☕ Reddit sues Anthropic over AI training data misuse & Mistral launches coding assistant platform.
Apple’s A20 chip to introduce new packaging breakthrough & Inside Meta’s new Aria Gen 2 smart glasses.
The extinct colossal penguin was as tall as LeBron James. These prehistoric penguins stood a whopping 6’8”. Imagine one of these waddling up towards you —they’d look more ready for the NBA than the ice.
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📬 What’s in store:
Today’s Picks: MVP test, ICP guide, big problems, funding template, PE drop, fractional execs, 100T tokens, Cursor’s rise, seed tips, legal docs.
A16z continues to grow its scout network in Europe after closing London office.
Reddit sues Anthropic over AI training data misuse.
Hugging Face unveils SmolVLA, a robotics model that runs on a MacBook.
Mistral launches Mistral Code to compete in AI-assisted coding.
iOS 26 to bring new features for Messages, CarPlay, and more.
Apple’s A20 chip to introduce new packaging breakthrough.
Inside Meta’s new Aria Gen 2 smart glasses for AR and AI research.
ChatGPT now connects to Google Drive, Dropbox, and takes meeting notes.
VC & Startup Jobs: VC & investors backed startup hiring for remote roles.
⏱️ Read Time: 3 minutes
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Excel Template: Early Stage Startup Financial Model For Fundraising.
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The definitive guide to SaaS pricing structure (with Benchmarks)
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Klass’s advice on waitlists
Startup legal document pack – essential legal docs for founders.
Naval Ravikant: "Inspiration is perishable — act while the spark is fresh.”
SaaS Startup Financial Model: All-in-One Excel Template.
All-In-One term sheet guide for startup founders.
1000+ Euro Tech VC Firms Database.
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STARTUPS RAISING MILLIONS
💰 Startup funding updates
Delpha, a Paris, France-based company developing an autonomous AI agent dedicated to commercial data quality, raised $2M in Seed funding. The round was led by 50 Partners which was joined by angels — former execs from IBM, Microsoft, Salesforce, and founders of leading tech companies
Amperos Health, a NYC-based company providing Amanda, an AI biller specifically created for healthcare providers, raised $4.2M in Seed funding. The round was led by Uncork Capital, Neo, and Nebular, alongside strategic angel investors from OpenAI, Twilio, and Stripe, bringing its total funding to $5 million to date.
Manex AI, a Munich, Germany-based provider of an AI-driven software platform for industrial quality management and process steering, raised $8M in Seed funding. The round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and BlueYard Capital, with participation from Capmont Technology and the CDTM Venture Fund.
Portless, a Shenzhen, China-based innovator in global e-commerce fulfillment, raised $18m in funding. The round was led by Commerce Ventures, with participation from eGateway Capital, Ground Up Ventures, and FJ Labs.
Simetrik, a NYC-based provider of an AI reconciliation platform that enables enterprises to automate complex reconciliation processes, standardize financial data, and ensure compliance across millions of transactions, raised additional $30M in funding. The round was led by Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives (“Goldman Sachs”).
Speedata, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based company developing a dedicated accelerated processor for big data analytics, raised $44M in Series B funding. Backers included Walden Catalyst Ventures, 83North, Koch Disruptive Technologies, Pitango First, and Viola Ventures, as well as strategic investors including Lip-Bu Tan, CEO of Intel and Managing Partner at Walden Catalyst Ventures, and Eyal Waldman, Co-Founder and former CEO of Mellanox Technologies.
Reserv, a NYC-based tech-enabled third-party administrator (TPA) company, raised $25M in Series B funding. The round, which brought total funding to $55m, was led by Flourish Ventures with participation from BCV, Altai Ventures, and Accenture Ventures.
Twindo, an Amsterdam, The Netherlands-based renewable energy software company, closed €1m funding round. The round was led by Volve Capital, with participation from Rockstart Energy Fund, INH, and angel investors Samuel Jaudel and Mathias Svendsen.
Vivrelle, NYC-based luxury accessories membership club, raised $62M in Series C funding. The round was led by Protagonist.
Obvio, a San Carlos, CA-based company importing traffic safety with an AI-powered traffic camera solution, raised $22M in Series A funding. The round was led by Bain Capital Ventures with participation from Khosla Ventures and Pathlight Ventures.
Canid, a NYC-based healthcare technology company, raised $10M in Series A funding. The round was led by Telescope Partners with participation from FJ Labs, Brooklyn Bridge Ventures, SeedtoB and others.
Clara Home Care, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of an AI-powered platform that delivers in-home care for families, raised $3.1M in Seed funding. The round was led by Torch Capital, Virtue and Y Combinator, with participation from angel investors.
Leyden Labs, a Leiden, the Netherlands-based clinical-stage biotechnology company, received $20M in financing. The round was led by the European Investment Bank (EIB).
Sema4.ai, an Atlanta, GA-based enterprise AI agent company, raised $25m in Series A extension round, bringing its total Series A funding to $55.5m. Backers included Snowflake Ventures, Rocketship VC, MVP Ventures and COX Enterprises, alongside returning investors Mayfield and Benchmark.
