Good day. Last week, NFX, a venture-capital firm focused on pre-seed and seed-stage startup deals, hosted a networking event at its San Francisco office for artificial intelligence startups. Founders, most with only a handful of employees and little or no fundraising, connected with each other and venture capitalists over drinks and appetizers.

Similar events have been popping up throughout San Francisco as interest and venture investment surges in the AI sector. These events range from simple networking socials to structured hackathon-style weeklong events that culminate with demo presentations, drinks and meet-and-greet sessions.

Nick Rudder, a co-founder and the chief executive of AI startup Sphere, said he was at the NFX event to learn more about the burgeoning tech from his contemporaries to help with his startup’s development.

“We’re still in the early stages where you need to bounce ideas off of others and get different perspectives,” Rudder said.

Sphere is developing technology that allows content owners to make money when large language models scrape their content, Rudder said. The startup raised $4 million in 2022 in a deal led by Felicis Ventures.

Rudder said he has attended numerous AI events in the city and gets a newsletter with them listed. Startup founders typically attend to learn more about the field, scout for hires and, in the case of founders of more mature startups, keep abreast of emerging AI tech that could disrupt their business, Rudder said.

“You always see the same similar faces,” Rudder said.

And now on to the news...

Charging startups. Electric vehicle-charging startups are racing to cash in on California’s drive to electrify truck fleets in the state, The Wall Street Journal reports.

• A clutch of companies are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to lease or buy land, install charging infrastructure and in some cases even order dozens of heavy-duty electric trucks to jump-start the nascent industry.
   
• The competition is heating up because of recent California regulations that force some trucking companies and owner-operators to begin buying electric vehicles starting Jan. 1, 2024.

Singapore state-investment company Temasek Holdings said it has cut the compensation of its senior management and a team that led it to invest $275 million in crypto exchange FTX, as the country tries to move past an embarrassing loss that drew much local criticism, WSJ reports. Temasek, which is owned by the city-state’s government, last year engaged an independent team to conduct an internal review of its FTX investment, which was made across two funding rounds from October 2021 to January 2022. The review found no misconduct by an investment team that had recommended Temasek buy a stake in FTX, Temasek Chairman Lim Boon Heng said in a statement Monday. He added that the team and senior management, which ultimately made the decision to invest, “took collective accountability and had their compensation reduced.” Temasek didn’t say how much their remuneration was reduced by.

The Ford Foundation is doubling down on increasing diversity in the asset-management industry after pouring nearly $400 million into “mission investments” over the past six years, WSJ Pro reports. The New York foundation—one of the country’s most well-known and oldest charitable organizations—co-led more than 100 participants in a $168 million fund raised by impact investor Illumen Capital, which wrapped up the effort earlier this month. As a fund-of-funds manager, Illumen backs private-equity, venture-capital and growth investment strategies while seeking to help fund sponsors increase diversity in their portfolio holdings.

Elon Musk’s brain-implant startup Neuralink said it has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to begin the company’s first human clinical study, WSJ reports. The company is working on a device that will allow people to control computer interfaces with their brains. Neuralink said the devices would help restore vision and enable people with severe disabilities to move and communicate by decoding brain activity. Neuralink plans to open clinics where surgical robots will implant the devices into the brains of patients. The robot surgeon threads Neuralink’s proprietary electrodes, or brain-signal recording wires, into the brain.

People

Canadian sustainable lithium extraction technology developer Summit Nanotech appointed Gautam Parimoo as the company’s first chief operations officer. He was most recently COO at Lake Resources.

Carmot Therapeutics, a Berkeley, Calif.-based developer of disease-modifying therapies for metabolic diseases including obesity and diabetes, secured $150 million in Series E financing. Deep Track Capital led the round, which included participation from 5AM Ventures, TCGX and others.  

Nymbus, a Jacksonville, Fla.-based financial technology provider, completed a $70 million Series D round from investors including Mendon Venture Partners.

Novisto, a Montreal-based environmental, social and governance data management software startup, landed $20 million in Series B funding led by Inovia Capital.

Satellite Vu, a U.K.-based climate tech startup, added £12.7 million (about $15.8 million) in Series A2 funding. Molten Ventures led the investment, and George Chalmers is joining the board. The company is launching a satellite constellation to identify and monitor heat waste from the built environment.

Opus, a New York-based training platform for businesses with a deskless workforce, raised $6.8 million in Series A funding. Stage 2 Capital led the round, with Partner Mandy Cole joining the company’s board.

HostGPO, a procurement marketplace for vacation rental hosts, closed a $6 million funding round from investors including Navitas Capital.

Wellplaece, a San Francisco-based procurement platform for dental practices, launched with $5.5 million in seed funding led by Eniac Ventures and Bee Partners. The company was co-founded by Caen Contee, a founding team member of micromobility startup Lime.

• Chip firms, wary of break with China, seek looser limits on federal cash
   
• What’s the best background for video calls? Most people get it wrong
   
• Israeli cyber company NSO Group has new ownership after U.S. blacklist
   
• Tesla, Ford team up in EV-charging deal
   
• Reality is broken. We have AI photos to blame.

This newsletter was compiled by Marc Vartabedian and Zachary Cole.

WSJ Pro Venture Capital is a premium service of The Wall Street Journal. We cover venture capital and the global startup ecosystem. Share your tips, comments and questions: vcnews@wsj.com

The Team: Matthew Strozier, Yuliya Chernova, Brian Gormley, Angus Loten and Marc Vartabedian.

Follow us on Twitter: @wsjvc