The Endgame Of Vertical Integration🤖, VC Fund Performance💰, The Frontier AI Price Wars Continue💸

Another week, another pulse check on Tech.

From top insights a

nd reports to new funds, VC jobs, resources, and the hottest deals, here’s everything you need to stay ahead 👇

---

this weekly recap is brought to you by Second Front:

The Dummies Guide to USG Software Authorization

The US government is one of the largest software buyers on earth, and most companies never sell a seat because the authorization maze stops them first. ATO, FedRAMP, Impact Levels: the vocabulary alone ends most attempts.

Second Front wrote the guide that clears it up

▫️ Plain-English breakdown of ATO, FedRAMP, and DoD Impact Levels
▫️ The path with a government sponsor, and without one
▫️ Where teams stall, and how to plan around it

Second Front's Game Warden gets your product authorized and ready to ship on unclassified and classified networks across DoW, FedRAMP for civilian agencies, and GovRAMP for state, local, and education. One platform. Every level of government.

---

In-Depth Insights 🔍

• Speed Above All Else ⚡
  Commure treats speed as disciplined execution, arguing fast decisions backed by rigor outperform slow perfection across every stage of building. The approach draws on examples from Google Maps, the iPod, and the Empire State Building to show compressed timelines can still produce durable results. [Alfred Lin]

  

• Google Just Funded the Startup Its 4 Best People Left to Build 🧠
  Four longtime Google researchers launched Discovery Loop to automate scientific experimentation, with Alphabet backing the company from day one. The founders also helped develop talent that later built Anthropic, OpenAI, SSI, Thinking Machines, and Mistral, making the team unusually influential.

  

• The Rules I Try to Do Business By 🤝
  Simon Green compiled practical operating principles covering customer focus, system design, technical debt, and long term decision making. The collection also emphasizes consistent team management through structured communication, clear ownership, and sustainable working habits. [Simon Green]

• Jensen Huang Bet Wrong, Told the Truth, and Built a $5 Trillion Company💰
  Jensen Huang argued honest execution and course correction mattered more than early certainty, using NVIDIA’s first major failures as proof. He also outlined why physical AI is the company’s next major business and why automation replaces tasks before it replaces entire jobs.

• The Endgame Of Vertical Integration 🤖
  Model builders and agent companies are increasingly combining training and deployment instead of treating them as separate layers. The shift centers on matching models with specialized harnesses, improving economics while expanding control over end to end performance. [Akash Bajwa]

  

• Inside Unilever’s 300,000 Creator Network 📱
  Unilever coordinates hundreds of thousands of creators through internal teams, agency partners, and automated sourcing systems. The scale improves campaign reach but also raises questions about duplicated discovery processes and increasingly uniform creator content. [Digiday]

• The Frontier AI Price Wars Continue 💸
  Major AI providers continued lowering model prices as competition shifted toward lower inference costs and stronger value per task. The week also featured competing policy letters that exposed growing differences over how frontier AI development should be governed. [Contrary]

---

📢 Want to get in front of +500k founders and investors?

For sponsorship opportunities across this newsletter and LinkedIn (300k followers), email: ruben@thevccorner.com

---

Interesting Reports 📊

• The State of Intelligent Finance: AI, Agents, Trust 💰
  Consumers are becoming more comfortable using AI for financial decisions, but confidence depends on clear accountability. Human oversight, transparency, and reimbursement policies remain central to building trust in autonomous financial tools. [PLAID]

  

• The Dummies Guide to USG Software Authorization

  The US government is one of the largest software buyers on earth, and most companies never sell a seat because the authorization maze stops them first.

  Second Front wrote the guide that clears it up

• New Zealand’s Startup Engine Hits NZ$133B 🚀
  New Zealand’s VC backed startups now hold a combined NZ$133B valuation after raising NZ$9.8B since 2020, producing 8 unicorns and 2 decacorns. The ecosystem ranks highly for capital efficiency but still needs deeper later stage funding to support larger company formation. [Dealroom.co]

  

• VC Funds See Valuations Rise, Cash Returns Lag 🏦
  Carta recorded $3.9B raised across 86 new funds in Q1 2026 as fund performance improved on paper with higher median TVPI across most vintages. Actual distributions remain limited, while capital continues concentrating into larger funds with fewer LPs writing bigger anchor checks. [Carta]

  

---

Recently Launched Funds 💸

• Index Ventures announced $2B in new venture capital funds to invest in startups from seed through growth stages across Europe, the U.S., and Israel.

• Continuim Equity Partners closed its oversubscribed Fund III at $548M, surpassing its target to invest in lower middle-market industrial, manufacturing, distribution, and business services companies across North America.

