Enterprise Weekly #519: Meta Scales Up, Salesforce's Defensive Move, and More
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On Wednesday, Meta announced their large investment in data labeling company Scale AI, acquiring a 49% stake in the company for nearly $15B. The 49% number isn’t arbitrary. While Meta has cash to acquire the entirety of the company, by only acquiring 49% of Scale, they side-stepped any regulatory scrutiny associated with the deal. As part of this acquisition, Scale CEO Alexandr Wang will be joining Meta in a leadership role for a new superintelligence AI team.
In this unique arrangement, Scale will continue to operate as an independent company, though there are open questions about its ability to service an existing customer set that includes the likes of OpenAI, Alphabet, and Microsoft given competitive overlap with Meta’s AI initiatives.
As the race for AI dominance heats up, Salesforce has taken a defensive step by restricting third-party vendors from indexing, copying, or storing Slack messages, even when customers grant permission. This change directly impacts companies like Glean, which rely on Slack data to power cross-app enterprise search and knowledge tools. The move could signal Salesforce’s own intention to protect and potentially leverage Slack’s data for its own AI initiatives.
The timing for the news is notable since on Tuesday, Glean announced a $150M fundraise at a $7.2B valuation. Now, just days later, one of its richest data sources has effectively been cut off, posing real challenges to its product capabilities and long-term differentiation.
Both Meta’s investment in Scale and Salesforce’s recent defensive move reinforce our point from last week about the growing importance of defensibility in the AI era. It’s increasingly clear that every major vendor recognizes the magnitude of the AI opportunity and is making bold, strategic bets to secure a strong position in the next wave of value creation.
The question on our minds: What does this mean for the future of Agents and MCP? Will restricting API access help incumbent vendors consolidate more of the workflow, or will it drive customers toward tools that champion open access and interoperability?
🩺 🚀🗽 Lastly, join us in-person in NYC on Tuesday, June 24th for a fireside chat with the CEOs of two of NYC’s fastest-growing healthcare startups, adonis and Tennr as we dive into their journey scaling from 0-1 and beyond. We’re unpacking their early founding stories, go-to-market lessons, and how they’ve cracked product-market fit in healthcare. Sign up here to join us!
🗓️ Join more Work-Bench events:
🥩 Work-Bench Security & Agentic Infra Dinners (June 26th - NYC): Join Priyanka and a select group of practitioners to discuss what’s next in security & AI infra. We have two spots remaining and are looking to host practitioners working at the intersection of AI + Security. Reach out to Priyanka.
🍽️ Cofounders.nyc: Future Founder Dinner (Ongoing - NYC): Join the cofounders.nyc community to join early-stage builders for a curated & intimate dinner. We’re hosting events across AI-powered Applications, Dev Tools, and more. Reach out to Danny.
📚 Read more news:
WSJ: News Sites Are Getting Crushed by Google’s New AI Tools
Associated Press: Massive Google Cloud outage disrupts popular internet services
TechCrunch: OpenAI releases o3-pro, a souped-up version of its o3 AI reasoning model
Bloomberg: AMD Says New Chips Can Top Nvidia’s in Booming AI Chip Field
VentureBeat: Databricks open-sources declarative ETL framework powering 90% faster pipeline builds
🧵 Read more threads:
Company: DevArmor
Role: Founding AI Engineer
Technology: Automated threat modeling, design review, and enforcement tool
Funding: $2.7M from Work-Bench
🌟 Company of the Week 🌟
Lemony raises $2M led by True Ventures
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Seed • New York, NY
Co-Founders: Sascha Buehrle, Ivan Kuleshov
Omnisent raises $3M led by Atlantic Labs
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Pre-Seed • Munich, Germany
Row64 raises $4M led by Galaxy Interactive
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Seed • Cheyenne, WY
Arlequin AI raises $5M led by Vsquared Ventures
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Seed • Paris, France
Iterate.ai raises $6.4M led by Auxier Asset Management
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Venture • San Jose, CA
AI.work raises $10M led by A* and lool ventures
Future of Work • Seed • Tel Aviv, Israel
ZeroRISC raises $10M led by Fontinalis Partners
Risk / Security • Seed • Boston, MA
Daybreak raises $15M led by TPG Growth and Dell Technologies Capital
Future of Work • Series A • San Francisco, CA
CloudQuery raises $16M led by Partech
Infrastructure / Dev Tools • Venture • New York, NY
Infisical raises $16M led by Elad Gil
Risk / Security • Series A • San Francisco, CA
Outset raises $17M led by 8VC
Sales / Marketing • Series A • San Francisco, CA
Kargo raises $18.4M led by Matter Venture Partners
Future of Work • Venture • San Francisco, CA
Maze raises $25M led by Theory Ventures
Risk / Security • Series A • London, UK
Definely raises $30M led by Revaia, Alumni Ventures, and Others
Future of Work • Series B • London, UK
Landbase raises $30M led by Sound Ventures
Sales / Marketing • Series A • San Francisco, CA
Fermàt raises $45M led by VMG Partners
Sales / Marketing • Series B • San Francisco, CA
Swimlane raises $45M led by Energy Impact Partners and Activate Capital
Risk / Security • Venture • Denver, CO
AIM Intelligent Machines raises $50M led by Khosla Ventures, General Catalyst, and Others
Future of Work • Venture • Redmond, WA
Pactum raises $54M led by Insight Partners
Future of Work • Series C • Mountain View, CA
Guardz raises $56M led by ClearSky
Risk / Security • Series B • Miami, FL
Abacum raises $60M led by Scale Venture Partners
Future of Work • Series B • New York, NY
PostHog raises $80M led by Stripe
Infrastructure / Dev Tools • Series D • San Francisco, CA
Linear raises $82M led by Accel
Infrastructure / Dev Tools • Series C • San Francisco, CA
Horizon3.ai raises $100M led by NEA
Risk / Security • Series D • San Francisco, CA
Laurel raises $100M led by IVP
Future of Work • Series C • San Francisco, CA
Glean raises $150M led by Wellington Management
Collaboration / Productivity • Series F • Palo Alto, CA
Meter raises $170M led by General Catalyst
Infrastructure / Dev Tools • Series C • San Francisco, CA
Multiverse Computing raises $215M led by Bullhound Capital
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Series B • Donostia-san Sebastián, Spain
Cyera raises $540M led by Georgian, Greenoaks, and Lightspeed
Risk / Security • Series E • New York, NY
DoorDash acquires Symbiosys for $175M
Sales / Marketing • Acquisition • New York, NY