Some of the rounds we learned about this week were quite big, but perhaps not overly so considering the problems these startups are tackling and the competitors they face.
Striking gold: KoBold Metals, a minerals discovery startup, raised $491 million of a targeted $527 million round, according to an SEC filing. The company uses AI to surface data that can help locate cobalt, copper, lithium, and nickel.
Well supplied: Auger, a company developing AI-powered supply chain tools, raised a giant $100 million seed round. Such a big raise could be because of its high-profile CEO, Dave Clark, formerly of Amazon and Flexport. But Auger also has to compete with well-funded rivals.
ProteinGPT: Basecamp Research, a London-based startup unrelated to Basecamp the product management platform, raised a $60 million Series B round of funding to build a "GPT for biology." The company claims that its foundational model, BaseFold, outperforms DeepMind's AlphaFold 2 at predicting large, complex proteins.
AMD vs. Nvidia: Cloud infrastructure startup TensorWave wants to offer an alternative to Nvidia hardware for AI compute and secured a $43 million round with participation from AMD Ventures. It is based in Las Vegas, where energy costs are lower than in many major U.S. cities.
Lifeline: Qantev, a Paris-based startup that sells enterprise software helping health and life insurers use AI to process claims, raised a €30 million Series B round of funding led by Blossom Capital.
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