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AI infrastructure startup Trajectory has completed a $40 million financing round, with participation from Sequoia Capital

According to The Information, AI infrastructure startup Trajectory announced the completion of a $40 million financing round, with a post-money valuation of $300 million, co-invested by Sequoia Capital. The specific financing round and other investors have not been disclosed.Trajectory was founded by researchers from tech companies such as Google and Apple, and primarily helps businesses customize open-source AI models for specific business needs, as well as optimize the software toolchain that supports AI Agent operations (referred to as "Agent Harness"). As the costs of using closed-source large models continue to rise, more and more companies are looking for alternatives: on one hand, they are reducing costs by fine-tuning and customizing open-source models, and on the other hand, they are improving the Agent execution framework to enable AI models to more effectively call tools and execute tasks.This trend is driving a new wave of entrepreneurial enthusiasm around model adaptation and Agent infrastructure. Trajectory aims to address key issues faced by enterprises in deploying AI Agents, including model performance optimization, task execution reliability, and adaptation to enterprise scenarios. The company hopes to help businesses build more efficient and cost-effective AI applications by providing model customization and Agent operation infrastructure.Investors believe that as AI evolves from simple chatbots to Agents capable of autonomously executing complex tasks, a new layer of infrastructure around model optimization and Agent engineering will become an important market. In recent years, Sequoia has also continued to increase its investment in the AI infrastructure sector, including investments in AI Agents and enterprise AI applications.

hot_img Yushu Technology starts subscription, Meituan and Sequoia may become the biggest external winners, DJI misses out on approximately 3.7 billion yuan in floating profits

Yushu Technology officially launched online and offline subscriptions on August 10, with an issue price of 150.80 yuan per share. The total market value after issuance is approximately 60.993 billion yuan, with total fundraising of nearly 6.1 billion yuan, and the issuance price-to-earnings ratio is 219.23 times, significantly higher than the industry average of 38.56 times.Meituan holds a total of 9.65% of Yushu's shares before issuance through its three subsidiaries, making it the largest external institutional shareholder; Sequoia China holds a total of 7.11%, ranking second. Based on the issue price, the two institutions will receive substantial paper returns. Sequoia first participated in the capital increase in December 2019 with 15 million yuan, at which time the post-investment valuation was only 150 million yuan.A fund under DJI planned to invest 10.1286 million yuan in 2018 for a corresponding shareholding of about 17%, and completed the business registration, but chose to withdraw its investment in 2019. If this investment had been retained until now, the corresponding market value would be approximately 3.7 billion yuan based on the issue price. DJI did not explain the reason for the withdrawal, but in 2019, the company announced an anti-corruption notice, disclosing the handling of 45 employees suspected of corruption, which led to a complete halt of the investment department's work.Among other major shareholders, Jingwei Venture Capital holds 5.45%, Shunwei Capital holds 4.42%, and CITIC Securities holds a total of 4.49%. In terms of strategic placement, DeepSeek received 933,400 shares (subscription of 141 million yuan), and Shanghai Qishan Investment, a subsidiary of Tencent, received 903,300 shares. CITIC Securities, as the sole sponsor, will receive approximately 145 million yuan in sponsorship underwriting fees and will be allocated 808,900 shares through co-investment. Yushu also reminds that the issuance price-to-earnings ratio is significantly higher than the industry average, posing a risk of stock price decline. The deadline for payment for successful applicants is August 12.

Public safety AI company Peregrine completes $250 million Series D funding, led by Sequoia Capital and others

According to Fortune, American public safety AI company Peregrine Technologies has completed a $250 million Series D funding round, achieving a valuation of $6.8 billion, nearly tripling from the previous $2.5 billion valuation in just 15 months. This round was led by existing investors including Sequoia Capital.Peregrine's core product is a government data integration platform that unifies existing city data such as police records, 911 logs, license databases, sensor data, and emergency management systems for real-time retrieval. It also features built-in role-based access control and complete audit tracking, while the platform itself does not collect or hold any data. Currently, the platform serves over 400 law enforcement agencies, covering approximately 125 million people in North America, and is operating security integration centers for 8 of the 11 host cities for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.Co-founder and CEO Nick Noone previously led Palantir's special operations business, including the intelligence platform tracking ISIS; co-founder and CTO Ben Rudolph previously built data infrastructure at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. The company stated that the new funds will be used for product development, expanding the engineering and implementation teams, international expansion, and employee mobility arrangements. Noone indicated that they have not yet decided whether to pursue an IPO but are preparing internal infrastructure for a potential listing.The government AI market is estimated to be valued at approximately $25 billion by 2025 and is expected to grow to $109 billion by 2035. However, the ongoing civil liberties controversies surrounding AI law enforcement monitoring remain a persistent challenge for Peregrine.

CZ's new book reveals: During the 9·4 period, the silence of venture capital left him disappointed, and Sequoia ultimately backed out due to a breakdown in valuation talks

Binance founder Zhao Changpeng (CZ) recalled in his new book that after the "9·4" regulatory policy was introduced in 2017, venture capital firms as a whole became more cautious, and Sequoia Capital, which had originally expressed investment intentions, also paused related cooperation. He stated, "Seeing the venture capitalists collectively silent during our most difficult September, I was actually quite disappointed."CZ revealed that prior to this, Sequoia had expressed investment interest at the beginning of He Yi's joining, but chose to wait and see in light of the policy impact. Subsequently, Binance achieved rapid growth from September to October, with the number of users increasing from about 20,000 in August to about 120,000 by late October, ranking among the top ten exchanges globally and becoming profitable.CZ stated that by the end of October, after the risk phase had basically passed, Sequoia re-expressed its investment intentions, but they had proposed to raise the valuation requirement. Ultimately, the two sides could not reach an agreement due to valuation differences. The other party then proposed to pursue legal proceedings, and a week later, four large boxes of legal documents were delivered. CZ said this was the "first time in his life becoming a defendant." CZ mentioned that he later learned that the lawsuit was led by Sequoia's legal team in the U.S., who are skilled at using the media to create public opinion, "the media reporters knew before I, the party involved."
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