Cradle, a protein engineering AI startup based in Amsterdam and Zurich, has raised $73 million in Series B funding. The round was led by investment firm IVP, with participation from existing investors Index Ventures and Kindred Capital. This latest investment brings Cradle's total funding to over $100 million. The company's AI platform helps researchers accelerate protein engineering by making the process simpler and more cost-effective, reducing the time and resources needed to develop improved proteins, according to Cradle. Cradle plans to use the new funding to expand its wet lab facilities and improve its machine learning systems. The company has already partnered with major biotech companies, including Novo Nordisk and Ginkgo Bioworks.
AI startup /dev/agents has secured $56 million in funding to create an operating system for AI agents. The company aims to enable computers to collaborate like humans do, which requires developing new user interfaces, updated privacy protection models, and a simplified developer platform, the company says. The founding team brings together several experienced tech leaders: David Singleton joins as former CTO at Stripe. Ficus Kirkpatrick led AR/VR at Facebook after spending 11 years at Google. Hugo Barra previously held key positions at Google, Meta, Dropbox, and Figma. Nicholas Jitkoff worked on operating system design at Google, Meta, Dropbox, and Figma. Björn Bringert managed Google Search on Android for a decade.
Anthropic has updated its AI assistant Claude to better match different writing styles. The system can now analyze text samples to learn and replicate specific writing patterns, though this approach may not be as reliable as traditional many-shot prompting methods. But it's more accessible. In addition to custom style matching, Claude now includes three preset writing options. A formal writing mode produces clear, professional text. A concise mode produces shorter, more direct responses. An Explanatory mode provides detailed breakdowns of complex topics.
Nvidia has created Fugatto, a new AI-powered music editor that can transform and combine sounds in ways not included in its training data. The system can merge animal sounds with musical instruments—like making trumpets bark or saxophones meow. Beyond these unusual combinations, Fugatto can modify human voices by changing accents and tonal qualities. The tool also offers music editing capabilities, letting users separate vocals from songs, add new instruments, or alter melodies. Nvidia hasn't announced when or if Fugatto will be available to the public.