Ilya Sutskever, a co-founder of OpenAI who departed the artificial intelligence startup in May, has raised $1 billion for his new venture, Safe Superintelligence, or SSI, from investors.

In a post on X, the company disclosed that investors included SV Angel, DST Global, Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and NFDG, an investment partnership co-managed by SSI executive Daniel Gross.

In May, Sutskever announced the new endeavor on X, writing, “We will pursue safe superintelligence in a straight shot, with one focus, one goal, and one product.”

Chief scientist Sutskever co-led the Superalignment team at OpenAI with Jan Leike, who departed in May to work for competitor artificial intelligence company Anthropic. Only a year after announcing the group, OpenAI dissolved the team shortly after their departures.

At the time, Leike stated that OpenAI’s “safety culture and processes have taken a backseat to shiny products” in a post on X.

Along with Daniel Levy, a former employee of OpenAI, and Daniel Gross, who handled Apple’s AI and search initiatives, Sutskever founded SSI. The business maintains offices in Tel Aviv, Israel, and Palo Alto, California.

The corporation wrote on X, “SSI is our mission, our name, and our entire product roadmap, because it is our sole focus.” “Our singular focus means no distraction by management overhead or product cycles, and our business model means safety, security, and progress are all insulated from short-term commercial pressures.”

Sam Altman, the CEO and co-founder of OpenAI, was temporarily removed in November, with Sutskever being one of the board members engaged.

In November, Altman was not “consistently candid in his communications with the board,” according to a statement released by OpenAI’s board. Things looked more complicated very quickly. As reported by the Wall Street Journal and other media, Altman and Sutskever were more keen to advance the delivery of new technology, while Sutskever focused on making sure that artificial intelligence would not damage people.

An open letter indicating their intention to quit in response to the board’s decision was signed by nearly every employee of OpenAI. After a few days, Altman returned to the organization.

Sutskever apologized to the public for his part in the ordeal after Altman’s abrupt dismissal and before his prompt reinstatement.

On November 20, Sutskever posted on X, saying, “I deeply regret my participation in the board’s actions.” “I never intended to harm OpenAI. I love everything we’ve built together and I will do everything I can to reunite the company.”Ilya Sutskever, a co-founder of OpenAI, raises $1 billion for his new AI company

Payroll management is a challenge for businesses in Africa, particularly given the diverse legislation, remote workforce, and hybrid work environments prevalent in the region. Because they cannot afford or maintain sophisticated payroll systems, almost 80% of small and medium-sized enterprises continue to operate using Google Sheets and Excel.

This is the reason why: Third-party solutions installed on-site have limited functionality, and software intended for large businesses can be costly and challenging to use. Payroll has been made simpler for firms operating abroad by multinational corporations like Gusto and Rippling, yet they have trouble operating in Africa.

This is the environment in which locally based solutions, like Workpay, supported by YC, flourish.

Workpay serves two primary customer types by offering cloud-based HR, payroll, and benefits solutions to companies with employees throughout Africa. Firstly, Workpay offers HR and payroll solutions to manage the workforce for small enterprises with 20–100 people operating in a single jurisdiction, such as a grocery store in Kenya or a manufacturing company in Nigeria. Moreover, Workpay assists in ensuring cross-border employee compliance for companies with 100–1,000 cross-border workers, such a Ugandan company employing in South Africa.

For ease of use and financial reasons, small-to-medium-sized enterprises favor more complete, full-stack solutions over juggling several systems, according to co-founder and CEO Paul Kimani: Because each piece of software must be purchased separately, using several solutions for the same department results in higher costs.

Over time, workpay has changed to reflect these changes. The five-year-old firm first concentrated on payroll, but as it grew, it added more services and responded to client input.

Businesses in the manufacturing industry, where it is crucial to monitor staff hours, are the primary users of features like time and attendance tracking. On the other hand, companies that employ remote workers are more concerned in measuring worker performance, which is something that Workpay’s performance management tool takes care of.

“The shift in customer needs has pushed us to expand our product from being a solid payroll solution to offering a more full-stack HR service. We’ve also noticed an opportunity to layer financial services on top of our HR offerings,” Kimani added, who founded Workpay with COO Jackson Kungu. “Since companies already use us to pay their employees, we can now provide added services like medical and vehicle insurance and even partner with providers for lending, savings, and investment options. This way, we offer a more comprehensive solution that meets the broader needs of our customers and their employees.”

