Top News

Congress overwhelmingly passed the bipartisan Take It Down Act, which criminalizes the posting of nonconsensual intimate imagery — including AI-generated deepfakes — and requires online platforms to remove such content within 48 hours of a report; President Trump is expected to sign it into law. While many praised the law as a major step in protecting victims, some free-expression and privacy advocates warned it could be abused to suppress legitimate content and expressed concerns over potential partisan enforcement. The Washington Post has more here.

Wall Street banks have finally unloaded $13 billion in X debt after carrying it on their books for two and a half years. "For those who say neverbet against Elon, they seem to be right this time," a University of Chicago finance professor told The Wall Street Journal. More here.

OpenAI is taking on Google Shopping and launching a new product recommendation service within ChatGPT. TechCrunch has more here.

From Coding Tests to Billion-Dollar Startups, Ali Partovi’s Eight-Year Experiment Is Paying Off

By Connie Loizos

In Silicon Valley, where the same high-wattage names tend to dominate the headlines, Ali Partovi has long wielded outsized influence despite limited name recognition. The Iranian-born Harvard graduate built an impressive resume early on — joining the founding team of LinkExchange (acquired by Microsoft in 1998 for $265 million), co-founding iLike (sold to MySpace for a reported $20 million in 2009), and launching the educational nonprofit Code.org with his twin brother Hadi. Together, they also became early investors in tech giants like Facebook, Airbnb, and Dropbox.

While industry insiders have long viewed the Partovi brothers’ involvement in a startup as a strong signal, Ali’s star is now rising more broadly beyond tech circles. This wider recognition stems from Neo, his eight-year-old venture firm that promised from the outset to revolutionize how exceptional talent is discovered — and is developing some fairly convincing proof points.

Among its bets, Neo was the first institution outside of Twitter to invest in the decentralized social network Bluesky, which was reportedly valued at $700 million in a January funding round, and Kalshi, an online prediction market whose surge in popularity began during last fall’s U.S. presidential election.

“This year, for the first time, I can conclusively say that we are discovering the future superstars before anyone else,” Partovi, known for being equal parts gracious and tenacious to the point of pushy, told this editor on Friday.

Neo’s relationship with Michael Truell helps to tell the story.

In 2019, Truell, then a freshman at MIT, was interning at Google when a fellow student suggested he meet with Partovi. During that hour-long sit-down, Partovi gave Truell a handwritten coding test that he completed in 15 minutes. The ask wasn’t unusual for Partovi. When investing with his brother, the two commonly ran teams through a tech interview as if they wanted to get a job at Google. But it exemplifies Partovi’s approach at Neo, where he uses technical evaluations not as rigid assessments but as foundations for deeper conversations.

The moment was also the start of a relationship that could prove lucrative for both Partovi and Truell. Indeed, years later, backed first by Partovi, Truell co-founded Anysphere, maker of the popular AI-powered coding editor Cursor, which is now flirting with a $10 billion valuation and may become one of Neo’s most successful investments.

More here. 

Massive Fundings

Lightrun, a six-year-old Tel Aviv startup that provides developer observability tools to help engineering teams monitor, debug, and secure live applications without leaving the developer’s coding environment, raised a $70 million Series B round co-led by Accel and Lightspeed, with Citi, Glilot Capital, GTM Capital, and Sorenson Capital also opting in. TechCrunch has more here.

Minimus, a three-year-old hybrid startup that helps enterprises detect and prevent software vulnerabilities earlier in the development process, raised a $51 million round co-led by YL Ventures and Mayfield. SiliconANGLE has more here.

Veza, a five-year-old startup based in Redwood Shores, CA, that has built an identity security platform to help companies control and monitor access to sensitive data and critical systems across cloud, SaaS, and on-prem environments, raised a $108 million Series D round led by NEA, with Atlassian Ventures, Workday Ventures, Snowflake Ventures, Accel, GV, True Ventures, Norwest, Ballistic Ventures, JPMorgan, and Blackstone also taking stakes. SecurityWeek has more here.

Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings

ARX Robotics, a four-year-old Munich startup that is developing scalable unmanned ground vehicles and military-grade AI operating systems to modernize European defense forces and automate ground operations, raised a $35.4 million Series A round led by HV Capital, with Omnes Capital, NATO Innovation Fund, and Project A also stepping up. Tech Funding News has more here.

Craif, a seven-year-old Tokyo startup that uses urine biomarkers and AI to detect cancer in its early stages, raised a $22 million Series C round led by X&KSK, with Unreasonable Group, TAUNS Laboratories, Daiwa House Industry, and Aozora Bank also pitching in. TechCrunch has more here.

LayerX, a four-year-old New York startup whose browser security software is designed to protect enterprise environments from data leaks and cyberattacks, raised an $11 million Series A extension round led by Jump Capital, with previous investors Glilot Capital Partners and Dell Technologies Capital also digging in. CTech has more here.

