☕ Ex-Meta AI chief raises $1.03 billion to build “world models” & OpenClaw mania hits China.
OpenAI and Google employees back Anthropic in Pentagon dispute & OpenAI has acquired Promptfoo.
Breaking News
Ex-Meta AI chief’s Yann LeCun’s startup AMI Labs has raised $1.03 billion at a $3.5 billion valuation to build “world models” — AI systems designed to learn from real-world interactions rather than just text. The company is based on LeCun’s JEPA architecture and aims to push AI beyond large language models toward systems that can understand and predict the physical world, with early applications in areas like healthcare. Investors include Nvidia, Samsung, Temasek, and Bezos Expeditions.
OpenAI has acquired Promptfoo, a startup focused on testing and securing AI systems against attacks. Promptfoo’s tools help detect vulnerabilities such as prompt injection and agent exploits, and are reportedly used by more than 25% of Fortune 500 companies. The technology will be integrated into OpenAI Frontier, highlighting the growing importance of security as companies deploy autonomous AI agents in real-world workflows.
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STARTUPS RAISING MILLIONS
💰 Startup Funding Updates
PRE-SEED
Vivox AI, a London, UK-based technology company building regulator-ready, atomic AI agents for AML, KYB/KYC and financial crime, raised £1.3M in first funding. Backers included Axel Weber, Dan Cobley, Kos Stiskin, James Janis Berdigans, and other fintech and technology investors.
Mirai Robotics, a Bari, Puglia, Italy-based maritime AI and autonomous systems company, raised $4.2M in Pre-Seed funding. The round was led by Primo Capital, Techshop and 40Jemz Ventures, with participation from angel investors.
SolveAI, a London, UK-based startup developing an AI powered enterprise coding platform, raised $5M in Pre-Seed funding. The round was led by Accel.
SEED
Crafting, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of an end-to-end infrastructure platform, raised $5.5M in Seed funding. The round was led by Mischief, with participation from WndrCo and a group of angel investors including Andy Manoske, Arash Ferdowsi, Lenny Rachitsky, Gokul Rajaram, Merrill Lutsky, and other technical founders and operators.
Kinfolk, a London, UK-based provider of an AI-driven workforce operations platform, raised $7M in Seed funding. The round was led by AlbionVC, with participation from PROfounders Capital, Ascension, Emerge, and angel investors including Tony Jamous and Saurav Chopra.
Utexo, a Dubai, UAE-based Bitcoin-native infrastructure platform provider, raised $7.5M in Seed funding. The round was led by Tether, Big Brain Holdings, and Portal Ventures, with participation from Franklin Templeton, Maven11 Capital, Fulgur Ventures, and other investors.
Oska Health, a Frankfurt am Main, Germany-based developer of a hybrid care platform for chronic disease management, raised €11M in Seed funding. The round was led by Capricorn Partners and SwissHealth Ventures, with participation from BMH, LBBW Venture Capital, Revent, GoHub Ventures, and Aurum Impact.
Cytotrait, a Manchester, UK-based biotechnology company focused on the development of novel traits for food and agriculture, raised £3M in Seed funding. The investment was led by Northern Gritstone, with contributions from the UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund and Northern Universities Ventures Fund.
baCta, a Paris, France-based AI-powered bioproduction company, raised €7M in Seed funding. The round was led by LocalGlobe and Daphni, with participation from OVNI Capital and business angels.
Denki, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of an AI-powered platform for financial auditing, raised $4.1M in Seed funding. The round was co-led by Base10 Partners and Shine Capital, with participation from Y Combinator and 20VC.
DiligenceSquared, a NYC-based provider of an AI-native platform that automates commercial due diligence and market research for investment teams, raised $5M in Seed funding. The round was led by RELENTLESS, with participation from Y Combinator.
Cylake, a Sunnyvale, CA-based developer of an AI-native cybersecurity platform for regulated institutions, raised $45M in Seed funding. The round was led by Greylock Partners, with participation from other tech investors.
Axiomatic AI, a Cambridge, MA-based company building verification solutions empowered by engineering-focused artificial intelligence, raised $18M in Seed funding. The round was led by Engine Ventures, with participation from Kleiner Perkins, Big Sur Ventures, Global Vision Capital, Propagator Ventures, and Liquid 2.
Groundhawk, an Espoo, Finland-based infrastructure software technology company, raised €2M in Seed funding. The round was led by Greencode Ventures and 2C Ventures.
Vectrix, an Antwerp, Belgium-based provider of an order entry platform, raised €1.15M in Seed funding. The round was led by RDY Ventures, with participation from Seeder Fund, PMV, and Prequel Ventures.
Augur, a London, UK-based provider of a sensor technology company, raised $15M in Seed funding. The round was led by Plural, with participation from First Kind, SNR, Flix and Tiny VC.
GROWTH
SolveAI, a London, UK-based startup developing an AI powered enterprise coding platform, raised $45M in Series A funding. The round was led by Google Ventures, with participation from Northzone, Mantis VC, NeverLift, Mike LoSapio, Pushmeet Kohli, and Olivier Godement.
Dify, a Menlo Park, CA-based provider of an open-source platform that helps teams build, deploy, and operate production-grade AI applications and agentic workflows, raised $30M in Series Pre-A funding at a $180M valuation. The round was led by HSG with participation from GL Ventures, Alt-Alpha Capital, 5Y Capital, Mizuho Leaguer Investment and NYX Ventures.
Mega, a NYC-based provider of a platform that leverages an AI-powered growth engine, raised $11.5M in Series A funding. The round was led by Goodwater Capital with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, Atreides, SignalFire and Kearny Jackson.
