From a College Dorm Room to Aerospace Manufacturing, the RVCE Duo Is Building India's Precision Future
Ethereal Machines, founded by RVCE alumni Kaushik Mudda and Navin Jain, has evolved from a dorm‑room five‑axis CNC prototype to a Bengaluru‑based precision‑manufacturing platform serving aerospace, defence and healthcare clients. The company’s Halo machine, the world’s first desktop five‑axis CNC with built‑in 3D printing, won CES 2018’s Best of Innovation award and now powers its Machining‑as‑a‑Service offering with tolerances as tight as 0.002 mm. A $13 million Series A led by Peak XV Partners will fund a 250,000‑sq‑ft smart factory and the development of India’s first indigenous multi‑axis CNC controller. Ethereal Machines will be showcased at Bharat Innovates 2026, highlighting India’s deep‑tech push.
From Bangladesh Lockers to Hong Kong Loyalty: Meet Accelerating Asia’s Most Global Cohort Yet
Accelerating Asia announced its 13th cohort, selecting five startups from a record 724 applications across 20 countries, yielding an acceptance rate of under 1%. All chosen companies were already generating revenue or active usage, a rare benchmark for early‑stage accelerators....
VCs Can't Get Enough of Legal Startups. Andreessen Horowitz Just Invested in One Taking Work From Patent Lawyers.
Fearn, an AI‑driven patent‑drafting startup, closed a $5.5 million seed round led by Kindred Ventures with participation from Andreessen Horowitz and others. The platform lets inventors generate a complete patent application in minutes for a flat $2,000 fee, scoring quality and...
Bucketlistt Raises Pre-Seed Funding to Scale Experience Tourism Platform
Bucketlistt, an Indian curated experiences marketplace, secured a pre‑seed angel round of about $129,000, valuing the company at roughly $1.2 million post‑money. The funding, led by angels Arvind Choudhar, Aenik Shah, Kartik Khatri and Yash Mehta, will bolster technology, expand its...
Wealth Advisory Startup HyperNorm AI Raises $2.2 Mn in Seed Funding
Wealth‑advisory startup HyperNorm AI announced a $2.2 million seed round co‑led by Capital 2B and SenseAI Ventures. The capital will accelerate product development, broaden U.S. and international reach, and expand its engineering and AI research teams. HyperNorm’s platform uses a causal‑reasoning engine...
Navigating the Perilous Journey From Lab to Market
Armon Sharei, founder of Portal Biotechnologies, warns that roughly 90% of pre‑clinical ideas never reach clinical trials and a similar share of those that do fail to reach market. He stresses that time is the most underestimated cost, with even...
NinjaOne Raises $400M+ for Its Endpoint Management Platform
NinjaOne Inc. announced a secondary funding round that raised more than $400 million, extending its Series C after a $500 million follow‑on earlier this year. The round attracted Alphabet’s CapitalG, Sequoia Capital, ICONIQ and other top investors. NinjaOne’s platform automates endpoint management, promising...
EV Charging Startup Exponent Energy Nets ₹200 Cr To Accelerate R&D
Exponent Energy, an Indian rapid‑charging startup, closed a ₹200 crore ($21.1 million) round co‑led by 360 ONE Asset, TDK Ventures and Hitachi Ventures. The funding will accelerate R&D, broaden its platform to new vehicle categories and expand its physical footprint across additional geographies....
Generalist Lands $400M Funding
San Mateo‑based robotics startup Generalist announced a $400 million financing round, bringing its total capital raised to over $500 million. The round was led by Radical Ventures and included participation from 8VC, Union Square Ventures, NVIDIA, and other existing backers. New angel...
Scispot Secures $8M to Expand AI-Native Operating Layer for Modern Labs
Scispot, a Kitchener‑Waterloo lab‑informatics startup, closed an $8 million Series A round led by Avenue Growth Partners. Its AI‑native operating layer replaces manual data handoffs by unifying instrument feeds, spreadsheets and legacy LIMS across more than 100 enterprise labs. The platform already...
Mabiati, Al Jabal Agriculture Raise Six-Figure Investments From Iraqi Investors
Iraqi startups Mabiati and Al Jabal Agriculture each secured six‑figure investments from local investors and strategic partners, with backing from Orange Corners Baghdad and the Orange Corners Innovation Fund Iraq. Mabiati, a digital commerce platform, now serves over 20,000 customers...
German Rocket Startup Isar Raises $312 Million; Sets New Launch Date
German launch firm Isar Aerospace announced a €270 million ($312 million) financing round, pushing its total capital to just under €1 billion ($914 million) not counting an estimated $20‑$40 million from the European Space Agency. The round attracted new backers Island Green Capital and Molten...
