☕ Everything Google launched at I/O 2025: AI agents, video generator model and more.
Microsoft AI discovers new chemical in 200 hours & Apple plans to let developers build on top of its AI.
From 1886 to 1959, inflation happened, and Coke didn’t care.
A bottle of sugar water outlasted two World Wars and the Great Depression without raising the price. Legendary delusion or marketing genius? Yes.
Love or hate this intro? Hit reply and tell us why!
📬 What’s in store:
Today’s Picks: VCs pre-traction, top investor lists, Braze PMF, Microsoft AI vision, valuation, runway alert, financial model, YC discovery, AI agent boom, Series A tariffs, Wiz GTM, Mark Leonard, VC tips, data room guide.
Creator Ventures consumer internet-focused VC firm, raised $45M for Fund II.
Google I/O 2025: Everything announced at this year’s developer conference.
Apple reportedly plans to let developers build on top of its AI.
GitHub’s new AI coding agent can fix bugs for you.
Amazon Alexa+ shows few signs of public adoption.
Epic Games' Fortnite returns to Apple App Store in US after nearly 5 years.
Microsoft AI discovers new chemical in 200 hours.
Once worth over $1B, Microsoft-backed Builder.ai is running out of money.
VC & Startup Jobs: VC & investors backed startup hiring for remote roles.
⏱️ Read Time: 3 minutes
DAILY PICKS
🗞️ What else is brewing
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.
The only startup valuation guide you need as a founder.
If you've got less than a year's cash left, you need to read this now.
6000+ European VC Firms Contact Database (LinkedIn Links).
Product discovery framework by YC-backed startup founder.
Excel Template: Early Stage Startup Financial Model For Fundraising.
The race is on to redesign everything for AI agents: billion-dollar markets to be seized.
The Impact of Tariffs on Series As.
Wiz’s $32B GTM Playbook: Unpacking the Formula.
This man created a $92B empire by quietly acquiring 600+ SaaS companies: the story of Mark Leonard, an acquisition legend.
Do Early-Stage startups need a financial model for fundraising?
All-In-One Guide To Venture Capital Interview Questions (And How to Answer Them)
Investor data room guide & templates for founders.
FROM OUR PARTNER - ATTIO
🤝 Why Next-Gen Startups Are Switching to Attio.
Attio is the AI-native CRM built for the next era of companies.
Connect your email, and Attio instantly builds your CRM - with every company, every contact, and every interaction enriched and organized.
You can also use AI research agents for complex processes like finding key decision-makers and triaging leads.
Join industry leaders like Flatfile, Replicate, Modal and more.
FEATURED YOUR STARTUP
💪 Get your startup in front of over 95,000+ audience
Our newsletter is read by thousands of tech professionals, founders, investors (VCs / Angel Investors) and managers around the world. Get in touch today.
STARTUPS RAISING MILLIONS
💰 Startup funding updates
Moddule, a Seattle, WA-based provider of a solution that integrates logistics management systems into a single platform, raised $1.5M in Pre-Seed funding. The round was led by Argon Ventures, with participation from Signal Ventures, Motion Ventures, Incisive Ventures, R7 Ventures, and Companyon.
Blues, a Boston, MA-based provider of Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity solutions, raised $25M in funding. The round was led by Sequoia Capital.
Blooms, a Wilmington, DE-based fintech company, raised $2.6M in Seed funding. The round was led by SP Ventures, with participation from Angel Ventures, The Yield Lab Latam, Eqwow Ventures, Glocal Managers, Mercy Corps Ventures, and others.
True Markets, a NYC-based provider of a non-custodial, stablecoin-native DeFi trading mobile app, raised $11M in Seed funding. The round was co-led by Accomplice and RRE Ventures, with participation from Reciprocal Ventures, Variant, PayPal Ventures, Paxos Ventures, the Solana Foundation.
Gravitee, a Denver, CO-based agentic API and event management company, raised $60M in Series C funding. The round was led by Sixth Street Growth, with participation from existing investors Riverside Acceleration Capital and AlbionVC.
Catena Labs, a Boston, MA-based company developing financial infrastructure and services, raised $18M in funding. Backers included Breyer Capital, Circle Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, CoinFund, Pillar VC, Stanford Engineering VF, and angels including Tom Brady, Bradley Horowitz, Hamel Husain, Kevin Lin, Peter Mattoon, Sam Palmisano, and Balaji Srinivasan.
Seeds, a NYC-based fintech company enabling advisors to create a personalized investing experience and streamline portfolio operations, raised $10M in Series A funding. The round was led by Portage, with participation from investors Social Leverage and Blank Ventures.
