Microsoft Corp. and Google LLC may be in a pitched battle over so-called generative artificial intelligence, but in at least one area of the field, they've found some common ground.
Venture arms of both companies are backing a San Francisco startup that came out of stealth mode Monday. Dubbed Typeface Inc., the company uses generative AI — a type of artificial intelligence that can create new images, text and other content — to produce text and images for marketing purposes.
In addition to unveiling itself Monday, the startup announced it's raised $65 million in a Series A round. In additon to Google's GV unit and Microsoft's M12 fund, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Menlo Ventures invested in the round.
"Typeface is at the forefront of a monumental shift in how businesses will create and collaborate," said Lightspeed partner Ravi Mhatre in a news release. "Typeface is the first company," Mhatre continued, "to address the significant need for a comprehensive platform that radically personalizes generative AI for the enterprise."
Founded and led by Abhay Parasnis, the former chief technology officer of Adobe Inc., Typeface has developed an AI software called Blends. Customers train Blends on images of, ads for and blog and social media posts about their products. Clients can then use the software to create everything from ad copy to press releases to new social media and blog posts.
The investment by the venture units of Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) and Alphabet Inc.-owned Google (Nasdaq: GOOGL) comes as those two companies have been battling over generative AI technology. Microsoft is investing billions of dollars in OpenAI LLC, the San Francisco-based developer of the popular ChatGPT generative AI software, and has incorporated a version of OpenAI's technology into its Bing search engine. Meanwhile, Google recently unveiled its own generative AI software, which it calls Bard, and announced it would be integrating the technology into its own search service.
Here's more Bay Area startup and venture news at the start of a new week:
Fundings
- Skydio Inc., San Mateo, $230 million, Series E: Linse Capital led the round for this maker of autonomous flying drones, giving it a valuation of $2.2 billion. Hercules Capital, Axon, Andreessen Horowitz, Next47, Institutional Venture Partners, DoCoMo, Nvidia Corp., the Walton Family Foundation and UP Partners also invested.
- Fulfil Solutions Inc., Mountain View, $60 million, Series B: Eclipse Ventures led the round for this developer of robots for use in online grocers' distribution centers. Khosla Ventures and DCVC also participated.
M&A
- Cisco Systems Inc. has agreed to buy Valtix Inc. The San Jose-based networking giant (Nasdaq:CSCO) didn't disclose the financial terms of the planned acquisition of the San Jose-based network security startup.
