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
Finland’s Tangled Raises $4.5 Million to Build a European Open-Source Alternative to GitHub
Finland‑based Tangled secured $4.5 million in a round led by byFounders, with participation from Bain Capital Crypto, Antler and notable angels including former GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke. The startup is building a next‑generation code collaboration platform on Bluesky’s AT Protocol, aiming to provide an open, API‑less alternative to GitHub for European developers. Funding will accelerate scaling and position Tangled as foundational infrastructure for a global community that includes both human coders and AI agents. The move reflects growing demand for sovereign, transparent developer tools amid AI‑driven coding growth.
Over $50B Went To Boom-Era Software Companies That Haven’t Raised In 4+ Years
During the 2020‑2022 venture boom, U.S. software startups secured more than $51 billion in equity funding. Crunchbase data shows over 150 of those companies, each with at least $100 million raised, have not completed a new financing round in the past four...
Nuclear Medicine Firm Shine Technologies Raises $240M
Shine Technologies announced a $240 million financing round led by Patrick Soon‑Shiong’s NantWorks, bringing its total capital raised to over $1 billion. The infusion will accelerate the company’s commercial fusion initiatives and expand its Lu‑177 isotope production, a cornerstone of targeted cancer...
Inside the Fund Taking Women Asset Managers to the Next Level
In 2025, women-only founders raised just 0.9% of African startup capital, while women-led firms received only 2.2% of funding. The African Women Impact Fund (AWIF), launched with $60 million and bolstered by an extra $10 million from Standard Bank, aims to close...
Chris Dixon: From Quant Trading to Building A16z Crypto
In this episode, Chris Dixon recounts his journey from a self‑taught programmer in the 1980s to a quant developer, serial entrepreneur, and now a General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz leading its crypto practice. He shares insights from founding SiteAdvisor, an...
Exclusive: Mintoak Plans to Acquire Dubai-Based ICC Loyalty
Mintoak, the Mumbai‑based merchant SaaS platform, will raise Rs 80 crore in debt through non‑convertible debentures issued by BlackSoil to fund the acquisition of Dubai‑based loyalty‑tech firm ICC Loyalty. This marks the company’s second acquisition in twelve months, after buying Digiledge in...
UK Private Capital Calls for Scaleup Reinvestment Relief
UK Private Capital, representing private‑equity and venture‑capital firms, is urging the British government to introduce a Scaleup Reinvestment Relief (SRR). The proposal would create a capital‑gains‑tax reinvestment relief for gains that are ploughed back into qualifying UK‑headquartered scaleups, growth‑equity funds...
Kardi AI Is Scaling, MDR Class IIa Certified and Series A Ready
Kardi Ai, a Czech med‑tech firm, has secured EU MDR Class IIa certification and is expanding its long‑term ECG monitoring platform into the DACH region. The solution records heart rhythm for up to 12 months, uses AI to deliver physician‑ready reports within...
Building Europe’s Native Code Infrastructure: Tangled Closes $4.5M Round
Tangled, a European‑focused GitHub alternative, closed a $4.5 million round led by byFounders with participation from Bain Capital Crypto and Antler. The platform introduces a decentralized “Knot” architecture that lets developers host code on their own infrastructure while maintaining a familiar...
Plurio Raises $3.5 Million to Bring Agentic AI to Performance Marketing
San Francisco‑based Plurio announced a $3.5 million seed round to accelerate its AI‑driven performance‑marketing agent. The platform ingests cross‑channel campaign data, forecasts downstream results and can automatically apply approved changes on Meta, Google and TikTok. Plurio already oversees more than $100 million...
AI Upskilling Platform Ivee Raises $1m Seed Round Backed by Steven Bartlett
Ivee, an AI‑focused upskilling platform, announced a $1 million seed round. The round was led by entrepreneur and podcaster Steven Bartlett, with participation from Social Impact Enterprises. Ivee plans to use the capital to broaden its curriculum and help jobseekers master...
