šŸ•¶ļø No code? No problem. Codex Is taking over

From Elonā€™s loyalty to AI bots gaming the charts, weā€™ve got the weekā€™s hottest tech tea

Author

Lucila Sarquis
May 22, 2025

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This week Google flexed its $66.89B ad muscle by slipping ads into AI Mode search, while Uber Freight got smarter with tools aimed at slicing inefficiencies down to the decimal. Meanwhile, Builder.ai went from unicorn to "oopsā€ and  SAP proved AI can actually save timeā€”with 500+ dev hours rescued like a corporate superhero. 

But the real plot twist? Meet the angel$ of accessibilityā€”investors finally betting big on disability-focused startups.

Video pick: The Biggest Startup Failures (that deserved it)

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Ten bullets of updates

  1. šŸ“¢ Google introduces ads to AI Mode search. $66.89B in ad revenue fuels the push.

  2. šŸšš Uber Freight rolls out AI tools to boost supply chain efficiency. Targets 98% accuracy and cost cuts.

  3. šŸ›”ļø Coinbase hit by breach affecting 69,461 users. Hacker demands $20M ransomā€”denied.

  4. šŸš— Elon Musk commits to 5 more years as Tesla CEOā€”despite 71% drop in net profits.

  5. šŸ§  SAP unveils new AI tools including Joule and custom agents. Saved Blue Diamond 500+ dev hours.

  6. šŸ’„ Builder.ai collapses into insolvency. Once worth $1B with $450M in funding and Microsoft backing.

  7. šŸ§Ŗ OpenAI and the early days of scaling AI. A behind-the-scenes look at internal doubts and global impact.

  8. šŸ§¬ Google pushes toward AGI with Gemini Pro. Outperforms rivals on LMArena benchmarks.

  9. šŸŽµ Music fraud surges as AI bots rake in $10M royalties from 88M streamsā€”without real fans.

  10. šŸ¦ Monzo matures into a full-fledged bank with 9.3M users. IPO on the horizon?

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The key to a $1.3T opportunity

A new trend in real estate is making the most expensive properties obtainable. Itā€™s called co-ownership, and itā€™s revolutionizing the $1.3T vacation home market.

The company leading the trend? Pacaso. Created by the founder of Zillow, Pacaso turns underutilized luxury properties into fully-managed assets and makes them accessible to the broadest possible market.

The result? More than $1b in transactions, 2,000+ happy homeowners, and over $110m in gross profits for Pacaso.

With rapid international growth and 41% gross profit growth last year, Pacaso is ready for whatā€™s next. They even recently reserved the Nasdaq ticker PCSO.

But the real opportunity is now, before public markets. Until 5/29, you can join leading investors like SoftBank and Maveron for just $2.80/share.

This is a paid advertisement for Pacasoā€™s Regulation A offering. Please read the offering circular at invest.pacaso.com. Reserving a ticker symbol is not a guarantee that the company will go public. Listing on the NASDAQ is subject to approvals. Under Regulation A+, a company has the ability to change its share price by up to 20%, without requalifying the offering with the SEC.

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Meet the angel$ of accessibility

Despite the global assistive technology market surpassing $22 billion in 2023, early-stage disability-focused startups often struggle to attract funding. To address this, Adaptation Venturesā€”a newly formed angel group co-founded by Brittany and Rich Palmer, both experienced entrepreneurs and persons with disabilitiesā€”aims to provide critical early capital.

After encountering barriers when fundraising for their own ventures, including Brittanyā€™s startup Beeyonder, the couple pivoted from a traditional VC fund to an angel group model. Their goal is to back both accessibility-specific startups and broader tech solutions that benefit disabled users.

Adaptation Ventures plans to invest a minimum of $250K per company, hold quarterly pitch meetings, and offer co-investment opportunities. Their mission is to ā€œmake the big stuff smaller and the expensive stuff cheaperā€ by supporting innovation that improves life for people with disabilitiesā€”filling a crucial gap in the startup funding ecosystem.

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The Biggest Startup Failures (that deserved it)

In this video, we dive into some of the most absurd startups that managed to secure funding despite their questionable concepts. We explore the intriguing stories behind these ventures, examining how they managed to attract investors and what ultimately led to their downfall šŸ•¶ļø Subscribe for more videos! šŸ•¶ļø 

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These companies just raised money

  1. šŸ“ˆ Scribble Ventures lands $80M for Fund III. Leans on networks to stand out in VC.

  2. šŸ§‘ā€šŸ« Siro raises $50M to scale AI coaching for sales reps. Focuses on digitizing field conversations.

  3. šŸ”Œ SparkCharge raises $30M for fleet electrification. Offers charging-as-a-service nationwide.

  4. šŸ’³ Keep secures $12M to grow in Canadaā€™s corporate spend space. Revenue up 20x.

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The end of manual coding? OpenAI Codex leads the way

OpenAI has launched Codex, a new agentic coding system that marks a shift from traditional AI code assistants like GitHub Copilot toward fully autonomous tools capable of handling complex programming tasks from natural language commands. Unlike autocomplete-style assistants that require developer oversight, Codex and its peersā€”such as Devin, SWE-Agent, and OpenHandsā€”aim to operate independently, managing tasks via platforms like Asana or Slack without exposing users to the underlying code. This represents the next evolution in software automation, pushing AI from supporting roles into autonomous problem-solving agents.

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Startup Events and Deadlines

  1. Today! Slidebeanā€™s Crash Course in Financial Modeling l May 22 l Online

  2. Startup Battlefield 200 | Deadline: June 9 | Global

  3. Techstars New York City Accelerator | Deadline: June 11 | US

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

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