Today's Venture Capital Pulse
Clip raises $500M to expand fintech platform
Mexican fintech Clip secured a $500 million funding round, lifting its valuation above $2.5 billion. The capital will fund the rollout of a consumer‑focused wallet and broaden its suite of financial‑services tools.
Also developing:
By the numbers: OpenAI raises $122B in private financing
DeepMind Spinout Isomorphic Labs Raises $2.1bn
Isomorphic Labs, a DeepMind spin‑out focused on AI‑designed drugs, closed a $2.1 billion Series B round led by Thrive Capital. The round also included the UK Sovereign AI fund, Abu Dhabi’s MGX, Alphabet’s GV and Singapore’s Temasek, adding to a $600 million raise in May 2023. The company leverages AlphaFold‑derived protein‑structure predictions to accelerate drug discovery and has already signed partnerships with Eli Lilly and Novartis. It aims to move from pre‑clinical to clinical trials within the next year.
Series B Secures $50M, Paving Sales Future in Monaco
We're announcing our $50M Series B led by Benchmark. Founders Fund and Human Capital are tripling down in the round. We gave Benchmark a sneak preview of our upcoming GA release. They saw the future of sales. We had a term...
Exaforce Raises $125M Series B to Build AI for Catching and Stopping Cyberattacks as They Happen
Exaforce announced a $125 million Series B round, valuing the three‑year‑old AI cybersecurity startup at $725 million and bringing total funding to $200 million. The company’s AI agents, called “Exabots,” automate security operations, reportedly cutting manual analyst work by up to 90 percent. Its product,...
RoadrunnerAI Reimagines CPQ with AI‑Native Deal Desk
CPQ is one of those enterprise categories everyone complains about and almost no one wants to rebuild. That’s why @RoadrunnerAI stood out. @Joubinmir, @ajnatarajan, and @eshao18 are rebuilding CPQ from first principles, starting with an AI-native deal desk and aiming at revenue...
Italian AI Company Webidoo Secures €21 Million to Scale SMB-Focused Automation Platform
Italian AI firm Webidoo announced a €21 million ($25 million) Series A led by IXC3, the Azimut Group’s fund. The capital will accelerate its AI‑driven platform that stitches together the average 20 disconnected tools used by small and medium‑size businesses. Webidoo reported €15 million...
Scarlet Therapeutics Secures $4 Million Seed Round After Lab‑Grown Blood Mirrors Donor Survival
Scarlet Therapeutics announced a $4 million seed funding round alongside data showing its lab‑grown universal red blood cells survive in the bloodstream as long as donor‑derived cells. The result validates a key performance metric for engineered blood products and positions the...
Brain Food Startup Mosh Closes $13M Series A as Cognitive Wellness Goes Mainstream
Mosh, a brain‑food brand co‑founded by Maria Shriver and Patrick Schwarzenegger, closed a $13 million Series A led by Main Street Advisors. The raise comes as the global cognitive‑health food market, valued at $18.1 billion, is projected to reach $40.3 billion by 2030. Mosh’s...
Lyrie.ai Secures $2 Million Pre‑Seed to Launch Open Trust Protocol for AI Agents
Lyrie.ai, the autonomous cybersecurity platform from OTT Cybersecurity LLC, closed a $2 million pre‑seed round and exited stealth on May 11, 2026. The funding will back the rollout of its open Agent Trust Protocol, aimed at securing AI‑driven DevOps tools and...
Samsung Leads $27M Seed Round in Config, the ‘TSMC of Robot Data’
Config, a Seoul‑San Jose AI startup that supplies data for robotic foundation models, closed a $27 million seed round led by Samsung Venture Investment. The round, which brings total funding to $35 million and values the company at more than $200 million, includes...
Greenboard Raises $15.5 Million to Keep Compliance From Slowing Down Business in the AI Era
Greenboard announced a $15.5 million Series A round led by Base10 Partners, with participation from Y Combinator, General Catalyst, Commerce Ventures, Transpose Platform and Liquid2 Ventures. The AI‑driven compliance platform now serves more than 500 financial institutions and has introduced a conversational tool...