As of right now, the startup has raised $5 million in Series A funding headed by the pan-African venture capital group Norrsken22. Current investors Y Combinator, Saviu Ventures, Axian, Plug n Play, Verod-Kepple Africa Ventures, and Acadian Ventures have also contributed, along with new money from Visa.

Visa is a major player in this investment round. The multinational payments giant debuted its fintech accelerator in November of last year, choosing 23 entrepreneurs for its first cohort and offering investment, training, and mentorship via its partners.

As of now, only Workpay has disclosed that it has obtained funding from Visa after finishing the program. Co-founder and CEO Paul Kimani said, “I think they invested depending on how they see a startup from a strategic and growth perspective,” following the program.

PaySpace in Africa is acquired by Deel, which reports that its ARR has surpassed $500M.
Payroll and HR solutions are in high demand throughout Africa as international businesses expand into previously untapped markets. This month, Skuad, a global HR and payroll business with headquarters in Singapore, was acquired by New York-based fintech Payoneer for $61 million. For well over $100 million in March of this year, Deel purchased PaySpace, a company based in South Africa.

With these new competitors, Workpay and other regional systems like SeamlessHR, PaidHR, and Bento will have to contend with more competition. On the other hand, Kimani sees increased international rivalry as validation of the market’s potential.

“We’re not overly concerned about competition from global players. There is still significant work to be done across Africa, both by external companies and ourselves. Building a comprehensive payroll solution for the entire continent is challenging—each country has its regulations and requirements,” the CEO added. “Payroll in Ivory Coast differs from South Africa. It will take time for global companies to adapt their products to the diverse African market. Therefore, in the short to medium term, we believe that competition from these global players won’t be a major concern for us or others in our space.”

Workpay is currently growing as quickly as it can, claiming to have added about 500 enterprises to its platform in the previous 16 months and to be serving over 1,000 clients in 20 African nations. This expansion would have increased the company’s reach from 20 to 40 nations, but it was postponing its move into Francophone Africa at the same time as this growth. In a similar vein, the business asserts that during the first half of 2024, revenue increased 1.5 times and is expected to quadruple by the end of the year.

According to Kimani, Workpay plans to use the additional funds to grow its workforce, improve its performance management tools with AI to help companies manage their teams, and broaden its financial services offering (including investigating new products to improve how employers and employees interact with salaries).

The Norrsken Foundation participated in the $2.7 million pre-Series A round last year, and the $2.1 million seed round in 2020 came before the Norrsken-led round. Existing investors Y Combinator, Saviu Ventures, Axian, Plug n Play, Verod-Kepple Africa Ventures, and Acadian Ventures are also involved in this round. Workpay was founded in 2019 and has already raised about $10 million in funding.

At a time when the manufacturer of Jeep SUVs and Ram pickup trucks is getting ready to introduce a number of battery-powered automobiles, Rivian’s head of manufacturing is leaving the electric vehicle startup to join Stellantis.

With effect from September 2, Tim Fallon will become the head of manufacturing for Stellantis in North America, the company announced in a statement.

Rivian, which is well-known for its R1S SUVs and R1T pickups, has appointed Carlo Materazzo, a former Stellantis executive, to supervise logistics and oversee production in the interim, according to an internal email obtained by Reuters and signed by CEO RJ Scaringe.

Fallon’s departure coincides with a pivotal moment for Rivian, as the business is growing its single plant in Normal, Illinois, to manufacture the more affordable and smaller R2 SUV, which many observers believe is essential to its survival in the face of a decline in EV demand.

This year at Rivian, Fallon, a former Nissan executive, managed a manufacturing facility makeover that included a three-week shutdown of the Normal plant with the goal of streamlining production and cutting expenses. Weeks after Javier Varela, a former employee of Volvo, joined Rivian as its operations chief, he too made a transfer.

“We’ve had different leaders as we approach different levels of scaling our business,” a Rivian spokeswoman confirmed Fallon’s departure. “We’re positioning the organization structure for the future.”

Fallon becomes part of Stellantis “as we enter this critical stage of our transformation … with this year marking the start of our electric vehicle offensive,” according to the company’s chief operating officer for North America, Carlos Zarlenga.

By 2030, the French-Italian-American carmaker plans to introduce 25 electric vehicles to the American market. According to its CEO this year, the company intends to shortly introduce a Jeep EV vehicle that would cost less than $25,000 in the US.