Today's Venture Capital Pulse
Clip raises $500M, pushes valuation past $2.5B
Mexican fintech Clip secured a $500M financing round, lifting its valuation to over $2.5B. The capital will fund a consumer‑focused wallet rollout and broaden its financial‑services platform. Investors were not disclosed and the round remains open.
Also developing:
By the numbers: OpenAI secures $122B private financing round
Rapido Secures $240 Million Series C, Valued at $3 Billion
Rapido announced a $240 million Series C funding round led by Prosus, lifting its valuation to $3 billion. The capital will fund expansion into high‑growth Indian cities, driver network upgrades, and technology enhancements, highlighting strong venture interest in India's mobility sector.
Balcony Secures $12.7M Seed to Launch Keystone, Unified Property Platform
Balcony, a New Jersey PropTech startup founded in 2021, launched Keystone, a unified property intelligence platform for public land management, and closed a $12.7 million seed round led by Blockchange Ventures. The platform already secured a five‑year contract to digitise 370,000...
China’s State AI Fund Leads Up to $4 B Financing for DeepSeek, Valuing Lab at $50 B
DeepSeek, the Hangzhou AI lab founded by billionaire Liang Wenfeng, is close to closing a financing round led by China’s National Artificial Intelligence Industry Investment Fund that could raise as much as $4 billion and value the company at $50 billion. The...
Panthalassa Secures $140 Million to Deploy Wave‑Powered Floating Data Centres
Panthalassa, a US startup, raised $140 million in a financing round led by Peter Thiel, valuing the company at nearly $1 billion. The funds will launch a pilot plant for 85‑metre steel nodes that generate electricity from ocean waves to power AI‑intensive...
Jungle Ventures Bets Big on Repeat Founders, Larger Seed Cheques Amid Funding Slowdown
Jungle Ventures, a Singapore‑based VC active in India and Southeast Asia, is shifting its early‑stage strategy to focus on repeat founders and deep‑domain operators, writing larger $2‑4 million seed cheques. The firm plans to back fewer companies with higher conviction, even...
RJ Scaringe Raises Over $12 Billion Across Three Startups, $400 M for Mind Robotics
RJ Scaringe, the founder of Rivian, has secured more than $12.3 billion in venture capital for three separate ventures, most recently a $400 million round for industrial‑AI startup Mind Robotics. The continued inflow underscores investors’ willingness to back serial founders even for...
Anthropic Nears $900 B Valuation in $30 B Funding Round, Overtaking OpenAI
Anthropic is reportedly negotiating a $30 billion financing round that would value the company at roughly $900 billion, overtaking OpenAI’s $852 billion mark. The rapid surge reflects explosive enterprise demand for its Claude models and signals a new scale‑up phase for frontier AI...
Isomorphic Labs Secures $2.1 B Series B to Accelerate AI Drug Discovery
Isomorphic Labs, the London‑based AI biotech founded by DeepMind’s Demis Hassabis, closed a $2.1 billion Series B round led by Thrive Capital. The capital will expand its IsoDDE platform and integrate AlphaFold 3, underscoring growing investor belief that AI can reshape pharmaceutical...
Champion Leadership Group Closes $55 Million SaaS Fuel Fund I to Back Early‑Stage B2B SaaS
Champion Leadership Group announced the closing of its SaaS Fuel™ Fund I at $55 million, backed by exited SaaS founders and senior tech executives. The fund will invest in roughly 30 B2B SaaS and AI startups with $1‑$5 million ARR, offering capital...
Seeds | Kepler Robot Secures Tens of Millions in New Funding
Shanghai Kepler Robot secured a strategic funding round of roughly 20 million yuan (about $2.8 million), led by the Jiangyin Xiachuang Yihao AI Investment Partnership. The capital ties Kepler to Jiangyin’s industrial ecosystem, accelerating deployment of its industrial‑grade humanoid robots across the...
Mettle Capital Targets up to $400 M for Indian Series A and B Startups
Three former managing directors of Peak XV—Ashish Agrawal, Ishaan Mittal and Tejeshwi Sharma—have unveiled Mettle Capital, a new venture fund seeking $350‑400 million. The firm plans to close fundraising within the next quarter and begin deploying capital by September‑October, focusing on...
GovWell Nabs $25M Series A Funding
GovWell, an AI operating system for modern government, announced a $25 million Series A round led by Insight Partners. Existing investors Work‑Bench and Bienville Capital also participated, alongside three GovTech veterans. The capital boost raises GovWell’s total funding to $34.5 million and will...
