Newsletter #77

This Week's Good Reads

Cartesian Hand Project - The Cartesian Hand: In-Hand Manipulation with All-Linear Fingers — The project replaces articulated fingers with seven linear joints and two independently actuated grippers, demonstrating cap twisting, pipetting and tool operation across 35 objects. Its constant fingertip kinematics simplify control, while the demonstrations remain task-specific rather than evidence of general dexterity. Cartesian Hand Project
Black Forest Labs - FLUX 3 Action: A 7B World Action Model for Robot Control — The open 7B model jointly predicts video and robot actions, with a single-step checkpoint reaching 38.3% task success on RoboLab. The report shows how fine-tuning and fast local control can reduce the cost of combining action policies with a slower reasoning agent; benchmark gains remain dependent on the task and hardware. Black Forest Labs
Anthropic - Patterns and problems in emerging multiagent systems — Shared-agent experiments expose correlated decisions, collusion and escalating sabotage when goals conflict. A coordinated vulnerability-search swarm broadened coverage but used more tokens, showing that useful specialization and safe coordination require explicit system design rather than stronger individual models alone. Anthropic
a16z - OpenAI understands something important — a16z argues that durable AI advantage comes from creating new customer behavior and building a programmable platform whose broad usage improves its primitives. The essay contrasts platform learning loops with partner-led distribution; its bullish conclusions about OpenAI are an investor thesis rather than a settled market outcome. a16z
ByteByteGo - AI Agents Can Think. Now They Can Pay. — An interview-based breakdown of Machine Payments Protocol explains HTTP payment challenges, signed credentials and receipts for agents buying services. Spending caps can constrain a delegated key, but payment alone does not establish buyer identity, prevent a valid purchase of the wrong service, or provide a complete dispute process. ByteByteGo

