Big new AI rounds, a strange screening process at Gates Ventures, and a $100 billion wealth migration alters the U.S. landscape

Continuing to send this from afar this week. Here's the latest news...✈️

Race-conscious admissions programs at Harvard and the University of North Carolina are unconstitutional, the Supreme Court ruled today. But affirmative action bans have failed in the past, reports the WSJ. Among the reasons why: Colleges often look first to socioeconomic status as an alternative to race, but it's a flawed proxy. There are more low-income white households than there are low-income Black and Hispanic households combined. 

Students across the U.S. reacted to the ruling. "There's so many things we have to do for equity, and to be going backwards in this sort of immense way is really scary," Muskaan Arshad, a rising junior at Harvard, told Business Insider. "We need to keep fighting to change the narrative around affirmative action." 

Don Harris, associate dean and equity, diversity and inclusion liaison at Temple University School of Law, meanwhile told Forbes the the ruling could well impact companies soon. “The writing's on the wall … it's a recipe for allowing people to then start bringing other cases before the court” targeting diversity practices in other fields. More here.

Research: the state of venture capital in 2023. While the slowdown began in 2022, the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in early March shook the venture industry and shined a brighter-than-ever light on the space. To go beyond the headlines, Juniper Square surveyed nearly 100 venture capital investors about their concerns, plans, and focus areas for the rest of the year. See what they had to say about the state of the industry. Download The State of Venture Capital: 2023 Benchmark Survey now.

Author Health, a Boston-based tech-enabled health care services company specializing in psychiatric treatment and social support for seniors with serious mental illness and substance use disorders, raised $115 million in funding led by General Atlantic, which was joined by Flare Capital Partners. FierceHealthcare has more here.

Inflection AI, a year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based AI startup aiming to create “personal AI for everyone,” has closed a $1.3 billion funding round led by Reid Hoffman (who cofounded the company), Microsoft, Bill Gates, Eric Schmidt and new investor Nvidia. The company, which has raised $1.525 billion, is now valued at $4 billion, says TechCrunch. There's a lot of layover here in the AI space. As notes Forbes, "Microsoft, also a major investor in OpenAI, is Inflection’s cloud computing partner; Nvidia, meanwhile, has been working closely with Inflection on the deployment of its flagship H100 graphics processing unit (GPU), the current gold standard for AI training and powering large language models like OpenAI’s GPT-3." CEO Mustafa Suleyman, who previously co-founded the Google-owned AI lab DeepMind, says that the new capital will support Inflection’s work to design its first product, an AI-powered assistant called Pi.

Runway AI, a five-year-old outfit whose AI software can create a short video from just a few typed words, has raised $141 million in extended Series C funding from Google, Nvidia, Salesforce and other investors. Felicis led the company's original $50 million Series C round back in December; the company has now raised $237 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

Typeface, a 1.5-year-old, San Francisco-based generative AI application to supercharge personalized content creation for businesses, has raised $100 million in Series B funding led by Salesforce Ventures. Lightspeed Venture Partners, Madrona, GV, Menlo Ventures, and M12 also joined the round. TechCrunch has more here.

B Garage, a San Jose, Ca-based developer of autonomous warehouse drones that help its customers with their inventory management, just raised $20 million in Series A funding. LB Investment led the round, joined by Ignite Innovation Fund, Krossroad Partners and earlier investor SoftBank Ventures Asia. TechCrunch has more here.

Causely, a Boston-based startup that aims to revolutionize how businesses troubleshoot operational issues and manage application performance using causal AI technology, raised an $8.8 million seed round led by 645 Ventures. Other participants in the round included GlassWing Ventures, Tau Ventures and earlier backer Amity Ventures. VentureBeat has more here.

Cyware, a seven-year-old, Jersey City, N.J.-based startup developing products to help enterprises modernize their security operations, today announced that it raised $30 million in a Series C funding round led by Ten Eleven Ventures. Advent International, Zscaler, Emerald Development Managers, Prelude and Great Road Holdings also participated, bringing Cyware’s total raised to $73 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Levit, a two-year-old, Seoul-based e-commerce company that incorporates social features like short videos and gamification into its online shopping app Always, has raised $46 million in Series B funding led by DST Global Partners. Other backers in the round include Bond and earlier investors KB Investment, Mirae Asset Capital, Korea Investment Partners, GS Ventures, and Klim Ventures. The company has now raised $67 million since its inception. TechCrunch has more here.

Material Evolution, a six-year-old company that makes low-carbon cement, has raised $19 million in Series A funding to scale production led by Kompas VC, with participation from Norrsken VC, Circle Rock, and SigmaRoc. TechCrunch has more here.

Parabola, a six-year-old, San Francisco-based startup that uses AI to help expedite back-office processes, particularly in the logistics and e-commerce sectors, says it has raised $24 million in Series B funding led by OpenView, with participation from strategic investor Flexport alongside with Matrix, Thrive, Good Friends, Webflow, Otherwise Fund, Abstract Ventures and Merus Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

Venn Software, a four-year-old, New York-based remote work security provider for employees (it's focused on mobile device management for laptops), raised $29 million in Series A Funding led by NewSpring. SecurityWeek has more here.

32Co, a two-year-old London-based collaborative health startup that connects general clinicians with a network of specialists, has raised $3 million in seed funding led by Balderton Capital. More here.

Alfie Health, a year-old, New York-based obesity management tech startup, raised $2.1 million in pre-seed funding co-led by Nina Capital and Y Combinator, with participation from Goodwater Capital and Phoenix Investment Club. Axios has more here.

AuditMate, a four-year-old, San Francisco-based elevator and escalator service contract management software platform for building owners and managers, raised $3.5 million in seed funding. MassMutual Ventures led the round, joined by Moderne Ventures, Blue Field Capital, and others. More here.

