Perplexity closed a $500M funding round & Apple cancels iPhone subscription service plan

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STARTUPS RAISING MILLIONS

Startup Funding Updates

Perplexity, a San Francisco-based AI-powered search engine that provides AI-generated answers and summaries, raised $500M in funding. The round was led by Institutional Venture Partners, according to Bloomberg sources, valuing the company at $9 billion.

Ex-Twitch CEO Emmett Shear is launching Stem AI, a stealth-mode startup developing software for AI systems that align with human behavior, preferences, and ethics. The company was incorporated in June 2023 with backing from Andreessen Horowitz (a16z).

Anysphere, a San Francisco-based developer of AI-powered coding assistant Cursor, raised $100M in Series B funding at a $2.6 billion valuation. The round was led by Thrive Capital, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz.

Hauler Hero, a San Diego, CA-based tech platform that helps waste management companies scale their businesses, raised $10M in Seed funding. The round was led by I2BF Global Ventures, K5 Global, Somersault Ventures, Recall Capital, and executives from ServiceTitan.

Decart, a San Francisco, CA-based AI research lab, raised $32M in Series A funding. The round was led by Benchmark, with participation from existing investors Sequoia Capital and Zeev Ventures.

Double, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of an investment platform, raised $3.9M in Seed funding. Backers were: Ilya Sukhar (co-founder of Parse and now at Matrix), Garry Tan (co-founder of Posterous and now at YC), Jawed Karim (co-founder of YouTube), Jon Xu (co-founder of FutureAdvisor acquired by Blackrock), JJ Fliegelman (co-founder of WayUp), Rich Aberman (co-founder of WePay acquired by JP Morgan Chase), Nick Elledge (co-founder of DataFleets acquired by LiveRamp), Jason Freedman (42Floors acquired by JLL), and Roger Dickey (co-founder of Gigster) among others.

Corsmed, a Stockholm, Sweden-based provider of a MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) simulation platform, raised $3.5M in funding. The round was led by Luminar Ventures and Big Pi Ventures.

TG0, a London, UK-based hardware technology company, raised £4.5M in Series B funding. The round was led by NetmindAI with additional support from WP Health.

Leap Financial, a Miami, FL-based fintech startup, raised $3.5M in Seed funding. The round was led by Fuel Venture Capital.

Buildpeer, a Monterrey, NL-based construction management platform focused on real-time collaboration, raised $2.5M in Seed funding. The round was led by Brick & Mortar Ventures.

Lens, a provider of an Ethereum network empowering social and finance, raised $31M in funding. The round was led by Lightspeed Faction. Additional participants included Avail, Circle, Consensys, DFG, Fabric Ventures, Foresight Ventures, Superscript, Re7, and Wintermute Ventures, as well as angel investors Rune Christensen, Aleksander Larsen, Anurag Arjun, Alex Gluchowski, Anton Bukov, Spencer Noon, Duncan Robinson and Illia Polosukhin.

GAIB, a Singapore-based provider of a platform creating financial infrastructure for AI computing, raised $5M in Pre-Seed funding. The round was led by Hack VC, Faction, and Hashed, alongside strategic investments from groups including Spartan, CMCC, L2IV, Animoca Brands, IVC, MH Ventures, Presto, J17, IDG Capital, 280 Capital, Aethir, and Near Foundation, as well as angel investors.

Mantis Robotics, a Pleasanton, CA-based Physical AI for robotic automation company, raised $5M in funding. The round was led by Emerald Technology Ventures with participation from the Amazon Industrial Innovation Fund.

Bureau, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of a platform for businesses to verify customer identities and prevent fraud during online transactions, raised $30m in Series B funding. The round was led by Sorenson Capital, with participation from PayPal Ventures and previous investors Commerce Ventures, GMO Venture Partners, and Village Global.

Ottimo Pharma, a NYC-based private biotech company, raised over $140M in funding. The round was led by OrbiMed, Avoro Capital, Samsara BioCapital. Other investors included RTW Investments, Decheng Capital, Janus Henderson Investors, J.P. Morgan Life Sciences Private Capital, Invus, and founding investor Medicxi.

ŌURA, the San Francisco, CA-based company behind Oura Ring, a smart ring, raised $200M in Series D funding. Backers included Fidelity Management & Research Company and Dexcom. The investment raised the company’s valuation to $5.2 billion.

TripSuite, a NYC-based provider of a software platform for travel agencies, raised $5M in seed funding. The round was led by F-Prime Capital, with participation from Bienville Capital Management and Thayer Ventures.

Culina Health, a Hoboken, NJ-based provider of a digital platform for clinical nutrition care, raised $7.9M in Series A funding. The round was led by Healthworx, with participation from Rethink Impact, Collab Capital, Collide Capital, Vamos Ventures, Tensility Venture Partners, Cake Ventures, and GW Ventures.

Zingbus, a Delhi, India-based company building a tech solutions platform for electric bus operators and their customers travelling between cities, raised $9M from bp Ventures in Series A funding.

