – will use the new funds to “accelerate its mission to disrupt the status quo of sustainability reporting through its AI-powered software.” Co-founder and CEO Jan Moellmann said, “We need to develop better and easier-to-use technology built upon scientific standards so that sustainability data can be trusted again.”
Berlin-based start-up Mercanis has raised $10 million in a Seed funding round led by institutional funds Singals.VC, DI Technology, and Speedinvest. Founded in 2020 by Fabian Heinrich and Moritz Weiermann, Mercanis uses data insights and AI to provide easy-to-use sourcing and supplier management tools that reshape how businesses make purchasing decisions and interact with service providers. Heinrich said in a statement, “This funding round underscores the vital role of forward-thinking procurement software in today’s economic landscape. In these challenging times marked by inflation and recession, Mercanis doesn’t just facilitate growth. Our solution delivers cost and time efficiencies, while also offering a robust defense against risks for our clients.” The company will use the new funds for product development and R&D, as well as expanding Go-to-Market strategies, with “an aim to share more success stories and broaden the customer base.”
Caden has raised $15 million in a Series A round led by Nava Ventures, with participation from Jerry Yang’s AME Cloud Ventures, Streamlined Ventures, Montage Ventures, Industry Ventures, 1707 Capital, and AAF Management, among others. The New York-based data intelligence company – which touts itself as “a leader in the rapidly evolving consumer data landscape, empowering end users and businesses to harness the full potential of ethically-sourced first-party data for actionable insights and decision-making” – will use the new funds to accelerate product development, enhance market activation, and bolster its team of top-tier talent. The funding news comes shortly after John Roa-led Caden announced the launch of Caden AI, the first version of its personal assistant that has the unique ability to automatically train on a user’s media consumption, purchases, travel, exercise, and more, creating “the first truly personal Generative AI.”
Outfindo has raised €900,000 in a Seed round led by Presto Ventures with participation from Patero and Longevity Fellows. The Prague-based e-commerce company will use the new funds to expand its R&D, “focusing on product-tuning and expanding into new verticals, and go-to-market activities.” In a statement, the company – which provides a “Guided Selling” SaaS that optimizes flow on e-commerce platforms, using AI to create shopping guides for users help users find the exact product to suit their needs – said that its offering “has shown exceptional results, with a reported 40% interaction rate with the guide and conversion rates increasing up to three times. Additionally, returns have been significantly reduced, with reductions as high as 70% in certain cases.”
“Over the years, I’ve often found myself helping friends and colleagues choose the perfect bike. On the other hand, I’ve been struggling with choosing any other more complex product myself. I realized that e-commerce has been so busy with growth and operations that customer experience has been left behind,” Outfindo co-founder and CEO Jan Mateju said.
Kavida.ai raised £900,000 in a Seed round led by Qima, a provider of supply chain quality and compliance solutions, with participation from Red Bus Ventures and angels including Chris Adelsbach, Jack Cresswell, Christopher Carter, Ian Kemsley, Jonathan Davie, Simon Davies, Russell Puttick, and Lord John Nash. The London-based supply chain startup will use the new funds to”strengthen and develop [its] supply chain ChatGPT,” which provides “visibility into the status of any order, at any point of the fulfillment process, all in real time.” The round brings the Anam Rahman-led company’s total funding to date to £1.2 million.
Rahman said in a statement, “We’re living in unstable times. Disruption in supply chains is commonplace and procurement managers need instant access to data to understand where their order is, when it will arrive and whether there will be any delays or risks. They need to be alerted of these issues before they become a crisis. The ChatGPT and LLM breakthroughs will transform the way users interact with that data. We’re excited to be at the forefront of AI co-pilots for supply chain.”
InWorld AI has raised $50 million in a new round from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Stanford University, First Spark Ventures co-founded by Eric Schmidt, Samsung Next, LG Technology Ventures, bringing its total funding since its founding in 2021 to more than $120 million, and bringing its valuation to $500 million. The San Francisco-based company uses advanced AI to “build generative characters whose personalities, thoughts, memories, and behaviors that are designed to mimic the deeply social nature of human interaction.” InWorld AI, which uses its “Character Engine” for games and interactive experiences, said in a statement that it will use the new funds to “accelerate [its] research and development efforts, hire top talent, build a more robust Character Engine, expand infrastructure, and open source parts of [its] platform.”
Stay Ai has raised $15.1 million in a Series A round, with $8.6 million of that coming from Telescope Partners, with additional participation from Boulder Food Group, Riverpark Ventures, and Vanterra Capital. “Previous investments total $7.5m led by Watchfire Ventures, alongside industry leaders such as Nik Sharma (Sharma Brands) and Adam Turner (Postscript),” the New York-based customer loyalty operating system for Shopify brands said in a statement. Stay Ai will use the new funds to build on its rapid first-year growth, with priorities including expanding its product-centric 50+ team, driving an industry-leading innovation roadmap, and supporting acquisition strategy. Co-founder and president Pierson Krass said, “E-commerce brands urgently need dependable, higher margin revenue, and subscription programs were ripe for innovation. The first half of 2023 was all about integrating proprietary machine learning models into our platform, both for more personalized experiences and to automatically improve outcomes. Next, we’re focusing on a variety of never-before-seen tools to help brands better reward and retain customers.”
Insight7 raised an undisclosed sum in a Pre-Seed round led by Forum Ventures with participation from prominent angels in the B2B Saas and AI domain. The Gainesville, FL-based company –which provides an AI-powered B2B SaaS platform that unlocks customer insights for product, marketing, and research teams using AI – will use the new funds to “fuel growth and enable it to enhance its platform’s capabilities, providing its clients with even more powerful tools to understand their customers and drive product innovation.” Insight7 CEO Odun Odubanjo said in a statement, “It’s incredible that in the age of AI, insights informing key product and business decisions are still stuck in docs, slides, and spreadsheets, making it inaccessible for making great decisions quickly. This is why we started Insight7.”
