Today's Venture Capital Pulse
Clip secures $500M to accelerate consumer wallet rollout
Mexican fintech Clip raised $500 million, pushing its valuation above $2.5 billion. The new capital will fund the rollout of a consumer‑focused wallet and broaden its financial‑services platform. Investors were not disclosed and the round remains under review.
Also developing:
By the numbers: Francisco Partners raises $18B for new tech funds
Xscape Photonics Closes $81M Series A Round
Xscape Photonics closed a $37 million extension to its Series A, bringing total Series A funding to $81 million and doubling its valuation. The round, led by Addition with participation from IAG Capital Partners and NVIDIA, funds the rollout of FalconX, the first fully redundant external laser SFP that can emit eight simultaneous wavelengths. The capital also accelerates development of the ChromX programmable photonics platform, aiming for 16, 32 and eventually 128‑color laser modules. Overall, Xscape has now raised nearly $95 million since its 2022 founding.
Zymtrace Secures $12.2M
Zymtrace, a distributed AI infrastructure optimization platform, announced it has raised a total of $12.2 million, including an $8.5 million seed round led by Venture Guides. The round attracted strategic angels such as Thomas Wolf of Hugging Face and Christian Bach of Netlify, alongside existing...
Swarm Aero Raises $35M Series A Financing
Swarm Aero announced a $35 million Series A round led by Two Sigma Ventures and Silent Ventures, bringing its total capital to $59 million. The financing includes participation from Khosla Ventures, Coatue, Founders Fund and several other investors. The company also unveiled an...
Spin.AI Secures K1 Investment, Accelerating Growth
Congrats to Dmitry Dontov , Helen Yevtushenko , and the Spin.AI team for their recent investment by K1 Investment Management . Best of luck as you kick off the next stage in your journey. Glad we could help. Check out...
STAKE Closes $8M Funding
Stake the Network for Renters closed an $8 million debt‑and‑equity round after reporting four‑fold revenue growth in 2025. The financing follows its acquisition of Lighthouse and UMoveFree, Texas’s largest apartment‑locating platform. Led by LAGO with participation from RET Ventures, Bluefield Capital, Hamilton...
Standard Kernel Scores $20M Seed Round
Standard Kernel, a Palo Alto‑based startup, develops AI‑driven tools that automatically generate ultra‑optimized GPU software. The company announced a $20 million seed round, led by Jump Capital, with participation from General Catalyst, Felicis, Cowboy Ventures, Link Ventures, Essence VC, and a...
Harvey and The LegalTech Fund to Invest in Startups Across the Ecosystem
Harvey, the AI‑driven legal platform, has partnered with The LegalTech Fund (TLTF) to co‑invest in emerging legal‑technology startups. The collaboration will leverage TLTF’s deal pipeline and Harvey’s product expertise to streamline startup vetting and potentially create a marketplace akin to...
Sara’s List Returns: Targeting 5‑Year 5x Winners
sara’s list is back the rules are simple, the company must.. - have product market fit - be funded, be growing (and probably has oat milk in the company fridge) - be able to 5x in 5 years, i.e $200k in stock can become...
Breakout Ventures Raises $114M Fund to Back AI Science Startups
Breakout Ventures announced the close of its third fund, raising $114 million to back early‑stage AI‑driven science startups in biology and chemistry. The firm aims to invest in at least 20 companies, writing checks between $500,000 and $5 million. Fund III follows...
Handle Raises $6M Seed Round Led by Andreessen Horowitz
Handle, a San Francisco AI platform that unifies enterprise tools, closed a $6 million seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz. The company’s Signal engine links email, WhatsApp, CRMs, ERPs and supplier portals, enabling autonomous agents to handle quoting, claims registration and...
Chowbus Raises $81 Million to Expand Its AI-Powered Platform for Independent Restaurants
Chicago-based Chowbus raised $81 million to broaden its AI‑powered restaurant platform. The company now reports over $120 million in annual recurring revenue and processes roughly $4 billion in transactions across the U.S. and Canada. Moving beyond point‑of‑sale software, Chowbus will add...
