Know founders who could use a full-day crash course on how to get a startup off the ground, including how to pitch VCs? Steer them to Founders Summit, happening in Boston on Wednesday, November 4. (This truly is a great event for people at the start of things; attendees rave about it every year.) You can get 30% off passes with this link, pre-populated with an SVC code.

Major U.S. banks including Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan, Bank of America, and Citi are blocking or limiting third-party AI agents’ access to customer accounts after detecting unauthorized agents, some of which appeared to take actions independently of users’ instructions, Axios first reported. Reuters has more here.

OpenAI is nearing a funding round of up to $30 billion at a $1.25 trillion pre-money valuation led by investors from the UAE and Coatue as the company lines up additional compute capacity and positions the financing as a bridge to a potential IPO. CNBC has more here.

DeepSeek has reportedly raised about $15 billion in one of China’s largest funding rounds, just two days after the U.S. ordered federal civilian agencies to remove its technology from their systems; potential investors include CATL and Tencent, Bloomberg first reported. TechCrunch has more here.

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By Dominic-Madori Davis

Colossal Biosciences’ Ben Lamm and Anduril’s Palmer Luckey had an idea to genetically engineer war dogs for the U.S. military, law enforcement, and other emergency response teams. On Thursday, that idea came out of stealth as Warhound, backed by $200 million in funding from investors including Sequoia, 8VC, and In-Q-Tel, a venture firm backed by the CIA and other U.S. intelligence agencies. The round values the company at $1.2 billion.

Warhound’s dogs, which do not exist yet, will take on tasks that are dangerous for humans or difficult for machines, such as bomb detection, searches, and other specialized operations. In its launch announcement, the company said that more than 80% of the U.S. military’s working dogs come from Europe, and less than half of them are fit for service.

That means the supply of working dogs is dwindling, and the U.S. increasingly relies on foreign nations for dogs that play an important role in the military and in law enforcement. Warhound aims to change that. The hope is that Colossal can use its technology to engineer dogs with “characteristics suited to demanding missions,” the company said in a press release.

Lamm told TechCrunch he met Luckey about a year ago at a conference, where Luckey said more should be done for the military’s working dogs. The two kept in touch, and Lamm researched how working dogs are bred. He learned that many of them do not make it through training because of inherited predispositions to problems like poor eyesight or the high possibilities of cancer, hip dysplasia, or muscle atrophy. 

Lamm believed dogs could be enhanced for health, longevity, and “for things like speed and agility or enhance olfactory sensors for bomb sniffing and whatnot,” he said. His team studied top-performing working dog breeds — the Belgian Malinois and German Shepherd — taking cell lines (living cells grown in a lab) from them and putting them in a biobank. From there, the team will edit the dogs’ genes, adding ones that will improve performance and removing ones that will not, to create “a new type of dog.” 

Anduril, meanwhile, will provide software and hardware, such as protection vests and goggles, to assist the dogs and their handlers with situational awareness and coordination. Lamm said to imagine, for example, bulletproof vests with data sensors that send information back to the handlers so they can better understand what is happening. 

Kevel, a 16-year-old company based in Durham, NC, that provides advertising infrastructure that lets retailers and commerce businesses build and operate their own media networks, raised a $52 million Series D round. Investors included ORIX Corporation USA as well as previous investors Fulcrum Equity Partners, dunnhumby Ventures, and Iberis Capital. The company has raised a total of $100+ million. More here.

Maxinsights, a two-year-old San Francisco startup that collects first-person video of people performing everyday tasks and turns it into training data for robotics models, raised a $30 million seed round led by Peak XV, with Tola Capital, South Park Commons, INCE Capital, and Alumni Ventures also participating. Forbes has more here.

Tractian, a seven-year-old Atlanta company that uses sensors and AI to monitor industrial machinery, diagnose problems, and recommend maintenance, raised a $130 million Series D round at a $1.4 billion post-money valuation. The round was co-led by Sapphire Ventures and M&G's Catalyst, with N47, General Catalyst, Bosch Ventures, 53 Stations, Monashees, Endeavor Catalyst, Norte Ventures, and Y Combinator also participating. More here.

Warp Sciences, a South San Francisco startup founded this year that uses AI, robotics, and automated labs to optimize promising drug molecules, raised a $215 million round at an $865 million post-money valuation. The round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with IVP, Premji Invest, and Lux Capital also pitching in. Bloomberg has more here.

Xona, a seven-year-old startup based in Burlingame, CA, that is building a commercial low-Earth-orbit satellite network to provide a more precise and resilient alternative to GPS, raised a $250 million Series D round at a $2.45 billion valuation. Future Ventures was the deal lead. Forbes has more here.

Arctic Therapeutics, an 11-year-old Icelandic company that develops treatments for autoimmune diseases, dementia, and inflammatory skin conditions, raised a $21.5 million round co-led by Pekron, Sanos Group, Kaldbakur, and Landvættir. European Biotechnology has more here.

