Six bullets of updates

1. 🗣️ AI scams are rising, with synthetic voices and personalized phishing emails exploiting your data. Stay vigilant! 

2. 🇮🇳 India's AI startups raised $113.4M in 2023, highlighting challenges and opportunities in the growing market.

3. 🔒 In 2024, over 1B records have been stolen in data breaches, and the number keeps rising. 

4. 🚀 AI is transforming software testing, speeding up product releases and boosting efficiency by up to several years.

5. 🦾 MIT develops a soft robotic system capable of packing groceries, potentially revolutionizing retail automation.

6. 📃 Meta updates its label from “Made with AI” to “AI Info” after photographers reported mislabeling of real photos. 

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Defense tech and resilience get global funding sources

Global investors are paying increasing attention to the defense tech and resilience sectors. Key funders include KKR, Spark Capital, and Anduril Industries, which focus on technologies enhancing national security and societal resilience. This trend underscores a shift in investment priorities driven by geopolitical tensions and climate change concerns. For founders, aligning startups with these sectors can unlock substantial capital and strategic partnerships.  These are some of the venture capital firms taking a bet on resilience tech outside of the U.S.:

• The NATO Innovation Fund, a $1 billion investment in resilience tech, has become a prominent participant. Despite the sector's limited venture capital, the fund kept a low profile since its August 2023 launch, avoiding interviews.

• OTB Ventures has shifted its focus to deep tech. Supported by the NATO Innovation Fund and the European Investment Fund, the Amsterdam-based firm with Polish roots is now deploying its $185 million early-growth fund into "real tech."

• D3 typically invests $125,000 for a 7% equity stake and can follow up with investments up to $750,000 in later rounds. Its portfolio includes drones, sensors, and UAVs, often incorporating AI.

  Read more!

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Startup Events and Deadlines

1. How to close a Funding Round (it’s not just the pitch deck) | July 2 | Webinar

2. Crash Course in Financial Modeling | July 10 | Webinar

3. Financial Modeling Bootcamp | July 22 | Bootcamp  

4. SaaStock: Dublin | August 14 | Conference

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These companies just raised money

1. 💰 Kleiner Perkins raises $2B in fresh capital, proving established firms can still attract considerable sums.

2. 🔋 Battery startup Sila secures $375M in funding amidst industry failures, signaling strong investor confidence.

3. 🛒 Rohlik raises €170M to expand its European grocery delivery and license its tech to other companies.

4. 🔓 PortSwigger, behind Burp Suite, secured $112M to expand its security testing tool offerings.

5. 🪶 Feather raises €6 million to expand its insurance platform for expats across Europe.

6. 🪲 Costa Rican food tech ProNuvo raises $2M from IFC to boost insect-based animal feed, aiming for 4,000 tons annually.

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89% of corporate investors to boost or maintain startup investments

A new report from Mountside Ventures and Love Ventures reveals that 89% of corporate investors plan to increase or maintain their startup investments over the next three years. The report shared exclusively with Sifted, surveyed 104 corporate venture capital (CVC) firms managing a collective £20B in assets. Notable respondents include Aviva, BMW i Ventures, and Societe Generale. Over 60% of these CVCs invest via their balance sheets, while less than a third use a separate fund vehicle.

The survey also found that 57% of CVCs focus on specific countries or regions, 96% primarily make direct investments in startups, and only 9% invest through secondary sources. Additionally, 30% of CVCs invest in venture capital funds, mainly for market intelligence, and 77% prefer backing specialist investors over generalists.

Read the complete article.

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Something is fishy about WhatsApp

We explore the mysteries of WhatsApp's acquisition by Meta (formerly Facebook) a decade later. We examine the skepticism around WhatsApp's data usage and Meta's claims about end-to-end encryption. Can Meta be trusted when they say they don't use your private texts for ads? Subscribe here!