More than 20 civil service employees resigned today from the Department of Government Efficiency, stating that they did not want to use their technical expertise to "dismantle critical public services." The AP has more here. 

The Securities and Exchange Commission has dropped its probe into Uniswap Labs, the company behind one of the largest decentralized cryptocurrency exchanges, following similar decisions by the SEC to forego investigations into OpenSea and Robinhood. The Wall Street Journal has more here. 

Apple investors rejected a proposal from a conservative think tank to cancel its DEI initiatives, breaking with tech companies like Meta and Google, which have shelved these programs. Bloomberg has more here. 

The price of Bitcoin has fallen below $90,000, a three-month low. CNBC has more here. 

Tesla's stock fell 8% today in part because of investor concerns that CEO Elon Musk is more focused on Washington politics than his car company, according to The New York Times, which has more here. 

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By Charles Rollet

A demo from Optifye.ai, a member of Y Combinator’s current cohort, sparked a social media backlash that ended up with YC deleting it off its socials.

Optifye says it’s building software to help factory owners know who’s working — and who isn’t — in “real-time” thanks to AI-powered security cameras it places on assembly lines, according to its YC profile.

On Monday, YC posted an Optifye demo video on X (and on LinkedIn), according to a snapshot saved by TechCrunch.

The video shows Optifye co-founder Kushal Mohta acting as the boss of a garment factory, calling a supervisor — in reality his co-founder Vivaan Baid — about a low-performing worker known only as “Number 17.”

“Hey Number 17, what’s going on man? You’re in the red,” Baid asks the worker, who responds that he’s been working all day.

“Working all day? You haven’t hit your hourly output even once and you had 11.4% efficiency. This is really bad,” Baid retorts.

After checking Optifye’s dashboard, the supervisor looks at the output of “Number 17” for 15 days, decides that the worker has been underperforming and calls the worker out on it.

More here

Ethena, a two-year old Lisbon startup that develops synthetic stablecoins such as USDe, which achieves stability by using crypto assets and futures contracts, raised a $100 million round through a token sale. Investors included Franklin Templeton, F-Prime Capital, Dragonfly Capital, Polychain Capital, and Pantera Capital. NFTgators has more here.

Flow48, a three-year-old Dubai startup that provides revenue-based financing to SMBs in emerging markets, raised a $69 million in debt and equity. The deal lead was Breega, with 212, Speedinvest, Daphni, Endeavor Catalyst, Evolution Ventures, and Plus VC also contributing. More here.

Metronome, a six-year-old San Francisco startup whose platform helps software companies manage their billing based on how much customers use their services, raised a $50 million Series C round. Previous investor NEA was the lead, with Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst, Workday Ventures, Greyhound Capital, Truebridge Capital Partners, Activant Capital, SineWave Ventures, and Megalith Ventures also piling on. The company has raised a total of $128 million. More here.

Monument Bank, a nine-year-old London startup that offers savings and wealth management services to professionals, entrepreneurs, and mass affluent individuals, is reportedly in the market to raise a £200 million Series C round, according to Sky News. PYMNTS has more here.

OrganOx, a 17-year-old company based in Oxford, UK, that develops devices that preserve donor organs, particularly livers, at normal body temperatures outside the body, allowing for better assessment before transplantation, raised a $142 million primary and secondary equity financing led by HealthQuest Capital, with Sofina, Soleus Capital, and Avidity Partners as well as previous investors BGF and Lauxera Capital Partners also participating. MassDevice has more here.

Quantum Machines, a seven-year-old Tel Aviv startup that develops advanced control systems for quantum computers, raised a $170 million Series C round led by PSG Equity, with additional participation from Intel Capital and Red Dot Capital Partners. TechCrunch has more here.

Albert Invent, a three-year-old Oakland startup whose AI-powered platform is designed to streamline and enhance chemical research and development, raised a $20 million round at a $270 million post-money valuation. The deal lead was J.P. Morgan Private Capital’s Growth Equity Partners, with Coatue and TCV also investing. CityBiz has more here.

Auditoria.AI, a seven-year-old startup based in San Jose, CA, that develops software that automates routine tasks in finance departments, such as managing invoices and payments, raised a $38 million round led by Innovius Capital and including Dell Technologies Capital, and Sentinel Global as well as previous investors Venrock, NeoTribe Ventures, Engineering Capital, and KPMG Ventures. More here.

