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Alex Turner

Alex is a visionary writer who explores groundbreaking innovations and cutting-edge technologies. With a keen eye on the entrepreneurial landscape, his articles shed light on the stories of young, trailblazing entrepreneurs who are reshaping industries and pushing boundaries.

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STARTUPS

EnCharge raised $22.6M to commercialize its AI-accelerating chips.

by Alex Turner
written by Alex Turner

TechCrunch published an article on a relatively unknown startup responsible for developing artificial intelligence (AI)-accelerated chips. These chips were designed to compete with hardware manufactured by industry giants like Nvidia, AMD, Microsoft, Meta, Amazon Web Services, and Intel. Its objective at the time seemed a bit audacious, and it still has that same air about it. However, to its credit, the startup company EnCharge AI is still doing well and has recently completed a fresh investment round that received a total of $22.6 million.

In addition to RTX Ventures, ACVC Partners, Anzu Partners, S5V, Alley Corp., Scout, and Silicon Catalyst Angels, the VentureTech Alliance, which is a strategic venture capital firm affiliated with the semiconductor superpower TSMC, took part in the round. As stated by Naveen Verma, co-founder and CEO of EnCharge, the additional cash will be used to expand the company’s team of fifty workers throughout the United States of America, Canada, and Germany. Additionally, the new funding will strengthen the development of EnCharge’s artificial intelligence chips and “full stack” AI solutions.

“The mission of EnCharge is to provide broader access to artificial intelligence for the 99% of organizations that cannot afford to deploy today’s expensive and energy-intensive AI chips,” Verma said. “EnCharge’s mission is to provide access to AI.” For example, to harness the full potential of artificial intelligence, we are enabling new use cases and forming factors that operate sustainably, both from an economic and an environmental point of view.

Alongside Echere Iroaga and Kailash Gopalakrishnan, Verma, the director of the Keller Center for Innovation in Engineering Education at Princeton University, created EnCharge the previous year. Up until very recently, Gopalakrishnan held the position of IBM fellow. The multinational technology corporation had employed him for over 18 years. Formerly serving as Vice President and subsequently General Manager, Iroaga was in charge of the connectivity business unit at the semiconductor manufacturer Macom.

Verma and his colleagues at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign also received government funds in 2017, which is where EnCharge started. Verma led an investigation into new forms of nonvolatile memory devices that cost $8.3 million. This endeavor was an extension of the Electronics Resurgence Initiative, a program run by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to advance a variety of computer chip technologies.

On the other hand, nonvolatile memory is said to be more energy efficient than the “volatile” memory that is often used in modern computers since it can store data even when it is not connected to a constant power source.

Additionally, DARPA provided funding for Verma’s research on in-memory computing. When we say “in-memory,” we are talking about the process of doing calculations in random-access memory (RAM) to eliminate the delay caused by storage devices.

To put Verma’s findings into practice, EnCharge was established. EnCharge’s technology, according to Verma, can reduce power consumption compared to computer processors while simultaneously accelerating artificial intelligence applications on servers and devices located at the “network edge.”

“The artificial intelligence compute of today is both expensive and power-intensive; at the moment, only the most well-capitalized organizations are innovating in the field of artificial intelligence.” In most cases, he stated that artificial intelligence is not yet feasible at scale in their enterprises or goods. By tackling the extremely high energy requirements and cost hurdles that enterprises are now encountering, EnCharge Technologies can supply the processing power that the market is seeking.

While it is true that EnCharge has not yet commenced mass production of its technology, it is also important to note that the company has just “several” clients lined up at this point. Another problem that EnCharge faces is competing against well-funded competitors in the artificial intelligence accelerator hardware industry, which is already considered saturated. Both Axelera and GigaSpaces are working on building in-memory hardware to speed up artificial intelligence workloads. NeuroBlade, on the other hand, has successfully obtained tens of millions of dollars in venture capital investment for their in-memory inference chip, designed for use in data centers and edge devices.

