Today's Venture Capital Pulse
Ramp projects $1.4 billion ARR as it gears up for IPO
Fintech startup Ramp says it will reach a $1.4 billion annual recurring revenue run rate this quarter, up from the $1 billion reported in September. The company cites a 70% year‑over‑year increase in its customer base and expects about $125 million in free cash flow for the year.
Also developing:
By the numbers: Beeline Medicines raises $300M Series A
Didero Raises $30M Series A for AI Procurement Platform
AI startup Didero announced a $30 million Series A round, co‑led by Chemistry and Headline with participation from Microsoft’s M12 venture fund. The financing will accelerate adoption of its AI‑driven procurement platform, which embeds autonomous agents into existing ERP and communication tools to automate supplier interactions. Didero already serves more than 30 manufacturers and distributors, delivering rapid deployment and measurable cost reductions. The company plans to broaden the platform to cover sourcing and payment workflows, positioning AI as core infrastructure for complex supply chains.
ScyAI Secures €2M and Launches AI Risk Platform for Real Assets
Zurich‑based ScyAI closed a €2 million pre‑seed round led by AENU and PT1, bringing together unicorn founders and angel investors. The startup launched an AI‑driven platform that merges operational data with external hazard models to create auditable, asset‑specific climate risk profiles....
Exclusive: D2C Brand ClayCo Raises ₹30 Cr From Twenty Nine Capital Partners
ClayCo Cosmetics, a 2023‑founded D2C beauty brand, closed a fresh Series A round of ₹29.99 crore (about $3.3 million) from London‑based Twenty Nine Capital Partners. The funding was issued as 1,529 non‑cumulative CCPS at a premium exceeding ₹1.96 lakh per share. This capital...
Axiom Space Raises $350M to Fuel Station, Suit Development
Axiom Space announced a $350 million capital raise, co‑led by Type One Ventures and Qatar Investment Authority, to accelerate its commercial space‑station program and the development of NASA‑contracted AxEMU spacesuits. The funding will finance the design, testing and launch of two...
19 MENA Startups Graduate From the Second Exel by Merak Accelerator Cohort
Nineteen MENA game studios have graduated from the second cohort of Exel by Merak, an $80 million gaming accelerator launched by Merak Capital. Each studio receives $300,000 in seed funding plus mentorship and global network access. Cohort 2 has already produced $1.2 million...
Battery Tech Startup E-TRNL Energy Raises ₹27.4 Cr For Product Development
e-TRNL Energy, a battery‑tech startup founded in 2021, secured ₹27.4 cr ($3 mn) in a seed round led by IAN Alpha Fund. The capital will fund completion of its chemistry‑agnostic lithium‑ion and future sodium‑ion cell technology and demonstrate large‑scale manufacturing in India....
Six Sense Mobility Bags $4.8 Mn To Build New Electronics Manufacturing Unit
Six Sense Mobility secured $4.8 million (₹44 cr) in a Pre‑Series A round led by Ashish Kacholia, with Piper Serica Angel Fund participating. The capital will finance a new electronics manufacturing facility in Noida, designed for an initial output of one million units...
From Board Exit to AI‑Powered Gun Detection Revolution
After 13 years, I stepped down from the Board of $EVLV today. In 2011, Mike Ellenbogen and Anil Chitkara became Entrepreneurs-in-Residence at General Catalyst in Boston. We spent nearly two years exploring incubation ideas together. Then the world shifted. 2012 - Sandy Hook. 2013...
Incentives Keep Frontier AI Labs Private, Excluding Public Investors
it's deeply unfortunate that incentives have aligned such that all these frontier AI labs and other tech companies are way better off staying private and the general public cannot invest in them despite desperately wishing they could.
Vaccine Play Iliad Draws Nine-Digit B Round; Denmark’s Gubra Launches Venture Creation Unit
Iliad Biotechnologies announced a $115 million Series B round, the largest venture deal of the week, led by RA Capital Management. New investors Janus Henderson and BNP Paribas Asset Management Alts also participated. The funding will accelerate Iliad’s intranasal vaccine program targeting pertussis...
Biotech IPOs Deliver Median -15% Return, Outperforming Losses
Humbling 30 year Biotech stats shared by @verdadcap in a recent report: Just over 1,000 biotechs hit $200M mkt cap at some point. Of those, 67% have lost value (had cumulative negative returns), vs 48% for all other US companies....
Kainova Closes $32 Million to Advance Cancer and Inflammation Therapies
Kainova Therapeutics announced a CAD 32 million first close of its Series B financing, led by Investissement Québec and supported by existing backers. The funding brings total venture capital to about $90 million USD and will accelerate development of its GPCR‑focused drug candidates. Lead...
Anthropic Raises $30B At $380B Valuation In Second-Largest Venture Funding Deal Of All Time
Anthropic announced a $30 billion Series G round that lifts its post‑money valuation to $380 billion, making it the second‑largest venture financing ever and the biggest deal of 2026. The round was led by GIC and Coatue, with co‑lead investors including D.E. Shaw, Dragoneer,...
