DFJ

VCs Back AI‑Native Cybersecurity Startups

Venture investors are increasingly funding AI-native cybersecurity startups addressing new risks introduced by agentic AI. Startups are using AI agents for continuous penetration testing, vulnerability discovery, governance, and agent identity verification. Reported financings include Xbow (Sequoia-backed) in talks for a round valuing it just over $1 billion, Cylake (founded by Nir Zuk) raising a $45M seed led by Greylock, and Cogent Security raising a $42M Series A led by Bain Capital Ventures. Investors cited identity verification for autonomous agents and scaled automated attacks as key market opportunities. Anthropic’s launch of Claude Code Security—an autonomous code-scanning tool—briefly pressured cybersecurity incumbents’ stocks (CrowdStrike, Zscaler), highlighting both disruption risk and investor interest in next‑generation security firms. Industry observers expect winners to emerge over several years as enterprise AI infrastructure matures.

Rivian's Strong Earnings Propel Stock Amid Mobility Market Buzz

TechCrunch Mobility reviews mobility-sector earnings and deals, leading with Rivian’s Q4 and full-year results. Rivian’s software efforts and a technology joint venture with Volkswagen Group—including an expected additional $2 billion from VW—helped the company in 2025 and are expected to support it into 2026 as it launches the lower-cost R2 SUV. Rivian reported automotive cost of goods sold (COGS) per unit of $100,900 in 2025 (down from $110,400 in 2024), delivered 42,247 vehicles in 2025, and guided to 62,000–67,000 deliveries in 2026; its stock rose about 27% after the results. The newsletter also summarizes AV and sensor market activity (Ouster acquiring Stereolabs, MicroVision buying Luminar assets), venture rounds (Ever $31M; Natilus $28M), Aurora operational updates, regulatory notes (SEC closed Fisker probe; EPA endangerment finding repeal), and product/service developments from Lyft, Uber, Waymo and others.

CafeMedia Sells Websites To Focus On AdThrive

CafeMedia is selling its entire publishing portfolio to RockYou to focus on AdThrive, the ad management business it acquired in 2016. The sites being sold include CafeMom, MamasLatinas, Revelist and Baby Name Wizard, totaling about 2,000 blogs in CafeMedia’s network that reach 102 million monthly unique visitors per comScore. AdThrive’s business grew 100% last year, with 800 bloggers joining since 2016, and the operation is profitable. The deal follows a private equity-led ownership change: ZMC acquired a majority stake in CafeMedia for about $250 million, with DFJ and Highland Capital exiting. Cafemedia laid off 40% of editorial staff in May and shut CafeMom forums; 40 employees joined RockYou while 80 remained at CafeMedia to focus on AdThrive. RockYou previously acquired LittleThings in April.