AskElephant, a Lehi, UT-based provider of an AI orchestration platform purpose-built for customer-facing teams, raised $6M in Seed funding. The round was led by Jump Capital, with participation from High Alpha, Tandem, SaaS Ventures, and a group of existing investors.
Meibel, a Washington, DC-based provider of a runtime platform for confident AI, raised $7M in Seed funding. The round was led by Mosaic General Partnership with participation from Array Ventures, Denver Ventures, Cofounders Capital, and Service Provider Capital.
Coworker.ai, a San Francisco, CA-based AI agent services company, raised $13M in Seed funding. The round was led by Jeff Huber. Other investors included Ramtin Naimi (Abstract Ventures), Mallun Yen (Operator Collective), Tim Young (Eniac Ventures), and Clark Golestani, Ken Hausman, and Jack Greenfield (K2 Access Fund).
FanBasis, a Miami, FL-based provider of an end-to-end ecosystem powering digital businesses, raised $20M in Series A funding. The round was led by Left Lane Capital, with participation from Ryan Serhant, The Sidemen (via Upside Ventures), Gerard Piqué, and Connexa Capital.
Sweep, a NYC-based agentic workspace company for business systems, raised $22.5M in Series B funding. The round was led by Insight Partners with participation from Bessemer Venture Partners.
TrustCloud, a Boston, MA-based provider of an AI-native security assurance platform for hybrid enterprises, raised $15M in funding. The round was led by ServiceNow Ventures, with participation from Cisco Investments, Presidio Ventures, OpenView Venture Partners, Tola Capital, and existing investors.
Barndoor AI, a NYC-based control plane company for the agentic enterprise, raised $13.6M in Seed funding. The round was led by Crosslink Capital, with participation from Preface Ventures, Precursor Ventures, Gaingels, Rob Hayes, Natalie Diggins, Scott Banister and Cyan Banister, and others.
Keep, a Toronto-based financial platform for SMBs, raised a $12M Series A1 round led by Tribe Capital, bringing total equity funding to $23M, alongside a $50M credit facility and $3M in venture debt.
Rad AI, a San Francisco, CA-based generative AI company developing radiology solutions, raised additional $8M in funding. The round was led by Advocate Health, Memorial Hermann Health System, Corewell Health, and Atlantic Health System. This funding extended Rad AI’s $60M Series C financing round.
XP, a Chicago, IL-based ticket marketplace, raised $6.2M in funding. The round was led by Blockchange, with participation from L1D, Reflexive, and others.
Miter, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of cloud-based human capital management (HCM), field operations, and expense management solutions for the construction and field service industries, raised $38M in funding. The round was led by Bessemer Venture Partners and Coatue Management.
Persist AI, a Sacramento, CA-based pioneer in AI-driven robotics for pharmaceutical formulation development and Chemistry, Manufacturing, and Controls (CMC), closed a $12m Series A financing round. The round was led by Spero Ventures with participation from MBX Capital, Shimadzu Future Innovation Fund managed by Global Brain Corporation, Eli Lilly & Company, SignalFire, Ford Street Capital, Purdue Ventures, Good AI Capital, Cartography Capital, Asymmetry Ventures, and existing investors 2048 Ventures, Innospark, and YCombinator.
NEW VCs IN THE MARKET
🏦 Venture Capital updates
Creator Ventures, a London-based consumer internet-focused VC firm, raised $45M for Fund II, more than doubling its previous $20M fund. Founded by YouTuber Caspar Lee and former Bridgepoint investor Sasha Kaletsky, the firm backs seed/pre-seed startups across AI, consumer apps, and social. Past wins include Wild (acquired by Unilever), ElevenLabs, Runna, and Beehiiv. Fund II LPs include Sequoia, Level, Cendana, Vintage, and Isomer Capital.
South Loop Ventures, a Houston-based VC firm, raised $21M for its Fund I to invest in seed and pre-seed startups, with a focus on founders of color. Anchor investors include Rice Management Company and Chevron Technology Ventures, with participation from Texas Capital Bank and others. Led by Zach Ellis, the fund will back startups in healthcare, energy, space, and climate, aiming to make 30+ investments nationwide.
KEY STORIES IN TECH
📜 Latest in tech
Google I/O 2025: Everything announced at this year’s developer conference:
Gemini Ultra & Deep Think: Google launched Gemini Ultra at $249.99/month, bundling access to advanced tools like Veo 3, Imagen 4, and Gemini 2.5 Pro’s Deep Think mode — which boosts reasoning by evaluating multiple answers before replying.
AI tools for creators: Veo 3 now generates video with sound and dialogue, while Imagen 4 creates photorealistic 2K images. Both tools power Google’s new Flow video editor for filmmakers.