Talkiatry Rakes In $210M to Scale Virtual Psychiatry Group
Telepsychiatry startup Talkiatry closed a $210 million Series D round, bringing total capital raised above $400 million. The funding, led by Perceptive Advisors with participation from Andreessen Horowitz and others, will support scaling its virtual psychiatry platform, which currently employs over 800 psychiatrists...
Proptech Lebane Raises $4M Seed Round
Argentine proptech Lebane announced a $4 million seed round led by Atlántico and Zacua Ventures, with participation from ADN.vc, Fen Ventures, Kuiper VC, and Galicia Ventures. The AI‑native platform offers real‑estate developers tools for accounting, contract, stock management, and project oversight,...
Feisty Insights From My Talk with Keith Rabois
Just dropped my conversation with Keith Rabois . Things got feisty. https://lnkd.in/ei2xD9_X
Anterior Secures $40M to Expand AI Deployments in Health Plans
Anterior, a clinician‑led AI platform for health insurers, closed a $40 million financing round, raising its total capital to $64 million with investors including NEA and Sequoia. The company differentiates itself through a “Forward Deployed Clinician” model that embeds medical professionals alongside...
Nuclear Power Group Alva Energy Launches with $33 Million in Funding
Alva Energy, a Massachusetts‑based nuclear startup, closed a $33 million Series A round led by Playground Global to fund retrofits of existing U.S. reactors. The company will replace steam generators and add a second turbine, boosting each plant’s output by 200‑300 MWe and...
Venture Splits: Platform Funds vs Early‑Stage Specialists
“I don’t understand why we call both things venture capital.” — Dan G. on multi-stage mega funds (or the “big banks” as Nicholas Chirls calls them) vs smaller managers dedicated to the craft of early-stage venture. We had a super...
Stockholm-Based Loovi Secures €1 Million to Scale Preventive Health and Longevity Platform
Swedish HealthTech startup Loovi has secured €1 million to scale its digital platform for data‑driven longevity and preventive health. The funding round, led by investors such as Susanne Najafi and Emad Zand, will be used to enhance medical and technical capabilities...
Bootstrapping to $50M ARR in Vertical SaaS | Vantaca's HOA Software Playbook
In this episode, Ben Currin, CEO of Vantaca, explains how the company bootstrapped a vertical SaaS platform for HOA management from under $1M ARR to $50M ARR, first reaching $5–10M without external funding and then scaling tenfold after a minority...
UK Government Adviser and Military Commander Land €12 Million to Scale Electric Twin’s Synthetic Audience Platform
Electric Twin, a UK‑based AI platform that creates synthetic audiences, announced a €12 million funding round led by Atomico, with participation from LocalGlobe, Mercuri, Samos Investments and high‑profile angels such as Marc Andreessen and Cal Henderson. The capital will accelerate global...
Cooling Construction Workers with Human-Centric Tech, with Tiffany Yeh, MD Co-Founder & CEO of Eztia Materials
In this episode, Dr. Tiffany Yeh, MD, co‑founder and CEO of climate‑tech startup Eztia Materials, discusses the urgent heat challenge facing construction workers and how human‑centric cooling technologies can protect them. She explains the science behind Eztia’s HydroVolt material, its...
Chronic Rhinitis Solution NEUROMARK Secures €62.5 Million as Irish Startup Neurent Medical Closes Series C
Neurent Medical announced an oversubscribed €62.5 million Series C round, led by MVM Partners and Sofinnova Partners, to accelerate the commercial rollout of its NEUROMARK system for chronic rhinitis. The funding will expand European market presence, deepen clinical evidence, and support a...
STAT+: European VCs Band Together to Improve the Landscape for Biotech Startups
European venture capital firms have launched the European Life Sciences Coalition, a new alliance aimed at strengthening funding pipelines for biotech startups across the continent. The coalition highlights a stark financing gap: of the 67 EU‑based biotech firms that went...
Stash Sold for $425M, Far Below $747M Raised
Ouch. Stash selling for $425MM after raising $747MM As a founder who has met a liquidation preference once in a while, this is PTSD. It is a tough hurdle to raise so much and then return the capital. Am sure the team...
Sourcing and Securing Cap Tables: Venture’s Toughest Challenges
Sourcing is the single hardest part about venture. Equally followed by actually getting on the cap table of the best companies.
Demoboost Closes €2.8M to Turn Product Demos Into Revenue Intelligence
Warsaw‑based Demoboost announced a €2.8 million funding round led by Digital Ocean Ventures and Rafał Brzoska’s family office. The capital will accelerate AI‑driven product demo creation and expand the platform internationally. Demoboost’s solution lets B2B software firms standardise, personalise and share...