Exclusive: Turiyam.ai Raises $4 Mn To Build Full-Stack AI Hardware Platform
Bengaluru‑based Turiyam.ai has closed a $4 million pre‑seed round led by Ankur Capital and Axilor’s Micelio Fund. The startup will accelerate development of a full‑stack AI inference platform that tightly integrates custom chips with optimized software. It is already piloting deployments...
AI Sales Startup Firmable Bags $14 Million to Expand to the US
AI‑powered B2B sales startup Firmable announced a $14 million Series A round led by existing backer Airtree, earmarked for a U.S. market rollout and further development of its proprietary data engine and AI agents. The company, founded by former Aconex executives in...
Asia-Pacific Fintech Funding Hits Decade-Low in 2025 as Investors Stay Cautious: KPMG
Fintech investment in Asia‑Pacific fell to a decade low in 2025, totaling $9.3 billion across 763 transactions, down from $11.7 billion in 2024. Venture capital supplied $7.5 billion of that amount, while mergers and acquisitions contributed $1.7 billion and private equity under $0.1 billion. Funding...
Venture Fundraising Rises in 2025 As AI Pulls Capital Into Fewer, Bigger Rounds: Carta
Venture fundraising on Carta surged to $119.5 billion in 2025, a 16.9% increase from the previous year, marking the strongest recovery since the 2022 market reset. While total deal count dropped 41% to a six‑year low of 4,859 rounds, capital concentrated...
Avoid These 5 Common Mistakes Aspiring VCs Make
5 mistakes aspiring VCs keep making (and nobody tells them): 1. Leading with resume instead of edge 2. Thinking all VC firms are the same 3. Networking to find a job instead of to add value 4. Not translating operator experience into investment language 5....
Sequoia Fast‑tracked $75M Series B After Deep Customer Vetting
A look inside @getserval's Series B, the #1 company on @harmonic_ai's Hot 25 list last quarter
Databricks Overtakes Snowflake
Databricks has overtaken Snowflake in quarterly revenue, now leading by $120 million after a $220 million gap two years ago. The shift is driven by AI’s demand for unstructured data, which Databricks processes directly from object storage without migration. Databricks SQL grew...
Bootstrapped SaaS Thrives on Trust, Not Code
Gah such a great take. I don’t invest in large SaaS plays, but on the micro end, especially for bootstrapped founders, it’s still a fantastic place to build.
OpenAI Surpasses 900M Weekly Users, Secures Landmark Funding, and Finalizes Pentagon AI Agreement
OpenAI reported that ChatGPT now serves 900 million weekly active users, including 50 million paying subscribers, adding 100 million users since October 2025. The company closed a historic $110 billion private funding round led by Amazon, with Nvidia and SoftBank contributing $30 billion each, valuing...
Stay22 Lands US$122M Investment From Summit Partners to Accelerate International AI Expansion
Stay22, a Montreal‑based creator‑economy platform, secured a $122 million growth capital infusion from private‑equity firm Summit Partners. The company reported processing more than $1 billion in transactions last year, underscoring its rapid adoption among event‑driven merchants. The new funding will be directed...
Exclusive: Innoviti Closes Series M Funding Round At ₹104 Cr
Innoviti, the Indian merchant‑facing fintech, closed its Series M round at ₹104 crore ($11.4 million), with both new backers and existing investors such as Bessemer Venture Partners and Patni Family Office doubling down. The capital will be used to reduce debt, boost sales...
15 Angel Investments and All Failures
A seasoned angel disclosed that all 15 of his investments have gone to zero, underscoring the brutal failure rate of early‑stage startups. While diversification is a common mantra, statistics show that a sizable share of startups never reach meaningful revenue,...
UK Startup Founders Must Meet Evolving Investor Expectations to Scale Successfully
UK investors are increasingly demanding market‑pull evidence, shifting away from pure tech‑push narratives, even in deep‑tech sectors. The bar for being "investment ready" now includes demonstrable traction, a strong team, and rapid execution velocity. Digital Catapult’s investment‑readiness workshops helped startups...
