So I guess we're not going to bed anytime soon — this Alcaraz-Shelton U.S. Open match is a nail-biter (in what other sport do people play at 2:30 a.m.?!). Of course, New York's startup scene is also having a moment, and Thursday's StrictlyVC evening in the West Village will look at why. Among the speakers: Deven Parekh of Insight Partners, Keith Rabois of Khosla Ventures, and Jason Levien of DC United, who sees a growing intersection between startups and sports teams. We’ll also be talking about Anthropic and the IPO window, whether a founder can recover if a VC isn't sold in the first five minutes, and what happens when AI really takes over. A few spots are still up for grabs.🥂

Amazon was hit with a nationwide class-action lawsuit accusing it of systematically denying pregnant warehouse workers basic accommodations — including chairs, bathroom breaks, and prenatal leave — and firing some who missed too much work; Amazon says it approved more than 99.9% of pregnancy-related accommodation requests last year. Reuters has more here.

Meta launched Muse, a personal AI agent that connects to email, calendars, payments, health services, and other apps to send messages, book travel, lower bills, and make purchases, turning its biggest consumer AI bet into a test of whether users will trust it with even more personal data. TechCrunch has more here.

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By Julie Bort

On August 4, Grant de Swardt, an independent AI consultant in East Sussex, UK, noticed something strange going on with his Claude Max 20x account. He hadn’t been working that day, yet his token usage was climbing.

The next day, he disabled everything he had attached to Claude and did not work with it. Token consumption again increased. “In the clearest controlled interval, it increased from 45% to 55% while I performed no work, scheduled Cowork tasks were paused or completed, Dispatch/cloud execution was disabled, and there was no corresponding active local Claude Code task,” de Swardt told TechCrunch.

What was eating up his token allowance? He had no idea, so he contacted Anthropic and asked for an itemized list. Anthropic didn’t provide one, but it agreed something was off. It suspended his paid account, invalidated all of his sessions and server-side Claude Code tokens, and issued him a partial refund of £44.49 for the remaining time on his $200-per-month subscription.

The suspension wreaked havoc on his business, he told TechCrunch. His job is to help small and mid-size businesses set up agents — a sort of forward-deployed engineer for hire — for tasks like automatically loading purchase-order data from emails into the accounting software.

As a sole proprietor, he relies on agents throughout his whole business, too: daily admin tasks, website design, coding. “Like everything is just running through AI these days,” he said.

After investigating, Anthropic told de Swardt it found the culprit: A compromised Claude session key was used to mint unauthorized Claude Code OAuth tokens. The company told him the account “appeared to have been used by an unauthorized-looking third-party service to handle activity for other people, but they could not determine how it obtained access,” he told TechCrunch. “They say the evidence is consistent either with credentials/session data being taken without my knowledge, or with the account having been connected to an outside service.”

Bluecore Energy, a one-year-old startup based in Long Beach, CA, that builds small nuclear reactors on floating barges to supply clean power to ports, data centers, and nearby communities, raised a $50 million seed round led by Silverton Partners, with Collab Capital and HartBeat Ventures as well as previous investors Slauson & Co, Harlem Capital, and Chris Larsen also chiming in. TechCrunch has more here.

BrainChild Bio, a three-year-old Seattle startup that develops CAR-T cell therapies for childhood brain cancers that modify patients’ T cells to attack tumors in the central nervous system, raised a $116 million Series A round co-led by an undisclosed private family fund and foundation, with WRF Capital and Seattle Children's also chipping in. Fierce Biotech has more here.

Celero Communications, a two-year-old startup based in Irvine, CA, that develops optical connectivity chips for AI data centers, raised a $275 million Series C at a valuation of $3+ billion. The deal was co-led by Atreides Management, Valor Equity Partners, and CapitalG, with Sutter Hill Ventures and Maverick Silicon also participating. The company has raised $415 million. Pulse 2.0 has more here.

Cognition, a three-year-old San Francisco startup that develops AI coding agents, raised a $2 billion round at a $48 billion valuation co-led by Andreessen Horowitz, Accel, Founders Fund, General Catalyst, and Avenir. TechCrunch has more here.