Gemini app ecosystem growth: With 400M monthly active users, Gemini now supports live camera/screen-sharing (Gemini Live), personalized task automation, and deeper integrations across Google Maps, Calendar, and Tasks.
Project Astra, Mariner & Stitch: Project Astra underpins near real-time, multimodal AI (including upcoming AR glasses). Mariner enables Gemini to act on users’ behalf online (e.g., booking tickets), while Stitch helps generate UI/code from text or images.
Search & Workspace AI: Google’s AI Mode in Search enables complex, conversational queries with real-time camera input. Gmail gains AI inbox cleaning and smart replies, while Docs, Vids, and NotebookLM get new content creation and research features.
Android, Chrome & Dev tools: Wear OS 6 updates UI aesthetics and theming. Chrome adds Gemini for smart page summaries. Android Studio and Play Store introduce “Agent Mode,” crash insights, and better app release controls, pushing more AI into developer workflows.
Apple reportedly plans to let developers build on top of its AI:
Apple is expected to unveil new AI tools and frameworks at WWDC 2025, enabling third-party developers to build apps using its in-house AI models.
The company will initially offer access to its smaller models, aiming to expand Apple Intelligence integration across the iPhone, iPad, and Mac ecosystem.
Alongside the AI push, Apple will debut OS overhauls and device-specific features like smarter battery management and an AI-powered Health app coming next year.
GitHub’s new AI coding agent can fix bugs for you:
GitHub is launching an AI coding agent directly embedded into GitHub Copilot that can fix bugs, add features, and improve documentation on a developer’s behalf.
The AI coding agent automatically boots a virtual machine, clones the repository, analyzes the codebase, saves changes, and explains its reasoning in session logs.
This new agent understands context from issue or PR discussions and custom repository instructions, tagging developers for review and addressing their comments.
Amazon Alexa+ shows few signs of public adoption:
Six weeks after Amazon began giving select users early access to Alexa+, a Reuters search found almost no public evidence that people are actually using it.
Amazon states hundreds of thousands of customers now have Alexa+ access, but the company declined to comment on the absence of public reviews or discussions.
Following a report on its quiet rollout, Amazon started inviting more users to the Alexa+ early access program, though public feedback is still missing.
Epic Games' Fortnite returns to Apple App Store in US after nearly 5 years:
After a nearly five-year ban, Fortnite is once again available on Apple’s U.S. App Store, following a court ruling that found Apple violated an injunction promoting fair app competition.
The legal battle began in 2020 when Epic Games challenged Apple’s 30% in-app purchase commission; a recent court decision referred Apple to federal prosecutors for non-compliance.
While the return marks a hard-won legal victory for Epic, analysts say it may come too late to revive Fortnite's peak popularity, though it sets a major precedent that could benefit other developers like Spotify and Netflix.
Microsoft AI discovers new chemical in 200 hours:
Microsoft's AI, using the Microsoft Discovery platform, identified a novel coolant for data center immersion cooling in around 200 hours after screening 367,000 potential candidates.
The Microsoft Discovery platform uses specialized AI agents and high-performance computing, letting scientists do complex research without needing to write computer code.
This rapid 200-hour discovery of a PFAS-free coolant showcases the Microsoft Discovery platform's potential to accelerate finding alternatives for chemicals facing regulatory restrictions.
LAST COFFEE SIP
☕Other news
Once worth over $1B, Microsoft-backed Builder.ai is running out of money:
Builder.ai, once a unicorn backed by Microsoft with $450M in funding, has entered insolvency proceedings and is appointing an administrator to manage the company’s affairs.
The company cited past financial missteps and leadership challenges, including revenue overstatement allegations and a leadership shakeup with a new CEO in February.
Despite branding itself as an AI-driven app builder, reports revealed it relied heavily on human engineers, raising credibility issues even before its financial troubles escalated.
HIRING ALERT: STARTUPS & VC ROLES
💼 Today’s VC & startup job opportunities
Investor Relationship Associate - Bauken Capital | USA - Apply Here
Venture Capital Managing Director - Connecticut Innovation | USA - Apply Here
Investment Trainee - Hashkey Capital | USA - Apply Here
Full-Time Investment Intern - Inflexor Venture | India - Apply Here
Visiting Analyst VC - Identity Venture | Germany | UK - Apply Here
General Partner - Inviox Capital Partner | UK - Apply Here
Investment Analyst - In Q Tel | Singapore - Apply Here
Head of Investor Relations - Continous Venture | UAE - 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)
WHEN YOU’RE READY, HERE’S HOW I CAN HELP:
💁 You might need our help!
Reach 92,500+ 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.