Figma files for IPO & Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund closed a $4.6 billion.

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STARTUPS RAISING MILLIONS

💰 Startup funding updates

Loti AI, a Seattle, WA-based leader in likeness protection technology, closed a $16.2M Series A funding. The round was led by Khosla Ventures with additional investments from FUSE, Bling Capital, and Ensemble. 

Doss, a San Francisco, CA-based AI-powered ERP and data platform, raised $18m in Series A funding. The round was led by Theory Ventures.

Onfly, a Sao Paulo, Brazil-based B2B travel tech company, raised $40m in Series B funding. The round was led by Tidemark, with participation from Endeavor Catalyst and Left Lane Capital.

Well, a Chapel Hill, NC-based AI-driven health engagement company, raised $30m in additional funding. The round was supported by new strategic partners and existing lead investors from previous rounds of funding.

TheStage AI, a Delaware based deep tech startup, raised $4.5M in funding. Backers included Mehreen Malik, Dominic Williams (DFINITY), Atlantic Labs (SoundCloud), DVC and AAL VC.

Ideem, a Kansas City, MO-based company which specializes in payments online, raised $2.4M in Seed funding. Backers included Sovereigns Capital, Quona Ventures, Everywhere Ventures, Hustle Fund, Oread Angels, Network KS, and a group of angel investors.

Liminal, a NYC-based provider of a real-time intelligence platform for complex markets and regulated industries, raised $8.5M in Series A funding. The round was led by Noro-Moseley Partners, with participation from other investors.

Friday Harbor, a Seattle, WA-based provider of an AI-powered platform that helps loan officers assemble complete and compliant loan files in real time, raised $6M in Seed funding. The round was led by Abstract Ventures with participation from Wischoff Ventures, Blend (NYSE: BLND) and the AI2 Incubator.

Virtue AI, a San Francisco, CA-based privacy-preserving AI systems company, raised $30M in Seed and Series A funding. Backers inlcuded Lightspeed Venture Partners and Walden Catalyst Ventures, and joined by Prosperity7 and other existing investors including Factory, Osage University Partners, Lip-Bu Tan, Amarjit Gill and Chris Re.

Corvic AI, a Mountain View, CA-based data-centric AI cognitive infrastructure company, raised $12M in Seed funding. The round was led by M Ventures and Bosch Ventures, with participation from Foothill Ventures, Lam Capital, LDV Partners, K2 Access Fund and Brian Long (Atlantic Bridge).

hellocare.ai, a Clearwater, FL-based provider of a AI-assisted virtual care delivery platform, raised $47M in funding. The round was led by HealthQuest Capital, with participation from Bon Secours Mercy Health, UCHealth, OSF Ventures, and LRVHealth.

Phantom Neuro, an Austin, TX-based neurotech company advancing human-machine interfaces, raised $19M Series A funding. The round was led by Ottobock, with participation from Breakout Ventures, Draper Associates, LionBird Ventures, Time BioVentures, and Risk and Return, as well as new investors Actual VC, METIS Innovative, e1 Ventures, Jumpspace, MainSheet Ventures, and Brown Advisory.

NetRise, an Austin, TX-based software supply chain security company, raised $10M in Series A funding. The round was led by DNX Ventures with participation from existing investors Miramar Digital Ventures, Sorenson Capital, Squadra Ventures, and Talons Ventures.

Homemove, a Norwich, UK-based provider of a platform that allows users to manage their home move process, raised $5M in funding. The round was led by Fuel Ventures with participation from Blandford Family Office, and Oxford Innovation.

Collide, a Houston, TX-based provider of a GenAI platform for the energy sector, raised $5M in Seed funding. The round was led by Mercury Fund, with participation from Bryan Sheffield, Billy Quinn, David Albin, and others.

Mindset AI, a London, UK-based provider of an embedded AI agent platform, raised £4.3M in funding. The round was led by Edge VC and Pembroke VCT, with participation from existing investors, and Mountside Ventures.

Mainspring, a Menlo Park, CA-based linear generator products company, raised $258M in Series F funding. The round was led by General Catalyst, with participation from Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund, DCVC, Temasek, Marunouchi Innovation Partners, M&G Investments, Pictet Group, and earlier investors including Lightrock and LGT Bank, Khosla Ventures, and Gates Frontier, among others.

Xaba, a Toronto, Canada-based company building synthetic brains for industrial robots with zero code, raised $6M in Seed extension funding. The round was led by Hitachi Ventures with participation from Hazelview Ventures, BDC Capital, Exposition Ventures, and Impact Venture Capital.

Allegrow, a Glasgow, Scotland, UK-based provider of an AI platform keeping B2B emails out of spam, raised $1M in funding. The round was led by Golden Section, with participation from Harrison Rose out of the Sequoia Scout Fund.

