Today's Venture Capital Pulse
Updated 2h ago
Plazza eyes $15M raise to expand hyper‑local medicine delivery
Bengaluru‑based quick‑medicine delivery startup Plazza is in advanced talks to raise about $15 million, with roughly $4 million each expected from Accel, Elevation Capital and Nexus Venture Partners and $3 million from existing backers. The funding would value the company near $50 million and support the expansion of its inventory‑led, hyper‑local fulfilment network.
Also developing:
By the numbers: Beeline Medicines raises $300M Series A
nEye.ai Raises $80M to Scale AI Optical Switching
nEye.ai announced an $80 million Series C round, bringing its total capital to $152 million. The funding, led by Sutter Hill Ventures and joined by CapitalG, M12, Micron and others, will fuel a massive scale‑up of its patented SuperSwitch optical circuit switch chip. The technology replaces power‑hungry electrical switches with silicon‑photonic, MEMS‑based optical switching, aiming to solve latency and heat challenges in gigawatt‑scale AI data centers. nEye.ai plans to move to wafer‑scale manufacturing to capture a projected $3 billion market for composable infrastructure.
Networked Conviction 006
The latest edition of Networked Conviction, an investing journal for paying subscribers, is a curated round‑up of the author’s recent high‑level conversations. Topics span biotech organ‑transplant research, first‑principles manufacturing, AI business‑model tensions, and the premium placed on founder charisma. The...
![Volume 25 [Members Edition]](/cdn-cgi/image/width=1200,quality=75,format=auto,fit=cover/https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!P_CJ!,w_256,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fthecollectivecommunity.substack.com%2Fimg%2Fsubstack.png)
Volume 25 [Members Edition]
The latest Volume 25 members edition spotlights a wave of AI‑focused initiatives and market moves. Anthropic and Andreessen Horowitz unveiled joint fellowships to nurture next‑generation talent, while OpenAI announced the shutdown of its Sora video‑generation model. Notion made headlines by purchasing...
5 Patterns From Two Years of NYC VC Interviews
Lynx’s two‑year Inside VC series distilled five repeatable patterns from dozens of New York‑area venture partners. Founders learn that fundraising is a relationship‑driven, long‑game process, not a one‑off pitch, and that each firm sticks rigidly to its investment thesis. Success...
Financial Risk Management Platform Pillar Raises $20M Seed in Round Led by A16z
Pillar, a financial risk‑management platform for commodity‑driven firms, announced a $20 million seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz, bringing its total funding to $23 million. The AI‑powered solution automates hedging by ingesting contracts, ERP data, spreadsheets and even WhatsApp messages to continuously...
Pitch Crypto Startup at Vegas Conference for $1M
We’re heading to Las Vegas. On April 27, during Bitcoin Conference week, I’ll be filming Meet the Drapers in partnership with BitGo. This is a chance to pitch on a global stage, get in front of top investors, and compete for up...
The 10 Most Active NYC Venture Capital Firms in Q1 2026
AlleyWatch identified the ten most active New York‑based venture capital firms in Q1 2026, ranking them by the sheer number of investments made in NYC‑headquartered startups. The analysis, current through April 13, excludes accelerators, syndicates and undisclosed rounds, focusing solely on quantity...
Primepoint Closes $10M Seed Round to Advance Intelligence Platform that Reads and Understands Construction Drawings
Primepoint announced a $10 million seed round to scale its AI‑driven construction intelligence platform. The funding came in two tranches—$4 million co‑led by Penny Jar Capital and NextView Ventures, and $6 million led by Navitas Capital with participation from several other investors, including...
AI Triggers SaaS Re‑Rating, Not Collapse – Reassess Now
A lot of software founders are understandably rattled by AI right now. The headlines are loud, buyers are asking different questions, and the criteria for what makes a fundable or sellable business has shifted in a short period of time....
Final Results
Foresight VCT plc reported flat performance for 2025, with a NAV total return of 0.1% and a dividend yield of 16% including a special interim payout. The portfolio’s NAV fell from 82.0p to 71.6p per share after distributing £31.7m in...
Joining Union Square Ventures
The author, a former Anchor founder who sold the podcast platform to Spotify, announces his new role at Union Square Ventures (USV) after years as a friend and limited partner. He highlights USV’s distinctive culture of constant conversation, thesis‑driven investing,...
