Kenrick Cai
@kenrickcai
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Staff writer @Forbes covering startups, venture capital and AI. kcai @forbes .com. kenrick.01 on Signal. It makes sense dramaturgically.
San Francisco
Joined November 2016
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Pinned Tweet
Scoop:
Grafana Labs, no. 18 on
#Cloud100
, is in talks to raise at a $6 billion valuation.
That would be a flat valuation. But validating a price secured amid the VC bubble in 2022 can be considered a sign of strength, sources tell
@alexrkonrad
and me:
0
7
22
Some news: I am now a senior reporter on the tech team
@Forbes
. I'll be covering startups and VC, particularly in Silicon Valley and the West Coast.
Excited to hear your tips and to meet more people in this space doing visionary things. DM or email me!
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20
459
NEW: A year ago, Stability AI was an obscure startup. Now, it's emerged from generative AI hype valued at $1 billion.
But 30+ people interviewed say its rise was helped by a bunch of misleading claims from founder Emad Mostaque.
By
@_IainMartin
and me:
25
96
307
Former Greylock partner Sarah Guo filed the Form D for Conviction Partners, her new $101 million fund, on Friday.
I caught with with Guo to learn about her vision for the future of AI and why she's staking Conviction on funding "AI native" startups:
6
26
274
Hugging Face is the newest $2B company in AI, with new funding announced today.
My inside story on the
#ForbesAI50
(also out today!) first-timer and its pivot from iOS chatbot app to try and become the GitHub of machine learning:
4
34
265
Scoop:
Stability AI's Emad Mostaque is planning to step down as CEO, according to three people who he told directly.
It comes after the research team behind AI image generator Stable Diffusion resigned last week.
From
@_IainMartin
and me:
29
109
252
NEW:
Unpaid bills, bungled contracts, a disastrous meeting with Jensen Huang.
From interviews with 32 sources,
@_IainMartin
and I have the story on how poor business judgment and wild overspending unraveled Emad Mostaque's reign as Stability AI's CEO:
22
51
253
Deel annual recurring revenue at the end of...
2020: $4M
2021: $57M
2022: $295M
Chatted with CEO Alex Bouaziz on how he got there, and the companies he's going after in Deel's next phase:
9
36
235
Notion is, even by Silicon Valley standards, idiosyncratic. CEO Ivan Zhao picks out all the furniture at HQ and for years had a no-shoes policy.
My latest magazine profile looks at
@ivanhzhao
's big AI bet, which earned
@NotionHQ
a spot on
#ForbesAI50
:
13
34
235
1/ ICYMI: our investigation into Emad Mostaque's fall at Stability AI includes details like...
- a disaster meeting with Jensen Huang
- GPUs doled out like "it was Candy Land"
- more unpaid bills than cash in the bank
- current exec's takes
- AI Aristotle
10
38
233
Alexandr Wang became a billionaire at 24, planting a flag ahead of the AI gold rush.
Excited to share my cover story chronicling his $7.3 billion company Scale AI, providers of the picks, shovels and humans — hundreds of thousands of them — powering AI.
19
38
172
Scoop:
Runway is the latest generative AI startup to raise a big funding round.
Its software has legs, being used to edit Hollywood blockbusters and design shoes. Still, Runway must grow into its $500M valuation, a 100x+ multiple on its ARR.
My story:
6
36
126
Scoop:
Kyle Vogt has raised $150 million for a new robotics startup, just six months after stepping down as CEO of Cruise.
The Bot Company is already valued at $550 million post-money, sources tell me. Backers include Spark Capital and Nat Friedman.
9
36
108
Our sixth annual
#ForbesAI50
is live!
We got 1,900+ applications to the list, which features the world's most promising AI startups.
This year's honorees represent a new tech economy of businesses emerging to deploy and develop AI apps.
Our full list:
15
27
91
Scoop:
Multiple Stability AI researchers are departing, including the original coauthors on the research that evolved into viral text-to-image model Stable Diffusion.
