DeepSeek working on self-improving AI models that doesn't require human & SignalFire raises $1 billion new VC fund

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STARTUPS RAISING MILLIONS

💰 Startup funding updates

Rescale, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of a digital engineering platform, raised $115M in Series D funding. Backers included Applied Ventures, Atika Capital, Foxconn, Hanwha Asset Management Deeptech Venture Fund, Hitachi Ventures, NEC Orchestrating Future Fund, NVIDIA, Prosperity7, SineWave Ventures, Translink Capital, University of Michigan, and Y Combinator, bringing total amount to over $260M.

Stramsen Biotech, a Houston, TX-based plant-based biopharmaceutical company, raised $25M in funding. The round was led by GEM Global Yield LLC SCS, part of GEM.

Krea, a San Francisco-based generative AI design platform, raised $83M across multiple rounds — including a $47M Series B led by Bain Capital Ventures, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz and Abstract Ventures — at a $500M post-money valuation.

Contxtful Technologies, a Montreal, Canada-based attention-based advertising technology company, raised $1.9M in funding. The round was led by NJP Ventures.

Aelius Biotech, a Newcastle, UK-based biotech company providing laboratory gut models, raised £750K in funding. North East Venture Fund made the investment, supported by the European Regional Development Fund and managed by Mercia Ventures.

Zero Industrial, a Charleston, SC-based development company decarbonizing industrial heat by utilizing thermal energy storage (“TES”) systems, raised $10M in funding. The round was led by Evok Innovations with participation from Rusheen Capital Management.

Caris Life Sciences, an Irving, TX-based AI TechBio company and precision medicine provider, raised $168M in Growth funding. The round was led by Braidwell LP, with participation from new investors Perceptive Advisors, Woodline and Ghisallo, along with additional new investor including Millennium Management and First Light Asset Management.

AppWork, a Ramsey, NJ-based provider of a software platform purpose-built to streamline maintenance operations for multifamily property management teams, raised $13M in Series A funding. The round was led by Resolve Growth Partners.

RayThera, a San Diego, CA-based biotechnology company currently focused on discovering and developing small molecule therapies in immunology, raised $110M in Series A funding. The round was led by Foresite Capital and OrbiMed Advisors, with participation from TTM Capital.

restor3d, a Durham, NC-based company which specializes in 3D printed, personalized orthopedic implant care, received $38M in Growth funding. Backers included both existing and new private investors, including Summers Value Partners.

Podfather, an Edinburgh, Scotland, UK-based provider of a cloud-based logistics software solution designed to streamline fleet operations, raised £3.4M in funding. Backers included Maven Investor Partners and IFS Maven Equity Finance, from the Investment Fund for Scotland.

SandBoxAQ, a Palo Alto, CA-based enterprise quantitative AI company, raised an undisclosed amount in Series E funding. Latest investors included Ray Dalio, Horizon Kinetics, BNP Paribas, Google, and NVIDIA, bringing the total amount to over $450M.

heyLibby, a Seattle, WA-based AI-powered team member for fitness, wellness, and recreation businesses, raised $4.5m in Seed funding. The round was led by Aglaé Ventures and Vertical Venture Partners.

Calligo Technologies, a Bangalore, India-based semiconductor startup, raised $1.1m in pre-series A funding round. The round was led by Seafund and Artha Venture Fund.

Sagittal AI, a London, UK-based company building AI solutions that adapt to human workflows instead of forcing humans to adapt to AI, raised $2.2M in pre-seed funding. The round was led by Twin Path Ventures, with participation from SineWave Ventures, Fuel Ventures, Blue Lake VC, and angel investor Husayn Kassai, founder of Onfido and Quench AI.

Turbine Finance Corp., a Santa Monica, California-based liquidity platform driven by data science that provides credit facilities to venture investors, raised $13m in Series A funding. The round was co-led by Alpha Edison and TTV Capital and joined by Fin Capital, B Capital, and Sozo Ventures. This investment, in addition to the company’s previously unannounced $8.75m in Seed funding, brings Turbine’s funding raised to $21.75m.

Ethic, a NYC-based sustainable, tech-enabled asset manager, raised $64m in Series D funding. The round was led by State Street Global Advisors (SSGA), the asset management arm of State Street Corporation (NYSE: STT), who joined a group of existing backers from prior funding rounds including Oak HC/FT, Nyca Partners, UBS, Jordan Park, and Fidelity.

NEW VCs IN THE MARKET

🏦 Venture Capital updates

SignalFire, a San Francisco-based VC firm known for its AI-driven investment strategy, has raised over $1B in fresh capital, bringing its total AUM to $3B. Backed by CalPERS and other major institutions, the firm will continue focusing on seed-stage startups across sectors like healthcare AI, cybersecurity, and dev tools — avoiding foundation model bets in favor of defensible, niche platforms.

