Big tech barrels ahead in AI race, with Google leapfrogging Microsoft's announcements with its own: "Bard"

Thinking tonight of those in Turkey and Syria who had already been through too much. 💔 (Here are some ways to help.)

Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced today that Google will soon release an experimental chatbot called Bard as it races to respond to ChatGPT, which has wowed the world since it was unveiled at the end of November. The search giant said a group of “trusted testers” would be able to access the tech before it becomes “more widely available to the public in the coming weeks.” 

Seems Google was trying to get the jump on Microsoft, which is holding its own news event Tuesday morning. The invite says Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella will “share some progress on a few exciting projects,” and you can guess ChatGPT creator OpenAI, which Microsoft has financially backed and is reportedly partnering with in numerous ways, is going to come up quite a bit! More here.

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Almost a year ago to the day, the 50-year-old investing powerhouse Sequoia Capital announced that it had reorganized itself around a singular, permanent structure: The Sequoia Capital Fund. 

Now, thanks to an SEC form filed on Friday, we know how much is sitting in the fund: $13.6 billion.

The number represents two things: the value of the stock that Sequoia has rolled into its permanent fund from its legacy funds — these are shares in now-public companies that Sequoia backed as startups, including Airbnb, DoorDash, Unity, and Snowflake. Some of those shares are owned by Sequoia; some of them are owned by the firm’s limited partners, who have agreed to let Sequoia continue to manage the shares on their behalf.

The $13.6 billion also represents new capital commitments that will later get called down and invested in more traditional funds that sit below Sequoia’s permanent fund, like a $195 million seed fund that was announced last month. The idea is that if all goes well, the money will be invested in startups that go public eventually and whose shares wind up in the Sequoia Capital Fund in a kind of long, virtuous, lucrative circle.

Not every portfolio company’s shares are ultimately swept into the fund; Sequoia said in a post last year the permanent fund is for a “selection of our enduring” businesses. 

When Sequoia’s portfolio company Stripe eventually goes public, for example, rather than distribute the payment company's shares to its investors, Sequoia — assuming it has the support of its limited partners — is more likely to move Stripe's shares from the many different vehicles that it has used to back Stripe into its Sequoia Capital Fund with the expectation that those shares will continue to rise in value.

Sequoia’s strategy — implemented in late fall of 2021, even while announced last year — has received its fair share of criticism.

More here.

One Zero, a four-year-old Tel Aviv digital bank, is reportedly raising a $62 million round. Investors include Julius Baer, SBI, Tencent, West Coast Equity Partners, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Provident Fund, OurCrowd, Hachshara Insurance Company, and One Zero founder Amnon Shashu. Calcalist has more here.

ShiftMed, a four-year-old startup based in McLean, Va., that has built a jobs marketplace focused on nurses, raised a $200 million round. The deal was led by Panoramic Ventures and joined by Blue Heron Capital and Audacious Capital. The company has raised a total of $245 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Breef, a four-year-old New York startup that allows brands to manage and service marketing agency projects, raised a $16 million Series A equity and debt round led by Greycroft, with BDMI, UTA.VC, Afterpay’s Touch Ventures and The House Fund also taking part. The company has raised a total of $21 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Liminal, an eight-year-old startup based in Emeryville, Ca., whose technology helps battery manufacturers detect design and production anomalies, raised a $17.5 million Series A2 round. ArcTern Ventures was the deal lead; other participants included Northvolt and Ecosystem Integrity Fund as well as previous investors Chrysalix Venture Capital, Good Growth Capital, University of Tokyo Edge Capital Partners, Volta Energy Technologies, Impact Science Ventures, and Helios Climate Ventures. More here.

Magic, a startup that is developing a code-generating platform similar to GitHub’s Copilot, raised a $23 million Series A round. Alphabet’s CapitalG was the deal lead, while Elad Gil, Nat Friedman, and Amplify Partners also participated. The company has raised a total of $28 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Recycleye, a 3.5-year-old, London- and Palo Alto, Ca.-based startup that claims its recycling-picking robots can identify materials “at an unrivaled 60 frames per second” and sort them more accurately than humans can, says it raised $17 million in new funding led by investor DCVC. TechCrunch has more here.

Farseer, a Croatian startup whose platform for financial modeling, planning, and analytics is used by customers such as Deutsche Telekom, Foreo, and Lelo, raised a $1.5 million seed round. Apertu Capital was the deal lead, with additional participation from previous investor SQ Capital. More here.

Gameball, a four-year-old, San Francisco growth marketing platform that uses gamification to offer customizable loyalty and rewards programs, has $3.5 million in seed funding from 500 Global, P1 Ventures, Launch Africa, Seedra Ventures, Arzan Ventures, Propeller, and Core Vision, among others. TechCrunch has more here.

Inkle, an Indian startup whose platform aims to enable US companies created by overseas founders to handle bookkeeping, tax, and compliance filings, raised a $1.5 million pre-seed round. Investors in the deal included Picus Capital, Saison Capital, and Force Ventures. More here.

Latent Technology, a five-year-old London startup that is using AI-based animation technology and real-world physics to create characters for virtual worlds and games, raised a $2.1 million pre-seed round co-led by Root Ventures and Spark Capital, with Bitkraft also chipping in. VentureBeat has more here.

Rebellyous, a six-year-old Seattle startup that makes a variety of plant-based faux chicken products, including nuggets, patties, and tenders, raised a $9.3 million round from investors including Liquid 2 Capital. The company has raised a total of approximately $30 million; its cofounder and CEO, Christie Lagally, was a former project manager at Boeing Commercial Airlines. Geekwire has more here.

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Buoyant Ventures, a two-year-old Chicago-based venture fund that's focused on climate-tech startups, has closed its debut fund with $76 million in capital commitments, including from an impressive array of limited partners. Among them is the Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund, Bank of America, Xcel Energy, and the Office of the Illinois State Treasurer, according to a statement. Bloomberg has more here.

Hatteras Venture Partners, a 22-year-old Durham, N.C. firm, has secured around $127 million of its seventh fund, which is targeting $250 million in capital commitments, shows an SEC filing. More here

Kapor Capital, a now 23-year-old, Oakland, Ca.-based seed-stage fund focused in part of funding diverse founders, is raising up to $50 million for an opportunity fund, per an SEC filing. TechCrunch has more here.

Ovni Capital, a new French venture firm led by veteran investors Arnaud Laurent and Augustin Sayer, has held a €50 million first close on its debut fund. TechCrunch has more here.

Rexhi Dollaku has been promoted to general partner at Base10; he was previously an investor with Insight Venture Partners. Caroline Broder has meanwhile been hired at Base10 as a principal; she previously spent four years at Crosslink Capital.

When does Elon Musk sleep?

Dell said it is cutting about 5% of its workforce, the latest tech company adding to a wave of layoffs. The cuts would amount to some 6,600 jobs, based on the 133,000 total workers that the company reported having in early 2022. The WSJ has more here.

In the three months to December, SoftBank lost a collective $5.8 billion in its Vision Fund 1, Vision Fund 2 and Latin American funds, according to company figures. That compares with a $10 billion loss in the previous quarter. The WSJ has more here.

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