Aneuvo, a Los Angeles, CA-based developer of non-invasive neuromodulation technology, raised $22M in Series C funding. The round was led by Catcher Technology Co., Ltd., with participation from several new investors.
KAST, a NYC-based provider of a global financial platform, raised $80M in Series A funding. The round was led by QED Investors and Left Lane Capital with participation from returning investors Peak XV Partners, HSG and DST Global Partners.
DeepIP, a NYC- and Paris, France-based provider of a workflow-native AI platform supporting patent professionals across the patent lifecycle, raised $25M in Series B funding. The round was led by Korelya and Serena, with participation from Balderton and Headline.
Silverflow, an Amsterdam, the Netherlands-based cloud-native payment processing company, raised $40M in Series B funding. The round was led by Picus Capital, with participation from Rabo Investments – Corporate Venturing and existing investors.
TaxDown, a Madrid, Spain-based developer of an AI-powered digital taxation platform, raised €4M in financing. The amount was provided by BBVA Spark with support from the European Union’s NextGenerationEU and the European Investment Fund via the InvestEU program.
Diligent AI, a London, UK-based developer of AI agents for financial crime compliance, raised $2.5M in funding. The round was led by Speedinvest and Shapers with participation from Y Combinator and angel investors.
Voomi Supply, a Philadelphia, PA-based provider of a B2B eCommerce platform, raised $10M in Series A funding. The round was led by David Hawkins with participation from Highmount Capital.
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NEW VCs IN THE MARKET
🏦 Venture Capital Updates.
Founders Fund, the San Francisco–based VC firm founded by Peter Thiel, is nearing a $6B close for its fourth growth fund (Founders Fund Growth IV). About $1.5B of the capital is coming from the firm’s partners, with the rest from external LPs. The fund will target late-stage investments and follow-ons in companies like SpaceX, Stripe, Ramp, Rippling, and Crusoe, while the firm recently also joined a major investment in Anthropic.
KEY STORIES IN TECH
📜 Latest In Tech
OpenAI and Google employees back Anthropic in Pentagon dispute
More than 30 employees from OpenAI and Google DeepMind filed a legal brief supporting Anthropic in its lawsuit against the U.S. Defense Department. They argue the Pentagon’s “supply-chain risk” designation was arbitrary and sets a dangerous precedent for the AI industry.
The dispute began after Anthropic refused to allow its AI systems to be used for mass surveillance of Americans or fully autonomous weapons, while the Pentagon insisted it should be able to use AI for any “lawful purpose.”
The brief warns that punishing a leading U.S. AI company for enforcing safety guardrails could harm America’s competitiveness in AI and discourage open debate about risks and safeguards around advanced AI systems.
Anthropic launches AI code review tool to manage surge in AI-generated code
Anthropic introduced Code Review, a new feature inside Claude Code designed to automatically review AI-generated code and catch logical bugs before they reach production.
The feature was built in response to the rise of “vibe coding,” where developers use AI tools to generate large volumes of code quickly. This has increased the number of pull requests teams must review, creating a bottleneck in software development.
Code Review runs multiple AI agents in parallel to examine the codebase, identify logical errors, and rank issues by severity. The feature is launching in research preview for Claude for Teams and Claude for Enterprise customers and integrates directly with GitHub.
Apple plans three new Ultra tier devices
Apple is reportedly planning three new “Ultra” tier devices: a foldable iPhone, camera-equipped AirPods, and a MacBook with a touch-enabled OLED display, marking a shift in its premium product strategy.
The foldable iPhone may feature a book-style folding design wider and shorter than the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7, with a 4:3 aspect ratio display, four cameras, and Touch ID instead of Face ID.
The new AirPods model could include computer-vision cameras that feed visual information into an AI-powered Siri, while the MacBook may run on an M6 chip built on a 2nm process.
OpenClaw mania hits China
Tencent, Alibaba, ByteDance, JD.com, and Baidu have all launched competing free-installation campaigns for the open-source AI agent OpenClaw, known as “Little Lobster,” fueling what Pandaily calls “Lobster mania” across China.
The mania spread from developer circles into mainstream Chinese tech conversation after Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun publicly endorsed OpenClaw, and Tencent drew crowds ranging from retired engineers to librarians at Shenzhen installation events.
Shenzhen’s district government has drafted policy support for OpenClaw-related AI development, adding a regulatory dimension to a phenomenon that shifted from technical niche to strategic priority in weeks.
Xiaomi uses humanoid robots to build electric cars
Xiaomi recently tested two humanoid robots on the assembly line at its Beijing electric vehicle factory, where they completed 90.2 percent of their assigned work over a three-hour trial period.
The robots applied lugnuts to a vehicle chassis at a cycle time of 76 seconds, which Xiaomi president Lu Weibing said is fast enough to keep up with the factory’s pace.
UK-based firm Humanoid ran a similar pilot in February with over 90 percent success, but its robots were fixed to a stable base rather than standing on two legs like Xiaomi’s.
LAST COFFEE SIP
☕ Other News
Bluesky CEO Jay Graber steps down
Jay Graber is stepping down as CEO of Bluesky and moving into a new role as chief innovation officer, focusing more on building the platform’s technology and vision.
Former Automattic CEO Toni Schneider will serve as interim CEO while the board searches for a permanent leader. Schneider is also a partner at True Ventures, which invests in Bluesky.
Under Graber’s leadership, Bluesky grew to over 43 million users and expanded its open social protocol ecosystem. The next phase will focus on scaling the network and supporting third-party apps built on its underlying AT Protocol.
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