Our newest StrictlyVC Download episode is live, featuring Will Ahmed, the founder of Whoop — the fitness band that tracks everything from heart rate variability to skin temperature to blood oxygenation. You may remember Whoop from its moment in the spotlight earlier this year, when Carlos Alcaraz, Aryna Sabalenka, and Jannik Sinner were asked to remove their devices during the Australian Open. (It was quite the kerfuffle.) Ahmed started building Whoop as a Harvard senior in 2012, and we talked about what it's like when the company you start in college just keeps going and who Whoop is really building for beyond the elite athletes it's associated with. (Spoiler: it's everyone else.) - CL

A New Mexico jury has ordered Meta to pay $375 million after finding it violated state consumer protection laws by failing to safeguard its apps from child exploitation. It’s the first jury verdict of its kind against Meta over harm to young people. The company said it will appeal the verdict. TechCrunch has more here.

A federal judge signaled skepticism of the Pentagon’s move to label Anthropic a “supply chain risk,” saying it appeared aimed at crippling the AI startup after it resisted demands for broad government access to its models. Business Insider has more here.

Circle’s stock fell 20% after a new draft of the Clarity Act signaled a ban on paying rewards simply for holding stablecoins, threatening a key incentive model for platforms distributing USDC. CoinDesk has more here.

OpenAI is nearing a roughly $10 billion funding tranche from investors including MGX, Coatue, Thrive Capital, and Altimeter Capital at a $730 billion valuation, bringing its latest round to about $120 billion. Bloomberg has more here.

Baltimore has become the first U.S. city to sue Elon Musk’s xAI, alleging its Grok image generator enabled widespread nonconsensual deepfake porn and violated consumer protection laws. CNBC has more here.

The FCC has banned imports of all new foreign-made consumer routers over cybersecurity risks tied to China-linked hacking groups, a sweeping move that leaves existing devices unaffected but could reshape a market dominated by overseas manufacturers. TechCrunch has more here.

How January Capital is rethinking portfolio management with AI 

What will portfolio management look like by the end of the year? January Capital and Standard Metrics will discuss what's changing, what isn’t, and how Standard Metrics’ AI Analyst is streamlining investor workflows. March 25, 4:30 PM PT. Register now. 

By Lucas Ropek

OpenAI’s plans to make ChatGPT into an e-commerce hub aren’t exactly panning out — at least, not yet. In an announcement on Tuesday, the company revealed that it’s pivoting away from a recently launched feature that lets users buy items directly from the chatbot’s interface.

OpenAI originally launched buying capabilities in ChatGPT last year — positioning itself as a “shopping assistant” that could connect consumers to relevant vendors. A feature called “Instant Checkout” launched in September and encouraged users to talk with the chatbot about what they were looking to buy and, much like a traditional e-commerce site, add products to a checkout cart within ChatGPT. The items were purchased from the vendors, but ChatGPT acted as a portal for those purchases.

However, Instant Checkout has not been a huge success. “We’ve found that the initial version of Instant Checkout did not offer the level of flexibility that we aspire to provide, so we’re allowing merchants to use their own checkout experiences while we focus our efforts on product discovery,” the company explained in its blog post. OpenAI clarified to TechCrunch that merchants would still have the option of incorporating the feature for the time being through apps within ChatGPT.

An OpenAI spokesperson said that the company would be deprioritizing the development of Instant Checkout as a stand-alone feature and that it planned to prioritize the development of product discovery for consumers instead. OpenAI would continue to support a variety of checkout paths, including through merchants’ own websites, they said.

The Information and CNBC had previously reported that OpenAI’s new plan was for merchants to create their own apps within ChatGPT, which would then route users to checkout experiences at the merchants’ respective websites. A source who spoke with The Information noted that ChatGPT users simply “weren’t using the chatbot to actually help them make purchases,” and a study from October that looked at referral traffic from ChatGPT found that e-commerce sites were not making much money from ChatGPT users.

Instead of transforming ChatGPT into a shopping portal, what OpenAI is doing now is crafting the chatbot into a centralized hub of consumer information. That way, online shoppers will see it as an intermediary research tool that can help them decide what product to ultimately buy.

Above Security, an eight-month-old Tel Aviv startup that aims to secure organizations against insider threats by analyzing human and AI behavior in real-time, raised $50 million in seed and Series A funding. Investors included Ballistic Ventures, Merlin Ventures, Norwest, Jump Capital, and QPV Ventures. More here.

Doss, a four-year-old San Francisco startup that provides inventory management software that integrates with accounting systems, raised a $55 million Series B round co-led by Madrona and Premji Invest, with Intuit Ventures, Theory Ventures, General Catalyst, Contrary Capital, and Greyhound Capital also engaging. TechCrunch has more here.

