☕ Anthropic targets $70B in revenue, Apple plans budget Mac to challenge Chromebooks & Amazon threatens Perplexity over AI shopping bot.
Facebook Dating is a surprise hit & WhatsApp debuts Apple Watch app
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📬 What’s in store:
Today’s Picks: 2700+ US investor database, 3 sales frameworks, when waitlists work, seed round guide, Deel founder’s work principles, originality in business, AI bubble myth, ChatGPT retention.
Nvidia joins India Deep Tech Alliance as group adds new members, $850 million pledge.
Anthropic targets $70B in revenue by 2028.
Apple plans budget Mac to challenge Chromebooks.
Amazon threatens Perplexity over AI shopping bot.
iOS 26.1 adds new controls for liquid glass design.
WhatsApp debuts Apple Watch app with full messaging support.
Facebook Dating is a surprise hit.
Amazon armors its next underwater cable to stop cuts.
Coca-Cola’s new AI holiday ad faces criticism.
VC & Startup Jobs: VC & investors backed startup hiring for remote roles.
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DAILY PICKS
🗞️ What else is brewing
2700+ US Angel Investors & VC Firms Contact Database (Email + LinkedIn Link). (Link)
The three sales frameworks every early-stage founder needs. (Link)
When Waitlists Work and Why They Usually Don’t? (Link)
Raising a seed round 101: Templates, Tips and Strategy to Raise. (Link)
Alex Bouaziz (Deel founder) just shared his principles for work. This guy knows his stuff. (Link)
Great essay on the importance of being original in business. (Link)
According to these four charts, we’re not in an AI bubble. (Link)
ChatGPT product retention. (Link)
How did you hear about us: The most useful data — that you’re not gathering. (Link)
Benchmarking humans & AI in contract drafting. (Link)
Dot com bubble vs AI bubble. (Link)
Perplexity prompt guide to get more work done. (Link)
How to keep winning. (Link)
State of crypto in 2025 by a16z. (Link)
STARTUPS RAISING MILLIONS
💰 Startup funding updates
Ruli.ai, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of a legal intelligence platform, raised $6M in Seed funding. The round was led by Album VC, with participation from SignalFire, PJC, Foothill Ventures, Mana, and Genius Ventures.
Planbase, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of an AI-native employee management platform for healthcare, raised $2.1M in funding. Backers included Y Combinator, LocalGlobe and angels investors.
Sunflower Labs, the San Carlos, CA-based creator of the Beehive autonomous security drone system, closed a $16m Series B funding round. The round was led by Sequoia Capital with participation from Alarm.com, DRONE FUND, Gentian Investments, Wakestream Ventures, Atlas Ventures, and Daybreak Ventures.
The EVERY Company, a San Francisco, CA-based biotechnology company advancing precision fermentation for highly functional proteins, closed a $55m Series D financing round. The round was led by McWin Capital Partners, through the McWin Food Tech Fund, with participation from Main Sequence, Bloom8, TO.VC, Minerva Foods, Grosvenor Food & Ag, New Agrarian, SOSV, and more.
Portal26, a Los Gatos, CA-based provider of a GenAI adoption management platform, raised $9M in Series A funding. The round was led by Shasta Ventures and Fusion Fund.
Parable, a NYC-based intelligence platform for enterprise operations, raised $11m in Seed funding. The round was led by HOF Capital, with participation from Story Ventures and InMotion Ventures, alongside existing investors Lasagna, Panache, Supercharge, and Tripe Impact Capital.
Daylight, a Wilmington, DE-based managed detection and response (MDR) company, raised $33M in Series A funding. The round was led by Craft Ventures, with participation from Bain Capital Ventures and Maple VC, as well as angel investors Assaf Rappaport of Wiz, Ofer Smadari, Leonid Belkind, and Eldad Livni of Torq, Tamar Bar-Ilan and Yotam Segev of Cyera, Yevgeny Dibrov and Nadir Izrael of Armis, and Ofir Ehrlich of EON.
C.Scale, a San Francisco, CA-based technology startup for architects helping manufacturers reach qualified buyers, raised $2M in Pre-Seed funding. The round was led by Active Impact Investments and Wireframe Ventures.
Beacon Software, a Toronto, Canada-based AI holding company for essential vertical software and services, raised $250M in Series B funding. The round was led by General Catalyst, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and D1 Capital. The round also included investments from BDT & MSD Partners, Chris Rogers (CEO of Instacart), and Sator Grove.
mimic robotics, a Zurich, Switzerland-based robotics company, raised $16M in funding. The round was led by Elaia, alongside Speedinvest with participation from Founderful, 1st kind, 10X Founders, 2100 Ventures and Sequoia Scout Fund.
Downstream, a Dallas, TX-based equipment rental, waste management, and site services marketplace, raised $8M in Series A funding. The round was co-led by Brick & Mortar Ventures and Moneta Ventures, with participation from FJ Labs, and Victorum Capital.
Liquid, a NYC-based mobile financial app that combines trading, yield, and AI, raised $7.6M in seed funding. The round was led by Paradigm, with participation from General Catalyst, as well as angel investors including Ashwin Ramachandran, Eric Wu, Vlad Novakovski, and smartestmoney.hl.
