☕ Apple staff concerned about new Siri, X to sell inactive usernames for over $2,500 & Adobe now builds custom AI models for brands.
NASA reopens SpaceX moon lander contract amid Starship delays & More.
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📬 What’s in store:
Today’s Picks: Investor data room superpack, VC portfolio management guide, VC scorecard, how to get warm intros, all-in-one VC resources, Sequoia’s runway guide, pricing strategy insight.
Meta AI app sees surge in downloads and users after launch of ‘Vibes’ AI video feed.
Anthropic launches Claude Code web app for AI coding agents.
iPhone 17 outsells iPhone 16 by 14%.
Suspected space debris cracks Boeing 737 windshield.
Apple staff concerned about new Siri.
X to sell inactive usernames for over $2,500 amid ad revenue decline.
NASA reopens SpaceX moon lander contract amid Starship delays.
Adobe now builds custom AI models for brands.
VC & Startup Jobs: VC & investors backed startup hiring for remote roles.
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🗞️ What else is brewing
Investor Data Room Superpack: Everything you need to build a VC-ready data room (Guide/Templates) (Link)
Understanding VC portfolio management and construction: A guide for aspiring VCs. (Link)
The VC scorecard early-stage investors use. (Link)
How to get warm intros from VC without network. (Link)
All-in-one resources for aspiring venture capitalists. (Link)
How founders should think about runway: A guide from Sequoia Capital. (Link)
Don’t price your product based on costs. Why? (Link)
Spotify’s DIBB framework features for better decision-making. (Link)
40 real startup pitch decks that raised $350M+ (Including leading startups decks) (Link)
Startup legal document pack – essential legal docs for founders. (Link)
STARTUPS RAISING MILLIONS
💰 Startup funding updates
Periodic Labs, a startup co-founded by OpenAI’s Liam Fedus and former Google Brain researcher Ekin Dogus Cubuk, raised a massive $300M seed round to bring AI automation into scientific discovery—specifically materials science. The round was led by Felicis, with participation from a16z, DST, NVentures, Accel, and angels like Jeff Bezos, Elad Gil, Eric Schmidt, and Jeff Dean.
Avid, a Dallas, TX-based AI-powered fundraising operating system provider, raised $6.5m in seed funding. The round was led by Silverton Partners.
Logic, a Seattle, WA-based provider of a business automation platform that eliminates coding requirement, raised $4.3m in seed funding. Backers included Founders’ Co-op, Audacious, Ali Partovi’s Neo, current and former Brex execs, Convoy co-founder Dan Lewis, and others.
Andel, a NYC-based provider of a platform that strengthens pharmacy benefits by giving employers an affordable way to include GLP-1s, raised $4.5m in funding. Backers included Lightbank, Seedcamp, Bertelsmann Healthcare Investments, Houghton Street Ventures, Springboard, Semper Virens and Citylight.
AdsGency, a San Francisco, CA-based LLM advertising platform that enables AI agents to autonomously run organizations’ entire paid marketing workflow, raised $12m in seed funding. The round was led by XYZ Venture Capital, with participation from Streamlined Ventures, HF0, Hat-Trick Capital, and more.
Magic, a NYC-based company building AI for real-world experiences, raised $10m in seed funding. The round was led by Lerer Hippeau, with participation from Bling Capital, Floodgate, and industry strategics Major Food Group and VCR Group, Gary Vaynerchuk and David Rodolitz’s hospitality group.
Chatfuel, a San Francisco, CA-based communication automation startup, raised $1.5m in seed funding. The round was led by Pre-Seed to Succeed, an investment program backed by AltaIR Capital, Yellow Rocks, Smart Partnership Capital, and I2BF Ventures, with participation from Alber Blanc fund and several angel investors, including Ershad Jamil, Chatfuel advisor.
Finster AI, a London, UK-based AI-native platform for investment banks and asset managers, raised $15m in combined Series A and Seed funding. The Series A was led by FinTech Collective and the Seed was led by Peak XV, with ongoing participation from Hoxton Ventures.
Adaptyx Biosciences, a Menlo Park, CA-based biowearables company developing a platform for continuous, multi-analyte molecular monitoring, raised $14m in seed financing, bringing total funding to $23m since inception. The round was led by Interlagos Capital, with participation from Overwater Ventures, and joined by Starbloom Capital, Stanford University, the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, Hyperlink Ventures, Cantos Ventures, Humba Ventures, and Seaside Ventures.
