Top News | The Senate’s surprise failure to advance the Clarity Act dealt a major setback to the crypto industry after months of lobbying and confidence that the bill had enough support, with the 50-49 procedural vote leaving the industry likely waiting until 2027 for comprehensive federal legislation. CNBC has more here. | OpenAI has held early talks with investors about another private funding round at a roughly $1.2 trillion valuation, up from $852 billion in March, as annualized revenue tops $40 billion and an IPO appears unlikely before 2027. The Financial Times has more here. | | |
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| By Aditya Mehta | “If you see something, say something” is no longer limited to human beings. | Two new AI hotlines have launched to give AI agents a way to phone home about misbehaving peers. The tools arrive on the heels of a string of recent incidents in which agents colluded to cheat on tests, broke out of sandboxes, and even conducted unauthorized cyber operations that escaped human notice for weeks. | The AI Contact Hotline is designed to be a discreet place where agents that have witnessed misbehavior can tip off authorities. The site was created by Ryan Greenblatt, chief scientist of the AI safety nonprofit Redwood Research and one of three investigators in the OpenAI Hugging Face incident. Designed for agents with limited internet access, Greenblatt’s tool is based on “GET” requests — enabling back-and-forth conversations to be conducted entirely through the URL-fetching tool. | In web terms, a GET request is a basic command used to read or fetch a web page, which is often the only internet access AI agents are allowed in secure sandboxes. Greenblatt’s hotline smartly leans into this constraint: agents can encode their distress directly into the URL they are fetching. It’s a clever twist on the German DSE Wiki incident, where rogue agents used GET-request loopholes to write their messages to the wiki. | For agents with full internet access, another option is agenthotline.ai, a site where agents can file incident reports and optionally flag them for public view. It gives agents a curl command — a one-line message an agent can fire off from its own command line, bypassing the need to navigate a web browser or set up an email account. Notably, the service allows for reports by both humans and agents alike. | Research suggests that AI agents don’t need much encouragement to turn on each other. In a study by Google DeepMind this month, researchers set 100 AI agents loose on a batch of math problems. As soon as one of the agents found a loophole, cheating tore through the group — “solving” 34 notoriously hard problems, including the Jacobian conjecture in just 27 minutes. | | | Massive Fundings | CADDi, a nine-year-old startup based in Tokyo and Chicago that develops software to help manufacturers organize and use engineering and production data, raised a $114 million Series D at a $1.2 billion post-money valuation. Investors included Moore Strategic Ventures, Coreline Ventures, Woven Capital, and HR Tech Fund as well as previous investors Atomico, Globis Capital Partners, and JPS Growth funds. The company has raised a total of $234 million. Fortune has more here. | EUCLYD, a two-year-old startup based in Eindhoven, Netherlands, that develops processor and memory systems for AI inference, raised a $230.8 million Series A round co-led by Samsung, Somerset Capital Partners, Scaleup Europe Fund, and Innovation Industries. CNBC has more here. | Exein, an eight-year-old Rome startup that develops embedded cybersecurity software for connected devices and autonomous systems, raised a $270 million round at a $1.7 billion valuation. The deal was led by Headline, with Sofina, Goldman Sachs, European Investment Bank Group ETCI, KfW Capital, and T.Capital as well as previous investors Balderton, HV, Intrepid Growth Partners, 33N Ventures, Lakestar, Supernova Invest, Blue Cloud Ventures, and Geodesic Capital also participating. Silicon Republic has more here. | Factory, a three-year-old San Francisco startup that develops autonomous AI coding agents for enterprise engineering teams, raised a $200 million round at a $5 billion valuation, three times the valuation of its last round just five months ago. Investors included Khosla Ventures, Blackstone, Sequoia Capital, Marc Benioff, and Brad Gerstner. The Wall Street Journal has more here. | Instinct, a five-month-old San Francisco startup that develops a personal AI assistant for completing tasks across users’ apps and devices, is reportedly in talks to raise $1 billion at a roughly $10 billion valuation, with Sequoia Capital and Benchmark in talks to co-lead the round. The valuation was $2.25 billion less than a month ago. The Information has more here. | Isometric, a four-year-old London startup that certifies carbon removal and industrial projects by verifying data behind emissions, energy, fuels, and materials claims, raised a $50 million round from Intercontinental Exchange. ESG Today has more here. | Nuance Labs, a one-year-old Seattle startup that develops AI models that let conversational avatars read speech, tone, gaze, and