Replit Secures $400M to Power AI‑Driven Creativity
We’ve raised $400M at a $9B valuation. Investors include Georgian, G Squared, Prysm, 1789, YC, Coatue, a16z, Craft, and QIA, with strategic investments from Accenture, Databricks, Okta, and Tether. We’re also lucky to have incredible individuals backing us, including Shaq and...
Rivian Spin-Out Mind Robotics Raises $500M for Industrial AI-Powered Robots
Mind Robotics, a Rivian spin‑out, closed a $500 million Series A round co‑led by Accel and Andreessen Horowitz, lifting its valuation to roughly $2 billion. The funding follows a $115 million seed round, bringing total capital raised to $615 million since its November 2025 launch. The...
Accredited Investors Get Limited Access to AI & Biotech Gems
SoFi and Templum Open Limited Window to Invest in OpenAI, Perplexity, and Colossal via Cosmos Fund March 5-30 window for accredited investors. Choose individual assets or all three: OpenAI (AI infrastructure), Perplexity (AI search, 22M MAUs), Colossal (decacorn biotech). Private market...
Translucent Secures $27M for Healthcare Finance AI Platform
Translucent, an AI-native healthcare finance startup, closed a $27 million Series A round led by GV with participation from NEA, Virtue and FPV Ventures. The funding follows a $7 million seed round and will accelerate its agentic AI platform that unifies clinical, operational...
Test Investor Commitment Now, Not Just Bank Diversification
Founders: the real lesson from the SVB collapse three years ago wasn’t “diversify your bank.” It was this: find out now -- in good times -- whether your investor will wire money with no strings when everything breaks. Most won’t....
Exclusive: AI Startup Axiamatic Raises $54 Million to Help Companies Push Their Digital Transformations Forward
Axiamatic, an AI startup founded by serial entrepreneur Rajiv Gupta, announced a $54 million Series A round led by Greylock and Bessemer. The company offers an "agentic control plane" that creates a live digital‑twin of enterprise transformation programs by ingesting data from...
Private Markets Investors Increasingly Favour India over Peers in APAC
India has become the leading private‑markets destination in APAC, with 31% of surveyed limited partners (LPs) ranking it first and 76% placing it among their top three choices. Over half of the LPs plan to increase allocations, and private‑market funds...
From Hype To Outcomes: How VCs Recalibrate Around Agentic AI
The conversation around agentic AI is moving from speculative ambition to concrete outcomes as 2026 approaches. Snowflake's Startup 2026 report, based on interviews with eight AI‑focused VCs, shows investors now value agents that are embedded in specific, data‑rich workflows and...
Biotech Winter: Funding Freeze, IPO Surge, Path to Thaw
Biotech Science at Less Than Zero | Ep. 955 https://t.co/4DXKsaKXdO [00:49] Biotech capital winter deep dive [01:17] Scientific leaps vs frozen markets [02:31] The 2020–2021 biotech bubble [03:42] Crossover funds fuel IPO surge [04:56] Interest rates freeze biotech funding [07:58] Negative enterprise value phenomenon [10:37] Why Big Pharma...
Deep Tech Expertise Was Wise Before It Became a Meme
Backing deep tech was smart 5 years ago when it wasn't the meme, you say? It's important to have deep tech expertise, you say? Key is to have built an edge in deep tech, you say?
Quince Raises $500M Series E, Resulting in $10.1B Valuation to Accelerate the Manufacturer-to-Consumer Platform
Quince announced a $500 million Series E round led by ICONIQ, pushing its post‑money valuation to $10.1 billion. The capital will accelerate the rollout of its proprietary Manufacturer‑to‑Consumer (M2C) operating system that links specialist factories directly to shoppers. By leveraging AI‑driven weekly demand...
DLP Reinvented: Jazz Uses NLP to Guard GenAI Data
Traditional DLP was built for email attachments and USB drives. That world is gone. Jazz raised $61M to rebuild DLP from scratch: natural language policies instead of regex. Every time someone pastes data into a GenAI tool, they create flows your DLP...
