Good day. Last week, two venture investors engaged in some brief, friendly sparring at a VentureCrush event in New York. The contested matter? Vibe-coding and the much-disputed health of software-as-a-service.

Winnie Lau, a partner at crypto-focused Strobe Ventures, asked Thomas Krane, managing director at Insight Partners, one of the largest software investors in the world, how investing in SaaS has been going lately. She was alluding to the “end-of-SaaS” discourse that has followed the rise of so-called AI agents and vibe-coding, or the creation of software by non-engineers using AI tools.

Krane, in turn, asked Lau whether Strobe was planning to vibe-code its payroll and security systems.

Lau replied: “We have 20 agents at Strobe—and we’ve coded all of it.” She was referring to the AI agent her firm has trained. StrobeBot, the main agent, has several sub-agents underneath it performing operational tasks.

“And who’s going to maintain all of that? And who’s managing that?” asked Krane.

“Me,” she said.

“That sounds scalable,” he said, sounding a sarcastic note, then continued: “I don’t personally subscribe to the view that everyone’s just going to vibe-code every application. People don’t buy software just because it’s prepackaged code—trust, maintenance and overhead matter. The bottleneck was never just writing the code.”

Both adversaries smiled and acknowledged that AI is transforming SaaS—but not eliminating it. The conversation took place on stage in New York at an event hosted by the law firm Lowenstein Sandler.

In a follow-up call with WSJ Pro, Lau said New York-based Strobe has been using an AI system to help it manage $230 million in assets and keep its headcount to four people—three investors and a chief operating and financial officer.

But Strobe won’t trust AI with everything. Its AI tool creates materials for limited partners, does industry research, keeps track of crypto token prices and helps the team coordinate, Lau said. “It’s a fifth team member, and it’s available 24/7,” she said.

Strobe has stopped paying for some subscriptions software as a result. But it is boosting its budget on cybersecurity.

“We are not going to vibe-code a security platform,” she said.

And now on to the news...

Anthropic surges. Secondary markets for startup shares typically pick up when the market believes those companies are gearing up for an IPO. Lately, that’s happening with Anthropic. Investor interest has been growing this year as evidenced by the number of bids, asks and trades for Anthropic on the secondary trading platform Augment. Trading in Anthropic tripled on the platform in the first quarter from the fourth, putting the company ahead of perennial market leader SpaceX for the first time, according to a report on the first-quarter activity from Augment.

Eli Lilly is in advanced talks to acquire Kelonia Therapeutics for more than $2 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. A deal could come as soon as Monday, assuming the talks don’t fall apart, the people said. The deal price could also include additional consideration if Kelonia reaches certain milestones, they said. Privately held Kelonia is developing a next-generation treatment for the blood cancer multiple myeloma.

Investors are increasingly worried that private-equity assets are overvalued, and are questioning whether regulators and auditors will hold firms accountable. It is widely acknowledged within the private-equity industry that many firms’ estimated values of their holdings are too high. The Securities and Exchange Commission is trying to get valuations back in line with reality, by punishing firms that mismark their companies and auditors that look the other way. 

IPOs

AI inference and training platform Cerebras Systems filed for an initial public offering, according to Dow Jones Newswires. The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company said it raised a $1 billion Series H round in February at a roughly $23 billion valuation from investors including Tiger Global, AMD, Benchmark and 1789 Capital. Cerebras first filed for an IPO in September 2024 before withdrawing the filing about a year later, according to The Wall Street Journal. The company applied to list its shares on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol CBRS.

Odyssey Therapeutics has filed for an IPO after a confidential filing in February and a June 2025 withdrawal of a prior IPO plan, according to Dow Jones Newswires. The Boston-based developer of treatments for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases is backed by investors including Dimension Capital, Jeito Capital, Lightspeed Ventures and TPG Life Sciences Innovations. Odyssey is seeking a Nasdaq Capital Market listing under symbol ODTX.

Exits

UCB agreed to acquire Neurona Therapeutics, a biotherapeutics company focused on advancing regenerative cell therapies for epilepsies and other disorders of the nervous system, for up to $1.15 billion. The deal includes $650 million upfront and up to $500 million in potential future milestone payments.

Factory, a San Francisco-based startup offering autonomous coding tools, scored $150 million in Series C funding at a $1.5 billion valuation. Khosla Ventures led the investment, with Keith Rabois joining the company’s board. Additional investors in the round included Sequoia Capital, New Enterprise Associates, Blackstone and Insight Partners.

Loop, a Chicago-based verticalized AI platform for logistics and supply chains, secured $95 million in Series C funding from investors including Valor Equity Partners and Index Ventures.

Lightcast, a U.K.-based life science tools startup focused on functional single-cell analysis, closed a $27 million investment. ARCH Venture Partners led the funding, which included contributions from M Ventures, Illumina Ventures and Longwall Ventures.

Solidroad, a San Francisco-headquartered AI platform helping companies evaluate and improve customer experience conversations, nabbed a $25 million Series A round. Hedosophia led the investment, which included support from First Round Capital, Y Combinator and Sony Innovation Fund.

TextQL, a New York-headquartered AI data analytics platform, closed a $17 million strategic investment led by Blackstone Innovations Investments.

Zenskar, a New York-based billing and revenue automation platform, landed $15 million in Series A funding from investors including Susquehanna Venture Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, Shine Capital and Rho Capital Partners.

Coral, a New York-headquartered healthcare automation platform built for specialty providers, was seeded with a $12.5 million investment led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Z47.

• Three Reasons AI Is Now More Reliable Than Ever

• Anthropic CEO Meets Trump Administration Officials as Feud Thaws

• Blue Origin Rocket Stumbles on First Commercial Mission

• Intel Is Making Progress. But It Isn’t Out of the Woods Yet.

• You’re About to See a Lot of Critical Software Updates. Don’t Ignore Them.

• The Must-Have Item in Silicon Valley Is a $178 Sweater With a CEO’s Face

• The Mystery of Why You Can’t Buy a Mac Mini Right Now

This newsletter was compiled by Matthew Strozier and Zachary Cole.

Share your tips, comments and questions: vcnews@wsj.com

The team: Matthew Strozier, Yuliya Chernova, and Brian Gormley.

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