Today's Venture Capital Pulse
Qorelo secures $3.5M seed round to accelerate AI‑driven SAP migrations
AI‑focused startup Qorelo announced a $3.5 million seed round led by HPI Ventures and Caesar Ventures. The funding will be used to develop its AI‑powered layer that automates functional workstreams in SAP S/4HANA migrations, which the company says can cut project timelines by up to 45 percent ahead of the 2027 SAP migration deadline.
Also developing:
By the numbers: Sygaldry Technologies raises $139M in seed and Series A round
Workplace Finance Provider Stream Raises $90 Million
Stream, the workplace‑finance platform formerly known as Wagestream, closed a $90 million Series D round, raising its total capital to $228 million. The funding, led by Sofina and backed by existing investors, will fuel the company’s push into pensions and accelerate its U.S. expansion. Stream now serves four million users through 2,000 employer partners across the UK, Europe and the United States. Its newly launched pensions product aims to recover billions in unclaimed retirement assets.
French Accounting Software Platform Pennylane Raises $200M
French fintech Pennylane secured $200 million in a Series E round led by TCV, with participation from Blackstone Growth, Sequoia, DST Global and Alphabet’s Capital G. The financing values the accounting platform at roughly $4.25 billion, though the figure remains unverified. Pennylane, founded in...
From Science to Scale: Building Biotech Companies via Milestone Leadership
Leadership quality now rivals scientific innovation as a key driver of venture‑capital success in biotech. A new "milestone leadership" framework proposes using dynamic scorecards to match executive competencies with each development stage, from pre‑clinical discovery to commercial launch. Companies that...
Stilla Emerges From Stealth with $5M to Address Collaboration Challenges in AI-Driven Companies
Stilla, a Stockholm‑based startup, announced its emergence from stealth with a $5 million pre‑seed round led by General Catalyst. The company offers an infrastructure layer that connects core workplace tools—Slack, Linear, GitHub, Notion—to create a shared, real‑time context for both humans...
Evvolve & Partners Formalizes ‘Evvolve Circle’ to Address Fragmentation in Private Market Co-Investment
Evvolve & Partners has launched the Evvolve Circle, an invitation‑only consortium for family offices and ultra‑high‑net‑worth investors. The group offers a confidential framework for proprietary deal exchange, shared due diligence, and direct co‑investment alongside venture and credit institutions. Its multi‑pillar...
Beyond Sand Hill: Diverse Investors Fund Hardware Startups
Sand Hill has done a great job selling their capital. But if you don’t fit a certain “archetype” (either in demographics, category, or geography) and strike out on Sand Hill, then there’s plenty of other investors elsewhere. For example: look...
Turn
if Indiana can go from losingest team in NCAA history to undefeated and CFP champion in two years, you can get to 3x DPI on the late stage SaaS portfolio you invested at 97x ARR in 2021
#51 Zach Resnick, Founder & CEO of Ascend
In this episode, host interviews Zach Resnick, founder and CEO of Ascend, a membership service that automates 90% of travel decisions and cuts business/first‑class fares by roughly 35%. Resnick shares how he opened 300 credit cards, leveraged miles and points...
Six Essential Steps to Close an M&A Deal
What are the basic phases of a process (M&A or capital raise)? 1. Pre-marketing Complete the marketing materials (information packet and buyer list) and get your house in order. 2. Marketing Reach out to buyers, execute NDAs, and share marketing...
Overfunded Rivals Overpaying CAC Eventually Burn Out
It’s scary when a startup competitor becomes well-funded. But what I’ve noticed is that while they may be able to overpay on customer acquisition in the near term, it catches up to them. If you can weather the storm for...
Illegitimi Non Carborundum: Don’t Let Investors Control Your Meeting
Founders, especially women and underrepresented entrepreneurs, are disproportionately asked downside‑focused questions by investors, while their white male peers receive more upside‑oriented inquiries. This bias can steer pitch conversations away from a company’s growth potential. The article advises founders to pre‑write...
This Week in SaaS - Jan 13 - 19, 2026
This week’s SaaS landscape saw a wave of large VC rounds, with AI‑focused platforms like Parloa and Deepgram raising $350 M and $130 M respectively, while supply‑chain and sustainability players also secured sizable funding. Major M&A activity included CrowdStrike’s $740 M acquisition of...
Building Reliable AI Requires a New Empirical Playbook
I had a wide ranging chat with Eléonore about Intercom , Fin , and a variety of topics * Why did we need to drop everything and run to AI immediately, and do so regardless of the cost. * Building...
Find Investor Followers on X, DM, Get Funded
Introducing Fast Round. We built a tool to help founders fundraise. How it works: • Enter your X username • See which investors follow you • Send a DM • Get $$$ But seriously, I hope it's useful. If you want to give the beta a try, the...
Looking Ahead to 2026: What’s Next for Startup Battlefield 200
TechCrunch’s Startup Battlefield 200 will return in 2026, selecting 200 early‑stage startups for a high‑visibility launch at Disrupt in San Francisco. The program offers free exhibit space, masterclasses, investor access, and a chance to win a $100,000 equity‑free prize and the Disrupt...
