Thanks very much to the hundreds of you who joined us at the StrictlyVC event today in Athens; it was a wonderful day. Enormous thanks again to our partner in the affair, Endeavor, whose team brings exceptional care to everything they do. For those of you who missed it, we’ll have more coverage and photos soon. We’re moderating some founder discussions on Thursday and sitting down with Neil Rimer of Index Ventures on Friday for a fireside chat. If you’re in town for the Panathenea Festival, too, we hope to see you there. - CL

A Google software engineer was charged with fraud and money laundering for allegedly using nonpublic Google search data to make more than $1 million betting on Polymarket contracts tied to the most-searched people of 2025 in what prosecutors say is the second insider-trading case involving the prediction-market platform. TechCrunch has more here.

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There is a certain wildness in the tech industry these days that both mimics previous eras of large changes, like cloud computing (runaway costs in the early days), and is like nothing we’ve ever seen before (record revenues accompanied by mass layoffs).

One possible explanation: Tech executives, especially CEOs, are collectively suffering from delusions of AI grandeur. And at least one tech CEO has said as much out loud: Box founder Aaron Levie.

“CEOs are uniquely prone to AI psychosis because they’re sufficiently distant from the last mile of work that still has to happen to generate most value with AI,” Levie wrote on X.

CEOs “play with AI,” develop a prototype, or generate a contract, to use Levie’s examples, and then make the leap to believing agents can do the work.

But these top-level executives aren’t the people who have to review code, discover bugs, and identify calls to hallucinated libraries before software is deployed. They aren’t responsible for training AI models on a company’s idiosyncratic contract terms, nor do they have to spend days combing through contracts to find sneaky terms, as Levie indicates.

In other words, Levie’s theory posits, CEOs don’t really understand processes well enough to know what really can and can’t be automated. But that lack of knowledge doesn’t stop them from acting on their beliefs.

It’s important to note that Levie is not an AI hater. Quite the opposite. He mostly posts AI positivity on X to his 2.7 million followers, writing blogs titled “Headless software is the future” on how software built for AI agents is the way forward. He also puts his money where his mouth is, backing AI startups as an active angel investor.

Cognition, a two-year-old San Francisco startup that develops autonomous AI software engineering agents, raised $1+ billion at a $25 billion pre-money valuation co-led by Lux Capital and General Catalyst, with Ribbit Capital, Atreides, and Layer Global as well as previous investors Founders Fund and 8VC also investing. TechCrunch has more here.

Thea Energy, a four-year-old startup based in Kearny, NJ, that develops software-controlled magnet systems for stellarator fusion reactors, raised a $100 million Series B round led by U.S. Innovative Technology Fund, with General Innovation Capital Partners, Linse Capital, Calm Ventures, Climate Capital, Divergent Capital, Emerald Technology Ventures, Gaingels, Idemitsu Kosan, Overlay Capital, Timescale Ventures, and Whatif Ventures also piling on. The company has raised a total of $130 million. TechCrunch has more here.

WeRoad, a nine-year-old Milan startup that operates a group travel platform that organizes trips for younger travelers around shared interests and social experiences, while also hosting local in-person events through its WeMeet app, raised a $58 million Series C round. Airbnb led the financing. The company has raised a total of roughly $100 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Airis Labs, a three-year-old startup based in Tel Aviv and Washington, DC, that analyzes video feeds and other visual data from sources such as drones, security cameras, body cameras, and social media to generate real-time intelligence for military and law enforcement organizations, raised a $31 million Series B round led by PSG Equity, with TLV Partners, Stepstone Group, and Redseed Ventures also participating. The company has raised a total of $60 million. CTech has more here.

AllO, a six-year-old Munich startup that runs restaurant management systems for payments, reservations, kiosks, delivery integrations, and back-office operations while adding AI agents that automate tasks such as phone ordering and inventory management, raised a $14 million Series A round led by Zigg Capital, with LifeX Ventures, Aperture, Wecken & Cie., 20VC, and Keen Venture Partners also taking part. The company has raised a total of $20 million. Tech Funding News has more here.

C2i Semiconductors, a Bangalore startup that develops software-defined voltage regulators and power delivery systems for AI data centers and high-performance computing infrastructure, raised a $16.7 million Series A round. Investors included TDK Ventures and Peak XV Partners. More here.

