Enterprise Weekly #456: AI in the Cloud, Masterclass for Technical Founders, and More
Work-Bench is an enterprise software VC firm — if you are or know anyone thinking about founding an enterprise software startup — we’d love to meet! Please reach out to chat. 📩
It’s Big 3 Cloud earnings week. Or should we rebrand them as Big 3 in AI?
The biggest mover and shaker: Microsoft.
“We’ve moved from talking about AI to applying AI at scale,” according to Satya Nadella. See more takeaways from the earnings call here.
Microsoft now has 53,000 Azure AI customers with one-third of them being new to Azure in the past year. This is Microsoft’s biggest growth spurt in seven quarters and is attributed to their big and early bet on AI, namely their AI-powered tool Copilot, which has helped them solidify their rank as the go-to for companies looking to leverage AI.
Microsoft’s AI growth is a strong moment of validation for generative AI startups aiming to sell to the enterprise. Across dozens of conversations with Fortune 500 executives, we’ve learned that enterprises are ramping up their own knowledge and budgets for generative AI in hopes of improving productivity, cost savings, and greater workflow automation.
Startup winners will be those who identify clear “hair on fire problems” that enterprises are willing to pay for and build a differentiated wedge into the enterprise that can’t be commoditized by players with better distribution moats. Happy building 💪
More on AI this week:
Nvidia’s Big Tech Rivals Put Their Own A.I. Chips on the Table
The White House Weighs In on The AI Copyright Debate For the First Time
The US Government Just Rolled Out a New Resource For AI Developers
An essay on “The case for—and against—rapid AI-driven growth”
Speaking of technical products, join our next Masterclass led by Work-Bench Sales Advisor Kiran Narsu on How Technical Founders Can Sell Technical Products on Wednesday, February 21 at 1pm ET. Kiran will walk through the 5 critical stages of sales including messaging, discovery, org mapping, demoing, and enterprise readiness.
📚 Read more news:
Crunchbase: Lower Valuations, Higher Bar: What It’s Like To Raise A Seed Round In 2024
SecurityWeek: Cloudflare Hacked by Suspected State-Sponsored Threat Actor
Venture Capital Journal: Women-Led Firms Raised More Capital in 2023 Despite Lack of Mega Funds
📚 Read more (th)reads:
Company: VISO Trust
Roles: Senior Digital Marketing Manager
Technology: Third Party Risk Management
Funding: $14M from Work-Bench, Bain Capital Ventures, Sierra Ventures, Lytical Ventures
🌟 Company of the Week 🌟
Nile raises $11.6M led by Benchmark
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Seed • San Francisco, CA
Founders: Sriram Subramanian (CEO), Gwen Shapira (CPO)
StreamAlive raises $1.6M led by Speciale Invest
Sales / Marketing • Pre-Seed • Basking Ridge, NJ
Twin Labs raises $3M led by Betaworks and Motier Ventures
Collaboration / Productivity • Pre-Seed • Paris, France
Fora raises $3.8M led by Converge
Collaboration / Productivity • Pre-Seed • New York, NY
Inference.ai raises $4M led by Cherubic Ventures, Maple VC and Others
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Seed • Palo Alto, CA
Akirolabs raises $5M led by HTGF, Serpentine Ventures and Others
Future of Work • Seed • Berlin, Germany
Neurelo raises $5M led by Foundation Capital
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Seed • Los Altos, CA
Inngest raises $6.1M led by Andreessen Horowitz
Infrastructure / Dev Tools • Venture • Remote
Airfocus raises $7.5M led by Newion
Future of Work • Venture • Hamburg, Germany
Semron raises $7.9M led by Join Capital
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Seed • Dresden, Germany
Aim Security raises $10M led by YL Ventures
Risk / Security • Seed • Tel Aviv, Israel
Compa raises $10M led by Storm Ventures
HR Tech • Series A • Newport Beach, CA
Reken raises $10M led by Greycroft and FPV Ventures
Risk / Security • Seed • San Francisco, CA
Benepass raises $20M led by Portage and Clocktower Technology Ventures
HR Tech • Series B • New York, NY
Sema4.ai raises $30.5M led by Benchmark and Mayfield
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Venture • San Francisco, CA
Oasis Security raises $40M led by Sequoia Capital
Risk / Security • Series A • New York, NY
Metronome raises $43M led by NEA
Sales / Marketing • Series B • San Francisco, CA
Codeium raises $65M led by Kleiner Perkins
Infrastructure / Dev Tools • Series B • San Francisco, CA
DataSnipper raises $100M led by Index Ventures
Future of Work • Series B • Amsterdam, Netherlands
Kore.ai raises $150M led by FTV Capital
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Series D • Orlando, FL
ClickUp acquires Hypercal for an Undisclosed Amount
Collaboration / Productivity • Acquisition • London, UK
Databricks acquires Einblick for an Undisclosed Amount
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Acquisition • Cambridge, MA
Sema4.ai acquires Robocorp for an Undisclosed Amount
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Acquisition • San Francisco, CA
SmartBear acquires Reflect for an Undisclosed Amount
Infrastructure / Dev Tools • Acquisition • Philadelphia, PA