|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
SVB Disruptions Continue; JMI Equity Collects $2.4 Billion
|
|
By Marc Vartabedian, WSJ Pro
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Good day. Last week was a whirlwind for investors and entrepreneurs. From banking issues to a slowdown in new deals, venture players had lots to keep up with. See below for the SVB news you need to start your week.
And now on to the news...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Backers of JMI Equity’s 11th main fund include the State of Wisconsin Investment Board and the Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Management Board.
PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO
|
|
|
|
|
|
Growth fund. Growth investor JMI Equity overcame a difficult fundraising market to wrap up its 11th main fund with commitments of $2.4 billion, completing a fundraising drive during a period when many smaller firms struggled to reach their capital goals, WSJ Pro reports.
-
The Baltimore firm said it had a $2 billion goal for the new vehicle, JMI Equity Fund XI, when it first registered the fund with the Securities and Exchange Commission in February 2022.
-
A JMI Equity spokesman said the firm wouldn’t comment about the fundraising effort.
|
|
|
|
|
3%
|
|
The European Central Bank Thursday defied market expectations and raised its key rate to 3% from 2.5%.
|
|
|
|
|
Richard Branson’s Satellite-Launch Venture Has Fallen Fast
|
|
|
Two months ago, Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit Holdings Inc. was poised to make history delivering the first satellites into orbit from the billionaire’s home country of the U.K., The Wall Street Journal reports. That high-profile launch from Cornwall, England, went badly, ending in the destruction of its satellite payload and triggering a probe into what went wrong. Now, Virgin Orbit is in talks with two financial institutions about a bailout and has furloughed staff, according to a person familiar with the matter. It has been a meteoric fall for a once-hot company that has tried to build a business launching smaller satellites to space.
|
|
TikTok’s Chinese Parent Has Another Wildly Popular App in the U.S.
|
|
|
One of the hottest apps in the U.S. right now is TikTok’s lesser-known sibling that is also owned by Chinese parent ByteDance Ltd., The Wall Street Journal reports. App trackers show that CapCut, a video-editing tool that helps people quickly create online videos and memes, has been downloaded more in recent weeks than TikTok, the short-video sharing app that has faced rigorous scrutiny in the U.S. over ByteDance’s access to user data. CapCut allows people to edit videos easily with various templates, filters, visual effects and music. Users say it helps them produce clips that look more professional and have a better chance of going viral on TikTok and other platforms such
as Instagram and YouTube.
|
|
Baidu’s ChatGPT Rival Launches to Mixed Reviews
|
|
|
At an intimate event space in Baidu Inc.’s Beijing headquarters on Thursday, the Chinese search giant’s Chief Executive Robin Li sought to wow an in-person and online audience by introducing its AI-powered chatbot, Ernie Bot, The Wall Street Journal reports. Over half an hour, Mr. Li showed a series of prerecorded videos of the chatbot—the first real Chinese contender to ChatGPT, developed by San Francisco-based firm OpenAI—answering questions about Chinese literature, solving math problems and generating images and videos. The only thing missing was a live demo of Ernie Bot itself, an omission that initially drew sharp criticism from online viewers.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
People
Cyber threat intelligence provider Cyble appointed Mahesh Vandi Chalil to the post of chief product and technology officer. He was previously chief technology officer at BookMyShow.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Payabli, a Miami-based payments Infrastructure startup, added $8 million in seed funding from investors including TTV Capital and Bling Capital to close the round at $12 million.
Droplet Biosciences, a Cambridge, Mass.-based lymph diagnostic platform, landed $8 million in seed financing led by The Engine.
Monitaur Inc., a Boston-based artificial intelligence governance software startup, picked up a $4.6 million investment. Cultivation Capital led the round, with General Partner John True joining the company’s board.
Prescient AI, a Miami-based marketing attribution platform, was seeded with a $4.5 million investment led by Blumberg Capital.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Justice Department opens the probe as the Biden administration shifts to a tougher approach toward the video-sharing app. PHOTO: ERIC LEE FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
