Top News

The Financial Times is reporting that Meta is buying 49% of the data labeling firm Scale AI for approximately $15 billion in an effort to launch a new AI lab aimed at chasing "superintelligence." More here. 

Speaking of Meta, Bloomberg says that Meta CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg is poaching AI researchers and engineers at meetings held at his homes after Llama 4 underwhelmed and internal frustrations boiled over. More here. 

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AI Storage Platform Vast Data Aimed for $25B Valuation in New Round, Sources Say

By Marina Temkin

Vast Data, which offers an AI-friendly data storage platform, is in the market to raise a new round at a giant leap in valuation.

Earlier this year, the nine-year-old company was seeking a valuation of around $25 billion, according to a person familiar with the deal. Should it achieve that, it would be a massive jump from its $9 billion Series E valuation secured in December 2023.

The deal was not finalized and terms – including its valuation – could change, this person said, adding that the requested valuation was high at the time, despite impressive growth. Many VCs are interested in and watching Vast, other sources tell TechCrunch.

Vast didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Vast Data offers data management software coupled with unified CPU, GPU and data hardware from vendors like Supermicro, HPE and Cisco. Whereas old-school data storage options rely on tiers: low-cost storage options for long-term storage, higher-end options for more frequently used data, Vast aims to eliminate such tiers. It is particularly aimed at flash-storage.

AI has been a boon to Vast’s business. The company’s platform stores structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data in one place, which accelerates data retrieval and, it says, reduces the cost of model training and inference.

More here. 

Massive Fundings

Glean, a six-year-old Palo Alto startup that provides AI-powered search software that helps employees at large companies find information across tools like email, chat, and file storage platforms, raised a $150 million Series F round led by Wellington Management at a $7.2 billion post-money valuation, a $2.6 billion increase in valuation in less than a year. Additional investors included Khosla Ventures, Bicycle Capital, Geodesic, and Archerman Capital as well as prior backers Capital One Ventures, Altimeter, Citi, Coatue, DST Global, General Catalyst, ICONIQ Growth, IVP, Kleiner Perkins, Latitude Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Sapphire Ventures, and Sequoia Capital. CNBC has more here. 

Holidu, an 11-year-old Munich company that runs a vacation rental search platform that helps travelers compare and book holiday homes and provides property management tools to hosts, raised a $52.5 million round led by Key1 Capital, with previous investors Vintage Investment Partners, Prime Ventures, and 83North also stepping up. It also purchased Cybevasion, a competing company based in France. Silicon Canals has more here.

Horizon3.ai, a six-year-old San Francisco startup that has developed anautomated cybersecurity service that simulates real cyberattacks using AI to find and exploit vulnerabilities so security teams can fix them before they’re breached, raised a $100 million Series D round led by NEA, with SignalFire, Craft Ventures, and 9Yards Capital also opting in. More here.

Laurel, a nine-year-old San Francisco startup that sells a tool powered by AI that automatically tracks and organizes how professionals spend their time on tasks, helping large legal, accounting, and consulting firms spot inefficiencies and improve billing accuracy, raised a $100 million Series C round led by IVP, with additional support from GV, 01 Advisors, DST Global, Kevin Weil, Alexis Ohanian, Vladimir Fedorov, Arash Ferdowsi, and Hans Tung as well as previous investors ACME, Anthos, Gokul Rajaram, AIX Ventures, and TIME Ventures. More here.

Linear, a six-year-old San Francisco startup that offers software that helps teams track and manage their development work, including bug fixes, feature planning, and team collaboration, raised an $82 million Series C round at a $1.25 billion valuation. The deal lead was Accel, with Seven Seven Six and Designer Fund as well as previous investors Sequoia Capital and 01 Advisors also taking part. Reuters has more here.

Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings

Aiera, a seven-year-old New York startup that offers a dashboard and API that give investment professionals live streaming, transcription, summaries, and data for corporate events like earnings calls and conferences, raised a $25 million Series B round from "ten of Wall Street's largest investment banks and research providers" and Third Bridge, an expert network. More here.

Arketa, a five-year-old New York startup that provides online booking software and marketing tools for wellness studios that help studio owners manage classes, appointments, memberships, and branded websites, raised a $15 million Series A round led by Inspired Capital, with previous investors First Round, Y Combinator, Amity, and Velvet Sea also taking stakes. Forbes has more here.

