OpenAI, Harmonic Security, Formality, and KomboAI

Welcome to another edition of the Who Got Funded newsletter. 🚀 

My name is Onofre, and I'm an entrepreneur living in Aarhus, Denmark. Every week, I dedicate 3 to 4 hours of my free time to reading startup news, which I then summarize in this newsletter.

I hope you enjoy this content. Thank you so much for reading. ✌️ 

Estimated reading time: ⌛️ 6 min 40 sec.

SERIES B AND LATER
OpenAI raises $6.6B at $157B valuation, the largest VC round of all time

🇺🇸 Even though it started as a non-profit foundation, ChatGPT maker OpenAI has closed what is claimed to be the largest VC round of all time: $6.6 billion at a $157 billion valuation. Not a bad journey, right? According to Crunchbase, the company has raised $21.9 billion to date.

There’s a question I assume many of you are wondering: If ChatGPT is so successful, why did OpenAI need such a large funding round at this time? Well, according to The Information, OpenAI has spent roughly $7 billion on model training and $1.5 billion on staffing. Just pause for a moment and think about those numbers. It’s a lot of money.

At one point, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman mentioned that one of the company’s previous leading models, GPT-4, cost more than $100 million to train. He also said that running ChatGPT alone was costing OpenAI $700,000 per day.

As of today, ChatGPT has over 250 million users, around 10 million of whom are paying subscribers, with the company generating more than $3.4 billion in annualized revenue. Sam Altman’s company projects to reach $100 billion in revenue by 2029.

There's one number that clearly shows how intense the journey has been: out of the 15 people who “co-founded” OpenAI in 2015, only 3 remain at the company.

👉️ You can read more about this deal here.

More Series B (and later) interesting stories:

🇫🇷 France-based Lockall secures €155 million to expand its storage solutions.

🇬🇧 Nuclear energy company Newcleo has raised €135 million to further develop their small modular reactors powered by reprocessed nuclear.

🇬🇧 London-based Carmoola completes €119 debt deal to lower second hand car rates.

🇬🇧 London-based Dexory raises €73 million to build autonomous robots for warehouses.

🇪🇸 Barcelona-based Submer bags €50.2 million for greener AI factories and datacenters.

🇺🇸 Oakland-based Numa raises €29 million to bring AI and automation to car dealerships.

🇬🇧 London-based BMLL secures €19.1 million for investment analytics platform.

SERIES A
London-based Harmonic Security raises €16 million Series A for zero-touch data protection

🇬🇧 London-based Harmonic Security has secured €16 million in Series A funding to bring its “zero-touch data protection” capabilities to enterprises.

Ok, guys, I really think this startup has huge potential. As one of its investors states in the funding press release, “traditional Data Loss Prevention (DLP) methods have proven ineffective, creating more operational friction than value.”

Harmonic Security’s approach to data protection leverages pre-trained, specialized language models. These models are trained on unique datasets containing highly realistic sensitive materials, specifically tailored for data protection.

This technology enables the startup to accurately detect all types of sensitive data in milliseconds. Its extreme accuracy and speed allow it to guide end users toward secure best practices without overwhelming security teams. Really nice!

👉️ You can read more about this deal here.

More Series A interesting stories:

🇩🇪 Berlin-based Atlas Metrics bags €12.2 million to simplify ESG reporting and compliance.

🇨🇭 Zurich-based Voliro raises €10.9 million for advanced industrial inspection drones.

🇦🇹 Vienna-based Flinn.ai secures €10 million to automate quality and regulatory medtech compliance.

🇩🇪 Aachen-based Voltfang secures €8.8 million Series A to accelerate growth in green energy storage.

SEED
Paris-based Formality raises €8 million in its first round to simplify contract management

🇫🇷 Paris-based Formality, a startup dedicated to intelligent contract management for clients and suppliers, has announced that it has raised €8 million as its first round.

This startup is trying to solve a problem that its founders faced in their previous companies: managing client and supplier contracts, a complex and often tedious task that is crucial to the financial health of a company.

According to the funding press release, poor management of client contracts costs companies up to 9% of their revenue, and on average, 60% of supplier contracts are automatically renewed without any decision-making.

It surprised me not to see “AI” as a headline when reading about this startup. Nevertheless, it seems they have a promising product on their hands, having already secured a few big customers.

👉️ You can read more about this deal here.

More Seed interesting stories:

🇬🇧 London-based Ameba raises €6.4 million to transform global supply chains with its AI-driven platform.

🇫🇷 Paris-based DinMo raises €5 million to grow its Composable Customer Data Platform.

🇫🇷 French startup RIVRS raises €4 million to lead the way in UGC video game creation.

🇮🇹 Italian foodtech Foreverland raises €3.4 million to redefine the future of chocolate.

🇩🇪 Berlin-based AI startup Briink raises €3.8 million to help ESG teams verify and benchmark their sustainability data.

🇦🇹 Vienna-based Fynk raises €3.1 million to bring AI-driven legal workflow tools to non-legal teams.

🇩🇪 Cologne-based Foodforecast gets €3 million to optimise the entire food supply chain.

🇳🇱 Amsterdam-based Plumery secures €3 million to expand its digital banking experience platform.

🇱🇹 Vilnius-based Sort A Brick secures €1.15 million to help people reuse their LEGO bricks.

PRE-SEED
Barcelona-based KomboAI raises €700k to help salespeople prepare calls in less than 30 seconds

🇪🇸 Barcelona-based KomboAI, an AI startup developing solutions for the commercial sector, has raised €700,000 as its pre-seed round.

I have to say that, after reading the funding press release, I still don't fully understand how KomboAI’s product works. Nevertheless, it’s clear they’re targeting a very interesting intersection: AI and sales. This market is projected to reach $92.8 billion by 2032.

KomboAI emphasizes quality over quantity, aiming to empower salespeople with better insights. By quickly scanning various public databases, KomboAI collects and analyzes multiple characteristics of potential clients to create easy-to-read summaries for sales teams.

The startup offers software that blends the “art of selling” with the science of AI, delivering specific and personalized recommendations throughout the sales process.

👉️ You can read more about this deal here.

More pre-Seed interesting stories:

🇩🇪 Freiburg-based Pluvion raises €1 million to accelerate solutions for water management tech.

🇭🇺 Budapest-based Voovo raises €500k pre-seed to scale microlearning in education.