5 stories from 5 sources

Institutional capital backs infrastructure, AI, and regional growth

Day’s Recap

Together, the stories point to a funding environment shaped less by individual founder access than by large financial institutions and public vehicles choosing which markets and technologies to scale.

Supporting Articles

8:01 PMFinextra

SBI Group joins $25m funding round for dtcpay

Summary

Japan's SBI Group participated in a $25 million Series A round for Singapore-based stablecoin payments company dtcpay.

SBI's investment gives dtcpay a major financial-sector backer as it builds stablecoin payment infrastructure. The

Why it matters

Bank-backed capital is accelerating the push to make stablecoins part of mainstream payment infrastructure.

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1:43 AMVariety

Ready, SETT, Go: SETT Execs Drill Down on the Spanish Sovereign Venture Capital Fund That Will Drive Industry Conversation at San Sebastián

Summary

SETT, the venture capital fund operated by Spain's Ministry for Digital Transformation, will be a major industry topic at this year's San Sebastián Festival. Its executives will outline how the fund plans to support Spanish companies, including audiovisual businesses.

Spain is moving from cultural support toward direct state-backed investment in media companies. That could

Why it matters

SETT could reshape Spain's audiovisual market by making public capital a central force in private-sector expansion.

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12:14 PMBloomberg Markets

General Atlantic CEO Sees Long-Term AI Opportunity

Summary

General Atlantic CEO Bill Ford says accelerating innovation and entrepreneurship have created unusually strong conditions for growth investing, with opportunities across the United States, Middle East, Asia and Latin America. He expects geopolitical tensions to reshape supply chains without ending globalization, and sees AI generating further investment opportunities despite valuation and safety risks.

AI remains an investable growth theme even as valuations and safety concerns increase scrutiny. Geopolitical

Why it matters

Investors are treating AI and cross-border growth as durable themes, but future winners will need to withstand valuation resets and a more fragmented global economy.

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Other Developments

A curated list of other prominent stories from this day.

2:00 PMTechCrunch

ScrollEd wants to turn textbooks into TikTok

Summary

ScrollEd is developing a scrollable, Instagram-like learning feed that combines textbook content with video, audio, and quizzes. The Palo Alto startup was founded by student co-founders and spouses Utsav Gupta and Rebecca Neff, and is presenting at TechCrunch Disrupt.

ScrollEd is shifting educational content from static, linear textbooks toward short-form, interactive consumption. Students are

Why it matters

The company is testing whether social media's engagement model can make structured learning more effective.

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9:26 AMFortune

Billionaire Melinda French Gates once revealed she refused to fund her Gen Z daughter’s startup—despite being worth over $34 billion

Summary

Melinda French Gates said she declined to finance her daughter’s startup, requiring her to raise capital independently despite the family’s immense wealth. The decision reflects a deliberate effort to prevent inherited financial security from substituting for entrepreneurial discipline.

The decisive shift is that family wealth did not become the daughter’s first source of

Why it matters

The story shows that even when wealthy families withhold direct funding, inherited networks and security can still shape a founder’s odds.

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