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
BigHaat Raises $10 Mn Led by OCP Group’s Arm Bidra Innovation
Indian agri‑tech platform BigHaat secured $10 million in a funding round led by Bidra Innovation Ventures, the U.S. VC arm of global fertilizer giant OCP Group. Existing backers JM Financial and Ashish Kacholia also participated, bringing total funding to roughly Rs 300 crore. The capital will fuel BigHaat’s expansion of its digital farmer‑focused ecosystem and development of a traceable, globally compliant food value chain. In FY25, the firm reported revenue exceeding Rs 1,100 crore and improved profitability.
Defense Tech Startup Occam Raises €3M Following Brave1 Integration Approval in Ukraine
London‑based Occam Industries announced a €3 million pre‑seed round, led by Czech investor Presto Tech Horizons and backed by Antler, Freedom Fund, TYR.vc and angels. The financing follows the company’s approval for integration testing with Ukraine’s Brave1 defense tech cluster, validating...
Malsons Ventures Makes Strategic Pre-Series A Bet on Mumbai-Based Fintech Startup Seven
Seven, a Mumbai fintech startup known for its 7 Ring wearable payment device, secured a strategic pre‑Series A investment from Shivam Malhotra, founder of Malsons Ventures, acquiring a 1% equity stake. The capital will fund product innovation, market penetration, team...
Spacetech Startup EtherealX’s Valuation Jumps 6X in Series A
Indian spacetech startup Ethereal Exploration Guild (EtherealX) announced a $20.5 million Series A round led by BIG Capital, issuing 9,763 preference shares at Rs 1,87,920 each. The financing lifts its post‑money valuation to roughly $80 million, a six‑fold jump from the $12 million seed round....
Showroom B2B Raises Rs 150 Cr in Series A Round Led by Cactus Partners
Showroom B2B, a Gurugram‑based fashion supply‑chain platform, secured Rs 150 crore (about $17 million) in a Series A round led by Cactus Partners, with participation from Zephyr Peacock and existing backers. The financing combines equity and debt and follows a $6.5 million pre‑Series A raise in...
PROPTECH-X : Why Proptechs Fail to Raise Funding
Proptech startups face a steep funding gap, with 96% failing to secure Series A capital. The article attributes this to market oversaturation, weak unit economics, and regulatory hurdles that impede scaling. Investors are increasingly demanding clear revenue traction and defensible...
Former Canva Exec’s Product Mapping Startup, Adora, Designs $9.9 Million Seed Round
Adora, an AI‑powered journey‑mapping platform co‑founded by former Canva product head Omar Salem, closed a $7 million seed round led by Blackbird Ventures. The tool automatically captures screens, interactions and user paths, turning them into live visual maps enriched with analytics...
Shorooq, PayLater Sign MOU to Explore Institutional Credit Facility
UAE‑based investment firm Shorooq has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Qatar’s first QCB‑licensed, Sharia‑compliant BNPL provider PayLater to explore a scalable, institutional‑grade credit facility. The proposed financing would be non‑dilutive and aligned with Sharia principles, giving PayLater capital to...
Shorooq Deepens Doha Roots as Snoonu Founder Backs Its Growth and AI Funds
UAE‑based Shorooq announced that Hamad Al‑Hajri, founder of delivery platform Snoonu, will invest in both its newly launched late‑stage growth fund and its global AI fund. The growth vehicle is backed by the Qatar Investment Authority, while the AI strategy...
Egypt Introduces Unified Framework to Support Startups
Egypt has unveiled the Egypt Startup Charter, its first government‑backed framework dedicated to nurturing startups and entrepreneurship. The charter, shaped by a year of consultations with 15 ministries and over 250 ecosystem stakeholders, defines startups officially and bundles incentives, a...
Zain Hosts Demo Day for Regional Startup Accelerator Zain Great Idea
Kuwait‑based Zain Group staged a Demo Day for its flagship accelerator Zain Great Idea, showcasing eleven tech startups from six Arab markets. The event marked the programme’s final milestone and opened pathways for investment and strategic partnerships. Zain Ventures paired...
