Today's Angel Investing Pulse
AI transforms early‑stage investment due diligence
Early‑stage venture firms are turning to AI to cut through massive data flows, using algorithms that parse thousands of startup submissions and link revenue trends, retention metrics, hiring activity, and market signals. The technology speeds up screening, sharpens market‑size estimates, and structures due‑diligence workflows for faster deal sourcing.
Capsule Security Raises $7m to Secure AI Agents at Runtime
Capsule Security emerged from stealth with a $7 million seed round led by Lama Partners and participation from Forgepoint Capital International. The startup’s runtime‑first platform aims to secure AI agents while they execute tasks, preventing prompt‑injection attacks, data leaks, and unintended actions. Alongside the funding, Capsule disclosed two zero‑day vulnerabilities—ShareLeak in Microsoft Copilot Studio and PipeLeak in Salesforce Agentforce—and released an open‑source enforcement tool, ClawGuard, for the OpenClaw framework. The launch coincides with rapid enterprise adoption of AI agents, now used by more than 80% of Fortune 500 firms.
Can Private Data Platforms Sustain Eka Ventures’ Pre‑Seed Edge?
Do VCs with private data platforms find the best pre-seed deals? Eka Ventures was early with proprietary tools, but can it keep its edge? https://preseednow.com/p/eka-ventures-camilla-dolan
SA Firm Raises R85m to Scale AI Stethoscope for TB Screening
South African medtech firm AI Diagnostics secured roughly R85 million (about $4.6 million) in a pre‑Series A round led by The Steele Foundation for Hope. The capital will accelerate rollout of its AI‑enabled Ostium digital stethoscope, which screens for tuberculosis using lung‑sound analysis...
Applications Open for £100k NatWest Accelerator Pitch
NatWest has opened applications for its UK‑wide Accelerator Pitch, offering a £100,000 prize pool (≈$125,000) at each live final, starting with the Oxford event on 18 June. The competition combines cash awards—£70,000 for the winner, £20,000 for second place, £10,000 for...
Audrey AI Secures $1.8M to Develop AI Platform for Financial Auditors
Audrey AI, a Dublin‑based startup, closed a $1.8 million pre‑seed round led by Sure Valley Ventures and Delta Partners. The company is building an agentic AI platform that automates data requests, evidence gathering, transaction testing and review for financial auditors. Pilot...
Cohoma Coffee Raises Rs 5 Cr Seed Round Led by IPV
Cohoma Coffee, a specialty coffee roaster and machine maker founded by Kanika and Paritosh Birla, closed a Rs 5 crore (approximately $0.53 million) seed round led by Inflection Point Ventures with participation from Swishin VC. The funding will be deployed to expand its...
YC-Backed Openlaw Closes $3.3M Seed to Digitise Europe's Notary Nightmare
Openlaw, a YC‑backed legal‑tech startup, closed a $3.3 million seed round led by Y Ventures, Moonfire Ventures and a slate of angels. Its German platform beglaubigt.de digitises company formation, shrinking the typical eight‑week GmbH setup to as little as three days...
Inside a Live Venture Fund: 12 Startups, $250K+, 6 Weeks to Invest
Neal’s post reveals the inner workings of San Diego Angel Conference Fund VIII, a live venture fund that has raised roughly $250,000 and is evaluating 12 finalist startups. Over the next six weeks the fund will narrow the field to...
Investors Demand Proven Revenue Before Funding; Bootstrapping Essential
Investors are basically telling early-stage founders to figure it out first, then come back for money. I know how that lands, but after a month of conversations with founders, investors, and accelerators - it's hard to argue with the pattern. Investors want...
Smartwage Raises €2M to Scale AI-Driven Corporate Welfare Platform
Smartwage, an AI‑driven corporate welfare startup, closed a €2 million pre‑seed round led by Step Fund. The funding, roughly $2.2 million, will be used to expand platform architecture, security, and AI models. The platform lets employees spend welfare credits across any provider,...
Ignoring Insider Feedback Guarantees Fundraising Rejection
It’s rough when founders don’t listen to insiders during fundraising prep then go to raise only to find out external investors pass exactly because of the questions insiders raised. But it basically happens every single time when founders fail to do...