Because third parties have not yet had the opportunity to evaluate the performance of EnCharge’s chips, it isn’t easy to take the company’s performance claims at face value. However, EnCharge’s investors are ready to support them for what it’s worth.

Kai Tsang, a member of the VentureTech Alliance, stated in an email that “EnCharge is solving critical issues around computing power, accessibility, and costs that are both limiting AI today and inadequate for the management of AI tomorrow.” Using a technologically innovative architecture compatible with today’s chain, this has built computing that goes beyond the capabilities of the systems that are now in use.

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Image Credits: Kyron Learning
STARTUPS

Kyron Learning secures $14.6M to expand its conversational AI technology.

by Alex Turner
written by Alex Turner

In addition to the $850,000 award from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the artificial intelligence-based learning firm Kyron Learning announced today that it has completed a Series A investment round of $14.6 million. The additional funding will further strengthen the platform’s generative artificial intelligence capabilities and expand its mathematics curriculum for grades K–12. Using Kyron’s conversational artificial intelligence technology, the business is now making the platform available to all companies and learning solution providers. They will be provided with the appropriate tools to distribute content on the platform.

The conviction that artificial intelligence may have a good influence on learning led to the establishment of Kyron Learning in 2022 by Rajen Sheth, a former vice president of Google Cloud AI, and Enis Konuk, the creator of Qwiklabs. Students can participate in the classes through the interactive video platform by responding to questions via text or voice. Kyron’s conversational artificial intelligence can grasp students’ comments and choose teachers’ appropriate, pre-recorded responses. Kyron is also focusing on integrating generative artificial intelligence, which will prompt replies powered by AI if a learner needs further support.

Sheth highlighted to TechCrunch that the platform uses underlying artificial intelligence models and that Kyron’s unique technology is built on top of those models. Artificial intelligence approaches such as NLU-based (Natural Language Understanding) dialog modeling and generative AI are the primary methods it employs. It is estimated that its natural language processing is around 95% accurate, as Sheth pointed out.

“The accuracy may differ depending on whether the student is replying verbally or typing in their answers, as well as the setting in which they are working if they are using voice… Additionally, he stated that if the response does not correspond with a student’s response, we have a broader backbreaker that can go deeper with the student.

Currently, the business offers the technology at no cost to 35 trial schools for the 2023–2024 academic year. For the time being, however, Kyron Learning only provides arithmetic classes for students in the fourth grade. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation award will shortly allow Kyron Learning to start the introduction of mathematics material for students in the third and fifth grades. Kyron Learning also offers programs for students who speak Spanish as their primary language.

Sheth explained that the reason they selected mathematics was because there is a critical demand for mathematical success and comprehension all around the country. According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, students’ scores in mathematics in the fourth and eighth grades in 2022 were the lowest they have been in over twenty years.

Because Kyron’s platform is now accessible to all organizations, more students can participate in interactive video classes. The organization already collaborates with several educational institutions, firms that provide tutoring services, producers of curriculum, and staff training programs.

“Our goal is to create a community of creators and organizations that are building on top of this platform and extending it to all ages and all subjects,” Sheth said. Sheth also mentioned that Kyron will roll out a self-service creation tool early in the following year.

Owl Ventures, ECMC Group Education Impact Fund, Common Sense Growth Fund, Charter School Growth Fund, Cambiar Education, LearnerStudio, Imagine Learning, and Array Education were among the investors who contributed to the Series A fundraising round, which Global Silicon Valley Ventures led.

Since the implementation of COVID, there has been a significant decline in educational accomplishment, and the United States is currently experiencing one of the most severe teacher shortages it has ever seen. It is of the utmost importance to provide students with access to a high-quality education tailored to their specific requirements and to assist them in their current situation.

