Spotify's faltering podcast plans, a16z's evergreen fund, and India's most highly valued startup gets dropped

We spent part of today checking out a Bloomberg event in San Francisco. Some quick notes:

OpenAI's Sam Altman made a short appearance before catching a flight. He didn't have time to say much that was new, though his exchange with journalist Emily Chang did touch on why he hasn't taken equity in OpenAI. "Like, I have enough money," he said when asked about this. "I'm gonna make way, way more from other investments that I've made in the past . . . I still get a lot of selfish benefit from this," he added of his role as OpenAI's CEO, including an "interesting life, impact, access . . . " (Said Altman: "I have wondered if I should just take one share of equity so I never have to answer this question again.")

Later Chang sat down with Sequoia Capital's Alfred Lin and Aileen Lee of Cowboy Ventures to talk about the state of VC. 

Lee joked that it could be dubbed the "age of Ozempic," the diabetes medication that people are now using to lose weight. "We lived in this age of chasing growth, where capital was free, so you could spend a lot of money, and speed and growth was more important than focus or discipline," she said. "Now, everyone has to focus more, they have to probably do less and chase less, and the constraints will create a lot of creativity."

Meanwhile -- as happened in January, when we sat down with Lin --  Sequoia's bet on FTX invariably came up. Lin called it a "really hard lesson" but also told Chang that he "learned that I haven't really great partners" who supported him throughout that period and made it clear that the bet was a Sequoia investment and not his cross to bear alone. Lin further said of FTX (to our great surprise) that Sequoia "just looked at the work that we did 15 different ways" and that "we probably would have made the investment again." 

More from the day below . . .

International accounting firm Deloitte has resigned as auditor to the edtech outfit Byju’s, India’s most highly valued start-up, saying it never handed over financial results for the year ended March 2022.

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Earlier today at a Bloomberg conference in San Francisco, some of the biggest names in AI turned up, including, briefly, Sam Altman of OpenAI, who just ended his two-month world tour, and Stability AI founder Emad Mostaque. Still, one of the most compelling conversations happened later in the afternoon, in a panel discussion about AI ethics.

Featuring Meredith Whittaker, the president of the secure messaging app Signal; Credo AI co-founder and CEO Navrina Singh; and Alex Hanna, the Director of Research at the Distributed AI Research Institute, the three had a unified message for the audience, which was: don’t get so distracted by the promise and threats associated with the future of AI. It is not magic, it’s not fully automated, and — per Whittaker — in this very moment, it’s intrusive beyond anything that most Americans seemingly comprehend.

Hannah, for example, pointed to the many people around the world who are helping to train today’s large language models, suggesting that these individuals are getting short shrift in some of the breathless coverage about generative AI in part because the work is unglamorous and partly because it doesn’t fit the current narrative about AI.

Said Hannah: “We know from reporting . . .that there is an army of workers who are doing annotation behind the scenes to even make this stuff work to any degree — workers who work with Amazon Mechanical Turk, people who work with [the training data company Sama — in Venezuela, Kenya, the U.S., actually all over the world . . .They are actually doing the labeling, whereas Sam [Altman] and Emad [Mostaque] and all these other people who are going to say these things are magic — no. There’s humans. . . .These things need to appear as autonomous and it has this veneer, but there’s so much human labor underneath it.”

The comments made separately by Whittaker — who previously worked at Google, co-founded NYU’s AI Now Institute and was an adviser to the Federal Trade Commission — were even more pointed (and also impactful based on the audience’s enthusiastic reaction to them).

More here.

An unnamed startup led by ex-Salesforce co-CEO Bret Taylor and ex-Googler Clay Bavor that is developing a stealth product in the AI space raised a seed round of at least $20 million, according to The Information. The lead investor was Benchmark, while Sequoia also participated. The Information has more here.

Apex Space, a nine-month-old, L.A.-based manufacturing startup aiming to transform the way that satellite buses – the part of a spacecraft that hosts the payload -- are built and sold, has raised $16 million in Series A funding. Andreessen Horowitz and new investor Shield Capital co-led the round. The company has already raised $27 million altogether. TechCrunch takes a look here.

