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This week has brought more than Nvidia’s revenue report. There was some news for startups and VCs. It’s probably quieter, but it’s still worth paying attention, especially if AI is involved.
The most interesting startup story of the week
AI once again driven most of the overall startup activity, including one acquisition, but this week it took a long time to run a full M&A, reminding us that VC funding isn’t the only route.
Excellent Optics: AMD has acquired Enosemi, a startup that designs custom materials to support silicon photonics product development under private conditions. The goal of the acquisition is to “accelerate (AMD) auxiliary optical innovations for AI systems.”
Onboarding: AI Startup Humanity has added Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings to its board. Hastings has been appointed by Anthropic’s independent long-term benefit trust and has already sat on committees of Netflix, Bloomberg, Meta and Microsoft.
It’ll take time: Family Safety App Life360 finally incorporates lost item tracking features like Airtag on tiles three and a half years after Life 360 acquired the tile for $205 million.
One Month and 25 Days: Famous entrepreneur and angel investor Sahil Lavingia revealed details of his stint on Elon Musk’s Doge workforce, saying it was booted just 55 days later. But he’s not the only one. The mask stint is coming to an end.
Bootstrap: Thinkst Canary, a 10-year-old cybersecurity company, has reached $20 million in annual recurring revenues without VC investments.
Most Interesting VC and Funding News This Week
This week’s fundraising news comes from a mix of announcements and rumors. Let’s start with these before moving on to more specific updates.
Musk Again: Neuralink, Elon Musk’s brain implant startup, reportedly raised $600 million at a previous valuation of $9 billion.
Long Arm: Samsung is said to be trying to invest in a $100 million round for medical device startup EXO through its venture investment division.
New Horizon: Filing reveals that cybersecurity startup Horizon3.AI is about to raise $100 million.
New Brick: Buildot, a Chicago-based startup that leverages AI and computer vision to improve construction progress tracking, has raised a $45 million Series D, bringing its total to $166 million.
Total: Rillet, a startup that uses machine learning and generator AI to automate accounting reports, has raised a $25 million Series A, led by Sequoia Capital.
Convenience: Snabbit, a 15-month Indian startup operating in an increasingly hot home service space, has secured $19 million in the Series B round led by LightSpeed with a $80 million money rating.
World Model: Spaitial, the new company of Synthesia co-founder Matthias Niessner, has developed a basic model that can generate an interactive 3D online environment by bringing together a $13 million seed round led by Earlybird. This week we share similarities with AI models released by competitor Odyssey.
Advanced Grid: AI-powered energy optimization startup Gridcare said it was ready to emerge from stealth with oversubscribed to a $13.5 million seed round and play matchmakers between data centers and utilities.
Diversification: State-owned Saudi AI company Humain is making progress in launching Humain Ventures, a $10 billion venture fund investing in startups in the US, Europe and Asia.
Kiwi Startups: The first ventures and incubators based in Auckland have closed its second fund, which is roughly $25 million, to invest in deep tech startups coming out of New Zealand.
Last but not least, it’s important
Fusion startups have attracted investors, but their efforts are still experimental. Meanwhile, nuclear fission already has the potential to operate data centers. This explains why large tech companies are investing in fission startups.