Techlash: From an SVB low to OpenAI high

Necessary Nuggets

Happy Thursday! For those new here, welcome to Necessary Nuggets. We deliver exciting updates from Necessary Ventures and some helpful tidbits on the tech world to you bimonthly. If you can’t get enough of the newsletters, don’t worry! You can access every edition on our blog — perfect for when you can’t wait for the new edition and are dying to read more or just need a midnight snack. As I’m sure many of you know, it’s been a hectic week in tech. Buckle up, and read for a ride.

JOBORTUNITIES 🚨

Taro: No fuss healthcare. Patients get help without the stress. Taro increases access to healthcare while reducing costs and physician burnout. 

| Product engineer |

Relief: Ward off the debt collectors. Relief built an app that negotiates people out of debt for free, giving people a shot at financial freedom. Time to shred your bills!

| Back-end engineer |

Particle Health: Big Data for better health. Particle centralizes healthcare data to provide informed care.

| Senior software engineer |


Reach out with any questions! All 197 open job postings are listed here.

GOOD READS 📖

Our favorite stories in…

  • SVB was a climate bank, and now it’s gone. Is the guarantee from Washington enough to keep climate tech startups’ lights on? There’s a big ‘ole hole in the financing market.

  • Airbenders are real. Norwegian company Wind Catching Systems is making wind float by building a windmill grid on the sea.

  • Duolingo incorporated roleplay. It introduced the “Roleplay” feature as part of a max subscription tier. The feature provides a built-in AI chatbot powered by GPT-4, where users can practice real-world conversations. 

  • The cornerstone of the crypto world has turned – well, collapsed. Silvergate bank shut down amid recent industry and regulatory developments and low earnings. The crypto landscape is more uncertain than ever. 

  • There’s untapped potential in voice AI. One day, we’ll all look like we’re talking to ourselves in odd situations – in schools, jobs, and hopefully hospitals. 

  • Brain-computer interfaces are turning up. Stanford researchers developed one that could give the speechless a way to speak again. 

  • Spotify is keeping it freaky freaky fresh with a new AI DJ feature. Get a personalized playlist AND spoken commentary. 

  • Zipline is showing off. The company revealed next-gen electric delivery drones that dock and recharge on autonomously. 

  • OpenAI released GPT-4, and techies everywhere want to get to the bottom of the mysterious and alluring program. What makes it so much bigger and better? Could there be ... a trillion reasons?


StartUp, GlowUp 🔥

Our favorite startup stories …

  • BlocPower - Self care for wrinkly, old buildings

    • The problem they’re solving: Improve energy consumption and efficiency issues faced by old buildings across the U.S. Fight the climate crisis and improve quality of life.

    • Company size: 51-100 employees

    • Recent raise: $155 million in Series B and debt financing – more than $250 million to date

    • Business process: Use a proprietary algorithm and public data to broker deals between engineering services and customers that have no way to pay for the services. 

    • Gaining Steam: Project to make Ithaca the first net-zero municipality in the US. 6,000 building inventory. Over 5,000 energy projects to date. 

    • Founder highlights: CEO Donnel Baird served as a community organizer in neighborhoods in NY and consultant for the U.S. Department of Energy. 

  • Shifted Energy - A luau party for Mother Earth

    • The problem they’re solving: Keep Hawaii heavenly by building one of the world’s most advanced virtual power plants. Engage frontline communities in climate infrastructure opportunities. 

    • Company size: 1-10 employees

    • Recent raise: $4.3 million seed investment round led by Epic Ventures and Kabor Capital 

    • Business process: A massive fleet of … water heaters. Algorithms predict the amount of electricity needed, providing flexibility and control, and pay out utility bill credits to families. 

    • Gaining Steam: More than 3,000 equipped households in Oahu and Maui. 

    • Founder highlights: CEO Forest Frizzell was prior Director of IT for Hawaii gas.

  • Lightyear - Sunbathing on the hood of your car

    • The problem they’re solving: Power cars with sunshine. 3x less charging than conventional EVs.

    • Company size: 501-1000 employees

    • Recent activity: A great bankruptcy escape

    • Business process: Scalable, grid-independent models. Solar panels on the sun roof and hood.

