Next-gen chips slash AI deployment costs + Russia stokes US disaster disinformation

A weekly selection of news and investment opportunities from OurCrowd, the global venture investing platform

Startup of the Week

NeuReality’s next-gen chips slash AI deployment costs

The explosion of interest in AI that followed the release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT underscores the immediate need for more accessible AI processing. NVIDIA, the global AI processing chip leader and partner in OurCrowd’s AI fund has seen its valuation soar to more than $3.3T. OurCrowd portfolio company?NeuReality ?is redefining AI deployment with a proprietary system that enables companies to accelerate the adoption of AI by providing a new infrastructure for AI processing. The company’s proprietary, dedicated architecture significantly improves performance while slashing hardware and energy costs. NeuReality’s first AI inference appliance chips have already reached customers through its go-to-market collaboration with a multinational semiconductor giant. The company has a similar agreement with a global AI leader. NeuReality is raising a Series B round in the run-up to 2025 when the company forecasts significant revenue growth. Additional information is available under NDA.?

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Sprout incubator startup raises funding for point-of-care diagnostic tool

DNAiTECH, a New Zealand biotech startup nurtured at OurCrowd’s?Sprout Agritech incubator , raised NZ$1M (US$600K) for its hand-held diagnostics device that can identify a broad spectrum of animal diseases without the need for a laboratory, Gerhard Uys reports for?Farmers Weekly . “Diseases like Johne's in livestock or measles in humans drive significant losses, both economically and in terms of human life, especially in developing countries,” Murray Broom, Co-founder of DNAiTECH,?tells Imee Dequito at Channel Life . “The ability to deliver an instant, accurate diagnosis at the point of care changes the game. It's the difference between taking the problem to the lab; or taking science to the problem.” Sprout is included in the?OurCrowd Incubator Fund ?now raising on the OurCrowd platform.

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Terra CO2 wins $52.6M for low-carbon cement plant

Terra CO2 , OurCrowd’s developer of a low-carbon cementitious material to replace Portland Cement in construction, was?awarded $52.6M ?by the US Department of Energy to establish a new manufacturing facility in Magna, UT. The project was one of 14 awarded $428M to accelerate domestic clean energy manufacturing in 15 coal communities across the US. The Terra CO2 project will create 61 new jobs, and will train and upskill up to 144 people from underrepresented populations. “By leveraging the know-how and skillset of the former coal workforce, we are strengthening our national security while helping advance forward-facing technologies and revitalize communities across the nation,” says Jennifer Granholm, US Secretary of Energy.

Cyabra: Russia amplified hurricane disinformation to divide Americans

Russia helped amplify and spread false and misleading internet claims about recent hurricanes in the US and the federal government’s response, part of a wider effort by the Kremlin to manipulate America’s political discourse before the presidential election. Researchers at OurCrowd portfolio company?Cyabra ?“analyzed popular posts on X that criticized FEMA for its storm response. A significant number could not be verified as belonging to a real person; one-quarter of all the responses to popular posts were deemed fake. The posts were seen by users over half a billion times,” David Klepper reports for?the LA Times .

Citi increases DailyPay credit commitment to $200M

DailyPay , OurCrowd’s provider of earned wage access, secured an?additional $100M commitment ?to its secured credit facility capacity from Citi, doubling Citi's commitment to $200M and bringing DailyPay's total revolving secured debt facility commitment to $760M, including $500M from Barclays and $60M from TPG Angelo Gordon. The secured credit facility will help DailyPay to service its growing roster of clients. DailyPay partners with leading employers, from Fortune 500 companies to small businesses, to offer earned wage access and other products and services to their employees.?

Ursa Major wins $4M US defense funding

Ursa Major , OurCrowd’s manufacturer of 3D printed rocket engines, won a $4M grant from America Makes, a non-profit run out of the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining. The company will use the funds to purchase a Velo3D Sapphire XE Metal 3D printer to begin printing flight-qualified engine components at its Youngstown facility after three years of commercializing a NASA-developed copper alloy. The end goal is to produce 50 to 100 liquid-fueled rocket engines a year, Ursa Major COO Nick Doucette tells Tim Fernholz at Payload .

