StrictlyVC Newsletter

Top News

The European Commission has fined Apple €500 million and Meta €200 million for failing to comply with its Digital Markets Act, possibly precipitating a confrontation with President Trump, who earlier this year threatened to respond to any EU fines against U.S. tech companies. The Wall Street Journal has more here. 

An executive from the AI search engine Perplexity testified today in the remedies phase of the U.S. v. Google trial that Google's contract with Motorola blocked Perplexity AI from becoming the default search engine on Motorola devices and likened Google's contracts to a "gun to your head." Bloomberg has more here. 

Neuralink, a nine-year-old brain implant startup co-founded by Elon Musk, has begun discussions to raise $500 million at an $8.5 billion pre-money valuation, according to Bloomberg, which has more here. 

Windsurf Slashes Prices as Competition with Cursor Heats Up

By Charles Rollet

AI coding assistant startup Windsurf cut its prices “across the board” it announced on Monday, touting “massive savings” for its users as competition with its rival Cursor intensifies.

Windsurf said it’s getting rid of its complex system of “flow action credits,” which charged developers for actions its AI did in the background. It’s also cutting prices for its team plans to $30 per user per month down from $35, while making its enterprise plans “much cheaper,” per the announcement.

Windsurf product marketer Rob Hou proclaimed on X that Windsurf now has “BY FAR the best and most affordable pricing structure of all AI coding tools on the market,” crediting this to Windsurf optimizing its GPU usage.

Hou criticized “confusing” competitor plans priced at $20 a month in an apparent dig at Cursor’s individual monthly plan, which starts at $20 compared to Windsurf’s $15.

The pricing overhaul comes as Windsurf is reportedly being considered for an acquisition by OpenAI for $3 billion (Cursor’s creator Anysphere is in talks to raise at a $10 billion valuation). As TechCrunch previously reported, Windsurf is the smaller of the two coding assistant startups, generating about $100 million in ARR compared to Cursor’s $300 million. OpenAI originally wanted to buy Cursor, but it’s growing so quickly that it’s not in the market to be sold.

More here.

Massive Fundings

Alpaca, a ten-year-old company based in San Mateo, CA, that offers APIs that let fintech companies and developers build stock and crypto trading features into their apps, raised a $52 million Series C. Investors included Derayah Financial, 850 Management, National Investments Company Kuwait, Unbound, and Portage Ventures. The company has raised a total of $170 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Chainguard, a four-year-old startup based in Kirkland, WA, that builds open source security tools to help software developers secure their supply chains, raised a $356 million round at a $3.5 billion valuation. The deal was co-led by Kleiner Perkins and prior backer IVP, with additional participation from Salesforce Ventures and Datadog Ventures as well as previous investors Sequoia Capital, Spark Capital, Amplify, Redpoint Ventures, Lightspeed, and Mantis VC. The company has raised a total of $612 million. GeekWire has more here.

Endor Labs, a three-year-old Palo Alto startup that has built a scanning tool that detects potential vulnerabilities and compliance risks in code written by developers or AI tools like ChatGPT, raised a $93 million Series B round led by DFJ Growth, with Salesforce Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Coatue, Dell Technologies Capital, Section 32, and Citi Ventures also participating. The company has raised a total of $163 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Instrumental,  a ten-year-old Oakland company whose AI-powered platform helps nonprofits and research institutions find, track, and apply for grants more efficiently, raised a $55 million round led by Summit Partners. The Wall Street Journal has more here. 

Nourish, a four-year-old New York startup that connects people with registered dietitians for virtual, insurance-covered nutrition counseling, raised a $70 million Series B round led by JPMorgan Private Capital, with Thrive Capital, Index Ventures, Y Combinator, Maverick Ventures, BoxGroup, Atomico, G Squared, and Pinegrove also pitching in. Fierce Healthcare has more here.

Noxtua, an eight-year-old Berlin startup that uses local legal knowledge and language models to help users research laws, draft documents, and review legal texts more efficiently, raised a $92.2 million Series B round. C.H. Beck was the deal lead, with Northern Data Group, CMS, and Dentons also taking part. TechCrunch has more here.

Omnidian, a ten-year-old Seattle company that provides monitoring and performance protection plans for homeowners and businesses that use solar energy systems, raised an $87 million Series C round led by B Capital, with Marunouchi Innovation Partners, BNP Paribas, Citi Impact Fund, and Alumni Ventures as well as previous investors Activate Capital, Liberty Mutual Investments, National Grid Partners, and Wind Ventures also contributing. The company has raised a total of approximately $165 million, according to GeekWire, which has more here.

