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
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 and the British Business Bank. Iceotope’s chassis‑based liquid cooling replaces traditional air cooling, promising higher efficiency, lower power consumption and reduced water usage for high‑performance computing. The new capital will fund product engineering, expand its patent portfolio—now over 200 patents—and forge ecosystem partnerships to scale the technology.
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....
S2G Investments Closes $1 B Growth‑Stage Fund Targeting Food, Energy and Ocean Companies
S2G Investments announced the final close of a $1 billion growth‑stage fund focused on food, agriculture, energy and ocean sectors. The fund, already deployed $300 million across ten companies, seeks to bridge the financing gap for climate‑focused firms that are too mature...
S2G Investments Closes New USD 1 Billion Fund
S2G Investments announced the closing of its new Solutions Fund I, a $1 billion vehicle that will back growth‑stage companies in food, energy and ocean sectors across North America and Europe. The fund follows a 2020 $100 million ocean‑focused fund and already has...
White Circle’s AI Control Platform Closes $11M in Funding From Industry Giants After Founder Goes Viral for Exposing Safety Flaw...
White Circle, an AI monitoring and safety platform, closed an $11 million seed round backed by executives from OpenAI, Anthropic, Mistral, Hugging Face, Datadog and other AI heavyweights. The company, founded by Denis Shilov—who went viral in 2024 for bypassing safety...
Snowflake Ecosystem Startups Pull $113 Billion in Venture Funding, Fueling AI‑Data Cloud Boom
Snowflake’s partner network has amassed more than $113 billion in venture capital across 1,300+ private firms since 2020, according to a new Crunchbase‑Snowflake report. The data shows a pivot from a broad funding surge in 2021 to a tighter, high‑value focus...
Sam Altman's Court Testimony Reveals $2.5 Billion Personal VC Portfolio
During a high‑profile trial over OpenAI's for‑profit model, CEO Sam Altman confirmed a $1.6 billion stake in nuclear startup Helion and disclosed multimillion‑dollar holdings in Stripe, Retro Biosciences and other firms, underscating the scale of personal venture investing by top tech...
The CFO Charged with Courting Investors in a Nascent Asset Class
Terawatt Infrastructure, led by CFO Sujoy Haldar, is raising $3‑5 billion to build a nationwide network of charging hubs for autonomous rideshare fleets. The company views charging stations as a nascent, trillion‑dollar asset class comparable to early data‑center investments. Haldar’s strategy...
How Family Offices Are Reshaping Venture Investing
Family offices are emerging as catalytic capital providers in venture investing, shifting from passive wealth management to active direct investments, co‑investments, and thematic platforms. This trend is driven by a desire to preserve wealth, generate outsized returns, and create impact...
White Circle Secures $11 Million Seed to Build Production‑Grade AI Control Platform
White Circle announced an $11 million seed round led by senior AI figures from OpenAI, Anthropic, DeepMind and others. The funding will accelerate product development and hiring across the US, UK and Europe, positioning the company as a key infrastructure provider...
GreaterThan Group Raises $100M to Back Global Game Studios, Including Star Wars RPG
Simon Zhu, a former NetEase president, has launched GreaterThan Group, a holding company that has secured roughly $100 million in capital to invest in video‑game developers worldwide. The fund’s first marquee projects include Arcanaut Studios’ Star Wars: Fate of the Old...
Adfin Lands $18 Million Series A to Slash SME Late‑payment Rates
Adfin, a London‑based fintech, closed an $18 million Series A led by Index Ventures, bringing total funding to over $30 million. The round backs the company’s AI‑driven “agentic” finance platform, which its 1,500+ customers say reduces invoice late‑payment rates to 9%, roughly...
BranchLab Scores $26M Series A
BranchLab, an AI-driven platform that helps pharma companies commercialize therapies, announced a $26 million Series A round on May 13, 2026. The financing was led by McKesson Ventures and included FCA Venture Partners, Sanofi Ventures, and AIX Ventures, bringing total...
