☕ Google denies AI search features are killing website traffic, Anthropic unveils Claude Opus 4.1 & Google’s AI coding agent is out of beta.
Microsoft brings OpenAI’s smallest open model & More.
Cats have 32 muscles in each ear.
That’s how they rotate them 180° like tiny, furry satellites. All that muscle, just to ignore you better.
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📬 What’s in store:
Today’s Picks: Term sheet guide, AI cash surge, GPs chase liquidity, 100T tokens, Cursor hits $300M ARR, pitch deck rules, seed-to-A drop, VC interview Q&A.
Google denies AI search features are killing website traffic.
First impressions of Alexa+, Amazon’s upgraded, AI-powered digital assistant.
OpenAI is practically giving ChatGPT to the government for free.
Google’s AI coding agent Jules is now out of beta.
Microsoft brings OpenAI’s smallest open model to Windows users.
Nvidia rejects US demand for AI chip backdoors.
Anthropic unveils Claude Opus 4.1.
Apple to announce additional $100B investment in U.S. manufacturing.
VC & Startup Jobs: VC & investors backed startup hiring for remote roles.
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DAILY PICKS
🗞️ What else is brewing
All-In-One Term Sheet Guide for Founders.
New report shows the staggering AI cash surge — and the rise of the 'zombiecorn'.
GPs rush to secure funding as uncertainty fuels liquidity fears.
100 Trillion Tokens by Tomasz Tunguz.
Mastering the human side of engineering: Lessons from Apple, Palantir and Slack.
The rise of Cursor: The $300M ARR AI tool that engineers can’t stop using.
Leo Polovets on pitch deck minimums.
The effects of funding on software spend.
Seed-to-Series A Conversion Rates Decline Across Sectors.
Do Early-Stage startups need a financial model for fundraising?
You need a better testing strategy: A/B Testing Is Broken.
All-In-One Guide To Venture Capital Interview Questions (And How to Answer Them)
STARTUPS RAISING MILLIONS
💰 Startup funding updates
WiseBee, a NY-based autonomous security startup, raised $2.5m in pre-seed funding from Frontline Ventures and BrightCap Ventures to scale its AI-powered cyber defence platform.
Elion, a NYC-based provider of an AI-powered research and intelligence platform for healthcare technology, raised $9.3M in Seed funding. The round was led by NEA, with participation from new investors Cedars Sinai Health Ventures, TMV, Scrub Capital, and Alumni Ventures, and existing investors Max Ventures, AlleyCorp, and Floating Point.
Chai Discovery, a San Francisco, CA-based AI company that predicts and reprograms the interactions between biochemical molecules to accelerate life-changing therapeutics, raised $70m in Series A financing. The round was led by Menlo Ventures, including investment from their Anthology Fund, a joint partnership with Anthropic to identify and back promising AI companies, with participation from new investors Yosemite, DST Global Partners, SV Angel, Avenir, DCVC, and others, and existing investors Thrive Capital, OpenAI, Dimension, Neo, Lachy Groom, and Fred Ehrsam, among others.
Tavily, a NYC-based company that is building the search layer that connects AI agents to the real-time web, raised $25m in funding including a $20m Series A. The Series A round led by Insight Partners and Alpha Wave Global.
Rillet, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of an AI-native ERP (enterprise resource planning) platform, raised $70M in Series B funding. The round was led by Andreessen Horowitz and ICONIQ with participation from Sequoia, Oak HC/FT and earlier investors.
Asylon Robotics, a Norristown, PA-based provider of robotic perimeter security technology, raised $24M in Series B funding. The round was led by Insight Partners, with participation from Veteran Ventures Capital and the GO PA Fund, alongside Allegion Ventures.
Positive Development, a Mclean, VA-based provider of developmental therapy for autistic children and their families, raised $51.5M in funding. The round was led by aMoon and existing investors B Capital and Flare Capital Partners, and continued participation from Digitalis Ventures, Healthworx, the investment arm of CareFirst Inc. and others.
Lorikeet, a Sydney, Australia-based company that helps businesses create universal AI concierges for their customers, raised $35M in Series A funding. The round was led by accelerate product development and go-to-market efforts.
Stavtar Solutions, a NYC-based SaaS (SaaS) provider for food service and cost leverage for complex alternative management services, raised $55M in Series A funding. The round was led by Elephant Basket.
Docyt, a Mountain View, CA-based leader in AI-powered accounting automation, raised $12M in Pre-Series B funding. The round was led by Pivot Investment Partners and existing investors.
August, a NYC-based AI platform provider for midsize law firms, raised $7M in funding. The round was led by NEA and Pear VC, with participation from Afore Capital, and angel investors, including Gokul Rajaram, Geoff Charles (Chief Product Officer at Ramp), David Azose (Head of Engineering at OpenAI), and Kevin Zhang (Partner at Bain Capital Ventures), among other backers.
Clay, a NYC-based provider of an AI go-to-market (GTM) development platform, raised $100M in Series C funding. The round was led by CapitalG, with participation from existing investors Sequoia Capital, Meritech Capital, First Round Capital, BoxGroup, and Boldstart, as well as new investor Sapphire Ventures.
Bisly, a Tallinn, Estonia-based provider of scalable, smart building automation solutions, raised €4.3M in funding. The round was led by 2C Ventures, with participation from existing investors, such as Aconterra, Pinorena Capital, founders of Foxway, and SmartCap.
Arivihan, a Bengaluru, India-based edtech startup, reportedly raised $4.2m in funding. The round was co-led by Prosus and Accel with participation from GSF Investors.
