The next wave of tech is getting more physical.
Google is sending AI chips into space. Meta is putting its assistant into a Tamagotchi-like wearable. PrismML is running small models directly on smart glasses. And new European funds are concentrating on robotics, hardware, biotech, and energy instead of broad software bets.
At the same time, Lovable has crossed $600M in annualized revenue, showing that software itself is still moving fast even as more capital shifts toward the infrastructure and devices around it.
Five signals worth watching today:
Lovable crossed $600M in annualized revenue.
Google is launching TPUs into low Earth orbit.
Anthropic is seeking 50.1% founder voting control ahead of its IPO.
Meta is betting on Muse Charm as a new kind of AI wearable.
Two new European funds are targeting frontier technology at the earliest stages.
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STARTUPS RAISING MILLIONS
💰 Startup Funding Updates
At least $1.14B + €37.5M + C$17M + £1.5M + ¥2.2B disclosed across today’s startup rounds
The three biggest rounds:
Island: $400M Series F
Precision Neuroscience: $250M Series D
Rightway: $155M Series E
Together, those three companies accounted for more than 70% of today’s disclosed dollar funding.
PRE-SEED
Prime Minute: Palo Alto-based disaster response and public resilience platform emerged from stealth with $15M led by Eclipse, with participation from 8VC.
American Supercritical: Denver-based developer of supercritical carbon dioxide power systems raised $8M led by Silent Ventures, with participation from Riot Ventures, Harpoon, Reveille VC, Hillwood, Mana Ventures, Climate Capital, Alumni Ventures, and others.
Big Picture Bio: London-based cancer drug discovery platform raised £1.5M co-led by Kadmos Capital and Exceptional Ventures, with participation from Gloucester Ventures and John White.
Duqu: Amsterdam-based AI underwriting platform for invoice financing raised €1.5M from Curiosity VC and No Such Ventures.
ByteAsk: San Francisco-based AI infrastructure and autonomous software engineering startup raised $1M co-led by Y Combinator and Entrepreneur First, with participation from angel investors.
SEED
Pilgrim: Redwood City-based biotechnology and defense technology startup raised $25M at a $150M valuation. The round was led by Buckley Ventures, with participation from Peter Thiel, Fred Ehrsam, Logan Graham, and Sholto Douglas.
Ando: San Francisco-based agent-native team messaging platform raised $20M led by Accel, Index Ventures, and Emergence Capital, with participation from Contrary Capital.
mika: Berlin-based AI-native financial operating system for SMEs raised €6M led by Smedvig Ventures, with participation from Keen Venture Partners, Dutch Founders Fund, and several founders and investors.
Kontext: Munich-based security platform for AI agents raised $4M led by 42CAP, with participation from a16z CSX and HTGF.
Crux Analytics: New York-based sales execution platform raised $2.2M led by Castle Creek Launchpad, with participation from Chartway Ventures, One Washington Financial, and Curql.
Scholar Education: Tampa-based AI platform for special education raised $2M led by OneSixOne Ventures, with participation from other investors.
GROWTH
Island: Dallas-based Enterprise Browser and agentic control plane platform raised $400M Series F at a $6.4B valuation. The round was led by Evolution Equity Partners, with participation from Prysm Capital, Sequoia Capital, Coatue, Cyberstarts, Insight Partners, J.P. Morgan Growth Equity Partners, Georgian, G Squared, and others.
Precision Neuroscience: New York-based brain-computer interface company raised $250M Series D co-led by Pershing Square, the Ackman Oxman Institute, and an undisclosed life sciences investor, with participation from Duquesne Family Office, B Capital, ARK Invest, Mubadala Capital, Hitachi Ventures, and others.
Rightway: New York-based pharmacy benefit management and care navigation platform raised $155M Series E led by Francisco Partners, with participation from Thrive Capital and Khosla Ventures.
BigHat Biosciences: San Mateo-based AI-driven protein therapeutics company raised $75M Series C co-led by DFJ Growth and Premji Invest, with participation from Catalio Capital Management, LG Technology Ventures, Amgen Ventures, a16z, Eli Lilly, Merck Global Health Innovation Fund, and others.
Space Labs: Ljubljana-based blockchain infrastructure and digital economic systems company received a $50M investment from Windsor Capital.
