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Leaked financials show OpenAI paid Microsoft nearly $866 million in revenue share through the first three quarters of 2025, suggesting revenue above $4 billion even as its compute bill keeps rising faster than its business can scale. TechCrunch has more here.

Affinity's Tech Stack Spotlight reveals how Picus Capital eliminated manual work and accelerated deal velocity with AI-powered workflows. Join us November 20 (10 AM PT / 1 PM ET) as Abhijay Thacker shares real automation strategies, firm-wide adoption tactics, and integration approaches with Affinity as the foundation. See exactly how a leading European early-stage fund built a system that drives competitive advantage. This quarterly series goes behind the scenes with firms winning through technology.  
 

Inside Harvey: How a First-Year Legal Associate Built One of Silicon Valley’s Hottest Startups

Image Credits: Harvey

By Connie Loizos

Legal AI might not sound like the sexiest category in Silicon Valley, but Harvey‘s CEO Winston Weinberg has captured the attention of virtually every top-tier investor in the Valley. The company’s cap table reads like a who’s who of venture capital: the OpenAI Startup Fund (its first institutional investor), Sequoia Capital, Kleiner Perkins, Elad Gil, Google Ventures, Coatue, and most recently, Andreessen Horowitz.

The San Francisco-based company’s valuation skyrocketed from $3 billion in February 2025 to $5 billion in June to $8 billion in late October — a rise that reflects both the bonkers price tags awarded to AI companies and Harvey’s ability to win over major law firms and corporate legal departments.

In fact, the startup now claims 700 clients across 63 countries, including a majority of the top 10 U.S. law firms. It also says it surpassed $100 million in annual recurring revenue as of August.

TechCrunch spoke with Weinberg for this week’s StrictlyVC Download podcast to ask about the wild ride that he and co-founder Gabe Pereyra have been on so far. During that chat, he shared how a cold email sent a few summers ago to Sam Altman changed everything; why he believes lawyers will benefit rather than suffer from AI; and how Harvey is tackling the technically complex challenge of building a truly multiplayer platform that navigates ethical walls and data permissioning across dozens of countries.

This interview has been edited lightly for length. For the full monty, check out the podcast.

You started as a first-year associate at O’Melveny & Myers. When did you realize AI could transform legal work?

So my co-founder was working at Meta at the time; he was also my roommate. He was showing me GPT-3, and in the beginning, I swear to God, the main use case I had for it was running a Dungeons and Dragons game with friends in LA. Then I was assigned to this landlord-tenant case at O’Melveny, and I didn’t know anything about landlord-tenant law. I started using GPT-3 to work on it.

Massive Fundings

Ferroelectric Memory, a 10-year-old Dresden company that develops low-power memory chips for AI computing, raised a $116.1 million round led by HV Capital, with the European Innovation Council also participating. Tech Funding News has more here.

Firmus Technologies, a seven-year-old Australian startup that develops data centers powered by renewable energy for AI computing, raised a $326.8 million round from previous investors at a $3.9 billion post-money valuation, more than triple the valuation of a round it raised just two months ago. The Australian Financial Review has more here.

Lovable, a one-year-old Stockholm startup that lets users build apps and websites through AI-guided “vibe coding,” is reportedly in talks to raise new funding at a $6 billion valuation, tripling the valuation it received for its last round this past July mark. Forbes has more here.

Lighter, a four-year-old Miami startup that operates a zk-rollup perpetual-futures exchange on Ethereum, raised a $68 million round at a $1.5 billion post-money valuation. Investors included Founders Fund, Ribbit Capital, Haun Ventures, and Robinhood Markets. CoinDesk has more here.

Maybern, a five-year-old New York startup that whose platform is designed to automate fund operations and unify financial data for private equity, credit, and real estate firms, raised a $50 million Series B round led by Battery Ventures, with additional participation from Primary Venture Partners, Human Capital, MetaProp, Grafton Street Partners, Camber Creek, and Friends & Family Capital. The company has raised a total of $76 million. The Wall Street Journal has more here.

