Morning VC Brief丨2024.08.01

Morning VC Brief is an expert daily curation of tech and venture news. Feel free to forward; the sign-up is here

00. TL;DR

1/ Musk’s xAI Considers Buying Character AI

2/ TikTok buy OpenAI’s models through Microsoft

3/ E-Commerce boost Meta Ads revenue to $38 billion

4/ Fashion-Tech startup Upspun raises 32M Series B

5/ Enterprise AI agent startup Ema raises 50M Series A

7/ AI hiring agent startup Tezi raises 9M Seed Round

7/ Sales Reps agent startup Sybill raises 11M Series A

8/ DePIN project Daylight raises 9M Series A

01. Tech News

1/ Musk’s xAI Considers Buying Character.AI

XAI has considered an acquisition of chatbot maker Character as Elon Musk’s AI startup hunts for talent and more ways to test its AI models. The discussion may not result in a deal. But the internal debate at xAI points to the types of pairings that are likely to become more common as smaller AI startups. Other conversational AI startups such as Adept and Inflection have effectively sold themselves to Amazon and Microsoft.

Character ai has fewer than 100,000 subscribers—a small fraction of its more than 6 million daily active users. Link

2/ TikTok buy OpenAI’s models through Microsoft

TikTok was paying nearly $20 million per month to buy OpenAI’s models through Microsoft as of March, according to The Information. That was close to 25% of the total revenue Microsoft was generating from the business. Link

3/ E-Commerce boost Meta Ads revenue to $38 billion

Advertising from apps including Instagram and Facebook rose 22% in the second quarter from the year-ago period, to $38 billion. Ads for online commerce sites were the largest contributor to year-on-year growth. Link

02. Venture News

1/ Fashion-Tech startup Upspun raises 32M Series B

Upspun provides 3D weaving technology eliminating waste and emissions and enabling circular production for the fashion sector, while lowering production costs. The technology allows for almost zero-waste, on-demand, local manufacturing. This round was led by DCVC with participation from Lowercarbon Capital, E12, Decathlon and SOSV. Link

2/ AI hiring agent startup Tezi raises 9M Seed Round

Tezi is working to help HR teams find the perfect candidates for a job opening. Max is the first autonomous AI employee trained by top hiring managers and recruiters to lead the end-to-end recruiting process, including: Sourcing, Screening and Scheduling. This round was led by 8VC and Audacious Ventures with participation from Liquid 2, Afore, PrimeSet, South Park Commons and industry angels. Link

3/ Sales Reps agent startup Sybill raises 11M Series A

Sybill crafts crisp and accurate deal notes, clones the seller’s voice to draft relevant follow-ups, and writes process-aware CRM updates using its sales-specific AI models. Over the last 18 months, Sybill grew revenue 15X, tripled headcount, serves over 500 customers. This round was led by Greycroft with participation from Neotribe Ventures, Powerhouse Ventures, and Uncorrelated Ventures. Link

4/ Enterprise AI agent startup Ema raises 50M Series A

Ema is on a mission to revolutionize enterprise productivity with Universal AI Employees. With over 200 pre-built connectors, Ema’s Personas seamlessly integrate with internal data sources, create knowledge graphs, learn from human feedback, and operate tools to perform effectively in various enterprise roles. This round was led by Accel Partners and Section 32 with participation from Prosus Ventures, Hitachi Ventures, Sozo Ventures, Wipro Ventures, SCB10X, Frontier Capital and Colle Capital. Link

5/ DePIN project Daylight raises 9M Series A

Daylight is building a distributed energy protocol on the Base blockchain. The protocol lets users connect their energy devices, such as thermostats, batteries, electric vehicles and solar inverters, to its app and earn rewards. This round was led by a16z crypto with participation from Lerer Hippeau, Framework Ventures, Lattice Fund and Escape Velocity. Link