OpenAI jumps into video generation, Sequoia reportedly pressures Michael Moritz, and San Francisco bounces back

Sequoia Capital is reportedly pushing famed former partner Michael Moritz to step down from his personal board position at the buy-now-pay-later company Klarna. According to The Information, Sequoia partner Matthew Miller has asked shareholders at Klarna to remove Moritz, with Roelof Botha, Sequoia’s chief, letting them know Miller has the firm's full support.

OpenAI cofounder and CEO Sam Altman owns OpenAI Startup Fund, according to Axios, opening up a wide range of potential conflicts of interest.

Speaking of OpenAI, the AI powerhouse just released a new model called Sora that can generate 1080p videos from text. It an also render video games.

One more OpenAI story: the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has rejected OpenAI’s attempt to trademark “GPT." It also previously denied the company's trademark claim for "ChatGPT."

If social media chatter is any indication, Apple could be facing a massive number of returns for its heavily hyped Vision Pro headset.

Master your Portfolio Data in 2024! VCs spend months chasing scattered portfolio updates and organizing them for thorough analysis and decision-making. This involves a lot of chaos, manual work, and administrative hassles - leading to portfolio data frustration! Despite all this, getting answers to all your portfolio questions remains a struggle! Not anymore! Discover game-changing techniques to unify, analyze, and leverage portfolio data effectively. Jointhis interactive session with industry experts. Sign Up Now!

Bending Spoons, a 10-year-old Milan company that owns popular apps and services like Evernote and Meetup, raised $155 million round at a $2.55 billion post-money valuation. The lead was Durable Capital Partners, while previous investors Baillie Gifford, Cox Enterprises, NB Renaissance, NUO Capital, and StarTIP also opted in. TechCrunch has more here.

Bold, a four-year-old Bogotá startup that provides payment processing tools and services for SMBs, including card readers and online payment platforms, raised a $50 million Series C round led by General Atlantic, with International Finance Corporation as well as previous investors InQLab and Amador also taking part. TechCrunch has more here.

Lambda, a 12-year-old San Francisco company that offers cloud computing services with powerful GPUs for AI development and deployment, raised a $320 million Series C round at a $1.5 billion valuation. US Innovative Technology was the deal lead, with B Capital and SK Telecom as well as previous investors Crescent Cove, Mercato Partners, 1517 Fund, Bloomberg Beta, and Gradient Ventures also participating. SiliconANGLE has more here.

Land Energy, a three-year-old Cleveland startup that is developing electric bikes and batteries, is reportedly in the market to raise $65 million, according to Axios Pro, which has more here.

Architect Financial Technologies, a two-year-old New York startup that supplies tools for high-speed trading, risk management, and analytics, aimed at exchanges, trading firms, hedge funds, and professional investors, raised a $12 million seed round. Blocktower Venture Capital and Tioga Capital co-led the transaction, with additional investors including CMT Digital, ParaFi Capital, A Capital, and Twelve Below as well as previous investors Coinbase Ventures, SV Angel, Third Kind, SALT Fund, and US Digital Trust. More here.

Fever, a Swedish startup that provides a platform for utility companies, electric vehicle manufacturers, data centers, and power producers to operate their own virtual power plants, raised a $10.8 million seed round led by General Catalyst, with La Famiglia and Norrsken VC also investing. Silicon Canals has more here.

Hippo Harvest, a San Francisco startup that uses robots to grow produce, raised a $21 million Series B round at a $145 million post-money valuation, according to TechCrunch. The deal was led by Standard Investments, with Congruent Ventures, Amazon's Climate Pledge Fund, Hawthorne Food Ventures, and Energy Impact Partners also contributing. More here.

Marqo, a two-year-old San Francisco startup that uses AI to comb through unstructured data, raised a $12.5 million Series A round. The lead investor was Lightspeed Venture Partners, with Blackbird Ventures and January Capital also pitching in. Bloomberg has more here. 

Upwards, a Los Angeles startup that helps companies offer childcare benefits to their workers, raised a $21 million Series B round led by Alpha Edison, with previous investors M13 and Fika Ventures also joining in. The company has raised a total of $43.3 million. More here. 

Amazec Photonics, a three-year-old Dutch startup, has raised a $1.6 million seed round led by PhotonDelta. Tech.eu has more here.

