🎯Today's Venture Capital Pulse
Updated 2h agoWhat's happening: AI fuels record $119.5B venture fundraising despite fewer rounds
Venture capital fundraising jumped 16.9% to $119.5 billion in 2025, the strongest recovery since the 2022 market reset. The total number of rounds fell 41% to 4,859, concentrating capital in larger AI‑focused financings, with AI startups capturing 58% of Series D cash and median valuations rising across all stages.
Also developing:
By the numbers: OpenAI raises $110B in corporate funding
News•Dec 8, 2025
Resemble AI Raises $13M in Funding
Resemble AI, a San Francisco‑based enterprise generative‑AI security platform, announced a $13 million funding round, bringing its total capital to $25 million. The round featured a roster of strategic backers including Google’s AI Futures Fund, Comcast Ventures, Sony Innovation Fund and Okta Ventures. The company’s flagship DETECT‑3B Omni model claims 98% deep‑fake detection accuracy across more than 38 languages, and it recently launched Resemble Intelligence powered by Google Gemini 3. Proceeds will accelerate global expansion and further development of its AI‑detection suite.
By FinSMEs
Social•Dec 8, 2025
Eric and Karim Master Founder Brand Storytelling
Which founder brand does @mansourtarek_ @Kalshi respect more than any other? "@eglyman @karimatiyeh have done a very good job at building a story and brand around the founders the team and how the company has come to be. I am learning...
By Harry Stebbings
Social•Dec 8, 2025
SaaS AE Job Expectations Are Outdated in Today's Market
Most SaaS AE interviews today, they're still looking for: - $300k OTE - Work from home - No travel - 100% in-bound - Side hustles fine - Strong SE support on product - Sell their way - Limited need to...
By Jason Lemkin
News•Dec 8, 2025
Capitolis Appoints Okan Pekin as President
Capitolis, the New York‑based fintech platform for banks and institutional investors, announced Okan Pekin as its new President. Pekin, based in London, will report to CEO Gil Mandelzis and help scale the firm’s next growth phase. He arrives with more...
By FinSMEs
News•Dec 8, 2025
Rotostitch Raises $1M in Pre-Seed Funding
Rotostitch, a San Francisco‑based startup focused on automated textile manufacturing, announced a $1 million pre‑seed round. The financing was led by Boost VC and Nova Threshold. The capital will accelerate product development, expand manufacturing capacity, and fuel go‑to‑market initiatives. The company’s...
By FinSMEs
Social•Dec 8, 2025
Kalshi's $1B Funding Fuels Prediction Market Revolution
Kalshi is one of the fastest growing companies on the planet. Last week: - Raised $1BN at $11BN valuation - Partnered with CNN and CNBC This is Tarek’s only interview post this news. - How Polymarket made @Kalshi better? - Is Kalshi just sports betting with...
By Harry Stebbings
Social•Dec 8, 2025
Test, Double Down, Then Pivot Before Channel Saturates
An ideal customer acquisition strategy as a pre-seed company is to try a handful of marketing channels and then quickly go all in on the one that is working well and optimize. The only issue is at some point that...
By Elizabeth Yin
Podcast•Dec 8, 2025•45 min
This Week in European Tech with Dan, Mads & Lomax
The panel dissects Europe’s tech landscape, starting with Bending Spoons’ aggressive roll‑up strategy and the broader valuation reset driven by debt‑fuelled M&A and Italy’s PE‑VC hybrid model. They debate Brexit’s lingering economic fallout, the erosion of German automotive dominance, and...
By The European VC (EUVC)
Social•Dec 8, 2025
Exploring Sci‑Tech Diplomacy's Global Investment Strategies
Inside our SCI-TECH DIPLOMACY global investing theses…
By Josh Wolfe
News•Dec 8, 2025
X-Energy Appoints Daniel Gross as Chief Financial Officer
X-energy Reactor Company announced the appointment of Daniel Gross as its new Chief Financial Officer. Gross joins from Amazon, where he directed the Climate Pledge Fund, and brings extensive experience in clean‑energy finance from Oaktree, Hudson Clean Energy, Goldman Sachs...
