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Basis Set Ventures Rides AI Bet to Its Fourth Fund
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By Yuliya Chernova, WSJ Pro
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Good day. Basis Set Ventures was an AI investor long before ChatGPT was a household word.
Launched in 2017 by founder and Managing Partner Lan Xuezhao, Basis Set was one of the first funds dedicated to AI.
The firm’s early bet on artificial intelligence led to a portfolio of more than 60 companies. Basis Set has now raised its fourth fund, a $250 million pool of capital.
Named after a mathematical concept, Basis Set was a seed investor in online retailer Quince; large language model developer Thinking Machines Lab; Mem0, which is creating long-term memory capabilities for AI models; AI-for-chemistry startup CuspAI, and others.
Even before founding the firm, Lan wrote a check for data-labeling company Scale AI’s seed round. Meta acquired a 49% stake in Scale AI last year for about $14 billion, sending a check worth 500 times what Lan invested back to her, she said.
Basis Set Ventures IV, closed in December, is larger than its $185 million third fund, which the firm raised in 2023 and activated in 2024. The larger fund will help write bigger checks to keep up with rising valuations, Lan said.
The next generation of AI will be more humanlike, with memory and social awareness, Lan said. Lan, who has a Ph.D. in psychology, calls that “unified cognition.” “I spend time looking at fundamental tech improvements in the direction of unified cognition,” she said, adding that this includes the infrastructure that supports it, applications in specific areas such as supply-chain, industrial robotics, material discovery, commerce and others.
Read the full article
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And now on to the news...
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Upwind Security is based in San Francisco. PHOTO: KIRBY LEE/USA TODAY SPORTS/REUTERS
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Cloud-security startup valued at $1.5 billion. Upwind Security, a cloud cybersecurity startup, has raised $250 million in Series B funding, lifting its market valuation to roughly $1.5 billion, the company said Monday. The round, led by Bessemer Venture Partners, brings Upwind’s total funding to $430 million, amassed in under three years. Returning investors in its latest round include Greylock Partners, Cyberstarts, Leaders Fund and Sheva. Salesforce Ventures and Picture Capital joined as first-time investors. Amiram Shachar, Upwind’s co-founder and chief executive, said that growth is being driven by the rapid pace of cloud-based AI adoption.
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“The cloud has changed so much in the past five years, and many of the principles historically used to secure cloud environments are no longer sufficient."
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—Amiram Shachar, Upwind’s co-founder and chief executive
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Wall Street Has Fallen Out of Love With Software Stocks
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Once a favorite of Wall Street, software stocks have been sliding lately, with investors increasingly concerned about how the sector could be upended by their newest crush: artificial-intelligence companies. Rocked by the emergence of “vibe coding”—the practice of using AI tools to quickly produce apps and websites—software heavyweights Salesforce, Adobe and ServiceNow are all down at least 30% since the start of last year. At a time when many investors are wondering if the AI investment boom itself might be a bubble, software’s slump is a reminder of how quickly fortunes can change on Wall Street.
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South Korea Issues Strict New AI Rules, Outpacing the West
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South Korea says it has enacted the world’s first comprehensive set of laws governing artificial intelligence. The six-chapter, 43-article “AI Basic Act” law took effect Thursday. South Korea’s laws cover an unusually vast terrain of activity and players, aiming to protect citizens and establish a “foundation for trust” in an AI society. Individual users aren’t targeted.
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Explore The Wall Street Journal: From Headlines to Action
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The Wall Street Journal helps your employees connect what’s happening in the world to your company goals. The Journal’s award-winning journalists interpret news and data to tell unbiased stories to help your employees stay informed and make confident decisions.
Join us on Jan. 29 for a deep dive into the challenges that CFOs and other top executives are working to overcome, including the impact of tariffs and geopolitical conflicts on corporate finance and private equity.
Have a question you’d like to submit in advance? Send your question to wsjcorporate@dowjones.com and we’ll address your questions during the Q&A.
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Funds
Venture firm 2150, which focuses on sustainability challenges facing urban and industrial environments, closed its second fund with €210 million in commitments.
People
Amplify, a Los Angeles-focused pre-seed investor, appointed Alex Rubalcava as a general partner and promoted Connor Sundberg to partner.
ThetaRay, a cognitive AI platform for financial crime compliance, appointed Brad Levy as chief executive. He was most recently CEO of Symphony.
Cubist, provider of a secure operating system for digital assets, named Rohan Chauhan as president. He previously served as director of strategy at Gemini, and CEO of the company’s prediction markets platform.
Hume AI, a developer of voice AI models powered by emotional intelligence, appointed Andrew Ettinger as chief executive. Most recently, he served as chief revenue officer at Appen.
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Orbital, an AI platform for real-estate law, scored $60 million in Series B funding. Brighton Park Capital led the investment, with Partner Kevin Magan joining the company’s board. Orbital has offices in New York and London.
AheadComputing, a Portland, Ore.-based startup developing central processing unit microarchitecture to meet the demands of AI workloads, secured $30 million in seed2 funding co-led by Eclipse, Toyota Ventures and Cambium Capital.
Cambio, a San Francisco-based AI-native commercial real-estate operations platform, raised $18 million in Series A funding. Maverick Ventures led the round, which included contributions from Y Combinator, Adverb Ventures, Peterson Ventures and others.
Symbiotic Security, a secure code generation agent provider, was seeded with a $10 million investment. Alven led the round, which included participation from Lerer Hippeau and Axeleo.
Nexxa.ai, a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based startup building specialized AI agents for heavy industries, was seeded with a $9 million investment. Construct Capital led the financing, which included additional support from a16z speedrun.
AiStrike, a Pleasanton, Calif.-based preemptive cyber defense provider, nabbed a $7 million seed investment led by Blumberg Capital.
Legato, a Tel Aviv-based startup enabling SaaS platforms to embed an AI builder directly inside their products, collected a $7 million seed investment. S Capital VC led the round, which saw participation from Cerca Partners.
Sparkli, a Switzerland-based startup building a multimodal learning engine for children, emerged from stealth with $5 million in pre-seed funding led by Founderful.
Consio AI, a Toronto-based voice platform that automates phone-based engagements for ecommerce brands, snagged a $3.3 million investment led by RTP Global.
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Deel’s Alex Bouaziz spoke at a Toronto conference in 2022. VAUGHN RIDLEY/SPORTSFILE/GETTY IMAGES
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