💥 6 deals, $5.6B raised & the Ultimate ChatGPT Browser?!
Inside/VC Weekly #25
Good morning!
Welcome to another Inside/VC edition. This issue takes 5 minutes to read.
Only got 20 secs? Here’s what matters most this week:OpenAI’s new browser might kill tabs, SEO, and half the internet (🇺🇸)
Germany Leapfrogs UK To Lead European VC Investment In Q2 (🇩🇪 vs. 🇬🇧)
AWS is launching an AI agent store, and of course Anthropic’s in it (🇺🇸)
TikTok splits itself to survive the US ban (🇺🇸)
Zalando swallows ABOUT YOU to dominate European fashion e-com (🇩🇪)
Let’s get into it.
Weekly Spotlight:
OpenAI’s new browser might kill tabs, SEO, and half the internet (🇺🇸)
OpenAI is finally launching a browser. It’s called Operator. Think Chrome, but with ChatGPT built in and a UX that quietly tells you not to bother typing anything ever again. You’ll just ask, and things will happen.
It’s joining a fast-growing category. Perplexity launched Comet, a browser with no tabs that calls itself your second brain. Brave has its own AI moves. Arc is experimenting. And Google? Still pretending that Gemini is a feature, not a threat.
If this works, the web shifts. No more clicking through SEO sludge. But also: less ad revenue for publishers, less traffic for websites, more power for a few AI wrappers. The open web just got a little more... closed.
Inside/VC Shorts
📰 News Shorts:
Germany Leapfrogs UK To Lead European VC Investment In Q2 (🇩🇪 vs. 🇬🇧)
For the first time in over a decade, Germany beat the UK in quarterly VC funding: $2.8B vs. $2.5B in Q2. Sure, the gap’s small – but symbolic. London’s at its lowest since 2019, while Berlin’s rising, thanks to deals like Helsing’s $694M AI defense round.
Europe’s overall funding? Flat vs. Q1, but still 24% down from last year. The biggest round didn’t even go to Germany or the UK – it was Turkish gaming giant Dream Games ($1.25B). Still, a W is a W. Let the Substack patriotism begin.
🚀 Startup Shorts:
AWS is launching an AI agent store, and of course Anthropic’s in it (🇺🇸)
AWS is launching an AI agent store this week (think App Store, but for bots that do paperwork). Anthropic’s headlining, obviously. They’ve already cashed billions from Amazon and are now basically a vending machine for API workers.
It’s peak AWS: skip the hype cycle, sell the infrastructure. Startups can upload agents, set a price, and get enterprise-ready distribution on day one. Amazon takes a cut, but more importantly, sets the rules. Google and Microsoft have agent stores too, sure – but let’s be honest, only AWS could sell 1,000 chatbots to IT buyers before lunch.
SumUp turns the humble card reader into a mini cash register (🇩🇪)
SumUp (the card reader that always wants a 50% tip) just dropped a new terminal that does basically everything short of making coffee. It’s a card reader, POS system, order manager, printer, barcode scanner and AI-powered menu digitizer – all packed into one touchscreen device for €169, no monthly fee.
The built-in camera can scan hand-written menus and turn them into a catalog. It connects via WiFi or 4G, syncs across devices, and even links to DATEV for bookkeeping. It’s basically what you’d get if a receipt printer and an Android phone had a startup.
TikTok splits itself to survive the US ban (🇺🇸)
TikTok will launch a separate app called M2 just for the US market. Same content, same vibe, but hosted, governed and branded to look as un-Chinese as possible. The deadline? September, before the ban hits.
The idea: buy time, calm regulators, and make a future sale easier. Oracle’s back on the bidder list, along with some very patriotic capital. ByteDance might keep a minority stake, if D.C. says OK.
It’s the most expensive rebrand in app history — and probably the only one with global trade policy baked into the onboarding screen. But as far as I know, it's not 100% certain they'll actually launch this year. Let's wait and see what Donald does.
💸 Fundraising Shorts:
Grammarly buys Superhuman to turn your inbox into a team of bots (🇺🇸)
Grammarly just picked up Superhuman, the email app that used to charge $30/month to feel superior. Now it’s becoming a launchpad for AI agents that write, rewrite and probably CC your boss before you’ve had coffee.
Grammarly already touches 50 million emails a week. This deal turns it into the Zapier of your inbox (but with opinions). Superhuman’s crowd was already AI-native, so the merge feels less like a pivot and more like a group chat turning into a workflow.
If Gmail had any plans beyond “change your theme,” now might be a good time to share…
💡 Fun Fact: Nvidia just became the first company in history to hit a $4 trillion valuation. That’s... more than the GDP of Germany. 💡iCapital raises $820M to buy even more fintechs (🇺🇸)
iCapital (not Apple fyi) just raised $820M at a $7.5B valuation to keep doing what it does best: acquiring other alt-investment tools and wrapping them into its wealthtech empire. The company now manages nearly $1T in assets and has already snapped up over 23 firms.
The new money’s coming from T. Rowe Price, Temasek, UBS and others — all betting that the “private markets for everyone” play still has legs. With 1,875 employees and 16 global offices, this isn’t a completely scrappy startup anymore.
iCapital says it’s building a unified platform. Translation: your wealth manager’s tech stack is slowly becoming one giant iCapital-branded dashboard.
Zalando swallows ABOUT YOU to dominate European fashion e-com (🇩🇪)
Zalando has completed its takeover of ABOUT YOU, buying 91.45% and planning a squeeze-out for the rest. The two Berlin-based rivals are now one big ecosystem, blending B2C, B2B and every acronym in between, with serious scale.
The combined group will run dual brands, merge logistics and software stacks, and go after a much bigger slice of Europe’s €450B fashion market. SCAYLE, ZEOS and Tradebyte are being folded into one backend to rule them all.
So yes, that Gen Z hoodie you’re eyeing may soon ship with a hyper-optimized, Zalando-approved invoice.
🧑💻 Career Corner: Hot VC Internships (US + EU)Internships
🇬🇧 kopa ventures - Part-time Student (London) ➤ Job desc.
🇬🇧 Earlybird - VC IR Intern (London) ➤ Job desc.
🇨🇭 Emerald - Visiting Analyst (Zurich) ➤ Job desc.
🇩🇪 b2Venture - VC Intern (Berlin) ➤ Job desc.
🇩🇪Zeiss Group - CVC Intern (Oberkochen) ➤ Job desc
🇺🇸 Launch Factory - Venture Summer Intern (San Diego) ➤ Job desc
🇩🇪 UnternehmerTUM - Internship Rise Europe Program (Munich) ➤ Job desc.
Appreciate you reading.
If it made you think, feel free to pass it on or restack. If not — next week might.
Cheers 🥂
Oh and if you're really into startups, check this out…
My friend Fede is sharing top-notch content and giving away some of the best startup growth resources out there – all for free:
