☕ Leak reveals multiple unreleased Apple products, Amazon to invest $10 billion in OpenAI & Meta’s AI glasses add conversation boost in noisy places.
Google tests an email based productivity assistant & OpenAI drops GPT Image 1.5.
📬 What’s in store:
Today’s Picks: VC starter resources, enterprise GenAI report, VC-approved outreach emails, 40 pitch decks, Ramp AI adoption index, thoughts on conviction, modern product blueprint, and essential CEO skills.
Meta’s AI glasses add conversation boost in noisy places.
OpenAI drops GPT Image 1.5 to speed up and stabilize ChatGPT image edits.
Google tests an email based productivity assistant called CC.
iOS 26 leak reveals multiple unreleased Apple products.
Ford pivots from EVs to hybrids and energy storage.
The AI chip shortage could raise smartphone prices.
US government launches ‘Tech Force’ to hire AI talent.
Amazon in talks to invest in OpenAI at over $500B valuation.
X updates terms and countersues to keep the Twitter trademark.
VC & Startup Jobs: VC & investors backed startup hiring for remote roles.
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🗞️ What else is brewing
All-in-one resources for aspiring venture capitalists. (Link)
12-page report on the state of generative AI in the enterprise. (Link)
Investor outreach email sequence pack: 20+ proven templates used & approved by VCs. (Link)
40 real startup pitch decks that raised $350M+ (Including leading startups decks) (Link)
Ramp AI Index: Monthly measurement of AI adoption by American businesses. (Link)
A few thoughts on conviction. (Link)
A blueprint for modern product development. (Link)
The skills and habits aspiring CEOs need to build. (Link)
STARTUPS RAISING MILLIONS
💰 Startup funding updates
YSE Beauty, a Los Angeles, CA-based skincare brand, closed a $15m Series A funding round. The round was led by investment partner Silas Capital, with participation from L Catterton and existing investors Willow Growth Partners and Halogen Ventures.
Nanit, a NYC-based U.S.-based baby’s sleep technology company, raised $50m in growth funding. The round was led by Springcoast Partners with participation from Upfront Ventures and JVP.
Lucis, a Paris, France-based preventive health testing startup, raised $8.5M in Seed funding. The round was led by General Catalyst, with participation from Y Combinator, Kima Ventures, Motier Ventures, Circle.Co, and North South Ventures.
Mobius Materials, a Richmond, VA-based B2B marketplace for hardware manufacturers, raised $3M in funding. The round was led by Spero Ventures, with participation from Outsiders Fund and RefashionD Ventures.
Vital Lyfe, a Hawthorne, CA-based personal water-making technology company, raised $24M in Seed funding. The amount consisted of $18M in seed funding and the remainder in committed debt financing. The round was led by Interlagos and General Catalyst, with participation from Generational Partners, Cantos, Space VC, and Also Capital.
Fluency, a Burlington, VT-based provider of a Digital Advertising Operating System (OS) for scaling paid media operations across all major channels, raised $40M in Series A funding. The round was led by Integrity Growth Partners (IGP).
Echo Software, a NYC-based leader in AI-powered secure software infrastructure, raised $35m in Series A funding. The round was led by N47, with participation from Notable Capital, Hyperwise Ventures, and SentinelOne’s S Ventures.
Aeovian Pharmaceuticals, a Berkeley, CA-based clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, raised $55M in funding. The round was led by Luma Group and CTI Life Sciences Fund, with participation from Foresite Capital, SymBiosis, the TSC Alliance Endowment Fund, Wilson Sonsini, Apollo Health Ventures, Hevolution, Sofinnova Investments and venBio.
Verisoul, an Austin, TX-based provider of a platform for stopping fake accounts and fraud, Raised $8.8M in Series A funding. The round was led by High Alpha, with participation from Lookout Ventures, Bitkraft, Bain Future Back Ventures, and Third Prime.
Looma, a Durham, NC-based provider of an in-store retail media platform, raised $13M in funding. The round consisted of a $10M in Series B funding led by Staley Capital, alongside a $3M credit facility from Silicon Valley Bank, a division of First Citizens Bank, bringing its total funding to $30M.
Dux, a Tel Aviv, Israel- and NYC-based provider of an agentic exposure management platform built for the speed of AI-driven cyberattacks, raised $9m in seed funding. The round was led by Redpoint, TLV Partners and Maple Capital, with participation from cybersecurity executives from CrowdStrike, Okta and Armis.
Adaptive Security, a NYC-based provider of AI-powered social engineering prevention solutions, raised $81M in Series B funding. The round was led by Bain Capital Ventures, with participation from NVentures (NVIDIA’s venture capital arm), OpenAI Startup Fund, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Abstract Ventures, Capital One Ventures, and Citi Ventures.
Ember LifeSciences, a Los Angeles, CA-based provider of cold chain technology, raised $16.5M in Series A funding. The round was led by Sea Court Capital, with participation from Cardinal Health, Carrier Ventures and other influential investors, including former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Esusu, a NYC-based financial technology platform advancing credit building and economic mobility, raised $50M in its Series C funding, at $1.2 Billion valuation. The round was led by Westbound Equity Partners, with participation from Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, Blue Meridian Partners, and strategic family offices, bringing the its total capital raised to over $200M.
MyDello, a Tallinn, Estonia-based logistics startup, raised €3.1M in funding. The round was led by Frumtak Ventures, with participation from Superhero Capital, Frumtak Ventures, Jevgeni Kabanov.
Repsense, a Prague, Czech Republic, and Vilnius, Lithuania-based dual-use data analytics company, closed its $2m Seed funding with a final €1.1M tranche. Backers in the latest tranche included Tensor Ventures, Seed Starter, CVC of Česká spořitelna, and existing investors BSV Ventures and Coinvest Capital.
Axion, a NYC-based provider of a AI platform for manufacturing product quality, raised $37M in Series B funding. The round was led by Salesforce Ventures with participation from Bessemer Venture Partners, Schneider Electric Ventures, and other existing investors.
Soverli, a Zurich, Switzerland-based cybersecurity company, raised USD 2.6m in pre-seed funding. The pre-seed round was led by Founderful, with participation from the ETH Zurich Foundation, Venture Kick, and other figures in cybersecurity.
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NEW VCs IN THE MARKET
🏦 Venture Capital updates
Neil Murray of The Nordic Web Ventures has closed a $6M Fund III to back early-stage Nordic founders in AI, robotics, and deep tech. Based in Copenhagen, the solo GP was the first check into unicorn Lovable and SafetyWing, with LPs including founders of Kahoot and Pleo. He capped the fund deliberately, prioritizing alignment over AUM, and plans to write $200K checks into 30–35 startups. Murray calls the Nordic scene “not a moment, but a compounding”—setting the stage for long-term breakout companies.
KEY STORIES IN TECH
📜 Latest in tech
Meta’s AI glasses add conversation boost in noisy places
Meta is rolling out a conversation-focus mode for Ray-Ban Meta and Oakley Meta HSTN glasses that amplifies the voice of the person you’re talking to through the glasses’ open-ear speakers, aimed at noisy settings like restaurants, trains, or bars.
Users can adjust amplification by swiping the right temple or via settings. It launches first in the U.S. and Canada, and will go out via software update v21 (starting with Early Access users, then broader rollout).
Meta is also adding a Spotify “play what you see” feature that can start music based on what’s in your view (album cover, holiday scene, etc.), available in English across many markets including India, the U.K., and the U.S.
OpenAI drops GPT Image 1.5 to speed up and stabilize ChatGPT image edits
OpenAI is rolling out GPT Image 1.5, a new version of ChatGPT Images, claiming better instruction-following, more precise editing, and up to 4x faster image generation. It launches to all ChatGPT users and is also available via the API.
The big promise is iteration that does not break consistency. Instead of reinterpreting the whole image on small edits like facial expression, colder lighting, or composition tweaks, the model aims to preserve likeness, lighting, framing, and color tone across edits.
ChatGPT is also getting a more “creative studio” style image workflow with a dedicated sidebar entry point, plus a broader push to add more visuals with clear sources inside ChatGPT responses for practical queries.
Google tests an email based productivity assistant called CC
Google launched CC as a Google Labs experiment, an email based assistant powered by Gemini that connects to Gmail, Google Drive, and Google Calendar to send a daily “Your Day Ahead” brief with tasks, calendar summaries, and key updates.
