Necessary Nuggets
Aug 5, 2025
Kaley Ubellacker
Necessary Nuggets
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.
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.
Good Reads 📖
For the rushed reader …
MIT Technology Review published a critical opinion piece on Trump’s new AI Action Plan, raising concerns that the administration’s approach may undermine the very foundations of U.S. AI leadership.
In a thought-provoking blog post, Rob Go, Partner and co-founder at NextView Ventures, argues that seed-stage venture capital is facing a structural crisis.
Speech recognition might seem like a done deal in the era of meeting transcripts and AI voice assistants, but IBM says it’s far from solved.
For the less rushed reader …
R&D is sounding more like RIP
Is the AI Action Plan actually making AI great again? MIT Technology Review published a critical opinion piece on Trump’s new AI Action Plan, raising concerns that the administration’s approach may undermine the very foundations of U.S. AI leadership. The plan centers on three pillars: accelerating innovation, building infrastructure, and leading international diplomacy. It also includes a trio of executive orders, with one banning “woke AI” in federal procurement, one fast-tracking AI data center development (even offering federal land and rolling back environmental reviews), and one boosting the export of U.S. AI systems. While these moves might be framed as pro-innovation, the article argues they contrast with simultaneous cuts to the federal R&D budget, anti-immigration policies that could worsen the AI brain drain, a stalled federal noncompete ban, and softening on antitrust enforcement. 60% of top U.S. AI startups have immigrant cofounders, and key AI breakthroughs, from ChatGPT to Nvidia chips, trace back to decades of public research funding. It’s still up for debate whether this is the red-white-and-blue screen of death or if it gives innov-AI-tion a better chance after all.
Seed ya later
The latest data is planting some serious seeds of doubt. In a thought-provoking blog post, Rob Go, Partner and co-founder at NextView Ventures, argues that seed-stage venture capital is facing a structural crisis. He outlines four converging forces reshaping the early-stage landscape: (1) industry maturation has hollowed out the middle of VC, leaving a barbell structure dominated by mega-funds and a saturated field of seed players; (2) two unstoppable forces, Y Combinator and scaled lifecycle funds like A16Z, are boxing seed investors out of the most promising deals; (3) the power law has become consensus, driving capital to chase only trillion-dollar outliers, often at the expense of thoughtful ownership strategies; and (4) the AI platform shift is raising both the cost and complexity of participation, especially for smaller firms without deep technical or capital resources. Seed VC might not be dead, but there may be some seed forces growing too big to prune.
Talk isn't cheap
Grandpas and speech AI have something in common: they both need their ears checked more often than what’s occurring right now. Speech recognition might seem like a done deal in the era of meeting transcripts and AI voice assistants, but IBM says it’s far from solved. In an interview with Tech Brew, IBM’s lead speech scientist George Saon laid out the persistent challenges: overlapping voices, thick accents, code-switching, and chaotic background noise (shoutout to the McDonald’s drive-thru pilot that fizzled thanks to fire trucks and motorcycles). IBM’s Granite model is pushing toward higher accuracy by adding noisy training data, embracing dialect diversity, and using LLMs to provide real-time context, like helping the system correctly spell “Jack Nicklaus” if the conversation is about golf. For founders building voice-powered products, the takeaway is clear: improving speech AI isn’t just about better hardware or cleaner audio; it’s about building models that understand the full context of what’s being said, by whom, and in what setting. Never underestimate the importance of mic check.
Market Stirrings 🚩
Here's what the week looked like in pre-seed:
$15.9M
12
Data aggregated from proprietary research and Crunchbase; valuation estimate based on 10-20% ownership stake.
IS HEALTHTECH GAINING A PULSE AGAIN?
No shocker here: AI is still 2025’s capital magnet, claiming the top spot for dollars raised. However, fintech is quietly gaining ground, and together, the two now account for nearly two-thirds of all pre-seed funding. Healthtech is punching above its weight, making up nearly 10% of capital raised in H1 2025 in a year when fundraising in the sector has gotten markedly tougher.
climatetech
Dataphlete - Watts the big deal?
Dataphlete raised $600k from Startup Ignition Ventures. Data Phleet is building an AI-powered automation platform that helps utilities streamline and simplify electric grid compliance.
AI
Olto - Pitch perfect.
Olto raised $5.1 million co-led by Nexus Venture Partners and The General Partnership. Olto is creating an AI-powered demo engineer that helps B2B sales and marketing teams create personalized, high-impact software demos.
AI
Nexxa.AI - Nexx-level engineering.
Nexxa.AI raised $4.4 million co-led by A16Z GAMES and Speedrun. Nexxa.AI is building AI-native agents that plug into legacy industrial software to help engineers tackle complex technical tasks.
JOBORTUNITIES
| Senior Embedded Systems Engineer | - Copper:
Rethinking the induction stove and making kitchen electrification more accessible than ever. Picture a fossil-free future, without sacrificing aesthetics.
| Production Engineer | - Infinite Machine:
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🚪
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Thanks for reading, and see you next week!
