Today's Venture Capital Pulse
Updated 2h ago
Plazza eyes $15M raise to expand hyper‑local medicine delivery
Bengaluru‑based quick‑medicine delivery startup Plazza is in advanced talks to raise about $15 million, with roughly $4 million each expected from Accel, Elevation Capital and Nexus Venture Partners and $3 million from existing backers. The funding would value the company near $50 million and support the expansion of its inventory‑led, hyper‑local fulfilment network.
Also developing:
By the numbers: Beeline Medicines raises $300M Series A
Golden Analytics Debuts with $7M Seed Funding From NEA and Madrona to Build AI-Native Business Intelligence
Golden Analytics emerged from stealth with an AI‑native business intelligence platform that promises to turn raw data into shareable dashboards in as few as two clicks. The startup secured a $7 million seed round led by NEA and Madrona, with participation from Breakers. Its "Slider of Autonomy" lets users dial AI assistance up or down, catering to both seasoned analysts and data novices. Founder Francois Ajenstat brings three decades of experience from Cognos, Microsoft, and Tableau, positioning the company to challenge entrenched BI incumbents.
PLD Space Secures €30M Debt, Aims First Orbital Flight
Spanish launcher startup @PLD_Space secures EUR 30M ($34.6M) venture debt facility from @EIB, bringing total funding to $438M. PLD is targeting 1st orbital flight this year from Europe's @EuropeSpacePort. @esa @defis_eu @aee_gob. https://t.co/gp12v7W6YI https://t.co/vKQAUHfGZS
The AlleyWatch March 2026 New York Venture Capital Funding Report
New York City’s startup ecosystem posted a record‑strong March 2026, raising $3.94 billion across 97 deals – a 293.6% year‑over‑year jump and 55.6% month‑over‑month increase. Late‑stage financing drove the surge, with eight mega‑rounds (>$100 million) accounting for more than half of total...
Fintech Investors Are Sharpening Criteria for Backing AI Ventures : Analysis
Fintech investors are tightening their standards for AI‑driven ventures, moving beyond the earlier hype‑driven frenzy. Capital continues to flow, with global fintech funding hitting $42.8 billion in 2025 and AI‑focused deals rising to $16.8 billion. Investors now favor applications that deliver clear...
Sam Altman Is Ignoring a Secret Weapon for His IPO
OpenAI closed its video generator Sora and rejected a $1 billion Disney investment to concentrate resources on a new model codenamed Spud, which underpins its "unified AI superapp" strategy. The company recently completed a $122 billion funding round that values it at...
HexemBio Raises $10.4M for a Stem Cell Rejuvenation Therapy
HexemBio announced a $10.4 million seed round led by Draper Associates to develop a blood‑stem‑cell rejuvenation therapy built on its Synthetic Human Yolk Sac platform. The technology temporarily places a patient’s own haematopoietic cells into a recreated embryonic niche, then returns...
Building the World’s First AI-Native Audit Technology: Our Investment in Modus
Lightspeed Venture Partners is leading an $85 million seed and Series A round in Modus, a startup building the world’s first AI‑native accounting firm. The U.S. audit market, valued at over $50 billion, remains largely untouched by modern technology. Modus plans to acquire...
Laoban Raises $7.2 Million
Laoban, a startup that automates restaurant operations with artificial intelligence, announced a $7.2 million Series A round. The financing was led by XYZ Ventures with participation from ABC Capital and several strategic angels. The capital will accelerate product development, bolster data‑science talent,...
Inside Capital Partners Takes Stake in Madagascar Education Platform
Inside Capital Partners has taken a stake in Hautes Études Pratiques Internationales (HEPI), the operator of Vatel Madagascar’s hospitality and tourism management programmes. The capital infusion will fund a new campus, broaden academic offerings, and reinforce market‑aligned, practical education. Both...
RET Ventures Launches First AI-Native Accelerator for Multifamily
RET Ventures announced the launch of an AI‑native accelerator focused on early‑stage proptech startups serving the multifamily market. The inaugural cohort features Brightplace, an AI apartment‑search platform, and LeasingAI, which optimizes visibility on generative search engines like ChatGPT and Gemini....
Transcript: Songyee Yoon, Principal Venture Partners
Songyee Yoon, founder of Principal Venture Partners and former NCSoft chief strategist, discussed her journey from a computational neuroscience PhD at MIT to leading AI initiatives at SK Telecom and NCSoft. She highlighted early AI projects such as personalized content...
