Today's Venture Capital Pulse
Updated 47m agoRamp 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
ElevenLabs Closes $500M at $11B Valuation to Expand Voice AI Into Multimodal Agents
ElevenLabs announced a $500 million financing round led by Sequoia Capital, lifting its valuation to $11 billion—more than triple the level a year earlier. The round also brought Sequoia partner Andrew Reed onto the board and saw existing investors such as Andreessen Horowitz and ICONIQ increase their stakes. The capital will back accelerated AI research, new product development, and a global expansion into markets including India, Japan, Singapore, Brazil and Mexico. A key strategic focus is extending the platform beyond pure voice into multimodal and video‑enabled AI agents.

BDC Head Says Bank Pulled Back From Life Sciences “Too Early” As It Preps New VC Fund
The Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) is preparing a new life‑sciences fund of roughly C$100 million to re‑enter direct medtech investing, launching before April. BDC’s president Isabelle Hudon said the bank withdrew from the sector too early after its 2013...
Apeiron Labs Closes $9.5 Million Series A
Apeiron Labs announced the close of a $9.5 million Series A round to fund its real‑time ocean intelligence platform. The financing was co‑led by S2G Investments, RA Capital Management’s Planetary Health Fund, and DYNE Ventures, with participation from Assembly Ventures, TFX Capital...

Interview With Guy Kawasaki
Brad Feld sat down with veteran entrepreneur Guy Kawasaki for the "Building What Lasts" podcast, exploring trust, mentorship, and long‑term thinking. The conversation quickly delved into personal stories, including Kawasaki’s early dating life and connections with industry figures like Heidi...
EnFi Secures $15m Series A to Scale AI Credit Workforce
EnFi, an AI-native platform that supplies virtual agents for commercial lending, announced a $15 million Series A round, bringing its total capital to $22.5 million. The round was led by FINTOP with participation from Patriot Financial Partners, Commerce Ventures, Unusual Ventures and Boston...

The Arithmetic of Ambition: Engineering Rigor and Aesthetic Futurism in Deeptech VC
The episode critiques the current venture‑capital approach to SpaceTech and DeepTech, arguing that hype‑driven narratives often replace rigorous engineering and economic analysis. It highlights the “drunkard’s walk” of investment decisions, using orbital data centers as a case study to show...
Kingscrowd Offers Fund of More Mature, Profitable Private Firms
Kingscrowd has launched the Capital Profitability Fund, a $5 million vehicle aimed at mature private companies that are already profitable. The fund will invest in 25‑30 firms with revenues above $1 million and revenue multiples under 7.5×, targeting exits within three to...
Pear Deck’s Deal Showcases High Value, Competitive Bidding, Low Risk
Pear Deck was a fantastic company to work with. Some of the highlights from their transaction include: * A strong enterprise value resulting from high growth * A highly competitive process with multiple buyers * A short exclusivity period with...

Newcleo Raises USD85M in Financing
Paris‑based newcleo announced an $85 million financing round led by existing backers Kairos, Indaco Ventures, Azimut Investments, the CERN pension fund and Walter Tosto, alongside newcomers Danieli & C., Cementir Holding, Orion Valves and NextChem. The capital will fund the construction...

Crypto VC Funding Doubled in 2025 as RWA Tokenization Took the Lead
Venture capital investment in crypto startups surged to over $34 billion in 2025, doubling the previous year’s total. Investors shifted toward later‑stage financing, with seed rounds down 18% and Series B funding up 90%. Real‑world asset tokenization emerged as the leading narrative,...

Resolve AI Raises $125M in Series A Funding at $1B Valuation
Resolve AI, a San Francisco‑based SRE and engineering startup, closed a $125 million Series A round at a $1 billion valuation, led by Lightspeed Venture Partners with participation from Greylock, Unusual Ventures, Artisanal Ventures and A*. The capital will accelerate product development, expand...

