Author: IBL News

IBL News | New York

Chegg, the California online education firm that offers textbook rentals, homework help, and tutoring, said on Monday it will lay off about 22% of its workforce, or 248 employees. The firm warned that its decline would worsen before improving.

Publishers have been unable to compete with AI-generated content and solutions, which has resulted in a drop in visitors and subscribers. Students increasingly turn to AI-powered tools such as ChatGPT over traditional edtech platforms.

In addition, as part of its restructuring process, Chegg will shut its U.S. and Canada offices by the end of the year and reduce its marketing, product development efforts, and general and administrative expenses.

IBL News | New York

The OpenAI Startup Fund has invested in over a dozen startups, according to TechCrunch.

This fund, managed by a dedicated team, has raised $175 million for its central fund and secured an additional $114 million through five special purpose vehicles, which are investment pools for specific opportunities.

1X: This Norwegian humanoid robot startup raised $23.5 million in a deal led by the OpenAI Startup Fund and Tiger Global in early 2023.

Ambience Healthcare: This AI-powered medical note-taking startup announced a $70 million Series B in February 2024, co-led by OpenAI’s fund and Kleiner Perkins. Ambience is among several startups, including Abridge, Nabla, Suki, and Microsoft-owned Nuance, that are building AI medical scribes.

Anysphere (aka Cursor): In October 2023, OpenAI’s fund led the $8 million seed round into Anysphere, the AI-powered coding assistant Cursor maker.

Chai Discovery: This startup, which is developing an open-source AI foundational model for drug discovery, raised a $30 million seed round last September, led by Thrive Capital and OpenAI’s fund.

Class Companion: This edtech startup raised a $4 million seed round in 2023 from OpenAI’s fund and a host of angels. It helps teachers provide quick, personalized feedback to their students.

Descript: The collaborative audio and video editing platform raised $50 million in a Series C round led by OpenAI’s fund. Other investors in the round included Andreessen Horowitz, Redpoint Ventures, Spark Capital, and ex-Y Combinator partner Daniel Gross.

Figure AI: AI robotics startup Figure raised a $675 million Series B in February 2024 from Nvidia, OpenAI’s fund, Microsoft, and others. The round valued the company at $2.6 billion.

Ghost Autonomy: This maker of autonomous driving software raised a $55 million Series E in April 2023, and OpenAI’s fund invested $5 million of that. But the investment didn’t work out. A year later, the company shut down.

Harvey AI: This legal tech startup raised a $21 million Series A in April 2023 from OpenAI’s fund and others.

Heeyo: Educational AI chatbot for kids Heeyo announced that it raised $3.5 million from OpenAI’s fund, Alexa Fund, Pear VC, and other investors in August.

Kick: This company is developing AI agents that can “self-drive” bookkeeping processes. In October, it raised a $9 million seed round co-led by General Catalyst and OpenAI’s fund.

Mem: This AI-powered note-taking startup raised a $23.5 million Series A round in November 2022, led by OpenAI’s fund. Mem hasn’t reported any subsequent funding rounds.

Milo: This startup is developing an AI-powered personal assistant that helps parents organize and keep track of their kids’ activities. Milo raised an undisclosed amount of pre-seed and seed funding from OpenAI’s fund, YC, and others.

Physical Intelligence: Foundational software for robots startup Physical Intelligence raised a $70 million seed round last March. OpenAI’s fund was part of that, and it also participated in the company’s $400 million Series A, which valued the company at more than $2 billion. Other investors in the latest round included Lux Capital, Sequoia, and Jeff Bezos.

Speak: This AI-powered language learning app developer raised a $27 million Series B round in November 2022, led by OpenAI’s fund. In December, the fund participated in Speak’s $78 million Series C, which valued the company at $1 billion.

Thrive AI: Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington and OpenAI Startup Fund announced last July that they teamed up to invest in and build this “AI health coach” startup. According to a regulatory filing, Thrive AI aimed to raise $10 million.

Unify: This sales technology startup secured about $19 million in seed and Series A capital from the OpenAI Startup Fund, Thrive Capital, and Emergence.

[In the picture above, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI]