☕ Tech billionaires launch new bank for startups, Lovable to raise $150 Million & Microsoft to layoff 9,000 employees.
Honor unveils 'world's thinnest' foldable phone & More.
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📬 What’s in store:
Today’s Picks: Valuation guide, term sheet guide, investor data room kit, Figma S-1 insights, fixing AI product issues, legal docs pack, AI startups and venture debt, EU VC list, proving your idea, North Star metrics, financial model template.
Lovable nears $2B valuation with new $150M fundraise.
ChatGPT boosts news referrals, but can’t replace lost search traffic.
Microsoft to lay off another 9,000 employees.
Tech billionaires launch new bank for startups.
Baidu debuts AI video generator and revamps search engine.
Honor unveils Magic V5, claims 'world's thinnest' foldable.
OpenAI disavows Robinhood’s tokenized equity offering.
VC & Startup Jobs: VC & investors backed startup hiring for remote roles.
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STARTUPS RAISING MILLIONS
💰 Startup funding updates
icogz, a Dubai, UAE-based provider of an AI-native business intelligence and analytics platform empowered by Aryabot, raised $1.4M in Pre-Seed funding. The round was led by angel investors and syndicates from the UAE and India.
Asepha, a New York-based AI pharmacy automation startup, raised $4M in a 5x oversubscribed round led by Glasswing Ventures and Core Innovation Capital.
Terra CO2, a Golden, CO-based ow-carbon building materials company, raised US$124.5M in new equity capital. In addition to the Series B led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Eagle Materials, GenZero, and Just Climate, the round included major investment from Barclays Climate Ventures. Additional strategic investors to join the round included Prologis, Cemex, and Siemens Financial Services.
Circulate Health, a Novato, CA-based longevity startup which specializes in therapeutic plasma exchange (TPE) to advance human healthspan and lifespan, raised $12M in Seed funding. The round was led by Khosla Ventures with participation from Seaside Ventures and CSC Ventures.
Wonderful, an Israeli developer of an AI agents’ platform, raised $34m in seed funding. The round was led by Index Ventures, with participation from Bessemer Venture Partners and Vine Ventures.
Kardium, a Vancouver, Canada-based developer of the globe pulsed field system, a treatment for atrial fibrillation (AF), raised $250M in funding. The round was led by Janus Henderson Investors, Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), MMCAP, Piper Heartland Healthcare Capital, Eventide Asset Management, and Eckuity Capital.
Savvy Wealth, a NYC-based provider of a digital-first platform for financial advisors centered around optimizing human financial advice, raised $72M in Series B funding. The round was led by Industry Ventures, with participation from Vestigo Ventures, Euclidean Capital, Canvas Ventures, Thrive Capital, The House Fund, Brewer Lane Ventures and former Focus Financial executive Vamsi Yadlapati.
Argon AI, a NYC-based provider of an AI-native workspace purpose-built for life sciences, raised $5.5M in Seed funding. The round was led by Crosslink Capital and Wireframe Ventures with participation from Y Combinator, Pioneer Fund, and other investors in AI and digital health.
Cosma, a Nice, France-based benthic monitoring startup, raised $2.9m in funding. The round was led by WIND and Ternel, with participation from 50 Partners, Caisse d’Épargne Côte d’Azur, and IFREMER.
Bonx, a Paris, France-based provider of an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) platform, raised $8.6m in seed funding. The round was led by 9900 Capital, with participation from Kima Ventures, Purple, OSS Ventures, and Dynamo Ventures.
Metafide, a NYC-based startup combining human intuition and artificial intelligence to revolutionize financial trading, raised $3.275M in funding. The round was led by Payton Jonson with participation from Blockchain Founder’s Fund (BFF), Cogitent, Comma3 Ventures, IBC Group, Plassa Capital, London Real Ventures, Sweep Ventures, Ethos Capital, and DChained Capital and Angel investors Stephen Burnazian, John Tuminello, Lax Pichappan, Hern Kim.
TuringDream, a Madrid, Spain-based provider of an AI platform that enables organisations to create and manage multi-agent-based applications (MABAs), raised €6M in Seed funding. The round was led by Adara Ventures and HWK, with participation from Next Tier Ventures.
Talon.One, a Berlin, Germany-based enterprise loyalty and promotion software provider, raised $135M in growth funding. Backers included Silversmith Capital Partners and Meritech Capital, with participation of existing investor CRV.
Remark, a Boston, MA-based company building human-trained AI product experts for commerce, raised $16M in Series A funding. The round was led by Inspired Capital, with participation from Stripe, Neo, Spero Ventures, Shine Capital, and Visible Ventures.
