☕ Leak reveals OpenAI plans ads on ChatGPT, China’s Baidu starts layoffs & Black Friday sets online spending record of $11.8 Billion.
iPhone Fold will be creaseless and cost $2,400 & David Sacks might profit from Trump administration role.
The International Space Station orbits Earth every 90 minutes.
Sixteen sunsets a day, and yet astronauts still manage to accomplish more than we do.
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📬 What’s in store:
Today’s Picks: Startup legal docs for founders, user research without users, enterprise AI adoption insights, unicorn comeback guide, $1B founder’s fundraising playbook.
Leak reveals OpenAI plans ads on ChatGPT.
New report examines how David Sacks might profit from Trump administration role.
iPhone Fold will be creaseless and cost $2,400, report says.
Facebook remains popular with 71% usage.
China’s Baidu starts layoffs after reporting third-quarter loss.
Black Friday sets online spending record of $11.8B, Adobe says.
iOS 27 will prioritize AI and performance.
SoftBank stays in as Meesho’s $606M IPO becomes India’s first major e-commerce listing.
VC & Startup Jobs: VC & investors backed startup hiring for remote roles.
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🗞️ What else is brewing
Startup legal document pack – essential legal Docs for founders. (Link)
How to do user research without users: the synthetic user guide. (Link)
What 1,000 ChatGPT enterprise customers tell us about enterprise AI adoption in 2025. (Link)
Unicorns are back: what founders must understand right now. (Link)
This founder raised over $1Billion and shared a fundraising playbook every founder should read. (Link)
40 real startup pitch decks that raised $350M+ (Including leading startups decks) (Link)
What investors ask and how to answer : A practical Q&A prep kit for founders. (Link)
All-In-One Guide To Venture Capital Job Interview Questions (And How to Answer Them). (Link)
STARTUPS RAISING MILLIONS
💰 Startup funding updates
Procure AI, a London, UK-based provider of an AI powered system to automate procurement workflows, raised $13m in seed funding. The round was led by Headline, with participation from C4 Ventures and Futury Capital.
Ranketta, a Brno, Czech Republic-based provider of an AI visibility platform helping brands understand and improve their presence in AI search and AI Shopping results, raised €1M in Pre-Seed funding. The round was led by Lighthouse Ventures with participation from Gi21 Capital.
Crux, a Mclean, VA-based provider of a benefits platform partnering with pharma and employers of all sizes, raised $6.5M in Pre-Seed funding. The round was led by Red Cell Partners.
Enerin, an Asker, Norway-based high-temperature heat pumps company, raised €15M in Series a funding. The round was led by Climentum Capital, The Footprint Firm, Johnson Controls and Move Energy, with participation from PSV Hafnium and Momentum.
LabelBlind Solutions, a Mumbai, India-based provider of an AI-led digital food labelling SaaS solution, raised USD 500K in Seed funding. Backers were not disclosed.
Evidium, a San Francisco, CA-based healthcare AI company, raised $22M in Funding. The round was led by Health2047, and WGG Partners, with participation from x.AI, Perplexity, Innovaccer, Interwoven Ventures and Mindset Ventures.
Mznil, a Saudi Arabia-based proptech company for labour housing solutions, raised $11.7M in Series A funding. The round was led by Founders Fund, with participation from COTU Ventures.
Gravis Robotics, a Zurich, Switzerland-based provider of an earthmoving autonomy platform, raised $23M in funding. The round was led by IQ Capital and Zacua Ventures, with participation from Pear VC, Imad, Sunna Ventures, Armada Investment and Holcim.
Gosta Labs, an Espoo, Finland-based healthtech company, raised €7.5M in Seed funding. The round was led by Voima Ventures, with participation from COR Group, the Aho family, and both existing and new investors, including Reaktor and a group of notable angel investors.
Anyformat, a Madrid, Spain-based provider of a generative AI platform specialized in extracting and structuring complex data from documents, raised €3.3M in Seed funding. The round was led by Kibo Ventures, with participation from 4Founders, Abac Nest Ventures, and Decelera Ventures.
Juo, a Warsaw, Poland-based developer of a platform to manage physical-product subscription programs, raised $4.6m in seed funding. The round was co-led by Market One Capital and Peak with participation from SMOK Ventures, BADideas, FJ Labs, and Lakestar.
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NEW VCs IN THE MARKET
🏦 Venture Capital updates
New report examines how David Sacks might profit from Trump administration role
A New York Times investigation claims David Sacks’ position as Trump’s AI and crypto czar could benefit his portfolio, noting that 449 of his 708 investments are in AI, though Sacks dismisses the report as a “nothing burger.”
Critics say his ethics filings lack clarity on what assets he sold despite waivers requiring divestment, while the NYT highlights blurred categories and examples like the All-In podcast’s involvement in a White House AI summit.
Sacks’ team says he has followed all rules and that the narrative is false, while the White House calls him “invaluable” to Trump’s tech agenda amid concerns from some Republicans that Silicon Valley allies hold outsized influence.
