0
Startups & Venture·October 20, 2026·1 min read

Salesforce agrees $5.7bn deal for customer messaging firm Braze

Share

Salesforce paying about $5.7 billion for Braze at a 58% premium is a bet that owned, personalized messaging is a core CRM surface, not an add-on. If you’re a brand, expect tighter integration between your CRM and engagement channels—and less room for point solutions that sit in between.

Startups & Venture

Daytona, which is building cloud infrastructure for AI agents, raised a $60M Series B led by FirstMark at a $1B valuation, bringing its total funding to $91M

A $1B valuation on $91M raised for ‘agentic cloud’ is capital voting that agents will want specialized runtime, not just generic IaaS. If you’re betting on agents at scale, start mapping what you need from infra — long-lived sessions, tool sandboxes, observability — and whether you want that from hyperscalers, a specialist like this, or your own platform team.

Startups & Venture

Firefly, whose AI software connects with existing cameras, radios, and sensors to detect incidents and coordinate real-time responses, raised a $20M Series A

Firefly’s $20M Series A for ‘physical AI safety’ that rides on existing cameras, radios, and sensors is a bet that the near-term win is orchestration, not new hardware. If you run campuses, logistics, or public venues, the question isn’t whether to rip-and-replace — it’s which vendor can turn your current sensor sprawl into a coherent incident-response loop.