Startup AlphaSense Snags $100M As AI Stays Hot; Alphabet’s CapitalG Invests

At this point one needs an AI platform to keep track of all the big money AI startups have raised.

AlphaSense became the latest AI-enhanced startup to lock up big money, as it raised another $100 million from investors that included CapitalG — Alphabet’s independent growth fund. Other investors include the growth equity business within Goldman Sachs Asset Management and Viking Global Investors.

The new money values the company at $1.8 billion.

The cash is in addition to the $225 million Series D that valued the company at $1.7 billion last June.

The New York-based startup has created a market intelligence and search platform — powered by AI and natural language processing — to help clients form corporate and investment strategies.

Google and AI

Although CapitalG is an independent growth fund under Alphabet’s umbrella, Google and its parent have certainly shown significant interest in the AI space. In February, Google introduced its conversational AI tool Bard, which it plans to integrate into many of its products including its dominant search engine.

Earlier this year, Google also invested between $300 million and $400 million into San Francisco-based Anthropic, a ChatGPT rival.

AI frenzy

Of course, that is far from the only AI-powered company to raise big money, as VCs and large strategics including Microsoft, Google and Salesforce 1 all continue to show unabated interest in generative AI startups.

Just last month, Character.ai closed a $150 million Series A at a $1 billion valuation led by Andreessen Horowitz. The Palo Alto, California-based AI startup allows people to create their own personalized AI chatbot using language models and deep-learning algorithms.

Also in March, San Francisco-based Adept AI raised $350 million in a Series B — at a reported post-money valuation of at least $1 billion.

Anthropic was reported to be raising another $300 million round at a pre-investment valuation of $4.1 billion. Spark Capital is reportedly leading the round.

Of course the craze started in January with news of Microsoft’s massive $10 billion investment into OpenAI — creator of ChatGPT.

There are sure to be more.

Further reading:

• Salesforce And Its Venture Arm Latest To Join AI Craze
• We’ve Seen This Before: Investors Take To The Next Shiny Toy — AI
• AI Startup Anthropic Raising Another $300M At $4.1B Valuation — Report
• Adept Latest AI Startup To Raise Big — Nabs $350M
• Character.AI Hits Unicorn Status With $150M Raise As AI Craze Continues