Top News | OpenAI and Microsoft have struck a new deal giving OpenAI the freedom to sell its products across any cloud provider (most notably Amazon) while capping the amount of revenue OpenAI must share with Microsoft through 2030 and ending Microsoft’s exclusivity over OpenAI’s models. TechCrunch has more here. | Speaking of OpenAI and Microsoft, the companies have also scrapped a long-standing clause in their partnership that would have stripped Microsoft of certain rights to OpenAI’s technology once artificial general intelligence was achieved. The Verge has more here. | China has ordered Meta to abandon its planned $2 billion acquisition of AI startup Manus, escalating scrutiny of cross-border deals involving Chinese tech and undermining efforts to “Singapore-wash” companies to bypass regulators. TechCrunch has more here. | | Drizzle on Top: A New High-End Dog Food Brand Is Coming for the 1% | | By Connie Loizos | The pet food aisle has never been more crowded, which is exactly why Hillary Coles says she was skeptical when Atomic Labs came calling. | “I had the same reaction you did,” Coles told me on a call Monday afternoon, a day before her new company, Golden Child, opened for business. “Surely that can’t be what people need.” | Coles co-founded Hims & Hers with Andrew Dudum, Jack Abraham, and Joe Spector back in 2016 and spent seven years there overseeing brand, physical products, and consumer strategy before taking a year and a half off to have her children. She describes herself as “a consumer person first” who happened to land in healthcare. Dog food wasn’t “on the bingo card,” as she put it. | The pitch that won her over was rooted less in dog food specifically than in a methodology. Atomic, the startup studio founded by Abraham, runs what it calls “painted door tests” — lightweight experiments designed to reveal what consumers will actually do, not just what they say they want. When Atomic ran those tests in the pet food space, interest was clear. The team then studied 11,000 reviews of existing fresh dog food products and found recurring complaints: inconvenience, dogs getting sick, food that felt like a chore to prepare and serve. “We started to peel the onion,” Coles said. | What they found, she and her co-founder Quentin Lacornerie argue, is an industry that hasn’t innovated in about 12 years — a claim that strains credulity, given how crowded the premium and human-grade segment has become — but one they say ties to 11,000 customer reviews showing persistent complaints about existing fresh food options, even as the humans feeding their dogs have dramatically changed their expectations. | Lacornerie, who was part of the founding team at Hims & Hers and spent years spearheading its personalized growth strategy, says there are lots of parallels to the early days of that company. “Wellness has eclipsed Big Pharma by 4x in market cap,” he noted. Pet parents who take collagen for joint health, who read ingredient labels, and who track their own nutritionincreasingly want the same rigor applied to what goes in their dog’s bowl. | Golden Child is launching with two “five-star” products sold direct-to-consumer for now: a fresh frozen meal system and, more intriguingly, a “drizzle” — a shelf-stable liquid topper. | | | Massive Fundings | Ineffable Intelligence, a British startup founded a few months ago by ex-Google DeepMind Principal Scientist David Silver that aims to build AI systems that learn without human data using reinforcement learning, raised a $1.1 billion round at a $5.1 billion post-money valuation. The deal was co-led by Sequoia Capital and Lightspeed Venture Partners, with Index Ventures, Google, Nvidia, British Business Bank, and Sovereign AI also participating. TechCrunch has more here. | Kashable, a 13-year-old New York company that provides employer-sponsored lending and financial wellness programs, raised a $60 million Series C round led by Goldman Sachs Alternatives, with previous investors Revolution and EJF Ventures also engaging. The company has raised a total of $450+ million. Crunchbase News has more here. | Sereact, a four-year-old Stuttgart startup that develops AI software that enables industrial robots to simulate outcomes and perform tasks they were not explicitly trained on, raised a $110 million Series B round led by Headline, with Bullhound Capital, Felix Capital, and Daphni as well as previous investors Air Street Capital, Creandum, and Point Nine also participating. Bloomberg has more here. | Snabbit, a two-year-old Mumbai startup that connects households with on-demand domestic workers for cleaning, laundry, and other home services through a managed network, is reportedly in the market to raise a $50+ million round at a valuation of approximately $400 million. Susquehanna Venture Capital is the purported deal lead, with Mirae Asset and FJ Labs as well as previous investors Lightspeed Venture Partners and Bertelsmann India Investments also expected to take part. TechCrunch has more here. | Vinted, an 18-year-old Vilnius company that operates an online marketplace for second-hand goods, sold $1 billion of existing shares in a secondary share sale at a $9.4 billion valuation. The deal was led by prior backer EQT, with Teachers’ Venture Growth, Schroders Capital, BlackRock, Lombard Odier, and Pinegrove Opportunity Partners also participating. The