Student-Built Livestorm Scales to $20M ARR
Gilles Bertaux built Livestorm for a university final exam in 2016. Nearly $20M ARR. 3,500 customers. $35M raised. Last round was 2020. https://t.co/DXieBIwtcs
Founder Friends & Rivian Host LA Networking Night Feb 26
Founder Friends is coming to LA on Feb 26! Join us and @Rivian for an evening of networking, learning, and connection with fellow founders and investors. More >> https://t.co/1bltGWHwcQ
Runway Raises $315M for AI World Models
The episode breaks down Runway's $315 million Series E round that lifted its valuation to $5.3 billion and explains the company's push into AI "world models" for next‑generation video generation. Listeners learn how Runway's technology differs from traditional generative models, giving it a...
Investors Need Massive User Base, Causing Game Sector Exit
You would need like 100 Mewgenics to satisfy the returns these types of investors in games are looking for which is why they are abandoning the sector.
Early‑stage Funds Demand Belief in Future Exponential Growth
I like this trend line. To invest in an early-stage fund you have to believe the outcomes will be much larger in the next decade than they were in the prior. via @daveclark85 https://t.co/p6Njk2pxW0
Take2 Raises $14M Series A for AI Hiring
Take2 announced a $14 million Series A round led by Human Capital, with participation from Bertelsmann Healthcare Investments, Reach Capital, SemperVirens VC and Honeystone Ventures. The startup builds autonomous AI agents that conduct phone interviews, schedule appointments and handle credential verification for...
Exclusive Investor Mixer at Vegas Hangar, Feb 26
I’m hosting an exclusive investor mixer at this private hangar in Vegas on Thurs 2/26 👀 DM if interested. https://t.co/65LxbH2BJO
Spot Tiny Trends Early for Explosive Startup Returns
I like to think of startup investing like surfing 🏄♀️ You don't want to paddle out too early (market doesn't exist yet). You don't want to be too late (already crowded with competitors). And sometimes the wave you're betting on...
Upside Robotics Is Reducing Fertilizer Use and Waste in Corn Crops
Upside Robotics secured a $7.5 million seed round to scale its solar‑powered autonomous fertilizer robots for corn. The robots, driven by proprietary algorithms, have already cut fertilizer use by 70%, saving roughly $150 per acre. After testing on 70 acres in...
Funds Fail Early Without Real Business Foundations
Most private investment funds fail before the second raise, not because of the market, but because they were never built as real businesses. In this solo episode of Raise the Bar, Seth Bradley breaks down why a fund is more than...
Valuation Blends SaaS Metrics with Deal Structuring
Valuation is understandably one of the most top-of-mind topics founders want to cover in our conversations. Something we often emphasize is that there are two sides of valuation: the objective side based on core SaaS metrics, and the subjective side...
Apptronik Closes over $935M Series A with New $520M Extension Round
Apptronik announced a $520 million Series A‑X extension, bringing its total Series A funding to over $935 million and total capital raised near $1 billion. The round includes existing backers such as Google, B Capital and Mercedes‑Benz, and new investors AT&T Ventures, John Deere and Qatar...
YC Still Accepts Late Applications After Deadline
Stumbled across this snap from 2014 in my camera roll. Founders, YC’s deadline just passed but they accept late applications. https://t.co/wp6gokGBi5
45 New Billion‑Dollar Tech Exits Signal Accelerating Pace
since @behind_genius's last study of the 100 most recent billion-dollar-plus tech exits study in April 2025, there have been 45 new exits added...things are heating up! https://t.co/W4I8gsyiDu
Integrate Raises $17M to Move Defense Project Management Into the 21st Century
Integrate, a Seattle‑based startup founded by former Air Force officer John Conafay, raised a $17 million Series A to commercialize its secure collaboration platform for defense projects. The company recently secured a $25 million, five‑year contract with the U.S. Space Force, proving demand...
Engineers: Build Real-World Companies Now with 5050
Enough AI slop. Enough gambling apps. There’s never been a better time for engineers to build companies that reshape the physical world. Start one with 5050. Apply now. Early bird deadline Feb 15. https://t.co/giXwZLE8uX
Orbex Bankruptcy Highlights UK Launch Policy Uncertainty
UK launcher startup @orbexspace starts bankruptcy procedure after merger/acquisition/funding talks fail. @spacegovuk launch policy looks to be a puzzle. Remaining @nyxcapsule interest uncertain. @esa @defis_eu @SaxaVord_Space. https://t.co/h0Gu8UB0cx https://t.co/RsfCNjTv3u
Humanoid Robot Startup Apptronik Has Now Raised $935M at a $5B+ Valuation
Apptronik, a University of Texas spin‑out building humanoid robots, reopened its Series A to raise a total of $935 million, pushing its post‑money valuation to roughly $5.3 billion. The round added $520 million from existing backers Google, Mercedes‑Benz and B Capital, alongside new investors, and...
Founders Should Prioritize Real Risks Over Competition
Why I avoid competitive markets (usually) We see 1,000+ pitches/month at @HustleFundVC. Many founders obsess over competition for the wrong reasons. Here's what they should actually worry about: 👇 https://t.co/b0BOgdWtRe
UncorkCap Secures Investment Led by Inertia’s Jeffiel
We at @uncorkcap couldn't be more excited to share this news about a recent investment of ours: Inertia led by my old friend @jeffiel. https://t.co/DgUzgdgvhM