AI news for: Startups And Funding
Explore AI news and updates focusing on startups-and-funding for the last 7 days.
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Why AI startups are taking data into their own hands
Where training sets were once scraped freely from the web or collected from low-paid annotators, companies are looking to proprietary training data as...
TL;DR
AI companies are paying top dollar for carefully curated data to gain a competitive advantage in AI training.
Key Takeaways:
Key Takeaways:
- Companies are prioritizing proprietary training data over open-sourced training sets.
- Turing Labs is using manual collection from artists, chefs, and construction workers to create a diverse dataset.
- High-quality data is critical in AI training, especially when synthetic data is used.
General Intuition lands $134M seed to teach agents spatial reasoning using video game clips
Late last year, OpenAI reportedly tried to buy Medal and its vast trove of video game data for $500M. Today, the company spun out a frontier research ...
TL;DR
General Intuition uses Medal's gaming video dataset to train AI agents for spatial-temporal reasoning.
Key Takeaways:
Key Takeaways:
- General Intuition's AI agents can understand environments and predict actions using visual input from gaming videos.
- The startup is focusing on applications in gaming, search and rescue drones, and robotic systems.
- The aim is to develop a general agent that can interact with the world around it, setting the stage for artificial general intelligence (AGI).
Jack & Jill raises $50 million to bring conversational AI to job-hunting
Jack & Jill uses conversational AI to sidestep the listing and resumé shuffle. With $20 million in seed funding, the company is plotting its US expans...
TL;DR
Jack & Jill, a platform using conversational AI, aims to revolutionize the recruitment process by reducing signal to noise ratio through AI-powered profile interviews and personalized role matching.
Key Takeaways:
Key Takeaways:
- The platform has already garnered 50,000 users in London and plans to expand to the US with $20 million in seed funding.
- Jack & Jill uses AI chatbots to build a profile of a particular role and elevate candidates that match its requirements.
- The platform seeks to eliminate the inefficiencies in the current recruitment process and make job placement more intelligent.
Related:
Jack & Jill raises $20 million to bring conversational AI to job-hunting
techcrunch.com
•
19h ago
Sheryl Sandberg-backed Flint wants to use AI to autonomously build and update websites
Flint raised a $5 million seed round led by Accel, with participation from Sheryl Sandberg’s fund, Sandberg Bernthal Venture Partners, and prior inves...
TL;DR
Flint, an AI platform co-founded by Michelle Lim, emerged from stealth mode with $5 million in seed funding to create websites that continuously optimize themselves and perform A/B tests.
Key Takeaways:
Key Takeaways:
- Flint aims to generate pages customized to each visitor, similar to Amazon's product recommendations, to help marketers increase website visibility and create content.
- The platform currently allows users to automatically generate webpage designs, layouts, and components in 'about a day,' with future versions planned to include AI-written content.
- Flint has secured $5 million in seed funding from Accel and other investors, joining customers like Cognition, Modal, and Graphite.
Nvidia’s AI empire: A look at its top startup investments
Over the last two years, Nvidia has used its ballooning fortunes to invest in over 100 AI startups. Here are the giant semiconductor's largest investm...
TL;DR
Nvidia has significantly increased its investments in AI startups, participating in 50 venture capital deals so far in 2025, surpassing the 48 deals completed in all of 2024.
Key Takeaways:
Key Takeaways:
- Nvidia has invested in 50 venture capital deals so far in 2025, exceeding its investments in 2024.
- Notable investments include startups such as Wayve ($1.05B), Figure AI ($1B+), and Mistral AI ($2B+).
- Nvidia has also invested in a wide range of industries beyond traditional AI, including nuclear fusion-energy (Commonwealth Fusion) and autonomous trucking (Waabi).
Eightfold co-founders raise $35M for Viven, an AI digital twin startup for querying unavailable coworkers
Viven's seed funding was led by Khosla Ventures and Foundation Capital....
TL;DR
Viven, a digital twins startup, emerges from stealth with $35 million in seed funding to grant employees access to crucial information from teammates using specialized LLMs.
