Episode 19 of Startup Jazz. This week, George and Michelle dive into funding rounds, AI innovation, valuations, covering 6 compelling stories from the startup ecosystem.

Stories featured in this episode:

1. Xinghai Tu Completes 1 Billion Yuan Series B, Becomes Fourth Embodied Intelligence Startup Valued at 10 Billion Yuan | AI Emergence Exclusive (36KR)

2. In The Era Of Unicorn Valuation Escalation, A Trillion Dollars Isn’t What It Used To Be (Crunchbase News)

3. This Founder Is Taking a Bite Out of the $50 Billion GLP-1 Market By Going Natural (Entreprenuer)

4. Exclusive: Winn Raises $18M Series A For AI-Powered Real-Time Sales Assistant (Crunchbase News)

5. High-Spending Investors Give 2026 An Active Start (Crunchbase News)

6. Gen AI Video Startup Runway Raises $315M Led By General Atlantic At $5.3B Valuation (Crunchbase News)

Bringing you the latest in startup funding with a smooth jazz vibe.

Episode 18 of Startup Jazz. This week, George and Michelle dive into funding rounds, AI innovation, founder insights, covering 10 compelling stories from the startup ecosystem.

Stories featured in this episode:

1. Q&A: Why Deep Tech Investors Are Turning To The Secondary Market For Liquidity (Crunchbase News)

2. As AI Disrupts the Workforce, These Small Businesses Are Still Safe to Start in 2026 (Entreprenuer)

3. 6 Trends In Tech And Startups We’re Watching In 2026, From An IPO Boom To More Huge AI Deals (Crunchbase News)

4. Xunlin Technology Completes Nearly 100 Million Yuan Series A, Launches Dark Factory for Full Glass Substrate-to-Packaging Production Line (36KR)

5. How This Founder Turned 'Dry January' Into a Year-Round Movement — And Built America's #1 Non-Alcoholic Beer Brand (Entreprenuer)

6. Former Big Tech Chip Executive Founds AI Startup Spacemit, Secures Top-Tier VC Funding After Shipping 150,000 Units (WeChat Startup News)

7. Global VC Investment Surged In January, With U.S. Dominating Funding But A Pair Of AI Model IPOs In China (Crunchbase News)

8. Soaring Veradermics IPO Shows Investor Interest In Hair-Loss Companies Isn’t Thinning (Crunchbase News)

9. Y Combinator Was By Far The Most-Active Fintech Investor in 2025, Data Shows (Crunchbase News)

10. Google Is A $4T Company That’s Still In The Startup Game (Crunchbase News)

Bringing you the latest in startup funding with a smooth jazz vibe.

Episode 17 of Startup Jazz. This week, George and Michelle dive into funding rounds, AI innovation, valuations, covering 7 compelling stories from the startup ecosystem.

Stories featured in this episode:

1. The Passive Income Illusion That Derails Businesses — and the Reality Most Founders Ignore (Entreprenuer)

2. When AI Truly Starts Thinking, Everyone Can Have a 'Chief Investment Assistant' (WeChat Startup News)

3. From Overseas OEM to Vietnam Factories: Petty's 33-Year Globalization Journey (36KR)

4. Q1 Global Startup Funding Posts Strongest Quarter Since Q2 2022 With A Third Going To Massive OpenAI Deal (Crunchbase News)

5. Inside The $2 Billion Company Betting on Sound to Transform Live Sports (Entreprenuer)

6. Make These 5 Strategic Moves to Set Your Business Up for Success in 2026 and Beyond (Entreprenuer)

7. Why Smart Marketers Treat This Investment the Way CEOs Treat Buildings (Entreprenuer)

Bringing you the latest in startup funding with a smooth jazz vibe.

Episode 16 of Startup Jazz. This week, George and Michelle dive into funding rounds, AI innovation, valuations, covering 7 compelling stories from the startup ecosystem.