Neura Robotics, a six-year-old German startup that is building cognitive and humanoid robots for manufacturing, logistics, and consumer use, is reportedly in talks regarding a $1.2 billion round, with Tether as a possible lead. The Block has more here.

Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings

Clairity, a six-year-old Boston startup that has built an AI platform to predict a woman’s five-year breast cancer risk from a routine mammogram, raised a $43 million Series B round co-led by ACE Global Equity and Santé Ventures, with the Breast Cancer Research Foundation also taking part. Medical Device Network has more here.

CloudX, a San Francisco and New York startup founded this year that builds an AI-native advertising system to help mobile publishers automate and optimize monetization, raised a $30 million Series A round led by Addition, with DST Global, Terrain, ENIAC, Javelin, and Breakpoint Capital also contributing. More here.

ElectronX, a four-year-old Chicago startup that has created a direct-access power derivatives market for hedging short-term electricity price risk, raised a $30 million Series A round led by DCVC, with XTX Markets, Five Rings, NGP, GTS, and JACS Capital as well as previous investors Innovation Endeavors, Systemiq Capital, Equinor Ventures, and Shell Ventures also piling on. The company has raised a total of $55 million. Renewables Now has more here.

Endolith, a three-year-old Denver startup that uses microbes and AI to extract copper and other critical minerals from low-grade and complex ores, raised a $13.5 million seed round led by Squadra Ventures, with Draper Associates, Collaborative Fund, and Overture Climate Fund also investing. Mining.com has more here.

Netic, a two-year-old San Francisco startup that automates client outreach, bookings, marketing, and analytics for home-services contractors, raised a $23 million Series B round led by Founders Fund. Tech Funding News has more here.

TandemAI, a five-year-old Boston and New York startup that integrates AI, physics-based computation, and wet lab capabilities for end-to-end drug discovery, raised a $22 million Series A extension round. Investors included V-Capital and KHK Fund. The company has raised a total of $80+ million. More here.

Vend Park, a six-year-old Boston startup that helps commercial real estate owners manage and monetize parking through an AI-powered technology and operations system, raised a $17.5 million Series A round led by Blue Heron Capital and including Nuveen’s Real Asset Ventures, Communitas Capital, Derive Ventures, Floating Point Capital, PagsGroup, and Crossbeam. Citybiz has more here.

Smaller Fundings

Cronvall, an eight-year-old Helsinki startup that helps industrial and construction businesses manage procurement through a digital marketplace, raised a $4.5 million round led by Greencode Ventures, with Stephen Industries and Innovestor also pitching in. Tech Funding News has more here.

FALKIN, a two-year-old London startup that helps banks and consumers stop scams before payments happen, raised a $2 million pre-seed round led by TriplePoint Ventures, with Notion Capital, BackFuture Ventures, Aviva/Founders Factory, Haatch, Found Capital, and Founders Capital also opting in. EU-Startups has more here.

Greenshoe, a two-year-old Chicago startup that automates SEC disclosures for public companies through an AI-native drafting and compliance system, raised a $3 million seed round led by AIX Ventures, with Hearst Level Up Ventures, Blueprint FTC, and Service Provider Capital also anteing up. More here.

Lative, a three-year-old Dublin startup that helps companies plan, track, and optimize sales performance through an AI-driven sales planning system, raised a $7.5 million round co-led by Act Venture Capital and Senovo VC, with added support from Elkstone, Enterprise Ireland, WestWave Capital, Handshake Ventures, and Shuttle. The Irish Times has more here.

Obello, a four-year-old San Francisco startup that provides an AI graphic design system for creating on-brand content across formats, raised an $8.5 million seed round led by Obvious Ventures, with Baukunst, AVV, and Preview Ventures also digging in. More here.

Scorbit, a one-year-old startup based in Ann Arbor, MI, that aims to bring classic and modern arcade experiences online, raised a $5 million seed round led by Detroit Venture Partners, with Grand Ventures, Weiser Family Office, Michigan Rise / Red Cedar, Invest Detroit Ventures, Eberg Capital, Ann Arbor SPARK Capital, Mudita Venture Fund, Precursor Ventures, Side Door Ventures, Wakestream, Gambit Ventures, Matthew Prince, Matt Mullenweg, and Marissa Mayer also piling on. More here.