Beaconcure, a seven-year-old Boston startup whose platform streamlines and automates the clinical trial data statistical analysis process, raised a $14 million Series B round. NewVale Capital led the transaction. The company has raised a total of $16 million. More here.

DREST, a London startup whose mobile game enables players to become fashion stylists and brands to appeal to new audiences, raised a $19.1 million round from Graham Edwards's family office. WWD has more here.

GGTech Entertainment, a Madrid startup that develops gaming and esports projects, raised a $12.4 million round from Glisco Partners and Heart Beat. Contxto has more here.

Outbound AI, a two-year-old Seattle startup that is developing AI tools to help healthcare teams interact with insurance companies and automate administrative work during the claims process, raised a $16 million seed round co-led by Madrona Venture Group and SpringRock Ventures, with Epic Ventures, Ascend, and KCRise Fund also pitching in. The company has raised a total of $23 million. GeekWire has more here.

System Initiative, a four-year-old San Francisco startup whose software helps DevOps teams build simulations of their infrastructure that then lets them quickly update their production environments, raised a $15 million Series A round. Scale Venture Partners was the deal lead, while previous investors Amplify Partners, Storm Ventures, and Battery Ventures also participated. The company has raised a total of $18 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Warp, a three-year-old New York startup that aims to modernize the command-line interface, raised a $50 million Series B round led by Sequoia Capital, with GV, Neo, BoxGroup, and power angels including Figma cofounder and CEO Dylan Field, Marc Benioff, and Sam Altman. Fast Company has more here.

Alvys, a three-year-old startup based in Solana Beach, Ca., that helps trucking companies manage dispatch, driver management, load movement, accounting, safety, and compliance, raised a $6.3 million seed round led by Bonfire Ventures, with RTP Global also opting in. More here.

ATMOS Space Cargo, a German startup that plans to offer a space capsule cargo service in microgravity, raised a $4.4 million seed round co-led by High-Tech Gründerfonds and Amadeus APEX Technology Fund, with Seraphim, E2MC, Ventis, and Another VC also participating. Tech.eu has more here.

bitewell, a Denver startup that operates a healthy food marketplace that works directly with employers to provide food health benefits and reduce insurance premiums, raised a $4.1 million seed round co-led by Lake Nona Sports, Health Tech Fund, and Refinery Ventures, with additional participants including Trybe Ventures, Mudita Venture Partners, Harvest Ridge Capital, and BDMI. More here.

Chexy, a one-year-old Toronto startup that offers a rewards platform for renters, raised a $1.3 million pre-seed round led by Crossbeam Ventures, with Groundbreak Ventures and Ferst Capital Partners also anteing up. BetaKit has more here.

CleanHub, a four-year-old Berlin startup that aims to partner with brands to build a global network of sites to collect and process plastic waste, raised a $7 million round co-led by Integra Partners and Lakestar, with Silence VC, 468 Capital, and Übermorgen Ventures also contributing. The company has raised a total of $11.9 million. DealStreetAsia has more here.

Duos, a New York startup that helps place caregivers into the homes of older adults, raised a $10 million round co-led by Primetime Partners, SJF Ventures, and CEOC’s Aging Innovation Fund. The company has raised a total of more than $33 million. Home Health Care News has more here.

Goodbuy, a two-year-old startup based in Boise, Id., that allows consumers to shop their favorite online stores like Amazon or Target and see other places to buy the same product that might better align with their values, raised a $6.3 million seed round led by StageDotO Ventures and including Capital Eleven. BoiseDev has more here.

Gorgie, a New York startup that has developed a female-focused energy drink, raised a $6.5 million pre-seed round from individuals. BevNet has more here.

Hypar, a five-year-old startup based in Culver City, Ca., that provides cloud-based building design software, raised a $5.5 million Series A round led by Brick & Mortar Ventures, with Building Ventures also chipping in. More here.