Stories featured in this episode:

1. Domestic Semiconductor Advanced Materials Company Raises Over 100 Million, Achieves Mass Adoption by Leading Clients (WeChat Startup News)

2. Your Culture Is Your Capital. Here's How to Turn Soft Values Into Hard Startup Metrics (Entreprenuer)

3. Why Most People Miss Out On Billion-Dollar Opportunities (Entreprenuer)

4. What Startups Need to Learn from Fortune 500 Playbooks (and What They Shouldn't) (Entreprenuer)

5. Crystal Nucleus Energy Raises Tens of Millions in Funding to Tackle Solid-State Battery "Solid-Solid Interface" Challenge | 36Kr Exclusive (36KR)

6. China Mobile Chain Leader Fund Strategically Invests in Atomic Quantum Computing System Developer, Completing New Round of Financing (WeChat Startup News)

7. Humans& Raises Huge $480M Seed Round At $4.48B Valuation For ‘Human-Centric AI Lab’ (Crunchbase News)

Bringing you the latest in startup funding with a smooth jazz vibe.

Episode 15 of Startup Jazz. This week, George and Michelle dive into funding rounds, AI innovation, valuations, covering 14 compelling stories from the startup ecosystem.

Stories featured in this episode:

1. Canva’s Path to Product-Market Fit: How a Two-Hour Founder Date Led To a $42B Design Platform (1st Round)

2. LatAm Startup Funding Rebounds In 2025 As Mexico Sees Surge In Investment And VCs Remain Bullish On Region (Crunchbase News)

3. Why Investors Are Looking Beyond Silicon Valley for Fintech Opportunities (Entreprenuer)

4. Why Staying Neutral Could Cost Your Company Millions — and How to Avoid It (Entreprenuer)

5. Why Startups Stall After Product-Market Fit — And How to Fix It (Entreprenuer)

6. I Built a 60-Million-User Company by Obsessing Over My Team — Here's Why It Worked. (Entreprenuer)

7. After She Had to Shut Down Her Restaurant, She Sold 50,000 Pizzas in 6 Weeks — Then Signed a $20 Million Deal With Target (Entreprenuer)

8. The Startup Economy: Nothing Seems To Move, But Everything Does (Crunchbase News)

9. Exclusive: Flip Raises $20M Series A For Its Verticalized Approach To AI-Based Customer Service (Crunchbase News)

10. The Week’s 10 Biggest Funding Rounds: xAI Leads As 2026 Is Off To A Brisk Start (Crunchbase News)

11. Large American VCs Topped 2025 Active Investor Ranks, Including A16Z, Accel And Sequoia (Crunchbase News)

12. Stablecoin Startup Rain Raises $250M Series C at $1.95B Valuation – Its Third Round In Less Than A Year (Crunchbase News)

13. US Aerospace Startup JetZero Raises Nearly $175 Million (36KR)

14. Defense Tech Unicorn Onebrief Raises $200M, Acquires Seed Startup As VC Funding For Military-Related Tech Surges (Crunchbase News)

Bringing you the latest in startup funding with a smooth jazz vibe.

Episode 14 of Startup Jazz. This week, George and Michelle dive into funding rounds, AI innovation, valuations, covering 11 compelling stories from the startup ecosystem.

Stories featured in this episode:

1. Crunchbase Predicts: Why The Race For Talent And Tech Could Accelerate Startup M&A In 2026 (Crunchbase News)

2. What We Learned This Year From 6 Active AI Investors Backing Startups Across The Stack (Crunchbase News)

3. Crunchbase Predicts: Why Top VCs Expect More Venture Dollars, Bigger Rounds And Fewer Winners In 2026 (Crunchbase News)

4. 5 Interesting Startup Deals You May Have Missed In December: A Hospital-Grade Wireless Heart Monitor, AI-Designed Proteins For Manufacturing, And More (Crunchbase News)

5. Lei Jun Responds to "Small Print Marketing": Indeed an Industry Malpractice; Unitree Denies Applying for "Green Channel," IPO Progressing Normally; Romoss Initiates Restructuring Plan (WeChat Startup News)

6. What Sparks the World's Most Successful Startups? The Answer Might Surprise You. (Entreprenuer)

7. The Smart Funding Strategy That Accelerates Growth While Protecting Your Cash Flow (Entreprenuer)

8. Consumer Tech Brand "xTool" Files for Hong Kong IPO, Tencent Leads $200 Million Pre-IPO Funding | Early Morning Early Stage (WeChat Startup News)

9. These Were The Largest Funding Rounds Of 2025 (Crunchbase News)

10. This CEO Found a Way to Stop $30 Billion of Hydrogen From Going Up in Smoke (Entreprenuer)

11. The Week’s 10 Biggest Funding Rounds: Security And Energy Deals Top The List (Crunchbase News)

Bringing you the latest in startup funding with a smooth jazz vibe.