Azoma, a four-year-old London startup that helps consumer brands monitor and improve how AI shopping assistants discover, interpret, and recommend their products, raised an $11.2 million Series A round led by Puma Growth Partners, with dunnhumby, Twin Path, MaRS IAF, Rank Ventures, and Ignite Ventures also taking part. Dealroom has more here.

Beyond Vision, a 13-year-old Portuguese company that designs and manufactures AI-controlled drones and autonomous mobile systems for defense, security, inspections, and agriculture, raised a $31.5 million round co-led by Índico Capital Partners and Lince Capital, with ActiveCap also taking stakes. EU-Startups has more here.

Cognitive Credit, a nine-year-old London startup that provides corporate credit data, analytics, and AI tools for evaluating bond and loan issuers, raised a $40 million round led by Summit Partners, with additional support from ETFS Capital. More here.

Cuttable, a three-year-old Melbourne startup that uses brands’ performance data, product catalogs, and existing creative to decide which ads to make and produce them, raised a $14 million Series A round led by Airtree Ventures, with previous investors Square Peg, Rampersand, and Glitch Capital also chipping in. More here.

Enact Intelligence, a Zurich startup founded this year that develops robots that sense force and touch through their actuators to manipulate objects in industrial settings, raised a $30 million pre-seed round. Investors included redalpine, Notion Capital, firstminute capital, Arthur Mensch, Yann LeCun, and Andrew Lonsberry. EU-Startups has more here.

Firstwork, a two-year-old San Francisco startup that uses AI agents to automate onboarding, compliance, and ongoing support for frontline workers, raised a $15 million Series A round led by Earlybird Venture Capital, with Legion VC, Deel Ventures, Gradient, and Y Combinator also anteing up. The company has raised a total of $20 million. More here.

Formic, a six-year-old company based in Bolingbrook, IL, that deploys and operates robots for manufacturers through a subscription model, raised a total of $50 million in Series B and debt financing. The equity investment was led by Mercato Partners, with Light Ray Ventures, Lightscape Partners, and Citi also buying in. More here.

Fort Robotics, an eight-year-old Philadelphia startup that develops safety and control systems for businesses deploying robots and autonomous equipment alongside people, is reportedly raising an approximately $10 million round expected to close this week alongside an additional $10 million commitment to a previously announced PIPE financing led by previous investor Tiger Global, with Mark Cuban Companies also buying in. More here.

Hive, a 12-year-old company based in Kitchener, Canada, that provides email, text messaging, customer management, and marketing automation tools for live-event organizers, raised a $27 million Series B round from Frontier Growth. More here.

Mave, a one-year-old Tel Aviv startup that uses AI to investigate security alerts across companies' existing tools and carry out approved responses, raised a $28 million Series A round led by Red Dot Capital Partners, with additional support from Lumir Growth Partners. The company has raised a total of $34 million. CTech has more here.

Nirva, a one-year-old San Francisco startup that makes AI-powered jewelry that listens only to its wearer and turns speech into personal insights and reminders, raised a $25 million pre-Series A round that adds to the $8 million it raised earlier this year from Lightspeed and South Park Commons. TechCrunch has more here.

Optivolt, a nine-year-old San Francisco startup that develops electronics embedded in solar panels that redistribute power among cells and integrate monitoring and safety functions, raised a $32 million Series A round led by VXI Capital, with RA Capital, Valo Ventures, and Atlas Innovate also pitching in. The company has raised a total of $42 million. ESG Today has more here.

ScribeUp, a six-year-old startup based in Cambridge, MA, that integrates bill-management tools into banking apps, letting consumers track, cancel, and update recurring payments, raised a $10 million Series A round led by Curql, with Mucker Capital and Service Ventures also taking part. It also secured a $3 million venture debt facility. The SaaS News has more here.

Slingshot Insurance, a three-month-old startup based in Minneapolis, MN, that helps software companies offer small insurance policies at checkout by connecting them with insurers and automating administrative work, raised a $27 million seed round co-led by Rally Ventures and Skyward Group, with Jim Hays also anteing up. Crunchbase News has more here.

Kodama Systems, a five-year-old San Francisco startup that develops remote-operation and autonomous systems for forestry equipment used in commercial logging, raised a $7 million seed round co-led by Konvoy Ventures and Breakwater Ventures, with Blue Forest Asset Management, NYA Ventures, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Congruent Ventures, Dangerous Ventures, and M1C also digging in. The company has raised a total of $14 million. More here.

Mika Games, a three-year-old gaming investment company based in Nicosia, Cyprus, that funds mobile game studios through product development and early paid-marketing campaigns, raised a $10 million round led by Flint Capital. GamesBeat has more here.

