AI Startup Roundup: Twitch, Oculus Founders Back Generative AI Startup

Also, where Pinterest co-founder Evan Sharp is investing plus other fund raises

Ben Wodecki, Jr. Editor

January 30, 2023

4 Min Read
Images of 3D assets for games

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Startup: Scenario - Generative AI startup behind the GenAI Engine, which developers can use to generate assets for 3D environments and video games.

Latest funding: $6 million, seed round

Investors: Twitch co-founder Justin Kan, Oculus co-founder Brendan Iribe, Play Ventures, Anorak Ventures, The Venture Reality Fund

Funding plans: The GenAI Engine is currently in early access, but Scenaio will put the cash towards accelerating its tech.

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Startup: Hume AI - Based in New York, Hume is developing technology tools that use AI to understand facial expressions for communication.

Latest funding: $12.7 million, series A

Lead investor: Union Square Ventures

Other investors: Pinterest co-founder Evan Sharp, Northwell Holdings, Comcast Ventures, LG Technology Ventures, Wisdom Ventures

Funding plans: The newly raised funds will go towards accelerating its technologies.

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Startup: Atomic AI - Based in San Francisco, Atomic is an AI drug discovery company. Its proprietary engine leverages RNA structural biology and AI foundation models to enable the design of RNA-targeting small molecules and RNA-based medicines.

Latest funding: $35 million, series A

Lead investor: Playground Global

Other investors: 8VC, Factory HQ, Greylock, NotBoring, AME Cloud Ventures, GitHub ex-CEO Nat Friedman

Funding plans: The company has raised $42 million in total funding. This latest cash raise will be put towards its drug discovery work.

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Startup: SoundHound AI - Conversational AI tech developer based in Santa Clara, California. SoundHound’s voice AI platform enables humans to interact with products and services by speaking naturally. The likes of Square, Mercedes-Benz and Netflix use its products.

Latest funding: $25 million, Post-IPO preferred equity financing

Investors: Undisclosed

Funding plans: The financing comes just weeks after axing some 40% of its staff due to financial issues. In an attempt to improve its balance sheet, SoundHound also announced it is in the process of refinancing its current debt.

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Startup: aiOla -Israeli startup offering voice and image recognition tools to digitize, automate and streamline inspection processes. AiOla’s offerings are designed to reduce operational costs while automating trend reporting.

Latest funding: $25 million, series A

Lead investor: New Era Capital Partners

Other investors: Hamilton Lane

Funding plans: aiOla has raised a total of $33 million to date. The company is currently focused on bringing its solutions to the food and medical industries.

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Startup: Sunlight.io - Based in Cambridge, England, Sunlight develops infrastructure for running applications at the edge.

Latest funding: $20 million, series A

Investors: Valedor Partners, Robert Bosch Venture Capital, OpenOcean

Funding plans: The newly raised funds will be used to enhance U.S.-focused commercial growth.

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Startup: Hawk AI - German fraud detection startup, Hawk’s AI-powered surveillance platform helps financial institutions detect and prevent financial crime.

Latest funding: $17 million, series B

Lead investor: Sands Capital

Other investors: DN Capital, Coalition, BlackFin Capital Partners, and Picus Capital.

Funding plans: The funding will go towards Hawk’s ambition of becoming the leading global surveillance platform, said CEO Tobias Schweiger.

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Startup: Proovstation - French startup developing AI-powered automated vehicle testing solutions. Proovstation’s automobile scanners automate the inspection and valuation process for used vehicles in mere seconds.

Latest funding: $11.3 million, series A

Lead investor: Supernova Invest

Other investors: Otium Capital, Crédit Agricole Création

Funding plans: The funds will be used to help Proovsation establish itself internationally in the used vehicles market.

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Startup: Supernormal- Swedish generative AI startup developing a note-taking platform. Supernormal’s tech automatically summarizes meetings.

Latest funding: $10 million, seed round

Lead investor: Balderton

Other investors: Acequia Capital, byFounders VC

Funding plans: Supernormal wants to grow its team and is using the cash to hire ML engineers, marketing managers and customer experience managers.

About the Author

Ben Wodecki

Jr. Editor

Ben Wodecki is the Jr. Editor of AI Business, covering a wide range of AI content. Ben joined the team in March 2021 as assistant editor and was promoted to Jr. Editor. He has written for The New Statesman, Intellectual Property Magazine, and The Telegraph India, among others. He holds an MSc in Digital Journalism from Middlesex University.

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