Bedrock Ocean, a six-year-old startup based in Richmond, CA, that builds autonomous underwater robots and software to help companies map and inspect the seafloor for projects like offshore wind, undersea cables, and defense, raised a $25 million Series A-2 round led by Primary and Northzone, with Autopilot, Costanoa Ventures, Harmony Partners, Katapult, and Mana Ventures also joining in. TechCrunch has more here. 

Eli Health, a six-year-old New York startup that makes an at‑home saliva device and app that lets users measure stress and reproductive hormones in minutes, raised a $12 million Series A round led by BDC Capital, with Muse Capital, TELUS Global Ventures, Foreground Capital, Rocana Ventures, Accelia Capital, Garage Capital, Swizzle Ventures, IKJ Capital, Next Blue, Real Ventures, and Leva Capital also piling on. The company has raised a total of $20 million. Femtech Insider has more here.

Hypernative, a three-year-old Tel Aviv startup that sells software that monitors blockchain activity to detect and stop hacks, fraud, and phishing for Web3 companies like crypto exchanges and wallet providers, raised a $40 million Series B round co-led by Ten Eleven Ventures and Ballistic Ventures, with StepStone Group, Boldstart Ventures, and IBI Tech Fund also investing. The Block has more here.

Maze, a one-year-old London startup that sells an AI-driven tool that watches for and fixes security weaknesses in companies’ cloud systems, raised a $25 million Series A round led by Theory Ventures, with previous investors Cherry Ventures and Tapestry VC also pitching in. EU-Startups has more here.

MyLaurel, a nine-year-old New York startup that works with hospitals and insurance companies to provide in-home medical care for seriously ill patients after hospital stays, raised a $12 million round co-led by Deerfield Management and GV, with Emerson Collective, Pinta Partners, and Ochsner Health also chipping in. AlleyWatch has more here.

Noah, a five-year-old London startup that seeks to enable businesses and developers to move money across borders instantly and cheaply by converting between stablecoins and local currencies through a single API, raised a $22 million seed round from LocalGlobe, Felix Capital, and FJ Labs. Fortune has more here.

Nooks, a four-year-old startup based in Crystal City, VA, that provides secure, on‑demand classified workspaces and security services to government agencies, defense contractors, and related organizations, raised a $25 million Series A round. Investors included Zigg Capital, Upper90, SAIC, and Lockheed Martin. More here.

Sintra, a two-year-old Lithuanian startup that offers AI “helpers” compatible with Gmail and Facebook that small business owners can use to handle tasks like writing emails, posting on social media, and responding to customers, raised a $17 million seed round led by Earlybird VC, with Inovo and Practica Capital also anteing up. Tech Funding News has more here.

Swimlane, an 10-year-old company based in Louisville, CO, whose platform lets security teams at large organizations like banks, federal agencies, and managed service providers create automated workflows to handle thousands of security alerts daily without writing code, raised a $45 million round. Energy Impact Partners and Activate Capital co-led the deal, with Trinity Capital also participating. SiliconANGLE has more here.

Smaller Fundings

AI.work, a one-year-old Tel Aviv startup that offers AI-powered virtual “workers” that businesses plug into tools like email, chat, and ticket systems to automate routine tasks for departments like IT, HR, legal, and finance, raised a $10 million seed round co-led by A* and lool ventures, with First Minute Capital, FirsthandVC, Timeless Partners, SV Angel, Eckstein Capital, Liquid2, and Crossover VC also writing checks. CTech has more here.

Clara Home Care, a one-year-old San Francisco startup that helps families find, hire, and manage in-home caregivers for seniors by handling background checks, payroll, taxes, insurance, and scheduling through its online platform, raised a $3.1 million seed round. Investors included Torch Capital, Virtue, and Y Combinator. More here.

Co-Power, a one-year-old Munich startup that installs on‑site solar and battery systems for industrial companies in Europe, raised a $7.3 million round. Cherry Ventures was the lead investor, with Abacon Capital and Aurum Impact also taking part. Silicon Canals has more here.

MesoMat, a seven-year-old Canadian startup that installs tire sensors and cloud software for fleet operators to track things like pressure, fuel impact, temperature, and leaks in real-time, raised a round of an undisclosed amount led by Ridgeline, with participation from RISC Capital, RPV Global, and Extra Innings Ventures. The company has raised a total of $3.8 million. BetaKit has more here.