NuCicer, a Davis, CA-based company which specializes in chickpea breeding and sustainable ingredient solutions, raised $11.5M Series A funding. The round was led by Rhapsody Venture Partners, with participation from Leaps by Bayer and a series of new investors Illumina Ventures, Better Ventures, Stray Dog Capital, and a other food companies.
Kontext, a San Francisco, CA-based advertising platform for AI chatbots and GenAI apps, raised $10M in seed funding. The round was led by M13, with participation from Torch Capital, Credo Ventures, and Parable VC.
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NEW VCs IN THE MARKET
🏦 Venture Capital updates
Deciens Capital, an Albuquerque, NM-based venture capital firm focused on financial services innovation, closed Fund III, at $93.33m. Led by Dan Kimerling, Founder and Managing Partner, Ishan Sachdev, General Partner, Deciens backs founders reimagining how financial services are created, distributed, and consumed.
OrbiMed, a NYC-based global healthcare investment firm, raised $1.86 billion in commitments for OrbiMed Royalty and Credit Opportunities Fund V. Investors in this new fund included a broad range of medical institutions, university endowments, foundations, pension funds, sovereign wealth funds and family offices.
KEY STORIES IN TECH
📜 Latest in tech
Google denies AI search features are killing website traffic:
Google claims that organic click volume has remained stable year-over-year, denying third-party reports suggesting AI search features have slashed publisher traffic.
The company says users are shifting toward platforms with forums, videos, and first-hand content, and that “click quality” has slightly improved, though it offers no data to support these claims.
Despite Google's reassurances, studies show a sharp rise in zero-click searches, and publishers remain concerned about declining traffic from traditional search sources.
First impressions of Alexa+, Amazon’s upgraded, AI-powered digital assistant:
Alexa+ now uses generative AI to handle scheduling, email summaries, online shopping, and smart home tasks, but early tests reveal bugs, missed cues, and occasional unhelpful responses.
Setup was easier and more intuitive, but the Alexa app remains poorly designed and difficult to navigate, especially for linking services or managing preferences.
While Alexa+ shows promise—like summarizing school emails or remembering reminders—it still struggles with tasks like adding all calendar events, confirming stock availability, or sharing prices accurately.
OpenAI is practically giving ChatGPT to the government for free:
OpenAI is offering ChatGPT Enterprise to U.S. federal agencies for just $1 per agency for a year through a GSA agreement, undercutting rivals like Anthropic and Google.
The deal includes unlimited use of advanced models for 60 days, government-specific onboarding resources, and a secure user community.
This move aligns with the Trump administration’s AI push, which emphasizes security, neutrality, and broader government adoption of AI tools.
Google’s AI coding agent Jules is now out of beta:
Google has launched Jules, its asynchronous AI coding agent powered by Gemini 2.5 Pro, out of beta with structured pricing plans starting at $0 and up to $124.99/month.
Jules helps developers by running tasks in the background via Google Cloud VMs and now integrates more deeply with GitHub, offers snapshot features, and supports mobile usage via web app.
Google revised Jules’ privacy policy for clarity, confirmed no training on private repo data, and noted strong adoption among AI enthusiasts and developers globally, especially in India.
Microsoft brings OpenAI’s smallest open model to Windows users:
Microsoft is integrating OpenAI’s new free, lightweight model gpt-oss-20b into Windows 11 through its AI Foundry platform, allowing local AI agent use on devices with 16GB+ VRAM.
The model is optimized for tool-based tasks like code execution and web search but is text-only and has a high hallucination rate (53% on PersonQA benchmark).
Microsoft also plans to expand support to macOS and is offering both gpt-oss-20b and gpt-oss-120b via Azure AI Foundry and AWS.
Nvidia rejects US demand for AI chip backdoors:
Nvidia's chief security officer publicly rejected demands for AI chip backdoors or kill switches, arguing these features would create dangerous vulnerabilities instead of providing any real security benefits.
This pushback is aimed at a proposed US bill called the Chip Security Act, which would require tracking and could mandate remote kill switches on GPUs to control international sales.
The statement also addresses Chinese allegations that backdoors already exist in H20 chips, as the company works to prevent being replaced by competitors like Huawei in the Chinese market.
Anthropic unveils Claude Opus 4.1:
Anthropic has launched Claude Opus 4.1, a successor to its previous AI that shows improved abilities in agentic tasks, coding, and reasoning according to the company's official blog post.
In agentic terminal coding, the 4.1 model achieved a 43.3% score on the Terminal-Bench benchmark, outperforming Opus 4, OpenAI's o3, and Google’s Gemini 2.5 Pro.
Early customers like Windsurf and Japan’s Rakuten Group have already reported that the new system completes coding tasks more quickly and accurately than the previous version did.
LAST COFFEE SIP
☕Other news
Apple to announce additional $100B investment in U.S. manufacturing:
Apple is set to unveil a $100 billion increase in U.S. manufacturing investment, adding to its previously pledged $500 billion over four years.
The commitment includes a new server facility in Houston for Apple Intelligence and continued work with U.S.-based suppliers and content production.
This move comes amid pressure from the Trump administration, which has threatened tariffs if Apple doesn’t shift more production from Asia to the U.S.
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)
Chief of Staff - Grey Line Partner | USA - Apply Here
Capital Formation Associate - B Capital Group | USA - Apply Here
Investment Principal - Cota Capital | USA - Apply Here
Investment Fellow - Indian Fund | India - Apply Here
Associate - Baird Capital | USA - Apply Here
Venture Analyst - AC Venture | India - Apply Here
Investment Analyst - Miras Investment | Dubai - Apply Here
2026 Venture Capital Summer Associate - Stepstone Group | USA - Apply Here
Ventures Associate - Point 72 Venture | USA - Apply Here
Marketing & Communications Lead - Endiya Partners | India - Apply Here
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