Artificial Intelligence

Ducky: AI-Based Support Platform Company Raises $2.7 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 6, 2024

Ducky, an AI-based support platform unlocking customer support agents' problem-solving superpowers, announced it raised $2.7 million in pre-seed funding led by Penny Jar Capital, with participation from Bread & Butter Ventures, NOMO Ventures, Wilson Sonsini, angel investors, and others.

Cornell Tech Reveals 2024 Startup Awards Winners

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 6, 2024

Cornell Tech has awarded four student startup companies with investments worth $100,000 each in its eleventh annual Startup Awards competition. This award includes $80,000 in pre-seed funding, co-working space in the Tata Innovation Center, and mentorship by the Cornell Tech team, valued at $20,000 together.

Superlegal: AI Contract Review Company Raises $5 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 6, 2024

Superlegal, an AI platform for legal contract review for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and the only AI solution authorized to practice law in the U.S.A., announced the closing of its $5 million seed funding round, co-led by Aleph and Disruptive AI fund, with the participation of Alicorn Venture Capital, and Tom Glocer, the former CEO of Thomson Reuters. And the company also received a grant from the Google AI Startups Fund.

Aisles: AI-Driven Retail Company Closes $30 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 6, 2024

Aisles, an innovative AI-driven retail technology company, announced the successful closing of its Series A funding round, raising an additional $30 million in capital. This funding round will support the company's mission to revolutionize the retail shopping experience through AI solutions.

Clarifai: An Interview With SVP Of Marketing Chris Kent About Competing In A $70+ Billion Industry

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 6, 2024

Clarifai is an AI company that specializes in computer vision, natural language processing, and audio recognition. Based in Washington, DC, the company uses machine learning and deep neural networks to automatically identify and analyze images, videos, text, and audio. Clarifai also enables users to implement AI technology into their products via API, Mobile SDK, and/or on-premise solutions. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Clarifai SVP of Marketing Chris Kent to learn more.

MindStudio: The Story Behind This Custom AI Company

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 6, 2024

MindStudio is known as one of the fastest ways to build AI-powered apps for your team. For example, you can create custom AIs for consumers, SMBs, and enterprises with no coding required. Pulse 2.0 interviewed MindStudio.ai CEO Dmitry Shapiro to learn more about the company.

Deloitte Acquires End Point’s Disease Surveillance Assets CasePointer

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 6, 2024

Deloitte announced it had acquired substantially all of the assets of End Point's industry-leading disease surveillance business, CasePointer. This acquisition brings additional experienced and skilled software engineers, cloud developers, DevOps engineers, epidemiologists, and former public health officials to Deloitte.

Kintsugi AI: Tax Automation Company Secures $6 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 6, 2024

Tax automation platform company Kintsugi AI announced that it has secured a $6 million Series A at a $40 million valuation further to develop its innovative end-to-end sales tax management solution. This funding round was provided by Link Ventures, Venture Highway, KyberKnight, Plug and Play, DeVC, and notable angel investors.

ThinkLabs AI: $5 Million Raised To Help Enhance Grid Planning Through Automation

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 4, 2024

ThinkLabs AI, a startup focused on developing technology to help enhance grid planning through a combination of intelligent automation and AI, announced its launch from GE Vernova and a $5 million seed investment co-led by Powerhouse Ventures and Active Impact Investments, with participation from Blackhorn Ventures, Amplify Capital, Mercuria Energy, and a national US energy company.

Frore Systems: Thermal Technology Company Raises $80 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 4, 2024

Frore Systems has announced Series C fundraising of $80 million, bringing the total money raised by the company to $196 million. This funding round will be used to scale operations and expand the product line to meet the rapidly growing demand for AirJet Solid-State Active Cooling solutions that are unleashing the performance of both Edge AI and Data Center AI platforms.

Averlon Closes $10 Million To Help Enterprises Prevent Cloud Security Threats

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 3, 2024

Cyber intrusion insurance premiums are doubling year over year, and AI-driven cyberattacks are costing U.S. companies a lot of money. Averlon, a pioneering cloud security company, emerged from stealth mode with an $8 million seed funding round aimed at transforming how organizations stay ahead of emerging threats.

Bootloader Studio Secures $5 Million To Create Technology That Responses To Human Emotions

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 3, 2024

Bootloader Studio, a pioneering experience at the intersection of affective AI and spatial computing, emerged from stealth with the vision, funding, and clear path to develop emotionally-driven AI that can read and respond to human emotion. Bootloader Studio also revealed that it has raised $5 million in seed funding led by Antler Elevate. And the Bootloader Studio team brings together expertise in entertainment (film, video games) and AI to create a wholly new virtual and interactive experience.

Valar Labs: Computational Cancer Therapy AI Company Raises $22 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 3, 2024

Valar Labs, the developer of computational histology AI (CHAI) tests for predicting response to cancer therapies, announced $22 million in Series A funding.

DeepL: Language AI Company Raises $300 Million At $2 Billion Valuation

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 3, 2024

Leading Language AI company DeepL announced $300 million of investment at a $2 billion valuation. Led by Index Ventures, the oversubscribed round attracted strong support from new investors to support DeepL’s long-term vision to transform the way companies communicate around the world. And additional late-stage investors, including ICONIQ Growth, Teachers’ Venture Growth, and others, also participated, along with existing investors IVP, Atomico, and WiL.