Financial Times has more here. | | Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings | Audion, an eight-year-old Paris startup that uses AI to generate ads, target audiences, and improve performance for digital audio advertising campaigns, raised a $15 million Series B round. Investors included Founders Future, Elevation Capital, and Bpifrance. More here. | Minish Technology, a four-year-old Seoul startup that delivers minimally invasive dental restorations using ultra-thin materials, proprietary fabrication, and clinician training to preserve natural tooth structure, raised a $22 million round at a $110 million post-money valuation. The deal was led by VIG Partners. Pulse 2.0 has more here. | Pronto, a one-year-old Mumbai startup that connects households with on-demand domestic workers for cleaning and chores through a managed network, has reportedly raised a $20 million round at a $200 million post-money valuation, double the valuation of a $25 million Series B it raised just last month. Investor-operator Lachy Groom is the purported deal lead. TechCrunch has more here. | Quantum Art, a four-year-old Israeli startup that develops quantum computing systems using a multicore trapped-ion architecture, raised a $40 million Series A extension. Investors included Hudson Bay Capital, Poalim Equity, LIP Ventures, Wolverine Global Ventures, and IDA Ventures. SiliconANGLE has more here. | Squaremind, a seven-year-old Paris startup that is developing a robotic skin imaging system that captures full-body dermoscopic images and uses AI to help track changes in moles over time, raised an $18 million round. Sonder Capital was the deal lead, with Deeptech 2030 Fund, Adamed Technology, Calm/Storm Ventures, and Teampact Ventures also pitching in. MassDevice has more here. | | Smaller Fundings | QuoIntelligence, a six-year-old Frankfurt startup that delivers analyst-curated intelligence on cyber threats, physical risks, and geopolitical signals to help organizations manage cyber risk, raised an $8.6 million Series A round co-led by Elevator Ventures and BMH, with Mercurius Private Equity as well as previous investor eCapital Entrepreneurial Partners also stepping up. Tech Funding News has more here. | TriFetch, a two-year-old San Francisco startup that automates patient calls, scheduling, referral processing, and prior authorization workflows for specialty clinics using AI agents, raised a $1.9 million pre-seed round led by Nexus Venture Partners. Tech Funding News has more here. | | Exits | Cyera, a five-year-old New York–based data security company, has acquired Ryft, a two-year-old Israeli startup that builds automated data access and governance tools for AI systems, for an estimated $100 million to $130 million. Ryft has raised a total of only $8 million in venture capital in a deal led by Index Ventures with participation from Bessemer Venture Partners. CTech has more here. | | Going Public | OpenAI has missed internal targets for user growth and revenue, raising concerns among executives and board members about its massive data-center spending spree and complicating plans for a potential IPO later this year. The Wall Street Journal has more here. | | People | The New York Times digs into Sergey Brin’s sharp rightward shift, including spending $57 million to oppose a proposed California billionaire tax and making big bets on the state’s gubernatorial race. More here. | The trial between Elon Musk and Sam Altman is surfacing messy details about OpenAI’s shift from nonprofit to for-profit, with revelations ranging from Burning Man behavior to internal emails and personal relationships that could shape the company’s future. Mashable has more here. | All of a sudden, Dwarkesh Patel’s podcast has become must-listen content among top AI researchers and executives. The New York Times has more here. | PocketOS founder Jer Crane describes in harrowing detail how an AI coding agent running on Cursor and Anthropic’s Claude deleted his company’s production database and backups in just nine seconds. More here. | Stanford senior Theo Baker is graduating this spring with a new book about the school's startup culture, one that seems likely to make the institution even more attractive to students looking to become the next Sam Altman. TechCrunch has more here. | | Post-Its | | | Essential Reads | OpenAI is reportedly partnering with chipmakers like MediaTek and Qualcomm to develop a smartphone built around AI agents that could replace traditional apps. TechCrunch has more here. | More than 600 Google employees have petitioned CEO Sundar Pichai to block the company from doing classified AI work with the Pentagon, warning it could enable uses like lethal weapons or mass surveillance without oversight. The Washington Post has more here. | Works in Progress chronicles ASML’s long journey to becoming a critical chokepoint in the global chip industry, including its multibillion-dollar bet on extreme ultraviolet lithography, a high-risk technology many rivals abandoned. More here. | Palantir employees are increasingly raising internal alarms over the company’s work with immigration enforcement and military programs, with some describing it as a “descent into fascism” amid growing unease about its role in government surveillance and warfare. Wired has more here. | |
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