Trump administration stops $5B EV charging program & OpenAI spends $14M on Super Bowl Ad to promote AI adoption.

DAILY PICKS

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• The definitive study on founder ownership in VC-backed companies from Carta.

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• Peter Yang on what software's next chapter is really about.

• Building cap table as a founder: template to download.

• Highly recommend: Top AI resource trusted by MIT students and experts from OpenAI and NVIDIA.

INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITY WORTH EXPLORING

📢 This Tech Shrinks Shipping Costs by 31x—Why Investors Are Backing Smart Cups

This got me thinking: Why are companies still shipping heavy, wasteful liquid products when Smart Cups' technology eliminates the need entirely? Their patented microencapsulation tech enables major brands to create just-add-water products—from beverages to medicine and even pet care—cutting shipping costs, waste, and carbon emissions. Smart Cups licenses its breakthrough technology to established companies, helping them create sustainable, high-margin products.

Why it matters:

• Shipping liquid is inefficient—Smart Cups’ tech fits 31x more products in the same space.

• Huge environmental impact—cutting carbon emissions and packaging waste.

• Applies beyond beverages—think medicine, pet care, and military rations.

Why I’m watching:

• $11M+ in funding & patented tech.

• CEO Chris Kanik won Gordon Ramsay’s Food Stars, securing a $250K investment.

• 2021 Time Magazine Best Inventions of the Year

• Strategic partnerships with the U.S. Army & major retailers signal massive growth potential.

Now, they’re raising $2.61M to scale production and expand partnerships.

Want to invest in the future of sustainable products? Learn more →

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STARTUPS RAISING MILLIONS

💰 Startup funding updates

Self Inspection, a San Diego, CA-based AI-powered platform for the automotive inspections market, closed a $3m seed funding round. The round was co-led by Costanoa Ventures and DVx Ventures, with participation from Westlake Financial, one of the largest financial institutions for automotive loans.

Anduril, a U.S.-based defense tech company, is in talks to raise up to $2.5B at a $28B valuation, led by Founders Fund with a record $1B check. The company, which doubled its revenue to $1B in 2024, previously raised $1.5B to fund its billion-dollar weapons megafactory in Ohio.

&AI, a San Francisco, CA-based AI agent for patent attorneys, raised $6.5M seed funding. The round was led by First Round Capital with participation from Y Combinator, SV Angel, BoxGroup and angels Kulveer Taggar, JJ Fliegelman and Rich Aberman.

Clean Core Thorium Energy (CCTE), a Chicago, IL-based nuclear fuel company, raised $15.5M in Seed funding. The round was led by a Singapore-based family office and leaders including Sumant Sinha, CEO and Founder of ReNew, Lakshmi Narayanan, former CEO of Cognizant Technologies, and Deepak Parekh, former Chairman of HDFC Bank.

Hiveclass, a New York-based edtech platform for online P.E. and wellness courses, raised a $1.5M seed round led by Spring Mountain Capital.

Lynx, a Boston, MA-based provider of a fintech platform for healthcare payments and administration, raised $27M in Series A funding. The round, which brought the total amount to $44M, was led by Flare Capital Partners, with participation from CVS Health Ventures, McKesson Ventures, and existing investors .406 Ventures, Obvious Ventures, and Frist Cressey Ventures.

Comstruct, a Munich, Germany-based constructiontech startup, raised €12.5M in funding. The round was led by GV and 20VC.

Avelios Medical, Munich, Germany-based provider of a hospital information system (HIS), €30M in Series A funding. The round was led by Sequoia Capital alongside existing investors Revent and HTGF.

Salience Labs, an Oxford, UK-based company which specializes in photonic solutions targeting connectivity for AI datacenter infrastructure, raised $30M in funding. The round was led by ICM HPQC Fund and Applied Ventures, LLC, with participation from Strategic Investment Fund, Braavos, and existing investors Oxford Sciences Enterprises, Cambridge Innovation Capital, Silicon Catalyst and Jalal Bagherli.

