Artificial Intelligence

flyExclusive Completes Acquisition of Jet.AI Aviation Assets

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jul 15, 2026

flyExclusive, a Kinston, North Carolina-based provider of private aviation services, has completed its previously announced acquisition of Jet.AI's aviation assets. The transaction delivers a mix of operating assets, future fleet positions, marketable securities, and cash, rather than a straightforward purchase of aircraft and customers alone. Financial terms were not separately disclosed.

Pulse Security AI: Interview With Co-Founder & CEO Mike Armistead About The Cybersecurity Company

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jul 15, 2026

Pulse Security AI provides an autonomous, AI-driven cybersecurity platform designed to instantly deploy a full security stack and autonomously manage it 24/7. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Pulse Security AI co-founder and CEO Mike Armistead to learn more.

RealPage Acquires Cherre To Build AI-Powered Real Estate Intelligence Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jul 15, 2026

RealPage has completed its acquisition of Cherre, a real estate data intelligence company serving institutional property owners, investment managers and operators. The financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Meta Expands Louisiana Data Center In Over $50 Billion Investment for Richland Parish

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jul 15, 2026

Meta's data center expansion represents an investment of more than $50 billion in the Richland Parish region, one of the largest investments in AI infrastructure in the world built in America. The project supports infrastructure projects, workforce development programs, and an energy agreement expected to save Entergy Louisiana customers more than $2 billion over 20 years, on top of $650 million in savings from a first agreement. Meta pays the full costs of the energy, water, and related infrastructure the data center uses so consumers aren't paying the cost.

Flex Raises $70 Million Series B1 To Launch Flex Global, An AI-Native Private Banking Platform For HNW Business Owners Worldwide

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jul 14, 2026

Flex, a San Francisco-based AI-native private banking platform for high-net-worth business owners in the middle market, has raised a $70 million Series B1 led by Halo Fund, the investment platform co-founded by Utah Jazz and Utah Mammoth owner and Qualtrics founder Ryan Smith and Accel general partner Ryan Sweeney. Portage Ventures, Wellington, Crosslink Capital, 53 Stations, Titanium Ventures, Spice, Florida Funders and others also participated. The round comes just months after Flex's $60 million Series B in December 2025 and brings total equity raised to $180 million and total capital including debt to $300 million. Annualized revenue has grown 3x since the December round, and Flex is now at a nine-figure annualized revenue run rate with more than $10 billion in annualized total payment volume, growing roughly 4x year over year.

TerraFirma Raises $115 Million To Scale Semi-Autonomous Construction Robotics For Critical Infrastructure On Earth And Beyond

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jul 14, 2026

TerraFirma, an Austin-based tech-enabled, vertically integrated construction company founded by former SpaceX engineers, has raised approximately $115 million, including a $100 million Series A led by Kleiner Perkins, with participation from Bain Capital Ventures, Glade Brook Capital Partners, BANNER VC, Saga Ventures, Trust Ventures, Definition, PEAK6, Magnetar Capital and Ravelin Capital. Angel investors include founders, executives and engineers from SpaceX, Anduril, Base Power, Shinkei and Hadrian. The funding will support expansion of TerraFirma's engineering, manufacturing, operations and construction teams, and the continued development of its semi-autonomous heavy equipment systems.

Feathery Raises $30 Million In Series A To Scale AI Operating And Decisioning System For Financial Services

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jul 14, 2026

Feathery, the AI operating and decisioning system for financial services, announced that it has raised $30 million in total funding, including its recently completed Series A, from Portage Ventures, Index Ventures, Allstate Strategic Ventures, Clocktower Ventures, Erie Strategic Ventures, and Bain Capital Ventures. The company is one of the fastest-growing AI platforms for financial services, serving more than 300 firms across insurance and wealth management.

Nitin Seth: An Interview With The Author And Entrepreneur About His New Book ‘Human Edge in the AI Age’

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jul 14, 2026

Nitin Seth is a technology entrepreneur, corporate leader, and bestselling author who is the Co-Founder and CEO of Incedo, a U.S.-based digital and AI transformation services firm. Recently, Seth wrote a new book called Human Edge in the AI Age. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Seth to learn more.

Trintech: Interview with CTO Sunil Padiyar About The AI Financial Close Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jul 14, 2026

Trintech is the trusted AI platform for governed autonomous finance, helping organizations modernize financial operations across the Office of the CFO. Guided by our purpose to give people time back for what matters most, we enable finance teams to reduce risk, strengthen controls, and improve accuracy through AI-driven automation for reconciliation, transaction matching, close management, journal entries, intercompany accounting, and compliance. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Trintech CTO Sunil Padiyar to learn more.

