TECH IN THE NEWS

Trump's Day One Agenda — Trump plans to take 100+ executive actions on his first day on office, covering areas such as energy, border security, and regulations.

Google Login Risk — Security flaw in Google sign-in could expose ex-employee data at failed startups when domains are bought by hackers.

TikTok Ban Update — The Supreme Court upheld the TikTok ban, but Trump has vowed it will return, saying TikTokers 'deserve to see' his inauguration.

FTC Eyes Big Tech AI — A FTC report raised antitrust concerns over Microsoft's $13B OpenAI investment and Amazon/Google partnerships with Anthropic.

AI News Stumble — Apple has disabled its AI news summary feature after the system generated false headlines about non-existent arrests and deaths.

DEALS WE’RE WATCHING
Closed Deals:

MASSIVE DEALS

Colossal Biosciences — The Dallas-based de-extinction startup raised a $200M Series C at a massive ‘decacorn’ $10.2B valuation, led by TWG Global.

Synthesia — The UK-based AI video generation platform secured a $180M Series D, at a $2.1B valuation led by NEA with WiL, Atlassian, PSP and existing investors.

Loft Orbital — The San Francisco-based space infrastructure company raised a $170M Series C led by Tikehau Capital, bringing its total funding to $300M+.

Instabase — This SF-based unstructured data processing platform raised a $100M Series D led by QIA, with Greylock, NEA, a16z, and Index participating.

Umoja Biopharma — A Seattle biotech developing in vivo CAR T-cell therapy raised a $100M Series C, in an oversubscribed round co-led by Double Point and DCVC Bio.

Harbinger — An LA-based EV truck platform maker startup raised a $100M Series B co-led by Capricorn and Leitmotif, with Tiger Global and Maniv participating.

LARGE DEALS

Netradyne — The San Diego-based vehicle monitoring tech company raised $90M at $1.35B valuation, led by Point72, with Qualcomm Ventures and Pavilion Capital.

Amogy — The Brooklyn-based clean energy startup raised $56M, co-led by Aramco and SV Investment to boost its Ammonia-to-Power Solutions.

Solera Health — The Phoenix-based health program platform raised a $40M Series E, led by Health Care Service with Adams St, Cobalt, & Horizon Mutual.

Float Financial — The Toronto-based expense management startup aiming to be Canada’s Brex raised a $48.6M Series B, led by Goldman Sachs Alternatives.

Overland AI — The Seattle-based autonomous off-road driving startup raised a $32M Series A, led by 8VC.

SEEQC — The NY-based digital quantum computing startup raised $30M, co-led by NordicNinja and Booz Allen Ventures.

Clear Labs — The San Carlos-based genomic testing company raised a $30M Series D from multiple investors including Counterpoint Global.

Vividly — The SF-based trade promotion software startup raised a $30M Series B, led by Centana Growth Partners.

Labviva — The Boston-based lab supply marketplace raised a $25M Series B, led by 53 Stations.

SMALLER DEALS

Raspberry AI — The NY-based AI-powered fashion design platform raised $24M, led by Andreessen Horowitz.

1Money — The New York stablecoin payments network startup raised $20M from 25+ investors including F-Prime Capital, Galaxy Ventures and Hack VC.

Sydecar — The NY-based SPV automation platform raised an $11M Series A, led by Deciens Capital.

Sarla Aviation — The Indian electric air taxi startup raised $10M led by Accel, with Flipkart, Zerodha and Swiggy founders participating.

Hamming AI — The AI startup raised a $3.8M seed to enhance AI voice agent reliability with automated testing and monitoring tools.

Rainbow — The SF-based small business insurance startup raised an $8M Series A led by Zigg Capital, bringing its total to $20M.

First Ascent Biomedical — The Miami-based personalized cancer treatment startup raised $6M led by Vidal Duart with Techstars.

Tapestry — The NY-based Solana social graph protocol raised a $5.75M Series A at a $35M valuation, co-led by USV and Fabric Ventures.

Epistemic AI — The Boston-based biomedical LLM startup raised a $4M seed from strategic investor ClearView Healthcare Partners.

Companies to Watch:

Shield AI — The Silicon Valley Military drone/AI company is seeking $200M at $5B valuation, with participation from Palantir, Airbus, L3 Harris, a16z, Point72, and Riot.

Replit — Despite halving headcount and relocating from SF, company's new AI "Agent" product helped drive 5x revenue growth according to CEO Amjad Masad.

Anduril — The defense startup doubled revenue to $1B, plans $100M tender offer for employee shares, and announced new weapons factory, Arsenal-1 in Ohio.

Ndea — Ex-Google researcher and Keras creator François Chollet & Zapier founder launch a new AGI Research lab using deep learning & program synthesis.

DEALS WE’RE WATCHING
The Funding Buzz 

Powerset — The Silicon Valley-based decentralized VC fund is giving $1M checks to founders to invest in other startups, pioneering an interesting model.

Trucks VC — The San Francisco firm launched a $70M third fund for transportation startups, it plans for 30+ seed investments of $500K-$2M.

Microsoft — The tech giant plans on making a $3B investment to expand AI and cloud services in India.

South Park Commons — The SF-based ‘anti-incubator’ tech community founded by early FB and Dropbox engineers is raising a $40M fund to back Indian startups.

Defiant — The new London/Lisbon-based data-driven VC firm emerged from stealth with $30M to invest in B2B SaaS and fintech startups.

Exit Watch:

Read.cv — AI search engine Perplexity has acquired the four-year-old LinkedIn competitor. Terms were not disclosed. 

Infinidat — The enterprise storage startup has been acquired by Lenovo for an undisclosed sum after raising $350M from TPG and Goldman Sachs.

Blaize — The AI chip startup went public via a $1.2B SPAC merger with BurTech, gaining access to $152M in funding; it had raised $300M from Samsung & others.

Helio — The crypto payment platform MoonPay, acquired this blockchain payment processor for $175M, gaining integrations with Shopify and Discord.

Alterya — Chainalysis acquired the AI-driven fraud detection startup for $150M, marking a big win for investors who entered its $9.8M seed round.

Venture Global — The second-largest U.S. LNG producer is seeking a $110B valuation in its IPO, aiming to raise $2.3B. With 5 US LNG projects and strong Trump policy tailwinds, the company looks well placed.