Tootfinder

Chinese state media: China launches three VC funds of $7.1B each to back early-stage "hard technology" startups valued below ¥500M, or about $71M (Reuters)
https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boa…

Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator - Capping-Credit-Card-Rates.pdf https://cdn.vanderbilt.edu/vu-URL/wp-content/uploads/sites/412/2025/09/03183755/Capping-Credit-Card-Rates.pdf

A profile of Dr. Phil, who launched Envoy Media two weeks after his company Merit Street Media filed for bankruptcy in July, prompting accusations of bad faith (Stacy Perman/Los Angeles Times)
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts…

Dr. Phil's media network is mired in bankruptcy. What happened?
The unraveling of Dr. Phil's media venture was a blow to the celebrity therapist who built a reputation as one of the most trusted voices on television. But his fortunes faded amid a dying market for syndicated TV and clashes with a distributor and partner.

Two interesting articles about the dubious financials of OpenAI and the recent NVIDIA earnings report (which regardless of positive outcome triggered a sell-off):
The Structural Collapse: How Google’s Integrated Stack Is Dismantling the OpenAI Thesis
https://shanakaanslemperera.substack…

The Structural Collapse: How Google’s Integrated Stack Is Dismantling the OpenAI Thesis
A leaked internal memo reveals the tectonic shift reshaping artificial intelligence, where platform economics are defeating venture-backed innovation at the exact moment markets assumed the opposite.

Flexion, which is building a full autonomy stack for humanoid robots, raised a $50M Series A from DST Global Partners, NVentures, and others, after a $7M seed (Mary Ann Azevedo/Crunchbase News)
https://news.crunchbase.com/venture/robotic-brain-building-star…

Exclusive: Founded By Ex-Nvidia Researchers, Flexion Lands $50M To Build The 'Brain' for Humanoid Robots
A startup founded by former Nvidia researchers that’s “building the brain for humanoid and human-capable robots,” Flexion has raised $50 million in funding, it tells Crunchbase News exclusively.

»The Story of Pixar's Stock Market Debut« – Which is also a story on venture capital and investment banking. Told by people who were part of the IPO. Enjoy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_c9CmnG3UzE

Serial entrepreneur Hamed Bahmani on early-stage building in neurotech https://www.neurofounders.co/post/serial-entrepreneur-hamed-bahmani-on-early-stage-building-in-neurotech

Serial Entrepreneur Hamed Bahmani on Early-Stage Building in Neurotech
Few people dare to start a company, and even fewer attempt it in a technically complex field like neurotechnology. Yet Dr Hamed Bahmani has now done it three times. After launching a clinical-stage company focused on myopia and another targeting Alzheimer’s through the visual system, he is doubling down on complexity. His latest venture has just emerged out of stealth, but early hints suggest it draws on decades spent at the forefront of neuro-innovation.Born in Iran, Bahmani studied engineer…

Booz Allen Hamilton commits $400M to a16z's newest set of funds, for which a16z raised $15B in January; this is Booz Allen's first LP stake in any VC fund (Lucinda Shen/Axios)
https://www.axios.com/pro/all-deals/2026/01/23/booz-allen-hamilton-400m…

Booz Allen Hamilton commits $400M to a16z funds
It's the firm's first LP stakes in any venture funds.

Latin American VC funding rose 14.3% YoY in 2025 to $4.1B, with early-stage investment up 31.9% YoY to nearly $2B and late-stage/growth deals reaching $1.63B (Mary Ann Azevedo/Crunchbase News)
https://news.crunchbase.com/venture/vcs-bullish-latam-startup-…

LatAm Startup Funding Rebounds In 2025 As Mexico Sees Surge In Investment And VCs Remain Bullish On Region
Latin America startup investment climbed by 14.3% in 2025, driven by a boost in both early- and late-stage funding, Crunchbase data shows. 

Stockholm-based vibe coding startup Lovable raised $330M led by CapitalG and Menlo Ventures at a $6.6B valuation, up from $1.8B after raising $200M in July (Niko Gallogly/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/18/busines

Lovable, a Start-Up That Makes Anyone a Coder, Raises $330 Million
The Swedish company is now valued at $6.6 billion, more than triple its $1.8 billion valuation set by investors in July.