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A newsletter for communities, investors, angels, and founders
Power in Numbers
August 07, 2026
Welcome to PIN’d - our weekly newsletter where we pin (lol, bear with us) the most important tech/startup news of the week for aspiring angels, vc’s, startup investors, founders, etc. Expect a new weekly roundup from us every Friday morning!
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📰 This week’s best news
Energy startup Base Power said on Monday it has raised $1 billion at a $13 billion valuation and launched a U.S.-made home battery as expanding AI and data center infrastructure puts the focus on grid reliability and sends power demand soaring.
Jeff Dean, who for years was one of Google’s most important executives, is leading the new artificial intelligence company with the backing of Google.
SpaceX fleshed out its plans to compete directly with the largest mobile phone carriers in the US by complementing its satellite-based internet service with land-based infrastructure.
Italian technology company Bending Spoons has agreed to acquire Airtable, the no-code database and workflow management platform, for $1.285 billion in an all-cash deal. The acquisition marks Bending Spoons’ first major transaction since going public in July 2026 and strengthens its position in enterprise software and AI-powered productivity tools.
The owners of Myspace shared that they plan to relaunch the once-popular social media platform. "We still own Myspace," co-owner Tim Vanderhook said in a new "Myspace" documentary from director Tommy Avallone, according to People. "We are stewards of the Myspace brand at this point, and we are going to relaunch Myspace."
Robinhood this week unveiled a financial instrument that lets anyone feel like they, too, can make money by backing Y Combinator startups. Robinhood Venture Fund II (RVII) is expected to become a publicly traded fund on August 13 at an opening price of $25 per share.
Index Ventures has raised $2 billion in fresh capital across three funds, the firm announced on Friday. The 30-year-old firm raised $400 million for its new seed-focused fund and $900 million for its venture fund. Index also added $700 million to a $1.5 billion growth fund raised in 2024, bringing its total available capital to $3.5 billion.
💰 Funding announcement highlights
Hadrian raised $1.37B Series D led by JPMorgan, with WCM Investment Management, Washington Harbour Partners, Valor Equity Partners, 137 Ventures, and Baillie Gifford participating, at a reported valuation of just under $8B. The company provides automated precision manufacturing and factories-as-a-service for aerospace and defense.
BASE Power raised $1B Series D led by Ribbit Capital, Addition, Valor Equity Partners, and JPMorgan Strategic Investments, with Altimeter Capital, D1 Capital Partners, Coatue, Thrive Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Lightspeed, and CapitalG participating, at a reported $13B post-money valuation. The company installs and operates residential batteries to improve grid reliability.
Decade raised $85M seed from Greenoaks, Benchmark, and Diffusion Capital Partners. The company develops an AI-powered wealth advisor for consumers in Brazil.
MAXIMUM raised $30M seed led by CRV, with Pear VC, Restive, Plug and Play, and Anthemis participating. The company develops core banking software for financial institutions.
Mitti Labs raised $9.5M Series A led by Aramco Ventures, with Lightspeed India Partners, Godrej Industries Group, Cisco Foundation, Francis Family Fund, and Volta Circle participating. The company helps rice farmers reduce water use and methane emissions while generating verified carbon credits.
📚 Interesting reads of the week
Sequoia’s Alfred Lin on moving fast, but not letting other people's pace dictate yours. Build with rigorous testing, strong edge case detection, and thoughtful pre mortems. You'll be surprised how much can be accomplished in a fraction of the time most people assume.
Conduit is developing thought-to-text AI models trained on non-invasive neural data. Its goal is to let people communicate with AI using their thoughts, making AI feel like a natural extension of the human mind. To get there, the company is scaling neural data collection and building the specialized hardware needed to support the technology.
Anthropic has poached such an array of high-profile professors that it has become a punch line in academia. “‘I’m joining Anthropic’ is the new meme right now.” Anthropic has in recent weeks also picked up a Stanford economist, a theoretical physicist from the University of Maryland, and an analytic philosopher from UT Austin.
How do AI models learn new skills and behaviors? The process is surprisingly human and easy to understand, even if you don’t have a machine learning background.
People are panicking about AI, yet racing to adopt it anyway. Fear of the robot apocalypse may be real, but it’s abstract and hard to prepare for. But, this tech revolution could be good for both companies and workers.
A new report from the U.K.’s Imperial College and France’s Emlyon Business School has mapped out the ways Silicon Valley’s VC-backed founders commit fraud, and the role investors play. It found that fraud is rare overall but that companies with venture funding were more likely to face fraud charges compared to companies that didn’t take venture funding.
Stripe's CEO on schlep blindness, the question founders skip, and why new businesses are starting at twice last year's rate.
📌 Tweet of the week
💼 Who’s hiring in VC?
Looking to get into VC? Below are this week’s curated VC job openings.
Cowboy Ventures is looking for a Chief of Staff
Duke Capital Partners is looking for a Financial Management Analyst
Hive Capital Partners is looking for a Head of Finance
Andreessen Horowitz is looking for an Senior AI Engineer
Alpaca VC is looking for an AI Workflow Engineer
