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∆ Tech in the News

Sour Apples - Apple will pause sales of Apple Watch Series 9 to comply with a U.S. import ban following a patent infringement by its health-tracking feature.

"Mutually Terminated" - Adobe and Figma scraped their merger due to competition concerns in the U.K. and EU. Adobe owes a $1B termination fee.

AI-mran - Pakistan’s ex-PM Imran Khan used ElevenLabs's AI tool to deploy an AI Clone to campaign from behind bars after a coup deposed and jailed him.

AI vs Misinfo - Google filed a patent for ML-based misinformation detection, highlighting AI’s potential role in information control ahead of the 2024 election.

X Under Fire - The EU launched a probe into Elon Musk's X over allegations of violating the Digital Services Act’s rules imposed on social media platforms.

What We Watched - Ginny & Georgia, The Night Agent, and The Diplomat are a few of the most popular shows in Netflix’s What We Watched Report for 2023.

˚The hottest thing in tech this week

Salesforce Taps AI To Compete With Microsoft

Enterprise giant Salesforce just announced it will start rolling out Einstein Copilot, its new all-purpose conversational AI assistant for the office. Salesforce aims to enhance users’ customer service options and bring a new level of efficiency to sales and marketing efforts via a new interface and customizable AI models. AI-powered CRM systems like this will enable Salesforce clients to create more personalized and effective interactions without extensive work developing their own AI models. Salesforce is hoping this product will help better integrate one of its key edges in the market: the databases of enterprise data its clients keep on the platform. Eventually, every ’data aggregator’ like Salesforce will need to adapt to this trend to compete with the likes of Microsoft and Google.

Salesforce is just the latest example of this ‘adapt or die’ trend in the fast-moving world of Customer Engagement. GenAI is rapidly becoming a necessity as businesses seek to offer more personalized, efficient, and interactive experiences. A new insight by MIT Tech Review covers this shift, stressing it isn't just about automating processes; but about redefining the ways companies interact with their customers. From AI-driven product recommendations to dynamic automated support systems, AI is enabling a new era of customer engagement. But, this transformation comes with its own set of challenges, including the ethical implications and the intricacies of integrating AI seamlessly into existing customer service models and data practices.

News Bytes

• Nikola founder jailed and fined $1M for defrauding investors

• Amazon considers investing in bankrupt Diamond Sports

• OpenAI nonprofit board will have veto on new models being launched

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Deals We’re Watching

Founders to Watch and Opportunities to Catch

Open Deals:

Sign-Me-Up - E-signature software company DocuSign (valued at $11B after going public in 2018 for ~$6B) is exploring a sale that could be among the biggest tech deals ever, with various PE firms and tech companies lined up.

Grab-a-Slice - Fintech unicorn Slice is raising $100M in an equity round to support its merger with North East Small Finance Bank to construct a digital-first bank retail-focused bank to aid financial inclusion in the NE states.

Closed Deals:

Alteryx - A software company developing data science and analytics products will be acquired by PE firms Clearlake and Insight Partners for $4.4B.

Data-stream - IBM is set to acquire StreamSets and WebMethods, both data integration assets, in an all-cash deal from Software AG for $2.3B

4D Imaging - 4D cardiac imaging and navigation platform maker LUMA Vision raised $22M in Series A3 funding led by existing investors EQT Lifesciences, ABV Uni Fund, and imec.xpand.

Branching Out - Startup Lingrove, raised $10M to produce carbon-negative wood-alternative products from flax fiber and plant-based resins.

CurbWaste - The NY startup landed a $10M Series A led by Flourish Ventures to digitize the waste hauling industry with its payments software platform.

Companies to Watch:

Saudi Unicorn - Fintech startup Tamara raised a $304M equity round from Saudi sovereign wealth fund Sanabil and the kingdom's largest bank's unit, SNB Capital to push its valuation over $1B.

AI Discovery - Calif. startup Totus Medicines uses covalent libraries and AI tools for small molecule drug discovery and development, and just closed a $66M Series B led by DCVC Bio.

Face-Melting - Media monitoring startup Meltwater raised $65M from Verdane, giving the Norwegian PE firm an 11% stake and valuing the company at $592M.

Nuclear-Fusion - The US National Ignition Facility (NIF) caused a buzz at COP28 with its’ nuclear-fusion tech, leading to $42M in funding to develop viable energy implementations.

"Google for LLMs" - Martian raised a $9M seed round from New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Prosus, Carya, and General Catalyst to build the model router, an API orchestration layer that switches between models best suited to a task.

The Funding Buzz

Accel - Bay Area firm known for backing Bumble, Etsy, and Slack secures $650M for its 16th early-stage fund. Accel won big on Klaviyo and Pismo in 2023.

Playground Global - An early-stage VC firm with $1.2B+ in AUM, has closed its Fund III with $410M to invest in early-stage deep tech and science companies.

SVB Capital - A group of creditors, including Pacific Investment and Davidson Kempner, want to take over Silicon Valley Bank's VC arm for an estimated $250M - $500M.

Cyber.Fund - Relaunched with $100M from early Ethereum investors to invest in blockchain, AI, and robotics startups and fund its current portfolio companies.

a16z - The VC’s co-founder, Ben Horowitz, announced the firm's intent to lobby and support candidates who support deregulating the AI and crypto industries.

Tools and Buzzy Tech

Pons - Create a ‘Next-Gen’ AI Greeting Card.

Google - How to get AI-powered summaries in Chrome.

Digi - Are these avatars "the future of AI romantic companionship"?

Super - Create a website from your Notion database in minutes.

H&R Block - AI Tax Assist chatbot in paid tax software answers tax questions.

CeruleanAI - Florida uses AI to monitor coral health and restoration efforts.

Pipedream - Atlanta pilots last-mile delivery via electric underground pipes.

If you have a deal or company that you would like to host on our next issue, drop us a line: [email protected].

Thanks for connecting with us.

The Tech Buzz Teamoogle-a