Exclusive: Quick Commerce Enablement Startup Inamo To Raise ₹50 Cr
Inamo, a quick‑commerce enablement startup, is raising ₹50 Cr (≈$5.4 M) in a Series A round at a pre‑money valuation of ₹110 Cr. The round is led by Five SB Limited with participation from Shastra VC, Antler and Gemba Capital. Funds will be used to scale...
Africa’s Industrial Future Requires a Different Kind of Capital
In 2024 over 70% of Africa’s equity venture funding went to fintech, leaving defense, industrial automation, climate, health and scientific platforms severely under‑capitalised. The prevailing venture model rewards fast‑scaling, asset‑light platforms and excludes capital‑intensive, long‑horizon projects that are essential for...
Crypto VC Paradigm Expands Into AI, Robotics with $1.5B Fund: WSJ
Crypto venture firm Paradigm is raising a $1.5 billion fund to invest in AI, robotics and other frontier technologies while maintaining its crypto portfolio. The firm, which manages $12.7 billion in assets, previously launched a $2.5 billion crypto fund in 2021 and an...
OpenAI and VCs Will Fill Military AI Void
If anthropic doesn’t want to do military tech, you can be sure that OpenAI (or another foundational model), will bend over backwards to provide whatever the department of war wants. And the department of war/defense doesn’t need to accept any...
Early Bets Win; Amazon’s Late Entry Costs Billions
Early positioning beats late capital every time. Amazon just invested $50 billion in OpenAI for 6 percent ownership and distribution rights. Microsoft invested $13.8 billion starting in 2019 and owns 23.5 percent with exclusive IP, revenue sharing, and API control locked through...
Flux Inks $37M in New Investment
Flux, an AI‑powered platform that automates hardware design, announced a $37 million financing round combining a $27 million Series B and a previously undisclosed $10 million Series A. The Series B was led by venture firm 8VC, with participation from existing backers Bain Capital Ventures, Liquid 2...
Union.ai Completes $38.1 Million Series A
Union.ai, a Bellevue‑based AI development platform, closed its Series A round with $38.1 million in total commitments, including a previously announced $19.1 million. The round was led by existing backer NEA, with Nava Ventures participating and Mozilla Ventures joining as a new...
Efficiency Revolution: Companies Will Trim Workforce by Half
Could you operate your company with half the people? Jack Dorsey’s announcement yesterday, reducing Block’s headcount from 10,000 to 6,000, should provoke this question in every management team. The stock surged 24%. Dorsey’s memo framed it as inevitable : Within...
Momentum Cyber Hosts AIxCYBER on $119B Security Bet
Momentum Cyber announced AIxCYBER, a high‑profile panel in Austin on March 12, 2026, to dissect the forces reshaping cybersecurity. The event highlights a $119 billion investment surge in 2026, driven by record M&A activity and financing across 1,222 transactions. Panelists will...
Ask Rejected Investors for Immediate Feedback to Refine Pitch
Seek feedback from investors who pass on your pitch. In fact, ask for feedback right there on the call (much easier than trying to get it via email later). Use it to improve your approach and strengthen your next presentation. Constructive...
Multitude Insights Raises $10M Series A Police Intel Platform
Multitude Insights announced a $10 million Series A round, led by Primary Venture Partners and joined by several other investors. The funding will accelerate deployment of its AI‑powered BLTN platform, a secure system for creating, sharing, and analyzing police intelligence across jurisdictions....
LLM Boom to Yield $10B Profit by 2031
Can someone make me an analysis for the jcurve being created by LLMs and supporting companies (data centers)… which should be $250b today… Assume $250b more invested over next 4 years Then assume $10b in profits in 2031 and 50%...
ICYMI Fintech Funding Round-Up: Confido, WafR, Burst, and More
Fintech investors continued to pour capital into niche infrastructure this week, with Confido securing $9 million to expand its legal‑tech payment platform, and Morocco‑based WafR raising $4 million to grow a digital network for corner stores. In the U.S., health‑spending paytech Burst...