CIS News
Recent weeks have seen a flurry of activity in the surgical robotics sector, highlighted by multiple regulatory clearances, sizable funding rounds, and strategic leadership moves. CMR Surgical secured a CE mark for its Versius platform in pediatric procedures, while Distalmotion...
Buyers Ready to Pay for Real
A good business in a bad market often sells for nothing. A great business in a strong market can sell for something that actually changes your life. That’s where we are right now. > Strategic buyers are buying tech to move faster. >...
Only Two Days Left to Secure Super Early Bird Tickets for the Tech.eu Summit London 2026
The Tech.eu Summit London 2026, scheduled for 21–22 April at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre, is offering Super Early Bird tickets for just £375 + VAT. These discounted tickets expire on 21 January 2026, after which the price rises to £400 + VAT. Group rates...
Everything You Need To Know Before Launching a Crypto Token
Launching a crypto token requires careful alignment of purpose, technology, legal compliance, and community engagement. Developers must first articulate a clear utility, choose a blockchain that balances speed, cost, and developer support, and secure smart‑contract audits. Regulatory considerations vary globally,...
Fanvue Raises $22M in Series A Funding
Fanvue, the London‑based AI‑powered creator monetization platform, announced a $22 million Series A round. The financing was led by Inner Circle with participation from Moonbug founder René Rechtman. The capital will fund global expansion, product development, and scaling of its AI tools...
ZBXCX Moves Forward With European Expansion in 2026
ZBXCX Digital Asset Exchange announced a 2026 expansion into Europe, targeting the region’s mature financial infrastructure and growing digital‑asset participation. The plan includes localized marketing, multilingual platform interfaces, and regional customer‑support services. Technology upgrades will enhance system stability, liquidity integration,...
Six Threats Force SaaS to Deliver Smiling AI
“Can your team ship AI features that make you truly smile? If you don’t smile — your customers won’t either” Traditional enterprise software and SaaS is under assault. The leaders are all still growing, but in many cases slower than...
Dominate AI-Driven GTM at SaaStrAnnual 2026
AI is changing every GTM role. You can run from it. You can argue with it. Or ... you can learn to dominate the new world at SaaStrAnnual.com 2026. Join us.
Sequoia Seeks Part in Anthropic’s $25 Billion Funding Round
Sequoia Capital is poised to join a multibillion‑dollar financing round for Anthropic, the AI startup that recently unveiled its agentic "Cowork" feature for Claude. The round, led by Singapore’s sovereign fund GIC and Coatue, aims to raise at least $25 billion...
B2B Shifts to 70% AI, Old GTM Obsolete
The best B2B companies are now running with 30% humans and 70% AI agents. Or even higher. The old GTM playbook is dead. At SaaStr AI 2026, we're going deep on what the new playbook actually is. And what really...
Stop Calling It 'The AI Bubble': It's Actually Multiple Bubbles, Each with a Different Expiration Date
The AI boom consists of three distinct layers—wrapper companies, foundation‑model providers, and infrastructure—each with its own risk profile and timeline. Wrapper startups that merely repackage APIs are expected to implode first, as large platforms absorb their functionality and margins evaporate....
Late AI Adoption Sparks 100% Growth for Veteran SaaS
Just got an investor update from a 10+ year old vertical SaaS company I invested in a looong time ago. Founders never quit, know space cold, but man it’s been a grind. And they are far, far from “AI Native”. However … They...
How YC-Backed Bucket Robotics Survived Its First CES
Bucket Robotics, a Y Combinator Spring 2024 graduate, made its CES debut after founder Matt Puchalski drove 12 hours to Las Vegas to avoid flight delays. The startup showcased a vision‑based surface‑inspection system that generates simulated defects from CAD files,...
AI B2B Landscape Shifts: Lawsuits, Billion‑Dollar Valuations, and Market Moves
📰 Top AI+B2B News - Sun, Jan 18 https://t.co/MWFHfEuzpm Top Stories: 1. Musk Seeks Up to $134 Billion Damages From OpenAI, Microsoft 2. ClickHouse Lands $15 Billion Valuation in AI Database Race 3. Figma (FIG) Is Down 13.2% After AI Deal With OpenAI Top SaaStr...
I’m Unable to Create a Headline without Knowing the Content of the Link. Could You Provide a Brief Summary of...
🧠♻️ https://lnkd.in/gGt8wQmK
Crypto Trading Platform with CZ as Advisor Sees Sudden $2 Billion Volume Surge on 'Airdrop' Hype
Genius Terminal, a crypto trading platform backed by YZi Labs and advised by Binance co‑founder CZ, has experienced a massive surge in activity ahead of a rumored token airdrop. Weekly trading volume exploded from roughly $85 million to more than $2 billion,...
