☕ OpenAI to bring generative AI to toys & Wikipedia pauses AI summaries after editor backlash.
Tesla sues former Optimus engineer over alleged trade secret theft & The Meta AI app is a privacy disaster.
Horses can’t mouth-breathe. Nope, strictly nose-only.
So if you ever feel dramatic mid-run, just remember: at least you can gasp like a fish. Horses can’t.
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📬 What’s in store:
Today’s Picks: Jack Dorsey’s VC advice, Freemium reframed, how Wiz hit 222x, 50+ fund IRRs, startup idea tips, valuation guide, pitch deck & legal templates, and more top founder tools.
Seven Stars, a San Francisco based VC firm raised $40M fund.
The Meta AI app is a privacy disaster.
Tesla sues former Optimus engineer over alleged trade secret theft.
OpenAI and Mattel partner to bring generative AI to toys and entertainment.
Musk's X ad threat appears to be working.
Wikipedia pauses AI summaries after editor backlash.
Meta sues app-maker as part of crack down on 'nudifying'.
VC & Startup Jobs: VC & investors backed startup hiring for remote roles.
⏱️ Read Time: 3 minutes
DAILY PICKS
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Paul Graham's framework to get startup ideas.
350+ Indian Angel Investors & Venture Capital Firms Contact Database (Email + LinkedIn Link).
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STARTUPS RAISING MILLIONS
💰 Startup funding updates
Ryght AI, a Laguna Beach, CA based provider of real-time generative AI solutions for the clinical research industry, raised $3m in seed funding. The round was led by Foothill Ventures with participation from existing investors AIX Ventures, Virtue Ventures, IASO Ventures, Top Harvest Capital, and Page One Ventures.
Antimetal, a NYC-based provider of an infrastructure management automation platform, raised $20M in Series A funding. The round was led by Sound Ventures with participation from Buckley Ventures, Nat Friedman, Daniel Gross, Perplexity founder Aravind Srinivas, Naval Srinivasan, Ben Uretsky, the founder of Digital Ocean, Aaron Levie, founder of Box, and Arash Ferdowsi, founder of Dropbox, and others.
Multiverse Computing, a Donostia, Spain,-based quantum-inspired Ai Model compression company, raised $215M in funding. The round was led by Bullhound Capital with participation from HP Tech Ventures, SETT, Forgepoint Capital International, CDP Venture Capital, Santander Climate VC, Quantonation, Toshiba and Capital Riesgo de Euskadi – Grupo SPRI.
Sojo Industries, a Bristol, PA-based industrial automation company specializing in advanced robotics, mobile manufacturing, and modular packaging solutions, raised $40M in funding. The round was led by S2G Investments.
Commons Clinic, a Los Angeles, CA-based provider of a provider of an integrated, specialty-led healthcare platform, raised $26M in Series B funding. The round was led by RA Capital, with participation from Floating Point, SteelSky Ventures, Time BioVentures, Courtside Ventures, and Commons Clinic physicians.
Meter, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of internet infrastructure solutions for the enterprise, raised $170M in new Funding. The round was led by Hemant Taneja at General Catalyst, with participation from Baillie Gifford, Lachy Groom, J.P. Morgan, Microsoft, Sequoia Capital, Tishman Speyer, WndrCo, and 53 Stations.
Kumulus Water, a Paris, France-based WaterTech startup turning air into clean drinking water,, raised $3.5M in Seed funding. The round was led by Bpifrance via France 2030 SGPI and the Île-de-France Region, and included participation from other international regional and investors, such as Plus VC, Khalys Venture, Flat6Labs, Spadel, and family offices and founders from Europe and North Africa.
Landbase, a San Francisco, CA-based agentic AI company, raised $30M in Series A funding. The round was led by Sound Ventures and Picus Capital with participation from 8VC, A*, Firstminute Capital and TheGP.
Rebel Medicine, a Salt Lake City, UT-based clinical‑stage biotechnology company, raised an undisclosed amount in funding. The round was led by Crocker Ventures with participation from Central Texas Angel Network (CTAN), Prosperity Solutions Capital, Utah Innovation Fund, SK Hart, the Joan & Tim Fenton Fund, Cantina Angels and angel investors.
Nominal, a Los Angeles, CA-based real-time test stack for physical systems, raised $75M in Series B funding. The round was led by Sequoia Capital, with participation from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Lux Capital, General Catalyst, Founders Fund, and additional investors.
VectorWave, a Boston, MA-based electromagnetic spectrum company, raised $2.5M in funding. The round was led by J2 Ventures and Coalition Ventures.
Olyzon, a NYC-based provider of an agentic CTV advertising platform, raised $5M in Seed extension funding. The round was led by Cassius Capital, with participation from Ventech, Eurazeo, and strategic angels including Greg Coleman (former President of Criteo), Tom O’Regan (former CEO of Madison Logic), Cédric Mao (founder of Epic12), and Christophe Parcot.
Piston, a Cupertino, CA-based provider of a cardless payments platform that connects commercial fleets and gas stations, raised $7.5M in Seed funding. The round was led by Spark Capital with participation from Pear VC and BOND.
Tastewise, a NYC-based provider of a GenAI platform empowering execution for the food and beverage industry, raised $50M in funding. The round was led by TELUS Global Ventures, with participation from Duo Partners, Peakbridge, Disruptive AI, and PICO.
