Dexterity raises $95M for robots with "finesse"

Top News

• Dexterity hits $1.65B valuation: Industrial robot startup Dexterity raised a $95 million round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, bringing their total investment to date up to $300 million. Dexterity’s robots are designed for repetitive tasks you might encounter in a warehouse setting, like loading and unloading boxes from trucks. The goal is to ultimately rethink these entire facilities from the ground up with AI and automation in mind.

• Zolve international bank eyes expansion: Sometimes, highly-skilled immigrants move to the US for well-paying jobs, but nonetheless still encounter obstacles to obtaining necessary financial services, due to their lack of local credit history. Zolve’s neobank eases this stress by offering newcomers to the US access to basic credit and banking services, just as they arrive. The company raised $251 million in new funding this week, which they’ll use to continue expanding.

• American consumers tire of gadgets: Bloomberg suggests that, after years of peak interest in laptops, smartphones, voice-activated assistants, VR headsets, and beyond, the public has grown weary of new hardware devices. One former Amazon and Microsoft engineer at least suggests the industry is just “napping” and not full-on dead, but with investment in AI reaching dizzying new heights, that’s still not entirely comforting.

TWiST500

Not to get TOO post-modern and self-aware on you all but… today’s newsletter is ABOUT NEWSLETTERS. TWiST500’s own Substack has officially crossed the 5 million paid subscriber milestone for the very first time. The blogging, publishing, video, and newsletter platform has been experiencing something akin to exponential growth over the last year; they JUST hit 4 million paid subscribers in November 2024 and had only 3 million last February.

Still, in a blog post announcing the achievement, Substack’s head of writer relations, Sophia Efthimiatou, cautions us not to consider this occasion just in terms of dollars and cents. “These are real people rewarding the work of writers and creators with real money,” she observes.

In an era where print and legacy media are, let’s face it, dying a painful death — and the ceaseless attention competition between influencers and creators grows ever more fierce — an increasing number of creatives have come to rely on DIY publishers like Substack. Opportunities to earn a steady income from posting fresh writing or videos — even for creators with a large and established audience — are growing scarcer as dominant players like Google and Meta hoover up all that precious ad money. - Lon

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This Week in Startups

E2095: On a blockbuster TWiST that’s currently blowing up on social media, Jason and Alex welcome young coding whiz and (by now, likely former) Columbia University sophomore Roy Lee, who went viral after hacking his way around technical interviews at Meta, Capital One, and Amazon. Even after an Amazon exec dropped a dime on Roy, getting him in trouble with his alma mater, he still took the time to stop by the show and give us insight into his new company, InterviewCoder.

E2094: On a special futurist edition of TWiST, Alex welcomes not one but TWO insightful guests. FIRST UP, Zap Energy CEO Benj Conway tells him about the promising future of fusion power technology. THEN, Alex is joined by PolyAI CEO Nikola Mrkšić for a deep dive on how AI will soon revolutionize customer service via ultra-realistic human-like voice assistants.

E2093: Jason and Alex cover CoreWeave’s filing for a $35 billion IPO after explosive revenue growth. But with 77% of its revenue coming from just two customers, is it built to last? Meanwhile, AVRide is bringing autonomous Hyundai robotaxis to Uber in Dallas, pushing the self-driving revolution forward as Waymo scales to 200,000 weekly rides. And finally, Digg is back!

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• LinkedInJobs: A business is only as strong as its people, and every hire matters. Go to https://www.linkedin.com/twist to post your first job for free. Terms and conditions apply.

Angel University

Angel University is back! Jason and Mike, President at LAUNCH, are hosting our next live Angel.University workshop in person on Wednesday, April 23rd, in NYC. Jason will be teaching the strategies he’s used to invest $100M+ in 300+ startups over the past decade. Register at: angel.university.

Founder University

Applications are open for Founder University Cohort 10, a 12-week remote pre-accelerator program tailored towards navigating early-startup practices, building an MVP, and growing traction. Submit your application at Founder University— Cohort 10 will kick off Spring 2025!

LAUNCH Accelerator

Applications are open for the 34th cohort of the LAUNCH Accelerator; a 14-week program focused on fundraising and growth. We invest $125K in our accepted companies and help them raise their pre-seed or seed round. Submit your application at LAUNCH Accelerator.

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