Routech Express Bags $1 Million Pre-Seed
Saudi‑based logistics tech startup Routech Express closed a SAR 3.75 million ($1 million) pre‑seed round led by Q Fund, with angel participation. The platform aggregates multiple carriers, delivering instant price comparison, booking, payment and tracking through a single digital interface. Funds will accelerate...
Steve Baxter: Why I’ll only Invest in Australian Defence Startups that Are Serious About the US
Steve Baxter announced that his fund will only back Australian defence startups that demonstrate a concrete plan to establish a U.S. presence. He argues that the U.S. defence budget—about $1.5 trillion—offers the scale required for venture‑backed growth, far beyond Australia’s $35 billion....
AI Dominates Startups, yet “Why Now?” Still Matters
Thanks for resurfacing this, Dimitry Gershenson 🙏 ❤️ So much has changed since we put this together in 2023 (i.e. AI dominating the startup ecosystem) but also, not much has changed (i.e. the importance of asking "why now?").
Garner Health Lands $118M Series D
Garner Health announced a $118 million Series D round, bringing its total capital to roughly $200 million. The round was led by Kleiner Perkins with participation from Redpoint, Maverick, Kaiser Permanente Ventures, Mercy, Plus Capital and existing backers. Garner’s platform uses a 320 million‑record...
Algorized Scores $13M Series A Round
Algorized announced the close of a $13 million Series A round led by Run Ventures, with participation from the Amazon Industrial Innovation Fund and Acrobator Ventures. The startup builds an edge‑native nervous system for Physical AI, delivering a Predictive Safety Engine that turns...
Trener Robotics Raises $32M Series A to Bring Physical Intelligence to Industrial Automation
Trener Robotics announced a $32 million Series A financing round co‑led by Engine Ventures and IAG Capital Partners, bringing its total capital to over $38 million. The round will fund the scaling of Acteris, the company’s robot‑agnostic AI skills platform that lets operators...
Stoke Space Technologies Nabs $860M Series D
Stoke Space Technologies announced an extension to its Series D round, bringing total capital raised to $860 million, up from the $510 million disclosed in October 2025. The infusion will fund activation of Launch Complex 14 at Cape Canaveral and expand production capacity...
Learn With Me: $2M Insight, Fractional Cost
In 2020, I hired McKinsey to teach me about the global energy transition. I learned a lot, but it cost me more than $2M. After that experience, I decided to build my own internal research project at Social Capital called Learn...
Non-Venture Space Startup Investment Hits Post-SPAC High
Non‑venture investment in space startups surged to a record $10 billion in 2025, the highest level since the 2021 SPAC boom, driven primarily by traditional IPOs and expanding debt financing. Venture capital also rose to $8.6 billion, up from $7.3 billion the prior...
Linkup Raises $10M Seed Round Led by Gradient to Build Web Search for AI
Linkup announced a $10 million seed round headed by Gradient, with participation from Elaia, Seedcamp and several angel investors. The San Francisco‑Paris startup offers an API that feeds AI systems with real‑time, verifiable web information, moving beyond static training datasets. Founded by...
Bretton AI Raises $75 Million To Expand Financial Crime Automation
Bretton AI, formerly Greenlite AI, announced a $75 million Series B funding round led by Sapphire Ventures, with participation from existing backers and new investor TIAA Ventures. The capital will fuel expansion of its AI‑driven compliance platform, which automates high‑volume...
Annual VC Funding Into Irish SMEs Fell for First Time Since 2018
Annual venture capital funding for Irish tech SMEs fell 23% in 2025 to €1.1 billion, marking the first decline since 2018. The fourth quarter dropped 46% to €291.4 million, driven by a 71% retreat of international investors. Life‑science firms attracted the most...
Vega Raises $120M Series B to Rethink How Enterprises Detect Cyber Threats
Vega Security announced a $120 million Series B round, lifting its valuation to $700 million. The Boston‑based startup aims to overturn the traditional SIEM model by analyzing security data where it already resides—in cloud services, data lakes, and existing storage—using an AI‑native platform....
