AI is all grown up and ready to learn on its own 🧠
Apr 23, 2026
Kaley Ubellacker
Happy Wednesday! If you’re new here, welcome to Necessary Nuggets, your one-stop pre-seed shop. We deliver updates from Necessary Ventures and helpful tidbits on our little corner of the world. Every edition is also on our blog.
What's happening at Necessary Ventures:
Wayve raised a $60 million Series D extension from Qualcomm, AMD, and Arm.
Good Reads 📖
For the rushed reader …
Early-stage startup NeoCognition raised a massive $40M seed round to build AI agents that learn like humans and develop domain expertise over time.
AuX Labs is taking on the vegan cheese problem and developing animal-free casein, the key protein behind cheese’s melt and stretch.
Alchemy CEO Nikil Viswanathan is currently testing fully autonomous AI in practice with “Dave the Minion,” an always-on agent that uses his personal data and actively manages his day.
For the less rushed reader …
Hitting the books
AI is becoming more human everyday. Early-stage startup NeoCognition raised a massive $40M seed round to build AI agents that learn like humans and develop domain expertise over time. Founded out of Oregon State University, the startup is on a mission to transition AI from systems that execute tasks to systems that adapt, improve, and operate more autonomously in real-world environments. Today’s agents often layer retrieval and prompts on top of fixed knowledge and still require heavy human oversight. The $40M raise stands out as one of the largest seed rounds in the space, signaling how quickly investor attention is shifting from model scale to adaptability. As more players crowd into the agent category, differentiation is hinged less on outputs and more on whether systems can actually get better over time. Colleges might not be open to AI, but what if it was a student?
Making cheese grate again
This is what happens when a startup has a meltdown. AuX Labs is taking on the vegan cheese problem and developing animal-free casein, the key protein behind cheese’s melt and stretch. The approach uses fermentation, but with a twist: instead of building expensive new infrastructure, it’s tapping into microbreweries. By repurposing excess fermentation capacity from the struggling craft beer industry, AuX can scale production more cheaply while giving breweries a new revenue stream. Their goal is to create casein that’s biologically identical to dairy, unlocking vegan cheese that behaves like the real thing. And, believe it or not, there’s a $165B market waiting on it. One thing is certain: AuX Labs is nacho average startup.
Life AI-dmin
Looking for a life coach that never sleeps? Alchemy CEO Nikil Viswanathan is currently testing fully autonomous AI in practice with “Dave the Minion,” an always-on agent that uses his personal data and actively manages his day. Dave books him Ubers, reminds him to eat, and even sends gifts without prompting. The system can even override human behavior, like turning off the lights to force sleep, pointing to a more opinionated layer of AI control. The agent was built using OpenClaw and offers a glimpse into a future where AI takes action without being told to do so. However, the experiment revealed some cracks in the technology: rogue food orders, blinking lights, and heavy manual setup required to make it work. The consumer use case is still clunky, but companies like Alchemy and Brex are already exploring similar agents internally. Autonomous workflows will likely arrive in enterprise settings long before they’re ready for everyday life. It sounds like even calendars can be automated out of a job.
Market Stirrings 🚩
Here's what the week looked like in pre-seed:
$12.2M
11
Data aggregated from proprietary research and Crunchbase; valuation estimate based on 10-20% ownership stake.
THE MEGA ROUND MYTH
Despite recent headlines, $100M+ seed rounds are an outlier for early-stage companies. Over 60% of rounds are still under $5M, with only 0.7% reaching a nine-figure mark. Even at Series A, the majority of activity is concentrated in the $10M to $24M range, while $100M+ rounds account for just 2.5% of deals.
climatetech
Resolv - Nail the job and the paperwork.
Resolv raised $1 million led by EquipmentShare and Redbud VC. Resolv is building an AI platform that automates rebates and back-office operations for home service contractors.
healthtech
Worki - HR stands for handled resources.
Worki raised $2.8 million from Healthliant Ventures and Redesign Health. Worki is creating an AI workforce infrastructure platform that unifies fragmented healthcare HR systems.
manufacturing tech
Traza - Tech so fresh; it’s off the supply chain.
Traza raised $2.1 million led by Base10 Partners. Traza is building an AI platform that deploys autonomous agents to handle procurement and supply chain operations end-to-end.
JOBORTUNITIES
| VP of Finance | - Copper:
Rethinking the induction stove and making kitchen electrification more accessible than ever. Picture a fossil-free future, without sacrificing aesthetics.
| Full Stack Software Engineer | - OneImaging:
Envisioning the future of transportation beyond cars and into the realm of personal electric vehicles. Its first product, P1, is the ultimate tool for city navigation.
Outro🚪
Have any questions, feedback, or comments? Just reply here. We iterate and curate the newsletter according to your interests!
Some last matters of business:
If you’re a technologist (engineer or product manager / designer with a technical background) join us on the NVTC LinkedIn group if you haven’t. We’d love to have you!
Sign up here if you’re interested in co-investing with Necessary.
If you’re a startup founder, we’d love to help where we can! Brex provides full-stack finance solutions for startups. Sign up via Necessary and get bonus points.
Thanks for reading, and see you next week!
