Google acquires Character AI for over $2.5 billion and recruits its team

Character.AI announced its merger agreement with Google on its official blog C.AI. Google has agreed to pay model licensing fees and hire its core founders Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas, as well as Character employees working on model training and voice artificial intelligence (30 of about 130 employees), to participate in the Gemini AI project. Google will pay Character.AI's investors an equal amount of equity value at a valuation of $2.5 billion, and the options held by employees who did not follow into Google will be repurchased at $88 per share, which is about 2.5 times the value of Character.AI's Series A financing stock in 2023.

As the CEO and his team return to Google, Character.AI has appointed General Counsel Dom Perella as interim CEO. In addition, the company will switch to using open source models such as Meta Llama 3.1 to support its products instead of using internal models.

AI-driven trust management platform company Vanta receives $150 million Series C funding from Sequoia and Goldman Sachs

Vanta AI provides AI-driven vendor security assessments, generative questionnaire responses, and intelligent control mapping. It automatically extracts findings from SOC 2 reports, custom security questionnaires, and other documents, helping customers complete vendor security audits in extreme timeframes.

Vanta received a $150 million Series C funding round led by Sequoia Capital, with a valuation of $2.45 billion. New investors in this round include Goldman Sachs Growth Equity and JPMorgan Chase, and existing investors Atlassian Ventures, Craft Ventures, CrowdStrike Ventures, HubSpot Ventures, Workday Ventures and Y Combinator also participated in the investment. Currently, Vanta's cumulative financing amount has reached $353 million. (Alpha Commune)

AI-driven cell therapy company Outpace Bio raises $144 million in Series B financing

Outpace Bio, which uses AI-driven protein design to program immune cells to improve function in patients battling solid tumors, raised $144 million in Series B financing.

The Series B round was led by RA Capital Management, with participation from new investors Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), Surveyor Capital (a Citadel company), Sheatree Capital, Black Opal Ventures, Alexandria Venture Investments and other undisclosed investors, as well as existing investors ARTIS Ventures, Playground Global, Bristol Myers Squibb, Abstract Ventures, Civilization Ventures, Mubadala Capital, Breton Capital Ventures, WRF Capital and Sahsen Ventures. Dr. Jake Simson, partner at RA Capital Management, has been appointed to the company’s board of directors.

Contextual AI, a company that optimizes AI model performance, receives $80 million in financing

Contextual AI, a startup that sells tools for improving the performance of artificial intelligence models, raised $80 million in a Series A round of funding, which data provider PitchBook estimates is about $609 million.

The financing was led by venture capital firm Greycroft, with other investors including Bain Capital Ventures and Lightspeed, which had previously invested $20 million to launch the company in 2023.

AI network security service provider Protect AI receives $60 million in Series B funding, Samsung participates

Protect AI is a cybersecurity service provider that mainly uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to perform security scans on the ML lifecycle and provide secure, legally and compliant ML models and AI applications.

Protect AI has raised $60 million from investors in a round led by Evolution Equity Partners, with participation from 01 Advisors, StepStone Group, Samsung, and existing investors Acrew Capital, boldstart Ventures, Knollwood Capital, Pelion Ventures, and Salesforce Ventures.

AI clinical-stage biotech company Healx raises $47 million in Series C funding

Co-founded in Cambridge, UK by Chairman and Viagra co-inventor Dr. David Brown and CEO Dr. Tim Guilliams, Healx is an AI-based, clinical-stage rare disease biotechnology company advancing next-generation drug discovery to bring novel, effective treatments to patients with rare diseases around the world

This round of financing was co-led by R42 Group and Atomico, and the participation of new and existing investors includes Balderton, Jonathan Milner, Global Brain, btov, Ayana Capital, o2h and VU Venture Partners. At the same time as the financing, Dr. Ronjon Nag, adjunct professor at Stanford University School of Medicine, founder of R42 Group, and 2024 Silicon Valley Artificial Intelligence Hall of Fame inductee, also joined the Healx board of directors.

Stable Diffusion core members set up a new AI image generation company Black Forest Labs and received $32 million in financing

Robin Rombach, lead author of Stable Diffusion and core member of Stability AI, recently announced the establishment of a new startup Black Forest Labs. The company's first product, the FLUX.1 series of models, has achieved leading performance in image detail, cue word following, style diversity, and scene complexity, even surpassing well-known models such as Midjourney and DALL-E. The Black Forest Labs team consists of 15 members, including several co-authors of the SD paper. The core concept of the new company is to open source models to promote research and innovation.

