Legal LLM, allosteric modulators, Youtube videos to train GPT-4, and many more...
What's Up Tech? #177
Welcome to our 177th newsletter, written with 🖤 by Diane de La Raudière, Emma Ayache, Miguel Lutz, and Justine Pelisson.
Fundraisings from last week with Pigment, Hailo, Neurosterix, and Luminance
News from last week with Tiger Global Management’s latest $2.2Bn fund and how AI companies are tackling training data shortages
Internships & Job offers of the week
Enjoy the read! 🌞
🦄 Pigment raised $145M and attains Unicorn status (🇫🇷)
French startup Pigment, an Excel alternative, has secured $145 million in Series D funding. Pigment's cloud-based financial planning platform simplifies decision-making with powerful analytics. 📊
Key achievements driving this investment include tripling annual recurring revenue (ARR) and doubling the customer base with brands like Snowflake, Datadog, Unilever or Merck relying on Pigment for strategic insights. 🔍
Pigment's roadmap emphasizes user-friendly planning with generative AI, enhanced scenario comparisons, and customized features for sales and demand planning. Investments in scalability and team expansion across North America and Europe further support Pigment's mission. 🚀
💾 Hailo closed $120M Series C extension to fuel its development of AI processors (🇮🇱)
Israel-based chipmaker Hailo added another $120M in fresh capital, catapulting its valuation to $1.2 billion. CEO and Co-Founder Orr Danon expressed enthusiasm for the company's trajectory, stating that the funds will be instrumental in accelerating growth and executing their roadmap at a faster pace. With the right conditions, Hailo aims to become a publicly traded company in the future. 📈
The company’s processors allow users to perform sophisticated deep learning tasks on their smart devices without relying on a data center. With the rise of AI and the launch of ChatGPT, Hailo positions itself in a fast-growing market poised for significant expansion and innovation. 💡
🧠 Neurosterix secured $63M in Series A funding to revolutionize neurological disorder treatment (🇨🇭)
Neurosterix, based in Geneva, Switzerland, secured $63 million in funding for their work on treating neurological disorders. This investment will propel Neurosterix's development of allosteric modulators (molecules that can bind to a protein at a site other than the active site, altering its activity). 🫡
The company plans to acquire preclinical assets and the allosteric modulator drug discovery platform from Addex, a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company, to accelerate their development. Tim Dyer, also from Addex, will lead as CEO. With this substantial backing, Neurosterix is poised to make significant improvements in the treatment of neurological conditions. 👁
💼Luminance raised $40M surfing on AI hype (🇬🇧)
The Cambridge-born company Luminance has secured $40 million in Series B funding to strengthen its U.S. footprint. Luminance’s legal Large Language Model (LLM) automates the process of creating, negotiating and analyzing contracts and other legal documents. ✍️
With a rapidly growing customer-based spanning 600 organizations in 70 different countries, the eight-year-old company is now benefiting from the hype swirling around specialized AI for competitive advantages and cost-savings. It has experienced rapid growth, with a fivefold increase in ARR over the last 2 years. In addition to law firms, Luminance is now also selling to corporate customers like Joch Industries, Hitachi, Liberty Mutual and BBC Studios. 💪
Luminance Raises $40 Million in Funding Round Led by March Capital
🥶 Tiger Global's fundraising struggles amid market volatility
Tiger Global Management's latest venture-capital fund, Private Investment Partners 16 (PIP 16), finally closed at $2.2 billion, well below its $6 billion target… Founder Chase Coleman assumed leadership of the VC division following significant portfolio markdowns under Scott Shleifer's tenure. 🥵
Despite setbacks, PIP 16 focuses on US and Indian enterprise technology startups, with Tiger insiders doubling their commitment to 20% of the fund's assets. Tiger Global's difficulties echo broader industry challenges, with leading VC firms like Apollo Global Management Inc., Carlyle Group Inc., and Insight Partners also facing hurdles in fundraising amidst investor caution and market instability. 🫨
Tiger Global's PIP 16 VC Fund Closes at $2.2 Billion, Falling Short of $6 Billion Target
👀 How AI companies tackle training data shortages amid legal and ethical challenges
AI companies, like OpenAI and Google, are facing challenges in obtaining quality training data, as reported by The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. Resorting to questionable methods, OpenAI transcribed YouTube content despite legal uncertainties, while Google navigated privacy changes. Meta considered buying publishers to access copyrighted works. 🤔
As data shortages loom, companies explore synthetic data and curriculum learning, but ethical concerns remain amid legal disputes over data usage. 🕵🏼♀️
OpenAI Transcribed Over a Million Hours of YouTube Videos to Train GPT-4
Internships
Analyst - Kiss Studio (Paris)
Visiting Analyst - Antler (Amsterdam)
DeepTech Analyst - Earlybird (Berlin, Munich, London)
Jobs
Founders Associate - Afilio GmbH (Berlin)
VC Associate - Headline (Berlin)
VC Analyst - Runa Capital (London)
👉 If you’d like to discover more offers, you can check our job board just here or fill this form to submit a new one.
You can also read more about baby vc on our website and follow our updates on LinkedIn, or directly reach out to us at hello@baby-vc.co! 🤝
The whole baby vc crew 🖤