Startups
Companies to watch, momentum, milestones.
- NewMax takes the privacy route into desktop AI agents
Yangyi's team is pitching a free local-first AI workbench that routes across models while keeping files and workflows on the user's machine.
- Xonaly founder Jonathan Bouchard is building a Canadian search engine from scratch
The Quebec project says it has indexed more than 1.3 million pages without Google, Bing, tracking, ads, or outside funding.
- Amble's founders are selling resorts a $25,000 moon-buggy EV before taking on the second car
The Lisbon startup says 2027 fleet slots are allocated, with consumer deliveries in Europe and the US slated for 2028.
- Startup Spotlight: 9 Mothers wants every vehicle to carry an AI drone-defense turret
The YC Spring 2026 defense startup says Edda is built for the close-range FPV-drone threat legacy counter-UAS systems miss.
- Peter Faricy's Slate Auto prices its stripped-down EV truck at $24,950
The Bezos-backed automaker is testing whether a direct-sale, accessory-heavy model can make cheap EVs profitable in the US.
- A garage-built Alzheimer drug shows how far DIY biotech has come
Douglas Yao says PAC-832 was designed and synthesized in a garage lab, a striking marker for founder-led biotech even as the Alzheimer candidate remains preclinical and self-funded.
- Nico Laqua's Corgi denies Papermark code theft after Dataroom launch
The YC-backed insurer says similar wording and UI came from AI-assisted design, not copied code, putting founder speed under scrutiny.
- Hightouch is hiring into its AI marketing buildout after raising $150M
The YC S19 company is hiring across functions as it pushes Lifecycle Studio into a crowded martech market.
- Ali Agha's FieldAI says it crossed $100M in revenue and contracts
The robotics software company is selling a horizontal robot brain for mines, construction sites, factories, data centers and defense customers.
- Aleph Neuro launches with a claim of MRI-level brain images from outside the skull
Butterfly Network says the new lab is using its chip-based ultrasound platform through the Butterfly Embedded program.
- Om Malik taught Silicon Valley to read itself
A personal remembrance of the GigaOm founder, True Ventures partner and writer who made Silicon Valley legible, including the late-night founder exchange that showed how his media machine worked.
- Figure AI's Figure 03 gets a harder BMW factory job as headcount tightens
BMW is moving Figure AI from body-shop part loading into logistics sequencing after an 11-month Figure 02 deployment, as the automaker comes off a 2024 workforce peak.
- Samsung SDI backs Forge Nano's defense battery push
Samsung SDI's money and engineering help would give Forge Nano manufacturing credibility as it courts defense buyers for U.S.-sourced cells.
- Palmer Luckey's Anduril is chasing a Nissan factory for Japan's drone buildout
Reuters says Anduril is in talks for Nissan's Oppama plant, a civilian auto site that could become a local defense production hub.
- Intercept launches with $500M to attack colds, flu and indoor-air transmission
Nan Ransohoff, Charlie Petty and Devin Sok are using grants, investments and buyer demand to pull respiratory prevention out of a funding gap.
- Slate Auto opens EV truck preorders at $24,950, turning its reservation list into the real test
The Troy, Michigan EV startup is asking buyers for a $300 non-refundable deposit before production starts in autumn 2026.
- Mr. Beast hires Pietra's Ronak Trivedi for Beast Industries' creator platform push
The move gives Beast Industries marketplace talent as Donaldson tries to turn creator sponsorships into a software business.
- Ethan Thornton is making Mach Industries' sprawl the strategy
Mach's 22-year-old founder is running six weapons programs, a rocket-motor unit and a Navy aircraft bet before any system reaches full-rate production.
- CleverCrow puts backers, not maintainers, on the hook for AI coding runs
The product routes GitHub issue funding into maintainer-approved agent work, with refunds for unused compute and a 20% platform fee.
- Birch Geothermal launches with an oilfield engineer's bet on cheaper clean power
Mike Matson and his co-founders are applying subsurface oil-and-gas tools to enhanced geothermal systems as power demand rises.
- Polymarket's fake-bet videos put Shayne Coplan's trust pitch back on trial
The WSJ says paid creators showed trades and winnings that were not real as Polymarket pushes deeper into the U.S. mainstream.
- YC's Spring 2026 Demo Day showed where seed capital is crowding
TechCrunch's investor survey pointed to valuations above $175 million and demand for startups attacking defense, agent infrastructure, and healthcare access.
- XDOF raises $70M to sell the data work robot labs do not want to own
Philipp Wu, Fred Shentu and Nemo Jin are turning teleoperation, annotation and robot ops into a picks-and-shovels business for physical AI.
- David Holz is taking Midjourney from image models to a full-body ultrasound scanner
Midjourney Medical pairs an ultrasound imaging machine with a planned San Francisco spa, but diagnostic use still hinges on FDA clearance.