The EU takes a major step toward regulating AI, Twitter gets sued by music publishers, and VCs are buying up GPUs

The National Music Publishers’ Association sued Twitter today, alleging it violates the copyright of songwriters by using their music on its platform without permission. Filed on behalf of 17 music publishers, the companies are seeking up to $150,000 for every piece of work infringed. Bloomberg notes that Twitter is one of the only major social media platforms that doesn’t pay music rights to holders for licenses to their work. YouTube, Facebook, Snap and TikTok all have agreements that collectively pay the music industry billions of dollars a year. More here.

The European Commission has made a formal antitrust complaint against Google and its ad business. In a preliminary opinion, the regulator says Google has abused its dominant position in the digital advertising market. It says that forcing Google to sell off parts of its business may be the only remedy, if the company is found guilty of the charges. The Verge has more here.

And in the New York Times: The European Union took an important step on Wednesday toward passing what would be one of the first major laws to regulate artificial intelligence, a potential model for policymakers around the world as they grapple with how to put guardrails on the rapidly developing technology. The European Parliament, a main legislative branch of the European Union, passed a draft law known as the A.I. Act, which would put new restrictions on what are seen as the technology’s riskiest uses. It would severely curtail uses of facial recognition software, while requiring makers of A.I. systems like the ChatGPT chatbot to disclose more about the data used to create their programs.

Juniper Square surveyed nearly 100 VC firms about their concerns, plans, and focus areas for the rest of the year, and found that: 63% of VC firms plan to raise capital this year; the most pressing concern from LPs is around exits; and 40% want to invest in better LP reporting. Download Juniper's research to learn more, including: why VCs are worried about investor sentiment; how optimistic firms are about the rest of 2023; and which operational investments VCs are prioritizing. Get the research now.

Madhive, a seven-year-old, New York-based advertising software platform for TV, has agreed to raise $300 million from the private equity business within Goldman Sachs Asset Management. AdExchanger has more here.

Primer Technologies, an eight-year-old San Francisco-based startup that sells AI-powered analytics tools (including to U.S. government clients, including the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Army),  raised $69 million in Series D funding led by Addition, with participation from USIT. (We're realizing this is the first deal by Addition that we've seen in a while.) Crunchbase has more here.

AptEdge, a four-year-old, Redwood City, Ca.-based generative AI startup building an answer engine for customer service, has raised $11 million in seed funding led by Stage 2 Capital, with participation from Unusual Ventures, National Grid Partners, Carya Venture Partners, and Counterpart Ventures. More here.

Everest Fleet, a 6.5-year-old, Mumbai-based fleet management company, has raised $20 million in funding led by Uber. According to the Economic Times, the funding is Uber’s first "inorganic" investment in India, and comes as Uber is expanding into electric vehicle services for which it has partnered with several fleet operators, including Everest. More here.

OneVest, a Calgary-based wealth management startup, has raised $12.8 million (U.S.) in Series A funding. OMERS Ventures led the round, joined by Fin Capital, Pivot Investment Partners, Deloitte Ventures and earlier backers Luge Capital, Panache Ventures, AAF Management and FJ Labs. More here.

SiMa.ai, a five-year-old, San Jose, Ca.-based startup that makes a system-on-chip for speeding up neural networks with lower power consumption, has raised $13 million in funding from the VentureTech Alliance and Mayfield managing director Navin Chaddha. Fidelity, Amplify Partners, Wing VC, Lip-Bu Tan and others have now provided this company with $200 million altogether. More here.

Thinksurance, an 8.5-year-old Frankfurt, Germany-based digital commercial insurance provider in Europe, says it has raised $24 million in funding co-led by Viewpoint Ventures, M-Tech Capital, Venture Capital Fonds and Segenia Capital. Eight Roads Ventures and Columbia Lake Partners also pitched in. Tech.eu has more here.

Truework, a six-year-old, San Francisco-based income verification platform, raised $24 million from TransUnion. TechCrunch has more here.

Unspun, a sustainable fashion brand that says it can transform yarn into clothes in minutes via "3D weaving tech," thereby realizing zero-waste production, has raised $14 million in Series A funding led by Lowercarbon Capital. More here.

BoomFi, a months-old, London-based crypto payments platform, raised $3.8 million in seed funding led by White Star Capital, with participation from Passion Capital, Blockchain Founders Fund, Kraken Ventures, Mantle Network and numerous others. More here.

Glyphic AI, a year-old, London-based "AI copilot" for sales teams founded by two DeepMind alums, has raised $5.5 million in pre-seed funding led by Point72 Ventures, with participation from Creator Fund. Business Insider has more here.

Gorgie, a New York-based energy drink brand founded by serial entrepreneur Michelle Cordeiro Grant, raised $6.5 million in pre-seed funding. Gelmart International CEO Yossi Nasser, former Under Armour board member Harvey Sanders, the managing partners of GGV Capital, and other angels invested in the round. Forbes has more here.