In conjunction with a strategic growth investment, New York-based AppHub acquired Boost, an AI-powered search and discovery tool, to enhance its portfolio of software solutions that enable e-commerce merchants to launch, grow, and scale their businesses. AppHub, which provides an e-commerce enablement platform to serve merchants across e-commerce platforms, such as Shopify, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce, said in a statement, “Through AI-driven search, filtering, and product recommendations, Boost helps customers find what they’re looking for, increasing conversion and AOV (average order value). Boost has generated more than $16 billion in sales for more than 14,000 stores to date.”
RADAR has raised $30 million in a Series A round led by returning investor Align Ventures, with participation from RX Ventures and several other “renowned retail investors,” bringing its total funding to date to $63 million. The New York-based company – which boasts an AI-powered inventory-tracking platform that combines RFID and computer vision technology to track and precisely locate in-store inventory with 99% accuracy – plans to use the new funds to “expand its customer roster, accelerate its product development efforts, and hire top engineering, product and sales talent. “Every retail brand is looking to operate more efficiently in this uncertain macroeconomic environment and having complete visibility into store inventory, including knowing exactly where every product is located, is key to that,” said Spencer Hewett, Founder and CEO of RADAR, said in a statement.
Simbe Robotics, Inc. has raised $28 million in a Series B equity financing round led by Eclipse. The San Francisco-based company, which leverages AI and robotics to “elevate the performance of retailers with real-time insights into inventory and operations,” will use the news funds to accelerate global expansion and product innovation. In a statement, Bradley Bogolea co-founded and led Simbe, which counts “major worldwide retailers and brands across the US, Europe and Asia” as clients, said that its platform “transforms retail operations through proprietary AI, computer vision, RFID, and edge computing technology that delivers greater visibility, more accurate data, and real-time insights — creating a better experience for shoppers and store teams alike.”
Stylitics has acquired Barcelona-based Wide Eyes, one of the leading visual AI solutions for fashion and retail. New York-headquartered Stylitics, which is a “leader in AI-powered digital merchandising and styling technology,” will use Wide Eyes’ tech to enhance its “inspirational commerce platform with image recognition and artificial intelligence technology that drives easier product discovery and faster conversion.” Stylitics founder and CEO Rohan Deuskar said in a statement, “Wide Eyes’ AI systems and computer vision technology are based on several years of cutting-edge R&D, and are widely used by many of Europe’s top retailers.” The terms of the deal have not been disclosed.
Giza has raised $3 million in a Pre-Seed round led by CoinFund, a leading crypto-native investment firm and registered investment adviser, with participation from Arrington Capital, StarkWare and TA Ventures, along with angels like Rand Hindi and Julien Bouteloup, among others. The New York-based company will use the new funds to launch its AI platform for smart contracts and web3 protocols, which will support web3 and AI developers to integrate machine learning into smart contracts and decentralized protocols. “Smart contracts are not as smart as their name would suggest,” said Francisco Algaba, CEO of Giza, said in a statement. “They lack the capabilities and ease of use of many web2 applications because, until now, smart contracts cannot trustlessly integrate machine learning. Giza is on a mission to unlock the capabilities of machine learning for web3 smart contracts and protocols leveraging collective and open development. The successful integration of AI into web3 will not only expand the capabilities of smart contracts but will also enable the possibility of new models of ownership for AI.”
Sampler has acquired AdMass, an AI powered SaaS platform that enables brands and their agencies to create data-driven user generated content promotions. This marks Sampler’s second acquisition in just four months, following the successful completion of their acquisition of beauty digital sampling agency abeo in March. Toronto-based Sampler, which provides a shopper promotions and insights platform, says the new acquisitions are part of its “strategic efforts to expand its product offering and accelerate growth.” Marie Chevrier-led Sampler further states that the deal with AdMass will enable it to integrate the platform’s user-generated content (UGC) collection and measurement capabilities directly into their brand platform and consumer experience. The terms of the deal have not been disclosed.
Optiversal raised $4.2 million in a Seed round led by Bling Capital, with participation from Alpaca Ventures and Red Sea Ventures. The St. Petersburg, FL-based generative AI content provider will use the new funds to to accelerate the growth of the company by investing in product development, and its tech and infrastructure, as well as increasing its sales and customer support team. Founded by Will Underwood, Lucas Tieleman, and Jarrod Wolf, Optiversal works with large retailers like Best Buy, Sephora, and Petco to handle and scale content creation through AI capabilities. The platform creates landing pages, blog posts, product descriptions, and other content has needed.
SuperSight has raised $1 million a Pre-Seed round with participation from Blockchain Founders Fund, Animoca Brands, Druid Ventures, Emurgo, Next Gen Web 3, Vayner Fund, and others. The London-based generative AI startup – which says that it is “redefining the crypto data landscape with its revolutionary Large Language Models (LLMs) tailored for crypto data” – will use the new funds to “accelerate [its] development of vertical-specific foundational models.” In a statement, the Sungjung Kim, Advait Jayant, and Mohammed Junaid-founded company revealed that it is “gearing up to introduce new features like real-time alerts, future trend predictions, and trade capabilities, further simplifying the way people engage with crypto.”
