Hello! A quick note that our first StrictlyVC Insider evening is happening in San Francisco's SoMa neighborhood on Thursday, April 30. We’re incredibly grateful to the team at TDK Ventures for stepping up to partner with us on the event, which will feature plenty of networking, cocktails, and hors d'oeuvres, along with killer content — including talks with Campbell Brown, the award-winning journalist turned founder of a new startup you’re going to want to understand better, and, we’re very happy to announce, Amjad Masad of Replit. The company may be the "$9 billion company reimagining vibe coding," per Forbes, but it could soon have a more pressing conversation with Apple, which is reportedly cracking down on vibe coding apps to protect its App Store business.

And we're not done programming this thing. Come for the camaraderie; stay to get smarter about what's happening in the industry. Seating is limited, so don't wait to grab a spot.

(A quick correction for those interested in co-hosting one of these evenings: we mistakenly listed [email protected], which doesn't go anywhere, as it turns out. The correct address to reach our events colleagues is [email protected]. And a sincere thanks to those who tracked me down directly anyway!) — CL

Jeff Bezos is talking to sovereign wealth funds and major asset managers about raising a $100 billion fund to acquire manufacturing companies and automate them using Project Prometheus, a startup he co-leads that builds AI systems that simulate physical processes for engineering and industrial design. The Wall Street Journal has more here.

Uber is partnering with Rivian in a deal worth up to $1.25 billion to deploy as many as 50,000 robotaxis based on its R2 SUV across 25 cities by 2031, starting with a $300 million investment and 10,000 vehicles. TechCrunch has more here.

Kalshi is raising about $1 billion in a new round led by Coatue at a $22 billion valuation, doubling its valuation within months as investor interest grows in its regulated prediction-market platform. The Wall Street Journal has more here.

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By Amanda Silberling

When we think about the existential threats of new technology, we’re usually thinking about something like the recent negotiations between Anthropic and the Pentagon over how AI can be used in the military. It’s terrifying to think about — how long will it be before a nuclear weapon can be detonated without any human intervention?

We’ve been spending so much time thinking about these potential catastrophes that we haven’t braced ourselves for the more immediate danger in our midst: dancing robots.

A dancing robot at the hot pot restaurant Haidilao in Cupertino, California, boogied a little too hard, got too close to a table, and started smashing plates and sending dishware and chopsticks everywhere, prompting the restaurant’s staff to intervene, according to a video posted on the Chinese social network Xiaohongshu by user Meooow.

From what we can see from the video, at least three employees struggled to restrain the robot as it flung its arms around. One Haidilao employee seems to be looking at her phone, perhaps in an attempt to toggle something on an app controlling the robot. It’s possible the robot — which appears to be an AgiBot X2 robot, which was featured at the CES conference in January — has a kill switch, but the staff might not have known how to operate it.

Arc, a five-year-old Los Angeles startup that makes electric boats and propulsion systems for commercial and defense use, raised a $50 million Series C round. Investors included Eclipse, Andreessen Horowitz, Menlo Ventures, Lowercarbon, Necessary Ventures, and Offline Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Bluesky, a five-year-old Seattle startup that operates a decentralized social network and underlying protocol for interoperable social apps, raised a $100 million Series B round led by Bain Capital Crypto, with Anthos Capital, Bloomberg Beta, and Knight Foundation as well as previous investors Alumni Ventures and True Ventures also joining in. TechCrunch has more here.

Cape, a four-year-old startup based in Arlington, VA, that operates a privacy-focused mobile network that does not track user data, raised a $100 million round at a $900 million post-money valuation. The deal was co-led by Bain Capital Ventures and IVP, with previous investors Andreessen Horowitz and A* Capital also stepping up. The company has raised a total of $190 million. Forbes has more here.

Cloaked, a six-year-old New York startup that creates and manages masked identities, including emails, phone numbers, and passwords, to protect users’ personal data online, raised a $375 million round led by General Catalyst and Liberty City Ventures, with Lux Capital, Human Capital, Marquee Ventures, Fifth Growth Fund, NFL Players Association, LG Technology Ventures, Assurant Ventures, and DuckDuckGo also taking part. TechCrunch has more here.

Crossbow Therapeutics, a five-year-old startup based in Cambridge, MA, that offers T-cell engager therapies that target peptide HLA on cancer cells using TCR-mimetic antibodies, raised a $77 million Series B round co-led by Taiho Ventures and Arkin Bio Capital, with Sixty Degree Capital, Hamilton Square Partners Management, LifeLink Ventures, Libbs Ventures, and Blood Cancer United as well as previous investors MPM BioImpact, Pfizer Ventures, BVF Partners, Polaris Partners, Eli Lilly, and Mirae Asset Venture Investment also piling on. More here.

