Today's Venture Capital Pulse
Updated 47m ago
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
Pasito Raises $21M in Series A Funding
Pasito, a New York‑based AI‑native workspace for group health and life insurers, closed a $21 million Series A round. Insight Partners led the financing, with participation from Y Combinator and insurance‑focused MTech Capital. The capital will fund product scaling, talent acquisition, and go‑to‑market initiatives. CEO and founder Pauline Roteta aims to expand the company’s agentic AI infrastructure for the insurance sector.
Ecovia Bio Closes Series B Funding
Ecovia Bio, a Livonia, Michigan biotech firm that produces biopolymer ingredients, closed a Series B financing round led by Pointe Angels. The amount raised was not disclosed, but the capital will be used to expand manufacturing capacity at its Livonia facility....
Derapi Raises $7M in Seed Funding
Derapi, a San Francisco‑based software firm developing connective infrastructure for the distributed energy ecosystem, announced a $7 million seed financing round. The round was led by Earthshot Ventures and featured participation from Tuesday Capital, Susquehanna Sustainable Investments, WYVC, Breakthrough Venture Capital,...
Peak XV Says Internal Disagreement Led to Partner Exits as It Doubles Down on AI
Peak XV Partners, a leading India‑Southeast Asia venture firm, announced the departure of three senior partners—Ashish Agrawal, Ishaan Mittal and Tejeshwi Sharma—after an internal disagreement. The trio plans to launch a new VC fund, while Peak XV promoted Abhishek Mohan...
AI Materials Startups Flooded with Pitches In
in less than 12h i got 3 inbound pitches for ai-first materials companies tis the season, again?
RapidFort Raises $42M to Push Continuous Remediation for Software Supply Chain Security
RapidFort Inc. announced a $42 million Series A round to accelerate its continuous remediation platform for software supply chain security. The funding, led by Blue Cloud Ventures and Forgepoint Capital, will expand go‑to‑market efforts, enhance automated container hardening, and deepen adoption in...
Kasada Raises US$20M in Funding
Kasada, a New York cybersecurity startup, raised $20 million in a funding round led by EQT and backed by existing investors including Ten Eleven Ventures and Main Sequence Ventures. The capital will fund product scaling, cloud infrastructure expansion, and entry into...
VC10X - From Zero to Fund One: Lessons From 1st Time Fund Manager
In this 39‑minute episode, Kevin Moore recounts his 15‑year journey from civil engineer to first‑time VC fund manager, highlighting why there’s never a perfect moment to launch a fund and how sales skills dominate a GP’s role. He demystifies LP...
Raising $6.1M in Seed Funding, Airrived Says Agentic AI’s Breakthrough Moment Has Arrived
AI startup Airrived announced a $6.1 million seed round led by Cannage Capital, with participation from Plug and Play Ventures and other investors. The company introduced Agentic OS, an operating layer that makes agentic AI a native capability for enterprise workflows, allowing...
HK Fintech Wonder Secures $12m Venture Debt From HSBC to Expand Apac Operations
Hong Kong‑based fintech Wonder has closed a $12 million venture‑debt facility with HSBC Innovation Banking. The financing is earmarked for scaling its payment platform across the Asia‑Pacific region. Wonder plans to use the capital to broaden its product suite, accelerate hiring,...
$26M Funding Round Backs Veremark’s International Expansion and Service Rollout
Veremark, a London‑based workplace‑trust platform, secured $26 million in Series B funding led by Gresham House Ventures, with existing backers and a debt facility from Salica Partners. The round follows Veremark’s acquisition of Agenda Screening Services, expanding its checks to over 180...
Artificial Labs Raises $45M in Series B Funding
Artificial Labs, a London‑based digital broking and underwriting platform for specialty and commercial insurance, secured $45 million in Series B financing. The round was led by CommerzVentures with participation from Move Capital Fund I and existing backers. The capital will fund a...