NEW VCs IN THE MARKET
🏦 Venture Capital updates
India Deep Tech Alliance (IDTA), led by Celesta Capital, has expanded with Qualcomm Ventures joining as an investor and NVIDIA coming on board as a strategic technical advisor. The alliance, which launched in September 2025 with over $1 billion in commitments, aims to support Indian deep tech startups aligned with India’s new ₹1 trillion (~$12B) R&D initiative. Other notable VC members include Accel, Blume Ventures, Premji Invest, and YourNest. Qualcomm will contribute capital and ecosystem support, while NVIDIA will offer AI expertise, training, and resources without financial investment.
KEY STORIES IN TECH
📜 Latest in tech
Anthropic targets $70B in revenue by 2028
Anthropic projects up to $70 billion in revenue and $17 billion in cash flow by 2028, driven by strong enterprise adoption of its Claude AI models, according to The Information.
The company expects $3.8 billion in API revenue this year — double OpenAI’s — and aims for $20–26 billion in ARR by 2026, with major partnerships spanning Microsoft, Salesforce, Deloitte, and Cognizant.
Anthropic, recently valued at $170 billion, is eyeing a potential $300–400 billion valuation in its next raise as it boosts profitability, with gross margins projected to climb from 50% this year to 77% by 2028.
Apple plans budget Mac to challenge Chromebooks
Apple is developing a low-cost Mac laptop, set to launch in the first half of 2026, aiming to compete with Chromebooks and entry-level Windows PCs, according to Bloomberg.
The sub-$1,000 device, code-named J700, will target students, businesses, and casual users, featuring an iPhone processor and a smaller, lower-end LCD display under 13.6 inches.
It marks Apple’s first use of an iPhone chip in a Mac, with internal tests showing better performance than the older M1 processor, as the company seeks to broaden its market reach.
Amazon threatens Perplexity over AI shopping bot
Amazon sent a cease-and-desist letter to Perplexity, accusing its AI shopping assistant “Comet” of violating site rules by not identifying itself as an automated agent.
Perplexity argued that Comet acts on behalf of human users and should therefore have the same permissions, calling Amazon’s move “a threat to all internet users.”
Amazon countered that all third-party agents must operate transparently, hinting it could block Comet — a move critics say protects Amazon’s own bot, Rufus, and its ad-driven business model.
iOS 26.1 adds new controls for liquid glass design
Apple’s iOS 26.1 update introduces a long-awaited option to adjust the transparency of the “liquid glass” interface, letting users choose between “Clear” and “Tinted” modes for better readability.
The update also adds customizable lock screen gestures, local audio and video capture during calls, and expanded Apple Intelligence language support for eight new languages.
Other tweaks include gesture-based music controls, a new alarm slider to prevent accidental shutoffs, and automatic security update installation.
WhatsApp debuts Apple Watch app with full messaging support
WhatsApp launched its first Apple Watch companion app, letting users read and respond to messages, record and send voice notes, and get call notifications without using their iPhone.
The app also supports message reactions, clearer image and sticker previews, and extended chat history viewing — all with end-to-end encryption.
Compatible with Apple Watch Series 4 or later on watchOS 10, the release follows WhatsApp’s recent iPad app launch as Meta expands access across more devices.
Facebook Dating is a surprise hit:
Meta revealed for the first time that Facebook Dating has 21.5 million daily active users across 52 countries, a surprisingly high figure for a product many assumed was not widely used.
The platform is also catching on with young people, as daily conversations in the 18-29 demographic jumped 24 percent, with 1.77 million individuals between those ages now active in the U.S.
A major part of its appeal is that it’s completely free, unlike apps like Hinge that lock desirable matches behind premium features like “Standouts” or require buying virtual “roses.”
Amazon armors its next underwater cable to stop cuts
Amazon is building a new subsea fiber optic cable called Fastnet to connect Maryland and Ireland, which will be operational in 2028 and is designed to increase network resilience.
To prevent damage, the company is burying the Fastnet cable roughly 1.5 meters deep and adding robust armoring with additional layers of protective steel wires near shores.
The cable adds diversity to Amazon’s undisclosed routes, offering over 320 terabits per second of capacity while supporting services like Amazon CloudFront and AWS Global Accelerator.
LAST COFFEE SIP
☕ Other news
Coca-Cola’s new AI holiday ad faces criticism
Coca-Cola’s new generative AI holiday commercial is being criticized for its visually jarring style, featuring critters with unnatural movement that look like sloppily animated flat images rather than rigged 3D models.
The campaign involved five “AI specialists” who prompted and refined over 70,000 AI video clips, yet the final result feels dated compared to convincing deepfake videos from tools like Sora 2.
Despite previous blunders and poor reception, Coke’s Chief Marketing Officer said the AI-generated ad was cheaper and faster to produce, cutting the project’s timeline from a year down to one month.
HIRING ALERT: STARTUPS & VC ROLES
💼 Today’s VC & startup job opportunities
All-In-One VC Interview Preparation Guide: With a leading investors group, we have created an all-in-one VC interview preparation guide for aspiring VCs. Don’t miss this. (Access Here)
Finance & Portfolio Analyst - Giant Venture | London - Apply Here
Analyst - Urban Partners | London - Apply Here
Venture Fellow - Commonweal Venture | NYC - Apply Here
Investor Relations - Samved VC | India - Apply Here
Interim Senior Analyst, Investments - Pivotal Ventures | USA - Apply Here
Trade Operations Lead - Manhattan Venture Partner | USA - Apply Here
AI Builder In Residence - True Venture | USA - Apply Here
VP of Fundraising - Scale Asia Venture | Japan - Apply Here
Associate - OMERSE Venture | USA - Apply Here
Senior Associate - M12 | USA - Apply Here
Investment Analyst - Cornell University | USA - Apply Here
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