The Word Cloud Is in Our Name Glenn Weinstein, CEO Cloudsmith
Cloudsmith, a Belfast‑based software‑artifact management platform, announced an oversubscribed Series B round in March, raising £18 million (approximately $23 million) from prominent investors. The funding will support the company’s expansion of its fully‑managed solution that secures, stores, and distributes software packages across cloud...
Stipple Launches with $100M for Novel Oncology Targets
Stipple, a new biotech focused on oncology, announced a $100 million Series A financing round to pursue novel, historically undruggable cancer targets. The round was led by top‑tier venture firms and includes strategic commitments from several large pharmaceutical partners. Stipple’s founding team...
Starfish Closes $100M+ Series B
Starfish Space announced a Series B round exceeding $100 million, led by Point72 Ventures and co‑led by Activate Capital and Shield Capital, with participation from several other investors. The capital will fund the company’s first full‑scale Otter mission, expand production capacity,...
Two Boxes Raises $3.2M to Scale AI Returns Platform
Two Boxes, an AI‑powered returns platform, secured $3.2 million in new financing led by Assembly Ventures, bringing its total capital to $13 million. The funding will accelerate product development and push the company deeper into enterprise retail, direct‑to‑consumer and B2B...
Starfish Space Raises More than $100 Million
Starfish Space announced a Series B round that raised over $100 million, led by Point72 Ventures and co‑led by Activate Capital and Shield Capital. The capital will be used to scale production of its Otter line of satellite‑servicing spacecraft and to hire...
Natter Raises $23M to Replace Enterprise Surveys with AI-Moderated Video Conversations
London‑based Natter announced a $23 million Series A round led by Renegade Partners to accelerate its AI‑moderated video conversation platform. The technology replaces traditional employee surveys with seven‑minute video sessions that generate over 1,000 words of structured insight, compared with roughly ten...
Britain’s Innovators Backed with Around £100m of New Investment
The UK government has launched a £100 million (≈ $127 million) annual investment boost by expanding the Enterprise Management Incentives (EMI) scheme and doubling limits for the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) and Venture Capital Trusts (VCT). The reforms quadruple EMI’s asset ceiling to...
McLachlan Family Office Invests in Graphite Energy’s $40M Round
Graphite Energy, an Australian clean‑technology manufacturer, secured $40 million in financing to scale its Green Steam thermal energy storage systems. The round includes a loan from Catalytic Impact Capital and an equity subscription led by the McLachlan family office, supported by...
5 Unique Strategies that Led to Our Capital Raising Success | Brian Mac Mahon, Expert Dojo, VC Arm of $1B+...
Brian Mac Mahon, founder of Expert Dojo—the venture arm of a $1 billion‑plus single‑family office—revealed five unconventional tactics that have powered over 300 startup investments. He emphasizes that only three variables truly drive every investment decision, rendering traditional networking largely obsolete....
ETA Is Breaking (and Going Global): Investor Conflict, Weak Boards, and Structural Shifts - Ibrahim Abdel Rahim of Moonbase Capital
In this episode of Surge Funded, Ibrahim Abdel Rahim of Moonbase Capital reflects on five years of growth in the Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition (ETA) space, highlighting the shift from a Europe‑centric model to a truly global, home‑based approach with searchers...
Introducing Beacon: Honest Feedback From VC Investors
Lynx Collective launched Beacon, a $10 service that delivers a detailed VC‑style investment memo to pre‑seed and seed founders within five days. The memo is produced by a panel of active venture partners with over 35 years of combined experience,...
GLAAS Raises $5M From Co-Founder Devesh Sachdev
GLAAS, an embedded credit infrastructure platform for MSMEs, secured a $5 million investment from Devesh Sachdev, who also joined as co‑founder and managing director. Sachdev, former founder of Fusion Finance, will help strengthen GLAAS’s in‑house NBFC, Gromor Finance, and expand co‑lending...
Ambienta Backs Plant-Based Dairy Producer The Bridge to Accelerate European Growth
Ambienta has acquired a majority stake in Italian plant‑based dairy specialist The Bridge, marking its second investment from the Small Cap Fund. The Bridge, founded in 1994, generates about 80% of revenue from international markets and operates a fully vertical,...
