Funding & Deals

AEO startup Profound hits unicorn valuation, raises $180M Series D 7 months after last round

Profound has raised a $180 million Series D at a $1.8 billion valuation, less than seven months after it raised a $96 million Series C.

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Profound, a startup that builds marketing software to help brands appear in AI search results, has raised $180 million in Series D funding at a $1.8 billion valuation, just seven months after its previous funding round. The company operates in the AEO space, which focuses on helping businesses surface their products in AI systems that customers use for search. Profound's rapid funding reflects growing investor interest in this emerging market, as the startup has tripled its revenue in the past six months and now serves over 1,000 enterprise customers.

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Anthropic pushes ahead with pre-Thanksgiving IPO despite tech selloff, accepts lower valuation

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Top chip manufacturer TSMC is ready to invest $1 billion in Anthropic and OpenAI. That would give the Taiwanese chipmaker direct stakes in leading AI developers, even as its own contract chipmaking business has profited enormously from the AI data center buildout. The chipmaker’s board approved plans to invest up to $500 million in OpenAI preferred stock reserved for large investors and another $500 million to purchase Anthropic common shares at the latter’s expected IPO price, according to Reut

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OpenAI lands an $11 billion funding round, but has to court dentists for more capital

OpenAI has secured $11 billion in fresh capital, the first tranche of a round that values the company at $1.25 trillion. The full round could swell to $20 billion. That OpenAI is already turning to wealthy private investors hints at a saturating AI capital market and growing investor caution. The article OpenAI lands an $11 billion funding round, but has to court dentists for more capital appeared first on The Decoder.

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Hatz AI raises $24M to help small businesses go AI-native through their MSPs

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Anthropic Seeks Record $88.5B Tied To Public Market Debut

Anthropic is seeking to secure up to $88.5 billion in its planned IPO and a concurrent private placement, potentially making it the largest-ever fundraise tied to a public market debut. On Tuesday, the AI giant submitted an updated S-1 filing for its upcoming public offering, unveiling new details including a proposed share price range offering size. The offering could set a fully diluted valuation of up to $1.4 trillion for the San Francisco company. Anthropic’s expected valuation comes in belo