Healthcare and Financial Wellbeing Startup for over 60s Lateral Raises £2.5M
UK‑based startup Lateral has closed a £2.5 million seed round led by Augmentum, with participation from Triple Point and TinyVC. The funding will launch its inaugural Lateral Health Plan, a combined private‑health cover, care‑navigation service and preventive‑benefit package aimed at the...
Refute Raises £5M Seed Round to Address Disinformation Threats
London‑based Refute, an AI‑driven counter‑disinformation startup, closed a £5 million seed round led by Amadeus Capital Partners, with participation from Playfair, Episode 1, Osney Capital and the National Security Strategic Investment Fund. The funding will accelerate development of its platform that detects...
Why the Xeinadin Auction Collapse Is a Reality Check for the Mid-Tier
The episode examines the collapse of Xeinadin's £1 bn auction, highlighting it as a warning sign for mid‑tier UK accountancy firms that have pursued aggressive buy‑and‑build strategies. Host Nikita Alexander explains that despite Xeinadin’s impressive scale—130 offices and 2,500 staff—potential buyers...
CIQ Creates Startup Program to Offer High-Performance AI Infrastructure for Early-Stage Innovators
CIQ announced the CIQ Startup Program, giving early‑stage, VC‑backed startups six months of free access to its high‑performance AI infrastructure and up to an 80% discount for the following two years. The offering includes Rocky Linux AI with pre‑integrated frameworks,...
Evolving as a VC: Lessons in Firm Building
I've been thinking a lot about where I am as a VC in terms of firm building and what feels different now than when I first got started and put together some thoughts - a lot of this was inspired...
Two Stanford Students Launch $2M Startup Accelerator for Students Nationwide
Two Stanford students, Roman Scott and Itbaan Nafi, have secured $2 million from investors such as Mayfair and Collide Capital to launch Breakthrough Ventures, a nationwide accelerator for college‑aged founders. The program offers up to $100,000 in grant funding, compute credits,...
Investors Bet Big on AI as Core Hardware Infrastructure
Investors poured billions into AI startups this week, treating artificial intelligence as core operating infrastructure. Ricursive Intelligence secured $300 million Series A at a $4 billion valuation to accelerate AI‑driven semiconductor design, while Waabi raised $1 billion to scale autonomous trucking and robotaxi fleets....
Invisible Economies Drive Exponential Value Through Relationships and Design
The most valuable signals are invisible. Most leaders are still optimizing for yesterday's. We're not in one economy anymore. We're in at least 10 at once. These are behavioral ecosystems. Basically invisible overlays intersecting with your brand, culture, innovation pipeline,...
Outtake Closes $40M Series B Led by ICONIQ to Build the Unified Platform for Digital Trust in the AI Era
Outtake announced a $40 million Series B round led by ICONIQ, with participation from CRV, S32 and a slate of high‑profile tech executives. The funding will accelerate its unified digital‑trust platform that protects enterprises from AI‑driven impersonation and identity abuse. Outtake reported...
Arcesium Acquires Limina
Arcesium, a New York‑based fintech serving investment firms, announced the acquisition of Limina, a Stockholm‑based provider of portfolio and order management systems. Financial terms were not disclosed. The purchase adds Limina’s P/OMS technology to Arcesium’s platform, bolstering its European footprint....
22 Ventures Group Outlines Strategic Direction for Innovation, Capital Allocation, and Platform-Led Growth
22 Ventures Group unveiled a refined strategic roadmap that places execution discipline at the core of its innovation, capital allocation, and growth initiatives. The firm will channel funds toward digital‑trading platforms that demonstrate operational readiness, transparent governance, and scalable infrastructure....
Listing Isn’t Enough—Actively Drive Your Startup Sale
Sometimes founders list their startup and then wait. They assume buyers will just show up, ask questions, and magically move things forward. That almost never happens. Selling a business requires running an actual sales process. After NDAs are signed, you need to reach...
