☕ Elon Musk launches XChat & Apple's ChatGPT rival moves forward.
Musk's Neuralink raised $650M, xAI looking to raise $300M & Samsung may integrate Perplexity AI.
Australia has more camels than Egypt. You read that correctly. The land down under is home to the world’s largest population of wild camels, thanks to humans bringing a bunch over in the Victorian times.
Aussie camels are out here thriving, probably some eating vegemite.
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📬 What’s in store:
Today’s Picks: 90s web design legends, OpenAI 2026 outlook, new AI browsers, financial model, VCs pre-traction, finding the right investors, 2700+ US VCs, Braze’s PMF path, Microsoft’s AI agent vision, legal docs pack.
Musk's Neuralink raised $650 million in Series E funding.
Apple's ChatGPT rival moves forward.
Elon Musk’s xAI reportedly looks to raise $300M in tender offer.
Samsung may integrate Perplexity AI into phones.
Chatbot platform Character.AI unveils video generation, social feeds.
Meta aims to fully automate advertising with AI by 2026.
Elon Musk launches XChat with ‘Bitcoin-style encryption.
Google to spend $500 million on compliance overhaul in antitrust settlement.
VC & Startup Jobs: VC & investors backed startup hiring for remote roles.
⏱️ Read Time: 3 minutes
DAILY PICKS
🗞️ What else is brewing
The 3 Gurus of 90s Web Design: Zeldman, Siegel, Nielsen.
What's Ahead for OpenAI in 2026.
New AI Browsers Are Coming.
Excel template: Early stage startup financial model for fundraising.
How to find the right investors for your startup.
2700+ US Angel Investors & VC Firms Contact Database (Email + LinkedIn Link).
Braze’s Path to Product-Market Fit — How to Build for a Market That Doesn’t Exist Yet.
Microsoft’s AI Vision: An Open Internet Made for Agents.
Startup Legal Document Pack – Essential Legal Docs for Founders. Build with the help of startup lawyers and VCs.
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STARTUPS RAISING MILLIONS
💰 Startup funding updates
Neuralink, a Fremont, CA-based brain-computer interface startup founded by Elon Musk, has raised $650 million in Series E funding. The round included investors such as ARK Invest, Founders Fund, Sequoia Capital, and Thrive Capital.
LuminX, a San Francisco, CA-based AI-driven company providing inventory automation and visibility, raised $5.5M in Seed funding. Backers included 1Sharpe, GTMFund, 9Yards, Chingona Ventures, and the Bond Fund.
TAE Technologies, a Foothill Ranch, CA-based fusion energy company, raised $150M in funding. Chevron, Google and NEA participated in the round, among other new and existing investors.
SpyGlass Pharma, an Aliso Viejo, CA-based ophthalmic biotechnology company, raised $75M in Series D funding. The round was led by Sands Capital, joined by Gilde Healthcare and existing investors New Enterprise Associates (NEA), RA Capital, Vensana Capital, Samsara BioCapital and Vertex Ventures HC.
Infleqtion, a Boulder, CO-based company commercializing atom-based quantum systems, raised $100M in funding. Backers included Glynn Capital, Counterpoint Global, S32, SAIC, Axial, Breakthrough Victoria, Caruso Ventures, Cyfr Capital, Golden Vision Capital, Global Frontier, In-Q-Tel, LCP, Maverick, National Security Strategic Investment Fund, Olive Ventures, Overmatch, S Ventures, and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.
Limited, a San Francisco, CA-based fintech startup offering stablecoin-based banking services with self-custody, raised $7M in Seed funding. The round was led by North Island Ventures, with participation from existing investors Third Prime and Arche Capital, alongside new investors Collab+Currency and SevenX Ventures.
AgentSmyth, a NYC-based provider of an autonomous agent platform for trading, raised $8.7M in Seed funding. The round was co-led by FinTech Collective and Thomson Reuters, with BNY joining through its Ascent fintech-innovation program.
Rally UXR, a NYC-based provider of a user Research CRM platform, raised $11M in Series A funding. The round was led by Canapi Ventures with participation from existing investors Stage 2 Capital and Y Combinator.
Litehaus, a Lisbon, Portugal-based provider of a platform developing an operating system for home construction, raised €1.46M in funding. Backers included Explorer Investments, Cornerstone VC, Pascal Levy-Garboua and the Claster Group.
Yieldstreet, a NYC-based provider of a private markets investment platform, raised $45M in Series D funding. The round was led by Tarsadia Investments, Mayfair Equity Partners, and Edison Partners.
Truely, a Singapore-based travel tech company, raised an additional incremental US$2m financing. Backers included DG Daiwa Ventures, Goodwater Capital and Disrupt.com, with continued support from existing investor Beenext.
Fisent Technologies, a Toronto, Canada-based company which specializes in applied GenAI process automation, extended its Seed round, bringing its total investment to date to $2M USD. Backers included Cloudberry Pioneer Investments, Pega, Sand Dollar Capital, and other entrepreneurs.
GC AI, a San Francisco, CA-based legal AI platform built for in-house counsel, raised an undisclosed amount in Series A funding. The round was led by Sound Ventures, alongside Fellows Fund, Guillermo Rauch, Gokul Rajaram, TipTop VC, and more than 30 general counsel and legal investors.
Dexari, a NYC-based provider of a decentralized mobile trading app for crypto trading, raised $2.3M in Seed funding, at $22.5M valuation. The round was led by Prelude and Lemniscap.
