Top News

A new U.S. government assessment accuses Chinese AI startup DeepSeek of aiding Beijing’s military, sharing user data with intelligence authorities, and skirting export controls to access banned Nvidia chips. Reuters has more here.

Mira Murati is telling investors that her new startup, Thinking Machines Lab, will build AI models customized to business KPIs and eventually launch a consumer product. The Information has more here. 

Sponsored By ...

Is your tech stack a patchwork of tools? You're not alone. Join Affinity on July 10 to see how Motive Ventures centralized their operations with Affinity at the center. Learn about their integration strategy that connected Notion, Zapier, and Slack to transform fragmented solutions into a streamlined system.

The webinar will also feature practical advice to boost productivity and enhance core workflows like due diligence and competitive analysis. Start optimizing your tech ecosystem with best practices from a team that's successfully navigated tech stack complexity—register now for July 10.

The Stablecoin Evangelist: Katie Haun’s Fight for Digital Dollars

By Connie Loizos

In 2018, when Bitcoin was trading around $4,000 and most Americans, at least, thought cryptocurrency was a fad, Katie Haun found herself on a debate stage in Mexico City opposite Paul Krugman, the Nobel Prize-winning economist. As Krugman focused on Bitcoin’s wild price swings, Haun steered the conversation toward something else — stablecoins.

“Stablecoins are really interesting and really important to this ecosystem to hedge against that volatility,” she argued onstage, explaining how digital tokens pegged to the U.S. dollar could offer the benefits of blockchain technology without the ups and downs of traditional cryptocurrencies.

Krugman dismissed the idea entirely.

It wasn’t exactly a turning point in Haun’s career, but it was one moment among others that have helped define it. A former federal prosecutor, Haun brings an unusual background to crypto investing, having spent over a decade investigating financial crimes and creating the government’s first cryptocurrency task force. After becoming the first female partner at Andreessen Horowitz in 2018 and co-leading its crypto funds, she founded Haun Ventures in 2022 with over $1.5 billion in assets under management.

Hanging her own shingle hasn’t been without its complexities. Despite her role at a16z and the industry connections that came with it, the two haven’t publicly co-invested in anything since shortly after she launched her fund, and Haun stepped down from Coinbase’s board last year while Marc Andreessen remains a director.

When asked Wednesday night at TechCrunch’s StrictlyVC event about her relationship with Andreessen Horowitz, she downplayed any potential friction while acknowledging they aren’t collaborators exactly. “There’s no ‘gentleman’s agreement,’” she said, echoing this editor’s question about whether there’s any understanding to avoid competing with her former employer. “In fact, I still talk to Andreessen Horowitz. You’re right that we haven’t really done any deals together of late.”

More here. 

Massive Fundings

Conquest Planning, a seven-year-old Winnipeg startup that equips banks, advisors, and financial firms with an AI-driven platform that creates custom financial plans for their clients, raised an $80 million Series B round led by Goldman Sachs, with Canapi Ventures, BDC Capital, Citi Ventures, TIAA Ventures, and USAA as well as previous investors BNY and Portage also stepping up. More here.

Decagon, a San Francisco startup that builds AI-powered software that automates customer service through chat, email, and voice, helping companies run contact centers with minimal human involvement, raised a $131 million Series C round at a $1.5 billion post-money valuation. Accel and Andreessen Horowitz co-led the deal, with Avra, Forerunner, and Ribbit Capital as well as previous investors A*, Bain Capital Ventures, and BOND also partaking.  Reuters has more here. 

Finom, a six-year-old Amsterdam startup whose mobile app helps freelancers and small businesses in Europe manage banking, invoicing, expenses, and accounting in one place, raised a $133.1 million Series C round led by AVP, with additional participation from Headline as well as previous investors Cogito Capital, General Catalyst, and Northzone. TechCrunch has more here.

Harvey, a three-year-old San Francisco startup that uses AI to help lawyers and legal teams quickly review documents, draft contracts, and conduct legal research, raised a $300 million Series E round at a $5 billion valuation. The deal was co-led by Kleiner Perkins and Coatue, with Sequoia Capital, GV, DST Global, Conviction Capital, Elad Gil, Open AI Startup Fund, Elemental, SV Angel, and REV also piling on. TechCrunch has more here.

Neura Robotics, a six-year-old German startup that builds humanoid robots equipped with cameras, sensors, and AI that can work alongside people in settings like factories, hospitals, and homes, is reportedly in the market to raise up to $1.2 billion. Bloomberg has the scoop here.

PhysicsX, a six-year-old London startup that develops AI models to help manufacturers and defense companies speed up and improve the design, testing, and production of complex physical products like engines and drones, raised a $135 million round led by Atomico, with Temasek, Siemens, Applied Materials, and July Fund as well as previous investors General Catalyst, NGP, Radius Capital, Standard Investments, and Allen & Co. also joining in. More here.

Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings

Botpress, an eight-year-old Montréal startup whose platform enables companies to build, deploy, and manage AI agents that can integrate with existing business tools, raised a $25 million Series B round led by FRAMEWORK, with Inovia Capital, Deloitte Ventures, HubSpot Ventures, and Decibel also anteing up. More here. 

Insight M, an 11-year-old company based in Sunnyvale, CA, that flies sensor-equipped aircraft over oil and gas sites to find and map methane leaks so operators can quickly fix them before losing gas or causing pollution, raised a $30 million round from Morgan Stanley Investment Management. ESG Today has more here.

Profound, a one-year-old New York startup that helps large brands see how often and in what way they appear in AI-powered search tools, giving them insights and controls designed to improve their AI-based visibility, raised a $20 million Series A round led by Kleiner Perkins, with NVentures, Khosla Ventures, Saga VC, South Park Commons, and SV Angel also pitching in. More here.

