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Bitcoin ate it today, sliding 15% to $60,074 — its lowest level since November 2024 — with the token’s pitch as digital gold losing some luster alongside a broader tech sell-off. CNBC has more here.

A federal jury found Uber liable for a driver’s 2023 rape of a passenger and awarded $8.5 million in damages, a verdict that could influence more than 3,000 similar sexual assault cases nationwide. The New York Times has more here.

Amazon stunned investors by outlining a $200 billion capital spending plan for 2026 –$50 billion more than anyone saw coming – as it doubles down on AI infrastructure. The company’s stock price subsequently slid more than 10%. Business Insider has more here.

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Secondary Sales Shift From Founder Windfalls to Employee-Retention Tools

By Marina Temkin

In May, AI sales automation startup Clay said it was allowing most of its employees to sell some of their shares at a $1.5 billion valuation. Coming just months after its Series B, Clay’s offer of liquidity was a rarity in a market where tender offers, as these types of secondary transactions are known, were still uncommon for relatively young companies.

Since then, several other newer, fast-growing startups have allowed their staff to convert some of their stock into cash. Linear, a six-year-old AI-powered Atlassian rival, completed a tender offer at the same valuation as the company’s $1.25 billion Series C. More recently, the three-year-old ElevenLabs authorized a $100 million secondary sale for staff, at a valuation of $6.6 billion, double its previous value.

And just last week, Clay, which has tripled its annual recurring revenue (ARR) to $100 million in one year, decided it was again time for its employees to cash in on the company’s fast growth. The eight-year-old startup announced that its staff can sell stock at a valuation of $5 billion, a more than 60% increase from its $3.1 billion valuation announced in August.

These secondary sales at increasingly higher valuations for young, perhaps still-unproven companies may initially appear to be a premature “cash-out” reminiscent of the 2021 bubble. The most infamous example of that time was Hopin, whose founder, Johnny Boufarhat, reportedly sold $195 million worth of his company’s stock just two years before the company’s assets were sold for a tiny fraction of its peak $7.7 billion valuation.

But there is a critical distinction between the 2021 boom and today’s market.

During the ZIRP era, a large portion of the secondary deals provided liquidity almost exclusively to founders of buzzy companies like Hopin. In contrast, the recent transactions from Clay, Linear, and ElevenLabs are structured as tender offers that also benefit employees.

While investors these days largely frown upon the outsized founder payouts of the 2021 boom, the current shift toward employee-wide tender offers is viewed far more favorably.

Massive Fundings

Accrual, a two-year-old Los Angeles startup that automates tax preparation and review workflows for accounting firms using machine learning, raised a $75 million Series A round led by General Catalyst, with Pruven Capital, Edward Jones Ventures, and Patrick and John Collison also investing. Bloomberg has more here.

Adaption Labs, a San Francisco-based startup founded last year that is developing smaller, more adaptive AI models designed to reduce compute costs and enable continuous learning, raised a $50 million seed round led by Emergence Capital Partners, with Mozilla Ventures, Fifty Years, Threshold Ventures, Alpha Intelligence Capital, E14 Fund, and Neo also engaging. Fortune has more here.

Anchorage Digital, a nine-year-old San Francisco startup that operates a federally chartered crypto bank, raised a $100 million round from Tether at a $4.2 billion post-money valuation. (This relationship is a deepening one.Tether — the world’s largest issuer of digital tokens pegged to the US dollar — last week launched its USAT stablecoin issued by Anchorage Digital.) Bloomberg has more here.

Chamber, a four-year-old startup based in Washington, DC, that provides a tech-enabled platform supporting cardiologists in value-based care models, raised a $60 million Series A round led by Frist Cressey Ventures, with General Catalyst, AlleyCorp, American Family Ventures, Company Ventures, Optum Ventures, Healthworx Ventures, and previous investor Black Opal Ventures also pitching in. More here.

