Magic, Molecules, Messaging
Loyalist CRMs (Magic), longevity biotech (Generation Lab), and OpenAI's Atlas — plus Owala’s marketing win, the Women’s Health Fund, and more!
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Emma Tinsley, Founder & CEO of Elevara Medicines, a biotech developing therapies for rheumatoid arthritis and chronic inflammatory diseases through fibroblast-targeted approaches, raised $70M in Series A funding co-led by Forbion and Sofinnova Partners.
Brooke Boyarsky Pratt (CEO) and Angela Fitch (CMO), Co-Founders of knownwell, a company delivering comprehensive, weight-inclusive primary care and obesity medicine, raised $25M in funding led by CVS Health Ventures.
Amy Ouellette, Co-Founder & COO of Aboon, an AI-powered 401(k) platform that helps financial advisors design and manage retirement plans with greater speed and transparency, raised $17.5M in seed funding led by Bain Capital Ventures.
Ellen Rudolph, Co-Founder & CEO of WellTheory, a platform delivering AI-powered personalized care for autoimmune diseases, raised $14M in Series A funding led by General Catalyst.
Lydia Hylton (CEO) and Priya Krishnan (COO), Co-Founders of Strella, a customer research platform that automates qualitative research through AI moderated interviews, raised $14M in Series A funding led by Bessemer.
Michelle Nguyen and Natalie Serrino, Co-Founders of Gimlet Labs, an applied AI research company developing infrastructure that decouples agentic AI workloads from underlying hardware to optimize compute performance, raised $12M in seed funding led by Factor.
Alina Rui Su, Co-Founder & CEO of Generation Lab, a longevity biotech developing personalized epigenetic testing and therapies to extend healthy lifespan, raised $11M in seed funding led by Accel.
Cathy Di, Co-Founder & CEO of Dedalus Labs, a developer platform that helps engineers build and deploy AI agents with just a few lines of code, raised $11M in seed funding co-led by Kindred Ventures and Saga Ventures.
Maggie Tang, Founder & CEO of Magic, an AI company bringing personalized experiences to the hospitality industry through its CRM platform Loyalist, raised $10M in seed funding led by Lerer Hippeau, with participation from several angels, including celebrity chef Mario Carbone.
Léa Wenger, Founder & CEO of Cyclana Bio, a UK-based biotechnology company developing tissue-based disease models to discover new treatments for endometriosis and other women’s health conditions, raised £5M in pre-seed funding co-led by NFX and Eka VC.
Michelle Lim, Co-Founder & CEO of Flint, a platform that builds autonomous websites that design, test, and optimize themselves using AI, raised $5M in seed funding led by Accel.
Priyanka Kulkarni, Founder & CEO of Casium, an AI-powered immigration and mobility platform helping employers streamline global talent hiring and visa management, raised $5M in seed funding led by Maverick Ventures.
Aune Aunapuu, Co-Founder & CEO of Yaga, an Estonian-based sustainable online marketplace for secondhand fashion, raised €4M in funding led by Specialist VC.
Lauren Gage, Founder & CEO of Triplemoon, a digital health platform providing integrated behavioral care for pediatric patients and their families, raised $3.5M in seed funding led by Activate Venture Partners and LiveOak Ventures.
Christina Brady (CEO) and Jodi Mesa (CPTO), Co-Founders of Luster, an AI-powered training and skill proficiency platform that predicts where sales reps are likely to make mistakes, raised $3M in seed funding co-led by High Alpha and Ivy Ventures.
🪞 Biography is hiring Paid Growth and Marketing Interns (SF or remote) to join its team building socially-aware AI assistants that use personal data you control to help schedule events, make introductions, and even find your next hire.
🧸 Pixley AI (YC F25) is hiring Full Stack Dev and Marketing Interns to join its team building a platform where kids and parents co-create AI-powered cartoons.
🎙️ Geni Computers is hiring a contract Content Creator to help showcase its AI-powered, screen-free storytelling toys that let kids create their own audio adventures.
