Today's Entrepreneurship Pulse
Cognition secures over $1 billion in funding, hits $25 billion pre‑money valuation
AI coding startup Cognition announced a financing round that raised more than $1 billion, valuing the company at $25 billion before money. The round was led by Lux Capital and General Catalyst and included Founders Fund, 8VC, Ribbit Capital, Atreides and Layer Global.
Also developing:
By the numbers: Birchal raises $800K in down round valuing company at $5M
From Tractor‑Driver’s Son to Space‑Tech Founder: Dr. Anand Megalingam’s Rise
Dr. Anand Megalingam, founder and CEO of Space Zone India, transformed a childhood of six‑kilometre school walks and a college dropout into a gold‑medalist aeronautical engineer and private‑space pioneer. His upcoming RHUMI Twin project, targeting simultaneous rocket launches from Chennai, underscores how habit, resilience and vision can reshape India’s aerospace landscape.
Regulate Secures $1.5 M Seed Funding to Launch AI‑Powered Breathwork Platform for Workplaces
Munich‑based Regulate announced a €1.4 million ($1.5 million) seed round led by 4impact Capital, bringing together founders of Personio, Forto and CoachHub. The funding will accelerate a platform that embeds scientifically backed breathwork into daily work routines, targeting the rising stress linked...
Shyld AI Snags $13M for Device that Disinfects Hospital Rooms Autonomously
Shyld AI announced a $13.4 million seed round led by Aulis Capital to scale its AI‑enabled UV disinfection devices for hospital rooms. The system autonomously detects occupancy, triggers targeted UV exposure, and logs cleaning activity, cutting pathogen levels by 93 % in...
Cerebras Stock Nearly Doubles on Day One as AI Chipmaker Hits $100 Billion — What It Means for AI Infrastructure
Cerebras Systems went public on Nasdaq at $350 per share, nearly double its $185 IPO price, instantly achieving a $100 billion market value. The company sold 30 million shares, raising $5.55 billion, the largest U.S. tech IPO since Uber in 2019. Its wafer‑scale...
How AI Is Speeding New Business Creation, Especially Among Gen Z Entrepreneurs
AI is accelerating new business creation, especially among Gen Z entrepreneurs, according to a recent NPR report. A Gusto survey of 1,000 founders who launched in 2025 found that more than 70% of Gen Z entrepreneurs relied on AI tools to streamline...
Verti CRE Raises $100M and Launches In‑House AI Platform Verti Intelligence
Verti Commercial Real Estate closed $100 million in multifamily transactions in its first year and unveiled Verti Intelligence™, an in‑house AI platform that lifts prospect conversion from 0.5% to 2.5%. The raise and tech launch underscore growing investor faith in proprietary...
He Created a Tool That Lets Anyone Start Their Own Business With Just an Image — And It Has Minted...
Nuseir Yassin, the creator of the Nas Daily video brand, launched Nas.com, an AI‑powered platform that lets solo entrepreneurs build a storefront, generate marketing content and run ads from a single product photo. The startup has raised $40 million—$27 million in its...
UAE Gives In‑Principle Approval to Omla Community Bank, First AI‑Centric Digital Bank in Gulf
The Central Bank of the UAE has granted in‑principle approval for Omla Community Bank, an AI‑driven digital banking venture backed by Mint Gateway and Alternative Venture Capital. The project, headquartered in Umm Al Quwain, aims to roll out AI‑enabled services...
Gaza’s Tech Freelancers Keep Remote Coding Jobs Alive Amid War
Gaza‑based programmers continue to deliver code for overseas clients despite daily airstrikes, electricity shortages and the loss of coworking hubs. Their work, channeled through platforms like Upwork and Freelancer.com, provides a lifeline for families while keeping a fledgling digital‑entrepreneurship scene...
How Startups Prepare a Data Room for Investor Due Diligence
When investors request due diligence, startups have days—not weeks—to supply a structured data room. A well‑organized data room is now a baseline expectation that speeds deals, boosts investor confidence, and improves capital outcomes. Investors look for six core document groups—legal,...
Choose Joy Now: Build What Truly Inspires You
1998: Started a website design agency at 14. 2002: Started iContact from a dorm room. 2008: Built one of America's fastest-growing software companies. 2010: Overweight. Burnt out. 2011: Had a 10-hour panic attack. 2012: Sold iContact for $169M at 27....