Massive Pre‑Product Funding Could Bring AI To
Now that you can raise a 9-figure round pre-product, there's a non-zero chance we see a Super Bowl ad for pre-revenue AI company this year.
2025 - The Year of Quantum
Quantum computing is moving from theoretical research to commercial opportunity, with startups already delivering products in cybersecurity, networking, middleware, and sensing. Andy Leaver of Notion Capital argues that waiting for fault‑tolerant, cryptography‑breaking machines is unnecessary; viable markets exist today. He...
Varo Raises $124M Despite $92M Loss
The sunk cost fallacy is alive & well: Varo announced it has raised ANOTHER $123.9 million. Varo posted a net loss of $91.7 million in 2025, per its just-released call report. https://t.co/iGHX1ILeL9
Venture Capital & the World It Lives In
General Partner Jos White of Notion Capital released his first annual market update, translating a recurring presentation into a full article. He highlights that the S&P 500 recorded 35 new highs in 2025 and rose 17% year‑to‑date, while the ACWI All‑World...
ESG Report
ESG has moved from a niche concern to a mainstream priority for investors worldwide. Over 5,300 investment organisations, managing roughly $128 trillion in assets, have signed the UN Principles for Responsible Investment. This surge reflects ESG’s evolution from a risk‑mitigation checkbox...
Shield Raises $100 Million From Thrive Holdings to Accelerate the Growth of Its IT Services Platform
Shield Technology Partners announced a $100 million investment from Thrive Holdings to accelerate its AI‑first IT services platform. The funding will boost product innovation, expand the company’s national partner network, and fund strategic M&A. Shield’s AI‑driven tools, Sentinel and Spectre, have...
Q&A: Why Deep Tech Investors Are Turning To The Secondary Market For Liquidity
Celesta Capital’s founding partner Sriram Viswanathan explains that abundant capital and a shrinking pool of high‑quality deep‑tech deals are fueling a surge in secondary‑market transactions. Investors are using secondaries to gain liquidity as private exits stretch, especially in AI‑driven hardware...
CesiumAstro to Scale Operations with $470 Million in Equity and Debt Financing
CesiumAstro announced a $470 million financing package on Feb. 2, comprising $270 million in equity and $200 million in debt. The round was led by Trousdale Ventures and included investors such as Toyota’s Woven Capital, Airbus Ventures, and the U.S. Export‑Import Bank. The capital...
What Happens to the AI Exit Market if the FTC Cracks Down on ‘Acquihires’?
The FTC is signaling a shift toward treating both traditional acquihires and reverse‑acquihires as subject to the same antitrust standards that govern full mergers. Reverse‑acquihires—where a firm takes a minority stake or no money but hires key talent—have historically avoided...
20VC: 50% of Funds Will Go Out of Business | Why Growth Expectations Today Are BS and Will Not Last...
In this episode, Oren Zeev discusses why many venture investments look wrong initially, the overhyped AI boom, and the dangers of chasing hyper‑growth. He predicts a major shakeout with roughly half of VC funds failing, explains his radical alignment model...
Biorce Raises $52M to Support Global Rollout of Its AI Clinical Trial Platform
Barcelona‑based health AI firm Biorce closed a $52 million Series A round, led by DST Global Partners and supported by existing backers Norrsken VC, YZR Capital and Mustard Seed Maze. The financing brings total capital raised above $60 million and will fund the...
Build Deployable AI Workflows at SaaStr AI 2026
Not just talks. At SaaStr AI 2026, we're running 100s of hands-on workshops where you'll build actual AI workflows for your company. Sales. CS. Product. Ops. Leave with something you can deploy Monday. May 12-14. SF Bay. https://t.co/IsMOos9H4H
19‑Year Curated Lists Power New AI‑
I just went through my CS Academics list, moved everyone over to other lists, then deleted it. People have no idea how much time it takes to curate great lists. Been working on them for 19 years. While doing that...
When Should Founders Scale Secondaries Across Rounds?
