Joyce Shen’s picks: musings and readings in AI/ML, December 8, 2025

📽️  Missed the UChicago Startup Showcase I hosted?  Here is the video of the full event including the investor panel discussions and the 5 startup pitches!

📌 Musings and Readings

Meta Platforms Buys AI Device Maker Limitless (Link)

SoftBank in talks to buy digital infra firm DigitalBridge, source says (Link)

Speech-to-reality system (Link)

Stitch Fix Says AI Images Support Growth as Customers Share Them (Link)

ToolOrchestra: Elevating Intelligence via Efficient Model and Tool Orchestration (Paper)

MCP-AI: Protocol-Driven Intelligence Framework for Autonomous Reasoning in Healthcare (Paper)

👏 Deals

Evidium, a CA-based company offering a neurosymbolic AI platform that converts medical knowledge into transparent, computational insights, has raised $22m in funding.

Procure AI, a London, UK-based company providing an end-to-end procurement automation platform, has raised $13m in seed funding.

Ranketta, a Czech-based startup helping brands monitor and improve their visibility in AI-generated search and shopping results through an AI visibility platform, has raised €1m in pre-seed funding.

Anyformat, a Madrid, Spain-based company providing a solution that converts unstructured documents into structured data for enterprise workflows, has raised €3.3m in seed funding.

Clipbook, a CA-based company developing a media-intelligence solution, has raised $3.3m in seed funding.

Jeeva AI, a CA-based company providing an AI-powered platform that enhances productivity for sales teams, has raised $9m in funding.

Duvo.ai, a Prague, Czech-based company developing an automation solution, has raised $15m in seed funding.

Quickture, a CA-based company offering an AI-powered video-editing platform, has raised $1.9m in pre-seed funding.

Soxton, a NYC-based AI-powered law firm that offers early-stage startups efficient and affordable legal services, has raised $2.5m in pre-seed funding.

LizzyAI, a NYC-based company providing an interviewing platform, has raised $5m in seed funding. 

Ascentra Labs, a London, UK- and NYC-based company developing an AI-powered platform for consultants and private equity professionals, has raised $2m in pre-seed funding.

Gradium, a Paris, France-based startup developing advanced, low-latency audio-language models for realistic speech generation, transcription, and voice interfaces, has raised $70m in seed funding.

Ridley, a DE-based company offering a real estate platform that enables homeowners to sell their homes independently using AI-powered tools, has raised $6.4m in seed funding.

Guide Labs, a CA-based company developing AI foundation models that provide interpretable, audit-ready outputs, has raised $9m in seed funding.

Govstream.ai, a Seattle, WA–based startup building solutions to streamline local government building-permit processing, has raised $3.6m in seed funding.

Helmet Security, a Washington, D.C.–based startup providing an end-to-end security platform, has raised $9m in funding.

Lumia Security, a NYC-based company providing an AI security and governance platform that helps organizations monitor and control employee and autonomous-agent use of AI to prevent data leaks, has raised $18m in seed funding.

Eikona, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based generative-AI company developing an adaptive marketing platform, has raised $5m in seed funding.