☕ Sequoia Capital raised $10 billion for it's new fund & China forces Meta to unwind its $2B Manus acquisition.
AI coding startup Cognition seeks $40B valuation & TSMC and Sony to invest $4.7B in image sensor joint venture.
Breaking News
AI coding startup Cognition is reportedly raising new funding at a valuation of $40 billion or more, just three months after raising $1 billion at a $26 billion valuation. The company is approaching $1 billion in annualized revenue, driven by enterprise adoption of its Devin coding agent among customers including NASA, Goldman Sachs, and Mercedes-Benz.
Chinese regulators have ordered Meta to unwind its $2 billion acquisition of AI agent startup Manus, forcing the company to return to operating independently. The intervention comes amid tighter Chinese scrutiny of cross-border technology deals and shows how the U.S.-China AI rivalry is increasingly affecting global startup acquisitions.
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STARTUPS RAISING MILLIONS
💰 Startup Funding Updates
PRE-SEED
Palette, a Copenhagen, Denmark-based provider of an operating system platform, raised €3M in Pre-Seed funding. The round was led by Ugly Duckling Ventures, with participation from Emblem, Acadian Ventures, and others.
SEED
Diald, a Los Angeles, CA-based provider of an AI-powered real estate due diligence and valuation platform, raised $1M in funding. The round was led by Feedback Ventures.
GROWTH
Lovable, a Stockholm, Sweden-based AI vibe-coding platform, raised $400 million in Series C funding at a $13.3 billion valuation. The round was led by Menlo Ventures and the Scaleup Europe Fund, with participation from more than a dozen other investors.
Heaviside Industries, a Los Angeles, CA-based provider of multi-domain precision munitions platforms, raised $60M in Series B funding. The round was led by Felicis, with participation from Hedosophia, Menlo Ventures, Cantos, Flume Ventures, Qstar Capital, Friends and Family Capital, Anorak Ventures, MVP Ventures, and others.
Form Energy, a Weirton, WV-based provider of multi-day energy storage systems, raised $750M in Series G financing. The round was led by T. Rowe Price, with participation from Sequoia Capital, Janus Henderson, Franklin Templeton, PEAK6 Investments, Prelude Ventures, Engine Ventures, TPG Rise Climate, Capricorn’s Technology Impact Funds, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Dustin Moskovitz and Cari Tuna, Gigascale Capital, Coatue, Energy Impact Partners, NGP, GE Vernova, Blindspot Ventures, and M&G Catalyst Fund.
MarginEdge, an Arlington, VA-based restaurant management and financial software platform, raised $80M in Series D and debt funding. The round was co-led by Schooner Capital and Ten Coves Capital, with participation from Derive Ventures, Osage Venture Partners, and Western Alliance Bank.
Gravity, a San Francisco, CA-based developer of an automated agent-to-agent advertising platform, raised $30.5M in Series A funding. The round was co-led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Committed Capital, with participation from Basis Set Ventures, Caffeinated Capital, GGF, Haystack, and Logos Fund.
ClearJet, an Austin, TX-based provider of parcel logistics infrastructure and orchestration, raised $25M in funding. The round was led by Edison Partners, with participation from Venture53, Origin Ventures, Salt VC, and SpringTime Ventures.
CodeRabbit, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of an AI-powered code review and agentic change management platform, raised $143M in Series C funding at a $1.5B valuation. The round was co-led by Atomico and Smash Capital, with participation from BMW i Ventures, Datadog, Hirtle Callaghan, SineWave Ventures, Scenic Management, CRV, Scale Venture Partners, Flex Capital, Pelion Venture Partners, Harmony Partners, and Engineering Capital.
Mindgard, a Boston, MA- and London, UK-based provider of an AI security platform, raised $30M in Series A funding. The round was led by Album VC, with participation from Karma Ventures, .406 Ventures, Atlantic Bridge, IQ Capital, and Lakestar.
Amplifica Holdings Group, a San Diego, CA-based provider of clinical-stage biopharmaceutical therapies for hair growth, raised $26M in Series B financing. The round was led by Tasso Partners, with participation from Eli Lilly and Company, principals of Scopia Capital Management, and other new and existing investors.
Remepy, a New York City-based provider of hybrid drugs combining prescription medicines with personalized AI-driven therapeutic apps, raised $36M in Series A funding. The round was led by O.G. Venture Partners and M Ventures, with participation from NFX, Vine Ventures, Qumra Capital, TechAviv, 97212 Ventures, Fresh Fund, PsyMed Ventures, Tadmor Group, Key1 Capital, and IT-Farm Corp.