Episode 13 of Startup Jazz. This week, George and Michelle dive into funding rounds, AI innovation, investment trends, covering 7 compelling stories from the startup ecosystem.

Stories featured in this episode:

1. What We Learned This Year From 6 Active AI Investors Backing Startups Across The Stack (Crunchbase News)

2. 5 Interesting Startup Deals You May Have Missed In December: A Hospital-Grade Wireless Heart Monitor, AI-Designed Proteins For Manufacturing, And More (Crunchbase News)

3. The 7 Things I Do Every December to Set My Business Up for the Year Ahead (Entreprenuer)

4. Satellite Chip Startup Secures Tens of Millions to Accelerate Low-Orbit Communication Tech (36KR)

5. AI Is Paying Off in Finance — But Only for Leaders Who Use It the Right Way (Entreprenuer)

6. Why Your Startup's Best Idea Can Be Copied in 48 Hours — and What Really Protects You (Entreprenuer)

7. Sector Snapshot: Real Estate Tech Funding Sees Slight Rebound, But Still Far Lower Than Peak Years (Crunchbase News)

Bringing you the latest in startup funding with a smooth jazz vibe.

Episode 12 of Startup Jazz. This week, George and Michelle dive into funding rounds, AI innovation, valuations, covering 8 compelling stories from the startup ecosystem.

Stories featured in this episode:

1. DJI Inspire Product Line Head Starts Company, Completes Nearly RMB 100 Million Angel Round (WeChat Startup News)

2. How Luxury Real Estate Is Using AI and Augmented Reality to Unlock $1 Billion in Sales (Entreprenuer)

3. 7 Hidden Costs That Are Eating Up Your Small Business (Entreprenuer)

4. A Unique Shenzhen Ebike Story: No Funding, No Cash Burn, Over $100 Million Annual Revenue (36KR)

5. These Startups Went From Zero To Unicorn In Under 3 Years (Crunchbase News)

6. A Little Background On Fusion Funding And TAE Technologies, The Company Merging With Trump Media (Crunchbase News)

7. Crunchbase Predicts: IPOs Picked Up In 2025 And The Outlook For 2026 Is Even More Optimistic (Crunchbase News)

8. California Pizza Kitchen Just Sold for $300 Million—And the New Owners Are Ready to Deliver (Entreprenuer)

Bringing you the latest in startup funding with a smooth jazz vibe.

In this episode, George and Michelle break down November's unicorn explosion—19 new billion-dollar startups, with 13 centered on AI. The headline act? Jeff Bezos's Project Prometheus, entering with a staggering $6.2 billion to revolutionize industrial AI for aerospace, autos, and computing. Plus: Luma AI's $900M raise for generative video, d-Matrix's specialized AI inference chips, and why everyone's racing to build their own data center concert halls. It's a full orchestra of funding news, and the AI crescendo shows no signs of slowing down.

Episode 10 of Startup Jazz. This week, George and Michelle dive into funding rounds, AI innovation, investment trends, covering 9 compelling stories from the startup ecosystem.

Stories featured in this episode:

1. Hollywood Legend Turned Startup Investor Jeffrey Katzenberg On Where He’s Placing His AI Bets (Crunchbase News)

2. How I Disrupted a Stale, Broken Industry — and How You Can Do the Same (Entreprenuer)

3. "CAS SiEpoch" Completes New Round of Strategic Financing to Advance Mass Production and Application of Industry-Grade Dexterous Hands + Embodied Large & Small Brains | 36Kr Exclusive (36KR)

4. Sales And Use Tax: What Every High-Growth Startup Should Know About Compliance (Crunchbase News)

5. Pets Are Getting More Pampered, And VCs Are Funding This (Crunchbase News)

6. Justin Bieber Is Fed Up With This iPhone Design Feature: 'Find Everyone at Apple' (Entreprenuer)

7. Startup Funding Continued On A Tear In November As Megarounds Hit 3-Year High (Crunchbase News)

8. The Week’s 10 Biggest Funding Rounds: Investors Get Back To Writing Large Checks (Crunchbase News)

9. Insta360 Ace Pro Achieves 30 Million Yuan in Sales Within 48 Hours of China Launch (36KR)

Bringing you the latest in startup funding with a smooth jazz vibe.