Self, a three-year-old San Francisco startup that enables users to verify personal attributes like age or identity without revealing private data using zero-knowledge proofs, raised a $9 million seed round led by Greenfield Capital, with Startup Capital Ventures x SBI Fund (SoftBank), Spearhead VC, Verda Ventures, Fireweed Ventures, and Casey Neistat also stepping up. CoinDesk has more here.

Songscription, a two-year-old startup based in Oceanside, NY, that uses AI to transcribe and arrange music so musicians can generate sheet music, tabs, and MIDI from audio recordings, raised a $5 million round led by Reach Capital, with Emerge Capital, 10x Founders, and Dent Capital also joining in. Music Ally has more here.

Vida, a four-year-old Austin startup that provides an AI phone agent operating system for enterprises to automate customer interactions across voice, text, and web channels, raised a $4 million Series A round led by Trammell Venture Partners, with Timechain also engaging. CityBiz has more here.

Turkish entrepreneurship ecosystem ranked among the top 10 in EMEA. TÜSİAD’s report highlights the ecosystem’s growth in recent years and its potential as a regional entrepreneurship hub for tech companies. Türkiye ranks in the top 10 in the EMEA across several verticals: gaming, fintech and defense. With 3,000+ startups, unicorns, tax advantages, young and digital friendly population, the ecosystem opens its doors to global entrepreneurs and investors who embody the spirit of entrepreneurship. Learn more about the Turkish entrepreneurship ecosystem.  

Going Public

Pine Labs, a 27-year-old Gurugram payments company backed by PayPal, Mastercard, and Peak XV Partners, jumped 14% in its $440 million India IPO, signaling renewed investor appetite for fintech listings after Groww’s strong debut. TechCrunch has more here.

People

The battle over legal fees between JPMorgan and Charlie Javice, the convicted founder behind the fintech Frank, continues: JPMorgan now claims that Javice’s $115 million-plus legal tab includes charges for cellulite butter, luxury hotels, and a lawyer who billed 24 hours in a single day. The Wall Street Journal has more here.

In a deposition last year, MrBeast said he owned just over half of his $5 billion company, Beast Industries, which pulled in $400 million in revenue but remains unprofitable as it looks to expand beyond YouTube. Business Insider has more here.

Post-Its

Data

Tech giants are pouring record sums into AI data centers despite power and equipment bottlenecks, with JPMorgan estimating that the $5 trillion in planned infrastructure spending through 2030 will require $650 billion in new yearly revenue. The Wall Street Journal has more here.

Essential Reads

Meta will begin grading employees on their “AI-driven impact” starting in 2026, signaling a push to make AI adoption a core capability across the company’s workforce. Business Insider has more here.

Tesla just released its most detailed safety data yet, claiming drivers using its Full Self-Driving software average roughly three to five million miles between major collisions compared with national crash data of about half a million miles between major collisions. TechCrunch has more here.

As brain-computer interfaces and AI advance from labs to consumer devices, lawmakers worldwide are racing to establish “neurorights” to protect mental privacy, autonomy, and identity before neurodata becomes a new frontier of surveillance. The New York Times has more here.

OpenAI says it has finally fixed ChatGPT’s notorious em dash issue, giving users more control over punctuation in its responses and quietly addressing one of the internet’s favorite tells of AI-written text. TechCrunch has more here.

Detours

The Beast in Me, a new thriller on Netflix, is earning raves.

Baseball United debuted in Dubai with a four-team league featuring camel-riding pitchers, “moneyball” home runs, and a desert ballpark carpeted with artificial turf.

According to a paper published in JAMA Health Forum, the latest season of The White Lotus sparked a 99% surge in Google searches for the antianxiety drug lorazepam.

Brain Rot

Retail Therapy

Bentley just unveiled a rear-wheel-drive Continental GT with a 657-horsepower twin-turbo V8 that’s lighter than any Bentley in 85 years and fitted with the largest brakes ever on a production car.

Tips (the non-pecuniary kind)

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