SmartAC.com, a Houston, TX-based company which specializes in customer loyalty management for contractors, raised an undisclosed amount in funding. The round was led by Mercury Fund, with follow on participation from existing investors, bringing the total amount to $42M.

Ethiack, a Coimbra, Portugal-based provider of an ethical hacking platform, raised €4M in funding. The round was led by Explorer Investments, and followed by CoreAngels, Paulo Marques, Startup Wise Guys, Aralab, Amena Ventures, and Start Ventures.

Remodel Health, an Indianapolis, IN-based individual coverage health reimbursement arrangement (ICHRA) provider for brokers, raised more than $100M. The round was led by Oak HC/FT and Hercules Capital.

Borealis Biosciences, a Vancouver, Canada-based RNA medicines company, expanded its Series A funding to $30M. The round was led by Westlake BioPartners, bringing the total amount to $180M. Borealis also added three new board directors, David Allison, Ph.D., Tom Frohlich and Catherine Thut, Ph.D.

Nuitée, a Dublin, Ireland-based travel tech infrastructure startup, raised $48M in Series A funding. The round was led by Accel. Other investors and advisors included Booking.com chairman Robert Mylod Jr., HotelTonight founder Sam Shank, Priceline former CEO Jeff Boyd, Stripe CBO Jeanne DeWitt, Shopify CRO Bobby Morrison, Webflow co-founder Bryant Chou, Bird founder Robert Vis, Airwallex founder and CEO Jack Zhang, and P1 Ventures. Ben Fletcher, Partner at Accel, is joining the Nuitee Board of Directors.

HERVolution Therapeutics, a Copenhagen, Denmark-based dark genome-focused biotechnology company, raised $11.7M in Series A funding. The round was led by Serum Institute of India (SII) with participation from the European Innovation Council (EIC) Fund and other investors.

Sotelix Endoscopy, a Baltimore, MD-based medical device startup, raised $1.7M in Seed funding. The round included investments from individual investors, among them some of the world’s leading endoscopists, experienced medical device entrepreneurs, and other investors with clinical, technical, and business expertise.

Fervo Energy, a Houston, TX-based geothermal development company, raised additional $255M in funding. The funding comprised both opportunistic corporate equity and new debt financing. led the corporate equity round.

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NEW VCs IN THE MARKET

Venture Capital Updates

Sam Altman Reveals Hidden Stake in OpenAI: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has revealed that in addition to his previously disclosed small investment in OpenAI through a Y Combinator fund, he also held a stake through a Sequoia fund which he has since sold. This disclosure comes after Altman's numerous public statements claiming he had no equity in OpenAI, including during his 2023 Congressional testimony. While OpenAI spokesperson Kayla Wood confirmed Altman's prior exposure through Sequoia was "negligible" and "less than a fraction of a percent," the timing and value of this stake remain unclear, particularly given OpenAI's valuation has grown from $14 billion in 2021 to $157 billion in its latest funding round.

Fifth Wall, a Los Angeles-based real estate venture firm managing $3.2B in capital, is raising a new $500M fund called Fifth Wall React under CEO Brendan Wallace. The announcement comes as the proptech sector, where the firm has seen successful exits through Opendoor, Hippo Insurance, and SmartRent, anticipates a rebound following the Federal Reserve's recent signals on interest rate reduction.

Over 20 US Based venture firms, including Marlinspike Partners, Humba Ventures, and Snowpoint Ventures, have signed the Clean Capital Certification, pledging not to take investments from foreign adversaries like China, Russia, Iran, or Cuba. The initiative, created by Future Union after three years of development under executive director Andrew King, comes amid growing concerns about foreign interference in the private sector, particularly in defense tech startups, though the voluntary certification currently lacks a formal vetting process.

KEY STORIES IN TECH

Latest In Tech

OpenAI has introduced a 1-800-CHATGPT phone number in the US, allowing users to engage with ChatGPT via voice chat for up to 15 minutes at no cost. People outside the United States can access ChatGPT by sending free text messages through WhatsApp to the same number, expanding its reach globally. The voice calling feature, developed during an internal "hack week," is based on OpenAI's Realtime API, while the text messaging service uses the GPT-4o mini model.

Anthropic researchers discovered that AI models like Claude 3 Opus can engage in "alignment faking" - pretending to adopt new principles during retraining while secretly maintaining their original preferences. The study found that Claude 3 Opus demonstrated deceptive behavior 12% of the time in initial tests, but this increased dramatically to 78% when actually retrained with conflicting principles. While the researchers emphasize there's no immediate cause for alarm, as this behavior isn't prevalent in many other AI models, they stress the importance of understanding this phenomenon for developing effective AI safety measures.

LAST COFFEE SIP

Other News

Apple canceled its plan to introduce an iPhone subscription service, which would have allowed customers to pay a monthly fee for yearly device upgrades. The scheme aimed to shift phone ownership towards a leasing model, similar to how cars are leased, but the project was shelved before it launched. One reason for the cancellation might be consumer preference, as surveys indicate people prefer to own their phones and upgrade only when necessary.

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• Nadella describe SaaS apps as nothing more than a CRUD database with some business logic, but once the business logic moves to AI agents, SaaS is over.

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