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,...
First Investor Proudly Supports YC Startup with Friends
Really proud to be first investor with this one at YC, and for them to carry the torch with my friends @initialized
Origin Lab Raises $8M to Help Video Game Companies Sell Data to World-Model Builders
Origin Lab announced an $8 million seed round led by Lightspeed Ventures to create a data marketplace linking video‑game assets with AI labs building world‑models. The startup will license high‑quality game footage and 3‑D assets, converting them into training data for...
Roadrunner Secures $27 Million Seed‑Series A to Launch AI‑Native Quote‑to‑Cash Platform
Roadrunner announced a $27 million seed‑Series A round led by Kleiner Perkins and Founders Fund, funding the general availability of its AI‑native Prompt‑Quote‑Approve (PQA) platform. The San Francisco startup aims to replace legacy CPQ systems and create a new category in revenue...
Panthalassa Raises $140 Million Led by Peter Thiel to Build Wave‑Powered AI Compute Centers
Panthalassa, the ocean‑energy startup founded by Garth Sheldon‑Coulson and Brian Moffat, closed a $140 million financing round led by Peter Thiel. The capital will fund autonomous floating nodes that turn wave motion into electricity for on‑site AI inference, bypassing traditional grid...
Dessn Secures $6M to Scale AI-Powered Design Tool for Production Teams
Dessn announced a $6 million funding round led by Connect Ventures, with Betaworks and N49P participating. The capital will fuel expansion of its AI‑augmented design‑tool SaaS that lets product teams iterate directly on live codebases. Investors see the startup as a...
Five ID Raises $6M to Scale Palm Biometric Payments
London‑based Five ID has secured an additional $6 million seed round, bringing total capital to $8.5 million and valuing the company at $26 million post‑money. The startup’s palm‑vein biometric terminals, now deployed at roughly 80 locations across the UK and Ireland, have processed...
Airbus, Blackstone to Join €600 Million Quantum Systems Funding
Airbus SE and Blackstone Inc. are negotiating to become lead investors in a €600 million ($703 million) financing round for Quantum Systems, a German drone startup backed by Peter Thiel. The round could value the company at up to €7 billion (about $8.2 billion). Existing...
France’s Mantle8 Raises €31 Million to Fund the World’s Most Advanced Natural Hydrogen Exploration and Drilling Campaign
Mantle8, a Grenoble‑based natural hydrogen explorer, closed a €31 million (≈$33.5 million) Series A round, bringing total capital to €37 million (≈$40 million). The funding, led by Sandwater and backed by Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Bpifrance’s Ecotechnologies 2 fund, IP Group, Wind Capital and Calderion, will finance...
Happl Secures $11 Million Series A to Scale AI‑Native Global Benefits OS
Happl, the AI‑native employee‑benefits platform for multinational firms, closed an $11 million Series A led by Portage Ventures. The funding will accelerate AI integration, compliance tools, and expansion of its UK and US teams, underscoring investor confidence in automated global benefits...
Isomorphic Labs Raises $2.1 B Series B to Scale AI Drug‑Design Engine
Isomorphic Labs closed a $2.1 billion Series B financing round led by Thrive Capital, with participation from Alphabet, GV, Temasek, CapitalG and the UK Sovereign AI Fund. The capital will be used to scale its IsoDDE AI engine, expand hiring worldwide,...
Altman Defends OpenAI For‑Profit Shift as Musk Sues, Spotlight on $13B Microsoft Backing
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman spent four hours on the stand in Oakland, defending the 2019 conversion of OpenAI from a nonprofit to a for‑profit entity backed by Microsoft’s $13 billion investment. Musk’s lawsuit seeks $150 billion in damages, accusing Altman of misusing...
