20 - Bonside, Chalk, and Lindy
Happy Tuesday and welcome to
!In the world of AI, things are getting pretty interesting. Recently, thousands of tech and business leaders have called for a six-month halt in the development of AI systems. This pause would allow for careful planning and safety protocols to be created for future development, ensuring AI is developed in a safe and responsible manner.
But wait, there's more! OpenAI has been facing some trouble lately as the ChatGPT has been geo-blocked in Italy due to concerns regarding its use of data transparency. As the saying goes, with great AI power comes great AI responsibility.
Brought to you by Thoropass
Get SOC 2 Compliant in No Time
Is SOC 2 compliance keeping you up at night? Don't let it!
Thoropass's Compliance-as-a-Service solution makes information security compliance a breeze. In their guide, you'll learn how to navigate the complex world of SOC 2 from start to finish.
You'll discover what SOC 2 is and why it matters for your startup. You'll also get insider tips on how to prepare for SOC 2, what time and cost to expect, and how to turn compliance from a pain point into a secret weapon.
Let's get back to our regular programming.
Startup spotlight
Bonside
Industry - Fintech
HQ - US
Year founded - 2021
Stage - Pre-seed
Key investors (public source) - TMV, The Fund (Total raised = $950k)
Think about the small and medium businesses1 that make our daily lives better - from the online store that sells unique handmade crafts, to the local gym that keeps us healthy, to the pet store that makes sure our furry friends are well taken care of. These businesses are the backbone of our economy, yet many struggle to access the capital they need to grow. Traditional venture capital is not always an option for these businesses, as they may not meet the criteria that investors typically look for. As a result, these businesses often have to rely on limited debt options that come with significant tradeoffs, such as high interest rates or a lack of flexibility. Without access to venture capital, these businesses miss out on valuable resources, networks, advisory services, mentorship, and more.
Enter Bonside, a non-dilutive SMB financing platform that connects stable, small businesses seeking growth capital with high net worth retail investors.
Founder(s) background: Neha Govindraj - Co-founder @ Glowbar, ex-Senior Associate Consultant @ Bain & Company
Chalk
Industry - AI2/ML, Data
HQ - US
Year founded - 2022
Stage - Seed
Key investors (public source) - Conversion Capital
Imagine a world where the most complex questions can be answered with ease. What if you could power credit, risk, insurance, medical, and recommendation decisions for the world's most innovative companies?
Chalk is building machine learning infrastructure to make this a reality. With the ability to source data from a wide range of providers and rapidly iterate on feature definitions, Chalk's platform is designed to make it easy for machine learning teams to build high-performance pipelines that deliver data to models at the right time. And with infrastructure orchestration and automatic data lineage tracking, developers can work confidently and focus on their unique products and insights.
Founder(s) background: Elliot Marx - ex-Co-founder & CEO @ Haven Money (acquired by Credit Karma), Engineering Manager @ Credit Karma; Andrew Moreland - ex-Co-founder & CTO @ Haven Money (acquired by Credit Karma), Engineering @ Credit Karma & Palantir Technologies; Marc Freed-Finnegan - ex-Co-founder & CEO @ Index (acquired by Stripe), Product Lead @ Stripe & Google
💼: Software Engineer (Backend), Software Engineer (Full-Stack), First Marketing Hire, First Sales Hire
Lindy
Industry - AI, Productivity
HQ - US
Year founded - 2023
Stage - Pre-seed
Key investors (public source) - n/a
Lindy is an AI assistant designed to manage your daily tasks and act as an executive assistant for busy professionals. Lindy's number one goal is to save time and make life more efficient.
Currently, Lindy excels at tasks like organizing calendars and emails, coordinating travel bookings, finding potential customers or new team members, and summarizing content from videos, blog posts, and podcasts. The long-term goal is to automate all knowledge work by creating an AI that can use any tool and access any data it needs.
Founder(s) background: Flo Crivello - ex-Founder & CEO @ Teamflow, Head of Product @ Uber
💼: Sr Software Engineer, Full Stack, AI Researcher
In funding news
DataDome, a cybersecurity platform that detects and mitigates bot attacks in real-time, has secured $42M in Series C funding in a round led by InfraVia Capital Partners.
Florence, a healthtech company that is improving clinical capacity, has raised $20M in Seed funding from a group of investors led by Thrive Capital, GV, and Salesforce Ventures.
Orb, a pricing platform that automates different billing types, including usage-based and subscriptions, has raised $19.1M to date across Series A ($14M led by Menlo) and seed ($5.1M led by Greylock) funding rounds. The funds are being utilized to support customer acquisition, go-to-market efforts, and research and development.
Zorro, a healthtech company that optimizes the health benefits experience, has announced its launch out of stealth mode and raised $11.5M in Seed funding. The funding round was co-led by Pitango and 10D, and the funds will be used to expand R&D efforts and scale customer operations.
Redefine, a platform for creating and scaling cloud-native applications, has raised $8.5M in Seed funding. The funding round was led by Glilot Capital Partners and featured investments from industry leaders such as Nitzan Shapira, Ran Ribenzaft, Efrat Rapoport, Asaf Ezra, Simon Perryman, and Farhan Thawar.
Interesting finds
Ben Adcock’s notes from 10 years of raising capital
AI risk ≠ AGI risk (regardless of whether superintelligence is imminent or not, there are still many reasons to be concerned):
,Cold investor outreach is an increasingly viable way to raise capital (when approached strategically and executed with precision, cold outreach can be a valuable asset to any business seeking to expand their network or attract potential funding opportunities:
,
Thanks for tuning in, and we'll see you next week!
Be notified of new issues via Twitter. Support us by advertising in Open Scout.
Small businesses is generally defined by the U.S. Small Business Association (SBA) as independent businesses having fewer than 500 employees. Based on SBA's definition, there are 31.7M small businesses in America, which account for 99.9% of all U.S. firms.
SMBs are facing economic headwinds and inflation challenges, which are causing them to scrutinize every purchase and investment more carefully. McKinsey's research indicates that 37 percent of SMB owners identify inflation as their most significant challenge. As a result, many SMBs are planning to cut their outflows, irrespective of their top-line performance, likely in anticipation of an extended period of economic uncertainty.
Non-dilutive financing options, such as grants, loans, and revenue-based financing, can help SMBs access capital without sacrificing equity or control. These solutions can also assist SMBs with cash flow issues to maintain their operations and facilitate business expansion.
We won't be delving too deeply into AI startups today, but we firmly believe that AI in 2023 is poised to become as transformative as PCs were in 1983 or the internet was in 1995. In the next five years, AI will enable enterprises and consumers to achieve things they previously couldn't, creating enormous value. Many of the most exciting developments will come from startups that are in their early stages today.
Thanks for sharing a link to my newsletter post on cold outreach -- Appreciate it!