Additionally, we are at the beginning of fantastic growth in artificial intelligence technology; nonetheless, the utilization of AI in a secure manner and the exertion of a beneficial influence on society will be essential to the overall success of AI as a technology. Our organization is dedicated to addressing these issues and finding a solution appropriate for the situation. We have assembled a group of seasoned educators and technologists at our disposal. If we are successful, we will significantly influence society and the advancement of artificial intelligence. He stated that

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Startup SuccessesSTARTUPS

Founders of Black-Owned Watermelon Company in NYC Drive 16 Hours a Day to Get Fresh Produce

by Alex Turner
written by Alex Turner

Meet the founders of Black Seed Brothers, a well-known watermelon firm in New York City that deals in farm-fresh, delicious watermelons with black seeds. People who are of African descent own and run Black Seed Brothers. Furthermore, they provide fresh watermelon juice and smoothies, which are well-regarded by the community. To deliver freshly picked watermelons directly from fields in South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, they must drive for up to sixteen hours virtually every day. This is necessary for them to achieve their goal.

People from all over the New York City region come to purchase these brothers’ watermelons, which come in both red and yellow varieties. Some brothers are blood relatives, while others are just good friends. They bring in up to one thousand fresh melons weekly from farms in the south.
In contrast to the seedless version that is often accessible in stores, they sell watermelons that have black seeds that are dispersed throughout the delicious flesh. This kind has a superior texture and a more robust flavoring. Johann, one of the brothers, was quoted as saying, “Real black seeds from the dirt,” as The Curious Uptowner website reported.

“When you see the black seeds, you know they’re the original,” says Tyler, another crew member. “They are the original.”

Additionally, they have partnered with My Health Station to market fresh watermelon juices. This food truck company is of African descent and offers wholesome meals and snacks. In addition, they provide delivery services throughout the city through Uber Eats.

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Image Credits: Flink
STARTUPS

Webull leaps into Mexico with the acquisition of the stock trading app Flink

by Alex Turner
written by Alex Turner

A well-known software for trading stocks, the Mexican investing platform Flink, has been bought by Webull, which provides the company with a foothold in the Mexican market.

There was no disclosure of the financial terms of the transaction. Even though Webull was founded in China, it is headquartered in the United States. It competes with Robinhood in the United States as a low-commission online trading platform providing cash management services. Recently, it relocated its headquarters from New York to St. Petersburg, located in Florida.

The Mexico City-based company Flink, established in 2017, has successfully collected $70 million in funding, including a Series B investment of $57 million that was disclosed in August of 2021. Accel, Lightspeed Venture Partners, ALLVP, Clocktower, and Mantis Venture Capital, which the Chainsmokers established, are among the investors who have shown their support. Consumers in Mexico can now invest in fractional shares of publicly traded firms in the United States without paying fees.

Webull is also acquiring the Mexican brokerage Vifaru Casa de Bolsa, which Flink had previously committed to acquire in May of 2022. This acquisition is a part of both transactions.

In an interview with TechCrunch, Sergio Jiménez Amozurrutia, CEO and co-founder of Flink, expressed his dissatisfaction with the fact that only a tiny portion of the population in his nation, which has a population of over 120 million people, could participate in the capital markets.

2018 marked the debut of Flink’s mobile application, which included a wallet service and a digital and physical worldwide debit card supported by Mastercard. In 2020, the company began offering users the option to purchase and sell fractional shares of NYSE-listed stocks for as little as thirty pesos, entirely free of commissions. It had 1.6 million users as of August 2021. Today, the number of times it has been seen is unknown.

In a written statement, Ruben Guerrero, the CEO of Latin America for Webull, characterized the Mexican market as “a young and vibrant population that has a strong and untapped demand for technology-based wealth building solutions.”

In addition, he stated, “We believe that the early success of Flink is proof of this demand, and that Webull’s approach of utilizing technology to provide low-cost access to global markets for investors in all economies is a perfect fit for Mexico.” “We anticipate building on the success that Flink has achieved by providing its customers with a more comprehensive range of investment products, technology that is easy to use, and support that is of the highest caliber.”

Customers of Flink will continue to have access to buying and selling equities in the United States through the Flink platform. Within several months, Webull intends to introduce native Mexican investing and cash management solutions and incorporate its technologies into the platform.

