Google created a new AI model for talking to dolphins & OpenAI launches new GPT-4.1 models.

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STARTUPS RAISING MILLIONS

💰 Startup funding updates

ClearCOGS, a Chicago, IL-based provider of AI-powered predictive analytics platform for restaurants, raised $3.8M in Seed funding. The round was led by Closed Loop Partners’ Venture Group, with participation from Myriad Venture Partners, Level Up Ventures and Hearst.

Vinyl Equity, a Chicago, IL-based transfer agent for public companies, raised $11.5M in Seed funding. The round was led by Index Ventures and Spark Capital with participation from Infinity Ventures, Cambrian Fintech, and other angels.

The Ryl Company, a Morristown, NJ-based beverage products company, raised $15M in Series B Funding. Backers included Feuerstein, Wallen, Get Engaged Media’s Cam Fordham, Alex Dermer, Ben Hiott, Austin Neal of Sticks Management and Seth England of Big Loud Records.

Pollhouse, a London, UK-based tech-enabled pool entertainment business, raised $34M in funding. The round was led by Sharp Alpha, and dmg ventures. Other participants included David Blitzer, Simon Sports, Active Partners, Emerging Fund, and Signature Hospitality Group.

Fourier, a Palo Alto, CA-based hydrogen production systems company, raised $18.5M in Series A funding. The round was led by Airbus Ventures.

Octolane, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of an AI-driven CRM that automates sales actions and CRM updates, raised $2.6M in Seed funding. Backers included Brian Shin, Kulveer Taggar, Cindy Bi and Dave Messina. Y Combinator, Lan Xuezhao, and General Catalyst Apex also participated.

Parallel Systems, a Los Angeles, CA-based provider of an autonomous battery-electric rail system, raised $38M in Series B funding. The round was led by Anthos Capital, joined by Collaborative Fund, as well as Congruent Ventures, Riot Ventures and others.

C2FO, a Leawood, KS-based provider of an on-demand working capital platform, raised $30M in funding. The round was led by International Finance Corporation (IFC).

Tapcheck, a Plano, TX-based on-demand pay provider, raised $225M in Equity and Debt funding. The round consisted of a $25M Series A extension led by existing investor, PeakSpan Capital, and a $200M credit facility provided by Victory Park Capital.

Midnite, a London, UK-based provider of a sportsbook and casino platform, raided $10M in Series B funding. The round was led by Discerning Capital, the Raine Group, and Play Ventures, with additional investment from Venrex and Big Bets.

Klara, a Paris, France-based employee skills management and workplace-based training solutions provider, raised £8.5M in its third round of funding. The round was led by Endeit Capital with participation from Side Capital and Ankaa Ventures.

Elm AI, a NYC-based provider of an AI-driven platform helping enterprises improve sustainability and operational performance across their supply chains, raised $2M in funding. The round was led by Beta Boom Fund and Working Capital Fund, with participation from Boro Capital Partners, Very Serious Ventures, Gorges Ventures, The Bond Collective, and Textbook Ventures.

Blue Water Autonomy, a Boston, MA-based technology company building autonomous ships for the U.S. Navy, raised $14M in Seed funding. Backers included Eclipse, Riot, and Impatient Ventures.

Habitual, a London, UK-based healthcare company providing weight loss solutions, raised £1M in funding. Backers included Lexham Partners.

Noto, a NYC-based provider of a software platform for lesson-based businesses like tutoring centers and music schools, raised $3.8M inSeed funding. The round was led by Base10 Partners.

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NEW VCs IN THE MARKET

🏦 Venture Capital updates

Revent, a Berlin-based VC focused on “planetary and societal health,” has closed a €100M ($109M) Fund II to back climate, healthcare, and economic empowerment startups. Backers include Otto Group, Beiersdorf, and the European Investment Fund. Revent has invested in 26 startups to date and sees growing interest in mission-driven, performance-focused tech across Europe.

KEY STORIES IN TECH

📜 Latest in tech

Gemini vs Claude in Pokémon sparks new AI benchmark controversy:

• A viral post claimed Google’s Gemini outpaced Anthropic’s Claude in the original Pokémon games, but omitted that Gemini had an assist: a custom minimap simplifying decision-making.

