The Pentagon Eases Its Restrictions on Anthropic

Ring founder Jamie Siminoff is our guest on the latest StrictlyVC Download, and he’s a thoughtful interview, especially on the question of how a company that has put cameras on millions of front doors thinks about the privacy of the people behind them. Still, there are trade-offs. Including one Siminoff didn't mention — Ring offers full end-to-end encryption of your footage, but opting in means opting out of nearly everything else the product does. More on that, and the full conversation, here.

Top News

The Pentagon may allow limited continued use of Anthropic’s AI tools beyond a planned six-month phase-out if deemed critical to national security, according to an internal memo. Reuters has more here.

The Justice Department is investigating whether Iran used Binance to move more than $1 billion through the exchange to networks backing terror groups. The probe follows Binance’s decision to dismantle an internal investigation that had uncovered the transactions. The Wall Street Journal has more here.

Lovable Says It Added $100M in Revenue Last Month Alone, With Just 146 Employees

Image Credits: Bruno de Carvalho / SOPA Images / LightRocket / Getty Images

By Anna Heim

Lovable crossed $400 million in annual recurring revenue in February, the Stockholm company confirmed to TechCrunch. But it declined to say whether it is still projecting to reach $1 billion ARR by year’s end, saying its focus is on “helping builders scale their impact with our platform.”

Alongside Cursor, Mercor, and others, Lovable is part of a wave of tools that make it easier to create websites and apps using natural language, a practice known as vibe coding. This initially resonated with individuals and startups, but the three-year-old company has been pushing hard to secure enterprise clients, which already include Klarna, HubSpot, and others.

Lovable’s debut brand campaign, “Earworm,” which began running this week across social platforms, YouTube, and connected TV, still speaks to mainstream users. The film follows a woman who can’t rid herself of a song — performed by Swedish band Boko Yout — until she finally opens Lovable and builds it into a working app. The creative team behind the campaign built the band app that’s featured in the film using Lovable itself as a functional, live product, in fact. “The purpose of this brand campaign is to inspire the next generation of builders — non-technical people with great ideas that deserve to come to life,” a spokesperson told TechCrunch.

That overarching message is one of the factors that have helped Lovable attract some 8 million users and become a unicorn in less than a year after its launch. But the prospect that it could also secure enterprise dollars likely played a key role in boosting its valuation to $6.6 billion.

More than half of Fortune 500 companies are using Lovable to “supercharge creativity,” co-founder and CEO Anton Osika declared at Web Summit last November. The company has added a range of dedicated features — often security-related — to convince businesses to use it for more than prototyping and keep them from canceling over time.

Massive Fundings

Alan, a 10-year-old Paris company that operates a health insurance platform with an app that lets users manage reimbursements, access doctors, and track health habits, raised a $115.8 million round at a $5.8 billion post-money valuation. Previous investor Index Ventures was the deal lead, with Greenoaks, Kaaf, and SH as well as prior backer Belfius also participating. TechCrunch has more here.

Axiamatic, a five-year-old startup based in Saratoga, CA, whose software helps companies manage large digital transformation projects, such as replacing legacy IT systems or rolling out new enterprise software across an organization, raised a $54 million round co-led by Greylock Partners and Bessemer Venture Partners. Fortune has more here.

Chowbus, a 10-year-old Chicago company that builds POS systems, integrated marketing tools, and AI-driven software that help independent restaurants manage operations and grow their businesses, raised an $81 million Series E round co-led by Prysm Capital and Left Lane Capital, with Dutchess and Fika also contributing. More here.

Factorial, a 10-year-old Barcelona company that helps businesses manage employee leave, payroll, recruitment, and training through a single HR software platform, is reportedly raising a $200 million round at a $2 billion valuation, according to Bloomberg. Tech Funding News has more here.

Kai, a one-year-old startup based in San Jose, CA, that uses AI to perform cybersecurity tasks across IT and operational technology environments, including threat detection, risk profiling, and vulnerability management, raised a $125 million round. Investors included Evolution Equity Partners and N47. SecurityWeek has more here.

