Sequoia Capital

The McWhorter Foundation To Call On Sequoia Capital and Industry Leaders Alongside C.K. McWhorter For Support In Further Diversifying Tech Entrepreneurship

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, April 2, 2024
Physics, External debt, Environment, Wi-Fi, Telephone, Internet, Entrepreneurship, IBM, Woman, Ecosystem, Safety, Invention, STP, Sequoia Capital

SILICON VALLEY, Calif., April 02, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The McWhorter Foundation announces it will call on Sequoia Capital in support of further diversifying tech entrepreneurship.

Key Points: 
  • SILICON VALLEY, Calif., April 02, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The McWhorter Foundation announces it will call on Sequoia Capital in support of further diversifying tech entrepreneurship.
  • Research underscores that startups led by Black entrepreneurs face more significant challenges, including securing external capital, particularly external debt.
  • Similarly, women in tech, especially those from underrepresented backgrounds, encounter severe limitations in securing venture capital, crucial for rapid business growth despite representing a significant portion of U.S.-owned businesses.
  • McWhorter Foundation has not registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and may operate under exemptions.

Empower Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire Petal, and Completes Acquisition of Cashalo, to Accelerate Access to Fair Credit for Underserved Consumers

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, April 9, 2024
Consumer, Entrepreneurship, FDIC, SAN, Acquisition, TransUnion, Partner, Machine learning, Sequoia Capital, Bank

SAN FRANCISCO, April 9, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Empower Finance, Inc. has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Petal, a consumer credit card and financial technology company headquartered in New York, and completed its acquisition of Cashalo, a consumer credit and lending company headquartered in the Philippines. Empower is a leader in alternative credit underwriting and a pioneer in financial product innovations for underserved consumers in the U.S. and Mexico. The combined companies will fold into Empower and continue to transform the way people access and build credit, enabling greater participation in established and emerging credit economies.

Key Points: 
  • Empower is a leader in alternative credit underwriting and a pioneer in financial product innovations for underserved consumers in the U.S. and Mexico.
  • The combined companies will fold into Empower and continue to transform the way people access and build credit, enabling greater participation in established and emerging credit economies.
  • Petal and Cashalo give Empower strategic footholds in the credit card category in the U.S. and the credit market in Southeast Asia, respectively.
  • Despite the maturity of the U.S. credit economy, TransUnion reports that over 45 million consumers are considered to be credit unserved or underserved.

Grow Therapy Raises $88M Sequoia Capital-Led Series C to Advance Effective Mental Healthcare

Retrieved on: 
Monday, April 8, 2024
Growth capital, Learning, LCSW, Environment, TCV, Built-in, Patient, Mental health, Child, Health information management, Digital health, Commercial, Insurance, Athlete, Collection, Adolescence, Geography, EHR, Medicare, Family, Sequoia Capital, Emerge Commerce

NEW YORK, April 8, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Grow Therapy, a provider-centric mental health technology company improving access to high-quality mental healthcare, today announced the closing of its $88 million Series C investment round led by Sequoia Capital, with support from Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives and PLUS Capital alongside artists and athletes from their collective including Anna Kendrick, Lily Collins, Dak Prescott, Joe Burrow, Jrue Holiday, and Lauren Holiday. Existing investors Transformation Capital, SignalFire and TCV also participated in the round. Additionally, the company announced the launch of its enhanced measurement-informed care system, which will allow it to elevate the care experience for clients and providers and make value-based behavioral care accessible for all patient populations, including Medicaid and Medicare members.

Key Points: 
  • Empowering people to find and engage with effective mental health support is the most pressing need of our time.
  • Grow Therapy CEO Jake Cooper said, "Our team believes that empowering people to find and engage with effective mental health support – regardless of their background, geography or financial circumstances – is the most pressing need of our time.
  • We're proud to partner with the Grow Therapy team as they pursue the important mission of providing access to trusted mental healthcare."
  • Grow Head of Clinical Excellence Cynthia Grant PhD, LCSW, concluded, "Our team at Grow Therapy is privileged to have the opportunity every day to build the infrastructure for this new age of mental healthcare.