• The debate highlights how non-standard benchmark implementations can skew AI performance results, even in lighthearted tests like Pokémon gameplay.

• Similar issues have arisen in more serious benchmarks — like Claude 3.7 Sonnet's boosted scores with a custom scaffold and Meta's fine-tuned Maverick for LM Arena — further complicating model comparisons.

OpenAI to wind down GPT-4.5 API access by July 14:

• OpenAI will discontinue GPT-4.5 API access on July 14, pushing developers to adopt GPT-4.1, which it claims offers similar or better performance at a lower cost.

• GPT-4.5, code-named Orion, remains available in ChatGPT’s research preview but is being phased out due to high operational costs and limited performance gains over newer models.

• Despite its advanced training and writing strengths, GPT-4.5 has been deemed too expensive to sustain via API, with usage priced at $75–$150 per million tokens.

Google created a new AI model for talking to dolphins:

• Google DeepMind released DolphinGemma, an AI model trained on Atlantic spotted dolphin vocalizations from the Wild Dolphin Project to study dolphin “speech.”

• Built on Google’s lightweight Gemma models, DolphinGemma can generate dolphin-like sounds and is efficient enough to run on mobile devices, like the Pixel 9.

• Researchers will use the model this summer to power real-time vocalization and “reply” experiments in the wild, upgrading from Pixel 6 to enable simultaneous model use and signal analysis.

Hugging Face buys a humanoid robotics startup:

• Hugging Face has acquired France-based Pollen Robotics, maker of the humanoid robot Reachy 2, for an undisclosed amount to boost its robotics initiatives.

• Pollen, founded in 2016, raised around $2.83 million before its exit and partnered with Hugging Face last year on “Le Robot,” an open source household chore robot.

• Hugging Face plans to continue selling Reachy 2 and will allow developers to access and improve its code, expanding its robotics team led by a former Tesla Optimus engineer.

Nvidia plans to manufacture AI supercomputers in the US:

• Nvidia plans to manufacture AI supercomputers entirely in the U.S. for the first time, commissioning over a million square feet of manufacturing space in Arizona and Texas with partners like TSMC, Foxconn, and Wistron.

• The company aims to produce up to half a trillion dollars of AI infrastructure in the United States within the next four years through collaborations with global manufacturing leaders to strengthen supply chain resilience.

• Jensen Huang, Nvidia's CEO, emphasized that building AI chips and supercomputers in America will help meet growing demand, create hundreds of thousands of jobs, and drive trillions in economic security.

Jack Dorsey and Elon Musk would like to ‘delete all IP law’:

• Elon Musk and Jack Dorsey sparked controversy by advocating for the elimination of intellectual property laws, with Dorsey stating "delete all IP law" amid ongoing lawsuits against AI companies over copyright infringement.

• Critics argued this stance represents a war on creators, while Dorsey countered that the current IP system benefits gatekeepers rather than fairly compensating artists and limits creativity through excessive restrictions.

• Musk has consistently criticized patents, once calling them "for the weak" and previously pledging that Tesla wouldn't enforce its patents against companies using them in good faith.

OpenAI debuts GPT-4.1 models optimized for real-world coding tasks:

• OpenAI launched GPT-4.1, GPT-4.1 mini, and GPT-4.1 nano — multimodal models with a 1-million-token context window — focused on advanced coding and instruction-following use cases.

• GPT-4.1 outperforms GPT-4o on coding benchmarks like SWE-bench and supports longer inputs, but remains less accurate with large token loads and requires more explicit prompts.

• Pricing ranges from $0.10 to $2 per million input tokens depending on the model tier, with GPT-4.1 nano positioned as OpenAI’s cheapest and fastest model yet.

LAST COFFEE SIP

☕Other news

Rippling is trying to serve Deel’s CEO, but bailiffs can’t find him:

• HR tech firm Rippling is struggling to serve Deel CEO Alex Bouaziz with legal papers in a high-profile corporate espionage case, as French bailiffs can't locate him at his Paris address.

• The lawsuit accuses Deel of paying a Rippling employee to spy on the company — claims Deel denies. Rippling may now seek permission to serve Bouaziz via email.

• Bouaziz’s whereabouts remain unclear; though he's reportedly "highly nomadic," his social profiles list locations in Tel Aviv and New York.

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