Starling Bank CEO to step down after just two years, reports say

Parsec founders raise $8.75M from a16z to give AI agents their own PCs

Phaze, started by the team behind remote desktop firm Parsec, raised an $8.75M seed round led by a16z. It lets employees and AI agents use powerful remote computers, so companies can share workstations instead of buying one for each person.

Pliant raises $80M to open its B2B payments platform to AI agents

Berlin fintech Pliant has raised an $80M Series C to open its B2B payments infrastructure to AI agents, the company said on Wednesday. Seaya Nova and Speedinvest led the oversubscribed round. Illuminate Financial, Motive Partners and Molten Ventures also took part.

Aformic raises $6.95M to move its factory robots into AI data centres

Aformic, which makes self-driving forklifts and carts for factories, raised a $6.95M seed round led by Veteran Ventures Capital. It says it has more than $34M in orders and plans new robots for building and maintaining AI data centres.

The Grand Canyon Is Missing 1.2 Billion Years of Earth History. Scientists May Have Figured Out Why

“Sometimes what is missing can tell us more about the story of Earth than what we can see.”

Voters Set $400 Million of Elon Musk’s Money on Fire

Elon Musk almost single-handedly funded the Republican midterms push. But of every traceable dollar Musk put into races that have been decided, more than 99 cents went to a race he lost.

Shopify misses revenue estimates for the first time since 2022

Shopify’s revenue rose 32% to $3.74bn in the third quarter, the company said on Tuesday. Analysts had expected $3.75bn, making it Shopify’s first revenue miss since 2022, Ignacio Gonzalez reported for Bloomberg. Shares fell as much as 17% during trading, according to Bloomberg.

Sequoia to close London office, cut Europe team

Tech companies tell job applicants: Be AI-pilled (but not too AI-pilled!)

Founders make terrible employees — here’s why every startup should hire them

Deeptech VCs are still too risk-averse with spinouts, and it’s costing them, say Europe’s leading spinout investors