Modern Relay Raises $3M to Build Shared Infrastructure Layer for AI Agents in the Enterprise
Modern Relay announced a $3 million seed round backed by Point Nine, Emerge, Amino Collective, Common Magic and notable angels. The San‑Francisco‑Barcelona startup is building a shared infrastructure layer that consolidates people, policies, data and decisions so AI agents can operate...
Nava Raises $8.3 Million in Seed Funding to Keep AI Financial Agents From Going Off the Rails
Nava, a startup focused on securing autonomous AI-driven payments, closed an $8.3 million seed round led by Polychain and Archetype. The company proposes an escrow‑based verification layer that holds funds until an AI agent’s proposed transaction aligns with the user’s intent,...
Report: Hospitality Tech Startups Raised More than $1B in the Last Year
Hospitality tech startups raised over $1 billion across 40 companies between April 2025 and March 2026, with property‑management systems (PMS) and AI‑driven platforms attracting the most capital. A three‑month surge from December 2025 to February 2026 produced three mega‑raises—Mews’s $300 million round, Kindred’s $125 million dual rounds,...
Synera Raises $40M to Bring Agentic AI Into Engineering Workflows at NASA, BMW, Airbus, and Hyundai
Synera, a Bremen‑based startup, closed a $40 million Series B round led by Revaia, with Capgemini joining via ISAI Cap Venture. The funding will fuel U.S. expansion and deepen deployments of its agentic AI platform at NASA, BMW, Airbus, Hyundai and other industrial leaders....
Prefix Raises $7.5M to Scale AI-Driven Facility Management Platform
Prefix Maintenance Inc. announced a $7.5 million seed round to expand its AI‑driven facility‑management platform. The startup, founded in 2022, already supports nearly 2,000 locations across 50 restaurant and retail brands, delivering threefold efficiency gains and over 15% cost savings. Funding,...
Canadian Retirement Startup Raises $12 Million
Canadian fintech Common Wealth secured a CAD$12 million (~US$8.8 million) Series A round to accelerate its retirement‑plan platform. The raise builds on a prior CAD$15 million (~US$11 million) venture‑debt facility and targets the 10 million+ private‑sector workers lacking employer‑sponsored plans. By expanding services to small and...
Defense Tech Under Legal Scrutiny: How Regulation Is Reshaping Startup Investments in Europe
European defense technology is experiencing a rapid funding surge, now representing 6.2% of the continent’s venture‑capital market and attracting more than €1 billion (about $1.1 billion) in capital. New EU export‑control rules, the NIS2 directive and the upcoming Cyber Resilience Act have...
AI Satellite Constellation Startup Orbital Gets Funded by A16z to Verify Space-Based Data Center Concept
Orbital Inc., an AI satellite‑constellation startup, closed an undisclosed funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz’s a16z Speedrun. The capital will finance its first test mission, Orbital‑1, slated for launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 in April 2027. The company aims to prove...
U.S. Lost Uranium Enrichment, Needs Domestic Revival
.@ScottNolan started his career as employee 30 at SpaceX. He left to join Founders Fund after Peter Thiel recruited him personally in 2011, and spent the next 12 years backing companies like SpaceX, Anduril, Radiant, and Crusoe Energy. The through line...
Crucible Backs Three College Trading Teams to Launch Startups
random fact - Crucible has backed 3 co-founding teams that bonded over trading in college - @kaledora + @contrarianmarco, Harvard -> @OstiumLabs - @bavaria_kush + @wayne_nelmz, MIT -> @OrnnExchange - @harshavramesh + @cdeshpande17, Vanderbilt -> @PillarHQ LOVE OF THE GAME
Helical Secures $10M to Advance Virtual AI Lab for Pharma Research
Helical, a biotech startup founded in early 2024, announced a $10 million seed round led by redalpine with participation from Gradient, BoxGroup, Frst and AI industry angels. The company’s virtual AI lab combines foundation model outputs with biological validation to create...
Contracted ARR Definitions Vary Wildly Across Startup Pitches
A lot of "Contracted ARR" is being thrown at me in startup pitches these days. And it seems highly inconsistent in definition among founders...