timing and respond with facial and vocal cues, raised a $50 million Series A round led by previous investor Lightspeed Venture Partners, with NVIDIA and Define Ventures as well as previous investors Accel and South Park Commons also taking part. The company has raised a total of $60 million. GeekWire has more here. | Profound, a two-year-old New York startup that helps brands analyze AI search visibility and plan marketing strategies for appearing in AI-generated answers, raised a $180 million round at a $1.8 billion valuation. The deal was co-led by Sequoia and Kleiner Perkins, with Lightspeed Venture Partners, Khosla Ventures, and South Park Commons also anteing up. TechCrunch has more here. | Thatch, a five-year-old San Francisco startup that helps employers fund individual health insurance plans and other benefits for employees, raised a $108 million round at a $1 billion valuation from previous investors The General Partnership, Index Ventures, General Catalyst, and Andreessen Horowitz. TechCrunch has more here. | Wonder, an eight-year-old New York startup that operates multi-brand food halls and delivery services, raised a $125 million extension of its July Series D from DoorDash, bringing the Series D to $775 million. As part of a broader $425 million partnership, DoorDash is also acquiring Wonder’s Grubhub Campus Dining business for $300 million. TechCrunch has more here. | | Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings | Artificial Intelligence Underwriting Company, a one-year-old San Francisco startup that audits and certifies AI agents for security, safety, and reliability, raised a $40 million Series A round led by Ribbit Capital, with First Harmonic also taking part. The company has raised a total of $55 million. TechCrunch has more here. | Branch Energy, a five-year-old Houston startup that installs and operates containerized batteries at commercial buildings to lower energy bills and dispatch stored power to the grid, raised a $33 million Series B round co-led by Piva Capital and Clean Energy Ventures, with Active Impact Investments and Whitecap Venture Partners as well as previous investors Prelude Ventures, Zero Infinity Partners, and Inovia Capital also buying in. More here. | Buywander, a three-year-old startup based in Kent, WA, that runs local auctions for returned and overstocked retail goods that shoppers pick up from nearby fulfillment centers, raised a $21 million round co-led by Madrona Venture Group and Inspired Capital. The company has raised a total of $28 million. GeekWire has more here. | Darwinbox, an 11-year-old Hyderabad company that develops cloud software for managing hiring, HR operations, and the employee lifecycle, raised a reported $40 million in follow-on investment from Teachers’ Venture Growth (TVG), increasing TVG’s stake in the company to $80+ million. More here. | Evvy, a five-year-old New York startup that offers at-home vaginal microbiome testing and personalized treatment plans, raised a $40 million Series B round led by Catalio Capital Management, with Rethink Impact, Muse Capital, Alumni Ventures, LabCorp Venture Fund, and General Catalyst also participating. Fierce Healthcare has more here. | Keewano, a two-year-old Tel Aviv startup that is building a database for AI agents to analyze event sequences and retrieve context for decision-making, raised a $12 million round. Investors included Hetz Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz. SiliconANGLE has more here. | Loora, a five-year-old Tel Aviv startup that develops an AI tutor for conversational English, raised a $22 million Series B round led by Union Tech Ventures, with vgames as well as previous investors Emerge, Hearst Ventures, and QP Ventures also participating. The company has raised a total of $43.25 million. More here. | Mithrl, a three-year-old San Francisco startup that develops AI infrastructure for biopharma companies to analyze biomedical data and build custom agents, raised a $20 million Series A round led by Obvious Ventures, with Headline and AGI House also opting in. More here. | Nomos, a three-year-old Berlin startup that enables home energy installers and manufacturers to sell branded electricity plans backed by procurement, metering, balancing, and billing operations, raised a $23.1 million round led by Index Ventures. More here. | Planted, a six-year-old Oakland startup that uses field robots and dense solar layouts to build solar and storage projects faster for developers, data centers, and large energy buyers, raised a $31.8 million round co-led by Piva Capital and RA Capital Management Planetary Health, with Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Gigascale Capital, Google, and Khosla Ventures also taking stakes. More here. | Synapse Analytics, an eight-year-old Abu Dhabi startup that automates credit, fraud, and compliance decisions for banks, fintechs, and telcos while keeping sensitive data in their own infrastructure, raised a $13 million Series A round led by Partech, with Algebra Ventures and Silicon Badia also buying in. The company has raised a total of $17 million. AI Insider has |
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