Fordefi, a three-year-old New York startup whose digital wallet provides investment funds, trading firms, and web3 companies with features like secure trading, treasury management, and integration with blockchain applications, raised a $10 million seed extension round led by Electric Capital and including Paxos and Alchemy. CoinDesk has more here.

LangChain, a one-year-old San Francisco startup that provides a suite of tools for developers to create and deploy applications that use large language models, raised a $25 million Series A round led by Sequoia Capital. The company has raised a total of $35 million. (We're curious about the timing of this announcement, given this news was first reported around 10 months ago. 🤔 ) VentureBeat has more here. 

Merit Medicine, an Austin startup that makes AI-driven prediction software for self-funded employers to forecast the use of high-cost specialty drugs and identify rare, chronic, and complex conditions, raised a $2 million seed round. LiveOak Ventures was the deal lead. More here.

Overworld, a Los Angeles startup that creates free-to-play action role-playing games video games, raised a $10 million seed round co-led by Hashed, The Spartan Group, Sanctor Capital, and Galaxy Interactive , with Hashkey, Big Brain Holdings, and Foresight Ventures also anteing up. VentureBeat has more here.

Permit.io, a three-year-old Tel Aviv startup that provides a way for businesses to set up rules that control access to different parts of their software, raised an $8 million Series A round led by Scale Venture Partners, with NFX, Verissimo Ventures, Roosh Ventures, Firestreak, and 92712 also stepping up. SiliconAngle has more here.

Rogo, a two-year-old New York startup that offers tools that help banks, hedge funds, private equity firms, and asset management companies to conduct research and manage data more efficiently, raised a $7 million seed round led by AlleyCorp, with Company Ventures, BoxGroup, and ScOp Ventures also chipping in. Business Insider has more here.

Spacegoods, a three-year-old London startup that makes drink mixes designed to improve focus and energy and help with relaxation and sleep, raised a $3.1 million seed round led by Five Seasons Ventures and including Redrice Ventures, Slingshot Ventures, and G-FUND. TechCrunch has more here.

Want to discover the next breakout company? Try Harmonic AI.

Harmonic AI is the startup discovery platform trusted by teams at NEA, Bedrock, Craft (and more) to find breakout investments. Harmonic provides market intelligence on 20M+ startups with tools designed to create better deal flow:

• Discover new startups in any sector, geography, or stage (including stealth).
• Prioritize companies consolidating top talent, rapidly adding headcount, and quickly growing their digital presence.
• Monitor network so you can be the first to know.

Find your next deal on Harmonic.

.406 Ventures, a Boston-based venture firm investing in enterprise-focused startups in healthcare, data and AI, and cybersecurity, says it has closed its fifth fund with $265 million in capital commitments. TechCrunch has more here.

Neo4j, a startup that makes a graph database and data science tools, is making plans to go public, reports Bloomberg, which has more here. 

Senator Marco Rubio is asking the SEC to stop Shein from going public because he believes the company is downplaying “the serious risks of doing business” in China.

The SEC has approved Truth Social's SPAC merger with Digital World Acquisition Corp, leaving Donald Trump with a potential paper windfall of $4 billion.

Sam Altman explains that he wasn't really raising $7 trillion. 

More on former Canva CFO Damien Singh: it appears that his sudden resignation yesterday may be related to charges of inappropriate behavior.

Only days after Meta cofounder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg trashed the Apple Vision Pro, Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth is also piling on. "I don't just think that Quest is the better value, it's the better product period," he said in a video posted on Instagram.

Russia is apparently using thousands of Elon Musk's Starlink systems in its war with Ukraine.

The Messenger CEO Jimmy Finkelstein tells Axios how the short-lived media startup spent its way to oblivion.

The head of hardware at General Motors' Cruise self-driving unit, Carl Jenkins, says he has resigned from the company; it's the latest in a series of high-level departures since the company suspended U.S. operations in October.

Don't believe the haters: San Francisco is back.

It's looking like Congress will not pass a big bill this year to regulate AI.

Can OpenAI create superintelligence before it runs out of cash?

New York City is suing TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, and YouTube for causing an uptick in mental health issues for young people.

Demand for chocolate chip ice cream is melting away.

This year has been crazy even by Formula 1 standards.

The 20 best Western TV shows of all time.

Just try and stop this Rezvani hypercar, which goes from 0-60 mph in 2.9 seconds and comes equipped with thermal night vision and bulletproof glass.

Hotel group Montage is offering the world's first fully branded private island. (For $68 million, you get four contiguous estates on a 48-acre Bahamian island.)