Immersive Fox has raised £2.8 million in a Seed round with participation from Redseed VC, Monte Carlo Capital, and Altair. The London-based startup, which provides AI-powered text-to-video generation tools for sales and corporate communication, will use the new funds to advance its proprietary AI technology that enables clients to create unlimited video content using their face and voice. Founder and CEO Alisa Patotskaya said in a statement that the Immersive Fox team and investors are “excited to see how [the company’s generative AI] innovation shapes the industry.”
Typeface has raised $100M new investment to the close its Series B round. The round was led by Salesforce Ventures with participation from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Madrona, GV (Google Ventures), Menlo Ventures, and M12 (Microsoft’s Venture Fund). “With total capital raised of $165 million at a valuation of $1 billion,” the San Francisco-based company, which provides a generative AI platform for enterprise content creation, says that it is “well positioned to rapidly scale its personalized, on-brand generative AI platform to meet the strong demand from enterprises worldwide.” Founder and CEO Abhay Parasnis said in a statement, “By combining the strengths of generative AI platforms with our brand-specialized knowledge, we have eliminated the barriers for enterprises to harness generative AI. Typeface empowers every enterprise to create high-quality, personalized content that aligns with its unique voice.”
Brilliant Labs has raised $3 million in a seed round led by Brendan Iribe, co-founder of Oculus, Adam Cheyer, co-founder of Siri, Eric Migicovsky, founder of Pebble, Plug & Play Ventures, among others. The Singapore-based developer of generative AI-embedded AR glasses will use the new funds to “expand its team, invest into R&D, and grow its operations. The funds will be allocated to a dual-approach of nurturing an open-source AR ecosystem that fosters innovative generative AI applications that transforms human-computer interaction, while building as-yet-unannounced AR wearables in a more comfortable and compact form factor that makes AI more easily accessible to everyone.” In a statement, the Bobak Tavangar-led company said that it is “pioneering a new era of human-machine interactions through the convergence of Augmented Reality (AR) and wearable Generative AI,” and noted that the round follows from the successful launch of its open-source “Monocle” AR device, which couples AR with AI.
Upp. has raised $10 million in a Seed funding round led by California-based Bonfire Ventures. The London-based company – which leverages AI and ML tech to “help e-commerce retailers optimize ad spend, up product discover, and increase overall sales” – will use the new funds to promote further growth, including by growing its team, engaging in geographic expansion, and introducing automation features. The Ben White and Drew Smith-founded platform is currently available in the United Kingdom, Europe, and the U.S., and is used by retailers, such as Charles Tyrwhitt, Onbuy, Roman Originals, and Nkuku. In a statement, White said, “The scale and complexity of today’s online retail environment have extended beyond the capability of humans alone and need the support of powerful AI and machine learning technology. The Upp.AI platform enables retailers to excel in a competitive landscape, achieve better results around the clock and align their finance and marketing teams’ goals seamlessly.”
Thompson Reuters has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Casetext for $650 million in cash. In a statement, Reuters asserted that San Francisco-based AI assistant Casetext “has been a proven innovator for in-house legal departments and law firms, since its founding in 2013, creating solutions that help legal professionals work more efficiently and provide higher-quality representation to clients. Its core solution includes CoCounsel, which helps legal professionals achieve a broad range of tasks in their workflows, including research, analysis, document preparation and review.” The Toronto-based conglomerate further said, “Today’s development builds on our AI-focused initiatives, including our commitment to invest more than $100 million annually on AI-powered capabilities, develop new generative AI experiences across our product suite including Westlaw, Practical Law and HighQ, and our recently announced plugin with Microsoft 365 Copilot.”
Captions has raised $25 million in Series B round led by Kleiner Perkins, with participation from Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and SV Angel, bringing the company’s total capital raised to date to $40 million. The “leading AI-powered creative studio,” New York-based Captions will use the new funds to “further level the playing field for creators by offering the opportunity for anyone, anywhere to develop and publish studio-grade content with the power of AI.” Gaurav Misra, co-founder and CEO of Captions, said in a statement, “Video content is undergoing a remarkable transformation, with a major trend towards ‘talking videos’—where creators address the camera directly to share opinions or personal stories. To support this evolution, we have developed user-friendly features that enhance ‘talking videos’ and make creating high-quality content more accessible.”
FLUX Inc., has raised 4.4 billion JPY ($32 million) in a Series B round led by DNX Ventures, with participation from existing investor Archetype Ventures and new investors: Japan Co-Investment, Aozora Corporate Investments, Salesforce Ventures, Sony Innovation Fund, SMBC Nikko Securities, and NTT Docomo Ventures. Japan’s leading AI platform developer, FLUX Inc. confirmed that this round brings its total funding raised to 5.6 billion JPY ($40 million), and “accelerates [its] continued development of FLUX AI – a no-coding AI platform.” The Genji Nagai founded and led company says that it “allows businesses to easily leverage AI technologies such as predictive analytics, natural language processing (NLP) and large language models (LLMs), without requiring any prior coding skills or knowledge.”
Blackbird.AI has closed a $20 million Series B round led by cybersecurity investor Ten Eleven Ventures, with follow-on support from existing investors Dorilton Capital, Generation Ventures StartFast Ventures and Trousdale Ventures. Other investors include Paul Kurtz, chief cybersecurity advisor to Splunk and Richard Clarke, the first “cyber czar” for the U.S. Government. The fresh funding brings total dollars raised to $32 million. The AI-driven Narrative and Risk Intelligence company, which was co-founded and is led by Wasim Khaled, says that it “brings together security and communications teams to uncover and track the deliberate manipulation of digital narratives, and the explosion of events in which information threats transmute into physical and cyber threats, financial losses and potentially company-killing events to businesses across brand reputation, ESG and supply chain.”
