Today's Venture Capital Pulse
Nvidia joins $1B Series F, pushing Vast Data valuation to $30B
Vast Data secured a $1 billion Series F round, lifting its valuation to $30 billion. The round was led by Drive Capital and Access Industries and included investors such as Nvidia, Fidelity and NEA. The startup reported over $4 billion in cumulative bookings and more than $500 million in annual recurring revenue.
Also developing:
By the numbers: Japanet Holdings quadruples VC fund to $200M
FinTech Funding Continues Strong Run with over $800m Raised This Week
FinTech activity remained robust this week with 22 deals raising a total of $806.2 million, a sharp drop from the previous week’s $2.17 billion surge driven by RegTech and CyberTech. WealthTech dominated, accounting for seven deals and delivering $505 million across two marquee rounds, including Plata’s $405 million Series C that valued the Latin‑American digital bank at $5 billion and Slash Financial’s $100 million Series C that pushed it to unicorn status. The United States led geographically with ten transactions, while the UK, Italy, Switzerland and several other markets each contributed one deal. Despite higher deal counts, total funding fell 63% week‑over‑week, signalling a shift toward more numerous, smaller‑sized rounds.
AV Startup Funding Triples in 2026, One Deal Dominates
Funding to autonomous vehicle startups has seen a massive resurgence in 2026, more than tripling so far this year compared to all of 2025 globally, @crunchbase data show. One outsized deal made up 3/4 of the total. But it wasn't ...
Factory Raises $150M at $1.5B Valuation to Scale AI Coding Agents for Enterprises
Factory, an AI‑driven coding platform founded in 2023, raised $150 million in a Series B round at a $1.5 billion valuation. The round was led by Khosla Ventures with participation from Sequoia Capital, Insight Partners and Blackstone, and veteran investor Keith Rabois joined...
Mundi Ventures Reaches First Close of $100M LatAm Fund
Spanish venture capital firm Mundi Ventures announced the first close of its LatAm Fund I, a $100 million vehicle dedicated to Latin America and the Caribbean. The fund has already secured commitments from BID Invest, Cofides and two regional financial groups....
Ep. 195 - Why Code No Longer Drives SaaS Value in the AI Era
In this episode Tim Schumacher, co‑founder of SaaS Group, discusses why traditional code‑centric SaaS value is being upended by AI. He explains how AI creates both existential fear for founders of thin‑margin, UI‑only products and new opportunities for businesses with...
Upscale AI Targets $2B Valuation in Latest Funding Talks Despite No Product Launch
Upscale AI is in talks to raise $180‑$200 million, aiming for a $2 billion valuation in its third funding round within seven months. The company has already secured a $100 million seed and a $200 million Series A, backed by Tiger Global, Xora Innovation and...
Hocco Raises ₹100 Cr in Series C, Crosses ₹530 Cr Revenue in FY26
Indian ice‑cream brand Hocco secured a ₹100 crore ($12 million) Series C round led by Sauce VC, lifting its valuation to roughly ₹2,500 crore ($300 million). The company closed FY 26 with net sales of over ₹530 crore ($64 million), beating its ₹450 crore target. Growth was driven by...
Humanoid Robot Funding Soars as Interaction Learning Revolutionizes
The money is flowing. Companies and investors put $6.1 billion into humanoid robots in 2025 alone, four times what was invested in 2024. What happened? A revolution in how machines have learned to interact with the world.
Get Real-Time LP Feedback on Your Fund Deck
For GPs raising a fund, you're probably sending your deck to potential LPs. Those LPs are using that deck to quickly decide: meet or pass? Wouldn't it be sweet to know what an LP is thinking when they see your...
Plazza in Talks to Raise $15 Million to Scale Quick Medicine Delivery Play
Plazza, a Bengaluru‑based quick‑medicine delivery startup, 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 capital would value the company near $50 million...
VCs Reveal 2026 Agentic AI Investment Trends
ICYMI, we’re back with another Crunchbase Predicts webinar. 👏 We’re diving into agentic AI & what top investors are betting on for 2026. Join to hear how VCs evaluate opportunities, where AI is gaining traction, & what could define the next wave...
