Enterprise Weekly #474: Apple Goes AI, Changes in Python, and More
Work-Bench is an enterprise software VC firm leading Seed rounds. If you are or know anyone thinking about founding an enterprise software startup — we’d love to meet! Please reach out to chat. 📩
Attention founders and operators! Don’t miss our 2 upcoming, virtual Enterprise Masterclasses coming up: How to Price Your Product at Seed with repeat founder and GTM advisor Rob Bailey (June 18th) and 10 Quick Wins to Grow Pipeline with OpenView’s Kyle Poyar (June 26th). Join us as Rob and Kyle share some of their tried and true tactical playbook pages.
In AI news, Apple launched Apple Intelligence, its inaugural generative AI offering, which incorporates a long-anticipated partnership with OpenAI. The announcement sparked fury on Twitter (X) surrounding possible privacy concerns given the integration of a third-party AI model, instead of enhancing their own LLM.
Here at Work-Bench, Danny wrote a recent post on “Business Process Automation” which outlines how many AI startups are indexing towards a similar product path to add a layer of downstream business process automation to unstructured data. While in practice, this generates some helpful use cases, Danny outlines 5 strategies needed to win in this arena:
Start with a niche use case, then go broad
Use total cost of ownership to drive decision making
Use Customer Success to accelerate logo retention
Derive value through accuracy
Differentiate with data
Priyanka has been thinking through data manipulation in Python and how it has undergone significant transformation, largely driven by the convergence of SQL databases and DataFrame libraries. She recently wrote about the 2 key developments that have been shaping the Python data ecosystem: the rise of embedded databases and the democratization of data access through next-gen query engines. If you’re a startup founder building in this area, please reach out to her!
Lastly, our team will be observing Juneteenth and so Enterprise Weekly will be off next Friday. Have a great week ahead.
🖥️ Join more tactical (virtual) Enterprise Masterclasses:
Wednesday, July 24: 5 Battle-Tested Leadership Tactics of Highly Successful Founders with David Politis, Founder of BetterCloud
📚 Read more news:
Business Insider: OpenAI's Sam Altman Is The Ultimate 'Personality hire.' The Industry Is Full of Them.
CNBC: Databricks Tells Investors ARR Will Reach $2.4B At Midway Point Of Year
TechCrunch: In 2024, Many YC Startups Only Want Tiny Seed Rounds — But There’s A Catch
WSJ: Nvidia’s New Sales Booster: The Global Push for National AI Champions
📚 Read more (th)reads:
Company: ShiftRx
Role: Head of Engineering
Technology: AI Healthcare Staffing Platform
Funding: Unannounced
🌟 Company of the Week 🌟
Browserbase raises $6.5M led by Kleiner Perkins
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Seed • San Francisco, CA
Founder: Paul Klein (CEO)
Tomato.ai raises $2.1M led by Gaingels, Cardumen Capital, and Recursive Ventures
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Seed • Danville, CA
BlinqIO raises $5M led by Flint Capital
Infrastructure / Dev Tool • Seed • Delaware, DE
Pyte raises $5M led by Myriad Venture Partners
Risk / Security • Venture • Los Angeles, CA
Brightwave raises $6M led by Decibel Partners
Future of Work • Seed • Boulder, Colorado
Linq raises $6.6M led by InterVest and Atinum
Future of Work • Seed • Cambridge, MA
FirmPilot raises $7M led by Blumberg Capital
Sales / Marketing • Series A • Miami, FL
Restate raises $7M led by Redpoint Ventures
Infrastructure / Dev Tools • Seed • Berlin, Germany
Visibly raises $7.5M led by Creandum
Future of Work • Seed • London, UK
Zeliq raises $10M led by Exor Ventures
Sales / Marketing • Seed • Paris, France
XONA raises $18M led by Energy Impact Partners
Risk / Security • Venture • Annapolis, MD
Anterior raises $20M led by NEA
Future of Work • Series A • New York, NY
Relay raises $35M led by G2 Venture Partners
Future of Work • Series B • Raleigh, NC
Cyberhaven raises $88M led by Adams Street Partners and Khosla Ventures
Risk / Security • Series C • San Jose, CA
Cognigy raises $100M led by Eurazeo
Future of Work • Series C • Düsseldorf, Germany
Mistral raises $640M led by DST Global and General Catalyst
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Venture & Debt • Paris, France
AlphaSense raises $650M led by Viking Global Investors and BDT & MSD Partners
Future of Work • Venture • New York, NY
AlphaSense acquires Tegus for $930M
Future of Work • Acquisition • Chicago, IL
Fortinet acquires Laceworks for an Undisclosed Amount
Risk / Security • Acquisition • Mountain View, CA