Circulate Capital Secures $220 Million to Boost Asian Recycling, Cutting Demand for Virgin Minerals
Circulate Capital closed the first round of its Asia Fund II with $220 million, surpassing 70% of its $300 million goal. The fund will finance up to two million tonnes of new recycling capacity in South and Southeast Asia, aiming to curb...
Firmus Technologies Secures $505 Million to Expand AI Data Centers Across Asia‑Pacific
Firmus Technologies raised $505 million in a funding round led by Coatue Management, with Nvidia joining as a strategic investor. The financing values the Australian AI‑infrastructure startup at $5.5 billion and will fund a rollout of new data‑center capacity throughout the Asia‑Pacific...
Elon Musk Forces SpaceX IPO Advisers to Buy Grok AI Subscriptions
Elon Musk has told the banks, law firms and auditors handling SpaceX’s pending IPO to purchase subscriptions to his xAI chatbot Grok as a prerequisite for participation. The demand, reported by the New York Times and Reuters, adds a new twist to...
GridBank Raises $6-Million Seed Round to Monetize the Videos in Your Camera Roll
GridBank, a Montreal‑based startup, closed a $6 million seed round led by StandUp Ventures to build a marketplace for user‑generated video clips. The app lets smartphone owners upload authentic short videos, which brands and ad agencies purchase for organic‑looking marketing campaigns....
Felix Raises $1.7M to Build Hyperautomation for Professional Services
Felix, an AI workflow platform for professional services, announced a $1.7 million pre‑seed round led by XYZ Venture Capital. The funding will accelerate product development for legal, finance and insurance firms. Felix’s deterministic automation helped a New York risk‑management firm clear a...
Azur Innovation Fund Backs GoSwap in Seed Round
Moroccan electric‑mobility startup GoSwap announced its first seed round, secured from Azur Innovation Fund. The company’s battery‑as‑a‑service platform lets riders buy scooters without batteries and swap depleted packs at smart stations in under ten seconds. GoSwap has already installed 20...
Liquidity Meets Reality
Claire Madden of Connection Capital says the surge in private‑market secondaries reflects both structural maturation and a cyclical response to constrained exits. She positions secondaries as a portfolio‑management tool that enables rebalancing and exposure to high‑quality assets, but not a...
R230-Million in the Bag for Endeavor’s Third Harvest Fund
Endeavor South Africa closed its Harvest Fund III at R230 million (≈ $12.4 million), after a R190 million (≈ $10.3 million) first close in October 2024. The rules‑based co‑investment vehicle targets Series B and later‑stage technology firms across South Africa, Egypt, Nigeria and Kenya, deploying capital alongside qualified lead...
Washington Bullish on Spark, Sees ‘Almost Uncapped Upside’ for Venture
Washington’s large public pension system, overseeing more than $230 billion in assets, has completed a three‑year due‑diligence process and announced a bullish stance on Spark, a venture‑capital manager. The fund believes Spark can navigate today’s challenging investment environment and deliver what...
NFuse Raises $2M as Messaging Overtakes B2B Ordering Apps
nFuse, an AI‑driven B2B ordering platform that lets retailers order via WhatsApp, Viber or SMS, secured $2 million from Eleven Ventures and LAUNCHub. The startup claims over 70 percent adoption among enterprise clients, cutting deployment time to eight weeks and driving order...
Kandou AI Raises $225M in Series A Funding
Swiss fabless startup Kandou AI secured a $225 million Series A round led by Maverick Silicon, with SoftBank, Synopsys, Cadence and Alchip participating. The funding will accelerate production of its Copper MIMO (chord signaling) chips that aim to double data‑rate capacity while slashing...
Exit Strategies: The Dual Track Option
Investors targeting high‑growth companies often adopt a dual‑track exit, simultaneously preparing for an IPO while courting strategic or financial buyers. This approach creates competitive pressure, allowing the company to select the path that yields the highest valuation as market conditions...
AI Data Centre Startup Firmus Eyes Off Another $725 Million Raise as It Readies to IPO on the ASX
Sydney‑born Firmus Technologies announced a $505 million USD (A$725 million) strategic equity raise led by Coatue with Nvidia participation, lifting its post‑money valuation to roughly $5.3 billion USD (A$8 billion). The funding will accelerate the rollout of its "green AI factories" across the Asia‑Pacific...