Pine AI: Interview With CEO Stanley Wei About The Autonomous Digital Assistant Company

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jul 14, 2026

Pine AI provides an autonomous digital assistant that completes real-world customer service tasks, such as making phone calls and sending emails, to help consumers handle bill negotiations, cancel subscriptions, and secure refunds. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Pine AI CEO Stanley Wei to learn more.

Agiloft Announces General Availability Of Agiloft Astra, Expanding Access To Contract AI For Legal, Procurement And Finance Teams

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jul 14, 2026

Agiloft, a global leader in data-first contract lifecycle management, announced the general availability of Agiloft Astra, its contract AI platform. Effective immediately, any legal, procurement, finance, or sales professional can begin using Astra's free plan with no waitlist or upfront costs. Astra is designed to deliver value from the very first session, with new users reportedly achieving meaningful use in an average of five minutes. The announcement follows the close of Astra's Early Access Program, which launched in April this year. Every account in general availability is subject to the Astra Clean Data Promise, which guarantees that customer contract data is never used to train AI models, regardless of account tier.

InstaLILY Raises $60 Million Series B And Launches Lily As An AI Forward Deployed Engineer

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jul 14, 2026

InstaLILY AI, creator of the world's first AI Forward Deployed Engineer, announced a $60 million Series B round led by Energize Capital, with participation from Insight Partners, which increased its investment, and new strategic investors including Home Depot Ventures and United Rentals. The round brings the company's total raised to nearly $100 million, and revenue grew 5x over the past year.

Guthrie AI Raises $4 Million Seed Funding To Scale Virtual Bid Assistant Platform For Glazing Contractors

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jul 14, 2026

Guthrie AI, a Philadelphia-based construction technology company that recruits, trains, and places Virtual Bid Assistants for glazing contractors, has raised a $4 million seed round led by Chicago Ventures. The funding will expand Guthrie AI's engineering team, deepen integrations with tools estimators already use, including Bluebeam, Outlook and Excel—and grow the platform that makes it easy for glazing contractors to hire, supervise and work with a trained bid assistant from day one.

Valarian Raises $50 Million Series A To Build Sovereign Infrastructure For AI-Driven Systems

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jul 14, 2026

Valarian announced that it raised $50 million in Series A funding led by New Enterprise Associates, bringing the company’s total funding raised to $70 million.

Waze Rolls Out Motorcycle Mode, Personalized Navigation And More Gemini Updates

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jul 13, 2026

Waze announced several new customization and AI-powered navigation updates designed to give drivers and riders more control over their trips. The updates include a new motorcycle mode, personalized navigation, a “less chatty” voice guidance option, expanded Conversational Reporting for map updates, and new Gemini-powered search capabilities for finding destinations.

Meta Reportedly Plans September Production For Iris AI Chip To Expand Computing Capacity

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jul 13, 2026

Meta reportedly plans to begin manufacturing an artificial intelligence chip in September as part of a broader effort to expand its computing infrastructure and reduce dependence on outside chip suppliers. According to Reuters, the company’s data center chip is code-named Iris and is part of Meta’s multi-generation Meta Training and Inference Accelerator initiative. The chip is being designed in-house to support AI workloads across Meta’s platforms, including Facebook and Instagram.

Samsung Reportedly Developing Dedicated AI Chip For PCs

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jul 13, 2026

Samsung is reportedly developing a dedicated AI accelerator for PCs as demand grows for local generative AI workloads on laptops and desktops. The chip is reportedly being developed by Samsung’s LSI division under the codename GAIA.

Robinhood Plans To Let AI Agents Trade Crypto For U.S. Customers

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jul 12, 2026

Robinhood plans to let eligible U.S. customers connect an AI agent to a dedicated account and trade crypto on their behalf. The company announced the upcoming expansion during a recent presentation, extending its Agentic Trading product beyond equities. Robinhood first launched Agentic Trading in beta on May 27 with support for equities only, while saying crypto, event contracts, and futures would follow.

Apple Sues OpenAI Over Alleged Trade Secret Misappropriation

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jul 12, 2026

Apple filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and two former Apple employees, alleging that the ChatGPT maker misappropriated Apple trade secrets to support its push into consumer hardware. The case was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

Birdsview Raises €2.5 Million Seed To Scale Avys AI Retention Agent For Retailers

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jul 12, 2026

Birdsview announced a €2.5 million seed round to support Avys, its AI-powered digital worker designed to help retailers grow repeat purchases. The round was backed by Fortino Ventures and Newion. Fortino Ventures has backed Billy Grace, an AI marketing platform in the Benelux, while Newion was an early investor in Parloa, an AI agent company that reached unicorn status.

