May 28, 2025
Kaley Ubellacker
Market Stirrings 🚩
Here's what the week looked like in pre-seed:
$16.0M
10
Data aggregated from proprietary research and Crunchbase; valuation estimate based on 10-20% ownership stake.
IS HEALTHTECH ON A GURNEY?
In April, healthtech dropped from its highest high in 2024 to its lowest low. Capital raised for the month plummeted over 75%, from roughly $33 million to just $8 million. Healthtech, once the VC golden child, might be sitting on the backburner. The steep decline could reflect broader investor fatigue and a shift in focus to hotter sectors like AI infrastructure.
Good Reads 📖
For the rushed reader …
AI could eliminate up to half of all entry-level white-collar jobs and drive U.S. unemployment to 10–20% within five years.
Veho and robotics startup RIVR just launched a pilot in Austin to tackle the “last 100 yards” problem, the most complex, expensive stretch of delivery where bots usually fall short.
Landa, a proptech startup that promised fractional real estate investing for as little as $5, is facing a crisis.
For the less rushed reader …
Hire efficiency?
Forbes might have to change its “30 under 30” list strategy. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei issued a stark warning this week: AI could eliminate up to half of all entry-level white-collar jobs and drive U.S. unemployment to 10–20% within five years. Despite rapid gains in AI capability, especially agentic systems that can replace humans in coding, law, finance, and customer service, governments remain unprepared and CEOs are staying quiet. Amodei called for urgent transparency, smarter policymaking, and economic safeguards like a “token tax” before the automation wave hits full scale. Big tech companies have already started pulling back – for example, Microsoft is laying off 6,000 workers, many of them engineers. According to Amodei, the shift will be gradual at first, then all of a sudden, but there’s still time now to steer the tr(AI)n.
Wheeling and dealing
RIVR’s robo-dog is delivery man’s best friend. Veho and robotics startup RIVR just launched a pilot in Austin to tackle the “last 100 yards” problem, the most complex, expensive stretch of delivery where bots usually fall short. RIVR’s wheeled-legged robots are built to navigate stairs, gates, and rough terrain, following precise delivery instructions all the way to the doorstep. By working in parallel with human drivers, the bots enable higher throughput in dense urban areas, where parking is scarce and delivery volume is high. For RIVR, backed by Bezos Expeditions, the partnership represents a leap toward deploying 1M robots and owning the final, most valuable stretch of the logistics chain. Talk about tech with curb appeal!
No man's Landa
Once a well-funded startup, it’s now Landa the lost. Landa, a proptech startup that promised fractional real estate investing for as little as $5, is facing a crisis: its app and investor portal are down, dividends haven’t been paid in months, and over 130 complaints have flooded the BBB. Once backed by $33M from firms like NFX and 83North, Landa is now entangled in litigation with early lender and investor Viola, which accuses the company of defaulting on $35M in loans, neglecting property management, and misdirecting rent payments. Despite CEO Yishai Cohen’s claims that server issues are to blame, users remain locked out of their funds and in the dark. Landa’s fall underscores the challenges of the fractional real estate model, particularly in a high-rate environment. Further, it raises questions about accountability in platforms promising democratized access to asset classes once reserved for the wealthy. What would you do if you found yourself in an app-ocalypse?
Fire Up the Pre-Seeds🔥
Highlights from this week’s pre-seed raises:
climatetech
Travaras - Mother Nature bought an Airbnb.
Travaras raised $1.5 million from Techstars. Starting in Hawaii, Travaras is building a regenerative travel platform that curates sustainable experiences to enable eco-conscious tourism.
SaaS
Moddule - Going with the workflow.
Moddule raised $1.5 million led by Argon Ventures. Moddule is creating an all-in-one logistics platform for supply chain professionals that automates workflows and unifies systems.
healthtech
WorkDone - HIPAA-crite no more.
WorkDone raised $1.8 million including participation from Pioneer Fund, DVC, Fjor, Ryan Chan, Eric Norman, and other early-stage investors. WorkDone is creating an AI copilot that catches medical record errors in real time to prevent billing issues.
Outro🚪
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