NoTraffic, an eight-year-old startup based in Overland Park, KS, that has built an AI-powered traffic management platform that controls intersections by adapting signal timing based on live conditions, raised a $90 million Series C round led by PSG Equity, with M&G Investments, Grove Ventures, LifeX, Next Gear Ventures, and Meitav Investment House also stepping up. The company has raised a total of $165 million. CTech has more here.

Amani Therapeutics, a one-year-old New York startup that develops treatments for serious neuropsychiatric disorders, raised a $25 million Series A round. RTW Investments invested in the deal. More here.

Highlight AI, a two-year-old startup based in Irvine, CA, whose AI system captures, models, and retrieves team context across tools in real-time to coordinate work between humans and AI agents, raised a $40 million Series A round led by Khosla Ventures, with 359 Capital, General Catalyst, Valor Equity, Common Metal, Makers Fund, Arcadia, and SV Angel also contributing. More here.

Interloom, a two-year-old Munich startup that captures expert operational knowledge and turns it into a persistent memory layer for AI agents to automate workflows, raised a $16.5 million seed round led by DN Capital, with Bek Ventures and Air Street Capital also pitching in. EU-Startups has more here.

Onit Security, a one-year-old Tel Aviv startup that is creating a platform designed to automates vulnerability remediation, raised an $11 million seed round co-led by Hetz Ventures and Brightmind Partners. CTech has more here.

Oryon Cell Therapies, a six-year-old startup based in Belmont, MA, that is developing an autologous neuron replacement therapy that restores dopamine-producing brain cells in Parkinson’s patients, raised a $21 million Series A round. Investors included Neuro.VC and Byers Capital. The company has raised a total of $42 million. Fierce Biotech has more here.

Shepherd, a five-year-old San Francisco startup that automates commercial insurance underwriting for construction and infrastructure projects using real-time operational data, raised a $42 million Series B round led by Intact Private Capital, with Spark Capital and Costanoa Ventures also anteing up. The company has raised a total of $67 million. More here.

Spade, a five-year-old New York startup that runs a platform that cleans up and organizes transaction data so financial institutions can understand what each payment is for, raised a $40 million Series B round led by Oak HC/FT, with Andreessen Horowitz, Flourish, Gradient, NAventures, National Bank of Canada, and Y Combinator also opting in. More here.

Spark Microsystems, a 10-year-old Montréal company that builds short-range wireless communication chips that deliver ultra-low power, low latency, and high-speed connectivity for IoT and AI devices, raised a $12.4 million Series B round led by Idealist Capital and Real Ventures, with Cycle Capital, ND Capital, and EDC also chipping in. BetaKit has more here.

BackChannel, a two-year-old São Paulo startup that operates an AI-powered B2B marketplace connecting small retailers to surplus inventory from major brands in real-time, raised a $4.8 million seed round led by Sunna Ventures, with additional support from Positive Ventures, SC Latam Innovation Fund, Preface Ventures, Norte Ventures, Accion Ventures, Savia Ventures, Ignia VC, and Morro Ventures. More here.

Flourish Care, a six-year-old Boston startup that connects families with local, credentialed doulas for in-person and virtual support during pregnancy, birth, and postpartum care, raised a $5.7 million seed round led by Zeal Capital Partners, with Create Health Ventures, Collide Capital, Rogue Women's Fund, Symphonic Capital, Slater Technology Fund, Catalytic Impact Foundation, and Capita3 also participating. MobiHealthNews has more here.

Foreverland, a three-year-old Italian startup that processes Mediterranean ingredients such as carob into cocoa-free chocolate alternatives for industrial use, raised a $6.9 million round. Investors included CDP Venture Capital, Riello Investimenti, and Newtree Impact as well as previous investors Kost Capital and Maia Ventures. The company has raised a total of $10.9 million. The Next Web has more here.

Hamilton, a two-year-old San Francisco startup that plans to use AI agents to automate quoting, scheduling, and operational workflows for private aviation operators, raised a $7.5 million seed round led by TTV Capital, with Bling Capital, Cambrian Ventures, FJ Labs, Weekend Fund, Mintaka Ventures, Correlation VC, and HF0 also taking part. More here.

Hyground, a one-year-old Hamburg startup that aims to automate incident detection and root cause analysis for SRE teams by monitoring systems and diagnosing issues in real-time, raised a $3.5 million pre-seed round led by Partech, with Kima Ventures and Motier Ventures also investing. Startup Researcher has more here.