Reservoir, a US-based crypto startup, raised $14m in Series A funding. The round was led by Union Square Ventures with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Variant, Archetype, and 1kx. In conjunction with the funding, Nick Grossman, a partner at Union Square Ventures, joined Reservoir’s board.

Superlogic, a Miami, FL-based company which specializes in experiential rewards technology, raised $13.7M in Series A funding. The round, which brought the total amount to $21M, was led by Powerledger, with participation from prominent investors, including Sangha Capital, 10SQ, Nima Capital, Actai Unicorn Fund, Hyla Liquid Venture Fund, Liquid 2 Ventures. Other Superlogic investors also included leading enterprises and blockchain funds.

Centerseat, an Austin, TX-based physical security compliance company, raised $2.7M in Seed funding. The round was led by Silverton Partners, with participation from angel investors.

75F, a Minneapolis, MN-based company which specializes in IoT and AI-driven commercial HVAC automation, raised additional $45M in Series B funding. The round was led by Accurant International’s Net Zero Alliance, with participation from Carrier Global Corporation, Climate Investment, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Next47, and WIND Ventures.

Laclarée, a Villeurbanne, France-based provider of an autofocusing eyeglasses, raised €3.5M in Seed funding. Backers included Rimonci, UI-Investissement (former Kreaxi, France), High-Tech GründerFonds, and angels. The €3.5M will complement EIC accelerator (Europe)’s €2.5M financing.

NEW VCs IN THE MARKET

🏦 Venture Capital updates

Trump pushes to end carried interest tax break, VC industry pushes back:

• President Trump urged Republican lawmakers to eliminate the carried interest tax break, which allows private equity and venture fund managers to pay lower capital gains tax rates on investment earnings.

• The National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) warns that removing the tax break could hurt high-risk investments in startups, disrupting progress in AI, crypto, life sciences, and national defense.

• In 2017, Trump extended the holding period for carried interest tax benefits from one to three years, a change that VCs found acceptable, but a full repeal would be a major blow to the industry, particularly in Silicon Valley and New York.

KEY STORIES IN TECH

📜 Latest in tech

Ilya Sutskever’s startup in talks to fundraise at roughly $20B valuation:

• Safe Superintelligence, founded by former OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, is in discussions to raise funding at a valuation of at least $20 billion, a fourfold jump from its $5 billion valuation last September.

• The company, which has raised $1 billion so far from investors like Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz, remains secretive about its work and has yet to generate revenue.

• Sutskever, known for his key contributions to OpenAI’s breakthroughs, leads the venture alongside ex-OpenAI researcher Daniel Levy and former Apple AI lead Daniel Gross.

Apple may launch iPhone SE 4 and PowerBeats Pro 2 on February 11:

• Apple is expected to unveil the fourth-generation iPhone SE, featuring a USB-C port, Face ID, and Apple Intelligence compatibility, possibly replacing Touch ID permanently.

• The iPhone SE 4 could be Apple’s first device with an in-house modem, aiming for strong adoption in China and India despite declining iPhone sales in the Chinese market.

• Apple is also set to launch PowerBeats Pro 2, rumored to include built-in heart rate tracking, expanding its health-focused wearable lineup beyond the Apple Watch.

DeepSeek’s R1 reportedly ‘more vulnerable’ to jailbreaking than other AI models:

• DeepSeek’s R1 model can be manipulated to generate harmful content, including bioweapon attack plans and self-harm campaigns, according to The Wall Street Journal.

• Security experts say R1 is “more vulnerable to jailbreaking” than competing AI models, with The Journal successfully bypassing safeguards to produce dangerous outputs.

• Unlike ChatGPT, which refused the same prompts, DeepSeek R1 reportedly complied with requests for extremist manifestos and phishing emails, raising concerns over its safety controls.