Prelude Selected by Lemonade to Help Fortify Defenses

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, April 3, 2024
Professional Services, Business, Security, Technology, Software, Networks, Microsoft, Organization, Prelude, Insight Partners, XDR, Endpoint, Environment, Intelligence, Partnership, River, Knowledge, Policy, Martin Herem, Mitre Corporation, SentinelOne, Insurance, CrowdStrike, Microsoft Defender Antivirus, Engineering, Sequoia Capital, Risk management

Prelude Security, the company pioneering production-scale detection and response testing, today announced that Lemonade, Inc. (NYSE: LMND), has selected Prelude Detect to fortify their endpoint and server workload security.

Key Points: 
  • Prelude Security, the company pioneering production-scale detection and response testing, today announced that Lemonade, Inc. (NYSE: LMND), has selected Prelude Detect to fortify their endpoint and server workload security.
  • To provide assurance about the state of their security posture, Lemonade deployed Prelude Detect across their production environment, running alongside their CrowdStrike-protected endpoints.
  • Lemonade vetted other solutions but ultimately selected Prelude Detect because of its unique partnership with CrowdStrike, which enables Lemonade to quickly find and fix protection gaps with custom CrowdStrike indicators of attack (IOAs) generated by Prelude Detect.
  • Prelude Detect transforms threat intelligence into validated protections so organizations can know with certainty that their defenses will protect them against the latest threats.

Proxima AI Raises $12 Million in Series A Financing

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, April 2, 2024
Advertising, Communications, Technology, Other Technology, Software, Artificial Intelligence, E-commerce, Face, Growth, Goldman Sachs, Meta, Acquisition, AdMob, LVMH, Series, Privacy, Marketing, IOS, Sequoia Capital, Cryptocurrency

Proxima , a data intelligence software company that empowers consumer technology businesses to scale customer acquisition profitably, expand customer lifetime value and optimize full lifecycle marketing, today announces the closing of a $12 million Series A round led by Mucker Capital.

Key Points: 
  • Proxima , a data intelligence software company that empowers consumer technology businesses to scale customer acquisition profitably, expand customer lifetime value and optimize full lifecycle marketing, today announces the closing of a $12 million Series A round led by Mucker Capital.
  • Since launching in May 2022, Proxima has achieved over 400% revenue growth and increased its proprietary network of B2C connections to over 12,000.
  • This powerful network harnesses over 65 million unique, anonymized shopper profiles, blending these with advanced AI models.
  • This synergy empowers clients to elevate their marketing performance by unlocking deep, actionable insights and superior targeting.

Vanta Introduces ISO 42001 to Ensure Responsible AI Usage and Development

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, March 28, 2024
Data Management, Security, Technology, Software, Artificial Intelligence, Internet, AIIA, Automation, AIMS, Synthetic media, Risk management, Financial Times, Trust, Organizational founder, CISO, Reddit, Policy, AI, Futurist, Content, ISO, Data management, International Organization for Standardization, Generative, Sequoia Capital, Medical device

Vanta , the leading trust management platform, today launched support for the ISO 42001 standard , giving customers a framework for responsibly developing and using AI through an AI Management system (AIMS) certified by third-party auditors.

Key Points: 
  • Vanta , the leading trust management platform, today launched support for the ISO 42001 standard , giving customers a framework for responsibly developing and using AI through an AI Management system (AIMS) certified by third-party auditors.
  • Designed for organisations that provide AI-based technologies or use AI sub-processors in their systems, ISO 42001 assists these organisations by outlining the requirements for establishing, implementing, maintaining, and improving an AIMS.
  • Vanta’s ISO 42001 solution simplifies AI system management through a lifecycle approach, ensuring that ethical considerations and risk management are embedded throughout the product development, deployment and operational stages.
  • This panel of AI investors, innovators and technology experts will discuss the obstacles and opportunities of building trust in an AI world.

Glean Appoints Tamar Yehoshua as President, Product and Technology to Accelerate Delivery of Enterprise AI Platform

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, March 26, 2024
Software, Data Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, Data Management, Professional Services, Technology, Apps, Applications, Security, Microsoft, Organization, Pressure, Documentation, Citigroup, Software as a service, Growth, Data science, RAG, Knowledge, Meta, Research, Blog, Slack, ICONIQ, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Love, Ecosystem, Uber, IVP, Sequoia Capital, Sales

Glean , the AI-powered work assistant making waves among CIOs under pressure to quickly and securely deploy generative AI in the enterprise, announced Tamar Yehoshua as the company’s first President of Product and Technology, effective March 11.