CasaPerks Technologies, a six-year-old Austin startup that operates rewards and loyalty platforms for apartment residents and employees that help property operators manage retention, engagement, leasing incentives, and workplace recognition programs, raised a $15.8 million seed round led by Longevity Equity. More here.

Lastwall, a 12-year-old Canadian company that provides identity security and quantum-resilient authentication systems for government, defense, and critical infrastructure organizations, raised an $11.5 million round. BDC Capital was the deal lead, with NBIF, Frostbite Capital, Blue Bear Capital, 18West, and Blue Wing Ventures also weighing in. SecurityWeek has more here.

Nuclidium, a nine-year-old startup based in Basel, Switzerland, that develops copper-based radiopharmaceuticals for cancer imaging and treatment, including therapies and diagnostics for prostate cancer and breast cancer, raised a $33 million Series B extension. Investors included Kurma Growth Opportunities Fund, Angelini Ventures, Aurea, Wellington Partners, Neva SGR, DeepTech & Climate Fonds, Bayern Kapital, Vives Partners, and NRW.BANK. More here.

Pace, a two-year-old New York startup that deploys AI agents that automate insurance back-office operations such as claims processing during surges in demand caused by storms and other catastrophic events, raised a $46 million Series B round co-led by Thrive Capital and Sequoia Capital, with Emergence Capital and Pruven Capital also digging in. Forbes has more here.

RevEng.AI, a four-year-old London startup that uses AI to analyze compiled software binaries and detect vulnerabilities, hidden functionality, backdoors, and malicious code without requiring access to source code, raised a $15 million Series A round led by NATO Innovation Fund and including Sands Capital, In-Q-Tel, IQ Capital, and Episode One. The company has raised a total of $19.5 million. SecurityWeek has more here.

Stride, a five-year-old Singapore startup that finances rooftop solar panels and battery storage systems for households and small businesses through a digital platform that includes installation verification and quality assurance tools, raised a $15 million Series B round co-led by Lightrock and TRIREC, with Clime Capital and UOB Venture Management also chipping in. More here.

Tekst, a five-year-old Ghent startup that maps and structures enterprise workflows so AI systems can understand process dependencies and automate operational tasks across finance, compliance, customer service, and other business functions, raised a $13.4 million Series A round. Elephant was the deal lead. Pulse 2.0 has more here.

Tensormesh, a one-year-old startup based in Foster City, CA, that is building AI inference optimization software that uses KV caching to reduce GPU usage, latency, and computing costs for enterprise AI applications, raised a $20 million seed round. Investors included AMD Ventures, CoreWeave, Nvidia's NVentures, Valley Capital Partners, and Laude Ventures. The company has raised a total of $24.5 million. More here.

Trajectory, a one-year-old San Francisco startup that is developing software designed to help companies continuously retrain and improve AI models using real-world user interactions, raised a $15 million seed round at a $115 million post-money valuation. The deal was led by Conviction, with Bessemer Venture Partners, Radical VC, BoxGroup, Jeff Dean, and Fei-Fei Li also anteing up. Wired has more here.

Triomics, a six-year-old San Francisco startup that develops oncology-specific AI software for automating clinical trial matching, patient chart summarization, and other administrative workflows at cancer centers, raised a $22 million Series B round led by Battery Ventures, with previous investors Nexus Venture Partners, Lightspeed, and Y Combinator also taking part. TechCrunch has more here.

Canyon Code, a one-year-old startup based in Sunnyvale, CA, that monitors and orchestrates interactions between AI agents in enterprise applications so companies can manage workflow dependencies, model calls, latency, and contextual memory usage, raised a $5 million pre-seed round led by Cota Capital, with Newbuild Venture Capital and Blackhorn Ventures also contributing. More here.

Certo, a one-year-old San Francisco startup that uses AI agents to help beauty and consumer goods companies verify product compliance across ingredients, formulas, labeling, claims, and market-specific regulations, raised a $4 million seed round led by Daphni, with Entrepreneurs First, Motier Ventures, and Transpose Platform also investing. Pulse 2.0 has more here.

Go Swag, a seven-year-old Glasgow startup that runs a corporate gifting platform that helps companies source, customize, distribute, and manage branded gifts and merchandise for employees, customers, and prospects, raised a $5 million round led by Mercia Ventures, with Techstart Ventures also pitching in. UKTN has more here.

