Google AI's bad day, a big round for a hologram company, and why certain NFTs could now be DOA

At an event in Paris today, Google showed a series of AI enhancements for its search engine, including plans to start generating lengthy responses to complex queries with no single correct answer. Shares of Alphabet slid during the event, however, suggesting that investors were hoping for more. (An apparent mishap may also have played a role; according to experts, Bard made a factual error in the first video demo of the product online.) Microsoft has much to gain by improving its search (which has always sucked), while Google is in trouble if its users' confidence in its search results is shaken. Per the WSJ: “Google has a lot more to lose than gain from rushing Gen-AI out the door,” wrote Colin Sebastian, a senior research analyst at Baird Equity Research.

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Artist Mason Rothschild thought he was sitting on a “goldmine” when he began creating digital versions of the iconic Hermès Birkin handbag and selling these as NFTs. Among them was an animated piece called “Baby Birkin” that depicted a human fetus floating inside and which was ultimately acquired by a buyer for $47,000 at the height of the NFT frenzy in December 2021. 

Unsurprisingly, Hermès loved the art project less, and the powerhouse luxury brand just won a copyright infringement case against Rothschild that could have widespread ramifications for NFT creators whose works are inspired by real-world goods that are protected by intellectual property laws.

Though Rothschild’s attorneys argued that NFTs are works of art shielded by the First Amendment, much like Andy Warhol’s silk-screen prints of Campbell’s soup cans, in a Manhattan courtroom today a nine-person jury awarded Hermès $133,000 in damages after determining that NFTs are more akin to consumer products subject to strict trademark laws that protect brands from copycats.

Hermès argued during the one-week trial that NFTs confused buyers, some of whom believed that the goods were affiliated with the brand, it claimed. Rothschild’s camp argued that confusion was minimal.

Hermès also argued that Rothschild’s “MetaBirkins” project was muddying waters that Hermès itself plans to enter eventually and for which it is actively developing plans. “If we want to bring our bag into this virtual world, there will always be a reference to the MetaBirkins,” Hermès’ general counsel Nicolas Martin reportedly told the jury during testimony.

Hermès attorneys also, per Bloomberg Law, pointed to text messages that they said show Rothschild wanting to “create the same exclusivity and demand for the famous handbag.” “We’re sitting on a goldmine,” Rothschild wrote in one text.

More here.

Garuda Therapeutics, a two-year-old startup based in Cambridge, Ma., that aims to develop durable blood stem cell-based cellular therapies, raised a $62 million Series B round. Northpond Ventures, OrbiMed Advisors, Cormorant Asset Management, and Aisling Capital co-led the round, joined by Sectoral Asset Management, Mass General Brigham Ventures, and Alexandria Venture Investments. The company has raised a total of $134 million. More here.

InfluxData, an 11-year-old San Francisco startup whose platform aims to simplify time series data management, raised a $51 million Series E round co-led by Princeville Capital and Citi Ventures, with additional capital provided by from previous investors Battery Ventures, Mayfield Fund, Sapphire Ventures, Trinity Ventures, Norwest Venture Partners, Sorenson Capital, and Harmony Partners. The company also locked in a $30 million debt facility. InfluxData has raised a total of $200.9 million. More here.

Light Field Lab, a nearly six-year-old, San Jose, Ca.-based company whose holographic display platform is designed to enable digital objects to form in mid-air without headgear, has raised $50 million in Series B funding. The global game developer NCSOFT led the round, joined by Corning, Gates Frontier, LG Tech Ventures, and OTOY along with earlier backers Khosla Ventures, Taiwania Capital, and the venture capital arms of Samsung, Verizon, Bosch, Forvia, and Liberty Global. CNET has more here.

SALT Lending, a seven-year-old Denver crypto startup that offers blockchain-backed loans allowing borrowers to put up cryptocurrency as collateral, raised a $64.4 million Series A round from a share sale to accredited investors, after a planned acquisition by the online investing platform Bnk To The Future fell through due to the latter's exposure to FTX. CoinDesk has more here.

Acceldata, a five-year-old startup based in San Jose, Ca., that helps organizations identify any problems with data that may be spread across multiple clouds, applications, and systems, raised a $50 million Series C round led by March Capital, with Industry Ventures, Sanabil Investments, and Insight Partners also pitching in. The company has raised a total of $95.6 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Moderne, a three-year-old Seattle startup that claims it can identify code issues across thousands of repositories and accurately fix the code for developers, raised a $15 million Series A round led by Intel Capital and including True Ventures, Mango Capital, and Allstate Strategic Ventures. The company has raised a total of $19.7 million. More here.

Yodawy, a five-year-old, Giza, Egypt-based digital pharmacy benefits manager, has raised $16 million in Series B round co-led by Global Ventures and Delivery Hero Ventures, the venture arm of the global food delivery platform. TechCrunch has more here.

Beaming Health, a two-year-old San Francisco startup that aims to help families of children with autism find quality treatment providers, raised a $1.7 million seed round led by NextGen Venture Partners, with Tau Ventures, Divergent Investments, Designer Fund, and MedMountain Ventures also joining the round. LocalToday has more here.

Blip Labs Technologies, a 2.5-year-old, New York-based startup that offers APIs and SDKs that enable its customers to embed personalized bill management experiences into their products, has raised $2.1 million in funding from Susa Ventures, Dash Fund, Shrug Capital, Wischoff Ventures, Picks and Shovels, Browder Capital, Rief Ventures and numerous angel investors. Axios has more here.

