Top News

A federal judge handed Anthropic a partial win in a closely watched copyright case, ruling that training AI models on legally purchased books counts as “fair use” under U.S. law. The Wall Street Journal has more here. 

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New Data Highlights the Race to Build More Empathetic Language Models

By Russell Brandom

Measuring AI progress has usually meant testing scientific knowledge or logical reasoning — but while the major benchmarks still focus on left-brain logic skills, there’s been a quiet push within AI companies to make models more emotionally intelligent. As foundation models compete on soft measures like user preference and “feeling the AGI,” having a good command of human emotions may be more important than hard analytic skills.

One sign of that focus came on Friday, when prominent open source group LAION released a suite of open source tools focused entirely on emotional intelligence. Called EmoNet, the release focuses on interpreting emotions from voice recordings or facial photography, a focus that reflects how the creators view emotional intelligence as a central challenge for the next generation of models.

“The ability to accurately estimate emotions is a critical first step,” the group wrote in its announcement. “The next frontier is to enable AI systems to reason about these emotions in context.”

For LAION founder Christoph Schuhmann, this release is less about shifting the industry’s focus to emotional intelligence and more about helping independent developers keep up with a change that’s already happened. “This technology is already there for the big labs,” Schuhmann tells TechCrunch. “What we want is to democratize it.”

The shift isn’t limited to open source developers; it also shows up in public benchmarks like EQ-Bench, which aims to test AI models’ ability to understand complex emotions and social dynamics. Benchmark developer Sam Paech says OpenAI’s models have made significant progress in the last six months, and Google’s Gemini 2.5 Pro shows indications of post-training with a specific focus on emotional intelligence.

“The labs all competing for chatbot arena ranks may be fueling some of this, since emotional intelligence is likely a big factor in how humans vote on preference leaderboards,” Paech says, referring to the AI model comparison platform that recently spun off as a well-funded startup.

More here. 

Massive Fundings

Abridge, a seven-year-old Pittsburgh startup whose AI software listens to doctor-patient conversations and automatically generates medical notes and billing codes for healthcare providers, raised a $300 million Series E at a $5.3 billion valuation, doubling its valuation in just four months, according to reporting from The Wall Street Journal. The deal was led by Andreessen Horowitz, with Khosla Ventures also chiming in. TechCrunch has more here. 

Digital Asset, an 11-year-old New York company that provides blockchain infrastructure through its Canton network that helps financial institutions manage real-world assets with privacy and compliance controls, raised a $135 million round co-led by DRW Venture Capital and Tradeweb Markets, with BNP Paribas, Circle Ventures, Citadel Securities, DTCC, Goldman Sachs, IMC, Liberty City Ventures, Optiver, Paxos, Polychain Capital, QCP, Republic Digital, 7RIDGE, and Virtu Financial also piling on. CNBC has more here.

ForSight Robotics, a five-year-old Israeli startup that is developing a robotic system to assist surgeons in performing cataract and other eye surgeries with greater precision and reduced physical strain, raised a $125 million Series B round led by Eclipse, with Fred Moll, the Adani Group, and Reiya Ventures also participating. The company has raised a total of $195 million. MassDevice has more here.

Halter, a nine-year-old Auckland startup that equips cattle ranchers and dairy farmers with smart collars, signal towers, and a mobile app that let them virtually fence, move, and monitor their herds to improve grazing and reduce manual work, raised a $100 million Series D round at a $1 billion post-money valuation. Bond was the lead investor, with additional participation from NewView Capital as well as previous investors Bessemer Venture Partners, DCVC, Blackbird, Icehouse Ventures, and Promus Ventures. Beef Magazine has more here.

Neuron23, a seven-year-old South San Francisco startup that developing precise oral medicines that target genetic causes of brain and immune diseases, especially aiming to slow early-stage Parkinson’s in patients with a specific gene mutation, raised a $96.5 million Series D round led by an unnamed healthcare investor, with Westlake Village BioPartners, SoftBank, Redmile Group, Blue Owl, Kleiner Perkins, HBM Healthcare Investments, and Acorn Bioventures also taking part. More here.

Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings

Enter, a five-year-old Berlin startup that helps homeowners plan, finance, and carry out energy-efficient home renovations using software and an on-site service network aimed at property owners, raised a $23.2 million Series B round. Investors included SE Ventures as well as prior backers Coatue, Target Global, Noa, Partech, and Foundamental. EU-Startups has more here.