It's the latest big blow to the cash-strapped startup. From
@_IainMartin
and me:
11
38
84
Scoop:
Stability AI, the startup behind AI text-to-image generator Stable Diffusion, is looking to raise $100M at a valuation up to $1B. Coatue and Lightspeed are potential investors.
The talks follow Stable Diffusion's buzzy release just two weeks ago.
7
19
75
Excited to unveil
#ForbesAI50
for 2023.
Our fifth annual list — the first since the biggest AI boom yet — highlights the most promising AI startups in the world.
Check out the full list of 50 companies here:
8
22
68
I'm walking out with
@forbesunion
to call for good faith bargaining efforts on pay equity, DEI and editorial integrity.
#FedUpWithForbes
We also won't stand for colleagues being illegally pressured against expressing their voices.
Sign our petition here:
4
13
68
Happy to announce, with
@alanohnsman
, Forbes' second edition of the AI 50 list, featuring the most promising, U.S.-based startups utilizing artificial intelligence. We'll be spotlighting some of the notable listees in the coming days.
5
9
61
Scoop: Researchers from Meta AI's recently axed protein-folding team have started a new company to keep building a LLM for biology.
EvolutionaryScale raised $40M+ from Lux Capital, per sources.
From
@_IainMartin
and I, with details from a pitch doc:
2
19
62
New: AI startup Pika, which was only founded in April, has launched a new web app for its AI video generator and editor.
It's also announcing $55M in total funding at a valuation of $200M-$300M.
My story:
1
12
60
A federal judge ruled that Juul and other e-cig makers won't be able to dodge the FDA review process any longer. Now, can they get past it? Tobacco control experts are divided. My latest for
@Forbes
:
7
22
45
Another open source data scoop: Airbyte has raised at a $1.5B valuation, with ARR below $1M, sources tell
@Forbes
.
The company, a competitor to Fivetran, confirmed the fundraise—its third of 2021—and talked to us about its next act:
2
9
50
Excited to announce our 2023
#ForbesUnder30
list for Enterprise Technology!
These young entrepreneurs are transforming the B2B world with the tools they're building for everyone from developers to dentists. Check out the full list here:
4
5
51
Grateful to win a
@SABEW
with
@_IainMartin
for our coverage of Stability AI.
Cannot understate how much of a team effort this was across
@ForbesTech
.
And ever thankful for the guidance from
@alexrkonrad
(who was also honored by SABEW for Best Range of Work!):
5
7
50
The Ringer Curse strikes again:
2
3
46
NEW: AI investors are amassing GPUs to help chip-hungry startups.
I spoke to
@natfriedman
@danielgross
about the 4,000 GPU supercomputer they built.
Sources say a16z is exploring an even bigger offering that'd "make everything else pale in comparison":
6
25
48
New: A Stability AI cofounder claims CEO Emad Mostaque fraudulently deceived him into selling a 15% stake in the company for $100.
The lawsuit also alleges Mostaque embezzled external investors' funds for personal use.
With
@_IainMartin
:
1
26
47
Bolt's layoffs are in the news today. Couple things we learned:
- company told employees last month it still had 24 months of runway
- sales and marketing were hit extra hard, including teardown of SDR team
- goal for number of shoppers is behind track
5
14
44
Update:
Stability AI has confirmed our reporting on CEO Emad Mostaque's resignation.
The abrupt move comes without a permanent replacement set up. COO Shan Shan Wong and CTO Christian Laforte take over in the interim, while the board commences a search.
Scoop:
Stability AI's Emad Mostaque is planning to step down as CEO, according to three people who he told directly.
It comes after the research team behind AI image generator Stable Diffusion resigned last week.
From
@_IainMartin
and me:
29
109
252
6
17
47
When career academic Ali Ghodsi was proposed as Databricks' new boss, the board said: "that doesn't make any sense."
My (first!) magazine profile tells how he became one of the Valley's top CEOs, leading
@databricks
to the cusp of software's hottest IPO:
4
12
43
New: Webflow raises a Series C round at a $4 billion valuation, and is a few weeks away from cross $100 million in ARR.
