BlackPeak Capital Backs Biometric Security Firm Alcatraz in a Series B Funding Round
Bulgarian‑based BlackPeak Capital led a $35 million Series B round for Alcatraz, a facial‑biometric access control firm, with an additional $15 million in commitments, pushing total funding past $100 million. The capital, co‑led by Cogito and Taiwania Capital and backed by existing investors such as Almaz Capital and the EBRD, will fund product innovation, global market expansion, and team growth. Alcatraz, founded by former Apple engineer Vince Gaydarzhiev, reports 200% year‑over‑year enterprise customer growth and a five‑fold increase in Fortune 500 deployments. The investment underscores rising demand for secure, AI‑ready physical infrastructure as global AI spending is projected to exceed $632 billion by 2028.
Lithuanian WhiteBridge AI Raises €2.6 Million Seed to Expand AI-Driven People Research Platform
Lithuanian startup WhiteBridge AI secured a €2.6 million seed round (≈$2.8 million) led by FIRSTPICK VC. The company’s AI‑powered platform aggregates and verifies public data to produce digital‑identity reports for sales, hiring and partner due diligence. Funding will expand data sources and...
EnerVenue Closes US$300 Million Series B for 30,000-Cycle Nickel-Hydrogen Battery Manufacturing
EnerVenue closed a $300 million Series B extension led by Full Vision Capital, adding a new investor to the round. The funding will finance rapid expansion of its high‑volume nickel‑hydrogen battery plant in Changzhou, China, and accelerate supply‑chain development. The company also...
Ambrosia Eyes Next-Generation Small Molecule GLP-1s With $100M Series B
Ambrosia Biosciences announced the completion of a $100 million Series B financing round to fund the development of next‑generation small‑molecule GLP‑1 oral therapies for obesity. The capital will support a Phase 1 trial of its lead GLP‑1 candidate, which leverages AI‑driven molecular design...
Estonian Validfor Raises $1.2 Mililion Pre-Seed to Cut Pharma Validation Timelines From Months to Weeks
Estonian compliance startup Validfor secured a $1.2 million pre‑seed round led by DOMiNO Ventures, with participation from Curiosity VC and angels. The company is building an AI‑native, agentic digital validation platform that promises to shrink pharma, biotech and medtech validation cycles...
Serbian Startup Funding 2025: Investors Are Selective, but They’re Finally Committing Big
Serbian venture capital rebounded in 2024, reaching €22.4 million (about $26 million) – an 89% year‑over‑year increase – and is projected to grow another 36% in 2025. Funding is becoming more concentrated, with larger rounds and a surge in pre‑seed activity where...
Antaris Raises $28M Series A
Antaris announced a $28 million Series A round led by WestWave Capital, with participation from Lockheed Martin Ventures and other investors. The capital will accelerate development of its AI‑powered Antaris Intelligence platform, especially the TrueTwin digital‑twin tool that simulates satellite operations before...
Irish Drone Delivery Firm Manna Confirms $50m Raise, Plans 400 New Jobs
Irish drone logistics firm Manna announced a $50 million Series B round, lifting total capital raised to $110 million. The financing, led by ARK Invest, Schooner Capital and the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, will fund the creation of 400 high‑skill jobs—300 in Ireland...
OpenAI Closes $122B Funding Round
OpenAI announced a record $122 billion funding round, pushing its valuation to roughly $852 billion. The round was led by Amazon, Nvidia and SoftBank, which together contributed $110 billion, with Amazon alone committing $50 billion. OpenAI said the capital will fuel compute expansion, research...
InterCosmos Bags Early Stage Funding From IAN Angel Fund for Its Non-Toxic Propulsion Technology
InterCosmos, a Chennai‑based space‑tech startup, secured early‑stage capital from the IAN Angel Fund to fast‑track its HyperX non‑toxic propulsion system. The undisclosed investment will fund development and flight qualification, positioning HyperX as a safer, high‑performance alternative to conventional toxic propellants....
Q1 2026 Shatters Venture Funding Records As AI Boom Pushes Startup Investment To $300B
Venture capital investment exploded in Q1 2026, reaching a record $300 billion across 6,000 startups, driven largely by AI and frontier labs. AI‑focused companies alone captured $242 billion, 80% of the total, with OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI and Waymo accounting for $188 billion of that...
OceanSound Collects $3.4 Billion for Government and Enterprise Technology Bets
OceanSound Partners announced the closing of its third flagship fund, raising approximately $3.4 billion, roughly twice the size of its prior vehicle. The New York‑based firm, led by founder and CEO Joe Benavides, will deploy the capital into technology companies serving...
Standing Ovation Secures $34.2m to Scale Precision-Fermented Dairy Proteins
French food‑tech startup Standing Ovation raised $34.2 million in a Series B round, led by Bpifrance and joined by Danone Ventures, to scale its precision‑fermented casein protein platform. The company’s patented process converts whey permeate into high‑value casein, the dominant milk protein...
Xovian Aerospace Raises $2 Mn Led by Ashish Kacholia
Satellite RF intelligence startup Xovian Aerospace announced a $2 million strategic investment round led by Ashish Kacholia. The funding brings its total capital to $4.5 million, following a $2.5 million pre‑seed round last year. Xovian will use the new capital to accelerate satellite...