On the Heels of Fresh Funding, Oishii Has ‘Crossed the Chasm’ of Unit Economics in Vertical Farming
Oishii announced the first close of a $150 million Series C round, bringing its total capital to $370 million. The company attributes the funding to its disciplined focus on proving unit economics rather than chasing rapid revenue growth. By concentrating on premium strawberries...
Balerion Space Ventures Closes on $90.4m for Fund II, Targeting $200m
Dallas‑based Balerion Space Ventures announced the close of its second fund with $90.4 million of capital raised, bringing the fund’s total target to $200 million. The firm has already deployed capital to 13 companies spanning space, defense and deep‑tech sectors. Balerion’s strategy...
Wirestock Raises $23 Million Series A
Wirestock, a marketplace linking creators with AI developers, announced a $23 million Series A round. The round was led by Nava Ventures and included participation from SBVP, Formula VC, I2BF Global Ventures, and existing backers. Proceeds will be used to build a comprehensive...
Flick Raises $6M for Filmmaker-First AI Video Tools
Flick, an AI‑native filmmaking platform founded by Zoey Zhang and Ray Wang, closed a $6 million seed round led by GV, True Ventures and other prominent investors. The startup aims to fill a market gap by offering non‑linear AI video tools...
Tech CEOs Fund Opposition to California Billionaire Tax, Highlighting VC Political Clout
Crypto mogul Chris Larsen and Y Combinator founder Garry Tan have injected more than $10 million into a super‑PAC backing California state Sen. Scott Wiener’s opposition to a one‑time billionaire wealth tax and a local “overpaid CEO” levy, signaling a new wave...
Dutch Dronemaker Destinus in €200m Funding Talks, Reports Say
Defence tech startup Destinus, based in the Netherlands, is in talks to raise roughly €200 million ($218 million) ahead of a planned IPO. The company is targeting a valuation above €5 billion ($5.5 billion) on the back of projected annual revenues of about €500 million...
Quantum Startup Nord Quantique Secures $1.4-billion USD Valuation
Nord Quantique, a Sherbrooke‑based quantum computing startup founded in 2020, has reached unicorn status with a $1.4 bn USD valuation after securing a $30 m USD investment from Fidelity. The company announced the appointment of Tammy Furlong as chief financial officer to...
5 IT Funding Deals to Watch
SoftBank has poured over $450 million into Graphcore, deepening its strategic stake in the AI‑chip maker less than two years after acquisition. Meanwhile, investors are backing unconventional compute locations: Cowboy Space secured $275 million to build orbital AI data centers, and Panthalassa...
Recursive Superintelligence Secures $650M Seed Round at $4.65B Valuation
Recursive Superintelligence, founded by former You.com CEO Richard Socher, announced a $650 million seed round that values the San Francisco startup at $4.65 billion. The round was led by GV and Greycroft with strategic participation from Nvidia and AMD, underscoring deep investor...
Owls Nest Partners Sells Entire $29.8M Stake in nCino, Highlighting Pressure on Cloud Banking SaaS
Owls Nest Partners IA, LLC divested its entire 1,585,623‑share position in nCino, valued at roughly $29.8 million, according to a May 14 SEC filing. The exit, which erased an $40.7 million quarter‑end loss, signals growing investor caution toward vertical SaaS models in banking.
India’s VCs Are Beating Silicon Valley at Home
American venture capital once led early Indian startup rounds, but domestic investors now dominate the ecosystem. Indian funds, family offices and founder‑led firms occupy nine of the top ten investor slots in Indian tech, with Accel the only US name....
Meridian Ventures Launched a $35M Fund with a Focus on MBA-Deferred Founders
Meridian Ventures, founded by Harvard deferred-MBA students Devon Gethers and Karlton Haney, closed a $35 million first institutional fund aimed at pre‑seed and seed startups led by MBA‑trained founders. The oversubscribed round attracted public‑bank investors, family offices and Fortune 500 executives, and...
WIRobotics Raises USD $68M in Series B Funding to Develop Humanoid Robotics Platform
South Korean robotics firm WIRobotics announced a $68 million Series B round led by JB Investment, aimed at expanding its humanoid platform ALLEX beyond its wearable robot roots. The capital will fund development of human‑level object manipulation, deepen collaborations with Nvidia and...
