Startups & Venture
-
Exclusive: A founder who went from pressure washing to Wharton just raised $40 million to put AI to work for plumbers, electricians, and HVAC crews
George Eliadis really knows his way around a pressure washer. The 24 year-old spent six summers pressure washing houses in upstate New York with his dad. Now he has a Wharton degree, and just raised $40 million from two of the most competitive names in venture capital to fix blue-collar and home services problems at…
-
Elon Musk to get a billion shares of SpaceX if he can settle a million humans on Mars
When SpaceX published its S-1 on May 20, investors got what they expected: a landmark filing for a company planning the largest IPO in history. What they may not have been ready for was the compensation structure buried inside it, which reads less like a corporate pay package and more like science fiction. The SpaceX…
-
Exclusive: The AI company powering public safety operations for the 2026 World Cup just raised $250 million
Nick Noone has fallen on his face in front of thousands of people countless times. The son of a mechanic who moonlighted as a mural painter and a Montessori school teacher was a member of Stanford University’s men’s gymnastics team where he met his teammate and future cofounder, Ben Rudolph. Years later, after a stint…
-
Exclusive: Upscale AI wants to be the next Cisco—and it just raised another $190 million
Every time computing has fundamentally changed, a new networking company has risen with it. When PCs started connecting to the internet in the 1990s, Cisco and Juniper built the plumbing. When the internet moved into the cloud, Arista and Broadcom took over. Upscale AI is betting AI is that same kind of paradigm shift—and that…
-
Joshua Baer, the architect of Austin’s tech scene, dies at 50
The man who died when a small jet crashed on a Texas highway was an entrepreneur well-known in the state for being at the center of Austin’s turbocharged evolution as a technology hub. Joshua Baer, 50, described himself as an “Austinpreneur,” a reference to the state capital and his enthusiasm for getting people into business.…
-
PayPal Mafia member and ex-Sequoia steward Roelof Botha joins SpaceX board—reuniting with Elon Musk after decades
Roelof Botha, longtime investor and former steward at Sequoia Capital, has joined the board of SpaceX, a filing revealed. The news comes less than a week after SpaceX’s historic IPO and about seven months after Botha stepped down as Sequoia steward, the legendary venture capital firm’s title for its leader. His tenure coincided with a…
-
Exclusive: A 21-year-old Stanford grad just raised $11 million to put a hormone lab on your wrist
Jenny Duan closed her seed round the same week she picked up her diploma. Duan, 21, graduated from Stanford University last weekend with a BS in Symbolic systems. She also closed an $11 million seed round for Clair Health, Fortune learned exclusively. Khosla Ventures led the round, with support from a16z Speedrun, Brydge Club, Treehub,…
-
Exclusive: Karta raises $15 million to bring WhatsApp-run U.S. credit cards to global travelers
When American Express began scaling back a niche credit card for non‑U.S. clients who keep money in American banks and brokerages, it left institutions scrambling to find a replacement for some of their most demanding customers. Now, a startup is trying to plug that gap with a WhatsApp‑run premium card that lets international travelers turn…
-
Exclusive: PayPal winds down venture arm as fintech giant restructures under new CEO
PayPal is shuttering its 10-year-old venture team amid a broader corporate shakeup, according to five sources familiar with the matter. The fund’s headcount has shrunk from more than 10 in late 2025 to now only two, according to an archived version of the website for PayPal Ventures. Meanwhile, the page that listed the venture unit’s…
-
Exclusive: Voice AI startup Bland raises $50 million after being rejected by 180 investors
Isaiah Granet was rejected by 180 investors in three weeks during Y Combinator. Their reason: phone calls won’t exist in a year. He’s raised more than $100 million to prove them wrong. Bland, the San Francisco voice AI company Granet co-founded in 2023 with Sobhan Nejad, closed a $50 million Series C led by Dell…