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Venture investment returning to pre-pandemic levels, shows Q2 2022 CVCA report (BETAKIT)
The economic downturn is leading to investment themes that bear resemblance to early 2020, when investors were cautiously deploying capital and concentrating on their existing portfolio companies.
Mubadala-Backed UAE Firm Sets Up $10 Billion Fund for Tech Deals (BNN BLOOMBERG)
The G42 Expansion Fund will target late-stage growth companies with disruptive technologies. It will operate as a private equity investor, with a significant share of funds earmarked for high-growth regions, in sectors ranging from communications, intelligent mobility and renewables to healthcare.
How startups can survive a market downturn (BETAKIT)
Katy Yam, partner at Real Ventures and GM of Founder Fuel, Peter Fishman, co-founder and CEO of Mozart Data, and Ethan Ruby, partner of analytics at Craft Ventures all spoke about how the right data can help startup leaders make survival decisions in a downturn.
Musk approaches brain chip startup Synchron about deal amid Neuralink delays, sources say (CNBC)
Musk reached out to Synchron’s founder and chief executive, Thomas Oxley, in recent weeks to discuss a potential deal, the sources said. It is not clear if any transaction would involve a tie-up or collaboration between Synchron and Neuralink.
Alberta Innovates has been here from the start, investing in the next big thing.
Twenty years ago, Alberta Innovates planted seeds for the future by funding artificial intelligence research at the University of Alberta.
For most people, it was the realm of science fiction. Some, however, had a sense of what it could become.
D-Wave lists on New York Stock Exchange following close of SPAC deal (BETAKIT)
D-Wave had hoped the deal would bring in $340 million USD in gross proceeds, however, SEC filings show that the company’s shareholders redeemed just more than $291 million USD worth of shares at a price of $10.01 USD per share.
Gorgias’ valuation rises to $710M with $30M Series C for e-commerce customer support (TECHCRUNCH)
It’s been a few years since we profiled the company, whose total funding to date is $72.4 million. In late 2020, the company had raised $25 million in Series B funding on a $305 million valuation. The company was valued at $680 million prior to this round, Gorgias co-founder and CEO Romain Lapeyre told TechCrunch via email.
‘Unprecedented’ AI chip could revolutionise artificial intelligence (INDEPENDENT)
The system should allow increasingly complex artificial intelligence to live on chips themselves, without having to send information to the cloud.
Bootstrapped since 2008, Evidence Partners closes $20 million to tackle automated literature review market (BETAKIT)
The Canadian tech firm helps organizations streamline the medical research process with its literature review automation platform, DistillerSR. Evidence Partners currently serves over 300 research organizations, and claims to cater to more than 60 percent of the world’s largest pharma and medical device companies.
Algorithms Can Now Mimic Any Artist. Some Artists Hate It (WIRED)
The act of AI imitation was performed by Andres Guadamuz, a reader in intellectual property law at the University of Sussex in the UK who has been studying legal issues around AI-generated art. He used a service called Midjourney to create images resembling Stålenhag’s spooky style, and posted them to Twitter.
Lucid closes $3 million to turn music into medicine for Alzheimer’s patients (BETAKIT)
“This is much more than a feel-good app,” Amplify managing partner Kathryn Wortsman told BetaKit in an interview. “It is really rooted in clinical validation.”
GrayMatter Robotics Raises $20M To Make Industrial Bots Smarter (DOT.LA)
“There are about 9,000 robots compared with more than 1.5 million people involved with surface treatment in the U.S., but the latter is shrinking,” GrayMatter CEO Ariyan Kabir told trade outlet Robotics 24/7 Tuesday. “We received investment because we’ve developed solutions with real commercial value, we’re not just building technology for the sake of building technology.”
Who owns DALL-E images? Legal AI experts weigh in (VENTURE BEAT)
In a statement to VentureBeat, an OpenAI spokesperson said, “OpenAI retains ownership of the original image primarily so that we can better enforce our content policy.” However, several creative professionals told VentureBeat they were concerned about the lack of clarity around image ownership from tools like DALL-E.