Skan AI, a San Jose, CA-based provider of an enterprise AI context graph platform, raised $63M in Series C funding. The round was co-led by Cathay Innovation and Dell Technologies Capital, with participation from Citi Ventures, Bloomberg Beta, State Farm Ventures, and Wipro Ventures.
Blacksmith, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of a cloud platform for validating code, raised $45M in Series B funding at a $550M valuation. The round was led by Peak XV Partners, with participation from existing investors Y Combinator and GV.
Bridge to Life, a Northbrook, IL-based provider of organ preservation solutions and perfusion technologies, raised $110M in Series C and debt financing. The round was led by Soleus Capital, with participation from Lauxera Capital Partners and Bridge to Life directors, officers, and employees, alongside debt financing from Soleus Capital Credit Opportunities Fund.
Beyang Therapeutics, a Shanghai, China-based AI-driven drug discovery company, raised nearly $30M in Series A funding. The round was co-led by Legend Capital and Shanghai Healthcare Capital, with participation from China Medical System Holdings, Fenglei Capital, Shanghai Sci-Tech Innovation Center Capital, Harbor & Canton Capital, Root Venture Partners, and YuanBio Venture Capital.
Entravel Group, a Copenhagen, Denmark-based white-label travel technology provider, secured $7.5M in funding. The round was co-led by Ethereal Ventures and Finality Capital, with participation from GSR, Varrock, G1 Ventures, Seier Capital, Veris Ventures, Funfair Ventures, and WTG Ventures.
Cytix, a Manchester, UK-based provider of a change risk platform, raised $7M in Series A financing. The round was led by Northern Gritstone, with participation from Auriga Cyber Ventures and NPIF II – PXN Equity Finance.
Silicon Data, a New York City-based provider of a market intelligence platform for the AI compute economy, raised $30.5M in the initial closing of its Series A funding. The round was led by Valor Atreides AI Fund, with participation from CME Group, DRW, F-Prime, Samsung, VanEck, Further, Jump, Tectonic, Wintermute, Breed, Hack, Blank VC, Sancus Ventures, and SoGal Ventures.
Infinimmune, an Alameda, CA-based biotechnology company developing antibody therapeutics derived directly from the human immune system, raised $75M in Series A funding. The round was co-led by Regeneron Ventures and Playground Global, with participation from RA Capital Management, Goldcrest Capital, Forge Life Science Partners, Godfrey Capital, Wild Tree Ventures, Merck Global Health Innovation Fund, Everbright Biofund, Civilization Ventures, and Pear VC.
STRGY AI Oy, a Helsinki, Finland-based provider of an AI-powered strategy execution platform, raised €1M in angel funding. Backers included private investors across the UK, Norway, Switzerland, and Finland, alongside Innovestor’s Angel CoFund and non-dilutive support from Business Finland.
DAILY PICKS
🗞️ Must read post
Before VCs invest, they’ll call your customers. But what do they really ask?: Before writing a check, serious investors often call your customers to understand usage, renewal intent, defensibility, buying process, and whether your revenue is truly repeatable. This piece shows founders how to manage that process without burning customer trust - from gating intros to choosing the right references and framing the raise as a decision they are making.
How is your seed valuation actually decided? (It has almost nothing to do with your company): Most founders think valuation is decided by traction, market size, or the pitch. This piece shows why the real ceiling often comes from a VC’s fund size, check size, and ownership target. It gives founders a simple way to understand which funds can actually lead their round, how to avoid wasting time with structurally wrong investors, and why the option pool can quietly cost more than the pre-money they’re negotiating.
NEW VCs IN THE MARKET
🏦 Venture Capital Updates.
Sequoia Capital, a Menlo Park, in California-based venture capital firm, reportedly raised $10 billion for new growth equity funds. Led by Alfred Lin and Pat Grady, the firm is deploying a strategy that operates on a dual track that merges advanced software with heavy hardware. Sequoia will keep on consolidating its dominance in generative AI models, and investing in the “reindustrialization” of the American economy.
Team8, a Tel Aviv, Israel- and NYC-based global venture firm, raised $365m in new capital for two vehicles. The raise includes: $265m for its third fund, which will back Seed and Series A founders building AI-native companies across cybersecurity, software infrastructure, fintech and digital health, and more than $100m for follow-on investments in its highest-conviction portfolio companies.
K2 Global, a Singapore and US based venture capital firm, raised $200m in capital commitments. K2 Global’s investor and partner base includes entrepreneurs, family offices, foundations, institutional investors, sovereign wealth funds, banks, and strategic operators across the United States, Asia, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East.