Edera, a one-year-old Seattle startup that enhances security for Kubernetes and AI workloads by isolating containerized applications to prevent security breaches and ensure safe GPU configurations for AI tasks, raised a $15 million Series A round led by M12, with Mantis VC and In-Q-Tel as well as previous investors Eniac Ventures, 645 Ventures, FPV Ventures, Precursor Ventures, and Rosecliff Ventures also stepping up. GeekWire has more here.

Lovable, a Swedish startup whose AI-powered platform enables users to create web applications without writing any code, raised a $15 million pre-Series A round led by Creandum. TechCrunch has more here. 

Perfect, a three-year-old New York and Israeli startup whose platform autonomously analyzes job descriptions, sources suitable candidates, and conducts personalized outreach to engage potential hires, raised a $23 million seed round. Target Global, RTP Global, Pitango, Hanaco Ventures, and Joule Ventures invested in the deal, which was financed in two tranches over the last year. TechCrunch has more here.

Covu, a four-year-old startup based in Redwood City, CA, whose AI-powered platform helps insurance agents manage policies and give personalized recommendations to clients, raised a $10 million Series A extension led by Benhamou Global Ventures, with True Global Ventures also stepping up. The company has raised a total of $32 million. More here.

Fuse Vectors, a four-year-old Copenhagen startup that is developing a cell-free gene therapy platform designed to deliver genetic treatments without relying on viruses to deliver genetic material into cells, raised a $5.2 million pre-seed round led by HCVC. ArcticStartup has more here.

HouseWhisper, a two-year-old Seattle startup that assists real estate agents by automating client communication, generating market insights, and helping with scheduling and lead management, raised a $6.7 million seed round led by Mayfield, with 75 & Sunny Ventures and previous investor PSL Ventures also anteing up. GeekWire has more here.

Karomia, a one-year-old startup based in Ghent, Belgium, that automates the creation of Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and Environmental, Social, and Governance reports, raised a $2.1 million round. Entourage and Imec.start co-led the deal. EU-Startups has more here.

Paradox Immunotherapeutics, a six-year-old Toronto startup that is working on new therapies designed to restore immune balance without suppressing the body’s ability to fight infections, raised a $10 million round from SymBiosis Capital Management. More here.

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Perplexity, a two-year-old San Francisco startup that has built an AI-powered search engine and answer engine using natural language processing, has launched a $50 million fund for seed and pre-seed startups. TechCrunch has more here. 

DataStax, a 15-year-old company based in Santa Clara, CA that specializes in providing database software designed for cloud applications, is being acquired by IBM (NYSE: IBM) for an undisclosed sum. DataStax has raised a total of $342.6 million. CRN has more here. 

Cohesity, a Santa Clara, CA, startup that helps businesses manage and protect data against ransomware attacks, has told potential investors in a planned employee share sale that it expects to generate $2.2 billion in revenue in the 12 months ending in July, according to The Information. Cohesity, which says it is profitable on a free cash flow basis, is planning the sale at an $8 billion valuation, says one of the outlet's sources. Cohesity filed for a 2021 IPO, but its CEO tells The Information it's in no rush to go public. "An IPO is a milestone, not the destination,” Sanjay Poonen said, as if reading a script shared by every company preparing to go public in less than a year (ever). “We’ll do it at the right time."

Amy Gleason - not Elon Musk - is the official acting admistrator of DOGE, according to a report from Semafor. Gleason previously served as chief product officer at Russell Street Ventures. TechCrunch has more here. 

Peter Rawlinson is stepping down from his roles as CEO and CTO of Lucid Motors and leaving the board. He joined the company in 2013 after serving as the chief engineer of Tesla's Model S. TechCrunch has more here. 

For some period of time, the Apple iPhone's voice-to-text system was translating "racist" as "Trump." "This smells like a serious prank," a former member of Apple's Siri team told The New York Times. More here. 

How to make your own Lumon MDR computer. (Die-hard Severance fans only.)

What's the difference between a bad joke and a dad joke?

A company called Survival Condo is selling underground bunkers for a corporation's data center and its C-suite executives. 

Cool clock.