The AI Boom Is Headed For A Reckoning — with Aswath Damodaran
In this live‑stream episode, Professor Aswath Damodaran, NYU Stern’s valuation guru, discusses the looming macro‑economic correction sparked by the AI boom, noting that unlike the dot‑com era, the fallout will ripple through data‑center construction, utilities, and employment, making it a broader...
Rapido Raises $240 Mn Led by Prosus at $3 Bn Valuation
Ride‑hailing platform Rapido raised $240 million in a primary round led by Prosus, part of a $730 million transaction that pushes its post‑money valuation to $3 billion. The funding will fuel expansion into tier‑II and smaller Indian cities, enlarge its captain network, and...
Benchmark Turned $6.7M Into $6.7B in Two Years
“When Benchmark invested $6.7 million in eBay in 1997, the auction company’s valuation was put at $20 million. By the next spring, the company was valued at more than $21 billion; the value of Benchmark’s stake had grown 100,000 percent...
Exclusive: Scripbox Plans Rs 170 Cr Debt and Equity Raise; Gears up for IPO
Bengaluru‑based wealth‑tech platform Scripbox announced plans to raise up to Rs 170 cr (≈$20 million) through a mix of equity and debt. The equity tranche of Rs 60 cr (≈$7.2 million) will come from friends‑and‑family investors, while Rs 110 cr (≈$13.3 million) of debt is earmarked to finance the...
Regulate Secures $1.5 M Seed Funding to Launch AI‑Powered Breathwork Platform for Workplaces
Munich‑based Regulate announced a €1.4 million ($1.5 million) seed round led by 4impact Capital, bringing together founders of Personio, Forto and CoachHub. The funding will accelerate a platform that embeds scientifically backed breathwork into daily work routines, targeting the rising stress linked...
Mind Robotics Secures $400 Million to Deploy AI‑Powered Factory Robots
Mind Robotics, the industrial‑robotics spin‑out founded by Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe, announced a $400 million funding round led by Kleiner Perkins. The capital will accelerate deployment of AI‑powered robots that can handle complex, judgment‑based tasks on factory floors, marking the startup’s total...
Patriotic Investors Deploy $49 B in Defense‑Focused VC Funds, Still Far Short of $1.5 T Military Gap
Patriotic investors have pooled roughly $49 billion into new defense‑oriented venture funds, aiming to accelerate war‑fighting technology. The effort arrives as the U.S. Department of War seeks a historic $1.5 trillion FY2027 budget, a gap that private capital alone cannot bridge.
Sapphire Ventures Puts $70 M Into Netskope, Making Cloud‑Security Firm Its Top Holding
Sapphire Ventures acquired 5,672,579 Netskope shares for an estimated $70.4 million, making the cloud‑security provider its largest 13F holding. The investment comes as Netskope reports a 32% year‑over‑year revenue rise to $709 million, underscoring strong enterprise demand for zero‑trust solutions.
TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 Adds Six Stages as Venture Funding Tightens and AI Competition Shifts
TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 will run Oct. 13‑15 in San Francisco with six new competition stages aimed at helping founders and investors move faster in a tighter market. At the same time, Anthropic has edged out OpenAI in enterprise AI spending,...
CREW Carbon Lands $25M Series A Round
CREW Carbon, a Brooklyn‑based water‑technology firm, closed an oversubscribed Series A round totaling $25 million, comprising $19 million in equity and $6 million in grant and other non‑dilutive funding. The round was led by Burnt Island Ventures with participation from AP Ventures, Sony Innovation...
CREATE Medicines Nabs $122M Series B
CREATE Medicines, a Cambridge‑based clinical‑stage biotech, closed a $122 million Series B round. The financing was co‑led by Newpath Partners, ARCH Venture Partners and Hatteras Venture Partners, with participation from Alexandria Venture Investments and existing backers. CREATE’s proprietary mRNA‑LNP platform programs T...
Peter Thiel Is Leading Investment in an Ocean Data Center Powered by Waves—And the Startup Is Reportedly Worth $1 Billion
Panthalassa, a US startup developing wave‑powered floating data centers, raised $140 million in a round led by Peter Thiel, pushing its valuation to near $1 billion. The company’s Ocean‑3 node, a 280‑foot steel structure that converts wave motion into electricity and cools sealed...
