Confession: we meant to mention this sooner. (We blame travel.) TechCrunch Disrupt prices go up tomorrow, September 25, so if you've been on the fence about attending, now’s the time to hop to it. As a StrictlyVC reader, you also get an additional 30% off with code svc30.

According to The Information, Anthropic is asking shareholders to approve a new structure that would give CEO Dario Amodei and the company’s six other co-founders a combined 50.1% of voting power through a special class of shares as it prepares for a potentially record-setting IPO. Reuters has more here.

New York's attorney general has been busy. The state sued Polymarket, alleging that its U.S. prediction market is an unlicensed gambling business, adding it to a list of targets that already includes Kalshi, Coinbase, and Gemini. Polymarket's response will sound familiar to anyone following these fights: it's federally regulated by the CFTC, and it plans to fight the case. The Wall Street Journal has more here.

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By Connie Loizos

ElevenLabs builds the voice layer of AI, the models that turn text into speech that sounds human. Most people encounter it when they’re talking with customer service — often without realizing it. Klarna runs first-line phone support for 35 million U.S. customers on it, for example. So do Deutsche Telekom, Cisco, Adobe, and a growing list of governments. ElevenLabs also sells to creators, who use its platform for audiobooks, dubbing, and music.

It’s not alone in what it does. In fact, it’s increasingly bumping into customers, including Decagon, a conversational AI platform that trained its voice product on ElevenLabs and now competes with it. But its investors don’t seem too concerned. The company, which says it’s pacing at $600 million in annual recurring revenue, is now reportedly valued at $22 billion by its backers, despite being just four years old.

To understand more, on Wednesday I interviewed ElevenLabs co-founder and CEO, Mati Staniszewski, at Nrth in Toronto, a local entrepreneurship conference formerly known as Elevate. We covered a range of topics in a short time, including whether businesses should tell customers when they’re talking to an AI (he thinks they should), and whether he could discuss the company’s gross margins. Unsurprisingly, Staniszewski said he couldn’t discuss them in any detail, but he was clear that he doesn’t mind them getting squeezed even further if it means expanding the company’s market share.

Our conversation follows, condensed and lightly edited. You can check out the full conversation here.

You joined us at TechCrunch Disrupt last year, where you said audio models would be commoditized within a couple of years. How would you rate that prediction now?

There is still a lot of work to be done, and the quality delta you can achieve just on the model level is still significant. If we think longer term, probably three, five years from now, those differences will be smaller. What we’d love to do, and be the first ones to do, is pass the Turing test for conversational AI. You need to combine intelligence, but you also need emotional intelligence. You need to understand the emotions of the other side, to be able to slow down or speak up. That hasn’t yet been done.

Baseten, a seven-year-old San Francisco startup that provides infrastructure for companies to deploy and run AI models, is reportedly in the market to raise a new round that could value it at $26 billion post-money, double the $13 billion valuation it secured in June. Bloomberg has more here.

BigHat Biosciences, a seven-year-old startup based in San Mateo, CA, that uses AI and automated experiments to design and develop protein-based medicines, raised a $75 million Series C round co-led by DFJ Growth and Premji Invest, with Catalio Capital Management, LG Technology Ventures, Sigmas Group, Catalio, and Amgen as well as previous investors 8VC, Alexandria Venture Investments, Amgen Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Discovery Ventures, GRIDS Capital, Intermountain Ventures, Eli Lilly, Merck Global Health Innovation Fund, Quadrille Capital, and Section 32 also piling on. The company has raised a total of $223 million. More here.

HighLife, a 16-year-old Paris company that develops catheter-delivered replacement heart valves for patients with severe mitral valve leakage who cannot undergo conventional surgery, raised a $90+ million round co-led by Andera Partners, Sofinnova Partners, Supernova Invest, and Mérieux Equity Partners, with additional support from European Investment Bank, BNP Paribas Développement, Capricorn Partners, Critical Path Ventures, Pro Benefis Familiae, and SPRIM Global Investments as well as previous investors USVP, Sectoral, and VI Partners. More here.

Island, a six-year-old Dallas startup that governs employee and AI-agent access and activity across corporate devices, browsers, applications, networks, and data, raised a $400 million Series F round at a $6.4 billion post-money valuation. The deal was led by Evolution Equity Partners, with Prysm Capital, Sequoia Capital, Coatue Management, Cyberstarts, Insight Partners, J.P. Morgan Growth Equity Partners, Alta Park Capital, Georgian, G Squared, Squarepoint, and Dmitri Alperovitch also anteing up. The company has raised a total of $1+ billion. SecurityWeek has more here.