Opply, a five-year-old London startup that uses AI agents to manage sourcing, purchasing, inventory, production, supplier payments, and deliveries for consumer goods brands, raised a $7.5 million round led by previous investor Chalfen Ventures, with Index Ventures, In This Together, and Ventures Together as well as prior backers Anthemis and Entrepreneurs First also opting in. Tech Funding News has more here.

PreScalar, a one-year-old San Francisco startup that develops modular factory testing systems that automate product testing, manage firmware updates, and track production data, raised a $7 million seed round co-led by Dynamo Ventures and BMW i Ventures, with Blue Wire Capital, Uplift Ventures, and Antler also stepping up. Tech Funding News has more here.

NAiSE, a nine-year-old Stuttgart startup that develops software that coordinates robots and manually operated vehicles from different manufacturers in warehouses and factories, raised an undisclosed amount from Körber. Tech.eu has more here.

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8VC, an Austin VC firm that backs technology companies across infrastructure, healthcare, life sciences, logistics, and defense, is raising $400 million for DSS III, a new investment vehicle whose specific strategy was not disclosed in the filing. More here.

Rivian has acquired Third Dimension, a two-year-old U.K. startup that uses AI to turn images and video into lifelike 3D worlds, to help train and test its driver-assistance systems and planned Uber robotaxis. Terms were not disclosed. TechCrunch has more here.

Visa is reportedly in talks to acquire Fireblocks for about $2.5 billion, roughly 69% below the digital asset infrastructure company’s $8 billion valuation in 2022. Fireblocks denied the report, saying the rumored deal is “not true at present time.” CTech has more here.

The Information reported that Datadog, the cloud monitoring and observability software company, approached Upwind, an Israeli cloud security startup, about an acquisition at close to Upwind’s $3.8 billion valuation. CTech, however, says it has learned that the nearly $4 billion offer was never made. CTech has more here.

Rezera, the Boston biotech formerly known as NodThera, is planning an IPO to fund a Phase 3 trial of its inflammation drug ruvonoflast in peripheral artery disease. However, the company had just $3.9 million in cash at the end of June. The company has raised approximately $200 million from investors including Epidarex Capital, Novo Holdings, Sofinnova Partners, 5AM Ventures, F-Prime Capital, Blue Owl Capital, Sanofi Ventures, and Cowen Healthcare Investments. Fierce Biotech has more here.

Elon Musk has invested roughly $1 billion in Skydance, joining other investors including Laurene Powell Jobs as the Ellison-controlled company seeks fresh capital while cutting costs and pursuing its Warner Bros. acquisition. Semafor has more here.

Mark Zuckerberg told Meta’s board he was prepared to leave California over Proposition 40, a proposed one-time 5% billionaire wealth tax, prompting the company to create non-voting shares he could sell to cover a potential $12.5 billion bill without reducing his 60.6% voting control. The New York Times has more here.

President Trump says he called Google CEO Sundar Pichai about renaming the Atlantic Ocean, but backed off after Pichai reportedly told him, “Please don’t ask us to do that.” Google has not confirmed the call. The Washington Post has more here.

Independent evaluators METR and Redwood Research found several vulnerabilities in OpenAI’s internal AI monitoring system during a three-week pilot, including an exploit that could let agents prevent hundreds of recent actions from being monitored; OpenAI says it has patched the flaws affecting its production safeguards. CNBC has more here.

VC firms are increasingly investing in the same AI startup rounds at dramatically different valuations, with three-month-old Emulate attracting capital at prices ranging from roughly $200 million to $3 billion despite having no product or website, a practice raising concerns about inflated valuations and transparency. Bloomberg has more here.

Microsoft says its MAI-DxO diagnostic system correctly solved 83% of complex medical cases in a simulation versus 36% for generalist physicians, though the comparison excluded specialists and physician teams; CEO Mustafa Suleyman calls the result a step toward “medical superintelligence.” TechCrunch has more here.

MIT researchers placed 13 versions of a Claude-powered AI agent on a sparse virtual island for 30 hours each with no assigned task and found that the agents spontaneously learned to play, inventing games, goals, rituals, and structures. Fast Company has more here.

The race to become the next James Bond is reportedly down to three to five actors, with Callum Turner and Slow Horses star Jack Lowden among those set to screen-test in London this weekend for director Denis Villeneuve’s planned 2028 installment.

You won’t see everything until you’ve seen The Rehearsal.

Physicists are taking the once-fringe idea of a multiverse more seriously as experiments show quantum effects persisting in larger objects and across greater distances, suggesting the strange rules of quantum mechanics may extend far beyond tiny particles.

Technics has unveiled the SL-1210MKX, a €1,499 flagship turntable for professional DJs that adds a heavier vibration-resistant chassis, new isolation feet, and a dedicated ±4% pitch range for finer beatmatching.

Porsche is offering a $1,500 half-day course that teaches drivers how to drift a 911 GT3 at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, AL, along with a $23,000 invitation-only three-day program for advanced drivers focused on car control, open lapping, and personalized coaching.

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