A subsidiary of Webull that is a member of FINRA and a broker-dealer registered with the SEC was the entity responsible for introducing the Webull trading platform in the United States in 2018. Over eight million accounts have been established across the world as of today. The United States of America, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, Australia, South Africa, Japan, and the United Kingdom are among the nine markets in which Webull presently works. Mexico is the ninth country that Webull operates in.

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STARTUPS

FrontEdge raises $10M in debt and equity from TLG and Flexport to facilitate trade for African exporters.

by Alex Turner
written by Alex Turner

A significant obstacle to the dynamic nature of African international commerce is that only thirty percent of trade volumes use banks as financial intermediaries. Because their larger competitors take up most of the available funding, small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) suffer disproportionately from this stark funding gap.

The potential to transform commerce between Africa and other countries is evident when one considers the enormous yearly value of international trade volumes, which amount to $1.2 trillion. More critically, the necessity for entrepreneurs that can capitalize on this unexplored market is highlighted. To support the expansion of African cross-border commerce, FrontEdge, a fintech company located in Lagos, has secured $10 million in a loan and equity seed round, with the former providing more than 70% of the total.

FrontEdge, established in 2021 by Moni Alli, gives SMEs that export and import the working capital and IT solutions they need to make cross-border and international transactions easier. The former McKinsey consultant has spent the last ten years brainstorming ways to bridge the funding gap for African SMEs. She drew on her experience working on digital transformations for tier-one banks, especially in Nigeria, South Africa, and Morocco. The creator, who formerly had a private equity position at Development Partners International (DPI), tells TechCrunch in an interview that FrontEdge results from his expertise.

I believe the outcome of the extensive time I spent counseling banks on SME financing was that the balance sheet was mainly geared toward large corporations. After earning his MBA at Harvard Business School, Alli launched the firm. “The financing process in banks is outdated; you have collateral-based lending, which means underwriting a SME can be deemed unprofitable,” Alli stated.

Therefore, digitizing these procedures and customizing them for SMEs makes sense; this was the recommendation I made before, resulting in FrontEdge. We primarily concentrated on SME exporters from Africa. We observed a significant funding vacuum in that area of cross-border commerce and the potential to essentially guarantee transactions across national borders.

FrontEdge’s problem is seen in the pre-funding strategy of agri-commodity traders, for example. These dealers provide smallholder farmers with advances, managing the 60-day process from storage to delivery. After that, payment is not made until the products arrive at their destination, which might take 40 to 60 days, depending on the jurisdiction. For exporters, this causes a large financial tie-up over a 120–180-day period.

In contrast to banks, FrontEdge offers these exporters upfront funding based on transaction-based underwriting without requiring collateral. However, according to Alli, the timing of its interventions changes according to the risk it is willing to take. He claims that the startup usually works with goods that are actually on a vessel or occasionally at the warehouse, with average payment terms of 60 to 90 days. This enables fintech to bridge the working capital gap, which speeds up receivables and permits exporters to conduct more business.

Although FrontEdge started as a lending-only platform, it has since become more comprehensive. It is integrated with many databases to underwrite buyers’ offshore creditworthiness and offer insights into the dynamics of cross-border trade between buyers and sellers. The firm saw that these companies were getting dollar flows after completing many deals last year and saw an opportunity to solve issues with capital restrictions and excessive fees inside the banking sector. Because many of these exporters use naira as their native currency, fintech provided further help by making it easier to open up offshore accounts abroad and convert dollar revenues into that currency.

FrontEdge, which functions as a vertical bank (offering financing, cross-border payments, and offshore accounts) catering to African traders’ requirements, subsequently names companies like JP Morgan and Providus Bank as partners on its digital platform. It offers exporters technological solutions such as document management, shipping insurance, and logistical management to supplement its financial services. Freight forwarders like Jetstream and Send are among the company’s nearby rivals in Africa; others with comparable business plans, such as Mundi and Marco Financial, target external markets like Latin America.

It’s a volume game, and with the narrow margins, the goal is to basically execute as many deals as possible. According to the CEO, “What you see in Europe and other jurisdictions is that these traders are given this financial support, which means that they can be more competitive and give longer payment terms to their buyers offshore.”

