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AI Startups Are Eating the Venture Industry and the Returns, so Far, Are Good
AI startups accounted for 41% of the $128 billion venture capital deployed in 2023, a record share, driven by mega‑rounds at OpenAI, Anthropic and xAI. OpenAI secured a $110 billion round, Anthropic $30 billion, and xAI $20 billion, pushing combined funding above $160 billion. Carta’s data shows funds raised after the 2022 ChatGPT launch posting the highest internal rate of return, while the market has become K‑shaped with capital concentrated in a few large AI bets. Investors anticipate IPOs later this year, but the sustainability of these valuations remains uncertain.
Bluesky Announces $100M Series B After CEO Transition
Bluesky announced a $100 million Series B round led by Bain Capital Crypto, disclosed after closing in April 2025. The funding follows a recent leadership change, with CEO Jay Graber moving to chief innovation officer. User numbers have surged to over 43 million,...
Two Palantir Veterans Just Came Out of Stealth with $30M and a Sequoia Stamp of Approval
Edra, a New York‑based startup, announced a $30 million Series A round led by Sequoia, with participation from 8VC and A*. The company, founded by former Palantir executives Eugen Alpeza and Yannis Karamanlakis, builds an AI‑driven knowledge base that automatically extracts and...
AI’s ‘Boys’ Club’ Could Widen the Wealth Gap for Women, Says Rana El Kaliouby
Rana el Kaliouby warned at SXSW that AI is shaping up as a new "boys' club," with women underrepresented among founders and investors. She highlighted that three‑quarters of Blue Tulip Ventures’ deals involve women CEOs, yet most AI startups still feature...
Antonio Gracias Says He’s Longing for ‘Proentropic’ Startups — Those that Are Built to Survive Chaos
Antonio Gracias, founder of Valor Equity Partners, introduced the term “proentropic” to describe startups built to thrive amid escalating chaos such as climate volatility, geopolitical shifts, and rapid technology change. He traced the concept to physics, noting that disorder inevitably...
Google, Accel India Accelerator Chooses 5 Startups and None Are ‘AI Wrappers’
Google and Accel’s Atoms AI accelerator reviewed over 4,000 Indian startup applications, discarding about 70 % as superficial AI wrappers. The five startups selected – K‑Dense, Dodge.ai, Persistence Labs, Zingroll and Level Plane – received up to $2 million in funding and...
Wiz Investor Unpacks Google’s $32B Acquisition
Google closed a $32 billion purchase of cybersecurity firm Wiz, marking the largest deal in its history and the biggest ever for a venture‑backed startup. The acquisition positions Google at the nexus of artificial intelligence, cloud infrastructure, and rising security spend....
Nyne, Founded by a Father-Son Duo, Gives AI Agents the Human Context They’re Missing
Nyke, a startup founded by Michael and Emad Fanous, raised $5.3 million in seed funding to build an intelligence layer that gives AI agents full‑context understanding of individuals across their digital footprints. The company deploys millions of agents to aggregate public...
Humanoid Robotics Maker Sunday Reaches $1.15B Valuation to Build Household Robots
Sunday, a stealth‑launched humanoid robotics startup, announced a $165 million Series B round that lifts its valuation to $1.15 billion, granting it unicorn status. The round was led by Coatue Management with participation from Tiger Global, Benchmark, and Bain Capital Ventures. Sunday’s flagship...
Gumloop Lands $50M From Benchmark to Turn Every Employee Into an AI Agent Builder
Gumloop announced a $50 million Series B round led by Benchmark to scale its no‑code AI agent builder for enterprises. The platform enables non‑technical employees at firms such as Shopify, Ramp and Instacart to create autonomous agents that automate multistep workflows without...
Breakout Ventures Raises $114M Fund to Back AI Science Startups
Breakout Ventures announced the close of its third fund, raising $114 million to back early‑stage AI‑driven science startups in biology and chemistry. The firm aims to invest in at least 20 companies, writing checks between $500,000 and $5 million. Fund III follows...
This SpaceX Veteran Says the Next Big Thing in Space Is Satellites that Return to Earth
Lux Aeterna, a startup founded by former SpaceX satellite engineer Brian Taylor, announced a $10 million seed round to develop reusable satellites equipped with heat‑shielded structures. Its first vehicle, the Delphi spacecraft, is slated for a SpaceX launch in early 2027...
