Donât miss these BeReal wants you to get real with celebs: If you are a fan of BeReal and also love to follow popular people, good news! Celebs and brands are coming to the app! Call it a reverse Threads â when Meta launched its Twitter competitor, it did so with brands and celebs ready to go. BeReal is running the opposite playbook. The service has 23 million DAUs, up from 20 million last August. Kittl is proof of the design marketâs size: Kittl competes with Canva, and despite the latter being somewhat of an icon of the startup world, it appears that Berlin-based Kittl has found a sweet spot in the design market. Evidence of that fact is its recent $36 million Series B, raised just a year after it locked in its Series A. Thatâs quick. OpenDialog wants to bring chat bots to regulated biz: Companies have long employed AI tools to talk to customers with varying amounts of success, but that kind of unreliability is a big red flag for companies in highly regulated industries. What if the AI says something thatâs not ideal? Enter OpenDialog: this UK-based startup has raised $8 million to bring conversational AI to healthcare and insurance companies. Les petites fusées sont une grosse affaire: French startup Latitude just raised $30 million to send small rockets to space, and is prepping the first flight of its Zephyr rocket in 2025. This fundraise adds it to the list of cool companies to keep tabs on as the space industry matures and increases its launch frequency. Forta Health is tackling autism care: This is an interesting news item: Forta just raised $55 million for its healthtech service, some of which is focused on autism treatment. But as Haje Jan Kamps writes, its chosen approach to help care for autistic patients could prove to be controversial. Etsy is using AI to help you buy more stuff: AI is going to wheedle its way into every product where a company thinks it can drive up key metrics, and in the case of Etsy, thatâs GMV. That explains its new service âGift Mode,â an AI-powered online quiz that asks about who youâre shopping for, the occasion, and the recipientâs interests. Basically: If you are low on ideas, Etsy wants to help (you buy stuff). Some timely analysis from TechCrunch+: AI margins are once again driving startup chatter. Itâs not the first time weâve had this debate, but it is all the more pertinent today in light of the scale of AI-related startup activity. And if you are an edtech operator or founder, this investor survey is a must-read. To close out, Mike Butcher argues that âan increasing consumer appetite for sustainable packaging is powering a new wave of startups,â which is likely to be a great thing for Mama Earth and the Planeteers who care for the environment! | 