Glyphic AI has raised $5.5 million in a pre-seed round led by Point72 Ventures with participation from The Creator Fund, Dhyan Ventures (Amar Shah, co-founder of Wayve and Charm Therapeutics), and angels including Mehdi Ghissassi (Head of Product at Google DeepMind) and Rushin Shah (Director at Google Bard). The London-based company will use the new cash to build “an AI copilot that assists sales teams in analyzing customer interactions and providing strategic insights into sales pipelines.” Founded by former Google DeepMind and Apple engineers, Adam Liska-led Glyphic AI says that it “historically, sales teams have struggled to make data-based decisions because of their reliance on subjective and incomplete information in their customer relationship management (CRM) systems. Glyphic AI automates manual processes and provides insights that were previously inaccessible, helping businesses optimize revenue strategies and increase conversion rates.”
AptEdge has raised $11 million in a Seed+ round led by Stage 2 Capital with participation from Unusual Ventures, National Grid Partners, Carya Venture Partners, and Counterpart Ventures. The Redwood City, CA-based generative AI startup said in a statement that it is “building a contextual answer engine that surfaces customer service help desk knowledge scattered around a business’s digital platforms, while its generative AI capabilities, through OpenAI’s ChatGPT and other language models, create concise, easy to follow answers for frontline support to share with customers.” Aakrit Prasad, CEO and co-founder of AptEdge, said, “We’re excited to close this round and get back to expanding and servicing our rapidly growing customer base behind the rollout AnswerGPT – the leading customer care solution.”
Meshcapade has raised $6 million in a seed round led by Matrix with participation from a number of tech founders and investors, including Nate Mitchell (Co-Founder of Oculus), Matthew Ball (Author of “The Metaverse”), William O’Farrell (Co-Founder of BodyLabs), Andrew Hamel (Former VP Machine Learning at Amazon), Gary Bradski (CSO at OpenCV), and CLO, a provider of leading 3D clothing software. The Tübingen, Germany-based startup that specializes in “AI solutions for modeling, analysis and synthesis of 3D digital humans in motion,” said in a statement that “whether it is apparel, fitness, healthcare, gaming, AR/VR, or communication, nearly every industry must understand the 3D shape and motion of their customers and be able to generate humans in motion.” The Naureen Mahmood co-founded and led company says that its “instant-avatar solution takes an image or video of a person in any pose and any clothing and generates a precise 3D model of their body shape and pose. Since the output is in the SMPL Standard, it can be animated in any game engine, draped with clothing, or measured for fit analysis.”
Mistral AI has raised 105 million euros ($113.4 million) in a Series A round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners with participation from JCDecaux Holding, Exor Ventures, Sofina, Xavier Niel, Eric Schmidt, and Rodolphe Saade. The round, which reportedly brings the company’s valuation to more than $260 million, comes just one month after the French technology and artificial intelligence company launched. Co-founded by Timothee Lacroix, Guillaume Lample and Arthur Mensch, Mistral AI is in the process of building its team in order “to develop the best generative AI models.” Mensch, Mistral AI’s president, said, “We are proud to initiate this global project from France, our home country, and to contribute, at our level, to the emergence of a credible new player in generative artificial intelligence from Europe.”
Gensyn AI has raised £33.8 million ($43 million) in a Series A funding round led by A16z Venture Capital with participation from CoinFund, Protocol Labs, Canonical Crypto, Eden Block, Maven 11, Peer VC, Zee Prime, Id4, M31 Capital, and other angels, which brings its total funding to date to more than $50 million. The London-based company, which was co-founded by Harry Grieve and Ben Fielding, aims to democratize artificial intelligence by leveraging decentralized technology and providing developers with a pay-as-you-go model for creating AI tools. “We’ve entered a new industrial revolution. Steam, electricity, and the internet respectively powered the previous three. If it’s not already clear from the way you’ve been querying information with ChatGPT, generating code with Copilot, or the rapidly-shortening timelines for human-level Artificial General Intelligence: ours is a revolution of intelligence – and it’s fueled by computational power,” said Grieve.
Synthesia has raised $90 million in a Series C round led by Accel, an early investor in Facebook, Slack and Spotify. Nvidia came in as a strategic investor, putting in an undisclosed amount of money. Other investors include Kleiner Perkins, GV, FirstMark Capital and MMC. The London-based company’s generative AI tech currently enables more than 50,000 businesses, including Amazon, in creating custom AI avatars used in instructional and corporate videos. “While we weren’t actively looking for new investment, Accel and NVIDIA share our vision for transforming traditional video production into a digital workflow,” said Victor Riparbelli, co-founder and CEO of Synthesia.
Cohere has raised $270 million in a Series C round led by Inovia Capital led the round, with additional participation NVIDIA, Oracle, Salesforce Ventures, DTCP, Mirae Asset, Schroders Capital, SentinelOne, Thomvest Ventures, and returning investor Index Ventures. The “leading AI platform for enterprise,” Cohere says that its AI platform is “uniquely designed for enterprises, offering data-secure deployment options in companies’ existing cloud environments, customization, and customer support. This includes an ecosystem of consulting and system integrator partners to help enterprises at any stage in their AI journey.” CEO and co-founder Aidan Gomez said in a statement, “AI will be the heart that powers the next decade of business success. As the early excitement about generative AI shifts toward ways to accelerate businesses, companies are looking to Cohere to position them for success in a new era of technology. The next phase of AI products and services will revolutionize business, and we are ready to lead the way.”
