Big fundraising deals did not take a pause for summer this week. In the U.S., the largest financings went to enterprise software company NinjaOne and blockchain technology provider Digital Asset. The largest deals of the week, however, were for European companies, with Germany's Neura Robotics pulling in $1.4 billion and Finnish space tech company Iceye landing $520 million. 1. NinjaOne, $400M, enterprise software: NinjaOne, provider of an IT operations and endpoint management platform, raised over $400 million in Series C extension funding at a $12.3 billion valuation. The Austin-based company said it grew revenue over 70% in 2025 and posted a profit in the first quarter of this year. 2. Digital Asset, $355M, blockchain technology: Digital Asset, a provider of blockchain technology geared for financial institutions, secured $355 million in a later-stage financing led by Andreessen Horowitz's crypto fund, a16z crypto. Founded in 2014, the New York-based company has raised at least $847 million in known funding to date, per Crunchbase data....

You can spot the packages at most any UPS Store in any city. Sometimes they're left in their own designated corner, dark gray amid a sea of brown cardboard. They have sprouted up in mail rooms, sorority houses, and even my own four-girl apartment. On their side reads a word that meant nothing 10 years ago'Nuuly. 'When I'm returning my Nuuly bag, at least one other girl in the UPS line also has a Nuuly bag, and then I look into the back room and there's a whole pile of them,' Sarah Lewis, a 25-year-old working in advertising in New York City, told me. She said that on the one hand, it felt like being a member of a secret sisterhood, and on the other, it was a bit odd that 'some girl in my building has probably worn the skirt I rented last week.' Nuuly, which was founded in 2019, is just one of the many clothing-rental services encouraging young women to opt out of actually buying clothes and instead subscribe to a revolving closet. BNTO, Rent the Runway, and Fashion Pass all offer similar plans for similar prices, but Nuuly, with 477,000 active monthly subscribers, is by far the largest. For $98 a month, customers get to rent any six clothing items on the Nuuly app. The items arrive in a matter of days. There is no fee if you stain or damage something, and no fee for sending your clothes back late. If a customer can't bring themselves to let go of a certain item, they can purchase it at a discounted rate....

Shares of SpaceX closed up 19% on Friday as Elon Musk's space exploration company made its market debut on the Nasdaq in the largest IPO in history. The stock closed at $161.11 after opening at $150, giving the company a market cap of $2.1 trillion at the end of its first day of trading. The IPO caps a remarkable journey for a company that raised nearly $12 billion in private investment since its founding in 2002 to become the world's most valuable venture-backed startup with a most recent private-market valuation of $1.25 trillion. Along the way, SpaceX helped redefine both the space industry and the late-stage venture market. Its long-awaited offering raised some $75 billion and served as an enormous liquidity event for Musk, who became the world's first trillionaire as a result, as well as his close friend and confidant Antonio Gracias of Valor Equity Partners, who reportedly now owns a stake valued at more than $68 billion in SpaceX. It's also a massive and successful exit for early venture and corporate investors including Google, Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, Craft Ventures and Founders Fund....

Among my friends and family, I am notorious for being a skeptic. I don't believe in ghosts; I find all cryptozoological sightings unconvincing; I dismiss astrology out of hand. But (and this might surprise my inner circle) I am quite open to the possibility that some form of extraterrestrial life exists. I agree with what Alexandra Oliva wrote in The Atlantic this week: 'Considering the sheer number of stars in the cosmos, and the possibly larger number of planets that revolve around them, the idea that humans are alone in the universe strikes me as unlikely. So, instead, I wonder: What is that life like, and will we ever encounter it'' Oliva recommended six books in which the presence of aliens prompts readers to think more deeply about humanity. Do I believe that another planet's life-forms would be anything like us'social, intelligent, self-aware' Well ' that's where my skepticism kicks back in. But I suppose I can't rule it out, and imagining what another species might value prompts me to reconsider which traits make us fundamentally human and which ones might not be unique to us at all. Oliva's list made me think of a book I read recently and adored. The Sparrow, by Mary Doria Russell, is nominally about an interstellar voyage to initiate first contact, but it's actually about sex, love, God, and the problem of evil....