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Improve your fundraising research by grouping investors in target lists
The investor database got a brand new functionality upgrade with the introduction of investor target lists. This allows founders to group investors into various lists and set an outreach priority for each. Gone are the days when you needed to manage a separate spreadsheet just to plan your fundraising process.
Articles we enjoyed:
1️⃣ Amazon has launched Rufus, a generative AI-powered expert shopping assistant, trained on its extensive product catalog and web data to provide answers, comparisons, and recommendations to customer queries.
Rufus is currently in beta, available to a small subset of U.S. customers in the Amazon mobile app.
The AI assistant aims to enhance the shopping experience by helping customers with general research, comparisons, specific product questions, and finding recommendations based on occasions or purposes.
Rufus generates answers using information from Amazon's product catalog, customer reviews, community Q&As, and web data.
Customers can interact with Rufus by typing or speaking their questions into the search bar in Amazon's mobile app.
2️⃣ “Books 2.0: Books are the LEAST effective way for information transfer, yet they remain one of the most popular. There's got to be a better way to design systems of information.”
3️⃣ WeWork's ex-CEO Adam Neumann and Flow Global express interest in buying WeWork out of bankruptcy, backed by funding from Third Point.
Neumann's attorney criticizes WeWork's lack of engagement, stating their readiness to submit a detailed proposal for the acquisition.
WeWork filed for bankruptcy in November 2023 despite a previous buyout by SoftBank, and Neumann sees potential for revival in the hybrid work era.
The letter doesn't specify the purchase amount but mentions WeWork rejecting a $1 billion funding offer from Neumann in October 2022.
Podcast highlight
This week, Genevieve LeMarchal, co-founder and managing partner of Suncoast Ventures, joins Vlad Cazacu, co-founder and CEO of Flowlie, to discuss her journey from management consultant turned sales trainer to startup acceleration, healthcare tech, and VC fund manager.
Venture announcements that caught our eye:
1️⃣ Finally, the Miami-based fintech startup, raised an additional $10 million in venture capital, bringing its total funding to $105 million. Founded in 2018, the company offers an all-in-one solution for small businesses, automating accounting and finance functions. The new funds will support hiring, go-to-market efforts, and the expansion of Finally's technology stack, including mobile versions of its apps.
2️⃣ Data-focused startup TextQL has raised $4.1 million in a seed round led by Neo and DCM, with participation from various investors. The company aims to revolutionize data-driven operations by optimizing data environments for quick, accurate responses to read operations. The funding will support their mission to bring the cost of data-driven operations to zero by enabling logic and write operations within the same platform.
3️⃣ Swiss startup Jua has secured $16 million in a seed round led by 468 Capital and the Green Generation Fund. Jua aims to develop a foundational AI model for the natural world, starting with weather predictions for industries such as energy, agriculture, and insurance. The company's unique approach involves ingesting diverse data sources, including satellite imagery, to build accurate and efficient models, with plans to extend its foundational model to address broader challenges in physics and the natural world.
Have a great week,
Mike from Flowlie