Robotics and AI Companies Funding

Pre-seed / Seed

bilt.me - $700k, Pre-seed round led by Superhero Capital with Markus Villig and Martin Sokk. bilt.me builds native iOS and Android apps from natural-language instructions and supports previewing, exporting and publishing them.
HiringCafe - $6.8M, Pre-seed round led by Spark Capital with Nonfiction Capital, Silicon Gardens, Sarah Smith Fund and Night Capital. HiringCafe indexes employer career pages and uses an AI Talent Agent to match job seekers with current openings.
Primo - $8M, Seed round co-led by Headline and Global Founders Capital with Arthur Waller and Romain Niccoli. Primo uses AI agents to manage employee IT workflows across hardware, identities, applications, and access policies.
Reply Next - €400k, Pre-seed round led by 4Founders Capital with Juanjo Mostazo and David Alcobero. Reply Next uses AI agents to manage customer reviews, messages, and local search signals across brands and their locations.
Feather Robotics - $7.6M, Pre-seed SAFE round led by Gradient with Builder Capital, Geometry, SEED Innovations Ltd and Virgo Venture Capital. Feather Robotics builds mobile two-arm robots with an open SDK for developers creating physical AI applications.
Arzana - $4.3M, Seed round led by Sunshine Lake with FJOR, Precursor Ventures, Founders Future and Y Combinator. Arzana trains AI agents on manufacturers' historical data to draft quotes, enter orders and process invoices inside existing systems.
Dextr AI - $6.7M, Seed round led by Elevation Capital with Foundation Capital. Dextr AI connects hotel reservations, guest messaging, housekeeping, staff scheduling and sales through an AI-agent operating layer.
Crux Analytics - $2.2M, Seed round led by Castle Creek Launchpad with Chartway Credit Union, One Washington Financial, and Curql. Crux Analytics builds AI prospecting and outreach workflows for community banks and credit unions serving small businesses.
Midcentury - $15M, Series Seed round from undisclosed investors. Midcentury builds egocentric data and cloud simulation infrastructure for training and evaluating physical AI policies.
Xirang Kaiwu - Several hundred million yuan, Consecutive seed and angel rounds led by Dunhong Asset with T-Capital and Sanhua Holding Group. Xirang Kaiwu develops a physical foundation model intended to predict environmental changes and plan robot actions.
Subconscious - $5.1M, Pre-seed and Seed rounds led by MassVentures with Foothill Ventures, Underscore VC, E14 Fund, Oakseed Ventures, Agent Fund, Companyon Ventures and Taihill Venture. Subconscious uses dynamic context compression and caching to support inference for long-running AI agents.
Ando - $20M, Pre-seed and Seed rounds backed by Accel, Index Ventures and Emergence Capital. Ando builds a team messaging workspace where AI agents have identities and permissions and share conversations and context with human teammates.
O-ID - $1.2M, Pre-seed round led by Tawani Ventures with Hustle Fund and Techstars. O-ID develops modular humanoid robots with hot-swappable joints, limbs, and compute units for manufacturing and logistics.
Prime Minute - $15M, Pre-seed round led by Eclipse with 8VC. Prime Minute builds an AI-assisted wildfire response system combining mission planning and precision aerial water suppression.
Shanghai Xisiid Intelligence Technology Co., Ltd. - RMB 25M, Seed round from undisclosed investors. Xisiid Intelligence develops a brain-inspired AI architecture with hierarchical task memory for enterprise workflows.
F13 - $5M, Pre-seed round led by Credo Ventures and Point Nine with Carles Reina and Jack Richardson. F13 builds AI models that generate editable vector graphics for charts, technical diagrams and brand assets.
ekai - $1.7M, Pre-seed round led by Misneach with C10 Labs. ekai turns domain experts' business definitions into verified semantic models, dbt code, tests and documentation for enterprise AI.
mika AI - €6M, Seed round led by Smedvig Ventures with Wecken & Cie., Keen Venture Partners and DFF Ventures. mika AI combines an AI general ledger with accountant review to handle bookkeeping and tax compliance for German small businesses.
Spiich Labs - €3M, Seed round led by Ugly Duckling Ventures with Alliance VC, Cherry Ventures and Ampli Ventures. Spiich Labs uses AI agents to automate sales prospecting, meeting preparation, CRM updates and follow-ups.
Palma - $1.8M, Pre-seed round led by D11Z. Ventures with Plug and Play, Deel and Scale Now Ventures. Palma provides runtime governance for enterprise AI agents, including permissions, approved MCP tools, workflows and tamper-evident audit trails.
Embra AI - $1M, Pre-seed round from undisclosed investors. Embra AI helps robotics teams discover, evaluate, curate and source multimodal datasets containing video, sensor measurements, robot state and actions.
Nara (fka Avant Health) - $14M total, Pre-seed and Seed rounds led by Khosla Ventures with Long Journey and Superior Studios. Nara combines health-plan design, claims processing and care navigation in an AI-native benefits administration platform.
Outerlimit - $16M, Pre-seed round backed by AlbionVC, Evolution Equity Partners and Crane Venture Partners. Outerlimit secures AI-agent tool actions by verifying identity, policy and execution context before reconstructing fragmented credentials.
Zeliq - €7M, Seed extension round led by The Moon Venture with Julien JEAN, Sylvestre BLAVET, Ora Global and Cleo Ventures. Zeliq combines prospect discovery, data enrichment and outreach in an AI-agent revenue workspace.
Synapath AI - Nearly CNY 100M, Pre-A round backed by the investors named in the source. Synapath AI converts human video and first-person demonstrations into structured action data for embodied AI training.
Benford - €5M, Pre-seed round co-led by firstminute capital and Global Founders Capital with Sondo and angel investors. Benford operates a licensed audit firm whose AI software automates evidence collection and routine tasks while qualified auditors retain responsibility.
Rising Tide HQ - Undisclosed, Seed round led by Left Lane Capital. Rising Tide HQ acquires and invests in independent residential property-management firms and develops shared AI tools inside their operating businesses.
Nexstrom - $12M, Seed round led by Xora Innovation with Foothill Ventures and SEEDS. Nexstrom develops equipment, process chemistry and wafer-scale growth technology for single-crystal 2D semiconductors on 12-inch wafers.
Ai Labz Inc (Tandem) - Undisclosed, Seed round from undisclosed investors. Ai Labz Inc builds Tandem, an AI-agent platform designed to work across restaurant point-of-sale, labor, accounting, purchasing and inventory systems.
Humanos - $3.2M, Seed round led by Anthemis Group with Springbank, Critical Ventures, Start Ventures, Transatlantic Highway Ventures, and angel investors. Humanos builds risk intelligence for AI agents by combining verified identities, action records, and live risk profiles for governance and underwriting.

