Periodic Labs Raises $300M to Pursue AI-Driven Scientific Discovery
Periodic Labs, a new AI startup founded by ChatGPT co-creator Liam Fedus and former DeepMind researcher Ekin Doğuş Çubuk, has attracted over 20 researchers from major labs and secured $300 million in funding to focus on AI-driven scientific and physical-science experimentation.
OpenAI Acquires Sky, Expanding AI Desktop Control Capabilities
OpenAI announced the acquisition of Sky, an AI startup that enables natural‑language control of personal computers. The deal, highlighted in a recent podcast episode, broadens OpenAI’s product suite and brings new human‑computer interaction capabilities. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Gusto Acquires Guideline for $600M, Plans to Divest Rival-Linked Customers
Gusto has acquired HR tech company Guideline for $600M, according to sources. The purchase—below Guideline's prior $1.15B valuation—may yield profits for many investors; Gusto reportedly plans to divest customers tied to rival providers.
Kevin Hart’s VC Firm Leads $35M Series B for AI Weight-Loss App Simple
Simple, an AI-powered health coaching app for weight loss, raised $35M in a Series B round led by Kevin Hart’s VC firm. The funding will be used to scale the product and growth efforts for the consumer health app.
HIG Capital Completes Acquisition of France Workwear From Rentokil Initial
HIG Capital has completed the acquisition of France Workwear from Rentokil Initial, finalizing the carve-out on 2025-10-01. The France-based textile service provider will be rebranded in early 2026 and becomes part of HIG’s expanding European portfolio.
Notion Capital Raises $130M Growth Opps III Fund to Close Europe’s Follow-On Gap
London-based VC Notion Capital has raised a $130M Growth Opps III fund aimed at providing follow-on capital to European growth-stage companies, including those in defense and supply-chain logistics. The fund targets later-stage B2B opportunities to address a gap in follow-on...
Cerebras Systems Raises $1.1B in Growth-Stage Funding While Remaining Private
Cerebras Systems, the AI chipmaker that filed to go public in September 2024, has raised $1.1 billion in a growth-stage funding round while remaining private amid regulatory delays. The capital infusion comes a year after its IPO filing and aims...
Periodic Labs Raises $300M Seed Round to Automate Scientific Discovery
Periodic Labs, founded by former OpenAI and DeepMind researchers, raised a $300M seed round from a group of prominent tech investors to build AI-driven automation for science. Lead/backing investors include Andreessen Horowitz, Nvidia, Elad Gil, Jeff Dean, Eric Schmidt, and...
Apiiro Secures $135M Funding From Greylock, Kleiner Perkins, and General Catalyst
Application security platform Apiiro announced a $135 million venture funding round, with participation from Greylock, Kleiner Perkins, and General Catalyst. The capital will accelerate the company's AI-era security solutions and product development. The announcement was made on September 30, 2025.
AI Billing Startup Paid Raises $21M to Monetize Enterprise AI Agents
Paid, an AI billing startup helping companies monetize AI agents and move away from seat-based pricing, secured $21 million in a funding round to scale its solution for enterprises.
Startup Behind Open-Source Data Tool Polars Raises $21M From Accel
The startup behind the open-source data processing tool Polars has raised $21M in a funding round led by Accel. The capital will support product development and growth for the company building on the Polars project.
AutogenAI Raises Nearly $40M in Series B Led by Salesforce Ventures
AutogenAI, the AI-powered proposal-writing platform, announced the close of a nearly $40 million Series B round led by Salesforce Ventures. The funding will accelerate product development and expand its enterprise client base.
Polars Raises €18M Series A Led by Accel
Polars, the Amsterdam-based company behind the open source Polars data project, raised an €18 million Series A round led by Accel to accelerate product development and commercial growth. The funding will support the company's expansion of its commercial offerings around...
AI Recruiter Alex Raises $17M Series A to Automate Initial Job Interviews
Y Combinator‑backed startup Alex raised $17M in a Series A round led by Peak XV Partners to expand its AI-driven platform that automates initial job interviews and candidate screening. The capital will be used to scale product and go-to-market efforts.
Databricks Makes $100M Strategic Investment in OpenAI
Databricks has committed $100 million to OpenAI in a corporate strategic investment, reinforcing a partnership between the analytics platform and the AI research company. The deal underscores continued industry support for OpenAI's AI development and enterprise deployments.
Oracle Plans $15B Bond Sale to Fund AI Cloud Expansion
Oracle is planning a $15 billion bond sale following major AI compute deals with OpenAI and Meta to fund aggressive investment in its cloud infrastructure to support growing AI demand.
Cohere Raises $100M at $7B Valuation, Partners with AMD
AI startup Cohere announced a $100 million funding round that values the company at $7 billion. The raise includes a strategic partnership with AMD, which will provide hardware acceleration for Cohere's language models. The round highlights continued investor confidence in...