Sentra, a four-year-old Tel Aviv and New York startup whose product scans cloud environments to identify where data lives, who can access it, and whether it’s at risk with the aim of making it easier for security teams to manage data privacy and compliance, raised a $50 million Series B round led by Key1 Capital, with previous investors Bessemer Venture Partners, Zeev Ventures, Standard Investments, and Munich Re Ventures also investing. The company has raised a total of $100+ million. SecurityWeek has more here.

Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings

Arch Labs, a two-year-old New York startup that is building a virtual machine that lets developers build smart contracts and decentralized applications using Bitcoin instead of other blockchains like Ethereum, raised a $13 million Series A round at a $200 million valuation. Pantera Capital was the deal lead. More here.

Bloom Credit, a nine-year-old Chicago startup whose platform helps lenders and fintech companies access credit bureau data and generate cash flow reports, raised a $10.5 million round. Crosslink Capital led the transaction, with Allegis Capital, CT Innovations, and Commerce Ventures also chiming in. More here.

Cynomi, a five-year-old Israeli and London startup that helps IT service providers and internal teams manage cybersecurity tasks like risk assessments, compliance tracking, and policy creation, raised a $37 million Series B round co-led by Insight Partners and Entrée Capital, with previous investors Canaan Partners, Flint Capital, and S16VC also stepping up. TechCrunch has more here.

Deep Infra, a three-year-old Palo Alto startup that provides a cloud platform that allows developers to run AI models without managing their own hardware, raised an $18 million Series A round. Previous investors Felicis and Georges Harik were the co-leads. More here.

Froda, a ten-year-old Stockholm company whose platform provides European SMBs with fast access to debt financing, raised a $22.6 million round. Incore Invest led the investment. TechCrunch has more here.

Healthee, a six-year-old New York startup that provides personalized guidance for employees on insurance plans, medical services, and out-of-pocket costs, raised a $30 million Series B round led by Key1 Capital and including TriNet as well as previous investors Fin Capital, Glilot Capital Partners, and Group11. It also raised $20 million in debt. CTech has more here.

Listen Labs, a two-year-old San Francisco startup that uses AI to conduct and analyze voice-based interviews, helping companies understand consumer opinions and behavior at scale, raised $27 million in seed and Series A financing from Sequoia Capital. Fortune has more here. 

Miggo Security, a two-year-old Tel Aviv and New York startup that protects running software applications by detecting and blocking security threats in real time without requiring code changes, raised a $17 million Series A round led by SYN Ventures and joined by previous investor YL Ventures. CTech has more here.

Northwood, a three-year-old startup based in El Segundo, CA, that builds and operates ground stations that communicate with satellites to download and process data, raised a $30 million Series A round co-led by Alpine Space Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz, with Also Capital, Founders Fund, Box Group, Balerion, Banter Capital, and Humba Ventures also anteing up. Space News has more here.

Ravenna, a one-year-old Seattle startup that helps companies automate internal support tasks like IT, HR, and finance requests by using AI to respond to employee questions across tools like Slack and Microsoft Teams, raised a $15 million pre-seed and seed round co-led by Madrona and Khosla Ventures. More here.

Salsa, a four-year-old New York startup whose embedded payroll software allows other companies like HR platforms or staffing firms to add payroll services directly into their products, raised a $20 million Series A round led by Altos Ventures, with Greycroft, SemperVirens, Definition, and Better Tomorrow Ventures also opting in. The company has raised a total of $30 million. PYMNTS has more here.

Steadily, a five-year-old Austin startup that provides landlord insurance through a digital platform, raised a $30 million Series C round at a $355 million valuation. The deal was led by Two Sigma Ventures, with Clocktower Technology Ventures, Belfer Investment Partners, Nine Four Ventures, and Matrix Partners also piling on. The company has raised a total of $89.5 million. More here.

Smaller Fundings

Ascertain, a three-year-old New York startup that uses AI to help healthcare providers automate tasks like prior authorizations, documentation, and patient communications, raised a $10 million Series A round led by Deerfield Management, with Northwell Health also participating. More here.

Cloud Capital, a two-year-old San Francisco startup that helps finance teams monitor and reduce their company’s cloud computing costs, raised a $5.4 million seed round co-led by Backed Ventures and Middlegame Ventures and including DFF Ventures. The company has raised a total of $7.7 million. SiliconANGLE has more here.

MirSense, a ten-year-old Paris company that develops laser-based sensors that detect gases in real time for use in industries like defense, environmental monitoring, and manufacturing, raised a $7.9 million Series A round led by Safran Corporate Ventures and joined by Supernova Invest, Polytechnique Ventures, and Crédit Agricole Alpes Développement. Startup Rise has more here.

