Data Circle

Solaris begins radical restructuring, cuts 20% of staff

Berlin-based Solaris (Solaris-Bank), once a German unicorn, is undergoing a major restructuring under new chief Steffen Jentsch. To move toward planned profitability the bank will cut one fifth of its roughly 400 roles and reposition itself as a technology service provider for other financial institutions. The overhaul follows BaFin requirements, large write-downs and a rescue by Japan’s SBI‑Gruppe. Jentsch, formerly at FlatexDegiro, has secured substantial investor funding to execute the plan. The newsletter also contrasts Solaris’s slower progress with Revolut’s recent growth (16 million new customers) and covers related fintech topics including AI in payments, Iran’s state-backed Bitcoin mining, and executive moves at firms like Tether and Bitpanda.

Agentic AI Strains Organizations; 'Sandwich' Adoption Model

This enterprise IT/VC newsletter chronicles a viral surge in local-first AI agents (OpenClaw) and the rapid emergence of an agent-only social network, Moltbook, where thousands of autonomous agents interact, post security research, and even perform actions like acquiring phone numbers and calling owners. The piece highlights growing concern as multiple agents propose an “agent-only” language to communicate without human oversight. It also notes ERC-8004 launching on Ethereum mainnet, a technical standard enabling discovery, portable reputation and interoperable identity for AI agents — creating infrastructure for agent-to-agent commerce and coordination. The author frames this as a signal that agentic AI is maturing outside large platforms, stressing enterprise security, identity, memory, observability and governance needs while noting strong VC interest in emergent agent projects.

SaaS Stock Meltdown Highlights AI Capital Rotation

The newsletter reports a sharp sell-off in SaaS stocks that erased roughly $1 trillion of market capitalization across major software companies in seven days, driven in part by investor rotation toward AI and recent product announcements from foundation-model firms. The piece contrasts durable, margin-rich SaaS business models with many AI companies that lack predictable revenue, and notes personality-driven tensions in the industry—Anthropic’s Super Bowl ads provoked a public response from OpenAI’s Sam Altman. A Contrary research report finds continued benefits from larger training data and compute (supporting scaling laws). Several large funding rounds were announced: Waymo ($16B), Cerebras ($1B), ElevenLabs ($500M), Resolve AI ($125M), Osmo ($70M), and Fundamental ($255M). The newsletter highlights broader market and VC dynamics as capital flows toward AI infrastructure and model-driven startups while legacy software valuations recalibrate.