Top News
It's been a long week. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq both dropped another 6% today largely due to China's decision to launch retaliatory tariffs. The Wall Street Journal has more here.
President Trump has decided to extend TikTok's runway to find a buyer for its U.S. operations by another 75 days. CNBC has more here.
Speaking of TikTok, Reuters is reporting that the Trump administration is giving the social media company more time because China has indicated it won't approve a deal in light of U.S. tariffs. More here.
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OpenAI’s Models “Memorized” Copyrighted Content, New Study Suggests
By Kyle Wiggers
A new study appears to lend credence to allegations that OpenAI trained at least some of its AI models on copyrighted content.
OpenAI is embroiled in suits brought by authors, programmers, and other rights-holders who accuse the company of using their works — books, codebases, and so on — to develop its models without permission. OpenAI has long claimed a fair use defense, but the plaintiffs in these cases argue that there isn’t a carve-out in U.S. copyright law for training data.
The study, which was co-authored by researchers at the University of Washington, the University of Copenhagen, and Stanford, proposes a new method for identifying training data “memorized” by models behind an API, like OpenAI’s.
Models are prediction engines. Trained on a lot of data, they learn patterns — that’s how they’re able to generate essays, photos, and more. Most of the outputs aren’t verbatim copies of the training data, but owing to the way models “learn,” some inevitably are. Image models have been found to regurgitate screenshots from movies they were trained on, while language models have been observed effectively plagiarizingnews articles.
The study’s method relies on words that the co-authors call “high-surprisal” — that is, words that stand out as uncommon in the context of a larger body of work. For example, the word “radar” in the sentence “Jack and I sat perfectly still with the radar humming” would be considered high-surprisal because it’s statistically less likely than words such as “engine” or “radio” to appear before “humming.”
Massive Fundings
Félix Pago, a five-year-old Miami startup that operates a chat-based remittance platform allowing users to send money cross-border via WhatsApp, raised a $75 million Series B round. QED Investors led the transaction, with Monashees, Switch Ventures, Castle Island, and HTwenty also contributing. More here.
Neurona Therapeutics, a seven-year-old South San Francisco startup that develops regenerative cell therapies for neurological disorders, raised a $102 million round. Investors included Fidelity, The Column Group, Soleus Capital, Viking Global Investors, Cormorant Asset Management, Schroders Capital, LYFE Capital, Euclidean Capital, UCB Ventures, Willett Advisors, UC Investments, YK Bioventures, Berkeley Frontier Fund, Ysios Capital, Alexandria Venture Investments, and Spur Capital Partners. More here.
Redpanda, a six-year-old San Francisco startup that offers a real-time data streaming platform for agentic and operational applications, raised a $100 million Series D round at a $1 billion post-money valuation. The deal was led by GV, with Lightspeed Venture Partners also investing. The company has raised a total of $265 million. More here.
Solace, a three-year-old startup based in Redwood City, CA, that connects patients with expert healthcare advocates to assist with tasks such as appointment scheduling and paperwork, raised a $60 million Series B round led by Menlo Ventures, with additional participation from SignalFire as well as previous investors Inspired Capital, Torch Capital, and Craft Ventures. The company has raised a total of $81 million. More here.
Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings
Bloom Biorenewables, a six-year-old Swiss startup that transforms natural materials found in biomass to create sustainable alternatives to petroleum-based products, raised a $15.1 million Series A round co-led by Anaïs Ventures and Valquest Partners, with Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Lombard Odier Investment Managers, Capital Risque Fribourg, Btomorrow Ventures, Amcor Ventures, Rosebrook, and The King Baudouin Foundation also piling on. ESG Today has more here.
Codex, a two-year-old New York startup that is building a layer-two blockchain optimized for stablecoins, offering consistent fees, built-in offramps, and optional privacy controls, raised a $15.8 million seed round led by Dragonfly, with Coinbase, Circle Ventures, Cumberland, and Wintermute also investing. Fortune has more here.
Daymark Health, a one-year-old Philadelphia startup that partners with health plans to provide in-home and virtual supportive care to cancer patients in collaboration with their oncologists, raised an $11.5 million seed round co-led by Maverick Ventures and Yosemite, with Oncology Ventures also taking part. More here.
Hi Auto, a six-year-old Tel Aviv startup that develops AI-powered voice assistants for fast food drive-thrus, raised a $15 million Series A round co-led by Delek Motors, the Zisapel family, Vasuki Tech Fund, and another unnamed investor, with additional participation from Allied Group, Goldbell Investments, and the Meir Barel Group. PR Newswire has more here.
Kurrent, a 12-year-old London company that offers an "event-native" data platform designed to store and stream data as events for use in downstream applications, raised a $12 million round led by Crane Venture Partners, with Creandum also participating. More here.
Restor3d, an eight-year-old startup based in Durham, NC, that makes personalized orthopedic implants, raised a $38 million growth funding round led by a syndicate that included Summers Value Partners. More here.
Scapia, a two-year-old Bengaluru startup that offers a travel-focused credit card paired with an app that helps users earn and redeem points for flights and hotels, raised a $40 million Series B round co-led by Peak XV Partners, with previous investors Elevation Capital, Z47, and 3State Capital also opting in. The Economic Times has more here.
Thatch, a four-year-old San Francisco startup that provides individual coverage health reimbursement arrangements (ICHRAs) and benefits management tools for employers, raised a $40 million Series B round. Index Ventures was the deal lead, with Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst, SemperVirens, PeopleTech Partners, The General Partnership, and ADP Ventures also stepping up. The company has raised a total of $84.5 million. TechCrunch has more here.
Turbine, a two-year-old New York startup that offers a financing platform allowing venture capital firms and their limited partners to access liquidity without selling their stakes in startups, raised a $22 million seed round and up to $100 million in debt. The equity piece was co-led by Alpha Edison and TTV Capital, with Fin Capital, B Capital, and Sozo Ventures also joining in. TechCrunch has more here.
Smaller Fundings
AutonomyAI, a two-year-old New York and Israeli startup that integrates autonomous AI agents into enterprise development teams to accelerate software production, raised a $4 million pre-seed round. Inbound Capital was the lead investor. CTech has more here.
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Going Public
Bloomberg is reporting that StubHub, Klarna, and eToro have paused their public offerings in response to President Trump's trade war. More here.
People
According to a report in Politico, Silicon Valley is terrified of criticizing Elon Musk because of the political power he wields. "The terror is real," a political consultant told the outlet. More here.
Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg lost a combined $208 billion yesterday, and today was also rough: Amazon and Meta shares fell another 4% and 5%, respectively. Robb Report has more here.
Last night at our StrictlyVC event in San Francisco, Connie interviewed Forerunner Ventures founder Kirsten Green about consumer investing trends and the impact of AI. TechCrunch has more here.
Data
According to a study by the Pew Research Center, the average American has a fairly negative view of AI. More here.
Essential Reads
According to Chainalysis, North Korean hackers stole more than $6 billion worth of crypto over the past decade and accounted for more than 60% of crypto losses last year. The Wall Street Journal has the receipts here.
In an article in Foreign Affairs, authors Henry Farrell and Abraham Newman argue that American tech companies like Alphabet, Meta, and OpenAI could be ceding European markets to China by tying themselves so closely to President Trump. More here.
Detours
The new Broadway revival of Glengarry Glen Ross is missing one very famous speech. "It’s like going to see the Eagles and they don’t play 'Hotel California,'" one theatergoer observed.
Retail Therapy
This $30.5 million Bel Air compound, which was designed by Elmer Grey, architect of the Beverly Hills Hotel, features a main home and four outbuildings, a pool, and a sports court complex.