Amazon Joins $110B OpenAI Funding Round
OpenAI closed a record‑breaking $110 billion funding round, with Amazon contributing $50 billion—$15 billion now and $35 billion later. The deal also ties OpenAI to Amazon Web Services, committing $100 billion in cloud spend over eight years and integrating Amazon’s Trainium chips. A new Stateful...
Handl Health Raises $14.2M to Optimize Employer-Sponsored Health Plans
Handl Health announced a $14.2 million Series A round led by Arthur Ventures, aimed at scaling its unified health‑plan platform for brokers, carriers, and TPAs. The solution aggregates pricing, utilization, benefit, and quality data to let employers model and continuously...
OpenAI Secures $110B Funding, Targets $600B Compute
With backing from Amazon, Nvidia, Softbank -> OpenAI raised $110B at a $730B pre-money valuation, up from $500B in a secondary financing in Oct.; Amazon invested $50B, Nvidia and SoftBank invested $30B each $600B -> "OpenAI has been telling investors that...
Prioritize Growth and Brand Over Early Profit
Profitability shouldn't always be the primary goal in the early stages. Sometimes, investing in growth, user experience, and brand reputation is more important than immediate profits. Play the long game. ✨
Deepinder Goyal’s New Startup Temple Raises $54 Mn at a $190 Mn Valuation
Deepinder Goyal’s new venture Temple closed a $54 million friends‑and‑family round, valuing the stealth‑mode startup at roughly $190 million post‑money. Goyal contributed ₹104.07 crore, while Steadview Capital, Dharana Fund, Peak XV Partners and Aaroh Fund led the institutional side. More than 30 Temple employees...
Company Secures Record Private Funding Amid Cofounder Lawsuit
Remarkable that a company raises largest private round ever, while in the midst of being sued by a cofounder who also happens to be the world' richest man.
OpenAI's Record Funding Rattles AI Giants and Software Stocks
There's a new kingmaker in AI... OpenAI raises the largest private funding round in history and two of the biggest backers ($NVDA and $AMZN) are down to flat today. Meanwhile a blog post from Anthropic sends software stocks swinging
Dash0 Targets $1bn Valuation with Balderton-Led Funding Round, Reports Say
Dash0, an AI‑native cloud‑monitoring platform founded in 2023, is in talks with Balderton Capital to lead a new funding round that would value the company at $1 billion, elevating it to unicorn status. The New‑York‑based startup, which retains a strong operational...
Storytelling Beats Metrics in Early-Stage Fundraising
Metrics matter. But in early-stage fundraising? Storytelling matters more. In Ep. 234 of The SaaS CFO Podcast, Helen Hastings shares why vision + narrative win investor conviction. Listen here 👇 YouTube: https://t.co/BnQYh8fzzR #SaaS #Fundraising #Startups https://t.co/zRSXoqqM2z
Watch Webinar Linking Top 100 Biotech VCs Insights
Here's the link to watch yesterday's webinar on venture capital, a companion to this year's top 100 biotech VCs list with @ChrisDoko Lots of positive feedback here. Post your thoughts. https://t.co/c16y04mFsD
Venture Fraud | NBER
The NBER study compiled the first large‑scale dataset of 614 U.S. venture‑capital‑backed startups that faced fraud charges since 2000. It shows VC‑backed firms are 54% more likely to be charged with fraud than comparable non‑VC firms in a public‑company subsample....
OpenAI Poised for $10 B Infusion, $850 B Valuation
As noted in Axios Pro Rata: OpenAI expected to add another $10 billion to the round, which would bring it to $120b at an $850b post-money valuation. Would be from sovereigns and other fin investors (including existings). https://t.co/xDMSkiZRiR
Old Well Labs Raises Funding
Old Well Labs, a Charlotte‑based AI fintech, announced it has closed a new funding round. The round was led by Nellore Capital and included TFJ Capital, Capital Allocators, Teamworthy Ventures and Hammoud Ventures, though the amount remains undisclosed. The capital...