Morning VC Brief丨2024.09.11

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/ Enterprise AI Platform Glean raises $260M Series E at $4.6B

2/ Microbiome Healthcare Solution Viome raises $25M Series D

3/ German Fermentation Startup Formo raises $61M Series B

4/ Enterprise Language AI Platform Smartcat raises $43M Series C

5/ Mobility Operation Platform Spare raises CA$42M Series B

6/ Embedded Insurance Startup Neat raises €55M Series A

7/ Google Announces a Market-shifting Deal to Capture CO2

8/ New Details on OpenAI’s Strawberry

01. Venture News

1/ Enterprise AI Platform Glean raises $260M Series E at $4.6B

Glean is the Work AI platform that connects and understands all your enterprise data, to generate trusted answers and automate work grounded in company knowledge. Glean has doubled its valuation in just over six months, with ARR more than tripling over the past year. This round was led by Altimeter and DST Global with participation from Craft Ventures, Sapphire Ventures, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, and more. Link

2/ Microbiome Healthcare Solution Viome raises $25M Series D

Viome is a pioneering longevity and preventive healthcare company committed to bridging the gap between scientific breakthroughs and their practical implementation as health solutions. This round was backed by Khosla Ventures, Bold Capital WRG Ventures, Marc Benioff, and more. Link

3/ German Fermentation Startup Formo raises $61M Series B

Formo is best-known for its work to engineer microbes to express dairy proteins such as casein via precision fermentation. This round was backed by Foodlabs, EQT Ventures, Lowercarbon Capital, Happiness Capital, and more. Link

4/ Enterprise Language AI Platform Smartcat raises $43M Series C

Smartcat’s intuitive platform enables enterprises to produce multilingual content at a fraction of the cost and time compared to traditional methods. Smartcat has over 1,000 enterprise customers including 20% of the Fortune 500. This round was led by Left Lane Capital. Link

5/ Mobility Operation Platform Spare raises CA$42M Series B

Spare apply modern technology to improve cities’ paratransit systems and bring more on-demand services to the mix. This round was led by Inovia Capital with participation from Kensington Capital, Nicola Wealth, and more. Link

6/ Embedded Insurance Startup Neat raises €55M Series A

Neat helps other companies sell insurance products to their own customers. Neat currently works with 1,500 distribution partners. Combined, these partners have sold over 1 million insurance products. This round was led by Hedosophia with participation from Alma Mundi Ventures, ETFS, Athletico Ventures, and more. Link

02. Tech News & Updates

1/ Google Announces a Market-shifting Deal to Capture CO2

Google just landed a deal to capture planet-heating pollution at a huge bargain: $100 per ton of CO2, the price climate tech startups around the world are racing to achieve in order to make their technologies commercially viable.

Holocene is a startup with an even shorter history than others in the emerging carbon removal industry that has nevertheless attracted some big-name backers. Link

2/ New Details on OpenAI’s Strawberry

OpenAI plans to release Strawberry as part of its ChatGPT service in the next two weeks. What most differentiates Strawberry from other conversational AI is its ability to “think” before responding, rather than immediately answering a query, said the two people who have tested the model. Link