Instabase has raised $45 million in a Series C funding round led by Tribe Capital, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, New Enterprise Associates, Greylock Partners, Spark Capital, K5 Global, and Standard Chartered Ventures. The round brings the valuation of the San Francisco-based “leader in Applied AI for the enterprise” to $2 billion. In addition to announcing the round, Anant Bhardwaj-founded and led Instabase – which provides a platform combining language models such as GPT-4 and layout understanding that allows users to build custom solutions to understand any document quickly – revealed the launch of AI Hub, a repository of AI apps focused on content understanding and a set of generative AI-based tools.
Onebeat has raised $10 million in a Series B Round led by Magenta Venture Partners with participation from existing and new investors AnD Ventures, INcapital Ventures, J-Ventures, Surround Ventures and Wilson’s Bird Capital. The Tel Aviv-based AI-enabled retail-tech company says that it will use the new funds to “continue to expand its highly-adaptive retail platform, business operations and new business growth plans.” The Yishai Ashlag-founded and led company said in a statement that it is “rapidly transforming today’s legacy SCM solutions and the costly consulting services often associated with it through its more modern, AI-enabled solution that offers greater flexibility and inventory visibility as well as a more affordable SaaS model, which is especially relevant for today’s mid-market retailers looking to cut costs and expand margins.” The company boasts retailers across 26 countries and various retail sectors, including fashion, footwear, jewelry, pharmacy and beverage, among others, as clients. In addition, the company works with “some of the world’s foremost, well-respected global retail leaders, such as Calvin Klein, American Eagle, Crocs and the retail division of TATA Group, just to name a few.”
Contextual AI has emerged from stealth with $20 million in funding led by Bain Capital Ventures with participation from Lightspeed, Greycroft, SV Angel and well-known angel investors including Elad Gil, Lip-Bu Tan, Sarah Guo, Amjad Masad, Harry Stebbings, Fraser Kelton, Sarah Niyogi, and Nathan Benaich. The company is creating large language models (LLMs) that are purpose-built for enterprises, such that they respect data privacy, are safer, more trustworthy, more customizable and more efficient than the current generation of LLMs. “With 10+ years of experience as researchers in AI, natural language processing and machine learning, my cofounder Amanpreet and I are on a mission to take this powerful technology to the next step, where it can be used in real-world enterprise applications,” Douwe Kiela, co-founder and CEO of Contextual AI, said in a statement. “Knowledge workers of the future need LLMs that work accurately, efficiently and effectively over huge private datasets, in a way that companies can trust.”
Impact Analytics has raised new funding from Vistara Growth, which follows from the Linthicum Heights, MD-based company raising funding in February 2021 and October 2022 from Argentum. A leading provider of SaaS AI-based solutions for supply chain and merchandise planning in retail, CPG and manufacturing, Impact Analytics will use the new funds to “accelerate its global expansion plans and most notably help further develop the Impact Analytics SmartSuite™ product portfolio, which optimizes forecasting, merchandising, and end-to-end lifecycle pricing. Clients such as BJ’s Wholesale Club, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Puma, Tapestry, and many others choose Impact Analytics to power their planning and pricing workflows.” The Prashant Agrawal-founded and led company said in a statement, “Using more than 150 variables to mix recency and history, Impact Analytics products process more than 30,000 modeling constructs to generate highly accurate forecasts that drive smarter decision making, improved operational efficiencies, and maximized profits.”
Beehive AI has emerged from stealth today and announced an oversubscribed $5.1 million seed round led by Valley Capital Partners. Since 2016, Beehive – which touts itself as “the world’s first specialized AI platform dedicated to analyzing unstructured customer data” – has been in stealth development with models trained on proprietary unstructured data provided by many of the largest enterprise firms in the world. With this data, Shai Deljo-led Beehive AI has developed a platform that allows enterprises to analyze, segment, and take action on insights unlocked by their unstructured data. In statement, Beehive said, “Rather than proactively addressing consumer needs, companies mostly react to consumers’ past actions. Beehive AI has created a breakthrough technology that offers an end-to-end, customizable AI platform for consumer research that delivers unprecedented accuracy, relevance, and scale.”
Chinese search giant Baidu Inc. announced the impending launch of a venture capital fund of 1 billion yuan ($145 million) to back start-ups focused on generative AI. “Baidu appears to be stealing a page from the playbook of OpenAI, the U.S. company that’s been taking the world by storm and that first set aside $100 million for an OpenAI Startup Fund in 2021; that fund subsequently grew to $175 million,” per TechCrunch. The fund comes on the heels of Baidu launching Ernie Bot, its own AI-powered LLM, in March.
Italy’s government is setting up an investment fund backed by state lender Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP) to promote AI startups, cabinet undersecretary Alessio Butti confirmed, saying that the fund will “promote study, research and programming on AI in Italy.”
Publicis has acquired the majority stake in Publicis Sapient AI Labs, the artificial intelligence joint venture that it launched in 2020 with tech firms Elder Research and Tquila. The terms if the deal centering on Publicis Sapient AI Labs – which conducts AI research and development and provides data science services to large companies in Europe and North America – were not disclosed. “The acquisition of Publicis Sapient AI Labs reinforces our continued investment in innovation, as well as our commitment to staying ahead of the AI curve,” said Publicis chairman and CEO Arthur Sadoun. “Through its bolstered digital business transformation services, Publicis Sapient will help clients identify critical challenges and issues that AI and data science can solve to deliver world-class innovation.”
Genetica has raised $500,000 in a Seed round led by Ens-emble, CEO of Talent Resources Ventures and Genetica Adviser Michael Heller, Show Me Organics, Executives from Hara Supply, and Mitchell Harounian. The San Francesco-based AI powered cannabis retail platform’s flagship product, Flora Match, leverages Flora AI to “deliver personalized product recommendations by analyzing over 650 million data points, including in-store inventory, customers’ dietary habits, activity levels, age, medical conditions, and desired effects.” The Ben York-led company will use the new funds to expand into more dispensaries across the country and other retailers outside of the cannabis industry, like grocery stores and pharmacies. The company is on pace to launch its software into more than 350 locations here in the United States and dozens of retail and pharmacy entities internationally over the next quarter.
