Yikes -- General Motors has more than halved its internal valuation of Cruise since the previous quarter

We had a great time tonight; thank you to everyone who came tonight to our first StrictlyVC event outside of the Bay Area! We loved meeting new readers; we also really appreciated our wonderful speakers. 

We're beyond zonked as we type, but more soon.:)

General Motors has more than halved its internal valuation of Cruise, its troubled autonomous car service unit.

Microsoft is investigating troubling messages from its Copilot chatbot, such as the bot telling a PTSD victim that it didn't care if the person lived or died.

The co-founders of Donald Trump's digital media company are suing the company and threatening to disrupt Trump Media & Technology Group's planned SPAC merger with Digital World Acquisition.

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Figure, a two-year-old startup based in Sunnyvale, CA., that is developing humanoid robots with AI to perform various tasks in industries like healthcare and manufacturing, raised a $675 million Series B round at a $2.6 billion post-money valuation. Investors included Microsoft, OpenAI Startup Fund, Nvidia, Amazon Industrial Innovation Fund, Bezos Expeditions, Parkway Venture Capital, Intel Capital, Align Ventures, and ARK Invest. TechCrunch has more here.

Kenai Therapeutics , a two-year-old San Diego startup that is focused on developing cell therapies for neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson's, raised an $82 million Series A round co-led by Cure Ventures, Alaska Permanent Fund, and The Column Group, with additional participation from Euclidean Capital and Saisei Ventures. BioPharma Dive has more here.

Filigran, a two-year-old Paris startup that provides open-source cybersecurity tools for managing cyber threats, simulating breaches and attacks, and assessing cyber risks, raised a $16.2 million round led by Accel, with previous investors Moonfire Ventures and Motier Ventures also contributing. TechCrunch has more here.

Heyflow, a four-year-old Hamburg startup that provides a no-code platform enabling marketers like Rocket Mortgage to create interactive web experiences to improve website conversion rates, raised a $16 million Series A round led by Singular and including previous investors Project A Ventures and Atlantic Labs. Silicon Canals has more here.

Orbis Medicines, a three-year-old Copenhagen startup that specializes in developing oral drugs called macrocycles to treat metabolic diseases like obesity and diabetes, raised a $28.1 million round. Novo Holdings and Forbion were the co-leads. More here.

Passes, a two-year-old Miami startup that provides a platform that connects creators with their fans through exclusive content and experiences, offering a way for artists and influencers to monetize their work directly, raised a $40 million Series A round led by Bond Capital, with Abstract Ventures and Crossbeam Ventures also participating. More here.

Range Energy, a three-year-old startup based in Mountain View, CA, that sells electric powered trailers designed for the commercial trucking market, raised a $23.5 million round led by Trousdale Ventures, with Up.Partners, R7, and Yamaha Motor Ventures also taking part. The company has raised a total of $31.5 million. More here.

Axiom Cloud, a four-year-old startup based in San Jose, CA, offers cloud-based software to manage commercial refrigeration systems more efficiently, targeting grocery stores and cold storage facilities that are interested in reducing energy consumption, maintenance costs, and refrigerant leaks, raised a $5 million round. Toshiba Tec and Windsail Capital Group co-led the investment. More here.

Codified, a one-year-old Seattle startup whose data governance platform is designed to help businesses manage data access through policies written in plain English in order to simplify compliance and operational processes for companies handling large volumes of data, raised a $4 million seed round co-led by Madrona Ventures and Vine Ventures, with Soma Capital also chipping in. GeekWire has more here.

Flexnode, a five-year-old startup based in Bethesda, MD, that builds and operates high-performance, AI-ready data centers with a focus on liquid-cooling technology to reduce energy usage and carbon footprint, raised a $9 million seed round led by Zacua Ventures, with Yes VC, Arup, SHoP Architects, and JE Dunn also pitching in. CityBiz has more here.