I caught up with CEO
@callmevlad
on his plans to turn the website builder into an all-purpose web app builder:
2
2
44
$12B HR firm Deel is one the fastest growing startups ever. It's on track to make $350M in 2023 revenue.
But its year also includes several regulatory run-ins.
My latest magazine story looks at Deel's quest to rewrite its narrative in D.C. and Brussels:
4
20
43
Well over 100 people outside Google SF to protest the administrative leave of two Google employees
Context from
@jillianiles
:
1
14
40
Happy to present the third annual
@Forbes
AI 50 list! These are the most exciting U.S. and Canadian startups using AI in real and effective ways.
The AI space is moving at super speed, and this year we highlight 31 newcomers. See the full list here:
5
13
40
The eighth annual
#Cloud100
is live!
Databricks edges out longtime No. 1 Stripe for the first time ever. But it's denied the top spot by a total newcomer.
See that and other surprises on the full list of the cloud's 100 best privately-held companies:
2
14
36
What's behind all the AI buzz?
@alexrkonrad
and I spoke to 60+ people at its vanguard to find out.
Going inside tools like ChatGPT and Stable Diffusion, one thing's clear: the AI era has begun. Says Bill Gates, it's "as important as the PC."
Our story:
2
12
35
New: HeyGen, a startup which generates AI avatars and videos, raised $5.6 million from
@saranormous
.
ARR has gone from $1M in March to $18M today. I talked to the company about how they plan to keep that growth going in this volatile AI business market.
5
7
35
New: Redpoint's Tomasz Tunguz is planning to step back from his GP role.
Three sources say he considered departing Redpoint. But Tunguz appears to be sticking around for now in a smaller role as the firm gears up to launch a new $650M fund.
1
7
31
Scoop:
Helsing, the European defense tech startup, is raising about $400 million.
General Catalyst is leading the ~$4 billion valuation deal, sources say. It comes just eight months after GC led the last round.
From
@DavidJeans2
,
@_IainMartin
and me:
2
17
37
@_IainMartin
Before generative AI, Stability's business took many forms. Among them: a UN-backed Covid-19 data hub, a network of vending machine refrigerators and a line of emotional support dog NFTs.
1
4
33
What if the metaverse isn’t a looming sci-fi dystopia but rather the 8-bit world Gather has already built?
Analysts says it's best capitalized metaverse-for-enterprise startup. My magazine piece on the rapid rise for CEO
@flippnflops
and
@gather_town
:
5
9
30
Google is accused of "brute force intimidation" of its employees, and hundreds came out to protest.
“They’re not telling me what’s going on, and I’m starting to wonder if they even know,” said an employee who Google placed on administrative leave.
5
17
30
New: Klaviyo's stock market debut makes billionaires out of CEO Andrew Bialecki, who owns a 38% (!) stake, and cofounder Ed Hallen.
$KVYO's $11.2B market cap beats its $9.5B valuation in 2021, but it may not be a bellwether for software IPOs.
My story:
2
13
30
JUST IN: An ex-Juul employee says in a new lawsuit that she was wrongfully terminated after she reported three cases of sexual harassment and other abusive conduct towards her
0
9
29
For context on Stability AI, read our investigation last year into founder Emad Mostaque, which revealed a track record of exaggeration and overstatement.
Got a tip? I'm on Signal at 415-570-9972 and email at kcai
@forbes
.com.
1
11
29
Tech companies today mostly applauded Biden's EO on AI.
But some startups raised flags on how it could shake up the ecosystem — from widening the gap between incumbents and smaller upstarts to stifling American innovation.
My latest:
2
8
27
NEW: Baseten raised a $40M Series B led by IVP and Spark at a $200M+ valuation.
It comes as inference (putting trained AI into action) picks up — a sign that AI is, as Jensen Huang puts it, passing the research stage and "finally making it."
My story:
0
6
28
NEW: At the same time $7.3B startup Scale AI courted the U.S. government, it inked a deal with TikTok.
CEO Alexandr Wang pushed it through against pleas from executives stemming from worries over national security risk, sources told
@DavidJeans2
and me:
4
15
25
New: Heavybit has a new $80 million fund.