Gan.ai has raised $5.25 million in a Seed round led by Surge, Sequoia Capital’s rapid scale-up program with participation from Emergent Ventures and other angel investors. The Suvrat Bhooshan-founded provider of a generative AI video platform, which was founded in March 2021 by Suvrat Bhooshan, aims to “democratize personalized video creation by allowing brands to customize videos for their customers using AI.” Bhooshan says that Gan.ai is “excited to grow our operations with the new funds, and expand our sales and engineering teams across US and India. We aim to increase our engineering talent from the current 15 to 25 to build a strong deep learning team.”
eBay Inc. and Certilogo, a provider of AI-powered apparel and fashion goods digital IDs and authentication, announced that eBay has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Certilogo. In a statement, the companies revealed that Certilogo’s platform uses digital technology to empower brands and designers to “manage the lifecycle of their garments, while providing consumers a seamless way to confirm authenticity, access reliable information about branded items, and easily activate circular services.” eBay says the acquisition further solidifies it as “a trusted destination to shop for pre-loved apparel and fashion, and marks a key investment in the growing pre-loved fashion category.” The terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Locofy.ai has raised $4.25 million in a Seed II round from Northstar Ventures, Golden Gate Ventures, and Accel, among other investors like Arash Ferdowsi, the co-founder and CTO of Dropbox; Nattu Adnan, the co-founder and CTO of Lottiefiles; and executives from companies like Tinder, Zopim, Paysense, and Betterhalf.ai, who participated in the round as individual investors. The Singapore-based provider of a platform that converts graphic designs into working code with AI, which has raised a total of $7.3 million to date, says it will use the new cash to expand its operations and business reach. Locofy.ai was founded in 2021 by Honey Mittal and Sohaib Muhammad.
ServiceNow has signed an agreement to acquire AI-powered platform G2K. NYSE-traded ServiceNow says that it plans to add G2K’s smart IoT technology to its Now Platform to “enable businesses to intelligently action digital and in-store data with enterprise-grade workflows.” G2K’s technology allows organizations to connect real-time data across storefronts and other physical spaces for a complete view of operational data. “Many retailers are turning to a range of AI point solutions to help reshape retail experiences for employees and customers alike, but this results in fractured operations across the enterprise,” said Omar El Gohary, chief technology officer and co-founder at G2K. The terms of the deal have not been disclosed.
Everseen has raised a €65 million Series A follow-on funding round led by Crosspoint Capital Partners, bringing the company’s total funding to date to $90 million. A leading provider of AI-powered computer vision and hyper automation solutions, Cork, Ireland-headquartered Everseen will use the new funds to continue its investment in “computer vision AI technology and help the company scale.” Alan O’Herlihy, Everseen Founder and CEO, says, “Everseen’s computer vision AI platform has scaled the automation of scene-based processes with impact – in use across 6,000 major retail stores and connecting 80,000 point-of-sale devices. We have created generic process-aware technology that can be applied to a broad spectrum of business functions, leveraging our growing dataset.”
“We’re experiencing significant demand for our technology from retailers grappling with the dual impact of declining customer spending and rising operational losses, including shrinkage,” O’Herlihy said. “The retail industry is also facing challenges such as labor shortages and labor cost inflation, making our technology even more valuable in addressing these issues.”
Prewave has raised €18 million in Series A+ funding round led by Creandum, with participation from existing investors, including Ventech, KOMPAS, seed+speed, Segnalita, Speedinvest, Working Capital Fund, and xista science ventures. The round follows from a Sept. 2022 €11 million Series A for the Vienna, Austria-based AI-powered supply chain risk platform. Prewave says it will use the new funds to help expand its end-to-end supply chain platform, making supply chains more transparent, resilient, and sustainable for its clients, which include BMW, PwC, and Lufthansa, among others. Prewave co-founder Harald Nitschinger stated, “Prewave has pioneered a comprehensive solution for supply chain risk monitoring and compliance, that establishes Prewave as first mover and a key player in the supply chain risk discipline. Now the time has come to become the first true, end-to-end operating system for supply chain risk.”
Prewave’s AI-powered platform “analyzes millions of online sources in more than fifty languages to find, categorize, and directly address the risks that might impact supply chains and incorporates a number of factors including human rights issues, sustainability risks, and legislation compliance, ultimately, outputting a dynamic supplier risk score,” which is sent directly to the relevant Prewave’s client, which can then “contact their suppliers to resolve issues and mitigate disruptions.”