Doorstep Raises $8M Seed to Track and Recover Missing Food Deliveries
Doorstep raised an $8M seed round to expand its sensor-driven platform that integrates with delivery apps to track drivers' movements and locate missing food deliveries. The funding will help scale the company's B2B offering and product development.
Emergent Raises $23M From Lightspeed to Expand Vibe-Coding Platform
Emergent raised $23 million in a funding round led by Lightspeed to advance its vibe-coding software platform that enables consumers to build apps. The capital will support product development and go-to-market growth.
NVIDIA Commits up to $100B to OpenAI to Facilitate Chip Purchases
NVIDIA has committed up to $100 billion to OpenAI in a strategic corporate investment/commitment structured to facilitate the purchase of as many as 5 million NVIDIA AI chips, deepening ties between the firms and other partners like Microsoft.
Oracle Reportedly Seeks $15B via Corporate Bond Sale
Oracle is reportedly looking to raise $15 billion through a corporate bond sale, according to the article. The move follows its recently reported large cloud compute deal with OpenAI and is intended as debt financing by the company.
Earthmover Raises $7.2M Seed to Build Snowflake-Like Platform for Weather and Geospatial Data
Earthmover raised a $7.2 million seed round to build tools and a data platform for analyzing weather model outputs and geospatial data, targeting enterprise customers. The funding will support product development and go-to-market expansion.
Air Street Capital and NVIDIA Commit £2B to Boost UK AI Ecosystem
Air Street Capital has partnered with NVIDIA on a £2 billion investment initiative to accelerate the UK AI ecosystem, with NVIDIA acting as a strategic corporate partner/investor. The capital will be deployed to back UK AI startups and scale companies,...
NVIDIA and Air Street Capital Unveil £2B Commitment to Accelerate UK AI Startups
NVIDIA is partnering with Air Street Capital on a new £2B commitment to invest in and support UK-based AI startups, providing capital, compute and technical expertise to accelerate the UK AI ecosystem. The partnership aims to scale AI infrastructure and...
Atlassian Buys Developer Productivity Platform DX for $1B
Atlassian has acquired DX, a developer productivity platform, in its largest deal to date to expand its tooling for software teams. The all-cash transaction values DX at $1 billion and aims to integrate DX's capabilities into Atlassian's suite of developer-focused...
Hugging Face Acquires Robotics Startup Pollen Robotics
Hugging Face, the open‑source AI platform, announced it has acquired Pollen Robotics, an open‑source hardware robotics company, to expand its robotics initiatives. The acquisition was disclosed during a MIT Sloan podcast in September 2025, with Thomas Wolf confirming the deal...
OpenAI $10B Secondary Liquidity Event Creates Major Windfall
OpenAI completed a roughly $10 billion secondary sale, creating significant liquidity for insiders and early investors and generating numerous new millionaires. The secondary underscores strong late-stage investor appetite for AI assets and intensifies competition for AI talent.
TransPerfect Acquired Unbabel Prior to Forrester's TMS Wave Report
Forrester's Q3 2025 TMS Wave notes that TransPerfect completed the acquisition of Unbabel prior to the report's publication. Both vendors were evaluated independently in the report; financial terms and exact closing date were not disclosed.
Meta's Acquisition of Scale Criticized over Structure and Potential Write-Down
The newsletter discusses Meta's acquisition of Scale, noting concerns about talent fallout, questionable asset fit, and a deal structure involving approximately $14BN in distributed cash that could lead to a future write-down for Meta.
FirstClub Secures $23M Series A to Expand Curated Quick‑commerce in India
India‑based quick‑commerce startup FirstClub announced a $23 million Series A round, lifting its post‑money valuation to $120 million. The round was co‑led by Accel and RTP Global, with participation from Blume Founders Fund, 2am VC, Paramark Ventures and Aditya Birla Ventures. The funding will fuel FirstClub’s expansion...
Anthropic Completes Oversubscribed $10B Funding Round
The article references Anthropic's oversubscribed $10 billion funding round for its foundation-model business, highlighting massive investor demand amid broad AI investment trends. The raise is presented as a major capital event underpinning growth in AI infrastructure and products.
Terraton Secures $11.5M Seed Funding to Franchise Biochar Solutions
Terraton announced a $11.5 million seed round to scale its biochar franchise model, aiming to replicate facilities worldwide. The round was led by Lowercarbon Capital and Gigascale Capital, with participation from ANA Future Frontier Fund, Takanawa Gateway Global Co‑Benefits Fund, and...
CoreWeave Raises $11.2B in Debt to Fund AI Infrastructure Buildout
CoreWeave secured an $11.2 billion debt package to help finance roughly $22 billion in capital expenditures for AI data center capacity. The raise positions the company as a bellwether for AI infrastructure demand, hinging on long-term customer commitments to match...
Paradigm Raises $5M Seed to Launch AI-Powered Spreadsheet to Public
Paradigm raised a $5 million seed round and is releasing its AI-powered spreadsheet, which embeds an AI agent in every cell, to the general public. The funding will support the product launch and further development of the AI spreadsheet.