Thus, we give African exporters the resources and equipment they need to compete with exporters from South America, Europe, or the United States. Price and product quality are the only factors for these significant purchasers. Thus, we can provide them with funding at conditions they can provide, allowing us to level the playing field with many of these purchasers worldwide.

FrontEdge says that since its introduction, its clients, SME exporters, have increased by 20% per month and have tripled their sales on the platform. The variety of transactions the organization funds generates its income. Alli reiterates that FrontEdge prioritizes preventing losses and proving successful repayments, but she withholds information on the company’s revenue growth. FrontEdge says that after completing more than 50 contracts, each including several transactions and invoices, it has so far recorded a 0% default rate.

In order to diversify its revenue streams beyond financing, FrontEdge intends to hire more personnel, expand its financing product throughout Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast, and Kenya, and introduce new products with the help of its capital from lead investor TLG Capital and other backers, including digital freight forwarder Flexport. “TLG is pleased to assist FrontEdge in its endeavors to foster the growth of African SMEs, acting as a vital link to grant financial empowerment and capital access to African exporters. We think the government will carry out the plan, and FrontEdge is ideally positioned to address a critical issue that has to be resolved for African traders to participate in international commerce,” stated Johnnie Puxley, an investment specialist at TLG Capital.

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Image Credits: Callyope
STARTUPS

Callyope monitors mental health through speech-based technology.

by Alex Turner
written by Alex Turner

Callyope, a French company, is unlike other startups since it is tackling a challenging issue in a highly regulated sector. The business is developing a platform for remote patient monitoring for individuals with bipolar illnesses, schizophrenia, and maybe other mental health conditions. Furthermore, the firm uses the monitoring tool with the patient’s voice.

Bpifrance’s Digital Venture Fund and 360 Capital led Calliope’s $2.4 million (€2.2 million) financing round. The round also includes participation from No Label Ventures and several angel investors.

Six hundred thousand individuals in France have schizophrenia. Over a million individuals suffer from bipolar illnesses. Many of them routinely visit a psychiatrist. However, psychiatrists can only meet each patient once every four to six weeks because of their workload.

“Several chemicals have been used to stabilize humans since the 1970s. However, half of the patients at mental hospitals relapse within the same year, according to CEO and co-founder Martin Dennis, who spoke with me about this.

Regular visits to a psychiatrist may generally stop relapses before it’s too late. Callyope hopes to “enhance” psychiatrists with a patient monitoring system that may notify medical personnel in an emergency. They can then schedule a time slot for the patient the following day.

Callyope employs voice recognition and additional soft indicators (including sleep, physical activity, and social interaction) in place of forms to periodically check in with patients. This is because patients frequently struggle with how they perceive their symptoms. Even though things are as they were a week ago, they feel good.

Dennis stated, “We’re still in the early stages of product development on the patient’s side.” Calliope is not interested in watching you all the time. Alternatively, the company may ask you to use voice messages to respond to a few short questions. Dennis gave other instances, such as “Are you now getting enough sleep? Does it appear like your medicine is doing its job?

Naturally, not every patient will actively record a voice message each week. A hospital nurse may then phone you and record the conversation for analysis.

Apart from the discussion’s substance, Callyope examines additional symptoms. For example, according to Dennis, “disorganized speech is one of the seven symptoms of schizophrenia.” Four or five symptoms characterize bipolar disorder. Accelerated speaking is one sign that someone is overly healthy.

instruction using private information
Calliope must consider product milestones in contrast to other sectors. After the first iteration has been trained, it must stop working on this version of the proprietary model and submit it to the appropriate health authorities for certification.

“In the general population, we have very good initial results today,” Dennis stated. We ask them to complete brief self-assessment forms on depression and anxiety. Additionally, we ask children to speak so we can check for minor symptoms early on. Therefore, we have already demonstrated its effectiveness, and early in the next year, we plan to publish a scholarly study on the subject. The business then intends to apply the same technique to people with schizophrenia and depression.

