Google releases new open LLMs, Rivian lays off staff and Signal rolls out usernamesWelcome, folks, to Week in Review (WiR), TechCrunch’s regular newsletter covering noteworthy happenings in the tech industry.
This week, Google launched two new open large language models, Gemma 2B and Gemma 7B, in its continued bid for generative AI dominance.
The company, which describes the LLMs as “inspired by Gemini,” its flagship family of GenAI models, made each available for commercial and research usage.
Change Healthcare hit: Change Healthcare, one of the largest healthcare tech companies in the U.S., confirmed that a cyberattack on its systems occurred recently.
YouTube triumphant: YouTube dominates TV streaming in the U.S., per Nielsen’s latest report.
Today on The Exchange, we’re digging into continuation funds, counting down through some of our favorite historical Exchange entries, and discussing what we’re excited to report on for the rest of the year!
It is also a very topical one: “The greatest source of liquidity now is going to be continuation funds,” VC Roger Ehrenberg predicted in a recent episode of the 20VC podcast.
If you have been following the last few months of venture capital activity, the “why now?” is easy to answer.
“It’s a viable strategy for a decent swath of the venture industry,” Ehrenberg told 20VC host Harry Stebbings.
We went from tallying monster rounds and a blizzard of IPOs to watching venture capital dry up and startup exits become rarer than gold.
The clock is ticking on your chance to seize a scorching deal: TechCrunch Disrupt is returning to San Francisco from October 28–30, and the 2-for-1 ticket offer ends tonight at midnight!
What’s in store at TechCrunch Disrupt?
Prepare for three electrifying days packed with the latest startup breakthroughs, trends, and products, tailored for every step of your entrepreneurial journey.
From startup founders to venture capitalists, Disrupt attracts a diverse crowd eager to explore trends in SaaS, fintech, AI, and space.
Is your company interested in sponsoring or exhibiting at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024?
We’re announcing an exciting addition to our speaker lineup for StrictlyVC Los Angeles on February 29.
Lyu is an entrepreneur renowned for his work in human-machine interaction.
With rabbit, he leads a team dedicated to crafting intuitive experiences that redefine the way we interact with technology.
Faraz Fatemi, partner at Lightspeed Venture PartnersFaraz joined Lightspeed as a Partner in 2022 and is focused on investments in consumer platforms.
If you’re interested in learning how your brand can partner with StrictlyVC, head to our sponsorship form and someone from the team will respond shortly.
Frost Giant, a venture-backed startup building a real-time strategy (RTS) game called Stormgate, is turning to its community to top up its coffers ahead of the game’s launch this year.
The venture capital market for gaming companies has retreated sharply since Frost Giant last raised money (a $25 million Series A back in 2022).
Thus far, Frost Giant has picked up $611,421 in reservations for its community fundraise on its Start Engine page.
Reg CF offerings are limited to $5 million, so Frost Giant has a hard cap on how much it can raise.
We got a similar peek into Substack’s financials when it raised capital from its community last year, and we’ll get a similar influx of data from Frost Giant.
Hello, and welcome back to Equity, the podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
This is our Wednesday show, in which we talk through the week’s leading startup and venture capital news.
This is a short week, but there’s still a lot to talk about:We’ll be back Friday morning!
After naming Phil Graves the chief financial officer of alternative protein maker Meati Foods at the beginning of February, he is now the company’s new chief executive officer.
The company also said it was reducing its workforce by 13% as Meati works to “build a financially sustainable business,” Graves told TechCrunch exclusively.
Products are now in over 3,600 retail locations nationwide, including Whole Foods Market, Meijer, Cub Foods and Sprouts Farmers Market.
Graves even said the company has a goal of expanding that to 10,000 locations before the end of 2024.
Once fully ramped up, the facility will have the capability of producing more than 45 million pounds of product, Huggins told TechCrunch at the time.
Food tech investment may have declined along with overall venture capital, but Bluestein Ventures is not letting that slow it down.
The Chicago-based early-stage venture capital firm closed on $45 million in capital commitments for its Fund III.
Andrew Bluestein, co-managing partner of Bluestein Ventures, founded the firm in 2014 and brought on Ashley Hartman, also co-managing partner, eight years ago.
They join other venture capital firms, like Kost Capital, Supply Change Capital and Joyful Ventures, that have recently raised new funds to invest in food tech.
“When we started Bluestein Ventures, people would ask us why we were investing in food,” Bluestein told TechCrunch.
Nvidia currently dominates the AI chip market with its GPU chips.
OpenAI chief Sam Altman is reportedly also in talks with investors in the United Arab Emirates to raise an eye-watering $5 trillion to $7 trillion for a new AI chip project.
Altman has reportedly met with a number of potential investors, chip industry experts and others across the globe, including SoftBank’s Son, for the new AI chip initiative.
Shift focus (from Alibaba) to AIA new chip project would be line with the company’s new focus on AI.
Shares of SoftBank closed 2.8% higher on Monday after Son’s AI chip project news broke on Saturday.
State of venture investments in India, according to Lightspeed Lightspeed partners examine right-sizing VC funds in India, spectrum of startup investing and the country's prospects in the global AI race.
Over 150 investors, including Singapore’s sovereign fund Temasek and Malaysia’s Khazanah, gathered at Mumbai’s five-star Trident Oberoi hotel on a recent Friday for venture firm Lightspeed India Partners’ “Lift Off” summit.
In 2021, $33 billion of venture capital (early and late stage) was invested in India.
So 2023 is also not necessarily reflective of the venture market opportunity in India,” he added.
“We had a lot of funds not based in India but investing in India because of the opportunity the country offered to them outside their own.
