‘What We Don’t Want Are Bad Apples,’ DCALTA Founder Says
Jonathan Epstein, founder of DCALTA, has spent over a decade lobbying for retirement savers to gain access to private‑fund investments. He argues that broader participation can boost portfolio diversification and returns for workers. On the brink of a major regulatory proposal, Epstein warns that the industry must guard against low‑quality funds that could tarnish the new opportunity. The upcoming rulemaking could reshape how 401(k) plans allocate to private assets.
Extending Scientific Rigor From Bench to Boardroom
Researchers who launch biotech startups often abandon evidence‑based decision‑making once they enter the boardroom, falling prey to technology myopia, base‑rate neglect, and confirmation bias. Their lack of formal training in commercialization, financial modeling, and competitive analysis amplifies these pitfalls, leading...
On Its 15th Anniversary, Foresite Capital Looks Ahead
Foresite Capital marked its 15th anniversary by projecting a resurgence in biopharma venture capital, anticipating a year‑over‑year rise in financings and IPOs starting in 2026. The firm highlighted a surge to $149 billion in biopharma VC dollars in 2025 and a...
Canadian Fintech Investment Down Nearly 75% Last Year, After Record-High 2024
Canadian fintech investment plunged 75% in 2025, falling to US$2.4 billion across 113 deals, down from a record US$9.9 billion in 2024. AI and digital‑asset firms dominated the reduced deal flow, while later‑stage platforms attracted the bulk of capital. The three biggest...
NewCo Boom Shows No Signs of Slowing
The NewCo model, where Asian biotech assets are spun out into Western start‑ups backed by Western capital, surged in 2025 with 13 new companies—more than double the six disclosed in 2024. Early 2026 already sees three additional launches, including Kidswell...
Frist Cressey Ventures Raises $425M Fund to Invest in AI-Native Care
Frist Cressey Ventures closed an oversubscribed $425 million Fund IV, lifting its assets under management close to $1 billion. The new fund zeroes in on early‑stage, AI‑native healthcare companies that can reshape care delivery. Strategic limited partners such as Cigna, MedStar Health and...
EDGX CEO Details the Startup’s Push for AI-Enabled Onboard Processing
Belgian AI space startup EDGX secured €2.3 million funding to accelerate its Sterna edge‑AI computer for satellites and has already signed a €1.1 million multi‑unit contract with a satellite operator. CEO Nick Destrycker says the company will focus on European defense and...
DG Matrix, Which Builds Solid-State Transformers to Handle up to 2.4 MW and Boost Data Center Power Efficiency, Raised a...
DG Matrix, a startup developing solid‑state transformers (SSTs) for data centers, announced a $60 million Series A round led by Engine Ventures. The company’s SSTs can handle up to 2.4 MW, promising higher efficiency and reduced footprint compared with legacy transformer technology....
Digital Savings Startup Vestwell Lands $385M, Doubles Valuation
Vestwell, the New York‑based digital savings platform, closed a $385 million Series E round led by Blue Owl Capital and Sixth Street Growth, pushing its valuation to $2 billion—double its prior level. The fintech now reports annual recurring revenue above $200 million, serving more...
Circuit Raises $30M in Funding
Circuit, an Austin‑based AI platform for manufacturing and service firms, announced a $30 million financing round. The round was led by a roster of high‑profile backers including Jim Breyer, Lew Cirne, and other tech investors. CEO Tyson Tuttle said the capital...
STAT+: Biotech Startup Raises $175 Million to Advance Alzheimer’s Antibody Therapy
Korsana Biosciences announced a $175 million financing round led by Fairmount, Venrock, Wellington Management and TCGX to develop its Alzheimer’s antibody candidate KRSA‑028. The startup positions KRSA‑028 as a next‑generation “brain shuttle” designed to clear amyloid plaques more efficiently than existing...
Epetōme Secures Multi-Million-Pound Investment to Scale Its Subscription-Based Gut Health Range Globally
Epetōme, the UK‑based gut‑health brand founded by nutritionist Emily English, has secured a multi‑million‑pound investment led by Active Partners and Redrice Ventures. The funding will accelerate its international rollout and fund expanded clinical trials on probiotics and prebiotics. Since its...