The business is presently collaborating with mental institutions to obtain data and train its model on this private data while keeping privacy in mind. In the long run, the business hopes to develop a model that can evaluate audio directly on the device, sending the data exclusively to the psychiatrist.

From a technical point of view, this data will essentially allow us to improve the algorithm’s performance while maintaining the fundamental principle that we should only use information that the patient has consented to provide. This will ensure that, in the long run, we have no access to any personal information.

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Image Credits: Waspito
STARTUPSYoung Business Leaders

Cameroonian health tech Waspito gets a $2.5M seed extension to scale tap offline patients.

by Alex Turner
written by Alex Turner

Cameroonian health company Waspito has obtained a $2.5 million seed extension from DP World through Newtown Partners, Saviu Ventures, AAIC Investment, Axian Ventures, and CFAO’s Health54 to support its expansion in the Francophone area.

Waspito is a health-oriented social network where members may access and consult with certified medical professionals via video conversations. It also makes it easier to administer medication and collect samples from residences.

With support from a fresh funding round following last year’s $2.7 million seed, the business expanded to Ivory Coast at the beginning of the year, where it is also testing a hybrid model. Moving forward, it plans to expand to Senegal and Gabon.

Just before the COVID epidemic became a worldwide health disaster in 2020, Jean Lobe Lobe created Waspito. This was an opportune moment for the health company to launch its aim of ensuring that healthcare is available to everyone.

Waspito, on the other hand, aimed to take a distinct telemedicine strategy. Lobe created a platform where customers could directly connect with doctors rather than one requiring pre-registration and consultation appointment booking.

It doesn’t make sense to go online and schedule an appointment later when someone is ill or in urgent need of medical attention. We provide instantaneous video consultations for this reason, Lobe told TechCrunch.

A user may choose a doctor from a list of those currently online when they log on to the website, which Lobe calls Facebook for healthcare. Additionally, a technician from one of its partner laboratories is dispatched to collect samples when a doctor prescribes medical testing. Waspito has partnered with a few nearby hospitals to help those needing admission or more thorough evaluations.

“We have partnered with hospitals so that care can continue in the closest hospital following a consultation on Waspito without requiring additional registration or payment for consultations.” Our main goal is to link the healthcare ecosystem online and serve as a one-stop shop for all healthcare services, which is why we have gotten in touch with all these players, according to Lobe.

Before appointments, patients pay using various methods, including insurance, which, according to Lobe, encourages physicians to stay online to make more money. Additionally, users may join numerous condition support groups anonymously to receive personalized guidance.

According to Lobe, one method to make physicians more accessible to patients living in target countries—where there are reportedly less than two doctors for every 10,000 people—is to have them available online all the time.

The firm won the VivaTech awards this year as the best health startup in Africa, has reached 650,000 customers in Cameroon and Ivory Coast, onboarded 950 doctors, and conducted 60,000 consultations.

Waspito expects that the number of consultations conducted via its platform will increase when it implements the hybrid model it is testing in the Ivory Coast, where it has set up mini-clinics to reach offline patients. The firm is setting up these clinics within the extensive nationwide coverage of La Poste Corporation, the national postal service of Ivory Coast. Patients can electronically contact doctors and access other healthcare services their partners provide, with the assistance of the nurses staffing these venues.

Because of the high cost of cell phones and the internet, most African consumers stay offline despite the continent’s growing digital economy. This makes Waspito’s approach essential. At the end of the first quarter of next year, Cameroon and Senegal will receive the hybrid approach. Raisers, a fundraising advice business, advised Waspito throughout the deal.

Since everyone has access to healthcare, we must engage with everyone. Lobe added that these mini-clinics are the most effective means of reaching underprivileged communities.

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TECHNOLOGY

Osium AI uses artificial intelligence to speed up materials innovation

by Alex Turner
written by Alex Turner

While everyone is attempting to determine how artificial intelligence may be used in various sectors, Osium AI, a French firm, has discovered an intriguing use for AI: materials science research and development.

