Happy weekend.:)

Prediction market rivals Kalshi and Polymarket are discussing fundraising rounds that could value each company at roughly $20 billion, about double their valuations from late last year. The Wall Street Journal has more here.

Microsoft, Google, and Amazon say customers can continue using Anthropic’s Claude for non-defense workloads despite the Pentagon labeling the startup a supply-chain risk and barring its AI from defense contracts. TechCrunch has more here.

SoftBank is seeking a bridge loan of up to $40 billion to help finance its growing stake in OpenAI, its largest dollar loan ever, as Masayoshi Son doubles down on the company even as credit concerns mount. Bloomberg has more here.

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By Marina Temkin

Retail investors are famously locked out of the startup world. Robinhood is attempting to change that by allowing the general public to invest in a portfolio of what it calls “some of the most exciting private companies operating today.”

To do this, the company that pioneered the commission-free brokerage model has secured access to eight startups—including Databricks, Stripe, Mercor, and Oura—grouping them into a vehicle called Robinhood Ventures Fund I. The fund, which also includes Ramp, Airwallex, Revolut, and Boom, set out last month with an ambitious $1 billion target, but demand for this novel way of investing in private companies was lower than expected.

On Thursday, Robinhood announced the fund had raised $658.4 million — which could reach $705.7 million if underwriters exercise their full allotment. The shares, priced at $25 in the offering, began trading on Friday and closed the day at $21, a 16% decline.

RVI’s reception on Wall Street stands in stark contrast to another attempt to give individual investors exposure to buzzy startups. When Destiny Tech100 — a publicly traded, closed-end fund holding stakes in 100 venture-backed companies including SpaceX, OpenAI, and Discord — direct-listed on the NYSE in March 2024, its shares surged from a reference price of $4.84 to an opening trade of $8.25, eventually closing its first day at $9.00.

Destiny Tech100 has kept climbing since its public debut. The fund closed trading on Friday at $26.61, a 33% premium to its net asset value of $19.97, meaning its shares trade well above the actual value of its underlying holdings.

So what explains why retail investors aren’t nearly as excited about Robinhood’s fund as they are about Destiny Tech 100? The most likely explanation is RVI’s lack of exposure to the companies widely expected to go public at enormous valuations: OpenAI, Anthropic, and SpaceX.

Cognito, a 10-year-old company based in Cambridge, MA, that uses visual and auditory stimulation to treat Alzheimer’s disease, raised a $105 million Series C round co-led by Morningside Ventures, IAG Capital Partners, and Starbloom Capital, with additional support from New Vintage, Apollo Health Ventures, and Benvolio Group. MobiHealthNews has more here.

Science Corp., a five-year-old startup based in Alameda, CA, that builds brain-computer interface implants to restore vision, raised a $230 million Series C round at reportedly a $1.5 billion post-money valuation. Investors included Lightspeed Venture Partners, Khosla Ventures, Y Combinator, Quiet Capital, and IQT. The company has raised a total of $490 million. TechCrunch has more here.

ZyG, a one-year-old startup based in Herzliya, Israel, that leverages AI to predict product demand and help entrepreneurs launch and scale e-commerce brands, raised a $58 million seed round co-led by Bessemer Venture Partners, Viola Ventures, and Lightspeed Venture Partners and including Stardom Ventures, Access Industries, Emerge, Disruptive AI, and Jibe Ventures. CTech has more here.

City Detect, a five-year-old startup based in Tuscaloosa, AL, that uses computer vision to help local governments monitor building conditions and neighborhood issues, raised a $13 million Series A round led by Prudence Venture Capital, with Zeal Capital Partners, Knoll Ventures, and Las Olas Venture Capital also digging in. The company has raised a total of $15 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Levitate, an eight-year-old startup based in Raleigh, NC, whose platform helps relationship-based businesses automate and manage personalized client outreach using AI, raised a $16 million round led by Harbert Growth Partners, with Bull City Venture Partners and Northwestern Mutual Future Ventures also contributing. The company has raised a total of $71 million. Pulse 2.0 has more here.