Key Points: 
  • Glean , the AI-powered work assistant making waves among CIOs under pressure to quickly and securely deploy generative AI in the enterprise, announced Tamar Yehoshua as the company’s first President of Product and Technology, effective March 11.
  • She will oversee all of research and development, including global engineering, product, design, and data science, as Glean enters a period of rapid growth.
  • “Glean has seen tremendous growth over the last year as we help more and more companies bring secure, responsible generative AI into their organizations,” said Arvind Jain, co-founder and CEO of Glean.
  • “I loved working in venture capital, but the opportunity to lead product and technology at Glean was too good to pass up,” said Tamar Yehoshua.

Front Welcomes New Chief Executive Officer to Spearhead Next Phase of Growth and AI Innovation

Retrieved on: 
Monday, March 25, 2024
Professional Services, Data Management, Technology, Data Analytics, Software, Artificial Intelligence, Automation, ARR, Growth, NLP, Acquisition, Dialling (telephony), LLM, Multimedia, Sequoia Capital

Front, the modern customer service platform, today announced that co-founder Mathilde Collin is stepping into the role of Executive Chair of Front and has appointed Dan O’Connell to take on the role of Chief Executive Officer to drive Front’s next phase of growth.

Key Points: 
  • Front, the modern customer service platform, today announced that co-founder Mathilde Collin is stepping into the role of Executive Chair of Front and has appointed Dan O’Connell to take on the role of Chief Executive Officer to drive Front’s next phase of growth.
  • “Front started as a team inbox, and has now evolved into a modern customer service platform.
  • “Our goal is to build on this momentum, leveraging AI to raise the bar for the entire customer service industry.
  • “I look forward to partnering with Dan on Front’s next phase of growth and innovation as he builds on the incredible foundation that Mathilde established.”
    To learn more about Front, visit www.front.com .

Foundry Raises $80 Million in Seed and Series A Funding to Build a New Breed of Public Cloud

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, March 21, 2024
Internet, Data Management, Technology, Artificial Intelligence, Software, Deep learning, Computational biology, GPU, LG, Speed of light, MIT, Databricks, Pear VC, AI, Stanford University, Conviction, Civilization, M12 (venture capital), Lightspeed Venture Partners, Ecosystem, NEA, KKR, Economics, Sequoia Capital

Today, Foundry , a new breed of public cloud for AI/ML workloads, announced $80M in seed and Series A funding to orchestrate the world’s compute capacity, rendering it universally accessible and useful.

Key Points: 
  • Today, Foundry , a new breed of public cloud for AI/ML workloads, announced $80M in seed and Series A funding to orchestrate the world’s compute capacity, rendering it universally accessible and useful.
  • Foundry is building to ensure humanity maximizes the utility of the computing power we already have, and will produce.
  • Foundry’s innovative methods are solving these issues by providing scalable GPU instances with unmatched price-performance ratios.
  • If you are interested in becoming a customer or partner, or joining the team, please visit the company’s website .

Generative AI Video Pioneer Tavus Raises $18 Million to Introduce the Future of Personalized Digital Engagement

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, March 12, 2024
Audio, Video, Other Technology, Technology, Artificial Intelligence, Software, HubSpot, Replica, Software as a service, Y Combinator, Research, Scale Venture Partners, API, Safety, Multimedia, Privacy, Marketing, Sequoia Capital, Video game

Tavus , a leading generative AI video research company, today announced the beta launch of the Tavus Developer Platform .

Key Points: 
  • Tavus , a leading generative AI video research company, today announced the beta launch of the Tavus Developer Platform .
  • Now the company’s proprietary models will be accessible via APIs to product teams looking to leverage AI to build novel engagement experiences across sales, marketing, and online learning.
  • Tavus pioneered generative AI video in 2020, initially leading the industry breakthroughs in large-scale personalized video campaigns using lip syncing and audio blending techniques.
  • Video Campaign API: Video orchestration for scaled personalized video generation.