Charms Closes $1.5M Pre-Seed to Launch the AI Character Economy
Charms Interactive announced the launch of Charms.ai and closed a $1.5 million pre‑seed round to fund its creator‑centric AI character platform. The app lets users build characters with memory, personality, voice and a built‑in economy that rewards both creators and the...
How to Invest in SpaceTech: The Case of Rocket Lab
Space Ambition is hosting a live webinar on May 19, 2026, to dissect Bessemer Venture Partners’ 2014 investment in Rocket Lab. Co‑founder Denis Kalyshkin, a DeepTech venture capitalist with over a decade of experience, will walk participants through the original...
AI Voice Startup Vapi Hits $500M Valuation After Winning Amazon Ring over 40 Rivals
AI voice startup Vapi secured a full‑scale deployment with Amazon Ring, routing 100 % of the company’s inbound calls through its platform. The win helped Vapi close a $50 million Series B round, lifting its post‑money valuation to roughly $500 million. Vapi now processes...
Why We Invested in Cobee
Notion is leading a €40 million (≈ $44 million) Series B round in Cobee, the European employee‑benefits platform that lets companies offer flexible, personalized perks. Cobee’s “operating system for benefits” consolidates benefit administration into a single app, giving employers real‑time visibility and enabling cross‑border...
Why We Invested in Cyscale
Notion Ventures announced a strategic investment in Cyscale, a startup that delivers a cybersecurity knowledge‑graph platform for cloud visibility and control. The solution extends traditional Cloud Security Posture Management by mapping relationships among virtual machines, containers, and BYOD devices across...
VC10X - How Defy Owns 17% of Their Best Companies Without Following On Every Round
In this episode, Neil Sequeira, co‑founder and GP of Defy, explains how the firm deliberately stays small and uses a three‑bucket investment framework—prioritizing the founder over market and hard work—to secure an average 17% stake in its seven top‑valued portfolio...
Robinhood Files Confidential Registration for Second Retail Venture Fund IPO
Robinhood has filed a confidential registration statement for RVII, its second publicly traded venture fund, following the strong performance of its first fund, RVI, which has more than doubled since debut. The move could reshape how retail investors gain exposure...
The Government Wants More VC Investment
The 2026‑27 Australian federal budget proposes expanding venture‑capital tax incentives. From 1 July 2027, the VCLP asset‑value cap will rise from A$250 million (≈US$165 million) to A$480 million (≈US$317 million). Early‑stage caps will increase to A$80 million (≈US$53 million) and the tax‑exempt return threshold to A$420 million (≈US$277 million), while...
Circle Posts Q1 Earnings Beat, Shares Jump 15% and Raises $222M for Arc Network
Circle Internet Group reported a 20% year‑over‑year revenue increase to $694 million, lifted its adjusted EBITDA 24% to $151 million and saw its shares rise 15.1% after the earnings release. The company also closed a $222 million token‑presale for its upcoming Arc network,...
Panthalassa Secures $140 Million Led by Peter Thiel for Wave‑Powered AI Data Centers
Panthalassa announced a $140 million Series B round, headed by Peter Thiel, to fund its ocean‑based AI compute platform that harvests wave energy. The financing aims to accelerate deployment of autonomous floating nodes that run AI inference directly at sea, bypassing traditional...
AI Is Separating the Companies Built to Scale From the Ones Built to Sell
Artificial intelligence has moved from a niche add‑on to the core of cybersecurity, reshaping how startups are built, funded, and scaled. Venture capital is concentrating on a handful of AI‑native firms, delivering larger rounds and higher valuations while compressing the...
London’s Dessn Raises €5 Million to Help Product Teams Design and Prototype Inside Real Codebases
London‑based AI startup Dessn announced a €5 million ($6 million) Series A led by Connect Ventures, with participation from Betaworks and N49P. The platform enables product teams to design, prototype, and explore directly inside their live codebases, eliminating the need for separate design...
