The Rundown: Edition 57 – HappyRobot, OLIX, and SpaceX
Edition 57: 7 August 2026
Welcome to The Rundown, a snapshot of news, views and intel from the fast-growth tech and investment scene, brought to you by FieldHouse Associates.
EU’s Scaleup Europe Fund is live
After a year of planning, the €5 billion fund is expected to start investing soon. It aims to ensure scaleups are provided the finance “they need in Europe to grow into world-leading companies”. French AI giant Mistral is reportedly in talks to be the first investment. Sifted
Palantir’s US revenue soars to triple digits
Palantir’s Q2 earnings increased by a staggering 93%, with its US commercial year-on-year revenue growth climbing to 149%. Europe did, however, lag behind, dragging the overall value down. Guardian
Wayve and Uber secure London licensing
Transport for London (TfL) has granted private hire vehicle licenses to a select number of Wayve’s electric vehicles. TfL-licensed private hire drivers will ride in Wayve’s self-driving cars to supervise the trips during the programme. Londoners are already on board, with 100,000 signing up to be matched with a car at launch. UKTN
OpenAI’s ignorance in hacking scandal
OpenAI employees spoke at the Black Hat Security Conference, shedding light on the hacking scandal where AI agents went rogue, ultimately breaching the AI platform Hugging Face. It revealed that OpenAI failed to notice the agents using a messaging board to plan the attack. WIRED
OLIX triples in value
OLIX is looking to carve out a spot in the global chip market from Nvidia after a $312 million funding round led by Fundomo, with additional investment from Arm and Hudson River Trading. This latest funding has increased OLIX’s value to a total of $3.3 billion. FT
HappyRobot joins the unicorn league
HappyRobot, a Spanish startup building AI agents to automate emails and paperwork, has reached unicorn status after its $150 million Series C. The round was led by Prysm Capital and Eurazeo. Tech Funding News
Wordsmith AI adds $14m to its Series B
Wordsmith AI, a startup aiming to move AI platforms within corporate legal departments, raised $14 million in its extended Series B. Intact Private Capital and FT Ventures contributed to this raise on the initial $70 million round in June. UKTN
White Star Capital fetches $250m IV Fund
The close of the UK-based VC’s recent fund brings its overall capital raise to more than $350 million for founders from Seed through to Series B. This will support White Star Capital’s global multi-stage clients across its New York, Montreal, and London offices. tech.eu
You get a house, and you get a house!
David Newman, CEO and Co-founder of Firenze, weighs in on how expanding Lombard lending is transforming the property market. Lombard lending, borrowing against the value of your portfolio, is further enabled by fintech developments as elite purchasing power becomes more accessible. Telegraph
UK to bring in new procurement rules
The Government is “stripping back” its public procurement process by eliminating a long list of demands – including net-zero targets – to focus exclusively on job creation and skills development when it comes to winning Whitehall contracts. “If you prioritise everything, then you’re prioritising nothing,” said First Secretary of State Louise Haigh. FT
The EU AI Act: A drag on innovation?
While the newly effective EU AI Act addresses crucial safety concerns by banning certain practices and mandating clear notifications for AI interactions and generated content, Dr Manish Patel, CEO and Co-founder of Jiva.ai, believes it introduces significant compliance overhead that raises questions about its impact on innovation. Tech Funding News
Young female entrepreneurs are gaining pitch-fect traction
The Sisterhood Summer programme, backed by NatWest Thrive, is helping 18-21-year-old female entrepreneurs turn socially conscious business ideas into reality. Co-founders Rebecca Thomson and Rachita Saraogi are now raising money for a “big sister fund” to provide direct initial backing for the participants’ ventures. Times
On Wednesday, the upper stage of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 crashed into the moon, with the debris blast visible through telescopes from some areas on Earth. This unplanned crash has triggered a discussion about the risks and waste created by space exploration as the US and China accelerate their plans for manned stations on the moon. Unsurprisingly, SpaceX’s share price also took a hit, which analysts described as a “good metaphor”. Despite revenue soaring 92%, investors were rather perturbed by the sixfold increase in the company’s capex to $18.4 billion in the second quarter – the majority of which was spent on AI. What exactly are companies and investors getting out of this huge AI spend? Results may vary. Boom boom shakes the moon.
Another shakeup is on its way to voice technology – where Big Tech is turning its attention (and money). Tech giants such as OpenAI and Google have recently updated their voice offerings to make AI sound less like a robot, while other AI companies are racing to make conversations with chatbots feel more natural. One company that’s been doing this for a while – since 2006 – is Speechmatics. The business has created the most inclusive and accurate Speech API ever released. Its technology can transcribe natural language and jargon-heavy conversations very quickly. We’re talking in real-time.