Chip Interconnect Startup Kandou AI Raises $225M in Funding
Kandou AI, a Swiss startup developing copper‑based interconnects for AI chips, closed a $225 million financing round that values the company at $400 million. The round was led by chip‑design software giants Synopsys and Cadence, with participation from SoftBank, Maverick Silicon and AI‑chip designer AIchip Technologies. Kandou’s flagship Glasswing solution uses its proprietary CNRZ‑5 Chord technology to transmit data over six wires, offering higher bandwidth, lower power and longer reach than traditional fiber‑optic links. The funding positions Kandou to challenge incumbent optical interconnects and accelerate adoption in data‑center AI infrastructure.
Alive Ventures Closes $55M Fund
Alive Ventures announced the closing of its second impact fund, ALEG II, at $55 million. The capital pool is backed by a coalition of development finance institutions and philanthropic foundations, including Proparco, FMO, and the MacArthur Foundation. The firm will deploy...
UC Davis Launches Food & Health Angels to Back Foodtech Startups as GLP-1 ‘Tsunami’ Approaches
UC Davis has launched Food & Health Angels (FH Angels), an angel network that pools capital from industry veterans to back early‑stage foodtech startups targeting metabolic health. The network allows investors to contribute as little as $10,000 or as much as...
UBC and InBC Launch New Fund to Support University Spinouts
The University of British Columbia and InBC Investment Corp. have launched the UBC Catalyst Ventures Fund, each contributing $10 million CAD (about $7.4 million USD). The partnership aims to raise an additional $20 million CAD from private investors, targeting a $40 million CAD (~$29.6 million...
BKR Capital Secures Initial $20 Million for Second Black Innovation Fund
BKR Capital announced the initial close of its second Black Innovation Fund with CAD 20 million (about US$14.6 million) of commitments. The firm aims to raise a total of CAD 50 million (≈US$36.5 million) to back roughly 25 Black‑led technology companies, issuing first checks of CAD 250 k‑1.5 million....
Startup Gimlet Labs Is Solving the AI Inference Bottleneck in a Surprisingly Elegant Way
Stanford adjunct professor Zain Asgar’s startup Gimlet Labs closed an $80 million Series A, led by Menlo Ventures, to commercialize a multi‑silicon inference cloud that orchestrates AI workloads across CPUs, GPUs and high‑memory hardware. The software claims to boost inference speed by...
AI Doctor Startup Doctronic Garners $40M
Doctronic, a New York‑based AI doctor startup, announced a $40 million Series B round, bringing its total capital raised to $65 million. The funding, co‑led by Abstract and Lightspeed Venture Partners, will fuel expansion into pediatrics and deepen partnerships with academic institutions, payers,...
Credo Ventures Launches Over €74M New Fund to Back CEE Startups at Pre-Seed
Credo Ventures has closed the first round of its fifth fund, Credo Stage 5, raising $88 million (approximately €75 million) to back pre‑seed startups across Central and Eastern Europe. The fund plans to invest $1‑5 million in about 30 companies, targeting seven to eight...
Deep-Tech Player Pranos Fusion Raises $6.8 Million in Round Co-Led by Pi Ventures, Ankur Capital
Pranos Fusion, an Indian deep‑tech startup focused on fusion energy, secured $6.8 million (≈$7.6 million) in an early‑stage round co‑led by pi Ventures and Ankur Capital, with participation from Industrial47 and several high‑profile angels. The capital will fund the commissioning of a tokamak...
STACKUP: The Stack's Weekly Tech Startups and Funding Wrap
The Stack’s weekly roundup highlights a surge of AI‑driven activity, featuring two startups that crossed the $1 billion valuation threshold to become unicorns. Two former Palantir engineers launched new companies, adding to the talent‑driven momentum. A flood of AI automation tools—from...
Healthcare Recruiting Platform Lands $14.5M
Carefam, a conversational AI platform for healthcare staffing, emerged from stealth with a $14.5 million Series A led by Pitango HealthTech and backed by Emerge. The solution automates candidate outreach, interview scheduling, and credential verification, escalating only complex decisions to human HR...
Cocoon Raises $15 Million to Scale Low-Carbon Building Materials
Cocoon Carbon, a London‑based startup, closed a $15 million Series A round to accelerate its low‑carbon cement alternative. The company transforms steel‑making electric arc furnace (EAF) slag into a supplementary cementitious material that can cut concrete’s embodied CO₂ by up to 40%...
The Rise of Women-Led Investment Consortiums: What’s Changing in 2026 and Why Now
Women‑led investment consortiums are reshaping venture capital in 2026, moving from passive limited partners to active, consensus‑driven investors. Their trust‑based, agile structure enables rapid capital deployment and deeper founder support. European female‑founded startups raised a record €7.5 billion in 2025, a...
