Latest news with #SoundVentures
Yahoo
31-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Knit Secures $16.1M Series A to Redefine Enterprise Insights with Researcher-Driven AI
With $30M+ in total funding, Knit delivers human and AI-powered insights to leading enterprises including Amazon, NASCAR, Mars Wrigley, and Overtime to make smarter, faster data-powered decisions AUSTIN, Texas, July 31, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Knit, the AI-powered platform transforming how enterprises conduct consumer research, today announced it has raised $16.1 million in Series A funding. The round was led by GFT Ventures and Ashton Kutcher's Sound Ventures with continued participation from Silicon Road Ventures, Osage Ventures, Rise of the Rest, and others. Notable angel investors such as David Kirk, former Chief Scientist at NVIDIA, and Gokul Rajaram, founding partner of Marathon Management, also participated in this round. Knit's platform enables users to run custom research and receive "report-ready" insights within days that are driven by generative AI and human expertise. Traditional research solutions like market research agencies often provide industry insight but can be slow and costly. Meanwhile, new AI tools promise speed and affordability, but frequently lack depth and substance. Knit addresses these challenges by elevating, not replacing, the researcher to deliver high-quality insights at the pace modern teams demand. "Today's enterprise researchers are being asked to do more with less," said Aneesh Dhawan, Co-Founder and CEO of Knit. "Knit empowers them to deliver fast, cost-efficient insights without sacrificing quality or control. This funding accelerates our vision for a human + AI platform that makes research accessible, contextual, and decision-ready." Each research project on Knit is powered by a unique combination of human researcher expertise and AI. Knit's team of expert researchers works closely with customers to capture the nuance and context behind their research approach, ensuring that every study reflects both their specific goals and unique research style. That context is then embedded into the platform, where AI delivers fast, structured, and tailored outputs for use cases such as rapid concept testing or strategic customer segmentation. This human and AI approach transforms research from a bottleneck into a strategic advantage, helping teams run more studies, uncover sharper insights, and make a bigger impact, faster. "Enterprise research is a massive market that's ripe for AI disruption," said Jeff Herbst, Founding Managing Partner at GFT Ventures. "Knit has built technology that truly meets the needs of modern research teams. Their traction with some of the world's largest and most forward-thinking brands, standout team, and clear vision for where this market is headed position them to lead the new era of enterprise insights." The raise follows a year of strong momentum for Knit, marked by 5X year-over-year growth and widespread adoption across Fortune 500 brands. Knit has brought on more than 60 enterprise brands such as Amazon, NASCAR, Overtime, and Mars Wrigley to its platform to make data-driven decisions with real-time, researcher-driven insights. Moreover, investments from prominent VC firms like Sound Ventures, which have invested in OpenAI and Anthropic, have trusted Knit to become a leader in the researcher market for global brands. "Knit's growth reflects its ability to redefine how brands understand their customers by combining the rigor of traditional research with the speed of AI," said Alexandra Burbey, Investor at Sound Ventures. "As AI becomes embedded in every workflow, Knit stands out by keeping human insight at the center." The capital will be used to accelerate product development, including new AI-powered features, and expand research use cases based on market needs. Knit will also scale its go-to-market and research teams to support its growing enterprise customer base and expand its international research capabilities. "We've always wanted to scale our research efforts, but doing that without losing control over quality or consistency felt impossible, until we started working with Knit," said Brooks Deaton, VP, Data & Insights at NASCAR. "Now, we can run more studies, explore more ideas, and support more teams across the org, all without adding headcount. Knit gives us the flexibility to move fast while staying grounded in rigor." Looking ahead, Knit is continuing to invest heavily in new AI capabilities. The company is also expanding its in-house research team to ensure every customer is paired with a skilled research partner on every project. About KnitKnit is the end-to-end, AI-native platform transforming how enterprises conduct consumer research. Built for speed and substance, Knit enables teams to run agency-quality quantitative and qualitative studies faster and receive report-ready insights in days. The platform's Researcher-Driven AI model automates time-intensive tasks including analysis, synthesis, and reporting, while preserving the depth, rigor, and context that come from human insight and experience. By combining the power of AI with human expertise, Knit helps teams uncover sharper insights and drive faster, more confident decisions. The company is backed by GFT Ventures, Sound Ventures, Osage, Rise of the Rest, and Silicon Road Ventures. For more information about Knit, visit View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE Knit / BAM Communications Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Daily Mail