Media VC Deals Plunge 70% While AI Soars
.@thewrap looks at M&A so far this year: media VC deals are falling – 70% year over year – compared to AI which is soaring. Here’s the story in charts, in partnership with @PitchBook : https://t.co/dQDSQqFM6m
RA Capital, Forbion and Canaan Appear to Back Harbour's CTLA-4 Partner Solstice
RA Capital, Forbion, and Canaan have collectively invested in Solstice Therapeutics, the CTLA-4 antibody partner of Harbour Therapeutics. The funding round, reportedly a multi‑million dollar Series B, will support Solstice's pre‑clinical and early clinical programs. By backing Solstice, the investors...
Crisis Exposes VCs: Sympathy Tweets, Few Cash, Many Vultures
Crisis removes marketing. In March 2023, "value-add" VCs sent sympathy tweets while founders begged for payroll. A few wired cash, no terms, no leverage. The rest were vultures in venture clothing. https://t.co/OxfY9VN3wI https://t.co/EYgVVU38We
Vima Raises $100M to Develop Oral Movement Disorder Drug
With $100M, Vima pursues an oral drug for movement disorders https://t.co/gLrhlYDMSy by @gwendolynawu #biotech #startups
Large Series C Signals Scale-Up of China’s Laser Satellite Communications Sector
Shanghai‑based BlueStar Optical Domain announced a Series C round of roughly 500 million yuan ($72 million). The capital will fund a production‑line upgrade aimed at delivering 1,000 laser communication terminals annually by mid‑2026. The move positions BlueStar as a mass‑production supplier for China’s...
What to Call Tr
I never liked the name Unicorn but if: $1 Billion = Unicorn $10 Billion = Decacorn What is $1 Trillion? $10 Trillion?
Europe Pumps $4B+ Into AI to Power GDPR Compliance
European AI raised $4B+ in one weekend. AMI Labs: $1.03B seed (Europe's largest ever) Nscale: $2B Legora: tripled to $5.55B Nexthop: $500M Eridu: $200M The continent that gave us GDPR is now building the AI infrastructure to comply with it. https://t.co/jGHmurETEC
Entrepreneurs First Crowned a Unicorn Following $200m Fundraise
Entrepreneurs First raised $200 million, pushing its valuation to $1.3 billion and achieving unicorn status. The capital influx, backed by Reid Hoffman, Stripe founders, Eric Schmidt and Greylock, will fund the management company and expand its builder‑accelerator model. EF’s portfolio has surged...
Ontario Teachers’ Venture Growth Portfolio Posts 30 Percent Gains in 2025
Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan’s Teachers Venture Growth (TVG) unit delivered a 30.2% return in 2025, far outpacing its 18.5% benchmark. The fair value of TVG’s net investments jumped to C$15.3 bn, up from C$10.4 bn a year earlier, as stakes in SpaceX,...
Blackcat CTO on the Future of European Fintech: Multi-Rail Finance and Operational Maturity
Blackcat rebranded from Blackcatcard and launched a unified multi‑wallet app that merges a personal EUR IBAN, SEPA transfers, card payments and regulated crypto services. The new architecture lets users manage separate fiat and crypto wallets within a single interface, reducing...
OpenCFO Bags $2 Mn To Scale Agentic AI-Powered B2B Finance Platform
Fintech startup OpenCFO secured $2 million seed funding, led by Endiya Partners, to accelerate its AI-driven B2B finance platform. The solution automates accounts payable, receivable, and treasury functions for mid‑market companies with multinational operations, integrating ERP, banks, and payment rails. OpenCFO...
Global RegTech Funding Recovered in 2025 Driven by a 55% Rise in Deals Under $100m
Global RegTech funding rebounded in 2025, reaching $8.5 billion—a 31 percent year‑over‑year increase—but remains well below the 2021 peak. The market closed with 546 deals, 23 percent more than 2024, while average deal size nudged up to $15.6 million. Funding for transactions under $100 million...
European AI Startups See Soaring Investor Funding
Investor appetite for European AI startups keeps accelerating. Swedish legaltech Legora just raised $550 million at a $5.5 billion valuation, its third funding round in a year. Europe’s AI ecosystem is attracting serious capital as the global race intensifies. https://t.co/cdx0XcraQe @cnbc
Hub71 Startup Skipr Raises $2m to Build ‘Autonomous Trust Fabric’ for AI
Abu Dhabi‑based startup Skipr closed a $2 million seed round, valuing the company at $10 million. The funding will accelerate the rollout of its autonomous trust fabric, a sovereign‑grade infrastructure that secures AI‑to‑AI communication across borders. Skipr’s platform combines cryptographic identities, policy‑driven...