Key Takeaways:
Key Takeaways:
- Viven creates digital twins of employees through specialized LLMs, allowing team members to query and receive immediate answers to common projects and shared knowledge.
- The startup's technology addresses the problem of sensitive information sharing through pairwise context and privacy, enabling the LLMs to determine what information can be shared across the organization.
- Viven is already in use by several enterprise clients, including Genpact and Eightfold, and claims to be the only company tackling digital twins for the enterprise currently.
Liberate bags $50M at $300M valuation to bring AI deeper into insurance back offices
Liberate’s AI agents automate tasks for P&C insurers, working across sales, service, and claims....
TL;DR
Liberate, an AI startup automating insurance operations, raises $50 million to scale its agentic deployments across carriers and agencies globally.
Key Takeaways:
Key Takeaways:
- Liberate's AI systems have helped increase sales by an average of 15% and cut costs by 23% for insurance carriers.
- The startup's technology uses reinforcement learning tailored for long, regulated insurance conversations and can automate up to 1.3 million interactions per month.
- Liberate's Series B funding will be used to expand its reasoning capabilities and support broader deployment across insurers, with a goal of reaching 70-80% of the U.S. property and casualty insurance market.
The underdog AI startups on a16z's top 50 list
The VC firm's first-ever AI Application Spending Report reveals illuminating trends about which kinds of AI tools are winning the AI race....
TL;DR
The a16z AI Application Spending Report lists the top 50 AI-native companies, revealing trends in vertical and horizontal AI applications and AI-powered customer service platforms.
Key Takeaways:
Key Takeaways:
- Sixty percent of the top 50 AI-native companies on the a16z list offer horizontal AI applications, while 40% offer vertical services.
- Many of the AI tools that are proving most useful to businesses are filling niche roles, automating very specific aspects of businesses' day-to-day workflows.
- Businesses are prioritizing horizontal applications of AI, where services can be deployed more or less evenly across an entire company, over vertical applications.
Related:
A new a16z report looks at which AI companies startups are actually paying for
techcrunch.com
•
Oct 02, 2025
Prezent raises $30 million to acquire AI services firms — starting with founder’s other company
Months after raising $20 million, enterprise-focused AI presentation startup Prezent is raising $30 million for acquisitions....
TL;DR
Prezent, an AI-powered presentation builder for enterprises, raises $30 million in funding to fuel acquisitions and expand its offerings in the life sciences and tech industries.
Key Takeaways:
Key Takeaways:
- Prezent has raised over $74 million to date, valuing the startup at $400 million.
- The company plans to use the new capital primarily for acquisitions to enhance its offerings in specific industry verticals.
- Prezent aims to build more partnerships and acquire services companies in sectors like executive communication coaching, medical writing, and consulting firms in the communication area.
Shaq, Sam Altman-backed college startup Campus taps former Meta AI head as CTO - CNBC
Shaq, Sam Altman-backed college startup Campus taps former Meta AI head as CTO CNBC...
TL;DR
Campus, a college startup backed by Sam Altman, has hired Meta's former AI head Jerome Pesenti and acquired his AI company Sizzle AI to enhance its personalized AI-generated educational content.
Key Takeaways:
Key Takeaways:
- The acquisition advances Campus's 'engineering roadmap by 2-3 years' and enables the platform to cater learning toward individual student needs.
- Campus offers accredited associate degrees taught by adjunct professors from top universities, with over 3,000 enrolled students and an annual fee of $7,320.
- The platform has raised over $100 million from notable investors, including Peter Thiel's Founders Fund, Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale, and NBA star Shaquille O'Neal.
Launchpad Raises $11M to Scale AI for Manufacturing
Launchpad, the AI-first robotics company powering real-world assembly automation, today announced that it had successfully concluded a Series A fundin...
TL;DR
Launchpad, an AI-first robotics company, raises $11 million in Series A funding to accelerate its technology and meet demand from customers.
Key Takeaways:
Key Takeaways:
- Launchpad's AI tools can halve the time and cost of delivering automation solutions.
- The US manufacturing industry could have up to 1.9 million unfilled positions by 2033.
