☕ Google Translate takes on Duolingo, Nvidia posted $46.7 billion in quarterly revenue & Meta loses two AI researchers back to OpenAI.
ByteDance eyes $330B valuation with share buyback planning & OpenAI adds new safeguards after teen suicide lawsuit.
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📬 What’s in store:
Today’s Picks: Startup forecast model template, Artisan’s $25M Series A deck, Chris Dixon’s timeless "Climbing the Wrong Hill," prompting better AI products.
Nvidia posted $46.7 billion in quarterly revenue.
Google and Grok are catching up to ChatGPT, says a16z’s latest AI report.
OpenAI co-founder calls for AI labs to safety-test rival models.
Google Translate takes on Duolingo.
SpaceX notches major wins during tenth Starship test.
Meta loses two AI researchers back to OpenAI.
ByteDance eyes $330B valuation with share buyback planning.
OpenAI adds new safeguards after teen suicide lawsuit.
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DAILY PICKS
🗞️ What else is brewing
The forecast model every startup needs (with template). (Link)
Artisan’s $25M Series A deck, which they just released. (Link)
Chris Dixon’s 2009 essay, "Climbing the Wrong Hill," remains highly relevant today. (Link)
How to prompt better products with AI. (Link)
Building AI products in the probabilistic era. (Link)
Sam Altman: What I wish someone had told me. (Link)
Mercury’s Report: The surprising truths 1,500 founders shared about raising, building and spending in 2025. (Link)
The top 1% of AI startups are rewriting venture math: Jason Lemkin. (Link)
STARTUPS RAISING MILLIONS
💰 Startup funding updates
Welcome Tech, a Los Angeles, CA-based provider of a digital platform serving immigrant workforces and the employers who rely on them, raised $7.5M in funding. Backers included TTV Capital, Mubadala Capital, Westbound Equity Partners, CityRock Ventures Partners, Next Legacy Partners, and BTN Ventures.
Heave, a Tampa, FL-based provider of a platform connecting construction companies with on-demand heavy equipment mechanics, raised $7M in Series A funding. The round was led by Outsiders Fund, with continued support from FJ Labs, Long Journey Ventures, and Slow Ventures.
InstaLILY, a NYC-based provider of AI Teammates for operationally intensive industries, raised $25M in Series A funding. The round was led by Insight Partners, with participation from Perceptive Ventures and Marvin Ventures.
Central, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of an autonomous back-office platform built for startups, raised $8.6M in Seed funding. The round was led by First Round Capital, with participation from Y Combinator, Ritual Capital, Multimodal Ventures, Alumni Ventures, Surgepoint Capital, and founders, including Kulveer Taggar (Co-Founder & CEO at Zeus), JJ Fliegelman(Co-Founder & CTO at WayUp), and Richard Aberman (Co-Founder and CPO at WePay).
Artificial Societies, a London, UK-based AI company that simulates human societies, raised $5.35M in funding. The round consisted of a $3.35M seed round led by Point72 Ventures, and a $2M pre-seed immediately prior with participation from angels associated with DeepMind, Strava, and Sequoia Scout.
Bench IQ, a Toronto, Canada-based provider of an AI-powered judicial intelligence platform, raised $5.3M in Seed funding. The round was led by Battery Ventures and Inovia Capital, with participation from CIBC Innovation Banking, MVP Ventures, Maple VC and Haystack VC.
Farang, a Stockholm, Sweden-based AI research lab, raised €1.5M in Seed funding. The round was led by Voima Ventures and the Amadeus APEX Technology Fund, with participation from angel investors including Tero Ojanpera (Co-founder, Silo AI), Nilay Oza, and Niraj Aswani (Former Founders, Klevu).
Yottar, an Exmouth, UK-based energy tech startup, raised $1m in pre-seed funding. The round was led by Haatch, with participation from Cape Capital.
Sequifi, a Lehi, UT-based provider of a real-time pay and forecasting engine designed for home services companies, raised $6.7M in Seed funding. The round was led by Cervin Ventures, with participation from Frazier Group and Tokyo Black.
Holiwise, a London, UK-based provider of an AI-powered travel platform, raised €1.45m in pre-seed funding. The round was led by Bobby Previti, who was joined by Ulf Nilsson (who joined Holiwise’s board), Sabri El Jailani, Filippo Zorzoli, and Houman Ashrafzadeh.
Therna Biosciences, a San Francisco, CA-based RNA medicines development company, raised $10m in seed funding. The round was led by AIX Ventures, Pear VC, and Fusion Fund.
Sarborg Limited, a Wilmington, DE-based technology-driven company that integrates mathematical algorithm-led approaches with complementary cybernetics to optimize decision-making processes, raised $10M in Seed funding. The round was led by third-party investor, Corvus Capital.
PodUp, a Rexburg, ID-based provider of a podcasting platform, raised $5.8M across two funding rounds. Bakers included North Texas Angels, Harvard Business School Alumni Angels, and others.
Axenya, a Sao Paulo, Brazil-based health tech company specializing in the intelligent orchestration of corporate healthcare, raised US$12m (approximately BRL 65m) in Series A funding. The round was led by Canary, co-led by Indicator Capital, and joined by Zentynel.
Darwin AI, a Sao Paulo, Brazil-based provider of AI workers across sales, customer, support, and post-sales processes, closed $4.5M in additional seed funding. The round, which brought total funding raised to date to $7M, was led by Base10 Partners.