DeepSeek Seeks First External Funding to Boost AI Compute
DeepSeek in talks to raise outside capital for first time, seeking to beef up its financial war chest so it can better compete in the costly battle to develop leading AI models.... That will buy lot of compute... https://t.co/8YciEvxn9J
BOND Raises $2M to Automate SME Accounting in Brazil with AI
Brazilian fintech BOND announced a $2 million pre‑seed round led by Propel Venture Partners, with participation from Kiara Capital, Norte Ventures, Hypersphere and angel investor Patrick Sigrist. The startup uses artificial intelligence to automate core accounting tasks for small and medium‑sized...
Valencia-Based GuruSup Raises €1.3 Million Seed Round for AI Customer Service Platform
GuruSup, a Valencia‑based SaaS startup that builds AI agents for customer service, closed a $1.4 million seed round led by 4Founders Capital with Addendum Capital and several Spanish angels. The funding will fund a headcount doubling and a five‑fold increase in...
Zenskar Raises $15 Million Series A to Expand Agentic Capabilities for B2B Revenue Automation
Zenskar announced a $15 million Series A round led by Susquehanna Venture Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, Shine Capital and Rho. The funding will accelerate its agentic capabilities, especially the Agents Marketplace that lets finance teams deploy AI‑driven billing agents without engineering effort....
Archer Aviation Clears Key FAA Hurdle but Faces Dilution and Execution Risks
Archer Aviation announced full FAA acceptance of its Midnight aircraft’s Means of Compliance, bolstering its path to certification. The eVTOL maker still carries a $618 million net loss, $2 billion cash balance and ongoing dilution, leaving investors to judge upside against high...
Openmoove Secures £700,000 ($890k) Equity Boost to Accelerate UK Rollout
Cardiff‑based Openmoove has closed a £700,000 equity round, led by the Development Bank of Wales, to scale its B2B property‑transaction platform. The capital will fund product development, a six‑person hiring push and a broader UK market push, underscoring growing investor...
Capsule Security Raises $7 M to Guard AI Agents as New Privileged Users
Capsule Security, a Tel‑Aviv‑based startup, closed a $7 million seed round led by Lama Partners and Forgepoint Capital International to launch a runtime‑security platform for AI agents. The funding targets a market where more than 80% of Fortune 500 firms now deploy...
Raising Capital for Consumer Products: How to Get the Green If You’re Not a Bear
Consumer founders often get rejected because they pitch bootstrapping achievements instead of a scalable market story. Investors look for hard‑nosed unit economics, a minimum 3× LTV‑to‑CAC ratio, and evidence that the product can only succeed now due to recent technical...
UK Tech Funding Roundup: This Week’s Deals From Wayve to The Little Loop
UK tech investment surged 45% week‑on‑week, reaching £76.7 m (≈$96 m) across seven rounds from 13‑17 April. The headline deal was Wayve’s £44 m (≈$55 m) Series D extension, backed by AMD, Arm and Qualcomm Ventures, to accelerate its autonomous‑driving software. Other notable raises included Altilium’s...
Stendr Secures $5.4M to Build AI Drone-Tracking Tech
MyPOV: Stendr snags $5.4M in pre-seed funding to develop AI-native drone-tracking tech https://t.co/n6JlqaMl2E @SiliconANGLE @Mike_Wheatley “It’s good to see a startup from allied nations entering the drone defense industry, which is a brand new field and already sorely needed,” - @holgermu...
UK’s Sovereign AI Fund Is Needed to Avoid Trump-Era Mayhem
The UK government unveiled a sovereign AI fund worth roughly $635 million, designed to operate as a state‑backed venture capital vehicle for domestic AI innovators. It has already taken an equity stake in infrastructure startup Callosum and will provide both capital...
Sector Snapshot: Autonomous Vehicle Funding More Than Triples In 2026 To Hit Record Amount
Funding for autonomous‑vehicle startups exploded in 2026, topping $21.4 billion across 34 deals—more than triple the total raised in 2025. The surge was driven by three megadeals: Waymo’s $16 billion Series D, Shield AI’s $2 billion Series G, and Wayve’s $1.3 billion Series D. Investors are concentrating...
UK Gov Announces First Startup to Get Funding From Its New Sovereign AI Unit
The UK government has announced the first startup to receive backing from its newly created Sovereign AI unit, a state‑run fund designed to operate like a venture‑capital firm. The initiative is intended to inject capital and strategic support into domestic...