By FinSMEs
Podcast•Dec 8, 2025•1h 14m
The Pull to Build: Joubin Mirzadegan on Grit and Starting Roadrunner
In this episode, Joubin Mirzadegan discusses how his relentless discipline and frustration with broken infrastructure drove him to leave Kleiner Perkins and become CEO of Roadrunner, now a $7.2 billion company. He shares lessons from an early startup failure, emphasizing that...
By Grit (Kleiner Perkins)
News•Dec 8, 2025
Airwallex Raises $330M in Series G Round at $8B Valuation
Airwallex, the Singapore‑US fintech platform, closed a $330 million Series G round that values the company at $8 billion. The round was led by Addition with participation from T. Rowe Price, Activant, Lingotto, Robinhood Ventures and TIAA Ventures. Airwallex plans to use the capital to...
By FinSMEs
News•Dec 8, 2025
Paribu Acquires CoinMENA
Paribu, the Istanbul‑based digital‑asset platform, announced the acquisition of Bahrain‑originated crypto exchange CoinMENA in a deal that could value the target at up to $240 million. The transaction gives Paribu immediate access to more than 1.5 million users across 45 countries and...
By FinSMEs
News•Dec 8, 2025
OTR Therapeutics Raises $100M in Series A Financing
OTR Therapeutics, a Shanghai‑based biotech, closed a $100 million Series A round in June 2025. The financing was led by True Light Capital, LAV, Pfizer Ventures and Sirona Capital. OTR will deploy the capital to accelerate its pipeline targeting immunology, inflammation, oncology...
By FinSMEs
Social•Dec 8, 2025
Easy Wins Signal Strong Channels; Hard Optimizations Signal Weak Ones
When you’re first starting something and doing customer acquisition through a channel, if it works, it often performs well even though it’s unoptimized. If you have to spend a lot of time optimizing to get it to barely work, it's...
By Elizabeth Yin
Social•Dec 8, 2025
AI May Inflate B2B TAM, But Beware the Trap
🚀Is AI really expanding TAM in B2B? 🔄 Or will we end up again in a ... TAM Trap? The latest 20VC with @HarryStebbings @rodriscoll + me https://t.co/GZ0atD0MKB
By Jason Lemkin
Blog•Dec 8, 2025
Streaming Comes Into the Fold
IBM announced an $11.1 billion acquisition of Confluent, valuing the streaming‑platform provider at 10 × its last‑twelve‑month revenue. Confluent, the commercial arm behind Apache Kafka, serves more than 40 % of Fortune 500 firms and posted Q3 revenue of $298.5 million, up 19.3 % YoY, with...
By Tomasz Tunguz
Social•Dec 7, 2025
Waymo's Groundbreaking Tech Remains Under‑communicated by Its Leaders
Made me realize that we rarely hear from Waymo leadership despite it being such an AMAZING technology. strategic i guess? https://lnkd.in/gMqtrxjR
By Hunter Walk
Social•Dec 7, 2025
Founders Leaving $100M AI Startups Sparks Concern
There seems to be an accelerating trends of founders quitting successful start-ups in the Age of AI … to found new start-ups. I see it all over my feed, and it happened twice in my portfolio in past 18 months....
By Jason Lemkin
Blog•Dec 5, 2025
Coming Soon: Harry Stebbings on the State of Venture
In this episode, Harry Stebbings examines the rapid transformation of venture capital, focusing on shifting valuation dynamics, the impact of AI hype on startup success, and the emergence of a new capital stack that founders and investors must navigate. He...
By Harry Stebbings
Social•Dec 7, 2025
Why NPS Lies: Fire Bad Customers, Fix Retention
"When I arrived, our NPS was negative 26..." Get your popcorn ready, because my podcast with Cassie Young drops tomorrow. She's one of the brightest GTM minds in the game. Cassie has lived the entire go-to-market lifecycle... from CRO to...
By CJ Gustafson
Social•Dec 7, 2025
Founders: Increase Shots or Join Labs to Thrive
"If you're a founder and feeling like your startup really isn't going anywhere, you should either 1) deeply re-assess how you can take more shots on goal or 2) go join one of the big labs. Right now is an...
