Here are some of the biggest AI funding rounds you’ve missed so far in 2023.
Inflection AI – US$1.3 billion
Big names and AI start-ups equal big money, or at least that’s the case with Inflection AI, which was co-founded by LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and Google DeepMind co-founder Mustafa Suleman.
The company has created a chatbot similar to ChatGPT, called Pi, which runs on its own Inflection-1 AI model to provide personalized AI. It claims that Pi can be a coach, confidant, creative partner, sounding board and assistant.
The June funding round included money from Microsoft, Bill Gates, Eric Schmidt and AI chipmaker Nvidia. The company is valued at US $4 billion.
Abundant – $601 million
The UK-based open banking start-up is unlikely to set too many pulses racing, but throw in the excitement of the AI angle and we’re talking about a £500 million funding round that closed in March.
The fintech runs a personal lending platform that it says uses artificial intelligence and open banking to offer more accurate and affordable loans. By using AI to assess a customer’s complete financial picture, they can offer borrowers better interest rates.
The larger round included both debt and equity financing, although the split was not disclosed. Some of the debt financing came from US investment bank Citi, while equity investors include K3 Ventures, GSR Ventures and Hambro Perks.
Anthropogenic – $550 million
Enthropic is one of the OpenAI competitors and was founded in 2021 by company veterans.
Similar to OpenAI, it has developed its own large language model, including a chatbot called Cloud.
The $550 million it raised this year came in two separate deals; It secured a $US450 million Series C round in May led by Spark Capital, along with the VC arms of Google and Salesforce and Zoom, followed by $US100 million from South Korean mobile carrier SK Telecom in August.
It also received an investment of an unspecified size from German software company SAP this year and is believed to be worth just over US$4 billion.
SandboxAQ – $500 million
Catch a hot button tech trend in funding negotiations? No sandboxAQ, it takes two, AI and quantum computing.
The company was spun off from Alphabet last year and backed in February by former Google boss Eric Schmidt, who is also its chairman. It is Salesforce founder Marc Benioff’s Time Ventures, T. Counts Rowe Price and Breyer Capital among investors.
The company, in its own words, combines quantum sensors with advanced AI to unlock previously unattainable insights in navigation, medical devices, imaging and other critical areas. It has cybersecurity applications that let organizations scan their networks for outdated cryptography, and also sells simulation software to accelerate the development of drugs and materials.
Adept AI – $350 million
Forget all the talk about AI replacing humans, AI wants to be trained and sold to work with humans and make them better at using their computers and software.
It can take your instructions in simple language and turn them into actions on the software you use for work every day. So for example, you can tell a design software program what to do and it should be able to do it for you.
Its funding came in at a $US1 billion valuation in March and was led by General Catalyst and Spark Capital. Australian interest comes from Atlassian Ventures on the cap table, along with other strategic investors including Microsoft, Nvidia and Workday Ventures.
Other big deals so far this year
the fog, a Canadian start-up that builds natural language processing models to help companies improve human-machine interactions. It raised $US270 million at a valuation of $US2.2 billion in June.
Builder.ai It raised $250 million in a round led by the Qatar Investment Authority in May. He created an AI software product manager called Natasha and sold a platform to let companies build their own software.
A huggable face A deal that included money from Google, Amazon, Nvidia, Intel, AMD, Qualcomm, IBM, Salesforce and Sound Ventures raised $US235 million in August and valued it at $US4.5 billion. It runs a GitHub-style repository for AI code and machine learning developers.
Genesis Therapeutics, which uses AI technology to create breakthrough medicines for patients with serious illnesses, raised $US200 million in August. The round was led by Andreessen Horowitz and included BlackRock, Nvidia’s VC arm and T. Rowe Price was included.
AmeliaThe New York-based customer service and corporate chatbot maker raised $US175 million in investment from BuildGroup and Monroe Capital in March.
Asimov, a synthetic biology company applying AI to genetic design, banked a $175 million Series B round in January. The fund was led by the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board with participation from Fidelity, KDT Ventures, Cassidin Capital, Pillar and Andreessen Horowitz.