☕ Meta cuts 600 roles in Superintelligence Labs & iPhone Air orders slashed to almost ‘end of production’ levels.
Reddit sues Perplexity for allegedly scraping data to train its AI engine & More
Octopuses can ditch their own arms when stressed.
If a limb gets trapped or damaged, some species self-destruct, literally digesting or dropping the arm to escape.
Love or hate this intro? Hit reply and tell us why!
📬 What’s in store:
Today’s Picks: VCs not built to fund good businesses, leaner startups (Carta), Replo hiring strategy, $500B AI giants, why smart people fail, Lisa Su’s advice, PG on AI jobs.
BoxGroup - CA-based venture capital firm, closed two funds raising $550m in total.
OpenAI’s Atlas browser aims to make ChatGPT the new default interface for the web.
Meta to cut around 600 roles in Superintelligence Labs AI unit.
iPhone Air orders slashed to almost ‘end of production’ levels.
YouTube launches new AI tool to fight deepfakes.
Reddit sues Perplexity for allegedly scraping data to train its AI engine.
Anthropic, Google in talks for multibillion-dollar cloud computing deal.
OpenAI faces backlash for seeking memorial details in ChatGPT suicide case.
VC & Startup Jobs: VC & investors backed startup hiring for remote roles.
FROM OUR PARTNER - MECO
🤝 The best new app for newsletter reading
Reading newsletters in the inbox is frustrating - it is noisy and easy to lose control of subscriptions. Now with Meco you can enjoy your newsletters in an app built for reading, while giving your inbox space to breathe.
Meco connects to Gmail & Outlook, allowing you to instantly move your newsletters to the app (and clear your inbox)
The experience is packed with features to supercharge your reading including the ability to group newsletters, set smart filters, bookmark your favorites and read in a scrollable feed.
You can try the experience for free and available on iOS, Android and web (desktop)
Over 30k readers are enjoying their newsletters (and decluttering their inbox) with Meco - try the app today!
PARTNERSHIP WITH US
💪 Get your startup in front of over 95,000+ audience.
Our newsletter is read by thousands of tech professionals, founders, investors (VCs / Angel Investors) and managers around the world. Get in touch today.
DAILY PICKS
🗞️ What else is brewing
40 real startup pitch decks that raised $350M+ (Including leading startups decks) (Link)
The forecast model every startup needs (with free template). (Link)
VCs aren’t built to fund good businesses. (Link)
Startups are staying leaner for longer per Carta data. (Link)
Yuxin Zhu, Replo founder’s hiring strategy. (Link)
Brad Gerstner is comparing OpenAI, Meta and Google’s climb to a $500B valuation. (Link)
Why some people are too smart to succeed. (Link)
Lisa Su: Find the toughest problems and volunteer to solve them. (Link)
Paul Graham: AI taking jobs is full of classic PG wisdom. (Link)
Excel template: early-stage startup financial model for fundraising. (Link)
Conrad Irwin (Superhuman)’s take on why LLMs can’t fully build software is really interesting. (Link)
The ultimate guide for founders to start a lean, AI-native startup in 2025. (Link)
Absolutely epic SEO guide called “The AI Search Manual” (Link)
STARTUPS RAISING MILLIONS
💰 Startup funding updates
Sizable Energy, a Milan, Italy-based long-duration ocean energy storage company, raised $8m in funding. The round was led by Playground Global, with participation from Exa Ventures, Verve Ventures, Satgana, EDEN/IAG, and Unruly Capital.
smartbax, a Munich, Germany-based biotech company developing next-generation antibiotics against multi-drug resistant bacteria, held the first closing of its €4.7 M Pre-Series A financing round. The round was led by new investors Anobis Asset and Bayern Kapital, with participation from UnternehmerTUM Funding for Innovators as well as existing investors HTGF – High-Tech Gründerfonds and Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund (BIVF).
UnifyApps, a NYC-based company providing an enterprise operating system for AI, raised $50m in Series B funding. The round, which brought UnifyApps’ total funding to $81m, was led by WestBridge Capital with participation from ICONIQ and others.
Pavewise, a Bismark, ND-based provider of a platform that drives efficiency and compliance spanning the plans of road construction projects, raised $2.5m in seed funding. The round was led by C2 Ventures, plus Connectic, Service Provider Capital, Geoff Judge, and Tom Stemm, as well as existing investors M25, gener8tor 1889 and Broadwater Capital.
