About six weeks ago, he introduced NanoClaw on Hacker News as a tiny, open source, secure alternative to the AI agent-building sensation OpenClaw, after he built it in a weekend coding binge. That post went viral. About a week ago, Cohen closed down his AI marketing startup to focus full-time on NanoClaw and launch a company around it called NanoCo. The attention from Hacker News and Karpathy had translated into 22,000 stars on GitHub, 4,600 forks (people building new versions off the project), and over 50 contributors. He's already added hundreds of updates to his project with hundreds more in the queue. Now, on Friday, Cohen announced a deal with Docker ' the company that essentially invented the container technology NanoClaw is built on, and counts millions of developers and nearly 80,000 enterprise customers ' to integrate Docker Sandboxes into NanoClaw. It all started when Cohen launched an AI marketing startup with his brother, Lazer Cohen, a few months ago. The startup offered marketing services like market research, go-to-market analysis, and blog posts through a small team of people using AI agents....

Busy week, big checks, lots of AI and robotics. That, in ultra-brief synopsis form, characterized the general startup fundraising environment this week. Notably, the two largest global rounds were U.K.-based Nscale and Paris-based Advanced Machine Intelligence, which raised $2 billion and $1.03 billion, respectively. 1. (tied) Quince, $500M, e-commerce: Quince, an online fashion and home goods retailer with an affordable luxury theme, said it secured $500 million in Series E financing led by Iconiq Capital. The round sets a $10.1 billion post-money valuation for the 8-year-old, San Francisco-based company. 1. (tied) Nexthop AI, $500M, AI infrastructure: AI networking startup Nexthop AI raised $500 million in Series B funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with Andreessen Horowitz joining as a major investor alongside other backers. The Santa Clara, California-based company develops switching technology built on open-source operating systems for AI and cloud networking. 1. (tied) Mind Robotics, $500M, robotics: Rivian spin-out Mind Robotics closed on a $500 million Series A round, co-led by Accel and Andreessen Horowitz. The Palo Alto, California-based company is developing an AI-enabled industrial robotics platform, with a focus on automating industrial and manufacturing tasks at scale....

In a sea of massive valuations for early-stage AI startups, today we have a bit of rare news: a jumbo round and valuation step-up for an e-commerce company. Quince announced on Wednesday that it raised a $500 million Series E round at a $10.1 billion valuation. The round was led by previous investor Iconiq, which also led Quince's $200 million Series D in early 2025 at a reported $4.5 billion valuation. That's more than double the valuation in less than a year. Quince rose to fame on Instagram with its $50 cashmere sweater, but has since amassed a wider range of product offerings, including apparel, home, accessories, beauty, and wellness. Unlike typical e-commerce retail sites, the company manufactures its products and sells them to consumers directly. Quince, which launched out of beta in 2020, calls its business model 'manufacturer-to-consumer.' And because it owns most of its own tech stack and controls its designs and manufacturing, Quince can more accurately predict its sales, according to a blog post by Iconiq. This allows smaller batch manufacturing with less waste....

The firm secured $10.5bn for its sixth Asia buyout fund, exceeding its initial $7bn target and reaching the vehicle's hard cap after strong investor demand. The fundraise was completed in about seven months after marketing began in May. Bain's track record of exits and distributions has supported investor demand. The firm agreed last year to sell its Chinese data centre portfolio to Shenzhen Dongyangguang Industry in a transaction valued at about $4bn. The fundraising also reflects a growing concentration of capital among the industry's largest managers. According to Deloitte, the five largest Asia buyout funds accounted for nearly half of the capital raised in the region last year. With $12.5bn of fresh capital, Bain is positioned to pursue new transactions across Asia, where investors increasingly favour established managers with deep regional networks and operational expertise. Subscribe to our Newsletter to increase your edge. Don't worry about the news anymore, through our newsletter you'll receive weekly access to what is happening. Join 120,000 other PE professionals today....