☕ Cursor surpasses $2B annualized revenue & ChatGPT uninstalls spike 295%.
Musk’s X and xAI plan to repay $17.5B in debt & More.
Breaking News
Cursor has reportedly surpassed $2 billion in annualized revenue, with its run rate doubling in just three months. About 60% of revenue now comes from enterprise clients, suggesting AI-assisted coding is rapidly shifting from individual developer tooling to large-scale corporate adoption. Cursor competes with OpenAI’s Codex and Anthropic’s Claude Code, as coding AI becomes one of the fastest-growing categories in software.
U.S. uninstalls of ChatGPT spiked 295% in a single day following OpenAI’s Pentagon partnership announcement, with one-star reviews surging 775%. Meanwhile, Claude briefly overtook ChatGPT in U.S. App Store downloads, rising 37%–88% day-over-day. The data suggests a visible consumer backlash tied to defense-related AI deployments, highlighting how geopolitical decisions can directly impact user trust and platform growth.
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🗞️ What else is brewing
Startup legal document pack – essential legal Docs for founders. (Link)
Churn and retention in the era of AI. (Link)
Lessons from building financial agents for financial services (Link)
When to raise vc. (Link)
40 real startup pitch decks that raised $350M+ (Including leading startups decks) (Link)
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Y-Combinator Spring Requests for startups. (Link)
Vimeo’s Slow Fade: An Engineer’s Front-Row Seat to the Fall of a Web Icon. (Link)
What Early Stage Founders Should Know About Comp: The Rules To Break (And A Few You Should Actually Follow). (Link)
What investors ask and how to answer: A practical Q&A prep kit for founders. (Link)
How AI makes for better software (& companies). (Link)
Learn, build, judge, ship: What to look for in your first (AI) marketer. (Link)
Brand strategy framework for startups. (Link)
STARTUPS RAISING MILLIONS
💰 Startup Funding Updates
PRE-SEED
Outpost Bio, a London, UK-based developer of AI-driven microbiology models, raised $3.5M in Pre-Seed funding. The round was co-led by Merantix Capital and Seedcamp, with participation from OpenSeed VC, Defined, as well as family offices and angel investors.
Huper, an Atlanta, GA-based provider of an AI system that synthesizes information across emails, messaging platforms, CRM tools and other core workflows, raised $1.5M in Pre-Seed funding. The round was led by Nadia Partners, Link Ventures, and Jim Brown of Long Ridge Equity Partners.
SEED
Companion Labs, a Bengaluru, India-based consumer AI startup, raised $2.5M in Seed funding. The round was led by Peak XV’s Surge, with participation from All In Capital, UntitledVC, DeVC, and unnamed angels.
Payr, a London, UK-based recurring payments company, raised $2.1M in Seed funding. The round was led by Ingenii Capital, with participation from Haatch, Velocity Capital, and angel investors.
Skema.ai, an Atlanta, GA-based provider of a design platform for architecture, engineering, and construction professionals, raised an undisclosed amount in Seed funding. The round was led by Robin Bienfait with participation from multiple strategic investors.
Temple, a New Delhi, India-based developer of neurotechnology wearables, raised $54M in Seed funding at a post-money valuation of approximately $190M. The round was led by Deepinder Goyal with participation from Steadview Capital, Peak XV Partners, Info Edge Ventures, Vy Capital, and others.
Procode AI, a Los Angeles, CA-based AI-powered revenue cycle management company, raised $4M in funding. The round was led by Story Ventures with participation from CHAP Health Ventures, Progression Fund, and Dmitry Shevelenko.
MeltPlan, a Berkeley, CA-based developer of a construction-native AI planning engine, raised $10M in Seed funding. The round was led by Bessemer Venture Partners, with participation from NoaVC and WND Ventures.
Inhouse, a Los Angeles, CA-based provider of an AI legal platform, raised $5M in Seed funding. Backers included Run Ventures, Royal Street Ventures, Switch, and Brian Liu.
Five Bells, a NYC-based digital asset post-trade infrastructure provider, raised an undisclosed amount in Seed funding. The round was led by Ego Death Capital, with participation from Timechain, Epoch, and Fulgur Ventures.
Plurio, a San Francisco, CA-based MarTech startup developing a digital advertising optimization platform, raised $3.5M in funding. Backers included Altair, DVC, Yellow Rocks, and angel investors.
Noxon, a Munich, Germany-based MedTech startup, closed a multi-million-euro Seed funding round. The round was led by High-Tech Gründerfonds and Bayern Kapital, together with Auxxo and another institutional investor.
Secondsense, a San Francisco, CA-based developer of an AI-powered luxury resale market intelligence engine, raised $2M in Seed funding. The round was led by Outlander VC.
