🤑 The Unicorn CTO #128 - Big Tech’s Q3 Earnings

Daniel Jarjoura -

Hello friend,

Last week, most big technology companies shared their Q3 results and updated their financial year guidance. The Q3 earnings season highlighted significant strides in AI and substantial capital investments across Big Tech. Here are the key takeaways:

  • Microsoft's AI business, just 2.5 years in, is on track to surpass a $10 billion annual revenue run rate—marking the fastest business growth in company history. Azure OpenAI usage has doubled in six months, and GitHub Copilot saw a 55% increase in enterprise customers quarter-over-quarter.
  • Google saw a 14x surge in Gemini API calls over six months. Sundar Pichai also shared that over 25% of Google's new code is now generated by AI.
  • AWS' AI business is growing at triple-digit rates, outpacing its early growth trajectory.
  • All Big Tech are significantly ramping up CapEx investments in Q3 with, for example, $15 billion spent by Microsoft or $22 billion by AWS, primarily driven by the surging demand for cloud infrastructure and generative AI technologies.

The main point is that while Generative AI is a formidable growth lever for Big Tech, it also drives significant capital expenditures, both to keep up with demand and undermine competitors' efforts in the race. As demand for AI capabilities rises, investments in infrastructure and custom hardware are set to continue surging.

P.S.: if you're in Paris on November 14th, I'm throwing a developer-first startup breakfast designed for founders, tech/product leaders, and investors who are driving the future of developer-first companies. This gathering will provide a unique opportunity to network, exchange insights, and explore trends shaping developer-focused startups. Jean-Patrice Anciaux, General Partner at ISAI, will share invaluable advice on VC expectations for seed and Series A rounds, covering critical metrics, team dynamics, community building, and industry benchmarks. Frank Bitoun, former sales executive (Crayon, SoftwareOne, Insight, Dell) will also share his enterprise sales playbook for the US market. 

Seats are limited, but if you're around, don’t miss this chance to connect with key players in the developer-first space and learn from our speakers. Click here to apply.

Now, let's dive into last week's developer-first transactions.

💰 Market Summary - Week of October 28th, 2024

  • 11 companies raised $166 million across 8 product categories in 5 countries.
  • Europe-based companies attracted 33% of the total funding vs 23% for Asia-based companies and 44% for US-based companies.
  • Security is the category that attracted the highest funding.
  • 2 companies provide or contribute to an open-source product.
  • 0 companies were acquired this week.

🧩 Funding by Product Category

🌎 Funding by Region

🏢 Funding By Company

Zenity, based in Tel Aviv 🇮🇱, raised $38M in Series B funding led by Third Point Ventures and DTCP. Zenity is a leader in securing and governing copilots and low-code development, addressing gaps left by traditional AppSec tools. (more)

Filigran, located in Paris 🇫🇷, secured $35M in Series B funding from Insight Partners and Accel. Filigran offers open-source cybersecurity solutions, enhancing threat intelligence and cyber risk management. (more)

Browserbase, from San Francisco 🇺🇸, garnered $21M in Series A funding led by Kleiner Perkins. Browserbase provides headless browsers that support reliable automation across various platforms.

GMI Cloud, based in New York 🇺🇸, raised $15M in Series A funding. GMI Cloud offers unmatched cloud access and a streamlined software platform for deploying top-tier GPUs like the NVIDIA H100. (more)

Speakeasy, located in San Francisco 🇺🇸, secured $15M in Series A funding. Speakeasy is developing a comprehensive API supply chain, providing robust SDKs and tools for quality REST API development. (more)

Matia, from Miami 🇺🇸, raised $10.5M in Seed funding from Leaders Fund and Secret Chord Ventures. Matia offers a data operations platform that unifies data ingestion and management. (more)

iGent AI, based in London 🇬🇧, secured $8.3M in Seed funding led by HV Capital. iGent AI’s Maestro platform autonomously tackles complex engineering challenges, transforming software architectures. (more)

Verax AI, located in Dallas 🇺🇸, raised $7.6M in Seed funding from Seedcamp and InMotion Ventures. Verax AI specialises in enterprise-grade trust solutions for Generative AI, focusing on governance and compliance. (more)

Diffblue, based in Oxford 🇬🇧, garnered $6.3M in Series A funding. Diffblue Cover is an AI-powered solution that autonomously writes Java and Kotlin unit tests, accelerating cloud modernisation and test coverage. (more)

GlassFlow, from Berlin 🇩🇪, raised $4.8M in Series A funding from Upfront Ventures. GlassFlow is a Python-based tool for building and managing event-driven data pipelines, simplifying infrastructure complexity. (more)

Moondream, located in Seattle 🇺🇸, secured $4.5M in Pre-Seed funding from Felicis Ventures. Moondream develops computer-vision models that can run on a variety of devices, including mobile phones and edge devices. (more)

🤝 Mergers & Acquisitions

No transactions last week

AIHawk-app / Auto_Jobs_Applier (2,517 stars this week) - Auto_Jobs_Applier_AIHawk is a tool that automates the jobs application process. Utilising artificial intelligence, it enables users to apply for multiple jobs in an automated and personalised way.

meta-llama / llama-recipes (2,362 stars this week) - Scripts for fine-tuning Meta Llama with composable FSDP & PEFT methods to cover single/multi-node GPUs.

usememos / memos (2,309 stars this week) - An open-source, lightweight note-taking solution. The pain-less way to create your meaningful notes. Your Notes, Your Way.

Thanks for reading this far! I'm excited to make this newsletter as helpful as possible and I would appreciate if you could share feedback or anything you want to find here.

Farewell,

Daniel