Amazon unveils Alexa+ & ElevenLabs launches its own speech-to-text model.

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STARTUPS RAISING MILLIONS

💰 Startup funding updates

STAX Engineering, a Los Angeles, CA-based maritime emissions capture and control company, raised $70M in funding. The round consisted of $60M in debt financing provided by Firstime Credit and Deutsche Bank Private Credit & Infrastructure and $10M through a Simple Agreement for Future Equity (SAFE).

Loyal, a San Francisco, CA-based clinical-stage animal health company, raised $22M in B-2 funding. The round, in addition to its $45M Series B in 2024, was led by Valor Equity Partners and Collaborative Fund, among others.

Camber, a NYC-based company empowering healthcare payments by reducing administrative burdens on clinics and families, raised $30M in Series B funding. The round was led by Andreessen Horowitz with participation from ACME and Craft, bringing its total funding to $50M. Additional investors included K Ventures and Y Combinator.

Rune Technologies, an Arlington, VA-based defense technology company, raised $6.2M in Seed funding. The round was led by Andreessen Horowitz with participation from Point72 Ventures and XYZ Venture Capital as well as individual investments from several defense technology executives including Anduril SVP of Software Gokul Subramanian, Vannevar Labs CEO Brett Granberg, Cape CEO John Doyle, and Forterra CGO Scott Sanders, amongst others.

Venn, formely Vault, a Toronto, Canada-based provider of a financial platform built for Canadian businesses, raised $21.5M in Series A funding. The round was led by Left Lane Capital, with participation from XYZ Venture Capital, Intact Ventures, and Gradient.

Bridgetown Research, a Seattle, WA-based company building AI agents for decision research, raised $19M in Series A funding. The round was led by Lightspeed and Accel, with participation from a research university.

SkyMirr, a Melbourne, FL-based provider of IOT/RF technology and devices, raised $7.3M in Series A funding. The round was led by Solyco Capital.

Turing, a Boston, MA-based AI-driven water management solutions company, raised $14M in funding. The round was led by Safar Partners.

Regie.ai, a san Francisco, CA-based provider of a platform improving sales prospecting with AI, raised $30M in Series B funding. The round was led by Scale Venture Partners and Foundation Capital, with participation from Khosla Ventures, StepStone Group, TriplePoint Capital, and South Park Commons.

Raise, a Miami, FL-based blockchain-powered payments and loyalty company, raised $63M in funding. The round, which brought the total amount to $220M, was led by Haun Ventures, with participation from Amber Group, Anagram, Blackpine, Borderless Capital, GSR, Karatage, Paper Ventures, Pharsalus Capital, Selini Capital, Sonic Boom Ventures, the Web3 Foundation, and angels Tekin Salimi, Raj Gokal, Teddy Gorisse among others.

Napo, a London, UK-based pet care company, raised £12M in Series B funding. The round was led by Mercia Ventures, with participation from existing investors DN Capital, Companion Fund, MTech Capital, Helvetia Venture Fund, and others.

Anagram, a NYC-based provider of a human-driven security platform, raised $10M in Series A funding. The round was led by Madrona, with continued participation from General Catalyst, Bloomberg Beta, Operator Partners, and Secure Octane.

Musubi, a Santa Barbara, CA-based provider of an artificial intelligence platform enhancing Trust and Safety through adaptive AI content moderation, raised $5M in Seed funding. The round was led by J2 Ventures with participation from Shakti Ventures, Mozilla Ventures, and existing pre-seed investor, J Ventures.

Swirepay, a Santa Clara, CA-based provider of a payment orchestration and reconciliation solution, raised $3.4M in Second Seed funding. The round, which brought the total amount to $5M, was led by The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) Angels groups based in Silicon Valley, Boston, and Southern California, with additional participation from Aum Ventures, QPaymentZ, Nivesha Ventures, Nurture Growth Fund, and angel investors.

Ignota Labs, a Cambridge, UK-based AI-driven drug turnaround company, raised USD 6.9M in Seed funding. The round was led by Montage Ventures and AIX Ventures with participation from Modi Ventures, Blue Wire Capital, and Gaingels.

Gripp, an Indianapolis, IN-based provider of a mobile-first platform for agricultural operations management, raised $1.5M in Pre-Seed funding. The round was led by Ag Ventures Alliance, with participation from Two Ravens, Infinity Holding Ventures, C2 Ventures, Tundra Angels, Countryside Angels, DMM Holdings, and Glen Haven Farms, Inc.

Karomia, a Ghent, Belgium-based software company developing an ESG reporting platform, raised €2M in funding. The round was led by Entourage, imec.istart Future Fund & imec.istart Fund.

