☕ Anthropic declines VC funding offers at $800 billion & Accel raised $5B in fresh capital
Snap cuts 16% of workforce
Breaking News
Anthropic is reportedly rejecting funding offers at an $800B valuation, despite massive investor demand. The move signals extreme confidence — and suggests the company may be aiming even higher as it races against OpenAI in the AI arms race.
Snap is cutting 16% of its workforce, explicitly saying AI has reduced the need for repetitive work. The layoffs show one of the clearest real-world impacts of AI replacing jobs — not in the future, but right now.
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STARTUPS RAISING MILLIONS
💰 Startup Funding Updates
PRE-SEED
Traza, a NYC-based AI-native procurement platform, raised $2.1M in Pre-Seed funding. The round was led by Base10 Partners, with participation from Kfund, a16z scouts, Clara Ventures, Masia Ventures, and angels.
SolvaPay, a Stockholm-based AI payments platform, raised €2.4M in Pre-Seed funding. The round was led by Redstone and MS&AD Ventures, with participation from Antler and Greens Ventures.
Smartwage, a Palermo, Italy-based fintech company, raised €2M in Pre-Seed funding. The round included backing from Step Fund.
SEED
HYFIX Spatial Intelligence, a Santa Clara, CA-based semiconductor startup, raised $15M in Seed funding. The round was led by Craft Ventures, with participation from Multicoin Capital, Finality Capital, and others.
Capsule Security, a Tel Aviv-based AI security platform, raised $7M in Seed funding. The round was led by Lama Partners and Forgepoint Capital International.
GROWTH
Phonely, a San Francisco, CA-based AI voice platform, raised $16M in Series A funding. The round was led by Base10 Partners, with participation from Y Combinator, Etech Global Services, TSA Group, and others.
Paxos Labs, a NYC-based digital asset infrastructure company, raised $12M in strategic funding. The round was led by Blockchain Capital, with participation from Robot Ventures, Maelstrom, and Uniswap.
Hilbert, a San Francisco, CA-based agentic AI platform, raised $28M in Series A funding. The round was led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z).
Terremoto Biosciences, a San Francisco-based biotech company, raised $108M in Series C funding. Backers included RA Capital, Deep Track Capital, OrbiMed, Third Rock Ventures, and others.
Parasail, a San Mateo, CA-based AI agent deployment network, raised $32M in Series A funding. The round was led by Touring Capital and Kindred Ventures, with participation from Samsung Next, and others.
Timeshifter, a NYC-based jet lag app, raised an undisclosed amount in funding. The round was led by Skip Capital, with participation from strategic investors including Nico Rosberg.
Keebler Health, a Durham, NC-based healthtech company, raised $16M in Series A funding. The round was led by Flare Capital Partners, with participation from Sands Capital, and others.
HealPort, a Muscat-based healthcare platform, raised $1.2M in funding. Backers were not disclosed.
openmoove, a Cardiff-based proptech platform, raised £700K in funding. The investment came from Development Bank of Wales.
Gitar, a San Francisco, CA-based AI dev infrastructure company, raised $9M in funding. The round was led by Venrock, with participation from Sierra Ventures.
NanoTech Materials, a Houston-based materials science company, raised $29.4M in Series A funding. The round was led by HPI Real Estate and Investments, with participation from Goose Capital and Milliken Company.
Gizmo, a London-based AI learning platform, raised $22M in Series A funding. The round was led by Shine Capital, with participation from Ada Ventures, NFX, and others.
HockeyStack, a San Francisco-based revenue AI platform, raised funding led by Bessemer Venture Partners, Y Combinator, and Uncorrelated Ventures.
Neato, a Las Vegas-based eCommerce accelerator, raised $25M in growth capital. The round was led by Advantage Capital.
Otel AI, a Dublin-based hospitality AI startup, raised €2.8M in funding. The round was led by Playfair, with participation from angel investors.
Lightcast, a Cambridge, UK-based life sciences tools company, raised $27M in funding. The round was led by ARCH Venture Partners, with participation from Illumina Ventures, M Ventures, and others.
QUICK HITS
🔋 Founder Fuel
Useful Data: 2700+ US angel investors & VC firms contact database (email + linkedIn link) (Link)
Trends with Benefits: OpenAI’s internal memo reveals its AI moat strategy. (Link)
Founder Resource: Startup legal document pack – essential legal docs for founders. (Link)
From Social: 8 fundraising frameworks every founder should know. (Link)
NEW VCs IN THE MARKET
🏦 Venture Capital Updates.
Accel, a global venture firm, has raised $5B in fresh capital to back late-stage startups, with $4B allocated to its Leaders Fund and $650M to a sidecar vehicle. The fund will focus on AI-driven companies across software, hardware, robotics, defense tech, and data infrastructure, with plans to write ~20 large checks. Accel has previously backed companies like Anthropic, Perplexity, and Lovable, and is doubling down to stay competitive in the AI boom.
A‑Street, a Bentonville, Ark.-based multi-stage investment fund focused on improving PK-12 student learning and achievement, announced a $675m capital raise. Members of the Walton family, who were original investors in A-Street, participated in the capital raise and were joined by part-owner of the LEGO Group, the LEGO Foundation.
KEY STORIES IN TECH
📜 Latest In Tech
OpenAI upgrades agents SDK to improve enterprise safety and capabilities
OpenAI introduced sandboxing to let AI agents run in controlled environments, reducing risks from unpredictable behavior.
The update adds a new harness system, enabling agents to securely access files, tools, and perform complex multi-step tasks.
The SDK is now available via API with Python support first, as OpenAI expands tools for enterprises building advanced AI agents.
Amazon launches AI tool for drug discovery
Amazon Web Services has launched Amazon Bio Discovery, an AI tool designed to help researchers speed up the process of finding and developing new drug molecules.
The tool gives researchers access to a library of biological foundation models that can generate and evaluate drug molecules, plus an AI agent that helps set parameters and interpret results.
AWS vice president Rajiv Chopra said the service is meant to augment scientists, not replace them, addressing a bottleneck created by the growing demand for computational biologists in drug discovery.
Musk pushes Terafab chip project with supplier outreach
Elon Musk’s team has contacted chip equipment suppliers like Applied Materials and Samsung Electronics for Terafab.
The project aims to start chip production by 2029, with rapid scaling plans to support AI, robotics, and data center ambitions.
Musk’s team is requesting fast pricing and timelines while sharing limited details, signaling urgency to move at high speed.
LAST COFFEE SIP
☕ Other News
Allbirds ditches sneakers for AI, stock surges 373%
Allbirds, the sneaker company popular in Silicon Valley, sold its shoe brand for $39 million and is now pivoting to AI under the new name NewBird AI, sending its stock up 373 percent.
NewBird AI plans to become a GPU-as-a-Service and AI-native cloud solutions provider, and it secured a $50 million investment from an undisclosed institutional investor through a convertible financing facility.
The pivot echoes Long Island Iced Tea’s 2017 rebrand to blockchain, which saw a 275 percent stock jump before NASDAQ delisted it the following year after Bitcoin fever died down.
HIRING ALERT: STARTUPS & VC ROLES
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PE & VC Partner Manager - Dealhub | UK - Apply Here
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Associate / Senior Associate - Stepstone Group | Italy - Apply Here
Investment Analyst - Lunicorn Venture | UK - Apply Here
Program Manager - a16z | USA - Apply Here
Chief of Staff - Greycroft | USA - Apply Here
Associate or Senior Associate - AI - BVP | USA - Apply Here
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