KEY STORIES IN TECH
📜 Latest in tech
Leak reveals OpenAI plans ads on ChatGPT
Hidden code discovered inside the ChatGPT Android app beta suggests OpenAI is internally testing a new ads feature that would change the currently completely free service for its global audience.
The leak found specific references to bazaar content and a search ads carousel, indicating the company might initially limit these promotions to the search experience rather than just standard text chats.
This move toward a Google Search model comes as the platform handles 2.5 billion prompts a day from 800 million people, providing massive data to target specific products to potential buyers.
iPhone Fold will be creaseless and cost $2,400, report says
Apple reportedly achieved a crease-free design for the iPhone Fold by handling the panel structure and lamination process itself while using an inner display from Samsung that met specific quality standards.
Engineers collaborated with suppliers Shin Zu Shing and Amphenol to develop hinge bearings from a strain-resistant liquid-metal material that works in tandem to ensure the display remains both tough and durable.
Foxconn has established a dedicated production line for the device now entering the engineering verification test phase, though the hardware will likely launch with a steep price tag hovering around $2,400.
Facebook remains popular with 71% usage
Pew Research data reveals 71% of American adults still use Facebook, while YouTube takes the crown with 84%, meaning these two maintain what researchers call universal reach with broad appeal.
Over half of these users check the platform daily, proving demographic staying power, whereas Instagram drops off a generational cliff among those over 65 who do not engage with TikTok.
Political divides reshape the social media ecosystem, as Republicans on X are now more active than Democrats, while Bluesky shows a stark partisan preference despite its tiny userbase in the landscape.
China’s Baidu starts layoffs after reporting third-quarter loss
Baidu has begun large-scale layoffs across multiple units after reporting a Q3 loss, with some teams facing cuts of up to 40%, though AI and cloud roles will be largely protected.
The company’s core advertising business continues to decline — ad revenue fell 18% in Q3 — while Baidu struggles to keep pace in AI against rivals like Alibaba, ByteDance, and DeepSeek.
Despite being an early mover in China’s chatbot race, Baidu’s Ernie has fallen behind in users and performance, prompting the company to redirect more resources toward AI as layoffs continue through year-end.
Black Friday sets online spending record of $11.8B, Adobe says
U.S. shoppers spent a record $11.8B online on Black Friday, up from $10.8B last year, with peak spend hitting about $12.5M per minute; Adobe expects Cyber Monday to reach $14.2B and total holiday online spend to climb to $253.4B (vs. $241.1B in 2024).
Salesforce estimates $79B in global Black Friday online sales ($18B in the U.S.), but notes that much of the growth is price-driven: average prices rose 7% while order volumes actually fell 1%.
Both Adobe and Salesforce highlight AI’s growing role in shopping, with Salesforce saying AI and AI agents influenced $22B in global sales, while offline data remains mixed as different trackers report small declines or modest gains in store foot traffic.
iOS 27 will prioritize AI and performance
Apple engineers are reportedly combing through the operating system to cut bloat and eliminate bugs, aiming to fix specific user complaints about overheating, battery drain, and the pervasive jank distributed across the previous update.
The release includes a paid health focused AI agent and a chatbot app known as Veritas, which acts as a proving ground for the re-architected Siri as the company is still playing catch-up.
Mark Gurman claims this cycle resembles the Snow Leopard era by prioritizing stability, though the software will still contain adjustments to the new styling associated with the Liquid Glass vibe for the next few years.
LAST COFFEE SIP
☕ Other news
SoftBank stays in as Meesho’s $606M IPO becomes India’s first major e-commerce listing
Meesho will raise about $606M in its IPO at a valuation of roughly $5.6B, with early investors like Elevation, Peak XV, and Y Combinator selling small stakes while major backers including SoftBank, Prosus, and Fidelity hold their shares.
The company posted strong growth — ₹55.78B ($624M) in revenue for the half-year ending September 2025 and a 44% YoY rise in GMV — but losses widened to ₹4.33B ($48M) over the same period.
With 234M annual transacting users, over 700K sellers, and a value-focused model competing against Amazon and Flipkart, Meesho expects the IPO to boost brand credibility, attract talent, and scale its low-cost marketplace model.
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)
Visiting Investment Analyst - Join Capital | USA - Apply Here
AI Tech Lead - Core Innovation Capital | USA - Apply Here
Investment Analyst - Caanan | USA - Apply Here
Investment Associate - Prologies Venture | India - Apply Here
VC Associate UK - Breega | UK - Apply Here
Analyst - Investments - Blackhill Fund | India - Apply Here
Venture Analyst - PSV | Hybrid - Apply Here
Senior Principal - Newsbreak Venture | USA - Apply Here
Investment Analyst - Cornell University | USA - Apply Here
Associate - Venture Capital - Artha Venture Fund | India - Apply Here
VP of Fundraising - Scale Asia Venture | Japan - Apply Here
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