Enterprise Weekly #457: Super Bowl Security, Google Gemini Takes AI, and More
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The clash between the San Francisco 49ers and the Kansas City Chiefs this Super Bowl Sunday won’t be the only battle taking place in Las Vegas 🏈
While fans will have their eyes on the game (and Taylor Swift sightings!), cybersecurity experts have spent months preparing for possible threats, which are exacerbated this year due to international wars and political tensions, increased digital-physical experiences, and the rise of sophisticated attacks enabled by AI.
It's clear that the cybersecurity landscape is evolving with the advent of generative AI, as is most of the enterprise. How cybersecurity professionals use it to their advantage to protect their firms from malicious use is top of mind for us, and we're always eager to speak to folks building in the space.
On the AI front, Google announced that it’s renaming its chatbot and OpenAI competitor, Bard to fit under its newly developed AI suite, Gemini. What’s most exciting here? It also announced that Gemini Ultra — its largest and most capable LLM yet — is being released to the public for $20 per month. So, what’s next? While OpenAI's ChatGPT consumer experience enabled widespread excitement around generative AI and LLMs, Google hopes to reign as #1 on the market moving forward.
🤓 Join more Work-Bench events:
Thursday, February 15: NYC AI x Infra Happy Hour co-hosted alongside CRV
Wednesday, February 21: Enterprise Sales Masterclass on How Technical Founders Can Sell Technical Products where Work-Bench Sales Advisor Kiran Narsu will walk through the 5 critical stages of sales including messaging, discovery, org mapping, demoing, and enterprise readiness
📚 Read more news:
Business Insider: Here Are 4 Fintech Sectors That Are Primed To Soar in 2024, and 2 That Are Likely To See More Pain
Microsoft: Future of Work Report 2023
Pitchbook: M&A of Seed-Stage Startups Outshines Mature Companies
Washington Post: The U.S. Economy Is Booming. So Why Are Tech Companies Laying Off Workers?
WSJ: Sam Altman Seeks Trillions of Dollars to Reshape Business of Chips and AI
📚 Read more (th)reads:
Company: FireHydrant
Role: Commercial Account Executive
Technology: Site Reliability & Incident Management Platform
Funding: $32.5M from Work-Bench, Menlo Ventures, Harmony Partners, Salesforce Ventures
🌟 Company of the Week 🌟
DataroomHQ raises $3.5M led by Oceans and Bling Capital
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Seed • New York, NY
Founder: Jeff Schwartz (CEO)
Cimba.ai raises $1.3M led by Ripple Ventures
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Pre-Seed • Seattle, WA
Flaunt raises $1.8M led by High Alpha
Future of Work • Pre-Seed • Indianapolis, IN
Crux raises $2.6M led by Emergent Ventures and Y Combinator
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Pre-Seed • San Francisco, CA
Simplify raises $3M led by Craft Ventures
HR Tech • Seed • San Francisco, CA
Galileo raises $4.4M led by Khosla Ventures
Collaboration / Productivity • Seed • San Francisco, CA
Mesh raises $5.7M led by Greycroft
Risk / Security • Seed • Austin, TX
Dexa raises $6M led by Abstract Ventures and The General Partnership
Collaboration / Productivity • Seed • New York, NY
Jam raises $8.9M led by GGV Capital
Infrastructure / Dev Tool • Series A • New York, NY
Finally raises $10M led by PeakSpan Capital
Future of Work • Venture • Miami, FL
Upstash raises $10M led by A16Z
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Series A • San Jose, CA
LimaCharlie raises $10.2M led by Sands Capital
Risk / Security • Series A • Corvina, CA
Ionix raises $15M led by Maor Investments
Risk / Security • Series A • Tel Aviv, Israel
Synthetaic raises $15M led by Lupa Systems and Titletown Tech
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Series B • Delafield, WI
Colossyan raises $22M led by Lakestar
Productivity / Collaboration • Series A • London, UK
Mechanical Orchid raises $24M led by Emergence Capital Partners
Infrastructure / Dev Tools • Series A • San Francisco, CA
Screendragon raises $27M led by Kennet Partners and Federated Hermes Private Equity
Future of Work • Venture • London, UK
IONIX raises $42M led by Hyperwise Ventures, Team8 and Others
Risk / Security • Series A • Tel Aviv, Israel
Pennylane raises $43M led by DST Global and Sequoia Capital
Future of Work • Series C • Paris, France
Zededa raises $72M led by Smith Point Capital
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Series C • San Jose, CA
NinjaOne raises $231.5M led by Iconiq Growth
Risk / Security • Series C • Austin, TX
Beamer acquires Userflow for $60M
Sales / Marketing • Acquisition • San Francisco, CA