KEY STORIES IN TECH
📜 Latest In Tech
Claude’s new AI watermarks spark backlash from users
Anthropic has begun watermarking Claude-generated text with invisible markers to comply with the EU AI Act’s transparency requirements, making AI-generated or edited content identifiable by computer systems.
Some Claude users worry the system could expose their AI use at work or school, while critics also question whether AI companies should watermark outputs when their models were trained on large amounts of existing human-created content.
Much of the online reaction, however, supports watermarking as a transparency measure, arguing that it helps distinguish AI-generated material and discourages people from presenting copied AI output as entirely their own work.
Google reveals 2026 hardware lineup
Google unveiled the Pixel 11, Pixel 11 Pro, Pro XL and Pro Fold, with upgrades to cameras, durability and storage. The Pixel 11 starts at $899, while the Pro starts at $1,099.
New Gemini features include ASL translation through Live Transcribe, Rambler for understanding natural speech, and deeper Circle to Search integration inside the Pixel Camera.
Google also launched the $29 Pixel Tag to compete with Apple’s AirTag and introduced the Pixel Watch 5, starting at $399, with new health-tracking features.
SpaceXAI launches Grok Bot
SpaceXAI, the SpaceX division once called xAI, has launched an early beta of Grok Bot, agents that sign into a user’s apps and websites to finish real work rather than just answering prompts.
Each Bot runs on its own computer around the clock, learns routines by watching users demonstrate tasks, remembers preferences, and can hand jobs to other Bots, including a “Chief of Staff” Bot that directs specialist ones.
Available today for macOS, Windows, Linux and iOS, Grok Bot costs $200 a month for individuals through Cursor Ultra and $120 per seat monthly for teams, with organizations otherwise pointed to a waitlist.
China forces Meta to unwind Manus deal
Manus said it will soon go back to running as an independent company after Chinese regulators ordered Meta to unwind its $2 billion purchase of the AI agent startup, ending a deal announced in December.
China’s National Development and Reform Commission issued the order in April, investigating whether the acquisition broke rules on foreign investment amid tighter export controls on cross-border tech deals during the US-China AI race.
As part of the split, Manus told some users they must back up any data they created on or after December 29, 2025, the date Meta first announced the takeover, to meet regional regulatory demands.
Google reshuffles AI leadership as it races to regain the lead
Alphabet is restructuring Google DeepMind and moving some teams into corporate Google as it pushes to accelerate Gemini development after falling behind Anthropic and OpenAI in areas such as coding.
Demis Hassabis has shifted to chairman and chief scientist, while Koray Kavukcuoglu now leads DeepMind and has final say on major decisions, further aligning the AI lab with Google’s commercial priorities.
Google co-founder Sergey Brin has also become more involved, urging AI teams to move faster and directing resources toward areas like recursive self-improvement, where AI systems could improve with less human intervention.
TSMC and Sony to invest $4.7B in image sensor joint venture
TSMC and Sony will form a $4.69 billion joint venture in Kumamoto, Japan, to develop and manufacture next-generation image sensors, with mass production expected in 2029.
Sony will be the controlling shareholder and invest about $2.92 billion, while TSMC will contribute roughly $1.77 billion and provide its advanced chip manufacturing technology.
The venture will focus primarily on image sensors for smartphones, combining Sony’s sensor design expertise with TSMC’s advanced semiconductor manufacturing capabilities.
Claude Cowork comes to Chrome’s sidebar
Anthropic has integrated Claude Cowork into its Chrome extension, letting users run tasks directly from the browser sidebar while keeping conversations synced with their Claude history.
Users can start tasks in a Claude app and continue them in Chrome, with existing skills and connectors automatically available inside the browser experience.
The feature is available now for Max and Team subscribers, with Pro users getting access in the coming weeks.
LAST COFFEE SIP
☕ Other News
Zoom bug let callers hijack your device
Researchers found flaws in Zoom that let attackers silently take over a target’s device during any screen-sharing call, hitting either the host or participants with no warning and no action needed from the victim.
The bugs affected Zoom on every operating system it supports, Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android, and the company put out a security advisory Tuesday with fixes it has already started rolling out.
A Security says it found the flaws in early June using freely available AI models, needing fewer than 20 prompts, work that its cofounder Omer Gull said would once have taken a five-person team roughly six months.
HIRING ALERT: STARTUPS & VC ROLES
💼 Today’s VC & Startup Job Opportunities
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