GridCARE Raises $64M to Launch AI Energy Category
GridCARE, a Redwood City startup, closed an oversubscribed Series A round of $64 million, bringing total capital to $78 million. The funding will fuel the launch of a new industrial category called “Power Acceleration,” aimed at eliminating multi‑year grid connection delays for...
Integral Ventures’ Stephanie Sher Is All About Seeing Diamonds in the Rough
Integral Ventures, founded by former Datadog go‑to‑market leader Stephanie Sher, is a niche early‑stage VC that backs deeply technical founders building production‑grade AI and infrastructure tools. The firm’s first fund, a $5‑10 million vehicle, caps post‑money valuations at about $30 million to...
James Wise on Why the Sovereign AI Unit Criticism Is Wrong – and the One Company He Wishes He’d Backed
James Wise, partner at Balderton Capital, joins the Sifted Podcast to discuss his latest venture as chair of the UK government’s Sovereign AI Unit, a £500 million (~$635 million) fund aimed at accelerating artificial‑intelligence research. He explains the fund’s early investments in...
Forus Raises $160 Million to Scale AI Platform that Streamlines Prescriptions Across the U.S.
Forus, the AI‑powered medicine platform formerly known as Tandem, announced a $160 million financing round led by Thrive Capital and other top VCs. The funding will accelerate rollout of its workflow‑automation tool that connects clinicians, insurers and pharmacies, a move investors...
Degron, CREATE, TenNor Raise Capital; Cabaletta Posts CAR-T Data
Degron Therapeutics announced a $40 million Series A extension, bringing its total raise to $95 million to advance its molecular‑glue degrader platform. At the same time, biotech firms CREATE and TenNor disclosed fresh capital infusions to fuel pipeline development. Cabaletta Bio reported early...
DDD Invoices Nets €1.31m to Tackle E-Invoicing Compliance
Slovenian e‑invoicing compliance platform DDD Invoices closed a €1.31 million seed round—about $1.43 million—led by Fil Rouge Capital and 500 Global. The capital will fund expansion into additional countries, deeper integration with existing software stacks, and hires across product, engineering, and go‑to‑market...
Anthropic in Early Talks for $30 B Funding Round Valued at $900 B
Anthropic is in early-stage discussions to raise at least $30 billion, which would place its valuation at roughly $900 billion. The prospective financing, described as the largest AI‑sector deal ever, is expected to involve major investment banks for structuring and placement, though...
AI-Powered Wholesale Broker Novella Raises $21m for US Expansion
Novella, an AI‑driven wholesale insurance broker, closed a $21 million round led by Brewer Lane Ventures to fund U.S. expansion and platform development. The New York‑based firm has already opened offices in Miami and Houston and plans to add a Southern...
Outmarket AI Raises $17M To Scale Insurance Workflow Automation
Outmarket AI announced a $17 million Series A round led by Permanent Capital Ventures, bringing its total capital to roughly $21.7 million. The funding will accelerate the rollout of its AI‑driven intelligence layer that automates core insurance brokerage workflows. The platform now integrates...
Mantle8 Secures €31 Million Series A to Commercialize Natural Hydrogen
Mantle8 announced a €31 million ($34 million) Series A round led by Sandwater, with participation from Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Bpifrance, IP Group, Wind Capital and Calderion. The funding will finance a two‑year global drilling campaign to prove commercial natural hydrogen reservoirs, a move...
Iceotope Raises $26M to Advance Cooling for Next-Generation AI Infrastructure
Iceotope Group, a UK‑based provider of precision liquid cooling for data centres and edge AI workloads, announced a $26 million Series B round. The financing was led by Two Seas Capital and Barclays Climate Ventures, with participation from existing backers including Edinv...
Isomorphic Labs Pulls $2.1B Series B Led By Thrive With MGX, Temasek, And UK Sovereign AI Fund: What The Capital...
Isomorphic Labs closed a $2.1 billion Series B on May 12, 2026, led by Thrive Capital and joined by MGX, Temasek, CapitalG and the UK Sovereign AI Fund. The round brings total disclosed equity to roughly $2.7 billion and suggests a post‑money valuation of $15‑20 billion,...
Isomorphic Labs Pulls $2.1B Series B Led By Thrive With MGX, Temasek, And UK Sovereign AI Fund: What The Capital...
Isomorphic Labs announced a $2.1 billion Series B round led by Thrive, with participation from MGX, Temasek, and the UK Sovereign AI Fund. The funding backs the company’s IsoDDE AI engine for drug discovery, despite having no approved drugs or Phase 2 data....