Anthropic and OpenAI Close In on Two Huge New Rounds

For this week's StrictlyVC Download podcast, we talked with Airtable founder and CEO Howie Liu about the company's progress and got an unexpected reveal: Airtable's first standalone product in its 13-year history, Superagent, which launched today. Is it a complement to Airtable or a potential successor? Liu has some surprising thoughts. (We also broke down the news here.)

Top News

According to reporting from the Financial Times, Anthropic has doubled its targeted fundraise to $20 billion amid surging investor demand, a move that would value the company at $350 billion. TechCrunch has more here.

Speaking of Anthropic, court filings show the company quietly spent tens of millions buying, slicing, scanning, and recycling millions of books in a scheme called “Project Panama” in order to feed its AI models. The Washington Post has more here.

SoftBank is reportedly in talks to invest up to an additional $30 billion in OpenAI, building on its existing 11% stake as the AI company seeks as much as $100 billion in new capital at a potential valuation of up to $830 billion. The Wall Street Journal has more here.

TikTok has joined Snap in settling a lawsuit accusing social media companies of engineering addictive products that harmed young users, with Meta and YouTube still remaining as defendants. TechCrunch has more here.

Anduril Has Invented a Wild New Drone-Flying Contest Where Jobs Are the Prize

Image Credits: Patrick T. Fallon / AFP / Getty Images

By Julie Bort

Anduril founder Palmer Luckey’s eyes light up, and he talks a mile a minute, when discussing his company’s new recruiting event: the AI Grand Prix.

This is a drone-flying contest with a twist. Rather than humans operating drones, the drones must operate autonomously. The humans will be tested on their software-writing skills that cause the drones to outfly their competition.

There are prizes ranging from a $500,000 pot to be split amongst the highest-scoring teams, to jobs at Anduril and a chance to bypass the company’s standard recruiting cycle.

“It was something that I decided we should do,” Luckey said in an interview with TechCrunch. Luckey and the team were meeting to discuss recruitment strategy, he recalled.

Someone suggested sponsoring a drone-racing tournament, which was somewhat in line with the company’s previous marketing tactics. For instance, Anduril sponsors the NASCAR Cup Series race known as the Anduril 250.

Luckey generally liked the idea but then told the team, “‘Guys, that would be a really dumb thing for Anduril to sponsor. The whole point, our entire impetus and reason for being, is this pitch that autonomy has finally advanced to where you don’t have to have a person micromanaging each drone,’” he recalled, then added, “‘What we should really do is sponsor a race that’s about how well programmers and engineers can make a drone fly itself.’”

After discovering that such an event didn’t exist, the company opted to create it themselves. Interestingly, though, Luckey pointed out that the teams in the AI Grand Prix will not be flying Anduril’s drones, but those built by another defense tech startup: Neros Technologies. According to Luckey, Anduril’s drones are too physically big to run in the contained course in Ohio where the finals will take place.

Massive Fundings

Cyclic Materials, a five-year-old Toronto startup that recovers rare earth elements from end-of-life products and manufacturing waste, raised a $75 million Series C round led by T. Rowe Price, with the Canada Growth Fund also participating. The company has raised a total of $162+ million. BetaKit has more here.

Mesh, a six-year-old San Francisco startup that offers a unified crypto payments network connecting wallets, exchanges, and financial services platforms, raised a $75 million Series C round at a $1 billion post-money valuation. The deal was led by Dragonfly Capital, with Paradigm, Moderne Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, SBI Investment, and Liberty City Ventures also participating. The company has raised a total of $200+ million. The Block has more here.

Northwood Space, a three-year-old startup based in Torrance, CA, that develops ground-based communications infrastructure for satellites, raised a $100 million Series B round co-led by Washington Harbour Partners and prior backer Andreessen Horowitz. TechCrunch has more here.

