Powerhouse venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz is promoting Jennifer Li to general partner after six years at the firm.
She’s being tapped to help invest the new $1.25 billion Infrastructure fund managed by longtime a16z general partner Martin Casado.
The Infrastructure fund is part of the fresh $7.2 billion that the Silicon Valley VC giant just raised.
Li has been an investing partner on the Infrastructure team for a while, which means she was already writing checks and taking board seats.
Plus she’s one of only four GPs on the Infrastructure team.
Elon Musk’s decision to green light a robotaxi over an affordable EV might cost the company its lead.
Last week, Musk reportedly canned the effort in favor of a robotaxi, the sort of pie-in-the-sky project that defined his first decade at the helm.
Tesla was reportedly on the cusp of building a $25,000 EV.
Given flagging sales of the company’s existing product line, it would have been a welcome shot in the arm.
It also would have given the company a product to hold its ground against a predicted onslaught of inexpensive Chinese EVs.
TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 is set to electrify San Francisco from October 28–30, and we’re searching for vibrant speakers like you to elevate our event with your insights.
Here’s your pathway to becoming a speaker at TechCrunch Disrupt:Are you a pioneering startup founder, a perceptive venture capitalist, or a renowned figure in your industry?
Then, select your preferred presentation format:Breakout Session: Command the stage alongside up to four speakers, facilitated by a moderator.
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Silence wants to shake things up when it comes to climate tech investment.
This new angel-style VC firm has already raised $35 million and plans to make dozens of small investments in climate startups to help them apply the tech startup playbook.
He also founded Merlin, an hourly jobs marketplace in the U.S.With Silence, Borja wants to apply his experience to climate investment.
A silent partnerSince the first close of the fund in June 2022, Silence has already invested in 22 different companies.
So we told them ‘we’ll be your lead,’” Borja said.
Tech aficionados, startup enthusiasts, marketing wizards, and venture capitalists on the rise — seize the opportunity to showcase your expertise at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024, happening from October 28–30 in San Francisco.
Apply to speak at TechCrunch DisruptWe’re assembling a lineup of industry experts spanning the startup landscape to lead engaging breakout sessions or facilitate roundtable discussions.
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Is your company interested in sponsoring or exhibiting at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024?
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The startup built its platform on top of the open source Stable Diffusion model, letting users enter text-based prompts to generate their creations.
The company was founded by Darya Sesitskaya, a former Snap design lead responsible for designing Snapchat’s AR camera, Lens Studio, Lens Cloud, and more.
She also worked at Wanna (formerly Wannaby), an AR technology company known for its virtual try-ons for sneakers, clothing, and watches.
Since launching its beta version, Shader has garnered approximately 3,000 downloads.
In the near future, we also plan to implement the ability to create voice-to-AR effects and 3D background replacements,” says Sesitskaya.
Stability has announced Stable Diffusion 3, the latest and most powerful version of the company’s image-generating AI model.
Sora, OpenAI’s impressive video generator, apparently works on similar principles (Will Peebles, co-author of the paper, went on to co-lead the Sora project).
(Anthropic, for its part, has not focused on image or video generation publicly, so it isn’t really part of this conversation.)
Stable Diffusion seems to want to be the white label generative AI that you can’t do without, rather than the boutique generative AI you aren’t sure you need.
Interestingly, the company has put safety front and center in its announcement, stating:We have taken and continue to take reasonable steps to prevent the misuse of Stable Diffusion 3 by bad actors.
“Brand anchors” to gated areas like reward programs are something that companies will expand upon in 2024, he said.
“I think this year we’re going to see a lot of community-based brand building,” he shared on TechCrunch’s Chain Reaction podcast.
Starbucks launched Starbucks Odyssey in 2022 as its initial foray into the web3 world.
The experience combined the company’s Starbucks Reward loyalty program with NFTs to enhance customer experiences, TechCrunch previously reported.
This never would have happened if not for web3.”The loyalty program has a five-tiered system with over 58,000 active participants at least on level one, Kaczynski said.
South Korean internet giant Kakao — in the middle of multiple investigations over antitrust and securities violations — has appointed a new CEO as it tries to turn the ship around.
Shina Chung, who had been running the company’s venture arm, is moving to the top role at the company.
Separately, just last month, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol called for a review of the monopolistic practices of Kakao’s taxi-hailing unit, Kakao Mobility.
Korea’s antitrust regulator had already fined Kakao Mobility about $20.3 million for unfair service in February.
Kakao Mobility, which has about 74% of the ride-hailing market in the country as of September, separately is trying to lower the temperature around this controvery.
