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This week we talk about Wiz's bold decision, a public VC battle, new capital in legal tech, and a16z's close call. Let's get started!
This week's most interesting startup stories
Wizz Says No to Google: Turning down the search giant's $23 billion acquisition offer was not an easy decision for the fast-growing, four-year-old cybersecurity startup, which was valued at $12 billion in May. “While turning down such a humiliating offer is difficult, our talented team gives us confidence in our choice,” Wizz CEO Assaf Rapaport wrote in a letter to staff. The company is now targeting the milestone of $1 billion in annual recurring revenue by 2025 and an IPO, although Rapaport did not say when the company might go public. Read more
Cohere Beats Generative AI Rivals: Cohere, a Canadian startup that builds language models for specific businesses rather than consumer applications, has raised $500 million at a valuation of $5.5 billion. Bloomberg reports that the company had annual revenue of $35 million at the end of March, up from about $13 million at the end of 2023. Cohere may be growing fast, and investors are clearly willing to pay a fair price for that growth. To be exact, the valuation is 157 times ARR. Read more
Venture capitalists see opportunity after CrowdStrike outage: In 2024, we probably won't allow a single buggy software update to take down many of the planet's most critical computer systems. But some venture capitalists say the rise of new startups could be a way to ensure this never happens again. Read more
A drama from 10 years ago rekindled: VC David Sacks and Rippling founder Parker Conrad had a public spat at X, with many of Silicon Valley's elite taking sides. Accusations flew and sides were chosen. VCs generally try to be founder-friendly, but such public disputes could tarnish the industry's reputation. Read more
Most interesting fundraisers this week
Until recently, startups haven't been particularly successful selling technology to the legal industry. But times may be changing. This week saw two legal tech deals.
Legal Growth and Profitability: Founded 16 years ago, Clio is a Canadian software company that helps legal practices run more efficiently with cloud-based technology. It looks like the company is finally hitting its stride. This week, the company raised a $900 million Series F at a $3 billion valuation, nearly double the value it achieved in 2021. The profitable company has also seen its ARR grow to $200 million from $100 million two years ago. Clio attributes its growth to its built-in payments and AI services. Read more
The Harvey Case: Legal AI Co-Pilot 2 Years Ago Harvey has raised $100 million in Series C funding led by GV, valuing it at $1.5 billion, up from $715 million in December of last year. While investors are betting big on Harvey's future, TechCrunch's Kyle Wiggers writes that lawyers may be reluctant to use Harvey widely because “the language model is prone to spitting out harmful, fabricated facts.” Read more
Stay up to date: Vanta, a company that helps businesses stay secure and compliant, has raised $150 million in Series C funding at a valuation of $2.45 billion. Founded six years ago, Vanta started out by helping small and medium-sized businesses get certified, but now wants to become the go-to security partner for large enterprises, too. Read more
Preventing Slick Prompts: Lakera, a Swiss startup that protects generative AI applications from malicious prompts and other threats, has raised $20 million in Series A funding. The company's software protects against prompts that could lead language models to leak personal information. Read more
This week's most interesting VC and fund news
Image credit: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg/Getty Images
a16z close call: A security researcher uncovered a critical flaw in the a16z website that could have exposed sensitive company data. The researcher discovered that the bug allowed them to access emails and passwords. Luckily for the prominent venture capital firm, the flaw was quickly fixed and no data was leaked. Read more
VCs are still pouring money into AI: New data from Crunchbase shows that generative AI startups are on track to beat last year's already impressive $21.8 billion in funding. Read more
Last but not least
Harrison Kessel (left), Eric Chew (center), and David Razavi (right) assemble the Aviat. Image credit: Aviat / Eric Chew
In a high school bathroom, 17-year-old Eric Zhu launched Aviato, a platform that analyzes private market data and aims to take on private market intelligence giants PitchBook and Crunchbase. Read more