January 24th Newsletter

Before we unpack this week’s actions, click here for our deck highlighting the financials from selected public companies.

The World Economic Forum opened in Davos on Monday where leaders across the world gathered to share and exchange insights. After the inauguration, President Trump threatened a 25% tariff on Canada and Mexico, signaling his intent to renegotiate a major continental trade deal. Meanwhile, the “$TRUMP” crypto token soared to more than $10 billion, boosting the values of other cryptocurrencies. TikTok was restored on Sunday with ByteDance in active talks for a deal to keep TikTok in the US. KPMG aims to be the first Big Four firm to own a law firm, and the CFPB is suing Capital One for misleading consumers about interest rates, depriving them of more than $2 billion. Lastly, Ohio State captured the National Championship on Monday night.

We have recently published a new series called Company Spotlight, please access it here and let us know if you have any companies that you would like to see next.

Top 5 AI highlights

[1] 🌟President Trump alongside CEOs of OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank, announced the $500 billion Stargate Project. The initiative aims to develop U.S. AI infrastructure. Backed by OpenAI, SoftBank, Oracle, and MGX, the project promises $100 billion initial investments, creating jobs and bolstering signaling federal support for AI. This project plans to spend roughly 2x of what the entire Apollo project spent (adjusted for inflation), as well as 2x more than Meta, Apple, Amazon and Google's combined R&D spending in 2023. Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund also plans to invest more than $300 billion into AI. Read on CNN and CNBC.

[2] 🚀OpenAI has unveiled two groundbreaking updates in AI this week. First, it launched a research preview for "Operator," an AI agent designed to perform web tasks autonomously for ChatGPT Pro users in the U.S., priced at $200 per month and eventually to Plus users, who pay $ 20 per month. “Operator” combines GPT-4o’s vision and reasoning skills to interact with websites using a browser, enabling tasks like clicking, typing, and scrolling while ensuring user safety by requiring approval for sensitive actions. On the same note, Microsoft released AutoGen 0.4, an enterprise tool for building AI agents, Additionally, OpenAI announced the upcoming release of its "o3 mini" reasoning AI model, designed for advanced problem-solving. More from The Verge and Reuters.

[3] 💬 Perplexity AI has launched a new feature, Perplexity Assistant, as part of its app for Android devices, positioning itself as a highly capable, multimodal AI assistant. The Assistant leverages Perplexity’s search engine to provide real-time web access and perform multi-app tasks like booking rides, creating calendar entries, and reserving tables at restaurants—all while maintaining context across interactions. The company also acquired Read.cv, a LinkedIn competitor, to enhance its enterprise offerings and networking capabilities. Read more from Tech Crunch. 

[4] 🐋DeepSeek R1: Chinese AI lab DeepSeek released its reasoning model, R1, claiming it is slightly above or on par with OpenAI’s o1 on benchmarks like AIME and MATH-500 (see diagram below) while costing 90-95% less. R1 boasts self-checking capabilities, ensuring accuracy in areas like math and science. Also, TikTok’s parent company ByteDance released Doubao-1.5-pro, which they claim to compete closely with OpenAI’s o1 in response to complex instructions, further challenging OpenAI’s market share. As other nations offer their locally developed AI models, it's important to be mindful there may be inherent bias, whether intended or not. More on Tech Crunch and Reuters. 

[5] 🌬️Mistral AI’s CEO at Davos, mentioned that they are planning a potential IPO, which could potentially revitalize Europe’s lagging IPO market. The company is a direct competitor to OpenAI, boasting a $6 billion valuation and having raised $1.14 billion from investors like a16z. An IPO could spark motivation and more investment in European AI innovation in addition to Spain’s €150 million subsidies for AI and the EU’s contribution of €384.5 million for AI adoption. Read Tech Crunch and Tech Monitor.

Founder’s Corner

SAFEs are becoming more popular for startups

What we read and listened to this week

• CNN plans to lay off hundreds of employees as it shifts focus to digital audiences and reduces production costs. NBC News also plans smaller-scale job cuts. (NYP)

• JetBlue’s integration of Venmo boosts customer convenience, targets younger travelers, and led to a 6% increase in stock on Wednesday (CNN).

• Netflix releases video creation AI model, while shares surge as subscriber growth hits record 19M, and disclosed price hike plans to boost revenue and outlook. (The Verge)

• President Trump ordered the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, reversing Biden-era climate policies and drawing criticism for undermining climate efforts. (NPR)

• Walgreens faces DOJ lawsuit over opioid prescriptions, escalating scrutiny amid ongoing epidemic-related legal battles. (DOJ)

AI M&A and Fundraising news (Jan 17 — Jan 23)

• 1up: AI to answer sales questions, raised a $5.25M Seed.

• Anthropic: LLM developer, is raising $1B from Google in addition to the $2B round.

• Atomicwork: AI enterprise SaaS platform for IT management, raised a $40M Seed.

• Bolt.new:  AI coding platform, raised a $105.M Series B.

• Doti: AI-powered search, raised a $7M Seed.

• Eleos: AI Agent for behavioral health, raised a $60M Series C.

• Egregious: AI tools to help organizations detect and counteract the misuse of AI, raised a $1M Pre-Seed.

• Harvey: a legal AI assistant startup, is reportedly raising $300M

• Instabase: a platform for embedding AI into the business systems for data analysis and decision making, raised a $100M Series D.

• Lebesgue: AI marketing trend and benchmark manager platform, raised a $3.5M seed.

• Metropolis: AI parking platform acquired Oosto for $125M in an all-cash transaction.

• Music AI: AI vocal separation music app, raised a $40M Series A.

• Naked: South African AI Insurance Model, raised a $38M Series B2.

• Neko: Body scanning device with AI analysis, raised $260M.

• Nexos.ai: AI business efficiency platform, raised $8M.

• Package.ai: Workflow automation and customer engagement manager for retail, raised $14M.

• Properti: Real estate platform for transactions using AI for sale, rental, and valuation of homes, raised $7.12M in Series A.

• Qumis: AI platform for insurance knowledge, raised a $2.2M Pre-Seed.

• Rapid Canvas: Custom no-code AI solutions platform for businesses, raised a $23.86M Series A.

• Rhino.ai: AI-powered platform for upgrading outdated software systems, raised a $50M Series A.

• StackBlitz: Integrated development environment (IDE) for web apps, raised $83.5M.

• Sereact: Developer of AI robotics for warehouse automation, raised a $25.85M Series A

• Shield AI: Military drone tech maker and AI co-pilot for US fighter aircraft, raised $200M.

• Teal: AI career platform, raised a $7.5M Series A.

• Vertice: AI SaaS optimizer for software and cloud spending, raised a $50M Series C.