Unique Research · Company / Weekly digest · August 5, 2024
China funding
Astribot (星尘智能) — AI robots; tens of millions USD Pre-A led by Matrix Partners China; Daotong, Qinghui, and existing Yunqi follow; China Renaissance FA. Founded Dec 2022; generalist robot assistant (fold, sort, cook…); research/logistics/smart manufacturing partners; first-gen product targeted 2024. (Matrix)
LiblibAI (哩布哩布AI) — AI image platform; hundreds of millions RMB round (title item; body light on terms).
Overseas funding
Lakera (Switzerland) — genAI app security / prompt firewall; $20M Series A led by Atomico. Product Lakera Guard (low-latency AI app firewall); trained on public sets + internal research + Gandalf game data.
IntelePeer — AI communications automation; $140M growth equity + debt (Savant Growth + VantagePoint; Vector Velocity debt). 600M+ automated interactions; ~65% call self-service automation.
BrandRank.AI — AI brand search analytics; $1.2M angel/seed (oversubscribed): Sandberg Bernthal VP, Mercury Fund; John & Francie Pepper; Jack & Peg Wyant. 6 enterprise clients in ~4 months (incl. Nestlé, IABBB). Gartner: organic brand search traffic −50%+ by 2028.
Bee AI — wearable AI assistant; $7M led by Exor (incl. prior $1.5M pre-seed); Greycroft, New Wave, Banana Capital, Brian Bedol. Listen/notes/reminders + Apple Watch app; “cloud phone” ambitions. (TechCrunch)
Sybill — AI sales assistant (CRM notes, follow-ups); $11M Series A; cumulative $14.5M; 500+ customers; ARR crossed $1M. CEO Gorish Aggarwal et al. (Forbes)
Heeyo — AI education ages 3–11 (chatbot + 2,000+ activities); $3.5M seed from OpenAI Startup Fund, Alexa Fund, Pear VC; live on Android/iOS globally. (TechCrunch)
M&A / product
Canva × Leonardo.AI — acquires AU genAI content/research startup (undisclosed). <2 years old; 19M registered users; ~120-person team stays to boost Canva genAI; Leonardo platform continues. Deal reportedly above Leonardo’s prior $80M valuation; possible ACCC review. Phoenix model for multi-style image/video. Canva: 190M+ actives, 16M paid; prior buys Affinity, Flourish, Kaleido/remove.bg.
Meta AI Studio — U.S. launch of creator/business AI-assistant builder (WhatsApp/Instagram context); auto-replies with transparency controls.
Reddit × Memorable AI — acquires ad-creative optimization genAI to lift advertiser CTR/engagement/brand lift/ROAS. COO Jen Wong; Memorable co-founder Sebastian Acevedo.
People
Noam Shazeer (Character.AI CEO) returns to Google/DeepMind with co-founder Daniel De Freitas + staff; GC Dominic Perella interim CEO. Non-exclusive tech deal + more funding for Character.AI (a16z-backed; >$150M raised). Shazeer previously led LaMDA work at Google.
President Yoon Suk Yeol meets Andrew Ng — invites Ng to Korea’s national AI committee global advisory; Ng sees path to “#3 AI power.” (Yonhap)
Tu Weiwei (ex-4Paradigm VP) founds Artificial Productivity Tech — AI hardware/robots; Paradigm Fund + SenseTime Guoxiang. (Baoliaotai)
Li Yansong (ex-iQIYI Pictures president) — Planet Rotation / FeedFlow AI short-drama for EN markets; IP rewrite + reverse video→script. No public raise. (Baoliaotai)
Wang Shimu (ex-Tencent News GM / NetEase Cloud Music) — Seele (全灵); multimodal 3D LLM EVA-01 (text/image/video → 3D in ~10s); tens-of-millions RMB seed. (Baoliaotai)
Yang Yan (ex-Meizu SVP / Flyme) — Shenzhen Qunqing; next-gen AI HCI terminal; hiring design + LLM talent. (Baoliaotai)