Series B Startup Naming Contest Tests VC Knowledge
VC autism contest: Who can name the most startups that have raised a Series B. If you get a single one wrong, you’re eliminated at that number. Whoever gets the highest wins.
Founders Must Overcome Sunk‑Cost Bias to See Real Customer Love
Even without a lot of data points, often founders truly know whether customers love their product or not. But it’s easy to delude oneself. Mostly because of sunk costs. But if you’re really honest with yourself, you know your answer.
Bain & Company, 7 VCs, Announce AI Partnership
Bain & Company has teamed up with seven top venture‑capital firms—Bain Capital Ventures, Battery Ventures, ICONIQ, Insight Partners, Lightspeed, Menlo Ventures and NEA—to create a dedicated AI pipeline through its Venture Ecosystem. The VCs collectively manage roughly $190 billion in assets...
Public Software Stocks Tank, Private AI Startups Soar
Strange World Indeed, 2026 January edition: - The worst time in our history to be invested in public software stocks - The best time in our history to be invested in private hot (AI fueled) startup stocks
VC Expectations Escalate: From $1B to $100B Targets
10 years ago, VC was optimized around $1B+ outcomes, for the most part. 5 years ago, VC was optimized around $10B+ outcomes. Today, VC is optimized around $100B+ outcomes. It’s exciting and bold and startups in the Age of AI...
Digital Asset Firm Meld Closes $7M Round
Meld announced the close of a $7 million strategic funding round led by Lightspeed Faction, with participation from F‑Prime, Yolo Investments, and Scytale Digital. The capital will accelerate Meld’s go‑to‑market push, expand the Meld Network, and deepen its customer‑success capabilities. Meld’s platform...
Never Sell: Growth Compounds, Starting over Is Hard
If the company was going well, a lot of founders I know who sold their companies later regretted it. Because success compounds, they lost out on the revenue compounding over the next several years. AND, when you start a new...
Hidden Stripe Fees Lurk Beyond Dashboards
I wonder how much of Stripe’s margin comes from junk fees that aren’t on any of the pretty dashboards, only the CSV that takes 24 hours to generate.
Guest Post: Three GTM Challenges Killing Vertical AI Startups in 2026—And Why Market Shaping GTM Solves All of Them
Vertical AI startups face a paradox in 2026: funding exploded 85% to $211 billion while enterprise IT budgets barely grow 2% and consolidate vendors. Traditional SaaS GTM tactics—outbound blasts, demo‑first pitches, and volume‑driven pipelines—no longer win because buyers pick a preliminary...
NATSEC Roundtable No. 9: Capital, Cloud, and Commerce
The defense ecosystem is evolving into a three‑layer stack of venture capital, cloud infrastructure, and digital commerce. Mandate‑driven VC firms such as In‑QTel, a16z’s American Dynamism and Shield Capital are financing AI, autonomous and cyber startups that resemble Silicon Valley...
AI Cloud Startup Runpod Hits $120M in ARR — and It Started with a Reddit Post
Runpod, an AI‑app‑hosting platform founded by former Comcast developers, has reached a $120 million annual revenue run rate. The company bootstrapped to $1 million in revenue within nine months, leveraging Reddit outreach to acquire early users and attract a $20 million seed round...
2026 Vertical SaaS Outlook: Buyers Return, AI Valuation Shifts
How do we see vertical Software M&A and fund raising shaping up for 2026? A lot of founders we speak with are trying to figure out what 2026 might actually look like if they're thinking about raising capital or selling....
More Cash Flows Into Biotechs During Conference Week: Finance Report
During the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, biotech companies attracted roughly $950 million in new capital, spread across 19 mostly private firms. The influx followed an early‑2026 surge of venture deals that pushed total private biotech funding to about $3 billion. Most of...
Push Through Early Burnout to Reach Product-Market Fit
The first 3 years of starting a company really wears you down. Finding product-market fit is hard. But once you get some success and push through that wall, that’s when it gets good. Unfortunately, too many people run out of...
Sign up for the VC AI Show & Tell
I got so much positive response to my previous post about hosting a VC AI tool show and tell that I created a form to capture interest - if you'd like to stay in the loop please fill this out...
The Week’s 10 Biggest Funding Rounds: A Busy Time For Robotics, Defense Tech And AI
The week’s top ten U.S. funding rounds highlighted a surge in capital for robotics, AI hardware, and defense technologies. Skild AI led the pack with a $1.4 billion raise, pushing its valuation above $14 billion. Other notable deals included Etched.ai’s $500 million for...
Tech‑Savvy Finance Fuels Growth and Flexibility
Postscript 's Chris Brubaker is not afraid to color outside the lines of finance. In fact, it may be his superpower. As a master at partnering with sales and an advocate for finance leaders to have tech skills past the...
Leadership Excellence Cuts Through Market Idea Overload
Today, if there’s a good idea, prepare to see 100s of it. There’s a lot of sameness. In this market, leadership excellence wins. @marissamayer's experience is a major edge, but so is her ability to know how to put it...