Top News
On day one of FTC v. Meta, lawyers for the Federal Trade Commission confronted Meta co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg with emails and internal communications they allege show that Meta bought WhatsApp and Instagram in order to establish a social media monopoly. The New York Times has more here.
Meta, for its part, argued that people just aren't "broadcasting" content to their friends on Facebook and Instagram as much as they used to, and that it has plenty of competition from TikTok and other social platforms in the "broad discovery and entertainment space." It used slides in its opening statement presentation to drive home the point, saying that in 2023, the time spent viewing friends' content was 22% on Facebookand 11% on Instagram. That timeshare has now dropped to 17% and 7%, respectively, it said. Business Insider has more here.
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Silicon Valley Crosswalk Buttons Hacked to Imitate Musk, Zuckerberg’s Voices
By Zack Whittaker
Audio-enabled traffic control crosswalk buttons across Silicon Valley were hacked over the weekend to include audio snippets imitating the voices of Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk.
Videos taken by locals in Menlo Park, Palo Alto, and Redwood City in California show the crosswalk buttons were playing AI-generated speech designed to sound like the two billionaires.
“It’s normal to feel uncomfortable or even violated as we forcefully insert AI into every facet of your conscious experience,” said one crosswalk button, which was hacked to sound like Zuckerberg. “I just want to assure you, you don’t need to worry because there’s absolutely nothing you can do to stop it.”
One crosswalk button that was hacked to sound like Musk said: “I guess they say money can’t buy happiness… I guess that’s true. God knows I’ve tried. But it can buy a Cybertruck and that’s pretty sick, right?”
“F—k, I’m so alone,” the Musk voice adds.
It’s not clear why the sidewalk buttons were hacked, or by whom, but signs point to possible hacktivism.
Massive Fundings
General Matter, a two-year-old San Francisco startup that produces a specialized type of uranium fuel called high-assay low-enriched uranium, which is essential for next-generation nuclear reactors, raised a $50 million round. Founders Fund, where General Matter's CEO, Scott Nolan, is a partner, was the deal lead. Bloomberg has more here.
Mainspring Energy, a fifteen-year-old Menlo Park company that manufactures linear generators that use "clean" fuels such as hydrogen, ammonia, biogas, and natural gas for commercial and industrial customers, including data centers and utilities, raised a $258 million Series F round led by General Catalyst, with Amazon's Climate Pledge Fund, DCVC, Temasek, Marunouchi Innovation Partners, M&G Investments, and Pictet Group as well as previous investors Lightrock, LGT Bank, Khosla Ventures, and Gates Frontier also participating. More here.
Science Corp., an Alameda, CA-based technology company focused on the human brain started by Neuralink Corp. co-founder Max Hodak, has raised over $100 million in a funding round led by Khosla Ventures. Science is working on a retina implant to treat eye diseases, as well as a brain implant system. Bloomberg, which notes the company previously raised $186 million (per Pitchbook), has more here.
Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings
BKN301, a four-year-old London startup that enables banks, fintechs, and neobanks to integrate core banking and payment processing services through a single API gateway, raised a $24.4 million Series B round. Investors included CDP VC, Azimut Libera Impresa, SIMEST, and Alisei Forinvestments. Silicon Canals has more here.
ConductorAI, a two-year-old startup based in Biddeford, ME, that uses AI agents to analyze policy documents and prior approvals, assisting users in navigating complex government workflows, raised a $15 million Series A round led by Lux Capital, with Altman Capital, Haystack Ventures, Sunflower Capital, Humba Ventures, Also Capital, Forward Deployed VC, and Abstract Ventures also piling on. CityBiz has more here.
Conifer, a three-year-old startup based in Sunnyvale, CA, that is developing electric hub motors free of rare earth elements, raised a $20 million seed round from a syndicate that included True Ventures, MaC Ventures, and MFV Partners. TechCrunch has more here.
Klara, a six-year-old Paris startup that has built a platform to help companies manage and develop the skills of their frontline employees, raised an $11.4 million round. Endeit Capital led the investment, with Side Capital and Ankaa Ventures also contributing. More here.
RLWRLD, a one-year-old South Korean startup that is developing an AI foundation model tailored for robotics, raised a $14.8 million seed round led by Hashed, with Mirae Asset Venture Investment and Global Brain also investing. TechCrunch has more here.
Tapcheck, a six-year-old startup based in Plano, TX, that allows employees to access their earned wages before payday through a mobile app, raised a $25 million Series A extension round and $200 million in debt. Previous investor PeakSpan Capital led the equity piece. CTech has more here.
Vinyl Equity, a three-year-old Chicago startup that provides a cloud-based platform for public companies to manage shareholder records, dividends, proxy voting, and compliance tasks, raised an $11.5 million seed round co-led by Index Ventures and Spark Capital, with additional participation from Infinity Ventures and Cambrian Fintech. More here.
Smaller Fundings
ClearCOGS, a three-year-old Chicago startup that provides AI-powered forecasting software to help restaurants reduce food waste and improve operational efficiency, raised a $3.8 million seed round led by Closed Loop Partners' Venture Group, with Myriad Venture Partners and Level Up Ventures also pitching in. The Spoon has more here.
Noto, a one-year-old New York startup that provides an AI-powered platform to help tutoring centers, music schools, and similar lesson-based businesses automate administrative tasks like scheduling, billing, and communication, raised a $3.8 million seed round. Base10 Partners was the deal lead. More here.
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New Funds
201 Ventures, a new venture firm founded by a former CIA agent, is putting the finishing touches on a $22 million fund to invest in early-stage defense tech deals. The New York Times has more here.
Exits
According to a report in Wired, Hugging Face, a nine-year-old New York and Paris startup that provides tools and a platform for building and sharing machine learning applications, has purchased Pollen Robotics, a nine-year-old French startup that aims to bring affordable humanoid robots to the home. Terms were not disclosed. TechCrunch has more here.
Going Public
Kodiak, a seven-year-old self-driving truck startup based in Mountain View, CA, plans to go public in a SPAC deal that values the company at $2.5 billion. The Wall Street Journal has more here.
People
According to a Business Post report, Rippling has been trying to serve Deel CEO Alex Bouaziz with papers related to allegations that Deel spied on Rippling, but to no avail: French bailiffs have been unable to track down Bouaziz, who lives in Paris. TechCrunch has more here.
Pop artist Katy Perry, “CBS Mornings” anchor Gayle King, film producer Kerianne Flynn, Bezos’ fiancée Lauren Sánchez, civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen, and aerospace engineer Aisha Bowe successfully completed a ten-minute space trip in a Blue Origin rocket today. TechCrunch has more here.
Speaking of Katy Perry, the songstress also launched a fusillade of memes with her comments about the trip and particularly STEM and stars. Business Insider has more here.
Essential Reads
Hertz disclosed today that hackers have critical customer information such as names, dates of birth, contact information, driver’s licenses, and payment card information. However, it would not disclose the extent of the breach, stating only that it would be "inaccurate to say millions" of customers are affected. TechCrunch has more here.
Google DeepMind is working on a new model to decipher dolphin speech. TechCrunch has more here.
On Friday Jack Dorsey tweeted, "Delete all IP law," and Elon Musk quickly agreed. Sam Altman has also expressed his belief that IP laws need to change. The battle lines between Big Tech and artists and advocacy groups have been drawn. TechCrunch has more here.
Detours
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Retail Therapy
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