ElevenLabs Raises $500M Series D at $11B Valuation
ElevenLabs announced a $500 million Series D round that lifts its valuation to $11 billion, led by Sequoia Capital with Andreessen Horowitz and ICONIQ Capital increasing stakes. The funding backs the company’s push toward $330 million in annual recurring revenue by 2025 and fuels...
Bedrock Robotics Raises $270 Million in Series B Funding to Accelerate the Future of Autonomous Construction
Bedrock Robotics announced a $270 million Series B round, valuing the autonomous construction startup at $1.75 billion. The funding, led by CapitalG and Valor Atreides AI Fund, brings total capital raised to over $350 million and will support scaling of fleet‑level autonomy across excavation,...

Midi Health Raises $100M as It Plans Expansion Into Urgent Care, Research
Midi Health, the pandemic‑born women’s health platform, announced a $100 million financing round that pushes its valuation past the $1 billion unicorn threshold. The capital, led by a consortium of venture firms, will fund the launch of a nationwide urgent‑care network and...

The Biggest Biotech Funding Rounds in January 2026
In January 2026 biotech firms secured record capital, with Parabilis Medicines leading private rounds at $305 million and Aktis Oncology topping public offerings at $365.4 million. Private fundraising totaled $2.986 billion across 31 rounds, while public markets raised $1.67 billion from nine offerings. Oncology and...

SNAK Venture Partners Raises $50M Fund to Back Vertical Marketplaces
Venture firm SNAK Venture Partners closed an oversubscribed $50 million debut fund, anchored by the Pritzker Group and other institutional LPs. The Chicago‑based team, led by Sonia Nagar and Adam Koopersmith, will write $1‑$2 million seed checks in up to 20 B2B...
Turn a Simple Shopify Pain Into a Sellable App
Renata Raya (@reraya) built a profitable Shopify app called GoRecover and sold it on @acquiredotcom. She was running a Shopify agency in Mexico City and kept seeing the same issue. Customers abandoned carts and email recovery wasn’t working. Most merchants were...
Tensor Ventures And Others Invest $4 Million US in London-Based AppFactor
Tensor Ventures led a $4 million seed round in London‑based AppFactor, joined by Begin Capital and Adara Ventures. The startup’s platform monitors and modernizes legacy enterprise applications in‑operation, eliminating downtime for end users. Deployments are already live at a major UK...

How to Scale to $12M ARR: The Serial Founder Playbook for Vertical SaaS and Agentic AI
In this episode, Matt Spiegel, founder and CEO of Lawmatics, walks through how his vertical SaaS company scaled to $12M ARR by focusing on high ARPU, agentic AI, and disciplined capital strategies. He shares tactics for acquiring the first 100...

Crypto’s Wealthy Investors and Industry Leaders See IPO Hype Waning in 2026
The CfC St. Moritz report shows cryptocurrency IPO enthusiasm fading after a record 2025 that delivered 11 listings and $14.6 billion in capital. Investor confidence has slipped, with fewer respondents feeling as optimistic as last year. Over 100 of the 242...

Leuven-Based AI Running Analysis Platform Runeasi Raises €1M for Global Growth
Leuven‑based AI spin‑off Runeasi has secured €1 million in a funding round led by Smarter Ventures, with participation from existing backers and angel investor Sean Gourley. The company’s AI‑powered motion sensor belt enables physiotherapists, coaches and running retailers to perform rapid...

Queros Raises $5M in Seed Funding
Qureos, a Dubai‑based AI hiring platform, secured $5 million in seed funding. The round was led by Prosus Ventures and Salica Oryx Fund, with participation from a slate of regional investors. The capital will accelerate AI feature development, expand the go‑to‑market...
Reviving the Lost Culture of Building Together
We used to build things? What happened? And what do we have to do to get back to building again? https://lnkd.in/gKUa7cNe

