☕ xAI raised $20 billion round & Lego announces its ‘most significant evolution’ in 50 years.
Uber unveils its robotaxi & Meta hits pause on Ray-Ban Display expansion plans
Breaking News
xAI has raised a massive $20 billion Series E round, backed by investors including Valor Equity Partners, Fidelity, Qatar Investment Authority, and strategic partners like Nvidia and Cisco. The company claims around 600 million monthly active users across X and Grok and plans to use the capital to expand data center capacity and advance its AI models. More Here
Intel is entering the handheld gaming market with a full-stack platform that combines custom hardware and software, announced at CES. The company is building a dedicated chip for handheld devices based on its Panther Lake (Core Series 3) processors using its 18A manufacturing process, putting Intel into direct competition with AMD, which currently dominates the handheld gaming segment. More Here
FROM OUR PARTNER - NEUROCARRUS
💊 Investors are backing Neurocarrus to replace addictive painkillers with next-gen biotech -
Neurocarrus is developing a pain treatment that targets only the sensory neurons responsible for pain without affecting motor function, triggering addiction, or causing systemic side effects.
Their lead drug candidate, N-001, uses a patented protein delivery platform (APOLLO) to silence pain at the source, unlocking a massive opportunity in the $79B+ pain therapeutics market.
Here’s why investors are paying attention:
$3.3M+ in non-dilutive funding from NIH, IndieBio, and more
$635B+ total economic cost of pain in the U.S. annually
Two issued U.S. patents, with global filings underway
1% market entry across 3 indications = $8B+ annual revenue potential
With Migraine and Chronic Pain drug candidates in the pipeline that could redefine pain medicine, Neurocarrus is building what many believe could be the future of non-addictive pain relief.
This is your opportunity to back a biotech breakthrough at the ground level.
PARTNERSHIP WITH US
🤝 Get your startup in front of over 103,000+ audience.
Our newsletter is read by 103,000+ of tech professionals, founders, investors (VCs / Angel Investors) and managers around the world. Get in touch today.
STARTUPS RAISING MILLIONS
💰 Startup Funding Updates
PRE-SEED
Moto Finance Inc., a NYC-based financial technology company, raised $1.8m in pre-seed funding. Backers included Cyber Fund and Eterna Capital.
SEED
Tesoro XP, an Austin, TX-based provider of a rewards platform that enables retailers to fund in-game currency for gamers, raised $5.4m in seed funding. The round was co-led by Treasury, and MediaTech Ventures.
Coinbax, a NYC-based programmable trust layer for stablecoin payments, raised $4.2m in seed funding. The round was led by BankTech Ventures, with participation from Connecticut Innovations, Paxos, SpringTime Ventures.
Dazzle AI, a Palo Alto, CA-based new company on a mission to close the gap between what people want and what they can do with AI, raised $8m in seed funding at a $35m post-money valuation. The round was led by Kirsten Green of Forerunner with participation from Kleiner Perkins, Greycroft, Offline Ventures, Slow Ventures, and Bling Capital.
Lemon Slice, a San Francisco, CA-based builder of foundational technology that transforms a single photo into interactive, conversational video, raised $10.5m in seed funding. Backers included Matrix Partners, Y Combinator, Arash Ferdowsi (CTO Dropbox), Emmett Shear (CEO Twitch), and EDM-pop duo, The Chainsmokers.
GROWTH
LMArena, a Berkeley-based AI benchmarking startup, runs a crowdsourced platform where users compare outputs from models like GPT and Claude. It raised $150M in a Series A round led by Felicis and UC Investments, hitting a $1.7B valuation just four months after launch.
Array Labs, a Palo Alto, CA-based developer of space-based radar systems, raised $20M in Series A financing. The round, which brought Array’s total funding to $35M since going through Y Combinator, was led by Catapult Ventures, with participation from Washington Harbour Partners, Kompas VC, and other new and existing investors Y Combinator, Maiora Capital, Animal Capital, Aera VC, Cultivation Capital, and Clearance Ventures.
HabitTrade, a Sydney, Australia-based global brokerage firm providing services across trading, settlement, custody, and asset issuance, completed a Series A funding round of nearly $10m. The round was led by Newborn Town Inc., with participation from Bright Venture Capital, StableStock, and other investors.
GS Microelectronics U.S., Inc. (GSME), a San Jose, CA-based semiconductor solution provider, raised $35m in Series B funding. The round was led by Maverick Silicon.
Qualinx, a Delft, The Netherlands-based semiconductor company advancing ultra-low-power connectivity at the connected edge, raised €20m in funding. The round, which brought Qualinx’s total funding to date to €40m, was led by Invest-NL, with participation from existing investors FORWARD.one, InnovationQuarter Capital and Waterman Ventures.
Photonic Inc., a Vancouver, Canada-based distributed quantum computing company, raised $180M CAD ($130M USD) in the first close of its latest funding round. The round, which brought the total raised by the company to $375M CAD ($271M USD), was led by Planet First Partners, with participation from new investors Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), TELUS, and existing investors – including BCI and Microsoft.
Lyte, a Mountain View, CA-based integrated perception company for robotics and Physical AI, emerged from stealth with $107m in funding. Backers included Avigdor Willenz’s group, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Atreides Management, Exor Ventures, Key1 Capital, and Venture Tech Alliance.
INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITY WORTH EXPLORING
🚗 SchoolRyde is solving the $50B kids’ rideshare gap and investors are paying attention
SchoolRyde is a ride platform purpose-built for children. It solves the daily pain point faced by millions of working parents: getting their kids to school and after-school activities safely and reliably.
By partnering with licensed taxi fleets and powering everything through its SaaS platform, SchoolRyde combines the safety of school buses with the flexibility of rideshare, all at a price families can afford.
Here’s why investors are excited:
Already live in Minneapolis with 250 drivers on the platform; next launch: Phoenix
Massive $50B+ market: $28B from school districts + $22B from private spend
Finalist out of 1,500 companies at GAMIC 2024 and PitchSF 2024
Backed by experienced founders from DocuSign, Turo, and Outschool, SchoolRyde is building the next major transportation network, starting with our kids.
There’s a massive market. There’s traction. And there’s still time to get in early.
NEW VCs IN THE MARKET
🏦 Venture Capital Updates
AppWorks, a Taipei-based startup accelerator, has closed Fund IV at $165 million, less than half its original $360 million target. The fund focuses on AI and Web3 startups across Asia and is backed by Taiwan’s National Development Fund, Malaysia’s Jelawang Capital, and Korea Venture Investment Corporation.
KEY STORIES IN TECH
📜 Latest In Tech
Lego announces its ‘most significant evolution’ in 50 years
Lego is introducing a platform called Smart Play at CES 2026, centering on a standard-sized Smart Brick that uses modern technology to react to how you build and move the models.
A 4.1mm ASIC chip runs the Play Engine to detect magnetic fields, while copper coils and a proprietary Neighbor Position Measurement system allow the hardware to sense distance and direction.
Digital IDs in Smart Tags provide context like vehicle type, and a local wireless layer called BrickNet lets everything communicate via Bluetooth without needing apps or an internet connection.
Meta hits pause on Ray-Ban Display expansion plans
Meta has officially paused the release of its Ray-Ban Display smart glasses in France, Italy, Canada, and the UK to manage inventory shortages and overwhelming demand from current buyers.
The company says it must prioritize fulfilling orders in the US market first because product waitlists now extend well into 2026 due to much stronger interest than they had expected.
There is currently no new target date for the international rollout, so potential customers in those specific regions will have to wait indefinitely to buy a pair for themselves.
Musk's X faces probes in EU, India, Malaysia
Authorities in the EU, India, and Malaysia have launched investigations into Elon Musk’s X after users began using the platform’s chatbot to generate and distribute sexualized content depicting real children and women.
European Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier described the output as illegal and appalling, while India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology ordered the company to conduct a comprehensive review of the tool by January 5.
The probes follow an update to Grok Imagine features that caused a surge in nonconsensual, intimate images, or NCII, leading British media watchdog Ofcom to request information concerning these specific safety issues.
Amazon AI leader joins Google Cloud; Meta taps new chief legal officer from Microsoft
Karthik Ramakrishnan, a longtime AI leader at Amazon, has joined Google Cloud as a VP in its Data Cloud organization. He previously helped launch Alexa and develop Amazon’s Nova foundation models, and his move comes amid leadership changes inside Amazon’s AI unit.
The shift follows Amazon CEO Andy Jassy naming Peter DeSantis to lead a new organization combining Nova models, AI research, custom silicon, and quantum computing as Amazon looks to catch up with AI rivals like OpenAI and Google.
C.J. Mahoney has joined Meta as its new chief legal officer after five years at Microsoft. He replaces Jennifer Newstead, who left to become general counsel at Apple, while Microsoft earlier promoted Jonathan Palmer to its top legal role.
LAST COFFEE SIP
☕ Other News
Uber unveils its robotaxi
Uber just revealed the production intent design of its first robotaxi, a modified Lucid Gravity electric vehicle running Nuro Driver tech that will deploy on the Uber platform in San Francisco.
The six-passenger model features a roof-mounted halo with LEDs for visibility and relies on high-res cameras, lidar sensors, and radar to navigate streets while displaying helpful info to its users.
Passengers can use an interior interactive screen to adjust climate controls or music while watching the car’s real-time planned path and driving decisions before the official launch in late 2026.
DAILY PICKS
🗞️ What Else Is Brewing
How to do user research without users: the synthetic user guide. (Link)
How to actually name your startup: A simple framework. (Link)
What 1,000 ChatGPT enterprise customers tell us about enterprise AI adoption in 2025. (Link)
How to write a fundraising email: First email, follow-ups approved by leading VCs? (Link)
How to get warm intros to VCs without a network. (Link)
US VC female founders dashboard. (Link)
Investor data room superpack: everything you need to build a VC-ready data room (guide/templates) (Link)
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)
Investment Fellowship - H7 Bio Capital | Remote - Apply Here
Analyst - BDC Capital | Canada - Apply Here
Program Manager - gener8tor | USA - Apply Here
Associate - Health Velocity Capital | USA - Apply Here
Associate - Mana Venture | USA - Apply Here
Summer Fellowship 2026 - Coastanova Venture | USA - Apply Here
WHEN YOU’RE READY, HERE’S HOW I CAN HELP:
💁 You might need our help!
Reach 103,000+ 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.