Sarah Najmark and Luisa Bouneder founded the startup, which received $2.6 million in funding from Y Combinator, Singular, Kima Ventures, Collaborative Fund, Raise Phiture, and numerous business angels (Julien Chaumond, Thomas Clozel, Isaac Oates, Liz Wessel, Ebert Hera Group, Patrick Joubert, Sequoia Scout, and Atomico Angel).

I studied materials during my undergraduate studies, especially in cosmetics. Additionally, Sarah Najmark informed me that she had seen that materials development procedures were still primarily manual, including a great deal of trial and error and intuition-based methods.

After graduation, she worked on robots and profound tech innovations for three years at Google X, the company’s moonshot branch. She co-wrote many patents.

As the tech lead, she claimed complete control over the artificial intelligence pipelines for robotics and system engineering courses.

Luisa Bouneder, her co-founder, worked for industrial corporations for three years, namely in the materials industry, developing data products. She could also clearly see how much trial and error slowed the development process.

“We also realized, through talks with numerous industrial companies, that there were really new challenges associated with sustainability, stemming from the development of new materials: lighter materials, such as those used in aeronautics, but also more durable, environmentally friendly materials with more efficient and environmentally friendly manufacturing processes,” Najmark stated.

Later in the discussion, she said, “It’s a subject that really affects all types of industries, including construction, packaging, aeronautics, aerospace, textiles, and smartphones.”

So, what is the actual mechanism of Osium AI? The key is to use a data-driven strategy to optimize the feedback loop between material formulation and testing. Based on a set of parameters, industrial enterprises may use the startup’s unique technology to anticipate the physical qualities of novel materials. Following that, Osium AI may assist in improving and optimizing those novel materials while steering clear of the typical errors associated with trial and error.

The potential of Osium AI’s technology has previously impressed numerous business organizations. With our solution, our users could ten-fold the material development and analysis rate. Thus, we could see that we were adding value as soon as we began our testing, according to Najmark.

Osium AI is only getting started in many respects. The two co-founders are the sole employees of the startup, so it will soon grow its crew and begin converting these industrial tests into an actual business. However, several businesses have already signed contracts, and the business is now in talks with thirty industrial businesses that may become clients.

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STARTUPS

LucidLink lands $75M for its on-demand file streaming tech.

by Alex Turner
written by Alex Turner

Today, LucidLink, a company that offers a platform for team collaboration on files without downloading or syncing them, announced that it had raised $75 million in a Series C round with participation from Brighton Park Capital, Headline, Adobe Ventures, and Baseline Ventures. With this tranche, LucidLink has raised $90 million in total, a significant amount considering the company was only established about seven years ago.

Like this writer, you may wonder how a storage startup raised about $100 million and for what purpose. Perhaps the five-fold increase in yearly recurring revenue over the previous two years is related. Regarding the funds’ intended use, CEO and co-founder Peter Thompson of LucidLink informed TechCrunch via email that the company will “accelerate” its efforts in customer acquisition, vertical expansion, and product and engineering development.

Because of our best-in-class KPIs and metrics for software-as-a-service businesses, he said investors came to LucidLink seeking investment rather than the company needing to solicit money. “The notable increase in valuation over our Series B in 2022 is a testament to our strong performance, despite the market conditions, in a sea of flat and down rounds.” (Unfortunately, Thompson declined to reveal the precise valuation.)

In 2016, Thompson co-founded LucidLink with George Dochev, whom he had met while working for Florida-based software-defined storage vendor DataCore Software. Dochev was a vital member of the engineering team at DataCore and frequently faced difficulties accessing files spread across multiple physical locations. He developed a remedy and worked with Thompson to try and market the technology.

“By providing instant access to large files and safe real-time collaboration, LucidLink is designed to help remote and hybrid teams of creative professionals tackle a variety of complex use cases,” Thompson stated. “LucidLink has achieved success in media and entertainment, gaming, architecture, design, advertising, and marketing, and has broad applications across creative industries where collaborating on massive files is an issue.”