Literal Labs, a Newcastle, UK-based logic-based AI algorithm company, raised £4.6M in Pre-Seed funding. The round was led by Northern Gritstone, and Mercuri, with participation from Sure Valley Ventures, Cambridge Future Tech SPV, and angel investors.
Heron Power, a Scotts Valley, CA-based energy infrastructure company, raised $38M in Series A funding. The round was led by Capricorn Investment Group’s Technology Impact Fund, with participation from Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Energy Impact Partners, Gigascale Capital, Powerhouse Ventures, Valor Equity Partners, Tesla co-founder JB Straubel, and former Tesla CFO Zach Kirkhorn.
Prepared, a NYC-based provider of an assistive AI platform for emergency response, raised $80M in Series C funding. The round was led by General Catalyst, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), First Round Capital, General Catalyst, and Radical Ventures.
Dedge Security, a Madrid, Spain-based provider of an ASPM (Application Security Posture Management) platform designed specifically for Web3, raised €4M in Seed funding. The round was led by Tritemius.
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NEW VCs IN THE MARKET
🏦 Venture Capital updates
Iron Wolf Capital, a Vilnius, Lithuania-based deeptech VC firm, raised €30M of a targeted €100M second seed fund to invest in AI, biotech, energy, and spacetech startups. Backers include Lithuanian state bank ILTE and over 40 European family offices. The firm plans to invest in 25 startups with initial checks between €500K–€2M. Iron Wolf is focused on Baltic founders, including diaspora, and aims to strengthen the local deeptech ecosystem without requiring relocation to the U.S.
KEY STORIES IN TECH
📜 Latest in tech
Apple's ChatGPT rival moves forward:
Apple is actively testing its ChatGPT rival, a 150 billion parameter cloud-based model, which reportedly shows competitive performance against recent rollouts.
The company uses an internal tool called "Playground" for benchmarks, revealing the model approaches ChatGPT's quality but still tends to hallucinate.
Work on this AI faces challenges, including "philosophical differences" among executives and the same problems that have delayed the overall Siri overhaul.
Elon Musk’s xAI reportedly looks to raise $300M in tender offer:
Elon Musk’s AI startup, xAI, is launching a $300 million secondary stock sale, valuing the company at $113 billion.
The move will let employees cash out some shares and is expected to precede a larger fundraising round.
It comes as Musk refocuses on his companies after time in Washington, though xAI has faced delays in upgrading its Grok AI model.
Samsung may integrate Perplexity AI into phones:
Samsung is in talks to invest in Perplexity and pre-install its app and AI assistant on its smartphones.
The deal may also involve integrating Perplexity’s search into Samsung’s browser and enhancing Bixby with its AI tech.
Perplexity is raising $500 million at a $14 billion valuation, with similar interest from Apple and a confirmed deal with Motorola.
Chatbot platform Character.AI unveils video generation, social feeds:
Character.AI launched new multimedia tools including AvatarFX for video generation, Scenes for storyline videos, and Streams for dynamic character interactions.
Users can now create up to five videos per day, customizing visuals, voices, and dialogue, with features gradually rolling out across mobile and web platforms.
While the platform aims to encourage creativity, it faces ongoing safety scrutiny due to past incidents of chatbot abuse, including a tragic suicide case linked to the service.
Meta aims to fully automate advertising with AI by 2026:
Meta intends full AI-driven automation for advertising creation and targeting by the end of 2026, where companies only need to provide a product image and budget.
The technology is envisioned to subsequently craft entire campaigns, generating all necessary visuals, video, text, and defining precise audience segments for advertisers.
This automated approach aims to personalize ads in real time based on viewer context, a strategic pillar for the company supported by its Llama models.
Elon Musk launches XChat with ‘Bitcoin-style encryption’:
Elon Musk announced XChat, a new X messaging service, claiming it offers "Bitcoin-style encryption" and is developed using the Rust programming language.
Bitcoin experts quickly refuted Musk's encryption statement, clarifying the cryptocurrency itself is not encrypted but uses elliptic curve cryptography for core security.
Bitcoin's network actually relies on elliptic curve cryptography, a mathematical lock system, plus SHA-256 hashing for transaction validation and overall security.
LAST COFFEE SIP
☕Other news
Google to spend $500 million on compliance overhaul in antitrust settlement:
Google will invest $500 million over 10 years to revamp its compliance structure as part of a shareholder lawsuit settlement over antitrust risks in search, ad tech, and app distribution.
The settlement mandates new oversight committees, including a standalone board risk panel and internal compliance teams reporting to CEO Sundar Pichai.
While denying wrongdoing, Google agreed to the reforms to avoid prolonged litigation; the changes must stay in place for at least four years, with no monetary payout to shareholders.
HIRING ALERT: STARTUPS & VC ROLES
💼 Today’s VC & startup job opportunities
Senior Analyst - Chiratae Venture | India - Apply Here
Managing Director - Generator Accelerator | USA - Apply Here
Investment Analyst - Moonfire | UK - Apply Here
Investment Manager - Noba Capital | UK - Apply Here
Associate / Sr. Associate - Moneta Venture | USA - Apply Here
Investment Analyst - EXEO Fund | USA - Apply Here
Summer Investment Analyst - Red Beard Venture | USA - Apply Here
Investment Analyst - 12 Flag | India - Apply Here
Associate - Capital One Venture | USA - Apply Here
Corporate Venture Capital Fund - Thomson Venture | USA - Apply Here
Investment Manager - Techstar | USA - Apply Here
Chief of Staff & Head of Administrative Operations - Beyond Alpha Venture | USA - 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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