Seeing Friends Profit From Your Startup Bets Feels Amazing
Been investing in startups for ~9 years now Occasionally convinced friends to co-invest alongside me Today I helped one of them get real liquidity from one of those bets I like building & investing, but seeing someone I really care about benefit from...
Primepoint Raises $10M to Scale Construction Intelligence Platform
Primepoint announced a $10 million seed round, split into an initial $4 million and a follow‑on $6 million, led by Penny Jar Capital, NextView Ventures and Navitas Capital. The capital will accelerate its AI‑driven construction intelligence platform that reads drawings, links them to...
Backing PillarHQ to Embed Hedging Across All Organizations
ANOTHER ONE proud to back @PillarHQ as they embed hedging into orgs of all size @harshavramesh @cdeshpande17 are the third team of founders who bonded trading together that we've backed from our Fund I (which is also how @kellyjgreer and i met) financial...
Fluidstack Seeks $1B Raise at $18B Valuation
Fluidstack is in talks to raise about $1B at a target valuation of $18B. Jane Street and former OpenAI researcher Leopold Aschenbrenner's Situational Awareness in talks about co-leading. SCOOP with @DavidPan_1 @RebeccaTorrenc5 @KatLeighDoherty https://t.co/cNNq2DtVHM
Global Capital Shifts Beyond Silicon Valley – and SA Benefits
Global investors are moving capital beyond traditional US tech hubs, with South Africa emerging as a key destination. The country secured $715 million in venture funding in 2025, the second‑largest in Africa, and total deal volume rose 25% YoY to $4.1 billion...
Half of VC‑Backed Startups Deliver No Investor Returns
“Harvard University released a study in 2012 of venture-backed firms that raised at least $1 million dollars… Fifteen hundred of the businesses failed to deliver any return to the investors.” –Smarter than a #Startup (2019) https://t.co/l2EObkfURN #smallbiz https://t.co/yj75V7id8v
Family Wealth Fuels Speculative Startup Funding
“He just put together a small fund and went to his family… If you’re coming from a family situation where they can afford to cut you a check for a few million dollars for something speculative, then that’s absolutely going...
‘The Next Big Thing’: Newfund Raises €60m to Back Brain Technologies
Paris‑based early‑stage venture capital firm Newfund has closed a €60 million ($65 million) fund dedicated to brain technologies, aiming to back up to 25 European startups with seed‑stage checks of $1‑3 million. The fund is the first Europe‑only VC focused exclusively on neuro‑tech,...
Ralio Raises £1.8m for Its Agentic Business Payments Platform
UK fintech Ralio has closed a £1.8 million (about $2.3 million) pre‑seed round to build its agentic payments platform. The round was oversubscribed, led by Sure Valley Ventures and joined by Seed X, Love Ventures, Plug and Play, and other investors. Ralio’s...
Community Event Platform Wygo Secures Nearly $1.6 Million Pre-Seed
Toronto‑based Wygo, an event‑planning app that encourages offline gatherings, announced a CAD 1.6 million (≈$1.2 million USD) pre‑seed round. The platform, launched by CEO Jocelyne Murphy and CTO Christopher Oka, has already sold more than 10,000 tickets for in‑person events. Investors such as Shopify...
Wallenberg Family Backs Stegra's Massive Green‑steel Plant
Ailing startup Stegra secures funding from the influential Wallenberg family to help complete what will be the world’s biggest green-steel plant https://t.co/Ic70chW4kW
Anthropic Tightens the Screws on OpenAI
OpenAI, valued at $852 billion, closed a $122 billion funding round that set a Silicon Valley record. The company has twice altered its product roadmap in six months, moving from consumer‑focused ChatGPT to an enterprise‑centric strategy to counter threats from Anthropic and...
TraqCheck Raises $8 Mn Series A Led by IvyCap Ventures
TraqCheck, an AI‑driven HR enterprise startup, announced an $8 million Series A round led by IvyCap Ventures with participation from IIFL. The capital will fund the company’s push into European markets, enhance its AI‑agent suite, and accelerate go‑to‑market efforts for enterprise clients....
Kelluu Raises €15m to Secure Europe’s Skies with Autonomous Airships
Finnish autonomous‑airship startup Kelluu raised €15 million ($16.3 million) in a Series A round led by the NATO Innovation Fund, its first Finnish investment. The company operates the world’s largest fleet of hydrogen‑powered, unmanned airships that can stay aloft for more than 12 hours...
