THE WEEKLY NEWSLETTER OF AIM Monday, 26 Aug, 2024 | Was this email forwarded to you | BY AMIT RAJA NAIK | | | | | | | This is total madness. Y Combinator (YC) has for its Fall 2024 batch, running from September to December in San Francisco, offering startups early investment, dedicated mentorship, and access to a powerful alumni network, with an application deadline of August 27. AIM noted that this is the first time YC is planning to start a new Fall batch to keep up with the influx of ideas and developments happening in AI. Interestingly, the YC24 batch is ridiculously jam packed with Indian AI startups focused on LLMOps, AI agents, AI coding, cybersecurity, and more. At this rate, YC should officially consider relocating to Bengaluru (India), instead of San Francisco (USA). (see below) | | | | | | | As discussions around India housing 100 AI unicorns in the next decade continue, it’s interesting to note that investors betting on these startups are increasingly emerging from the far West, with Y Combinator playing a crucial role for many of them. YC is one of the world's largest startup accelerators. Sam Altman’s first venture Loopt was also accepted into the YC program in 2011. Even OpenAI was originally incubated at YC Research, before Elon Musk and Altman chose a different path, and the rest is history. As of early 2024, YC has funded over 4,500 startups with a combined valuation of more than $600 billion, making it an attractive lifeline for many emerging startup founders. For the YC W24 program, 260 companies were selected from over 27000 applications. “With an acceptance rate under 1%, this was one of the most selective cohorts in YC history,” said Garry Tan, president and CEO of Y Combinator. According to the demographics of YC’s 2024 winter batch, selected founders were 36% white, followed by 25% Asian and 18% South Asian. YC also experienced a notable 45% rise in applications from India between the Winter 2020 and the Winter 2022 batches. This year as well, a number of Indian startups were selected for the program. Usually held in two batches of three-month programs, summer and winter batches, YC helps early-stage startups rapidly grow and succeed by providing seed funding, mentorship, access to a vast network of industry experts among many other things. | | | | | | | The YC catch Y Combinator invests $500,000 in startups, securing a 7% stake with $125,000 and converting the remaining $375,000 into shares in future funding rounds. This gives them a strategic advantage in backing promising Indian startups and participating in their long-term growth. | | | | | | | | | | | Going by the previous track record, YC has witnessed impressive growth from a number of their Indian startup investments. The notable one being that of quick commerce platform, Zepto. Not just the seed funding rounds, but the accelerator was part of its growth rounds too. “They were constantly in touch with us and said, hey, you guys are growing really fast and you’re now getting to millions of dollars in sales. Why don’t you talk to the growth folks at YC,” said Aadit Palicha, co-founder and CEO of Zepto, in an interview last year. The discussion paved the way to a Series-C funding round of $100 million, which was again led by YC. Not just Zepto, but other Indian startups that have hit unicorn status, including Meesho, Razorpay, and Groww, have all been YC-backed. | | | | | The dream of every Indian startup founder While YC will be at an advantage by investing in startups that will potentially hit millions, the YC programs are equally enticing for the Indian founders too. With no requirement on formal degree or actual returns, YC simply bets on a founder and their idea. Enjoy the full story here. | | | | | Top Stories of the Week >> | | | | | | | ONDC's 'UPI Moment' for E-Commerce Has Arrived | | | Indian commerce minister Piyush Goyal recently criticised e-commerce platforms like Amazon for using predatory pricing strategies, warning that such practices could harm local businesses, and the Indian economy. The minister’s statement plays in favour of Bhavish Aggarwal, who recently announced his grand plan to disrupt the Indian e-commerce ecosystem. | | | | | | | | | | | Aggarwal supported Goyal, saying, “At Ola, we’re building the future of commerce with ONDC, which will enable kiranas and small merchants to reach consumers through digital networks. ONDC is the future.” Read the full story here. Selling AI Models Is Turning into a Zero-Margin Business | | However, the key question is: Which models will the developers choose to integrate into their application layers? Will it be GPT-4o, Claude 3.5 Sonnet, Command R+, Llama 3, or Gemini 1.5 Flash? And how long can AI startups and tech giants continue to impress developers by offering their AI models for dirt-cheap prices—or even free in some cases? Read to find out. | | | | | Can GenAI Reduce the Technical Debt of Supply Chain Platforms | | Technical debt can significantly impact supply chain efficiency, especially as businesses face the pressures of staying competitive and agile in a post-pandemic world. Madhumita Banerjee, associate manager, supply chain and manufacturing at Tredence, sheds light on how technical debt accumulates for enterprises, and how generative AI can play a pivotal role in addressing these challenges.
Check out the full interview here. | | | | | | | Carrier's Bold Moves in AI and Digital Transformation | | In 2019, Carrier established its first Digital Hub in Hyderabad, India, coinciding with its transition to become an independent, publicly traded company in 2020. Led by senior vice president and chief digital officer Bobby George, Carrier embarked on a digital transformation journey to modernise and strengthen the digital infrastructure of a 100-year-old organisation. Since then, Carrier’s success with Digital Hub India has led to the development of the “Connected Hubs” model, integrating hubs in Mexico and China with operations in Bengaluru and Hyderabad. | | | | | | | | | AI Videos >> [Must Watch] AI Enters Kitchen | | | In our latest episode of Tech Talks, Khosla Ventures-backed Upliance.ai chief Mahek Mody unveiled how LLM-powered kitchen appliances are transforming home cooking into a personalised, effortless experience, making AI an essential tool in every kitchen. | | | | | | | | | World’s biggest AI conference is just around the corner. Mark your calendars for Cypher 20204! The Cypher India edition is scheduled to be held in Namma Bengaluru from September 25 to 27, while Cypher US will be held in Santa Clara, California from November 21 to 22, 2024. What are you waiting for? Register today! | | | | | | | | | | | | | - AI21 has launched the Jamba 1.5 family, featuring the Mini and Large models built on the novel SSM-Transformer architecture, offering unparalleled long context handling with a 256K context window, superior speed, and quality, surpassing leading models like Llama 3.1 and Mixtral.
| | | | | - Former OpenAI, Tesla engineer Andrej Karpathy lauded Cursor over GitHub Copilot, highlighting its growing dominance as an AI developer tool, and praised it for enhancing coding speed and adaptability.
| | | - Redis released Redis 8 with integrated AI capabilities, expanding developer access to advanced AI features like Redis for AI, and cost-saving solutions like Redis Flex, enhancing workflows and scaling AI applications globally.
- Salesforce launched Einstein SDR Agent and Einstein Sales Coach Agent, two autonomous AI tools designed to boost sales team productivity by engaging leads and providing personalised coaching.
- Netflix partnerd with Snowflake to enhance its advertising capabilities using Data Clean Rooms, providing advertisers with secure, privacy-compliant insights and improved campaign performance.
- Chevron has announced a $1 billion investment to establish its largest global innovation centre in Bengaluru, with plans to hire 600 professionals by the end of 2025.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | For Brand collaborations, reach out to us at info@aimmediahouse.com Stay tuned for more insights in our next edition! | | We love hearing from our readers! Have thoughts on our new format? Questions, comments, or ideas are always welcome. If there’s a specific topic in AI or analytics that you're curious about, tell us! | | | | | | | | |
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