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Ethos raises $22.75M from a16z for its expert network with voice onboarding; plus, Altara secures $7M to bridge the data gap that’s slowing down physical sciences May 07, 2026

Show notes

Ethos says it is onboarding 35,000 experts per week

Also, Altara’s AI aims to diagnose failures and help speed up R&D by unifying data siloed across spreadsheets and legacy systems.

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OpenAI’s cozy partner Cerebras is on track for a blockbuster IPO; plus, Katie Haun raises $1 billion for new venture funds May 06, 2026

Show notes

AI chip maker Cerebras is heading for a blockbuster IPO that could value it at $26.6 billion or more. It's relationship with OpenAI is deep and rich.

Also, Katie Haun announced on Monday that $1 billion has been raised across new funds to continue the firm’s thesis of backing crypto and blockchain startups.

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Musely secures $360M from General Catalyst without giving up equity; Meta buys robotics startup May 04, 2026

Show notes

The direct-to-consumer skin, hair, and and menopause care brand Musely will use the non-dilutive capital to super-charge customer acquisition.

Also, Meta bought humanoid startup Assured Robot Intelligence to beef up its AI models for robots, the company said.

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Legal AI startup Legora hits $5.6B valuation and its battle with Harvey just got hotter; also, Shapes brings humans and AI into the same group chats May 01, 2026

Show notes

The two wildly fast-growing rivals have raised massive sums, pushed into each other's home turf and now have dueling ad campaigns.

Plus, Shapes, an app where humans and AI characters chat together in shared group conversations, is emerging from stealth with $8 million in seed funding. Think Discord, but with AI characters alongside humans.

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Firestorm Labs raises $82M to take drone factories into the field; plus, BMW i Ventures has a new $300M fund Apr 30, 2026

Show notes

Ships and planes carrying parts to the front lines would be vulnerable to attack. Defense startup Firestorm Labs thinks the answer is a drone factory that fits inside a shipping container.

Also, BMW i Ventures has launched a new $300 million fund and will invest in early-stage through Series B startups in North America and Europe that are working on agentic AI and physical AI.

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BCI startup Neurable looks to license its ‘mind-reading’ tech for consumer wearables Apr 29, 2026

Show notes

The startup specializes in "non-invasive" "mind-reading" tech — a kind of neural data collection that, its CEO hopes, will have all sorts of consumer applications.

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Two college kids raise a $5.1 million pre-seed to build an AI social network in iMessage Apr 27, 2026

Show notes

Series, a social networking app that's grown popular on college campuses, announced a $5.1 million pre-seed round from some big names in tech.

Plus, Sierra, the AI customer service agent startup founded by technologist Bret Taylor, announced today that it has acquired the YC-backed French startup Fragment.

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Beehiiv rolls out new creator tools; Also, another customer of troubled startup Delve suffered a big security incident Apr 24, 2026

Show notes

Beehiiv is clearly done being just a newsletter platform based on today's launch of a new webinar feature, customizable paywalls, and more.

Plus, TechCrunch has confirmed that Delve was the compliance company that performed the security certifications for Context AI, the AI agent training startup that last week disclosed a security incident.

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Cathie Woods’ ARK makes its first lead investment in startup Lucra — and it isn’t AI; Esther and Anne Wojcicki join new healthcare accelerator Apr 23, 2026

Show notes

Lucra offers corporate loyalty programs reimagined as interactive eSports. But winning ARK as a lead wasn't easy.

Also, Mary Minno launches early-stage startup accelerator program, Treehub, and an early-stage firm, AI Health Fund, aimed at backing startups working at the intersection of healthcare and AI.

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SusHi Tech Tokyo isn’t a conference — it’s a deal room with 60,000 people; AI research lab NeoCognition lands $40M seed Apr 22, 2026

Show notes

When 60,000 attendees descend on Tokyo Big Sight April 27–29, the headline numbers are hard to ignore: 750 startup exhibitors, 151 sessions, city leaders from 49 countries. But the stat that tells you what kind of event this actually is? It's 10,000 facilitated business meetings — brokered, booked, and tracked before most attendees even land.

Here's the link to the article.

Also, founded by an OSU researcher, NeoCognition is developing AI agents that can become experts in any domain.

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