CurbWaste, a NYC-based operating system for independent waste haulers, raised $28m in Series B funding round. The round, which brought total funding to $50m, was led by Socium Ventures, a venture and growth investment firm backed by Cox Enterprises, with participation from Flourish Ventures, TTV Capital, B Capital Group, as well as its new quantitative investor Squarepoint.
Bricklayer AI, an Arlington, Va.-based agentic cybersecurity platform empowering Security Operations Centers (SOCs) with AI agents, raised $5m in Seed funding. The round was led by Tech Square Ventures, with participation from returning investors Sovereign’s Capital, Dreamit Ventures, and BlueWing Ventures.
Hulo, a Dutch WaterTech startup using AI to detect leaks in water infrastructure worldwide, raised €2.3m in seed funding. The round was led by VP Capital and LUMO Labs with participation of Vanagon, Rabobank, the FOM and the Netherlands Enabling Water Technology fund (NEW).
Syntracts, a Washington, DC-based API-first contract intelligence platform built for full on-premises deployment, raised $5.3M in seed funding. The round was led by Hyperplane, with participation from Khosla Ventures, Top Harvest Capital, and Fortitude Ventures, and continued support from existing investors Myriad Venture Partners and Point72 Ventures.
GradBridge, a Wilmington, Del.-based fintech company focused on second-look private student lending, closed a $20m Series A funding round. The round was led by Acorn Investment Partners, a portfolio company of funds managed by Oaktree Capital Management L.P.
MythWorx, a Dallas, TX-based next-generation AI startup with a AI/AGI construct and architecture and pioneering reasoning capabilities, closed a $5m seed funding round at a $100m valuation. The round was led by Eagle Venture Fund IV, Eagle Freedom Fund I, and Eagle Freedom Fund II, along with investment from other angel investors.
Cybrid, a Toronto, Canada-based platform for compliant stablecoins and fiat payment infrastructure, raised $10m in Series A funding. The round was led by the Growth Venture Fund at BDC Capital with participation from Golden Ventures, Luge Capital, and Panache Ventures.
Sumble, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of a platform for actionable data to GTM teams, launched with $38.5m in Seed and Series A funding. The round was led by Canaan Partners and Coatue, with participation from Square Peg Capital, Zetta Venture Partners, Bloomberg Beta, AIX Ventures, and angels that include Marc Benioff and Nat Friedman.
Streetbeat, a Palo Alto, CA-based AI-powered intelligence platform for financial professionals and retail investors, raised $15m in Series A funding. The round, which brought total funding to $25m, was led by CDP Venture Capital through the AI Fund and joined by TTV Capital, Monte Carlo Capital, and 3Lines VC.
NEW VCs IN THE MARKET
🏦 Venture Capital updates
BoxGroup, a NYC and San Francisco, CA-based venture capital firm, closed two funds raising $550m in total. According to Fortune, the seventh core fund and the fourth follow-on fund raised approx. $275m each. Led by David Tisch, Founder and MP, BoxGroup is a pre-seed and seed-stage venture capital firm which backs founders at the earliest stage of their businesses, investing collaborative checks alongside other funds and angels.
HighVista Strategies LLC, a Boston, MA-based employee-owned specialty alternative asset manager, closed HighVista Venture Capital Fund XIV, L.P., at $270m. The fund received commitments from a diverse group of limited partners, including a range of institutions and family offices globally.
KEY STORIES IN TECH
📜 Latest in tech
OpenAI’s Atlas browser aims to make ChatGPT the new default interface for the web
OpenAI launched its AI browser, ChatGPT Atlas, designed to keep ChatGPT at the center of users’ online experience rather than reinvent web browsing itself.
Atlas integrates memory and app SDK features, using browsing and chat history to provide contextual answers and deeper integration across devices — but lacks typical browser utilities like ad blockers or reading mode.
By merging search, conversation, and productivity into one interface, OpenAI is positioning ChatGPT as an “operating system for your life,” though convincing users to switch from Chrome or Safari remains a major challenge.
Meta to cut around 600 roles in Superintelligence Labs AI unit
Meta is laying off about 600 employees from its superintelligence lab, according to a memo from chief AI officer Alexandr Wang, marking a continued reshuffle of its AI strategy.
