Joyce Shen’s picks: musings and readings in AI/ML, January 26, 2026
5-minute weekly must-read on data science and artificial intelligence news, funding, and research, curated by Joyce J. Shen.
📌 Musings and Readings
“Singapore to invest over $779 million in public AI research through 2030” (Link)
“Spotify brings AI-powered Prompted Playlists to the US and Canada” (Link)
“Amazon One Medical introduces agentic Health AI assistant for simpler, personalized, and more actionable health care” (Link)
“OpenAI Just Gave a Big Clue to What Its Secret Consumer Hardware Product Will Be” (Link)
“Rho-alpha - newest robotics model from Microsoft” (Link)
“Google now offers free SAT practice exams, powered by Gemini” (Link)
Gates Foundation and OpenAI team up on strengthening primary healthcare in Africa (Link)
👏 Deals
Cyb3r, a London, UK-based cybersecurity company offering an AI-powered SaaS platform for third-party and supply-chain cyber risk, has raised $5.4m in funding.
Neuropacs, a FL-based diagnostics company providing AI-powered MRI software to improve the diagnosis and clinical trial stratification of neurodegenerative diseases, has raised $1m in seed funding.
NEOintralogistics, a Düsseldorf, Germany-based intralogistics tech company providing robotics-as-a-service warehouse automation for order picking and internal material flows, has raised €3m in funding.
Formulary Financial, a NYC-based company developing a fund administration platform delivering automated accounting, reporting, compliance, and data services for private capital firms, has raised $4.6m in seed funding.
Dam Secure, a Sydney, Australia and CA-based AI security startup providing a platform to automatically detect and enforce security rules in AI-generated code, has raised $4m in seed funding.
Mave, a Canada-based company offering a solution helping real estate agents and brokerages automate marketing and generate personalized content, has raised $5m in seed funding.
Claim Health, a NYC-based company that automates revenue operations for post-acute healthcare providers, has raised $4.4m in seed funding.
PraxisPro, a TX-based company providing an AI-powered training and coaching solution for life sciences companies to help commercial teams improve sales readiness, compliance, and performance, has raised $6m in seed funding.
AiStrike, a CA-based AI-native cybersecurity company developing an autonomous security operations platform to detect, investigate, and respond to threats across enterprise and cloud environments, has raised $7m in seed funding.
Nexxa, a CA-based AI company that builds specialized AI agents and automation software to help industrial enterprises automate complex engineering, has raised $9m in seed funding.
Furl, a CA-based AI-powered cybersecurity startup that automatically detects and remediates vulnerabilities and configuration issues across enterprise IT environments, has raised $10m in seed funding.
Cancilico, a Germany-based AI health-tech startup developing software to automate and improve image-based diagnostics for blood and bone marrow cancers, has raised €2.5m in seed funding.
Playad, a CA-based AI ad tech startup automating performance ads and creatives, has raised $4.5m in pre-seed funding.
Sparkli, a Zurich, Switzerland–based edtech company developing a multimodal learning engine that transforms children’s questions into personalized, interactive learning adventures, has raised $5m in pre-seed funding.