Australia’s A$25bn AI wager, Bezos’s leap into “physical AI” and Musk’s push to shift data centres into orbit turned this week into a defining moment in the AI global industrial contest, with the Global South emerging as both proving ground and prize in the new AI steel age.
Vercel confirms a security incident after a compromised third-party AI tool's OAuth token allowed attackers to pivot into internal systems, exposing environment variables and API keys across its platform.
Anthropic is scrambling to contain fresh questions over its Mythos AI after online users reportedly accessed the ultra‑powerful model through previously mapped pathways, sharpening Pentagon supply chain concerns and spooking markets already on edge about AI‑driven cyber risk
AI Startup: Spangle AI Raises $15M for Agentic Commerce Infrastructure
Spangle AI, a startup founded by former Amazon and Bolt executives, has raised $15 million in a Series A round to build an agentic infrastructure for ecommerce. The platform connects AI-driven product discovery with real-time conversion.
Spangle AI, a Seattle-based startup, has secured millions in a Series A funding round to expand its AI-driven commerce platform. Founded in 2024 by former Amazon and retail technology executives, Spangle AI is developing an "agentic" infrastructure layer for ecommerce. The company aims to bridge the gap between how consumers discover products through AI and how they make purchases on a retailer's website.
The Update: Spangle AI has raised $15 million in a Series A round led by NewRoad Capital Partners, with participation from Madrona, DNX Ventures, and Streamlined Ventures. This brings the company's total funding to $21 million and values it at $100 million. The startup has already signed nine enterprise customers, including major fashion brands Revolve, Steve Madden, and Alexander Wang. Spangle AI reports a 57% average month-over-month growth in traffic and a quadrupling of its revenue run rate in the last quarter of 2025.
The new funding will be used to expand research and development, advance its AI models, and grow its engineering team. The company's platform uses a proprietary AI reasoning engine called ProductGPT to create personalised shopping experiences in real-time, reportedly delivering conversion increases of up to 50% and doubling the return on advertising spend for some clients.
"Traditional commerce stacks are fragmented, with slow feedback cycles and no intelligence layer tying discovery to execution. We’re building infrastructure where AI-driven discovery and on-site execution operate as one system." - Maju Kuruvilla, CEO, Spangle AI
Why it Matters: Spangle AI's funding and early traction with major brands signal a significant shift in the ecommerce landscape. As consumers increasingly use AI-powered search, recommendation engines, and social platforms for product discovery, traditional ecommerce systems are struggling to keep up. Spangle AI's "agentic" infrastructure addresses this by creating a dynamic, intelligent layer that connects off-site discovery with on-site execution.
This approach moves beyond static product pages to deliver personalised experiences in real-time, which can lead to substantial improvements in conversion rates and advertising efficiency. The company's success could pave the way for a new generation of AI-native commerce platforms that are better equipped for the agent-driven future of online shopping.
Get the stories that matter to you. Subscribe to Cyber News Centre and update your preferences to follow our Daily 4min Cyber Update, Innovative AI Startups, The AI Diplomat series, or the main Cyber News Centre newsletter — featuring in-depth analysis on major cyber incidents, tech breakthroughs, global policy, and AI developments.
Sign up for Cyber News Centre
Where cybersecurity meets innovation, the CNC team delivers AI and tech breakthroughs for our digital future. We analyze incidents, data, and insights to keep you informed, secure, and ahead.
RISC-V pioneer SiFive has raised $400M in an oversubscribed Series G led by Atreides Management with Nvidia backing. Valued at $3.65B, the company is expanding into AI data centre CPUs via Nvidia's NVLink Fusion ecosystem.
Amsterdam-based Wonderful has raised $150M in a Series B round led by Insight Partners, valuing the enterprise AI agent platform at $2B. The funding will scale its hyper-local deployment model, which embeds teams with clients to accelerate AI adoption in complex industries across 30+ countries.
Ayar Labs has secured $500 million in a Series E round to scale its co-packaged optics technology. Backed by NVIDIA and AMD, the company is replacing traditional copper interconnects with light-based data transmission to solve the growing power and bandwidth crisis in AI data centres.
Vienna-based Flinn.ai has secured $20 million in a Series A round led by HV Capital to automate regulatory and quality compliance for medical device and pharmaceutical companies. The funding will fuel its expansion into the US market and extend its AI platform across the entire product lifecycle.
Where cybersecurity meets innovation, the CNC team delivers AI and tech breakthroughs for our digital future. We analyze incidents, data, and insights to keep you informed, secure, and ahead. Sign up for free!