☕ Nvidia to invest up to $100B in OpenAI & Meta adds AI dating assistant.
Oracle promotes two presidents to co-CEO role & Foldable iPhone might look like two iPhone Airs stuck together.
Important stat: Squirrels forget where they hide 74% of their nuts.
The upside to their forgetfulness? They accidentally plant thousands of trees a year. Chaos, but make it reforestation.
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📬 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.
Meta adds AI assistant and surprise match feature to Facebook Dating.
Nvidia to invest up to $100B in OpenAI for next-gen AI infrastructure.
Oracle promotes two presidents to co-CEO role.
Google DeepMind updates its rules to stop harmful AI.
Foldable iPhone might look like two iPhone Airs stuck together.
Coinbase aims to become a financial super app.
Apple brings AI-powered blood pressure notifications to Watch Series 11.
VC & Startup Jobs: VC & investors backed startup hiring for remote roles.
FROM OUR PARTNER - ROCKET
🤝 Rocket Raises $15M to Pioneer “Vibe Solutioning”
Rocket, based in India, has secured $15 million in seed funding co-led by Salesforce Ventures and Accel along with Together Fund.
In just 15 weeks from launch the platform has gained over 400,000 users across 180+ countries who have produced more than 500,000 apps.
Unlike first-generation vibe coding tools focused on mockups and prototypes, Rocket calls itself the first true “vibe solutioning” platform, solving not only Day 1 startup problems but also Day 0 (problem framing and context) and Day 2 (iterating, integrating, deploying).
By generating production-grade apps with backend logic, enterprise-scale architecture, and real integrations, Rocket tackles tech debt and makes AI-native development practical.
Check out Rocket.new →
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DAILY PICKS
🗞️ What else is brewing
The Startup Valuation Guide For Founders. (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
Veridox, a Manchester, UK-based AI-powered forensic document and image manipulation analyser for insurers, raised £1M in funding. The round was led by Outward VC, with participation from Solo Investments Holdings Limited.
Tilt, a Miami, FL-based provider of an AI-powered direct indexing platform, raised $7.1M in Seed funding. The round was led by Portage and Lerer Hippeau, with participation from Golden Ventures, Real Ventures, Cumberland Investments, and FJ Labs.
Avenzo Therapeutics, a San Diego, CA-based clinical-stage biotechnology company developing new oncology therapies, raised $60M in Series B funding. The round was led by OrbiMed and SR One, with participation from new investor Longwood Fund, Foresite Capital, Lilly Asia Ventures, Surveyor Capital, New Enterprise Associates, Deep Track Capital, Sofinnova Investments, Sands Capital, INCE Capital, TF Capital, Delos Capital, and Quan Capital.
Unit221B, a NYC-based company that delivers actionable threat intelligence and cybersecurity solutions, raised $5M in Seed funding. The round was led by J2 Ventures, with participation from Pipeline Capital and other investors.
Mycroft, a Toronto, Canada-based provider of an agentic AI platform that acts as a Security and Compliance Officer, raised USD $3.5M in new funding. The financing round was led by Luge Capital, with participation from Brightspark Ventures and Graphite Ventures, alongside its existing investors, Ripple Ventures, Developer Capital, Antler, BoxOne Ventures, and strategic angels.
Circuit & Chisel, a NYC-based provider of an agentic commerce platform, raised $19.2M in Seed funding. The round was led by Primary Venture Partners and ParaFi Capital with additional participation from Stripe, Coinbase Ventures, Solana Ventures, Samsung Next, and Polygon Labs, Anatoly Yakovenko, Raj Gokal, Edith Cooper, Rich Widmann, Michael Tannenbaum, and Arjun Sethi.
Salt AI, a Los Angeles, CA-based contextual AI company for enterprise applications in life sciences and health tech, raised $10M in funding. The round was led by Morpheus Ventures, with participation from Struck Capital, Marbruck Investments and CoreWeave.
Cardless, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of a credit card platform that lets product-first companies design and launch cards in-house, raised $60M in Series C funding. The round was led by Spark Capital.
AppZen, a San Jose, CA-based provider of an agentic AI platform for finance teams, raised $180M in growth funding. The round was led by Riverwood Capital.
Veezoo, a Zurich, Switzerland-based agentic analytics company, raised $6M in Series A funding. The round was led by ACE Ventures, with participation from Mark Nelson and Ted Kummert.
Titan, a Toronto, Canada-based Solana’s meta-dex aggregator, raised $7M in Seed funding. The round was led by Galaxy Ventures with participation from Frictionless, Mirana, Ergonia, Auros, Susquehanna, and angels investors.
Brineworks, an Amsterdam, the Netherlands-based climate tech startup, raised €6.8M in funding. The round was led by SeaX Ventures, with participation from Pale Blue Dot, First Momentum, AiiM Partners, Energie360°, and Katapult.
Le Walk, NYC-based provider of a location-based, guided experiences app, raised $4.1M in Seed funding. The round was led by Adverb Ventures and Lerer Hippeau, with participation from Origins Fund and Point72 Ventures.
TextYess, a Milan, Italy-based provider of an AI-powered platform that helps eCommerce brands sell directly via WhatsApp, raised €2.4M in Seed funding. The round was led by VC Partners, and Entourage, with participation from Angel Invest Ventures, Filippo Conforti, David Clarke, Gianluca Cocco, Mattia Montepara, Michele Attisani, Federico Sargenti, Luca Rodella, Paolo Fois, Marco Castello, and Gabriele Tagliavia.
AusperBio, a San Francisco, CA-based privately held clinical-stage biotechnology company, raised $63M in Series B2 Funding. The round was led by Qiming Venture Partners with participation from HanKang Capital, CDH Investments, YuanBio Venture Capital, Sherpa Capital, and Genesis Capital.