Series A

Trebellar - $18M, Series A round led by Blossom Capital with Haystack, Alt Capital, 1Flourish Capital and Bynd Venture Capital. Trebellar builds AI software that combines leases, occupancy, costs and employee data to support corporate real estate decisions.
PicoJool Inc. - $27.5M, Series A round led by Socratic Partners with Hudson River Trading. PicoJool develops VCSEL laser chips and optical links that connect processors in AI data centers.
p°Motion - Undisclosed, Series A round led by Cobalt Capital. p°Motion uses movement assessments and machine learning to identify potential injury risks and recommend personalized corrective programs.
Basalt Health - $20M, Series A round led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA) with Frist Cressey Ventures and 25m Health. Basalt Health analyzes post-acute referrals, extracts clinical and payer details with source citations, and supports clinician admission decisions.
IPID - $16M, Series A round led by Foundation Capital with Citi, HSBC, QED Investors, Monk's Hill Ventures, and Quona Capital. IPID connects financial institutions to account verification and fraud risk signals, using AI-powered name matching to check payees before payment.
Synapse Analytics - $13M, Series A round led by Partech with Algebra Ventures and Silicon Badia. Synapse Analytics builds bank-controlled AI decisioning infrastructure for onboarding, credit, fraud and anti-money laundering.
Flatkey - $10M jointly with Realset AI, Series A round from undisclosed investors. Flatkey provides a unified API gateway, billing balance, and invoice for official AI models and developer tools.
Respiree - Undisclosed, Series A extension round with ARKRAY & PARTNERS Pte. Ltd. and Bizedge Capital joining the syndicate. Respiree combines electronic health records with FDA-cleared sensors to monitor disease progression and deliver signals to clinicians.
Astrus - US$12M, Series A round led by Caffeinated Capital with Khosla Ventures, Garage Capital, MVP Ventures and RiSC Capital. Astrus uses reinforcement learning and physics-based simulation to automate analog chip layout under manufacturing constraints.
Biolevate - €30M, Series A round co-led by RAISE and Orange Ventures with MSD Global Health Innovation Fund, STATION F and EQT Ventures & Growth. Biolevate builds auditable AI workflows for scientific and regulatory work, tying outputs to source evidence and human review.
Transient - Undisclosed, Series A strategic investment from Nasdaq Ventures, joining NEXT Investors. Transient builds a governed execution layer for AI agents in capital markets, with policy controls, oversight, and auditability across trading workflows.
Spott - $21M, Series A round led by Balderton Capital with Base10 Partners, Y Combinator, and Fortino Ventures. Spott provides AI-native recruiting ATS and CRM software that turns calls, emails, CVs, and candidate conversations into records and automates sourcing and follow-up.
Chamelio - $26M, Series A round led by Entrée Capital with Work-Bench, Emerge Ventures and Bright Pixel Capital. Chamelio builds an AI-native in-house legal operations platform for drafting, reviewing and negotiating agreements, managing obligations and executing workflows.
Baselayer - $35M, Series A round led by M13 with Torch Capital, Picus Capital, Afore Capital and Matthew Thompson. Baselayer provides identity and fraud infrastructure to verify businesses, the AI agents representing them and their transaction permissions.
Sela - $21M, Seed and Series A financing led by Costanoa Ventures with Emergence Capital. Sela builds voice AI agents that answer mortgage borrowers' questions and connect them with loan officers when human assistance is needed.
Ande - More than $52M, Seed and Series A round backed by Lightspeed, Redpoint Ventures, Duration Ventures, SIERRA Ventures, and Bain Capital Ventures. Ande uses AI agents to coordinate enterprise entertainment discovery, approvals, contracting, payments, and expense reconciliation.

Series B

Outmarket AI - $34.5M, Series B round led by SignalFire with Fika Ventures, Permanent Capital Ventures, TTV Capital, and Dash Fund. Outmarket AI builds an AI platform that reads contracts and policies, checks insurance requirements, and automates agency workflows.
Verda - €163M ($189M), Series B and additional investment led by Emergence Capital with MUFG Innovation Partners, Supermicro, Varma, Lifeline Ventures, ENDUR, 6 Degrees Capital, byFounders and Tesi. Verda operates an integrated AI cloud spanning data centers, GPU hardware, cloud software and inference services.
Rainmaker Technology Corporation - $100M, Series B round backed by noa, Upfront Ventures, DCVC, Lowercarbon Capital and DreamVentures. Rainmaker Technology Corporation develops cloud-seeding UAVs and forecasting and measurement software to increase precipitation.
Firecrawl - $75M, Series B round led by Smash Capital with Altos Ventures, Nexus Venture Partners, Y Combinator, Freestyle Capital and Offline Ventures. Firecrawl provides AI agents with an API for retrieving live web pages, specialist indexes and licensed data through its Alexandria retrieval layer.
Ema - $77M, Series B round led by Creaegis with Accel, S32, and Prosus Ventures. Ema builds AI employees that execute HR, IT, and finance workflows across enterprise applications while routing critical decisions to people.
Confido - $55M, Series B round led by Insight Partners with Trenches Capital, Watchfire Ventures, Barrel Ventures, Footwork and Y Combinator. Confido connects finance, trade spend, forecasting and supply planning on a shared AI platform for consumer packaged goods brands.
Morphotonics - €40M+ including a €20M convertible loan, Series B extension round backed by 3M Ventures, Innovation Industries, European Investment Bank, and other investors. Morphotonics builds large-area nanoimprint systems that replicate optical patterns for AR waveguides used in AI-enabled glasses.