Minnesota Medical Technologies, an 11-year-old company based in Minnesota City, MN, that produces a single-use device that manages fecal incontinence and accidental bowel leakage, raised a $20.6 million Series A round. The deal was co-led by HM Venture Partners and Southeast Minnesota Capital Partners. More here.

Silverflow, a seven-year-old Amsterdam startup that provides a cloud-native platform that connects payment providers directly to card networks through a single API, raised a $40 million Series B round led by Picus Capital, with Rabo Investments, Inkef, Global PayTech Ventures, Crane Venture Partners, and Coatue also investing. Tech Funding News has more here.

Cheer Games, a one-year-old startup based in Barcelona, Spain, that develops casual mobile puzzle games, raised a $4.5 million pre-seed round led by Makers Fund, with Play Ventures also participating. GamesBeat has more here.

Denki, a one-year-old San Francisco startup that uses AI to automate evidence collection and documentation for financial audits, raised a $4.1 million round co-led by Base10 Partners and Shine Capital, with Y Combinator and 20VC also taking part. Tech Funding News has more here.

TaxDown, a seven-year-old Madrid startup that uses AI to help individuals plan, optimize, and file their taxes, raised a $4.6 million round. BBVA Spark provided the funding. EU-Startups has more here.

Utexo, a one-year-old startup that enables USDT stablecoin payments to settle directly on the Bitcoin network, raised a $7.5 million seed round co-led by Tether, Portal Ventures, and Big Brain Holdings, with Franklin Templeton, Maven11 Capital, Fulgur Ventures, Alchemy VC, Ethereal Ventures, Auros Ventures, Arcanum Capital, Paper Ventures, Axia8, FlowTraders, Plan B, Gate Ventures, and Sats Ventures also piling on. Bitcoin Magazine has more here.

Vor Systems, a newly formed San Francisco startup that reviews and organizes transaction documents to help teams analyze complex renewable energy deals using AI, raised a $3 million pre-seed round led by Gigascale Capital, with Virta Ventures also engaging. More here.

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AI chipmaker Cerebras has tapped Morgan Stanley to lead a renewed IPO attempt that could raise about $2 billion as soon as April, after withdrawing its previous filing last year. Bloomberg has more here.

The Pentagon named Gavin Kliger as chief data officer to coordinate its AI projects and work with leading AI labs, even as scrutiny grows over past social media posts in which he reposted content from white supremacist Nick Fuentes and self-described misogynist Andrew Tate. Reuters has more here.

San Francisco startup Hayden AI has sued its former CEO and co-founder Chris Carson Jr., alleging he secretly sold $1.26 million of company stock and used the proceeds to fund a lavish lifestyle. The company also claims he forged board signatures and downloaded 41 gigabytes of proprietary data in order to launch a rival startup. The San Francisco Business Times has more here.

Prediction markets Kalshi and Polymarket are pouring money into campus marketing and influencer deals as students trade on rumors and inside tips, fueling concerns about insider trading and gambling among young users. The Wall Street Journal has more here.

Speaking of Kalshi, the prediction market has been named in a class-action lawsuit accusing the company of refusing to pay $54 million to bettors who wagered that Iran’s supreme leader would leave office by March 1st. The dispute centers on whether his death in U.S.-Israeli strikes should count as “leaving office.” Reuters has more here.

Cursor, the fast-growing AI coding startup, is confronting increasing pressure from Anthropic and OpenAI, which appear willing to heavily subsidize the computing costs behind their coding tools. Cursor estimates that a $200 Claude Code plan can consume as much as $5,000 in compute. Forbes has more here.

Goldman Sachs is reportedly weighing whether to fire two junior bankers who posed in designer suits and luxury watches for an Interview Magazine article called “The Finest Boys in Finance.”

Budget-conscious consumers are finally losing interest in “slop bowls.”

AI checks in after bombing Iran to see if you still think its bubble is bursting.

Adidas’s new Hyperboost Edge trainer boasts a towering 45 mm stack of PEBA-based Boost foam.

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