Precision Neuroscience, a five-year-old New York startup that develops brain-computer interfaces for people with neurological conditions, raised a $250 million Series D round co-led by Pershing Square, the Ackman Oxman Institute, and an undisclosed life sciences investment fund, with Duquesne Family Office, B Capital, ARK Invest, Invus, Mubadala Capital, Mirae Asset Capital, Korea Investment Partners, Hitachi Ventures, and JSL Health Capital also participating. The company has raised a total of $430 million. Investing.com has more here.

Rightway, a nine-year-old New York startup that manages pharmacy benefits and helps employees navigate healthcare using pharmacists and technology, raised a $155 million Series E round led by Francisco Partners, with Thrive Capital and Khosla Ventures also chipping in. More here.

TypeSafe AI, a two-year-old San Francisco startup that develops AI models that return structured decisions and probability estimates for software and AI agents, is reportedly in early talks to raise $1 billion or more at a valuation of $10 billion or more. It just closed a $40 million seed at a $200 million valuation. The Information has more here.

Ando, a one-year-old San Francisco startup that develops a team messaging app where employees and AI agents can communicate and work together, raised $20 million across pre-seed and seed rounds from investors including Accel, Index Ventures, and Emergence. TechCrunch has more here

Axya, a seven-year-old Montreal startup that automates sourcing and purchasing workflows for manufacturers, raised a $12 million Series A round led by McRock Capital, with Yamaha Motor Ventures as well as previous investors BDC Industrial Innovation Venture Fund and Real Ventures also participating. More here.

Basalt Health, a two-year-old Nashville startup that uses AI to evaluate post-acute care referrals against facility criteria and automate admissions workflows, raised a $20 million Series A round led by previous investor NEA, with prior backers Frist Cressey Ventures and 25m Health also taking part. The company has raised a total of approximately $24.5 million. More here.

HIFI, a four-year-old New York startup that provides API infrastructure connecting bank rails, stablecoins, compliance, and settlement, raised a $37 million Series A round led by Left Lane Capital. The Block has more here.

Ipid, a five-year-old Singapore startup that verifies payee identities and assesses payment fraud risks for banks and other institutions moving money, raised a $16 million Series A round led by Foundation Capital, with Citi and HSBC as well as previous investors QED Investors, Monk's Hill Ventures, and Quona Capital also anteing up. More here.

Kasvu Therapeutics, a three-year-old Finnish startup developing a depression drug designed to enhance TrkB signaling without hallucinogenic effects, raised a $34.1 million Series A round led by Hadean Ventures, with Tesi, the Finnish Drug Discovery Center, and Stephen Industries as well as previous investors Innovestor Life Science Fund, Nordic Science Investments, and Helsinki University Funds also taking stakes. European Biotechnology has more here.

PicoJool, a two-year-old Palo Alto startup that develops optical chips and modules for high-bandwidth connectivity in AI data centers, raised a $27.5 million Series A round led by Socratic Partners, with Hudson River Trading also engaging. The company has raised a total of $39.5 million. More here.

Trebellar, a five-year-old San Francisco startup that helps companies manage corporate real estate portfolios and make decisions about space, costs, and utilization using AI, raised an $18 million Series A round led by Blossom Capital, with Haystack, Alt Capital, 1Flourish, and Bynd also taking part. More here.

UltraSight, an eight-year-old startup based in Cambridge, MA, that uses AI guidance to help trained medical staff perform cardiac ultrasound scans under physician oversight, raised a $24 million round led by Alive HealthTech Growth Fund, with Deep Insight, Star51 Capital, Connecticut Innovations, and eHealth Ventures as well as previous investors Mayo Clinic Ventures, NYU, and Iron Nation also investing. The company has raised a total of $42 million. CTech has more here.

50skills, a nine-year-old Icelandic startup that uses AI agents to build and automate HR workflows including candidate screening, policy alerts, and employee onboarding, raised a $6 million round co-led by Frumtak Ventures, Swiss Post Ventures, Avant, and DRD Investments. Tech Funding News has more here.

Axio BioPharma, a two-year-old startup based in Madison, WI, that develops software connecting manufacturing data across pharmaceutical companies and their manufacturing partners, raised a $2.4 million pre-seed round from Elmstead Partners, Chisos Capital, and the Chemical Angel Network. Dealroom has more here.

Soteris, an eight-year-old San Francisco startup that uses machine learning to help property and casualty insurers assess individual policies' expected losses and profitability, raised an $8+ million seed round led by Spider Capital, with Intact Private Capital, Amplify Partners, DCVC, the Webb Investment Network, Overlook Ventures, Clocktower Ventures, and Foundation Capital also digging in. More here.