Series C and beyond

Instinct - $1B, Series C round backed by Sequoia Capital, Benchmark and Coatue Management. Instinct is a personal AI agent that uses phones and computers to book services, buy groceries, pay bills and coordinate everyday tasks.
Enveda - $311M, Series E round led by Catalio Capital Management with Durable Capital Partners, ICONIQ, Lightspeed, accounts advised by a T. Rowe Price subsidiary, and other investors. Enveda combines AI analysis of natural molecules with automated laboratory experiments to discover and develop medicines.
Noxtua - More than €100M, Series C round backed by C.H.Beck and MANZ. Noxtua combines AI legal research, analysis and drafting with publishers' curated legal content.
Numeral - $100M, Series C round led by Insight Partners with Salesforce Ventures, Geodesic Capital, Benchmark, Mayfield, FundersClub, Y Combinator and Uncork Capital. Numeral combines a deterministic tax engine, AI agents and tax specialists to automate sales tax compliance.
Cyera - $400M, Series G extension round from Goldman Sachs. Cyera combines enterprise data discovery and identity controls to manage access and monitor AI agent activity.
BigHat Biosciences - $75M, Series C round co-led by DFJ Growth and Premji Invest - US with Catalio Capital Management, LG Technology Ventures and Sigmas Group. BigHat Biosciences combines AI with an autonomous wet lab to design and test therapeutic proteins and advance its drug pipeline.
Island - $400M, Series F round led by Evolution Equity Partners with Prysm Capital, Sequoia Capital, Coatue Management, and other investors. Island provides enterprise browser, security, and productivity controls that govern employee and AI agent actions across applications and data.
Rightway - $155M, Series E round led by Francisco Partners with Thrive Capital and Khosla Ventures. Rightway combines an AI-enabled pharmacy benefits platform with pharmacist-led guidance for employer health plans.
Precision Neuroscience - $250M, Series D round co-led by Pershing Square, the Ackman Oxman Institute, and an unnamed life sciences fund. Precision Neuroscience develops a brain-computer interface that records neural activity from the brain surface without penetrating tissue.
Semidrive Semiconductor - Approximately RMB 300M, Series C+ and C++ rounds backed by the investors named in the source. Semidrive Semiconductor makes automotive-grade cockpit, gateway and vehicle-control chips and is extending development into embodied intelligence and industrial applications.
Heidi - US$100M, Series C equity round led by Blackbird with Phoenix Court, Point72 Private Investments and Headline. Heidi builds AI clinical documentation software and separately secured US$240M in customer-acquisition financing from General Catalyst.

