Today's Venture Capital Pulse
Updated 3h ago
RegTech sector sees record $3B Q1 funding surge
The RegTech industry raised close to $3 billion globally in Q1 2026, with $2 billion coming from the United States across 103 deals. AI‑focused security firms secured over $1 billion, highlighted by Cyera’s $400 million Series F that valued the company at $9 billion.
Also developing:
By the numbers: Beeline Medicines raises $300M Series A

Defense Tech Startups Raise $405 Million in New Funding Rounds
Defense technology startups collectively raised $405 million in recent financing rounds. ORAN Development Company (ODC) secured $45 million in a Series A to build an AI‑native, open‑architecture platform that turns cell sites into distributed compute hubs, a step toward the 6G era. Performance Drone Works (PDW) closed a $110 million Series B to expand drone production and pursue additional government contracts. Overmatch Ventures completed its second fund with $250 million, targeting deep‑tech, defense and space companies and providing capital plus procurement expertise.
Cents Closes $140M Series C Round
Cents, a unified software, hardware, and payments platform for laundromats, closed a $140 million Series C round led by Sumeru Equity Partners with participation from Camber Creek. The financing is the largest software investment ever in the laundry vertical and backs Cents’...
Pinnacle Medicines Raises $89M Series B
Pinnacle Medicines announced the closing of an oversubscribed $89 million Series B financing, co‑led by LAV and Foresite Capital. The biotech firm leverages a proprietary platform that blends physics‑based molecular simulations, AI‑driven design, and advanced peptide chemistry to create oral peptide therapeutics....

New AI Platform Uncovers Hidden Cancer Targets, Raises $10M
Most cancer drugs go after the same targets: EGFR. PD-L1. HER2. Not because they’re the best targets. Because they’re the only ones we’ve been able to see. RyboDyn Inc. is going after what’s been invisible. The San Diego team, led by Imad Ajjawi, PhD,...

MTN Invests in AI Network Start-Up Alongside Nvidia
MTN’s digital infrastructure arm has joined a $45 million Series‑A round for US‑based ORAN Development Company (ODC), alongside Nvidia, Cisco and other telecom giants. ODC’s AI‑RAN platform will embed AI processing into radio access networks, turning traditional cell towers into edge‑computing...
AI‑Driven Benefits Platform Raises $30M to Transform HR
Origin Secures $30 Million Series A+ to Scale AI‑Powered Global Benefits Platform Origin’s financing highlights a growing consensus that AI can unlock efficiency in traditionally manual HR functions. By centralising disparate benefits data, the platform not only cuts costs but also...
Origin Secures $30 Million Series A+ to Scale AI‑Powered Global Benefits Platform
Origin raised $30 million in a Series A+ round led by Notion Capital, bringing total funding to over $50 million. The AI‑powered platform promises a single source of truth for multinational benefits, targeting cost‑pressured HR, finance and risk teams.

Power Management Company Claros Raises $30m Seed Round
Claros, a power‑management startup, raised a $30 million seed round led by General Catalyst and Red Cell Partners. The funding will accelerate development of its integrated voltage regulator (IVR) and Power Gateway direct‑current distribution platform. The IVR claims up to 30%...

Multiply Raises $9.5M, Focused on B2B Self-Learning Ads
Multiply, an AI‑native media agency for B2B firms, emerged from stealth with a $9.5 million Series A led by Mayfield. Its self‑learning advertising platform links Google Search and LinkedIn campaigns to sales call recordings, CRM data, and performance metrics, automatically generating and...

From Football Field to Chip Founder: PLX’s Legacy
I got to know Jim Guzy on the football field. My school, Hillview Elementary, was playing against Fremont Elementary in flag football. They had this kid who was crazy fast on the field. That was Jim Guzy. Later, he became an electrical engineer...
Budderfly Secures $550M to Expand Energy-as-a-Service
Budderfly raises $550 million to scale its Energy-as-a-Service platform #energysky -- via pv magazine usa: https://t.co/mVu3KQ8ZPN
Venture Capitalists Eye Philippines
Venture capital activity in the Philippines surged in 2025, with private‑capital funding rising about 34% year‑on‑year despite a regional downturn. Foxmont Capital Partners alone raised $1.5 billion, up from $960 million in 2023, and e‑commerce now accounts for 67% of the country’s...
12 Defense Startups Poised for IPO After Swarmer Surge
Defense tech is surging. 🚀 After Swarmer’s 500%+ IPO pop, who’s next? Using Crunchbase predictive intelligence, @crunchbasenews identified 12 defense startups most likely to go public based on funding, hiring, and growth signals. See the list.👇 https://t.co/Pt0IqLUH5c

