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According to The Information, Canva, the web-based design software platform, is finalizing a deal that would enable employees and investors to sell stock valued at over \(1 billion to new investors. This private stock sale is aimed at allowing insiders to cash out, with Canva potentially reaching a valuation of \)26 billion post-deal at the discussed price. This significant transaction could rival recent major deals involving prominent tech startups such as OpenAI and SpaceX.
As per DemandSage data, the American business has seen a surge in its user base, with 135 million active regular users as of Q4 2023, marking a substantial increase since its inception in 2013.
In response to Canva’s growing prominence, Microsoft introduced Designer, a competing product, in October 2022. Canva swiftly responded by launching a ChatGPT plugin in September, equipping users with the ability to generate images instantly within the chatbot using relational AI capabilities.
Perplexity
Perplexity, an innovative AI system that merges conceptual Artificial Intelligence with search functionality, aims to rival ChatGPT and other chatbots. By providing users with citations and data sources upon inquiry, Perplexity enhances the search experience and claims to boost search efficiency. Launched in 2023, Perplexity has garnered 10 million monthly active users and offers 500,000 iOS and Android app downloads. The company also introduced Navigator, an AI research assistant that tailors search queries with insightful follow-up questions, in May of the previous year.
Co-founder and CEO of Perplexity, Aravind Srinivas, emphasizes the importance of accuracy and clarity in making AI-powered search ubiquitous, especially in an era where misinformation and AI-generated content pose significant challenges.
Notable angel investors in Perplexity include Elad Gil, Guillermo Rauch, Austen Allred, Shopify CEO Tobias Lütke, former Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan, Naval Ravikant, and original GitHub CEO Nat Friedman. The company has also secured investments from Bezos Expeditions Fund, Bessemer Venture Partners, Nvidia, Databricks, and Factorial Funds, with the funds earmarked for accelerating customer adoption of its AI system.
AI Robin
AI Robin, based in London, specializes in developing an AI assistant tailored for the legal industry. Their legal copilot, available as a Microsoft Word add-in, promises to slash contract review time by 85%. Leveraging Anthropic’s Claude large language model and proprietary contract data from over two million contracts, AI Robin’s assistant undergoes refinement by legal experts to ensure precision and quality.
Notable clients of AI Robin include PepsiCo, PwC, and Yum. In its latest funding round, Series B, the company raised $26 million, with Temasek, a Singapore sovereign wealth fund, leading the investment. Additional investors include AFG Partners, Plural, and QuantumLight. The company plans to utilize the funds to expand its team in the United States and establish a presence in Singapore to tap into the Asia-Pacific market.
Nabla
Paris-based Nabla focuses on developing AI tools for healthcare professionals, offering AI-powered note-generation capabilities and medical coding recognition to streamline administrative tasks and enhance patient care. Nabla’s Copilot tool facilitates three million consultations annually, with over 20,000 providers leveraging its external AI assistant.
In its latest funding round, Nabla secured $24 million in Series B financing, with Cathay Innovation as the primary investor and ZEBOX Ventures as a co-owner. The company aims to expand its presence across all U.S. healthcare systems with the allocated funds.