Centrical Raises $39M to Transform Frontline Performance for the AI Era Workforce
Centrical announced a $39 million Series D round led by Leeds Illuminate and Kingfisher Investment, with existing backer JVP participating. The funding will accelerate global expansion and the rollout of AI‑driven tools that automate coaching, role‑play simulations, and performance interventions for both...
Why the Next Wave of European Unicorns Won’t Come From Berlin, Paris or Amsterdam
Black Forest Labs, founded in Freiburg, closed a $300 million Series B round that valued the AI image‑generation startup at $3.25 billion. Its flagship model, FLUX.1, outpaced competitors and attracted customers such as Adobe, Canva, Microsoft and Meta. The company’s rapid rise illustrates...
NEXT Backs Womenswear Brand Cerene, Co-Founded by Ex-AllSaints COO
NEXT Group is backing a new womenswear label, Cerene, co‑founded by former AllSaints COO Catherine Scorey Jobling and ex‑AllSaints Design Director Rebecca Nye. The brand, incorporated at NEXT’s Leicester headquarters, will launch in Autumn 2026 and is described as “fiercely feminine” with green...
Five Companies, Five Frontiers: BryceTech Crowns Its First Start-Up Space Winner
BryceTech hosted its first Start‑Up Space Pitch Competition at the ASCEND conference, showcasing five early‑stage space technology firms before investors and the broader aerospace community. The finalists presented solutions ranging from AI‑driven supply‑chain intelligence to quantum imaging, ultra‑compact laser communications,...
Podcast | Are AI Agents RE Agents’ Best Partners? With Breezy CEO James Harris
James Harris, former luxury‑home broker and TV personality, launched Breezy, an AI‑driven platform that automates the administrative tasks that consume real‑estate agents’ time. The startup closed a $10 million pre‑seed round led by Ribbit Capital with participation from Fifth Wall, DST...
Stepful Secures $55M to Expand AI-Powered Healthcare Workforce Training
Stepful announced a $55 million Series C round led by Oak HC/FT, with participation from Foresite Capital, Hearst Ventures, the Citi Impact Fund and existing backers such as Y Combinator and Intermountain Health. The funding will accelerate the company’s proprietary AI engine and...
This Founder Got Rejected by 79 Investors. Now Her Okra Drink Is Going National
Anna Cobb, CEO of Rejuvenation Beverage Co., launched O’kra, the world’s first sparkling okra water, after enduring 79 investor rejections. The functional beverage is positioned for beauty, digestion and overall wellness, and will debut nationally through Sprouts Farmers Market. The...
AI Services And Robotics Lead Diverse Crop Of 29 New May Unicorns As SpaceX, Anthropic And OpenAI Line Up Blockbuster...
May saw 29 new unicorns join the Crunchbase board, with AI services and robotics leading the charge. OpenAI and Anthropic each launched multibillion‑dollar deployment ventures to help enterprises operationalize large language models, while a wave of AI‑infrastructure, autonomous software and...
The Startup that Tried to Fix Food Waste—And Got Hit by a Disinformation Campaign
Apeel Sciences, a unicorn food‑waste startup that uses an edible, plant‑based coating to extend produce shelf life, raised over $800 million and earned FDA GRAS status. In 2023‑24 the company became the target of a disinformation campaign spread by wellness influencers,...
DataBraid Secures $1.9 Million USD to Solve Insurance Brokers’ “Portal Hopping” Problem
Toronto‑based DataBraid announced a $1.9 million USD (≈$2.0 million USD) pre‑seed round backed by OTPP‑affiliated Koru Ventures. The startup’s AI‑powered platform links broker management systems directly to carrier portals, erasing the need for repetitive data entry known as “portal hopping.” A pilot...
The Founder Mindset: Tim Ferriss on Experiments, Risk, and Freedom
Harvard Business School Foundry released a new "Founder Mindset" episode featuring Tim Ferriss, where he explains how systematic experimentation, calibrated risk and a freedom‑first philosophy powered his success as an author, podcaster and early investor in Uber, Facebook, Shopify and...
How Hiway Is Aiming to Be the Shopify of Content
Hiway, dubbed the "Shopify for content," emerged from a three‑year build and a closed beta in February 2026 to launch publicly at Cannes' Marché du Film. The platform lets film studios, sports rights holders and creators upload their master once...