KEY STORIES IN TECH

📜 Latest in tech

Google is allegedly paying some AI staff to do nothing for a year rather than join rivals:

• Google DeepMind is allegedly enforcing aggressive noncompete agreements in the U.K., paying some AI staff to refrain from working for rivals like OpenAI and Microsoft for up to a year.

• While staff receive pay during this enforced downtime, many feel sidelined from AI’s rapid progress, with some reaching out to competitors out of frustration.

• These noncompetes don’t apply in the U.S. due to FTC restrictions, but remain legal in DeepMind’s London HQ, where the practice appears more common.

Amazon upgrades Nova reel to generate 2-minute AI videos:

• Amazon’s Nova Reel 1.1 now generates up to 2-minute videos with consistent style and multi-shot composition, using prompts up to 4,000 characters long.

• A new “Multishot Manual” mode lets users guide shot composition with reference images and prompts, supporting up to 20 shots per video.

• Nova Reel is accessible via AWS Bedrock after request approval, though questions remain about the model’s training data and copyright compliance.

IBM unveils z17 mainframe with AI acceleration and energy efficiency gains:

• IBM announced the z17, its latest mainframe powered by the new Telum II processor, built to support over 250 AI use cases including generative AI and agents.

• The z17 boosts AI performance with support for up to 96 IBM Spyre AI accelerator chips and can process 450 billion daily inferences — 50% more than the z16.

• Designed with energy efficiency in mind, the z17 delivers 7.5x more AI acceleration while using 5.5x less energy compared to traditional platforms; it will be available June 8.

OpenAI reportedly mulls buying Jony Ive and Sam Altman’s AI hardware startup:

• OpenAI is in talks to acquire io Products, the AI hardware startup co-founded by ex-Apple design chief Jony Ive and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, for around $500 million, per The Information.

• The startup, backed by Emerson Collective, includes former Apple designers and is exploring AI-enabled devices like smart home tech aimed at being “less socially disruptive than the iPhone.”

• OpenAI may alternatively form a partnership instead of acquiring the company outright, as io Products remains in early-stage development with a small team.

Apple is preparing a 'major shake-up' for 20th-anniversary iPhone:

• Apple is planning a significant redesign for the iPhone's 20th anniversary in 2027, including a foldable device and a new Pro model with extensive glass elements, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.

• The company might introduce groundbreaking features similar to how the iPhone X commemorated the 10th anniversary by eliminating the Home button and introducing Face ID facial authentication.

• While the naming convention remains uncertain, Apple could potentially call it "iPhone 20" to celebrate the milestone, and the foldable model might be either a second-generation design or a new clamshell variant.

Wedbush slashes Apple and Tesla price targets amid trump tariff chaos:

• Wedbush analyst Dan Ives cut Apple’s price target by $75 to $250, citing the company’s heavy reliance on China for iPhone production and the negative impact of Trump’s sweeping tariffs.

• Tesla’s price target was reduced from $550 to $315, with Ives pointing to brand damage tied to Elon Musk’s politics and growing backlash in China steering consumers toward domestic competitors like BYD.

• Both Apple and Tesla shares fell sharply in response; Apple dropped 4.3% and Tesla nearly 10% before partially rebounding.

LAST COFFEE SIP

☕Other news

DeepSeek is working on self-improving AI models:

• DeepSeek is developing self-improving AI models using a new approach called generative reward modelling (GRM) to reduce operational costs while enhancing model intelligence.

• The company's upcoming DeepSeek-GRM models utilize self-principled critique tuning and reportedly outperform major competitors like Google's Gemini 1.5 Pro, Meta's Llama 3.1, and OpenAI's GPT-4o.

• Following its tradition of open-sourcing AI models, DeepSeek plans to release these new models freely, with some reports suggesting the DeepSeek R2 model could arrive as soon as May.

Anthropic to add 100+ jobs in Europe, appoints new EMEA head:

• U.S. AI firm Anthropic will create over 100 roles across Europe, primarily in Dublin and London, spanning sales, engineering, research, and business operations.

• Guillaume Princen, formerly of Stripe and Mooncard, has been appointed as head of EMEA as Anthropic looks to expand Claude’s presence during growing demand for enterprise AI.

• The expansion follows a $3.5B funding round that valued Anthropic at $61.5B, with Claude already in use by WPP, BMW, and Novo Nordisk.

HIRING ALERT: STARTUPS & VC ROLES

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