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Top News

• Revolut close to closing $3B round: Bloomberg reports that UK-based neobank Revolut is nearly done raising a multi-billion dollar funding round that will value the company at $75 billion. That price tag makes Revolut one of the fifteen most valuable companies in the UK and one of the world's most richly-valued private companies. The round is a hybrid primary-and-secondary transaction on the heels of Revolut reporting 72% revenue growth in 2024 and more than a billion pounds of profit before tax.

• Gemini 3.0 may arrive in December: Despite some internet sleuths turning up mentions of Gemini 3.0, Google’s hotly-anticipated new family of AI models, insider sources suggest that the GPT-5 competitor will not arrive until December. Google’s Gemini 2.5 model currently owns the third-place rank on LMArena’s leaderboard, losing out to two releases from Anthropic while pipping competing products from OpenAI. The only other company in the top ten? Alibaba, the company behind the popular Qwen open-source AI models.

• Stellantis partners with Pony.AI: As self-driving rolls ever closer to mass adoptions, car companies are partnering with tech shops to bring cars and AI together. Stellantis choosing Pony.AI “to build robotaxis for deployment in Europe,” as TechCrunch puts it, follows Lucid teaming up with Uber, Toyota, and Waymo linking arms, and Hyundai picking Avride as its preferred partner. That a European company picked a Chinese provider, of course, won’t be popular in all circles.

TWiST 500

The TWiST500 is close to adding its 500th company! But we still have a few slots left to fill, and I can’t imagine a better name to add than Tempo. The upstart crypto project just raised $500 million at a $5 billion valuation, two staggering figures for a company that is just getting started.

How did it manage the feat? Tempo was born from two private-market giants: Stripe (payments, stables, podcasts) and Paradigm (crypto VC). It promises to be blockchain designed to handle stablecoin-predicated payments, with support for both microtransactions and payments initiated by AI agents.

Given global demand for stablecoins — which is running hot — and AI agents expected to take on more and more commercial activity, it’s not hard to see where Tempo expects to fit into the market.

Still, the Tempo chain won’t be decentralized, at least to start. Instead, the company said during its launch announcement that its chain will be “secured by an independent and diverse validator set, with a roadmap toward permissionless validators.”

In other words, Tempo will begin life as a corporate database of sorts aimed at making it easier for businesses around the world to interact with stablecoins, which are largely pegged to the US dollar. So Stripe is backing a crypto-adjacent effort to create a fast, low-friction way to move dollars around. How the startup will handle KYC and money-laundering prevention will be interesting, to say the least.

You and I don’t have to get involved in the intra-crypto arguments about permissioned and permissionless systems. What we care about is that the rails that stablecoins can run on are being quickly built out and upgraded. If you think the Internet needs more, faster, and cheaper payments that can involve tiny sums, Tempo might just be your jam. Greenoaks and Thrive led the half-billion dollar round. — Alex

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This Week in Startups

E2193: On a special edition of TWiST, Jason sits down for a 90-minute 1-on-1 chat with long-time friend and legendary venture capitalist Steve Jurvetson, as part of a wide-ranging conversation in the AI hype cycle, the significance of “neural networks” in nature, the return of nuclear power, the absurdity of discussions around “AI safety,” and much much more.

E2192: Jason is joined by his favorite new guest, Eric Glyman of Ramp, who has out for the whole show. Together with co-host Alex, they discuss Ramp’s mission to help startups spend LESS money, and delve into the payment company’s treasure trove of insightful business data. PLUS some pressing questions from founders, Jason’s favorite startup accelerators, why unemployment has spiked among male college grads, and much more.

E2191: No Alex today, so Jason and Lon are checking out the Figure 03 demo, and debating whether or not you’ll ever have a full-sized humanoid robot taking care of your day-to-day chores. PLUS President Trump’s latest trade war triggers panic in the markets, a look at ChatGPT’s new integrations, and why Mark Cuban and Jake Paul are in every other Sora app video.

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Founder U is Coming to the MENA Region!

Our 12-week pre-accelerator—designed to help early-stage founders build and grow—kicks off this fall in Saudi Arabia. The first cohort launches in Riyadh on November 3rd, followed by in-person and virtual sessions throughout the program. Founders in MENA: this is your chance to turn your idea into a business and get world-class insights on building a successful startup. Apply today: https://mena.founder.university/

SF Live-Work Space Now Available

Need a flexible living and working environment in San Francisco? This thoughtfully designed loft-style residence at 787 Bryant St., the heart of the vibrant SOMA district and the city’s creative hub, is now available for rent or purchase. Check the listing for more details.

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