Quick Bite - Backup, Superintelligence, Japan

Salesforce, Own Company, Safe Superintelligence, Sakana AI

Salesforce Owns Backup

Salesforce has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Own Company , a New Jersey-based data management and protection company, for $1.9 billion. The announcement signals Salesforce’s return to larger deals after a period of reduced M&A activity. Own Company specializes in cloud data backup and recovery solutions. The company started with a SaaS data management platform for Salesforce and subsequently expanded to Microsoft Dynamics 365 and ServiceNow .

Own Company last raised $240 million in a Series E round in 2021 at a post-money valuation of $3.35 billion. That round was co-led by Alkeon Capital and B Capital , with participation from BlackRock , Tiger Global Management , and Salesforce Ventures , which had been an early backer. Existing investors Insight Partners , Sapphire Ventures , and Vertex Ventures also contributed, bringing total funding to nearly $500 million.

The exit at $1.9 billion, while lower than last valuation, provides a reasonable return for investors in a relatively soft M&A market. The deal reflects the shifting landscape for tech startups as investors place greater emphasis on profitability vs. growth.

OpenAI Co-founder Ilya Sutskever Raises $1B

Not a lot to say here except Ilya Sutskever who left OpenAI over the summer, and then promptly announced a new venture under the moniker Safe Superintelligence Inc. (SSI), has raised $1B in funding from Andreessen Horowitz , Sequoia Capital , DST Global , SV Angel , Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross (who is also a co-founder of SSI)

SSI launched in June with the explicit goal of creating a super intelligence while prioritizing safety -

SSI is our mission, our name, and our entire product roadmap, because it is our sole focus. Our team, investors, and business model are all aligned to achieve SSI.

The founding team includes Daniel Levy besides Ilya and Daniel Gross. The company has offices in Palo Alto and Tel Aviv.

Japan-based Sakana AI Raises $100M

Sakana AI , a Tokyo-based AI company, has raised a $100 million in Series A funding as it accelerates its efforts to advance artificial intelligence research and development in Japan. The funding round, led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA) , Khosla Ventures , and Lux Capital , also included significant participation from 英伟达 , marking a strategic partnership between the Japanese startup and the U.S. chip giant.

The company was founded in 2023 by a group of former Google DeepMind engineers, and focuses on developing nature-inspired foundation models aimed at automating and expediting AI development. The company raised $30 million in a seed round led by Lux Capital in January and is now ramping up its operations to establish itself as a key player in Japan’s AI landscape.

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My day job is advising growing companies on fundraising and M&A. If you are an investor or entrepreneur I'd love to connect .