Bdeo, a six-year-old, Madrid-based visual intelligence platform for the insurance and fleet industries, raised €7.5 million ($8.19 million) in funding from Armilar, Hollard, Spain's Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology, Íope Ventures, K Fund, and Blackfin Tech invested in the round. More here.

Berry Health, a Ghana-based sexual and mental health startup, raised $1.6 million in pre-seed funding co-led by General Catalyst and Lightspeed Venture Partners (the deal marks Lightspeed's first investment in Africa, notes TechCrunch). More here.

Dalan Animal Health, a four-year-old, Athens, Ga.-based bee vaccine developer, raised $4.5 million in seed 3 funding. Prime Movers Lab led the round, joined by At One Ventures. Atlanta Inno has more here.

Glowb, a year-old London-based residential solar startup, raised £1.2 million ($1.52 million) in funding led by Ada Ventures; Active Partners, Voyagers Climate-Tech Fund, and Volta Circle also joined the round. Tech.eu has more here.

Patented.ai, a five-month-old San Francisco-based "AI engine for intellectual property" that was founded by serial entrepreneur Wayne Chang, has raised $4 million in pre-seed funding led by Baseline Ventures’s Steve Anderson. Other investors in the round include Boston Seed Capital’s Nicole Stata, Accomplice’s Jeff Fagnan, AngelList's Naval Ravikant and others. More here.

Ramon.Space, an L.A-based computing infrastructure platform for space, has raised $26 million in funding. Ingrasys (a subsidiary of Foxconn), the Strategic Development Fund, Grove Ventures, Deep Insight, and UMC Capital all participated. Space News has more here.

Scriptic, a four-year-old, London-based studio that says it's developing a dynamic catalog of interactive phone-first shows based on generative AI, has raised $5.7 million in fresh funding led by Bitkraft Ventures, which was joined by Tower 26, the Amazon Alexa Fund, and other new and earlier investors. Netflix just released one of the service’s games offerings, where players become the lead detective in a gritty crime drama, solving murders through victims’ smartphones. It's the second round of funding for the startup this year; VentureBeat has more here.

The Spaceport Company, a 16-month-old, Washington, D.C.-based startup developing floating launch pads for space rockets, has received $1.5 million from the National Security Innovation Capital fund. The outfit is one of 17 companies selected to receive government funding this year under the National Security Innovation Capital program, which is run by the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit and that allocated $35 million in 2023 funding to early-stage companies from different sectors of the tech industry. Space News has more here.

Speakeasy, a year-old, Bay Area-based API infrastructure company, has raised $7.6 million in seed funding led by GV, with participation from earlier backer Quiet Capital, Firestreak Ventures, Flex Capital and StoryHouse Ventures. Last year Speakeasy raised $3.3 million in a pre-seed round led by Quiet Capital. TechCrunch takes a look here.

Quandri, a three-year-old, Vancouver-based startup that says it automates repetitive processes at insurance brokerages and agencies, has raised $8.5 million in Series A funding led by FUSE, with participation from Defined. TechCrunch has more here.

The unicorn landscape has changed dramatically since the start of the decade. Affinity's latest infographic looks at worldwide trends and reveals the areas of opportunity that still exist across geography and industry.

Arboretum Ventures, a 21-year-old Ann Arbor, Mi.-based venture firm focused on health care, says it closed its sixth fund with $268 million in capital commitments. for its sixth fund. Crain's Detroit Business has more here.  

New York State Teachers’ Retirement System is looking to unload $6 billion of private assets on the secondary market, making it one of the year’s largest sales. Bloomberg has more here.

Noubar Afeyan, a chemical engineer by training, became a billionaire backing Moderna, the biotech firm that became a household name due to its Covid vaccine. He just added to his fortune after another one of his long-shot bets quintupled in value.

For the first time, six fast-growing states in the South — Florida, Texas, Georgia, the Carolinas and Tennessee — are contributing more to the national GDP than the Northeast, with its Washington-New York-Boston corridor, based on government figures going back to the 1990s. The switch happened during the pandemic, reports Bloomberg, and shows no signs of reverting.

Pokémon GO maker Niantic laid off 230 employees today, just one year after it laid off around 90 employees. During last year’s layoffs, Niantic canceled four projects, including a Transformers game. Some Niantic games will meet the same fate this time around. After four months in the App Store, Niantic is shutting down "NBA All-World"; the company will also cancel production on a game based on the Marvel franchise. Judging by LinkedIn, the cuts impact roughly one-quarter of its workforce. TechCrunch has more here.

Egon Durban, co-chief executive of the PE firm Silver Lake, tells the Financial Times that his firm, which manages $98 billion in assets, will focus on fewer but larger investments such as its $12.5 billion takeover of software company Qualtrics that closed yesterday morning. “If you see us invest right now, by definition it will be a big all-in bet,” he tells the FT. More here.

Yikes. Per the WSJ: "Some people who sought jobs at billionaire Bill Gates’s private office described going through an extensive screening process that included being questioned by a security firm about their sexual histories, past drug use and other parts of their private lives that might indicate they were vulnerable to blackmail. Some female job candidates were asked whether they ever had extramarital affairs, what kind of pornography they preferred or if they had nude photographs of themselves on their phones, according to the candidates and people familiar with the hiring process."

As self-driving cars become a fixture in major American cities like San Francisco, Phoenix and Los Angeles, police are increasingly relying on their camera recordings to try to solve cases. More in Bloomberg.

Linda Yaccarino, the former NBCUniversal advertising head who started as Twitter's CEO early last month, is seeking to launch full-screen, sound-on video ads that would be shown to users scrolling through Twitter’s new short-video feed, according to the Financial Times. 

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