☕ Alibaba launches Qwen 3.5 AI model & Pentagon may cut ties with Anthropic.
ByteDance to limit AI video generator after Disney's legal threat & More.
Breaking News
Alibaba has launched Qwen 3.5, positioning it for the “agentic AI era” and claiming it outperforms leading Western models on internal benchmarks. The model is 60% cheaper than its predecessor, handles larger workloads, and includes an open-weight version under Apache 2.0 supporting 201 languages. The release intensifies competition in China’s AI race as ByteDance and DeepSeek also prepare next-generation upgrades.
United States Department of Defense is reportedly pressuring Anthropic to allow military use of its AI for “all lawful purposes,” threatening to cancel a $200M contract if it refuses. The same demand has been made to OpenAI, Google, and xAI, but Anthropic appears the most resistant, drawing a hard line against fully autonomous weapons and mass surveillance. The dispute underscores rising tension between AI labs and governments over how frontier models can be deployed.
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Churn and retention in the era of AI. (Link)
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40 real startup pitch decks that raised $350M+ (Including leading startups decks) (Link)
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Y-Combinator Spring Requests for startups. (Link)
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STARTUPS RAISING MILLIONS
💰 Startup Funding Updates
PRE-SEED
The Compression Company, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of a data compression platform, raised $3.4M in Pre-Seed funding. The round was led by Long Journey.
Maestro AI, a Parkland, FL-based provider of a vertical artificial intelligence (AI)-powered platform built for mortgage origination, raised $1.2M in Pre-Seed funding. The round was led by New Stack Ventures, with participation from Family VC, ZFO, Roark’s Drift, and a group of local angel investors.
Smart Bricks, a San Francisco, CA-based AI startup building agentic AI infrastructure for real-estate investing, raised $5M in Pre-Seed funding. The round was led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z).
The Bland Company, a London, UK-based developer of high-performance plant-based proteins, raised $2.67M in pre-seed funding. The round was led by Initialized Capital, with participation from Entrepreneur First, Transpose Platform, Behind Genius Ventures, Alumni Ventures, and Vento.
Linda AI, a Dublin, Ireland-based healthtech startup, raised €2.6m in pre-seed funding. The round was led by 6 Degrees Capital.
SEED
inference Research, a Hong Kong-based AI-native quantitative trading franchise company for digital assets and traditional finance, raised $20M in Seed funding. The round was led by Avenir Group.
Project Omega, a Washington, D.C.-based developer of advanced nuclear recycling technology, raised $12m in Seed funding. The round was led by Starship Ventures, with participation from Mantis Ventures, Buckley Ventures, Decisive Point, and Slow Ventures.
Helia Care, a Scottsdale, AZ-based provider of a cloud-based SaaS platform designed to optimize healthcare supply chain and billing, raises $3M funding. Backers included In Revenue Capital and Habanero Ventures.
Tembo, a London, UK-based provider of a digital savings and mortgage platform, raised £16m in funding round. Backers included Gresham House Ventures, and existing investors Goodwater Capital, Aviva, McPike Family Office, Love Ventures, Ascension and British Business Bank.
Vape Guardian, a London, UK-based vape detection technology provider, raised £350K as part of its Seed funding. Angel Investment Network (AIN) made the investment.
GROWTH
Uptiq, a Dallas, TX-based AI platform purpose-built for financial services, raised $25m in Series B funding. The round was led by Curql, with participation from Silverton Partners, 645 Ventures, Broadridge, Green Visor Capital, Live Oak Ventures, First Capital, Epic Ventures, Tau Ventures, and Evolution VC.
Apptronik, an Austin, TX-based AI-powered robotics company, raised $520 in Series A-X funding. Backers included B Capital, Google, Mercedes-Benz and PEAK6, and new investors AT&T Ventures, John Deere and Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), bringing the total of the Series A to more than $935M and the total capital raised to nearly $1 Billion.
Tozaro, a Bedford, UK-based developer of ‘Smart Polymer’ technology to reduce the cost of life-saving cell and gene therapies, closed a £6m ($8.2m) funding round. The round was led by Mercia Ventures, investing from the Midlands Engine Investment Fund II and from its own funds, alongside other existing investors.
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NEW VCs IN THE MARKET
🏦 Venture Capital Updates.
Kindred Ventures, a San Francisco, CA-base venture capital firm, raised approx. $227m across two funds. According to a first S.E.C. form dated Feb, 6, 2026, Kindred Ventures IV, L.P., has raised $190m out of an attempt to raise $230m. According to an another S.E.C. form dated the same day, Kindred Selector II, L.P., has raised $37m out of a target of $100m.
Seligman Investments, a Menlo Park, CA-based technology investor, launched $500M Seligman Ventures. Seligman Ventures is a new venture capital arm designed to invest across early-stage to pre-IPO technology companies in the AI and cloud infrastructure, cybersecurity, and modern data-center hardware verticals.
KEY STORIES IN TECH
📜 Latest In Tech
After the hype, some AI experts say OpenClaw isn’t that revolutionary
OpenClaw (formerly Clawdbot and Moltbot), created by Peter Steinberger, went viral after Moltbook — a Reddit-style network for AI agents — sparked fears of an “AI uprising.” But security researchers later found unsecured credentials that allowed humans to impersonate agents, undermining the spectacle.
Despite 190,000+ GitHub stars, experts say OpenClaw is mostly a wrapper around models like ChatGPT and Claude, combining existing components rather than introducing new AI breakthroughs. Its strength lies in easier automation and cross-app integrations — not novel research.
The bigger concern is security. Researchers demonstrated prompt injection risks, where malicious inputs could trick agents into leaking credentials or executing harmful actions. Until those vulnerabilities are solved, several experts warn that agentic AI like OpenClaw isn’t ready for mainstream, real-world use.
Anthropic says India revenue run-rate doubled in four months
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said the company’s India revenue run-rate has doubled in the past four months, driven largely by strong adoption of Claude Code. India is now Claude’s largest market after the United States.
The company officially opened its Bengaluru office this week, months after announcing its India expansion in October 2025. Anthropic recently raised $30 billion at a $380 billion valuation, and continues to push enterprise AI tools like Claude Code and Claude Cowork.
Indian enterprises are moving fast: Air India is using Claude Code to accelerate custom software development, while Cognizant is deploying Claude to modernize legacy systems. Amodei noted that Claude usage in India skews heavily toward productivity and professional workloads.
ByteDance to limit AI video generator after Disney's legal threat
ByteDance has restricted its Seedance 2.0 AI video tool after Disney sent a cease-and-desist letter alleging unauthorized use of copyrighted characters, with Paramount and industry groups quickly following with their own demands.
A research platform called LightBar says it helps studios detect suspected misuse of copyrighted material by running structured prompts and measuring percentage likeness, distinctive character traits, and prominence in AI outputs.
SAG-AFTRA condemned Seedance 2.0 for unauthorized use of performers’ voices and likenesses, while the Motion Picture Association urged ByteDance to stop the tool, saying it uses copyrighted works without authorization.
LAST COFFEE SIP
☕ Other News
Apple announces special event on March 4
Apple has announced an invite-only special event scheduled for March 4 in New York City, where it may reveal products like M5 MacBook Pro models, updated iPads, and the iPhone 17e.
The 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro could get M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, while the MacBook Air and iPad Air may also receive upgrades following their March 2025 releases.
Desktop Mac lines like the iMac, Mac mini, and Mac Studio probably won’t appear at this event, as those updates are expected to arrive later in the first half of 2026.
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