Blossom Health Secures $20M to Scale AI Psychiatry Platform
Blossom Health, a New York‑based telepsychiatry startup, raised $20 million in Seed and Series A financing led by Headline and a broad investor syndicate. The capital will fund geographic expansion, new payer contracts, clinician onboarding, and accelerated AI research. Blossom’s platform combines...

Tom Brady-Backed Telehealth Firm eMed Valued at over $2 Billion in Latest Funding Round
Telehealth company eMed announced a $200 million Series A round that lifts its valuation above $2 billion. The round was led by Aon Consulting and includes backing from Tom Brady, who also serves as founding chief wellness officer. eMed will use the capital to...

Tazapay Closes $36m Series B to Scale Emerging Market Payments
Tazapay announced the close of a $36 million Series B extension led by Circle Ventures, bringing total Series B funding to $36 million. The round added new investors CMT Digital and Coinbase Ventures alongside existing backers. The capital will fund licensing expansion, accelerate go‑to‑market...
DealWire and Capital Engine Announce Strategic Partnership to Revolutionize Private Markets Intelligence with AI-Driven Data Solutions
DealWire and Capital Engine have formed a strategic partnership that blends DealWire’s autonomous AI agents and global data ingestion engine with Capital Engine’s investment‑banking technology. The combined platform delivers real‑time, cross‑border intelligence on private equity, venture capital and private credit...

UK Insurtech Startups Continue to Secure Funding Despite Broader Slowdown in VC Activity : Analysis
A new CB Insights report identifies the 25 most active investors in UK insurtech, who together completed 97 equity deals between 2021 and 2025. Despite a broader slowdown in venture capital, 11% of UK insurtech equity deals involved companies ranked...

Loan Note: Fund Structuring Under Scrutiny; LPs Reveal Strategic Preferences
The latest Loan Note briefing highlights growing scrutiny over fund structuring, with mis‑selling and mis‑structuring flagged as core concerns for retail‑focused private debt vehicles. Regulatory attention is intensifying, prompting managers to reassess compliance and disclosure practices. Meanwhile, Blue Torch announced...

Qdrant Raised $50M to Build Composable Vector Search as Core Infrastructure
Qdrant announced a $50 million Series B round led by AVP, with participation from Bosch Ventures, Unusual Ventures, Spark Capital, and 42CAP. The company positions its Rust‑built vector database as low‑latency, billion‑scale infrastructure for AI retrieval, emphasizing composable primitives over fixed pipelines....

Zymtrace Secures $12.2M to Recover Billions in Wasted GPU Spend Through Autonomous Optimization
Zymtrace announced a $12.2 million funding round, including an $8.5 million seed led by Venture Guides, to scale its autonomous AI‑infrastructure optimization platform. The company’s eBPF‑based solution continuously profiles GPU and CPU workloads, automatically generating pull‑requests that fix bottlenecks without code changes....
StoReel Raises $34 Million to Power AI‑Generated Micro Dramas
Beijing‑based StoReel announced a $34 million financing round, including $9 million seed led by Play Ventures and $25 million user‑acquisition financing from PVX Partners. The capital will fund AI tools that can produce hour‑long series for $20‑40k, a fraction of traditional costs, and...

Swedish Noru Attracts Nordic and Global Investors for AI Compliance Platform
Swedish startup Noru announced a €553.9K (~$600K) pre‑seed round led by Ampli Ventures, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz a16z Seed Fund, SSE Business Lab and several Nordic operators. The company’s AI‑native “agentic compliance” platform embeds regulatory processes directly into developer...

