Hailey Bieber on Selling Rhode to e.l.f. Beauty for Up to $1B and Keeping Creative Control
Hailey Bieber and cofounder Lauren Ratner sold Rhode to e.l.f. Beauty in a deal worth up to $1 billion.
#United States
Fortune Term SheetAI Score2222 TechCrunch StartupsAI Score5858 Apate deploys AI agents to bait scammers and gather fraud intelligence
Australian startup Apate.ai deploys thousands of AI agents that pose as scam victims to bait fraudsters and extract their bank accounts.
TechCrunch StartupsAI Score4242 Mosqitter turns mosquito traps into an AI-powered surveillance network
Mosqitter is converting its chemical-free mosquito traps into an AI-powered monitoring network that identifies species and tracks population changes. The Pennsylvania startup has over 5.
Fortune Term SheetTop DealsAI Score6262 Kraken parent Payward to acquire Lithuania's Saldo Bank
Payward, the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, agreed to acquire Lithuania-based Saldo Bank.
Why it matters: The deal shows how a crypto exchange can use an EU banking license to offer deposits, loans and SEPA transfers that US trust charters do not permit.
Fortune Term SheetTop DealsAI Score5858 Koch's venture arm backs a16z-backed Emanate for industrial sales AI
Koch Disruptive Technologies, the venture arm of Koch Inc., made a strategic investment in San Francisco startup Emanate.
Why it matters: Koch's venture arm backing Emanate shows industrial sales as a new target for autonomous agents, with details on how the startup measures and gates its autonomy.
TechCrunch StartupsAI Score4242 Floqer's AI agents automate B2B sales prospecting, plans open-source database
Floqer, an autonomous customer knowledge platform for B2B sales teams.
Tech.euSame newsAI Score7878 Salience Labs raises $125M Series B for photonic AI data centre chips
Salience Labs raised $125 million in an oversubscribed Series B led by Bullhound Capital.
Same story, shown in Top Deals《Oxford photonics startup Salience Labs raises $125M Series B led by Bullhound》
AlleyWatch FundingTop DealsAI Score5858 Leela raises $4.6M seed to automate compliance work with AI agents
Leela raised a $4.6M seed round co-led by Array Ventures and Female Founders Fund to build AI agents that execute compliance work for regulated financial businesses. Its RegLang language links each requirement to the underlying tasks and evidence, and agents already handle fraud and AML reviews, customer complaints, and draft suspicious activity reports for human review. One early customer's 40 policies became 262 actionable obligations.
Why it matters: Leela's seed round and RegLang approach show how AI agents are moving from tracking compliance work to executing it in regulated finance.
Tech Funding NewsSame newsAI Score7171 Rohlik founder's Duvo raises $32M Series A led by Balderton
Duvo, founded by Rohlik's Tomas Cupr, raised a $32M Series A led by Balderton Capital.
Same story, shown in Top Deals《Duvo raises $32M Series A led by Balderton Capital》
SiliconANGLESame newsAI Score7575 Salience Labs raises $125M Series B for optical AI data center switches
Salience Labs raised a $125 million Series B led by Bullhound Capital, with Intel Capital.
Same story, shown in Top Deals《Oxford photonics startup Salience Labs raises $125M Series B led by Bullhound》
GeekWireAI Score5050 Humanly acquires CareerArc to merge AI screening with recruitment marketing
Humanly has acquired CareerArc, combining its AI chat and interview screening tools with CareerArc's social recruiting and career-site mapping software. CareerArc's HireSocial and Job Maps products join Humanly, which has raised $52 million to date and serves over 120 customers including Microsoft and Domino's. Nine of CareerArc's 13 employees are joining Humanly, now at 50 staff.
SiliconANGLEAI Score4242 Groundcover lets Claude and Codex hand production investigations to its own agent
Groundcover launched agent-to-agent observability, letting Claude, Codex.
GeekWireTop DealsAI Score6262 Booking Holdings launches AI travel startup Vayo with planned $100M investment
Booking Holdings unveiled Vayo, a Seattle-based AI travel startup led by Mike Fridgen.
Why it matters: Booking Holdings is funding a Seattle startup whose travel agents read inbox confirmations and rebook flights, a test of whether vertical agents beat general-purpose assistants.