EGIDE Raises €8M Seed to Build Affordable Interceptor Systems for Modern Warfare
French defence‑tech startup EGIDE announced an €8 million seed round co‑led by Expeditions, Eurazeo and Heartcore Capital. Founded in 2025 by former MBDA engineers, the company is developing electrically propelled interceptors and a hardware‑agnostic AI software suite called Mystique. The funding...
Newly Secures $2M+ in Funding to Advance Native App Creation Platform
Stockholm‑based Newly, formerly Natively, announced a funding round exceeding $2 million, led by PSV Tech and supported by several venture firms and angel investors. The capital will accelerate its AI‑powered platform that lets users build, iterate, and launch fully compliant native...
360 Capital Announces €85M Close for Poli360 2, Targeting €100M
360 Capital has closed €85 million for its second technology‑transfer vehicle, Poli360 2, with a target size of €100 million. The Article 8 SFDR‑compliant fund will back 20‑25 early‑stage deep‑tech startups, allocating at least 80 % of capital to Italy and the remainder across Europe....
European Tech Weekly Recap: More than 55 Tech Funding Deals Worth over €504M
Last week European startups secured more than 55 funding rounds totaling over €504 million. Fintech attracted the most capital at €118 million, followed by AI (€82.7 million) and software (€63.7 million). Germany and the United Kingdom together accounted for over half of the total...
Balderton-Backed Startup Dash0 Bags $110 Million to Expand in US
Dash0, a monitoring platform for software systems, secured $110 million in a Balderton Capital‑led round, valuing the startup at $1 billion. The capital will fund a U.S. market push and accelerate development of AI‑driven agents. CEO Mirko Novakovic confirmed the raise and...
Cape Town BNPL Start-Up Happy Pay Raises R86-Million in Seed Funding
Cape Town‑based BNPL startup Happy Pay closed a US$5 million (R86 million) seed round led by Partech, with participation from several local investors. The company, which counts more than 600,000 registered users, operates a merchant‑funded, ad‑subsidised payments network that places instalment options...
Mind Robotics Raises $500 Million to Build AI-Powered Industrial Robots for Real-World Deployment
Mind Robotics announced a $500 million Series A round, co‑led by Accel and Andreessen Horowitz, to accelerate its AI‑powered industrial robot platform. The financing follows a $115 million seed round and adds Accel partner Sameer Gandhi to the board. Leveraging Rivian’s manufacturing data...
Exclusive: Interloom, a Startup Capturing ‘Tacit Knowledge’ to Power AI Agents, Raises $16.5 Million in Venture Funding
Interloom, a Munich‑based startup, closed a $16.5 million Series A led by DN Capital to commercialise its "context graph" technology that extracts tacit operational knowledge from emails, tickets and call transcripts. The platform maps how experts resolve issues, turning undocumented expertise into...
Workroom Automation Raises Seed Funding Led by Equirus InnovateX Fund
Workroom Automation, a Hyderabad‑based connected‑factory platform, secured ₹6.2 crore in seed funding led by the Equirus InnovateX Fund, with participation from Astir Ventures, Venture Catalysts Group, and several angels. The capital will accelerate product development, especially its AI‑powered planning engine, and...
Digital Lending Marketplace Finfinity Raises $2.4 Mn in Seed Round
Finfinity, a Mumbai‑based digital lending marketplace, closed a $2.4 million seed round led by Mankind Pharma promoter’s family office, with participation from several angel investors and family offices. The capital will fund technology upgrades, new lender partnerships, distribution scaling, and brand‑building...
QCraft Closes $100 Million New Series D Financing to Advance Physical AI for Autonomous Driving and Mobility
QCraft announced the close of a $100 million Series D round aimed at scaling its physical‑AI hardware platform for autonomous driving and broader mobility applications. The financing, led by XYZ Capital with participation from existing backers and strategic automotive partners, will fund...
Electric Propulsion Innovator Arc Raises $50M in New Funding
Arc, a Los Angeles‑based electric boat and powertrain firm, closed a $50 million Series C round led by investors such as a16z, Menlo Ventures, and Eclipse. The capital will be used to accelerate production of electric tugboat powertrains and to expand the...
FemTech IPO Outlook: Investors & Trends
FemTech is transitioning from a niche venture segment to a mainstream health‑tech investment theme, with the market valued at $9.12 billion in 2025 and projected to reach $10.67 billion in 2026. A surge in late‑stage mega‑deals—42 % of 2025 funding—has concentrated capital in...
Anthropic, Solana, Bitcoin Miners, SpaceX : FTX’s Visionary Bets That Bankruptcy Liquidated
FTX’s bankruptcy liquidated a $500 million Anthropic stake for $1.3 billion, far below the $30‑$70 billion valuation some social media posts claimed. The exchange also held sizable positions in Solana, Robinhood, Sui, Genesis Digital Assets, and a SpaceX‑linked fund, which together would be...
