HaloBraid raises $7M to build the first robotic braiding assistant for hair salons

Smart plugs are replacing smart appliances, and your decade-old washing machine just became future-proof

Smart plug (Zigbee) giá rẻ (~$15) thay thế smart appliance nhờ ưu điểm tiết kiệm chi phí, tránh lệ thuộc cloud, kéo dài tuổi thọ thiết bị và giảm rác thải điện tử. Chúng theo dõi dòng điện, kích hoạt tự động hóa (Home Assistant) như thông báo kết thúc chu trình, tính toán chi phí năng lượng hay ngắt an toàn mà không cần internet.

Lập trình viên nên đọc bài này để hiểu cách xây dựng hệ thống nhà thông minh tự động hóa hiệu quả bằng cách kết hợp các thiết bị cơ bản với các công cụ mở nguồn như Home Assistant, giảm chi phí và tránh phụ thuộc vào dịch vụ đám mây đắt tiền.

General Intuition’s $2.3B bet that video games can train AI agents for the real world

General Intuition has raised $320 million at a $2.3 billion valuation to scale AI agents trained on hundreds of millions of hours of video game footage. The key differentiator is action-labeled gameplay data — records of button presses and timing — rather than video alone, which the company argues enables richer causal understanding. The same model powering a Fortnite-playing agent also drives a quadrupedal robot that required only 8 minutes of real-world fine-tuning. The round was led by Khosla Ventures with participation from Jeff Bezos, Eric Schmidt, and Google DeepMind researchers. General Intuition plans to sell its agentic model as a foundation for gaming, simulation, and robotics use cases via an API, while also launching Nerve, a jobs marketplace letting gamers earn income through data labeling and robot teleoperation.

Increasing Local GPS Accuracy For A Small Robot

Standard GPS receivers only achieve around two-meter accuracy, which is insufficient for precise robotic navigation. RTK (Real-Time Kinematic) GPS solves this by using a base station at a known location to transmit phase-angle correction data to a mobile receiver, enabling centimeter-level accuracy. GreatScott! demonstrates this on a tracked robot platform, placing the base station on a fence post and the RTK receiver on the robot. While the RTK system itself proved accurate enough, the robot's steering hardware and algorithms became the limiting factor for hitting centimeter-sized targets. The setup demonstrates practical applications like autonomous lawn mowing and amateur land surveying.

Playground Global Joins NUS Initiative Supporting Singapore’s Quantum Ecosystem

Playground Global and Matter Venture Partners have joined NUS Enterprise's US$117 million NUS VC Programme, gaining access to Singapore's deep tech startup pipeline spanning quantum technologies, AI, biotech, and advanced materials. In return, Singapore-based startups gain connections to Silicon Valley venture networks, technical expertise, and commercialization support. NUS Enterprise will also open its first Silicon Valley outpost at Playground Global's incubation facility, giving founders access to labs, prototyping tools, and direct exposure to US customers and investors.

General Intuition’s $2.3B bet that video games can train AI agents for the real world

General Intuition, a New York-based AI startup, has raised $320 million at a $2.3 billion valuation to scale AI agents trained on hundreds of millions of hours of video gameplay. The company's key differentiator is action-labeled gameplay data — records of button presses and timing — sourced from Medal, a gaming clip platform co-founded by CEO Pim de Witte. Unlike competitors inferring actions from video alone, General Intuition embeds this action data to train a single model capable of playing games, navigating simulated environments, and controlling physical robots. A quadruped robot was fine-tuned for real-world navigation using just eight minutes of street data. The round was led by Khosla Ventures, with participation from General Catalyst, Jeff Bezos, Eric Schmidt, and researchers from Google DeepMind and MIT. The company plans to offer its model via API and build a data flywheel across gaming, simulation, and robotics use cases, while explicitly ruling out lethal military applications.

VC fund VGames launches new $10m Indie Fund

VGames, a VC firm founded in 2020, is launching a $10 million Indie Fund targeting premium PC and console game studios. Unlike traditional equity deals, the fund offers project financing in exchange for revenue share, preserving studio independence and IP rights. VGames plans to back 10–20 studios with investments of $500K–$1M each, focusing on commercially ambitious titles that avoid free-to-play monetisation. The shift in strategy reflects a more challenging exit environment for PC/console compared to mobile.

Tombot raises $7m to bring its robotic dog Jennie to market

Tombot has closed a $7 million Series A3 round to scale manufacturing of Jennie, its autonomous robotic Labrador puppy designed as a companion for people with dementia, cognitive impairment, anxiety, loneliness, autism, and PTSD. Investors include healthcare and aging-services backers such as Caduceus Capital Partners and the Lutheran Foundation for Long Term Living. The company reports over 23,000 pre-orders and waitlist sign-ups ahead of a planned Fall 2026 commercial launch — its first shipments to paying customers. Jennie mimics the behavior of an 8-to-10-week-old puppy and is pitched as delivering companionship benefits without the care burden of a live animal.