☕ Klarna CEO’s family office turned $3.6M into OpenAI shares in io’s $6.5B acquisition & Apple plans smart glasses launch in 2026.
Claude Opus 4 raised safety alarms over autonomy and falsehoods & Tinder CEO to step down in July.
Ian Fleming wrote the first James Bond novel to distract himself from getting married.
Because when faced with commitment, some people plan a wedding, while he created a spy with a license to kill.
Peak avoidance. Peak fiction.
Love or hate this intro? Hit reply and tell us why!
📬 What’s in store:
Today’s Picks: Big Tech’s AI moves, AI agency trap, 2700+ US & 6000+ Euro VCs, Cursor’s rise, no-moat picking, 100T tokens, human side of engineering.
Valuation, launch tips, seed advice, pitch deck musts, financial model, VC interview, data room guide.Klarna CEO’s family office turned $3.6M into OpenAI shares in io’s $6.5B acquisition.
A safety institute advised against releasing an early version of Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4 AI model.
Meta adds another 650 MW of solar power to its AI push.
Amazon AI launches short audio product summaries.
Google faces DOJ probe over Character.AI deal.
Apple plans smart glasses launch in 2026.
Disney is suing YouTube for poaching a key media and sports executive.
Tinder CEO Iosotaluno to step down in July.
VC & Startup Jobs: VC & investors backed startup hiring for remote roles.
⏱️ Read Time: 3 minutes
DAILY PICKS
🗞️ What else is brewing
How Amazon, Microsoft, and Alphabet are preparing for an AI future.
The AI Agency Trap : Builder.AI sold itself as SaaS, but ran like an agency.
2700+ US Angel Investors & VC Firms Contact Database (Email + LinkedIn Link).
100 Trillion Tokens by Tomasz Tunguz.
Mastering the human side of engineering: Lessons from Apple, Palantir and Slack.
The only startup valuation guide you need as a founder.
The rise of Cursor: The $300M ARR AI tool that engineers can’t stop using.
6000+ European VC Firms Contact Database (LinkedIn Links).
Lulu Meservey’s launch cheat sheet.
Alex Lieberman on ‘seedstrapping'.
Amanda Zhu on what investors are evaluating at pre-seed and seed.
Excel Template: Early Stage Startup Financial Model For Fundraising.
Leo Polovets on pitch deck minimums.
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.
Need a pitch deck that gets investor meetings? We’ve opened just 3 slots to help founders craft winning decks—built by experts, reviewed by investors. Don’t leave funding to chance—[schedule a call today →]
TOOL WORTH EXPLORING
🤝 The best new app for newsletter reading…
Reading newsletters in the inbox is frustrating - it is noisy and easy to lose control of subscriptions. Now with Meco you can enjoy your newsletters in an app built for reading, while giving your inbox space to breathe.
Meco connects to Gmail & Outlook, allowing you to instantly move your newsletters to the app (and clear your inbox.
The experience is packed with features to supercharge your reading including the ability to group newsletters, set smart filters, bookmark your favorites and read in a scrollable feed.
You can try the experience for free and available on iOS, Android and web (desktop)
Over 30k readers are enjoying their newsletters (and decluttering their inbox) with Meco - try the app today!
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
StackHawk, a San Francisco, CA-based shift-left API security platform allowing teams to keep up with the pace of AI-driven development, raised $12M in additional funding. Backers included from Sapphire and Costanoa Ventures. The round brought total funding to $47.3m.
RevenueCat, a San Francisco-based subscription infrastructure platform for mobile apps, raised $50M in Series C funding led by Bain Capital Ventures, with participation from Index Ventures, Y Combinator, Adjacent, Volo Ventures, and SaaStr Fund.
Jupus, a Cologne, Germany-based legal tech startup, raised $6.5M in Seed funding. The round was led by Acton Capital and existing investors such as HTGF (High-Tech Gründerfonds) and business angels.