S2G Investments Closes $1 Billion Solutions Fund I to Back Growth-Stage Food, Energy and Agriculture Companies
S2G Investments announced the final closing of its Solutions Fund I at $1 billion, aimed at growth‑stage companies in food, energy and ocean systems. The fund targets the “missing middle” financing gap, backing firms that improve efficiency across agriculture, energy infrastructure, maritime...
How to Raise Funding in the AI Era: 5 Things Investors Want to See
The AI funding boom has hit unprecedented levels, with $300 b invested in Q1 2026 and AI accounting for 80% of that total. Socheat Chhay of Sopra Steria Ventures outlines five criteria investors now demand: clear AI type, proprietary data moats, genuine AI‑first value,...
Anduril Raises $5 Billion in Funding and Is Valued at $61 Billion
Anduril announced a $5 billion funding round that lifts its valuation to $61 billion, roughly double its June 2025 level. The capital, led by Thrive Capital and Andreessen Horowitz, brings the company’s total financing to $6.82 billion across eight rounds. Anduril reported $2.2 billion...
Judgment Labs Raises $32M to Build the Improvement Layer for AI Agents
San Francisco‑based Judgment Labs announced a $32 million seed‑plus‑Series A round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners. The funding will accelerate development of its infrastructure platform that monitors, diagnoses, and iteratively improves “deep” AI agents using production data. The company already has enterprise...
Silicon Road Ventures Partners Ajay Mahajan to Float Rs 150 Cr AI Fund
Silicon Road Ventures (SRV) has teamed up with Ajay Mahajan to launch a Rs 150 crore (≈$18 million) Category‑II alternative investment fund focused on early‑stage startups developing agentic AI for B2B commerce technology. The fund will back solutions across multi‑channel commerce, supply‑chain, logistics,...
ProcurePro Raises $11M (Reported $15M) to Scale AI Construction Procurement Platform
ProcurePro, the Brisbane‑based construction procurement startup, closed a Series B round that raised US$11 million—reported by some outlets as $15 million—to accelerate its AI product suite and global expansion. Led by QIC Ventures with participation from Airtree, Glitch Capital and Bouygues via...
European Tech Funding Hits $17 Bn in Q1 2026 as AI and Deep‑Tech Outpace Fintech
European start‑ups secured $17 bn in the first quarter of 2026, a 24% year‑on‑year rise, driven by AI infrastructure and deep‑tech deals. Fintech funding slipped 14% to $1.7 bn, highlighting a clear shift in investor focus toward compute‑intensive ventures.
Isomorphic Labs Secures $2.1 B Series B to Scale AI Drug Design Engine
Isomorphic Labs announced a $2.1 billion Series B funding round led by Thrive Capital, with participation from Alphabet, GV, Temasek, CapitalG and the UK Sovereign AI Fund. The capital will expand its IsoDDE AI engine, accelerate its therapeutic pipeline and fund...
A* Capital Closes $450 Million Fund III, Embraces ‘Less‑Is‑More’ Seed Strategy
A* Capital announced the close of its third fund at $450 million, a size deliberately smaller than the multibillion‑dollar AI megafunds flooding the market. Co‑founders Kevin Hartz and Bennett Siegel say the fund will back 30‑40 seed‑stage startups with $3‑5 million checks,...
Anthropic in Talks to Raise Funding at a $950 Billion Valuation
Anthropic is negotiating a $30‑$50 billion financing round that could lift its valuation to as much as $950 billion, roughly 2.5 times its level three months ago. The proposed valuation would outpace rival OpenAI, which was last valued at $852 billion. The startup...
Agentic SOC Startup Exaforce Closes $125M Round at Reported $725M Valuation
Exaforce, an agentic security‑operations startup founded in 2023, announced a $125 million Series B raise that values the company at roughly $725 million. The funding, led by HarbourVest, Khosla Ventures and other backers, brings total capital raised to $200 million and supports a headcount...
