Enterprise Weekly #412: The Battle for Generative AI, NYC Enterprise Funding Report, and More

Feb 10

It’s off to the races this week as Microsoft and Google officially launched competing generative AI initiatives.

Microsoft announced that an upgraded version of GPT 3.5, the OpenAI language model that powers ChatGPT will be integrated into Bing. Reminder: Microsoft got a headstart in this race having already invested $10B+ into OpenAI. Microsoft sees this as its moment to claw back some of Google Search’s market share (~93%).

Meanwhile, Google announced plans to integrate its search engine with its own ChatGPT rival, Bard. However, its new AI produced a factual error in a Twitter ad, causing the company to lose $100B in market value. When Bard was asked “What new discoveries from the James Webb Space Telescope can I tell my 9 year old about?” the program mistakenly spit out the wrong answer.

Overall, both hope to innovate a new breed of search engine that is faster and more conversational than today’s ad-packed list of links.

Like Spiderman’s uncle used to say, with great power(ful AI), comes great responsibility. Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, acknowledges that there needs to be some form of regulation put in place, stating in a NYTimes Podcast that “...there are extremely wide bounds of what these systems can do that are decided by not Microsoft or OpenAI, but society, governments, or something like that.”

On the flip-side, through our VC lens:

Daniel Chesley @DanielChesley

A few thoughts on AI following @termsheet's read from a few days ago TLDR: Generative AI is obv hype-y. There will be few winners for each category within Generative AI, but many competitors will die. The low hanging fruit has already been built.

fortune.comVC Wesley Chan—who founded Google Analytics—lays out how the coming A.I. battle will unfoldThe real promise in A.I. lies in the companies that ‘aren’t even talking about it,’ according to the ex-Google VC.

Lastly, we published our State of Enterprise Tech in NYC: 2022 Funding Report this week, which found that 2022 was a major reset from 2021's frenetic funding environment, but still showed strong momentum above pre-pandemic highs. A few highlights from our data:

The good: Seed funding kept pace with 2021’s peak.
The bad: Exits and late-stage rounds especially disappeared.
The unknown: While the number of unicorns increased, many will slash valuations.

Read the Report

🖥️ Go to more virtual events:

February 22: How to Build a Scalable Customer Acquisition System
February 21: Future Enterprise Software Founders AMA

📚 Read more news:

CNBC: Twitter Was Down ~90 Minutes Wednesday
CloserIQ: State of Tech Hiring & Compensation
TechCrunch: Venture Funding Is Flooding Back Into Secondaries
Pitchbook: Market Map: Information Security Guards Against Economic Threats
WSJ: IT Job Market Shrinks for First Time in Over Two Years

Gil Dibner @gdibner

We talk to a fair number of LPs. If we connect the dots, it seems there is a huge explosion coming. Here's how it might unfold:

@hunterwalk on the death of generalist seed VCs
@Samirkaji on fundraising with venture debt
@amanda_robs on making $ from open source
@work_bench on leveling up discovery & demo calls
@kelleymak on new app deployment
Mark Settle on re-imagining PAM
@MichaelaLehr on the accountant vs. founder gap

Company: AppMap
Role: Senior Software Engineer (JavaScript)
Technology: Runtime Code Analysis
Funding: Unannounced from Work-Bench and others

🌟 Company of the Week 🌟
Streamdal raises $5.4M led by Work-Bench
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Seed • Remote
Founders: Ustin Zarubin (CEO), Daniel Selans (CTO)

Blip Labs Technologies raises $2.1M led by Susa Ventures, Shrug Capital and Others
Future of Work • Seed • New York, NY

Dotfile raises $2.7M led by V13 Invest
Future of Work • Seed • Paris, France

HowNow raises $4.2M led by Mercia Asset Management and Pearson
Future of Work • Series A • London, UK

Moonhub raises $4.4M led by Khosla Ventures and GV
HR Tech • Seed • San Francisco, CA

Disclo raises $5M led by General Catalyst
HR Tech • Seed • Atlanta, GA

Blobr raises $5.4M led by 10x Founders
Infrastructure / Dev Tools • Seed • Paris, France

ChangeEngine raises $5.5M led by Struck Capital
Future of Work • Seed • San Francisco, CA

Kognitos raises $6.8M led by Clear Ventures
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Seed • San Jose, CA

FireCompass raises $7M led by Cervin and Athera Venture Partners
Risk / Security • Venture • Boston, MA

Lineaje raises $7M led by Tenable Ventures
Risk / Security • Seed • Saratoga, CA

GlossAi raises $8M led by New Era Capital Partners
Sales / Marketing • Seed • Tel Aviv, Israel

Wisor AI raises $8M led by Team8
Future of Work • Seed • Tel Aviv, Israel

Lavender raises $11M led by Norwest Venture Partners
Sales / Marketing • Series A • New York, NY

Riot raises $12M led by Base10
Risk / Security • Series A • Paris, France

Moderne raises $15M led by Intel Capital
Infrastructure / Dev Tools • Series A • Seattle, WA

Flox raises $16.5M led by NEA
Infrastructure / Dev Tools • Series A • New York, NY

MindsDB raises $16.5M led by Benchmark
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Series A • Berkeley, CA

Magic raises $23M led by CapitalG
Infrastructure / Dev Tools • Series A • San Francisco, CA

Acceldata raises $50M led by March Capital
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Series C • San Francisco, CA

Skybox Security raises $50M led by CVC Growth Funds, JPMorgan and Others
Risk / Security • Venture • San Jose, CA

Ushur raises $50M led by Third Point Ventures
Future of Work • Series C • Santa Clara, CA

InfluxData raises $81M led by Princeville Capital and Citi Ventures
Infrastructure / Dev Tools • Series E & Debt • San Francisco, CA

Dbt Labs acquires Transform Data for an Undisclosed Amount
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Acquisition • San Francisco, CA

IBM acquires StepZen for an Undisclosed Amount
Infrastructure / Dev Tools • Seed • Santa Clara, CA