AlphaSense Pioneers AI in Financial Market Intel
Financial market intelligence and search platform, Tegus acquisition, Brightwave AI financial research assistant, Apple #1, OpenAI, Elon Musk, GameStop
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∆ Tech in the News
Apple #1 - Apple reclaimed the world's most valuable company title from Microsoft on Wednesday after finally revealing its generative AI plans.
$3.4B Annualized Revenue - OpenAI has doubled revenue to a $3.4B run rate since December, indicating accelerated growth in its AI tool sales.
Zero Hedges - Major companies like Apple are rushing to buy back stocks ahead of today’s blackout period, which could trigger a bearish downturn.
Musk Legal - 1. Tesla shareholders approved the CEO’s pay package. | 2. Elon sued over Tesla board allowing him to start xAI (claiming it’s a competing company.) | 3. Musk withdrew his lawsuit against OpenAI.
Game On - GameStop raised $2.14B through its at-the-market equity offering of 75M shares. A major short position was also closed this week.
The Hottest Thing in Tech this Week
AlphaSense Pioneers AI in Financial Services
AlphaSense is a leading market intelligence and search platform. This week’s $650M raise valuing it at $4B is a big deal. It positions AlphaSense as one of the leading AI startups in the burgeoning market research field. It also meant AlphaSense was able to acquire Chicago-based expert research and data company, Tegus for $930M. This deal was important because Tegus holds extensive expert research and financial data on over 35,000 public and private companies across industries.
This data trove combined with AlphaSense's AI-driven market intel will offer financial professionals and investors more comprehensive tailored insights and enhanced research capabilities to help them make more informed decisions with greater speed and confidence.
How it Help Companies
AlphaSense CEO Jack Kokko claims its clients include the majority of the S&P 500 companies, leading banks, investment firms, and consultancies. Clients include German software firm SAP SE, industrial giant 3M, and Google. The addition of Tegus’ client roster will broaden this base even further. With the Tegus deal, users will gain new and enhanced features:
Expanded private company coverage and content types;
100,000+ enhanced expert call transcripts across sectors;
Improved financial data and modeling including financials, KPIs, and fully drivable models for 4,000+ public companies.
Streamlined access to SEC and other critical company filings.
Enhanced GenAI interactions with company transcripts and content.
Big Backers
The AlphaSense round was co-led by investment firms Viking Global and BDT & MSD Partners, with participation from J.P. Morgan Growth Equity Partners, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, CapitalG (Alphabet's independent growth fund) and Goldman Sachs Alternatives. It almost doubles the company’s $2.5B valuation at its $150M Series E in September 2023. AlphaSense surpassed $200M in ARR in April this year.
Up and Comer
Missed AlphaSense? Check out Brightwave. This New York/Boulder AI financial research assistant startup just raised a $6M seed round backed by angel investors, including OpenAI, Databricks, Uber and LinkedIn execs. Brightwave's platform provides exec summaries, long-form narratives, and deep analysis of financial reports. The company plans to expand its operations and, like AlphaSense, invest in additional data sources. It claims its customer base already includes firms with over $120B in AUM.
“Chat is not enough for finance, Brightwave acts as a thought partner. It checks its work and allows pros to get up to speed quickly on new sectors, and go deep on the topics they know best.”
— Mike Conover, CEO of Brightwave
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Deals We’re Watching
Founders to Watch and Opportunities to Catch
Open Deals:
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Multilingual Messaging Portal - Sydney, AU - Global, AWS-backed SaaS platform for businesses to communicate with clients without language barriers. $300k secured, seeking $650k for U.S. expansion. (Series A)
AI Agent Employees - New York - Sophisticated workflow automation for businesses, by a previously-exited founder. Building towards fully autonomous organizations. Backed by Tribe & Kenetic, rolling out to extensive waitlist.
Outbound B2B Campaign AI Co-Pilot - Lexington, MA - Turn any CRM into an AI optimized sales agent for personalized customer campaigns. Founder previous exit to PE. Notable Angel on board. Top Hubspot App. Post revenue. (Seed)
Trending Tools and Buzzy Tech
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Tech
Unigrid - Raised $12M Series A to explore sodium-ion battery alternatives.
Amazon - Offers $230M in AWS credits to AI startups to power products.
Chips Update - 1. Cerebras Giant Chips challenge supercomputers speed. | 2. Samsung custom AI Chips + ‘turnkey’ AI chip solutions platform.
Closed Deals:
3x Since December - French Foundational AI startup Mistral AI raised a $640M Series B at a $6.2B valuation led by General Catalyst, with a16z, Lightspeed, Nvidia, Samsung, Cisco, and IBM all chipping in.
Cruise Control - GM put down another $850M on autonomous vehicle subsidiary Cruise despite saying it would cut back on funding it this year.
Deals to Watch:
Foundation Robotics Labs - Humanoid robotics startup co-founded by Synapse CEO Sankaet Pathak, Tribe Capital CEO Arjun Sethi, and Cobalt Robotics’ co-founder Mike LeBlancis is closing in on an $11M seed round.
Tenstorrent - Samsung is leading a $300M round into Canadian AI chip startup Tenstorrent at $2B pre-money. CEO Jim Keller is an ex Apple, Tesla veteran. Manufacturing partner LG, and Fidelity, & Hyundai are also joining.
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