03-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Ashton Kutcher sparks concern with bandaged arm on vacation with Mila Kunis for 10th wedding anniversary
Ashton Kutcher sparked concern wearing a wrist guard while boarding a yacht called Eminence alongside his second wife Mila Kunis during their 10th wedding anniversary trip to Venice, Italy on Thursday. The 47-year-old venture capitalist sported a white-patterned short-sleeve button-up, orange shorts, white slip-on shoes, and a navy-blue baseball cap for their cruise. Ashton's (born Christopher) wrist guard could be a result of injury, carpal tunnel syndrome, or his autoimmune condition vasculitis - which he said he 'fully recovered' from in 2022. The Family Guy actress - turning 42 next month - looked leggy in a classic white T-shirt French-tucked into Daisy Duke cut-off shorts. Mila (born Milena) also wore dark sunglasses as sipped on an icy beverage while taking in the Venetian view. Last month, Kutcher share a bizarre tweet declaring Kunis his 'celebrity match' writing: 'Honestly, she's a great fit.' The Sound Ventures general partner - who boasts 15.9M X followers - then proceeded to use AI to outline their vibe compatibility, intellect/humor, and social/cultural fluidity. 'If I were casting the movie version of your life, Mila Kunis would 100% be on the shortlist to play your partner,' the AI text read on June 9. 'She matches the tone - smart, loyal, warm, unfiltered, and fiercely independent with a twinkle in the eye.' The Hollywood couple were joined on their romantic getaway by a large entourage, which appeared to include the Golden Globe-nominated actress' parents Mark and Elvira. Ashton and Mila originally began dating in 2012 after getting to know each other on the set of Fox sitcom That '70s Show, which aired from 1998-2006. Kutcher and Kunis are proud parents of 10-year-old daughter Wyatt Isabelle Kutcher and eight-year-old son Dimitri Portwood Kutcher, but they were not pictured on the fancy boat. The Goodrich producer-star changed into a summery floral frock and flip-flop sandals while fanning herself in the balmy 85F-degree heat. In 2023, the showbiz pair faced substantial backlash over penning letters requesting leniency from the judge overseeing their former That '70s Show co-star Danny Masterson's 30-year rape sentence. And last year, Ashton faced backlash over his early aughts friendship with Sean 'Diddy' Combs, who's incarcerated at MDC Brooklyn's Special Housing Unit ahead of his October 3 sentencing for two counts of transportation for the purposes of prostitution. The Family Guy actress - turning 42 next month - looked leggy in a classic white T-shirt French-tucked into Daisy Duke cut-off shorts Mila (born Milena) also wore dark sunglasses as sipped on an icy beverage while taking in the Venetian view Last month, Kutcher share a bizarre tweet declaring Kunis his 'celebrity match' writing: 'Honestly, she's a great fit' The Sound Ventures general partner - who boasts 15.9M X followers - then proceeded to use AI to outline their vibe compatibility, intellect/humor, and social/cultural fluidity Kutcher and Kunis are proud parents of 10-year-old daughter Wyatt Isabelle Kutcher and eight-year-old son Dimitri Portwood Kutcher, but they were not pictured on the fancy boat The Goodrich producer-star changed into a summery floral frock and flip-flop sandals while fanning herself in the balmy 85F-degree heat When Diddy was arrested last September, a 2019 clip of Kutcher on Hot Ones resurfaced where host Sean Evans asked him for a wild party story and he responded: 'I got a lot I can't tell' The Punk'd co-creator's rep told The Mirror US on Thursday that he is not under any investigation and he had 'no involvement and no knowledge' of any criminal activity connected to the rap mogul However, the jury of eight men and four women found the disgraced 55-year-old not guilty of racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking charges on Wednesday. When Diddy was arrested last September, a 2019 clip of Kutcher on Hot Ones resurfaced where host Sean Evans asked him for a wild party story and he responded: 'I got a lot I can't tell.' The Punk'd co-creator's rep told The Mirror US on Thursday that he is not under any investigation and he had 'no involvement and no knowledge' of any criminal activity connected to the rap mogul. Ashton is set to make his acting comeback as a tech billionaire in Ryan Murphy and Matt Hodgson's 10-episode adaptation of the 2016 graphic novel The Beauty - coming soon to FX - alongside Evan Peters, Anthony Ramos, Jeremy Pope, and Rebecca Hall. Mila currently voices angsty teen-turned-lifeguard Meg Griffin in the 23rd season of Seth MacFarlane's animated sitcom Family Guy, which airs Thursdays on Fox. Kunis joined the Knives Out universe with her role as police chief Geraldine Scott in Rian Johnson's three-quel Wake Up Dead Man - premiering December 12 on Netflix - alongside Daniel Craig, Glenn Close, Josh Brolin, Jeremy Renner, and Kerry Washington. The Ukrainian-born beauty originally came to the States, age 7, on a religious refugee visa.