I caught up with managing director Tom Drummond on the future of the firm and why he thinks the advice du jour of VCs—cut costs, focus on profitability—is wrong and potentially dangerous for devtools startups:
1
5
27
New: VC firms raised a record $151B this year, but for emerging funds — often a gateway for underrepresented groups to break into VC — starting up has become paradoxically harder.
I spoke with emerging managers and LPs about fundraising's new normal:
4
9
25
Did not expect to spend an hour on the phone with
@kanyewest
when I woke up this morning...
Had a pleasure fact-checking this incredible, eye-opening interview
Kanye West says he’s done with Trump—opens up about White House bid, damaging Biden and everything in between by
@RandallLane
1K
1K
4K
4
1
25
NBA divisions are essentially pointless in 2018, which is precisely why the potential blunders of the Southeast have so flown under the radar. I wrote about it for
@ringer
here:
1
5
26
With
#Cloud100
out today, I looked at how cloud data, one of the frothiest spaces in VC last year, is reorienting (ft. listees Databricks, Fivetran, dbt Labs + new unicorns Monte Carlo and Airbyte)
Also in here: some previously unreported revenue #'s 👀
1
5
25
For Earth Day, I talked to five green tech startups backed by Bill Gates' $2 billion Breakthrough Energy Ventures climate fund. They're creating new technologies to save the planet, from reinventing steelmaking to using lasers to undo deforestation:
1
12
23
A first for the
@Forbes
#Cloud100
: every incumbent remains eligible.
But at such high elevations, the order is bound to shift. Know a company that deserves a spot up top?
Nominations are open through May 12 for our list with
@BessemerVP
@SalesforceVC
:
4
16
23
Robots are taking over the world... of recycling.
Fear of touching virus-laden waste is steering people from sorting jobs. My first
@Forbes
feature is on AMP Robotics, the startup making robots for the jobs people don't want, but recycling centers need:
2
10
23
Nominations for our fifth annual
#ForbesAI50
are now open globally.
While most spaces have slowed down, AI is rapidly gaining steam. Think your startup is at the forefront of this exciting tipping point in tech? Submit your app by February 10:
1
8
23
Ahead of our
#Cloud100
list which launches tomorrow, I sat down with Fivetran to get the inside story on the founders' 100-year lineage, and an unlikely $700 million acquisition that's set it up to move fast at a time when most startups are slowing down:
2
8
21
New: Character AI launched a group chat feature which lets users to talk to each other and several of the startup’s 18M AI bots at the same time.
We tested it out + spoke to the founders about the feature and what's next (like a 40x increase in compute):
1
11
21
Scoop: Dbt Labs is in talks to raise funds at a $6 billion valuation, sources tell
@Forbes
, as business in the modern data stack keeps heating up.
This comes just six months after the a16z/Sequoia-backed startup's last raise, which made it a unicorn.
2
13
20
After hiring GitHub CTO Jason Warner as a partner in July, Redpoint has nabbed another exec: COO Erica Brescia.
She's
@redpointvc
's first new early stage partner since Annie Kadavy in 2018. Spoke to
@ericabrescia
,
@jasoncwarner
+
@akad
for the exclusive:
0
2
22
@_IainMartin
We initially featured Stability in our magazine deep dive into generative AI (by
@alexrkonrad
and me):
@_IainMartin
and I have been looking into Stability for months since. We'd be grateful if you gave our full story a read:
0
2
21
Scoop with
@alexrkonrad
:
Hugging Face has a $4B valuation term sheet on the table with discussions still underway, per sources.
That represents a roughly 100x multiple, though we're told the red-hot startup has tripled revenue since the year's start.
0
8
20
Wrote about
@pearvc
, the rare VC firm that also run a startup accelerator. In its eighth year, the accelerator's small batch size model (this year's class had 13 companies) is showing signs of staying power.
1
9
21
New: On Int'l Women's Day, Xata is announcing a $30M Series A and an all-women board.
