Top News

The Trump administration has quietly killed a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rule that would have restricted data brokers from selling Americans’ sensitive information—including Social Security numbers—just days after fintech lobbyists asked for it to be shelved. TechCrunch has more here. 

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Billionaire Founder of Luminar Replaced as CEO Following Ethics Inquiry

By Kirsten Korosec

Austin Russell, who became a billionaire after his lidar startup Luminar went public, appears to be out as CEO, according to the company’s board.

Luminar’s board announced Wednesday — the same day of its first-quarter earnings report — it had replaced Russell and appointed Paul Ricci to the role. Ricci is the former chairman and CEO of Nuance.

The press release states that Russell resigned as president and CEO and as the chairperson of the board, effective immediately. The board said in the press release the resignation followed a code of business conduct and ethics inquiry for the audit committee of Luminar’s board. Russell will remain on the board and be “available to the incoming Chief Executive Officer on transition and technology matters,” according to the release.

However, it’s not clear if Russell was forced out or if he resigned willingly. Russell could not be reached for comment. The board did not provide further details of this ethics inquiry except that it “does not impact any of the company’s financial results.”

In a further twist, the company’s earnings report and slide presentation makes no mention of the change of leadership. The first-quarter press release even includes an upbeat statement from Russell that outlines the company’s strategy to drive down cost with its new Halo product.

“In a world of macro uncertainty and adversity, we’re firing on all cylinders to ramp up production, ramp down costs, and capitalize on the future, as evidenced by our announcements today,” Russell said in the statement. “This kicks off our new operating plan for Luminar with a unified product platform, enabling radical focus and streamlining of the business, as well as unlocking value throughout our organization.”

More here.

Massive Fundings

AI21 Labs, an eight-year-old Tel Aviv startup that builds large language models and generative AI tools for enterprise applications such as content creation, summarization, and multilingual communication, raised a $300 million Series D round. Investors included Google and Nvidia. SiliconANGLE has more here.

Azafaros, a seven-year-old Dutch startup that develops brain-penetrant small-molecule therapies for rare lysosomal storage disorders, raised a $147.6 million Series B round co-led by Jeito Capital and Forbion Growth, with Seroba, Pictet Group, Forbion Ventures, Schroders Capital, and BioGeneration Ventures also pitching in. More here.

TensorWave, a one-year-old Las Vegas startup that provides AMD-based infrastructure for AI model training and inference, including large-scale GPU cluster deployment and optimization, raised a $100 million round co-led by Magnetar and AMD Ventures, with Maverick Silicon, Nexus Venture Partners, and Prosperity7 also chiming in. TechCrunch has more here.

Zeno Power, a seven-year-old startup based in Washington, DC, that develops compact nuclear batteries designed to deliver sustained energy in deep space, underwater, and other remote environments, raised a $50 million Series B round led by Hanaco Ventures, with Seraphim, Balerion Space Ventures, JAWS, Vanderbilt University, RiverPark Ventures, Stage 1 Ventures, 7i Capital, and Beyond Earth Ventures also chipping in. Payload has more here.

Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings

Complement 1, a one-year-old startup based in Dover, DE, that develops personalized lifestyle programs designed to support cancer patients through diet, exercise, and behavioral interventions, raised a $16 million seed round. Owl Ventures and Blume Ventures were the co-leads. More here.

Flock, a five-year-old Denver startup that enables individual landlords to exchange their rental properties for passive ownership shares in a professionally managed housing portfolio, raised a $20 million Series B round led by Renegade Partners, with previous investors Andreessen Horowitz, Primary Venture Partners, Susa Ventures, and 1Sharpe Ventures also investing. More here.

Forethought, an eight-year-old San Francisco startup that provides a multi-agent AI platform for automating customer service across channels like chat, email, and voice, raised a $25 million Series D round led by Blue Cloud Ventures, with previous investors NEA, Industry Ventures, Neo, Village Global, and Sound Ventures also taking part. More here.

Granola, a two-year-old London startup that has built an AI-powered note-taking app, raised a $43 million Series B funding round at a $250 million valuation. The deal was led by NFDG, with previous investors Lightspeed Venture Partners and Spark Capital also stepping up. The company has raised a total of $67 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Intrepid Labs, a two-year-old Toronto startup that builds autonomous laboratories combining AI, robotics, and chemistry to accelerate the formulation of drug compounds, raised an $11 million seed round led by AVANT BIO, with previous investor Radical Ventures also opting in. More here.

Remedy Plan Therapeutics, a fourteen-year-old company based in Gaithersburg, MD, that develops hyperbolic NAMPT inhibitors aimed at treating cancers by targeting cellular metabolism, raised an $18 million round. Previous backers Schooner Capital and Alexandria Venture Investments participated in the financing. The company has raised a total of $55 million. More here.