Exclusive: Positron Raises $230M Series B to Take on Nvidia’s AI Chips
Semiconductor startup Positron announced a $230 million Series B round, led in part by Qatar Investment Authority. The capital will accelerate deployment of its high‑speed memory chips and the Atlas inference processor, which claims H100‑class performance at a third of the power...
E690 | Sacha Michaud, Glovo: Scaling a Hyper-Competitive Marketplace (and Knowing when to Exit)
In this episode, former race‑horse jockey turned Glovo co‑founder Sacha Michaud walks through the operator playbook that powered Glovo’s rapid rise and disciplined exits. He explains how the company launched its MVP in 2.5 months, scaled internationally with a launch‑team...
2021 Sparked a Banner Year for Biotech IPOs. Where Are They Now?
In 2021 a pandemic‑driven gold rush produced 99 biotech IPOs that raised $15.6 billion, dwarfing the combined proceeds of 2023‑24. The surge created a “logical gap,” with many companies going public before their science was mature, leading to bankruptcies, pivots, and...

AI-Powered Fragrance Company Osmo Raises $70 Million in Series B Funding
AI‑driven fragrance startup Osmo announced a $70 million Series B round, led by Two Sigma Ventures and backed by Alumni Ventures and Patrick Collison. The capital will fund a move to a new manufacturing hub in New Jersey and the addition of three...
Plug Raises $20 Million Series A
Plug Technologies, a marketplace for buying and selling electric vehicles, announced a $20 million Series A round led by Lightspeed. The round also included participation from Galvanize and existing backers Autotech Ventures, Leap Forward Ventures, and Renn Global. Since its launch in...
Scale Faster with Seasoned Talent and Evolving Leaders
Not everyone has the same skill set, and sometimes bringing in a more seasoned crew to help transition your company from early-stage to scaling up can be a smart strategy. On TWiST, Amanda Bradford, William P. Barnes and I discuss...
MVPs Must Be Reliable Every Time, Not Feature‑Heavy
Even in its MVP form, the Uber app needed to be 100% trustworthy and reliable. When you use an app to get a ride somewhere, you need to know that you’ll also be able to get a ride back. If...

Angelsta Unveils the Future of Startup Equity in MENA
Angelsta has launched the first regulated, AI‑powered exchange for tokenized startup equity in the Middle East and North Africa, creating a secondary market for pre‑IPO shares. By converting private‑company stock into blockchain‑based digital assets, the platform tackles the region’s chronic...
VCs Fund Any Future They See Thriving Today
Thought: VC's can bet on different versions of the future. But there is only one version of the present. In other words, VCs will believe any version of the future if they are excited by what's happening right now.
From MEMS Startup to $7.5B TI Acquisition
Over 15yrs ago Lux partner @Farshchi and I worked close with Lux family co Silicon Clocks (MEMS resonators on CMOS circuits for timing products) thru their sale to Silicon Labs… Today Silicon Labs got acquired by Texas Instruments for $7.5B

AI Startup Phylo Nabs $13.5M for Its ‘Integrated Biology Environment’
Phylo Inc., an AI‑driven biology software startup, announced a $13.5 million seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz with participation from Menlo Ventures’ Anthology Fund and other investors. The company’s flagship product, Biomni Lab, acts as an integrated biology environment that links...
AI‑Powered SaaStr: 47% Revenue Rise, 3‑Person Team
We've spent the last year rebuilding SaaStr with 20+ AI agents. Revenue is up 47%. Team down to 3 humans. It's been the most intense learning curve of my career. I'm sharing all of it at SaaStr AI 2026. May...
BizTrip AI Raises $1.5M in New Pre-Seed Funding
BizTrip AI, a provider of AI‑powered travel management solutions, announced a $1.5 million pre‑seed funding round, bringing its total capital to $2.5 million. The third tranche was led by RRE Ventures with participation from AI Fund, BAG Collective, BAG Ventures, Correlation Ventures,...

Neo Financial Secures $68.5 Million in Equity as It Adopts Big-Bank Funding Playbook
Neo Financial announced a CAD 68.5 million equity round led by Canadian institutional investors such as AIMCo and Northleaf. The funding coincides with the launch of a securitization program that will bundle its credit assets to generate liquidity, a practice common among...