Pluvo, an Ottawa, Ontario, Canada- and San Francisco, CA-based AI-native financial analysis platform provider, raised $5M in Seed funding. The round was led by Andreessen Horowitz’s a16z speedrun, Deel, The Perseverance Fund, StandUp Ventures, and AltaIR Capital.
Gambit Security, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based provider of an AI-native resilience platform, raised $61M in Seed and Series A funding. The total amount was raised from Spark Capital, Kleiner Perkins, and Cyberstarts.
GROWTH
Smack Technologies, an El Segundo, CA-based AI lab services company for national security, raised $32M in Series A funding. The round was led by Geodesic Capital and Costanoa Ventures with participation from Point72 Ventures and others.
Ease Health, a NYC-based provider of an AI-native CRM, EHR, and RCM platform, raised $41M in Series A funding. The round was led by Andreessen Horowitz.
Xsensio, a Lausanne, Switzerland-based company developing near real-time continuous biochemical monitoring, raised $7M in Series A funding. The round was led by WI Harper, with participation from Privilège Ventures and others.
Alveus Therapeutics Inc., a Philadelphia, PA-based clinical-stage biotechnology company, raised $37M in Series A Extension funding. The round included participation from Jeito Capital and Novo Holdings, joining the original Series A syndicate.
Flux, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of an AI-powered platform for hardware design, raised $27M in Series B funding. The round was led by 8VC, with participation from existing investors including Bain Capital Ventures, Liquid 2 Ventures, and Outsiders Fund.
Multitude Insights, a Boston, MA-based public safety technology company building intelligence infrastructure for law enforcement, raised $10M in Series A funding. The round was led by Primary Venture Partners with participation from Commonweal Ventures and others.
TODAY’S RESOURCE PICK
📬 A founder’s guide to ownership, control, and negotiation
Equity decisions are permanent and most founders get them wrong not because they’re careless, but because they’re rushed and negotiating without clarity.
This guide helps you understand how dilution actually works, how investors think about ownership and control, and how to negotiate without panic or regret.
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How dilution plays out from Seed → Series A → Series B
What “normal” equity give-ups look like (and what’s a red flag)
How ESOP pools really dilute founders
What’s negotiable vs not in equity conversations
How founders quietly lose control — and how to avoid it
Plus practical tools: Equity dilution simulator, ESOP planner & Cap table & negotiation checklists
NEW VCs IN THE MARKET
🏦 Venture Capital Updates.
Quantonation Ventures, a NYC and Paris, France-based venture capital firm focused on quantum and physics-based technologies, closed its second flagship fund, at €220m. LPs included Vertex Holdings; Fonds National d’Amorçage 2, managed by Bpifrance on behalf of the French State; and Bradley M. Bloom, co-founder and former Managing Director of Berkshire Partners, as well as new backers European Investment Fund, Grupo ACS, Novo Holdings, Planet First Partners, and Toshiba.
KEY STORIES IN TECH
📜 Latest In Tech
AWS UAE data center hit by objects amid Iran strikes
Amazon Web Services confirmed that unidentified objects struck one of its data centers in the UAE, causing a fire and power loss during a weekend of Iranian retaliatory strikes across the Middle East.
The fire department shut off power to the facility and its generators, and AWS said it was still waiting for permission to restore power, routing customer requests to a different data center.
AWS neither confirmed nor denied a connection to the Iran strikes when asked by Reuters, and its Service Health page also showed power outage issues at a data center in Bahrain.
Musk’s X and xAI plan to repay $17.5B in debt
X and xAI are reportedly planning to repay roughly $17.5 billion in debt in full, with Morgan Stanley informing lenders about the move. xAI’s $3B high-yield bonds may be redeemed at a premium.
The repayment follows major restructuring: SpaceX acquired xAI in a $250B deal, and xAI had previously acquired X, inheriting $12B in debt. Earlier this year, xAI also raised $20B in a Series E round.
Early repayment typically requires penalties and compensation to bondholders, though the companies haven’t disclosed where the capital for repayment is coming from.
LAST COFFEE SIP
☕ Other News
Apple launches the iPhone 17e
Apple has announced the iPhone 17e, its new $599 entry-level smartphone, which runs the same A19 chip as the base iPhone 17 and supports Apple Intelligence AI tools.
The iPhone 17e adds MagSafe charging at Qi2 speeds for 15W wireless charging, plus Apple’s C1X cellular modem, which the company says is up to 2x faster than the previous C1.
Pre-orders open March 4 with store availability on March 11, and the base model comes with 256GB of storage, a 6.1-inch display with Ceramic Shield 2, and a new pink color option.
HIRING ALERT: STARTUPS & VC ROLES
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