Startups news, week of October 12, 2026

Reports ran from 07:07 UTC on Oct 13 to 05:00 UTC on Oct 16.

The outlets that reported this event are listed with links to their reports; no summary of ours passed our automated checks for it, which says nothing about the event (how they work).

Reported by GlobeNewswire, The Manila Times, Investment Week, Yahoo Finance, ETF Stream and www.trendingtopics.eu.

• 21Shares

Machine summary Key facts from the reports:

1. For the first half of 2026 the article reports adjusted EBITDA of $4.6 billion against capital expenditures it says exceeded $28 billion
2. The company held about $98 billion in cash and marketable securities, the same article states
3. Per the article, shares were trading at about $157 as of writing, which put the company's value close to $2 trillion.
4. The stock rose about 7% after the company launched three rockets within 13 hours, per the October 16 article

Reported by Yahoo Finance, The Motley Fool and fool.com.

Machine summary CNBC reported the shares rose 35% after the filing surfaced, and Reuters reported the transaction takes Berkshire's holding to 4%, following an earlier $600 million investment made at the company's July 2026 Nasdaq listing.

1. Under the arrangement, CNBC reported that 10 million ordinary shares of Bending Spoons will be issued to Berkshire at a price of $33 each.
2. Berkshire's stake in the company stands at 4% following the investment, according to the filing cited by the reports
3. Berkshire had previously invested $600 million in Bending Spoons in July 2026, when the company went public on the Nasdaq, CNBC reported
4. Bending Spoons shares rose 35% after the filing was revealed, according to CNBC

Reported by Reuters and CNBC.

• Nasdaq
• Bending Spoons

Machine summary Zenzap raised $44 million from Bessemer, Lightspeed, The Garage and individual investors including Wix president Nir Zohar, TechCrunch reported on October 14, 2026. Founder Guy Weiss previously bootstrapped StuccoMedia from 2012 and sold it to Market Group in 2015, and told TechCrunch this is the first time he has raised venture capital.

1. Zenzap raised $44 million from Bessemer, Lightspeed and The Garage, plus individuals Nir Zohar and Yoram Tietz, TechCrunch reported on October 14, 2026
2. The round is the first time founder Guy Weiss has raised outside capital; he bootstrapped StuccoMedia in 2012 and sold it to Market Group in 2015, according to the report
3. Weiss started Zenzap in 2022 after meeting Bessemer partner Adam Fisher, with co-founders Noam Neumann and Jonatan Bien, and initially self-funded the company while working out of Bessemer's office
4. The product is a private messenger with AI intended to give employees their organization's context while meeting IT and security rules, per TechCrunch
5. TechCrunch describes businesses worldwide using consumer chat apps including WhatsApp, Telegram, Discord and iMessage to coordinate staff and share documents and data

Reported by techcrunch.com and Globes - Israel Business News.

• WhatsApp
• Lightspeed
• The Garage
• Market Group
• StuccoMedia
• Bessemer

Machine summary Harvard's endowment returned 27.1% in fiscal 2026 to reach nearly $68 billion, the university said in its annual financial report. A second-quarter 13F filing listed a $2.2 billion SpaceX position as the largest single holding by value, ahead of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company at just under $350 million. The report also stated that the federal excise tax on net investment income rises from 1.4% to 8%, which Harvard's CFO and treasurer estimated at roughly $300 million a year.

1. Harvard's endowment returned 27.1% in fiscal 2026, its strongest year since 2021, and now totals nearly $68 billion, per the university's annual financial report
2. The return beat the S&P 500's 22.3% total return for the same period by 4.8 percentage points
3. Harvard's second-quarter 13F filing with the SEC disclosed a $2.2 billion stake in SpaceX, its largest single holding by value; Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company followed at just under $350 million
4. Federally sponsored research revenue fell 19.5% to $509 million in fiscal 2026, according to CNBC's account of the report
5. CFO Ritu Kalra and treasurer Timothy Barakett wrote that the federal excise tax on net investment income rises from 1.4% to 8% in the current fiscal year, costing roughly $300 million a year by their estimate

Reported by CNBC, Bloomberg and 24/7 Wall St..

• SpaceX
• Harvard Management Company

Machine summary Growth equity firm Activate Capital has joined the Qatar Investment Authority's USD 3 billion Fund of Funds and announced its first office outside the United States will be in Doha, the two organizations said on October 15, 2026. QIA took an undisclosed limited partner position in Activate, which invests from Series B through pre-IPO in energy, transportation, digital industry, supply chain and climate adaptation, and Semafor reported Activate is the 13th venture firm in the program. Semafor reported participating managers must staff a Doha office with senior investors and that QIA offers portfolio companies incentives such as compute power to relocate to Qatar.

1. Activate Capital joined QIA's USD 3 billion Fund of Funds, with QIA putting in an undisclosed sum to become a limited partner, Semafor reported on October 15, 2026
2. The Peninsula reported that Activate plans to open a Doha site—its inaugural office outside US borders—manned with senior investment personnel that will include a Qatar-focused partner.
3. Activate is the 13th venture firm in QIA's Doha program, joining B Capital, Founders Circle and Liberty City Ventures, according to Semafor
4. The venture program is a small fraction of QIA's USD 580 billion fund, Semafor reported
5. The Fund of Funds was first announced in February 2024 to attract international VC firms to Qatar and accelerate startup development in Qatar and the region, The Peninsula reported

Reported by semafor.com and thepeninsulaqatar.com.

• Qatar Investment Authority
• B Capital
• QIA Fund of Funds
• Activate Capital
• Founders Circle
• Liberty City Ventures