For those that are new around here, this is an extension of my weekly newsletter where I highlight new and innovative AI products that are worth exploring.
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Happy Wednesday!
Here’s your news in newsletter!
I’ve been out and about, taking some time to rest, and time to learn a LOT about growing startups in today’s environment! Thanks for your patience while the AI Product Report has been on hiatus. It’s been an eventful start to 2026, and I’ve appreciated the space to settle in.
In this Issue:
Your Weekly Industry News Recap
The Raise Recap
Your Weekly Industry News Recap
Crab named, incredibly powerful - originally known as Moltbot, OpenClaw took the world by storm in the past weeks as what was an open source personal assistant that got to be a bit more public viral about how it did things.
A Quick Timeline:
Clawdbot: The original name, but was forced to change due to trademark infringement with Anthropic's "Claude".
Moltbot: The immediate, short-lived, transitional name adopted to reflect a "molting" (rebirthing) process.
OpenClaw: The current, official name.
Moltbook: Is a separate, related social network specifically for these AI agents. (yes I know, this is exactly what it sounds like - A Reddit-style social network where AI agents (running OpenClaw/Moltbot) interact with each other without human intervention. Over 30,000 agents were reported using it shortly after launch, with, for example, bots debating topics like "the end of the age of humans" (Yikes)
And now the news bit: Secure ClawDBot: A new hosted platform for the open-source AI community to build and store safely. 🦀 Read more
Singapore’s Agentic AI Framework: Singapore just launched the world's first governance framework for AI agents. Setting the global standard for how bots should behave. 🇸🇬 Read more
1 in 3 Consumers Reject Device AI: A new report says many people simply don't want or need AI in their phones or fridges. Privacy fears are real! 🚫📱 Read more
Dashlane’s AI Scam Protection: Using AI to fight AI! Dashlane's new tool stops phishing attacks in real-time. 🛡️ Read more
Firefox’s AI "Kill Switch": Mozilla is giving users a way to shut off AI tracking for better privacy. 🦊 Read more
Transformer Lab Worldwide: Ali Asaria’s new venture is bringing high-end AI research tools to a global audience. 🧪 Read more
ClickUp Acquires for Super Agents: ClickUp is buying up tech to turn their project management tool into a fully autonomous agent hub. 🏗️ Read more
AI Readiness Gap: A deep dive into why companies are struggling to see ROI from their AI investments. 📉 Read more
New Releases From The Giants
Anthropic Unveils Claude Opus 4.6: The AI arms race continues with a huge upgrade to Anthropic's flagship model. Expect more "coworker" capabilities and fewer hallucinations. 👔 Read more
SpaceX's Orbital Solar Data Centers: Elon wants to put AI data centers in space powered by the sun. No more cooling problems if you're in the vacuum of space! 🛰️☀️ Read more
The "Saaspocalypse" & Claude Cowork: Wall Street had one hell of a jerky reaction to the latest and greatest coming from Claude’s CoWork. Some experts are warning that "agentic" tools are tanking SaaS stocks as AI begins to replace entire software platforms. 📉 Read more
OpenAI "Frontier" & Codex App: OpenAI is launching new apps and foundational models to stay ahead of the "agent" curve. 🚀
This Week’s Raise Recap 📈💰
Waymo’s $16B Mega-Round: Waymo just finalized a massive $16B funding round, pushing its valuation to a cool $110B. Self-driving tech is clearly moving from "maybe" to "definitely." 🚗💨 Read more
Positron’s $230M Series B: This startup is coming for NVIDIA’s crown with a $230M round to build specialized AI chips. It’s a huge bet on hardware diversification. 🦾 Read more
Ares Interactive Secures $70M: Gaming meets AI in this $70M Series A aimed at automating dev and marketing for "live ops". Faster games, smarter marketing. 🎮 Read more
Gruve’s $50M for AI Power: As AI gets thirstier for energy, Gruve raised $50M to build the infrastructure that powers the boom. Keeping the lights on for the LLMs. ⚡ Read more
Biorce Closes €43.8M Series A: This Barcelona startup is using AI to accelerate clinical trials for better medicine. A major win for European biotech. 🧬 Read more
Lotus Health AI Raises $41M: They’re building an AI model specifically for primary care to help doctors manage patients better. Your local GP might get an AI assistant soon. 🩺 Read more
Checkbox Secures $23M: This Series A will help automate complex "messy" workflows that traditional SaaS can't handle. No more boring admin tasks! 📋 Read more
Linq’s $20M for Chat Assistants: Linq raised $20M to put AI assistants directly inside the messaging apps you already use. No more app-switching to talk to your bot. 💬 Read more
Enfi’s $15M for Bank Agents: Enfi is deploying "AI Credit Analyst" agents to help banks make faster, smarter loan decisions. The bank's "no" or "yes" just got more algorithmic. 🏦 Read more
Synthpop’s $15M for Healthcare Agents: More love for medical AI! Synthpop is automating the annoying back-office work for doctors. 🏥 Read more
Mine Raises $14M: A "Money Agent" built to help young adults manage their finances and feel in control. It's like a financial planner in your pocket. 💰 Read more
Polaron Raises €6.7M: Using AI to build an "intelligence layer" for materials science. Speeding up how we discover new, stronger materials. 🧪 Read more
DataLinx AI’s $4.2M Seed: A seed round aimed at helping businesses connect their data to AI models more easily. 🔗 Read more
BizTrip AI & LeraCom AI: Two small but mighty pre-seed rounds for travel and communication AI tools. ✈️ Read more
Stay well, and see you next week!
-✌🏽 Sam
Cue the legal stuff: The views and opinions expressed in this newsletter are solely my own and do not reflect the views, positions, or policies of my employer or any organizations I am affiliated with. All content is for informational purposes only and to express opinion.