Fundamental, a two-year-old San Francisco startup that has developed a large tabular model for predicting outcomes from structured enterprise data, raised a $225 million Series A round at a $1.4 billion post-money valuation. The deal was led by Oak HC/FT, with Battery Ventures, Hertz Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, and Valor Equity Partners also participating. More here.

Goodfire, a two-year-old San Francisco startup that provides tools to interpret and analyze how AI models behave, raised a $150 million Series B round led by B Capital, with DFJ Growth, Salesforce Ventures, and Eric Schmidt as well as previous investors Juniper Ventures, Menlo Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, South Park Commons, and Wing Venture Capital also joining in. More here.

Lawhive, a five-year-old London startup that operates a consumer law firm using automated workflows to deliver legal services at scale, raised a $60 million Series B round led by Mitch Rales and including TQ Ventures, GV, Balderton Capital, Jigsaw, Anton Levy, and LTS. Fortune has more here.

Logos Space Services, a three-year-old startup based in Redwood City, CA, that provides low-Earth orbit broadband satellite communications for government and enterprise customers, announced that it raised a $50 million Series A round last year that was led by U.S. Innovative Technologies. The FCC also cleared Logos to deploy up to roughly 4,000 low Earth orbit broadband satellites. SpaceNews has more here.

Newcleo, a five-year-old Paris startup that is developing lead-cooled nuclear reactor and recycled-fuel technologies, raised an $85 million round. Investors included Kairos, Indaco Ventures, Azimut Investments, the CERN pension fund, Walter Tosto, Danieli & C., Cementir Holding, Orion Valves, and NextChem. The company has raised a total of $755+ million. More here.

Third Arc Bio, a four-year-old Boston startup that is developing multifunctional antibodies for oncology and immunology and inflammation indications, raised a $52 million Series A extension co-led by Andreessen Horowitz and previous investor Omega Funds, with Goldman Sachs Alternatives, BVF Partners, abrdn, T. Rowe Price Associates, Marshall Wace, Hillhouse Investment, Galapagos, AbbVie Ventures, and Alderline Group also piling on. Pulse 2.0 has more here.

Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings

Forerunner, an eight-year-old San Francisco startup that builds a geospatial system of record for governments to manage infrastructure, flood risk, code enforcement, and other built-environment operations, raised a $26.3 million Series B led by Wellington Management, with Gutter Capital, Bright Ventures, SE Ventures, Citi Impact Fund, and previous investor Union Square Ventures also chiming in. The company has raised a total of $39 million. More here.

Nixtla, a four-year-old San Francisco startup that is building a foundation model for time series forecasting and anomaly detection, raised a $16 million Series A led by Energize Capital, with True Ventures and GreatPoint Ventures also investing. More here.

Nullify, a three-year-old San Francisco and Sydney startup that runs automated agents to identify, validate, and fix software security vulnerabilities, raised a $12.5 million seed round led by SYN Ventures, with previous investor Black Nova Venture Capital also taking part. The company has raised a total of $16.9 million. SecurityWeek has more here.

R3 Robotics, a five-year-old Luxembourg startup that develops robotic systems for automated disassembly and recycling of lithium-ion batteries and other electrified components, raised a $16.5 million Series A round co-led by HG Ventures and Suma Capital, with Oetker Collection and the European Innovation Council Fund as well as previous investors including BONVENTURE, FlixFounders, and EIT Urban Mobility also digging in. The company also raised $6.6 million in European public grants. Tech Funding News has more here.

Sapiom, a seven-month-old San Francisco startup that provides a financial layer allowing AI agents to securely purchase and access software, APIs, data, and compute, raised a $15 million seed round led by Accel, with Okta Ventures, Gradient Ventures, Array Ventures, Menlo Ventures, Anthropic, and Coinbase Ventures also anteing up. TechCrunch has more here.

Turnstile, a five-year-old San Francisco startup that helps sales-led companies manage pricing, contracts, subscriptions, billing, and revenue reporting in a single system, raised a $29 million round. Investors included First Round, OMERS Ventures, and Illuminate Financial. More here.