With $18M in New Funding, Adfin Expands AI-Powered Business Finance
London‑based fintech Adfin secured $18 million in a Series A round led by Index Ventures, bringing its total capital to over $30 million. The funding will accelerate the rollout of its AI‑driven platform that automates invoice processing, payment collection, and cash‑movement for businesses....
Two Founders Bet that Documentation Is the Missing Layer in the AI Stack. HappySupport Closes Pre-Seed Investment.
HappySupport, a German AI startup, closed a €200,000 (≈$218,000) pre‑seed round backed by sevDesk co‑founder Fabian Silberer, Flip CEO Benedikt Brand, and L‑Bank. The company offers a self‑updating help‑center that syncs documentation with source‑code changes via its HappyRecorder Chrome extension and AI‑generated...
Algorithmiq Shifts HQ to Milan, Secures $19.4M in Italy's Largest Quantum VC Deal
Quantum software firm Algorithmiq announced the relocation of its global headquarters from Finland to Milan and closed an €18 million ($19.4 million) funding round led by United Ventures and CDP Venture Capital. The round, Italy's largest ever for a quantum startup, underlines...
Cerebras IPO Soars: AI Demand or Bubble?
Cerebras just raised its IPO to a valuation at $48.8 billion. The offering has been oversubscribed 20x, and it's the biggest IPO of 2026 so far at a valuation of 71x ARR. Is this sheer insanity, or is the demand...
Proposed CGT Threatens Startup Equity Compensation Model
Few things close the gap between labor and management/capital than access to equity ownership of what you yourself help build. Proposed #CGT changes basically erase the equity-based compensation system that makes #startups thrive internationally.
Belgian AI Startup Tekst Secures $12.4M Series A to Automate Enterprise Workflows
Belgian AI firm Tekst announced a €11.5 million ($12.4M) Series A round led by US venture firm Elephant, aiming to scale its process‑intelligence platform that automatically maps work across emails, PDFs and enterprise systems. The funding will fuel product development, hiring...
Early-Stage Climate Tech Funding Slips Significantly
Funding for Early-Stage Climate Tech Is Drying Up #energysky -- via Heatmap News https://t.co/QMO0zCr2RK https://t.co/CjxCQedMd7
Digital Asset Secures $300 Million From A16z Crypto, Valued at $2 B
Digital Asset Holdings announced a $300 million Series round led by Andreessen Horowitz’s a16z Crypto, valuing the blockchain infrastructure firm at roughly $2 billion. The funding backs the Canton Network and Daml platform, positioning the company as a key player in private‑grade,...
Late-Stage Deals Dominate Latin American Funding in Q1
Latin American startups secured $1.03 billion in venture capital during Q1 2026, a 12% year‑over‑year increase but a 6% dip from the previous quarter. Late‑stage and growth rounds dominated, attracting $761 million—up 158% YoY. Mexico emerged as the regional leader, raising $404 million,...
Leave Big AI Firms, Build Your Own High‑Equity Startup
If you are at companies like OpenAI, DeepMind, Palantir, other multi-decacorns…you can also leave now. You will quickly get funded by VCs (I am happy to chat), and you can build a company to maximize value of your own massive...
Windward Bio Secures $165 Million to Accelerate Late‑Stage Asthma and COPD Trials
Windward Bio announced a $165 million crossover financing round led by OrbiMed, giving the Basel‑based biotech the runway to push its WIN378 antibody into Phase 3 trials for asthma and COPD. The capital injection underscores strong investor confidence in long‑acting respiratory...
ProcurePro Secures $11 Million US Funding to Accelerate AI in $13 Trillion Construction Procurement
ProcurePro, the Brisbane‑based construction procurement platform, closed a $11 million US (AU$15 million) round led by QIC Ventures with French builder Bouygues joining as a backer. The capital will fund a global AI product roadmap, a new US office and the hiring...
