AI Startup Roundup: FTX to Sell its Stake in Anthropic

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FTX looking to divest Anthropic stake

Failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX reportedly is looking to divest its 7.8% stake in Claude developer Anthropic.

FTX, which is in bankruptcy court, needs to repay customers and creditors following its November 2022 collapse.

The defunct crypto site has asked the bankruptcy court to approve the sale, with the potential for an action or private sale. It bought the stake for $500 million in 2021, the year before ChatGPT made AI a household name.

Anthropic’s December 2023 valuation of $18 billion would value FTX’s stake at around $1.4 billion.

Funding news

Zededa

San Jose-based Zededa develops edge computing tools for enterprise customers.

Latest funding: $72 million, series C

Lead investor: Smith Point Capital

Other investors: Porsche Ventures, Lux Capital, Juniper Networks, LDV Partners, Smith Point Capital, Rockwell Automation

Funding plans: Zededa wants to expand sales and marketing activities as well as accelerate R&D

Unlearn

San Francisco-based Unlearn creates digital twins of clinical trial participants.

The startup’s solutions help pharma companies reach full enrollment faster and bring new treatments to patients sooner.

Latest funding: $50 million, series C

Lead investor: Altimeter Capital

Other investors: Radical Ventures, Wittington Ventures, Mubadala Capital, Epic Ventures and Necessary Venture Capital

Funding plans: The startup plans to invest in its staff, data and engineering capabilities as well as longer-term R&D initiatives.

Vektor Medical

San Diego-based Vektor Medical develops AI-based arrhythmia analysis technologies.

The startup created vMap, an AI-based arrhythmia analysis tool that provides information to doctors to better understand arrhythmia sources.

Latest funding: $16 million, series A

Lead investors: Solas BioVentures, TVM Capital Life Science

Funding plans: Funds will be used to support the commercialization of vMap

Synthetaic

Delafield, Wisconsin-based Synthetaic developed a platform that enables what it calls “quick and cost-effective” object search within raw images, using AI.

Its RAIC platform’s capabilities cover satellite imagery, full-motion video, drone photography and infrared thermography, catering to both private and public sector customers.

Latest funding: $15 million, series B

Lead investors: Lupa Systems, TitletownTech

Other investors: IBM Ventures, Booz Allen Hamilton

Funding plans: The round will accelerate customer acquisition and capture new market opportunities for Synthetaic’s solutions.

Podcastle

Armenia-based Podcastle is an AI-driven platform for podcasts, which also offers AI-generated voices and lets users clone their own voices.

Latest funding: $13.5M, series A

Lead investor: Mosaic Ventures

Other investors: RTP Global, Point Nine, Sierra Ventures and Andrew Ng’s AI Fund.