Three Pillars: Hard Metrics, Social Proof, ROI Validation
Founders: Your pitch needs 3 levels of backup: 1. Hard metrics: '40% cost reduction' 2. Social proof: '8 of top 10 banks use us' 3. ROI validation: 'Payback in 4.2 months' Each reinforces the others. Have all three ready.
To the Abyss and Back: How Fintech Firm Flyhomes Survived a Boom-Bust Housing Cycle
Flyhomes, the Seattle‑based fintech that pioneered a "buy before you sell" mortgage, weathered the pandemic boom, a rapid rise in interest rates and a sudden freeze in venture capital. Facing soaring customer‑acquisition costs, the company shut down its own lending...
ZenBusiness Launches AI-Ready Infrastructure for Business Formation and Compliance
ZenBusiness announced an expansion of its ZenBusiness Enterprise platform, adding AI‑ready API infrastructure that lets partners embed business formation, licensing and compliance workflows directly into their customer experiences. The new APIs pull data from ZenBusiness’s decade‑long repository on nearly one million...
Tekken Legend Katsuhiro Harada Launches VS Studio Under SNK
Katsuhiro Harada, the longtime Tekken producer, announced the creation of VS Studio, a new development studio backed by SNK Corporation. Based in Shinagawa, Tokyo, Harada will serve as CEO, signaling a fresh collaboration between two historic fighting‑game powerhouses.
Privacy‑Tech Founder Jesse Proudman Leaves Washington Over New Millionaire Tax
Jesse Proudman, the founder and CTO of privacy‑focused AI platform Venice.ai, said he will relocate to Austin, Texas, after Washington enacted a 9.9% tax on income above $1 million. Proudman warned the levy could drive high‑earning entrepreneurs out of the state,...
They Built a $50 Million Business Before GLP-1s Became Mainstream. Now They’re Eyeing This New Health Frontier
Josh and Katy Whalen turned personal hormone challenges into Joi + Blokes, a bootstrapped telehealth firm that now exceeds $50 million in annual revenue. The company rides the wave of GLP‑1 and longevity treatments, offering lab‑driven hormone optimization and weight‑loss plans. Regulatory scrutiny...
What Was Nintendo's First Ever Product (Back in 1889)?
Nintendo was founded in September 1889 in Kyoto as Nintendo Koppai, a maker of handmade hanafuda playing cards. Under Hiroshi Yamauchi, the company shifted to mass‑produced plastic cards and, in 1959, sold 600,000 Disney‑licensed packs, prompting a public listing in 1962....
High Expectations Require New Approaches: What Africa’s Social Innovators Need to Scale — And Why Support Systems Must Evolve
Across Africa, social innovators are tackling food insecurity, youth unemployment and climate challenges, yet most struggle to scale beyond early traction. LEAP Africa’s recent assessment of 89 ecosystem actors in 18 countries found funding to be the primary obstacle, with...
The Rebuild That Took Our Family Business From Shutdown To $80 Million
A family‑owned accounting firm faced total shutdown during the pandemic but rebuilt itself as an AI‑first powerhouse, now generating roughly $80 million in annual revenue. Leveraging Aprio’s AI‑driven platform, the company streamlined bookkeeping, reduced labor costs, and accelerated client onboarding. The...
10 Lessons I Shared with UC San Diego Students About Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital, and Building a Meaningful Career
The author returned to UC San Diego to share ten hard‑earned lessons on entrepreneurship, venture capital, and career building. He stresses gaining real‑world experience, turning every contact into a lasting network, and investing in founders over ideas. The talk also...
DDD Invoices Nets €1.31m to Tackle E-Invoicing Compliance
Slovenian e‑invoicing compliance platform DDD Invoices closed a €1.31 million seed round—about $1.43 million—led by Fil Rouge Capital and 500 Global. The capital will fund expansion into additional countries, deeper integration with existing software stacks, and hires across product, engineering, and go‑to‑market...
Nectar Social Raises $30M Series A to Build the Agentic Operating System for Modern Marketing
Nectar Social announced a $30 million Series A round led by Menlo Ventures, with participation from True Ventures, GV and Gwyneth Paltrow’s Kinship Ventures. The funding will accelerate the launch of Nectar Agent, an autonomous AI agent designed to manage brand conversations...
Synthetic Raises $10M Seed Funding For AI Bookkeeping Platform
Synthetic, a San Francisco AI bookkeeping startup founded by former Bench co‑founder Ian Crosby, closed a $10 million seed round led by Basis Set Ventures with participation from Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke and Opendoor’s Kaz Nejatian. The funding will accelerate development...
