GoKawiil
Tech News
Polymarket has reportedly raised $300 million from 1789 Capital, an investment fund with Donald Trump Jr. as a partner, as part of a roughly $1 billion funding round according to the Wall Street Journal. This adds to a prior $200 million investment from the same fund, which has also backed other controversial ventures like the Enhanced Games.
Businesses across sectors are recognizing that AI is not a one-time technology upgrade but an ongoing force reshaping roles, skills and team structures continuously. Executives are being urged to treat their workforce as a dynamic, ever-changing portfolio of capabilities rather than fixed headcount, using AI tools to track how work is shifting in real time.
At the AI Everything MEA conference in Cairo, a fintech operator shared a real-world example of how ambiguous data definitions can distort AI and analytics outcomes. Using SMS notification charges and interest postings as an example, they showed how automatically generated, non-customer-initiated transactions can inflate 'Monthly Active User' counts, leading marketing, product, and finance teams to draw three conflicting conclusions from the same dataset.
An Entrepreneur contributor argues that startups can no longer rely solely on a single venture capital raise as their financing plan, citing a sharp drop in global VC fundraising and slower exits that have left many funds unable to return money to their own investors. The piece recommends founders build a three-part capital stack combining equity, debt-based instruments and profitability to reduce dependence on favorable market timing.
Josh Mackanic, a former Pacific Gas and Electric engineer, founded CivilGrid in 2020 after experiencing costly delays caused by unknown buried pipes during excavation projects. The startup aggregates data on utility lines, property ownership, and environmental regulations into a unified underground mapping platform, and has now raised a $26 million Series A led by Spark Capital, with participation from Afore, A*, Ford Street Ventures, SNR, and Energy Impact Partners.
An Entrepreneur opinion piece argues that choosing an HR and payroll provider is no longer just about comparing software features and price, since AI has become nearly universal across human capital management platforms. Instead, small and growing businesses—especially those with fewer than 75 employees lacking dedicated HR staff—are now weighing providers based on how well they support scaling, evolving regulations and long-term needs.
Capital F, an all-female-led venture firm founded by Margaret Coblentz and Dawn Dobras, has closed its first fund at $17 million. The firm plans to invest in women's health, digital commerce, and AI tools, sectors it says are shaped heavily by women's needs and behavior. Nearly 80% of the fund's limited partners are women, including former retail executives like Jenny Ming and Marta Benson.
Papa Johns has named KM Capital, a Mexican investment firm founded in 1986, as its new franchise partner in the country, handing it control of 44 existing locations. The firm plans to invest further in operations, branding and expansion there, while Papa Johns' international division has now posted seven consecutive quarters of same-store sales growth, up 1.5% in Q2, even as U.S. sales fell 8.3% over the same period.
Julia Collins, who became the first Black woman to co-found a unicorn company after Zume Pizza hit a $1 billion valuation in 2018, later left to launch Planet FWD, a platform helping brands track and cut their carbon footprint. In an interview, she reflected on her entrepreneurial upbringing, her early career as the first hire at food chain Mexicue, and her approach to leadership across the more than $500 million she has raised in venture capital.
JOCO, a New York-based mobility company backed by roughly $7.5 million in venture funding, has built one of the largest urban e-bike infrastructure networks in the country, serving enterprise clients like Amazon, Uber Eats, Grubhub, Instacart and Gopuff. Its rise reflects a broader shift among startups away from pure software scaling toward capital-efficient, infrastructure-heavy business models as investor scrutiny tightens.
Fiat Ventures announced it is unifying its growth consultancy, previously known as Fiat Growth, with its venture investing arm under one new brand called FGV Capital. Alongside the rebrand, the firm closed a $35 million second fund focused on fintech's overlap with AI, healthcare and commerce, backed by LPs including Reinsurance Group of America, MassMutual and Bank of America. General partners Marcos Fernandez and Drew Glover said the two businesses will remain operationally separate despite sharing a brand.
TechCrunch is inviting companies, investors and community organizers to apply to host official Side Events around Disrupt 2026, which runs October 13-15 in San Francisco. Approved events can take place anytime from October 10-16 and will be promoted to Disrupt's more than 10,000 attendees through official marketing channels. Applications close September 4.