Summize, an eight-year-old startup based in Manchester, UK, that provides contract lifecycle management software for in-house legal teams, raised a $50 million seed round. Investors included Kennet Partners and Federated Hermes Private Equity as well as previous investors Maven Capital Partners and YFM Equity Partners. UKTN has more here.

TRexBio, an eight-year-old South San Francisco startup that develops tissue-targeted regulatory T cell therapies for inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, raised a $50 million round. Investors included Janus Henderson Investors, Balyasny Asset Management, and Affinity Asset Advisors as well as previous investors Alexandria Venture Investments, Avego BioScience Capital, Delos Capital, Eli Lilly and Company, Johnson & Johnson Innovation, Pfizer Ventures, Polaris Partners, and SV Health Investors. BioSpace has more here.

Vention, a 10-year-old Montréal company that provides technology that lets manufacturers use AI to design, configure, and run robots and automated machines on factory floors, raised a $110 million Series D round led by Investissement Québec, with NVentures and Desjardins Capital as well as previous investor Fidelity Investments Canada also joining in. BetaKit has more here.

Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings

Concourse, a three-year-old New York startup that develops AI agents for corporate finance teams, raised a $12 million Series A round led by Standard Capital, with Andreessen Horowitz, CRV, and Y Combinator also investing. More here.

Evaro, an eight-year-old London startup that lets consumer brands embed regulated NHS-backed healthcare services into their apps, raised a $25 million Series A round led by AlbionVC, with Simplyhealth Ventures, Exceptional Ventures, Cornerstone VC, and BBI also contributing. Tech Funding News has more here.

Flora, a two-year-old New York startup that provides a node-based design tool for creating media assets using generative AI, raised a $42 million Series A round led by Redpoint Ventures, with Menlo Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, and Long Journey Ventures as well as angels like Justin Kan, Mike Volpi, and Cyan Banister also taking part. The company has raised a total of $52 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Fulcrum, a three-year-old San Francisco startup that provides an AI platform for insurance brokerages to automate workflows such as policy checks and proposal generation, raised a $20 million Series A round led by CRV, with South Park Commons and previous investor Foundation Capital also investing. The company has raised a total of $25 million. More here.

Gigablue, a four-year-old New York startup that develops ocean-based carbon removal technology using marine microalgae to capture and store carbon dioxide, raised a $20 million Series A round. Planet Ocean Capital was the deal lead. ESG Today has more here.

Memcyco, a four-year-old Tel Aviv startup that provides real-time protection against phishing and account takeover attacks, raised a $37 million Series A round co-led by NAventures, E. León Jimenes, and Pags Group, with previous investors Capri Ventures and Venture Guides also participating. The company has raised a total of $47 million. CTech has more here.

Phia, a one-year-old New York startup that provides an AI shopping app that surfaces cheaper resale and alternative products while users browse, raised a $35 million Series A round led by Notable Capital, with Khosla Ventures as well as previous investor Kleiner Perkins also participating. TechCrunch has more here.

Pixellot, a 13-year-old Israeli company that provides AI-powered automated video production and streaming tools for youth and amateur sports, raised a $15 million round led by previous investor PSG Equity. It also raised $20 million in debt. More here.

Raylo, a seven-year-old London startup that provides subscription infrastructure for consumer electronics brands, raised a $13.8 million round led by Citibank. The company also raised $27.5 million in debt from previous investor NatWest. EU-Startups has more here.

Smaller Fundings

Barnwell Bio, a two-year-old New York startup that uses metagenomic sequencing to help poultry producers detect disease threats earlier, raised a $6 million seed round led by Twelve Below and including Max Ventures, Dorm Room Fund, Banter Capital, Planeteer Capital, AgVentures Alliance, Daybreak Ventures, and Alumni Ventures. AgFunderNews has more here.

Billdr, a six-year-old Montréal startup that provides vertical SaaS tools for small and mid-sized construction contractors, raised a $3.2 million seed round led by White Star Capital, with Desjardins Capital as well as previous investors One Way Ventures, asterX, and Formentera Capital also opting in. BetaKit has more here.