Google Moves Gemini Into the Living Room: The AI TV Era Begins
PLUS: Former Midjourney Founding Team Building Something New
Venture Radar
Google Moves Gemini Into the Living Room: The AI TV Era Begins
Google is preparing to embed its Gemini AI models directly into Google TV streaming devices, marking a shift in how consumers will interact with entertainment interfaces at home. Instead of voice search being limited to keyword matching and basic commands, Gemini will enable the TV to act as a conversational, context-aware assistant—capable of content discovery, personalized recommendations, and real-time information overlays, all operating on-device or hybrid cloud inference.
Functionally, this transforms the television from a passive screen into an active participant in the viewing experience. Users will be able to ask open-ended queries such as “show me romantic thrillers set in Europe,” “explain the backstory of this character,” or “play something calming for background while I cook”—placing semantic understanding and context at the center of media navigation. For Google, this move is not simply about improving the user interface; it is about positioning Gemini as the ambient intelligence layer for the home.
Strategically, the integration signals Google’s intent to reclaim ground in consumer AI interfaces, which are increasingly dominated by smartphone-based assistants and emerging AI agents. By anchoring Gemini in the living room—one of the most heavily used digital environments—Google gains a high-frequency, high-engagement platform for shaping consumer behavior. If successful, Google TV could become a distribution channel for AI-native content experiences, including personalized news briefings, interactive education modules, and dynamic sports overlays.
Geeks of the Week
Startup Name: Mstack AI
Geography: US
One-liner: AI-native chemical R&D and manufacturing.
Founder(s) Background: Early Stage Investor at Lightspeed India.
Thoughts:
Re-engineering the Chemical Value Chain Through AI-First Process Chemistry
Mstack is positioning itself at a critical juncture: for decades, the specialty chemical industry has been hampered by slow process innovation, opaque supply chains, and heavy dependency on legacy synthesis routes. Their core insight: chemical R&D and manufacturing must become software defined, not just hardware dependent. By embedding AI deeply into every stage of the molecular lifecycle—IP mining, route design, cost modelling, scale‐up—they are effectively turning chemistry into a digital-driven factory.
Startup Name: Portend.AI
Geography: US
One-liner: Portend AI’s all-in-one platform helps businesses handle cybersecurity, availability, reputation, compliance, and third-party risks with two tailored solutions
Founder(s) Background: CTO/ Co-founder of Strikedeck (acquired by Medallia, then acquired by Thoma Bravo for $6.4b).
Thoughts:
Reframing Risk & Threat Monitoring from Static Dashboards to Autonomous Action Loops
Portend is tackling a foundational gap in enterprise governance: organizations are awash in dashboards covering cybersecurity, supply-chain, reputation and compliance, yet still reactive rather than predictive. Conventional risk-monitoring tools assume humans will interpret alerts and manually enact mitigation; Portend’s thesis is that the future of risk governance isn’t just “more dashboards,” but continuous autonomous sensemaking - where AI detects exposures, attributes causality, and triggers mitigations before the impact is felt.
Startup Name: Ventrilo
Geography: US
One-liner: Instant AI writing.
Founder(s) Background: CTO / Co-founder of Coverity (backed by Foundation Capital and Benchmark).
Thoughts:
Reframing Voice Interaction From Scripted Response Systems to Adaptive Conversational Agents
Ventrilo is addressing a persistent gap in customer communication: businesses have automated text-based workflows (chatbots, email macros, CRM templates), yet voice interactions remain largely manual, slow, and expensive to scale. Legacy IVR systems and call scripts were designed to route calls, not understand intent, maintain context, or build trust.
Founder(s) building in stealth
Deals of the Week
Scribe hits ~$75 M Series C to scale AI workflow optimisation platform
New York-based Scribe closed a ~$75 million Series C round led by StepStone Group, with participation from Amplify Partners, Redpoint Ventures, Tiger Global, Morado Ventures and New York Life Ventures. The five-year-old startup uses AI to optimise enterprise workflows across document, process and collaboration layers. The fresh funding will accelerate product development, expand enterprise sales globally and deepen integrations with enterprise-software platforms.AirOps raises $40 M Series B at ~$225 M valuation to rethink marketing in the AI era
San Francisco-based AirOps secured $40 million in Series B financing at an estimated valuation of ~$225 million. The company builds AI-driven marketing optimisation tools that allow brands to stay visible, react to real-time signals, and automate creative & campaign workflows. The funding will scale engineering and go-to-market teams, and deepen integrations with major ad-platforms.Aily Labs grabs $80 M Series B, female-founded enterprise AI decision-intelligence platform
US-based Aily Labs announced an $80 million Series B round led by FPV Ventures, with participation from Insight Partners and JP Morgan. The startup offers a “Super-Agent” style decision-intelligence platform for enterprise operations – automating insights and execution across finance, supply-chain, R&D and commercial operations. The capital will fuel global expansion and scale of its autonomous AI-agent stack.CoLab Software Inc. raises $72 M Series C to scale AI-engineering platform
San Francisco–based CoLab (though headquartered in St. John’s, Canada, its market is global, including the US) secured a $72 million Series C round led by Intrepid Growth Partners with participation from Insight Partners and Y Combinator. The startup provides an “EngineeringOS” platform that helps manufacturers and engineering teams capture expert design reviews, data and workflows, and then layer AI agents to reduce design-cycle time. The new capital will support enterprise expansion, product-agent development, and scaling into hardware/manufacturing customers globally.
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