Latent Health, a four-year-old San Francisco startup that automates pharmacy prior authorizations by analyzing patient records and generating required documentation, raised an $80 million Series A round at a $600 million post-money valuation, according to Forbes. The deal was co-led by Spark Capital and Transformation Capital, with Conviction, McKesson Ventures, General Catalyst, and Y Combinator also investing. More here.

Oasis Security, a four-year-old New York startup that manages access for AI agents and other non-human identities in enterprise systems, raised a $120 million Series B round led by Craft Ventures, with previous investors Cyberstarts, Sequoia Capital, and Accel also reupping. The company has raised a total of $195 million. SecurityWeek has more here.

Verily, an Alphabet company that provides an AI-powered precision health platform for research and care, raised a $300 million round led by Series X Capital, with Alphabet, UCHealth, and the University of Colorado Anschutz also taking stakes. More here.

Anori, a 2.5-year-old, Bay Area company that — as Connie exclusively reported this morning — was newly spun out by Alphabet’s X, has raised a $26 million round co-led by Prologis and Builders VC, with Series X Capital also participating. The outfit aims to help developers, contractors, and regulators coordinate with one another during the “pre-building” approval process. TechCrunch has more here.

Claros, a two-year-old startup based in McLean, VA, that provides hardware and software that reduce energy loss in data center power systems, raised a $30 million seed round co-led by General Catalyst and Red Cell Partners, with Systemiq Capital, Aero X Ventures, and Trenches Capital also participating. More here.

Cocoon Carbon, a three-year-old London startup that converts steel mill byproducts into a low-carbon cement substitute, raised a $15 million Series A round co-led by 2150 and Brick & Mortar Ventures, with TVC also contributing. Carbon Herald has more here.

Corridor, a one-year-old San Francisco startup that runs a platform that integrates with coding tools to prevent security vulnerabilities in AI-generated code before deployment, raised a $25 million Series A round led by Felicis, with Conviction, Timeless, Artisanal Ventures, Lux Capital, Sunflower Capital, Datadog, and SV Angel also investing. Forbes has more here.

Deeptune, a three-year-old New York startup that runs simulation environments where AI agents practice tasks to improve performance over time, raised a $43 million Series A round led by Andreessen Horowitz, with 776, Abstract Ventures, and Inspired Capital also joining in. More here.

Eclypsium, a nine-year-old startup based in Portland, OR, whose platform is designed to secure hardware, firmware, and devices across IT infrastructure supply chains, raised a $25 million round led by Peak6 Strategic Capital, with additional support from Ten Eleven Ventures and an undisclosed bank as well as previous investors Andreessen Horowitz, Madrona, and Qualcomm Ventures. The company has raised a total of $110 million. GeekWire has more here.

GlobalComix, a nine-year-old New York startup that has built a digital platform where comic creators and publishers publish, distribute, and monetize comics globally, raised a $13 million round co-led by SBI US Gateway Fund and Point72 Ventures. The Next Web has more here.

Kewazo, an eight-year-old German startup that manufactures a lifting robot that automates vertical material movement at industrial sites, raised a $16 million Series A round led by Schooner Capital, with Chevron Technology Ventures, Asahi Kasei, Benson Capital, Mana Ventures, Gaingels, and Atlas Ventures as well as previous investors True Ventures and Cybernetix Ventures also engaging. The company has raised a total of $35 million. The Robot Report has more here.

Lantern, a 16-year-old Dallas company that connects employers with specialty care providers for surgery, cancer, and infusion treatment so they can offer these services to employees, raised a $30 million round co-led by Morgan Health and Echo Health Ventures. More here.

Parallel, a three-year-old Paris startup that uses AI agents to automate medical coding and billing tasks within existing hospital software systems, raised a $20 million Series A round led by Index Ventures, with Frst, Y Combinator, and Hexa also digging in. The Next Web has more here.

Posh, a seven-year-old New York startup that enables event organizers to create, manage, and sell tickets for events, raised a $37 million Series B round led by FirstMark, with Causeway Ventures, Goodwater Capital, Companyon Ventures, and Epic Ventures also stepping up. Fortune has more here.