AirOps raised $7 million in a seed funding round led by Wing VC with participation from Founder Collective, XFund, Village Global, Apollo Projects, and Lachy Groom. The Miami, FL-based company, which was founded by Alex Halliday, Berna Gonzalez, and Matt Hammel, helps businesses deploy AI-powered apps, at scale by automating processes, extracting insights from data, creating high-quality content, etc. thanks to multiple AI models, including GPT-3, GPT-4, and Claude. The company intends to use the funds to build out its product suite, supporting new hires, and growing its customer base. AirOps launched in private beta in late 2022. (Release)
Replit raised $97.4 million in a Series B extension round led by Andreessen Horowitz’s Growth Fund. Backers included Khosla Ventures, Coatue, SV Angel, Y Combinator, Bloomberg Beta, Naval Ravikant, ARK Ventures (Cathie Woods), and Hamilton Helmer. The round values the San Francisco, CA-based developer platform provider and creator of Ghostwriter, the generative AI for software development, at $1.16 billion. Led by founder and CEO Amjad Masad, Replit allows developers to set up any development environment and release functional live apps in seconds, using AI. Replit said it will use the new funds to innovate on its core development experience and expand its cloud services for developers.
aiXplain raised $8 million in a seed round led by Transform VC and Calibrate Ventures. Led by founder and CEO Hassan Sawaf, San Jose, CA-based aiXplain provides an end-to-end integrated platform for quick development and delivery of AI projects and solutions; by way of its platform, users can access aiXplain’s own tech, as well as third-party assets from OpenAI, Google, AWS, Azure and dozens of other AI technology providers. The “no-code/low-code integrated development environment enables users to develop, manage, benchmark, experiment and deploy AI assets quickly and efficiently,” the company says. It will use the funds to expand operations and its business reach.
CarbonChain raised $10 million in a Series A round co-led by Union Square Ventures and Voyager Ventures. The London, UK-based company provides an AI-fueled carbon accounting platform using granular data to provide end-to-end visibility into the carbon footprint of a company’s supply chain.
CarbonChain will use these funds to build new carbon accounting and reporting products, expand its customer base in the most carbon-intensive value chains (manufacturing, commodities, and heavy industry), and grow its team to meet increasing demand. Led by CEO and co-founder Adam Hearne, CarbonChain will use these funds to build new carbon accounting and reporting products, expand its customer base in the most carbon-intensive value chains (manufacturing, commodities, and heavy industry), and grow its team to meet increasing demand. (Release)
Groundlight has raised $10 million in a seed round led by Madrona, with participation from Greycroft Partners, Founders Co-op, Flying Fish, AscendVC, and EssenceVC. The Seattle, WA-based visual understanding service enables developers to “interpret images programmatically using simple English language instructions and minimal code” and is “meant to be integrated into applications such as video stream analysis, industrial automation, process monitoring, retail analytics and robotics.” The company intends to use the new cash to expand its operations and business reach.
Lexion has raised $20 million in a Series B funding round led by Point72 Ventures, with participation from Citi Ventures, and existing investors Khosla Ventures, Madrona Venture Group, and Wilson Sonsini. The round brings the 5-year-old Seattle, WA-based provider of an AI-powered contract management and operations workflow platform total amount raised to more than $35 million. “Lexion is all about helping every team do more business, faster,” said Gaurav Oberoi, CEO. “We’ve proven how award-winning AI and no-code automation can accelerate legal tasks, but we’ve also seen other divisions adopting the software. Now we’re accelerating sales cycles, vendor agreements, security reviews, RFPs, and even employment offers for departments where legal is not directly involved.” The company intends to use the new cash to expand its offering to serve legal, sales, procurement, finance, HR, and IT teams across industry.
Nativo has secured a total of up to $25 million in structured capital from Capital IP to “accelerate its growth and development without diluting employees and shareholders.” The most advanced content technology platform where advertisers and publishers distribute brand stories at scale thanks to patented technology that leverages machine learning and artificial intelligence, Los Angeles-based Nativo, which was founded in 2010 by Justin Choi, will use the new funds to “further accelerate its position in automating the distribution of content in a non-interruptive, fully integrated experience within trusted environments.”
Augmentir, provider of the world’s only AI-based connected worker solution, announced today that it has completed a new financing round led by Gardner Lewis Asset Management, includes participation from Lerer Hippeau, Pritzker Group Venture Capital, and the Company’s founding team. Led by CEO Russ Fadel, Augmentir says it will use the new cash to expand its global sales and marketing efforts while accelerating product development and innovation. The round follows from Augmentir’s Feb. 2023 announcement that it “expanded its AI platform to incorporate Generative AI and other foundational technologies underpinning ChatGPT,” which it said “represents another step forward in the company’s AI-first journey, and unlocks even greater potential for manufacturers looking to improve support for their frontline workforce.”
Native AI has raised $3.5 million in a seed round led by JumpStart Ventures and Ivy Ventures with participation from 11 Tribes Ventures and Connetic Ventures in furtherance of its aim of “enabl[ing] brands to measurably improve products, customer experience, marketing and revenue through generative AI-powered consumer research.” The New York- and Cincinnati, OH-based market intelligence platform provider says that, powered by proprietary, generative AI, it “uses real-time industry, consumer, and product data to create custom digital twins of target customer and consumer bases, which radically simplifies, expedites and improves how brands collect market insights.” The company intends to use the funds to accelerate growth, expand operations and its business reach.
“Consumer research is going through a renaissance and generative AI is leading the way,” said Frank Pica, CEO and co-founder of Native. “Imagine being able to chat with a custom clone of your target audience anytime, anywhere. This makes customer engagement substantially deeper, faster, better, and more cost-effective than what’s possible with traditional market research.”
Character.AI has raised $150 million in a Series A round led by Andreessen Horowitz. The round values the AI chatbot startup at $1 billion, the company told Reuters. While Character.AI has not generated any revenue since its founding in Sept. 2022, the Palo Alto-based company, which enables users to create “customized AI companions with specific personality and values,” has amassed 100 million monthly site visits. “The billion-dollar valuation for a company with zero revenue is another example of the continued AI funding boom since OpenAI’s ChatGPT became a widely recognized name,” per Reuters. “The funds raised allow Character.AI to continue its significant growth trajectory by expanding its compute abilities resulting in a more sophisticated model with advanced reasoning and greater accuracy, delivering new features and capabilities to users, and expanding its engineering team,” the company said in a statement.