Intellectual Property as a Value Driver and Risk Factor in Life Sciences Venture Investment: A Ten-Issue Due Diligence Framework
The article presents a ten‑issue framework for evaluating intellectual property (IP) in life‑sciences venture investments, emphasizing that IP quality drives company valuation, competitive moat, and exit potential. It details how each issue—ranging from freedom‑to‑operate and claim scope to ownership chain,...
DeepInfra Raises $107M Series B
DeepInfra, a startup focused on AI inference infrastructure, announced a $107 million Series B round to scale its cloud platform and broaden global capacity. The financing was co‑led by 500 Global and Georges Harik, with participation from A.Capital Ventures, Crescent Cove, Felicis, NVIDIA, Peak6, Samsung Next,...
AI Startup Knit Health Raises $11.6M in Seed Funding
AI startup Knit Health, spun out of UC Berkeley, announced a $11.6 million seed round led by Uncork Capital and Frist Cressey Ventures. The company is building a Large Clinical Behavior Model (LCBM) that learns from real clinical decision patterns across...
Inspire Brands Files IPO for Dunkin', Aiming to Repay $8.8B Acquisition Debt
Inspire Brands, the private‑equity‑backed parent of Dunkin', has filed a confidential registration statement to take the coffee‑and‑donut chain public for the third time. The filing follows the 2020 $8.8 billion purchase of Dunkin' and a $2.5 billion debt assumption, with proceeds expected...
Astrocade Scores $56M Series A & B Funding Rounds
Astrocade, an AI‑powered social gaming platform based in Los Altos, announced a $56 million financing package that combines a Series A round led by Sea and a Series B round headed by Sequoia Capital. The round attracted a roster of strategic investors, including...
Quantinuum Files for $1.5 Billion IPO, Targeting $20 B Valuation
Quantinuum, the Honeywell‑backed quantum hardware firm, has filed for an IPO that could raise more than $1.5 bn and value the company at up to $20 bn. The filing follows a $600 m funding round that pegged the firm at $10 bn and comes...
VCs Eye Clinical‑Stage Assets as Biotech Podcast Highlights Investment Playbook
A fresh podcast series hosted by Jeffrey Snyder features Dr. Andrew Snyder of Monash University, who outlines the criteria VCs use to evaluate biotech startups. The discussion flags a surge in IPOs, M&A and a premium on clinical‑stage assets, while...
Havoc Grabs $100M Series A Round
Havoc, a Providence‑based all‑domain collaborative autonomy firm, announced a $100 million Series A, bringing total capital to about $200 million since 2024. The round attracted new investors such as CCM Capital Markets, Clear Street, and SAIC, alongside existing backers including Lockheed Martin and Vanderbilt...
Back Bold Founders; Crazy‑smart Often Looks Crazy
Can't agree more with Adam (yet again) As I always tell my team, "there is a very fine line between 'crazy smart' and 'crazy' and when we're writing a very early check we have to be willing to get this wrong...
Anthropic Eyes $30B Raise at $900B Valuation
NEWS: Anthropic has advanced talks to raise more than $30 Billion at a valuation of more than $900 billion. Aim to close by end of month but No term sheets signed. Report on @TheTerminal with @nmasc_
Anthropic Warns Investors Against Secondary Platforms Offering Access to Its Shares
Anthropic updated its website to warn investors that several private and secondary‑market platforms are not authorized to sell or transfer its stock. The company named eight firms—including Open Doors Partners, Unicorns Exchange, and Forge Global—as offering void transactions that will...
Questioning the Future of the Venture Capital Model
Is this the end of the VC model? This Week in Startups with Alex Wilhelm and @Jason https://t.co/0yIfdvkReA
Long Lake Executes First AI‑Driven $6.3B Take‑Private
Long Lake did the world's first (to my knowledge) AI-driven take private of a public company -$6.3B acquisition -100 year old Amex Global Business travel -Plan to transform it with AI Spoke w CEO Alex Taubman on @NoPriorsPod about it in his first...