Lightspeed Selects 4 Deeptech Startups for Its India Ascends 2026 Cohort
Lightspeed India has announced its India Ascends 2026 cohort, selecting four deep‑tech startups founded by entrepreneurs under 25. The cohort targets frontier fields such as artificial intelligence, space, robotics, biotechnology, and defense, and is backed by partners Anthropic, Groq, Google...
Hauler Hero Collects $16M for Its AI Waste Management Software
Hauler Hero announced a $16 million Series A round led by Frontier Growth, bringing its total venture funding above $27 million. The Boston‑based startup offers an all‑in‑one AI‑powered platform that manages CRM, billing, routing and now three AI agents for vision, chat and...
AI Firm Multiverse Said to Hit €1.5 Billion Value With New Funds
Spanish AI software firm Multiverse Computing is negotiating a €500 million financing round. The capital raise would lift its post‑money valuation above €1.5 billion. Sources said the round is slated to close in the first half of 2026 and will introduce new...
Inside the Deal: Eudia’s $105M Series A to Transform Legal Work Through AI-Powered Augmented Intelligence
Eudia, a Palo Alto‑based legal‑tech startup, closed a Series A round of up to $105 million in February 2025, led by General Catalyst and backed by a slate of prominent investors. The funding follows an 18‑month stealth period and comes as the company...
Former GitHub CEO Raises Record $60M Dev Tool Seed Round at $300M Valuation
Former GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke’s startup Entire secured a $60 million seed round, valuing the company at $300 million, the largest seed financing ever for a developer‑tool venture. Entire offers an open‑source platform that records AI‑generated code, prompts, and decision transcripts, beginning...
Deep Fission Raises $80 Million To Scale Underground Nuclear Reactor Technology
Deep Fission announced an $80 million financing round, selling over five million restricted shares at $15 each. The capital will fund its underground borehole‑installed small modular pressurised water reactors, a design the company says can cut construction costs by up to...
Oxide Raises $200M Series C
Oxide announced a $200 million Series C round, doubling the size of its recent Series B. The capital was raised exclusively from existing investors, reflecting strong backer confidence despite the company already achieving product‑market fit with its hardware offering. Oxide argues the infusion...
Newo Lands $25M to Bring Production-Ready AI Receptionists to Small Businesses
Newo Inc. announced a $25 million Series A round to accelerate its AI receptionist platform for small and medium‑sized businesses. The solution provides human‑like voice, SMS and chat agents that handle calls, appointment booking, lead qualification, and handoffs using a Zero‑Hallucination Architecture....
Matia Raises $21M to Help Enterprises Consolidate Their Data Management Operations
Matia announced a $21 million Series A round, led by Red Dot Capital, bringing its total funding above $31 million. The startup offers a unified DataOps platform on AWS that merges ETL, reverse‑ETL, observability and catalog functions into a single interface. It can...
Proptech Startup Smart Bricks Raises $5 Million Pre-Seed Led by A16z
Smart Bricks, a London‑San Francisco proptech, announced a $5 million pre‑seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz. The AI‑powered platform ingests millions of data points to deliver autonomous valuation, cash‑flow forecasting, and risk modeling for real‑estate deals. It also automates the transaction workflow,...
AI Video Startup Runway Raises $315M at $5.3B Valuation, Eyes More Capable World Models
Runway, the AI video generation startup, closed a $315 million Series E round, lifting its valuation to $5.3 billion. The capital will fund the pre‑training of next‑generation world models and broaden product reach into sectors such as gaming, robotics, and climate science. Runway’s...
North Africa Rises on Deals as MENA AI Funding Hits $858 Million
AI venture capital in the Middle East and North Africa surged to $858 million in 2025, representing 22% of total regional VC and 29% of all deals. The United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia dominated funding, absorbing 87% of AI capital,...
Antler Launches Always-On Nordic Residency and $100M+ Fund to Accelerate Startup Investment
Antler has unveiled an always‑on residency for Nordic founders, backed by the $100 million‑plus Antler Nordic Fund II—three times larger than its first fund. The continuous program replaces biannual cohorts and can approve investments within two to six weeks. Selected startups receive...
