As I write to you in front of a fireplace in Deer Valley, Utah (yes, I realize it’s July), Brainstorm Tech is wrapping up, and everyone is trickling out to catch their flights home.
It’s been a little bit of a whirlwind—exploring Park City and hearing from people like former Vice President Al Gore, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Arati Prabhakar, Flow’s Adam Neumann, and Meredith Whittaker, president of the Signal Foundation.
For those of you who couldn’t attend, here’s what you shouldn’t miss:
Founders Fund GP Keith Rabois is all-in on Ron DeSantis. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s sweeping anti-LGBTQ+ bill in May of this year has led some members of the state’s LGBTQ+ community to pack up and relocate to other parts of the country, but not Keith Rabois, who made clear on stage that he’s a definitive DeSantis fan. “I want to say very clearly that my husband and I are significant supporters of the governor and all his policies,” Rabois said. “We think what he’s doing in Florida is the recipe that should be copied in every state. Period, without exception.” Read more here.
People are actually using Bing now. And publishers are benefitting. The new and improved Bing, released earlier this year, incorporates OpenAI’s large language model to power a search bot function. Since then, total traffic to Bing’s suggested websites has grown, according to Jordi Ribas, the corporate vice president of Microsoft who oversees search and A.I. Ribas said that the new Bing chatbot is actually increasing the traffic sent to publisher websites, rather than reducing it, by instead suggesting original content. Read more here.
Lack of diversity is challenging Utah’s ambitions to become the next Silicon Valley. Utah has deep ties to the insular nature of Mormon culture, says Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince, and will need to embrace a wider spectrum of perspectives, backgrounds, and skill sets.
“For this to be a true tech hub, we absolutely need to put in place the infrastructure that supports a more diverse community, and we do not have that,” Prince said. “With a more diverse tech leadership in Utah, I think we have an opportunity to help Utah evolve and advance in some of these areas.” Read more here.
A.I.’s 10% to 20% risk of going wrong. Anthropic cofounder and CEO Dario Amodei laid out a series of short- and long-term risks regarding A.I.—from things like bias and misinformation, which we’re already experiencing, to models becoming too autonomous, and becoming too hard to stop or control. When asked if he was optimistic or pessimistic about A.I., Amodei said: “My guess is that things will go really well. But there’s a risk, maybe 10% or 20%, that this will go wrong, and it’s incumbent on us to make sure that doesn’t happen.” Read more here.
More to come. See you tomorrow,
Jessica Mathews
Twitter: @jessicakmathews
Email: [email protected]
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Jackson Fordyce curated the deals section of today’s newsletter.
VENTURE DEALS
- InvGate, a Buenos Aires-based SaaS solution for IT service and asset management, raised $35 million. Riverwood Capital led the round and was joined by Endeavor Catalyst.
- Silo Technologies, a San Francisco-based technology solutions provider for the food supply chain, raised $32 million in Series C funding. Koch Disruptive Technologies led the round and was joined by Andreessen Horowitz, Haystack Capital, Tribe Capital, Collate Capital, and Moore Capital.
- SAVVY, a Tel Aviv-based cybersecurity startup, raised $22 million in Series A funding. Canaan led the round and was joined by Cyberstarts and Lightspeed Venture Partners.
- Jirav, a San Francisco-based financial planning and analysis solution, raised $20 million in Series B funding. Cota Capital led the round and was joined by Born Capital, Alumni Ventures, Information Venture Partners, and Bluefish Ventures.
- Zluri, a Milpitas, Calif.-based SaaS operations platform, raised $20 million in Series B funding. Lightspeed Venture Partners led the round and was joined by MassMutual Ventures, Endiya Partners, and Kalaari Capital.
- Affect Therapeutics, a McLean, Va.-based addiction treatment company, raised $16 million in Series A funding. ARTIS Ventures led the round and was joined by AlleyCorp, CityLight, LifeArc Ventures, Samsung Next, and What If Ventures.