CoMind, a London, UK-based neurotechnology company developing breakthrough optical sensing technology to revolutionise brain monitoring and treatment, raised $60m in funding. The round was led by Plural, with participation from existing investors Angelini Ventures, Octopus Ventures and LocalGlobe, among others.
Golpo, a San Francisco, CA-based AI-powered platform that transforms documents and prompts into interactive explainer videos, raised $4.1m in seed funding. The round was led by BNVT Capital, with participation from Emergence Capital, Y Combinator, Afore Capital and others.
Milvus Advanced, an Oxford, England, UK-based startup creating rare metal alternatives in the lab through modern alchemy, closed a $6.9m seed funding round. The round was led by Hoxton Ventures with participation from LQD Ventures, Übermorgen, Tuesday Capital, Mark Leslie Enterprises, van Den Bosch Dynasty Fund, Bluebirds, Md One, EQT Foundation, and returning investor Lowercarbon Capital.
Entry, a Toronto, Canada-based compliance-native infrastructure bridging institutions and decentralized finance, raised $1m in pre-seed funding. The round was led by Modern Niagara with participation from Qrecendo and Perrfin.
Cyclana Bio, a Cambridge, UK-based biotechnology company pioneering tissue-level approaches to women’s health, closed a £5M pre-seed funding round. The round was co-led by NfX and Eka VC, with participation from Cocoa VC, Wilbe, and angel investors.
Dialogue AI, a Los Angeles, CA-based AI-native market research platform powered by a live conversational AI interviewer and built to serve teams across the business, launched with a $6M seed funding round. The round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with participation from Seven Stars, Uncommon Projects, the Tornante Company (founded by Michael Eisner), and angels including the CPO of Discord, former CPO of Nextdoor, and former CTO of Match Group.
Fourier Health, a Miami, FL-based clinician-in-the-loop AI platform that streamlines and consolidates patient clinical data into use-case specific summaries to reduce administrative burden, raised $8.4m in seed funding. The round was led by Yosemite, with participation from Innospark Ventures, NextGen Venture Partners and Tau Ventures, and pre-seed funding from Lasagna, NextGen Venture Partners, Myelin, and Despierta.
Hyperlayer, a London, UK-based fintech company enabling banks, wealth, and asset managers launch products, raised £30m (US$41m) in funding. The round was led by CDAM, with participation from new investors Mouro Capital, Iona Star, Flintlock Capital, alongside existing investors including Susquehanna Private Equity Investments.
LuxQuanta, a Barcelona, Spain-based deep tech company specializing in quantum cybersecurity, closed an €8m Series A funding round. The round was led by Big Sur Ventures, with support of A&G as the main investor, new investors GMV, Wayra and the EIC Fund, alongside existing investors Corning, and GTD.
NEW VCs IN THE MARKET
🏦 Venture Capital updates
Asymmetric Capital Partners, a Boston, MA-based early-stage technology investment firm, closed Asymmetric Fund II, at $137m. Asymmetric’s investor base in Fund II consists of value-added LPs, many with direct experience in venture-backed operations, investing, or scaling technology businesses.
Maximum Frequency Ventures (MFV), a Palo Alto, CA-based operator-led vc focused on building and funding crypto companies, has launched a $50m fund. MFV invests early and work side-by-side through 12-week sprints and ongoing working sessions to validate markets, ship MVPs, and recruit teams. They stay until adoption, helping refining product iteration, building teams, shaping token mechanics, and bringing in the first customers.
KEY STORIES IN TECH
📜 Latest in tech
Meta AI app sees surge in downloads and users after launch of ‘Vibes’ AI video feed
Meta AI’s mobile app reached 2.7 million daily active users by October 17, up from 775,000 a month ago, with daily installs jumping to 300,000, per Similarweb.
The spike aligns with the September 25 launch of the “Vibes” feed — a new short-form AI video feature inside the Meta AI app.
Analysts suggest Meta may also be benefiting from Sora’s invite-only model, as users explore alternatives for AI-generated video experiences.
Anthropic launches Claude Code web app for AI coding agents
Anthropic has rolled out a web version of Claude Code, allowing developers to create and manage AI coding agents directly from their browser via claude.ai.