Adept raised $350 million in a Series B funding round led by General Catalyst and Spark Capital to build out AI models that it says will do more than merely respond to text commands, but will “actually turn that command into actions,” from browsing the internet to navigating enterprise software tools. The round follows a $65 million Series A in April 2022.
SESAMm has raised €35 million ($37 million) in a Series B2 round co-led by Elaia and Opera Tech Ventures, the venture capital arm of BNP Paribas. A leader in natural language processing, which is a field of AI, SESAMm enables companies to track relevant ESG data by “generating insights for controversy detection on investments, clients and suppliers, ESG, and positive impact scores, among others.” The new funding will enable SESAMm to “further expand into U.S. and Asian markets, support technology development to generate AI-powered ESG and sentiment analytics, and hire key talent across sustainability, technology, sales, and marketing.” This round brings SESAMm total funding since mid-2016 to approximately €50 million.
Transmetrics has raised €2.5M in funding in a round co-led by European Innovation Council Fund and Impetus Capital. The Sofia, Bulgaria-based platform provides AI solutions for the supply chain industry, namely, helping to optimize transport planning by leveraging the power of predictive analytics and machine learning, addressing extreme inefficiencies in logistics.
London-based generative AI startup Colossyan has raised $5 million in a Series A funding round. The startup – which turns text prompts into training videos – uses generative AI to enable companies to quickly produce training videos by replacing human presenters with a realistic computer-generated presenter. So far, Colossyan counts BMW, HP, and Procter & Gamble as clients. It plans to use the new cash to “enhance the core functionality of our product and add new features, such as our recently launched AI Script Assistant powered by GPT-3,” according to Colossyan CEO Dominik Kovacs.
Robin AI, a startup that is bringing generative AI to the legal sector, has secured $10.5 million in a Series A funding round led by Plural with participation from Episode 1 and angels, including Tom Blomfield. The 3-year-old startup uses a machine-learning model to scour 4.5 million legal documents to suggest drafts and edits for contracts. The funding will enable Robin AI to “further develop our tech team and has enabled us to acquire a cohort of customers from LawGeex, whose customers include UBS, PWC, eBay, and Pepsi,” said founder and CEO Richard Robinson.
Typeface has formally launched with $65 million in funding from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Menlo Ventures, M12 (Microsoft’s venture fund), and Google Ventures. The San Francisco-based generative AI startup boasts a platform that is tailored specifically for “enterprise content creation,” enabling companies to create “product shots, blog posts, social media ads and job posts” customized to their brand specifications, and to tailor their marketing to niche audiences.
Autobound raised $4 million in funding in a round led by Dundee VC. The San Francisco-based company enables users of its chrome extension to “automate the tedious workflow of writing personalized sales emails.” Autobound’s AI “suggests hyper-personalized content to the specific individual you’re reaching out to. Think ChatGPT, but for sales emails. We’re making it simple for any seller to write an A+ sales email instantly, so they can focus on revenue-producing activities like actually talking to buyers.” says CEO Daniel Wiener. The company will use the funding to “accelerate product development and to scale their marketing, design, and machine learning functions.”
Kern AI has raised €2.7 million ($2.9 million) in seed funding to build out its natural language processing platform, which has already been adopted by clients, such as insurance companies Barmenia and VHV Versicherungen, logistics firms such as Metro Supply Chain Group subsidiary Evolution Time Critical, and venture-backed startups such as Crowd.dev. The company revealed that its open-source software has been used at companies, such as Samsung and DocuSign.
GlossAi has closed an $8 million seed round led by New Era Capital Partners with participation by Guidestar ventures, 97212 Ventures, MindCET Ventures, and Ginossar Ventures, among others. The company – which developed an AI-driven video generator that enables users to rapidly create multi-audience content at scale using generative AI capabilities – says that the new funds will allow it to further expand its global presence and develop increasingly advanced AI capabilities for its platform. “We’re allowing organizations to be omnipresent, generating targeted content at scale with fewer resources,” said GlossAi co-founder and CEO Ofer Familier. “Our customers are seeing a 30-40% uptick in engagement with up to 70-80% cost reduction. Based on the creative ways our enterprise customers are using our technology, we see webinars with their own trailers, podcasts promoted on TikTok, eBooks created from classes, and more.”
Latent Technology has raised $2.1 million in pre-seed funding led by Root Ventures and Spark Capital, with participant from Bitkraft. The UK-based startup “uses machine learning (specifically, reinforcement learning) trained on motion capture data to enable video game characters to react to virtual anything that happens in a game,” per Axios. The company will use the new cash to scale its team and develop the first version of its product.
Scenario, a company that uses AI to enable users “to create their own image generators trained on the specific style of their games,” has raised $6 million in a seed round led by Play Ventures, with participation from Anorak Ventures, Founders, Inc., The VR Fund, Oculus co-founder Brendan Iribe, Twitch founder Justin Kan, and Hugging Face founders Clem Delangue and Julien Chaumont. “Using Scenario, game developers – regardless of the level of technical expertise – can create dozens or hundreds of custom generators capable of producing entirely new game assets that are perfectly style-consistent with a given style or art direction,” Scenario co-founder Emmanuel de Maistre told TechCrunch.
Netail closed $5 million seed round co-led by Magarac Venture Partners and Dr. Andrew Ng’s AI Fund, with participation from HKSTP Ventures. With retailers struggling to adapt to changing consumer purchasing behavior, Netail says “real-time data and decision-making are essential for retailers to better understand how products are positioned.” The Pittsburgh-based company’s AI-driven tech enables retailers to “auto-identify competitors across the internet and track their assortments, availability and optimize prices in real time.”