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Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup, xAI, aims to secure $1 billion in equity financing to compete with industry leaders such as OpenAI, Microsoft, and Google. The company, co-founded by Musk, has already garnered $135 million from investors, as revealed in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
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Venture Capital: Indian Used Car Platform CARS24 Nabs $450M
Within a space of just three months, Indian used cars platform and market leader CARS24 has nearly doubled its valuation from $1.84 billion to $3.3 billion with its latest Series G funding round comprising $300 million of equity and $100 million of debt. The equity round was led by Alpha Wave Global. The $100M debt came from diversified financial institutions in the UAE, India, and Australia.
FinTech: “Instalments By Barclays” Available To Amazon UK Customers Effective Today
British bank Barclays (LON: BARC) announced today a tie-up with Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) offering a pay-later option to the e-commerce giant’s customers in the UK. The new flexible payment method, dubbed “Instalments by Barclays,” is available to finance purchases of £100 or more on amazon.co.uk through a reusable credit account from Barclays.
Venture Capital: European Vertical Farming Startup Infarm Raises $200M, Including From The Qatar Wealth Fund
Infarm’s vertical farming technology uses 95% less water, 90% less transport and zero chemical pesticide. Infarm, the fast-growing Dutch vertical farming startup, raised a $200 million Series D round that launched it into ‘unicorn’ status. The Qatar Investment Authority, Partners in Equity, Hanaco, Atomico, Lightrock, and Bonnier and other existing and new investors participated in…
Digital Assets: Bitcoin Jumps As Fed Accelerates ‘Taper,’ Mulls Three Rate Hikes In 2022
At the conclusion of its two-day confabulations, the Fed said it will step up the rate of reduction (‘taper’) in its bond purchases. Further, projections showed that the central bank could hike interest rates as many as three times in 2022, twice in the year following, and again twice in 2024. However, at the latest meeting, the Fed kept rates on hold. The FOMC’s decisions were approved by members unanimously.
Venture Capital: Norwest Venture Closes On $3B Fund NVP XVI
Norwest Venture Partners, the Silicon Valley-based VC firm, closed on Norwest Venture Partners XVI, LP, a $3 billion fund to finance “paradigm-shifting” business across the consumer, enterprise and healthcare sectors. The announcement of the new fund, its biggest so far, coincided with the firm’s introduction of an ESG policy in parallel with its commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion.
Artificial Intelligence: “AI Will Never Be Ethical,” Says An AI Tool In A Debate
The topic of the debate: ‘This house believes that AI will never be ethical.’ An AI tool debating on the above topic has issued a blunt warning that AI will never be ethical. And it should know: It was trained on 63 million news articles, Wikipedia and Reddit Discourse. The AI tool, which has the…
Artificial Intelligence: AI Surveillance Firm SenseTime Forced To Put Off IPO After US Blacklisting
SenseTime, a Chinese AI startup, put its $767 million Hong Kong IPO in abeyance after being placed on a US investment blacklist for allegedly using its facial recognition technology to identify repressed ethnic minorities such as the Uighurs.
Artificial Intelligence: Chinese AI Company And IPO-Hopeful SenseTime To Land Up On US Blacklist
In protest against human rights abuses against Muslim Uyghurs in Xinjiang, the US is likely to place SenseTime, the Chinese AI company, on an investment blacklist, the Financial Times reported Thursday. Washington will take the action against SenseTime on Friday, on the occasion of Human Rights Day, and alongside similar steps against a host of other countries, sources familiar with the matter told the FT.
Venture Capital: Israeli Fintech Tipalti (“I Handled It”) Nabs $270M At $8.3B Valuation
Tipalti, an Israeli startup that automates accounts payables and processes over $30 billion in total annual payments volume, announced a $270 million Series F funding led by G Squared. New investors Marshall Wace and funds and accounts managed by Counterpoint Global (Morgan Stanley), in addition to current investors Zeev Ventures, Durable Capital Partners, 01 Advisors and others also participated in the funding.
Artificial Intelligence: A $500M Gift From Priscilla Chan And Mark Zuckerberg Funds New Harvard Institute
A gift of $500 million from Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg, announced Tuesday by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), will fund the Kempner Institute for the Study of Natural and Artificial Intelligence, launched by Harvard University the same day. It represents a new University-wide initiative standing at the intersection of neuroscience and artificial intelligence, seeking fundamental principles that underlie both human and machine intelligence.
Artificial Intelligence: Controversial AI Company Clearview To Nab Patent For “A Search Engine For Faces”
Clearview AI, the company that has been under fire from governments, tech giants and privacy advocacy organizations for scraping facial images from social media, is on the cusp of bagging a patent for a “search engine for faces” that can roam the internet to find matches.
Venture Capital: Investing Platform Public.com Now Has Tennis Star Maria Sharapova On Board
Former tennis star Maria Sharapova has picked up an undisclosed stake in Public.com, an investing platform that has more than 1 million users, 90% of which are first time investors. In a nod towards promoting financial literacy, Sharapova said she appreciated how Public broke down the category into simple, educational, user-friendly steps to make investing less intimidating, and helped users take control of their finances more confidently.
