☕ Zuckerberg building a personal AI agent to help run Meta & John Ternus emerges as likely next Apple CEO.
OpenAI’s early advertising push is facing trouble & More.
Breaking News
Mark Zuckerberg is reportedly building a personal AI agent to help run Meta, acting like an “AI chief of staff” to bypass internal layers and speed up decision-making. The move reflects how even Big Tech CEOs are turning to AI to manage complexity — while Meta simultaneously considers layoffs impacting up to 20% of its workforce.
OpenAI’s early advertising push is facing trouble, with partners like WPP and Omnicom seeing click-through rates nearly 7x lower than Google Search. Combined with broken analytics tools and low budget spend, the results raise serious questions about whether ads inside ChatGPT can become a meaningful revenue stream.
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STARTUPS RAISING MILLIONS
💰 Startup Funding Updates
PRE-SEED
Mayson, a Noida, India-based AI startup specializing in application development, raised an undisclosed amount in Pre-Seed funding. Backers were not disclosed.
Reson8, an Amsterdam, The Netherlands-based developer of an automatic speech recognition (ASR) platform, raised €5M in Pre-Seed funding. The round was led by Balderton Capital, with participation from NP Hard.
Cleavr, a Paris, France-based developer of an AI-powered accounts receivable automation platform, raised €1M in Pre-Seed funding. The round was led by Kima Ventures, Better Angle, Another VC, Aonia Ventures, and Super Capital, with participation from angels Raphaël Nahum, Régis Samuel, and Olivier Brourhant.
SEED
Egide, a Ris-Orangis, France-based defence technology startup, raised €8M in Seed funding. The round was co-led by Expeditions, Eurazeo, and Heartcore Capital, with participation from Galion.exe and Kima Ventures.
CisLunar Industries, a Loveland, CO-based space power systems company, raised $2.6M in Seed funding. The round was led by Colorado ONE Fund, with participation from Stout Street Capital, RIT Venture Fund, Deming Center Venture Fund, and strategic angels.
Hamilton AI, a NYC-based AI workflow platform for private aviation, raised $7.5M in Seed funding. The round was led by TTV Capital, with participation from Bling Capital, Cambrian Ventures, FJ Labs, Weekend Fund, Mintaka Ventures, Correlation VC, and HF0.
Flourish Care, a Boston, MA-based maternal healthcare platform, raised $5.7M in Seed funding. The round was led by Zeal Capital Partners, with participation from Create Health Ventures, Collide Capital, Rogue Women’s Fund, Symphonic Capital, Slater Technology Fund, Catalytic Impact Foundation, Capita3, and others.
Interloom Technologies, a Munich, Germany-based AI operations platform, raised $16.5M in Seed funding. The round was led by DN Capital, with participation from Bek Ventures and Air Street Capital.
Laigo Bio, a Utrecht, The Netherlands-based biotech company, raised €17M in Seed funding. The round was co-led by Biovance Capital and Kurma Partners, with participation from Curie Capital, Argobio Studio, Angelini Ventures, Eurazeo, Oncode Bridge Fund, ROM Utrecht Region, and others.
Hosted.ai, a San Jose, CA-based GPU infrastructure platform, raised $19M in Seed funding. The round was led by Creandum, with participation from People Ventures and Repeat VC.
GROWTH
Bioliberty, an Edinburgh, UK- and Boston, MA-based medtech company, raised $10.2M in funding. The round included a Series A led by Scottish National Investment Bank, with participation from Archangels, Eos Advisory, Old College Capital, Hanna Capital SEZC, and Conduit Connect.
Jaaq, a London, UK-based digital health platform, raised £13M in funding. Backers included Meridian Health Ventures, Fuel Ventures, Bolt Angels, and Guinness Ventures.
BlueFlag Security, a San Francisco, CA-based security platform, raised $16.5M in Series A funding. The round was led by Maverick Ventures and Ten Eleven Ventures.
Spark Microsystems, a Montreal, Canada-based semiconductor company, raised CAD$17M in Series B funding. The round was led by Idealist Capital and Real Ventures, with participation from Cycle Capital, ND Capital, and EDC.
Robotera, a Beijing, China-based robotics company, raised approx. $145M in funding at a $1.4B+ valuation. Backers included Gaocheng Capital, Singtel Innov8, Woori Venture Partners, CICC Porsche Fund, China Fortune-Tech Capital, and others.
Oryon Cell Therapies, a Belmont, MA-based biotech company, raised $21M in Series A funding. Investors included Neuro.VC and Byers Capital.
Grub Lab, a Kurri Kurri, Australia-based AR-powered kids’ experience platform, raised $6M in funding. The round was led by Quantaco.