ICEYE Hits €10.5B Valuation After €1B+ Funding Round, Marking Finland’s Third Decacorn
ICEYE secured a €450 million Series F round, pushing its valuation above €10.5 billion (≈ $11.3 billion) and making it Finland’s third decacorn. The round, led by General Atlantic and joined by investors such as Nokia, Qatar Investment Authority and TCV, brings total capital raised...
Sim Shagaya’s Myka Wants to Do for Insurance What Agency Banking Did for Fintech
Serial entrepreneur Sim Shagaya has launched Myka, a licensed digital broker that aggregates insurance products from 17 Nigerian underwriters and sells them via a consumer app and a community‑referral network. Backed by Ventures Platform, TLcom and Paystack co‑founder, Myka entered...
Deliverance AI Exits Stealth to Power Sovereign Enterprise AI
Deliverance AI, a UK‑based enterprise AI infrastructure startup, has emerged from stealth with roughly $7.6 million in annual recurring revenue, more than 30 staff and six enterprise customers after just three months. The company is building an Agentic Operating System that...
Zaro Lands $5.1M to Build the Next Layer of Enterprise AI
London startup Zaro emerged from stealth with $5.1 million pre‑seed funding led by Cherry Ventures. The company is building an adaptive workspace that unifies AI tools, workflows, and data via a shared context layer. Zaro’s eight‑person team, many from Convergence and...
Peak XV Leads Rs 72 Cr Round in Quick Commerce Platform BazaarNow
BazaarNow, a Bengaluru‑based quick commerce startup, closed a Rs 72 crore ($7.8 million) funding round led by Peak XV Partners, bringing its total capital to roughly $9.8 million. The platform, launched in January, serves middle‑class households in India’s tier‑II and tier‑III cities with a...
Clear Robotics Raises US$1.75M to Scale Electric, Self‑driving Boats Across South Asia, ASEAN
Clear Robotics closed a US$1.75 million pre‑A round led by ShipsFocus Ventures, with follow‑on backing from Katapult, Ocean, SGInnovate and M7 Holdings. The funding will be used to scale electric, self‑driving boats across South Asia and Southeast Asia, offering four revenue‑generating...
Conn.'s Seaview Equipment Builds Contractor-Focused Dealership From Ground Up
Seaview Equipment, founded by brothers Luis and Jose Vaz in 2015, evolved from a personal need for parts into a regional heavy‑equipment dealership in Connecticut. Leveraging early ties with Terex, the firm expanded its lineup through partnerships with Hyundai, XCMG...
GIC, Stripe Back Supabase in US$500M Round as AI Deployment Surges Across SEA
Supabase closed a $500 million Series F round, valuing the open‑source backend platform at $10.5 billion. The financing, led by Singapore’s sovereign fund GIC and joined by Stripe, Salesforce Ventures and other backers, pushes total capital raised above $1 billion. Supabase reports its user...
From Dorm Rooms to Startups: Apple India Spotlights a New Generation of Founders
Apple India has launched the “Great Ideas Start Here” campaign to spotlight student entrepreneurs building startups from dorm rooms, positioning the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro as essential tools. The series includes 90‑second films featuring founders Kabeer, Ananya, and Swift...
The Wedding Company Raises $2.75 Mn in Seed Round
The Wedding Company, a Bengaluru‑based tech‑enabled wedding planning platform, closed a $2.75 million seed round led by Wellingdon Advisors with participation from LVX, Tremis Capital and several angels. The funding will expand its vendor catalog, strengthen category management and scale its...
InfoHawk Raises $2.25M in Pre-Seed Funding
InfoHawk announced the close of a $2.25 million pre‑seed financing round led by Moonshots Capital. The AI platform aims to detect and neutralize deception at internet scale. The round includes high‑profile angels such as former FTC chair Jon Leibowitz, ex‑Meta ads...
Lexful Closes $7M Seed Round
Lexful, an AI‑native IT documentation platform for managed service providers, announced the close of an oversubscribed $7 million seed round. The financing was led by Top Down Ventures and York IE. The capital will fund product development, security enhancements, and expansion...
He Gave Up Medical School to Make Better Ice Cream in His Parents’ Garage. Now He Has 16 Locations and...
Danny Golik left medical school to launch Chill‑N Nitrogen Ice Cream, now a $6.8 million franchise with 16 stores across five states. He refined nitrogen‑flash frozen ice cream in his parents’ garage, using a proprietary Lola machine that automates base‑to‑nitrogen ratios....
PointFive Raises $60 Million to Expand AI Efficiency Platform
PointFive, a New York‑based AI and cloud efficiency platform, announced a $60 million Series B financing led by Accel, bringing its total capital to $96 million. The funds will expand the platform’s capabilities across AI services, cloud infrastructure and data platforms, and accelerate...