Snowcap Compute, a Palo Alto startup that says it's building ultra-efficient AI chips that use superconducting materials and deep cooling to slash electricity use in data centers by up to 25 times compared to current semiconductor chips, raised a $23 million seed round led by Playground Global, with support from Cambium Capital and Vsquared Ventures. Reuters has more here.

Spinwheel, a six-year-old Oakland startup that provides fintechs and banks with APIs that give real-time access to consumer debt data and tools to verify and pay off loans using basic personal information, raised a $30 million Series A round led by F-Prime Capital and including QED Investors, Foundation Capital, and Fika Ventures. More here.

Veda, a one-year-old New York startup that enables financial apps and institutions to create and manage on-chain yield products by offering infrastructure for building customizable DeFi vaults across blockchains, raised an $18 million round led by CoinFund and including Coinbase Ventures, GSR, Maelstrom, Animoca Ventures, Mantle EcoFund, BitGo, Credibly Neutral, Draper Dragon, Heartcore, PEER VC, and Relayer Capital. More here. 

Smaller Fundings

COVR Global, a one-year-old London startup that builds software that helps insurance companies make decisions by using automated data analysis and rule-based workflows, raised a $2.5 million seed round led by MTech Capital, with B Capital also taking part. UKTN has more here.

Qomon, a five-year-old Paris startup that provides nonprofits, political campaigns, and volunteer-driven organizations with a mobile app and web platform that help them organize supporters, coordinate field activities like canvassing or phone-banking, and manage communication and data, raised a $6.4 million round co-led by Asterion Ventures, Ternel, and Good Only Ventures. Tech.eu has more here.

Stackup, a four-year-old startup based in Culver City, CA, that provides businesses with a platform to manage, secure, and automate their cryptocurrency transactions, including wallet control, spending permissions, and bank integration, raised a $4.2 million round led by 1kx, with Y Combinator, Goodwater Capital, Soma Capital, Amino Capital, and Digital Currency Group also participating. Decrypt has more here.

Voliro, a six-year-old Zürich startup that makes drones that climb, press against, and measure critical infrastructure such as wind turbines, chimneys, storage tanks, and pipelines in order to check for corrosion, thickness, and damage, raised a $23 million Series A from Cherry Ventures, noa, and UBS. EU-Startups has more here.

Sponsored By ...

Harmonic

Market maps finally work in venture software.

Harmonic is the startup discovery platform trusted by 1000s of investors, including GV, NEA, and USV.

Check it out!

New Funds

Movens Capital, a seven-year-old Warsaw VC firm, has completed a €40 million first close for a planned €60 million second fund targeting Central and Eastern European startups from pre-seed to Series A+. EU-Startups has more here. 

When you've co-founded Databricks and Perplexity, dropping $100 million of your own money on an AI research institute probably feels like another day at the office. That's what Andy Konwinski announced today with the launch of the Laude Institute. According to TechCrunch, Konwinski will be betting on structured investments that blur the line between research funding and VC. More here.

Going Public

Wealthfront, a 17-year-old Palo Alto company that has built an automated investing platform designed to help consumers manage cash, ETFs, bonds, and loans, has confidentially filed to go public. The company has raised over $250 million in venture capital from investors like Index Ventures, Spark Capital, Slow Ventures, UBS, and Greylock. Reuters has more here. 

People

The Wall Street Journal adds new color to Mark Zuckerberg’s previously reported AI hiring spree, including that he’s cold-messaging top researchers like Ilya Sutskever and John Schulman, obsessing over where new hires will sit, and running a WhatsApp group chat called "Recruiting Party." More here. 

In a court filing tied to his lawsuit against OpenAI, Elon Musk’s lawyers claimed he "does not use a computer" to justify limited document production, despite multiple public posts over the past year showing him using a laptop for gaming, streaming, and work-related activities. Wired has more here. 

Speaking of Elon Musk, Revolut co‑founder and CEO Nik Storonsky has lined up a multi‑billion‑dollar, Musk-style payout on top of his already sizeable 25% stake in the company if he can increase Revolut's valuation from $45 billion to $150 billion. The Financial Times has more here. 

Essential Reads

Tesla has finally launched its long-promised robotaxi service in Austin using driverless Model Ys and a safety monitor in the passenger seat, but the limited rollout, opaque safety protocols, and lack of transparency suggest it's still a work in progress. TechCrunch has more here. 

In related news, Tesla’s robotaxi debut in Austin turned heads for all the wrong reasons, with early riders catching the cars speeding, veering into the wrong lane, and even stopping in the middle of the road after a failed pull-over attempt. Bloomberg has more here. 

Forget "blitzscaling." The new term du jour is "botscaling." Bloomberg has more here. 

Detours

Labubu dolls from China’s Pop Mart have become a global obsession, triggering resale price surges, TikTok addiction, overnight lines, and even police intervention.

And the award for the happiest city in the U.S. goes to ...

The New York Times shines a spotlight on one of our favorite podcasts, Family Trips with the Meyers Brothers.

Retail Therapy

This yacht rocks. 

A running shoe that piles on the "fat stacks."

Sponsored By ...

Think you know what VCs are really thinking? Adorable. Our Boston All Stage event on July 15 will reveal the secret evaluation criteria that make or break your pitch, decode the mysterious new rules of growth-stage fundraising, and finally settle the great bot debate. Whether you're bootstrapping or burning through your Series B cash, come learn from top investors, founders, and startup lawyers who've seen every possible way to spectacularly succeed (and fail). Register now before we sell out.