FOUNDER’S DAILY TOOL
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Revenue, expense, and headcount projections
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3–5 year forecasting logic built for fundraising decks
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NEW VCs IN THE MARKET
🏦 Venture Capital updates
Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) is expanding its European presence by adding nine new venture scouts in 2025, despite shutting down its London office earlier this year. The firm now has over 20 scouts across the UK, France, Germany, and Sweden, focused on sourcing early-stage deals. Scouts write $10K–$25K checks, with a16z topping up promising bets. Recent a16z-backed European startups include JotMe, Nunu.ai, and Dex Talent.
KEY STORIES IN TECH
📜 Latest in tech
Reddit sues Anthropic over AI training data misuse:
Reddit has filed a lawsuit against Anthropic, alleging the AI company used Reddit’s data for commercial AI training without a license and violated its user agreement.
While Reddit has signed paid data deals with OpenAI and Google, it claims Anthropic ignored requests and scraped content over 100,000 times, bypassing robots.txt rules.
Reddit seeks damages and an injunction to stop further use of its content, joining a growing list of creators and publishers suing AI firms over unlicensed training data.
Hugging Face unveils SmolVLA, a robotics model that runs on a MacBook:
Hugging Face released SmolVLA, a compact vision-language-action model for robotics that can run on a MacBook or consumer GPU, trained on community-sourced LeRobot datasets.
Despite its 450M parameter size, SmolVLA outperforms larger models in real-world and virtual robotics tasks, thanks to an asynchronous inference stack for faster responses.
The release is part of Hugging Face’s broader push into low-cost robotics, including its acquisition of Pollen Robotics and launch of accessible humanoid systems.
Mistral launches Mistral Code to compete in AI-assisted coding:
French AI startup Mistral introduced Mistral Code, a “vibe coding” assistant that bundles its in-house models with enterprise-ready tools and IDE integrations, launching in private beta for VS Code and JetBrains.
The platform includes models like Codestral for autocomplete, Devstral for agentic tasks, and supports over 80 programming languages, offering cloud, reserved, and on-prem deployment options.
Companies like Capgemini and SNCF are already using Mistral Code, which includes admin features for usage analytics and plans to contribute improvements back to its open source base, Continue.
iOS 26 to bring new features for Messages, CarPlay, and more:
Messages in iOS 26 is set to gain support for polls, with Apple testing Apple Intelligence integration to automatically suggest poll structures from conversation context.
CarPlay will reportedly get a UI overhaul to match the new iOS 26 design language, ensuring a consistent look across Apple's updated operating systems.
The Lock Screen's Now Playing view in iOS 26 may feature animated album art from Apple Music, extending the lively visuals full screen.
Apple’s A20 chip to introduce new packaging breakthrough:
Apple’s A20 chip, set to debut in the iPhone 18 Pro, Pro Max, and Fold, will introduce a major packaging innovation called Wafer-Level Multi-Chip Module (WMCM), marking a significant shift in how smartphone chips are built.
WMCM integrates the processor and memory more closely at the wafer level, reducing power consumption and boosting speed—especially for AI and gaming.
This marks a shift toward advanced chip techniques in smartphones, with Apple leading the way and TSMC preparing dedicated production for the technology.
Inside Meta’s new Aria Gen 2 smart glasses for AR and AI research:
Meta’s Aria Gen 2 smart glasses feature enhanced eye-tracking, 3D hand/object tracking, heart rate sensing, and ambient light detection, all aimed at advancing AR and AI interaction research.
The glasses weigh around 75 grams, include folding arms, and are designed exclusively for researchers to explore next-gen human-computer interfaces.
Meta plans to open research applications later this year, positioning Aria Gen 2 as a stepping stone toward future consumer AR products like Orion and Hypernova.
LAST COFFEE SIP
☕Other news
ChatGPT now connects to Google Drive, Dropbox, and takes meeting notes:
OpenAI has added Google Drive, Dropbox, Box, SharePoint, and OneDrive integration for ChatGPT Team, Enterprise, and Edu users, allowing users to ask questions about their documents and receive structured responses with citations.
A new “record mode” for ChatGPT Team users can transcribe meetings or brainstorming sessions into timestamped notes and action items.
OpenAI says it now has 3 million paying business users and is expanding enterprise features to stay competitive in the $1T+ generative AI market.
HIRING ALERT: STARTUPS & VC ROLES
💼 Today’s VC & startup job opportunities
Writer - First Round Capital | USA - Apply Here
Partner 32 - a16z | USA - Apply Here
Senior Operations Manager - Unusual Venture | USA - Apply Here
Associate - Omerse Venture | USA - Apply Here
Investor Relationship Associate - Bauken Capital | USA - Apply Here
Venture Capital Managing Director - Connecticut Innovation | USA - Apply Here
Investment Trainee - Hashkey Capital | USA - Apply Here
Full-Time Investment Intern - Inflexor Venture | India - Apply Here
Visiting Analyst VC - Identity Venture | Germany | UK - Apply Here
General Partner - Inviox Capital Partner | UK - Apply Here
Investor (AI) - Samsung Next | USA - Apply Here
Senior Analyst - Chiratae Venture | India - Apply Here
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)
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