By Hunter Walk
News•Dec 5, 2025
Anysphere Bags $900M Round
Anysphere Inc., the creator of the AI‑powered coding assistant Cursor, announced a $900 million financing round led by Thrive Capital with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, Accel and DST Global. The infusion lifts the company’s valuation to $9.9 billion and brings total capital...
By VC News Daily
Social•Dec 7, 2025
Zachary Perret Recounts Plaid’s Early Days
i will never get tired hearing Zachary Perret talk about the early days of Plaid , here in interview with Ben Thompson https://lnkd.in/g6YzpMte
By Hunter Walk
Social•Dec 7, 2025
Modern Etiquette Offers Practical Advice for Tech Millennials
Modern Etiquette is really good from the Slow Ventures team - it seems like a joke but it's really not, and the advice can be helpful to anyone; especially your favorite tech twenty-something. https://t.co/mcZcrEuVbm https://t.co/9ryxw6oI0c
By Chris Fralic
Social•Dec 7, 2025
Track Profit per Employee to Gauge Startup Health
Measuring profit per person at a startup is a great metric to track.
By Elizabeth Yin
Social•Dec 7, 2025
Diversified Public-Private Partnerships Spark Innovation and State Competition
That's big. Love the diversified public/private partnerships. Should lead to a ton of innovation - and state by state competition. Which is healthy!
By Bill Gurley
Social•Dec 7, 2025
Learn to Acquire Profitable Startups – Free Course
Got nothing to do this Sunday? Here's a free course on how to acquire profitable startups. - Picking a niche - Investment thesis - Sourcing startups - Negotiations - Due diligence - Financing - Hiring developers - Growth tactics - Exit strategy Get started here free: https://t.co/QY1td9XvJo
By Andrew Gazdecki
Social•Dec 7, 2025
First‑time Founders Often Overlook the Discipline Needed
Most first-time founders underestimate how much discipline real progress requires.
By Hiten Shah
Social•Dec 7, 2025
Venture Landscape Shifts: Valuations, AI Winners, New Capital Stack
Venture is changing faster than ever. If you are not up to date, you will fall behind. Coming soon next Wednesday 👇 - What’s really happening to valuations - How AI euphoria is reshaping winners and losers - The new capital stack every founder and...
By Harry Stebbings
Social•Dec 7, 2025
Bootstrapped B2B SEO Tool Generates $199K Profit
A banger portfolio listing drop on @acquiredotcom B2B content + SEO automation tools. > $252K TTM revenue > $199K TTM profit > 5,000+ customers > Bootstrapped + lean Full listing: https://t.co/3BF9S0E0dv https://t.co/bttCqZrs4E
By Andrew Gazdecki
Social•Dec 7, 2025
Pre‑seed Founders Should Hire Contractors, Not Full‑time Staff
I think most pre-seed founders would be way better off hiring contractors for specific projects rather than hiring employees for roles - at least in the beginning.
By Elizabeth Yin
Social•Dec 7, 2025
Collaborative Checks on Mega Platforms Drive Venture Success
If you have a mega platform Write super collaborative checks You will absolutely crush the next decade in venture. Distribution matters. 😉
By Harry Stebbings
Social•Dec 6, 2025
AI Becomes Commodity as B2B Giants Shift Strategies
📰 Top AI+B2B News - Sat, Dec 6 https://t.co/MWFHfEuzpm Top Stories: 1. Wealthfront wants just $255 million net from IPO 2. Microsoft (MSFT) to Hike Prices for Commercial Office 3. Salesforce CEO calls AI a 'commodity feature' Top SaaStr Articles: 1. 4 Reasons to Send Investor...
By Jason Lemkin
Social•Dec 6, 2025
Relentless Margin Focus Sets Top Founders Apart
I caught up with one of my portfolio founders this past week. He's a successful serial entrepreneur, and one of the things that sets him apart from many founders is his relentless focus on margins. He constantly is trying to...