Startup founders are increasingly tapping secondary markets to secure personal liquidity without exiting their companies. Platforms such as Forge Global and Nasdaq Private Market streamline direct secondary sales and tender offers, while venture capitalists are more supportive of controlled liquidity...
I Wrote Off $4M to $0. My Co-Investor Marked Up the Same Deal to $30M. Here’s What Founders Need to...
The author wrote off a $4 million SaaStr Fund investment to zero, while a co‑investor marked the same deal up to $30 million. The divergence stems from the co‑investor’s need to showcase a strong TVPI while fundraising for a new fund, prompting...
Price SaaS Realistically: Focus on Profit, Not Hype
“I want to sell for 10x revenue because I heard that’s the average SaaS multiple.” That mindset usually leads to disappointment. Those outsized multiples exist, but they’re rare. They’re not the norm. And anchoring on them can stop you from selling at...
NIMBYism Costs U.S. Workers $8,775 Annually
I found a paper that actually quantifies the amount of money that is lost by society because NIMBYism prevents NY, SF Bay Area from building enough housing for their highly productive workers: $8,775 for every worker in America every year....
VC Roundup: Crypto Funding Rebounds as Institutions Test Onchain Finance
Venture capital and institutional investors poured $1.4 billion into digital‑asset companies in early 2026, highlighted by Visa‑linked stablecoin issuer Rain’s $250 million raise at a $1.9 billion valuation and BitGo’s $200 million‑plus NYSE IPO. On‑chain finance startups such as Bitway, Everything, Veera and Prometheum...
Join Airstreet AI Meetups in Munich, Zurich, Paris
swing by the @airstreet ai meetup in: - munich 17 feb - zurich 19 feb - paris 11 mar more on: luma(dot)com/airstreet https://t.co/9ZuRL4Kk0A
Unmasking EBITDA: From 1970s Cable to AI Era
EBITDA: the most quoted metric in finance… and the least understood. So we decided to make a mini documentary on its origins… yea, seriously. In our new segment, A CFO Explains, producer Ben Hillman and I try to “adjust” our...
Possible: Amjad Masad on Vibe Coding, AI Agents, and the End of Boilerplate
In this episode, Reid Hoffman and Aria Finger interview Amjad Masad, CEO of Replit, about how AI is democratizing software creation by turning natural language into functional code. Masad shares his journey from self‑teaching in Jordan to building a platform...
Early Hires Need Passion, Later Scaling Can Diversify
Not everyone on the team really needs to be on your mission But almost all the first 50 employees do Hire pirates and romantics at least until you are truly ready to scale
A Series of Webinars About How Venture Capital Works by a U.S. VC
In this three‑week webinar series launching on February 16, Denis Kalyshkin—a principal at a U.S. venture capital firm and former aerospace engineer—explains how VC funds operate, covering market analysis, deal terms, due diligence, and financial modeling for startups. He breaks...
Invest When Hype Fades; Real Builders Keep Building
Received 400 applications for Easy Residence (@Yzilabs) next season. Every season has about 20 projects, aiming for 4-6 season's per year. I find it easier to invest when the market is less hot. All the hype goes away. Real builders...
Invest Qatar Showcases Ecosystem Growth at Web Summit Qatar 2026 via Startup Qatar Pavilion
Invest Qatar will host the Startup Qatar Pavilion at Web Summit Qatar 2026, highlighting the nation’s fast‑growing entrepreneurial ecosystem. The pavilion will unite key agencies such as QFZ, QFC, MCIT, QDB and Media City Qatar to streamline setup, licensing, funding...
Deepgram Raises $130 Million Series C at $1.3 Billion Valuation
Deepgram announced a $130 million Series C round that lifts its valuation to $1.3 billion, led by AVP and joined by strategic backers such as Twilio, ServiceNow Ventures, SAP and Citi Ventures. The capital will accelerate the expansion of its real‑time voice AI...