French VC Quantonation Raises €220 Million for Flagship Quantum and Deep-Physics Fund
Quantonation Ventures closed its second flagship fund at €220 million, making it the world’s largest dedicated quantum‑investment vehicle by assets under management. The round attracted both returning backers such as Vertex Holdings and new limited partners including the European Investment Fund,...
Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund Dumps ETHZilla Stake as ETH Treasuries Face Pressure
Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund has completely divested its 7.5% stake in ETHZilla, the former 180 Life Sciences company that rebranded to run an Ether‑focused treasury. The stake, worth about $40 million when disclosed in August 2025, is now reported as zero...
InKind Raises $450M in Funding
Austin‑based restaurant commerce platform inKind announced a $450 million funding round backed by Peak6 founders, former Sodexo US CEO, and Condé Nast CPTO. The capital will fuel a rollout to an additional 10,000 U.S. restaurants over the next twelve months. inKind already...
Drug Discovery Platform Peptris Raises Rs 70 Cr in Series A Round
Peptris, a Bengaluru‑based AI drug‑discovery startup, closed a Rs 70 crore ($7.7 million) Series A round co‑led by IAN Alpha Fund and Speciale Invest. The capital will accelerate its pipeline, moving novel chemical entities and repurposing programs toward clinical readiness within 24 months. Peptris’ platform...
Is Australia’s Secondaries Market the Solution to Delayed Exits and Liquidity Pressure?
Australia’s venture ecosystem is confronting a liquidity crunch as exits stretch and companies remain private longer. Secondary transactions have moved from occasional fixes to a structural component, with analysts estimating a US$2.6 billion pool of liquidity in tech firms over the...
Fabless Semiconductor Startup Vervesemi Raises $10 Mn in Series A Round
Fabless semiconductor startup Vervesemi announced a $10 million Series A round co‑led by Ashish Kacholia and Unicorn India Ventures, with participation from Roots Ventures, Caperize Fina, and MAIQ Growth Scheme. The funding will accelerate commercialization of its machine‑learning‑enhanced analog signal‑chain ICs, expand...
Zest Equity Launches Zest Arrange and Zest Escrow Following FSRA Authorisation
Zest Equity, backed by Morgan Stanley and regional investors, launched two new FSRA‑regulated services—Zest Arrange and Zest Escrow—expanding its private‑market infrastructure platform. Zest Arrange digitizes end‑to‑end deal‑making workflows, while Zest Escrow provides a regulated escrow function with segregated UAE bank...
Artociti Raises Rs 1 Cr on Shark Tank India at Rs 13.33 Cr Valuation
Artociti, a Bokaro‑based 3D wall‑art startup, secured Rs 1 crore on Shark Tank India in exchange for a 7.5% stake, placing its post‑money valuation at roughly Rs 13.33 crore. The funding, provided by investors Namita Thapar and Vineeta Singh, will finance a new manufacturing...
SatVu Raises £30M to Accelerate Its Constellation
UK‑based thermal‑imaging firm SatVu announced a £30 million equity raise, bringing its total financing to £60 million. The funding, sourced from the NATO Innovation Fund, British Business Bank and existing backers, will accelerate the deployment of its HotSat constellation after the on‑orbit...
Early-Stage Biotechs Suffer in 2025 As VC Shuns Risk: PitchBook
Venture capital in biopharma rebounded in 2025, delivering $33.8 billion across 1,171 deals, but the capital is increasingly concentrated in late‑stage companies. Early‑stage startups received only 32% of the funding, down from over 40% during the pandemic surge, while median deal...
India’s AIF Industry Crosses Rs 15 Lakh Crore as Domestic Capital & Liquidity Reshape Private Markets
India’s alternative investment fund (AIF) sector has crossed the ₹15.05 lakh crore mark, underscoring rapid scale and emerging maturity. Equity‑oriented AIFs have delivered roughly 8.7 % alpha over the BSE Sensex across multiple cycles, highlighting consistent outperformance. Domestic investors now contribute about 55 %...
Breakthrough Victoria Scores 5x Uplift on Investment in US Quantum Startup Listing on the NYSE
Breakthrough Victoria’s A$29 million stake in US‑based Infleqtion has generated a five‑fold value increase after the company listed on the NYSE via a SPAC merger. Infleqtion raised US$550 million, debuting at US$14.25 per share and closing at US$15.59, a 14% first‑day gain....
