| Hi, Agen. We don’t mean to be party poopers, but the virtual events business just isn’t what it once was. Peak pandemic, venture investors spent some $1.5 billion backing startups working on making virtual and hybrid events better. But in a sign of just how much the market has changed as the pandemic fades, the top-funded startup in the space just sold off its core business in an apparent fire sale. A year ago, well-known venture firms including Andreessen Horowitz were near the top of our list of most active U.S. venture investors, making at least 10 bets on innovative startups. But most firms have since eased off their investment pace. Hopin, the virtual events platform backed by big-name investors, saw its valuation skyrocket to $7.75 billion by the end of the pandemic. But this week, the company said it agreed to sell off its core events product and other assets — an ominous sign for the dozens of other startups related to virtual events that raised millions of dollars from venture investors in 2020 and 2021. Related Crunchbase Pro list: Hybrid And Virtual Events-Related Funded Companies An AI chip startup founded by Jim Keller, a well-known chip designer who previously worked for Apple, Tesla, Intel and AMD, has raised $100 million from investors including two major automakers. The company is developing a wide range of AI chips and says it will use the cash infusion for design and development of AI chiplets and ML software. More than $400 million has gone into dozens of seed- through late-stage rounds for startups straddling the intersection of carbon removal and AI, Crunchbase data shows. We look at 15 such companies that have each raised $10 million or more. Related Crunchbase Pro list: Funded Startups At The Intersection Of AI And Carbon Tiger Global isn’t the world’s preeminent unicorn hunter anymore. As the herd of new unicorns joining The Crunchbase Unicorn Board dwindles, the rankings of most active investors in these new billion-dollar startups has also shifted dramatically. In fact, the most active unicorn investor so far this year is in neither Silicon Valley nor New York, but Berlin. Related Crunchbase list: The Crunchbase Unicorn Board | 
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