Take it to the bank (it being AI)

Top News

• Circle co-founder opens AI-native bank: Sean Neville, who remains on the board at stablecoin giant Circle, announced his latest project Catena Labs, which is designing open-source protocols for AI-powered payments and identity verification. Neville argues that the future of banking will be entirely run by autonomous AI agents, with no humans or businesses directly interacting with financial transactions on any level. While in stealth, Catena has raised $15 million in seed funding from Andreessen Horowitz, Breyer Capital, Coinbase Ventures, NFL icon Tom Brady, and others.

• Civitai’s terrible, awful, no good, very bad day: The AI model hosting platform allows users to directly generate images from text prompts, but it’s against their Terms of Service (and the law!) to generate non-consensual nudes or sexual content of IRL people. Nonetheless, 404Media reports that many users are employing Civitai to do just that, and despite active moderation efforts, the Andreessen Horowitz-backed platform seems unable to track and stop all the bad actors using their resources to create naked deepfakes. The situation caused Civitai to lose access to its credit card payment processor; they’re being forced to pause credit card payments for their Buzz in-site currency starting on May 23.

• RIP Builder.ai: The London-based startup told employees on Tuesday that’s filing for bankruptcy, after raising more than $500 million from marquee investors including Microsoft and Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund. The vibecoding startup aimed to make designing your own app or website “as easy as ordering a pizza,” but this proved more challenging than… well, than ordering a pizza.

TWiST500

We typically reserve this space for writing about TWiST 500 companies that are doing something cool or interesting. But on very rare and special occasions, not one but TWO TWiST 500 companies work together, and that’s when things get truly exciting.

Consider the case of rapidly growing fintech operations platform Ramp. We use our Ramp cards all the time here at TWiST/LAUNCH (especially if we want to get BBQ and Jason is at his ranch). But as you can imagine, for a company like Ramp, handling cash transfers in up to 40 currencies across a staggering 195 countries, there are a downright unfortunate level of security and compliance issues to sort out.

Once upon a time, whenever they wanted to enter a new territory or work within a new compliance framework, Ramp would have to basically do everything by hand, from reviewing new documentation to reorganizing their data to manually ensuring that they satisfied every local regulation and new requirement. Even with over 1,000 Ramp employees, the process wasn’t sustainable.

That is, UNTIL Ramp met Vanta! Vanta, another TWiST 500 favorite, offers a comprehensive, AI-powered, largely automated trust management solution. They now provide Ramp with pre-built compliance frameworks that massively reduce the amount of manual labor required to stay on top of their compliance obligations. That doesn’t just save Ramp time and money, but it frees up their team to focus on actually improving their core product and growing their business. You know, the stuff that makes them money.

If you’re sufficiently curious about how Vanta can help your startup, check out this generous offer, just for TWiST fans. (Also if you want the best business card for your company… try Ramp!) – Lon

A message from Lemon.io

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This Week in Startups

E2128: On a rare Alex-free episode of TWiST, Lon and Jason update viewers on the latest in the Rippling vs. Deel corporate espionage saga, which now has more chapters than the Jason Bourne franchise. Plus are Firecrawl’s AI agent job postings just a marketing stunt(?), Jason’s thoughts on spotting “world class design,” and a chat with Prandtl Dynamics CEO Parth Mahendru about his innovative sonic anti-drone systems.

E2127: Jason, Lon and Alex reflect on Microsoft’s cutthroat move of laying off 6,000 staffers even as it rakes in record profits, in a demonstration of just how series tech companies are about austerity and leaning on advancements in AI. Plus, they wonder aloud if AI startup Windsurf is selling itself too early and greet Jeremy Redman of Airfive to talk about his bold new prepaid SaaS model.

E2126: Podcast giant and Florida transplant Dave Rubin is Jason’s special guest on a politics and media-heavy edition of TWiST. Plus Jason and Alex talk the Chime IPO, Databricks major bet on agentic AI, startups offering Postgres as a service, and more.

TWiST Partner Offers

• NetSuite: If your revenues are in the seven figures or above, download the free e-book “Navigating Global Trade: 3 Insights for Leaders” at Netsuite.com/twist.

• Northwest Registered Agent: Starting your business should be simple. With Northwest Registered Agent, you can form your entire business identity in just 10 clicks and 10 minutes. From LLCs to trademarks, domains to custom websites, they’ve got you covered. Get more privacy, more options, and more done—visit https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twist today!

• Gemini Canvas: Need to get ideas into documents or code, fast? Gemini Canvas uses AI to help you write, code, and create in one interactive space. Try it at gemini.google.com/canvas.

Want to Work for This Week in Startups?

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Founder University

Applications are open for Founder University Cohort 11, 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 Summer 2025!

LAUNCH Accelerator

Are you a pre-Series A founder with a product in the market? Applications are now open for LAUNCH Accelerator's 35th cohort—starting Summer 2025—where you'll perfect your pitch, grow your business, and connect with top Silicon Valley investors. Apply here and take your startup to the next level!

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