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NEW VCs IN THE MARKET

🏦 Venture Capital updates

Founders Fund has closed a $4.6 billion growth fund, up from its previous $3.4B fund in 2022, signaling renewed VC bullishness. The oversubscribed raise drew 270 LPs and included significant GP capital. While active in AI, Founders Fund is also doubling down on defense tech with portfolio companies like Anduril, SpaceX, and Flock Safety.

KEY STORIES IN TECH

📜 Latest in tech

Figma files confidential paperwork for IPO despite market volatility:

• Figma has filed confidential IPO paperwork, signaling early plans to go public even as other major IPOs like Klarna and StubHub have paused due to trade-related market instability.

• The design software startup was last valued at $12.5 billion after a May 2024 tender offer; Adobe’s $20B acquisition attempt fell through in 2023 due to regulatory pushback.

• Backed by top VCs including Sequoia, Index Ventures, and Andreessen Horowitz, Figma has not confirmed a timeline for its IPO, which typically follows 4–6 weeks after filing.

OpenAI hires team behind GV-backed AI eval platform Context.ai:

• AI analytics startup Context.ai is shutting down as its co-founders, Henry Scott-Green and Alex Gamble, join OpenAI to work on model evaluations; terms of the acqui-hire weren’t disclosed.

• Context.ai built tools to help developers understand and measure AI model performance, addressing the common complaint that models are “black boxes.”

• At OpenAI, the founders will focus on building evaluation tools to help developers better track and improve model output — a critical need as models become more complex.

Apple taps synthetic data and private device polling to boost AI performance:

• Apple is using synthetic data and differential privacy to improve underperforming AI features like notification summaries, without accessing actual user content.

• Devices that opt in to share analytics receive anonymized "embeddings" of fake data to compare against real content locally, helping Apple identify and refine weak model areas.

• This technique is currently applied to Genmoji and will soon expand to tools like Image Playground, Memories Creation, and Writing Tools.

OpenAI is reportedly developing its own X-like social media platform:

• OpenAI is prototyping a ChatGPT-powered social media network featuring a social feed focused on image generation, The Verge reports.

• It’s unclear whether the network will launch as a standalone app or integrate into ChatGPT, but CEO Sam Altman has been seeking external feedback.

• The platform could help OpenAI gather real-time training data — something competitors like X and Meta already leverage for their AI models.

Anthropic forms new team to boost AI sales through AWS partnership:

• Anthropic is building a dedicated team to accelerate AI adoption among AWS customers, with job listings touting “multi-billion dollar revenue opportunities.”

• Backed by $8 billion in Amazon funding, Anthropic has optimized its Claude models for AWS’ Bedrock platform and is already working with Amazon partners like Accenture and Palantir.

• The close partnership has drawn regulatory attention from the FTC and UK’s CMA, though neither has moved to block the collaboration under current rules.

Nvidia faces $5.5 billion charge as US restricts chip sales to China:

• The U.S. government informed Nvidia it now requires a license to export H20 chips to China, citing national security risks related to supercomputing.

• Nvidia expects a $5.5 billion impact in Q1 FY2026 and its stock dropped ~6% in after-hours trading.

• The move follows concerns that China’s DeepSeek used H20 chips for advanced AI training, and comes just after Nvidia pledged U.S. chip investments following CEO Jensen Huang’s reported talks with President Trump.

Mark Zuckerberg testifies in Meta antitrust monopoly trial:

• Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified in court defending his enterprise against government accusations that it illegally sustained a social media monopoly via strategic company purchases like Instagram.

• The Federal Trade Commission presented older internal messages, asserting Meta used a "buy-or-bury" tactic by obtaining emerging rivals like WhatsApp to eliminate competitive threats.

• Meta's legal team countered that the corporation faces substantial contest from platforms like TikTok and warned against undoing previously authorized mergers finalized more than a decade prior.

LAST COFFEE SIP

☕Other news

Figma sent a cease-and-desist letter to Lovable over the term ‘Dev Mode’:

• Figma sent a cease-and-desist letter to Lovable, demanding it stop using the term “Dev Mode” — a name Figma trademarked in 2023, though the phrase is widely used in developer tools.

• Lovable, an AI-driven “vibe coding” design tool, refuses to comply, arguing the term is generic and hinting the legal move is a response to growing competition; its CEO shared the letter online with a grin emoji.

• The clash highlights growing tension between legacy design platforms and new AI-native competitors; Figma is prepping for an IPO while Lovable recently raised $15M and is openly courting Figma’s users.

HIRING ALERT: STARTUPS & VC ROLES

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