Unlocking the Vault: Apollo Global and the Rise of the UK Long-Term Asset Fund (LTAF):
The FCA‑approved Apollo Long‑Term Asset Fund (LTAF) opens UK defined‑contribution pensions to private credit, infrastructure and venture capital. By imposing 90‑ to 180‑day redemption windows, the fund avoids the liquidity mismatches that plagued earlier products. Apollo will channel pension capital...
RSAC's Innovation Sandbox Is Where Cybersecurity's Next Giants Are Born
The RSAC Innovation Sandbox celebrates its 20th year, showcasing ten cybersecurity startups tackling AI governance, identity, and supply‑chain risks. Over the past two decades the contest has spurred more than $50.1 billion in investments and over 100 acquisitions among its alumni....
SVB Revealed only a Few VCs Gave Unconditional Cash
Three years ago, SVB exposed who VCs really are. Not the ones who tweeted sympathy. The ones who wired money -- no docs, no terms, no theater -- before the government stepped in. Very few did. That's the test most...
Atai Capital Management Q4 2025 Commentary
Atai Capital Management posted a 5.0 % net loss for Q4 2025, underperforming the S&P 500, Russell 2000 and Russell Microcap benchmarks. The quarter’s top performer was Bel Fuse, which the firm subsequently exited, while a new undisclosed position in Kitwave Group was added and...
Fast Loans and Direct Payroll Integration Ensure Employee Pay
At @fiftyyears we gave fast loans and even connected our personal bank accounts to portfolio companies' payroll systems to ensure they could pay their employees.
Investment in MENA Startups Hits $327 Million in February 2026
Investment in MENA startups slowed sharply in February 2026, with total capital deployed falling 42% month‑on‑month to $326.6 million across 62 deals. The UAE remained the dominant ecosystem, contributing $162.8 million from 23 companies, while fintech led sector funding at $94.7 million. Early‑stage...
Home-Help App Snabbit in Funding Talks at $450 Million Valuation
India’s Bangalore‑based on‑demand household‑help platform Snabbit is negotiating a new funding round that would value the company at roughly $450 million. The startup, founded in 2024, has already raised $56 million across its seed and Series C rounds, up from a $180 million valuation...
Nexthop AI Completes $500M Series B
Nexthop AI announced the closure of an oversubscribed $500 million Series B round, boosting its post‑money valuation to $4.2 billion. The round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners with Andreessen Horowitz as a major co‑investor, alongside Altimeter and existing backers. The funding will...
Unreasonable Labs Emerges From Stealth with AI Platform for Scientific Discovery
Unreasonable Labs announced its launch from stealth and closed a $13.5 million Series A round led by Playground Global, with participation from AIX Ventures, E14 Fund, and MS&AD Ventures. The Cambridge‑based startup, founded by a former Google DeepMind senior scientist and an...
16 Unicorn Pitch Decks: Before the Billions
The author has assembled a visual collection of 16 early‑stage pitch decks from companies now worth over $1.5 trillion, including Airbnb, Uber, Facebook and WeWork. The decks, ranging from eight to twelve slides, reveal that the most successful seed presentations are...
Juicebox Raises $80M to Transform AI Recruiting
Juicebox, an AI recruiting platform, secured $80 million in Series B funding led by DST Global, with participation from Sequoia, Coatue, Y Combinator and others. Since its Series A, the company has tripled annual recurring revenue and grown to 5,000 customers, claiming up to...
Small Funds Still Thrive Despite Big‑fund Warnings
Funny thing when an LP calls you to ask: “Hey, there are some big funds going around telling LPs that small funds are going to die. What do you think?” I ask them: “Just go look at large fund returns vs...
Bankers Claim $100M ARR Now Enough for IPO
"I'm hearing bankers say things like, '$100 million ARR, we could probably take that public.' I haven’t heard that in a while."