The Diamond Podcast for Financial Advisors: Ex-Edward Jones Advisor on Building Beyond $1B
Ricky Smith, a former Edward Jones advisor, launched Inspired Wealth Planning with Kestra Private Wealth Services in March 2023 and grew the firm to over $1.25 billion in assets across seven locations within 15 months. His departure from the wirehouse was the result...
Outmarket AI Raises $17M To Scale Insurance Workflow Automation
Outmarket AI announced a $17 million Series A round led by Permanent Capital Ventures, bringing its total capital to roughly $21.7 million. The funding will accelerate the rollout of its AI‑driven intelligence layer that automates core insurance brokerage workflows. The platform now integrates...
IP Bay Launches Studio to Adapt Japanese Literature for Western Screens at Cannes
Yasuo Matsuo, Jun Matsuo and Frankie Seratch have unveiled IP Bay, a new global studio focused on adapting Japanese literary properties for Western screens. The venture made its market debut at the Cannes Film Market, where Japan is the 2026...
Mantle8 Secures €31 Million Series A to Commercialize Natural Hydrogen
Mantle8 announced a €31 million ($34 million) Series A round led by Sandwater, with participation from Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Bpifrance, IP Group, Wind Capital and Calderion. The funding will finance a two‑year global drilling campaign to prove commercial natural hydrogen reservoirs, a move...
Iceotope Raises $26M to Advance Cooling for Next-Generation AI Infrastructure
Iceotope Group, a UK‑based provider of precision liquid cooling for data centres and edge AI workloads, announced a $26 million Series B round. The financing was led by Two Seas Capital and Barclays Climate Ventures, with participation from existing backers including Edinv...
How to Launch a Successful Drone Service Business: Advice From Operators Who've Done It
Commercial UAV News hosted a webinar where seasoned operators—Robert Hart of Lidar Drone Services, Dan Tartaglia of DroneAbility LLC, and Matt Young of Aerial Ashes—shared a step‑by‑step playbook for launching a profitable drone service business. The panel emphasized four pillars:...
Centimillionaire Strategy Session with Kevin Harrington: Time Management, Deal Structures, and Negotiating Transactions
In this episode, original Shark Tank investor Kevin Harrington shares his playbook for scaling consumer brands, emphasizing the power of branding, distribution, and influencer marketing—illustrated by his role in turning Celsius from a $10 million startup to a $12 billion company. He...
METiS TechBio's $270 M AI‑Drug Delivery IPO Sets HKEX Record
METiS TechBio listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, raising HK$2.11 bn ($270 m) and becoming the world’s first publicly traded AI‑powered drug‑delivery company. The offering was oversubscribed more than 6,900 times, drawing $148 m from 18 cornerstone investors including BlackRock. The IPO...
Ben Horowitz - "Your ONLY Job Is Right Product, Right Time"
In this A16Z Speedrun talk, Ben Horowitz stresses that a founder’s sole responsibility is delivering the right product at the right time, and that everything else—hiring, fundraising, storytelling— serves that core goal. He argues that a clear, written "company story"...
![[Outliers] Chung Ju-Yung: The Hyundai Founder Who Put a Country on His Back](/cdn-cgi/image/width=1200,quality=75,format=auto,fit=cover/https://fs.blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/chung-Ju-yung-episode-art-1024x1024.png)
[Outliers] Chung Ju-Yung: The Hyundai Founder Who Put a Country on His Back
The Knowledge Project released a new episode profiling Chung Ju‑yung, the founder of Hyundai, who transformed a modest repair shop into a conglomerate that once generated 16% of South Korea’s economic output. The podcast details how Chung’s relentless drive built highways,...
Meet the 3D Printing Startup that Spent Five Years Not Selling Its Technology
Caracol, an Italian‑founded advanced manufacturing startup, spent five years operating as a service bureau to certify its large‑format additive manufacturing (LFAM) technology before launching commercial sales in 2022. By marrying industrial robotic arms with 3D‑printing processes, the company can produce...
Behind The Raise: Peripear
Peripear, founded by former midwife Nina van Schaick, has built a hands‑free wearable that delivers therapeutic warmth to the perineum during crowning, reducing severe tears by up to 50 %. The device targets hospital labour units, with MOUs in Singapore covering...
White Circle’s AI Control Platform Closes $11M in Funding From Industry Giants After Founder Goes Viral for Exposing Safety Flaw...