That's rare, especially for devtools. <2% of enterprise tech startups receiving funding have even one woman founder. Xata's Monica Sarbu hopes to usher in a change:
0
8
19
Databricks closes a billion-dollar round for the second time in 2021. New valuation: $38B.
It raised exclusively from big fund managers (Morgan Stanley led), added two execs this month and has plans to hire 700 people by year's end. IPO coming? My story:
1
4
20
I spoke with
@PoetryAaron
and
@BHolls1
about their journey to raise their oversubscribed first-time VC fund Collide Capital—and why their pedigrees (Blavity, BLCK VC) makes them uniquely qualified to build a fund powered by community and storytelling.
2
3
18
It's not just generative AI that's benefitting from the VC frenzy. Coactive AI has a new $200M valuation for its software to categorize visual data.
It's backed by Emerson Collective and Cherryrock Capital, a new fund backing Black and Latino founders:
1
14
19
@_IainMartin
But with as hype for generative AI grew, Mostaque rapidly boosted Stability behind two incredible claims.
First: a "strategic partnership" with Amazon to build one of the world's 10 largest supercomputers.
An Amazon VP described things differently.
1
2
19
We've already received a record number of apps for AI 50. By popular demand, we're extending the deadline to submit your nominations by another week to 2/17.
Think your startup is at the cutting edge of AI? Get your application in now for
#ForbesAI50
:
1
2
19
ICYMI, some counter-programming to all the AI stories...
Anrok, which sells sales tax compliance software, raised a $30 million Series B from Khosla Ventures. Its valuation climbs to $250 million.
I spoke CEO
@_vltn
for the exclusive:
2
3
19
Proud and optimistic to be part of the
#ForbesUnion
, and to stand in solidarity with my fellow journalists in building a voice for our extraordinary newsroom.
We, the journalists, reporters, editors, designers, videographers and social media editors at Forbes, have formed a union with the NewsGuild of New York and are asking
@Forbes
to voluntarily recognize the
#ForbesUnion
.
Read our full mission here:
10
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335
0
1
19
Eoghan McCabe is CEO at Intercom again.
I talked to him about the company's new vision ("pick a fight with Zendesk") and his response to accusations of sexual misconduct that surfaced in 2019 during his first tenure as CEO:
1
11
16
For the
#ForbesMidas
list, I wrote about how Chinese investors (a record 22 of them) are continuing to grow their venture capital footprint as they search for China's version of Pfizer or Zoom:
1
3
19
Exclusive from
@alexrkonrad
and I on a new $1B valuation for an AI research lab with an unusual backstory and an even more unusual lead backer.
Imbue (fka Generally Intelligent) says its AI agents, which might one day solve complex tasks on their own, are years away from launch.
News: AI research lab Imbue has raised $200 million to build AI "agents" that can perform longer-term autonomous tasks.
Nvidia is now an investor, and Imbue claims access to 10,000 of its precious GPUs. But it's years away from a commercial product.
10
20
71
0
6
18
2/ Mostaque said he quit as CEO to decentralize power in AI.
But for months he clung to power as investors and staff implored him to resign.
Said one exec, he "infuriated our initial investors so much" that raising funds at fair terms was "impossible."
1
2
17
New: ex-Cisco chief John Chambers took a 10% stake in Indian startup Uniphore when it was worth $30M. He coached it through an HQ move to the U.S., and is now starting to reap his dividends after the call center AI firm raised $400M at a $2.5B valuation.
0
5
18
Given today's Twitter news, a reminder that Marc Andreessen messaged Elon Musk "my growth fund is in for $250M with no additional work required"
I talked to some VCs and startup founders who say dealmaking over text isn't just a Musk thing:
2
10
17
Neo is a VC firm, but it's also a talent network that scouts the best engineers who are about to graduate. Some portfolio companies have recruited most of their engineers through
@neo
's network.
It now has a new $150M venture fund to keep things rolling.