Neurolabs, a London startup that uses synthetic data and visual AI to help CPG companies automatically track in-store product inventory, raised a $7.8 million Series A round led by Nauta, with previous investors LAUNCHub, Lunar Ventures, and Techstart also joining in. The company has raised a total of $12+ million. Tech.eu has more here. 

Recce, a two-year-old San Francisco startup whose product integrates into development workflows and flags problems related to data quality, structure, and usage, raised a $4 million round led by Heavybit, with additional participation from Vertex Ventures US and Hive Ventures. More here.

Respondology, a seventeen-year-old Boulder company that uses AI and human moderators to help brands and media companies automatically filter out toxic or spammy comments from their social media posts, raised a $5 million Series A extension. Investors included Iron Gate Capital, SJF Ventures, Zelkova Ventures, Boulder Heavy Industries, and RLB Holdings. Adweek has more here.

Tella, a five-year-old Amsterdam startup that has developed a screen recording and video editing app designed for professionals creating product demos, tutorials, and presentations, raised a $2.1 million seed round led by Gradient Ventures, with participation from AltaIR Capital, Mento VC, Lobster Capital, and The Singularity Fund. The company has raised a total of $3.5 million. Tech Funding News has more here.

New Funds

Sunflower, a new seed-stage venture firm that backs startups that sell to business customers and was founded by Liu Jiang, a former Sequoia Capital partner, has closed its second fund with $150 million. Those capital commitments came fast, one of Sunflower's limited partners tells the WSJ, explaining: “Sequoia spinouts are fairly rare and garner attention.” Some of the 20 institutions that are backing the new vehicle include Dana-Farber Cancer Institute; Children’s Health, a pediatric health system; Pathstone, a multifamily office; California State Teachers’ Retirement System, which invested via its emerging-manager program run by Sapphire Partners; as well as fund-of-funds managers Industry Ventures and Screendoor. The WSJ has the story here.

Exits

Datadog, a 15-year-old New York company that helps companies track the performance of their applications, infrastructure, and security in real-time, has purchased Metaplane, a four-year-old Boston startup whose AI-powered tool alerts data teams when something breaks or changes in their data systems. Terms were not disclosed. TechCrunch has more here. 

Going Public

Jason Citron is stepping down as CEO of Discord, a company whose app lets people create or join group chat rooms to communicate by text, voice, or video. Discord has hired Humam Sakhnini, the former vice chairman at Activision Blizzard, as its new CEO. Asked by VentureBeat about the company's rumored plans to go public, Citron, who co-founded Discord, responded, "No specific plans. But as you can imagine, hiring someone like Humam is a step in that direction." TechCrunch has more here.

People

Source: The New York Times

Three prominent conservatives feuded with Elon Musk and saw their X traffic numbers plummet. The New York Times has more here. 

President Donald Trump is offering to have dinner with the top 220 investors in his memecoin. The New York Times has more here. 

When Zappos founder Tony Hsieh unexpectedly passed away in 2020, it was assumed that his will consisted of a series of sticky notes, but now, a new will has mysteriously surfaced. TechCrunch has more here.

Essential Reads

OpenAI has told investors that it expects to generate revenue of $125 billion in 2029 and $174 billion in 2030, with sales from agents and other products exceeding those from ChatGPT. The Information has the scoop here. 

Speaking of OpenAI, a growing number of former OpenAI employees, legal scholars, and consumer advocates are lining up in opposition to OpenAI's bid to become a for-profit entity. "If rules [governing OpenAI's restructuring plan] break under the influence of a sufficiently large profit incentive, the resulting precedent will not be limited to OpenAI," one corporate law professor opined. “Donors will no longer be able to trust that their gifts to charities will be used for their intended purposes, and the entire system of charitable giving may fall apart." The Washington Post has more here. 

Two Chinese companies - Contemporary Amperex Technology and BYD - have brought the time it takes to charge an EV down to just five minutes. The Wall Street Journal has more here. 

Scientists have succeeded in sending quantum-encrypted messages over a distance of 158 miles using existing telecommunications infrastructure, a major advance. The Wall Street Journal has the story here.

Detours

YouTube at 20: a madly addictive history of some of the site's greatest hits.

"Succession" creator Jesse Armstrong is back with a new movie about four billionaires living through an international crisis. 

A new world record in upside-down Jenga.

Retail Therapy

A "reporter jacket" collab from Aether and Leica. (We reporters take our fashion very seriously.)

A limited edition Porsche 911 that is an "ode to the disco era."