AI2 Secures $152M From NSF and NVIDIA to Build Open Multimodal AI Infrastructure
The Allen Institute for AI Research (AI2) received $152 million in combined funding—$75M from the National Science Foundation and $77M from NVIDIA—to support the Open Multimodal AI Infrastructure to Accelerate Science (OMAI) project, aiming to build a national-level open AI...
NeoLogic Raises $10M Series A to Build Energy-Efficient CPUs for AI Data Centers
NeoLogic raised $10 million in a Series A round to develop energy-efficient server CPUs for AI data centers. The round was led by KOMPAS VC with participation from M Ventures, Maniv Mobility, and lool Ventures.
Uzum Raises $65.5M in New Funding Round, Valuation Climbs to $1.5B
Uzbekistan’s homegrown unicorn Uzum announced a $65.5 million equity funding round co‑led by Tencent and VR Capital, with participation from FinSight Ventures, lifting its post‑money valuation to about $1.5 billion. The Tashkent‑based e‑commerce and fintech platform now serves 17 million monthly active users...
Canva Acquires Affinity and Leonardo AI to Bolster Pro Tools and AI Capabilities
Canva has made strategic acquisitions of professional design tool Affinity and AI creation firm Leonardo AI to expand its pro design offerings and internal image-generation capabilities. Leonardo AI's Phoenix model now powers Canva's image generation while Affinity remains an independent...
Conversation Raises $28M for AI Marketing Automation
Conversation, an AI marketing automation startup founded by two UC Berkeley dropouts, raised $28M to scale its product and go-to-market. The financing will fund growth and product development for the AI-driven marketing automation platform.
Betaworks Closes $66M Fund III to Back Early-Stage AI Startups
Betaworks has closed its third fund at $66M to invest in early-stage AI startups, targeting at least 25 pre-seed to seed investments and roughly 50 total investments. The fund continues Betaworks' multi-year focus on AI investments dating back to 2016.
AI Voice Startup Hyper Raises $6.3M to Automate 911 Call Handling
Hyper, an AI voice company building automated solutions for emergency call centers, raised $6.3M to scale nationwide, integrate with existing 911 systems, hire engineering leadership, and develop its next product. The funding will support commercialization and operational expansion across public-safety...
Google Acquired Keyhole (the Precursor to Google Earth) in 2004
The article recounts Google’s 2004 acquisition of Keyhole, the company behind EarthViewer, which became Google Earth and transformed from paid enterprise software into a widely used free platform. The deal underpinned Google’s development of planetary-scale mapping, imagery products, and later...
Substack Raises $100M From Chernin Group, Andreessen Horowitz and Others
Substack has raised $100 million in a growth-stage funding round with participation from Chernin Group, Andreessen Horowitz and the CEO of Skims among others. The capital will support Substack's expansion of its paid-subscription publishing platform and product development.
Substack Raises $100M Series C Led by BOND and The Chernin Group at $1.1B Valuation
Substack raised $100 million in a Series C round led by BOND and The Chernin Group, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, Rich Paul, Jens Grede and others. The funding values the company at $1.1 billion and will be used to...
Thinking Machines Lab Raises $2B Seed Round at $12B Valuation
Thinking Machines Lab, co-founded by former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, raised a $2 billion seed round at a reported $12 billion valuation. The round was led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z).
Sarah Smith Raises $16M Fund to Back Startups, Cites AI as Force-Multiplier for Solo GPs
Solo GP Sarah Smith has launched a new $16M venture fund, saying AI tools help her make faster investment decisions without committee approval. The fund will be managed by Smith as a solo general partner to deploy capital into early-stage...
Google's 2004 Acquisition of Keyhole Paved Way for Google Earth
The article recounts Google's 2004 acquisition of Keyhole (the Keyhole EarthViewer product), which was integrated and relaunched as Google Earth, transforming a niche mapping tool into a global platform with later AI-driven capabilities.
Melio Sells for $2.5B After Growing to $153M ARR
Melio, a SaaS payments company with $153M ARR and 127% YoY growth, was sold for approximately $2.5 billion, reflecting roughly a 16x revenue multiple. The transaction outcome was discussed as a disappointing valuation for similar high-growth portfolio companies.
Applied Intuition Raises $600M to Expand Into Defense
Applied Intuition, an AI-driven autonomous vehicle software company, raised $600M in a growth-stage funding round, more than doubling its valuation year-over-year as it pushes further into defense markets. The capital will support product development and expansion into defense-focused applications.
Sam Altman‑backed Coco Robotics Raises $80M to Expand Autonomous Delivery and AI Platform
Coco Robotics raised $80 million from angel investors Sam Altman and Max Altman alongside VC firms including Pelion Venture Partners and Offline Ventures. The Los Angeles startup will use the capital to expand its zero‑emissions last‑mile delivery robots and its...