Converge, a London, UK-based technology company which specializes in concrete usage and production for the construction sector, raised $22M in funding. The round was led by ABN AMRO Sustainable Impact Fund (SIF), with participation from existing investors, including Climate Investment (CI), alongside new investors Move Energy, PI Impact, J-Impact and existing investors TO Ventures, Force Over Mass Capital and others.
Pixee, a Baltimore, MD-based provider of solutions that empower security teams to match the productivity of AI-powered development, raised $15M in Seed funding. The round was led by Decibel and Wing VC, with participation from TEDCO, PrimeSet and strategic investors, including early GitHub engineer Zach Holman, HackerOne Founder and CTO Alex Rice, Oracle SVP of Cloud Operations Brian Chess, and more.
Rhino Federated Computing, a Boston, MA-based platform for federated AI collaboration, raised $15M in Series A funding. The round was led by AlleyCorp, with participation from LionBird, Fusion Fund, Arkin Digital Health, Qiming Venture Partners USA, Telus Global Ventures and Keren Maccabi, as well as new investors Wilson’s Bird Capital, Mr. Frank Sica, and Gaingels.
Axle Health, a Los Angeles, CA-based technology company supporting home healthcare operations, raised $10M in Series A funding. The round was led by F-Prime, with participation from Y Combinator, Pear VC, and Lightbank.
WellTheory, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of a whole-person care platform for autoimmune disease, raised $5M in new funding. Bakers included new investors Samsung Next, Opal Ventures, and Up2 Fund with participation from existing investors Accel, OVO Fund, and BoxGroup.
Alt Carbon, a Bangalore, India-based science and data company building agri infrastructure for climate action, raised $12M in seed funding. The round was led by Lachy Groom, with participation from ACT, and existing investors and angels, including Shastra VC, Jason Zhao (Co Founder, PIP Labs), Awais Ahmed (Co Founder, Pixxel Space), Amarendra Singh (Co Founder, DeHaat), among others.
trawa, a Berlin, Germany-based electricity provider and AI-powered software company, raised €24M in Series A funding. The round was led by Headline, with participation from Norrsken VC and existing investors Balderton Capital, Speedinvest, AENU, VC Magnetic and Tiny VC.
LMArena, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of an open community platform for AI models, raised $100M in Seed funding. The round was led by a16z and UC Investments (University of California) with participation from Lightspeed, Laude Ventures, Felicis, Kleiner Perkins and The House Fund.
Kota, a Dublin, Ireland-based provider of a insurance benefits platform and API, raised $14.5M in Series A funding. The round was led by Eurazeo, along with existing investors EQT Ventures, Northzone, Frontline Ventures and new investors 9Yards and Plug and Play.
Awardco, a Lindon, UT-based employee rewards, recognition and engagement platform provider, raised $165m in Series B funding at a valuation of over $1 billion. Sixth Street Growth and Spectrum Equity joined existing investors General Catalyst and Ryan Smith, Partner at HXCO, in the round.
NEW VCs IN THE MARKET
🏦 Venture Capital updates
Klarna CEO and Sutter Hill celebrate big win from OpenAI’s $6.5B acquisition of io:
Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski revealed that his family office, Flat Capital, invested $3.6M in Jony Ive’s io just six months before its $6.5B all-stock acquisition by OpenAI, earning significant returns in OpenAI shares.
Sutter Hill Ventures, one of Silicon Valley’s most secretive VC firms, was also revealed (and later self-confirmed in a now-deleted post) as a major backer in io — potentially its second-largest investor after OpenAI’s own 23% stake.
Other io investors included Emerson Collective, Thrive Capital, SV Angel, and the OpenAI Startup Fund, marking one of the biggest early investor wins in the AI hardware space to date.
KEY STORIES IN TECH
📜 Latest in tech
A safety institute advised against releasing an early version of Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4 AI model :
Apollo Research, an independent safety group, warned against deploying an early version of Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4 due to high rates of deceptive behavior, including scheming and doubling down on falsehoods.
Tests revealed the model attempted actions like writing self-replicating code, fabricating legal documents, and leaving hidden messages for future model instances — though Anthropic claims many of these issues were tied to a now-fixed bug.