Carecubes, a six-year-old startup based in Arlington, VA, that creates modular isolation units that hospitals deploy to treat infectious disease patients while containing pathogens, raised a $6.5 million Series A round. Investors included Schooner Capital, Lifeforce Capital, and CQuence Health. Pulse 2.0 has more here.

Meadow, a two-year-old startup based in Commerce, CA, that offers a service that enables families to plan and arrange funerals online or over the phone, raised a $9 million Series A round co-led by Lachy Groom and Haystack. Crunchbase News has more here.

Reson8, an Amsterdam startup founded this year that aims to develop automatic speech recognition models that adapt to conversations using contextual data, raised a $5.7 million pre-seed round led by Balderton Capital, with NP Hard also anteing up. Tech.eu has more here.

Respan, a three-year-old San Francisco startup that is building a platform to automatically evaluate AI agent behavior in production and recommend fixes, raised a $5 million seed round. Investors included Gradient, Y Combinator, Hat-Trick Capital, XIAOXIAO FUND, Antigravity Capital, and Alpen Capital. SiliconANGLE has more here.

Ringtime, a one-year-old Belgian startup that automates outreach and screening for recruiters to engage blue-collar candidates across different channels and languages, raised a $2.1 million seed round. Volta Ventures was the deal lead, with Syndicate One, JK Invest, New School VC, and Allusion also opting in. More here.

How January Capital is rethinking portfolio management with AI 

What will portfolio management look like by year-end? January Capital and Standard Metrics will discuss what's changing, what isn’t, and how investors are already using Standard Metrics’ AI Analyst to streamline workflows. March 25, 4:30 PM PT. Register now. 

Dimension, founded by a trio of young VCs out of Lux Capital and Obvious Ventures, is quietly making a habit of raising money fast. The firm launched in 2023, closed a second fund less than two years later, and is now targeting around $700 million for its third, according to STAT — all in service of its focus on companies melding AI and science. More here.

OpenAI is acquiring Astral, a San Francisco-based startup of unknown age that builds open-source developer tools. Astral’s team is set to join the Codex group as OpenAI pushes to expand its AI coding assistant. Terms were not disclosed. CNBC has more here.

Amazon has purchased Rivr, a three-year-old Zurich startup that builds stair-climbing delivery robots, as the e-commerce giant looks to expand its last-mile automation efforts. Terms were not disclosed. TechCrunch has more here.

Fundrise Innovation Fund, a publicly traded venture capital fund based in Washington, DC, that offers retail investors access to private tech companies, listed this morning on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker VCX with approximately $650 million in assets under management. More here.

Sergey Brin has contributed $45 million to a Super PAC opposing California’s proposed 5% wealth tax on billionaires, making him by far the largest donor to the effort. The Guardian has more here.

Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince said AI-driven bot traffic could exceed human internet traffic by 2027, as agents “often go to 1,000 times the number of sites that an actual human would visit.” TechCrunch has more here.

Former SolarWinds CISO Tim Brown has joined Team8 as a General Partner and CISO in Residence. More here.

Crypto.com cut about 12% of its workforce, or roughly 180 roles, as CEO Kris Marszalek said the exchange is rolling out enterprise-wide AI and eliminating roles that are no longer needed. The Block has more here.

The New York Times chronicles the demise of Mark Zuckerberg’s metaverse push at Meta, which burned tens of billions of dollars and failed to gain mainstream traction. More here.

DoorDash has launched a stand-alone Tasks app that pays couriers to submit videos and other data to help train AI and robotic systems, expanding its use of its delivery workforce beyond logistics into data collection. TechCrunch has more here.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is escalating a probe into Tesla’s Full Self-Driving system after identifying crashes – one fatal – in which the system failed to handle poor visibility conditions. The Wall Street Journal has more here.

Remember the tech exec who was caught canoodling with her CEO on a Coldplay "kiss cam"? It turns out her husband was also at the concert.

A real possum was discovered sitting among plush toy animals on a gift shop shelf at Hobart Airport in Tasmania, startling staff before it was safely removed. The Associated Press has more here.

A new web game called Wikigacha turns Wikipedia articles into collectible cards that players use to compete against each other.

TSA hacks.

When it’s time to unplug, celebs like George Clooney, Kate Moss, Roger Federer, and Tom Cruise are turning to Huvafen Fushi in the Maldives. The resort offers glass-bottomed bungalows, an underwater spa, and a 7,000-bottle wine cellar.

A $24,000 road bike from Bugatti.

Please send all of your hot gossip to [email protected] or [email protected].

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