Zipline

a16z Announces Second New Media Fellows Cohort

a16z announced the second New Media Fellowship cohort, selecting 65 writers, podcasters, creators and other new‑media storytellers. The fellowship begins the week of publication and runs through the summer. The announcement lists cohort members and their affiliations — including economists, platform builders, newsletter authors and marketing leads from organizations such as Stripe, Amazon, MrBeast, Zipline and Stanford — and invites interested parties to sign up for updates about future fellowships and opportunities. The post is published on a16z's newsletter site and frames the program as supporting creators at the frontier of new media.

Didero Secures $30M to Automate Manufacturing Procurement

Didero, a startup that builds an "agentic" AI layer to automate manufacturing procurement, raised $30 million in a Series A financing round. The raise was co-led by Chemistry and Headline, with participation from Microsoft’s venture fund M12. Didero was founded by Tim Spencer (previously founder of Markai), Lorenz Pallhuber (former McKinsey procurement practitioner) and Tom Petit (former technical co-founder of Landis). The company’s platform integrates with existing ERPs to ingest supplier communications and automate procurement workflows — from sourcing and quoting to order tracking and payment — and focuses on manufacturers and distributors sourcing raw materials. Didero named Footprint as a customer and is positioned against companies like Levelpath, Zip, Oro Labs, Cavello and Pietra.

EU Commission Approve UK Data Sharing Adequacy Decisions; Zipline Raise $250m - ExchangeWire.com

EU Commission approved two new adequacy decisions to permit EU–UK data sharing under GDPR and the Law Enforcement Directive, with safeguards including a four-year sunset clause. The decisions align with the EU–UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement and rely on UK data protection standards deemed essentially equivalent. Zipline, a delivery and logistics startup, has raised USD 250 million, lifting its valuation to USD 2.75 billion and funding plans to expand autonomous drone networks in Africa and the US. Zipline designs and operates its own drones, software, and launch/landing systems and has partnerships with UPS in Rwanda, Toyota Group in Japan, and Novant Health in the US. Separately, Facebook, Twitter, and Google warned they might exit Hong Kong over proposed privacy-law changes targeting doxing, with penalties up to HKD 1 million and up to five years’ imprisonment. ByteDance reportedly began selling TikTok’s AI behind its recommendation algorithm via BytePlus to firms including Chilibeli, WeGo, and Goat, while TikTok remains banned in India.