By Elizabeth Yin
Social•Dec 6, 2025
Kalshi Secures $1 B Funding, Valuation Hits $11 B
What I read this week... 1) Kalshi Raises $1B at $11B Valuation Kalshi has closed a stunning $1 billion Series E funding round at an $11 billion valuation, more than doubling its worth in under two months. The round, led by crypto-focused...
By Chamath Palihapitiya
Social•Dec 6, 2025
Seeking Traction-Driven Startups for 11,000 Angel Syndicate
Looking for startups with traction to syndicate to 11,000 angel investors
By Jason Calacanis
Social•Dec 6, 2025
VCs Overload Winners, Driving Sky‑High Valuations
Larger VC funds want to cram more and more capital into their winners. More than ever. It’s not that complicated but two core reasons: #1. Fewer and fewer winners, so everyone wants to throw money at whatever truly breaks out...
By Jason Lemkin
Social•Dec 6, 2025
Sequoia Backing Signals Growth; Ignore the BS
One of the most BS statements: You do not want people to join your company because of an investor that led the round. People want to grow and they want to make money. When Sequoia invests, it is a massive stamp...
By Harry Stebbings
Social•Dec 6, 2025
Prioritize Margins Over Feel‑Good Hype in Startup Investing
BEWARE, INVESTORS IN “FEEL GOOD” STARTUPS! We’ve all seen these startups… they have bold ambition and admirable goals, but lack a cutthroat business model that will guarantee future returns for investors. But it’s surprisingly easy to fall into what I...
By Jason Calacanis
Social•Dec 6, 2025
Future‑Focused Founders: Build for Tomorrow’s Unseen Challenges
Two of our faves from the latest Y Combinator cohort : Dome and Zephyr Fusion. YC just had their Fall ‘25 Demo Day, so Alex and I are running down some of their favorite contenders. Two startups that REALLY stand...
By Jason Calacanis
Social•Dec 6, 2025
A Refreshing Perspective on the AI Bubble
This is one of the better takes on the AI "bubble" I've seen recently. https://t.co/sMJsm1vnT2
By Mike Maples Jr.
Social•Dec 6, 2025
Join Mercury CEO Immad on Live Founder Hotline Dec 17
Excited to have @immad, CEO / co-founder of Mercury join us on the 24 hour live founder advice hotline on Dec 17! Sign up here:
By Elizabeth Yin
Social•Dec 5, 2025
Key Takeaways From Pete Warden’s Insightful Post
Solid post from Pete Warden sharing some learnings
By Hunter Walk
Social•Dec 5, 2025
Small Seed Funds Punch Above Their $100M Weight
Fund size is your strategy. You hear it all the time because it's true, and Micah Rosenbloom and the team at Founder Collective demonstrate the art and the super power of this. Five funds and twenty $B+ outcomes, yet every...
By Beezer Clarkson
Social•Dec 5, 2025
Recapitalize to Replace Early Investors with Growth Capital
Oftentimes as your company grows, you either outgrow your investor or they've passed their investment horizon and are looking to exit. For example, you may have a smaller fund invest early on, but then your company does well and you...
By Michael Lyon
Social•Dec 5, 2025
I’m Unable to View the Linked Content, so I Can’t Generate a Headline.
https://t.co/kAFihJJHMV
By Alexis Ohanian
Social•Dec 5, 2025
Ship Fast: Speed Beats Polished Slides Every Time
The incumbents are still polishing their slide decks. You just shipped the product. While the world waits for permission, you are paving the road. Speed is your unfair advantage. Keep shipping!
By Niko Bonatsos
Social•Dec 5, 2025
2025 IPOs Underwhelmed; 2026 Promises Big Tech Giants
2025 IPOs: pretty meh in end 2026 IPOs: Anthropic, Databricks, SpaceX? OMFG
By Jason Lemkin
Social•Dec 5, 2025
Small Funds, Big Impact: Strategy Beats Size
Fund size is your strategy. @micahjay1 + team at @fcollective demonstrate the art & super power of this. 5 funds & 20 $B+ outcomes, yet every fund <$100M. Today, that’s practically rebellious. All this + what 'unsexy' sectors are quietly delivering...
By Beezer Clarkson