NEWSLETTER | PODCAST | NEW MEDIA
Hey readers,
Welcome back to your weekly tech digest, a quick look at the biggest stories shaping the tech world this past week.
What did you miss? Meta put Muse, its personal AI agent (video below), on glasses and Mac and unveiled Muse Charm, a keychain gadget with a 2-inch screen that Zuckerberg pushed the team to ship this year instead of next. Muse already runs across Meta’s app, WhatsApp and the web, and the new hardware is Meta’s bet on keeping it within reach all day. The open question is how many people actually want an AI agent on their face or dangling from their keys.
In other news, Anthropic committed $11.6B to Akamai over seven years, sending Akamai’s stock up more than 15% after hours. Cognition’s Devin has doubled its revenue to $1B ARR since May, and DeepSeek also crossed $1B ARR after raising its API prices.
On the deals front, Databricks acquired Row Zero, Cloudflare bought AI training-data marketplace Human Native, and Qualcomm picked up PickNik Robotics. And in fundraising, Bessemer closed $5.75B, while Eileen Burbidge raised $27M for her solo-GP fund, NFG Ventures.
This edition covers:
👀 The latest AI news
💰 Top startup news & funding rounds (sourced using Harmonic)
💸 Latest VC funds
🤝 Acquisitions
🎤 Must-watch interviews from our podcast show
and much more.
👀 The latest AI news
Meta puts Muse on glasses, Mac and a new pocket device, Muse Charm.
Daniel Ek’s body-scanning startup Neko Health opened doors for its first U.S. location in New York.
Anthropic commits $11.6B to Akamai over seven years.
Cognition’s Devin passes $1B ARR, double what it reported in May, weeks after raising at a $48B valuation.
DeepSeek hits $1B ARR after raising API prices up to 4.5x and is closing a $7.5B raise through a Shanghai listing.
💰 Top startup news & funding rounds
We take a closer look at some of the hottest startup rounds of the past week.
TEKEVER, the Lisbon-based maker of AI-driven autonomous drones and surveillance systems, raised $580M Series D at a $6.4B valuation, co-led by Baillie Gifford and UC Investments.
Island, the enterprise browser platform that builds security controls into both human and AI-agent activity, raised $400M Series F at a $6.4B valuation, led by Evolution Equity Partners, with Sequoia Capital, Coatue, and Insight Partners.
Snorkel AI, the AI data development platform for building and evaluating enterprise AI, raised $350M at a $3.5B valuation, led by Insight Partners, with Lightspeed Venture Partners, GV, and Addition.
Heidi Health, the Melbourne-based AI medical scribe that writes up clinical notes from consultations, raised $335M at a $1.26B valuation, co-led by General Catalyst and Blackbird, with Point72 Ventures and Headline.
Enveda, the Boulder-based biotech using AI to find new drugs in natural compounds, raised $311M Series E at a $2B valuation, led by Catalio Capital Management, with Lightspeed, ICONIQ, T. Rowe Price, Baillie Gifford, and Lux Capital.
OpenEvidence, the AI medical search and clinical decision support platform for physicians, raised $250M at a $15B valuation, with Andreessen Horowitz participating.
Precision Neuroscience, the New York-based brain-computer interface company letting people with paralysis control devices, raised $250M Series D at a $1B valuation, led by Pershing Square, with ARK Invest, B Capital, and Mubadala Capital.
Rightway, the New York-based pharmacy benefits manager that pairs clinicians with technology, raised $155M Series E, led by Francisco Partners, with Thrive Capital and Khosla Ventures.
Numeral, the San Francisco-based AI-native platform for sales tax, VAT, and GST compliance, raised $100M Series C, led by Insight Partners, with Benchmark, Mayfield, and Y Combinator.
Ema, the “universal AI employee” that automates HR, IT, and finance work, raised $77M Series B, led by Creaegis, with Accel and Prosus Ventures.
Confido, the New York-based AI platform that brings finance and trade operations together for consumer packaged goods brands, raised $55M Series B, led by Insight Partners, with Y Combinator.
Ande, the AI-native platform connecting enterprises with corporate entertainment, raised $52M Series A, with Lightspeed Venture Partners, Redpoint, and Bain Capital Ventures.
Solcoa Industries, the Alameda-based producer of rare earth metals for electric motors and generators, raised $45M, co-led by Bain Capital Ventures and J.P. Morgan, with Felicis.
Corridor, the New York-based benefits brokerage for small and mid-sized businesses, raised $25M Seed, led by Bain Capital Ventures, with OpenAI, Scale AI, BoxGroup, and Ramp.
Ando, the team chat platform that brings AI agents into conversations as teammates, raised $20M Seed, co-led by Index Ventures, Accel, and Emergence Capital.
Basalt Health, the Nashville-based post-acute care tool that works inside electronic medical records, raised $20M Series A, led by NEA.
(sourced using Harmonic)
💸 Latest VC funds
Bessemer Venture Partners closed $5.75B to back founders from seed to growth.
Connect Ventures raised $55M (targeting $80M) for Fund V to back European founders.
Eileen Burbidge has raised $27M for her solo-GP fund, NFG Ventures.
Ibex Investors raised $87M for new Israel-focused secondary fund.
🤝 Acquisitions
Row Zero, the cloud spreadsheet for big data, was acquired by Databricks.
Human Native, the London-based marketplace that licenses content as AI training data, was acquired by Cloudflare.
PickNik Robotics, the US-based robotics software company behind MoveIt, was acquired by Qualcomm.
Our AI Microdrama Series
We've launched Billion Dollar Tea, an AI-powered show spilling the juiciest tea from the world's biggest companies through real stories and imagined what-ifs. Episode 4 continues our Elizabeth Holmes arc and imagines her comeback: what would she build next? Follow the show here which is in collaboration with Plot Party.
We had one of the Theranos whistleblowers on the podcast last year. Watch our conversation with Tyler Schultz here.
Upcoming events
September 29th: Meet the ElevenLabs team | Why You Should Be Using ElevenLabs. Register here.
October 7th: New Media Summit in collaboration with Yahoo in S.F. Our latest guest speaker is Jessica Jensen, CMO at LinkedIn. Apply here to attend.
Must-watch interviews from our podcast show
Alan Trefler, Founder and CEO of Pegasystems, joins us to unpack how a 40-year-old, $6 billion public company is thinking about AI, why he refuses to charge customers for tokens, and what it actually takes to survive five generational shifts in technology without losing your edge.
You might not know this about Alan, but Pega’s first two clients, Citibank and Bank of America, signed on in 1984 and are still customers today. He shared why he thinks the real risk in enterprise AI isn’t the technology, it’s the incentive: “These guys are a little bit like drug dealers… passing out packets of tokens and getting people hooked.”
Previous episodes include
Superhuman CEO: The Strategy to Turn Standalone Apps Into a $13 Billion Suite | Shishir Mehrotra.
Europe Is Quietly Building the New Silicon Valley | Saul Klein.
$2 Billion Founder: The Secret to Building a High-Growth Startup in 24 Months | Tanay Kothari.
Canva Co-Founder: AI Is Useless Without This 1 Skill | Cam Adams.
Why most people are underusing AI and why the winners won’t just be OpenAI and Anthropic | Reid Hoffman.
Base44 Founder: The Strategy Behind Building a Million Dollar Company Solo | Maor Shlomo (Base44) & Mark Tluszcz (Wix).
See all previous episodes here 👉