SiliconANGLEAI Score4242 Huskeys Security adds Profiling to map business-critical parts of web apps
Huskeys Security launched Profiling, a beta capability that maps which parts of a company's web applications the business depends on and applies per-path security controls. The profile feeds Huskeys' Hardening Loop, which watches profiled paths for abuse and recommends fixes that customers must approve before going live. Huskeys has raised $35 million, including a $27 million Series A led by Blackstone Innovations Investments in September.
Fortune Term SheetTop DealsAI Score6060 Fragment raises $12M Series A to keep AI agents from mishandling company money
Fragment, a New York startup founded by Thomas Neckel and Varun Mohan.
Why it matters: Fragment's $12M Series A shows how startups are building financial guardrails for AI agents that spend company money, with early customers like Ramp and BILL.
Tech.euTop DealsAI Score7878 Skeleton Technologies raises Siemens-led nine-figure round, valuation tops $1B for US AI data-centre push
Skeleton Technologies announced a Siemens-led nine-digit investment that lifts its valuation above $1 billion.
Why it matters: Skeleton's Siemens-led round shows how AI data-centre power demand is pulling industrial capital into energy hardware rather than chips alone.
Tech.euTop DealsAI Score7171 Duvo raises $32M Series A led by Balderton Capital
Duvo, the enterprise AI operating system founded by Rohlik's Tomas Cupr, raised a $32M Series A led by Balderton Capital with Index Ventures.
Why it matters: Duvo's $32M Series A and its founder's account of why most agentic AI deployments stall offer a concrete look at enterprise automation economics.
Tech Funding NewsTop DealsAI Score6262 Pear VC closes $333M Fund V, down from $432M in 2023
Pear VC closed its fifth fund at $333 million, about $99 million less than the $432 million it raised in May 2023.
Why it matters: Pear VC's smaller Fund V shows how seed investors are betting that early founder access, not fund size, decides who wins AI deals.
Tech Funding NewsTop DealsAI Score6565 Forgepoint raises $9.8M seed led by Primary and a16z speedrun for factory quoting AI
Forgepoint raised a $9.8 million seed round led by Primary Venture Partners and a16z speedrun.
Why it matters: Forgepoint's seed round shows how AI quoting agents are entering factory sales desks, with Frank already at seven-figure ARR and rivals raising nearby.
Tech Funding NewsTop DealsAI Score7070 Harmonic Security raises $50M Series B led by Crosspoint Capital
Harmonic Security raised a $50 million Series B led by Crosspoint Capital Partners.
Why it matters: Harmonic's $50M Series B lands as two rivals get acquired, so readers can weigh whether standalone AI-usage security survives or gets absorbed into larger platforms.
SiliconANGLESame newsAI Score6262 Forgepoint raises $9.8M to automate manufacturing price quotes
Forgepoint raised $9.8 million in seed funding co-led by Primary Venture Partners and a16z Speedrun to expand Frank.
Same story, shown in Top Deals《Forgepoint raises $9.8M seed led by Primary and a16z speedrun for factory quoting AI》
SiliconANGLESame newsAI Score5555 Evos raises $9M pre-seed for autonomous workers that learn from veteran staff
Evos, officially Evolutionary Operating System Inc., raised $9 million in pre-seed funding led by Uncork Capital and Field Ventures.
Same story, shown in Top Deals《Evos raises $9M pre-seed to run AI operators inside existing business systems》
SiliconANGLETop DealsAI Score5555 Uvi raises $7.5M seed to cut AI agent context costs
Uvi, officially Naboo Research Ltd., raised $7.5 million in seed funding led by CT Innovations.
Why it matters: Uvi's seed round and benchmark numbers show how much enterprises pay to rebuild agent context, and how a shared context layer changes that cost.
SiliconANGLESame newsAI Score6565 Harmonic Security raises $50M Series B to govern employee AI use
Harmonic Security raised $50 million in an oversubscribed Series B led by Crosspoint Capital Partners.
Same story, shown in Top Deals《Harmonic Security raises $50M Series B led by Crosspoint Capital》
Fortune Term SheetAI Score1212 Wall Street Banks Post Mixed Earnings as Executives Say IPO Lull Won't Last
JPMorgan missed on revenue and earnings for the first time in nearly three years.
Fortune Term SheetAI Score5050 Giant raises $8M to build generative AI kids' storytelling that replaces passive YouTube viewing
Giant has raised $8M to build generative AI storytelling tools that let children create characters and shape stories in real time.
