Today's Venture Capital Pulse
Dream lands $260M sovereign AI round, valuation hits $3B
Dream, a sovereign AI and cyber‑defense firm for governments, closed a $260M financing round that lifts its valuation to $3B. The round was co‑led by Bicycle Capital and Group 11 with participation from Antler, Bain Capital Ventures and Tru Arrow Partners, and the company has already secured nearly $300M in contracts.
Also developing:
By the numbers: Standard Bots raises $200M Series C
India Doubles Down on State-Backed Venture Capital, Approving $1.1B Fund
India has approved a $1.1 billion state‑backed venture capital fund aimed at deep‑tech and advanced manufacturing startups. The fund of funds will channel government capital through private VC firms, building on a 2016 program that invested over $2.8 billion in 1,370 startups. Recent policy tweaks extend the startup classification to 20 years and raise the revenue threshold to ₹3 billion, signaling a longer‑term support horizon. The approval arrives as private funding slows, with 2025 venture capital raising down 17% year‑over‑year.
ISL Replaces ETL: Intelligence Beats Raw Data Ingestion
Ingest Structure Learn (ISL) is the new ETL. It used to be the case that a company would try to license this kind of data as an “edge”. I’ve seen many companies in SV try to make this claim. That...
Bootstrapping Beats VC Hype for Lasting Wealth
Worst ways to build wealth - thinking a $100M valuation means you have $100M - raising money. period - adding features for 5 years instead of admitting your product sucks - telling yourself "we just need more time" at year 7 - calling yourself a...
The $800B Open Secret: What the New Medicaid Spending Dataset Means for Health Tech Builders and Investors
The episode breaks down the release of the largest publicly available Medicaid claims dataset, detailing its composition, gaps, and immediate utility for health‑tech builders and investors. It quantifies the scale of Medicaid spending (~$849 B) and improper payments (over $30 B annually),...
European FinTech Investments Dropped by 11% YoY Amid Market Uncertainties in 2025
European FinTech investment contracted 11% year‑over‑year in 2025, with total funding falling to $16.3 billion across 743 deals. Deal activity under $100 million shrank 26%, while large transactions above $100 million held steady, pushing the average deal size to $21.9 million. The market’s shift...
Pre‑PMF Funding Demands Clear Traction Over Resume
Big splashy pre-PMF rounds happen on big legible ideas and teams with social proof Don’t hate the player hate the game It doesn’t mean you can’t build a big co if you don’t have the right resume but it does mean you...
Startups Win by Automating Every Internal Workflow
Today, startups aren't winning by hiring faster, but by automating as many internal functions as possible. In this episode of Main Function, @garrytan breaks down how tiny teams are beating companies 20x their size by building automations into every workflow, from...
Anthropic Raises $30B, Bringing Its Valuation to $380B
Anthropic announced a $30 billion Series G round, pushing its valuation to $380 billion, the second‑largest private tech financing after OpenAI. The round was led by Coatue and GIC, with participation from Nvidia, Microsoft, D.E. Shaw, Dragoneer, Founders Fund, ICONIQ and MGX. Anthropic reported a...
Key Signals Founders Need Before Raising Next Round
$40M raised. Series A ready. Episode 232 dives into the real signals founders should look for before raising more capital 👇 https://t.co/0CcjGEIVb9 #SaaS #AI https://t.co/S1vxKwuxiB
Fintech Beats AI in European VC Valuations
While AI dominates headlines with mega-rounds, fintech is quietly leading European VC valuations. Median pre-money for fintech reached €12.4m — 29% higher than AI, and well ahead of SaaS and life sciences. In a hype-driven cycle, investors are rewarding revenue, regulation-ready models...
Artha Venture Moves To Oust Hornet CEO Over Alleged Governance Breaches
Artha Venture Fund exercised its shareholder rights to remove Hornet’s co‑founder and CEO, Souvik Haldar, citing serious governance breaches. The VC alleges Haldar diverted seed‑fund proceeds, took paid external work with a client, and copied the startup’s code and sensitive...
SF's VC Boom Faces Tax Hike and Lab Bans
SF is the ONLY VC hub with positive company formation growth (+24%) while every other city declines—but an 800% gross receipts tax hike and lab bans threaten to destroy what makes the city special. https://t.co/gVxAtL7zDC
8-Step Checklist to Nail Any VC Interview
I just put together an 8-step VC interview prep checklist to help you nail any interview... Knowing where to start can be HARD. There are many resources online that will tell you different things. My simple checklist will help you get prepared...
Ever Raises $31M Series A for AI Auto Retail Platform
Ever announced a $31 million Series A round, bringing its total capital to roughly $100 million, as it emerges from stealth with an AI‑driven auto retail platform. The funding, led by Eclipse, targets the $1.2 trillion U.S. auto retail market, which remains fragmented and...
