Before You Cheer The IPO Window, Watch Where The Money Goes
SpaceX is set to list on Nasdaq at a fixed $135 per share, selling 555.6 million shares for a $75 billion raise and a $1.77 trillion valuation—the largest public offering ever. At the same time, Anthropic filed confidentially at a $965 billion valuation and OpenAI is eyeing a fall listing, suggesting the IPO window is reopening. However, the bulk of capital is likely to flow into these three mega‑caps, with retail investors potentially selling Tesla or Bitcoin holdings to fund SpaceX orders. The deeper impact lies in how these newly public firms will reshape M&A activity.
Base10 Partners Closes 2 Funds Totaling $850M To Invest In Real Economy Automation
San Francisco‑based Base10 Partners announced the closing of two new funds—Seed/Series A Fund 4 and Series B Fund 2—totaling $850 million. The capital will be deployed in early‑stage companies that automate logistics, payroll, construction, manufacturing and other real‑economy functions, with a focus on vision‑model and...
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...
Investors Have Poured Billions Into Plaintiff-Side Legal AI, But Defense Could Be The Next Big Opportunity
Investors have funneled roughly $682 million into plaintiff‑side legal AI firms such as EvenUp, Eve, Supio and Darrow, accounting for about 71% of disclosed capital in the sector. These startups benefit from standardized intake, case evaluation and demand‑generation workflows that lend...
5 Interesting Startup Deals You May Have Missed: On-Demand Custom Manufacturing, Underwater Geothermal Energy, And Adventure Group Travel
This month’s roundup highlights five under‑the‑radar startup rounds, starting with SendCutSend’s $110 million Series B that values the on‑demand metal‑fabrication platform at $1 billion. New‑York‑based Nourish secured $100 million to scale its dietitian‑led metabolic‑health clinic that pairs AI coaching with GLP‑1 drug management. European...
Sector Snapshot: Defense Startup Funding Hits An All-Time Record As VCs Begin To Eye Exits
Venture capital investment in defense, national security and law‑enforcement startups has surged to more than $14.6 billion in the first five months of 2026, eclipsing the previous full‑year record of $9.6 billion set in 2025. The spike is driven by megarounds such...
The Week’s 10 Biggest Funding Rounds: Anthropic Dominates In An Otherwise Slower Week For Megarounds
Anthropic dominated the week with a $65 billion Series H round, lifting its post‑money valuation to roughly $965 billion, edging toward the $1 trillion mark. The next‑largest deal was Cognition, which secured over $1 billion and is now valued at $26 billion as an AI software‑engineer...
Navigating The DPI Crunch And Startup Funding
Venture capital deployment surged to roughly $300 billion in Q1 2026, with AI firms grabbing 80% of the pie. Four companies—OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI and Anduril—absorbed $188 billion, about two‑thirds of total funding. Meanwhile, LPs have been in net‑negative cash flow since 2022, forcing...
Exclusive: Capchase, The ‘Affirm for B2B,’ Secures $200M In Debt And Equity
Financing startup Capchase announced a $200 million funding round, comprising $26 million in equity and a $174 million credit facility led by 01 Advisors. The New York‑based firm has shifted from revenue‑based financing to an AI‑powered B2B buy‑now‑pay‑later platform that embeds in vendor...
In Charts: Seed Deals Keep Getting Bigger As Odds Of Reaching Series A Fall Dramatically
Seed financing in the United States has ballooned, with the median round reaching about $3 million in 2025—roughly three times the 2018 level. The top quartile now averages $5.6 million, and investors like Uncork Capital are writing $4.5 million checks, a near‑doubling in...
The Week’s 10 Biggest Funding Rounds: Massive Deals For Medical Devices, Futuristic AI Gadgets And Frontier Labs Lead
Physical‑tech deals dominate the week’s top U.S. funding rounds, highlighted by a $1.5 billion corporate round for orthopedic‑device maker MiRus. AI startups also attracted massive capital, with Hark closing a $700 million Series A and Modal Labs securing $355 million at a $4.65 billion valuation....
After A 6-Figure Fertility Journey, This Founder Built An IVF Startup With ‘Outcome Protection’
Gaia, founded by Nader AlSalim after a costly personal IVF journey, is building an AI‑driven platform that predicts fertility outcomes and bundles care, capital, and outcome‑based financing. The New York startup has raised a $14 million Series A and secured a $100 million debt...
Embodied AI Fuels Record Robotics Funding In China As IPO Momentum Builds
Venture capital in China’s robotics sector reached a record $5.6 billion through mid‑May 2026, matching the total raised in 2021. The surge is driven by embodied‑AI startups, with companies like TARS Robotics, X Square, Spirit AI and EngineAI securing multi‑hundred‑million‑dollar rounds...
Exclusive: Xpanner Lands $18M To Offer ‘Automation As A Service’ To Construction Sites
Xpanner, a Santa Fe Springs startup that retrofits construction equipment with its X1 Kit, closed an $18 million Series B bridge round led by Korea Investment Partners. The funding lifts total capital to $38 million and will accelerate development of its next‑generation physical‑AI platform. Revenue...
Anduril Raises Another $5B As Defense Tech Startups Shatter Funding Records
Anduril Industries announced a $5 billion Series H round, pushing its valuation to $61 billion—double the level a year ago. The funding, led by Andreessen Horowitz and Thrive Capital, brings Anduril's total capital raised to $11.4 billion. The raise coincides with a $20 billion,...