Silk: Needham-based data platform for agentic AI workloads secured a $45M growth capital facility led by Avenue Capital Group, with participation from Sequoia Capital, S Capital VC, Vintage Investment Partners, Ibex Investors, and others.
PicoJool: Palo Alto-based optical connectivity company for AI infrastructure raised $27.5M Series A led by Socratic Partners, with participation from Hudson River Trading and Playground Global.
Basalt Health: Nashville-based AI platform helping patients transition into post-acute care raised $20M Series A led by NEA, with participation from Frist Cressey Ventures and 25m Health.
Trebellar: San Francisco-based AI-native corporate real estate decision-making platform raised $18M Series A led by Blossom Capital, with participation from Haystack, Alt Capital, 1Flourish, and Bynd.
Axya: Montreal-based AI-powered procurement platform for manufacturers raised C$17M Series A led by McRock Capital, with participation from Yamaha Motor Ventures, BDC’s Industrial Innovation Venture Fund, and Real Ventures.
IPID: Singapore-based bank account verification and payment decision intelligence platform raised $16M Series A led by Foundation Capital, with participation from Citi, HSBC, QED Investors, Monk’s Hill Ventures, and Quona Capital.
United Immunity: Tokyo-based clinical-stage biotechnology company raised ¥2.2B, including ¥1.8B in equity and ¥400M in debt financing, from ITOCHU Corporation, Ono Venture Investment, and Ricoh Biomedical Startup Investment.
Locus Lock: Westminster-based software-defined GNSS platform for contested environments raised an undisclosed strategic round led by Range Ventures, with participation from In-Q-Tel, Backswing Ventures, Aurelia Foundry, Techstars, Golden Seeds, and others.
📍 Funding Signal
Today’s largest rounds went to companies positioned as control points inside complex systems.
Island controls how enterprises access applications and AI agents, Rightway sits between employers, patients, and pharmacy benefits, while Precision Neuroscience is building a direct interface between technology and the human brain. These businesses are valuable partly because they sit at critical points where data, decisions, and workflows converge.
There is also unusually strong early-stage conviction in capital-intensive categories. Prime Minute raised a $15M pre-seed round, American Supercritical raised $8M before Series A, and Pilgrim secured $25M at seed. Investors appear increasingly willing to fund frontier technologi
NEW VCs IN THE MARKET
🏦 Venture Capital Updates.
Two new European funds target frontier technology at the earliest stages
Connect Ventures raised $55M in the first close of Fund V, toward an $80M target.
The London-based firm will back pre-seed and seed startups across Europe with checks from $500K to $5M, focusing on AI infrastructure, robotics, hardware, and biotech. The fund is anchored by the British Business Bank, with additional backing from Aldea Ventures, Sella Venture Partners, Molten Ventures, family offices, and founders from Connect-backed companies.
Energy Revolution Ventures also announced the first close of Fund II, which is targeting $50M.
The fund will invest at Seed and Series A across energy storage, grid technologies, advanced materials, renewable fuels, and carbon capture. Centrica is anchoring the vehicle with a $13.5M commitment.
📍 Capital signal
Early-stage European funds are becoming more concentrated around technically difficult sectors where capital, domain expertise, and longer development cycles matter. The overlap between frontier computing, robotics, biotech, and energy also shows that investors are increasingly looking for foundational technologies rather than broad generalist software exposure.
KEY STORIES IN TECH
📜 Latest In Tech
Lovable crosses $600M in annualized revenue
Lovable has reached more than $600M in annual run-rate revenue, up from about $500M in June, as demand for AI-powered app building continues to grow.
The company says two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies now use Lovable, with customers including Microsoft, Nvidia, and Deutsche Telekom.
Apps built on the platform are collectively attracting nearly 1B visits per month, while Lovable has raised more than $700M and was valued at $13.3B in August.
Why it matters: Vibe coding is becoming a serious software category, and Lovable is showing that the bigger opportunity may be in helping users launch complete products and businesses, not just generating code.
Gemini can now clone a voice from 30 seconds of audio
Google’s Gemini 3.8 Flash TTS can recreate a person’s voice from a 30-second sample, provided the speaker records verbal consent that Google verifies.
The model also supports voice creation from text descriptions across 100+ languages and offers more than 2,000 ready-made voices with regional accents.
