The U.S. government shutdown that began this week is the first in seven years. While it might not feel immediately disruptive, for startups waiting on permits, visas, or regulatory approvals, even a few weeks can become an existential problem. On this episode of Equity, Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Max Zeff talk through how uncertainty […]
AI slop, government stops, and startup uncertainty Read More »
On Thursday, Andreessen Horowitz released its first AI Spending Report in partnership with the fintech firm Mercury. Using transaction data from Mercury, the report analyzes the top 50 AI-native application layer companies that startups are spending money on, similar to the previously published Top 100 Gen AI Consumer Apps. A16z partners Olivia Mooe and Seema
A new a16z report looks at which AI companies startups are actually paying for Read More »
Crypto neo-bank Shield announced on Monday that it has raised a $5 million seed round led by Giant Ventures. The company launched in 2022 and pivoted to payments in 2024. It allows exporters and importers to conduct cross-border transactions in US cryptocurrencies, while also providing compliance screenings, such as addressing sanctions and money laundering threats.
ChatGPT rivals like Google’s Gemini, xAI’s Grok, and, to a lesser extent, Meta AI, are closing the gap to ChatGPT, OpenAI’s popular AI chatbot, according to a new report focused on the consumer AI landscape from venture firm Andressen Horowitz. The report, in its fifth iteration, showcases two and a half years of data about
Google and Grok are catching up to ChatGPT, says a16z’s latest AI report Read More »
Rex Salisbury, the solo GP behind Cambrian Ventures, fondly recalls the time he fell in love with fintech. The year was 2015, he had recently left his job as an investment banker to try his hand on engineering at a mortgage startup. “That’s when you had companies like Stripe, Plaid, Credit Karma, Wealthfront starting to
Rex Salisbury’s Cambrian Ventures raises new fund, bucking fintech slowdown Read More »
Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen sharply criticized universities including Stanford and MIT, along with the National Science Foundation, in a group chat with AI scientists and Trump administration officials, according to screenshots viewed by the Washington Post. According to the Post, Andreessen described MIT and Stanford (which I attended two decades ago) as “mainly political operations
Cluely, an AI startup that uses a hidden in-browser window to analyze online conversations, has shot to fame with the controversial claim that its ‘undetectability’ feature lets users “cheat on everything.” The company’s co-founder, Roy Lee, was suspended from Columbia University for boasting that he used Cluely, originally called Interview Coder, to “cheat” on a
Why Cluely’s Roy Lee isn’t sweating cheating detectors Read More »
When Cluely, a startup claiming to be building a product that helps people “cheat” on everything, announced that it raised a $15 million Series A financing from Andreessen Horowitz, some people on X criticized the VC firm for backing the controversial company. After all, Cluely isn’t just offering a product that may have questionable uses,
Can AI improve the dating app market? A new dating app called Sitch aims to find out by leveraging human expertise in matchmaking to power its AI model. Today’s dating apps bank on the speed of onboarding and having millions of options. Users create profiles within seconds by uploading photos and answering simple questions. The
Sitch’s new dating app fuses human matchmaking and AI Read More »
Abridge, an AI startup automating medical notes, has secured a $300 million Series E at a $5.3 billion valuation, according to the Wall Street Journal. The round, led by Andreessen Horowitz with participation from Khosla Ventures, follows the company’s $250 million February fundraise at a $2.75 billion valuation. The seven-year-old Abridge is widely considered to
In just 4 months, AI medical scribe Abridge doubles valuation to $5.3B Read More »