Mind Robotics, a one-year-old Palo Alto startup that builds AI-powered factory robots for manufacturing tasks, raised a $500 million round at a $2 billion post-money valuation. The deal was co-led by Accel and Andreessen Horowitz. The Wall Street Journal has more here.

Nebius Group, a company based in Amsterdam that builds and operates artificial intelligence data centers, secured a $2 billion investment from Nvidia as part of a strategic partnership to develop and deploy AI infrastructure. Bloomberg has more here.

Quince, an eight-year-old San Francisco startup that sells factory-direct luxury goods across apparel, accessories, home, and beauty, raised a $500 million Series E round at a [checks notes] $10.1 billion post-money valuation. The deal was led by Iconiq, with additional support from Baillie Gifford, Basis Set Ventures, DST Global, Marcy Venture Partners, Notable Capital, Wellington Management, and WndrCo. TechCrunch has more here.

Replit, a 10-year-old San Francisco company that offers an online platform for building and deploying software using AI-assisted coding tools, raised a $400 million Series D round at a $9 billion valuation. The deal was led by Georgian Partners, with G Squared, Prysm Capital, Coatue, Andreessen Horowitz, Craft Ventures, Y Combinator, Accenture Ventures, Okta Ventures, Databricks Ventures, Shaquille O’Neal, and Jared Leto also participating. In September, the company raised $250 million at a $3 billion post-money valuation. TechCrunch has more here.

Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings

Gestala, a one-year-old Chinese startup that develops non-invasive ultrasound brain–computer interface systems, raised a $21.6 million round co-led by Guosheng Capital and Dalton Venture, with Tsing Song Capital, Gobi Ventures, Fourier Intelligence, Liepin, and Seas Capital also participating. TechCrunch has more here.

Rebar, a two-year-old New York startup that automates the review of construction documents such as blueprints and specification books to generate project estimates and quotes for HVAC contractors and distributors, raised a $14 million Series A round led by Prudence and including Zero Infinity Partners, Founder Collective, Villain Capital, and Optimist Ventures. Crunchbase News has more here.

Scanner, a four-year-old San Francisco startup that connects AI agents to organizations’ security data lakes to enable interactive threat hunting, detection engineering, and autonomous security response workflows, raised a $22 million Series A round. Sequoia Capital led the transaction, with CRV and Mantis VC also chipping in. SecurityWeek has more here.

Standard Kernel, a one-year-old startup based in Mountain View, CA, that uses AI to generate highly optimized GPU kernels that improve the performance of AI workloads without requiring changes to models or hardware, raised a $20 million seed round led by Jump Capital, with General Catalyst, Felicis, Cowboy Ventures, Link Ventures, Essence VC, CoreWeave, and Ericsson Ventures also engaging. VentureBurn has more here.

Swarm Aero, a four-year-old company based in Oxnard, CA that manufactures large uncrewed aerial vehicles and software that enables coordinated drone swarms, raised a $35 million Series A round co-led by Two Sigma Ventures and Silent Ventures, with Khosla Ventures, Scribble Ventures, Friends & Family Capital, Construct Capital, Coatue, Founders Fund, Alumni Ventures, and MaC Venture Capital also participating. The company has raised a total of $59 million. More here.

Translucent, a two-year-old New York startup whose AI platform aims to consolidate operational, clinical, and financial data to give healthcare organizations real-time visibility into financial performance and risks, raised a $27 million Series A round led by GV, with NEA, Virtue, and FPV Ventures also digging in. More here.

Unreasonable Labs, a one-year-old startup with offices in Palo Alto and Cambridge, MA, that uses AI to analyze and connect scientific knowledge across disciplines to generate and test new research hypotheses, raised a $13.5 million round led by Playground Global, with AIX Ventures, E14 Fund, and MS&AD Ventures also taking stakes. More here.

Smaller Fundings

Captur, a six-year-old New York and London startup that provides AI software that verifies user-submitted photos for quality and accuracy directly on mobile devices in real-time, raised a $6 million seed round led by Rally Ventures, with Sure Valley Ventures also taking part. More here.