Millie, a California-based maternity clinic, raises $12M Series A led by RH Capital, TMV, and Pivotal Ventures. Founded by Anu Sharma in 2022, Millie offers hybrid maternity care with in-person clinics, virtual visits, and AI-enabled workflows. The funding will support expansion across California and tech development.

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NEW VCs IN THE MARKET

🏦 Venture Capital updates

Former U.S. congressman Patrick McHenry has joined Andreessen Horowitz as a senior advisor, focusing on advocating for startups with policymakers. McHenry, a former House Financial Services Committee chair, was a vocal critic of SEC Chair Gary Gensler’s crypto regulations. His hiring aligns with a16z’s growing government engagement, following recent policy-focused appointments.

KEY STORIES IN TECH

📜 Latest in tech

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang shrugs off DeepSeek as sales soar:

• Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang downplayed concerns over DeepSeek’s efficiency, arguing that reasoning models like R1 require more compute, boosting long-term chip demand.

• Nvidia posted record-breaking Q4 revenue of $39.3B, surpassing Wall Street estimates, with data center sales nearly doubling to $115B in 2024.

• With Meta, Google, and Amazon committing billions to AI infrastructure, Huang expects continued strong growth in 2025, fueled by demand for Nvidia’s new Blackwell chip.

Amazon unveils Alexa+ as AI agent to automate daily tasks:

• Amazon’s new AI-powered assistant, Alexa+, aims to handle everyday tasks like booking appointments, ordering groceries, and managing schedules using a more advanced, agentic AI model.

• Scheduled for preview next month, Alexa+ will integrate with services like Uber, Grubhub, Ticketmaster, and Amazon Fresh, offering Prime members free access while others pay $19.99/month.

• While Amazon touts seamless automation, past AI agent failures raise concerns, and heavily scripted demos leave questions about whether Alexa+ can truly deliver on its ambitious promises.

ElevenLabs is launching its own speech-to-text model:

• ElevenLabs, fresh off a $180M funding round, launched Scribe, a speech-to-text model supporting 99+ languages, claiming higher accuracy than Google Gemini 2.0 Flash and OpenAI’s Whisper.

• Scribe features smart speaker diarization, word-level timestamps, and auto-tagging for sound events, enabling direct video transcription for subtitles and captions.

• Priced at $0.40 per hour, Scribe currently only processes pre-recorded audio, but a real-time, low-latency version is in development to compete with rivals like AssemblyAI and Deepgram.

Alibaba makes Sora-style video models open source:

• Alibaba has released its generative AI models from the Wan 2.1 series as open source, allowing users to freely access, download, and modify these advanced tools for creating realistic videos and images.

• The models, named T2V-1.3B, T2V-14B, I2V-14B-720P, and I2V-14B-480P, are available on Alibaba Cloud's ModelScope and Hugging Face, supporting up to 14 billion parameters.

• Alibaba's move into generative AI began after the launch of OpenAI's ChatGPT, and its technology is set to enhance AI features for iPhones sold in China due to local regulatory constraints.

Indonesia, Apple reach agreement to end iPhone 16 sales ban:

• Indonesia lifted its five-month ban on iPhone 16 sales after Apple committed $1B to build a local manufacturing facility for smartphone components.

• The country had initially rejected Apple’s $100M investment proposal, enforcing its rule that locally sold devices must contain at least 40% domestic components.

• Apple’s move aligns with its broader strategy to diversify production beyond China, as it now manufactures iPhones in Brazil, India, and China.

LAST COFFEE SIP

☕Other news

Bybit offers $140M bounty to track down stolen $1.4B in Crypto:

• Bybit is offering a $140M bounty, rewarding anyone who helps trace and freeze the $1.4B in Ethereum stolen in last week’s record-breaking hack.

• Security firms Sygnia Labs and Verichains linked the breach to malicious code in SafeWallet’s infrastructure, injected after hackers compromised a developer’s device.

• Bybit suspects North Korea’s Lazarus Group, which stole $650M in crypto in 2024, and vows to expand the bounty program to aid other victims of Lazarus-led attacks.

Instagram weighs standalone reels app amid TikTok uncertaint:

• Instagram is considering launching a separate app for Reels, aiming to capture TikTok’s user base as the platform faces uncertainty in the U.S., per The Information.

• This follows Meta’s recent launch of Edits, a video-editing app positioned as a competitor to TikTok-owned CapCut.

• Meta previously attempted a standalone TikTok rival with Lasso in 2018, but it failed to gain traction and was later shut down.

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• Investor Relation Associate - Venture Garage | India - Apply Here

• Legal Intern - Plug and Play tech center | USA - Apply Here

• Investment Manager - Outlier Venture | UK - Apply Here

• Chief of Staff - Seed Startup | USA - Apply Here

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