🕶️ Musk wants $44B—again.

Six bullets of updates

1. 🐕‍🦺 Elon Musk staffer develops DOGE AI assistant aimed at making government “less dumb,” raising legal concerns.

2. 🐱 Mistral’s Le Chat app hits 1M downloads in 14 days, topping France's iOS free download chart.

3. 🛑 Humane sells its assets to HP for $116M, ending its AI Pin venture after disappointing sales and reviews.

4. 📉 Bumble sunsets Fruitz and Official to focus on core apps, taking a $12M revenue hit as shares fall 27%.

5. 🚚 Duo’s “death by Cybertruck” stunt boosts Duolingo downloads by 38% overall and 25% on Android.

6. 🚀 Mel Morris launches Corpora.ai, an AI-powered research engine processing 2M documents per second.

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Musk’s X: same price, new hype

Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter) is reportedly in talks to raise funding at a $44 billion valuation, the same price Musk paid to acquire it in 2022. This would mark X’s first funding round since going private, despite Fidelity slashing its stake’s value by 70% in December due to advertiser struggles.

The potential raise comes as Musk’s other ventures surge—Tesla’s stock is up 40% since Trump’s election, SpaceX hit a $350B valuation, and xAI is seeking $10B at a $75B valuation. Talks for X’s funding are ongoing and could still fall through, according to Bloomberg.

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Startup Events and Deadlines

1. NYC B2B: Pre-Seed + Seed Founders & Investors Meetup | Feb 24 | NYC

2. Alchemist Accelerator | Deadline: March 21 | USA

3. Techstars Columbus | Deadline: April 1 | USA

4. Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator | Deadline: April 28 | USA

5. Entrepreneur First London - Summer | Deadline: July 1 | UK

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These companies just raised money

1. 🏭 Augury raises $73M at a $1B valuation to expand its predictive AI platform for factory equipment, which detects failures before they happen.

2. 💰 CashU secures $17.5M credit line backed by Itaú BBA and EP to grow its fintech lending business in Brazil.

3. 🚖 Fetiis draws new backing from Mark Cuban and YC to expand its Gen Z-focused rideshare service.

4. 🛒 Involves acquires DataMind to boost retail data intelligence capabilities across Latin America, enhancing insights for consumer brands.

5. ⚡ ElectronX builds an energy trading platform, aiming to bring stock market-style dynamics to electricity markets.

6. 📈 Fintech fundraising heats up again, bringing flashbacks to the 2021 investment surge.

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Europe’s unicorn crisis: the Dutch are holding the fort

The EU is falling behind the US in producing unicorn startups, contributing just 9% of billion-dollar companies since 2013, compared to the US’s 55%. However, the Netherlands stands out, hosting 11% of the EU’s unicorns, with major players like Adyen and Booking.com, and showing success in attracting startups to relocate.

A PwC report points to higher US venture capital intensity, a unified market, and a larger talent pool as key advantages. To compete, the EU must increase funding, simplify regulations, and build a more integrated startup ecosystem.

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The accident(s) that made money an illusion

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