Founders Fund Nears $6B Close for Latest Growth Fund, Sources Say
Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund is close to finalizing its fourth growth fund, Founders Fund Growth IV, with about $6 billion in commitments. Approximately $1.5 billion of the capital comes directly from the firm’s partners, reflecting strong internal backing. The fund follows a $4.6 billion...
Robinhood’s Startup Fund Stumbles in NYSE Debut
Robinhood launched the Robinhood Ventures Fund I to let retail investors buy a basket of private startups, targeting a $1 billion raise. The fund secured eight companies, including Databricks and Stripe, and raised $658.4 million, but its shares fell 16% on debut,...
Lio Raises $30M From Andreessen Horowitz and Others to Automate Enterprise Procurement
Lio announced a $30 million Series A round led by Andreessen Horowitz, bringing its total funding to $33 million. The startup’s AI‑agent platform automates the entire procurement workflow, from contract review to supplier negotiation. Early customers report that processes once taking weeks now...
Why AI Startups Are Selling the Same Equity at Two Different Prices
AI startups are increasingly using multi‑tiered valuations, selling the same equity at two distinct price points within a single funding round. Lead investors receive a discounted price while later participants pay a headline unicorn valuation, as seen in Aaru’s $450 million...
Anduril Aims at $60 Billion Valuation in New Funding Round
Anduril Industries, the defense‑tech firm founded by Palmer Luckey, is pursuing a new funding round that could lift its valuation to roughly $60 billion. The round, led by Thrive Capital and Andreessen Horowitz, may inject up to $8 billion, doubling the capital...
A VC and some Big-Name Programmers Are Trying to Solve Open Source’s Funding Problem, Permanently
Prominent open‑source developers and venture investor Konstantin Vinogradov have launched the Open Source Endowment, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) aimed at creating a permanent funding source for critical open‑source projects. The initiative has secured over $750,000 in commitments from more than 50...
Have Hard-Won Scaling Lessons to Share? Take the Stage at TechCrunch Founder Summit 2026
TechCrunch is calling seasoned founders, investors, and operators to speak at its Founder Summit 2026 in Boston on June 9. The event will host over 1,000 founders and investors, featuring 30‑minute, discussion‑only roundtables where speakers share real scaling experiences without slides....
Y Combinator Grad and AI Insurance Brokerage Harper Raises $47M
Harper, an AI‑native insurance brokerage founded by Y Combinator alumnus Dakotah Rice, announced a $46.8 million Series A and seed round led by Emergence Capital. Launched in 2024, the platform automates underwriting, routing, and document collection, enabling it to process over 1,000 policies...
Ali Partovi’s Neo Looks to Upend the Accelerator Model with Low-Dilution Terms
Ali Partovi's Neo launches Neo Residency, an accelerator that provides $750k via an uncapped SAFE, letting dilution vary with future valuation instead of a fixed equity stake. For the summer cohort of 12‑15 startups, the equity could be as low...
This VC’s Best Advice for Building a Founding Team
In a Build Mode podcast, General Catalyst MD Yuri Sagalov shares practical guidance for founders assembling their first team. He warns against micromanaging investors, recommends partnering with hands‑on VCs, and stresses vetting them through portfolio references. Sagalov also advises a...
Have Money, Will Travel: A16z’s Hunt for the Next European Unicorn
Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) led a $2.3 million pre‑seed round in Swedish AI dental startup Dentio, marking the firm’s first bite into Sweden’s health‑tech ecosystem. The investment follows a16z’s broader strategy of deploying scouts and partners across Europe to capture early‑stage AI...
How to Get Into A16z’s Super-Competitive Speedrun Startup Accelerator Program
Andreessen Horowitz’s Speedrun accelerator, launched in 2023, accepts fewer than 1% of applicants, admitting about 50‑70 startups per 12‑week San Francisco cohort. The program invests up to $1 million—$500,000 upfront for 10% equity and a conditional $500,000—offering extensive advisory, brand, and vendor‑credit...
In a Changed VC Landscape, This Exec Is Doubling Down on Overlooked Founders
Stacy Brown‑Philpot, former TaskRabbit CEO and Google veteran, launched Cherryrock Capital in 2025 to fill a gap for underinvested entrepreneurs by writing smaller Series A and B checks. The fund, backed by institutional LPs such as JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, and Melinda...