Iterate.ai, a San Jose, CA-based company empowering businesses with AI solutions, raised $6.4M in funding. The round was led by Auxier Asset Management and with participation from Peter Cobb, Mike Edwards, and Dave Zentmyer.
Coco Robotics, a Los Angeles, CA-based autonomous vehicles company for delivery, raised $80M in funding. Backers included Sam and Max Altman, Pelion, Outlander, and SNR, as well as new participation from Offline, DeepWater, and Ryan Graves.
CURATED RESOURCE FOR FOUNDERS…
🤝 A practical Q&A prep kit for founders…
Investors ask tough questions. This kit helps you answer them like a pro.
Fundraising isn’t just about your pitch deck, it’s about how well you answer questions in the room. And if you fumble those, you lose trust fast.
This Investor Q&A Prep Kit gives you real questions that VCs, angels, and accelerator partners ask with detailed help for how to answer them. All these question created with the help of LEADING VCs & FOUNDERS.
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What investors are really asking (the meaning behind the question)
How to answer (framework) a clear structure that actually works
Sample answer not vague stuff, real founder-style responses
Common mistake what most founders get wrong and how to avoid it
NEW VCs IN THE MARKET
🏦 Venture Capital updates
Seven Stars, a San Francisco, CA-based venture capital firm that partners with founders building the next generation of AI companies, launched its inaugural $40M pre-seed and seed-stage fund. The firm’s LP base comprises long-term institutional investors, including a university endowment, pension fund, and firms managing capital on behalf of endowments, foundations and insurance companies, among others. LPs included StepStone Group (NASDAQ: STEP), and Sapphire Partners.
Felicis, a Silicon Valley-based early-stage venture firm, has raised $900 million for its Fund X, marking its largest fund to date. The firm, led by founder Aydin Senkut, has backed over 50 unicorns including Shopify, Twitch, and Adyen, and now has 70% of its active portfolio in AI-native startups. This new fund follows Felicis’ $825M Fund IX (2023) and $600M Fund XIII (2021), as it doubles down on its belief in the emergence of multiple $100B+ AI companies this decade.
KEY STORIES IN TECH
📜 Latest in tech
The Meta AI app is a privacy disaster:
Meta’s AI app lets users unknowingly publish private conversations, including sensitive queries about health, crimes, and personal data, due to unclear sharing settings.
Examples posted publicly include tax evasion tips, home addresses, and even legal character letters with full names—without users realizing these are public.
With over 6.5M downloads since launch, the app has become a viral mess, raising serious concerns about user privacy, design ethics, and Meta’s oversight.
Tesla sues former Optimus engineer over alleged trade secret theft:
Tesla alleges ex-employee Zhongjie “Jay” Li stole confidential data on robotic hand sensors to start Proception, a Y Combinator-backed robotics startup.
The lawsuit claims Li downloaded Optimus-related files on personal devices and researched humanoid hands and VC funding before leaving Tesla.
Just five months after incorporation, Proception unveiled robotic hands resembling Tesla’s designs, prompting Tesla’s legal action.
OpenAI and Mattel partner to bring generative AI to toys and entertainment:
OpenAI and Barbie-maker Mattel have formed a partnership to integrate generative AI into toy design, entertainment content, and digital experiences.
The collaboration will launch its first AI-powered product later this year, focusing on enhancing fan engagement while emphasizing safety and privacy.
Mattel retains control of its IP and will use OpenAI tools like ChatGPT Enterprise internally to aid creative ideation and product development.
Musk's X ad threat appears to be working:
Verizon reportedly started advertising on X again, pledging at least $10 million this year, after the social network threatened the telecommunications firm with a lawsuit.
At least six businesses, including fashion company Ralph Lauren, have struck new ad deals with X following similar lawsuit threats or other reported pressure tactics.
X's strategy of threatening to add entities to an existing lawsuit over an alleged illegal boycott has successfully secured ad-spending commitments from several brands.
Wikipedia pauses AI summaries after editor backlash:
Wikipedia's parent organization, the Wikimedia Foundation, halted its AI summary experiment after a swift and overwhelmingly negative reaction from volunteer editors.
Editors expressed strong concerns that these machine-generated summaries would damage Wikipedia's reputation as a trustworthy information source and devalue its human-curated content.
The community also feared that prominent AI summaries, lacking human oversight, could introduce NPOV issues and undermine Wikipedia's collaborative editing model.
LAST COFFEE SIP
☕Other news
Meta sues app-maker as part of crack down on 'nudifying':
Meta is suing the firm behind CrushAI apps because it ran ads on Facebook and Instagram for services using AI to create non-consensual fake images.
For its wider crackdown, Meta also started sharing over 3,800 unique URLs from "nudify" apps with other tech companies since the end of March.
The company additionally developed new technology to spot ads for these "nudify" apps, even when such promotions try to evade rules by avoiding explicit content.
HIRING ALERT: STARTUPS & VC ROLES
💼 Today’s VC & startup job opportunities
Program Manager - Generator | USA - Apply Here
Investment Trainee - Hashkey Capital | USA - Apply Here
Investment Associate - Schreiber Ventures | USA - Apply Here
Senior Associate - M12 | USA - Apply Here
Investment Analyst - Peak Sustainability Venture | India - Apply Here
Startup Scouting Partner - 8state venture | UAE - Aplpy Here
Investor - Griffin Gaming Partner | USA - Apply Here
Staff Accountant - Energy Impact Partner | USA - Apply Here
Writer - First Round Capital | USA - Apply Here
Partner 32 - a16z | 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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