Are Threads dead?
Michael Burry making a wager against the stock market, X decelerating the pace of accessing Meta websites, and the recent acquisition by OpenAI is here
š In the Know
According to The Information, Microsoft plans to sell a new version of Databricksā software, which helps companies create AI models, as an alternative to OpenAIās proprietary ones, potentially harming the latter.
Threadsā daily active users (DAU) on Android mobile devices have fallen by almost 80% in just over three weeks, according to Similiarweb.
It's not only Chinese internet giants, but also Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates that are reportedly purchasing thousands of high-performance Nvidia chips that are crucial for building AI software. This shows that there is a global AI arms race.
Michael Burry, the hedge fund manager famous for predicting the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis, has placed a $1.6B bet against the U.S. stock market by purchasing put options.
X, the company formerly known as Twitter has been slowing the speed with which users could access links to the New York Times, Facebook and other news organizations and online competitors.
š VentureVista
ProjectDiscovery, a startup whose platform detects vulnerabilities and misconfigurations in codebases, raised a $25M Series A round led by CRV, with Point72 Ventures, SignalFire, Rain Capital, Mango Capital, Accel, and Lightspeed also piling on.
ProjectDiscovery continuously monitors for exploits in websites, apps, APIs, cloud environments, and services. Working from templates, IT teams ā alongside engineers ā can find and remediate vulnerabilities and misconfigurations.Highlight, a startup that helps CPG brands (consumer packaged goods) automate the product testing process, raised an $8M seed round co-led by Afore Capital and Craft Ventures, with Y Combinator, Neo, Day One Ventures, Worklife Ventures, and Fuel Capital also investing.
The company automates that testing process to bring all of those components together into one platform. Customers can set up their testing, get the product results they need quickly and scale their testing over time. The company has more than tripled its revenue, employees and customer base. It also calls hundreds of top brands as clients, including NestlƩ, EstƩe Lauder, P&G, Target, Sakara and Hanes.Grit, a startup whose AI-powered product automates software maintenance, raised a $7M round co-led by Founders Fund and Abstract Ventures, with Quiet Capital, 8VC, A* Capital, AME Cloud Ventures, SV Angel, Operator Partners, CoFound Partners, and Uncorrelated Ventures also taking part.
Grit provides an AI-powered product that automates software maintenance, traditionally a manual and frustrating task for software engineering teams, particularly for large enterprises with antiquated code bases.Braid, a San Francisco startup that offers tools for social media creators, raised a $6.8M seed round. Andreessen Horowitz and Initialized Capital co-led the deal.
Founded by Facebook veterans Matthew Cahill and Chris Piro, the platform enables users to create customizable landing pages showcasing their work on the web, including blog posts, videos, podcasts, and commerce links. Additionally, users can create their own mailing lists and interact with followers via text messages or push notifications.11x AI, a startup that aims to create AI personae that can handle repetitive tasks, raised a $2M pre-seed round. Project A Ventures was the lead investor, with participation from the scout funds of Sequoia, Accel, and Atomic as well as NoLabel Ventures and Tiny VC.
The first AI digital worker, Alice, is an AI Sales Development Representative. She is a learning, adaptive, ever-evolving digital teammate that becomes increasingly indispensable to customers over time. 11x AI believes that its AI-powered team members can help smaller firms operate at scales previously only reachable by larger corporations.
š„ Exits:
OpenAI, the AI company behind ChatGPT, acquired Global Illumination, a startup using AI for creative tools, infrastructure, and digital experiences.
The latest development from Global Illumination is called Biomes, an open-source sandbox MMORPG with similarities to Minecraft, designed for online multiplayer interaction.According to Bloomberg, Instacart is planning an IPO as soon as September, whose sources say the online grocery-delivery company could publicly file its plans for an IPO with the SEC as soon as next week.
A listing by San Francisco-based Instacart would add momentum to an IPO market that has been warming in fits and starts. Chipmaker Arm Ltd., majority owned by SoftBank Group Corp., is planning to go public in September and raise $8-10B in what would be the yearās biggest IPO.
š”Innovation Spotlight
Spotify expands its AI-powered DJ feature globally. An AI-powered "DJ" feature, which personalizes users' listening experience through a curated music selection and spoken-word commentary. The commentary, powered by a synthetic voice, includes contextual information about specific songs and artists based on the user's previous listening habits.
Salesforce has launched Einstein Studio, a new "bring-your-own-model" experience that allows enterprises to connect and train their own AI models on proprietary data within Salesforce, streamlining the AI project lifecycle and making it easier for teams to deploy their projects.
š Insightful Data
AI firms accounted for almost 18% of the 4.5M square feet of office space that tenants sought to rent or renew in the second quarter of this year in San Francisco.
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Venturized is compiled and written by Ivan Taranenko, Associate at Roosh Ventures.
Roosh Ventures is a Kyiv-based entrepreneurs-led, generalist VC firm investing in Pre-seed to Series A across EU and US markets. Powered by Roosh.Ā
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