White Circle, an AI monitoring and safety platform, closed an $11 million seed round backed by executives from OpenAI, Anthropic, Mistral, Hugging Face, Datadog and other AI heavyweights. The company, founded by Denis Shilov—who went viral in 2024 for bypassing safety...
The Breakout 50: The UK’s Most Promising Early Stage Tech Startups
Tech Nation’s inaugural Breakout 50 list spotlights 50 of the UK’s most promising early‑stage tech startups, drawn from the NextWave and OneToWin pitch competitions. The report, produced with Cooper Parry, maps emerging innovation across AI, robotics, climate, fintech, health, infrastructure and the...
Workday, Anthropic and LISC Unveil $150K AI Solopreneur Accelerator
Workday, Anthropic and the Local Initiatives Support Corporation announced a $150,000 AI‑focused accelerator for solo founders. The pilot will fund 15 entrepreneurs with $10,000 grants, free Claude AI credits and a curriculum built by LISC, aiming to boost AI fluency...
Photonic Secures $200 Million Series B, Valuing Firm at $2 Billion
Photonic Inc. closed a $200 million Series B financing round, pushing its post‑money valuation to $2 billion. Led by UK‑based Planet First Partners, the round adds a slate of Canadian and international investors and underpins the company’s push to commercial‑scale distributed quantum...
Figure Founder: F.04 Robot Initiates Component Delivery Process
Figure AI founder Brett Adcock announced on X that the design of the F.04 humanoid robot is finalized, triggering the start of component deliveries. The F.04 is billed as the biggest generational leap for the company, following the launch of...
Neurosurgeon Turns Credentialing Bottleneck Into AI Startup
For Dr. Marc Ayoub, a neurosurgeon born into a family of doctors, the path to entrepreneurship was a necessity born of frustration. As Ayoub describes it, while the medical profession was sold to him as a lucrative and stable career, the...
Pillar Secures €12 Million Seed Round to Build AI‑Powered Construction OS
Italian construction‑tech startup Pillar closed a €12 million ($13.1 million) seed round led by Earlybird Venture Capital and Base10 Partners. The capital will fund the rollout of its AI‑powered operating system that aggregates accounting, banking and site data into a single real‑time...
White Circle Secures $11 Million Seed to Build Production‑Grade AI Control Platform
White Circle announced an $11 million seed round led by senior AI figures from OpenAI, Anthropic, DeepMind and others. The funding will accelerate product development and hiring across the US, UK and Europe, positioning the company as a key infrastructure provider...
GreaterThan Group Raises $100M to Back Global Game Studios, Including Star Wars RPG
Simon Zhu, a former NetEase president, has launched GreaterThan Group, a holding company that has secured roughly $100 million in capital to invest in video‑game developers worldwide. The fund’s first marquee projects include Arcanaut Studios’ Star Wars: Fate of the Old...
Adfin Lands $18 Million Series A to Slash SME Late‑payment Rates
Adfin, a London‑based fintech, closed an $18 million Series A led by Index Ventures, bringing total funding to over $30 million. The round backs the company’s AI‑driven “agentic” finance platform, which its 1,500+ customers say reduces invoice late‑payment rates to 9%, roughly...
As Coffee Prices Rise, Prefer Bets on a Hybrid Future
Prefer, a Singapore‑based food‑tech startup founded in 2022, uses fermentation to turn rice and chickpeas into coffee and cocoa extenders that can replace up to 40% of traditional beans without altering flavor. The company aims to keep everyday coffee affordable...
ANAV 3D Startup Delivers Large-Scale LFAM Ecosystem to India
Advanced New Age Ventures 3D (ANAV 3D) launched in Mumbai to build India’s largest large‑format additive manufacturing ecosystem, offering turnkey LFAM machines, robotic integration, and full‑service support. Backed by CEAD’s composite printers, the company targets aerospace, defense, marine, automotive and...
Origin Lab Raises $8M to Help Video Game Companies Sell Data to World-Model Builders
Origin Lab announced an $8 million seed round led by Lightspeed Ventures to create a data marketplace linking video‑game assets with AI labs building world‑models. The startup will license high‑quality game footage and 3‑D assets, converting them into training data for...
Roadrunner Secures $27 Million Seed‑Series A to Launch AI‑Native Quote‑to‑Cash Platform
Roadrunner announced a $27 million seed‑Series A round led by Kleiner Perkins and Founders Fund, funding the general availability of its AI‑native Prompt‑Quote‑Approve (PQA) platform. The San Francisco startup aims to replace legacy CPQ systems and create a new category in revenue...