OpenAI spends $14M on Super Bowl Ad to promote AI adoption:

• OpenAI debuted a $14 million Super Bowl ad showcasing AI as a natural evolution of human innovation, highlighting practical ChatGPT applications like business planning and language tutoring.

• The ad, developed under new CMO Kate Rouch, avoided AGI discussions and used human-created animation despite leveraging OpenAI’s text-to-video tool Sora for concept development.

• As OpenAI seeks a $300 billion valuation and $11.6 billion in revenue this year, the ad serves as a major branding push amid rising competition from Google’s Gemini and Meta’s AI-powered Ray-Ban smart glasses.

Apple’s new research robot takes a page from Pixar’s playbook:

• Apple’s latest research paper explores expressive robot movement, using a Pixar-inspired lamp robot to demonstrate how motion can enhance human-robot interactions.

• The research suggests future Apple consumer robotics, possibly a smart home hub with kinetic capabilities, echoing Amazon’s Astro but with a non-anthropomorphic design.

• Reports indicate Apple is ramping up its robotics division, with rumors of a robotic home hub featuring an iPad-like display and interactive movement for intuitive engagement.

Trump administration stops $5B EV charging program:

• The Trump administration has paused the $5 billion National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program, halting the approval of new funding requests and plans for EV charger deployment to align with its policies.

• The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) plans to publish updated guidance by spring, allowing for public comment before issuing revised guidelines to resume funding and deployment activities under the NEVI program.

• This suspension risks the progress made by NEVI, which had improved in late 2024, and could lead to reduced EV charger installations, impacting electric vehicle sales due to increased charging anxiety among consumers.

LAST COFFEE SIP

☕Other news

Elon Musk said he’s not interested in acquiring TikTok:

• Elon Musk stated he is “not chomping at the bit to acquire TikTok,” denying reports that he had bid for the app despite speculation following Trump’s push for a forced sale.

• Musk claimed he doesn’t use TikTok personally and has no plans for how he would run it, though he suggested he would analyze its algorithm for ways to make it more beneficial to humanity.

• His comments came amid discussions on his role in Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), where he emphasized the difficulty of overcoming bureaucracy in government.

Apple drops lawsuit against former iOS engineer accused of leaking Vision Pro details:

• Apple filed a lawsuit against Andrew Aude, a former iOS Software Engineer, for leaking confidential information to The Wall Street Journal and The Information.

• Aude was responsible for leaking details about Apple's Journal app and Vision Pro, along with other confidential company policies and products.

• The lawsuit has been dismissed after a settlement, and Aude has publicly apologized for sharing sensitive information during his time at Apple.

HIRING ALERT: STARTUPS & VC ROLES

💼 Today’s VC & startup job opportunities

• Venture Analyst - Hearst Venture | USA - Apply Here

• Technical Visiting Analyst - Concept Venture | UK - Apply Here

• Venture Partner - Dardania Capital | USA - Apply Here

• Analyst - MongoDB Venture | USA - Apply Here

• Chief of Staff - Voyager Venture | USA - Apply Here

• MBA Venture Capital Associate Intern - DRW Venture Capital | USA - Apply Here

• Associate - Entrepreneur First | USA - Apply Here

CURATED RESOURCES

🎁 Don’t miss - Curated Resources for Founders.

• Write Your Monthly Investor Update (Email Template Download).

• Excel Template: Early Stage Startup Financial Model For Fundraising

• 2700+ US Angel Investors & VC Firms Contact Database (Email + LinkedIn Link).

• 1000+ Euro Tech Angel Investors & VC Firms Database.

• 350+ Indian Angel Investors & Venture Capital Firms Contact Database (Email + LinkedIn Link).

• 400+ French Angel Investors & Venture Capital Firms Contact Database (Email + LinkedIn Link).

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• 150+ African Angel Investors Contact Database (Email + LinkedIn Link).

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