PFx Biotech, a three-year-old Portuguese startup that uses precision fermentation to produce human milk proteins like lactoferrin for companies that make infant formula and nutrition products, raised a $2.9 million seed round led by Buenavista Equity Partners and including EIT Food and Beta Capital. Green Queen Media has more here.

Piston, a one-year-old startup based in Cupertino, CA, that lets fleet drivers pay for fuel without cards by scanning app-generated QR codes at gas stations, giving fleet operators detailed tracking of each transaction, raised a $6.1 million seed round. Spark Capital led the transaction and was joined by Bond as well as previous investor Pear VC. Entrepreneur has more here.

RetroRate, a one-year-old San Diego startup that helps real estate agents and homebuyers find and use existing low‑rate mortgages from sellers instead of obtaining new loans, raised a $2.2 million seed round led by Swift Ventures and including Eniac VC, Cooley Ventures, Keshif Ventures, Interlock Capital, Launch Factory, and Arkus Nexus. More here.

Row64, a six-year-old startup based in Cheyenne, WY, that is developing a dashboard tool to enable companies to quickly view and analyze large amounts of data using GPU processing, raised a $4 million seed round led by Galaxy Interactive and including Alumni Ventures and Differential Ventures. More here.

Salvo Health, a four-year-old New York startup that works with hospitals and insurance companies to provide remote care from nurses and dietitians for people with chronic digestive and metabolic conditions, raised a $4 million seed extension round. Investors included Artemis Fund as well as previous investors City Light, Human Ventures, Threshold Ventures, Alumni Ventures, Felicis Ventures, and Torch Capital. MobiHealthNews has more here.

Somnee, an eight-year-old Berkeley startup that sells a smart headband and companion app that uses personalized brain stimulation to help people fall asleep faster and sleep longer, raised a $10 million seed extension round led by Khosla Ventures, with additional participation from Time Ventures, Lead VC, the DeVos Family Office, Seaside Ventures, Nelstone Ventures, and Metalab. More here.

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New Funds

Geodesic Capital, a 10-year-old venture fund based in Foster City, CA, just launched a $250 million fund to back U.S. deep tech startups in AI, space, and cybersecurity with an eye on helping them scale into the Japanese market. Via Satellite has more here. 

Going Public

Chime is expected to pop when it goes public on Thursday, but with rising fraud losses, a reliance on costly customer acquisition, and pressure to turn its lending business into a profit engine, the biggest digital bank still has plenty to prove. Forbes has more here. 

Layoffs

Google is quietly thinning the ranks again, this time dangling buyouts across major teams including Search and Ads as it tightens budgets and pushes remote employees back to the office ahead of another AI spending spree. CNBC has more here. 

People

In a blog post, OpenAI co-founder and CEO Sam Altman defended his company's use of natural resources. "People are often curious about how much energy a ChatGPT query uses; the average query uses about 0.34 watt-hours, about what an oven would use in a little over one second, or a high-efficiency lightbulb would use in a couple of minutes," he wrote. He added that "the cost of intelligence should eventually converge to near the cost of electricity." The Verge has more here.

Data

According to data from SimilarWeb, Google’s AI search tools are gutting traffic to news sites, forcing publishers like HuffPost, Business Insider, and The Atlantic to brace for a post-search world and scramble for direct reader relationships before the floor drops out completely. The Wall Street Journal has more here. 

Essential Reads

As 23andMe heads for a $256 million sale in bankruptcy court, 27 statesand the District of Columbia are suing to stop its genetic data trove from being sold without customers' explicit consent, arguing that DNA isn’t just another asset one can auction off. The New York Times has more here. 

Yale is reportedly rushing to unload up to $6 billion in private equity stakes at a discount as returns lag, cash dries up, and political pressure mounts. The New York Times has more here. 

Detours

ChatGPT is great at a lot of things, but apparently, chess is not one of them. A Citrix engineer claims that ChatGPT was humiliated by Atari Chess on beginner mode, repeatedly bungling moves and misreading the board while the circa 1977 console calmly played circles around it. Futurism has more here. 

Hidden bars (and how to find them).

Retail Therapy

A limited edition Montblanc pen designed by director Wes Anderson. 

Paris to Tuscany aboard the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express.