Blackstone Invests $17 Million in TextQL to Automate Executive Data Queries
Blackstone Innovations Investments led a $17 million strategic round in TextQL, the AI‑driven analytics startup founded by Ding and Mark Hay. The deal targets the growing demand for instant, plain‑language answers to enterprise data questions, a market Blackstone sees as ripe...
Poppi Lands $400K Shark Tank Deal While Founder Was Pregnant, Valuation Climbs to $2 B
Poppi’s co‑founder, Kayla Ellsworth, clinched a $400,000, 25% equity deal on Shark Tank while nine months pregnant, a deal that helped launch the brand to a $2 billion valuation after PepsiCo’s $1.95 billion acquisition. The story underscores how TV exposure, viral TikTok...
CEE Startup & Tech Weekly: Two Polish Startups Raise Fresh Funding
Polish AI‑focused startups Replenit and Graftcode announced fresh funding rounds, with Replenit closing a $2.5 million pre‑seed round and Graftcode raising €2.1 million, bringing its total to €6.5 million. Both companies aim to accelerate product launches—Replenit’s real‑time retail decision engine and Graftcode’s low‑code...
Goodfire AI and the Billion Dollar Bet on Neural Network Interpretability: Why Reverse Engineering Foundation Models Matters for Health Tech...
Goodfire AI, a San Francisco public‑benefit AI lab, raised a $150 million Series B in February 2026, pushing its valuation to $1.25 billion. Its Ember platform gives developers programmatic access to neural‑network internals, claiming a 58% reduction in large‑language‑model hallucinations at roughly 90 × lower...
AI Megadeals Helped Global VC Investment Surge to Record $330.9bn in Q1 – KPMG
Global venture‑capital investment surged to a record $330.9 bn in Q1 2026, more than double the $128.6 bn recorded in Q4 2025. The jump was powered by ten megadeals exceeding $2 bn each, with AI‑focused firms such as OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI and Waymo absorbing the...
Eindhoven’s ONWARD Medical Raises €40.6 Million in Capital Increase to Advance Spinal Cord Injury Therapies
ONWARD Medical, the Dutch neurotechnology firm behind the ARC‑EX spinal‑cord stimulation system, completed a €40.6 million (≈$44 million) accelerated book‑build private placement, issuing 13.5 million new shares at €3 each. The round includes a €25 million (≈$27 million) commitment from EQT Life Sciences and other...
Funding Rounds, Unicorns & Tokenized Bonds: The Startup Deals That Defined This Week
This week’s fintech funding spotlighted Mexico’s Plata securing a $405 million Series C that lifted its valuation to $5 billion, while Europe’s regtech startup Spektr raised $20 million to embed AI in compliance. Gen‑Z‑founded Slash Financial closed a $100 million Series C, achieving unicorn status at...
Sovereign AI Moving at Speed “Craig David Would Blush At”
The UK government has launched Sovereign AI, a £500 million (~$635 million) venture fund aimed at keeping the nation’s top AI startups domestic as they scale globally. Fund chairman James Wise highlighted a rapid investment cadence—meeting founders, due‑diligence, decision and celebration within...
Argobio: The Venture Model Building Europe’s Next Biotech Champions
Argobio, led by Thierry Laugel, raised roughly $54.5 million in 2021 to launch a venture‑builder focused on European biotech. The model has already spun out three companies—Enodia, Laigo Bio and Elkedonia—that together secured over $46.9 million in seed funding for platforms in protein degradation...
Five Notable South African Deals
Over the past year, South Africa has seen a wave of private‑equity activity across five high‑profile transactions. Harith and affiliates signed a sale agreement to acquire low‑cost carrier FlySafair, pending regulator sign‑off. A Phatisa‑led consortium bought agricultural‑inputs group Zaad, while...
Sistema, Kismet Launch Three IPOs to Revive Russian Market
MOSCOW, April 16 - Russia's leading private equity fund Sistema and smaller rival Kismet Capital announced three major initial public offerings on Thursday, including one for local e-commerce giant Avito, in a bid to provide fresh impetus to the country's...