Allday Goods Raises £765K to Scale Its Cult, Recycled-Plastic Knife Brand
Allday Goods, an East London kitchenware brand that turns landfill-bound plastic into colourful knife handles, has secured £765,000 (approximately $970,000) in a funding round led by FIGR Ventures. The round also includes Anotherway Ventures, Machroes Holdings and several angels, adding...
Textile Recycling Tech Startup Renasens Raises €10 Million
Swedish cleantech startup Renasens secured a €10 million (≈$11.5 million) seed round to expand its waterless, chemical‑free textile recycling platform across Europe. The company will use the capital to launch a pilot plant in Borås, Sweden, converting mixed textile waste into high‑quality...

Most UK Startups Aren’t in London. But Most Funding Still Is
A recent analysis shows that while 53% of the UK’s high‑growth startups are located outside London, they capture only 39% of venture funding. Entrepreneur Jenson Brook’s Britain’s Got Startups (BGS) platform is trying to bridge the gap by showcasing regional...

“Founders Hold the Keys to America’s Victory”: Overmatch Ventures Raises $250m Second Fund
Overmatch Ventures announced the close of its oversubscribed second fund, raising $250 million to back early‑stage deep‑tech, defense and space companies. The capital will be deployed to founder‑led startups developing technologies deemed critical to U.S. national security. By targeting high‑risk, high‑reward...

Oral Peptides Biotech Pinnacle Medicines Gets $89M From US, China Investors
Pinnacle Medicines, a two‑year‑old biotech focused on oral peptide therapeutics, secured $89 million from a mix of U.S. and Chinese investors. The financing will fund its platform that converts injectable peptides into pill form, building on the recent success of Novo...
Legal AI Startup Harvey's $1 B Fundraising Sparks Debate over Capital Use
Harvey, a legal‑tech AI startup, announced a fundraising round that brings total new capital to almost $1 billion, prompting both excitement and scrutiny over how the money will be deployed in contract and litigation automation.
Nebius Raises $2.5B, Secures $27B Meta Deal, Faces Kansas Tax‑Break Fight
Nebius Group, the Yandex spin‑off, closed a $2.5 billion capital raise and announced a $27 billion AI compute agreement with Meta, valuing the startup at roughly $30 billion. The deal fuels a massive data‑center build‑out, but a legal battle over $6 billion of tax...
Kleiner Perkins Secures $3.5B in New Funds, Doubling AI Investment Capacity
Kleiner Perkins closed a $3.5 billion fundraising round – $1 billion for its 22nd early‑stage fund and $2.5 billion for a growth‑stage vehicle – effectively doubling its capital base for AI and early‑stage investments. The raise comes as the firm leans into a...

Renasens Raises €10m to Scale Textile Recycling Tech
Renasens, a Swedish start‑up, secured €10 million (approximately $10.8 million) in seed funding to scale its textile‑recycling technology that uses supercritical CO₂ to recover fibres from blended waste. The capital, led by Extantia with participation from Course Corrected and Norrsken Launcher, will...

Pentathlon Ventures Closes Fund II at Rs 255 Cr
Pentathlon Ventures closed its second fund at Rs 255 crore (≈ $31 million), targeting 16–20 seed‑stage B2B tech startups. The fund expands its focus to enterprise AI transformation, fintech, healthtech, cybersecurity, logistics and manufacturing. Backed by family offices, HNIs and entrepreneurs across India, the...

ELMED Life Sciences Raises $2.7 Mn in Series A From NABVENTURES
ELMED Life Sciences secured a $2.7 million Series A round led by NABVENTURES' AgriSURE Fund. The capital will fund new manufacturing capacity in Hyderabad, R&D acceleration, and broader distribution across Indian tier‑2/3 regions and overseas markets. ELMED develops probiotic and microbiome‑based products...

Delaware Court of Chancery Sustains Breach of Fiduciary Duty Claims Based on Terms of LLC Agreement
On Jan. 29, 2026 the Delaware Court of Chancery denied Victory Park Capital Advisors’ motion to dismiss, sustaining Calumet Capital Partners’ breach‑of‑fiduciary‑duty, aiding‑and‑abetting, servicing‑agreement and implied‑covenant claims. The court held that the LLC’s protective provision could not blanket‑away fiduciary duties because Delaware law...
AI Fuels Document Churn, Founders Must Work Harder
Founders are running their decks, docs, and narratives through AI to drive investor cycles. But investors are doing the same: they’re making (more) comments on investor agreements, advisor docs, warrants, etc. Founders: expect to work harder to close.
Nvidia-Backed Startup Valued at $25B to Counter Chinese AI
Nvidia-Backed Startup Seeking to Counter Chinese AI Eyes $25 Billion Valuation Yes, it's all about "countering Chinese AI"... https://t.co/7VwOnVxaeb

