Just "dropped": the newest episode of StrictlyVC Download, featuring George Arison, CEO of Grindr, whose overarching mission is to transform the gay-dating app into a one-stop shop, including healthcare and travel concierge services. He's succeeding, at least from a revenue standpoint: the company has grown 25% every year he's been in charge, dating back to 2022. | Arison is trying to paint that bigger picture for investors, but he also talked about the big changes in how his customers think about life and family. (We wondered if he worries Grindr is turning into Facebook; he says he's not.) We enjoyed it — we hope you will, too. | | Top News | Google avoided a breakup of its ad-tech business after a federal judge rejected the Justice Department’s demand that it sell key assets, instead ordering changes to its business practices whose details remain under seal. TechCrunch has more here. | | |
1 - security, 2 - accuracy, and 3 - a context window big enough for 1000s of documents. PortfolioIQ solves all three. It extracts every number from documents, maps it to the source, keeps full audit history, and feeds clean data securely to the AI of your choice. | Build on data you can trust → PortfolioIQ. | | OpenAI’s New Reasoning Technique Alarms AI Safety Experts |  | Image: ChatGPT |
| By Russell Brandom | OpenAI’s new Astra model will use a reasoning technique called “recurrent depth” that allows it to operate outside of the sequential thinking that characterizes most reasoning models, The Information reported on Tuesday. This technique, also called “opaque recurrence,” will likely make the model’s chain of thought more difficult to monitor — and that has AI safety experts rattled. | While Astra’s use of the technique is reportedly limited, its emergence has still raised significant concerns among AI safety experts. | “I am extremely concerned by the reporting that Astra uses opaque recurrence,” wrote Redwood CEO Buck Shlegeris in a post after the news broke. “I don’t know whether Astra is much less CoT monitorable than previous models. But if OpenAI pushes this technique further, they’ll have the option to massively increase the recurrence and totally destroys CoT monitorability.” | Longtime AI safety advocate Zvi Mowshowitz also weighed in and wrote that laws might be necessary to prevent a “race to the bottom” among AI labs. | “The technique is playing with fire, risking a taboo that OpenAI and Anthropic have fought to establish that we work hard to maintain Chain of Thought faithfulness and monitorability for as long as we can,” Mowshowitz wrote. “More intensive use of such techniques would probably damage monitorability.” | Under normal circumstances, a reasoning model’s chain of thought provides the sequential steps taken by the model as it attempts to solve a problem. While the representation is imperfect, it still serves as a valuable tool for monitoring misbehavior or misalignment. In the case of OpenAI’s recent rogue agent activity, chain-of-thought records were an important tool in teasing out why agents behaved the way they did. | In opaque recurrence, the model takes a less linear approach, processing the same query several times in a loop. The result leaves fewer legible traces, effectively side-stepping a conventional chain-of-thought record. | | | Massive Fundings | Cognition, a three-year-old San Francisco startup that develops Devin, an AI engineering agent that autonomously handles software development tasks, is reportedly set to raise around $1 billion at a $47 billion post-money valuation. Bloomberg has more here. | Conveo, a two-year-old Antwerp startup that conducts adaptive video interviews with consumers to help brands test advertising concepts and maintain ongoing research data, raised a $50 million Series A round co-led by DST Global Partners and Balderton Capital, with Visionaries and 6 Degrees Capital as well as previous investor Y Combinator also anteing up. The company has raised a total of $55.8 million. Tech Funding News has more here. | HiddenLayer, a four-year-old Austin startup that protects AI models, agents, and workflows from adversarial attacks, vulnerabilities, and malicious code injections, raised a $100 million Series B led by Delta-v Capital, with Ten Eleven Ventures, Morgan Stanley, M12, and Booz Allen Hamilton also digging in. TechCrunch has more here. | HyImpulse, an eight-year-old startup based in Neuenstadt am Kocher, Germany, that builds hybrid-engine launch vehicles that carry satellites to orbit and support hypersonic testing for defense and research customers, raised a $58 million Series A round co-led by JOIN Capital and Ace Capital Partners, with German Aerospace Center as well as previous investors North Ventures, BW-Capital, Bayern Kapital, and Campus Founders Ventures also digging in. The company has raised a total of $145+ million in equity and public funding. Tech Funding News has more here. | iPronics, a seven-year-old startup based in Valencia, Spain, that develops silicon-photonics optical switches for connecting GPUs and other computing infrastructure in AI data centers, raised a $125 million Series B co-led by Maverick Silicon and Light Street Capital, with Nvidia, Triatomic Capital, Bosch Ventures, Catalight Capital, European Innovation Council Fund, The Tate Family Trust, Fine Structure