Venture Capital: Porsche Buys A Stake In Sustainable Homes-Focused Startup 1KOMMA5°
Porsche, the German car maker, has taken a stake in Hamburg-based startup 1KOMMA5° through its venture finance arm, Porsche Ventures. The startup seeks to boost the rollout of presently decentralized technologies related to renewable energy and mobility for homes by knitting together electrical installation entrepreneurs and companies onto a networking platform. 1KOMMA5° will also support them with technology for digitizing their business and centralization of admin tasks, as well as provide growth capital.
Venture Capital: Commonwealth Fusion Systems Raises $1.8B To Build The SPARC Net Energy Fusion Machine
Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS), the Cambridge-based startup developing fusion power plants to meet global decarbonization goals, has closed a $1.8 billion Series B round led by Tiger Global Management and included new investors such as Bill Gates, John Doerr, Google, and Marc Benioff’s TIME Ventures.
Artificial Intelligence: Insilico Medicine Initiates First-In-Human Trial Of AI-Discovered Drug For Pulmonary Fibrosis
Insilico Medicine, an end-to-end artificial intelligence (AI)-driven drug discovery company, has dosed a volunteer in Australia with ISM001-055, a potentially first-in-class small molecule inhibitor of a novel biological target discovered by its Pharma.AI platform for the treatment of Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF). It represents the first trial in humans of this drug candidate.
Digital Assets: MicroStrategy’s Saylor, El Salvador’s Bukele Both Buy The Bitcoin Dip
Path-breaking corporate bitcoin investor MicroStrategy (NASDAQ: MSTR) said in a filing Monday that it purchased approximately 7,002 bitcoins for about $414.4 million in cash, or $59,187 per coin, between October 1 and November 29 – a classic ‘buy-the-dip’ operation as financial markets reel from the implications of a new, highly mutated virus.
Venture Capital: Indian Fantasy Gaming Group Dream Sports Raises $840M
Dream Sports announced last week its raise of $840 million from investors led by Falcon Edge, DST Global, D1 Capital, Redbird Capital and Tiger Global, with the transaction valuing the startup at $8 billion. Existing investors including TPG and Footpath Ventures also participated in the funding.
Digital Assets: India To Clamp Down On Cryptocurrencies Via Legislation By Year-End
The legislative agenda for the upcoming winter session of the Lok Sabha, the lower house of India’s parliament, shows that a bill titled “The Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill 2021” would be introduced for consideration of the house. The Winter session of the Lok Sabha is scheduled to run from November 29 through December 23.
Venture Capital: MoonPay’s $555M Series ‘A’ Is The Largest For A Bootstrapped Crypto Company Globally
MoonPay, which refers to itself as the PayPal for crypto, announced its massive Series A of $555 million led by Tiger Global Management and Coatue with participation from Blossom Capital, Thrive Capital, Paradigm, and NEA. The hitherto bootstrapped startup, which is already profitable, secured a valuation of $3.4 billion in the round. The company sets up the interfaces between fiat channels of finance and crypto entities – a so-called “fiat to crypto on-ramp.”
Venture Capital: Sierra Space Raises $1.4B For Spaceplane And Habitat Station
Sierra Space, the startup with visions for humanity’s new civilizations beyond Earth, announced Friday its $1.4 billion Series A round led by General Atlantic, Coatue and Moore Strategic Ventures, with participation from funds and accounts managed by BlackRock Private Equity Partners and AE Industrial Partners. The round valued the startup, which is a subsidiary of private aerospace contractor Sierra Nevada Corporation, at $4.5 billion.
Venture Capital: No-Code Productivity Platform Formstack Raises $425M
Formstack, a platform that allows customers to digitize their workflows including forms, documents, and e-signatures without having to code, announced its raise of a $425 million growth investment led by Silversmith Capital Partners and returning investor PSG.
FinTech: German Fintech And NeoBank N26 Calls It Quits In The US
A month after successfully closing a monster $900 million round that valued it at more than $9 billion, German fintech and challenger bank N26 has announced it is shuttering the US business that it launched in July 2019. It is the latest setback for the company, which has had long-standing issues with German regulator BaFin, and exited its UK operations last year after that country pulled out from the EU.
Venture Capital: Lacework Raises $1.3B To Expand Its Cloud Security Offerings
Lacework, the cloud security platform, announced today the largest funding round in the history of the security industry. The six-year-old startup’s $1.3 billion Series D round was led by existing investors Sutter Hill Ventures, Altimeter Capital, D1 Capital Partners, and Tiger Global Management with participation from new investors including Counterpoint Global (Morgan Stanley), Durable Capital, Franklin Templeton, General Catalyst, and XN. Coatue, Dragoneer, Liberty Global Ventures, and Snowflake Ventures, all existing investors, also participated.
Digital Assets: Magnum Offers New York City Condos For $29M (Bitcoin Only Accepted)
In a sign of the times, Magnum Real Estate Group is offering a set of retail condos worth $29 million for payment against bitcoin only, a first for commercial property in the Big Apple. The condos, covering 9,000 square feet, are in a newly constructed luxury residential building with the bottom floor already leased fully to ProHealth, Mighty Pita and M&T Bank. The proposed sale shows the growing adoption of cryptocurrencies, fanning out from coffee and cars and into condos.