Enterprise Weekly #479: Developer Opinions of AI, Building with 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. 📩
Happy Friday!
This week, Microsoft earnings fell short of analyst expectations both company-wide and in its cloud division. However, they’re doubling down on a “spend money to make money” strategy – spending $19B (a 78% increase from last year and 36% from last quarter) on AI infrastructure. This has been great news for NVIDIA, Microsoft's primary chip supplier.
Despite Azure’s deep investment in AI, according to StackOverflow’s Annual Developer Survey, they continue to be #2 in the hearts and minds of developers for cloud services:
When asked about AI, most developers agreed it’s best used for increasing productivity (81%) and more specifically writing code (82%). But the jury is still out on whether they trust its accuracy, ability to handle complex tasks, and test code.
More on the developer front, Priyanka wrote a post on building high performance Python systems. While 51% of developers report using Python, she argues as it scales to handle more users and process larger amounts of data, it can become slow or unresponsive due to Python's single-threaded nature. To overcome this limitation, developers are increasingly turning to advanced techniques like distributed task queues and asynchronous programming. If you’re a founder or practitioner focusing on distributed computing, task queues, or asynchronous programming in Python – she’d love to chat.
Meanwhile, Kelley will be in Las Vegas next week (the 7th - 9th) attending Black Hat – if you’re going, reach out to chat (or hit up a buffet).
Lastly, some exciting news on the Work-Bench portfolio front 🎉
GovWell raised a $4.5M Seed led by Work-Bench to support their mission to modernize government software. Co-founders Troy LeCaire and Ben Cohen built GovWell as a cloud-native, multi-tenant, no-code solution that automates core workflows to better serve local government agencies and communities. Read more on our blog about their founding story.
Spring Health raised a $100M Series E at a $3.3B valuation to support their mission to transform mental healthcare. Now with 1,200 employees and 10K+ providers around the globe, this new funding round will help them double down on increasing access, scaling impact, and continuing to deliver even greater ROI to employers and health plans.
📚 Read more news:
TechCrunch: 28 US AI Startups That Have Raised $100M+ in 2024
Pitchbook: Information Security Report
📚 Read more (th)reads:
Company: GovWell
Role: Customer Success Manager
Technology: Modern Software for Government
Funding: $5.5M from Work-Bench and Bienville Capital
🌟 Company of the Week 🌟
Not Diamond raises $2.3M led by defy.vc
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Seed • San Francisco, CA
Co-Founders: Tomás Hernando Kofman (CEO), Tze-Yang Tung (CTO), Jeffrey Akiki (COO)
Orchid raises $1.5M led by Y Combinator and Others
Productivity / Collaboration • Seed • Wilmington, DE
Axle Automation raises $2.5M led by Diagram Ventures
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Seed • San Francisco, CA
Streamkap raises $3.3M led by InReach Ventures
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Seed • San Francisco, CA
MarkOS raises $4M led by Ludlow Ventures and Bessemer Venture Partners
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Pre-Seed • Seattle, WA
GovWell raises $4.5M led by Work-Bench
Collaboration / Productivity • Seed • New York, NY
When raises $4.6M led by B Capital
HR Tech • Seed • Chicago, IL
Icebreaker raises $5M led by CoinFund
HR Tech • Seed • New York, NY
Bee AI raises $7M led by Exor
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Seed • San Francisco, CA
Hyperbolic raises $7M led by Polychain Capital and Lightspeed Faction
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Seed • San Francisco, CA
Rillet raises $8M led by Creandum
Sales / Marketing • Seed • Palo Alto, CA
Clutch Security raises $8.5M led by Lightspeed Venture Partners
Risk / Security • Seed • Tel Aviv, Israel
Monto raises $9M led by Scale Venture Partners
Future of Work • Seed • New York, NY
Tezi raises $9M led by 8VC and Audacious Ventures
Future of Work • Seed • Menlo Park, CA
Sybill raises $11M led by Greycroft
Sales / Marketing • Series A • Mountain View, CA
ZeroTier raises $13.5M led by Battery Ventures
Infrastructure / Dev Tools • Series A • Irvine, CA
Fractile raises $15M led by Kindred Capital, NATO Innovation Fund, and Oxford Science Enterprises
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Seed • London, UK
Checkly raises $20M led by Balderton Capital
Infrastructure / Dev Tools • Series B • Berlin, Germany
Haus raises $20M led by 01 Advisors
Sales / Marketing • Venture • San Francisco, CA
Lineaje raises $20M led by Prosperity7 Ventures, Neotribe Ventures, and Hitachi
Risk / Security • Series A • Saratoga, CA
Credo AI raises $21M led by CrimsoNox Capital, Mozilla Ventures and FPV Ventures
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Series A • Palo Alto, CA
Axiad raises $25M led by Invictus Growth Partners
Risk / Security • Private Equity • Santa Clara, CA
Ema raises $36M led by Accel and Section 32
HR Tech • Series A • San Francisco, CA
Gradient AI raises $56.1M led by Centana Growth Partners
Future of Work • Series C • Boston, MA
Spring Health raises $100M led by Generation Investment Management
HR Tech • Series E • New York, NY
Osapiens raises $120M led by Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives
Future of Work • Series B • Mannheim, Germany
Altana raises $200M led by US Innovative Technology Fund
Future of Work • Series C • New York, NY
Zenity raises an Undisclosed Amount led by M12
Infrastructure / Dev Tools • Venture • Tel Aviv, Israel
Airtable acquires Dopt for an Undisclosed Amount
Sales / Marketing • Acquisition • Oakland, CA
Pendo acquires Zelta AI for an Undisclosed Amount
Sales / Marketing • Acquisition • New York, NY
Stripe acquires Lemon Squeezy for an Undisclosed Amount
Future of Work • Acquisition • Salt Lake City, UT