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Startups & Venture·August 26, 2026·1 min read

Vanguard is acquiring Altruist, the AI custody platform it backed six years ago

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Vanguard buying Altruist — an AI-driven custody and software stack it first backed in 2020 — is a bet that owning the advisor workflow is as important as owning the funds. Expect more incumbents to acquire AI-native distribution and advice rails rather than waiting for regulation to solve the advice gap.

Startups & Venture

AI assistant Instinct is raising a $250M Series B co-led by Index Ventures and Benchmark at a $2.5B valuation, bringing its total raised to $350M

$250M at a $2.5B valuation for an email-and-tasks assistant says capital still believes in horizontal AI agents despite brutal competition from incumbents. If you’re building in this lane, assume the bar is now “distribution hack or deep workflow lock-in” — not just UX polish on the same inbox triage story.