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NEW VCs IN THE MARKET
🏦 Venture Capital updates
Clean Growth Fund, a London, UK–based specialist climate tech venture capital firm, held the first close of its second fund, at £49m. Investors include Strathclyde Pension Fund, Islington Pension Fund and East Riding Pension Fund. The vehicle has a final target of £150m.
KEY STORIES IN TECH
📜 Latest in tech
Nvidia reports record sales as the AI boom continues:
Nvidia posted $46.7 billion in quarterly revenue, up 56% year-over-year, with $41.1 billion coming from its AI-driven data center business. Net income surged 59% to $26.4 billion.
Sales of its latest Blackwell GPUs led the growth, accounting for $27 billion, with CEO Jensen Huang forecasting $3–4 trillion in AI infrastructure spending by 2030.
Nvidia faces hurdles in China, with zero H20 chip sales reported this quarter due to regulatory uncertainty and Beijing’s discouragement of Nvidia products, though $650 million in H20 sales were made outside China.
Google and Grok are catching up to ChatGPT, says a16z’s latest AI report:
a16z’s fifth consumer AI report shows Google’s Gemini gaining momentum, now the No. 2 AI app with nearly half of ChatGPT’s mobile MAUs and ~12% of its web traffic. Gemini’s growth is strongest on Android, with 90% of its mobile user base.
Grok ranked No. 4 on the web and No. 23 on mobile, amassing 20M+ MAUs after launching its stand-alone app in late 2024. Growth spiked 40% in July with Grok 4’s release.
Meta AI lags behind, ranking No. 46 on the web and failing to crack mobile’s top 50, hurt by backlash over sharing users’ posts without consent. Meanwhile, Claude and Perplexity continue steady growth, while DeepSeek’s traffic has fallen sharply.
OpenAI co-founder calls for AI labs to safety-test rival models:
OpenAI and Anthropic briefly gave each other API access to less-restricted versions of their models to run joint safety tests, surfacing blind spots in hallucination rates, refusals, and sycophancy.
Findings showed Anthropic’s Claude models refused to answer uncertain questions up to 70% of the time, while OpenAI’s o3 and o4-mini tried to answer more often but hallucinated more. Researchers agreed the “right balance” lies in between.
Both labs acknowledged sycophancy as a major concern, with extreme cases in GPT-4.1 and Claude Opus 4. OpenAI claims GPT-5 has reduced this issue, especially in mental health contexts, after a recent lawsuit highlighted ChatGPT’s role in a teenager’s suicide.
Google Translate takes on Duolingo:
Google Translate is launching a new language practice feature that creates customized listening and speaking exercises which adapt to your skill level for learning conversational skills and vocabulary.
A "Live translate" option is being added for real-time conversations, providing both audio translations and on-screen transcripts in more than 70 languages for two people speaking together.
The live feature's AI models can identify pauses and intonations for more natural-sounding speech and use speech recognition to isolate sounds in noisy places like an airport.
SpaceX notches major wins during tenth Starship test:
For the first time, the Super Heavy booster tested a maneuver by shutting down landing engines and transitioning to backups before completing its targeted splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico.
The Starship upper stage reached space and successfully opened its Pez-style payload door, a critical test which allowed it to release eight Starlink mass-simular satellites as planned.
SpaceX re-lit a Raptor engine in space and guided the vehicle through reentry, gathering data from its thermal-protection system before the ship splashed down in the Indian Ocean.
Meta loses two AI researchers back to OpenAI:
Two prominent AI researchers, Avi Verma and Ethan Knight, left Meta's new Superintelligence Labs to go back to OpenAI after working at the company for less than one month.
Chaya Nayak, who led generative AI efforts, is also heading to OpenAI, while researcher Rishabh Agarwal separately announced his departure from the same superintelligence team after recently joining Meta.
These quick exits are a major setback for the new lab, which was created to outpace rivals and reports directly to Mark Zuckerberg while aggressively recruiting top AI talent.
ByteDance eyes $330B valuation with share buyback planning:
ByteDance is launching a new employee share buyback valuing the company at over $330B, up from $315B six months ago. Employees will be offered $200.41 per share in the program.
Revenue surged 25% YoY in Q2 to around $48B, making ByteDance the world’s largest social media company by sales, surpassing Meta’s $42.3B in Q1. Most revenue came from the Chinese market.
Despite profitability overall, TikTok’s U.S. operations remain unprofitable and under regulatory pressure, with a September 17 deadline looming for ByteDance to divest its U.S. assets or face a ban.
LAST COFFEE SIP
☕Other news
OpenAI adds new safeguards after teen suicide lawsuit:
OpenAI is updating ChatGPT to better recognize signs of psychological distress during extended conversations, issuing explicit warnings about dangers like sleep deprivation if a user reports feeling "invincible."
For users indicating a crisis, the company is adding direct links to emergency services in the US and Europe, letting them access professional help outside the platform with a single click.
A planned parental controls feature will give guardians the ability to monitor their children’s ChatGPT conversations and review usage history to help spot potential problems and step in if needed.
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)
Associate/manager - Redalpine | UK - Apply Here
Venture Investment Analyst - Laplace Partner | South Korea - Apply Here
Investment Analyst - Beas Capital | India - Apply Here
Program Manager - generator | USA - Apply Here
Investor Relations Analyst - Techstars | USA - Apply Here
Manager - Finance - Yournest Venture | India - Apply Here
Investor Relations Manager - Beco Capital | UK - Apply Here
Head of Platform - Pledge Venture | UK - Apply Here
ESG Intern - ESG Enterprise | UK - Apply Here
Executive Assistant - AN Venture Partner | USA - Apply Here
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