Founders Can Earn Similar Returns Despite Later Exits
An early investment I made, I met with the CEO of a public company that wanted to buy them for $50m The startup hadn’t raised much, they said No Years later, they sold for almost $1B The founders made about...
Ukrainian Startups Get UK Market Gateway as TechBridge Accelerator Returns for 2026
The UK‑Ukraine TechBridge accelerator has launched its 2026 Investment Accelerator, supporting 20 high‑growth Ukrainian tech startups (late seed–Series A) to enter the UK market. Backed by the UK government and Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation, the programme offers investment‑readiness workshops,...
YC Remains Top Fintech Investor Despite Deal Decline
YC Once Again Tops Ranks Of Most Active Fintech Investors In Q1 Even As Deal Count Drops https://t.co/zmmPsTQOdx via @crunchbasenews
20% Seed Dilution Now Standard, Up From
Most founders will sell 20-25% in a seed round right now, up from 15-20% a few years ago. Selling 20% is reasonable 99% of the time.
Stendr Secures $5.4M Pre-Seed to Develop AI-Driven Defence Systems
Norwegian defence tech startup Stendr raised $5.4 million in an oversubscribed pre‑seed round led by RainFall, ACME and SkyFall. The capital will fund its AI‑native platform that integrates hardware and software for drone defence. Stendr’s solution uses multi‑sensor AI to detect,...
Seeking SF Connections: Teaching, Funding Dev Tools Startups
heading to SF tomorrow - teaching at Stanford on Tuesday 😳 also writing $100k checks for dev tools/infra founders + seeing new lps who should i meet?
Matium Seeds Efficiency in Trillion‑dollar US Plastics Market
the U.S. plastics market moves a trillion dollars a year on phone calls and spreadsheets. excited to lead Matium's seed round to bring structure, financing, managed logistics, and quality guarantees to this market. ~10% of the industry is already using...
Traza Raises $2.1 Million Led by Base10 to Automate Procurement Workflows with AI
Traza, a New York‑based startup, closed a $2.1 million pre‑seed round led by Base10 to launch AI agents that autonomously handle procurement tasks such as vendor outreach, RFQ generation, order tracking, and invoice processing. Targeting the $8 billion procurement‑software market, the company...
Proptech Startup Helium Raises Angel Funding From Albinder Dhindsa, Kunal Shah, Others
Helium, a proptech startup that rents out apartments in gated societies, announced an angel round of ₹5 crore (about $600,000). The round was led by Indian startup veterans Albinder Dhindsa, Kunal Shah and other founders. The capital will be used to...
Deteqt Secures AUD 5 Million Seed Funding to Build Chip‑Scale Quantum Magnetometer
Sydney‑based Deteqt closed a AUD 5 million seed round led by Main Sequence, with participation from ATP Fund, BOKA Capital and others, to accelerate its chip‑scale quantum magnetometer. The funding will fund product development, diamond chip manufacturing and hiring, positioning the firm...
Antes Raises $4.6M to Bridge Legal and Engineering Software
AI startup Antes announced a $4.6 million Series A funding round to develop software that links legal and engineering data for manufacturers. The capital, led by XYZ Ventures with participation from ABC Capital, will accelerate the rollout of its AI‑driven...
Crucible Backs Three College Trading Teams to Launch Startups
random fact - Crucible has backed 3 co-founding teams that bonded over trading in college - @kaledora + @contrarianmarco, Harvard -> @OstiumLabs - @bavaria_kush + @wayne_nelmz, MIT -> @OrnnExchange - @harshavramesh + @cdeshpande17, Vanderbilt -> @PillarHQ LOVE OF THE GAME
Networked Conviction 006
The latest edition of Networked Conviction, an investing journal for paying subscribers, is a curated round‑up of the author’s recent high‑level conversations. Topics span biotech organ‑transplant research, first‑principles manufacturing, AI business‑model tensions, and the premium placed on founder charisma. The...
Contracted ARR Definitions Vary Wildly Across Startup Pitches
A lot of "Contracted ARR" is being thrown at me in startup pitches these days. And it seems highly inconsistent in definition among founders...
