Daily update from top VCs, angels, and accelerators*, 2 Oct 2025

Posted on October 02, 2025 at 10:52 PM

Daily update from top VCs, angels, and accelerators*, 2 Oct 2025


Startup Name Sector Round / Event (date) Investors (notable) Valuation (if reported) Notes
Thinking Machines (Tinker launch) AI — model fine-tuning / infra Product launch — Oct 2, 2025 (Tinker API private beta) Early backers reported earlier include a16z (lead in earlier oversubscribed seed), Nvidia, AMD, others (company previously reported heavily funded). (WIRED) Earlier press reported ~$12B (seed-stage headline figure). (WIRED) Launched Tinker (API for fine-tuning frontier LLMs). Strategic move: productizes model customization for research/teams; may pressure hosted-model fine-tuning market. (Impact/ Risk/ Growth → High / Medium / High). (WIRED)
DualEntry AI for ERP / finance automation Series A $90M — Oct 2, 2025 Lightspeed Venture Partners (lead), Khosla Ventures, GV reported participating. (Yahoo Finance) Reported ~$415M post-round valuation (press summary). (Reuters) Focus: autonomous bookkeeping/ERP automation using LLMs/agents. Market traction implied by large A round; raises competitive bar for incumbents and vertical AI SaaS. (Impact/ Risk/ Growth → High / Medium / High). (Yahoo Finance)
OpenAI (secondary share sale) AI / platform Private secondary sale announced — Oct 2, 2025 Buyers included SoftBank, Dragoneer, Thrive Capital, MGX, others (secondary purchasers reported). (Reuters) Reported $500B implied valuation after the secondary. (Reuters) SoftBank participation (secondary) is the item linking this to your tracked list. Strategic implication: continued mega-capital flows into AI platforms; signals concentration of LPs/sovereigns in frontier AI. (Impact/ Risk/ Growth → Very High / High / Very High). (Reuters)
Oneleet Cybersecurity / compliance Series A $33M — Oct 2, 2025 Led by Dawn Capital; Y Combinator listed as investor (YC alum/participation); angels include Arash Ferdowsi; Frank Slootman named as backer. (TechCrunch) Not disclosed (ARR reported ~$9M; $35M total raised to date). (TechCrunch) All-in-one compliance + AI tooling; positioning vs Vanta/Secureframe. YC participation is notable for early customer funnel / product-market fit validation. (Impact/ Risk/ Growth → Medium / Medium / Medium). (TechCrunch)

Brief commentary — trends, assessment & actionable insights

  1. AI remains the dominant theme: product launches and large rounds concentrate in AI infra, model customization and AI-native vertical applications (Thinking Machines, DualEntry, OpenAI activity). (WIRED)
  2. Large funds / strategic LPs remain active in secondaries and growth deals: SoftBank participating in OpenAI secondary highlights the ongoing appetite for allocating to frontier AI even via secondary transactions. (Reuters)
  3. Verticalization of AI: Lightspeed’s lead in an AI-ERP round signals VCs continuing to back domain-specific autonomous agents that replace core enterprise workflows. (Yahoo Finance)
  4. Accelerator signal value: YC’s presence (Oneleet) shows demo-day/YC alumni still meaningfully accelerate distribution and follow-on capital even when YC is not lead.

Market potential & risks (quick assessment)

  • Thinking Machines / TinkerPotential: very high — if Tinker lowers the time/cost to fine-tune frontier models, it unlocks more custom AI adoption. Risks: regulatory/safety scrutiny, control of compute, and possible restrictions on advanced-model distribution. (WIRED)
  • DualEntry (Lightspeed)Potential: high in mid-market/enterprise finance automation. Risks: customer inertia (ERP vendors), accuracy/regulatory accounting constraints for AI decisions. (Yahoo Finance)
  • OpenAI secondary (SoftBank)Potential: huge macro tailwinds for AI ecosystem liquidity and valuations. Risks: concentration risk, regulatory/antitrust and national security scrutiny, volatility in private market pricing. (Reuters)
  • Oneleet (YC)Potential: moderate — compliance remains a large recurring spend market. Risks: intense competition (Vanta, Secureframe) and commoditization of compliance tooling. (TechCrunch)

Actionable insights for investors / scouts

  1. Monitor model-tuning platforms (Tinker competitors) — companies enabling low-cost, policy-aware fine-tuning are strategically valuable (partnership / M&A targets for cloud/GPU providers). Prioritize diligence on safety controls, auditability, and compute partnerships. (WIRED)
  2. Enterprise AI verticals (finance/ERP) — follow growth signals from companies like DualEntry; look for strong revenue unit economics (NRR >120%) and defensible data moat (books + tax/ERP integrations). (Yahoo Finance)
  3. Secondary market as an allocation signal — large secondary transactions (OpenAI) can precede broader private market re-rating; consider LP exposure and exit windows. Evaluate implied multiples critically. (Reuters)
  4. Accelerator-backed security/compliance plays — YC participation still helps early GTM; prioritize startups showing early ARR & auditor partnerships. (TechCrunch)

Coverage gaps / “no updates” list (last 24 hours)

  • No material public updates in the last 24 hours tied to: Sequoia Capital, Accel, Tiger Global, Techstars, 500 Startups (i.e., I found no new public rounds, exits, product launches, or official announcements in the past 24 hours involving those firms). If you want, I can run targeted searches for each (press release pages, Crunchbase/Dealroom feeds) and push alerts when they appear.