A16z Hiring Leaders to Shape Tech Narrative
This is the part of my job at @a16z that most gets me up in the morning: building an incredible team. We’re hiring for a lot of roles at the moment: Chief of Staff: help me run all our initiatives at...
Early-Stage Startups Don’t Need Costly Big‑4 Audits
Startups ($25M ARR? Get bids from multiple firms. You do NOT need a Big 4 audit. It does not me you are a legit company before the Big 4 did the audit. No one cares. 2nd tier firm is fine 3...
UK Tech Funding Roundup: This Week’s Deals From Tem to Occam Industries
UK tech investment this week totaled £82.5 million across six rounds, an 81% drop from the prior week, partly due to last week’s £368 million ElevenLabs megadeal. The headline transaction was tem’s £55 million Series B, an energy‑brokerage platform matching buyers with suppliers. Seed‑stage...
Spot the #1 Sign Management Lacks Business Command
What’s the #1 tell that a management team doesn’t actually have command of their business? I spoke with Paul Stansik , an operating partner at ParkerGale Capital , about the relationship between boards and their portfolio companies. Paul works on...
Mid‑Size SaaS Growth Re‑Accelerates, Rule‑40 Slips, NDR Returns
The latest Private Company SaaS Benchmarks are here. How did 2025 finish? TL;DR: 1) Growth is (somewhat) re-accelerating between $5M–$50M ARR 2) Rule of 40 is sad between $5M–$25M ARR 3) NDR is making a quiet comeback For the full...
Startup Bets on New Approach to Space-Based Missile Defense
California startup Wardstone has closed a $5 million seed round to develop space‑based kinetic interceptors. The company plans to test its first prototype on a suborbital sounding rocket in late April, employing a novel “buckshot” particle‑cloud approach to counter hypersonic missiles....
Decode the LP‑GP Language Gap: Survival vs Longevity
LPs & GPs are often having the same conversation, but not speaking the same language. In my convo w/ @chudson & @miafarnham, we talked about the LP/GP “language gap.” As Charles put it: “Once you learn to decode it, it’s actually quite...
Centre Approves Startup India FoF 2.0 With An Outlay Of ₹10,000 Cr
The Indian government has approved the second phase of the Startup India Fund of Funds (FoF) 2.0, allocating an additional ₹10,000 crore to the scheme. Managed by SIDBI under DPIIT oversight, the FoF channels capital to SEBI‑registered alternative investment funds, which...
Immunic's Private Placement; Vertex's Cystic Fibrosis Data in Young Kids
Immunic announced an oversubscribed private placement raising up to $400 million to fund its shift toward a commercial‑stage biotech. The capital injection will support late‑stage development programs and accelerate the search for a new chief executive officer. Meanwhile, Vertex Pharmaceuticals disclosed...
Didero Raises $30M Series A for AI Procurement Platform
AI startup Didero announced a $30 million Series A round, co‑led by Chemistry and Headline with participation from Microsoft’s M12 venture fund. The financing will accelerate adoption of its AI‑driven procurement platform, which embeds autonomous agents into existing ERP and communication tools...
ScyAI Secures €2M and Launches AI Risk Platform for Real Assets
Zurich‑based ScyAI closed a €2 million pre‑seed round led by AENU and PT1, bringing together unicorn founders and angel investors. The startup launched an AI‑driven platform that merges operational data with external hazard models to create auditable, asset‑specific climate risk profiles....
Exclusive: D2C Brand ClayCo Raises ₹30 Cr From Twenty Nine Capital Partners
ClayCo Cosmetics, a 2023‑founded D2C beauty brand, closed a fresh Series A round of ₹29.99 crore (about $3.3 million) from London‑based Twenty Nine Capital Partners. The funding was issued as 1,529 non‑cumulative CCPS at a premium exceeding ₹1.96 lakh per share. This capital...
Axiom Space Raises $350M to Fuel Station, Suit Development
Axiom Space announced a $350 million capital raise, co‑led by Type One Ventures and Qatar Investment Authority, to accelerate its commercial space‑station program and the development of NASA‑contracted AxEMU spacesuits. The funding will finance the design, testing and launch of two...
19 MENA Startups Graduate From the Second Exel by Merak Accelerator Cohort
Nineteen MENA game studios have graduated from the second cohort of Exel by Merak, an $80 million gaming accelerator launched by Merak Capital. Each studio receives $300,000 in seed funding plus mentorship and global network access. Cohort 2 has already produced $1.2 million...