Crunchbase NewsTop DealsAI Score6060 Stella & Dot founder Jessica Herrin raises $5M seed for AI marketing startup Marklo
Jessica Herrin, founder of Stella & Dot, raised $5 million in seed funding for Marklo.
Why it matters: Forerunner's backing of a founder who ran a $2B seller network shows how commerce investors are betting on AI that decides what to promote, not just drafts the copy.
SiliconANGLEAI Score2222 Vast Data challenges fragmented AI pipelines as data sovereignty demands grow
Vast Data is pushing back on best-of-breed agentic pipelines, arguing stitched-together tools lose sync between source data.
Crunchbase NewsAI Score5252 Crunchbase: 38 companies join unicorn board in September, led by chips, fintech and space
Crunchbase reports 38 companies joined its Unicorn Board in September, adding $71 billion in value.
TechCrunch StartupsTop DealsAI Score7171 Scimplify raises $25M to use AI for critical materials
Scimplify raised a $25M all-equity round led by Hitachi Ventures, with Henkel and Teknor Apex joining as investors.
Why it matters: Scimplify's round shows how AI agents are being applied to specialty chemicals and critical materials, with revenue and customer numbers that indicate real commercial traction.
Tech Funding NewsTop DealsAI Score5858 Olympian Andrew Steele's Stride raises £4.6M for preventive health
Stride, the preventive health membership founded by Olympic medalist Andrew Steele.
Why it matters: Stride's seed round shows how consumer preventive health is being built around lab diagnostics and an AI copilot, with retention as the open question.
Tech Funding NewsAI Score1212 UnlockVC Summit 2026: Why Female Investors Are Building Their Own 'Old Boys' Club'
Over 400 women leaders gathered at the Unlock VC Summit in Barcelona from October 7 to 9.
Tech Funding NewsAI Score4040 Affinity Labs raises $2M to co-found AI apps with creators
Affinity Labs raised $2M in a round led by Fuel Ventures, including a £497,787 Innovate UK grant.
Tech Funding NewsAI Score3838 Antler Invests £2.2M in 10 UK Pre-Seed Startups, Over a Third in Physical AI
Antler invested £2.2 million across 10 UK pre-seed startups, with roughly £210.
SiliconANGLEAI Score6262 Chainguard launches Claude Mythos-powered vulnerability hunting and secure coding agent tools
Chainguard unveiled Chainguard Harness, a vulnerability-hunting service using frontier models such as Anthropic's Claude Mythos 5.1.
GeekWireTop DealsAI Score6565 Getty Images to go private via bankruptcy, keep Seattle HQ
Getty Images plans a prearranged Chapter 11 bankruptcy that will take the company private while keeping its Seattle headquarters and its roughly 300 local employees. Members of the Getty family and Koch Equity Development affiliates will invest up to $533 million and co-own the company, with bondholders retiring $270 million in unsecured debt and public shareholders expected to be wiped out. Getty posted $84 million in operating income on $981 million in revenue last year but a $206 million net loss, and its creative stock-photo revenue fell 2.6% in Q2 amid competition from AI-generated images.
Why it matters: Getty's prearranged Chapter 11 shows how AI-generated imagery and smartphone photography are pressuring the stock-photo business model.
SiliconANGLETop DealsAI Score6666 Pluto Security raises $42M to secure enterprise AI agents
Pluto Security raised $42 million, about a fifth as a seed round led by TLV Partners and the rest a Series A led by Jump Capital.
Why it matters: Pluto Security's $42M raise shows how AI agent discovery and policy-based containment are becoming a distinct enterprise security category.
Tech Funding NewsAI Score3030 Bumble in Talks to Go Private at ~$1B Valuation as Paying Users Fall 16%
Bumble is in advanced talks with Ithaca Holdings on a take-private deal valuing it at about $1B.
Tech Funding NewsTop DealsAI Score6868 Causa Prima raises $20M seed led by Base10 for AI invoice agents
Causa Prima raised a $20M seed round led by Base10 Partners, with QED Investors and FJ Labs joining.
Why it matters: Causa Prima's two-sided agent network for invoice disputes shows how AI finance startups are moving from single-company tools to cross-company settlement.
Tech Funding NewsAI Score2020 5 AI-Powered Alternatives to TherapyNotes for Behavioral Health Practices
Five AI-powered platforms are positioning themselves as TherapyNotes alternatives for behavioral health practices.
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