The Exploration Co., a five-year-old startup with dual headquarters in Munich and Bordeaux, France, that builds reusable spacecraft capsules that carry supplies and scientific payloads to space stations and return cargo to Earth, raised a $450 million Series C round co-led by Bessemer Venture Partners, Atomico, and EQT’s Scaleup Europe Fund, with Balderton, Plural, Cherry, and Red River West also chiming in. The company has raised a total of nearly $680 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Forus, a three-year-old New York startup that uses AI agents to automate the administrative steps required to get patients started on prescribed medications, including insurance approvals, financial assistance, and pharmacy coordination, raised a $150 million Series C at a $3 billion valuation. The deal was led by Bain Capital Ventures, with Thrive Capital, General Catalyst, Accel, Redpoint, BoxGroup, Pear VC, Vast Ventures, and SV Angel also participating. The company has raised more than $300 million. More here.

Mistral, a three-year-old Paris startup that develops AI models and custom tools that enterprises integrate into manufacturing and other business operations, raised a $3.5 billion Series D round at a $24.4+ billion post-money valuation. The deal was led by Samsung Electronics, with Scaleup Europe Fund as well as previous investor PSG Equity also stepping up. CNBC has more here.

Moonwalk Biosciences, a four-year-old South San Francisco startup that develops RNA interference medicines that target fat tissue to treat obesity and cardiometabolic diseases while preserving lean muscle mass, raised a $70 million Series B round co-led by Alpha Wave Ventures and YK Bioventures, with Eli Lilly and Gaorong Ventures as well as previous investors ARCH Venture Partners, Khosla Ventures, and Future Ventures also taking part. More here.

Pixxel, a seven-year-old startup based in Bengaluru and El Segundo, CA, that operates hyperspectral imaging satellites that provide government and commercial customers with Earth observation data for civil and defense missions, raised a $100 million Series C round co-led by Temasek and Seraphim Space, with 360 ONE and IMM Investment as well as previous investors Radical Ventures and growX ventures also participating. The company has raised a total of $195 million. Payload has more here.

Poseidon Aerospace, a two-year-old San Francisco startup that builds and operates uncrewed fixed-wing cargo aircraft for defense logistics and regional air freight on underserved routes, raised a $60 million Series A round led by TQ Ventures, with Hanwha Asset Management, G Squared, and JAWS as well as previous investors Starship Ventures, Draper Associates, and Drover Ventures also anteing up. TechCrunch has more here.

Ramp, a seven-year-old New York startup that provides corporate cards, payments, expense management, and other financial software for businesses, is reportedly in early talks to raise about $1 billion in primary funding at a roughly $60 billion valuation. Bloomberg has more here.

Stoke Space, a seven-year-old startup based in Kent, WA, that develops fully reusable rockets that carry satellites and other customer payloads to low-Earth orbit, raised a $1 billion Series E round co-led by Point72 Ventures and Spark Capital, with General Innovation, Glade Brook Capital, US Innovative Technology, Washington Harbour Partners, Woven Capital, and Y Combinator also buying in. The company has raised a total of $2.3 billion. TechCrunch has more here.

Antioch, a one-year-old New York startup that builds high-fidelity simulation software for testing and validating robotic and autonomous systems before real-world deployment, raised a $32 million Series A led by Greylock, with A*, Category Ventures, BoxGroup, and Icehouse Ventures also participating. More here.

ARC Ride, a six-year-old Nairobi startup that operates battery-swapping stations that let two- and three-wheeler riders exchange depleted batteries across sub-Saharan Africa, raised a $33.3 million round co-led by Novastar Ventures and Norrsken22, with IFC, British International Investment, Proparco, and Mirova as well as previous investors Musashi Seimitsu and Talanton also anteing up. More here.

Blee, a four-year-old New York startup that helps legal, compliance, and brand teams review customer-facing content before publication and monitor it afterward for regulatory and brand compliance, raised a $20 million Series A round co-led by Fin Capital and SMBC Fin Atlas Beyond Fund, with Hannah Grey VC and National Bank of Canada as well as previous investors Y Combinator, Penny Jar Capital, Cardumen Capital, and Treasury also buying in. The company has raised a total of $27 million. More here.

AI Score, a one-year-old London startup that helps enterprises track generative and agentic AI use and set controls for oversight and security, raised a $5.4 million seed round led by Fuel Ventures, with previous investor Gallos Technologies also participating. Tech.eu has more here.

Fluencify, a one-year-old Stockholm startup that runs creator marketing campaigns for brands by matching vetted creators, coordinating briefs and posts, and handling cross-border payouts, raised a $4.3 million pre-seed round led by byFounders, with Wave Ventures also engaging. EU-Startups has more here.

