Happy Monday!

Here are a few great things to read/watch this week:

🪓 How would DOGE Work? Elon on Wednesday referenced famed economist Milton Friedman's opinion from decades ago, about how bloated the government had become. In this video, Friedman went through a list of specific federal agencies that should never have been created in the first place, as well as those that he felt were important. Elon and Vivek Ramaswamy also shared their plans to reduce the size of the U.S. federal bureaucracy on WSJ Opinion.

🔨 DOJ: Google Must Sell Chrome to End Monopoly - The Department of Justice argued Wednesday that Google should divest its Chrome browser to help break up the company’s illegal monopoly in online search, according to a filing with the U.S District Court of the District of Columbia. Also click here to watch the 30 years of web browser market growth and how Eric Schmidt thinks this is a terrible idea.

🇭🇰 Jensen Huang Receives Honorary Doctorate from HKUST - Jensen has pledged to maintain the company’s presence in mainland China despite rising geopolitical tensions, while highlighting the country’s unique strengths in capitalizing on AI and trends that have upended industries from medicine to robotics. Read more and Watch his full speech.

🔊 Bluesky’s Usage 3X As Users Abandon X — Bluesky app usage in the US and UK grew ~300% to 3.5M DAUs after Nov. 5; Threads now has 1.5x Bluesky's DAUs in the US, down from 5x. More accustomed to it than any political stance, I am still on X, and have yet to use Bluesky or Threads. Read more on FT.

🛍️ Amazon Global Store Launched its Flagship Store on China’s JD.com — This launch gives Chinese consumers access to more than 400,000 international products from over 12,000 brands. Amazon first entered China in 2004 by acquiring Joyo.com, a books and media retailer. It later expanded to include domestic e-commerce, cross-border shopping, cloud services, and Kindle e-readers. However, facing stiff competition from local giants Alibaba and JD.com, Amazon began scaling back operations in China in 2019. Read more on Technode.

P.S. You can also listen to this newsletter.

Last week a total of 32 startups raised $4.76B in funding, 1 M&As:

• $4.67B goes to 17 Enterprise startups

• $4M goes to 1 FinTech startup

• $10.7M goes to 2 Web3/Crypto startups

• $40M goes to 1 InsurTech startup

• $132.5M goes to 4 Healthcare startups

• $10M goes to 1 BioTech startup

• $7M goes to 1 Marketplace startup

• $14.5M goes to 1 Wireless Telecommunications startup

• $12M goes to 1 Waste Management startup

• $53M goes to 2 Robotics startups

• $6M goes to 1 Cannabis startup

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Edith
X, LinkedIn

Funding (300 miles radius from Silicon Valley)

Enterprise

• Anthropic (AI research) $4B from Amazon

• Kong (API management) raised $175M Series E led by Tiger Global & Balderton

• Cresta (generative AI platform for contact centers) raised $125M Series D led by Qatar Investment Authority, World Innovation Lab

• Enfabrica (AI networking solutions) raised $115M Series C led by Spark Capital

• Spectro Cloud (kubernetes management platform) raised $75M Series C led by Goldman Sachs Alternatives

• Rox AI (AI agent solution for sales teams) raised $50M Series A led by General Catalyst

• SuperAnnotate (AI data platform) raised $36M Series B led by Socium Ventures

• Selector (AIOps solution) raised $33M Series B led by Ansa Capital

• Wordware (full-stack operating system for AI development) raised $30M Seed led by Spark Capital

• Aviz (AI-driven networking solutions) raised $17M Series A led by Alter Venture Partners

• BrightAI (infrastructure IoT copilot platform) raised $15M Seed led by Upfront Ventures

• Arcade (AI interactive content generation) raised $14M Series A led by Kleiner Perkins

• Trustero (AI-powered security and compliance) raised $10.4M Series A led by Bright Pixel Capital

• Anomalo (unstructured data monitoring platform) raised $10M Series B extension from Smith Point Capital

• Zitadel (cloud-native identity infrastructure) raised $9M Series A led by Nexus Venture Partners

• Apideck (real-time unified API platform) raised $7.5M Series A led by Airbridge Equity Partners

• CodeCrafters (software coding platform) raised $1.8M Seed

FinTech

• Kintsugi AI (sales tax automation platform) raised $4M Series A led by Airwallex

InsurTech

• Federato (RiskOps platform) raised $40M Series C led by StepStone Group

Web3/Crypto

• Shinami (move-based blockchain developer platform) raised $5.7M Seed led by Race Capital

• OpenLayer (web3 AI data layer) raised $5M Seed from a16z CSX, Geometry, IOSG Ventures

Healthcare

• Oura (wellness wearable rings) raised $75M from Dexcom

• Zenflow (medical device for enlarged prostate symptoms) raised $24M Series C led by Cook Medical

• New Lantern (AI radiology imaging analysis platform) raised $19M Series A led by Benchmark

• Citizen Health (AI-powered consumer health platform) raised $14.5M Seed led by Transformation Capital

BioTech

• iMicrobes (bio-based chemicals) raised $10M Seed led by First Bright Ventures, Universal Materials Incubator

Marketplace

• Flywheel Dynamix (buyer-centric cloud marketplace) raised $7M Seed led by Storm Ventures, Foster Ventures, BeeNex, FeBe and Teknos Ventures

Wireless Telecommunications

• Aira (AI defined networking) raised $14.5M Series B from AT&T Ventures, Intel Capital and In-Q-Tel

Waste Management

• Epic Cleantec (water reuse solutions for commercial real estate) raised $12M Series B led by Dr Garry Rayant, Kathy Fieldsl

Robotics

• UnitX (manufacturing inspection automation) raised $46M Series B led by UP Partners

• Teleo (construction robotics) raised $7M Series A

Cannabis

• Distru (cannabis ERP platform) raised $6M Series A led by Global Founders Capital

IPO & M&A (300 miles radius from Silicon Valley)  

• Front acquired Idiomatic (AI-powered customer service platform)