Phia accused of ‘cookie stuffing,’ an AI agent startup just let its agent run its $100 million fundraise, plus, Oratomic to build a viable quantum computer that needs only 20K qubits episode artwork

EPISODE · Jul 13, 2026 · 7 MIN

Phia accused of ‘cookie stuffing,’ an AI agent startup just let its agent run its $100 million fundraise, plus, Oratomic to build a viable quantum computer that needs only 20K qubits

from TechCrunch Startup News · host TechCrunch

Phia, the shopping startup founded by Bill Gates’ daughter, Phoebe, and her friend, Sophia Kianni, is under fire for a practice known as “cookie stuffing,” which helped the product receive commissions and credit for sales it did not actually generate, per a Bloomberg investigation. Also, Lyzr, a startup that builds AI agents for enterprises, used its own AI agent to raise a $100 million round — proof, evidently, that the product actually works. Plus, the new startup raised $300 million co-led by ARCH Venture Partners, Spark Capital, and Khosla Ventures. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episode metadata supplied by the publisher feed · Published Jul 13, 2026

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Phia accused of ‘cookie stuffing,’ an AI agent startup just let its agent run its $100 million fundraise, plus, Oratomic to build a viable quantum computer that needs only 20K qubits

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