Available to Pro ($20/month) and Max ($100–$200/month) users, the launch expands Claude Code beyond the command-line interface, contributing to its rapid 10x growth since May and $500M annualized revenue.
Anthropic says 90% of Claude Code is written by its own AI models, marking a shift toward agentic coding tools that let engineers manage autonomous AI assistants rather than manually writing code.
iPhone 17 outsells iPhone 16 by 14%:
New sell-through data from Counterpoint Research shows the iPhone 17 lineup outsold the iPhone 16 models by 14 percent during the initial 10 days of sales in the US and China.
In China, sell-through of the standard iPhone 17 nearly doubled, with consumers responding to a new chip, improved display, increased base storage, and an upgraded front camera at an unchanged price.
Sales of the iPhone 17 Pro Max are ramping up faster in the United States, where the big three carriers are increasing maximum subsidies by roughly $100 to secure customer financing.
Suspected space debris cracks Boeing 737 windshield:
A United Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 made an emergency landing after its cockpit windshield suddenly fractured at 36,000 feet, prompting an investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board.
Online images reveal the heavily cracked glass has scorch marks and localized contact damage, fueling speculation that a high-speed external object like space debris or a meteorite struck the plane.
Although the NTSB is examining the outer layer, more common causes like hail are being considered, as the aircraft’s nose showed multiple marks consistent with that kind of impact.
Apple staff concerned about new Siri:
According to journalist Mark Gurman, Apple engineers testing the upcoming iOS 26.4 update are expressing concerns about the voice assistant’s performance ahead of its planned spring launch.
If the spring release of the new Siri falls flat, it is believed more senior AI staff will leave the company, following others from the foundation models team to Meta.
The company is reportedly undecided between two approaches for the revamp, one using its own on-device model and another relying on Google’s Gemini on Private Cloud Compute.
X to sell inactive usernames for over $2,500 amid ad revenue decline:
X is launching a marketplace for Premium subscribers to purchase inactive handles, with “Rare” usernames like @Pizza costing anywhere from $2,500 up to seven figures via direct, pre-priced sales.
Premium+ and Premium Business users can request “Priority” handles for free, but they will lose the new username if their subscription is canceled or downgraded after a 30-day grace period.
“Rare” handles are acquired through public drops or invitation-only purchases, and once a user buys one, they get to keep the valuable username permanently even if their Premium subscription ends.
NASA reopens SpaceX moon lander contract amid Starship delays
NASA is reopening bids for its $4.4B Artemis 3 moon lander contract after SpaceX fell behind schedule on Starship, creating an opening for rivals like Blue Origin and Lockheed Martin.
Acting NASA chief Sean Duffy said the agency wants faster progress as China advances its own lunar ambitions; Blue Origin and others have been asked to submit accelerated plans by Oct. 29.
Elon Musk downplayed the competition, claiming Starship will “end up doing the whole Moon mission,” despite growing NASA concerns over delayed milestones.
LAST COFFEE SIP
☕ Other news
Adobe now builds custom AI models for brands
Adobe launched Adobe AI Foundry, a service building custom generative AI models for enterprises that produce text, images, and video by fine-tuning Firefly with their intellectual property.
These new models are built off the Firefly family, which uses only licensed data for training, and are then personalized for each client using their specific branding and content.
Unlike Adobe’s other products that charge by seat, the foundry service’s pricing is based entirely on usage, linking cost directly to how much a company creates with the tool.
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)
Senior Associate - M12 | USA - Apply Here
Interim Senior Analyst, Investments - Pivotal Ventures | USA - Apply Here
Trade Operations Lead - Manhattan Venture Partner | USA - Apply Here
VP of Fundraising - Scale Asia Venture | Japan - Apply Here
Analyst - Tower Research Venture | USA - Apply Here
Research Analyst - Positive Sum | USA - Apply Here
Fund Operations Associate - TNB Aura | Singapore - Apply Here
VP, Ventures - Synchroni Venture | USA - Apply Here
Research Intern, Crypto - a16z | USA - Apply Here
Senior VC Analyst - Working Capital Fund | USA - Apply Here
2026 Venture Capital Summer Analyst - Stepstone Group | USA - Apply Here
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