We’re at the end of The Creator Economy as we know it

AI slop is everywhere. Content is becoming either timely or timeless. Does timeless content eventually become private?

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Hey readers!

Welcome back to your regular digest - a quick snapshot of the most important tech news from the past few weeks.

Here’s what we’re covering this week:

• 🗝️ Key trends: We’re at the end of The Creator Economy as we know it

• 🔍 Top tech news

• 💰 Startup funding highlights

• 👀 New VC funds

• 🤝 Acquisitions

• 🎤 Must-watch interviews

and more… let’s dive in.

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🗝️ We’re at the end of The Creator Economy as we know it

AI slop is everywhere. Content is becoming either timely or timeless. Does timeless content eventually become private? What does that mean for media? And what role does the creator play in it?

We are entering a new era for creators: The New Media Economy.

Attention. Distribution. Power. Taste.

Creators are going direct.

They are gatekeeping their premium content.

They are using community and distribution as a moat.

This is not just happening to creators, it’s also happening to many tech companies.

They are hiring new types of roles: Heads of New Media, Heads of Storytelling, Chief Narrative Officers, Chief Clipping Officers, and Heads of Media Attention.

To help us understand where this category is going (and to help us understand what NEW MEDIA actually is), we want to introduce you to someone.

Recently, we sat down with Medium CEO Tony Stubblebine, who shared the moments that led us to where we are today, where we’re going next, and the magical journey of becoming a successful new media creator in today’s era. We also talked about:

1. AI is making writing more generic. Creators are taking their premium content private. What should creators be thinking about?

2. Will AI models compensate creators? If not, what does this mean for creators who decide to take their content private?

3. AI models need ongoing access to the latest high-quality information. If the public internet turns to slop, there is no value. What does this mean going forward?

4. Medium’s incredible journey: from losing $2.5M a month to becoming a titan of the new media economy. Tony shares how he turned the struggling company around and where it stands today.

Watch the episode in full now.

🔍 Top tech news

• Kalshi, the prediction market startup raised $1B Series F led by Coatue, with participation from Sequoia, Andreessen Horowitz, and Paradigm.

• ElevenLabs crossed $500M ARR.

• OpenAI closed The Deployment Company, a $10B enterprise AI bet on private equity.

• Parallel Web Systems, the AI agent-tool startup founded by former Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, has raised a $100M Series B at a $2B valuation led by Sequoia.

• Ineffable Intelligence, a British AI lab founded by former DeepMind researcher David Silver, raised $1.1B led by Sequoia Capital and Lightspeed Venture Partners.

• Sierra raised $950M from Google Ventures, and Tiger Global Management.

• Legora raised an additional $50M from Nvidia as part of their $550M Series D funding round.

• GameStop offered $56B to acquire eBay.

• Lovable introduced an automatic 10% salary increase for each employee on their work anniversary.

💰 Startup funding highlights

Series B

• Business insurance startup Corgi hits $1.3B valuation after raising $160M Series B led by TCV.

• Sereact, a robotics company that automates the pick-and-pack processes for warehouses, raised $110M from Headline and others.

• Avoca, which uses AI agents to handle inbound and outbound sales raised, $125M from General Catalyst, Meritech Capital Partners, and others.

• Actively, a booking assistant for your favorite fitness classes & wellness experiences, raised $45M from First Harmonic, TCV, and others.

Series A

• Scout AI which develops artificial intelligence systems for defense robotics, raised $110M from Align Ventures, Draper Associates, and others.

• Oolka which helps users understand, monitor, and improve their credit scores with ease, raised $15.5M from Accel and others.

• Manifest OS, which powers AI-native law firms, raised $60M from Menlo Ventures and others.

• Fun develops payment infrastructure designed for web3 and digital asset transactions raised $72M from Multicoin Capital, SignalFire, and others.

Seed

• Pit, founded by the team behind Swedish mobility startup Voi, raised $16M to build AI that learns your workflows — and builds them for you.

• Altara which bridges the data gap slowing down physical sciences, raised $7M led by Greylock.

👀 New VC funds

• Founders Fund raised $6B for fund four.

• Andreessen Horowitz raised $2.2B for its crypto fund.

• 137 Ventures raised $700M for two growth-stage funds.

• BMW i Ventures raised $300M for new fund.

• Ground State Ventures, raised over $88.5M for a quantum tech fund.

• Haun Ventures raised $1B for new fund.

• Mother Ventures closed $10 million in commitments.

• Refactor Capital raised $50M for fund five.

• Wisdom Ventures raised $77.7M for fund one.

• Arāya Sie Fund raised $10M first close for women-led startups.

• Former Andreessen Horowitz Partner, Sumeet Singh launched Worldbuild with a $30M debut fund.

• Earlybird closed $423M fund to back Europe’s early-stage founders.

• Airwallex founder Jack Zhang launched Latitude 37 - supporting the next generation of Australian founders.

🤝 Acquisitions

• Recharge acquired Y Combinator portfolio company Skio for $105M cash.

• Meta acquired robotics startup, Assured Robot Intelligence to bolster its humanoid AI ambitions.

• Nebius acquired US AI inference startup Eigen AI in $643M deal.

• Thumbtack acquired StreetFair.

🎤 Must-watch interviews

Our latest podcast episode: We Ignored Silicon Valley Advice for 3 Years.

Attio founder, Nicolas Sharp joins us to discuss the decision to build in stealth for 3 years.

Watch or listen now on… YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify.

• Will AI Models Ever Compensate Creators? | Tony Stubblebine

• Why Andreessen Horowitz Is Still Betting Big On Crypto | Ali Yahya

• No More Traditional School Teachers | Joleen Liang

• Yahoo CEO Jim Lanzone on the company’s turnaround story.

• Dan Shipper on why traditional coding workflows are breaking.

• Colin Angle on the $1.7B founder failure story.

• David Haber (a16z) on the future of venture capital.

• Emad Mostaque on AI systems replacing personal productivity.

• Anatoly Yakovenko on how Solana survived early collapse.

Watch and subscribe now!

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