June at Gradient

Monthly insights from the front lines of AI

June 30, 2025

Recent funding announcements

Clarify launches with $22.5 million in funding for its autonomous CRM (GeekWire)

The Signal: Most CRM startups promise to "revolutionize sales." Clarify actually did it by making the CRM disappear entirely. Instead of forcing sales teams to learn another interface, their AI agent works invisibly across existing tools—updating Salesforce, scheduling follow-ups, and qualifying leads without human intervention.

BackOps raises $6 million to bring AI to logistics (FreightWaves)

The Signal: BackOps is tackling a $100 billion inefficiency by leveraging AI to reduce error-prone processes and manual work. BackOps is able to automatically handle routine order updates as well as complex, multi-system workflows like claims resolution and cross-platform coordination.

More Portfolio News

Payload Joins Figma

Figma just announced that the Payload team has joined Figma, bringing their "leading open-source headless content management system" into the design platform's ecosystem. The timing aligns with Figma's launch of its own CMS at Config 2025, designed to make life easier for marketers and designers who need to update website content. Payload brings the developer firepower: "a powerful, customizable backend for building scalable websites and apps, plus an intuitive admin panel for editors."

Figma CTO Kris Rasmussen noted that "as AI has made it easier to generate more code and content, the ability to control what you deploy across channels and fine tune your end users' experiences becomes even more important." The combined platform promises to bridge the traditional gap between design intent and deployed experiences.

Gigs Powers Klarna's MVNO Launch

Klarna's launch of a $40 unlimited mobile plan is impressive execution, and it also showcases something bigger: Gigs' ability to make any company an instant telecom provider.. Klarna can offer mobile service by leveraging Gigs' infrastructure and carrier relationships, which includes AT&T's network and its 25 million existing U.S. users. This allows Klarna to expand into a new vertical with strong fundamentals. Gigs is the engine: they've become the "operating system for mobile services" that lets any tech company become a carrier in weeks, not years.

Worth Your Attention

Opportunities Across the Portfolio

ELSA – Director of Design (View and apply)

Niva – Senior Software Engineer (View and apply)

Secureframe – Partner Account Manager (View and apply)

Range – Chief of Staff (View and apply)

P.S. - If you're building something new in AI, we'd love to hear from you.