☕ Cursor's agent swarm tackles one of software's hardest problems & 56% of CEOs report zero financial returns from AI investments.
Anthropic CEO criticize US decision to allow export of Nvidia's H200 Chips.
Breaking News
Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, delivered one of the most striking moments at Davos by openly criticizing the U.S. decision to allow exports of Nvidia’s H200 AI chips to China, calling it a serious national security threat. Amodei warned that selling advanced AI chips would erode America’s AI lead, comparing the move to “selling nuclear weapons to North Korea”—a dramatic escalation that underscores how existential the AI infrastructure race has become, even among partners and investors.
A new PwC survey of more than 4,400 CEOs finds that 56% report zero financial returns from their AI investments, despite massive spending across industries. PwC’s leadership says the issue isn’t the technology itself but weak foundations—poor data quality, broken processes, and lack of governance—while CEO confidence in near-term revenue growth has fallen to a five-year low, revealing a widening gap between AI ambition and real-world execution.
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🗞️ What Else Is Brewing
Fundraising mistake every founder should avoid. (Link)
Startup funding funnel you should know. (Link)
How to write a fundraising email: First email, follow-ups approved by leading VCs? (Link)
3 myths about going public that should die (Link)
Prompt for market research with AI. (Link)
Steal this mega prompt to create static ads for your brand with Nano Banana. (Link)
VC Valuation Method Excel Sheet. (Link)
AI agents are starting to eat SaaS. (Link)
An AI chatbot that actually knows how to fix things. (Link)
STARTUPS RAISING MILLIONS
💰 Startup Funding Updates
PRE-SEED
Robin Health, a Milan, Italy-based healthtech startup focused on prevention and digital health management, raised €2M in Pre-Seed funding. The round was led by Step Fund.
Sable, a New York, NY-based developer of biotech-driven consumer beauty solutions, raised a pre-seed funding of undisclosed amount. Backers included Turret Capital and SOSV.
SEED
Mave, a Toronto, Canada-based real estate AI company built for realtors and brokers, raised $5M in Seed funding. Backers included Staircase Ventures, along with returning investors Relay Ventures, N49P, and Alate Partners.
Dam Secure, a Sydney, Australia- and San Francisco, CA-based AI security startup, raised $4M in Seed funding. The round was led by Paladin Capital Group.
Raana Semiconductors, a Tamil Nadu, India based-developer of Czochralski-based crystal growth systems, raised $3m in seed funding. The round was led by Equirus Innovatex Fund and Artha Venture Fund, with participation from IvyCap Ventures, PointOne Capital, CIIE Initiatives (IIMA Ventures), and angel investor Garimella Laxminarayana.
Formulary Financial, a NYC-based AI-native fund administrator, raised $4.6M in Seed funding. The round was led by Khosla Ventures, with participation from Acrew Capital, Company Ventures, Human Ventures, Serena Ventures, and Alumni Ventures, among other partners and industry executives.
Neuropacs, a Gainesville, FL-based AI-driven neurological diagnostics company, raised over $1M in Seed funding. Backers included Neuro Investment Group and others.
Dominion Dynamics, an Ottawa, Ontario, Canada-based defence technology company, raised $21M CAD ($15.2M USD) in Seed funding. The round was led by Georgian with participation from Bessemer Venture Partners and British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (BCI).
GROWTH
Ivo, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of an AI-powered contract intelligence platform, raised $55M in Series B funding. The round was led by Blackbird, with participation from existing and new investors Costanoa Ventures, Uncork Capital, Fika Ventures, GD1 and Icehouse Ventures.
BrightInsight, a San Jose, CA-based company which specializes in digital health solutions, raised $13M in funding. Backers included Eclipse, General Catalyst, Insight Partners, Mayo Clinic, and New Leaf Venture Partners.
Think Bioscience, a Boulder, CO-based privately held small molecule drug discovery company, raised $55M in Series A funding. The round was led by Regeneron Ventures, Innovation Endeavors, and Janus Henderson Investors with participation from T.A. Springer, CE-Ventures, MBX Capital, YK Bioventures and returning investors including AV8 Ventures, CU Innovations, and Buff Gold Ventures.
DealHub.io, the leader in Enterprise-grade CPQ and Agentic Quote-to-Revenue, announced a $100 million growth round led by Riverwood Capital.
Ethernovia, a San Jose, CA-based semiconductor startup building Ethernet-based, packet processor-centric networking solutions, raised over $90M in Series B funding. The round was led by Maverick Silicon with participation from Socratic Partners, Conduit Capital, CDIB-TEN Capital, Porsche SE, Qualcomm Ventures and Fall Line Capital.
Fimple, a London, UK and Istanbul, Turkey-based provider of composable, cloud-native banking solutions, raised $10m in funding. The round was led by Ak Asset Management VC Fund with participation from existing investors DN Capital and Smartfin.
Emergent, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of an AI software creation platform, raised $70M in Series B funding. Backers included Khosla Ventures and SoftBank Vision Fund 2, with participation from Prosus, Lightspeed, Together, and Y Combinator.