Huscarl, a one-year-old San Francisco startup that helps corporate risk managers automate actuarial studies and underwriting decisions for captive insurance and other self-insurance programs, raised a $5.6 million seed round led by FRST, with Y Combinator also opting in. Contxto has more here.

Lightsage, a San Francisco startup founded this year that helps software companies understand and improve how AI agents discover and use their products, raised a $4 million round led by Nexus Venture Partners. TNW has more here.

Outline, a one-year-old Paris startup that automates financial planning for corporate finance teams by connecting accounting, payroll, sales, and spreadsheet data to build forecasts and test decisions, raised a $3 million round led by Founders Future, with 100in and Newschool also taking stakes. More here.

Tellia, a two-year-old startup based in San Francisco and Paris that uses voice AI to help agricultural teams capture and access field data without manual data entry, raised a $5 million pre-seed round led by Revent, with Grey Silo Ventures, Jeriko, and Fund F also participating. Vestbee has more here.

Tickets for Good, a four-year-old startup based in Sheffield, UK, that distributes surplus live-event tickets to key workers and people receiving cost-of-living support while helping venues fill seats, raised a $5.3 million round. Investors included NPIF II – Mercia Equity Finance, Shaping Impact Group, Finance Yorkshire, and LeanSquare. EU-Startups has more here.

Veridue, a two-year-old London startup that helps buyers, lenders, and insurers evaluate renewable energy and data center projects during deal due diligence, raised a $4 million pre-seed round led by Episode 1 Ventures, with High-Tech Gründerfonds and Pi Labs also engaging. Tech Funding News has more here.

GCVC, a new New York venture fund backed by more than 50 corporate general counsels and law firm Wilson Sonsini, launched to invest in early-stage legal, regulatory, and compliance technology startups. The fund’s size was not disclosed. Reuters has more here.

Anthropic has walked away from a roughly $6 billion acquisition of three-year-old Israeli AI startup Decart after conducting due diligence, though the companies could still collaborate, according to Bloomberg; Decart had previously halted talks with Nvidia after receiving Anthropic’s offer. CTech has more here.

Circle agreed to acquire Singapore-based cross-border payments infrastructure company Tazapay for $400 million in stock, giving the USDC issuer regulated local banking and payout connections across more than 100 markets as it expands its stablecoin payments network. CoinDesk has more here.

A potential million-dollar Navier-Stokes breakthrough is engulfed in controversy after mathematician Tristan Buckmaster alleged OpenAI learned of his team’s unpublished method, used its model to finish the proof, then offered him sole authorship while excluding his Anthropic-employed collaborator (Levent Alpöge) and warning him against going public. (For its part, OpenAI said it “cannot rule out that de-identified data derived from their usage of our products helped improve our models⁠” but denies it saw Buckmaster’s or Alpöge’s prompts or asked for Alpöge to be removed as an author of the proof.) TechCrunch has more here.

A new Elizabeth Holmes documentary from Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim follows Holmes and husband Billy Evans during the 34 days before she entered prison, with Fielder moving into their guest house and an unnamed A-list actress unexpectedly becoming part of the story. TechCrunch has more here.

Google DeepMind unveiled AlphaGenome Atlas, an AI-powered map predicting how roughly 9 billion possible single-letter changes in the human genome could affect biology, giving researchers a new way to rank potentially important mutations and study the genetic roots of disease. The Verge has more here.

Google has doubled Chrome’s release cadence from every four weeks to every two, saying AI-driven security threats, faster bug discovery, and rising competition from new browsers make it increasingly important to push patches and features out more quickly. TechCrunch has more here.

An investigation by Gamers Nexus found LG smart TVs scanning nearby devices, logging Wi-Fi and location data, recording microphone audio even in standby, and tracking what users watch across inputs; some audio was stored while offline and uploaded once the TV reconnected. The Verge has more here.

The first trailer for Luca Guadagnino’s Artificial just dropped. It’s a dramatization of the 2023 OpenAI power struggle that briefly ousted CEO Sam Altman before his dramatic return and, judging by the trailer, will not be a flattering portrayal.

Also just out, Alex Gibney’s nearly four-hour Elon Musk documentary, Musk, which promises an “unflinching look at Earth’s most unchecked man.” Musk has preemptively dismissed the film as a “hit piece” without having seen it.

Lume Traveler’s Ranger, a roughly $70,000 Dutch luxury caravan measuring about 17 feet long and weighing 2,535 pounds empty, boasts wool-felt walls, teak flooring, a permanent queen-size bed, a pop-up roof, and a pull-out outdoor kitchen.

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