🧑‍🚀 Top 5 Deals You Can’t Miss

1️⃣ AT&T – $23B debt lifeline to EchoStar, rewriting the satellite operator’s future.

2️⃣ Polymarket – Strategic round from 1789 Capital (Trump Jr. advisory), pushing prediction markets toward $1B valuation.

3️⃣ Chipotle x Zipline – Strategic partnership to launch “Zipotle,” a drone-powered food delivery system, making Chipotle the first major fast-casual chain to embrace aerial logistics.

4️⃣ Blue Water Autonomy – $50M Series A led by GV, building long-range autonomous Navy ships.

5️⃣ New York Atlantics – Seed round at a $10M valuation led by tennis star Frances Tiafoe, marking the first time a top pro player has taken ownership in a Pro Padel League franchise.

🧠 Dopamine Dealflow

🌳 Series B+ & Growth

• Ortivity (Munich, Germany) – €200M strategic round led by Apheon & Unigestion, reshaping outpatient orthopedic care.

• Vertelo (India) – $405M growth round from Macquarie, Allianz Global Investors, Green Climate Fund & others; electrifying fleets.

• Iceye (Finland) – $93M growth round led by Highland Europe, True Ventures & OTB Ventures; expanding satellite imaging constellation.

• Attio (London, UK) – $52M Series B led by GV with Redpoint, Balderton, Point Nine & 01A to build the AI-native CRM stack.

• Assort Health (New York, NY) – $50M Series B led by Lightspeed, valued at $750M; automating patient comms for specialty care.

• Reframe Systems (Boston, MA) – $20M Series A led by Eclipse & VoLo Earth Ventures, building AI-driven housing solutions.

• Debut (San Diego, CA) – $20M strategic backed by L’Oréal’s BOLD, Fine Structure, Sandbox & EDBI; biotech beauty company.

• Hemi (Chicago, IL) – $15M growth round; undisclosed backers; programmability layer on Bitcoin.

🚀 Series A

• Blue Water Autonomy (Boston, MA) – $50M Series A; led by GV with Eclipse, Riot & Impatient; autonomous Navy ships.

• Barti Software (San Francisco, CA) – $12M Series A led by Five Elms Capital, modernizing EHR & practice management for eye care.

• Eyebot (New York, NY) – $20M Series A led by General Catalyst, bringing 90-second AI-powered vision test kiosks to retail.

• Enmovil (Hyderabad, India) – $6M Series A led by Sorin Investments with Capria & Twynam, expanding enterprise supply chain planning.

• instructions.Frontier (Palo Alto, CA) – $50M Series A led by Benchmark; building frontier AI models for enterprise.

• Hero Assistant (San Francisco, CA) – $12M Series A led by Sequoia Scout Fund; AI productivity assistant.

• Bright Harbor (New York, NY) – $10M Series A led by Thrive Capital; AI-driven maritime logistics platform.

• Loman AI (Austin, TX) – $3.5M Seed led by Next Coast with TenOneTen & Antler, building voice AI for restaurants.

🌱 Seed & Early Rounds

• New York Atlantics (New York, NY) – Seed round at $10M valuation led by Frances Tiafoe with Maarten Paes, Gary Vaynerchuk, Left Lane Capital & Litquidity; Pro Padel League franchise bringing pro tennis star power into padel

• Dirac (New York, NY) – $10.7M Seed from Founders Fund & Coatue; assembly automation software turning CAD/BOMs into step-by-step build

• Halo (Boston, MA) – $1M Seed led by Pillar VC; AI-powered smart glasses.

• Vox AI (Berlin, Germany) – $8.7M Seed led by Headline with True & Simon Capital, powering conversational AI for restaurant drive-thrus.

• Aurasell (San Francisco, CA) – $30M Seed from Next47, Menlo & Unusual to unify GTM systems with an AI-native CRM.

• Therna Biosciences (San Francisco, CA) – $10M Seed led by AIX, Pear VC & Fusion Fund, developing RNA medicines.

• Nauta (Miami, FL) – $7M Seed led by Construct Capital & Predictive with Simón Borrero (Rappi), building AI logistics orchestration.

• Bench IQ (Toronto, Canada) – $5.3M Seed; undisclosed; AI-powered judicial intelligence.

• Creem (Tallinn, Estonia) – $2.1M Pre-Seed; Practica Capital; fintech for AI startups.