Maxa: $21 Million Raised To Advance Snowflake Native App For ERP Insights Automation

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 1, 2024

Maxa - the #1 Snowflake Native App for business system and ERP insights automation for the Gen AI era - announced that it closed its Series A funding as part of an oversubscribed $21 million transaction. The funding round was led by FRAMEWORK, with BDC Capital’s Industrial Innovation Venture Fund as co-lead. Maxa also welcomed new investors Snowflake Ventures, Amiral Ventures and NAventures, the venture arm of National Bank of Canada, in addition to third-time backers AQC Capital and Graphite Ventures.

Praktika: $32.5 Million Raised To Transform Language Learning With Avatar Tutors

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 1, 2024

Praktika, a language learning app that utilizes highly personalized AI-powered avatars, announced it secured $32.5 million in Series A funding led by Blossom Capital to disrupt the traditional language learning market after a previously unannounced $2.5 million seed round led by Creator Ventures and Blue Wire Capital. These rounds included participation from prominent figures, including Carles Reina (ElevenLabs) and Patrice Evra (five-time Premier League champion).

Palantir Wins $480 Million Army Contract For Maven AI Technology

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 1, 2024

Palantir Technologies announced that the Department of Defense Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAO) awarded its subsidiary (Palantir USG) a production contract to make licenses of their AI-enabled operating system available across the Department of Defense (DoD). Starting with an initial order of $153 million for supporting certain Combatant Commands and the Joint Staff, more awards could be made up to $480 million over a 5-year period.

Evergrowth And Apolo Mktng Merge And Pre-Seed Increases To €2.5 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 1, 2024

Evergrowth, an AI-powered B2B account-based sales platform, announced a merger with Apolo Mktng, which utilizes AI to deliver personalized marketing solutions. This merger brings together two innovative forces in AI technology to drive forward a more customer-centric approach to sales strategies.

Patronus AI: $17 Million Raised To Deploy Reliable LLMs At Scale

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 31, 2024

Patronus AI recently announced it raised $17 million in Series A funding, bringing the total amount raised to $20 million.

Suno: AI-Based Music Creation Company Secures $125 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 30, 2024

Suno, an AI-based music company, announced it has raised $125 million in funding. The funding was provided by Lightspeed Venture Partners, Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross, Matrix and Founder Collective.

H: France-Based AI Company Raises $220 Million In Seed Funding

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 30, 2024

H, a Paris, France-based company has raised $220 million in seed funding. This funding round comes just a few months after the company was founded.

SOCRadar: End-To-End Threat Intelligence And Brand Protection Company Raises $25.2 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 30, 2024

SOCRadar, a provider of enterprise-grade and end-to-end threat intelligence and brand protection, announced the successful completion of its Series B funding round at $25.2 million. This funding round was led by PeakSpan Capital, with participation from Oxx.

Zendata: AI-Based Data Governance And Privacy Solutions Company Raises $2 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 29, 2024

Zendata, a leading provider of AI-based governance and data privacy solutions, emerged from stealth with $2 million in funding to redefine how security teams manage data and security. The seed funding round was led by PayPal Ventures, First-hand Alliance (operated by Salesforce Alumni), Geek Ventures, and Altari Ventures.

Harness: Modern Software Delivery Company Buying Split

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 29, 2024

Harness, a Modern Software Delivery Platform company, today announced it entered into an agreement to buy Split Software, a leading Feature Management and Experimentation provider. This strategic deal will define a new standard in software delivery, empowering companies to innovate faster and more efficiently than ever before.

DeepMotion AI: A Rapidly Growing Company That Is Building The Largest AI-Generated 3D Animation Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 28, 2024

DeepMotion aims to build the largest AI-generated 3D animation platform, democratizing the creation and use of digital human motion by making our technology accessible and user-friendly for diverse groups of creators, innovators, and industries. Pulse 2.0 interviewed DeepMotion AI founder and CEO Kevin He to learn more about the company.

Betterworks: How This Company Drives Higher Employee Engagement And Greater Manager Effectiveness

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 28, 2024

Betterworks is an intelligent performance management solution that empowers your people to reach their highest potential. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Betterworks CEO Doug Dennerline to learn more about the company.

Kudos: AI-Powered Smart Wallet Company Raises $10.2 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 28, 2024

Kudos, an AI-powered smart wallet that automatically maximizes consumer rewards and benefits on every purchase, announced it has completed a $10.2 million Series A fundraising round. This oversubscribed round was led by QED Investors. Additional participants included returning investor Patron, and The Points Guy founder Brian Kelly, Samsung Next, SV Angel, Precursor Ventures, The Mini Fund, Newtype Ventures, and the Four Cities Fund. Kudos plans to use some of the funding to roll out various new services that will augment its quickly evolving smart wallet product.

Rain AI: $8.1 Million Raised To Build Cost-Efficient Computing Hardware

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 28, 2024

Epic Venture Partners announced it has invested $8.1 million into Rain AI (a Sam Altman-backed startup). This was part of Rain AI's $25 million Series A extension round. Rain AI is an AI chip startup headed by CEO William Passo, with a goal of building cost- and energy-efficient AI hardware.

SugarCRM Buys Sales Automation Platform Company sales-i

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 27, 2024

SugarCRM, a provider of the intelligence-driven sales automation platform, announced it has acquired sales-i, a leading provider of a revenue intelligence solution that helps businesses maximize their revenue and profitability. The terms of the deal were undisclosed.

xAI Raises $6 Billion At $24 Billion Valuation

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 27, 2024

xAI, a company founded by Elon Musk that builds artificial intelligence to accelerate human scientific discovery, announced it has raised $6 billion at a valuation of $24 billion. The Series B funding included participation from Valor Equity Partners, Vy Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal and, Kingdom Holding, and others.