☕ Claude can now build AI apps, CoreWeave CEO becomes a deca-billionaire & Top Tesla execs leave.
The Trump Phone no longer promises it’s made in America, Google unveils an AI app for virtual outfit try-ons.
One guy hired someone to slap him every time he checked Facebook.
Programmer Maneesh Sethi paid $8 an hour to stay focused.
It turns out that nothing kills procrastination like a backhand.
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📬 What’s in store:
Today’s Picks: 3 sales frameworks for early founders, startup valuation guide, 2700+ US VC contacts, pricing strategy check, investor Q&A prep, VC question guide, why competitors matter, pitch deck guide, financial model template.
Wisdom Ventures a San Francisco based VC firm raised $16M.
In just 3 months, CoreWeave CEO becomes a $10B man after AI-fueled IPO.
Anthropic's Claude can now build AI apps.
The Trump Phone no longer promises it’s made in America.
Scale AI struggled with contractor spam while serving Google.
Top Tesla exec and Musk confidant Omead Afshar exits amid sales slump.
Google unveils Doppl, an AI app for virtual outfit try-ons.
Apple adds new EU App Store fees amid Digital Markets Act compliance.
VC & Startup Jobs: VC & investors backed startup hiring for remote roles.
⏱️ Read Time: 3 minutes
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STARTUPS RAISING MILLIONS
💰 Startup funding updates
Castle, a Miami, FL-based bitcoin treasury platform for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), raised $1m in a pre-seed funding. The round was led by Boost VC, with participation from Winklevoss Capital, Park Rangers Capital, Epoch VC, and select angel investors.
Handspring, a NYC-based mental health provider focused on youth, young adults, and their families through high-quality virtual therapy, raised $12m in Series A funding. The round was led by Cobalt Ventures, with participation from NextView Ventures, nvp capital, 25madison, Arkitekt Ventures, VamosVentures, Hyde Park Angels (HPA), Cornucopian Capital, and others.
Tacta Systems, a Palo Alto, CA-based robotics company developing dextrous intelligence to give robots human-level tactile skills and spatial awareness, raised $75m in funding. The funding included: a previously undisclosed $11m seed round, led by Matter Venture Partners, and a $64m Series A round led by America’s Frontier Fund and SBVA, with participation from Matter Venture Partners, B Capital, EDBI, Sojitz Corporation, CDIB -TEN Capital, Yazaki Innovations Inc., B5 Capital, Tyche Partners and Woven Capital.
Spekter Games Inc., a San Francisco, CA-based game publisher dedicated to crafting roguelite mobile games enriched with Web3 incentives, raised $5m in pre-seed funding round. Backers included a16z speedrun, London Venture Partners, BRV Capital, Chamaeleon, Accelerator Ventures, Impact46, Versus Ventures and Alumni Ventures.
Klutch AI, a Seattle, WA-based provider of AI-powered construction management solutions, raised $8m in seed funding. The round was led by Bain Capital Ventures and Bling Capital, with participation from Brick & Mortar Ventures, Original Capital, Anthology Fund and angel investors from Autodesk and BuildZoom.
Jarsy, a San Francisco, CA-based digital investment platform giving access to high-growth private companies, emerged from stealth with $5m in pre-seed funding. The round was led by Breyer Capital, with participation from Karman Ventures and several high-profile angel investors, including Evan Cheng (CEO, Mysten Labs), Nathan McCauley (CEO, Anchorage), Richard Liu (CEO, Huma Finance), and C-Suite executives from Niantic, EigenLayer, Moonpay, Babylon Labs, Zettablock, and Confluent.
Certify, a NYC-based healthcare provider data intelligence company, raised $40m in Series B funding. The round, which brought total funding to $69m, was led by Transformation Capital, with continued participation from General Catalyst and Upfront Ventures and from new backer SemperVirens.
Wispr, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of an AI voice app for iOS and desktop, raised $30M in Series A funding. The round, which brought total funding to $56M, was led by Menlo Ventures, with participation from Pinterest cofounder Evan Sharp, Carta CEO Henry Ward, and others, alongside continued support from NEA, 8VC, and Neo. Matt Kraning at Menlo Ventures joined the board.
Beep, an Orlando, FL-based provider of autonomous shared mobility solutions, raised $52.7M in funding. The round, which brought total funding raised to $97.7M, was co-led by Intel Capital and Blue Lagoon Capital.
Ubie, a NYC-based AI-driven and medically vetted healthcare prediction platform that guides patients to the care they need, announced that its cumulative funding since founding in 2017 has reached over $125M. Backers included Google, JAPAN POST CAPITAL Co., Ltd., NTT DOCOMO, INC., SEVEN-ELEVEN JAPAN CO., LTD., Japan Finance Corporation, and The Shoko Chukin Bank, Ltd.
Niural, a NYC-based AI-native global PEO (Professional Employment Organization) for fast-growing companies, raised $31m in Series A funding. The round was led by Marathon Management Partners, with participation from existing investors M13, Inspired Capital, Newform Capital and several new strategic investors.
Sibill, a Milan, Italy-based fintech specializing in solutions that simplify financial and administrative management for SMEs, closed a €12m Series A funding. The round, which has raised €18.7m in funding so far, was led by Creandum, with participation from Keen Venture Partners and other Italian and international business angels.