Temporal
Temporal announced a Series D financing round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, bringing new capital to the open‑source durable execution platform. The round includes Lightspeed partners Anoushka Vaswani, Ravi Mhatre, Bucky Moore and Justin Shen. Temporal’s technology underpins mission‑critical services at...
QuadSci Receives $8M Series A Funding Round
QuadSci announced an $8 million Series A round led by Crosslink Capital, with participation from Alumni Ventures, Correlation Ventures, and several angel investors. The startup’s AI platform uniquely ties product usage telemetry to revenue outcomes, enabling firms to predict churn, uncover growth,...
ChipAgents Completes $50M Series A1 Round
ChipAgents announced the close of an oversubscribed $50 million Series A1 round, raising its total capital to $74 million. The round was led by Matter Venture Partners, a TSMC‑backed HardTech VC, with participation from Bessemer Venture Partners, Micron, MediaTek and Ericsson. ChipAgents’ Agentic...
Dragonfly Raises $650M for Crypto Venture Fund IV
Dragonfly Capital announced the close of its fourth crypto venture fund with $650 million in commitments, topping the original $500 million target. The fund will back early‑stage blockchain projects across infrastructure, DeFi, stablecoins and tokenized real‑world assets. Recent allocations include...
Meridian Closes $17M Seed Round to Bring Agentic AI to Financial Modeling
Meridian, an AI‑driven financial modeling startup, emerged from stealth with a $17 million seed round at a $100 million post‑money valuation. The funding was led by Andreessen Horowitz and The General Partnership, joined by QED Investors, FPV Ventures, and Litquidity Ventures. Meridian...
Dragonfly Raises $650M for New Fund to Back DeFi, Prediction Markets and Stablecoins
Dragonfly Capital announced the close of its fourth venture fund, raising $650 million to back projects in decentralized finance, stablecoins and prediction markets. The fund marks the firm’s largest commitment yet, reflecting confidence that the crypto sector remains in an early...
Announcing Our Investment in Temporal: Agents Make Mistakes. Your Workflows Can’t.
Lightspeed announced a strategic investment in Temporal’s $300 million Series D, positioning the durable‑execution platform as essential infrastructure for AI‑driven agents. Temporal’s technology lets agents recover from failures, maintain state, and run for extended periods without manual intervention. The company reports 380%...
AI-Powered Worksite Safety Startup Fyld Raises £32m Series B
London‑based AI startup Fyld has closed a £32 million Series B round, led by Energy Impact Partners with participation from Partech’s Growth Impact Fund. The funding will fuel the expansion of its real‑time safety and compliance platform for frontline workers into the...
Cloud Startup Render Raises Funding at $1.5 Billion Valuation as AI-Built Apps Boom
Render announced a $100 million financing round that lifts its valuation to $1.5 billion, reflecting the surge in AI‑generated applications. The San‑Francisco startup reports revenue growth exceeding 100 percent and a developer community of more than 4.5 million users. It runs on AWS and...
How the Uninvestable Is Becoming Investable
Venture capital is moving into traditionally “hard” sectors—government, defence, energy, manufacturing—after years of avoidance. Rapid growth in public‑sector tech spending, which more than doubled between 2021 and 2025, and the rise of AI‑first solutions are reshaping procurement cycles and lowering...
Daffodil Health Raises $16.3M for AI Claims Automation
Daffodil Health announced a $16.3 million Series A round, bringing its total capital to $20.9 million. The San Francisco startup uses AI and large‑language models to automate health‑plan administration, focusing on out‑of‑network pricing and payment‑integrity workflows. Funds will accelerate product development and expand...
Side Letter: M&G’s Liquidity Play
M&G has introduced a side‑letter that leverages the secondary market to provide liquidity for its private‑equity commitments, allowing investors optional redemption windows while preserving long‑term value. The move comes as Q4 private‑equity exit volume fell below expectations, highlighting a slowdown...
MeitY, IVCA Mobilise ₹500 Cr VC Commitments For AI Startups
At the India AI Impact Summit 2026, MeitY and the Indian Venture and Alternate Capital Association (IVCA) announced a collective ₹500 crore VC commitment from 16 member funds to accelerate Indian AI startups. Sixteen investors, including Accel, Antler and Prosus, pledged...
From Client to Cap Table: Shakudo Converts Customers Into Investors with $7-Million USD Raise
Toronto‑based AI infrastructure startup Shakudo closed a $7 million USD Series A2 round, led by Wittington Ventures, adding investors from its client base such as Loblaw and CentralReach. The round brings total funding to roughly $18 million and places Wittington managing partner...