With LucidLink, users may utilize files and folders when a teammate saves or updates them in a shared file space. This is possible because the software enables users to stream data straight from the cloud or, more precisely, stream file segments on demand as needed by a program, such as Adobe Premiere or Photoshop. When requested, data is frequently cached locally, and a single source of truth is maintained in the cloud.

LucidLink periodically creates “snapshots” of the filesystem, enabling users to roll back the filesystem or specific files to a prior version. The snapshots result in what Thompson calls “very efficient” space consumption because they just require a copy of the modified data, not the entire set.

Thompson states, “the new hybrid workplace requires solutions designed for today’s reality.” “Every other product on the market uses syncing, replication, and multiple copying to move data around more quickly or proactively. Because they deal with the largest file sizes and have a workforce that is more likely than others to be remote and hybrid, our customers in the creative industries face particularly challenging issues that make cooperation very tough. The intuitive way LucidLink resolves the issue is the cause of our quick expansion.

The federal government of the United States of America and well-known companies like Adobe (and, hence, Adobe Ventures’ investment), A&E Networks, Whirlpool, Shopify, Buzzfeed, and Spotify are among LucidLink’s clients. When asked if he was worried about possible macroeconomic challenges, Thompson responded that LucidLink, a 123-person San Francisco-based company, anticipates turning a profit after receiving the most recent round of funding. I interpret that as a “no.”

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Image Credits: SEVA / Shalin Mehta, founder and managing partner of SEVA
STARTUPS

SEVA, a new growth equity fund, secures $85M for debut fund in four months

by Alex Turner
written by Alex Turner

Shalin Mehta is a solo general partner at his own growth equity company, having spent five years honing his tech investing chops at Susquehanna Growth Equity. He has raised $85 million for his debut fund.

The 29-year-old oversaw investments in businesses like MuckRack and NoRedInk while at Susquehanna. Mehta told TechCrunch that he plans to invest in customer-focused founders of rapidly expanding, bootstrapped firms in New York through his company, SEVA, which he founded earlier this year, to help them scale through profitable growth.

Mehta and the other three team members run SEVA, which means “selfless service” in Sanskrit.

Mehta said, “That means to be in service.” “In” the final ten years of my work, I have, if anything, aided founders and businesses that prioritize the needs of their customers. I decided to launch SEVA earlier this year for that reason.

Along with Avra, Faction Ventures, Yellow, Garuda Ventures, Ovni Capital, Oversubscribed Ventures, Emblem, Venture Guides, The Family Fund, and Phenomenal Ventures, SEVA is the latest in a long list of up-and-coming fund managers launching their first funds this year.

In contrast to several up-and-coming fund managers who faced difficulties obtaining their first capital within the previous year, SEVA closed on $85 million in just four months, surpassing its initial goal of $50 million.

The fund’s backers are institutional investors, family offices, philanthropic organizations, university endowments, and founders who Mehta backed at Susquehanna and Spectrum Equity. He stated that the founders SEVA plans to invest in are similar to those bootstrapped.

Mehta has not yet invested in any SEVA Fund I assets. He said that over the next three to five years, plans call for investing in eight to ten profitable, founder-led enterprises through investments of $5 million to $15 million. These investments will come from the first fund. His areas of expertise are technology-enabled service companies, marketplaces, software, data, and the Internet.

Mehta has also developed a network of founders and growth-stage technology executives with whom portfolio businesses can collaborate on things like executive recruiting, go-to-market strategies, and strategic planning to support long-term growth, profitability, and exit strategies.

On the other hand, Mehta believes that SEVA is rare among investment firms, existing somewhere in ween venture capital and private equity.

“I’ve dedicated my entire investing career to investing in bootstrapped or founder-led, profitable, fast-growing, technology-enabled companies, those that don’t need venture capital or growth-stage ventures or don’t want to control them,” Mehta added. “Hey, you desire a consigliere that is more. We operate more like a middle-sized growth equity or buyout firm, catering to the needs of the founders and businesses we work with. They want us; they don’t need us.

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