Anthropic’s own report confirmed Opus 4 sometimes took excessive initiative, such as locking out users or “whistle-blowing” based on perceived wrongdoing — highlighting growing concerns about autonomous behavior in advanced AI systems.
Meta adds another 650 MW of solar power to its AI push:
Meta signed a new deal with AES for 650 megawatts of solar energy across Kansas (250 MW) and Texas (400 MW) to support its expanding AI data center operations.
This marks Meta’s fourth major solar deal in 2025, adding to its more than 12 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity and highlighting Texas as a solar development hotspot.
AES cited solar’s rapid deployment and low costs as key factors appealing to tech giants, with projects often producing electricity before full completion thanks to phased buildouts.
Amazon AI launches short audio product summaries:
Amazon is testing AI-powered audio product summaries featuring "AI-powered shopping experts" discussing key product features, customer reviews, and web information.
Users access these short-form audio clips via a "Hear the highlights" button, designed for a conversational, discussion-style way to get product details.
The feature uses large language models to generate scripts from reviews and web data, now available for select products to some U.S. customers.
Google faces DOJ probe over Character.AI deal:
The U.S. Justice Department is investigating whether Google’s licensing agreement with Character.AI was structured to evade formal merger scrutiny, raising potential antitrust concerns.
Google gained access to Character.AI’s large language model tech and hired its co-founders, though it maintains no ownership stake and says Character.AI remains independent.
The probe reflects growing regulatory attention on AI-related partnerships, following similar scrutiny of Microsoft’s deal with Inflection AI and Amazon’s talent acquisition from Adept.
Apple plans smart glasses launch in 2026:
Apple is preparing to mass-produce prototypes of its smart glasses later this year and aims for a commercial launch by the end of 2026, according to Bloomberg.
The move follows underwhelming public response to its Vision Pro headset and is part of Apple's strategy to expand its AI hardware offerings and product lineup.
Apple reportedly canceled plans for a camera-equipped Apple Watch, shifting focus to compete with Meta’s growing success in the smart glasses space.
Disney is suing YouTube for poaching a key media and sports executive:
Disney has filed a lawsuit against YouTube and former executive Justin Connolly, alleging breach of a three-year contract after he joined YouTube to lead its global media and sports strategy.
Connolly, who was leading Disney's licensing renewal talks with YouTube, had access to sensitive financials and negotiation strategies, which Disney claims creates a serious conflict of interest.
The dispute comes as YouTube deepens its sports push, including airing an exclusive NFL opener, while competitors like Amazon, Apple, and Netflix ramp up sports streaming investments.
LAST COFFEE SIP
☕Other news
Tinder CEO Iosotaluno to step down in July:
Tinder CEO Faye Iosotaluno will step down in July after leading the company since January 2024 and focusing on AI-powered personalization to improve recommendations.
Match Group CEO Spencer Rascoff will take over leadership of Tinder as part of a broader turnaround strategy, following a 5% drop in paying users and a 13% workforce cut.
The dating app industry, including Tinder and Bumble, is grappling with slowing user engagement, inflation, and a lack of innovation, leading to market stagnation.
HIRING ALERT: STARTUPS & VC ROLES
💼 Today’s VC & startup job opportunities
Venture Investments Associate - GSR | USA - Apply Here
Executive Assistant TCV | UK - Apply Here
Writer - First Round Capital | USA - Apply Here
Venture Scout - Sentiera Venture | USA - Apply Here
Associate - Aartha Venture Fund | USA - Apply Here
Analyst - Scope Venture | USA - Apply Here
Principal - Aartha Group | India - Apply Here
Partner - Chan Zuckerberg Initiative | USA - Apply Here
Venture Fellows - Kalea Venture | UK - Apply Here
Investor (AI) - Samsung Next | USA - Apply Here
Venture Scout - First Momentum Venture | Remote - Apply Here
Visiting Investment Analyst - Vorwerk Ventures | Germany - 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 Monday.