Seeing Friends Profit From Your Startup Bets Feels Amazing
Been investing in startups for ~9 years now Occasionally convinced friends to co-invest alongside me Today I helped one of them get real liquidity from one of those bets I like building & investing, but seeing someone I really care about benefit from...
Financial Risk Management Platform Pillar Raises $20M Seed in Round Led by A16z
Pillar, a financial risk‑management platform for commodity‑driven firms, announced a $20 million seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz, bringing its total funding to $23 million. The AI‑powered solution automates hedging by ingesting contracts, ERP data, spreadsheets and even WhatsApp messages to continuously...
Primepoint Closes $10M Seed Round to Advance Intelligence Platform that Reads and Understands Construction Drawings
Primepoint announced a $10 million seed round to scale its AI‑driven construction intelligence platform. The funding came in two tranches—$4 million co‑led by Penny Jar Capital and NextView Ventures, and $6 million led by Navitas Capital with participation from several other investors, including...
Modern Relay Raises $3M to Build Shared Infrastructure Layer for AI Agents in the Enterprise
Modern Relay announced a $3 million seed round backed by Point Nine, Emerge, Amino Collective, Common Magic and notable angels. The San‑Francisco‑Barcelona startup is building a shared infrastructure layer that consolidates people, policies, data and decisions so AI agents can operate...
Welcoming Mike Mignano to the USV Partnership
Union Square Ventures announced that Mike Mignano has joined its partnership. Mignano, the founder of Anchor—sold to Spotify—previously served as a partner at Lightspeed and has maintained a decade‑long relationship with USV. He is celebrated for an idea‑driven, early‑stage focus...
Applications Open for NatWest’s £100k Accelerator Pitch
NatWest has opened applications for its Accelerator Pitch competition, offering a total prize fund of £100,000 (≈ $127,000) across three live finals in Oxford, Cardiff and London. Entrepreneurs must submit a 60‑second video by May 5 and join the free NatWest Accelerator...
Nava Raises $8.3 Million in Seed Funding to Keep AI Financial Agents From Going Off the Rails
Nava, a startup focused on securing autonomous AI-driven payments, closed an $8.3 million seed round led by Polychain and Archetype. The company proposes an escrow‑based verification layer that holds funds until an AI agent’s proposed transaction aligns with the user’s intent,...
Sapient Perception Raises €2M to Give Drones a Wider View
Sapient Perception, a Danish AI sensor startup, secured €2 million (about $2.2 million) in pre‑seed funding led by Balnord and FORWARD.one. The company’s 10K sensor platform captures up to 100 times more ground area than conventional drone cameras while preserving detail, processing data...
Helical Closes $10M Seed to Turn Bio Foundation Models Into Systems
Helical, a London‑based pharma‑AI startup, closed a $10 million seed round led by redalpine, with AI leaders from Cohere and HuggingFace among angel investors. The funding will expand its dual‑surface platform—Virtual Lab for biologists and Model Factory for data scientists—across more...
AI Satellite Constellation Startup Orbital Gets Funded by A16z to Verify Space-Based Data Center Concept
Orbital Inc., an AI satellite‑constellation startup, closed an undisclosed funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz’s a16z Speedrun. The capital will finance its first test mission, Orbital‑1, slated for launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 in April 2027. The company aims to prove...
Helical Secures $10M to Advance Virtual AI Lab for Pharma Research
Helical, a biotech startup founded in early 2024, announced a $10 million seed round led by redalpine with participation from Gradient, BoxGroup, Frst and AI industry angels. The company’s virtual AI lab combines foundation model outputs with biological validation to create...
Ralio Raises £1.8m for Its Agentic Business Payments Platform
UK fintech Ralio has closed a £1.8 million (about $2.3 million) pre‑seed round to build its agentic payments platform. The round was oversubscribed, led by Sure Valley Ventures and joined by Seed X, Love Ventures, Plug and Play, and other investors. Ralio’s...
Community Event Platform Wygo Secures Nearly $1.6 Million Pre-Seed
Toronto‑based Wygo, an event‑planning app that encourages offline gatherings, announced a CAD 1.6 million (≈$1.2 million USD) pre‑seed round. The platform, launched by CEO Jocelyne Murphy and CTO Christopher Oka, has already sold more than 10,000 tickets for in‑person events. Investors such as Shopify...
