Riding an AI rally, Robinhood preps second retail venture IPO; plus, Korea’s biggest manufacturers back Config, the TSMC of robot data

A lens the size of a thumbnail — and the South Korean startup that makes it could become the optical backbone of the AI glasses era. Also, AI-powered marketing platform Nectar Social announced Thursday that it raised a $30 million Series A round led by Menlo Ventures and its Anthology Fund, which was created alongside Anthropic. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hardware company Atech raised $800,000 in pre-seed funding, including from a16z’s scout fund, Sequoia Scout Fund, and Nordic Makers. Plus, Meridian Ventures, the venture firm founded by Devon Gethers and Karlton Haney, announced on Friday the raise of a $35 million second fund to back pre-seed and seed-stage companies founded by those who have deferred MBAs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Crosby is building Synthetic, a fully autonomous AI bookkeeping service for other startups. Also, a year ago, it looked like this day would never happen for Cerebras. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Legal tech startups, including Clio, which just hit $500 million in ARR, are seeing massive customer adoption. After achieving $2.2 billion in revenue in 2025, the defense tech startup has raised another massive round, led by Thrive and a16z, it says. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The round valued the three-year-old startup at $725 million. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Robinhood files confidentially for its second venture fund, this time targeting growth as well as early-stage startups. Also, Samsung, Hyundai and LG just bet on the startup that wants to be robotics' data backbone. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Cowboy Space Corporation wants to put data centers in orbit. First, it has to build the rockets to get them there. Also, how will work setups change if we spend more and more time talking to our computers? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The investment comes as Pronto scales to 26,000 daily bookings and the market heads toward a potential $18 billion size. Also, Genesis AI, a startup that raised a $105 million seed round to build foundational AI for robotics, has unveiled its first model, GENE-26.5, but also a demo showcasing a set of robotic hands performing complex tasks. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ethos says it is onboarding 35,000 experts per week Also, Altara’s AI aims to diagnose failures and help speed up R&D by unifying data siloed across spreadsheets and legacy systems. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

AI chip maker Cerebras is heading for a blockbuster IPO that could value it at $26.6 billion or more. It's relationship with OpenAI is deep and rich. Also, Katie Haun announced on Monday that $1 billion has been raised across new funds to continue the firm’s thesis of backing crypto and blockchain startups. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices