|
|
|
We're excited to see a bunch of you very soon at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center! It's going to be a fun night. In the meantime, we're already looking forward to our upcoming gathering in London this coming Tuesday, May 13th, with power VC Sonali De Rycker of Accel, CEO TS Anil of "unicorn" bank Monzo, and veteran investor Nazo Moosa, a managing director of Paladin Capital Group, which is also generously co-hosting all of us. Come for the interactive shop talk; stay for the drinks and networking. See you there next week! |
|
Top NewsApple SVP of Services Eddy Cue told a judge in the remedies phase of U.S. v. Google LLC that AI LLMs like OpenAI and Perplexity could replace Google and that Apple is actively considering alternatives to Google. Investors didn’t take it lightly: Alphabet shares cratered nearly 9%, their biggest drop since 2023. |
|
Sponsored By ...Harmonic: The startup discovery engine trusted by 1000s of investors, including Insight, Pear, and 8VC. Send Scout to build market maps with one click. |
|
Rove, Founded by a 22-Year-Old, Is Helping Gen Z Earn Airline Miles without Credit Cards
By Marina Temkin During his junior year study abroad, Max Morganroth, traveled to 30 countries, primarily flying in business and first class. His jet-setting was funded almost entirely by airline points he collected through strategic credit card applications and miles redemptions. Morganroth told TechCrunch that just about everyone he knew was “begging” him to teach them how to get free flights through airline miles programs, a term he calls “travel hacking.” However, most people in his circle, including fellow Wharton students, either didn’t qualify for the best airline rewards credit cards or lacked the time to maximize their mile conversions for optimal flights. By marketing credit cards and sharing fees with banks, frequent flyer programs have become significant revenue generators for airlines. But according to Morganroth, about 70 million Americans don’t have sufficient credit history to access these reward schemes. During his travels, Morganroth discovered that in Hong Kong people don’t need to open credit cards to earn miles on Cathay Pacific’s Asia Miles program. “Miles there are treated like a second currency,” he said. “You go to 7-Eleven to buy a water bottle; you earn Asia Miles. You can open a bank account and earn cash interest, plus miles on your savings. You can even sell a property for part cash, part miles.” Morganroth saw an opportunity to create a program similar to Asia Miles, where consumers could earn miles on various airlines when they shop in certain stores. His proposition to airlines was that they could tap into a larger consumer demographic, particularly Gen Z, a generation eager to travel but still lacking established credit. |
|
Massive FundingsFinom, a five-year-old Amsterdam startup that operates a digital banking service for small and medium-size businesses across Europe, raised a $105.2 million non-equity round led by General Catalyst. The company has raised a total of $214 million. TechCrunch has more here. NewLimit, a three-year-old San Francisco startup that develops longevity drugs designed to reprogram epigenetic markers and extend human healthspan, raised a $130 million Series B round at an $810 million valuation. The deal was led by Kleiner Perkins, with Nat Friedman/Daniel Gross, Khosla Ventures, Human Capital, and Valor Equity Partners as well as previous investors Dimension, Founders Fund, and Brian Armstrong also pitching in. TechCrunch has more here. Orca AI, a seven-year-old London startup that provides AI-based decision-support systems to help commercial ships safely navigate congested waterways, raised a $72.5 million Series B round led by Brighton Park Capital, with previous investors Ankona Capital and Hyperlink Ventures also chipping in. The company has raised a total of $111+ million. TechCrunch has more here. OX Security, a four-year-old New York and Tel Aviv startup that helps software teams find and fix security vulnerabilities across their development pipelines, raised a $60 million Series B round led by DTCP, with IBM Ventures, Microsoft, Swisscom Ventures, Evolution Equity Partners, and Team8 also stepping up. The company has raised a total of $94 million. TechCrunch has more here. Toloka, an eleven-year-old Dutch company that hires people to help improve AI by checking, labeling, or correcting data that computers can’t handle on their own, raised a $72 million round. Bezos Expeditions was the deal lead, with Nebius also investing. Reuters has more here. |
|
Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big FundingsBreathe Battery Technologies, a six-year-old London startup that builds AI-powered tools to predict battery performance and extend battery life in electric vehicles and other devices, raised a $21 million Series B round led by Kinnevik, with Lowercarbon Capital and Volvo Cars Tech Fund also investing. TechCrunch has more here. Duna, a two-year-old Amsterdam startup that helps businesses verify and manage digital identities for customer onboarding and compliance, raised a $12.1 million seed round led by Index Ventures. PYMNTS has more here. Fastino, a one-year-old Palo Alto startup that develops compact, task-specific AI models designed to run efficiently on low-cost gaming GPUs, raised a $17.5 million seed round led by Khosla Ventures. The company has raised a total of approximately $25 million. TechCrunch has more here. Inductive Bio, a three-year-old San Francisco startup that uses AI to discover new drugs by simulating how proteins and molecules interact, raised a $25 million Series A round led by Obvious Ventures, with Andreessen Horowitz, Lux Capital, S32, Character, and Amino Collective also pitching in. More here. Onebeat, a seven-year-old Israeli startup that helps retailers optimize inventory and merchandising decisions using real-time demand data, raised a $15 million round led by Schooner Capital, with Magenta Venture Partners, Surround Ventures, AnD Ventures, J-Ventures, and INcapital Ventures also investing. The company has raised a total of $30 million. CTech has more here. PAQ Therapeutics, a five-year-old startup based in Burlington, MA, that develops targeted protein degradation therapies for a range of diseases including neurodegenerative disorders and cancer, raised a $39 million Series B round co-led by Bayland Capital and MRL Ventures Fund, with participation from Johnson & Johnson Innovation, LAV Fund, and BioTrack Capital as well as previous investor Sherpa Healthcare Partners. More here. Relevance AI, a five-year-old San Francisco and Sydney startup that builds infrastructure to help enterprises deploy and manage AI agents for business operations, raised a $24 million Series B round led by Bessemer Venture Partners, with previous investors King River Capital, Insight Partners, and Peak XV also opting in. The company has raised a total of $37 million. TechCrunch has more here. Sett, a three-year-old Tel Aviv startup that develops AI agents to help studios design and build mobile games, raised a $15 million Series A round. Previous investor Bessemer Venture Partners was the deal lead, with Saga VC, vgames, F2 Venture Capital, and Akin Babayigit also joining in. The company has raised a total of $27 million. TechCrunch has more here. StackAI, a two-year-old San Francisco startup that builds tools for enterprises to deploy AI agents tailored to their internal data and workflows, raised a $16 million round led by Lobby VC, with participation from LifeX Ventures, Gradient, Y Combinator, and Epakon Capital. SiliconANGLE has more here. Trailhead Biosystems, a ten-year-old company based in Beachwood, OH, that develops regenerative medicine therapies using computer-controlled cell manufacturing, raised a $20 million round. MAK Capital led the investment. More here. TSOLife, an eleven-year-old company based in Tampa, FL, that provides analytics tools to help senior living communities improve resident experience and operational efficiency, raised a $43 million Series B round led by PeakSpan Capital. More here. WisdomAI, a two-year-old startup based in San Mateo, CA, that develops tools to reduce hallucinations in large language models by improving the quality of AI training data, raised a $23 million seed round led by Coatue, with Madrona, GTM Capital, and The Anthology Fund also buying in. TechCrunch has more here. |
|
Smaller FundingsAgree, a one-year-old San Francisco startup that offers an AI-powered e-signature platform with built-in invoicing and payment processing for service-based professionals and SMBs, raised a $7.2 million seed round led by Pelion Venture Partners, with Blank Ventures and Gokul Rajaram also investing. TechCrunch has more here. Alice, a one-year-old Copenhagen startup that develops digital tools to help parents support early childhood development through structured learning activities, raised a $4.8 million round. Cherry Ventures and Y Combinator were the co-leads. EU-Startups has more here. CNaught, a three-year-old San Francisco startup that helps companies purchase and manage long-term carbon removal credits, raised a $4.5 million seed round led by Bow