AI Startup Roundup: Gen. Petraeus, former Australian PM − and AI

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Startup: Advanced Navigation - Australia-based company providing AI-powered inertial navigation systems and robotics technologies for sea, land and air, including underwater drones at sea.

Latest funding:$68 million, series B

Investors: AI Capital, Main Sequence, In-Q-Tel, Our Innovation Fund

Notable investors: Former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. Former CIA director Gen. David Petraeus will chair a new advisory committee that targets support for the company’s global expansion efforts.

Funding plans: Advanced Navigation plans to use the funding to accelerate R&D programs focused on transformative robotic, navigation, photonic and quantum sensing solutions, and enhance its global sales and marketing capabilities to reach new customers.

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Startup: MotherDuck - Seattle-based startup that just emerged from stealth. MotherDuck is developing data analytics tools built on the open source platform DuckDB.

Latest funding: $47.5 million ($35 million, series A and $12 million, seed round)

Lead investors: Andreessen Horowitz (series A), Redpoint Ventures (seed round)

Other investors: Amplify Partners, Madrona Venture Group, SV Angels and Altimeter Capital.

Funding plans: MotherDuck is currently in a private preview but plans to release a public beta in March 2023.

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Startup: Spot AI - Based in San Francisco, Spot is developing AI solutions for smarter security cameras that can analyze video footage for insights. For example, a car wash uses the camera system to pinpoint whether damage was done to a customer’s car to help resolve claims.

Latest funding: $40 million, series B

Lead investor: Scale Venture Partners

Other investors: Redpoint Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, StepStone Group, Modern Venture Partners

Funding plans: “This investment allows us to accelerate our expansion and help businesses continue to unlock the value of video data with industry-first AI products,” said Tanuj Thapliyal, co-founder and CEO of Spot AI.

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Startup: Cambridge GaN Devices - A fabless semiconductor company, CGD designs, develops and commercializes GaN transistors and integrated circuits. The company was spun out from Cambridge University in 2016.

Latest funding: $19, million, series B

Lead investors: Parkwalk Advisors, BGF

Other investors: IQ Capital, CIC, Foresight Williams Technology, Martlet Capital

Funding plans: “The investment will enable CGD to begin mass production of its range of GaN transistors for power applications,” the startup said.

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Startup: Loops AI - Applies proprietary machine learning models that analyze millions of data points, allowing businesses to identify trends. The company is based in San Francisco.

Latest funding: $14 million, seed round

Lead investor: Scale Venture Partners

Other investors: Cardumen Capital, Reforge CEO Brian Balfour

Funding plans: With the backing of investors, Loops wants to build a solution that “ instantly delivers meaningful value,” said CEO Tom Laufer.

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Startup: Quix - an event-driven data engineering platform for building real-time applications. It is based in London.

Latest funding: $12.9 million, series A

Lead investor: MMC Ventures

Other investors: Project A Ventures, Passion Capital.

Funding plans: With the new funding, Quix said it plans to grow its team to accelerate investments in product, partnerships, community and open-source initiatives.

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Startup: Kristal.AI - Based in Singapore, the startup is offering a digital private wealth platform.

Latest funding: $10 million, pre-series B

Investors: Chiratae Ventures, Stride Ventures, Sanadhya family, Desai Family Office

Funding plans: Kristal.AI is looking to expand into the United Arab Emirates and is currently applying for a license to operate there.

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Startup: Private AI - Toronto, Canada-based startup developing data privacy solutions. Private AI’s solution is deployed within the customers’ own environment so their data is not transferred to a third-party data processor.

Latest funding: $8 million, series A

Lead investor: BDC Capital

Other investors: GIT1K, Panda Angel Partners, Microsoft’s Venture Fund (M12), Differential Ventures, Forum Ventures, Shasta Ventures, Parliament Angels

Funding plans: Private AI will use the cash to fund its expansion across Europe, as well as investments in product enhancements, such as a forthcoming self-service platform.

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Startup: Dema.ai - A Stockholm-based company developing no-code tools designed to deliver actionable insights for e-commerce.

Latest funding: $4.1 million

Lead investor: J12 Ventures

Other investors: Framtid

Funding plans: The funds will go towards hiring new data scientists and engineers.

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Startup: Vektor AI - London-based platform that assists startup employees as they interact in real time with a mentor experienced in a chosen role and field.

Latest funding: $2.4 million, pre-seed round

Lead investors: Mosaic Ventures, Cherry Ventures

Other investors: GoFundMe CTO Ujjwal Singh, Deborah Liu, Meta’s VP for Marketplace, Google product VP Bradley Horowitz

Funding plans: Vektor just launched its platform following six months of beta testing.