Congruence Therapeutics, a Montreal, Canada-based biotech company, raised $39.5M in funding. The round was led by Dimension and OrbiMed, with participation from Amplitude Ventures, FSTQ, Lumira, Investissement Quebec, BDC Capital, Driehaus, and Silver Arc.
eternal.ag, a Cologne, Germany-based agricultural robotics startup, raised €8M in funding. Backers included Simon Capital, Oyster Bay Venture Capital, EquityPitcher Ventures, and Backbone Ventures.
Posh, a NYC-based event management platform, raised $37M in Series B funding. The round was led by FirstMark, with participation from Causeway Ventures, Goodwater Capital, Companyon Ventures, and Epic Ventures.
GlobalComix, a NYC-based digital comics platform, raised $13M in funding. The round was co-led by SBI US Gateway Fund and Point72 Ventures.
Arc, a Los Angeles, CA-based electric boats company, raised $50M in Series C funding. Backers included Eclipse, Andreessen Horowitz, Menlo Ventures, Lowercarbon Capital, Necessary Ventures, and Offline Ventures.
UpSurgeOn, a Milan, Italy-based surgical simulation platform, raised €5M in funding. The round was led by CDP Venture Capital, with participation from SIMEST, Deep Blue Ventures, Azimut Libera Impresa SGR, and FBH S.p.A..
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NEW VCs IN THE MARKET
🏦 Venture Capital Updates.
5(c) Capital, a U.S.-based VC firm focused on prediction markets, is raising a $35M debut fund to back infrastructure startups in the category. The fund is led by former Kalshi operators Adhi Rajaprabhakaran and Noah Zingler-Sternig, and backed by investors including Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour, Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan, Marc Andreessen, and Ribbit Capital’s Micky Malka.
Air Street Capital, a London-based solo GP firm led by Nathan Benaich, has raised a $232M Fund III to back early-stage AI startups across Europe and North America. The fund will invest $500K–$15M initially, with select growth checks up to $25M, and brings the firm’s total AUM to around $400M. Air Street has previously backed companies like ElevenLabs and Black Forest Labs, with exits including Adept (Amazon) and Graphcore (SoftBank).
Founders Fund, a San Francisco, CA-based venture capital firm, is closing a $6 billion fourth growth fund. About $1.5 billion of the total amount is reportedly coming from the the firm’s partners. The fund, called, Founders Fund Growth IV will continue to invest in AI, defense technology, and late stage portfolio companies.
KEY STORIES IN TECH
📜 Latest In Tech
Lovable explores acquisitions to accelerate growth in AI app-building space
Lovable is actively seeking to acquire startups and teams as it scales, aiming to bring in founder-led talent and expand its capabilities in the fast-growing vibe-coding market.
The move comes amid rising competition from players like Cursor, Replit, and major AI labs, pushing Lovable to strengthen its position through M&A.
Despite competitive pressure, the company continues strong growth with $400M ARR and over 200,000 projects created daily on its platform.
John Ternus emerges as likely next Apple CEO
John Ternus, Apple’s hardware chief, is now widely seen as the most likely person to eventually replace Tim Cook as CEO, according to a new Bloomberg profile.
Ternus was the face of the MacBook Neo launch, has taken control of a secretive robots unit, oversees hardware and software design teams, and now has five divisions reporting to him.
The profile describes Ternus as having a management and communication style very similar to Cook’s, though some argue Apple needs bolder leadership going forward than that approach allows.
OpenAI offers attractive returns to win enterprise deals in AI battle with Anthropic
OpenAI is offering private equity firms a minimum 17.5% return and early access to its latest models to secure partnerships, outbidding Anthropic in the race for enterprise adoption.
Both companies are forming joint ventures with buyout firms to deploy AI across portfolio companies, aiming to lock in long-term customers and accelerate large-scale adoption.
While some investors are cautious about profitability and flexibility, the strategy reflects a broader push to dominate enterprise AI ahead of potential IPOs.
Alibaba unveils next-gen XuanTie C950 chip for agentic AI push
Alibaba revealed its new XuanTie C950 processor, a 5nm RISC-V chip designed for high-performance cloud systems and agentic AI workloads, with over 3x performance improvement over its predecessor.
The chip is part of Alibaba’s broader strategy to build in-house AI infrastructure through its T-Head semiconductor unit, supporting both training and inference needs.
The move aligns with Alibaba’s recent push into AI agents (like Wukong), as it competes in China’s rapidly evolving AI market amid falling model prices and rising demand for enterprise AI solutions.
LAST COFFEE SIP
☕ Other News
China’s open-source AI surge challenges U.S. leadership, report warns
A U.S. advisory body warned that China’s dominance in open-source AI is creating a self-reinforcing advantage, with models from companies like Alibaba and Moonshot gaining global traction due to lower costs.
Chinese firms are leveraging large-scale real-world deployment across industries to generate data, helping them close the performance gap with top U.S. AI models despite chip restrictions.
The report highlights growing risks to U.S. leadership, especially as AI shifts toward agentic and physical systems like robotics, where China may have a structural edge.
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