A "forced marriage" inside Alphabet, the rise of "AI whisperers," and a VC who no one knows raises questions

Facts. If you're wondering why we've stopped responding to email this week, this is partly why. We'll be back with more vim and vigor tomorrow hopefully.:) 🤒

Software engineers at Google’s Brain AI group are working with employees at DeepMind, an AI lab that is a sibling company within Alphabet, to develop software to compete with OpenAI, The Information reported earlier today. The story observes that it's a "forced marriage," that the two labs have rarely worked together, and are doing so now out of necessity. The Information also reports that a prominent Google AI engineer, Jacob Devlin, resigned in January and immediately joined OpenAI after sharing concerns with CEO Sundar Pichai and other senior managers that employees were training its machine-learning model using data from OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which is a violation of OpenAI’s terms of service and could potentially cause its own chatbot, Bard, to mimic or resemble those of ChatGPT too much. The outlet adds that a Google spokesperson didn’t comment on Devlin’s resignation and allegation. Good stuff; more here.

Wow, Bitcoin is back to $28,000 . . .?

Silvergate Bank, Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank—all three gone within the span of a week. What do you think this could mean for the venture capital industry at large? We want to know how venture professionals like you plan to tackle the challenges, both known and unknown, of 2023. Take Juniper Square’s State of Venture Capital survey now, and get first access to the final report.

Acko, a seven-year-old Mumbai startup backed by Amazon that sells auto, health, and gadget insurance, is reportedly in the market to raise a $120 million round at a $1.5 billion valuation. Previous investor General Atlantic is the lead, according to TechCrunch, which has more here.

Coursedog, a five-year-old New York startup that whose platform handles curriculum planning, course scheduling, event management, and catalog management for academic institutions, raised a $90 million round. JMI Equity was the deal lead. The company has raised a total of $112.7 million. Mergers & Acquisitions has more here.

Edited, a 14-year-old London startup whose platform derives insights for retailers, raised a $15 million led by Delta-v Capital, with additional participation from Beringea, Hermes GPE, and previous investor Wavecrest Growth Partners. The company has raised a total of $50 million. More here.

env0, a five-year-old startup based in Sunnyvale, Ca., whose platform enables teams to manage cloud deployments, raised an additional $18.1 million Series A round led by Venture Guides, with StepStone Group, Knollwood Investment Advisory, boldstart ventures, Grove Ventures, M12, and Crescendo Venture Partners also chipping in. Calcalist has more here.

Genialis, a Houston startup that uses machine learning to deliver biomarkers that can aid in the development of new drugs, raised a $13 million Series A round co-led by Taiwania Capital and Debiopharm Innovation Fund, with previous investors First Star Ventures, Aedalpine Venture Partners, Pikas, and P5 Health Ventures also chipping in. AI Thority has more here.

Hygraph, a six-year-old German startup that claims its technology allows businesses to manage their content from multiple sources in one place using a single API call, raised a $30 million Series B round led by One Peak, with additional funds provided by previous investors OpenOcean and SquareOne. The company has raised a total of $43.6 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Inato, a startup based in Guilford, Ct., whose platform connects pharma companies with potential clinical trial sites, raised a $20 million Series A2 round led by Cathay Innovation, with La Maison, Top Harvest Capital, and previous investor Obvious Ventures also taking part. The company has raised a total of $35.5 million. MobiHealthNews has more here.

Irrigreen, a five-year-old San Francisco startup that makes robotic irrigation systems, raised a $15 million seed round led by Ulu Ventures, with Sage Hill Investors, Burnt Island Ventures, MFV Partners, Anorak Ventures, Echo River Capital, Tamiami, Catalyst Innovation Lab, and Sum Ventures also piling on. Axios has more here.

LeapXpert, a six-year-old New York startup that monitors employees' business-related chats, raised a $22 million Series A round led by Rockefeller Asset Management and including Uncorrelated Ventures and the Partnership Fund for New York City. The company has raised a total of $36.1 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Paytrix, a year-old London startup that has built a payments platform that it claims reduces the number of third-parties that merchants or marketplaces typically have to work with, raised an $18.3 million Series A round. Investors included Unusual Ventures, Motive Partners, and Bain Capital Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Ph7 Technologies, a three-year-old Canadian startup that designs and implements methodologies for the sustainable extraction and refining of strategic metals, raised a $16 million Series A round co-led by TDK Ventures and Pangaea Ventures, with Rhapsody Ventures, Collaborative Fund, FM Capital, and BASF VC also contributing. Vancouver Tech Journal has more here.

Conduit, a two-year-old San Francisco startup that offers a managed service that helps developers deploy their applications to the Optimism blockchain, raised a $7 million seed round. Paradigm led the investment. CoinDesk has more here.

Cowboy Clean Fuels, a three-year-old Denver startup that produces carbon-negative renewable gas from agricultural byproducts, raised a $7.5 million Series A round. Machan Investments was the deal lead. The company has raised a total of $10 million. Built in Colorado has more here.