Mandolin, a San Francisco, CA-based AI automation platform for specialty drug access, raised $40m in funding. Backers included Greylock Partners, SignalFire, Maverick, SV Angel, along with Jerry Yang (co-founder of Yahoo!) and Guillermo Rauch (CEO of Vercel).
PoliCloud, a Cannes, France-based provider and developer of sovereign, High Performance Computing (HPC) cloud infrastructure, raised €7.5m in seed funding. The round was led by Global Ventures, with participation from MI8, OneRagtime, Inria, and other private investors.
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NEW VCs IN THE MARKET
🏦 Venture Capital updates
Wisdom Ventures, a San Francisco, CA-based early stage VC firm investing in tech-enabled wellbeing, launched its Fund II with its first close of $16m. Both Fund I & II are backed by Reid Hoffman (Founder of LinkedIn), Evan Sharp (founder of Pinterest), Stewart Butterfield (Cofounder of Slack), Jenn Rubio (Co-founder of Away), Ho Nam (Managing Director at Altos Ventures), and other investors and founders passionate about the health and wellness space.
Galaxy Asset Management, an affiliate of Galaxy Digital Inc. (NASDAQ: GLXY) (TSX: GLXY), and a digital asset and blockchain investment manager, closed Galaxy Ventures Fund I, LP (GVF I), with over $175m in capital commitments. GVF I received a diverse group of limited partners, including institutional investors, family offices, and strategic digital asset businesses.
KEY STORIES IN TECH
📜 Latest in tech
In just 3 months, CoreWeave CEO becomes a $10B man after AI-fueled IPO:
CoreWeave CEO Michael Intrator’s net worth has soared to $10B post-IPO, despite the company raising only $1.5B—far below its $4B target.
The company powers AI giants like OpenAI and Microsoft using Nvidia GPUs, but is burdened with $8.8B in debt and high interest rates.
Originally a crypto mining operation, CoreWeave’s pivot to AI cloud services turned its founders into billionaires amid a 300% stock surge.
Anthropic's Claude can now build AI apps:
Anthropic now allows Free, Pro, and Max subscribers to build, host, and share their own AI-powered apps directly within the Claude app during beta.
Developers can make interactive apps using Claude models, which write code, without separate API costs, as usage is billed to the end user's account.
Claude handles technical tasks like error management and enables sharing creations via link, though external APIs access and persistent data storage are currently restricted.
The Trump Phone no longer promises it’s made in America:
Trump Mobile scrubbed its website of the prominent "MADE IN THE USA" banner for its T1 Phone 8002, a key original selling point.
The T1 Phone 8002 is now promoted using vague phrases like "Proudly American" and "American-Proud Design," without clear US manufacturing information.
Other features of the T1 Phone 8002 also changed: its advertised 6.78-inch AMOLED screen shrank, 12GB RAM details vanished, and the shipping date slipped.
Scale AI struggled with contractor spam while serving Google:
Scale AI's "Bulba Experts" program for Google was flooded by "spam" from unqualified contributors submitting "shoddy work", including gibberish and "GPT-generated thought processes".
Security protocols at Scale AI showed weaknesses, with Remotasks workers often lacking required advanced degrees and proper vetting for Google’s AI training.
Numerous spammers submitting "gibberish" or using ChatGPT for Google's projects still received payment, leading to concerns about the overall data quality.
Top Tesla exec and Musk confidant Omead Afshar exits amid sales slump:
Omead Afshar, a longtime Musk ally who led sales and manufacturing in Europe and North America, has left Tesla, adding to a string of senior exits.
His departure comes as Tesla struggles with declining EV sales and pressure to scale its robotaxi initiative, recently launched in Austin.
Other recent executive departures include Tesla’s battery head, HR director, and robot division lead, as the company shifts focus to AI and automation.
Google unveils Doppl, an AI app for virtual outfit try-ons:
Google launched Doppl, an experimental app that lets users visualize how clothes would look on their own body using a full-body photo and outfit images.
The app can turn static outfit previews into AI-generated videos and lets users save and share their favorite virtual looks.
As a Google Labs experiment, Doppl is currently available in the U.S. and may help inform future virtual fashion and shopping tools.
LAST COFFEE SIP
☕Other news
Apple adds new EU App Store fees amid Digital Markets Act compliance:
To meet the EU’s DMA deadline, Apple updated its rules, allowing EU developers to share external payment links across channels without mandated warning screens.
Instead of dropping fees, Apple introduced new layers: a 2% acquisition fee, a 5–13% store services fee, and a 5% Core Technology Commission to replace the prior €0.50 install-based charge.
Critics like Epic CEO Tim Sweeney slammed the move as “malicious compliance,” saying Apple’s structure still penalizes competing payment methods and stifles fair digital competition.
HIRING ALERT: STARTUPS & VC ROLES
💼 Today’s VC & startup job opportunities
Associate - Episode 1 Venture | UK - Apply Here
Associate (Software Infrastructure) - Omerse Venture | USA - Apply Here
VC Associate - Toyota Venture | UK - Apply Here
Founding Creative Director spacecadet | USA - Apply Here
Venture Capital Junior Analyst - Stepstone Group | USA - Apply Here
Controller - NFX | USA - Apply Here
VC Investor - Founders Factory | Itly - Apply Here
Writer - First round capital | USA - Apply Here
Partner 32 - a16z | USA - Apply Here
Impact Investment Intern - Bharat Climate Startup | 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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