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Stanford's Christopher Manning Joins AIX Ventures Full Time
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By Yuliya Chernova, WSJ Pro
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Good day. Christopher Manning, one of the most cited researchers in the field of natural language processing and a former director of the Stanford AI Lab, has taken a leave of absence from Stanford University to work at venture firm AIX Ventures as a general partner.
Manning, who has been with San Francisco-based AIX in a part-time investing role since 2021, will now devote himself more fully to investing and advising portfolio companies. AIX has backed startups including HuggingFace, Weights & Biases and Perplexity.
“The best AI-native engineers all know Chris and they want to work with him,” said AIX Founding Partner Shaun Johnson.
Manning’s investments to date at AIX include voice keyboard company Wispr Flow; online shopping services company Curated For You; Workhelix, which helps companies deploy AI; and hospital scheduling platform Chromie Health.
We spoke with Manning about the latest research developments in AI, the war for AI talent between universities and corporations, and other topics. Responses were edited for length and clarity.
WSJ Pro: Is it becoming less important for AI startup founders to come from Ph.D.-level AI research backgrounds?
Manning: Knowledge of how to build modern neural-network-based AI systems is clearly getting broader. A decade ago, really it was a very small circle of people in academic settings. Things are changing because there’s so much more tooling available. We believe many of the most successful, iconic companies will have in the founding team people who are really deep AI experts because they are the ones who’ll be able to see opportunities that others haven’t observed.
Read the rest of the article.
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And now on to the news...
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Wonderful co-founders Bar Winkler, left, and Roey Lalazar. PHOTO: DANIEL JACKONT
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AI agents. Many AI-agent developers are set on conquering the U.S. market. Not Wonderful. The Tel Aviv startup raised $34 million in a seed round led by Index Ventures to build customer-support agents for businesses in non-English speaking countries, WSJ Pro reports.
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Wonderful, incorporated in January, was valued at about $150 million in the financing, according to a person familiar with the situation. The deal also included capital from Bessemer Venture Partners and Vine Ventures.
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Wonderful’s agents interact using voice, chat and email, and help businesses serve their customers in a variety of ways, from helping with insurance claims to fixing internet connectivity issues.
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3.5 Million
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California's estimated shortage of homes. Developers in the state are celebrating the rollback of a landmark environmental law.
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Design-Software Maker Figma Files for IPO
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Figma has filed to go public, The Wall Street Journal reports. The company said it intends to list shares under the symbol FIG on the New York Stock Exchange, according to a Tuesday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The design-software maker company didn’t disclose the expected price range or number of shares it plans to offer. The company saw sales of $749 million in 2024, up 48% from the year before. Revenue was $228.2 million for the three months ended March 31, up 46% from the same period a year prior, the company said.
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Climeworks Raises $162 Million in Its Latest Financing
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Swiss carbon-removal startup Climeworks has raised more than $1 billion in total equity funding, after it secured $162 million in its latest round, WSJ Pro reports. The company, which was set up in 2009 to remove carbon emissions from the atmosphere, has been backed by some of the world’s largest organizations, including Microsoft, BCG and Morgan Stanley. Its technology, known as direct air capture, sucks carbon dioxide from the atmosphere using giant plants.
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Last year, Climeworks pivoted to a strategy in which it acts as a buyer of credits in other forms of carbon removal, such as reforestation, enhanced rock weathering and biochar, on behalf of its customers. Typically, credits in these forms of carbon removal are much cheaper than DAC.
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Funds
London-based Celero Ventures is raising its debut $25 million fund to invest in European early-stage startups building next-generation AI and data infrastructure.
People
Doppel, a social engineering defense platform, hired Bobby Ford as chief strategy and experience officer. He was most recently at Hewlett Packard Enterprise.
Deals
Grammarly, an AI assistant for communication and productivity, agreed to acquire Superhuman, an AI-native email app.
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Klar, a Mexico City-based digital financial services platform, landed a $190 million growth investment, including $20 million in debt. General Atlantic led the round, which values the company at more than $800 million.
Genesis AI, a physical AI research lab and full-stack robotics company, emerged from stealth with $105 million in funding co-led by Eclipse and Khosla Ventures.
Ambrook, a New York-based provider of accounting software for family-run businesses, raised a $26.1 million Series A round led by Thrive Capital and Dylan Field at Field Ventures.
Emerald AI, a platform enabling AI data centers to flexibly adjust their power consumption from the electricity grid on demand, launched with $24.5 million in seed funding led by Radical Ventures.
Remark, a Boston-based startup building human-trained AI product experts to guide customer journeys, secured $16 million in Series A financing led by Inspired Capital.
Wisq, a Redwood City, Calif.-based agentic AI platform built for HR, collected a $15 million funding round from investors including Norwest Venture Partners and True Ventures.
Deeto, a New York-based marketing platform helping companies capture and activate authentic customer voices, picked up $12.5 million in Series A funding led by Jump Capital.
TopK, a Prague-based startup building an AI-native search engine for enterprises, was seeded with a $5.5 million investment from Earlybird Venture Capital and others.
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Large-scale wind and solar projects would qualify for tax credits only if placed in service by the end of 2027. PHOTO: GODOFREDO A. VÁSQUEZ/ASSOCIATED PRESS
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Insider-led rounds on track to beat 2021 record (The Information)
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VC firm lines up $200M fund to champion Japanese innovation (Endpoints News)
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