Extend, a NYC-based provider of a spend and expense management platform, raised $20M in additional capital. The round was led by B Capital, with participation from March Capital, Point72 Ventures, FinTech Collective, and new investor, Commerce Ventures.
Alchemy, a Kitchener, Ontario-based advanced materials and nanotechnology company, raised $6M in funding. Backers included NameSilo Technologies, Pathfinder Asset Management, Pembroke Management, and other investors.
Numeral, a San Francisco, CA-based AI-powered sales tax compliance platform, raised $35M in Series B funding. The round was led by Mayfield, with participation from Benchmark, Uncork Capital, Y Combinator, and Mantis.
TOOL FOR FOUNDERS
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NEW VCs IN THE MARKET
🏦 Venture Capital updates
BNVT Capital, a global venture capital firm, launched its debut $150M fund. The vehicle will invest in AI-first and technology-driven companies solving humanity’s most pressing challenges. Founded by Managing Partners Rory Mounsey-Heysham (ex-Gates Foundation), Chris Corbishley (ex-Hedosophia) and General Partner Nasir Alsharif (Executive Chairman of Sackville Capital, ex-Goldman Sachs and Investcorp) and seeded by Sackville Capital, a global investment firm based in London
KEY STORIES IN TECH
📜 Latest in tech
Meta adds AI assistant and surprise match feature to Facebook Dating
Meta is bringing an AI chatbot to Facebook Dating to help users refine profiles and find more tailored matches, including specific requests like “a Brooklyn girl in tech.”
A new feature called “Meet Cute” will give users a weekly surprise match, aimed at reducing swipe fatigue as Meta tries to boost engagement among younger users.
While Facebook Dating has seen 10% growth among 18–29-year-olds, it still lags far behind rivals like Tinder’s 50M daily users and Hinge’s 10M.
Nvidia to invest up to $100B in OpenAI for next-gen AI infrastructure
Nvidia signed a letter of intent to invest as much as $100B in OpenAI, deploying 10 gigawatts of systems to power future AI models.
The deal reduces OpenAI’s reliance on Microsoft, its biggest backer, and complements existing partnerships with Oracle, SoftBank, and others.
Nvidia will serve as OpenAI’s “preferred strategic compute and networking partner,” though details on whether the investment comes in chips, credits, or cash remain unclear.
Oracle promotes two presidents to co-CEO role:
Oracle elevated Clay Magouyrk, head of cloud infrastructure, and Mike Sicilia, head of industries, to co-CEOs, while longtime CEO Safra Catz moves to executive vice chair.
The leadership change comes as Oracle positions itself as a major AI infrastructure player, joining the $500B Stargate Project and striking massive compute deals with OpenAI and Meta.
Catz said Oracle is at a moment of “breathtaking growth,” making it the right time to pass leadership to the next generation.
Google DeepMind updates its rules to stop harmful AI:
Google's updated Frontier Safety Framework now includes a risk class for “harmful manipulation,” addressing persuasive models that could be misused to systematically change people’s beliefs during high-stakes events.
The safety rules also formally address “misalignment risks,” with protocols for a future where an AI could actively resist human attempts to shut it down or alter its core operations.
The company plans to build an automated system to monitor for illicit reasoning in an agent's chain-of-thought, a method to spot when it might hide its dangerous intentions.
Foldable iPhone might look like two iPhone Airs stuck together:
Apple's foldable iPhone will reportedly have a super thin design, featuring a form that looks like two of the company's titanium iPhone Airs that have been placed directly side-by-side.
To save internal space, the phone will replace Face ID with Touch ID integrated into its side button, and will have a 7.8-inch inner display with a 5.5-inch outer screen.
Currently scheduled for a 2026 release and manufactured by Foxconn in China, the new device is expected to carry a price tag that begins at $2,000, potentially reaching $2,500.
Coinbase aims to become a financial super app:
Coinbase's CEO plans to build a financial “super app” that acts as a bank replacement, handling customer spending, savings, payments, and all investing on one single unified platform.
The company will deliver these services on “crypto rails,” a system Armstrong argues provides faster and cheaper settlement than the 2–3% swipe fees charged by traditional card networks.
Armstrong sees regulatory clarity from Congress as the essential first step, but noted that intense lobbying by big banks against crypto rewards programs on stablecoins remains a significant hurdle.
LAST COFFEE SIP
☕ Other news
Apple brings AI-powered blood pressure notifications to Watch Series 11
Apple Watch Series 11 (and Series 9+) can now notify users of potential high blood pressure, using AI models applied to existing heart sensor data instead of a traditional cuff.
The FDA-approved feature was trained on data from 100,000 study participants and validated with a 2,000-person trial, but it only alerts users — it doesn’t directly measure blood pressure.
Rolling out to 150+ countries, the feature aims to improve early detection of hypertension, though experts caution it should complement, not replace, standard medical checks.
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 - Iconiq Capital | USA - Apply Here
Program Manager - Tenity | UK - Apply Here
Senior Analyst - Iconiq Capital | USA - Apply Here
VP - Marketing & Communications - Transition VC | India - Apply Here
Investment Analyst - Miras Investment | Dubai - Apply Here
Associate - Iconiq Capital | USA - Apply Here
Program Manager - Tenity | UK - Apply Here
Investor Relations Analyst - Griffin Gaming Partner | USA - Apply Here
Associate - OMERSE Venture | USA - Apply Here
Investment Analyst - Caanan | USA - Apply Here
VC Associate UK - Breega | UK - Apply Here
Investment Team - Noba Capital | UK - Apply Here
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