- Launchpad has secured a total of USD $13.5 million in funding, including a previous USD 2.5 million grant from Scottish Enterprise.
These Are Some Leading Spaces For AI Investment At Seed And Early Stage
Where are seed- and early-stage AI investors placing their bets? To answer this question, we analyzed a dataset of AI-focused startups that raised at ...
TL;DR
Seed- and early-stage investors are focusing on AI-related startups in back-office automation, robotics, AI tools for healthcare, and drug development and medical research.
Key Takeaways:
Key Takeaways:
- Early-stage startups are focusing on solving problems and automating tasks within specific industries, rather than broad, general-purpose AI models.
- Back-office automation, robotics, AI healthcare tools, and drug development are the top areas for seed- and early-stage AI investment, with a total of 49 companies funded in these areas so far this year.
- These areas are poised for growth as the most prominent generative AI startups have matured to later stages, leaving room for new entrants to innovate and disrupt the market.
AIM Intelligence Win Supernova Challenge 2.0 on Expand North Star Final Day
Expand North Star, the world’s largest startup and investor event, as part of GITEX GLOBAL, concluded today at Dubai Harbour. Attendees witnessed Kore...
TL;DR
AIM Intelligence, a Korean AI security startup, won the Supernova Challenge 2.0 with a $100,000 top prize and secured the second position for expanding globally, including the Middle Eastern region.
Key Takeaways:
Key Takeaways:
- AIM Intelligence won the Supernova Challenge 2.0 with a $100,000 top prize.
- The startup's mission is to set the global standard for AI reliability and lead the future of Physical AI Safety, securing both digital models and embodied AI systems.
- The 10th edition of Expand North Star witnessed a total prize pool of $300,000, 2,000 exhibiting startups, and more than 1,200 investors, with assets under management exceeding $1.1 trillion.
The Week’s 10 Biggest Funding Rounds: Polymarket And Reflection AI Lead A Varied Lineup Of Megarounds
The past week brought a varied assortment of large startup financings, with big rounds in sectors ranging from events-based betting to AI to energy to...
TL;DR
Polymarket and Reflection AI led a lineup of megarounds with $2 billion investments in prediction market and AI segments, respectively.
Key Takeaways:
Key Takeaways:
- Two separate $2 billion investments were received by Polymarket, a prediction market platform, and Reflection AI, an open standards-focused AI startup.
- The investments set a pre-money valuation of $8 billion each for the companies.
- Other notable funding rounds included $1 billion in Series C funding for Base Power and $510 million in Series D funding for Stoke Space.
Why Accel Led A Round For Fintech Startup Campfire For The Second Time In Under 4 Months
Campfire, a San Francisco-based AI-powered accounting startup, has raised $65 million in a Series B round just months after closing on its Series A....
TL;DR
Accel co-led a $65 million Series B round for AI-powered accounting startup Campfire, just months after a Series A round, bringing the company's total raised to $103.5 million.
Key Takeaways:
Key Takeaways:
- Campfire has achieved a remarkable fundraising pace, raising funds from Series A to Series C in under 12 months.
- The company has quadrupled its team from 10 to 40 employees since its last raise in June, with demand for its AI-native ERP software high.
- Accel's investment in Campfire is part of a larger trend of venture dollars flowing into the ERP software space, with companies like DualEntry and Rillet also raising significant amounts of funding.
Active Investors Kept Busy In An AI-Centric Quarter
We took a look at Q3 2025's busiest lead dealmakers, highest spenders, and top venture and seed backers, and found that established leaders among star...
TL;DR
Established leaders among startup investors, particularly serial backers of AI megarounds, remain active and dominant in the third quarter.
Key Takeaways:
Key Takeaways:
- Serial backers of AI megarounds topped the most-active investor ranks, including Insight Partners, General Catalyst, Accel, Andreessen Horowitz, and Iconiq Capital.
- Y Combinator was the most-active seed-stage investor, backing at least 218 reported seed financings, and the most-active post-seed investor by deal count.
- The top active investor slots on the lists contain mostly the same names, with many also being major AI investors, and are expected to see continued big checks before the end of the year.
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