NEW VCs IN THE MARKET
🏦 Venture Capital updates
AN Venture Partners (ANV), a San Francisco, CA- and Tokyo, Japan-based global biotech venture capital firm, closed its first fund, AN Venture Partners I, at USD200m (JPY29 billion). More than 20 Limited Partners (LPs) invested in the fund led by Japan Investment Corporation, Shionogi & Co., Ltd., Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., MUFG Bank, Ltd. and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation.
Catalio Capital Management, LP, a healthcare investment firm, closed its fourth venture fund, Catalio Nexus Fund IV, with over $400M in commitments across the Fund and its related co-investment vehicles. The fund received support from current investors as well as new, global institutional investors, RIAs, foundations and endowments.
KEY STORIES IN TECH
📜 Latest in tech
Lovable nears $2B valuation with new $150M fundraise:
Swedish AI startup Lovable is raising over $150M at a ~$2B valuation, just months after its $15M “pre-Series A” round led by Creandum.
The company hit $50M in ARR in six months by letting users build full web apps from prompts, with pricing starting at $25/month.
Its new AI agent can now edit and debug code, with usage-based pricing that aligns with the agent-driven SaaS trend appealing to investors like Accel and 20VC.
ChatGPT boosts news referrals, but can’t replace lost search traffic:
ChatGPT referrals to news sites have grown 25x since early 2024, but they remain too small to offset the sharp decline in search-based traffic caused by AI Overviews.
Organic search traffic for news publishers dropped from 2.3B visits to under 1.7B in a year, as more users get answers directly from AI tools without clicking through.
While some sites like Reuters and Business Insider saw notable ChatGPT-driven traffic gains, others, like The New York Times, saw smaller increases amid legal tensions with OpenAI.
Microsoft to lay off another 9,000 employees:
Microsoft is laying off about 9,000 employees, which affects less than 4% of its global workforce across different teams, geographies, and levels of experience.
The announcement follows several previous cuts this year, including the elimination of over 6,000 jobs in May and at least 300 more just last month.
The company stated it wants to reduce the number of layers of managers that stand between individual contributors and the company's top executives.
Tech billionaires launch new bank for startups:
Tech billionaires Palmer Luckey and Joe Lonsdale are launching Erebor, a new bank to serve startups and crypto firms that traditional lenders often reject.
The venture has filed for a national bank charter to provide traditional banking products and give credit to companies that are not well served currently.
Stablecoins are expected to be a major part of Erebor's operations, as it wants to become a highly regulated entity for facilitating these transactions.
Baidu debuts AI video generator and revamps search engine:
Baidu launched MuseSteamer, an AI-powered video generator for businesses that turns images into 10-second videos, with Turbo, Pro, and Lite versions.
The company also upgraded its search engine, enabling longer queries, and voice/image-based input with AI-enhanced, targeted results.
Unlike competitors like OpenAI’s Sora, Baidu’s new video tool is business-only for now, as it faces pressure from rivals ByteDance, Tencent, and Alibaba.
Honor unveils Magic V5, claims 'world's thinnest' foldable:
Honor launched the Magic V5 foldable, measuring just 8.8mm when folded (Ivory White variant), slightly thinner than Oppo's Find N5 — though this excludes the larger camera bump.
The device features a Snapdragon 8 Elite chip, up to 16GB RAM, a 5,820mAh battery, triple cameras with a 64MP periscope lens, and dual 120Hz LTPO OLED screens.
While the title of thinnest is debatable due to design tradeoffs, the Magic V5 may also share the title of lightest foldable (217g) alongside Vivo’s X Fold 5.
LAST COFFEE SIP
☕Other news
OpenAI disavows Robinhood’s tokenized equity offering:
OpenAI publicly condemned Robinhood’s sale of “OpenAI tokens,” clarifying the tokens don’t represent OpenAI equity and were not approved or endorsed by the company.
Robinhood claims the tokens offer exposure via an SPV structure, but OpenAI says any equity transfer requires their explicit approval, which wasn’t given.
The situation highlights growing tensions as platforms tokenize access to private companies, often without direct involvement or consent from the firms themselves.
HIRING ALERT: STARTUPS & VC ROLES
💼 Today’s VC & startup job opportunities
Investment Trainee (US) - Hashkey Capital | USA - Apply Here
Associate - Episode 1 Venture | UK - Apply Here
Fund Operations Manager - Teja Venture | Singapore - Apply Here
Chief of Staff - 11x Capital | India - Apply Here
Associate - Entrepreneur First | USA - Apply Here
Investment Analyst - Camber Partners | USA - Apply Here
Associate (Software Infrastructure) - Omerse Venture | USA - Apply Here
Partner 36 - a16z | USA - Apply Here
Senior Associate - Serica VC | USA - Apply Here
Investment Intern - DTCP | UK - Apply Here
Investment Analyst - Blue Capital | 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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