BharatPe Co-Founder, Shashvat Nakrani Steps Back to Build Something New
BharatPe co‑founder Shashvat Nakrani announced he will step back from day‑to‑day operations on May 1, moving into a strategic advisor role while remaining a board director and the company’s largest individual shareholder. The fintech unicorn, valued at $2.7 billion, has raised $584 million...
Transcript: OpenAI Investors Question Its Valuation
Investors are scrutinising OpenAI’s roughly $850 bn valuation as the company pivots toward enterprise AI tools. The shift follows strong consumer performance with ChatGPT but raises doubts about competing with Anthropic and Google in the business market. OpenAI’s planned public listing...
Critical Loop Secures $26M Series A for Modular Microgrids
Modular microgrid company Critical Loop announces $26 million Series A round #energysky -- via pv magazine usa: https://t.co/QdfhDyUOUP
Deals in Brief: Three Singapore Startups Raise AI Funding; SC Ventures Leads Keyrock’s Series C Round; Six China Investments; and...
Singapore’s AI ecosystem saw a flurry of capital this week, with Muun AI closing a $700,000 pre‑seed round, OnSite raising $1.3 million seed funding for its construction‑focused communication platform, Injewelme securing $1.2 million to broaden contactless health‑monitoring capabilities, and NeuBird AI attracting...
Ultralight Raises $9.3M to Launch AI-Native Operating System for Healthcare
Ultralight, formerly Vibrant Practice, secured $9.3 million led by The General Partnership to develop an AI‑native operating system tailored for Direct Primary Care. The platform aims to replace fragmented legacy EHRs with a unified, “invisible” infrastructure that reduces clinician charting time....
YC Backs Stablecoins, Reshaping Finance Beyond ACH
YC will invest in any YC company in stablecoins The new financial rails of the revolution will not be over ACH or wire
CoreWeave Secures Tens of Billions to Accelerate AI Infrastructure Expansion
CoreWeave announced it has secured tens of billions of dollars in new capital to broaden its AI‑focused cloud services. The financing, raised in a matter of days, highlights the aggressive pace of venture funding for AI infrastructure and positions CoreWeave...
General Catalyst Appoints Nikesh Harora as Lead Independent Director
Thrilled to welcome @nikesharora as @generalcatalyst's first lead independent director. Nikesh brings the rare combination of investor thinking and operator execution and has led some of the most consequential tech orgs in the world. I've long admired the clarity and...
Solid Linear Businesses Beat Hype‑driven 100M Targets
Apparently hot take: Investing in something that has a rock solid linear business model is still a smart move. Saying anything that doesn't reach 100M valuation in 3 years is a waste is terribly myopic. VC theses are truly hilarious most...
PadSplit Secures ORIX Financing; A Federal Court Upholds America’s Most Controversial Coliving Ban; 4.1 Million Australians Turn to Coliving, and...
PadSplit announced a new debt financing facility from ORIX USA’s Growth Capital, signaling institutional confidence in affordable shared‑housing infrastructure. A federal appeals court upheld Shawnee, Kansas’s ordinance that limits more than three unrelated adults from sharing a dwelling, raising zoning...
OG Capital’s Sayan Ghosh Says Capital Is Plentiful, Execution Support Remains Scarce
Sayan Ghosh, founder of Ortella Global Capital (OG Capital), told YourStory that while India now has over 300 active venture funds, founders still struggle to find execution support. OG Capital’s $36 million fund invests in just two to three companies a...
MENA Startup Funding Slips to $941 Million in Q1 2026 Amid Heightened Geopolitical Risk
Startup funding in the Middle East and North Africa slipped to $941 million in Q1 2026, a 21.5% quarter‑on‑quarter decline and a 37% drop year‑on‑year as geopolitical tensions escalated. The UAE dominated the market with $625.8 million across 46 deals, while Saudi Arabia...
Tamwilcom Launches $69 Million Venture-Building Programme to Support 800 Moroccan Startups
Moroccan public financing institution Tamwilcom has unveiled a $69 million (MAD 700 million) venture‑building programme aimed at nurturing 800 early‑stage startups over the next three years. The initiative blends capital, monthly founder stipends, grants and loans of up to $220,000 with hands‑on mentorship...