Demoboost: Interview With CEO Anna Decroix About The Demo Automation Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jul 12, 2026

Demoboost is an all-in-one demo automation platform that allows B2B tech and software companies to create, personalize, and track interactive product demos for their sales processes. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Demoboost CEO Anna Decroix to learn more.

Beyond Capital Ventures Invests In BimaKavach To Advance AI-Native Commercial Insurance In India

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jul 12, 2026

Beyond Capital Ventures announced an investment in BimaKavach, a technology-first commercial insurance company focused on helping India’s micro, small, and medium enterprises access, manage, and benefit from insurance.

OpenAI Introduces ChatGPT Work And Deprecates Atlas Browser

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jul 12, 2026

OpenAI announced ChatGPT Work, an agent in ChatGPT designed to take action across apps and files, stay with complex projects for extended periods, and turn user goals into finished work. The new experience is intended to move ChatGPT beyond answering questions and toward completing multi-step workflows across web, mobile, and desktop.

Anthropic Reportedly Reaches $1.2 Trillion Valuation On Secondary Markets

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jul 12, 2026

Anthropic has reportedly reached a $1.2 trillion valuation on secondary markets as investor demand for shares in the private AI company continues to surge.

Encube: Interview With Founder & CEO Hugo Nordell About The Visual Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jul 12, 2026

Encube is a deep-tech company that provides an AI-powered visual platform to help hardware manufacturers simulate production steps in real time and catch design flaws early. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Encube founder and CEO Hugo Nordell to learn more.

AIsa Raises $6.5 Million To Build The Transaction Network For AI Agents

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jul 12, 2026

AIsa, a San Francisco–based company building what it describes as the transaction network for the AI agent economy, has raised $6.5 million in total funding to date, including a new seed round co-led by Alibaba and Tribe Capital, with participation from Draper Associates, Sumitomo Corporation, Saison Capital and other investors. The capital will be used to expand AIsa's engineering team, scale its payment infrastructure, onboard additional models, data, and API providers, and accelerate stablecoin settlement capabilities for AI agents and businesses worldwide.

Cableteque Raises $6 Million Seed To Bring AI-Powered Digital Operating System To The $100 Billion Wire Harness Industry

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jul 11, 2026

Cableteque, a Huntington Beach, California–based software company building what it describes as the first comprehensive digital operating system for the wire harness manufacturing industry, has closed a $6 million seed round backed by 11 Tribes Ventures, PHX Ventures and Mudita Ventures. The funding arrives during a period of rapid growth: the company reports 300% year-to-date expansion and says it is on track to double that volume by year-end, across customers ranging from agile SMB shops to multi-billion-dollar tier-1 enterprise manufacturers.

Meta Launches Muse Spark 1.1, A Multimodal Reasoning Model Built For Agentic Tasks

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jul 11, 2026

Meta Superintelligence Labs has released Muse Spark 1.1, a significant upgrade to Muse Spark and the latest model from the research division Meta created to pursue its personal superintelligence vision. Muse Spark 1.1 is a multimodal reasoning model built for agentic tasks, with major performance gains in tool use, computer use, coding, and multimodal understanding. The model is now available in "Thinking" mode in the Meta AI app and on meta.ai, and is accessible to developers via the Meta Model API, currently in public preview.

Lyzr AI Raises $100 Million Series B After Its Own AI Agent SivaClaw Fielded 130‑Plus Investors And Generated $400 Million In Interest

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jul 11, 2026

Lyzr AI, an enterprise agentic AI company that builds AI agents designed to handle mission‑critical workflows, has closed a $100 million Series B after running the fundraise largely through SivaClaw, its own proprietary AI agent. The round attracted more than $400 million in investor interest—four times the target—with SivaClaw fielding more than 130 investor conversations, drafting investment memos and managing early‑stage outreach before human team members stepped in to close.

Mistral AI Launches Robostral Navigate, An 8B Robotics Model That Steers Robots With A Single Camera And Plain‑Language Commands

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jul 11, 2026

Mistral AI has released Robostral Navigate, its first dedicated robotics navigation model and a key step in the French startup’s push into “physical AI” for factories, warehouses and industrial automation. Robostral Navigate is an 8‑billion‑parameter vision‑language‑action model that takes images from a single RGB camera plus a plain‑language instruction and moves a robot through complex environments, without relying on LiDAR, depth sensors or multi‑camera rigs.