Top News

What the markets giveth, the markets also taketh away, as the Nasdaq dropped 4% on news that U.S. tariffs against China would be a whopping 145%. Former US treasury secretary Janet Yellen called the tariffs “the worst self-inflicted wound that I have ever seen an administration impose on a well-functioning economy.” She accused U.S. President Donald Trump of having "taken a wrecking ball" to the American economy. CNBC has more here. 

Apple may have moved 600 tons of iPhones from India to the U.S. in order to beat the Trump tariffs. Reuters has more here. 

Founder Charged with Fraud after "AI" Shopping App Found to Be Powered by Humans in the Philippines

By Charles Rollet

Albert Saniger, the founder and former CEO of Nate, an AI shopping app that promised a “universal” checkout experience, was charged with defrauding investors on Wednesday, according to a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice.

Founded in 2018, Nate raised over $50 million from investors like Coatue and Forerunner Ventures, most recently raising a $38 million Series A in 2021 led by Renegade Partners.

Nate said its app’s users could buy from any e-commerce site with a single click, thanks to AI. In reality, however, Nate relied heavily on hundreds of human contractors in a call center in the Philippines to manually complete those purchases, the DOJ’s Southern District of New York alleges.

Saniger raised millions in venture funding by claiming that Nate was able to transact online “without human intervention,” except for edge cases where the AI failed to complete a transaction. But despite Nate acquiring some AI technology and hiring data scientists, its app’s actual automation rate was effectively 0%, the DOJ claims.

More here.

Massive Fundings

Thinking Machines Lab, a new AI startup founded by ex-OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, is reportedly in the market to raise a $2 billion seed (!) round at a $10+ billion post-money valuation. Business Insider has the scoop here. 

Incident.io, a four-year-old New York and London startup that offers an AI-powered platform designed to streamline incident management for engineering teams, raised a $62 million Series B round at a rumored valuation of $400 million. The deal was led by Index Ventures, with previous investors Index Ventures and Point Nine also investing. The company has raised a total of $96 million. TechCrunch has more here. 

Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings

Alinea Invest, a five-year-old New York startup that offers a mobile investment app tailored for Gen Z and women, providing fractional investing, cryptocurrency trading, and personalized investment "playlists" aligned with users' interests and values, raised a $10.4 million Series A round led by Play Ventures, with GFR Fund, Y Combinator, Gaingels, FoundersX, F7, and Visible Ventures also pitching in. Finextra has more here.

Anecdotes, a five-year-old Palo Alto startup that offers an AI-powered platform that automates governance, risk, and compliance processes for enterprises, raised a $30 million Series B extension led by DTCP, with additional participation from previous investors Glilot, Vertex, and Red Dot. PYMNTS has more here.

Bliss Aesthetics, a three-year-old startup based in Encinitas, CA, that has built an AI-driven platform that connects individuals seeking cosmetic procedures with board-certified plastic surgeons and allows users to visualize potential surgical outcomes and explore financing options, raised a $17.5 million seed round led by Shine Capital, with Synchrony Ventures, Sheva Ventures, Point72 Ventures, and Cerca Partners also taking part. CTech has more here.

Groundcover, a four-year-old Tel Aviv startup that provides an observability platform for cloud-based applications that utilizes eBPF technology to monitor the entire Kubernetes stack without code changes, raised a $35 million Series B round led by Zeev Ventures, with Heavybit, Jibe Ventures, and Angular Ventures also participating. The company has raised a total of $60 million. Tech Funding News has more here.

Outtake, a two-year-old Brooklyn startup whose platform uses self-learning AI agents to protect organizations from scams and impersonations on social media, websites, and email, raised a $16.5 million Series A round led by CRV, with Nikesh Arora and Bill Ackman also contributing. More here.

Solve Intelligence, a two-year-old London startup that has built an AI-powered in-browser document editor designed to assist patent attorneys and inventors in drafting and managing patents efficiently, raised a $12 million Series A round led by 20VC. The company has raised a total of $15 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Smaller Fundings

Conduit, a three-year-old San Francisco startup that automates communication and workflows for property managers across residential, hotel, and short-term rental sectors, raised a $3.1 million round. Pi Labs led the investment, with Y Combinator also chipping in. Startups Magazine has more here.

Cofertility, a three-year-old Los Angeles startup that offers women the opportunity to freeze their eggs at no cost through its "Split" program, where participants donate half of their retrieved eggs to intended parents who are unable to conceive, raised a $7.25 million Series A round co-led by Next Ventures and Offline Ventures, with Initialized and Gaingels also opting in. The company has raised a total of $16 million. TechCrunch has more here. 

DIAMO, a one-year-old New York startup that has built an AI-powered revenue management platform designed for independent hotels, integrating automated room pricing, digital marketing, and a booking engine to enhance revenue and streamline operations, raised a $4 million seed round co-led by Thayer Ventures and Inovia Capital, with Avalon Capital Group also anteing up. Built in NYC has more here.

Dosen, a three-year-old Dublin startup that provides community-based learning and development programs tailored to individual employee needs, aiming to address workplace disengagement and "quiet quitting," raised a $2.3 million pre-seed round led by Affinity Ventures and including Unshackled Ventures and Fuel Ventures. Tech Funding News has more here.

Ryft, a four-year-old London startup that enables marketplaces and digital platforms to manage complex, multi-party transactions, including automatic payment splitting and real-time payouts, raised a $7.4 million Series A round led by EdenBase, with GPOS Investments, British Business Bank, Pembroke VCT, Sidebyside, and Ingenii VC also stepping up. Business Insider has more here.

New Funds

Matt Miller, a longtime partner at Sequoia Capital who parted ways with the firm in late 2023, is reportedly raising a new $300 million fund that will focus on leading Series B and C rounds in European AI and B2B startups. Sifted, which says Miller's new firm will be based in London, has more here.

Exits

Banking-as-a-service startup Solid (formerly called Wise) has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, according to documents filed in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware on April 7. Founded in 2018, the fintech company had raised a total of nearly $81 million in funding from investors such as FTV Capital and Headline. TechCrunch has the story here.

People

A senior Siemens executive from Spain, Agustin Escobar, and his family perished today when a helicopter they had taken to tour New York City crashed into the Hudson River.

Rippling co-founder Prasanna Sankar and his wife are embroiled in a custody battle that has turned exceedingly ugly. The San Francisco Standard reports on the latest here.

Data

According to a report by the International Energy Agency, in just five years, data centers will use more electricity than the entire country of Japan. The Wall Street Journal has more here.

Essential Reads

The cybersecurity industry is keeping mum after the Trump administration removed SentinelOne's security clearance for hiring Christopher Krebs, a former director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency who refused to endorse President Trump's claims that President Joe Biden stole the 2020 presidential election. Reuters has more here. 

The Information does a deep dive into Apple's chaotic efforts to raise Siri's AI game. More here. 

Meta is determined that Llama 4 should "understand and articulate both sides of a contentious issue" and be more like Elon Musk's Grok. 404 Media has more here. 

Detours

The most surprising things Americans are buying to beat the tariffs.

Regrets, the YouTube moms have a few.

The "Butter Skin" trend, explained.

Retail Therapy

Colorful sneakers (now that white is passé, which, dammit).

Speaking of color, John Stamos' Calabasas home -- now on the market for $13 million -- really takes its color scheme to an extreme.