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Stifel Adds Former SVB Leaders to Its Venture-Banking Practice
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By Brian Gormley, WSJ Pro
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Good day. Stifel Financial Corp. is expanding its venture-banking business with help from three former Silicon Valley Bank leaders.
Stifel Financial, a St. Louis-based holding company that provides investment banking and other financial services, has hired former SVB employees Jake Moseley, Matt Trotter and Ted Wilson as managing directors. They will be leaders in the unit along with Brad Ellis and Nat Stone, who co-founded the venture-banking group in 2019.
With SVB, Mr. Moseley led the bank’s relationships with technology companies, Mr. Trotter worked on products for companies in transportation, energy and other sectors, and Mr. Wilson headed enterprise software. They will be based in the San Francisco Bay Area, Stifel said.
SVB, which collapsed earlier this month, has been replaced by Silicon Valley Bridge Bank, which holds SVB’s deposits and substantially all its assets. SVB was a top lender to startups. Its troubles have sparked concerns that venture debt will grow more expensive and harder to obtain.
Stifel Chairman and Chief Executive Ron Kruszewski declined to specify the amount Stifel plans to invest in its venture-banking group but said the firm seeks to expand the practice. In addition to venture debt, Stifel aims to provide other services to the venture community, including treasury and wealth management, he added.
“It’s not a new business line for us, but we’re going to make a pretty nice investment in the space,” Mr. Kruszewski said.
And now on to the news...
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Databricks Co-Founder and Chief Executive Ali Ghodsi. PHOTO: DATABRICKS INC.
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Databricks joins generative AI race. Databricks Inc. on Friday launched an artificial-intelligence language model that it says developers can easily replicate to build their own ChatGPT-like apps, joining a field of technology firms racing to capture a piece of the fast-growing generative AI market, WSJ Pro’s Angus Loten reports. Like OpenAI’s viral ChatGPT chatbot, Databricks’s language model can be used to generate natural-language responses to user prompts, the data-management startup said. But unlike similar tools, the company said, its model can produce equally compelling results from a much smaller set of training data—six billion parameters, compared to more than
170 billion for the model underlying ChatGPT—making it more accessible to a wider group of software developers.
More AI coverage:
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SVB Collapse Put Pressure on Startups Without a CFO
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Not having a finance chief or other financial professional is common at early-stage companies whose priority is often growth. Many startups simply rely on their venture-capital backers or their banks to provide financial guidance. Yet while startups often don’t focus on building out their finance function when they are first seeded, industry players say the Silicon Valley Bank collapse underscores the need for at least some financial management beyond the guidance they get from their VCs or the banks where they park their cash, WSJ’s CFO Journal reports.
More coverage:
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FTX Agrees to Sell Back Stake in Crypto Startup Mysten for $95 Million
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Bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX Trading Ltd. said it has reached a deal to sell preferred shares in Mysten Labs Inc. back to the crypto startup founded by former Meta Platforms Inc. executives for roughly $95 million, WSJ Pro reports. The proposed deal, disclosed Thursday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., is subject to higher bids and court approval. As part of the deal, FTX and Mysten have agreed to release claims against each other, a court filing showed.
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FTX Ventures Ltd., the venture-capital unit of the bankrupt company, had bought the Mysten preferred shares for roughly $101 million in August in a funding round that raised roughly $300 million, valuing Mysten at more than $2 billion. FTX Ventures had led an investment consortium that also included Apollo Global Management Inc., Franklin Resources Inc. and Lightspeed Management Co.
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People
Vaya Space Inc., a hybrid rocket engine and small satellite launcher, said Leonardo Riera was appointed chief strategy officer of the company and joined the board. He was previously at Bankers Trust and Citicorp Investment Bank.
Azafaros BV, which is developing therapeutics for patients living with severe rare genetic diseases, named Silvia Ragno as chief operating officer. She previously co-founded and was COO of Stargazer Pharmaceuticals Inc.
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Amogy Inc., a Brooklyn, N.Y.-based clean-energy startup, scored $139 million in Series B1 funding from investors including venture-capital firms Aramco Ventures and DCVC. The company offers ammonia-based, emission-free power technology to the heavy-duty transportation sector.
Artera Inc., a developer of artificial-intelligence-based predictive and prognostic cancer tests, launched with $90 million across two funding rounds. Investors included Coatue Management and Breyer Capital.
Apprentice.io, a Jersey City, N.J.-based platform for life-science manufacturers, picked up a $65 million investment led by new backer Iconiq Growth.
Workera, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based skills-intelligence platform, closed a $23.5 million Series B round led by Jump Capital.
Luma AI Inc., a Palo Alto, Calif.-based 3D technology startup, raised $20 million in Series A funding led by Amplify Partners.
Dope.security, a cybersecurity startup, closed a $16 million Series A round. GV led the investment, with General Partner Sangeen Zeb joining the company’s board.
Clerk, a San Francisco-based authentication and user-management platform, secured $15 million in Series A funding. Madrona Venture Group led the round, with Managing Director Karan Mehandru joining the board.
Daily.dev, an Israel-based professional network for developers, landed $11 million in seed funding. Aleph led the investment, and General Partner Michael Eisenberg will join the board.
CodiumAI, an Israel-based startup that analyzes code and generates tests to catch bugs before they reach production, was seeded with a $10.6 million investment from TLV Partners and others.
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TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew defended the platform’s data-security policies in testimony before the House Energy and Commerce Committee. PHOTO: TASOS KATOPODIS/GETTY IMAGES
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