Eventual, a three-year-old San Francisco startup that is developing a data processing engine that to enable AI developers to work with unstructured data like text, images, audio, and video in one place, raised a $20 million Series A round led by Felicis, with M12 and Citi also digging in. The company has raised a total of $27.5 million. TechCrunch has more here. 

GoKwik, a five-year-old New Delhi startup that provides integrated e-commerce tools for merchants across India and abroad, raised a $13 million round at a $450 million pre-money valuation. The deal was led by RTP Global, with Peak XV Partners, Think Investments, and Z47 also taking stakes. The company has raised a total of $68 million. TechCrunch has more here.

GTE, a one-year-old New York company that operates a decentralized exchange that lets users trade and launch tokens at high speed while keeping control of their own funds, raised a $15 million Series A round. Paradigm was the deal lead. The Block has more here.

Lyceum, a Berlin and Zurich startup founded this year whose platform is designed to enable European companies, researchers, and public agencies to run compute-heavy tasks like AI training on servers located in the EU, raised an $11.9 million pre-seed round led by Redalpine, with 10x Founders also engaging. Tech.eu has more here.

NPHub, an eight-year-old Atlanta startup that connects nurse practitioner students and professionals with clinical training sites and job placements through an online matching platform, raised a $20 million round. Edison Partners was the sole investor. More here.

Paraform, a two-year-old San Francisco startup that connects companies with expert independent recruiters through an AI-enhanced marketplace raised a $20 million Series A round led by Felicis, with participation from A*, BOND, DST Global, and Liquid 2. The company has raised a total of $25 million. Forbes has more here.

Quinn, a four-year-old New York startup that provides banks, publishers, and advisory firms with an AI-powered financial planning tool that helps them give personalized advice and recommendations, raised an $11 million seed round. Viola Fintech was the lead investor. More here.

SuperDial, a four-year-old San Francisco startup that builds AI voice agents that place administrative phone calls such as insurance verifications and billing follow-ups on behalf of healthcare providers and billing companies, raised a $12 million Series A round led by SignalFire and including previous investors Slow Ventures, Box Group, and Scrub Capital. Fierce Healthcare has more here.

Synthflow, a two-year-old Berlin startup that helps enterprises build and deploy custom voice AI agents without code, raised a $20 million Series A round led by Accel, with Atlantic Labs and Singular also participating. TechCrunch has more here. 

Wispr Flow, a four-year-old San Francisco startup that makes an AI-powered headset and app that transcribes natural speech into text in real-time, raised a $30 million Series A round led by Menlo Ventures, with NEA and 8VC also contributing. The company has raised a total of $56 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Zeelo, a nine-year-old London startup that uses AI-powered software and a network of bus operators to plan, run, and monitor shared shuttle services for companies, schools, and campuses, raised a $23 million Series B round led by Blue Earth Capital, with Direttissima Growth Partners and Peter Bauer's family office also pitching in. Silicon Canals has more here.

Smaller Fundings

Blueprint Finance, a two-year-old New York startup that builds blockchain-based tools that let developers, investment groups, and organizations create and manage digital asset portfolios and lending protocols on Ethereum and Solana, raised a $9.5 million led by Polychain Capital, with Yzi Labs and VanEck also joining in. Fortune has more here.

Mahalo, a Chicago startup founded this year that provides SMBs with an AI platform that automates post‑purchase tasks like warranty registration, troubleshooting, and claims handling for both customers and support teams, raised a $2.6 million pre-seed round led by Motivate Venture Capital, with Diagram and Bridge Venture Fund also investing. CityBiz has more here.

Meridian, a two-year-old Miami startup that is building an AI-powered deal management platform to help private equity, credit, and M&A professionals find, track, and evaluate investment opportunities more efficiently, raised a $7 million seed round led by 645 Ventures, with previous investor Chaac Ventures also opting in. Refresh Miami has more here.

Moonnox, a three-year-old Chicago startup that is building an AI tool to help consulting firms manage projects, document internal knowledge, and reduce repetitive tasks, raised a $2 million round led by M25 and including Hyde Park Angels, Early Light Ventures, and Service Provider Capital. More here.

