Lilly Acquiring Kelonia In Largest Funded Biotech Startup Purchase In Years
Eli Lilly announced it will acquire Kelonia Therapeutics for up to $7 billion, marking the largest venture‑backed biotech purchase in years. The deal consists of $3.25 billion paid upfront with an additional $3.75 billion tied to clinical, regulatory and commercial milestones. Kelonia, founded only four years ago, has built an in‑vivo CAR‑T platform that reprograms patients' T‑cells inside the body, promising a faster, off‑the‑shelf cancer therapy. The acquisition follows a wave of high‑value deals for in‑vivo therapeutics, including Lilly’s $2.4 billion purchase of Orna and AbbVie’s $2.1 billion buy of Capstan.
Cybersecurity Funding Holds Up At Robust Levels
Cybersecurity venture funding remained robust in Q1 2026, with investors deploying $4.9 billion globally—only a slight sequential dip but well above the prior year. Round count stayed near 200, including 13 mega‑rounds of $100 million or more. The largest deal was Cloaked’s...
The Week’s 10 Biggest Funding Rounds: Transportation And Biotech Take The Lead
Transportation and biotech dominated this week’s U.S. startup funding roundup, highlighted by Slate Auto’s $650 million Series C for low‑cost electric pickups. Boston‑based Beeline Medicines emerged from stealth with a $300 million Series A to develop precision autoimmune therapies. Other notable deals include $170 million...
Sector Snapshot: Autonomous Vehicle Funding More Than Triples In 2026 To Hit Record Amount
Funding for autonomous‑vehicle startups exploded in 2026, topping $21.4 billion across 34 deals—more than triple the total raised in 2025. The surge was driven by three megadeals: Waymo’s $16 billion Series D, Shield AI’s $2 billion Series G, and Wayve’s $1.3 billion Series D. Investors are concentrating...
Exclusive: GetWhys Raises $5.2M To Help Companies Like Intel And Verizon Better Understand Their Customers
GetWhys, an AI‑driven customer intelligence platform, closed a $5.2 million seed‑II round, bringing total capital raised to roughly $8 million. The round was led by Epic Ventures with participation from CEAS Investments, Portland Seed Fund and existing backers. The Boise‑based startup leverages...
Exclusive: Repeat Founders Raise $20M For Spektr, A Fintech Compliance Startup, In NEA-Led Series A
Copenhagen‑based Spektr, a compliance‑automation platform, announced a $20 million Series A round led by New Enterprise Associates, bringing its total capital to just under $26 million. The startup leverages AI agents to execute document review, ownership mapping and risk analysis, moving beyond traditional...
I Sold My Startup A Year After Founding It. Here’s Why That Was The Fastest Way To Build Real-World Healthcare...
Louis Blankemeier co‑founded Cognita to turn Stanford‑level radiology AI into a clinical product. Within a year, the team sold the startup to Radiology Partners, the world’s largest radiology practice, to gain scale, data access, and regulatory pathways. The acquisition enables...
China Leads Asia’s Startup Funding To Its Highest Level In More Than 3 Years
Asia’s venture capital market rebounded in Q1 2026, with investors deploying $27.4 bn across seed to growth stages—a 20% rise from the previous quarter and nearly double year‑over‑year. China led the surge, accounting for $16.5 bn (60% of the region’s total) driven...
Fintech Startups Globally Raise More Money In Far Fewer Deals In Q1 2026
Global venture capital poured $12 billion into fintech startups in Q1 2026, but the number of deals fell 31.5% to 751, indicating larger checks per transaction. Late‑stage and growth rounds surged to $6.9 billion, an 8% year‑over‑year rise, even as total funding slipped...
5 Interesting Startup Deals You May Have Missed: A Credit Card Backed By Mineral Rights, Flying Ferries, And A Foundation...
The latest Crunchbase roundup highlights five under‑the‑radar startup deals: Dallas fintech Frontlands secured a $50 million debt facility to launch a credit card backed by mineral‑rights assets; Swedish vessel maker Candela raised €30 million (≈$32 million) to scale its hydrofoil electric ferries; Philadelphia‑based...
The Week’s 10 Biggest Funding Rounds: Largest Financings Went To Defense, Wearables, Energy And Security
The week’s top U.S. funding rounds featured a $1.75 billion Series D for autonomous‑vessel startup Saronic, pushing its valuation to $9.25 billion. Wearable fitness leader Whoop secured $575 million at a $10.1 billion valuation, while nuclear‑energy pioneer Valar Atomics raised $450 million, valuing it at $2 billion....
Just Because We Can: The Strategic Risks Of Automating Everything
The article warns that the rush to automate every task with agentic AI creates hidden operational, economic, and environmental risks. It illustrates how a simple voice command relies on multiple cloud services, turning a trivial action into a potential point...
Exclusive: Miravoice, Builder Of An AI ‘Interviewer’ To Conduct Phone Surveys, Raises $6.3M
Miravoice, a California startup, announced a $6.3 million seed round led by Unusual Ventures, with participation from Neo, 25madison and angels from Ramp, PubMatic, Atlassian and Google. The company’s AI‑powered voice interviewer can run long‑form phone surveys—over 120 questions and 40 minutes—across...
Exclusive: Anvil Robotics Raises $5.5M to Build ‘Legos for Robots’ Platform For Physical AI Teams
Anvil Robotics, an eight‑month‑old San Francisco startup, announced a $5.5 million seed round led by Matter Venture Partners. The company offers a modular, open‑source robotics platform—dubbed “Legos for robots”—that lets physical AI teams assemble custom robots for $1,900 to $10,000 and...
Q1 2026 Shatters Venture Funding Records As AI Boom Pushes Startup Investment To $300B
Venture capital investment exploded in Q1 2026, reaching a record $300 billion across 6,000 startups, driven largely by AI and frontier labs. AI‑focused companies alone captured $242 billion, 80% of the total, with OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI and Waymo accounting for $188 billion of that...