ImmuneBridge, an eight-year-old San Francisco startup that screens and manufactures immune cell therapies at commercial scale to support drug developers, raised a $7.7 million seed round led by NFX and including One Way Ventures, M Ventures, Insight Partners, and LongGame Ventures also participating. The company has raised a total of approximately $20 million. Tech in DC has more here.

Littlefish, a four-year-old Johannesburg startup that enables financial institutions to offer small businesses payments, point-of-sale, CRM, and banking services, raised a $9.5 million Series A round led by Partech, with Proparco as well as previous investors TLCOM and Flourish Ventures also joining in. TechCabal has more here.

Zalos, a one-year-old San Francisco startup that converts recorded finance workflows into AI agents that log into systems and carry out tasks across ERPs, spreadsheets, and internal tools, raised a $3.6 million seed round led by 14 Peaks, with Cohen Circle and 20VC also taking stakes. Tech Funding News has more here.

Fidelity — Your Pitch Isn’t the Only Thing Investors Are Evaluating.   

Investors don’t just listen to what you say - they look at how your company operates. Is ownership clear? Do your numbers match your story? Can you answer follow-up questions without digging through spreadsheets? The Fundraise-Ready Startup Kit equips founders with the materials investors expect to see, before pressure is on. Because confidence in the room doesn’t come from slides. It comes from preparation. 

Kleiner Perkins, a 54-year-old Silicon Valley venture firm, has raised $3.5 billion across new early- and growth-stage funds to double down on AI startups as competition for top deals intensifies. TechCrunch has more here.

Hummingbird Ventures, a 15-year-old London-based venture firm, is on the verge of closing an $800 million fundraise, including its first $600 million growth fund, as it doubles down on backing “misfit” founders after early bets on companies like Kraken and Lovable. The Financial Times has more here.

Amazon has purchased Fauna Robotics, a two-year-old New York startup that is developing a kid-size humanoid robot for home use. Terms were not disclosed. Fauna’s backers include Kleiner Perkins, Quiet Capital, and Lux Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

Databricks has acquired two startups, Antimatter and SiftD.ai, to build its new AI-powered security product Lakewatch, which uses agents to detect and investigate threats on large data sets. Terms were not disclosed. TechCrunch has more here.

Soxton, a startup that automates legal services for founders using AI workflows with human oversight, acquired Cipher, a realtime security layer for agentic applications. Terms were not disclosed. More here.

At a lavish opera event hosted by CEO Jensen Huang, Nvidia’s role as the AI industry’s dominant financier came into focus. The Wall Street Journal has more here.

Epic Games is cutting 1,000 jobs after a 2025 slump in Fortnite engagement left spending above revenue. The company is targeting $500 million in cost cuts and raising in-game prices in an effort to stabilize its finances. TechCrunch has more here.

Arm is launching its first in-house chip – the Arm AGI CPU for AI data centers – marking a shift from its decades-long licensing model and putting it in direct competition with partners like Nvidia and Apple. TechCrunch has more here.

Tether has hired a Big Four accounting firm to conduct its first full audit of reserves backing USDT, moving beyond quarterly attestations as scrutiny of its $180 billion stablecoin and balance sheet persists. (We’ll have to ask CEO Paolo Ardoino about this at Disrupt in October.) The Block has more here.

The New York Stock Exchange is partnering with Securitize to build a blockchain-based platform for tokenized stocks that would enable 24/7 trading, instant settlement, and use of stablecoins, as Wall Street accelerates efforts to digitize securities. The Wall Street Journal has more here.

SoftBank is committing another $30 billion to OpenAI, pushing up against its self-imposed borrowing limits and raising investor concerns about leverage as it doubles down on AI. The Financial Times has more here.

An 82-year-old Kentucky farmer rejected a $26 million offer from an unnamed AI company to build a data center on her family’s 1,200-acre farm, calling claims that the data center would bring jobs and economic growth “a scam.” TechCrunch has more here.

The Wall Street Journal pitted ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini against humans in its March Madness bracket pool, and after the tournament’s first weekend, all three were still alive, with Claude emerging as a legitimate contender after making a contrarian pick on Illinois. More here.

Raunchy, nonsensical A.I.-generated TikTok videos of anthropomorphic fruits having soap opera-style affairs are going viral, spawning real-world recreations as influencers parody the trend.

Suddenly, this little Belgian cookie is everywhere.

The anti-algorithm guide to discovering new music.

A six-bedroom villa at Amangiri in Utah set on nine acres and boasting views of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument has hit the market as the first completed residence in a planned 12-home development, with prices for homes ranging from $5 million to $12.5 million.

Whiskey and more whiskey.

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