Capital, with FJ Labs, Karman Ventures, and Silence VC also stepping up. TechCrunch has more here. CodeAnt AI, a two-year-old San Francisco startup that uses artificial intelligence to automate code review and improve software quality, raised a $2 million seed round at a $20 million post-money valuation. The deal was co-led by Y Combinator, Brian Shin, and Uncorrelated Ventures, with DeVC, Transpose Platform, and Entrepreneur First also pitching in. SecurityWeek has more here. Foundation Alloy, a three-year-old MIT spinout based in Cambridge, MA, that designs high-performance alloys for industrial manufacturing using advanced materials science and AI, raised a $7.5 million extension round. Investors included Alumni Ventures, America’s Frontier Fund, Engine Ventures, El Cap, Material Impact, and Yamaha Motor Ventures. Tectonic has more here. Pulse Charter Connect, a three-year-old Chicago startup that coordinates air and ground logistics for time-sensitive organ transplants, raised a $2 million seed round co-led by Ivy Ventures and Simplex Ventures, with Cedars Sinai Health Ventures, Belal Badat Ventures, Techstars, and The Josephine Collective also taking stakes. The company has raised a total of $3.3 million. More here. Tesseral, a two-year-old San Francisco startup that builds authentication infrastructure for B2B software companies, raised a $3.3 million seed round. Y Combinator and its co-founders, Jessica Livingston and Paul Graham, were among the investors. More here. Trust & Will, an eight-year-old San Diego startup that offers digital tools to help individuals create and manage legally valid estate planning documents online, raised a $4.5 million round Series C extension. Curql provided the financing. More here. |
|
Sponsored By ...The market potential is massive -- $3T. The technology is proven. The momentum to reshore metal manufacturing is real. Join investors like Capricorn and NVIDIA backing Seurat to unlock a new wave of product innovation and investor value. More here. |
|
New FundsMarathon Venture Capital, an eight-year-old Athens venture firm that backs seed-stage entrepreneurs that are "changing their sectors," just closed a €75 million fund. It now has €175 million in total assets under management. TechCrunch has more here. |
|
ExitsRecurly, a 14-year-old subscription billing platform based in Austin, TX, just snapped up Redfast, a San Francisco-based customer engagement startup, and Prive, a New York-based Shopify-focused subscription tool. Terms were not disclosed. More here. |
|
Going Public
eToro’s IPO filing is giving the stalled tech listing pipeline a flicker of life, even as most summer hopefuls punt to fall or beyond. Yahoo Finance has more here. |
|
People
Stanford professor Ilya Strebulaev just dropped a leaderboard of top angel investors by unicorn hits. Dave Morin takes the crown with 23, just edging out Peter Thiel, Lee Linden, and David Sacks. The surprise cameo? Jared Leto, who shows up alongside tech royalty with early bets on Airbnb, Uber, and Slack. More here. |
|
LayoffsCrowdStrike is axing 5% of its workforce—about 500 jobs. The cybersecurity giant, still recovering from last year’s global meltdown caused by a botched software update, blames bloated costs, a cautious IT buying environment, and lingering trust issues with its own brand, though it's still hiring in sales and engineering. The Wall Street Journal has more here. |
|
Essential ReadsNetflix is rolling out a ChatGPT-powered search tool that lets users hunt for shows using natural language prompts like “funny but not haha funny.” It’s launching as a beta on iOS this week, but given Tubi already tried (and killed) a similar feature, it’s unclear if this is the future of content discovery or just a flashy experiment. TechCrunch has more here. New State Department cables suggest that the Trump administration may be quietly leaning on trade partners to fast-track approvals for Starlink while dangling tariff relief in the background. The Washington Post has more here. According to a New York Magazine report, college students are using AI to crank out essays, ace assignments, and even cheat on job interviews—often with the blessing (or at least resignation) of professors who no longer trust detection tools or their own policies. More here. Amazon just unveiled a new warehouse robot with a sense of touch, claiming it can handle 75% of inventory tasks, fueling fresh anxiety about job cuts as automation creeps further into human territory. The Guardian has more here. |
|
Detours |
|
Retail TherapyA 236-foot megayacht designed by Giorgio Armani. Old-school e-bike. |
|