Nickie Louise - Tech Startups

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Portland startup Sturdy.ai raises $6M to help companies reduce customer churn and boost retention with AI

Nickie Louise Posted On April 1, 2025

Sturdy.ai, a Portland-based startup that analyzes customer conversations using AI, has raised $6 million in seed funding to help companies catch churn signals early and improve retention. The round was led by Voyager Capital, with participation from Fortson VC and […]

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OpenAI launches OpenAI Academy, a free AI learning platform for everyone

Nickie Louise Posted On April 1, 2025

In a major step toward making AI education more accessible, OpenAI has launched OpenAI Academy, a new platform offering free courses on artificial intelligence. The announcement is already generating buzz online — and not just because it’s 100% free. The […]

21.1K Views

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Iron Prairie Ventures launches $15M fund to back early-stage startups fueling America’s industrial comeback

Nickie Louise Posted On April 1, 2025

While flashy consumer startups often steal the spotlight, a quiet transformation is underway in America’s industrial backbone — and Iron Prairie Ventures is betting big on it. The Kansas City-based VC firm just announced a $15 million fund aimed at […]

741 Views

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AI cybersecurity startup ReliaQuest raises $500M in funding at $3.4B valuation

Nickie Louise Posted On April 1, 2025

AI-powered cybersecurity startup ReliaQuest just closed a new funding round of more than $500 million, pushing its valuation to $3.4 billion. The round was led by EQT, KKR, and FTV Capital, with backing from longtime investors Ten Eleven Ventures and […]

971 Views

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Apple’s AI Doctor: Inside Apple’s boldest health care push yet with a revamped app and AI-powered doctor

Nickie Louise Posted On April 1, 2025

Over the past decade, Apple has steadily expanded its footprint in health care. From the launch of the Health app and the Apple Watch to tools like ResearchKit and CareKit, the company has made health a long-term priority. Tim Cook […]

1.2K Views

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Gemini 2.5 Pro Canvas is now free: Vibe coding is now accessible to everyone with simple prompts

Nickie Louise Posted On April 1, 2025

Google just made its most advanced AI model, Gemini 2.5 Pro, free to use through Gemini Canvas on the web and mobile. The new feature, “vibe coding,” lets anyone build apps, games, and tools using simple prompts—no coding required. Launched […]

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OpenAI plans to release a new ‘open-weight’ language model with reasoning in the coming months

Nickie Louise Posted On March 31, 2025

OpenAI announced plans to release its first open-weight language model with reasoning capabilities since GPT-2. CEO Sam Altman shared the update on Monday, saying the model could be available in the coming months—maybe even by summer. This marks a big […]

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Cambrian raises $5.9M seed round from a16z CSX to power AI agents with verifiable financial data

Nickie Louise Posted On March 31, 2025

Cambrian, a startup building AI infrastructure for finance, just raised $5.9 million in seed funding powerhouse a16z Crypto Startup Accelerator (CSX) leading the charge. With AI agents becoming more independent—handling tasks, making decisions, and running workflows—these agents need something beyond […]

2.8K Views

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Agility Robotics raises $400M to scale bipedal robot Digit as humanoid race heats up

Nickie Louise Posted On March 31, 2025

Agility Robotics, the company behind the bipedal robot Digit, has raised $400 million in fresh funding, according to an exclusive report from The Information. The round puts a spotlight on just how serious investors are about the future of humanoid […]

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Chip startup Retym emerges from stealth with $180 million to boost AI infrastructure with high-speed DSPs

Nickie Louise Posted On March 31, 2025

Retym, a chip startup focused on solving some of the messier challenges inside AI data centers, has emerged from stealth with more than $180 million raised across multiple funding rounds. The company, which has been operating quietly for the past […]

943 Views

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The Rise of AI Wrappers: Why Value Is Moving Up the Stack from Foundation Models to AI Apps

Nickie Louise Posted On March 31, 2025

Back in August 2023, we published an article titled “The Rise of AI Wrappers and the Challenges Ahead,” pointing out the shaky ground some founders were standing on as they built businesses on top of large language models. Nearly a […]

4.2K Views

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German startup Isar Aerospace’s space rocket explodes 44 seconds after takeoff from Norway

Nickie Louise Posted On March 31, 2025

For the first time, a private company from continental Europe has attempted to launch a rocket into orbit. Isar Aerospace, a German startup, launched its Spectrum rocket from Norway’s Andøya Spaceport, but the mission ended in failure just 44 seconds […]

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Elon Musk’s xAI acquires X in all-stock deal worth $33 billion, valuing the combined company at $113 billion

Nickie Louise Posted On March 29, 2025

In a move that has sent shockwaves through the tech world and beyond, Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup, xAI, has acquired X Corp (formerly known as Twitter) for $33 billion in an all-stock deal with debt included. The transaction, announced […]

1.2K Views

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OpenAI nears $40B funding as ChatGPT revenue set to triple to $12.7 billion by 2025

Nickie Louise Posted On March 28, 2025

OpenAI’s dominance in artificial intelligence is about to get a $40 billion vote of confidence. The ChatGPT maker is reportedly closing in on one of the largest private funding rounds ever, one that would push its valuation to a staggering […]

1.3K Views

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EU to invest $1.4 billion in AI, cybersecurity, and digital skills to catch up with the US

Nickie Louise Posted On March 28, 2025

The European Union (EU) is tired of playing catch-up in tech—and it’s putting $1.4 billion on the table to prove it. On Friday, the European Commission announced it will invest €1.3 billion between 2025 and 2027 to boost artificial intelligence, […]

991 Views

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CoreWeave goes public at $40/share, raising $1.5B in biggest U.S. tech IPO since 2021, but falls short of price target

Nickie Louise Posted On March 28, 2025

CoreWeave officially priced its IPO at $40 a share on Thursday, raising $1.5 billion and setting the stage for what’s now the largest tech public offering in the U.S. since 2021. Shares are set to begin trading today, Friday, March […]

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Bill Gates warns: AI will replace most human jobs, including doctors and teachers, within a decade

Nickie Louise Posted On March 27, 2025

For years, experts have been warning about artificial intelligence replacing humans. Now, with the rise of generative AI, agent-based systems, and the growing use of robotics across industries like medicine and education, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is the latest to […]

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Alibaba unveils Qwen2.5-Omni-7B: Its new open-source AI model for cost-effective AI agents in a challenge to DeepSeek

Nickie Louise Posted On March 27, 2025

Less than a month after unveiling QwQ-32B (Qwen2.5-32B), an AI reasoning model that competes with DeepSeek’s R1, Alibaba is back with another release—this time, aimed at pushing multimodal AI forward. On Thursday, Alibaba Cloud launched Qwen2.5-Omni-7B, the latest addition to […]

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Rivian spins out a new micro-mobility startup Also with $105M in funding from Eclipse

Nickie Louise Posted On March 26, 2025

What started as a quiet internal project inside Rivian has now stepped into the spotlight as its own independent company: Also, Inc. The move signals Rivian’s bigger bet on electric micromobility. Think smaller vehicles—e-bikes, scooters, and compact rides built for city […]

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Microsoft launches CoPilot AI Agents, ‘Researcher’ and ‘Analyst,’ aim to rethink how we work

Nickie Louise Posted On March 26, 2025

Microsoft on Tuesday unveiled two new AI agents—Researcher and Analyst—into Microsoft 365 Copilot, aiming to reshape how people handle research and data-heavy tasks at work. These agents, which Microsoft calls “first-of-their-kind reasoning agents,” are built to act like on-demand experts, […]

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