Kubik, a two-year-old Nairobi startup that aims to turns hard-to-recycle plastic waste into affordable building materials, raised a $3.3 million seed round from Plug & Play, Bestseller Foundation, GIIG Africa Fund, Satgana, Unruly Capital, Savannah Fund, African Renaissance Partners, Kazana Fund, Princeton Alumni Angels, and Andav Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

Maverick Protocol, a two-year-old Singapore startup that is developing a protocol to address cross-chain liquidity inefficiencies, raised a $9 million round led by Founders Fund, with additional investment from Pantera Capital, Binance Labs, Coinbase Ventures, and Apollo Crypto. The company has raised a total of $18 million. Bitcoinist has more here.

nyra health, a startup based in Vienna, Austria, whose app contains over 35,000 interactive exercises to support patients after a neurological illness such as a stroke, dementia, or long COVID-19, raised a $4.9 million seed round. MassMutual Ventures and Wellington Partners co-led the deal. EU-Startups has more here.

Oliva, a London startup that offers on-demand mental health and well-being support to employees, raised a $5.5 million round led by Molten Ventures, with additional investors including Stride VC and Alumni Ventures. EU-Startups has more here.

Rosarium Health, a two-year-old Denver startup whose mission is to connect people with service providers to deliver home modifications for accessibility purposes, raised a $1.7 million pre-seed round. Primetime Partners and Rock Health Capital were the co-leads, with participation from Tundra Ventures, Flare Capital Partners, Sequential Ventures, and Groundbreak Ventures. More here.

TreaTech, an eight-year-old startup based in Lausanne, Switzerland, that converts waste streams into fresh water for industrial and consumer use; minerals including phosphorus, nitrogen, and potassium; and methane-rich renewable gas, raised a $10 million Series A round co-led by Engie New Venture and Montrose Environmental Group, with EIC Fund, Sipchem, CMA-CGM, and Holdigaz also taking part. VentureLab has more here.

Turbine, an eight-year-old London startup that uses cell simulations to guide biopharma drug discovery, raised a $6 million Series A extension from MassMutual Ventures, increasing the total size of the round to $27.9 million. Tech Funding News has more here.

WindBorne Systems, an eight-year-old Palo Alto startup that sells weather data gathered from its network of weather balloons, raised a $6 million seed round led by Footwork, with Khosla Ventures, Pear VC, Ubiquity Ventures, Harvest Ventures, Humba Ventures, Jetstream, and Convective Capital also piling on. More here.

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Andreessen Horowitz has created a new fund. The evergreen vehicle is titled a16z Perennial Venture Capital Fund, per a filing made with the SEC last week that shows that the fund will operate from the firm's Menlo Park office. It has been listed as a “large advisory firm” with a regulatory AUM of $105 million, per an ADV filing. TechCrunch has the skinny here.

KCRise Fund, a seven-year-old, Kansas City-based venture firm, has closed its third fund with $34 million in capital commitments. The outfit now manages over $90 million across three funds. Startland News has more here.

We mentioned yesterday that Cox Enterprises just launched a new venture arm called Socium Ventures; in a release, it didn't say how much money it is providing the unit, but we've since been told the amount is $300 million.

Amazon, keen to avoid being left behind in the hyper-competitive AI race, is launching a new program to invest in startups and organizations focused on generative AI. Called the AWS Generative AI Innovation Center, the program will put $100 million toward connecting AWS-affiliated data scientists, strategists, engineers and solutions architects with customers and partners to — as Amazon puts it in a press release — “accelerate enterprise innovation and success with generative AI.” TechCrunch has more here.

TikTok's Chief Operating Officer V Pappas has quit, she told staff today in an email seen earlier today by The Information. She later tweeted out what she'd written to them. 

Kaitlyn Glancy, who has spent more than eight years with the logistics company Flexport — the last four of them as the outfit’s vice president of North America — is the newest partner at the venture firm Eclipse. We talked with her yesterday; more here.

Initialized, the venture firm originally cofounded by Alexis Ohanian and Garry Tan, is looking for a new partner. Managing Director Jen Wolf has much more information here, including how much the job pays.

Spotify's podcast plan is going off the rails.

Reddit is battling moderators who are marking their communities NSFW.

An IPO for a painting? This $55 million masterpiece is going public.

Why curly hair was an evolutionary advantage.

Flight attendants reveal the 10 biggest luggage mistakes to avoid.

Robert Zemeckis: I Love Using The Computer to Make Tom Hanks Look Insane.

An executive recruiter is selling his 50-acre compound in Half Moon Bay.

Jean-Michel Basquiat's Untitled (Pablo Picasso) is coming up for auction.

Hotel Corazon. 🇪🇸

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