Amazon tries to buy its way into the AI coding wars
Amazon is offering a free year of its Kiro Pro+ AI coding assistant to qualified startups. The move is a direct attempt to buy market share in a space dominated by GitHub Copilot and others.
Category: Startups
Solid Sands Buys Plum Hall to Dominate Compiler Testing
In a move to consolidate the niche compiler testing market, Solid Sands is acquiring Plum Hall’s technology. The deal aims to combine their test suites for broader coverage as new C and C++ standards emerge.
A Top VC Goes Solo With A $45 Million Fund For AI And Hard Tech
Beth Turner, who backed giants like Anthropic and Stripe at SV Angel, is now flying solo. Her new $45 million fund, Valkyrie, is targeting AI applications, infrastructure, and critical industries like energy. She closed the fund in just five weeks with backing from heavyweights like Jack Dorsey and
Ex-Google CEO Schmidt Backs Voice AI Startup in Huge $70M Seed Round
A new AI voice startup called Gradium has launched with a massive $70 million seed round. The company is a commercial spinout from the non-profit Parisian lab Kyutai and is backed by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt.
A Stablecoin SPAC Listing? Here We Go Again
First Digital, the Hong Kong firm behind the FDUSD stablecoin, is reportedly planning to go public via a SPAC merger. This comes as its token’s circulation has crashed from a $4.4 billion peak last April to about $920 million today.
A Tiny French AI Startup Just Beat Google DeepMind At Its Own Game
A small AI startup called Minitap has outperformed Google DeepMind on its own AndroidWorld benchmark for mobile agents. The founders, both 23, just raised a $4.1 million seed round to turn that tech into a developer tool.
This AI startup hired a sci-fi novelist for soul
When AI couldn’t generate compelling backstories for their alien companions, Portola turned to sci-fi novelist Eliot Peper. The startup, founded in late 2023, wanted non-human AI characters that develop like novel protagonists. Peper’s hiring signals a shift toward human creativity in AI development
The Biggest Founder Comebacks of 2025 Are Wild
Founders are staging dramatic returns to companies they built or lost. Kevin Rose bought back Digg, Anne Wojcicki rescued 23andMe from bankruptcy, and other entrepreneurs are making surprising comebacks.
Swiss robots are digging in with €19M for construction
Zurich-based Gravis Robotics has secured €19 million to accelerate its robotic excavator platform. The funding comes amid a broader European investment surge into physical-AI and field-ready robotics. The startup focuses on giving operators real-time 3D intelligence and seamless autonomy switching.
Neuracore’s €2.5M Bet to Fix Robotics’ Frankenstein Problem
Neuracore just secured €2.5 million in pre-Seed funding to build unified robot-learning infrastructure. The platform aims to eliminate the “Frankenstein” setups that currently consume 80% of engineering time. They’re also launching a free academic program to give researchers the same tools as commer