OpenAI has announced an expansion of its Converge AI startup program, initially launched in December 2022. The six-week program aims to assist startup founders in enhancing their solutions, coupled with a substantial $1 million investment. OpenAI invites founders from diverse backgrounds and experience levels, and the use of OpenAI's APIs is not a prerequisite.
Scheduled to run from March 11 to April 19, 2024, the program can accommodate 10 to 15 companies. Travel costs for the first and last weeks are covered by OpenAI, with remote participation available for other weeks. The application deadline is January 26, 2024, at 11:59 pm Pacific.
Essential AI, a startup founded by former Google employees Ashish Vaswani and Niki Parmar, has emerged with the mission to deepen the collaboration between humans and computers. Based in San Francisco, Essential AI focuses on developing full-stack AI products to automate labor-intensive workflows. The startup is constructing large language models to aid users in tackling progressively complex tasks.
Essential AI has secured $56.5 million in series A funding, with support from companies such as AMD, Nvidia, and former employer Google. The startup had previously raised $8.3 million in seed funding from notable investors like David Petraeus and Elad Gil. Ashish Vaswani will serve as Essential's CEO, while Niki Parmar is listed as the co-founder.
AutoGen AI, a New York-based startup utilizing generative AI to optimize bid proposal writing, has secured $39.5 million in series B funding. Salesforce Ventures and Spark Capital led the investment, with plans to further develop their bid-writing product.
Paris-based Pivot, specializing in procurement software to streamline onboarding processes, has raised $21.6 million in series A funding. The investment, led by Anamcara, Emblem, and Visionaries, aims to fuel the company's growth, intending to double its team size annually for the next two years.
London-based Arcane, focusing on AI tools for marketers, has secured $6 million in two separate seed rounds. Accel led the $5 million seed round, while Seedcamp led the pre-seed round. The funds are expected to advance Arcane's mission to empower individuals with team-like capabilities, already onboarding early adopters.