Space Forge, a seven-year-old startup based in Cardiff, Wales, that builds reusable satellites designed to manufacture high-performance materials such as semiconductors and superalloys in the microgravity conditions of space, raised a $30 million Series A round led by NATO Innovation Fund, with World Fund, NSSIF, and the British Business Bank also digging in. Reuters has more here.

Smaller Fundings

Hyperbots, a two-year-old startup based in Dover, DE, that builds agentic AI co-pilots to automate finance and accounting workflows for SMBs, raised a $6.5 million Series A round. Arkam Ventures and Athera Venture Partners were the co-leads, with JSW Ventures as well as previous investors Kalaari Capital, Sunicon Ventures, and Darashaw & Company also participating. More here.

Kickscale, a five-year-old Vienna startup that offers an AI-powered platform for analyzing sales conversations for European B2B teams, raised a $2.3 million seed round led by Gründungsfonds, with altitudeVC, Calm/Storm Ventures, and Carinthian Venture Fonds also opting in. More here.

Kovr.ai, a startup founded this year based in Reston, VA, that provides an AI-native platform to automate compliance processes for organizations in highly regulated industries, raised a $3.6 million seed round co-led by IronGate and Xfund, with additional participation from Hack Factory, OODA Ventures, and McLean Capital. More here.

Mentaily, a one-year-old Tel Aviv startup that develops AI-powered diagnostic tools to support mental health professionals in early detection and personalized assessment, raised a $3 million seed round led by a U.S.-based family office and Israeli family offices, with The Rashi Foundation and Sheatufim also chiming in. CTech has more here.

Pluto Bio, a five-year-old Denver startup that provides a no-code tool to help pharmaceutical and biotech teams analyze and visualize complex biological data, raised a $3.6 million round from Kickstart and Silverton Partners. Built in Colorado has more here.

Scription Maintenance, a five-year-old Edmonton startup that offers subscription-based maintenance plans for commercial equipment in sectors like foodservice and hospitality, raised a $7.8 million seed round led by IA Capital, with Markd also stepping up. Built in Calgary has more here.

Veritree, a four-year-old Vancouver startup that provides a nature restoration verification platform enabling businesses to track and validate reforestation and conservation efforts through data-driven tools, raised a $6.5 million Series A round led by Pender Ventures, with Garage Capital, Northside Ventures, and Diagram also participating. More here.

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Exits

Databricks, a 12-year-old San Francisco company that builds cloud software to help businesses organize their data and run AI applications, has acquired Neon, a four-year-old San Francisco startup that offers a cloud-based version of PostgreSQL for quickly creating and managing databases, for approximately $1 billion. The deal is meant to make it easier for Databricks' customers to spin up AI agents on their own data. TechCrunch has more here. 

Going Public

The Israeli social trading and brokerage platform eToro jumped 29% in its Nasdaq debut after raising nearly $310 million, giving IPO-watchers a rare sign of life in a market still twitchy from tariffs. CNBC has more here. 

Mobile bank operator Chime finally filed to go public yesterday, revealing solid revenue growth, a $33 million jersey deal with the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, and a near-profitability pitch that could resonate in today’s twitchy IPO market. TechCrunch has more here. 

People

Salesforce co-founder and CEO Marc Benioff tells the Financial Times that progress in AI will be just as messy as other foundational technologies. He also shrugs off fears about the end of SaaS, calls Microsoft’s Copilot "Clippy 2.0," and says Salesforce is betting big on open-source models and "digital labor." More here. 

Data

Stanford professor Ilya Strebulaev is at it again with another great chart on the top 50 unicorn investors. More here. 

Essential Reads

Google DeepMind has developed a new evolutionary AI system called AlphaEvolve that it claims can develop new and provably superior algorithms for tasks like datacenter scheduling, chip design, and optimizing AI itself—marking a potential shift from remixing old code to genuinely inventing new algorithms. Wired has more here. 

Elon Musk's Grok chatbot went off-script today, spamming users with unsolicited takes on “white genocide” in South Africa. TechCrunch has more here. 

Early predictions that AI would replace radiologists haven’t panned out. At major medical centers like the Mayo Clinic, it’s become more of a behind-the-scenes assistant, speeding up routine tasks while leaving the hard calls to humans. The New York Times has more here. 

Detours

New York Magazine crunched the standing ovation data from Cannes 2025 to rank this year’s buzziest films—because apparently, the louder the claps, the stronger the Oscar odds.

The first full-length trailer for Superman just dropped, and "everybody hates Superman except his dog," says GQ.

Retail Therapy

This $22 million Marin manse comes complete with a yacht and a funicular. 

The Ming worldtimer.