Lotus Health Nabs $35M for AI Doctor that Sees Patients for Free
Lotus Health AI announced a $35 million Series A round, co‑led by CRV and Kleiner Perkins, bringing total capital to $41 million. The Boston‑based startup is building a free, 24/7 primary‑care platform that uses large‑language‑model AI to conduct diagnoses, prescribe medication, and refer specialists,...
Public Markets Now More Concentrated; Non‑consensus Ideas Undervalued
to those worrying about the hyper concentration in VC: consider that public markets are more concentrated than they’ve been in ~ever. this isn’t a VC story, it’s an everything story. …which means: - the consensus is consensusing more than it’s ever consensed -...

Ares Interactive Raises $70M in Series A Funding
Ares Interactive, a San Francisco‑based game developer and publisher founded in 2024, announced a $70 million Series A round. The financing was led by venture firm General Catalyst, with participation from founder and executive chairman Niccolo de Masi. The capital will be deployed...

French Healthtech MyC Secures €10M to Digitise Medical Operations for Complex Worksites
French health‑tech startup MyC has closed a €10 million funding round led by Hi Inov, with participation from IXO, Elaia and OSS Ventures. The company offers a cloud‑based platform that centralises occupational health, first‑line medical care and regulatory reporting for complex, multi‑site...

Synthpop Raises $15M in Series A Funding
Synthpop, a Cambridge, MA‑based developer of agentic AI for healthcare operations, announced a $15 million Series A round. The financing was led by Ansa Capital and included Defy.vc, Peterson Ventures, Storm Ventures, and Bruce Broussard. In addition, Marco DeMeireles, co‑founder and managing...

China Startup AccurEdit Raises $75M for Gene Editing Therapies
AccurEdit, a Chinese biotech startup, closed a $75 million Series B round to accelerate its CRISPR‑based gene‑editing therapies. The funding, led by Hillhouse Capital and Sequoia China, will finance IND‑enabling studies and scale GMP manufacturing. Early preclinical data show over 90 percent editing...
Aya Data Closes $900K Seed Round to Scale AI Products for African Markets
Aya Data secured a $900,000 seed round led by 54Collective, bringing its total financing to $1.15 million. The funding will accelerate AyaGrow, an AI‑driven precision‑agriculture platform, and AyaSpeech, a speech‑to‑speech system for African languages. Founded in 2021, the company already supplies...
M&A Often Beats IPO for Founder Liquidity
Many founders view an IPO as the ultimate goal, but going public doesn’t always deliver what founders actually want: true liquidity and diversified financial risk. In this video, I talk through why M&A is often the more practical and rewarding...
Standard Capital Helps Without Sitting on Your Board
"@Standard_Cap's whole model is that they don't need to be on your board to be helpful"

Enclaive Secures €4.1m to Scale Confidential Computing Across Multi-Cloud
Berlin‑based enclaive closed a €4.1 million seed round led by Join Capital and the Amadeus APEX Technology Fund to accelerate its Multi‑Cloud Platform (eMCP). The funding will boost sales, marketing, product functionality and international expansion. eMCP lets organisations run workloads in...

V7 Labs Go Scales Across Finance
wait til folks see @v7labs go is doing already at scale across finance, legal, insurance, tax - not in research preview https://t.co/S8OtBtIsvI
CesiumAstro Secures $270M to Boost Defense Contracts
Spacecom company @CesiumAstro announced that it closed a $270M round of funding—which will help the company to cement further contracts in the defense sector, and build out its natsec business. https://t.co/yg15DTFTWo

Orion Security Raises $32M in Series A Funding
Orion Security, a New York‑based AI‑driven contextual data protection firm, announced a $32 million Series A round. The financing was led by Norwest and included strategic participation from IBM alongside existing backers such as PICO Venture Partners and Lama Partners. The new...