2
9
18
Gem, a startup trying to be the next step after LinkedIn for recruiters, raises a $37 million Series B. The fast-moving company with a
#ForbesUnder30
nod has tripled its customer count to 300+ since its Series A last year. My latest:
2
5
17
AI 50 founders sound off on what artificial intelligence will look like in the post-coronavirus age. “We have seen two years of digital transformation in the course of the last two months,” says one CEO.
1
9
17
@_IainMartin
Mostaque's gambit further involved:
- an unpaid bill in the millions to AWS
- a threat by UK's tax agency to seize assets
- repeated missed wages to workers
But any further debt concerns were washed away when Stability raised $100M+ in Silicon Valley.
1
5
17
Only Mark Zuckerberg, Evan Spiegel and Kylie Jenner hit self-made billionaire status so young.
I spoke to Wang about the weight he shoulders — both in Silicon Valley, where Scale helped build ChatGPT, and in D.C. too, where the military is a customer.
5
6
17
@_IainMartin
Second: providing a computing power donation to the developers of an AI image generator, which they renamed Stable Diffusion.
But the devs are unhappy with how Mostaque has claimed credit. One said he's been able to "rebrand history."
1
0
17
Ivan Zhao's steadfast vision to build a Lego-like software editor nearly bankrupted Notion in 2015.
Now, with a productivity software layered on top to reel people in, Notion is profitable and nearing 100M users. We estimate 2023 revenue hit $250M.
1
2
17
🚨 Nominations for our fourth annual AI 50 are now open! 🚨
Send in your application by January 21. Link and details here:
0
7
14
SoftBank's Vision Fund II is placing its bet on Labelbox, a data labeling startup in a space with already a couple $1 billion companies.
Labelbox has raised $110 million, and its eyes are on cornering business in the enterprise and government. My story:
0
3
13
New: SoftBank is making its Opportunity Fund evergreen and uncapped after deploying the first $100M.
"We were as awful as the rest of the industry in focusing in any kind of explicit way on underrepresented founders" -
@snyatta
on Vision Fund. My story:
1
4
15
NEW: Mayfield is setting aside $250 million to launch a new seed vehicle for AI investments.
The firm's chief Navin Chaddha (15x Midas List) tells us he plans to spend the majority of his time getting it off the ground.
My story:
0
9
15
Ironclad has raised $150M at a $3.2B valuation, and CEO Jason Boehmig has a blueprint for his late-blooming startup to corner the contract management market. “It's a scaling exercise from here,” says the lead investor on the round. My latest:
3
0
15
To get there, Scale relied on more than just software. Its 600 employees are backed by 240,000 outsourcers who label the data used to train AI.
Wang says his human army is crucial. Critics see it as an assailable business — and an ethical can of worms.
1
5
14
Datadog opens at $40.35 per share. To become a billionaire, CEO Olivier Pomel needs $DDOG cross $43—right now he's $60 million short, per
@Forbes
estimates. Stay tuned to see if he makes it:
2
2
12
New Bing is here — built on a new OpenAI-powered model that Satya Nadella and Sam Altman say took learnings from ChatGPT and GPT-3.5, and made it better:
0
4
11
Chatted with ex-NFL linebacker Ryan Nece about his firm Next Play Capital which helps other athletes and entertainers to invest into funds like Accel, Greylock and USV.
His next play? A new $200M fund:
2
4
14
Yesterday, a 17-year-old testified that Juul told students at his high school the vaping products were "totally safe." Today, a House panel revealed internal emails from Juul employees that show just what Juul was up to:
1
4
14
New: 42,000 tech layoffs have made November the worst month by far since the start of the pandemic.
For those on visas, many who have just 60 days to find a job, there may not be enough openings or time remaining for the majority of them, experts say:
4
8
14
New:
Primary has announced a $275 million seed fund and a $150 million select fund.
As NYC's tech ecosystem shows its staying power, Primary cofounder Brad Svrluga says for his firm: "This is a time to double down on the strategy and go for broke."
0
0
14
With 650+ OpenAI employees threatening to quit, customers are considering alternatives.
“OpenAI is dead to all businesses building with it,” one founder told us.
From
@RashiShrivast18
,
@_IainMartin
and I:
1
13
13