Google is adding SynthID watermarks and C2PA credentials to generated audio, while companies including Figma and HeyGen are already using the technology.
Why it matters: Voice cloning is becoming faster and easier to deploy at scale, making consent verification and reliable identification of AI-generated audio increasingly important.
Google is sending its AI chips into space
Google is launching its TPUs into low Earth orbit next week as part of Project Suncatcher, a research program exploring whether machine learning systems could eventually operate in space.
The first prototype satellite, built with Planet and launched on SpaceX’s Transporter-18 mission, will test how the chips handle vibration, radiation, and extreme temperatures.
Google says its Trillium TPUs survived radiation levels beyond what a five-year mission would require, with laser-linked satellite experiments planned for 2027.
Why it matters: If space-based AI infrastructure proves viable, it could open a new path for compute expansion using abundant solar power and reduce some of the land, grid, and cooling constraints facing data centers on Earth.
Anthropic seeks to give its co-founders 50.1% voting control ahead of IPO
Anthropic is reportedly asking shareholders to approve a new share structure that would give Dario Amodei and six other co-founders a combined 50.1% of voting power.
The special voting shares would let the founders control most corporate decisions as long as at least three of them continue to hold a minimum ownership stake.
The structure would not fully control board elections, and Anthropic is also reportedly considering a separate employee share class that could act as a tie-breaker on some issues.
Why it matters: Anthropic appears to be designing its IPO structure to protect long-term founder influence, which could shape how the company balances public-market pressure, governance, and its stated AI safety priorities.
ByteDance rented banned Nvidia chips
ByteDance’s Singapore arm reportedly rented 2,304 Nvidia B200 chips through UK cloud company Nscale, with the hardware located in a Norway data center.
The arrangement appears to have remained legal because ByteDance was renting remote compute rather than importing the restricted chips directly into China.
The deal generated $24M of Nscale’s $33M in 2025 revenue, while lenders required additional monitoring because of potential U.S. regulatory scrutiny.
Why it matters: Export controls are increasingly colliding with cloud access. Even when advanced chips cannot be shipped to China, overseas data centers can still give Chinese companies access to the same computing power.
Meta is betting Muse Charm can make AI feel more personal and wearable
Meta’s Muse Charm packages its AI agent into a Tamagotchi-like device that doubles as a keychain or bag accessory, targeting the growing trend of tech as fashion.
The product taps into Gen Z interest in retro gadgets, customizable accessories, and physical objects that feel more personal than algorithm-driven apps.
The bigger question is whether Meta can turn that cultural trend into adoption, especially given its long history of privacy controversies.
Why it matters: If Meta succeeds, AI hardware may become less about replacing smartphones and more about embedding assistants into small, personalized objects people actually want to carry.
LAST COFFEE SIP
🌎 Around The Ecosystem
PrismML + Qualcomm: PrismML has adapted its 2B-parameter Bonsai model to run locally on Snapdragon-powered smart glasses, enabling real-time vision and language features on-device while reducing dependence on cloud AI.
Apple: Opened Apple Music Hall, a 600-person live venue inside London’s Battersea Power Station, combining a configurable stage, Spatial Audio recording, two studios, and multicamera production to turn live performances into content for Apple Music.
MUST READ
📚 Worth Your Time
How AI startups got their first customers: A practical analysis of how 50 emerging AI companies found their first paying customers. The piece shows why public launches rarely drive revenue, and why founder networks, communities, proof-of-work emails, bake-offs, and demo clips worked better.
Which startups die after a model release? An analysis of every AI launch since ChatGPT A practical analysis of how major AI model releases affect the startups built around them. The piece breaks down why some AI startups get absorbed, repriced, or cut off after lab releases, while others become stronger because they own the workflow, buyer, or distribution layer.
HIRING ALERT: STARTUPS & VC ROLES
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Investment Director(Strategic Investment) - YZi Lab | Remote - Apply Here
Portfolio Management Associate - Cerity Partner | USA - Apply Here
Associate - Venture Capital - Artha Group | India - Apply Here
Partner 36, Corporate Controller - a16z | USA - Apply Here
Investment Associate - Cerity Partner | USA - Apply Here
Visiting Investment Analyst - Antler - Apply Here
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