February was the biggest month on record for venture funding. And while the vast majority of that capital went to just three companies ' OpenAI, Anthropic and Waymo ' a whole host of under-the-radar startups also drew investor checks. Among those that most piqued our interest: A phlebotomy robot, a company that aims to revive precision manufacturing in the U.S. and Europe with a small-business franchise model, and a health beverage made from seaweed. Let's dive in. Vitestro was founded in 2017 and has raised more than $104 million to date, per Crunchbase. Its Series B investors include Sutter Health, Sonder Capital, Puma Venture Capital, Mayo Clinic and LabCorp Venture Fund, among others. Vitestro's device is designed to be installed in phlebotomy departments and combines imaging technology, AI and advanced robotics to identify suitable veins for a blood draw, guide needle insertion and collect blood samples, according to the company. 'Vitestro is redefining one of the largest and most under innovated clinical workflows with a first-of-its-kind autonomous robotic platform for diagnostic blood collection addressing an enormous unmet global market need,' Dr. Fred Moll, co-founder and partner at Sonder Capital and former co-founder and CEO of Intuitive Surgical and Auris Health, said in a statement. 'I believe this technology has the potential to establish a new standard of care, much as robotic surgery did in its early days.'...

Kalanick is rolling his existing ghost kitchen company, CloudKitchens, into Atoms. It's not immediately clear how he plans to tackle mining and transportation. Atoms' website says it will build a 'wheelbase for robots,' and Kalanick said in a live interview with TBPN on Friday that his company will apply this wheelbase to 'specialized robots' ' not humanoids. To support the mining business, Kalanick said Friday that he's on the precipice of acquiring Pronto, the autonomous vehicle startup focused on industrial and mining sites that was created by his former Uber colleague, Anthony Levandowski. Kalanick revealed Friday that he is already the 'largest investor' in Pronto. 'The industrial thing is sort of like, probably, our main jam,' Kalanick told TBPN. Kalanick demurred on the idea of using Atoms robots to move people, at least in the near-term. 'Once you crack movement in the physical world, there's lots of people who want access to that.' Earlier Friday The Information reported Kalanick was getting back into self-driving vehicles with 'major backing' from Uber, and that he has reportedly told people he 'wants to be more aggressive in rolling out self-driving technology than Waymo.' Uber didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Atoms' website makes no mention of Uber. The Information first reported Kalanick was discussing acquiring Pronto....

The run-up to the Academy Awards is a fun, ridiculous, and loopy monthslong stretch. It also encourages something vital to Hollywood's artistic ecosystem: Movie studios, in the hopes of achieving Oscar glory, put money toward more stylistically challenging projects, rather than consistently aiming for the broadest common box-office denominator. But when the ceremony itself finally nears, I find myself desperate for it to be over'especially in a year like this one, when the Winter Olympics have pushed the Oscars into mid-March, extending what already feels like an endless trail of precursor events ahead of the ceremony. My primary note after this awards gantlet: Please hold the Oscars earlier next year. My exhaustion with awards season itself, however, is mitigated by my appreciation of the films'2025 was an exciting year for cinema; the two Best Picture front-runners (One Battle After Another and Sinners) generated serious fanfare in a time otherwise fraught with industry drama and the politics of corporate mergers. One Battle has enjoyed overwhelming praise since its September release, but Sinners'which was in theaters nearly a year ago'has never faded from the conversation. The result is some down-to-the-wire races in several major categories....

President Trump prides himself on being a rule breaker, but he is discovering a rule he can't break: Good statecraft demands clear objectives. Trump has billed the war with Iran as a one-time opportunity for Iranians to take back their country. This implies regime change, yet the administration's ambitions have in fact been vague and inconsistent. By offering a grab bag of justifications and intentions, the United States has been squandering an opportunity to declare a goal that is both necessary and achievable: Instead of changing Iran's regime, the U.S. should fatally weaken it. Tehran is counting on the cost of this war exceeding Trump's willingness to fight it. If Iran's regime survives, it will be even more determined to rebuild and wreak vengeance, at least in the short term. Some argue that the only way to stop Iran from menacing the region and its people is to crush this regime. But the regime's tenacity cannot be underestimated. There are no limits to what Iran's leaders will do to survive, as demonstrated by their massacre of up to 36,500 Iranian protesters in the streets in January....