Gradial, a one-year-old Seattle startup that says it uses AI to streamline content management, web content updates, page redesigns, content migrations, and funnel intelligence for marketing and sales teams, raised a $5.4 million seed round led by Madrona Ventures, with General Advance, Outsiders Fund, and Space Capital also stepping up. VentureBeat has more here.

Looq AI, a three-year-old San Diego startup that specializes in using AI in conjunction with hardware integration to enhance the monitoring and analysis of critical infrastructure, raised a $2.6 million seed round led by BootstrapLabs, with Longley Capital and Spatial Capital also investing. The company has raised a total of $3.75 million. More here.

Moonhub, an eight-year-old London startup that specializes in developing virtual reality-based interactive training solutions, raised a $1.4 million round led by Unconventional Ventures, with previous investors Pi Labs and Ada Ventures also taking part. Tech.eu has more here.

NayaOne, a five-year-old London startup whose platform allows financial institutions to test and develop new technology solutions securely without affecting their existing infrastructure, raised a $4.7 million led by EJF Capital, with Valley Ventures and Carthona Capital also anteing up. FinTech Global has more here.

Row Zero, a three-year-old Seattle startup that is developing what it describes as the "world's fastest spreadsheet," aiming to provide a powerful tool for complex analyses and large datasets without requiring programming skills, raised a $3 million seed round from Founders’ Co-op, Ludlow Ventures, Wes McKinney, and GTM Fund. GeekWire has more here.

Salvo Health, a three-year-old New York startup whose platform helps patients manage chronic gut and metabolic conditions through nutrition, mental health, medications, and lifestyle changes, raised a $5 million seed extension round co-led by City Light Capital and Human Ventures, with previous investors Threshold Ventures, Torch Capital, and Felicis also investing. MobiHealthNews has more here.

Silence Laboratories, a three-year-old Singapore startup whose products are aimed at businesses and organizations seeking to protect their digital assets and operations through advanced cryptographic methods, raised a $4.1 million pre-Series A round co-led by Pi Ventures and Kira Studio. The company has raised a total of $6 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Sunhat, a two-year-old startup based in Cologne, Germany, that helps businesses streamline their sustainability reporting and compliance processes by automating the creation of questionnaires, ratings, and reports, raised a $5.4 million seed round. Investors included EnBW New Ventures, Capnamic Ventures, WEPA Ventures, and xdeck ventures. EU-Startups has more here.

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Inspired Capital, a five-year-old New York-based VC firm that invests $1 million to $15 million in pre-seed to Series A startups that "are solving the hardest challenges facing humanity,” raised its third fund in the amount of $330 million. Inspired now has almost $900 million in total assets under management. TechCrunch has more here. 

Secondary investors are telling TechCrunch that Reddit should go out at a $5 billion valuation or less.

Elon Musk tweeted again last night that he wants "Never went to therapy" inscribed on his gravestone.

OpenAI's Sora team gave YouTube tech reviewer Marques Brownlee the chance to create three videos. The video generating platform gave one of his subjects six fingers.

Fisker is laying off 15% of its workforce and says it doesn't have enough cash to survive the next 12 months. TechCrunch has more here. 

TechCrunch digs into startup investments by Nvidia and its rivals in the AI chip space. 

Despite significant layoffs, the total headcount of  major U.S. tech companies like Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon has largely increased, with some companies employing 50% more people than before the pandemic.

Artificial intelligence is making it very hard for data centers to operate sustainably.

Happy bissextile year.

A Willy Wonka-inspired immersive experience for children from hell.

How a "fizzy-drinks company" became so dominant in F1.

"[T]he one-handed backhand is a reminder that tennis can be beautiful, one of the flourishes that separates this racket sport from the Tupperware warriors land-grabbing hard courts on the weekends."

Quilted clothes.

Bill Murray's bowling ball from the movie Kingpin - translucent polyester with a rose inside - is up for sale. 

Beyond the Birkin bag.

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