India Doubles Down on State-Backed Venture Capital, Approving $1.1B Fund
India has approved a $1.1 billion state‑backed venture capital fund aimed at deep‑tech and advanced manufacturing startups. The fund of funds will channel government capital through private VC firms, building on a 2016 program that invested over $2.8 billion in 1,370 startups....
Integrate Raises $17M to Move Defense Project Management Into the 21st Century
Integrate, a Seattle‑based startup founded by former Air Force officer John Conafay, raised a $17 million Series A to commercialize its secure collaboration platform for defense projects. The company recently secured a $25 million, five‑year contract with the U.S. Space Force, proving demand...
Complyance Raises $20M to Help Companies Manage Risk and Compliance
Complyance, a Boston‑based AI‑native governance, risk and compliance (GRC) platform, closed a $20 million Series A round led by GV. The solution embeds AI agents into existing tech stacks to automate continuous data‑compliance checks and third‑party risk assessments, cutting audit cycles from...
Primary Ventures Raises Healthy $625M Fund V to Focus on Seed Investing
Primary Ventures closed its $625 million Fund V, earmarked for seed‑stage investments across the United States. The fund will write checks of $5 million to $10 million, aiming to back 40‑50 companies, including pre‑seed opportunities, over three years. By broadening its geographic thesis...
Proptech Startup Smart Bricks Raises $5 Million Pre-Seed Led by A16z
Smart Bricks, a London‑San Francisco proptech, announced a $5 million pre‑seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz. The AI‑powered platform ingests millions of data points to deliver autonomous valuation, cash‑flow forecasting, and risk modeling for real‑estate deals. It also automates the transaction workflow,...
MrBeast’s Company Buys Gen Z-Focused Fintech App Step
YouTube star MrBeast’s holding company, Beast Industries, announced the acquisition of Step, a teen‑focused banking app with more than 7 million Gen Z users. Step, which has raised roughly $500 million and counts celebrity investors such as Charli D’Amelio and Will Smith, offers...
Call for Speakers: TechCrunch Founder Summit 2026
TechCrunch is inviting seasoned founders, VCs, and operators to lead roundtable sessions at its Founder Summit on June 23, 2026 in Boston. The event will gather over 1,100 founders and investors to discuss real‑world scaling challenges. Roundtables are 30‑minute, slide‑free...
The Battle Begins: 2026 Startup Battlefield 200 Nominations Are Open
TechCrunch has opened nominations for the Startup Battlefield 200, the flagship competition at Disrupt 2026 in Boston. Early‑stage founders with an MVP can compete for a $100,000 equity‑free prize, free exhibit space, and extensive media exposure. The event draws world‑class VC judges...
India Has Changed Its Startup Rules for Deep Tech
India has overhauled its startup framework, extending deep‑tech status to 20 years and raising the revenue eligibility threshold to ₹3 billion. The change dovetails with a ₹1 trillion Research, Development and Innovation fund and the $1 billion‑plus India Deep Tech Alliance, aimed at easing...
Benchmark Raises $225M in Special Funds to Double Down on Cerebras
Cerebras Systems announced a $1 billion financing round that lifted its valuation to $23 billion, nearly three times its level six months ago. Benchmark Capital led the round with at least $225 million, using two specially created “Benchmark Infrastructure” vehicles. The funding supports...
How Far Will Elon Musk Take the ‘Everything’ Business as SpaceX and xAI Merge?
Elon Musk announced the merger of SpaceX and his AI startup xAI, creating a unified "everything" conglomerate that could reshape Silicon Valley’s power dynamics. With a personal net worth near $800 billion, Musk positions the combined entity to accelerate innovation across...
Sapiom Raises $15M to Help AI Agents Buy Their Own Tech Tools
Sapiom, founded by former Shopify payments director Ilan Zerbib, announced a $15 million seed round led by Accel to build a financial layer that lets AI agents automatically purchase and authenticate external services. The platform aims to automate micro‑payments and credential...
Secondary Sales Shift From Founder Windfalls to Employee-Retention Tools
AI‑focused startups such as Clay, Linear and ElevenLabs are increasingly using secondary tender offers to let employees sell shares at soaring valuations, with Clay’s latest offering pricing stock at $5 billion, up 60% from its August valuation. These deals contrast with...