Fierce, a 19-month-old, New York-based startup behind a "finance super app" whose offerings include an FDIC-insured checking account with an annual percentage yield rate of up to 4.25%, and a debit card with access to over 55,000 fee-free ATMs, has raised $10 million in seed funding from a group of angel investors and investors, including Pendrell, AP Capital, Wheelhouse Digital Studios and Space Whale Capital. Founder and CEO Robert Cornish was previously CTO of the cryptocurrency platform Gemini and before that, chief information officer at the NYSE. TechCrunch has more here.

Follow, a two-year-old San Francisco startup that has built a social investment platform that enables users to subscribe to a creator’s financial feed and set up an investment portfolio that mimics that particular person’s investment strategy, raised a $9 million round from Atomic, Uncork Capital, and Vera Equity. TechCrunch has more here.

GlossAi, a Tel Aviv startup whose software can scan through a business’s repository of video to produce content for a large number of potential use cases such as social media, marketing, or training, raised an $8 million seed round led by New Era Capital Partners, with Guidestar Ventures, 97212 Ventures, MindCET Ventures, Ginossar Ventures, and Maccabee Ventures also taking part. SiliconANGLE has more here.

Macro, an eight-year-old New York startup whose custom PDF editor leverages AI to pull out key terms, sections, and equations in order to make documents interactive and hyperlinked, raised a $9.3 million seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from Craft, BoxGroup, 3kVC, and Cooley. TechCrunch has more here.

Mawari, a seven-year-old Palo Alto startup that claims to have developed a low-latency, real-time extended reality delivery system for 5G mobile devices, raised a $6.5 million seed round co-led by Blockchange Ventures and Decasonic. Forbes has more here.

Mazepay, a five-year-old Danish startup that is developing non-payroll spend management software for the European market, raised a $4.3 million round led by Scale Capital, with Hambro Perks and Outward VC also pitching in. PYMNTS has more here.

Palm.hr, a four-year-old Riyadh startup that is building an HR platform targeted at MENA markets, raised a $5 million pre-Series A round led by Speedinvest and RAED Ventures, with participation from Wamda Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

Peggy, a three-year-old Toronto startup whose contemporary art marketplace enables secondary sales and automatic royalties to artists, raised a $10.8 million seed round. Investors included Real Ventures, ZVC, Garage Capital, Portage, and Nomad Capital. More here.

Sendmarc, a two-year-old, Johannesburg-based startup that says it automates the process of protecting one's domain from being used in email impersonation and phishing attacks, has raised $7 million in Series A funding led by Atlantica Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Sesame Labs, a one-year-old San Francisco startup whose web3 marketing stack includes a campaign management platform, advertising network, and customer relationship management tool, raised a $4.5 million seed round co-led by Wing Venture Capital and Patron, with additional investors including Samsung, DoubleJump, Forte, Moonfire, and Twin Ventures. The company has raised a total of $4.9 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Space ID, a crypto startup that is building a universal name network for decentralized identities, raised a $10 million round led by Polychain Capital and dao5. CoinDesk has more here.

VFlowTech, a Singapore startup that develops vanadium-based redox flow batteries that it claims are more energy-efficient for renewable energy storage than the competition, raised a $10 million Series A round led by Real Tech Holdings, SEEDS Capital, Wavemaker Partners, and Sing Fuels, and Michael Gryseels with participation from İnci Holding, Pappas Capital, and Carbon Zero Venture Capital. DealStreetAsia has more here.

Webacy, a two-year-old San Francisco startup whose technology allows users to access their existing self-custodial wallets without the need for keys, seed phrases, or passwords, raised a $4 million seed round led by gmjp, with Mozilla Ventures and investor Gary Vaynerchuk also anteing up. The company has raised a total of $5 million. CoinDesk has more here.

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Seven Seven Six, the Florida-based venture fund launched by Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian in 2020, plans to raise $776 million for two new funds, according to investment documents viewed by The Information. The planned fundraising is more than 50% bigger than what it raised last year and will test investor appetite for bigger funds during a tough environment, notes the outlet. More here.

Joe Curry has been promoted to vice president at the early-stage venture firm S3 Ventures in Austin. Curry joined the firm in 2020; he previously worked in corporate development at an Austin-based SaaS business called Khoros.

Dan Loeb‘s Third Point has a stake in Salesforce, says the WSJ. Third Point is known for taking stakes and pushing for change at companies, including Campbell Soup Co., Shell and Walt Disney, with which it reached a settlement agreement last year. It is the fifth known activist shareholder with a position in Salesforce's shares.

Waymo has a new chief legal officer: Amar Mehta, who has been with the self-driving outfit for seven years after spending the previous six years with Google in a senior counsel role.

Bret Taylor announced he was stepping down as co-CEO and co-chair at Salesforce in November to return to his "entrepreneurial roots." Now he and longtime Google engineering veteran Clay Bavor are teaming up on a new mystery project. TechCrunch has more here.

Citing economic turbulence, buy now, pay later giant Affirm announced today that it is reducing its staff by 19%, or about 500 employees, and shutting down its crypto unit. That leaves the company with about 2,000 employees, says TechCrunch. More here.

Walt Disney Co. said it plans to cut 7,000 jobs and slash $5.5 billion in costs as part of a major corporate reorganization that gives more power to the company’s content executives and puts a greater emphasis on sports media at the company. Robert Iger announced the news in his first earnings call since returning as CEO. The WSJ has the story here.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong tweeted today that the company has heard "rumors" that the SEC wants to "get rid of" crypto staking for retail investors, saying it "would be a terrible path for the U.S." Armstrong has previously complained about SEC via tweet. More here.

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