OTP Ventures Leads Pre-Seed Round in Fragrance Brand FIFTH SENSE
FIFTH SENSE, a Gurugram‑based D2C fragrance startup, raised a pre‑seed round of ₹6.3 crore (≈ $760,000) led by OTP Ventures, with participation from Sadev Ventures, ISV Capital and angels including Swiggy CEO Rohit Kapoor. The funding will fuel expansion of its product...
Congrats to Willob and UlyssesInc_—Maybe Fund Atlantis Hunt
Congrats @Willob and @UlyssesInc_! Hope you use some of this money to finally find Atlantis. https://t.co/Lui5edcikk
HockeyStack Raises $50 Million to Deploy AI‑Powered Revenue Agents for Enterprise Sales
HockeyStack announced a $50 million financing round led by Bessemer Venture Partners, Y Combinator and Uncorrelated Ventures to launch its Revenue Agents platform for large enterprises. The funding brings total capital raised to just over $50 million and will fund product development,...
Parasail Secures $32 Million Series A to Launch AI Supercloud for Developers
Parasail announced a $32 million Series A round, co‑led by Touring Capital and Kindred Ventures, to accelerate its AI Supercloud platform that lets developers spin up inference and training endpoints in minutes. The funding brings the startup’s total capital to $42 million...
Slash Secures $100M Series C, Hits $1.4B Unicorn Valuation
Slash announced a $100 million Series C funding round that values the company at $1.4 billion, officially making it a unicorn. The round was led by Ribbit Capital with participation from Goodwater Capital, Khosla Ventures, NEA and Y Combinator, bringing total capital...
Plata Secures $405 Million Series C, Valuing Mexican FinTech at $5 Billion
Plata announced a $405 million Series C funding round led by Bicycle Capital, pushing its valuation to $5 billion. The round also brought in Kora, Qatar Investment Authority and BTG Pactual, underscoring broad institutional confidence in the Mexican fintech’s growth trajectory.
K1x Secures $175 Million for Private Markets AI Tax Tech
K1x, an AI‑native private‑markets tax data platform, secured a $175 million growth investment led by Sumeru Equity Partners, with Edison Partners also participating. The transaction makes Sumeru the majority shareholder and provides capital to deepen K1x’s AI‑driven platform, accelerate product development,...
Funding the Future of European Biotech
In a BioSpace Insights “Denatured” podcast, host Jennifer C. Smith‑Parker talks with Edoardo Negroni of AurorA‑TT and Naveed Siddiqi of Novo Holdings about Europe’s world‑class biotech science and the venture ecosystem needed to commercialize it. The guests argue that Europe’s research...
Know Your Worth: Early Startup Equity Guidelines
How much equity you should ask for at an early startup? #tech #womenintech #founder #startup
Celebrating Milestones: Early‑Stage Investing’s Thrilling Journey
early stage investing is a rollercoaster important to celebrate milestones with founders and teams, it’s such an incredible feeling when things fall into place crucible portfolio is growing up 🥹 https://t.co/38zqyk2vCa
Blue Owl Builds a Capital Platform for the Hyperscale AI Era
Blue Owl Capital has transformed from a real‑estate investor into a dedicated capital platform for hyperscale AI data‑center projects. The firm integrated IPI Partners in January, adding over $11 billion in assets and appointing a digital‑infrastructure head. In May, its Digital...
Global InsurTech Funding Plummets 78% in March, Hitting 2026 Low
Global InsurTech funding fell 78% in March 2026, slipping below $420 million and marking the lowest level of the year. The only mega‑round was Paris‑based Alan’s €100 million raise, while most deals focused on AI and embedded insurance infrastructure.
AI Deals Capture 80% of Q1 2026 Venture Funding, Driving Market Concentration
Crunchbase data shows AI startups absorbed 80% of global venture capital in Q1 2026, while four mega‑rounds raised $188 billion—nearly two‑thirds of all funding. At the same time, deal counts fell across North America, Europe and Latin America, underscoring a shift...
Sennos Scoops Up $20M
Sennos, a Durham‑based AI‑driven sensing and automation firm for fermentation and fluidics, announced a $20 million raise in its second funding round this year, pushing total capital raised above $50 million. The round was led by TomEnterprise, the Stockholm investment firm founded...
From Minivan to AI Infrastructure: Securing $4B Deal
I just pivoted my minivan to AI infrastructure, and someone put a term sheet under my windshield wiper for $4B...