Sona Secures $45 Million Series B to Scale AI Platform for Frontline Workers
Sona announced a $45 million Series B financing round led by N47, with participation from Felicis, Northzone, Gradient and Italian Founders Fund. The funding pushes total capital raised above $100 million and will fuel U.S. expansion of its AI‑native platform that unifies...
Former Tenstorrent Execs Launch AI& to Build Japan’s Full-Stack AI Infrastructure
Former Tenstorrent executives David Bennett and Shimpei Hara have launched AI&, a vertically‑integrated Japanese AI company. The startup secured $50 million in seed funding and $2 billion in infrastructure capital to build a full‑stack AI platform, including data centers, orchestration software, models...
LPs Go Direct for GP Stakes
Institutional limited partners are increasingly interested in bypassing traditional fund vehicles to acquire direct stakes in private‑equity general partners. This trend could reshape the nascent GP‑stakes market by creating a new class of shareholders who own a slice of the...
Emerging Managers Serve up Stakes
Emerging private‑equity managers are increasingly offering ownership stakes in their firms to secure anchor limited‑partner commitments. By selling a minority GP stake, new GPs provide investors with direct exposure to management fees and carried interest. Anchor investors, in turn, gain...
Tradie AI Receptionist Startup Banks $900,000 in Pre-Seed
Australian startup Chime Labs secured $900,000 AUD (~$600,000 USD) in a pre‑seed round led by 500 Global and supported by angel investors. Founded by former Googlers Alexis Griveau and Mathew Pretel, the company offers an AI‑powered receptionist that answers calls...
OpenAI Eyes $1 Trillion IPO, Sparking Investment‑banking Frenzy
OpenAI is preparing a Q4 2026 initial public offering that could value the AI leader at $1 trillion, after a $122 billion funding round that lifted its valuation to $852 billion. The prospect is drawing intense interest from investment banks and could coincide...
When Will Anthropic Surpass NVIDIA?
Anthropic reported an additional $10 billion in revenue last month, putting its annual run rate at roughly $10 billion—achieved in under four years, far faster than traditional SaaS firms. By contrast, NVIDIA generates $215 billion in annual revenue and trades at a 22‑times...
Yuzu Health, General Catalyst, and the Quiet Bet on Health Insurance Plumbing
Yuzu Health announced a $35 million Series A round co‑led by General Catalyst and Chemistry, bringing total capital to $40 million. The startup operates a vertically integrated third‑party administrator (TPA) that has built its entire software stack in‑house, processing over $1 billion in claims...
Fintech VC Triple Bubble Nails $10 Million First Close on Its $50m Fund
Fintech venture fund Triple Bubble announced a $10 million Australian‑dollar first close (≈$6.6 million USD), anchored by Commonwealth Bank’s x15ventures. The fund, founded by Dom Pym, Brian Collins and Judy Anderson‑Firth, targets a $50 million Australian‑dollar final close (≈$33 million USD) by Easter 2028, drawing commitments from fintech founders...
OpenAI Alums Have Been Quietly Investing From a New, Potentially $100M Fund
Zero Shot, a venture fund founded by former OpenAI engineers and prompt experts, closed its first $20 million on a $100 million target. The team—Evan Morikawa, Andrew Mayde, Shawn Jain, Kelly Kovacs and Brett Rounsaville—has already written checks to AI‑focused startups such...
IVWorks Secures $4.5M Funding to Expand ‘reGaN’ Technology Into RF and AI Power Semiconductor Markets
IVWorks announced a $4.5 million financing round, bringing its total capital raised to $33 million, to accelerate deployment of its proprietary reGaN technology. The company will use the funds to scale mass‑production infrastructure and secure its supply chain for GaN epitaxial wafers...
Secondary Markets Fix Past Investment Mistakes, Buy Winners
Am an investor in 3 of the top 7. Bought secondaries in 2 of the others. The other two: one I don’t know very well, one I think will have to reinvent themselves in a post-AI world. If returns are...
Steno Secures $49 Million Series C to Accelerate AI Litigation Platform
Steno closed a $49 million Series C round to expand its AI-powered litigation platform that merges court reporting with software. The capital will fund product upgrades, AI capability growth, and broader market reach, underscoring investor belief in hybrid legal‑tech solutions.