Deep Render, a six-year-old London startup that claims to use AI to compress video, raised a $6.3 million Series A round. IP Group and Pentech Ventures co-led the deal. The company has raised a total of $11 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Evoco, a Canadian startup that has developed a plant-based material to replace PU foam --  which produces significant emissions, can take hundreds of years to biodegrade, and is difficult to recycle -- raised an $8.8 million Series B round. Circular Innovation Fund was the deal lead; Export Development Canada and previous investor The Stuart Group also participated. Vegconomist has more here.

Higharc, a five-year-old startup based in Durham, N.C., that offers a platform for the design, sales, and construction of new homes, raised a $4.5 million round from Ferguson Ventures and Starwood Capital Group. The company has raised a total of $27 million. More here.

Payday, a two-year-old Vancouver startup that operates a neobank issuing global (USD, EUR and GBP) accounts to Africans, raised a $3 million seed round led by Moniepoint, with additional investors including HoaQ, DFS Labs, and Ingressive Capital. The company has raised a total of $5.1 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Playbook, a San Francisco startup whose personal finance app allows users to uncover tax advantages with regard to investments such as their 401(k), Traditional IRA, Roth IRA, and HSA, raised a $7 million Series A round. Telstra Ventures was the deal lead, while Atomic also invested. More here.

Reeco, a two-year-old Tel Aviv startup whose marketplace uses AI to connect hospitality buyers and suppliers, raised a $10 million seed round. Net Capital Ventures and Joule Ventures were the co-leads. The company has raised a total of $18 million. PYMNTS has more here.

Turntable LIVE, a startup that is creating a social music streaming service, raised a $7 million round. Founders Fund and f7 Ventures were the co-leads. TechCrunch has more here.

Two Boxes, a one-year-old Denver startup whose platform helps brands and merchants process returns, raised a $4.5 million seed round led by Vinyl Capital, with Matchstick Ventures and Range Ventures also chipping in. More here.

Associates spend 40-50% of their week in email. And often that time isn’t used efficiently. Find ways to improve your workflows with best practices from Menlo Ventures, Two Sigma Ventures, and Nexa Partners in the dealmaker’s email playbook from Affinity.

Torch Capital, a five-year-old early-stage venture capital firm, says it has garnered more than $200 million in fresh capital to invest in tech-driven consumer brands and platforms. The outfit, which is based in New York, was founded by Jonathan Keidan, who previously cofounded InsideHook, a digital lifestyle platform for men. The firm now has roughly $400 million in assets under management. The Information has more here.

Mastercard and Visa are among the firms negotiating to acquire Pismo, which provides cloud-based payment and banking platforms, reports Bloomberg. The nearly seven-year-old, Sao Paulo-based company, which is working with Goldman Sachs Group on a sale, is being valued in the talks at around $1 billion, says the outlet. More here.

SoftBank says it is buying Berkshire Grey, a Bedford, Ma-based e-commerce robots maker that went public via SPAC in 2021. The deal is valued at around $375 million in cash, or $1.40 per share. The company was valued at $2.7 billion when it went public via Revolution Acceleration, a blank-check company formed by the VC firm Revolution and led by former presidential candidate John Delaney. The Boston Globe notes that SoftBank has investments in a "broad array of robotics companies. It formerly owned Waltham-based robot maker Boston Dynamics, but sold 80 percent of the company to South Korean conglomerate Hyundai for $1.1 billion in 2020." More here.

People are wondering: who the hell is purported VC Jacob Garlick? Here and here.

Electronic Arts said it is laying off about 6% of its workforce and reducing its office-space footprint. The move is expected to impact roughly 800 people. More here.

Holy smokes: "This is the first time in my career that I've ever seen [an increase in pediatric mortality] – it's always been declining in the United States for as long as I can remember," JAMA paper's lead author Steven Woolf, director emeritus of the Center on Society and Health at Virginia Commonwealth University, tells NPR. "Now, it's increasing at a magnitude that has not occurred at least for half a century." More here.

A jobs market is mushrooming up around AI training and these "AI whisperer" roles can pay upwards of $335,000, says Bloomberg.

Google is striking a partnership to combine its AI language models with software from startup Replit that helps computer programmers write code, a bid to compete with a similar product from Microsoft’s GitHub and OpenAI. Bloomberg has more here.

Get ready for a slow-motion banking crisis.

The metaverse is fast becoming the meh-taverse.

Bad Dates with Jameela Jamil.

"Emily in Paris" unrest.

These U.S. restaurants and chefs were just named James Beard Award finalists.

Why shoppers are summoning the ghosts of luxury handbags past.

Romotow.

Gwyneth Paltrow's courtroom glasses. “Gwyneth Paltrow looks like she’s on trial in 1987 for hiring a hitman to kill her husband,” reads one hilariously astute tweet about them. You can find some options here and here.