AI Commerce Platform District Secures $14.7M Seed Funding Led by Andreessen Horowitz
District announced a $14.7 million seed round headed by Andreessen Horowitz and Kindred Ventures. The funding will fuel its general‑availability launch, expanding a platform that lets creators and brands build interactive, code‑free storefronts using AI.
Andreessen Horowitz Launches $2.2 B Crypto Fund, Citing All‑time High Fundamentals
Andreessen Horowitz’s crypto division, A16z Crypto, closed a $2.2 billion fifth‑fund raise, declaring that crypto fundamentals are at an all‑time high. The capital will target infrastructure‑heavy projects, signaling a shift from speculative bets to a more mature investment thesis.
Circle Secures $222 Million From BlackRock, Apollo and A16z for Arc Blockchain
Circle announced a $222 million raise led by Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from BlackRock, Apollo and others, valuing its Arc token at $3 billion. The funding backs a public blockchain aimed at institutional finance and AI‑driven applications, expanding Circle beyond its USDC...
N64 Prowess Humorously Linked to Startup Success
True story: this was the only diligence we did when Lux backed @eglyman at @tryramp ** N64 prowess is predictor of success I crushed at Goldeneye, sniper or slap mode **not true, but maybe sort of might be
ONGC Mulls New ₹200 Cr Fund To Back Energy & AI Startups
India's state‑run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGG) announced a new ₹200 Cr (approximately $20 million) alternative investment fund focused on energy‑related and AI/ML startups. The fund will be managed by two contract advisors hired for a 12‑month term, with a possible...
Smart Founders Pivot Quickly when Ideas Prove Foolish
Pre-seed investing summarized: "If somebody super smart has gone all-in and put their whole life and career on the line for something, even if it’s a dumb idea, they’ll realize it. Smart people don’t pursue a dumb path very long before...
Skip Costly SPVs; Invest in Anthropic Directly
people trying to get Anthropic exposure through 15-layer SPVs and 50% fees getting clapped when they could have kept investing simple like this guy https://t.co/W6M2amsQqw
Cowboy Space, Darkhive Detail Their Series B Rounds
Cowboy Space Corp., founded by Robinhood co‑founder Baiju Bhatt, closed a $275 million Series B that values the company at about $2 billion. The round, led by Index Ventures, will fund its first power‑beaming satellite and an AI‑focused data‑center module in partnership with...
Startup Success Shifts to Capital Efficiency, Not Funding
In 2/3 years, there will be press releases to announce that startups *have not raised money* given the massive gains we're about to see in capital efficiency. It'll be the era of the anti-funding announcement.
The VC Database Most Founders Spend Weeks Building
The VC Corner has launched a premium database of over 2,000 active U.S. venture‑capital firms, complete with fund websites, LinkedIn profiles, sector tags, stage filters, and partner‑level contact details. The list is filterable by stage, industry, and geography, and includes...
Lunar Outpost Raises $30M Series B for Lunar Surface Mobility; MDA Space Is Among the Consortium Partners
Lunar Outpost closed a $30 million Series B round led by Industrious Ventures, bringing its total venture capital to roughly $52 million. The funding will accelerate development of its autonomous lunar surface mobility suite, including the Starweave swarm software and Stargate command platform,...
Beltone VC and Citadel Exit Bosta with 75% IRR
Beltone Venture Capital and UAE‑based Citadel International exited their joint investment in Egyptian logistics startup Bosta, generating a 75% internal rate of return. The deal marks Beltone's fifth exit since its 2023 launch and the second through the Beltone‑Citadel fund....
Fuse Launches Fuse Venture Partners III, for Undisclosed Target Size
Fuse Venture Partners announced the launch of its third venture fund, Fuse Venture Partners III, without disclosing the target capital amount. The new vehicle follows two prior funds that attracted notable limited partners such as the Argyros Family Foundation and...