The new year is already off to an interesting start, as you can probably tell from the above headshots of a local PR agency’s new artificial intelligence-powered interns. Keep reading to learn more about these interns, the latest tech funding announcements and other NYC tech news. This is the Built In NYC Weekly Refresh.
Codeword hired two ‘interns.’ This wouldn’t ordinarily be newsworthy, but the latest additions to the tech-focused PR firm are both AI-based algorithms that will be used as an experiment to explore how AI can play a role in the workflows of its creative teams. One of the algorithms or ‘interns,’ called Aiden, will collect information from news stories and analyze the voice and tone of the articles. The other algorithm, Aiko, will create brand designs that the design team can build upon. [PRWeek]
Chronosphere pulled in $115M. The cloud-native data observability company is classifying the funding round as an extension to its $200 million Series C round from October 2021. The company, which is now valued at $1.6 billion, has tripled its annual recurring revenue and its employee headcount since raising its Series C. [Built In NYC]
NYC Tech Quote of the Week
“Welcome Homes addresses the massive shortage of housing by productizing and accelerating the delivery of beautiful new homes. We should be building for the world that we want to live in. We are elevating the standard for how new homes are built, which will fundamentally change peoples’ lives.” — Alec Hartman, co-founder and CEO of Welcome Homes
Welcome Homes landed $29M. Welcome Homes is an online home-building platform that streamlines the process of site selection, financing and construction. The Series A round, led by Era Ventures, will be used to grow Welcome Homes’ team, advance its technology and expand beyond its current markets of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Maryland and Pennsylvania. The company is currently hiring for an account executive based in the greater NYC area. [PR Newswire]
Seek AI scored $7.5M. Seek AI’s generative AI technology integrates with email, Slack and several customer relationship management systems, allowing employees to ask it questions that it would otherwise ask its data team. This funding round, which is a combination of pre-seed and seed funding rounds, will help the company grow its team as it builds out new integrations, automates its onboarding process and improves its user experience. [Built In NYC]
Baton gained $2.8M. Baton is building a marketplace where small businesses and investors can connect for a potential acquisition deal. To help build its database of small business valuations, Baton has provided free valuations to 500 small businesses, and it has calculated an additional 4 million business valuations based on publicly available data. This $2.8 million pre-seed round will help the startup launch its two-sided marketplace. [Built In NYC]
NLX secured $4.6M. The NYC startup has developed an AI-powered customer support solution used by airlines, hotels and other companies. When a customer contacts the company by voice or chat, NLX’s technology automatically pulls up the customer’s account and guides them through a self-service customer support process. The Series Seed II funding round will be used to grow its presence and optimize its product. [Built In NYC]
