Move over Meta and Musk; a much more interesting player is in town- AI.
“In 2023, a wide range of open-source AI models will drive adoption across enterprises toward the end of the year as many of these models mature and become better understood.”- Fast Company.
AI is still in its infancy; the toddler years will likely be even more disruptive. Stay tuned…
Some notable trends
- This week’s #5 (Chaos Labs) has some well-known names backing development for developers- once again proving tools are in demand.
- Seeds are being planted; smaller awards for more early-stage startups were evident throughout this week’s deals. We expect to see this trend continue throughout 2023.
- Blockchain was this week’s winner, according to our research.
And now, this week’s top 5…
1Chain Reaction
$70M, Series C | Equity | Israel | Blockchain | Morgan Creek Capital, Hanaco Ventures, Jerusalem Venture Partners, KCK Capital, Exor, Atreides Management, Blue Run Ventures https://chain-reaction.io/
LinkedIn Overview:
“Chain Reaction is engineering the future of disruptive blockchain and privacy technologies. We accelerate compute performance, enabling companies to adopt and scale solutions to the world’s most complex problems…”
2Finch
$40M, Series B | Equity | SF| FinTech| General Catalyst, Menlo Ventures, QED Investors, Altman Capital, PruVen Capital | https://tryfinch.com/
LinkedIn Overview:
“The world is moving towards more standardized, open, and interconnected data systems. However, employment infrastructure remains complex, closed, and fragmented. Our mission is to democratize access to the infrastructure that underpins the employment sector and unlock much-needed innovations and create tremendous economic activities for both employers and employees…”
3DataMesh Group
$30M, Series A | Equity | Australia | Payments | AB Ventures, Deutsche Bank, 1835i Ventures | https://www.datameshgroup.com/
LinkedIn Overview:
“DataMesh Group is focussed on revolutionising the payment systems available to merchants and retailers, delivering integrated payment capabilities and valuable customer insights through bespoke payment and data processing solutions. Our financial switching software has resolved payments technology and compliance issues for major retailers and their customers while maintaining robust relationships with banking and regulatory partners…”
4Pliant
$28M, Series A | Equity | Chicago | Payments | Germany | SBI Investment, Alstin Capital, Motive Ventures, MS&AD Ventures | https://www.getpliant.com/en/
LinkedIn Overview:
“Pliant offers companies the digital credit card solution for maximum flexibility and savings: fully digital card and receipt management, Pliant app as well as physical and virtual cards including attractive cashback – seamless integration into existing finance and accounting software guaranteed…”
5Chaos Labs
$20M, Seed| Equity | NYC | Crypto | Galaxy, PayPal Ventures, Coinbase, Uniswap, Lightspeed, Bessemer, Hashkey, Balaji Srinivasan, Naval Ravikant| https://chaoslabs.xyz/
LinkedIn Overview:
“Decentralized blockchain applications introduce a myriad of technical challenges, security vulnerabilities and attack vectors. With DeFi (decentralized finance) protocols now securing hundreds of billions in value in production, the stakes have never been higher. With new technological primitives and bustling innovation, new security paradigms are required…”
