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This week also brought AI funding news and some warnings. Some categories and stages are showing signs of overheating. Luckily, I also found some cool startups, literally.
This week's most interesting startup stories
Image credit: Whatnot
Believe it or not, OpenAI is still at the top of the list here as it is still a startup. There were other interesting stories this week.
BillionAI: OpenAI raises $6.6 billion at a $157 billion post-money valuation, in addition to securing a $4 billion revolving credit facility and launching a new interface. The company reportedly asked investors not to back rivals like Anthropic and xAI, but OpenAI would not confirm. Meanwhile, Anthropic has hired OpenAI co-founder Durk Kingma in a remote role.
Attack of the Clones: Y Combinator faced criticism for backing AI code editor PearAI. PearAI's CEO apologized for cloning another YC-backed open source project with a “flubbed” license without proper attribution.
Livestream Shopping: Livestream shopping app Whatnot announced that it has surpassed $2 billion in annual gross merchandise value (GMV) this year, a sign that there is still hope for the live-commerce business in the United States.
This week's most interesting fundraisers
Image credit: Series Entertainment
Some companies prefer to raise funds under the radar. Others even work underwater.
Deep end: AI coding startup Poolside has raised $500 million in a Series B round led by Bain Capital Ventures, with participation from eBay and Nvidia. This allows Poolside to use 10,000 Nvidia GPUs online to train future models, CEO Jason Warner said.
Chilled water: Barcelona-based immersion cooling startup Submer has raised $55.5 million to expand its solution customer base. This solution is already used by hyperscalers, telcos, and other large enterprises.
11x meets a16z: 11x.ai, a startup developing AI sales bots, has secured about $50 million in Series B funding led by Andreessen Horowitz, TechCrunch has learned.
Stealthy funding: Cloud backup startup Eon comes out of stealth and reveals it has already reached a post-money valuation of $750 million after raising three rounds of funding, including a $77 million Series B I did.
Stealthier funding: Series, a generative AI game development platform, quietly raised $28 million in a Series A round from Netflix, Dell, a16z, and more.
This week's most interesting VC and fund news
Image credit: Kimberly White / Stringer / Getty Images
Trim season: Veteran venture firm CRV returned $275 million from its $500 million late-stage select fund to investors, citing overvaluation of mature startups. This follows a similar move by India's Peak XV, which cut its fund size and fees following signs of overheating.
Launch: Former Y Combinator managing director and Twitter executive Ali Rowghani is launching a new venture, Maxq, targeting $250 million in debut funding.
New York bullish: Index Ventures is hiring another New York-based investor and plans to add three or four new people to its local team over the next year, partner Shardul Shah told TechCrunch. spoke.
Last but not least
Image credit: Kevin Ryan
Speaking with TechCrunch Global Editor-in-Chief Matt Rosoff ahead of the Startup Battlefield 200 at this year's TechCrunch Disrupt, New York tech investor and serial entrepreneur Kevin Ryan discusses when founders should sell their companies and when. Some thoughts on what to do. His belief is that more people should get involved.