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Landbase Raises $30 Million Series A to Help Businesses Find Their Next Customer
Co-led by Picus Capital and Ashton Kutcher's Sound Ventures, the round will accelerate Landbase's expansion — bringing its AI go-to-market platform to more businesses looking to launch sales and marketing campaigns in minutes, not months SAN FRANCISCO, June 12, 2025--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Landbase, the agentic AI company transforming how businesses grow, today announced it has raised $30 million in Series A funding. The round was co-led by Sound Ventures — the AI-focused fund co-founded by Ashton Kutcher and Guy Oseary — and returning investor Picus Capital. The raise also included strong participation from other existing backers, including 8VC, A*, Firstminute Capital and TheGP, underscoring continued conviction in Landbase's growth and mission. The new funding will support Landbase's continued investment in GTM-1 Omni, its proprietary domain-specific AI model, and accelerate its mission to make go-to-market (GTM) faster, cheaper and better for every B2B business. Landbase helps B2B companies find their next customer by generating highly personalized sales campaigns using predictive intelligence. With just a prompt, businesses can target the right audience, create tailored messages optimized to close and launch campaigns across channels. "We've seen real momentum because the challenge is universal — every business needs to grow, but most don't have an easy way to start," said Daniel Saks, co-founder and CEO of Landbase. "Landbase gives teams a simple, fast way to find their next customer. With this funding, we're excited to bring that capability to even more businesses looking to scale smarter." Landbase was founded by seasoned entrepreneurs including Saks, co-founder and former co-CEO of unicorn AppDirect; Emily Zhang, founding Chief Product Officer at unicorn OysterHR; and Hua Gao, founding Chief Data Scientist of Sequoia & Lightspeed-backed Everstring, which was acquired by ZoomInfo. The company is powered by a high-density team of builders, including Stanford grads, PhDs, GTM leaders and over one-third of employees who have previously founded companies. Landbase has experienced 825% revenue growth since the beginning of the year, scaling to 150 paid customers since launch. By optimizing targeting and messaging through reinforcement learning, GTM-1 Omni delivers a 4–7x conversion uplift compared to manual, human-built campaigns. Since debuting its new Campaign Feed in April, Landbase has reduced average campaign launch times from 14 days to just minutes. Before Landbase, teams often spent months coordinating across tools; now, powered by GTM-1 Omni and agentic AI, they can launch hyper-targeted, omnichannel campaigns nearly instantly. With a track record of spotting and backing generational hits — from producing entertainment icons to investing early in Airbnb, Uber, OpenAI and Anthropic — Sound Ventures sees Landbase as the next category-defining platform in the emerging AI GTM space. "Landbase makes one of the hardest parts of building a business feel simple," said Guy Oseary, Co-Founder of Sound Ventures. "They're not just solving outbound — they're building the foundational platform for how modern companies grow." Just as 2025 has seen the rise of vibe coding tools to democratize engineering for non-coders, Landbase is pioneering a similar vibe AI experience for GTM — calling it VibeGTM. To make this experience accessible to every business, Landbase is now available to preview for free, allowing any company to find their ideal customers and tailor the perfect message. Try it now at About Landbase Landbase is an agentic AI company that intelligently automates go-to-market workflows for businesses. Landbase has trained the GTM-1 Omni model on billions of data points, enabling organizations to launch highly relevant, omnichannel campaigns with minimal manual input. By combining machine intelligence with top human performance, the Landbase platform empowers businesses to scale their lead generation efforts autonomously, delivering proven success in improving conversion rates while lowering total cost of ownership. View source version on Contacts Media Contacts Janine Waldpr@ Nick Yacenkoprforlandbase@ Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Business Wire
12-06-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
Landbase Raises $30 Million Series A to Help Businesses Find Their Next Customer
SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Landbase, the agentic AI company transforming how businesses grow, today announced it has raised $30 million in Series A funding. The round was co-led by Sound Ventures — the AI-focused fund co-founded by Ashton Kutcher and Guy Oseary — and returning investor Picus Capital. The raise also included strong participation from other existing backers, including 8VC, A*, Firstminute Capital and TheGP, underscoring continued conviction in Landbase's growth and mission. 'We've seen real momentum because the challenge is universal — every business needs to grow, but most don't have an easy way to start,' said Daniel Saks, co-founder and CEO of Landbase. Share The new funding will support Landbase's continued investment in GTM-1 Omni, its proprietary domain-specific AI model, and accelerate its mission to make go-to-market (GTM) faster, cheaper and better for every B2B business. Landbase helps B2B companies find their next customer by generating highly personalized sales campaigns using predictive intelligence. With just a prompt, businesses can target the right audience, create tailored messages optimized to close and launch campaigns across channels. 'We've seen real momentum because the challenge is universal — every business needs to grow, but most don't have an easy way to start,' said Daniel Saks, co-founder and CEO of Landbase. 'Landbase gives teams a simple, fast way to find their next customer. With this funding, we're excited to bring that capability to even more businesses looking to scale smarter.' Landbase was founded by seasoned entrepreneurs including Saks, co-founder and former co-CEO of unicorn AppDirect; Emily Zhang, founding Chief Product Officer at unicorn OysterHR; and Hua Gao, founding Chief Data Scientist of Sequoia & Lightspeed-backed Everstring, which was acquired by ZoomInfo. The company is powered by a high-density team of builders, including Stanford grads, PhDs, GTM leaders and over one-third of employees who have previously founded companies. Landbase has experienced 825% revenue growth since the beginning of the year, scaling to 150 paid customers since launch. By optimizing targeting and messaging through reinforcement learning, GTM-1 Omni delivers a 4–7x conversion uplift compared to manual, human-built campaigns. Since debuting its new Campaign Feed in April, Landbase has reduced average campaign launch times from 14 days to just minutes. Before Landbase, teams often spent months coordinating across tools; now, powered by GTM-1 Omni and agentic AI, they can launch hyper-targeted, omnichannel campaigns nearly instantly. With a track record of spotting and backing generational hits — from producing entertainment icons to investing early in Airbnb, Uber, OpenAI and Anthropic — Sound Ventures sees Landbase as the next category-defining platform in the emerging AI GTM space. 'Landbase makes one of the hardest parts of building a business feel simple,' said Guy Oseary, Co-Founder of Sound Ventures. 'They're not just solving outbound — they're building the foundational platform for how modern companies grow.' Just as 2025 has seen the rise of vibe coding tools to democratize engineering for non-coders, Landbase is pioneering a similar vibe AI experience for GTM — calling it VibeGTM. To make this experience accessible to every business, Landbase is now available to preview for free, allowing any company to find their ideal customers and tailor the perfect message. Try it now at About Landbase Landbase is an agentic AI company that intelligently automates go-to-market workflows for businesses. Landbase has trained the GTM-1 Omni model on billions of data points, enabling organizations to launch highly relevant, omnichannel campaigns with minimal manual input. By combining machine intelligence with top human performance, the Landbase platform empowers businesses to scale their lead generation efforts autonomously, delivering proven success in improving conversion rates while lowering total cost of ownership.
Yahoo
16-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Dario Amodei
Credit - Ian Allen for TIME As the CEO of Anthropic, Dario Amodei navigates the precipice between technological revolution and ethical obligation. His physics background provides the analytical foundation, while his neuroscience training informs his understanding of intelligence itself—skills perfectly calibrated for our moment of artificial awakening. His heart also plays a profound role in how he architects the future: he is kind, and that matters given the role he's playing in our world. Amodei doesn't just build advanced AI; he designs guardrails for it. While others race to deploy ever more powerful systems, Amodei deliberately applies the brakes, insisting that safety precede capability—a radical position in Silicon Valley's 'move fast and break things' culture. His recent essay 'Machines of Loving Grace' reveals a leader grappling with AI's dual potential for liberation and disruption. This physics Ph.D. can explain quantum uncertainty and apply similar principles to navigating AI's probabilistic future, while maintaining that AI will be in service to a human quest rather than humans being in service to the quest of artificial general intelligence. Amodei's approach resembles a master bridge builder who tests each support beam meticulously before allowing a single traveler to cross—knowing that what's being constructed will be humanity's most consequential crossing yet. Kutcher, an actor and producer, is a co-founder of Sound Ventures, which invests in Anthropic Contact us at letters@