OutSee, a three-year-old startup based in Cambridge, UK, that uses AI to analyze individual genomes and predict biological mechanisms behind diseases in order to help drug developers identify new treatment targets, raised a $2.4 million seed round. Ahren Innovation Capital was the lead investor, with Kadmos Capital, Empirical Ventures, and Panacea Ventures also joining in. Tech Funding News has more here.

Qualytics, a five-year-old Atlanta startup whose AI-powered data quality platform is built to help enterprise data teams automatically detect anomalies and maintain clean, reliable data across databases and warehouses, raised a $10 million Series A round led by BMW i Ventures, with Conductive Ventures and Firebrand Ventures as well as previous investors Tech Square Ventures, Knoll Ventures, Inner Loop Capital, SaaS Venture Capital, and Rich Family Ventures also anteing up. More here.

Voicecare AI, a three-year-old San Francisco startup that builds voice-based AI agents that handle administrative phone calls like insurance checks and billing follow-ups for healthcare providers and billing companies, raised a $4.5 million seed round led by Caduceus Capital Partners, with Bread and Butter Ventures and Mayo Clinic also participating. Fierce Healthcare has more here.

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New Funds

Project A, a 13-year-old Berlin VC firm, has closed its fifth fund with $373 million in capital commitments to back early-stage European startups in defense, AI, fintech, and supply chain software. Tech in Asia has more here. 

Scenic Management, a three-year-old San Francisco secondary firm, has raised a $150 million vehicle to buy startup shares from VCs and employees, betting the liquidity crunch isn’t ending anytime soon despite a flicker of life in the exit markets. The Wall Street Journal has more here. 

Exits

CareerBuilder + Monster, once giants of online hiring, filed for bankruptcy and are selling off their parts to upstarts like JobGet and Canadian software firms after losing ground to LinkedIn and other modern recruiting platforms. Reuters has more here. 

GovPro AI, a 1.5-year-old startup based in Washington, DC, that uses AI to help government contractors draft compliant RFP proposals, has been purchased by Unanet, a 37-year-old company based in Dulles, VA, that provides provides ERP and CRM software tailored for government contractors, AEC, and professional services firms. Terms were not disclosed. ExecutiveGov has more here. 

Going Public

Lime, the eight-year-old San Francisco startup that operates an electric bike and scooter network, has hired Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan to prep for a long-anticipated U.S. IPO. Reuters has more here. 

People

The infamous "Big Balls" has resigned from DOGE. Wired has more here. 

The inimitable John Oliver and Last Week Tonight take aim at AI slop and why it is suddenly everywhere. More here.

Essential Reads

iPhone owners were none too pleased to receive an Apple Wallet ad for Apple's new movie, F1. "I did not pay over $1000 for an iPhone to get advertised at," one Reddit user complained. TechCrunch has more here.   

WhatsApp has quietly turned into a battleground for AI chatbots, with OpenAI and Perplexity grabbing mindshare inside Meta’s own app and making it harder for Meta AI to dominate on its home turf. Business Insider has more here. 

Microsoft is quietly clashing with OpenAI over enterprise turf, as ChatGPT’s growing popularity with corporate users undercuts Microsoft’s Copilot pitch and complicates negotiations over ownership and control inside the startup. Bloomberg has more here. 

Broadway is going all-in on screens, with high-res projections and live video now central to storytelling in major productions, blurring the line between stagecraft and screen culture as the theater chases younger, tech-native audiences. The New York Times has more here. 

Detours

Because bears eating honey is always funny, Mish and Lucy, two rescued brown bears at a UK wildlife sanctuary, broke out of their enclosure, devoured a week's worth of honey, then casually wandered back to bed, prompting a mild code red and a very British investigation.

Jordan Schultz, son of billionaire former Starbucks CEO and ex-VC Howard Schultz, is shaking up the NFL insider game with private jet meetups, player sleepovers, and a string of scoops that have old-school reporters grumbling and league execs taking note.

Retail Therapy

Waldorf Astoria is launching a 29-suite cruise ship on the Nile in late 2026, joining the luxury cruise fray with spa decks, Peacock Alley dining, and private docks in Luxor and Aswan as high-end hospitality brands race to monetize Egypt’s tourism boom.

A pretty wild watch. 

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