The move follows Meta’s aggressive summer hiring spree, during which it lured dozens of researchers from rivals like OpenAI and Anthropic with multimillion-dollar offers.
Wang said the cuts aim to make decision-making faster and give remaining employees more “scope and impact,” aligning with CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s ongoing “year of efficiency” strategy.
iPhone Air orders slashed to almost ‘end of production’ levels
According to a Nikkei report, Apple is drastically cutting its production orders for the new iPhone Air, slashing them to levels that are typically seen only near a product’s end of production.
Multiple sources indicate that the significant reduction in iPhone Air manufacturing is a direct result of weak demand in several markets, despite the device only recently becoming available to customers in China.
The weak performance of the iPhone Air is reportedly being compensated for by unexpectedly robust demand for other iPhone 17 models, keeping overall production in line with the company’s original forecasts.
YouTube launches new AI tool to fight deepfakes
YouTube’s new likeness detection technology has rolled out to eligible Partner Program creators, allowing them to find and request removal of AI-generated content that features their face or voice.
To use the tool, creators must go to the “Likeness” tab and verify their identity by submitting a photo ID and a brief selfie video through a QR code process.
Once the system grants access, a user can view all detected videos and then submit a removal request under privacy guidelines, make a copyright request, or archive the clip.
Reddit sues Perplexity for allegedly scraping data to train its AI engine
Reddit has filed a lawsuit in New York federal court accusing AI startup Perplexity and three data-scraping firms of illegally harvesting its content to train Perplexity’s AI-powered “answer engine.”
The suit claims the companies bypassed Reddit’s protections to access billions of posts, even after Reddit sent a cease-and-desist letter — alleging Perplexity then increased citations to Reddit “forty-fold.”
Reddit, which has licensed its data to Google and OpenAI, seeks damages and an injunction, calling the incident part of an “industrial-scale data laundering” trend in the AI industry.
Anthropic, Google in talks for multibillion-dollar cloud computing deal
Anthropic is negotiating a cloud services agreement with Google valued in the “high tens of billions,” according to Bloomberg, as the AI startup seeks additional computing power.
The deal would deepen Anthropic’s reliance on Google Cloud, one of its major investors alongside Amazon, and strengthen Google’s AI infrastructure footprint.
Anthropic, creator of the Claude chatbot, is on pace to hit a $9B annual revenue run rate by the end of 2025 as enterprise adoption accelerates.
LAST COFFEE SIP
☕ Other news
OpenAI faces backlash for seeking memorial details in ChatGPT suicide case
OpenAI reportedly requested the attendee list and all memorial-related materials from the family of 16-year-old Adam Raine, who died by suicide after extended conversations with ChatGPT — a move the family’s lawyers called “intentional harassment.”
The Raine family’s updated lawsuit alleges OpenAI rushed GPT-4o’s 2024 release without sufficient safety testing and weakened suicide-prevention safeguards earlier this year.
OpenAI said teen wellbeing is a top priority and pointed to new safety features — including crisis routing to GPT-5 and parental alerts — aimed at preventing self-harm interactions.
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)
Analyst - Tower Research Venture | USA - Apply Here
Research Analyst - Positive Sum | USA - Apply Here
Fund Operations Associate - TNB Aura | Singapore - Apply Here
VP, Ventures - Synchroni Venture | USA - Apply Here
Research Intern, Crypto - a16z | USA - Apply Here
Senior VC Analyst - Working Capital Fund | USA - Apply Here
2026 Venture Capital Summer Analyst - Stepstone Group | USA - Apply Here
AI Venture Analyst Intern - Untaped Venture | USA - Apply Here
Investor Relations Manager - Beco Capital | UK - Apply Here
Associate - Venture Capital - Artha Venture Fund | India - Apply Here
WHEN YOU’RE READY, HERE’S HOW I CAN HELP:
💁 You might need our help!
Reach 95,000+ Founders & Investors: Partner with our newsletter to reach a highly engaged audience.
Build Your Pitch Deck: We write, design and model your pitch deck into a storyteller book within 4-5 days.
Do you have any news to share about your Startup or VC fund? Please email us.
We’ll be back in your inbox on Tomorrow.