    • Gaining Steam: Launching Lightyear 2, a more efficient and affordable model of the company’s Lightyear car series

    • Founder highlights: CEO Lex Hoefsloot is a first-time founder fresh out of engineering school at Eindhoven University of Technology.

  • Bicara Therapeutics - Tumor has it this biotech is making waves

    • Problem they’re solving: Treat pesky solid tumor cancers and improve the therapeutic window

    • Company size: 101-250 employees

    • Business process: Dual-action biologics that elicit a potent anti-tumor response

    • Recent raise: Oversubscribed $108 million Series B round co-led by Red Tree Venture Capital and RA Capital Management

    • Gaining Steam: An ongoing Phase 1/1b clinical trial

    • Founder highlights: CEO Claire Mazumdar led business development and corporate strategy at Rheos Medicines

  • Rapport - In the know in the neuro

    • Problem they’re solving: Target specific neuroanatomical regions for precise treatments with more safety and efficiency compared to current methods

    • Company size: 11-50 employees

    • Business model: Novel receptor-associated proteins (RAPs)

    • Recent raise: $100 million Series A round led by Third Rock Ventures and ARCH Venture Partners

    • Steam: A clinical-stage treatment for drug-resistant seizure disorders

    • Founder highlights: Scientific founders behind the discovery of RAPs and small molecule therapeutics

  • Science - A Fitbit for your brain

    • Problem they’re solving: Treat medical conditions with serious unmet needs through the brain.

    • Company size: Unknown

    • Business process: A brain implant that never actually touches your brain

    • Recent activity: The launch of Science Foundry, a platform to support companies with similar ideas. 

    • Gaining Steam: Named Neuralink’s competitor. Its flagship system Science Eye restores visual input to blind patients. 

    • Founder highlights: CEO founder Max Hodak cofounded Neuralink before leaving in 2021.

  • Pagos - Answer to the PIA (Payment Intelligence Agency)

    • Problem they’re solving: Payment processing is disconnected and getting more complex everyday. Stream and store payments data in one platform

    • Company size: 11-50 employees

    • Business process: A single platform where customers can track and visualize data

    • Recent activity: $34 million Series A round led by Arbor Ventures

    • Gaining Steam: Adobe, Eventbrite, GoFundMe, Peek and Warner Bros Discovery are current clients.

    • Founder highlights: CEO Klas Bäck and founder Albert Drouart held senior leadership positions at Venmo and Paypal. 

  • Glider AI - Hire to a Higher Standard

    • Problem they’re solving: Make hiring fair and opportunities accessible.

    • Company size: 101-250

    • Business process: Upgrade companies’ outdated credentials-first recruiting into remote-centric, skills-based hiring using sophisticated AI screening

    • Recent activity: $10 million Series A funding led by Primera Capital. 

    • Gaining Steam: Over 250,000 questions, 35+ interactive question types, and 500+ competencies

    • Founder highlights: CEO Satish Kumar’s last venture was acquired by Sumeru Equity Partners. 

  • Anthropic - Liar, liar, robot pants on fire? Never again

    • The problem they’re solving: Putting the Lasso of Truth around AI chatbots. No more factually wrong or biased answers.

    • Company size: 51-100 employees

    • Recent raise: $300 million in funding, valuing the company at $4.1 billion – this comes after an investment between $300 and $400 million from Google just four weeks prior.

    • Business process: Meet Claude, a ChatGPT-like AI chatbot

    • Gaining Steam: Claude was born in January

    • Founder highlights: Founders Daniela and Dario Amodei are not only siblings, but also former OpenAI executives (I smell competition)

Outro

Feel free to reply to this email with all questions, feedback, or comments. We’ll be iterating and curating the NVTC newsletter according to your interests. 

Some last matters of business: 

  • If you’re a technologist (engineer or product manager / designer with a technical background) join us on the NVTC LinkedIn group if you haven’t. We’d love to have you! 

  • Sign up here if you’re interested in co-investing with Necessary.

If you’re a startup founder, we’d love to help where we can! Brex provides full-stack finance solutions for startups. Sign up via Necessary and get bonus points.

Thanks for reading, and see you next week!

© 2023 Necessary Ventures

San Francisco, California

Kaley UbellackerComment