Deals in Brief: Three Singapore Startups Raise AI Funding; SC Ventures Leads Keyrock’s Series C Round; Six China Investments; and...
Singapore’s AI ecosystem saw a flurry of capital this week, with Muun AI closing a $700,000 pre‑seed round, OnSite raising $1.3 million seed funding for its construction‑focused communication platform, Injewelme securing $1.2 million to broaden contactless health‑monitoring capabilities, and NeuBird AI attracting...
YC Backs Stablecoins, Reshaping Finance Beyond ACH
YC will invest in any YC company in stablecoins The new financial rails of the revolution will not be over ACH or wire
Answer Cash Amount, Not Valuation, when Asked Fundraising
I had back to back convos today where I asked a founder, how much are you raising? And instead of telling me the $$ amount they’re raising, they told me the valuation they’re raising at. So if someone asks, how much are...
Replenit Raises $2.5M to Bring Real-Time AI Decision-Making to Retail
Replenit, an AI decision engine that converts customer signals into real‑time, individualized actions, closed a $2.5 million pre‑seed round co‑led by Movens Capital and Vastpoint. The Warsaw‑based startup adds a reasoning layer to existing retail data stacks, enabling brands to move...
The New Seed Filter: What Investors Look for Beyond the Demo
Partech partner Alison Imbert says polished AI demos mean little at seed stage; investors now demand gritty customer research, clear distribution plans and technical depth. Managing the €53 million (≈$57 million) Paris‑Saclay Seed fund, she backs engineering‑centric B2B SaaS startups that can prove...
Zell Raises €500K to Scale AI-Powered Sales Management
Berlin‑based AI startup Zell announced a €500,000 (approximately $550,000) funding round co‑led by P3 Ventures, SkyDeck Europe, UC Berkeley SkyDeck and others. The capital will accelerate the rollout of its platform that layers automated coaching on top of CRM and...
Finnish Proptech Jaakko.com Secures €500K to Scale Beyond Domestic Market
Finnish proptech startup Jaakko.com secured €500,000 (about $545,000) in a mixed angel‑institutional round to accelerate product development and push beyond Finland. The marketplace already hosts over 2,000 hidden properties and 3,000 active buy‑sell listings, with seller activity more than doubling...
Round Raises $6M to Automate the Finance Workflows that Still Require a Human to Press a Button
London fintech Round announced a $6 million seed round led by Alstin Capital, with participation from Backed VC, Love Ventures, and several angel investors including Indeed co‑founder Paul Forster. The funding backs the launch of two new products—a natural‑language Agentic Workflow Builder and an...
Convertible Notes Vs. SAFEs: A Startup Lawyer’s Guide to Choosing the Right Instrument
A seasoned startup lawyer breaks down the differences between SAFEs and convertible notes, highlighting that SAFEs are equity‑like, interest‑free contracts while convertible notes are debt instruments with interest and maturity dates. The guide details legal costs, balance‑sheet impact, speed to...
PowerLabs Secures Pre‑Seed Funding to Deploy AI Energy Orchestration Across Africa
PowerLabs announced a pre‑seed round led by Breega, with Catalyst Fund, Mercy Corps Ventures and Kaleo Ventures participating, to scale its AI‑driven Pai Enterprise platform. While the exact amount was not disclosed, the funding arrives as Nigeria’s manufacturing sector spent...
Startups Inflate ARR: Not Annual, Not Recurring, Not Revenue
Startups misreporting ARR is frustrating as an infrequent angel investor who relies on trust (no time to inspect) ~Every startup claiming 0→$[X]M ARR in [Y] months always forget to clarify that it's either a) not really Annual b) not really...
Announcing SOSV’s VC-Founder Physical AI Matchup May 6-11
SOSV is hosting a free, virtual VC‑Founder Physical AI Matchup from May 6 to May 11, pairing more than 250 startups with an equal number of investors for one‑on‑one meetings. Participants will schedule 20‑minute sessions via the Grip platform, with...