• U.S. Venture Partners (USVP) is raising up to $400M for its 14th flagship venture capital fund to back early-stage startups across enterprise, healthcare, and frontier technologies.

• Robinhood Ventures launched Fund II to continue investing in early-stage startups across fintech, AI, infrastructure, and consumer technology.

---

The Claude Code system that replaces a 5-person team

---

VC Jobs 💼

• Enpal (Berlin, Germany): VC Principal (apply here)

• Lerer Hippeau (New York City, NY): VC Investor (apply here)

• Horaizon Labs (Poland): VC Partner (apply here)

• Superseed (London, England): VC Investor (apply here)

• Cherry Ventures (Berlin, Germany): VC Analyst (apply here)

• Prinnovo (Greensboro, NC): VC Principal (apply here)

---

---

Hottest Deals 💥

• Function raised $450M in growth funding to expand its personalized longevity and preventive healthcare platform. (read more)

• Olix raised $312M in Series B funding at a $3.3B valuation to advance its RNA interference therapeutics pipeline. (read more)

• HappyRobot raised $150M in Series C funding to scale its AI-powered voice automation platform for enterprise logistics. (read more)

• Claris Biotherapeutics raised $118M in Series B funding to advance next-generation immunology therapies. (read more)

• Decade raised $85M in Seed funding to build AI-native software for industrial manufacturing. (read more)

• Convex raised $57M in Series B funding to expand its AI-powered cybersecurity platform. (read more)

• QuantHealth raised $45M in Series B funding to accelerate its AI-powered clinical trial simulation platform. (read more)

• Busbud raised $40M in funding to expand its global intercity travel booking platform. (read more)

• CoreMap raised $37M in Series C funding to scale its geospatial intelligence platform. (read more)

• Mate Security raised $35M in Series A funding to expand its AI-native cybersecurity platform. (read more)

• Harmony raised $34M in Seed funding to build AI infrastructure for enterprise applications. (read more)

• Advocate Technologies raised $18M in Seed funding to expand its AI-powered legal technology platform. (read more)

• Epic Markets raised $10M in Pre-Seed funding to build next-generation capital markets infrastructure. (read more)

• Actualyze AI raised $7M in Seed funding to automate enterprise finance workflows with AI. (read more)

• Wayy AI raised $2M in Pre-Seed funding to build AI agents for enterprise workflows. (read more)

---

RESOURCES 🛠️

access all for the next year with a 50% limited discount

• The Cash Runway Model Every Founder Needs

✅ FREE Startup Kit for founders (10k investor list + 59 templates)

✅ The 100 Most Important Pension Funds in the World

✅ 350+ verified platforms where you can post your startup

✅ 153 Startups Fundraising Right Now (And Their DECKS)

✅ RIP SEO: the GEO Playbook for 2025

✅ The Venture Capital Method: How Investors Really Value Startups

✅ IRR vs Return Multiple Explained + Template

✅ The Headcount Planning Module

✅ Synthesia’s deck (got them $180M)

✅ CLTV vs CAC Ratio Excel Model

✅ 100+ Pitch Decks That Raised Over $2B

✅ VCs Due Diligence Excel Template

✅ SaaS Financial Model

✅ 10k Investors List

✅ Cap Table at Series A & B

✅ The Startup MIS Template: A Excel Dashboard to Track Your Key Metrics

✅ The Go-To Pricing Guide for Early-Stage Founders + Toolkit

✅ DCF Valuation Method Template: A Practical Guide for Founders

✅ How Much Are Your Startup Stock Options Really Worth?

✅ How VCs Value Startups: The VC Method + Excel Template

✅ 2,500+ Angel Investors Backing AI & SaaS Startups

✅ Cap Table Mastery: How to Manage Startup Equity from Seed to Series C

✅ 300+ VCs That Accept Cold Pitches — No Warm Intro Needed

✅ 50 Game-Changing AI Agent Startup Ideas for 2025

✅ 144 Family Offices That Cut Pre-Seed Checks

✅ 89 Best Startup Essays by Top VCs and Founders (Paul Graham, Naval, Altman…)

✅ The Ultimate Startup Data Room Template (VC-Ready & Founder-Proven)

✅ The Startup Founder’s Guide to Financial Modeling (7 templates included)

✅ SAFE Note Dilution: How to Calculate & Protect Your Equity (+ Cap Table Template)

✅ 400+ Seed VCs Backing Startups in the US & Europe

✅ The Best 23 Accelerators Worldwide for Rapid Growth

✅ AI Co-Pilots Every Startup & VC Needs in Their Toolbox