Kenya’s Arc Ride Secures $5 Million IFC Commitment for Regional Expansion
Kenyan e‑mobility startup Arc Ride has secured a $5 million equity commitment from the International Finance Corporation to fuel its Series A round and regional rollout. The funding will accelerate the deployment of battery‑swapping stations across East Africa, complementing earlier debt deals...
Emirates NBD Leads $31 Million Round in Real Estate Investment Platform Stake
Stake, a fractional real‑estate investment platform, closed a $31 million financing round led by Emirates NBD, bringing its total capital to $58 million. The raise backs Stake’s rapid expansion beyond Saudi Arabia into the United States and supports its regulated offering in the Kingdom....
Danish Fintech Pluto Secures New Funding From Seed Capital and Unicorn Founders to Scale Commission-Free Investing Across Europe
Copenhagen‑based fintech Pluto announced a €5 million funding round led by Seed Capital and a syndicate of ten Danish unicorn founders, including executives from Pleo, Synthesia and Zendesk, with footballer Thomas Delaney also participating. The capital will fuel the launch of “Pluto...
AI Consulting Startup Navikenz Raises $7.5 Mn Led by Sekar PRC and Sudip Nandy
Navikenz, a Noida‑based AI consulting firm, closed a $7.5 million funding round led by Sekar PRC and Sudip Nandy, adding to a prior $8 million raise. The capital will fund team expansion and further development of its AI platforms, including RetailBOT and...
Google Maps Co-Founder Lars Rasmussen and Lefteris Katsiadakis Are Turning Athens Into a Startup Magnet
Google Maps co‑founder Lars Rasmussen and Panathēnea CEO Lefteris Katsiadakis are turning Athens into a Southeast European startup hub. The nonprofit festival attracted investors such as Sequoia, Index Ventures, NVIDIA and OpenAI, and featured over 3,000 attendees from 44 countries...
Paket Mutfak Raises $3.8M to Grow Multi-Brand Cloud Kitchen Model
Turkish cloud‑kitchen software startup Paket Mutfak announced a $3.8 million financing round, bringing its total capital to $12.3 million. The round was led by existing backers Nokta Yatırım Holding, Ünlü & Co, and Fırat İşbecer, with new investors including Ali Sabancı and...
CraftifAI Raises $3 Mn To Build AI Tools For Embedded Software Development
CraftifAI announced a $3 million seed round, led by Ankur Capital, to accelerate its AI-driven platform for embedded software development. The startup’s Orbit platform uses multi‑agent generative AI to automate code generation, hardware optimization, and AI/ML deployment for edge, IoT and...
Equirus InnovateX Fund Announces Final Close of B2B Tech Fund at Rs 166 Cr
Equirus InnovateX Fund (EIF) announced the final close of its maiden B2B tech fund at Rs 166 crore, a SEBI‑registered Category I AIF targeting seed to pre‑Series A investments. The fund focuses on deep‑tech, SaaS and fintech startups that have a product but are...
Udtara Ventures Announces Rs 250 Cr Growth Fund
Udtara Ventures has launched a Rs 250 crore Udtara Growth Fund aimed at taking sizable ownership stakes in defence, deep‑tech and frontier engineering firms. The fund will back 8‑10 growth‑stage companies with proven product‑market fit and existing order books, using a blend...
China AI Startup Moonshot Targets $10 Billion Valuation
Moonshot, the Chinese AI startup behind the Kimi chatbot, is launching a new financing round that targets a $10 billion valuation. The company previously secured $500 million at a $4.3 billion valuation, and its existing backers—Alibaba, Tencent and 5Y Capital—have already committed more...
Edtech Startup Beep Raises $850K in Pre-Series A Round
Edtech startup Beep announced an $850,000 pre‑Series A round, bringing its total funding to $1.5 million. The round was led by Knowhere Ventures, Pacific Global Solutions, and LeadAngels FLV, with participation from angel investors. Beep plans to scale its user base...
Vietnam's Airports, Money Controls Said to Deter Tech Investors
Vietnam’s startup funding has slowed as investors cite cross‑border frictions, notably congested airports and strict capital controls. The newly opened Long Thanh International Airport is intended to ease Ho Chi Minh City’s traffic but has yet to deliver full relief....
