This startup tried to take on Carta. It just announced it's shutting down.
THE SO WHAT
Pulley’s shutdown and Carta’s offer to onboard its customers underline how much cap table and equity admin has consolidated into a single de facto utility. If you’re building in a category with heavy compliance and network effects, assume the default vendor has more staying power than feature‑rich challengers — your wedge needs to be workflow or data, not UI.
READ THE SOURCE
MORE FROM THE WIRE
Startups & VentureSources: OpenAI has held early conversations with investors about raising another private funding round at a $1.2T valuation before its planned IPO
A potential $1.2T private raise ahead of IPO would lock in OpenAI as a macro asset class, not just a startup. For everyone else in the stack, that level of capital concentration means pricing power upstream and more pressure to differentiate on domain, data, or distribution rather than core models.
Startups & VentureCADDi, which sells AI tools to help manufacturers organize engineering and production data, raised a $114M Series D at a $1.2B valuation, up from $470M in 2025
CADDi’s jump from a $470M to $1.2B valuation on $114M of new capital is a clear mark-up for deep vertical AI in manufacturing data. If you’re in heavy industry, the window to own your own engineering/production data stack is closing—specialists are raising the war chests to intermediate you.
Startups & VentureExein raises $270m to fight AI hackers, doubles valuation
Security vendors raising $270m on an “AI hacker” thesis tells you where enterprise fear is migrating — model-integrated and embedded systems, not just cloud perimeters. If you ship connected hardware or run OT, assume your buyers will soon ask how you defend AI-augmented attacks at the firmware and device layer.
Startups & VentureInside Carlyle's Global Investment Conference, Bessent Faces Big Questions
When defense tech and AI share stage time with credit markets at Carlyle’s Global Investor Conference, it’s a reminder that these are now core macro themes, not side bets. If you’re building in AI or dual-use tech, expect LPs and strategics to probe your exposure to rates, regulation, and defense budgets as much as your product.