With generative artificial intelligence being the "it" topic in startupland this year, it should come as no surprise there's a business accelerator just for startups in that space. Backed by Amazon Web Services Inc, the not-so-cleverly named Generative AI Accelerator on Wednesday said 21 companies had been selected for the 10-week program that is now underway and will last through July 27.
Seven of the participating startups are based in the Bay Area. They are:
- Ello Technology, Inc., San Francisco: Billed as "the world’s first AI reading coach that works with real books." Co-founders: CEO Tom Sayer and CXO Elizabeth Adams.
- Knowtex Inc., San Francisco: A hands-free medical documentation platform designed to improve the provider-patient visit. Cofounder and CEO Caroline Zhang.
- Krikey Inc., San Francisco: AI tool developer. Cofounder and CEO Jhanvi Shriram.
- Nosis Bio, San Francisco: Focused on bringing generative AI to targeted drug delivery.
- Poly, San Francisco: AI-powered engine and library for 3D textures. CEO Abhay Agarwal.
- Storia AI, San Francisco: AI assistant for video production covering storyboarding and video editing. Cofounder Mihail Eric.
- Vevo Therapeutics, San Francisco: Biotech company that uses AI "to uncover better drugs for more patients." Cofounder and CEO Nima Alidoust.
The companies get the usual accelerator support in terms of mentorship, training and other resources. Plus, participants receive up to $300,000 in AWS credits. More information can be found here.
Funding rounds
- Ayar Labs Inc., Santa Clara, $155 million, Series C: The oversubscribed round was led by new investor Capital TEN for the optical data solutions company. VentureTech Alliance, Boardman Bay Capital Management, IAG Capital Partners, Nvidia Corp. and Tyche Partners also participated. Existing strategic and financial investors include Applied Ventures, GlobalFoundries, Hewlett Packard Pathfinder, Intel Capital and Lockheed Martin Ventures.
- Figure AI Inc., Sunnyvale, $70 million, Series A: Parkway Venture Capital led the round for the humanoid robot developer. Aliya Capital, Bold Ventures, Tamarack Global, FJ Labs and Till Reuter also participated.
- Quanta Therapeutics Inc., San Francisco, $50.7 million, Series D: Avidity Partners led the round for the RAS-driven cancer treatment biopharmaceutical company. They were joined by Sofinnova Investments, Vida Ventures, Surveyor Capital, Longitude Capital, BVF Partners, AbbVie Ventures and others.
- NextRoll Inc., San Francisco, $50 million, Debt: Capital IP agreed to provide new financing to the marketing technology company. NextRoll plans to use the money on AdRoll, a marketing and advertising platform for eCommerce brands, and RollWorks, a B2B-focused account-based marketing platform.
- Volition, San Francisco, $11 million, Seed: Newark Venture Partners and Quiet Capital led the round for the online industrial parts marketplace.
- Leadoptik Inc., Milpitas, $5 million, Seed: MetaVC Partners led the round for the medical imaging company with SOSV, Sony Innovation Fund, TSVC, ENEA and others participating.
- Climateplan Inc., (DBA Waterplan), San Francisco, $11 million, Series A: Base10 Partners led the round for the water risk climate platform, joined by Giant Ventures, Transition Global, Y Combinator, MCJ Collective, the Branson Family and others.
- Nue Io Inc. (DBA Neu.io), San Mateo, $9 million, Seed extension: Bluefish Ventures and Penny Jar Capital co-led the round for the quote-to-revenue platform. They were joined by NJP Ventures, Operator Stack, Information Venture Partners and NextWorld Capital.
- Boombox Interactive Inc. (DBA Boombox.io), San Francisco, $7 million, Seed: Forerunner led the round for the collaboration platform for music makers. Other participants in the round were a San Francisco-based startup studio called Super{set} and Ulu Ventures.
- Pivoting Owl Inc. (DBA Thena), Palo Alto, $5 million, Seed: Lightspeed and First Round Capital participated in the funding for the customer communications and intelligence platform.
- Plenty Financial Inc., San Francisco, $2.75 million, Pre-seed: Phenomenal Ventures led the round for the financial management platform for couples along with 35V, former Wealthfront CEO Adam Nash, xtripe angels and Inovia Capital.
Sales
Back when it was still called Facebook Inc., the company now known as Meta Platforms Inc. dropped a reported $400 million in 2020 to buy the startup Giphy Inc., the well-known animated image and microvideo database. But following an order from the United Kingdom's Competition and Markets Authority, Meta has sold Giphy to Shutterstock Inc. (NYSE: SSTK), the New York-based stock image and video company. The sales price was a fraction of what Meta reportedly paid three years ago: $53 million in cash.
Anthony Duignan-Cabrera and J. Jennings Moss contributed to this report.