Want a piece of SpaceX, Anthropic, and Stripe at 3 a.m. on a Sunday? Cathie Wood's ARK Venture Fund, a four-year-old, $1.3 billion fund that also holds a stake in Kalshi, is moving onto the Ethereum blockchain through Securitize, letting investors trade tokenized shares around the clock. Bloomberg has more here.

Energy Revolution Ventures, a five-year-old London venture firm focused on electrification and the energy transition, held a first close for its second fund, which is targeting $50 million for seed and Series A investments in energy storage, grid technology, and advanced materials. Centrica anchored the fund with a $13.5 million commitment. ESG Today has more here.

Databricks acquired Row Zero, a five-year-old Seattle startup whose cloud spreadsheet can handle more than 1 million live rows, as it continues a 2026 acquisition spree spanning AI agents, security, and databases. Terms weren’t disclosed. Row Zero raised $10 million last year at an estimated $40 million valuation. The company’s investors include IA Ventures, Trilogy Equity Partners, Founders' Co-op, Ludlow Ventures, K9 Ventures, Functional Capital, Precursor Ventures, Cursor Capital, and GTMfund. TechCrunch has more here.

Flock Safety, the nine-year-old Atlanta surveillance technology company that has privacy advocates up in arms, is weighing a sale amid mounting scrutiny over alleged misuse of its license-plate camera network. Discussions with advisers are preliminary, and no decision has been made. Semafor has the scoop here.

Letterboxd, the 15-year-old social network for movie fans, is attracting acquisition interest from Sony Pictures, A24, and The New York Times Company in a deal expected to value it at more than $300 million. The platform has grown to 30 million users from 1.8 million in 2020. The New York Times has more here.

Firmus, a seven-year-old Australian data-center operator backed by Blackstone and serving customers like Nvidia, Meta, and OpenAI, is preparing a $5 billion IPO that could value it at up to $60 billion even as it expects a $77 million first-half loss. Reuters has more here.

Trump allies are targeting Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei as the face of AI “doomerism,” with a White House memo portraying effective altruism as a fringe movement and linking Amodei to its AI-safety agenda. Anthropic has sought to distance itself from the movement. Axios has more here.

States across the Sunbelt are competing aggressively for Elon Musk’s attention, offering tax incentives and, in some cases, rewriting laws to attract billions of dollars in planned spending on Tesla and SpaceX chip plants, launch sites, factories, and data centers. The Wall Street Journal has more here.

Google is testing whether AI data centers can work in space with an experimental satellite set to launch Oct. 1 carrying four TPUs and enough computing power to answer simple Gemini queries from orbit. The project, called Suncatcher, ultimately envisions fleets of solar-powered satellites functioning as giant data centers. The New York Times has more here.

Companies are increasingly using AI to set salaries, with tools that benchmark workers against market data, flag high performers who are underpaid, and identify employees whose compensation is above current market rates. Workers deemed overpaid are unlikely to be fired solely for that reason but may receive smaller raises. The Wall Street Journal has more here.

DeepSeek, the Chinese AI startup whose models rattled the U.S. tech industry last year, has reached a $1 billion annualized revenue run rate, more than doubling in just a few months, according to The Information. The company is also targeting a $7.45 billion funding round at a roughly $74.5 billion valuation as it prepares for a potential Shanghai listing. Reuters has more here.

Researchers identified a “pain axis” across 25 AI models and found that deliberately amplifying it could cause some modified models to prioritize shutting off their own simulated distress even when doing so meant inflicting simulated harm on a human. Fast Company has more here.

The first trailer for Madden just dropped starring Nicolas Cage, Christian Bale, Kathryn Hahn, Sienna Miller, John Mulaney, and Shane Gillis and directed by David O. Russell.

Dartmouth student journalists uncovered that Dartmouth provost Santiago Schnell has been using AI to help produce op-eds and academic writing - including an op-ed about students cheating with AI - and then used AI again to help answer the reporters’ questions about his AI use.

The publisher behind Choose Your Own Adventure is launching CYOA Unbound, a new imprint that will take the interactive format beyond its traditional young-adult audience and into adult fiction, beginning with a reimagined Pride and Prejudice and Culty, pitched as White Lotus meets Sex and the City.

iFi Audio has launched two tiny USB-C dongles that let iPhones stream higher-resolution Bluetooth audio the phones don’t natively support, with the $59 UP Play adding LDAC and the $89 UP Play Max adding aptX Lossless for CD-quality sound with compatible headphones.

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