Channel & Definite

Open Scout #16

February 28, 2023

Hey y’all 👋

Happy Tuesday and welcome to Open Scout!

Today’s Open Scout is brought to you by Propel(x). Propel(x) is a powerful investment platform that puts accredited investors at the forefront of the most promising startups in science and technology. By funding cutting-edge companies that tackle some of the world's most pressing challenges, you could make a real impact on our future. Think potential cures for devastating diseases, revolutionary renewable energy solutions, and new frontiers in space exploration. This is not a dream – it's the vision of Propel(x). Browse open deals for free.1

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Back to business,

Startups of the week

Startup name: Channel (UK, 2022)

Description: Channel leverages AI technology to answer your data questions. You can get answers to questions such as "Which artists achieved more than 100 million streams over the last year?", "How many donations did our charity receive last month?", and "Which of our customers are about to churn?" without needing to rely on a data analyst. You can connect your data from four of the most common data warehouses (Postgres, MySQL, BigQuery, and Snowflake), ask a question, and get an immediate answer. Channel also automatically generates beautiful visualizations for your data and selects the appropriate chart type based on your preferences.

Currently, Channel's beta program includes 50 businesses, and there is a waitlist of 9,000 interested businesses.

Founder(s) background: Robert - CEO, prev. Founder @ Scribeless, Rhubarb; Cameron - CTO, prev. Software Engineer @ Gravity Sketch, Ford Motor Company 

Backed by (public source): N/A

...

Startup name: Definite (US, 2022)

Description: Despite advancements in the modern data stack, setting up analytics still takes an inordinate amount of time, and there is always a need for more from non-SQL users, leading to delays and inefficiencies. Most analytics tools are also not great for ad hoc analysis and exploration.

Definite offers an AI-powered solution that automates the most tedious parts of analytics and allows anyone in the company to set up analytics workflows using natural language. This means that your data engineers and data scientists can finally have time for deep work. Definite's "infinite canvas" design space allows for collaboration on data problems, ad hoc analysis, and presentation-ready results. It's like Figma was built for analytics and deeply understood your data warehouse.

Founder(s) background: Michael - CEO, prev. CEO of SeekWell (acquired by ThoughtSpot), Head of Risk at Blispay, SVP of Analytics at Bank of America.

Backed by (public source): N/A

If you know of an exciting early-stage founder or portfolio company that is raising (or not), please reply to this email or shoot us a DM on Twitter @openscoutxyz, and we might feature them in our upcoming newsletter.

Bulletin board

  • Headlines:

    • Twitter has cut another 200 employees in its latest slew of layoffs. Among them was Esther Crawford, the head of Twitter Blue, the company's payments project.

    • Snapchat is rolling out its own AI-powered chatbot called My AI. The bot, powered by the latest version of OpenAI's GPT technology, will initially only be available to paying Snapchat Plus subscribers.

    • Generative AI startup Typeface has raised $65 million with backing from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Menlo Ventures, M12 (Microsoft’s venture fund), and Google Ventures.

    • Skydio, a drone manufacturer, has locked up a $230 million Series E at a $2.2 billion valuation. The round was led by Linse Capital and included participation from Andreessen Horowitz, Next47, IVP, DoCoMo, Nvidia, the Walton Family Foundation, UP Partners, Hercules Capital, and Axon.

Until next time,Kenneth