Battery Tech Startup E-TRNL Energy Raises ₹27.4 Cr For Product Development
e-TRNL Energy, a battery‑tech startup founded in 2021, secured ₹27.4 cr ($3 mn) in a seed round led by IAN Alpha Fund. The capital will fund completion of its chemistry‑agnostic lithium‑ion and future sodium‑ion cell technology and demonstrate large‑scale manufacturing in India....
Six Sense Mobility Bags $4.8 Mn To Build New Electronics Manufacturing Unit
Six Sense Mobility secured $4.8 million (₹44 cr) in a Pre‑Series A round led by Ashish Kacholia, with Piper Serica Angel Fund participating. The capital will finance a new electronics manufacturing facility in Noida, designed for an initial output of one million units...
From Board Exit to AI‑Powered Gun Detection Revolution
After 13 years, I stepped down from the Board of $EVLV today. In 2011, Mike Ellenbogen and Anil Chitkara became Entrepreneurs-in-Residence at General Catalyst in Boston. We spent nearly two years exploring incubation ideas together. Then the world shifted. 2012 - Sandy Hook. 2013...
AI Founders & VCs Lack Corporate Experience, Hiring Suffers
you got ai founders who have never worked at a company before getting funding from VCs who have never worked in a company before the new hires are dog shit big problem to be on the lookout for
Vaccine Play Iliad Draws Nine-Digit B Round; Denmark’s Gubra Launches Venture Creation Unit
Iliad Biotechnologies announced a $115 million Series B round, the largest venture deal of the week, led by RA Capital Management. New investors Janus Henderson and BNP Paribas Asset Management Alts also participated. The funding will accelerate Iliad’s intranasal vaccine program targeting pertussis...
Investing in Teams to Tackle Food & Nutrition Crisis
Food and nutrition is one of humanities biggest problems right now IMO Would love to invest in more teams working on solving this
Ramp and Rippling Are Less Overlapping Than Assumed
Ramp and Rippling don't have as much overlap as people think. So says @rabois 👀 @eglyman @parkerconrad https://t.co/6Xh1bcpnjw
Kainova Closes $32 Million to Advance Cancer and Inflammation Therapies
Kainova Therapeutics announced a CAD 32 million first close of its Series B financing, led by Investissement Québec and supported by existing backers. The funding brings total venture capital to about $90 million USD and will accelerate development of its GPCR‑focused drug candidates. Lead...
Rabois Predicts Trump May Block China's Nvidia Chip Access
Here's @rabois saying he thinks the Trump administration may ultimately reverse course on letting China get access to Nvidia's best chips https://t.co/XImO09oRyf
Incentives Keep Frontier AI Labs Private, Excluding Public Investors
it's deeply unfortunate that incentives have aligned such that all these frontier AI labs and other tech companies are way better off staying private and the general public cannot invest in them despite desperately wishing they could.
Anthropic Raises $30B At $380B Valuation In Second-Largest Venture Funding Deal Of All Time
Anthropic announced a $30 billion Series G round that lifts its post‑money valuation to $380 billion, making it the second‑largest venture financing ever and the biggest deal of 2026. The round was led by GIC and Coatue, with co‑lead investors including D.E. Shaw, Dragoneer,...
Biotech IPOs Deliver Median -15% Return, Outperforming Losses
Humbling 30 year Biotech stats shared by @verdadcap in a recent report: Just over 1,000 biotechs hit $200M mkt cap at some point. Of those, 67% have lost value (had cumulative negative returns), vs 48% for all other US companies....
Talkiatry Rakes In $210M to Scale Virtual Psychiatry Group
Telepsychiatry startup Talkiatry closed a $210 million Series D round, bringing total capital raised above $400 million. The funding, led by Perceptive Advisors with participation from Andreessen Horowitz and others, will support scaling its virtual psychiatry platform, which currently employs over 800 psychiatrists...
Proptech Lebane Raises $4M Seed Round
Argentine proptech Lebane announced a $4 million seed round led by Atlántico and Zacua Ventures, with participation from ADN.vc, Fen Ventures, Kuiper VC, and Galicia Ventures. The AI‑native platform offers real‑estate developers tools for accounting, contract, stock management, and project oversight,...
Feisty Insights From My Talk with Keith Rabois
Just dropped my conversation with Keith Rabois . Things got feisty. https://lnkd.in/ei2xD9_X
Sourcing and Securing Cap Tables: Venture’s Toughest Challenges
Sourcing is the single hardest part about venture. Equally followed by actually getting on the cap table of the best companies.
Student-Built Livestorm Scales to $20M ARR
Gilles Bertaux built Livestorm for a university final exam in 2016. Nearly $20M ARR. 3,500 customers. $35M raised. Last round was 2020. https://t.co/DXieBIwtcs