Mafe Anzures Designed Her Creator Business for the Day Brand Deals Stop Being Enough
Mafe Anzures, a 22‑year‑old Miami creator, turned early five‑figure brand deals into a diversified business that includes brand partnerships, Patreon subscriptions, editing masterclasses, an Amazon storefront, and a weekly podcast. She built a formal LLC, hired accountants and editors, and...
Tom Mueller Spent Nearly Two Decades Building the Merlin and Draco Engines that Helped Make SpaceX Possible, and Now His...
Impulse Space, founded by former SpaceX propulsion chief Tom Mueller, closed a $500 million Series D on June 2, 2026, pushing total funding past $1 billion. The capital will accelerate development of its two in‑space mobility vehicles: Mira, a proven low‑energy transfer craft, and...
Rising Food Prices Drives Demand for Container Farming in Canada
Rising food prices are spurring Canadian schools, municipalities and Indigenous communities to seek local production, boosting demand for container farms. Ottawa‑based Growcer completed its acquisition of U.S. competitor Freight Farms in July 2025, merging more than two decades of vertical‑farm...
Pain Therapeutics Startup Wholeleaf Set to Secure Fresh Funding
India’s cannabinoid‑focused pain therapeutics startup Wholeleaf is in advanced talks to raise Rs 7.5 crore (about $0.9 million) from institutional investors IPV and Benzai 10 Capital. The Gurugram‑based company has so far raised Rs 5 crore (~$0.6 million) across seed rounds, including backing from Shark...
Yuno Provides Corporate Update as It Advances Toward Launch, Expands Leadership Team with Talent From Binance, and Positions for Global...
Yuno announced a corporate update as it nears launch, highlighting the addition of senior talent from Binance and other digital‑asset firms. The platform is being built on live order‑book technology, real‑time pricing and a social layer that rewards reputation. Yuno’s...
Q&A: OpenCode’s Founder on How the AI Agent Went From Zero to 8 Million Users in a Year
OpenCode, an open‑source AI coding agent founded by University of Waterloo alumnus Jay V, has surged from a modest Toronto meetup debut to 8 million monthly active users in just one year. The Toronto‑based startup projects roughly $25 million in annual revenue...
Bharat Innovates 2026: How an IIT Madras Incubator Helped Build the World's First 3D-Printed Rocket Engine
India’s Bharat Innovates 2026 program spotlighted Agnikul Cosmos, a Chennai‑based startup incubated at IIT Madras Research Park, for achieving the world’s first single‑piece 3D‑printed semi‑cryogenic rocket engine. The Agnilet engine powered the Agnibaan SOrTeD sub‑orbital flight on May 30 2024, reaching 20 km...
Kiwi Targets Rs 5,000 Crore Premium Book with AI-Led Insurance Model
Kiwi General Insurance, backed by WestBridge Capital and veteran Neelesh Garg, has secured regulatory approval and a Rs 150 crore ($18 million) seed fund, with a further Rs 500 crore ($60 million) slated for this year. The startup plans to build an AI‑driven insurer that redesigns...
Ghent’s Companion.energy Raises €7.8 Million to Help Large Enterprises Manage Energy in Real Time
Companion.energy, a Ghent‑based AI startup, closed a €7.8 million (≈ $8.5 million) seed round led by Realyze Ventures and Pi Labs to accelerate its real‑time energy optimisation platform across Europe, starting with Germany and Spain. The platform gives large industrial and commercial firms...
Wassist Raises $1.1M to Bring No-Code AI Agents to WhatsApp Commerce
Wassist announced a $1.1 million pre‑seed round led by Playfair to turn WhatsApp into a default storefront for online retailers. The startup’s no‑code platform lets brands launch AI‑powered agents on WhatsApp in minutes, handling product queries, order updates and recommendations. In...
UK Startup NewOrbit Raises $18.5 Million in Series A Round
UK‑based NewOrbit Space announced an $18.5 million Series A round led by Voyager Ventures, earmarked for its first very low Earth orbit (VLEO) mission slated for 2028. The funding will also finance a new production complex in Reading that aims to scale...
Immuneel Therapeutics Raises over Rs 100 Cr in Series B
Immuneel Therapeutics raised over Rs 100 crore ($10.5 million) in a Series B round led by new and existing investors such as Singularity AMC and Rainmatter. The capital will expand GMP manufacturing, accelerate commercialization of its CAR‑T product Qartemi, and fund R&D and...