💼 AfterQuery is hiring an Operations + Technical Sales Intern in SF to help power data infrastructure and partnerships for leading AI labs.
💸 Six VC internships/fellowships are open — including Flare Capital, Thrive, LvlUp, and more.
🚀 Eleven new accelerators launched or opened recently, including programs from 2048 Ventures, Thrive Capital, Databricks, Snowflake, and Entrepreneurs First.
💡 Black New Venture Competition at Harvard Business School is now accepting applications for 2026 — offering non-dilutive funding, VC access, and programming for early-stage Black founders.
💰 Princeton TigerLaunch, one of the world’s largest student startup competitions, offers $60K in non-dilutive funding with regional pitches worldwide and finals at Princeton. Apply by Nov 1.
✨ 8 female founders who recently raised are actively hiring across roles!
💁♀️ Teli Labs matches and introduces young talent to founders at top early-stage startups & SMBs. Apply to join our talent pool!
OpenAI launched Atlas, an AI-powered web browser that embeds ChatGPT into any site, letting users chat, search, and complete tasks directly as they browse.
Sam Altman said ChatGPT will soon allow erotica for verified adults under a “treat adults like adults” policy — clarifying later that it reflects a broader push for adult user freedom and responsible age-gating, not relaxed safeguards for minors or mental health.
A leading VC firm outlined the Undergrad Capital Cycle, showing how every tech era starts in dorm rooms — from Microsoft to Facebook to Ethereum to today’s AI startups like Cursor/Mercor. Early undergrads win through curiosity and freedom from legacy systems, but their edge fades once experience and networks take over.
A* Capital has invested nearly 20% of its fund in teenage founders, betting that Gen Z’s native understanding of new tech and willingness to take bold risks will drive the next wave of breakout startups.
Tally, co-founded by Marie Martens, bootstrapped to $4M ARR — built on simplicity, constant user feedback, and a relentless focus on doing one thing exceptionally well.
A major AWS outage took down major platforms including Amazon, Snapchat, Coinbase, and Zoom for hours, disrupting governments, airlines, and financial services worldwide.
LinkedIn released its Top Startups 2025 list, spotlighting the fastest-growing US companies.
Oura is winning young women and losing gym rats — with 80% of users now female, its smart ring has become a lifestyle accessory more than a fitness tracker.
A new GWI chart shows social media use peaked in 2022 — with Gen Z leading the decline. For the first time in history, time spent online is shrinking.
Owala turned a viral TikTok of someone using its bottle to fight off an intruder into a marketing win, sending the creator a branded safe, replacement bottles, and an all-expenses-paid getaway — leading to millions more views.
Jenny Stojkovic, General Partner at Joyful VC, wrote about the rising “She-cession,” noting record numbers of college-educated moms leaving the workforce
The new Women’s Health Fund, a fund of funds, aims to channel life sciences capital to women’s health, addressing the long-standing research gap and that women weren’t included in clinical trials until 1993.
Nema Health, a platform helping survivors find lasting peace from trauma and PTSD, was featured on Reclaiming with Monica Lewinsky, with founder Sofia Noori joining Monica and Gabrielle Union for a conversation on trauma and healing.
Former OpenAI researcher Karina Nguyen launched Maison AGI, a fashion house creating cultural artifacts for the AI era — debuting with Relic of Thought, a collaboration with Ilya Sutskever blending art, philosophy, and design.
October 28 | 💸 Creatives in Finance by GenZtea (NYC)
October 30 | 🚀 Afore Capital’s 8th Annual Pre-Seed Summit (SF / Virtual)
November 3 | 🌸 Femtech Insider IRL (NYC)
November 4 | 💼 Aspiring Female Partners: Back to the Office (London)
November 6 | 🍷 HUMN x Rho Female Founder Dinner (Boston)
November 16 | 🧬 Explore Careers in Biotech Workshop (Virtual)
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Love,
Daniela & The Teli Team