AI's tween years, who's taking over climate tech, and the latest for Fearless Fund | Equity Podcast

14 Sep 2024 (4 days ago)

Apple's AI Features and Aura's Health Platform

Apple's new AI features, while presented as groundbreaking, are fundamentally similar to pre-existing tools and lack excitement in their capabilities.
Aura's acquisition of VAR, a company specializing in metabolic health products, suggests a strategic move to establish a more comprehensive health platform and compete with tech giants like Apple and Google.

Aura's strategy involves becoming a full-stack solution provider by developing or acquiring a broader platform, potentially facing competition from established tech giants like Apple rather than startups.
Health-focused hardware, particularly continuous glucose monitors, are gaining significant popularity and becoming increasingly common in everyday life.

The autonomous vehicle company Nuro, despite significant funding and technological advancements, has struggled to find a viable business model and is shifting from an operator to a technology licensor, facing competition from established players like Mobileye and well-funded startups like Wayve.
Automakers, known for their fickleness, present a challenge for AV startups like Nuro as they seek to license their technology, potentially mirroring the challenges faced by AV startups in 2015-2016 when securing partnerships with automakers proved difficult.
Many autonomous vehicle startups failed because automakers backed out of deals after proof of concept development.

A report by Congruent Ventures and Silicon Valley Bank found that the 50 most promising climate tech companies in North America are hardware-focused, indicating the importance of addressing climate change as a physical problem.
Climate tech is hardware focused, which makes it difficult and expensive to scale.
Early-stage funding for climate tech is down in 2023, making it harder for startups to raise funds.
Corporate venture capital is supporting climate tech companies to help them reach commercialization, but they are not likely to write large checks.

Major corporations like Apple, Google, Amazon, and Microsoft are increasingly seeking renewable energy sources, driving demand in the sector.
Helion, a fusion startup, has secured a power purchase agreement with Microsoft, signaling a potential trend of corporations investing in renewable energy startups.

Fearless Fund, a venture capital firm supporting women of color, settled a lawsuit regarding their grant program, which was accused of discriminating against non-black founders.
Initiatives may become less transparent about their target audiences, potentially using vaguer language in their programs.
Lawsuits, such as those against Comcast and the Smithsonian Institutes Latino Museum studies program, aim to challenge programs focused on promoting diversity and inclusion.
There is a concern that achieving equity while acknowledging historical disadvantages is challenging within the existing legal framework, as exemplified by Edward Blum and the American Alliance for Equal Rights (AAR)'s legal actions.