Exclusive: Exponent Energy Raising $20 Mn in an Extended Series B
Exponent Energy announced an extended Series B round that will raise Rs 182 crore ($20 million), co‑led by 360 One and TDK Ventures, with participation from existing backers. The funding lifts the post‑money valuation by roughly 56% to about Rs 1.25‑1.30 billion. Revenue surged 80% to Rs 30.2 crore...
Exclusive: WeRize to Raise Rs 64 Cr From Existing Investors
Full‑stack fintech WeRize is raising Rs 64 crore (~$6.9 million) through convertible equity, with Sony Innovation Fund contributing Rs 46 crore and 3one4 Capital Rs 18 crore. The capital will fund general operations, working‑capital needs, capital expenditures, and geographic expansion. WeRize, founded by former Lendingkart executives, serves...
Google Ventures Europe Mostly Invests In AI-Related Start-Ups
Google Ventures (GV) is allocating roughly 80% of its European portfolio to AI‑centric startups, reflecting a broader shift toward intelligent technologies. Since 2014, GV has poured over $1 billion into European ventures, including a $205 million stake in Elon Musk’s Neuralink. Tom...
Autoscience Pulls In $14M Seed Round
Autoscience, an applied AI research lab in San Mateo, announced a $14 million seed financing round. The round was led by General Catalyst with participation from Toyota Ventures, Perplexity Fund, MaC Ventures and S32. The funding will accelerate development of its...
This Music Festival Company’s $30 Million Fundraise Proves AI Isn’t the Only Hot Sector for Investment
Breakaway, a live‑events company, closed a $30 million Series B round, valuing it in the nine‑figure range. The funding, led by RSE Ventures, Gross Labs and Human Ventures, follows a $6 million Series A raised in 2022. Revenue surged from $15 million to nearly $70 million,...
Earendil Labs Announces $787M in Financing
Earendil Labs, an AI‑driven biotechnology firm, announced a $787 million financing round. The capital came from a consortium that includes Dimension Capital, DST Global, Sanofi, and a Pfizer‑Hillhouse biotech fund. The proceeds will accelerate Earendil’s next‑generation biologics platform, leveraging artificial intelligence...
Earendil Labs to Scale AI-Driven Biologics Platform with $787 Million Funding
Earendil Labs announced a $787 million financing round, the largest recent capital raise for AI‑enabled drug development. The funding, led by Sanofi and the Biotech Development Fund, will be used to scale its AI‑driven biologics discovery platform, expand R&D teams, and...
AI Startups Are Eating the Venture Industry and the Returns, so Far, Are Good
AI startups accounted for 41% of the $128 billion venture capital deployed in 2023, a record share, driven by mega‑rounds at OpenAI, Anthropic and xAI. OpenAI secured a $110 billion round, Anthropic $30 billion, and xAI $20 billion, pushing combined funding above $160 billion. Carta’s...
Remitian Raises $7 Million, Unveils Tax Payment API
Remitian announced a $7 million seed round and the launch of its Tax Payment API, aimed at streamlining the final mile of tax remittance for accounting firms and fintech partners. The API embeds payment initiation, validation, and real‑time tracking directly into...
UK Tech Funding Roundup: This Week’s Deals From Edra to First Concepts
UK venture capital tracked £53.69 million across six deals from 16‑20 March, a 97% week‑on‑week drop. The largest round was Edra’s £22.4 million Series A for AI‑driven workflow automation, followed by Tracebit’s £15 million Series A in cloud‑focused cybersecurity. Smaller raises included Flexzo AI’s £8.9 million for...
Over $1.1bn Raised Across Funding Raises in Red-Letter Week for FinTech
FinTech saw a record week in 2026, raising over $1.1 billion across 23 deals. Consumer‑first privacy firm Cloaked led the pack with a $375 million Series B and growth financing round. CyberTech dominated the deal count with nine transactions, while the United States...
Agentic Healthcare Platform Flexzo AI Raises £9m
Flexzo AI, an agentic workforce platform for hospitals, closed a £9 million ($12 million) Series A round led by Octopus Ventures with participation from Fuel Ventures. The funding will fuel a rollout across NHS Trusts and support expansion into the United States. Founded in...
Exclusive: Celesta Capital To Launch ₹2,000 Cr India-Focused Deeptech Fund
Celesta Capital, a San‑Francisco‑based venture firm, is preparing to raise a ₹2,000 crore (approximately $24 billion) Category II AIF dedicated to Indian deep‑tech startups. The fund will focus on early‑stage companies at Series A and B, with typical checks of $3‑7 million per deal. Celesta,...