Currently, Black Forest Labs has completed a seed round of financing worth US$32 million, led by Andreessen Horowitz.

AI video creation platform Hedra raises $10 million in seed funding

Previously, AI Intelligence reported that Hedra Labs released Character-1, a basic model that can generate expressive speaking, singing and rapping characters. The model can be used on desktop and mobile devices. The preview version provides unlimited video length, but the open preview version is limited to 30-second videos. Hedra said that more than 350,000 users have used the Character-1 platform and created more than 1.6 million videos. Investors include Index Ventures, Abstract and A16Z Speedrun.

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AI-powered employee turnover solution company When raises $4.6 million in seed funding

Led by CEO Andy Hamilton, When provides an AI-powered post-employment platform for workers in between jobs who need support such as health insurance, 401(k) extensions, financial assistance, and career coaching. The round was led by B Capital, with participation from TTV Capital, Joyance Partners, Alumni Ventures, Network Ventures, and Enfield Capital Partners.

Medical records intelligence tool provider Wisedocs secures $4.5 million in growth funding

Led by CEO Connor Atchison, Wisedocs, which provides an AI software platform that aggregates claims files for the insurance industry, enabling fast and inexpensive medical record reviews, has secured $4.5 million in growth financing from CIBC Innovation Banking.

Children's AI education platform Heeyo receives $3.5 million in seed round investment from OpenAI

Heeyo is a startup founded by Xiaoyin Qu that has created an AI chatbot designed for kids aged 3 to 11, offering more than 2,000 interactive games and activities, including books, quizzes and role-playing adventures.

Heeyo has raised $3.5 million in seed funding from OpenAI Startup Fund, Alexa Fund, Pear VC and other investors. Its app is now available on Android and iOS tablets and smartphones worldwide. The funding values ​​the company at more than $20 million.

Heeyo AI founder Qu Xiaoyin holds an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business and is a member of YPO. She founded and operated the virtual event platform Run The World from 2019 to 2023, serving millions of people and eventually acquired by EventMobi. As an angel investor, she has made first-round investments in startups in multiple fields and co-invested with several well-known venture capital firms. In the Women In Product organization, she serves as the chairperson of the China chapter and a columnist at 36Kr. She also served as a senior product manager at Facebook and Instagram, responsible for the launch and team management of several important products. She has published the book "36 Secrets from Silicon Valley to Build World-Class Products".

AI education platform Masterplace completes $2 million seed round of financing

Masterplace, an AI education platform based on blockchain, has completed a $2 million seed round of financing, with a group of business angel investors participating. Masterplace provides teachers with AI-generated avatars, and all educational content generated on the platform is deployed on the blockchain, ensuring that the educational content of teachers and students is protected by intellectual property rights through unique and irreplaceable records.

AI -driven financial advisory platform PortfolioPilot.com raises $2 million in funding

PortfolioPilot.com is a next-generation financial advisor that helps individuals take control of their finances. With over 22,000 users and over $20B in assets on its platform, it is transforming personalized financial advice using artificial intelligence and hedge fund-inspired models, providing personalized analysis and actionable recommendations to help individuals manage their financial assets and investments with greater confidence.

With backing from Morado Ventures, NEA Angel Fund, Unpopular Ventures, and several prominent Silicon Valley angel investors, the new funding brings the total raised to $4 million.

Reddit to acquire generative AI company Memorable AI

Memorable AI is a developer of intelligent advertising technology that uses generative artificial intelligence to help marketers create more attractive ads. It focuses on developing technology to help advertisers identify the most effective text, image and video content for their sponsored messages. Recently, Reddit announced its plan to acquire Memorable AI.

Amazon may acquire Covariant, an AI robotics company founded by a former OpenAI Chinese scientist

Bloomberg reported that Covariant, an AI robotics company co-founded by well-known AI scientist Pieter Abbeel and three former OpenAI research scientists Peter Chen, Rocky Duan and Tianhao Zhang, has issued an acquisition invitation. Covariant was founded in 2017 and has raised $245 million from investors including Index Ventures and Radical Ventures. According to PitchBook data, Covariant was valued at $625 million in a round of financing in 2023.