Magrathea, a year-old, San Francisco-based startup that says it's developing an electrolytic technology for making carbon-neutral magnesium metal from seawater and brines, raised $10 million in seed funding. VoLo Earth and Capricorn Investment Group co-led the round, joined by Valor Equity Partners, Exor Ventures, Counteract, Hyperguap, Necessary Ventures, Untitled, EQT Foundation, and others. More here.

Majority, a four-year-old, Stockholm- and Miami-based mobile banking platform for migrants in the U.S., raised a fresh $9.75 million in funding from Valar Ventures and Heartcore Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

Masthead Data, a two-year-old, Toronto-based data observability platform that relies only on logs and metadata, says it has raised $1.3 million in pre-seed funding led by focal, with participation from SMOK Ventures, DEPO Ventures, Monochrome, and Alchemist Accelerator. Angel investors from Snowflake, ex-Uber employees, ex-Googlers, privacy and security professionals also participated in the round. More here.

Normal Computing, a year-old, New York-based generative A.I. company for enterprise applications, has raised $8.5 million in seed funding. Celesta Capital and First Spark Ventures co-led the round, joined by Micron Ventures. The company was founded by former members of the Google Brain Team, Palantir, and X engineers who built core AI production systems for Alphabet. More here.

Omnevue, a year-old, London-based ESG accounting software company, has raised $3.1 million in seed funding co-led by Elbow Beach Capital and Pi Labs, with added participation from Zone2boost and other angels. More here.

One Future Football, a year-old, Melbourne, Australia-based virtual soccer league, has raised $2 million (U.S.) in pre-seed funding led by Blackbird Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Telo Trucks, a year-old, San Carlos, Ca.-based electric vehicle company, has raised $1.4 million in pre-seed funding. GoAhead Ventures led the round, joined by Underdog Labs, WorkPlay Ventures, and other angels. The pickup truck being built by the company is as small as a Mini Cooper but rivals the storage capacity and battery ranges of other electric vehicle from Tesla, Ford and Rivian, according to its founders. TechCrunch has more here.

"The quality of deal flow is the single most important indicator of a fund's performance and our process to build our top of funnel remains remarkably consistent." – Samantha Santaniello, Head of Business Development & Partnerships, MassMutual Ventures. In this recent webinar, she spoke to Affinity about how the team builds deal flow. Watch now for tips and insights:

Moxxie Ventures, an early-stage venture firm cofounded four years ago by former media exec Katie Stanton (she was a VP at Twitter, then chief marketing officer of Color Genomics for several years), is targeting up to $85 million for its third fund, shows a new SEC filing. The firm -- now based in Boulder, Co. -- is primarily run by Stanton and Alex Roetter, a former Kitty Hawk exec who first joined Moxxie as a venture partner in 2019 and became a managing director and general partner in 2021. Moxxie closed its second fund with $85 million almost exactly two years ago. More here.

Canva, the Sydney-based visual communication platform that its investor T. Rowe has internally marked down considerably, today announced the establishment of a $50 million Canva Developers Innovation Fund. The idea is to provide support to app developers in building, growing and marketing their apps on the Canva App Marketplace. VentureBeat has more here.

Interesting: One of Canada’s biggest pension funds bought a luxury resort in the Rocky Mountains. Oxford Properties, the real estate arm of the pension representing municipal workers in Ontario, has purchased the Rimrock Resort Hotel in Canada’s Banff National Park, according to Bloomberg. More here.

Matt Baer, Macy’s chief customer and digital officer, will become Stitch Fix’s new CEO and will take the position on June 26. Cofounder and former CEO Katrina Lake has been serving as interim CEO since January of this year. WWD has more here.

Former SEC Chairman Jay Clayton has reiterated his position that many cryptocurrencies could be defined as securities. TechCrunch has more here.

Meet ‘Heina’ Chen, the secretive executive holding the purse strings at Binance.

TrueCar, a formerly venture-backed platform where people can research new and used car prices and find local dealer savings (it went public in 2014), is laying off 24% of staff due, which will impact 102 people. President and CEO Michael Darrow is stepping aside, too, to be replaced by Jantoon Reigersman, who previously served as TrueCar’s chief operating officer and chief financial officer. TechCrunch has more here.

A look at the awkward partnership leading the AI boom. "By keeping OpenAI at arm’s length, Microsoft has influence without control, while OpenAI gets a deep-pocketed backer and still has some freedom to explore other partnerships," observes the WSJ. More here.

Nvidia GPUs are so hard to get that venture capitalists are buying them for the startups they invest in. Business Insider has more here.

Twitter owes three months’ rent to its Boulder, Co., landlord, and a judge has signed off on evicting the tech giant from its office there, reports TechCrunch. It says the office was at once point home to 300 employees.

Wait, Harvard has a morgue?

The 10 best new restaurants, ranked.

Daddy, are you an influencer?

Fender x Saint Laurent Stratocaster.

Join Restive and build the future of fintech! We offer professional guidance, industry insights, and financial backing to early-stage founders. Apply now to receive investment and access to an elite network that accelerates growth and connects you to leaders in tech and finance. Don't miss out—applications are open from June 12th to August 1st!