- 73 Strings, a Paris-based augmented intelligence platform for illiquid assets, raised $10 million in Series A funding. Blackstone Innovations Investments and Fidelity International Strategic Ventures co-led the round and was joined by Broadhaven Ventures.
- Trunk Tools, a New York-based employee payment platform for the construction industry, raised $9.9 million in seed funding. Innovation Endeavors led the round and was joined by Fifth Wall, Foundation Capital, and others.
- Passes, a Miami-based relationship building platform for creators with their communities, raised $9 million in seed funding. Multicoin Capital led the round and was joined by Florida Funders, Anti Fund, Craft Ventures, Menlo Ventures, 11:11 Media, and individuals from Gradient Ventures.
- Resemble AI, a San Francisco-based generative voice A.I. Platform, raised $8 million in Series A funding. Javelin Venture Partners led the round and was joined by Comcast Ventures, Craft Ventures, and Ubiquity Ventures.
- Eureka Health, a San Francisco-based platform for sharing medical treatments, raised $7 million in funding. Khosla Ventures led the round and was joined by South Park Commons and other angels.
- CapStack, a Miami-based integrated operating system for banks, raised $6 million in pre-seed funding. Fin Capital led the round and was joined by Cambrian Ventures, Alloy Labs, Cowboy Ventures, Future Perfect Ventures, Gaingels, Selah Ventures, Uncorrelated Ventures, and Valor Equity Partners.
- Cove, a New York-based trust and safety platform for the web, raised $5.8 million in seed funding. Thrive Capital led the round and was joined by Sound Ventures, Common Sense Growth, Neo, Elad Gil, and others.
- Gradia Health, a San Francisco-based integrated concierge care platform for clinics to support patients with chronic conditions, raised $4.2 million in seed funding. MaC Venture Capital led the round and was joined by YCombinator, Soma Capital, Atlanta Ventures, and others.
PRIVATE EQUITY
- Savvy Games Group, backed by the Saudi government’s Public Investment Fund, acquired Scopely, a Los Angeles-based game publisher, for $4.9 billion.
- BVP Forge acquired a majority stake in Radformation, a New York-based cancer care clinical and operational software solutions provider. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- An affiliate of Gemspring Capital Management acquired Bradford Soap International, a West Warwick, R.I.-based beauty and personal care products company. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Gen II Fund Services acquired the private equity and real estate fund administration business of Crestbridge, a Dublin-based administration, management, and corporate governance solutions company. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Vantage Surgical Solutions, backed by Pharos Capital, acquired Ophthalmic Surgical Solutions, a Lecompton, Kans.-based ophthalmic surgical equipment and services provider. Financial terms were not disclosed.
OTHER
- When I Work acquired Lean Financial, a San Diego-based financial products provider. Financial terms were not disclosed.
FUNDS + FUNDS OF FUNDS
- Alpine Investors, a San Francisco-based private equity firm, raised $4.5 billion for a fund focused on control buyouts of software and services businesses and add-on acquisitions for platform investments.
- WindRose Health Investors, a New York-based private equity firm, raised over $1.4 billion for a fund focused on health care investments.
- North Branch Capital, an Oak Brook, Ill.-based investment firm, raised $213 million for a fund focused on investing in lower middle market industrial companies.
PEOPLE
- Crossbeam Venture Partners, a New York-based venture capital firm, promoted Sakib Jamal to vice president on the investment team.
- ETF Partners, a London-based investment firm, promoted Lucy Rands, Tomer Strikovsky, and Zoe VanderWolk to partner.
- NEA, a Menlo Park, Calif.-based venture capital firm, hired Mark Hawkins as a venture partner. Formerly, he was with Emeritus.
Correction, July 17, 2023: The online version of this newsletter has been corrected to reflect that individuals who work at Gradient Ventures invested in Passes, not the venture capital firm.
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