Cristian Constantin Olarasu’s Post

🚀 Harvey Raises $100M Series C at $1.5B Valuation 🎉 Harvey, an AI-powered technology platform for professional services, has raised a $100M Series C round at a $1.5B valuation. The funding was led by GV (Google Ventures) with participation from: • OpenAI • Kleiner Perkins • Sequoia Capital • Elad Gil • SV Angel Since its last fundraise in December, Harvey has: • Tripled ARR 📈 • Doubled employee headcount 👥 • Used daily by tens of thousands of professionals at the largest law firms, service providers, enterprises, and governments worldwide 🌍 The Series C will enable Harvey to continue building the most trusted AI platform for professional services by: • Investing in engineering, data, and domain expertise 🧠 • Collecting and curating data to build domain-specific models 🔍 • Growing its team globally 🌎 • Deepening partnerships with cloud and model providers 🤝 Harvey aims to be a pioneer of AI technology and a catalyst for more effective decision-making in professional services. The company expresses gratitude to everyone involved in its journey so far. 🙏 Read more about Harvey's Series C announcement here: https://lnkd.in/gSb8Nchp #HarveyAI #SeriesC #AIPowered #ProfessionalServices #LegalTech

🚀 Excited to bring to you another version of an insight-packed latest blog post! 🚀 Market-wise, Europe's venture scene remains resilient despite valuation dips, with climate tech standing out. However, tech job cuts persist, signaling challenges. In AI investments, some VC firms are pivoting away from foundational models, favoring vertical SaaS and utility B2B apps. Amidst this, innovation thrives. Companies like Copy.ai are leveraging AI for digital marketing success. In the unicorn realm, while some face funding hurdles, others navigate with strategic moves. Exciting deals are happening, such as Applied Intuition's $250m Series E and Sionna Therapeutics' $182m raise. Plus, the IPO scene heats up with firms like Cyera and Wiz in the spotlight, even as Databricks and Stripe take a step back. Join the conversation on these industry trends! What's your take on the market outlook for 2024? https://lnkd.in/e-_4_PDR #VentureCapital #TechTrends #MarketInsights #AIInvestments #IPOs

A Christmas Gift for You 🎄 . . . . . If you are raising capital or planning to do so soon, this list of tools I've compiled will be of great help: -Crunchbase Pro with AI: Ideal for identifying investors and analyzing market trends. Link: www.crunchbase.com -ChatGPT by OpenAI for Pitch Decks: Refine and personalize your pitch deck using artificial intelligence. Link: www.openai.com/chatgpt -Signal AI for Market Analysis: Understand market trends and investor behavior. Link: www.signal-ai.com -Affinity for Investor Relations: An AI-powered CRM to manage and strengthen your connections with potential investors. Link: www.affinity.co -Foundersuite for Fund Management: A platform for fund management and investor relations. Link: www.foundersuite.com -Kissmetrics for Analytics and Engagement: Analyze user behavior and improve your product presentation to investors. Link: www.kissmetrics.io -Prophesee for Predictive Analysis: Use predictive analysis to identify opportunities and risks. Link: www.prophesee.ai -Gust for Connecting with Investors: A platform to find investors and manage the fundraising process. Link: www.gust.com -PitchBook for Market Data: Data and insights on the venture capital landscape. Link: www.pitchbook.com -Visible for Investor Updates: A tool for updating your investors and keeping them engaged. Link: www.visible.vc These tools will give you a competitive edge. In a few months, I'll tell you how they worked for me. #CapitalRaising #Startups #ArtificialIntelligence

Harvey going from strength to strength… USD $1.5B is a big number 📈, but maybe this sentiment is more important: “The feedback from our clients, the validation from our investors, and the support of our team give us immense confidence in what Harvey can be: a #pioneer of the greatest #technology of our generation and a catalyst to more effective decision making in professional services. Continuing to push the #frontier of the world’s progress remains, as always, our ultimate goal.” 🌐⚖ #PwC #AI #Ḁї4law | #HarveyAI

Part of the nuance for startups is to understand the strings attached to intellectual property developed with government funding. The rights that evolve from this relationship and the disclosure and reporting obligations.

What. A. Week. This is probably one of the busiest business news week (say that 3 times fast) that I have ever worked — and I've worked my fair share of Thanksgivings. This week is definitely up there. Anyway, I'm ending this shortened work week on a high note with a quick reported story with Madeline Renbarger on why investors — namely venture capitalists — decided to forego many of the typical rules that come with a massive investment in the corporate world: a board seat. The short answer: Sam Altman. #venturecapital #openai #ai

My time in the Special Operations community taught me that there’s a huge need for innovation in government. The government realizes this, too - each agency has billions of dollars reserved for investments in innovative technologies. But when I went to Stanford University Graduate School of Business, I realized that Silicon Valley founders rarely see the government as a potential customer. As a result, most government technology money goes to established companies - think Snowflake or AWS - who have the effort and resources to understand how the government operates. The reality is that the government was not designed with startups in mind, and startups are often not designed with the government in mind. But if these players knew how to work together, there’s enormous opportunities for collaboration and innovation! ⚡ This potential inspired me to create Harpoon Ventures - a VC firm that takes a skin-in-the-game, investor-oriented approach to provide value to early-stage founders whose solutions are applicable to the government. By building a bridge from Silicon Valley to DC, we hope to help startups navigate these uncharted waters!

One of Mr. Beast's shticks is to tour a $1 boat (or car, or house, or whatever), and a $100 boat, and a $1,000 boat, all the way up to something obscene, like at $1,000,000,000 boat. The boat get nicer. That's the whole point: To gawk at how many helipads you put on a billion dollars worth of boat. Nobody watches the videos expecting the boats to start getting worse. That's usually how it works - the more money you spend to build something, the nicer it is. But in the startup world, we seem to paradoxically make the opposite assumption. When companies raise lots of money, we kinda sorta assume that it'll make their products worse. Which is...weird? It seems like companies, who want us to like their products, would be *better* at building things if they had more money to spend building it? Maybe not, though. Companies with more money do seem better at building; the problem is that when that money comes from venture capitalists, companies have to keep building. And a boat only needs so many helipads. https://lnkd.in/eGnEK4ie

The AI Startup game is evolving fast, but at some point follows some recognizable paths from the traditional startup game. In terms of infrastructure, the big tech is completely ahead, setting some rules and happy to share their resources in generous startup programs up to $300k in cloud credits. Another sign of collaboration are the official partnerships, for example, LlamaIndex getting an official partnership with Google, where open source enthusiasts can rely more on the future of the tool (something important to consider while choosing a stack) and knowing that you can integrate other AI methods and not just GenAI for everything. The work of the entrepreneur is still the same, secure revenue, build, and learn as fast as the game goes. And yes! part of the job is not just to build (since development cycles are now way faster) but also to connect the dots, gather information, and use your intuition. The full future of the AI landscape can’t be predicted, but can be expected. Check out the great information that Chong Tang put together.

The rise of AI-powered platforms is transforming industries, economies, and societal structures. The future is clear: integrating artificial intelligence into everyday operations will become essential for survival in the digital age. A significant shift is happening where traditional boundaries between tech companies and other industries are blurring. Every business will need to adopt a tech-centric strategy to thrive. However, not every business owner has the expertise to leverage technology. This is where accelerators like MVP Ventures come into play. MVP Ventures supports those who lack the technical skills to build thriving businesses globally. They provide expertise in software development, marketing, product management, and venture capitalism, focusing on nurturing startups to survive in the digital space. Read more here: https://bit.ly/3R88SVb