Ventures, Amadeus Capital Partners, Build Collective, and Criteria Venture Tech also opting in. The company has raised a total of $177 million. More here. | Lyte, a five-year-old Mountain View, CA, startup that develops custom silicon, sensors, and spatial software to help robots perceive and navigate their surroundings, raised a $165 million Series C at a $1.6 billion post-money valuation led by Maverick Silicon, with Fidelity, Atreides Management, Key1 Capital, and Ora Global also anteing up. SiliconANGLE has more here. | TabaPay, a nine-year-old Palo Alto startup that moves payments and payouts for fintechs, lenders, and high-growth platforms across bank and card networks through one API, raised a $155 million round led by FTV Capital. More here. | Thyme Care, a six-year-old Nashville startup that helps cancer patients navigate care between appointments through virtual clinical support and care coordination, raised a $125 million Series E at a $2+ billion valuation. The deal was led by Morgan Health, with Humana, CVS Health Ventures, AlleyCorp, HealthQuest Capital, and Andreessen Horowitz also engaging. CNBC has more here. | Tripo AI, a three-year-old startup that develops AI models and tools that help businesses create production-ready 3D assets for manufacturing, virtual reality, and entertainment workflows, raised a $446 million Series B round led by MPCi, with Perfect World, BlueFocus, SPC, Yanqu Games, ThunderSoft, 37 Interactive Entertainment, CDH Venture, Growth Capital, CICC, CMC Capital Partners, Hongtai Aplus, 3H Health, Zhongping Capital, and GreatOrigin Asia as well as previous investors Fortune Capital, Primavera Capital, 4399 Network, Muhua Tech Ventures, Vitalbridge Capital, INCE Capital, and T-Capital also piling on. More here. | Typewriter Therapeutics, a four-year-old startup based in Cambridge, MA, that develops RNA-based gene therapies that insert therapeutic genes into patient cells to treat cancer, autoimmune, and severe genetic diseases, raised a $56 million Series A round co-led by AN Venture Partners and RA Capital Management, with ANRI, Gemseki, and SBI US Gateway Fund also chipping in. More here. | Wonderful, a one-year-old Amsterdam startup that helps large enterprises deploy AI agents across business workflows, raised a $550 million Series C at a $5 billion post-money valuation. The deal was led by previous investor Insight Partners, with Salesforce as well as previous investors Index Ventures, IVP, Vine Ventures, 9Yards, and Bessemer Venture Partners also taking part. Investors also bought $170 million of shares from employees and early angel investors in a secondary transaction. The company has raised a total of $800+ million. The Wall Street Journal has more here. | | Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings | AITAN, an 11-year-old Israeli company that develops software for deploying and coordinating drones and other robotic combat systems, raised a $41 million round co-led by Deep33 and Dell Technologies Capital, with individual investors Gokul Rajaram, Benjamin Ling, and Kevin Weil also chipping in. The company has raised a total of $54 million. CTech has more here. | Huskeys, a one-year-old Tel Aviv startup that orchestrates network-edge security controls across cloud providers, firewalls, load balancers, and applications for enterprise security teams, raised a $27 million Series A round led by Blackstone Innovations Investments, with Merlin Ventures, Skinos Ventures, Zscaler Ventures, Okta Ventures, Bright Pixel Capital, SV Angel, and Eran Reshef also chipping in. The company has raised a total of $35 million. Pulse 2.0 has more here. | InLeap Photonics, a three-year-old startup based in Hanover, Germany, that develops laser beam steering systems that improve industrial laser manufacturing and neutralize drones near critical infrastructure, raised a $23.2 million seed round led by UVC Partners, with HTGF, Balnord, Sentries, and Scale Capital also engaging. EU-Startups has more here. | Medici Brands, a one-year-old New York startup that owns food brands including David Protein and HallPass, raised a $250 million Series B co-led by previous investors Greenoaks and Valor Equity Partners, with CEO Peter Rahal, ICONIQ, and Imaginary Ventures also participating. More here. | N-Power Medicine, a five-year-old startup based in Redwood City, CA, that creates trial-grade external control arms from community cancer care data to help drugmakers run oncology studies with fewer randomized-control patients, raised a $32 million Series B round. Investors included Labcorp Venture Fund as well as previous investors Merck Global Health Innovation Fund and Innovatus Capital Partners. Pulse 2.0 has more here. | Norbert Health, a seven-year-old Brooklyn startup that turns mobile robots into nursing assistants that make rounds, capture contactless vitals, run assessments, and document patient encounters, raised a $14 million Series A round led by Cardinal Group, with Exor Seeds and CareIT also stepping up. The company has raised a total of $19 million. More here. | Odyssey Energy Solutions, a nine-year-old Boulder startup that provides procurement and working-capital financing for solar installers and EPCs building distributed solar and storage projects in emerging marke |
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