Chip developer Silang Technology receives strategic investment

Siron Technology is a microprocessor technology IP licensing and chip service provider. Its products include the universal communication algebraic processor "UCP", the accelerated neural network engine "NNE", the universal multimedia algebraic processor "UMP", etc., which are widely used in artificial intelligence terminals, cloud platforms, big data centers and other fields.

Recently, Shanghai Silang Technology Co., Ltd. has undergone industrial and commercial changes, adding Moutai's Moutai Science and Technology Innovation (Beijing) Investment Fund Partnership (Limited Partnership), Moutai Jinshi (Guizhou) Industrial Development Fund Partnership (Limited Partnership) and Mingxi Equity Investment Fund (Hainan) Partnership (Limited Partnership) as shareholders. At the same time, the company's registered capital increased from about RMB 12.5 million to about RMB 13.75 million. Public information shows that Silang Technology is a high-tech enterprise dedicated to the research and development of domestic independent processor cores, chip design and application services.

AI valuation solution provider Oxford Intelligence completes angel round financing

Hangzhou Oxford Intelligence announced the completion of its angel round of financing. The funds will be mainly used for the company's research and development and market expansion in the field of artificial intelligence. The investors have not yet been disclosed. Oxford Intelligence was founded in 2024 and is an AI valuation solution provider. It focuses on using AI-enabled valuation methods, using databases and AI algorithms tailored for multiple industries to provide valuation solutions for customers.

Besteck strategically invests in Huaan Video to deepen its facial recognition technology layout

Huaan Video, founded on March 18, 2014, is a high-tech enterprise focusing on the research and development and production of face recognition equipment. Well-known investment company Bestek announced a strategic investment in Chengdu Huaan Video Technology Co., Ltd. Both parties will work together to improve the accuracy and practicality of face recognition technology and promote industry innovation and development. This strategic investment marks Bestek's further layout in the field of artificial intelligence.

Fintech service provider Composability receives seed round investment from Thornton Capital

Founded on February 6, 2023, Composability provides an AI-driven SaaS platform designed to simplify profile matching and prepare SMEs to raise funds from investors.

FOSSA acquires open source developer community platform StackShare

FOSSA Inc., a platform focused on open source compliance and security, announced that it has acquired developer tool community platform StackShare for an undisclosed amount.

FOSSA is a command-line dependency analysis tool with over 1.75 million downloads on GitHub and has raised over $38 million in total funding to date. Since its launch in 2014, StackShare has attracted over 1.5 million registered users and has become a key platform for practical discussions between developers and security experts.

According to Microsoft insiders, Nvidia was forced to postpone its delivery plan for at least three months due to a design defect in its AI chip Blackwell. TSMC was originally scheduled to start mass production of the Blackwell chip in the third quarter and put it into mass production in the fourth quarter, but is currently resolving design defects, which may affect Nvidia's NVLink server rack production and delivery. The report pointed out that this defect may affect a series of "big customers" such as Meta, Google, and Microsoft, as they have all ordered chips worth tens of billions of dollars. In addition, a Microsoft employee and another person familiar with the matter revealed that Nvidia notified Microsoft and another large cloud computing provider this week that the most advanced AI chip in its new Blackwell chip will be "delayed." It is reported that Microsoft is one of Nvidia's largest customers. (The Information)

Not Diamond is an intelligent chatbot that automatically recommends the best AI models and learns in real time based on user feedback. It offers multiple features such as automatic model selection, real-time learning, and arena mode comparison to improve user experience. The application is currently free to use, but may become paid through an API in the future.

Last week, AI Intelligence reported that Not Diamond received $2.3 million in funding , led by defy.vc, with participation from the world’s leading artificial intelligence scientists, engineers, and executives, including Jeff Dean (Google), Julien Chaumond (Hugging Face), Zack Kass (OpenAI), Ion Stoica (Anyscale, Databricks), Tom Preston-Werner (Github), Scott Belsky (Adobe), Jeff Weiner (LinkedIn), and many more.

Meta is facing a huge computing power challenge to train Llama 4. Zuckerberg said that training Llama 4 requires nearly 10 times the computing resources compared to Llama 3. Although it is difficult to predict the growth trend of future models, he believes that building capabilities in advance is crucial.