Who Grades the AI Models?
Hi, and welcome to a new edition of The Daily Dealflow — the 5-minute briefing that gives you clear context on capital flows and market-moving trends across the Americas, from Silicon Valley to Buenos Aires. Let's dive in.
🏆 Deal of the Day
Arena, the crowdsourced AI leaderboard that started in 2023 as a UC Berkeley research project, raised a $200M Series B at a $3.1B valuation. Lightspeed and Khosla Ventures led, with Salesforce Ventures, 01 Advisors, Dell Technologies Capital, Endeavor Catalyst, a16z and Felicis also in – TechCrunch.
Why This? Every AI lab wants a top spot on the same public scoreboard, and investors are now paying unicorn prices for the scorekeeper.
Positive Context:
- The valuation went from $1.7B post-money in January 2026, when annualized revenue was $30M, to $3.1B about 10 months later. By June, Arena said it had reached $100M in ARR.
- The consumer site is free and claims tens of millions of monthly visitors, while the paid product, AI Evaluations, has sold performance analytics to model labs and enterprises since September 2025.
Yes, but:
- AI labs have been caught gaming benchmark tests to score high without real capability gains, which puts any public ranking's credibility on the line.
- Enterprises increasingly want evaluations built around their own internal needs, and the visitor and revenue figures are company-provided.
Zoom in: Arena just added an "alignment" category that ranks models on unauthorized actions, false attribution and "deceptive completion," meaning claiming to have finished tasks that were never done.
The comment: "AI is advancing faster than our ability to evaluate it," Arena said in its funding announcement, reported by TechCrunch.
💰 Venture Capital
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Kapital Bank (Mexico) – $130M, equity and debt round at a $2B valuation, financial group offering business banking, with co-founder René Saúl Farro at the helm. Investors were not disclosed, and the company also paid $30M for the AI firm Woz Code. A bank that spends 30% of its budget on R&D is a bank that wants to be called a software company – Pulso Capital.
Nous Research (US) – $90M, funding round at a $1.5B valuation, Austin developer of decentralized AI infrastructure and open-source foundation models, including the Hermes family. Robot Ventures led, with NVIDIA, M12, Samsung, Union Square Ventures and 1789 Capital in the round. Founders are Earan Barrett, Teknium and Jeffrey Quesnelle, and the money goes to GPU clusters – FinSMEs.
TripWip (Uruguay) – $4.2M, seed, peer-to-peer car rental marketplace that handles bookings, payments and identity checks, expanding in Mexico and Argentina. Investors include Latin Leap, CrossBoundary and Yango Ventures, plus angels tied to Kavak, dLocal, Uber, PedidosYa and Rappi. CEO Juan Manuel Pancic wants to grow sixfold in 24 months, and automaker-linked backers tied to Toyota and Kia also joined – LatAm Republic.
Endeavor Catalyst (US) – $320M, Fund V, co-investing in Endeavor-network startups, mostly outside the US. Led by Allen Taylor and Jackie Carmel, its LP base includes Reid Hoffman, Bill Ackman, and Prosus. Half the fund’s profits return to Endeavor—backing founders helps fund the next generation – The Investor Society.
Navra (US) – $19M, Series A, AI-powered interface for blockchain investing and DeFi yields, founded by SoFi and Figure co-founder Mike Cagney. Ribbit Capital led, joined by Baseline, DCM, Jump Crypto, and Figure. Its built-in AI agent follows user-set limits—blockchain access with guardrails, not autopilot – The Investor Society.
🏛️ Private Equity
Uber (US) – $2.3B, agreed all-cash acquisition of ezCater, a workplace catering marketplace connecting businesses with 140,000+ restaurants. Dara Khosrowshahi is bringing corporate lunches into Uber Eats; average ezCater orders exceed $400. That’s less “one burrito, please” and more “feed the entire department” – The Investor Society.
Crescent Energy / Devon Energy (US) – $3.85B, asset acquisition, Eagle Ford oil and gas assets in the Karnes Trough next to Crescent's existing operations. The package includes about 68 Mboe/d of net production and more than 600 Tier 1 net locations, and Crescent expects about $140M in annual synergies. JPMorgan Chase and RBC Capital Markets provided debt financing commitments, and CEO David Rockecharlie called it "a significant step forward" – SEC.
Kapital Bank / Woz Code (Mexico / US) – $30M, acquisition, U.S. artificial intelligence company folded into Kapital's technology platform. The price equals about 23% of the $130M Kapital raised. No details on Woz Code's founders or products were published – Entorno VC.
Copart / ACV Auctions (US) – $1.9B, tender offer for the digital automotive marketplace, extended on October 8 at $10.50 per share in cash. The price is a 45% premium to ACV's unaffected close on August 10, with no financing condition and closing expected by the end of 2026. Copart CEO Jay Adair is the buyer, and ACV CEO George Chamoun and his team stay on after closing – Business Wire.
📈 Public & Capital Markets
Chipotle (US, NYSE: CMG) and Starbucks (US, Nasdaq: SBUX) – M&A speculation, restaurants. Chipotle rose 7.36% midday on reports that Starbucks explored a takeover, while Starbucks fell 4.35%. Semafor wrote that Chipotle, valued at about $40B, has not received a bid, and Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol is Chipotle's former chief executive – TheStreet, Semafor.
Wolfspeed (US, NYSE: WOLF) – debt financing, silicon carbide and wide bandgap semiconductors. The company received a conditional commitment letter for up to $1.5B from the Department of War's Office of Strategic Capital, a 30-year senior secured delayed-draw term loan. In return the government would receive warrants for up to 7.5% of fully diluted equity, and funding still depends on definitive agreements and approvals – SEC.
PepsiCo (US, Nasdaq: PEP) – Q3 earnings, beverages and snacks. Net income was $3.05B ($2.23 per share) against $1.90 per share a year earlier, and results beat estimates, but PepsiCo cut its core EPS growth outlook to 2.5% to 3.5%. Shares rose 1.92% to $126.10, and TSMC separately reported quarterly revenue up 51% – TheStreet.
📅 ICYMI
Skin in the game: Fintech startup Agentiq wants sports fans to buy shares of their favorite athletes’ future earnings, turning the MLB into the Nasdaq and your time on the couch into serious business.
Big Mac, Big Data: McDonald's faces a federal class action alleging that its AI pricing tool, which uses daily sales data from about 14,000 U.S. locations, enables "algorithmic price-fixing." McDonald's says its recommendations are optional and franchisees set final prices.
More than just America's favorite ice cream flavor: Researchers found that the antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant properties of vanillin (from vanilla pods) can help heal wounds, treat ulcers, and deliver drugs. Calling someone vanilla... now a compliment?
See you monday
Jose Kont
The human behind The Investor Society.