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Glean Nears Funding Round Valuing it at $4.5B

Glean Nears Funding Round Valuing it at $4.5B

Noel Moldvai
August 15, 2024

Good afternoon! Vacations are coming to an end, the kids are going back to school (about damn time🙏), and we have roughly 100 days until everyone dips again for Thanksgiving… back to the grindstone! Enjoy this week’s edition of The Pulse.

TL;DR

AI Startup Glean Nears Fundraising Round Valuing It at $4.5 Billion
xAI releases Grok-2, adds image generation on X
Defense tech start-up Anduril Industries raises $1.5 billion, now valued at $14 billion
Revolut backer Balderton Capital raises $1.3bn for European tech start-ups

AI Startup Glean Nears Fundraising Round Valuing it at $4.5B

Enterprise AI company Glean is close to raising $250 million, doubling its valuation to $4.5 billion. The company’s AI-powered search software boosts employee productivity by helping find information across organizations. Glean’s revenue recently hit $55 million annually, with projections of $100 million by year-end.

Read the full article here on WSJ

xAI releases Grok-2, adds image generation on X

Elon Musk's X launched Grok-2 and Grok-2 mini in beta, featuring improved reasoning and image generation capabilities on the X social network. Access is limited to Premium and Premium+ users. Concerns arise over potential misuse in generating images of political figures. xAI plans to integrate Grok-2 into AI-driven features on X.

Read the full article here on TechCrunch

Defense tech start-up Anduril Industries raises $1.5 billion, now valued at $14 billion

Defense start-up Anduril Industries raised $1.5 billion in a Series F round, valuing the company at $14 billion. The funds will be used to expand hiring, infrastructure, and manufacturing capabilities, including the new Arsenal-1 factory for autonomous military systems. The company aims to disrupt traditional defense contractors with innovative, high-volume production methods.

Read the full article here on CNBC

Revolut backer Balderton Capital raises $1.3B for European tech start-ups

Balderton Capital raised $1.3 billion for European tech start-ups, including a $615 million early-stage fund and a $685 million growth fund. The firm, known for backing Revolut, aims to capitalize on Europe's growing tech scene despite missing out on recent AI trends dominated by U.S. investors. Balderton remains focused exclusively on European companies.

Read the full article here on FT