TitanX, a Knoxville, Tennessee based-developer of a Phone Intent™ scoring platform, raised $27m in Series A funding. Updata Partners made the investment and, in conjunction with it, Braden Snyder joined the company’s board.
Exciva, a Heidelberg, Germany-based biopharmaceutical company developing new therapeutic compounds for the treatment of neuropsychiatric conditions, raised €51M in Series B funding. The round was led by Gimv and EQT Life Sciences. Additional participants included new investors Fountain Healthcare Partners, LifeArc Ventures, Carma Fund and Modi Ventures, as well as existing investors Andera Partners and LBBW.
NEOintralogistics, a Düsseldorf, Germany-based robotics-as-a-service and automation company, raised €3M in funding. The round was led by Amadeus APEX Technology Fund and strong participation from Cetus Holding.
Brickeye, a Toronto, Canada-based construction technology company, raised $10M in Series B funding. The round was led by GreenSky Ventures, Brightspark Ventures, Graphite Ventures, Export Development Canada (EDC), Beauchamp Construction, and one material supplier in North America.
TODAY’S RESOURCE PICK
📬 What investors ask and how to answer (Q&A prep kit for founders)
Most founders don’t lose investors because of their pitch deck. They lose them in the Q&A.
This Investor Q&A Prep Kit helps you answer investor questions clearly, confidently, and without second-guessing yourself.
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Real questions VCs, angels, and accelerators actually ask
What investors are really testing with each question
Simple answer frameworks that work in real conversations
Sample founder-style answers (no generic fluff)
Common mistakes founders make and how to avoid them
Organised across team, market, product, traction, financials, strategy, risk, and fundraising, so you’re prepared for every meeting.
If you want to walk into investor conversations prepared instead of anxious, this is the doc you’ll keep coming back to.
NEW VCs IN THE MARKET
🏦 Venture Capital Updates
Social Leverage, a Scottsdale, AZ-based venture capital firm, reportedly raised $85M for its fifth seed stage fund. The vehicle will back startups building building solutions in the field of financial services or vertical AI across Arizona and San Diego areas. It can also make some investments in consumer and media companies.
KEY STORIES IN TECH
📜 Latest In Tech
Amazon CEO says tariffs are raising prices
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy told CNBC at the World Economic Forum in Davos that President Trump’s tariffs are now showing up in prices as sellers decide whether to absorb or pass on costs.
Amazon and third-party merchants had pre-purchased inventory to avoid tariff impacts and keep prices low, but Jassy said most of that supply ran out last fall, forcing price changes now.
This marks a shift from last year when Jassy said Amazon hadn’t seen prices go up much; he had predicted some sellers would need to raise prices because margins are too thin.
Cursor's agent swarm tackles one of software's hardest problems
Cursor used hundreds of AI agents working together to build a web browser from scratch in less than a week, taking on what many consider one of the most complex software projects possible.
The first approach failed when agents with equal status coordinated through a shared file, holding locks too long and becoming risk-averse, so Cursor switched to clear role separation with planners, workers, and a Judge Agent.
GPT-5.2 performed better than other models for long autonomous work because it followed instructions and avoided drift, while prompts mattered more than the harness or models themselves.
OpenAI rolls out age prediction on ChatGPT
OpenAI is rolling out an age prediction system on ChatGPT worldwide to identify accounts likely owned by minors, ahead of plans to allow adult content on the platform.
If an account is flagged as under 18, ChatGPT automatically applies stricter protections to limit exposure to sensitive content; users incorrectly flagged can restore full access by verifying their age with a selfie via Persona.
OpenAI says an “adult mode” is expected in early 2026, following earlier comments from Fidji Simo and Sam Altman, as the company balances content expansion with safety for its 800 million weekly users.
Apple’s new, super powerful MacBook Pro might arrive soon
Apple is expected to launch new MacBook Pro models with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, potentially as early as January 28, based on timing clues tied to its newly announced Creator Studio subscription.
The company already released a 14-inch MacBook Pro with the base M5 chip in October, but a more powerful 16-inch version has yet to appear, making a follow-up launch increasingly likely.
Reports suggest Apple may unveil both 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models, focused on performance upgrades rather than major design or architectural changes.
LAST COFFEE SIP
☕ Other News
One of the first alternative app stores in the EU is shutting down
Setapp Mobile, an alternative EU app store launched in 2024 by MacPaw, will shut down on February 16, 2026, removing all mobile apps while leaving its desktop subscription business unaffected.
The company cited Apple’s complex and shifting EU business terms under the Digital Markets Act, including the Core Technology Fee of €0.50 per install over 1 million, as making the subscription-based model unviable.
The closure highlights how Apple’s revised fee structure, meant to comply with the DMA, may still be discouraging alternative app stores in the EU, despite other players like the Epic Games Store and AltStore continuing to operate.
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)
Portfolio Management Intern - LVL1 Accelerator | India - Apply Here
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Intern - Prologis Venture | USA - Apply Here
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