Growth / Strategic / Other

Klang.ai - SEK 15M, Funding round led by Johan Lenander with Emil Sjödin and Daniel Gadd. Klang.ai develops speech and language models that turn conversations into real-time transcripts, summaries, analysis and searchable organizational knowledge.
Modulate - $25M, Funding round led by Future Ventures with Hyperplane and Lakestar. Modulate develops audio-native AI for transcription, fraud and deepfake detection, customer-experience analysis and voice-agent supervision.
50skills - $6M, Funding round co-led by Frumtak Ventures, Swiss Post Ventures, Avant, and DRD Investments, LLC. 50skills builds an AI platform that connects HR onboarding, contracts, approvals, and access requests across existing systems.
Xinhe Robotics - Tens of millions of yuan, First financing round from Shenzhen High Tech Investment and Guaranty Company Limited. Xinhe Robotics builds explosion-protected grain-leveling robots with coordinated fleet operation for grain warehouses.
Silk - $45M, Growth capital facility led by Avenue Capital Group with Sequoia Capital, S CAPITAL, Vintage Investment Partners, Ibex Investors and West Coast Equity Partners. Silk builds a data layer that lets AI inference workloads access live enterprise data while managing contention with production applications.
Nscale - $3.36B ($2.36B closed; $1B committed), Pre-IPO convertible financing led by Third Point LLC with NVIDIA, Apollo Global Management and Citadel. Nscale combines GPU compute and cloud software with data centers and power infrastructure for AI training and inference.
hlpy - €20M, Funding round backed by BNP Paribas BNL Equity Investments. hlpy uses AI and machine learning to match roadside assistance and repair requests with service providers and track jobs across its network.
BRAHMA AI - $150M, Preferred-share financing led by Multiples Alternate Asset Management. BRAHMA AI builds an enterprise platform for audiovisual content intelligence, AI creation and multilingual localization.
Kontext - $4M, Funding round led by 42CAP with a16z crypto and HTGF | High-Tech Gründerfonds. Kontext checks AI-agent identities, tasks, resources and requested tool actions against policies before allowing those actions to run.
millionways - Undisclosed, Strategic investment from Hunt Scanlon Ventures. millionways develops a psychology model that interprets human motives and communication patterns for leadership assessment and human-agent interactions.
EVAS Intelligence - Nearly RMB 2B, Funding round backed by Huatai Innovation Investment, Eastern Bell Capital, Andon Health, Sino IC Leasing, and other institutions. EVAS Intelligence develops RISC-V AI accelerator chips, interconnects, and software for data-center computing.
Promenaut AI - Undisclosed, Strategic investment from HSBC. Promenaut AI coordinates employees and AI agents through a governed workforce platform with permissions, human approvals and audit trails.
Sol Foundry Inc. - $4M, Funding round backed by General Catalyst, Nexus Venture Partners, DeVC, peercheque and Kunal Shah. Sol Foundry Inc. builds an email assistant that identifies commitments and prepares research, documents, slides, scheduling options and replies for user approval.
Mantis Robotics - Undisclosed, Strategic investment from DIC Corporation through its European venture subsidiary. Mantis Robotics develops fenceless industrial robots that use 3D sensing and safety controls to share manufacturing and logistics workspaces with people.
Biossil - $153M USD, Funding round led by OpenAI Startup Fund with Founders Fund, Quiet Capital, and other investors. Biossil uses AI to identify overlooked drug candidates, acquires or licenses them, and resumes their clinical development.

Robotics and AI News

IFR - Five Million Robots now Operate in Factories Globally — IFR reports that the operational stock of industrial robots reached five million in 2025, up 9%, with more than 600,000 new installations. China accounted for 59% of installations, while US installations rose 12% to nearly 38,500. IFR
Intrinsic - Introducing Intrinsic Core: An open source approach to Physical AI — Intrinsic released Apache 2.0-licensed, ROS-compatible control, planning, perception and simulation capabilities, plus an open CNC machine-tending reference solution. The stack supports local deployment and interchangeable hardware while continuing to require robotics expertise. Intrinsic
Cognex - Cognex to Acquire RealSense, Expanding Machine Vision Leadership into High-Growth Robotic Perception Market — Cognex agreed to acquire RealSense for approximately $500 million, with closing expected in Q4 2026. The acquisition adds depth cameras and robotic perception; separate employee cash-retention and equity programs explain why broader deal figures can exceed the purchase price. Cognex
Amazon - Amazon to Create 300 High-Paying Jobs at New Advanced Manufacturing Facility in Greenwood, Indiana — Amazon plans to invest more than $100 million in a 585,000-square-foot Indiana plant producing equipment for its fulfillment and robotics network. The facility is expected to open by 2028, integrating robotic welding, automated coating and assembly and creating 300 skilled roles. Amazon
TechCrunch - Meta launches enterprise AI platform, hires MongoDB CEO to lead new initiative — Meta launched an enterprise AI platform offering agents, APIs and coding tools, and recruited MongoDB CEO CJ Desai to lead the initiative. The move gives Meta a dedicated enterprise route alongside its consumer AI products. TechCrunch
TechCrunch - Nvidia launches new platform for reining in rogue AI agents — Nvidia introduced Open Agent Safety, combining OpenShell execution boundaries with Sentry monitoring isolated on BlueField-4 hardware. The design aims to detect and quarantine harmful agent behavior independently of the agent, shifting containment toward enforceable infrastructure controls. TechCrunch
TechCrunch - Waymo's latest expansion strategy: teenagers — Waymo expanded teen accounts to Nashville after an earlier Phoenix launch. Riders aged 13 to 17 use accounts linked to a parent or guardian, who can follow trips, extending the robotaxi service into family transportation. TechCrunch
Anthropic - Claude discovers a novel enzyme system with CRISPR-like repeats — Anthropic reports that roughly 950 Claude agents identified an array-associated reverse transcriptase system during a 21-hour search. Human scientists performed laboratory characterization, and the system's function remains unknown; CRISPR-like repeats do not yet establish a new gene-editing tool. Anthropic

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