Mundi Ventures Closes on €750M for Kembara, Its Largest Deep Tech and Climate Fund
Mundi Ventures has closed a €750 million first close for its Kembara Fund I, the firm’s largest vehicle aimed at deep‑tech and climate startups. The fund targets the notorious scale‑up gap by focusing on Series B and C rounds, with the potential to...
What A16z Is Actually Funding (and What It’s Ignoring) when It Comes to AI Infra
Andreessen Horowitz raised $15 billion, earmarking $1.7 billion for its AI infrastructure team. The infra group backs a range of startups—from chip designers to voice‑AI platforms like ElevenLabs and multimodal marketplaces such as Fal. Led by partner Jennifer Li, the team continues a...
SNAK Venture Partners Raises $50M Fund to Back Vertical Marketplaces
Venture firm SNAK Venture Partners closed an oversubscribed $50 million debut fund, anchored by the Pritzker Group and other institutional LPs. The Chicago‑based team, led by Sonia Nagar and Adam Koopersmith, will write $1‑$2 million seed checks in up to 20 B2B...
Lotus Health Nabs $35M for AI Doctor that Sees Patients for Free
Lotus Health AI announced a $35 million Series A round, co‑led by CRV and Kleiner Perkins, bringing total capital to $41 million. The Boston‑based startup is building a free, 24/7 primary‑care platform that uses large‑language‑model AI to conduct diagnoses, prescribe medication, and refer specialists,...
Peak XV Says Internal Disagreement Led to Partner Exits as It Doubles Down on AI
Peak XV Partners, a leading India‑Southeast Asia venture firm, announced the departure of three senior partners—Ashish Agrawal, Ishaan Mittal and Tejeshwi Sharma—after an internal disagreement. The trio plans to launch a new VC fund, while Peak XV promoted Abhishek Mohan...
Two Stanford Students Launch $2M Startup Accelerator for Students Nationwide
Two Stanford students, Roman Scott and Itbaan Nafi, have secured $2 million from investors such as Mayfair and Collide Capital to launch Breakthrough Ventures, a nationwide accelerator for college‑aged founders. The program offers up to $100,000 in grant funding, compute credits,...
A16z Partner Kofi Ampadu to Leave Firm After TxO Program Pause
Kofi Ampadu, a partner who spearheaded Andreessen Horowitz’s Talent x Opportunity (TxO) fund, announced his departure in June 2026. The TxO program, launched in 2020 to back underserved founders through a donor‑advised fund, was placed on indefinite pause in November 2025 and...
VC Firm 2150 Raises €210M Fund to Solve Cities’ Climate Challenges
European venture firm 2150 closed a €210 million second fund, lifting its assets under management to €500 million. The fund targets climate‑focused startups that address urban infrastructure bottlenecks, with an eye on data‑center efficiency, industrial automation and AI‑driven solutions. It plans to...
Former CEO of Celeb Fav Gym Dogpound Launches $5M Fund to Back Wellness Companies
Jenny Liu, former CEO of the celebrity‑focused gym Dogpound, has closed a $5 million first fund for Crush It Ventures, a wellness‑focused early‑stage VC. The fund will write checks of $100,000 to $250,000 and target 20‑25 companies across mental health, fitness,...
Sources: Project SGLang Spins Out as RadixArk with $400M Valuation as Inference Market Explodes
RadixArk, the commercial spin‑out behind the open‑source SGLang inference engine, has been valued at roughly $400 million after a funding round led by Accel. SGLang, developed in Ion Stoica’s UC Berkeley lab, speeds up AI model inference and cuts compute costs,...
OpenAI’s Former Sales Leader Joins VC Firm Acrew: OpenAI Taught Her Where Startups Can Build a ‘Moat’
Aliisa Rosenthal, OpenAI’s first sales leader, has become a general partner at venture‑capital firm Acrew Capital. During her three‑year stint at OpenAI she built an enterprise sales organization that launched products such as DALL·E, ChatGPT, and Sora. Rosenthal says AI startups...
PraxisPro Raises $6M Seed From AlleyCorp to Coach Medical Sales Reps
PraxisPro announced a $6 million seed round led by AlleyCorp to accelerate its AI‑driven sales‑coaching platform for life‑science companies. The startup, founded by former pharma rep Cam Badger and Bhrugu Giri, builds small language models trained on industry data to help...