Users can reply to CC by email to add to dos, store notes, set preferences, or ask it to search for information, making email the main interface instead of a separate app or chat window.
CC is currently limited to AI Pro and Ultra users in the U.S. and Canada, works only with consumer Google accounts, and joins a growing space of email based AI brief tools like Mindy and daily summaries from meeting assistants.
iOS 26 leak reveals multiple unreleased Apple products
A filesystem dump from an unreleased iOS 26 build lists internal identifiers for the V159 iPhone 17e, the V62 iPhone Air 2, and the long-rumored V68 iPhone Fold.
The code also explicitly references a B589 AirTag 2, two new J427 and J527 Studio Displays, and separate J490 and J491 versions of the upcoming Apple Home Hub.
Wearable findings include an N109 Vision Pro successor, an N100 lightweight headset, and N401 smart glasses alongside codes for the Apple Watch Ultra 4 and Series 11.
Ford pivots from EVs to hybrids and energy storage
Ford is ending production of the fully-electric F-150 Lightning and canceling the T3 truck as it shifts focus to extended range electric vehicles and an entirely new energy storage business.
The replacement model adds a gas generator that can recharge the battery pack to power the motors, enabling the system to run for over 700 miles without needing to stop.
A skunkworks program led by former Tesla executives will still release a mid-sized all-electric pickup in 2027, even as the automaker confirms it is abandoning plans for a next-generation commercial van.
The AI chip shortage could raise smartphone prices
A shortage of DRAM and NAND flash memory driven by renewed AI server demand is raising component costs, causing Counterpoint Research to predict that global smartphone shipments will drop in 2026.
Manufacturers of budget phones under $200 are seeing bill of materials costs jump by nearly 30%, meaning Android vendors might cut camera specs or consolidate their model lineups to survive.
Apple is positioned to weather the pricing shock better than rivals because it secures long-term supply deals for components and can offset its lower projected volume with higher average selling prices.
US government launches ‘Tech Force’ to hire AI talent
The Trump administration is launching a new US Tech Force program to recruit 1,000 early career software engineers and AI experts for two-year roles to modernize systems across the federal government.
This two-year initiative partners with tech companies like Microsoft and xAI to provide mentorship while offering salaries between $130,000 and $195,000 to attract skilled workers directly from the private sector.
Hires will tackle projects determined by agency leadership, such as incorporating AI into drones at the Department of Defense and building out the Trump Accounts platform at the Internal Revenue Service.
Amazon in talks to invest in OpenAI at over $500B valuation
Amazon is reportedly discussing a potential $10B investment in OpenAI, a deal that could value the company at more than $500B, according to a source cited by Reuters. Talks are said to be fluid and ongoing.
The move comes as OpenAI prepares for a possible IPO that could target a $1T valuation, following its restructuring into a public benefit corporation and the reworking of its long standing partnership with Microsoft.
If finalized, the deal could deepen OpenAI’s cloud diversification, with reports suggesting OpenAI may use Amazon’s Trainium chips and explore selling an enterprise version of ChatGPT to Amazon.
LAST COFFEE SIP
☕ Other news
X updates terms and countersues to keep the Twitter trademark
X updated its Terms of Service to explicitly say it still owns the “Twitter” and “Tweet” trademarks and the bluebird logo, after a startup called Operation Bluebird filed to trademark “Twitter” and argued X abandoned the brand.
The revised terms (effective January 15, 2026) now state users don’t have rights to use either the X name or the Twitter name, plus any related trademarks, logos, or domains, without written consent.
Operation Bluebird is also collecting signups at Twitter.new, but the reporting suggests the effort may be more about acquiring the trademark value than launching a true X rival.
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)
Senior Analyst - Iconiq Capital | USA - Apply Here
Associate, Secondary Investments - Adam Street Partner | USA - Apply Here
Chief of Staff – DeVC - Z47 | India - Apply Here
Lead, Growth Platform & Communications -Tall Venture | USA - Apply Here
VC Investment Intern - First Momentum Venture | USA - Apply Here
VC Investor - Quamtum Light | UK - Apply Here
Head of Operations - Sagest Capital | USA - Apply Here
Portfolio Management Lead - Yzi Labs | Remote - Apply Here
Office Manager - Seedcamp | USA - Apply Here
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