While #generativeAI in the cloud continues its evolution towards ever larger and more capable models that will run on global scale networks between datacenters, the issue of data gravity - where, how, and when data is created and resident, if it's used at all - becomes a kind of unifying force that will shape all applications, infrastructure, even hardware. Even though this concept isn't new, and it's been predicted for some time that AI must come to the data, a large number of factors have kept edge AI from being deployed as systematically and consistently as cloud-based services. For years, M12, Microsoft's Venture Fund has made successful investments in several parts of the #edgeAI tech stack, teaching us a little about what works and what doesn't. Reflecting on these lessons really helped us reach conviction on Armada. We think the team led by Dan Wright, Jon Runyan, and Pradeep Nair will be the first and leading player to bring AI in a packaged, end-to-end way, to industries and locations where access might be challenging, and deliver a seamless experience to customers who leverage both edge and cloud services. Congratulations to the Armada on this round and huge thank you to my M12 deal team, Carli Stein, Jose Clautier, and Peter B..
M12, Microsoft's Venture Fund
Venture Capital and Private Equity Principals
San Francisco, California 39,733 followers
We accelerate the future of technology through investments, insights, and meaningful partnership with Microsoft.
About us
M12 is Microsoft’s corporate venture capital fund. We invest across key focus areas in the most promising early-stage companies that are disrupting markets in the business of today and tomorrow.
- Website
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http://m12.vc
External link for M12, Microsoft's Venture Fund
- Industry
- Venture Capital and Private Equity Principals
- Company size
- 11-50 employees
- Headquarters
- San Francisco, California
- Type
- Public Company
- Founded
- 2016
- Specialties
- venture capital, VC, investing, technology, corporate venture capital, cloud infrastructure, AI, ML, Business SaaS, communication, productivity, big data, analytics, and security
Locations
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Primary
1355 Market St
San Francisco, California, US
Employees at M12, Microsoft's Venture Fund
Updates
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Managing Partner, Michael Stewart, shares 4 common themes of companies that succeed in getting noticed, building resilience, and achieving success - data, dividends, distribution, and delight. Read more: ⬇ https://lnkd.in/gjWeeGf4 #VentureCapital #VentureCapitalist #VC #Funding #PrivateEquity #Business #Entrepreneur #Entrepreneurship #Founder #InvestmentStrategy #Investment #Strategy #AngelInvestor #Technology #Tech #AI #genAI #CloudInfrastructure #Cloud #Cybersecurity #Cybersec #Developer #DevOps #DevSecOps #SaaS #VerticalSaaS #Web3 #Gaming
Competitive strategies in AI: Insights from an M12 managing partner | The Microsoft Cloud Blog
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-cloud/blog
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I'm thrilled to announce our newest #gaming and #AI investment! Time to take the wraps off of Volley's $55M Series C co-led by M12, Microsoft's Venture Fund and Lightspeed, joined by General Catalyst, Causewayvc, the Amazon Alexa Fund, BITKRAFT Ventures, Y Combinator, Boost VC, Alumni Ventures, and others joining the round. I'll be joining the Board along with Moritz Baier-Lentz 🎮 from Lightspeed. Since its founding in 2016, Volley has led the market in creating voice-enabled games via voice AI platforms. With a userbase of millions that is still growing quickly, Volley has had success in monetizing LLM APIs in an interactive but fun setting related to gaming that leverages both the language synthesis abilities of the current wave of AI in a number of styles related to popular game shows, and the tailwinds of relentless progress in generative AI tooling that we've all seen over the last three years. We’re excited to partner with Volley as they follow their destiny towards creating a nexus for enjoyment and entertainment that increasingly will incorporate advanced multimodal LLM technology, via our M12 platform access to the world’s most advanced AI models, development tools, compute infrastructure, and largest distribution channels for users and enterprises alike. https://lnkd.in/gjzM69z9
Announcing Volley's $55M Series C
volleygames.com
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LOVE seeing our own Michelle Gonzalez co-lead yesterday's Fortune #BrainstormTech panel on investing in disruption! #ICYMI:
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Big news! Our portfolio company, Typeface is featured in the first ever Gartner Cool Vendors in Generative #AI for Marketing. Typeface continues to transform the #enterprise with its unique multimodal approach, deep content personalization, and AI-first content workflows across marketing channels. Congrats to Abhay Parasnis and the whole team.
