SaaS Isn’t Dead🏗️, Anthropic Runs Your Business for $0.30 🤖, Founder Salaries Rise Slowly Despite AI Billions💰

Feb 22, 2026

Another week, another pulse check on venture.

From top insights and reports to new funds, VC jobs, resources, and the hottest deals, here’s everything you need to stay ahead.

Let’s dive in 👇

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In-Depth Insights 🔍

SaaS Isn’t Dead. The Real Fight Is the Agentic Layer 🏗️
B2B SaaS firms hold proprietary data, domain expertise, and enterprise trust that new AI agents cannot match. The threat comes from failing to build agentic capabilities, leaving AI overlays to capture users. [Medium]

BREAKING: Trump orders declassification of all evidence of aliens, UFOs, extraterrestrial life, and unidentified aerial phenomena. 21% chance they’re confirmed 👽
President Trump directs all extraterrestrial and UFO evidence to be declassified, sending prediction markets into a frenzy. Polymarket places a 21% chance alien life is confirmed, marking the largest transparency push on this topic in history. [Polymarket]

Sam Altman Says ChatGPT Surges as $100B Fundraise Looms 💰
ChatGPT has returned to 10%+ monthly growth, reaching 800M weekly users while OpenAI pitches investors for a massive new round. Microsoft, Nvidia, Amazon, and SoftBank could contribute as OpenAI competes with Anthropic on coding, ads, and AI leadership. [CNBC International]
Nvidia Bought Groq to Kill Competition, Not Revenue ♟️
Groq’s chips threatened Nvidia’s exclusive position, making the acquisition strategic rather than financial. Early backer Chamath Palihapitiya likely walked away with billions, showing venture rewards conviction held through doubt.
Claude Cowork Shakes Software Stocks, $285B Wiped Out 💥
Anthropic’s Claude Cowork autonomously completes real work across files, spreadsheets, and reports with 11 role-specific plugins. Investors panicked as project management and workflow software fell, realizing AI that works and not just advises is a different SaaS threat.
AI Agents Becoming the New Search Engine, Playing Favorites 🛒
Gartner predicts 90% of B2B purchases will flow through AI agents in three years and two-thirds of buyers already trust them over Google. Founders must build products genuinely worth recommending as keyword-stuffing and ads will not sway AI-driven decisions. [SaaStr]

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Interesting Reports 📊

Startup Fundraising Hit $120B in 2025 as AI Dominates 💰
Venture funding surged 17% to nearly $120B, but AI startups captured the biggest gains with valuations up to 193% higher than non-AI peers. Deal counts dropped while capital concentrated into fewer, larger rounds, leaving IPO exits scarce. [carta]
Anthropic’s Sonnet 4.6 Runs Your Business for $0.30 🤖
Claude Sonnet 4.6 completes complex workflows with up to 94% accuracy, logging in, navigating multi-page flows, and fixing errors automatically. Small businesses can replace $30/hour contractors with automated AI, handling reports, monitoring, and email for pennies.
Agentic AI Becomes Core of Enterprise SaaS 📈
Q4 2025 saw $23.6B in deals as CIOs abandoned internal AI builds, buying platforms like Salesforce’s Agentforce instead. The move from copilots to autonomous digital labor is driving a major uptick in enterprise software spending. [PitchBook]
Founder Salaries Rise Slowly Despite AI Billions 💰
Creandum survey finds US founders earn 1.5x European peers, with AI-native founders ranking third in median seed salary at €110K. Gender pay gaps shrink to 3-5%, bonuses return at Series C, and DACH now outpaces the UK for founder pay. [Creandum]

The AI Corner

Claude Can Now Do SEO Like a $10,000/Month Agency (For Free)

The results changed how I think about SEO execution entirely…

8 days ago · 49 likes · Ruben Dominguez

Recently Launched Funds 💸

Thrive Capital raised $10B+ for its tenth fund to double down on AI, fintech, consumer, and enterprise tech.
Battery Ventures closed a $3.25B global fund targeting high-growth software, AI, and industrial tech companies.
Mundi Ventures reached a €750M first close for Fund V to invest across fintech, climate, and deep tech.
Dragonfly Capital secured $650M for its fourth fund focused on crypto and blockchain infrastructure
Frist Cressey Ventures closed a $425M Fund IV to back tech-enabled healthcare and value-based care platforms.

The AI Corner

OpenAI’s early pitch deck, broken down

Before ChatGPT…

a month ago · 50 likes · Ruben Dominguez

Fundraising?

If you're raising a round, Luis Llorens and I can help. We gather startup fundraising data and share it with our audience of 300k+ investors and startup operators.

Fill out this form and we’ll will do our best to connect you with the right investors! 🚀

These are the startups raising NOW

VC Jobs 💼

Foreground Capital (Boston, MA, US): Chief of Staff (apply here)
Immune Boost Capital (Remote): VC Principal (apply here)
Guardian Life Ventures (New York City, NY, US): VC Lead (apply here)
Powerhouse Ventures (Oakland, CA, US): Ops Associate (apply here)
Schreiber Ventures (Green Bay, WI, US): VC Associate (apply here)
Specialist VC (Estonia): Finance Lead (apply here)
Atomico (Berlin, Germany): VC Analyst (apply here)
Luka Ventures (Amsterdam, Netherlands): VC Investor (apply here)
Upgrade Growth (London, England, UK): VC Associate (apply here)
Plug and Play (Valencia, Spain): VC Analyst (apply here)

Hottest Deals 💥

xAI raised $3B in Series E funding to accelerate development of its AI models and expand compute infrastructure. (read more)
inKind secured $450M in funding to scale its restaurant payments and rewards ecosystem. (read more)
Vestwell closed $385M in Series E funding to enhance its digital retirement and savings platform. (read more)
Temporal raised $300M in Series D funding to expand its durable execution platform for developers. (read more)
Wayflyer raised $250M through a credit facility to grow its e-commerce financing solutions. (read more)
Korsana Biosciences secured $175M in funding to advance its oncology-focused drug pipeline. (read more)
Heron Power raised $140M in Series B funding to accelerate deployment of its clean energy systems. (read more)
Utility Global announced a $100M first close of its Series D to expand its global clean energy initiatives. (read more)
Render raised $100M in a Series C extension to scale its cloud infrastructure platform. (read more)
Altesa Biosciences closed $75M in Series B funding to advance its antiviral therapeutics portfolio. (read more)
Novig raised $75M in Series B funding to build a trader-first sports prediction market. (read more)
Efficient Computer secured $60M in Series A funding to scale its energy-efficient processor architecture. (read more)
Ownwell raised $50M in Series B funding to expand its property tax savings platform. (read more)
VulnCheck closed $25M in Series B funding to grow its vulnerability intelligence platform. (read more)
ProSomnus received $38M in strategic investment to accelerate growth of its precision oral appliance therapies. (read more)