Insurtech Startup Plum Nets ₹193 Cr To Expand Employee Health Benefits Platform
Insurtech startup Plum announced a $20.6 million Series B round, raising ₹193 crore led by Peak XV Ventures with participation from Tanglin and GMO Venture Partners. The funding will finance talent acquisition, AI‑driven claims processing, enterprise‑grade security, and deeper HR‑payroll integrations. Plum also plans...
OpenAI Funds Isara, a Youth‑led AI Startup
OpenAI Backs New AI Startup Seeking Bot Army Breakthroughs The San Francisco company, called Isara, was founded last June by two 23-year-old AI researchers, Eddie Zhang and Henry Gasztowtt. They have hired researchers from Google, Meta , and OpenAI. https://t.co/TmyAydRBDk
Fintech Startup Worth Secures $30M Series A to Power AI Onboarding for SMBs
Worth raised $30 million in a Series A round led by Fulcrum Equity Partners, with participation from Amex Ventures, to scale its AI‑powered platform that streamlines onboarding and underwriting for small‑business lenders. The funding will accelerate product development, including a new...

Meet Keith – the AI-First Law Firm Looking to Transform Conveyancing
AI‑first law firm Keith has secured $2.5 million in seed funding to launch a fully automated conveyancing platform this summer. The firm will use a network of 38 specialized AI agents to handle up to 80% of the transaction workflow, aiming...

Verse8 Raises $5M for AI-Driven Game Creation Platform
Verse8, an AI-native platform that lets creators instantly turn ideas into playable games, announced a $5 million seed round. Since its stealth launch in July, the service has attracted more than 3.5 million monthly active users, supported by over 5,000 active creators...
AI Keeps Investing Basics Same, Execution Completely Transformed
When it comes to investing in the age AI, “nothing has changed, but everything has changed.” As Hustle VC co-founder Elizabeth Yin explains to me, understanding a founder’s potential and a company’s basic health and outlook is the same as...

$125M and a Cap Table That Reads Like a Who’s Who of Healthcare VC: What Qualified Health’s Series B Actually...
Qualified Health announced a $125 million Series B round, bringing its total funding to $155 million and led by NEA alongside a slate of top health‑tech investors. The company offers an enterprise‑wide AI infrastructure platform that replaces fragmented point‑solution approaches. Early adopters such...

Airstreet's $232M Third Epoch Unveils AI Future
always fun to chat with @johncoogan on @tbpn - this time about @airstreet's $232,323,232 third epoch launch and what's next in ai! https://t.co/qNb8OId6sl https://t.co/wrQZuvrmLD
Lace Lithography Raises $40M to Pursue Helium Atom Beam Chips at Atomic Resolution
Lace Lithography, a Microsoft‑backed Norwegian chip‑making equipment startup, closed a $40 million Series A round led by Atomico. The funding will accelerate its helium‑atom beam lithography platform, which promises feature sizes ten times smaller than today’s EUV tools and a test tool...
Jeff Bezos Launches $100 B AI Acquisition Fund to Overhaul Factories
Jeff Bezos has announced a $100 billion fund aimed at acquiring manufacturers and deploying AI to modernize factory floors. The vehicle, linked to his Project Prometheus venture, could become one of the largest buy‑out funds in history and blurs the line...

PDW Raises Over $110M to Expand Military Drone Production
Performance Drone Works (PDW) announced a Series B round that raised over $110 million, led by Ondas and joined by strategic investors such as Hood River, Cedar Pine, Hanwha’s venture fund and Booz Allen Hamilton. The capital will fund a hiring...

Private Stablecoin Platform Payy Network Raises $6 Million Seed Round
Payy Network announced a $6 million seed round led by FirstMark Capital, with participation from Robot Ventures and DBA Crypto. The private‑by‑default stablecoin platform uses zero‑knowledge proofs to conceal transaction details, addressing transparency concerns that deter enterprise adoption. Payy’s services, including...