We are beyond excited to share Typeface is featured in the first ever Gartner® Cool Vendors™ in Generative AI for Marketing. This recognition from Gartner builds on the widespread momentum we've gained from our customers and partners. We love delivering a platform uniquely ~ cool ~ with our: 🧊 One multimodal platform (text, images, video, etc) 🧊 Deep content personalization 🧊 Unmatched enterprise integrations and partnerships 🧊 Enterprise-safe AI trusted by the Fortune 500 Get your complimentary copy of the report: https://bit.ly/3zScaWc Read more on the blog: https://bit.ly/4d6KoUx Thank you Nicole (Denman) Greene & Mike Froggatt for the great conversations and insights! #GartnerCoolVendor #GenerativeAI #AIforMarketing
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Happening TOMORROW! 🚨 Our own CVP & Global Head, Michelle Gonzalez, is joining Upfront Ventures' Managing Partner, Mark Suster, and University of California Chief Investment Officer, Jagdeep Singh Bachher, at Fortune #BrainstormTech 2024 to talk about investing in disruption amid a complex macroeconomic environment. Don't miss it! https://lnkd.in/dt5wDVZz
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We love being such an integral partner in Armada's journey! Here's to the next chapter of innovation, Jon Runyan and Dan Wright!
Armada’s mission to redefine the future of edge computing just got a boost! Today, we’re thrilled to announce a $40 million funding round led by M12, Microsoft's Venture Fund. This investment propels our total funding to over $100M and marks a significant milestone in our journey to bring AI to the edge and bridge the digital divide. We’ve also signed a key partnership with Microsoft, which brings Armada's innovative solutions to the Microsoft Azure Marketplace , allowing Azure customers to use pre-committed spend on Armada’s cutting-edge solutions and making our technology more accessible than ever. Dive deeper into our vision and read more about our latest developments from #AllieGarfinkle at Fortune https://bit.ly/3Y4v1rr.
Exclusive: Armada lands $40 million in funding round led by Microsoft's M12
fortune.com
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We are thrilled to announce that we have led a $40 million #funding round for Armada, an #edge computing pioneer redefining the future of connectivity, compute, and #AI. Read more in the Fortune exclusive here: https://shorturl.at/eYZGQ
Exclusive: Armada lands $40 million in funding round led by Microsoft’s M12
fortune.com
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We’re excited to partner with Volley as they leverage our #M12 platform access to create a nexus for enjoyment & entertainment that will increasingly incorporate advanced multimodal #LLM #tech. Read more about their #SeriesC and our ongoing collaboration: https://lnkd.in/gKdmBh7F
Fueling the Future of Gaming with an Investment in AI Voice Game Leader - M12
https://m12.vc
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HUGE congrats to Volley on their #SeriesC funding announcement! 🎉 We're thrilled to share that we co-led alongside Lightspeed, and are excited to see our own Michael Stewart join the board. See more about the team's plans to accelerate development of new voice-controlled, #AI powered games. ⤵
Volley is thrilled to announce our $55M Series C funding round, co-led by M12, Microsoft's Venture Fund and Lightspeed, with participation from Causeway, Amazon Alexa Fund, BITKRAFT Ventures, Y Combinator and others. With this latest round of funding, we can accelerate our development of new voice-controlled, AI-powered games. Behind the scenes, we use speech recognition, natural language processing, large language models, and speech synthesis to create seamless, simple, joyful entertainment. The technology melts away so that players can bond with friends and family. Read more about our recent fundraise here: https://lnkd.in/eBC2fEdP