Iconic, a three-year-old Los Angeles startup that uses AI-powered tools to help small-business brokers and advisors identify sellers, prepare deal materials, match buyers, and manage M&A transactions, raised a $6 million round. Investors include Expa, Oceans Ventures, Fluent VC, VSC Ventures, Ram Shriram, Tim Ferriss, and Avlok Kohli. More here.

Kopa.ai, a one-year-old London and Vilnius startup that develops AI agents for automating e-commerce operations, marketing, and decision-making, raised a $2.3 million seed round co-led by XTX Ventures and Practica Capital, with Inovia Capital also opting in. More here.

Mykor, a six-year-old startup based in Bristol, UK, that develops low-carbon construction materials grown from agricultural and industrial waste using engineered mycelium, raised a $5.4 million round led by Clean Growth Fund, with the British Business Bank, Green Angel Ventures, and Innovate UK also participating. Tech Funding News has more here.

Olyzon, a two-year-old Paris startup that builds AI agents that help advertisers and media buyers plan, activate, measure, and optimize connected TV advertising campaigns across streaming platforms and publisher networks, raised a $10 million Series A round led by S4S Ventures, with Eurazeo also engaging. More here.

Protuoso Biosciences, a three-year-old startup based in San Carlos, CA, that develops multifunctional biologic drugs that combine antibodies, cytokines, peptides, and other therapeutic components into single molecules designed to target multiple disease pathways simultaneously, raised a $9.5 million seed round co-led by Taya Ventures and Darwin Ventures, with Seeds and NSG Ventures also stepping up. Pharmaceutical Technology has more here.

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Khosla Ventures partner Ethan Choi, who is focused on growth stage investing, is reportedly raising a $500 million fund. The Information has the scoop here.

Bloomberg compares SpaceX’s IPO to the public offerings of the Magnificent Seven. More here.

Anne Keast-Butler, the head of Britain’s GCHQ intelligence and cyber agency, is warning that the U.K. and its allies have a “narrowing window” to stay ahead of security threats from China, Russia, and other adversaries, as AI accelerates cyber risks and Moscow intensifies hybrid warfare against critical infrastructure, supply chains, democratic processes, and public trust. CNBC has more here.

The arrival of Mark Zuckerberg’s $300 million superyacht in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood drew boos, coming hard on the heels of Meta’s decision to lay off 1,395 King County employees. The New York Post has more here.

Bay Area AI startups are spending tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars on glossy, human-made hype videos to stand out in an increasingly crowded market, with companies like Daydream and Cluely treating cinematic social-media launches as a recruiting, fundraising, and customer-acquisition tool rather than relying on cheaper AI-generated video. The New York Times has more here.

Robinhood is launching a feature that lets customers connect AI agents like Claude or Cursor to dedicated investment accounts and virtual credit cards, allowing the agents to trade stocks or make purchases within user-set limits while keeping them separate from primary account information. The Wall Street Journal has more here.

Kirkland & Ellis is earmarking $500 million for a proprietary AI system designed around the firm’s own lawyers and work product, betting that a custom platform will give it an edge over competitors using the same commercial legal-AI tools. The Financial Times has more here.

Illinois lawmakers passed what could become the country’s strongest AI safety law, requiring major frontier model developers such as OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google DeepMind to submit their safety practices to independent third-party audits rather than simply disclose their own safeguards. NBC News has more here.

Why Google’s AI can’t spell. TechCrunch has more here.

Artist and programmer Kyle McDonald has built an “Apocalypse Early Warning System” that tracks more than 35,000 private and business jets and assigns their movements an emergency level, premised on the idea that if a global catastrophe were imminent, billionaires might know first.

A luxury survivalist community in South Dakota, billed as “The Largest Survival Community on Earth,” is tearing itself apart with lawsuits, evictions, disputes over septic systems, taxes, dogs, firearms, and unbuilt amenities, turning a former munitions depot of 575 apocalypse bunkers into something closer to a very tense homeowners’ association.

A FINRA arbitration panel ordered JPMorgan Chase to pay former Beverly Hills broker Brent Ryan Bodner $4.25 million after he claimed he was wrongfully fired over a $642.50 deli platter that the bank allegedly mischaracterized as a Super Bowl party expense rather than food for a pre-approved business meeting at his home.

The best movies from this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

A full-floor aerie on the 64th floor of Manhattan’s 432 Park Avenue has hit the market for $90 million, offering 8,000 square feet of space, 16-foot ceilings, 24 oversized windows, and Central Park and skyline views.

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