Is it ethical for investors to bite the bullet and bet on future freedom?

“What is ‘ethical’ investing?” asks OurCrowd CEO Jon Medved. "Should investors only back projects that heal the sick, feed the hungry and cause no harm to anyone? Or should we also provide the resources to defend our freedoms against dictators and warmongers who threaten the security of the modern world? In a world facing the combined evils of Russia, Iran and North Korea – and their non-state terrorist allies – should VC be playing its part by investing in defense startups?” Jon explores this timely question in his new ‘Investors on the Frontlines ’ column.?

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Startup Nation Central: OurCrowd Israel’s most active VC investor

The latest report from?Startup Nation Central ?shows OurCrowd continues to be the most active venture investor in Israeli startups with more than double the number of investments of the next most active VC, including 22 first time rounds between Q1 and Q3 2024. VC investment in Israel in Q3 grew by 13% compared to the same period in 2023, compared to growth of 10% in the US, a 41% YOY decline in Europe, and 12% drop in Asia. The comparative resilience of Israel’s venture sector is striking when set against global trends and persistent military threats to Israel from Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran. OurCrowd has consistently been rated as the most active venture investor in Israel by PitchBook, IVC, and other reports each year since we launched the platform in 2013.

Deloitte picks C2A to drive product security, risk management innovation

Deloitte Germany?has teamed up ?with?C2A Security , OurCrowd’s product security company for software-defined products, to help clients meet cybersecurity demands at scale. Deloitte will offer its expertise in software implementation projects to support tool migration, risk management expert advice, project management, and tailoring of EVSec, C2A Security’s pioneering DevSecOps platform. EVSec automates cybersecurity and enables cross-functional sharing and collaboration between teams, customers, and supply chains. “This will help companies across numerous sectors, even beyond our automotive customers, to step up their cybersecurity practices, automate risk management, and be compliant with current and future regulations,” says Andreas (Andi) Herzig, Advisory Board Member at C2A Security and Partner at Deloitte.

Alloy Therapeutics signs vaccine agreement with Scripps Research

Alloy Therapeutics , an OurCrowd portfolio company dedicated to democratizing access to biologics drug discovery platforms and services, signed an?institutional licensing agreement? with Scripps Research for Alloy’s ATX-Gx platform for fully human antibody discovery. The non-exclusive license enables all Scripps Research scientists to use the ATX-Gx platform for antibody drug and vaccine discovery workstreams. Scripps Research has been at the forefront of biomedical research since its founding in 1924, and involved in the development of more than 15 FDA-approved medicines.?

Liquid Instruments integrates AI with reconfigurable test instrumentation

Liquid Instruments , OurCrowd’s Australian-founded startup whose technology is revolutionizing laboratory tests and measurements, has?integrated? AI into its Moku platform, which removes the need to maintain multiple testing instruments for different purposes. The company’s new Moku Neural Network enables users to deploy machine learning models to physical systems for applications like signal analysis, denoising, sensor conditioning, and closed-loop feedback. “The Moku Neural Network is designed to enable scientists and engineers to easily integrate machine learning into their experiments,” says Daniel Shaddock, Co-founder and CEO of Liquid Instruments. “This latest release demonstrates the platform’s extensibility, adding new AI/ML capabilities through a software update.”

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More than 900 high-tech jobs worldwide

Looking for a job? You may find your next adventure with an OurCrowd portfolio company on our?Portfolio Jobs ?page. We have more than 900 vacancies at our portfolio companies around the world, seeking skilled staff at all levels from coders to bookkeepers, data scientists to dealmakers. Click on the link and start looking for the next step in your high-tech journey.

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About this Newsletter

Startup Beat?is a weekly selection of news and investment opportunities from?OurCrowd , the global venture investing platform.

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OurCrowd is a global venture and private market alternatives investing platform. To date we have more than $2.3 billion in commitments, 235,000 registered investors, 460 portfolio companies, 57 venture funds and 65 exits.

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