Prepare Detailed Financials to Impress Acquisition Buyers
I talk with a lot of founders who want to go to market on @acquiredotcom unprepared to save some time and see if it's worth it. The problem with this is how buyers evaluate startup acquisition opportunities. Most will require and expect,...
Investors See AI as New Core Platform Layer
Pavel (@pavelprata) mapped predictions from 132 investors. Common themes: 1. Autonomous AI as the Next Platform Layer 2. AI Infrastructure 3. AI Meets the Real World 4. Rebuilding Payments for an AI-Native Economy 5. AI Economics & Pricing https://t.co/0jsLI8PbFk
Clean-Tech Startup PadCare Labs Raises $3 Mn Led by Rainmatter
PadCare Labs, a clean‑tech firm specializing in sanitary‑waste recycling, secured $3 million in a pre‑Series A round led by Rainmatter, with participation from 3one4 Capital, Brigade REAP, PKRBCV Shroff Trust, existing backers and debt from EXIM and ICICI banks. The capital will...
Screen‑time App Earns $40K Profit by Stopping Scrolling
$40K profit for helping people stop scrolling. Live on @acquiredotcom: screen time app that automatically boots users out when their timer runs out. > $48K TTM revenue > $40K TTM profit > 500+ paying users Full listing: https://t.co/iTEIt81XrI https://t.co/vb6LdS8811
Startups Can Grow Tenfold, YC Fuels the Boom
What do I believe that few other people believe yet? Startups can and will be 10x bigger YC’s role to make that happen. We're the tree of prosperity: minting more great founders so that both the mega-platforms and the boutiques have...
Earth Observation Data Provider Constellr Closes €37 Million Series A
Munich‑based Constellr closed a €37 million Series A round, bringing total capital to €75 million. The funding, led by Alpine Space Ventures and Lakestar, will accelerate its HiVE microsatellite constellation toward defence‑grade thermal imaging. Constellr plans to upgrade resolution from 30 m to sub‑5 m...
Future Teams: PMs Code, Architect Manages Infrastructure
anyone with theories on how software teams will evolve? today: 1 eng, 1 PM, 1 designer (EPD) tomorrow: 10 PMs who vibe code all day + 1 eng architect (the architect creates the scaffolding and writes adversarial agents to manage tech debt, security, scalability issues) Thoughts?
Pre‑AI SaaS Loses Appeal as Costs Rise
When was the last time you were excited to buy a pre-AI SaaS tool? When was the last time you felt like you were overpaying on a renewal for a pre-AI SaaS tool, and thought about cancelling? Hence, the markets
Entellus Industries Bags ₹50 Crore in Funding to Scale Rare Earth Metals and Alloy Manufacturing
Entellus Industries announced a ₹50 crore ($5.5 million) funding round led by ZeroW, adding to a prior $12 million raise from Social Capital. The capital will fund capital‑expenditure to launch sintered‑alloy production, targeting high‑stress automotive components such as engines and transmissions. The company...
Airwallex Hits $1B Run Rate, Finally Gets Noticed
Airwallex just crossed a $1B rev run rate and feels like no one talked about them until late last year. Crazy.
Tech Decentralizes: Unicorns Can Thrive Anywhere
Silicon Valley is a lagging indicator. Tech moved out of Delaware. Now it’s moving out of California. There are hundreds of other places. You can build a unicorn anywhere. So: cut bait on failed states. Our destiny is decentralization. That’s what the Internet means. https://t.co/9gygAEDScs
ZAST.AI Raises $6M Pre-A to Scale "Zero False Positive" AI-Powered Code Security
ZAST.AI announced a $6 million Pre‑Series A round led by Hillhouse Capital, bringing total funding near $10 million. The Seattle‑based startup claims its AI‑driven platform delivers “zero false‑positive” code security by automatically generating and validating proof‑of‑concept exploits. In 2025 the company uncovered...
The Art Behind Scientific Pitch Decks: 6 Design Principles to Sell Your Science
The article outlines six design principles for crafting scientific pitch decks that translate complex research into investor‑ready narratives. It stresses that slide titles should form a coherent story, business models need visual simplification, and content density follows a 70:30 data‑to‑visual...