• Interhuman AI (Copenhagen, Denmark) – €2M Pre-Seed led by PSV Tech, EIFO & Antler, building social intelligence for AI systems.

• Rhovica Neuroimaging (Lausanne, Switzerland) – €2.5M Seed led by M2care, Kickfund & angels, developing SoNav emergency neurosurgery navigation.

• Robomart (Los Angeles, CA) – $4M Seed from Hustle Fund, SOSV & Wasabi Ventures; building self-driving delivery robots reducing costs by up to 70%.

• Air AI (San Francisco, CA) – $6M Seed led by XYZ Ventures; conversational AI platform for businesses.

🤝 Strategic & Undisclosed

• Polymarket (New York, NY) – Strategic investment (undisclosed, reportedly at $1B valuation) from 1789 Capital (Trump Jr. advisory); scaling prediction markets.

• Splight (San Francisco, CA) – $12.4M SAFE led by Blue Bear Capital with ZOMA, unlocking grid capacity via ML-driven congestion management.

• Sleep.ai (Carlsbad, CA) – $5.5M venture round led by Treasure Coast Ventures, building AI-driven sleep solutions.

• OSW (Sydney, Australia) – $5.5M strategic from SparkEdge Capital, expanding solar distribution + GreenSketch platform globally.

• Source Certain (Perth, Australia) – Strategic investment from Greensphere’s Gaia Sciences Fund, scaling ML-powered supply chain transparency.

• AT&T (Dallas, TX) – Strategic investment (details TBD).

• Chipotle (Newport Beach, CA) – Strategic investment in AI-powered food robotics (details TBD).

📊 IPOs, Direct Listings, etc.

• Tekscend Photomask (Tokyo, Japan) – Seeking a $2B valuation in upcoming Japan IPO, focused on chip photomasks.

• Nissan (Yokohama, Japan) – Mercedes-Benz’ pension fund sold its entire stake for $325M.

• New York Times (New York, NY) – Activist hedge fund Fivespan disclosed a stake in the media company.

💸 VC Funds Raised & Raising

• Crescent Capital (Los Angeles, CA) – Planning to raise $3B continuation fund for debt from its $4.6B 2017 mezzanine vintage.

• GDEV Management (NYC, NY) – $200M commitments to second flagship fund; distributed energy resources.

Founders: Want to be featured on @tradedvc? → traded.co/submit/vc

📚 Read of the Day

⚖️ Elon Musk’s xAI Sues Apple and OpenAI Over Alleged Anticompetitive Collusion

Musk’s AI venture xAI filed a lawsuit against Apple and OpenAI, accusing them of colluding to block competition in the generative AI market. The suit, filed in California, claims Apple’s iOS integration of OpenAI’s ChatGPT amounts to an illegal lockout that prevents rival AI services from gaining traction.

The Strategy

Musk argues that Apple’s decision to make OpenAI its default partner for on-device AI gives OpenAI an unfair market advantage. The filing also highlights concerns over data usage, user choice, and AI safety, framing the move as an existential fight for open competition in the AI ecosystem.

The Backstory

Musk has had a contentious relationship with OpenAI, which he co-founded in 2015 but later left over disagreements about governance and strategy. His new company, xAI, has been rapidly scaling its Grok AI models, most recently open-sourcing Grok-2.5 to signal transparency. The lawsuit now sets the stage for another high-stakes battle between Musk and his former collaborators.

Why It Matters

If successful, this lawsuit could reshape how AI platforms are distributed across mobile ecosystems and set new legal precedents for AI partnerships. For founders and investors, it underscores the growing regulatory and competitive risks tied to Big Tech’s role in AI deployment.

👉 Read The Whole Story Here

📰 News You Don’t Want To Miss

⚖️ Elon Musk’s xAI Sues Apple and OpenAI Over Alleged Anticompetitive Collusion

🌮 Chipotle Partners With Zipline to Launch “Zipotle” Drone Delivery Service

🤖 Nvidia unveils Jetson Thor, a next-gen “robot brain” for AI robots, self-driving vehicles, and warehouses

🗳️ Meta to spend tens of millions on pro-AI Super PAC ahead of 2026 elections

🌐 Anthropic launches a Claude AI agent that lives inside Chrome

🍎 Apple debates acquiring Perplexity or Mistral AI amid looming Google Search shakeup

⚛️ IBM and AMD turn to quantum computing after falling behind in generative AI

💊 A pill to fight obesity is on the verge of FDA approval