OmniRetail, a four-year-old Lagos startup whose mission is to help African retailers access inventory financing, streamlined logistics, and procurement tools, raised a $20 million Series A round led by Timon Capital, with Ventures Platform, Aruwa Capital, Alitheia Capital, and Flour Mills also stepping up. TechCrunch has more here.

Pliant, a five-year-old Berlin startup whose corporate card platform helps businesses manage expenses, issue virtual and physical cards, and integrate payments with accounting workflows, raised a $40 million Series B round co-led by Illuminate Financial and Speedinvest, with PayPal Ventures and Motive Ventures also buying in. PYMNTS has more here.

Smaller Fundings

Cheehoo, a seven-year-old startup based in Brisbane, Australia, that develops AI-powered tools to help studios and creators rapidly prototype, iterate, and produce animated content, raised a $10 million seed round led by Greycroft, with Point72 Ventures, Basis Set, Headline Asia, Powerhouse Capital, Playground Productions, and Rideback also opting in. TechCrunch has more here.

Deferred, a one-year-old Los Angeles startup that operates a tech-driven qualified intermediary service for real estate investors conducting 1031 exchanges, raised a $3.6 million seed round co-led by B Capital and Fika Ventures. More here.

Hopper, a two-year-old New York City and Tel Aviv startup that builds open-source software tools to help companies manage security risks from third-party libraries and dependencies, raised a $7.6 million seed round co-led by Meron Capital and New Era, with Sequoia Scout Fund and M-Fund also chiming in. SiliconANGLE has more here.

SixMap, a five-year-old startup based in Columbia, MD, whose attack surface management software helps organizations identify, monitor, and reduce external cybersecurity risks, raised a $7 million round led by IAG Capital Partners, with TRE Advisors, DataTribe, and California Innovation Fund also taking part. CityBiz has more here.

Sprive, a six-year-old London startup whose app helps homeowners automatically overpay their mortgages, save on interest costs, and find better mortgage deals by connecting everyday spending to faster debt repayment, raised a $7.4 million round led by Ascension, with Channel4Ventures, Velocity Capital, and Two Magnolias also investing. UKTN has more here. 

New Funds

Fortune digs into Insight Partners “mafia” of alumni, which has gone on to found or lead firms like Full In Partners (Elodie Dupuy), Left Lane Capital (Harley Miller), 645 Ventures (Nnamdi Okike), and Smash Capital (Bradley Twohig). More here.

Volution, a four-year-old London VC firm, has raised its second fund — a $100 million vehicle — to back growth-stage fintech, AI, and SaaS companies generating $5 million to $20 million in revenue. TechCrunch has more here.

Exits

Palo Alto Networks is acquiring Protect AI, a three-year-old Seattle startup that secures machine learning systems, in a deal valued at more than $500 million. Protect AI's backers include Acrew Capital, Aviso Ventures, boldstart ventures, Evolution Equity Partners, Knollwood Capital, Pelion Ventures, 01 Advisors, Samsung, StepStone Group, and Salesforce Ventures. GeekWire has more here. 

Splice, a 12-year-old New York-based music collaboration and sample marketplace backed by Goldman Sachs, is acquiring London-based Spitfire Audio, a leading orchestral sound library, for approximately $50 million in stock in order to expand into AI-driven music creation. The Financial Times has more here. 

People

OpenAI co-founder and CEO Sam Altman and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella are splitsville. The Wall Street Journal has more here. 

Speaking of Sam Altman, the man that Elon Musk loves to hate admits that ChatGPT "glazes too much." The Verge has more here.

Semafor investigates how private Signal and WhatsApp group chats formed during the pandemic among Silicon Valley elites like Marc Andreessen, Joe Lonsdale, Sriram Krishnan, Balaji Srinivasan, Ben Shapiro, and their sparring partner, Mark Cuban, helped forge a new alliance between tech leaders and the political right. More here

Essential Reads

OpenAI says it has deployed an urgent fix that will prevent under-18 users from generating sexually explicit content. TechCrunch discovered the issue and noted that "in some cases, the chatbot even encouraged these users to ask for raunchier, more explicit content." OpenAI's lapse comes as the company pushes deeper into education markets and follows broader policy changes intended to make ChatGPT more permissive on sensitive topics. TechCrunch has more here. 

The Financial Times takes a deep dive into the iPhone’s production process, which involves around 2,700 parts sourced from 187 suppliers — only 30 of which have no presence in China. More here. 

TechCrunch pulls together a list of the companies that are racing to build quantum chips. More here.

Detours

Film nerds are calling this duo the next Scorsese and De Niro.

The maiden voyage of The 90s Cruise.

Poop drones.

Retail Therapy

A Singer Porsche 911 that could command over $2 million at auction.

How to make yourseries 10 Apple Watch look like an Apple Watch Ultra for only $30.

Coffee in a tube.