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]