NowPurchase Secures Rs 80 Cr in Funding Led by Bajaj Finserv
NowPurchase, a B2B marketplace for metal manufacturers, secured ₹80 crore (approximately $9.8 million) in a funding round led by Bajaj Finserv, with participation from existing backers and family offices. The capital brings the startup’s total equity funding to about ₹120 crore ($14.5 million) and...
Indian Companies Dominated Asian RegTech Market Raking in 39% of All Deals in 2025
Asian RegTech activity contracted in 2025, with deals falling 18% to 75 and total funding dropping 63% to $163.9 million. Indian firms dominated the market, securing 29 deals for a 39% share despite a 15% decline in their own volume. Japan...
Audicin Raises $1.9M to Expand Real-Time Nervous System Tech
Finland‑based Audicin secured $1.9 million in new financing, raising its total capital to roughly $3 million. The round featured private investors, follow‑on support from founders, and backing from Business Finland’s Deep Tech Accelerator. Audicin’s portfolio includes a passive SDK that syncs with...
Exclusive: Meridian Global Nears Controlling Stake in Cygni Energy with Fresh Funding
Meridian Global Ventures is poised to acquire a controlling 49.23% stake in Indian battery‑storage startup Cygni Energy after a fresh Rs 60 crore (~$6.4 million) infusion. The capital raise, executed via 416,667 compulsorily convertible preference shares, lifts Cygni's post‑money valuation to roughly Rs 244 crore...
Saronic Raises $1.75B at $9.25B Valuation to Gear up Autonomous Ship Production
Saronic Technologies announced a $1.75 billion Series D round, valuing the autonomous shipbuilder at $9.25 billion. The funding will accelerate production of unmanned vessels for defense and commercial markets, including the newly unveiled 180‑foot Marauder built in under six months. Saronic also secured...
Kevin Durant Whoop Valuation Up 81x Since His 2017 Investment
Health‑tech wearable Whoop raised $575 million in a Series G round, pushing its valuation to $10.1 billion. The funding, led by Collaborative Fund and joined by athletes Cristiano Ronaldo, LeBron James and Rory McIlroy, supports global expansion. Kevin Durant, who first invested in 2017 when Whoop...
Rebellions Raises 640 Billion Won in Pre-IPO Round as First Korea National Growth Fund Pick
South Korean AI chip designer Rebellions Inc. closed a 640 billion won pre‑IPO funding round, valuing the company at 3.4 trillion won. The round, led by the state‑backed Korea National Growth Fund with 250 billion won, also included contributions from KDB and Mirae...
Treeline Pushes Software-Driven Model for IT Services
Treeline announced a $25 million Series A round to develop a modern IT operating system that automates and standardizes service delivery across IT, security, and compliance. The platform replaces fragmented, ticket‑based workflows with a unified, software‑driven layer, allowing routine tasks to be...
TippingPoint Raises $4.5M Seed to Drug Hidden Epigenetic Targets in Deadly Pediatric Brain Cancer
TippingPoint Biosciences announced a $4.5 million seed round led by SOSV and LKS Fund to advance its epigenetic drug discovery platform. The company targets protein‑protein interfaces within disease‑specific chromatin environments, aiming at sites traditionally deemed undruggable. Its inaugural program focuses on...
NACO Wants Feds to Use $750 Million in VC Funding to Back Startups Earlier
The National Angel Capital Organization (NACO) is urging the Canadian government to allocate its $750 million VC envelope – roughly $555 million USD – toward early‑stage seed funding. Its white paper proposes a $500 million Early‑Stage Matching Funds Program with a two‑to‑one public‑private...
Are Algae Securities Fraud?
Algae‑based fuel startups are pitching genetically engineered algae as a breakthrough renewable energy source, promising massive returns. Founders often embellish technical viability to attract venture capital, leading investors to question whether claims are realistic. The article highlights the tension between...
AI Disruption Fears Hitting Secondaries Portfolios Along With War
AI‑driven disruption and heightened geopolitical risk are prompting secondary market investors to re‑evaluate private‑equity fund portfolios. Sellers face tighter pricing as buyers demand deeper due‑diligence on AI‑exposed assets. War‑related supply chain shocks further compress valuations, especially in consumer‑focused funds. The...
Linx Security Raises $50M Series B as Identity Becomes Security’s Biggest Failure Point
Linx Security announced a $50 million Series B round led by Insight Partners, bringing its total capital to $83 million. The New York‑based startup offers an AI‑native identity governance platform that continuously maps, monitors and automates control of human, machine and AI‑agent identities. With...
Nomadic Raises $8.4 Million to Wrangle the Data Pouring Off Autonomous Vehicles
NomadicML raised an $8.4 million seed round at a $50 million post‑money valuation to commercialize its vision‑language platform that auto‑annotates autonomous‑vehicle video. The tool transforms terabytes of archived footage into searchable, structured datasets, enabling rapid identification of rare edge‑case events for training...
Novastar Ventures Closes $147 Million Third Fund to Drive Pan-African Ambitions
Novastar Ventures closed its third fund, the Africa People and Planet Fund III, at $147 million, targeting climate‑focused and impact‑driven startups across Africa. Japanese investors such as SBI Holdings, SMBC, Mitsubishi and JICA joined returning partners like Norfund and British International Investment....
Jimini Health Secures $17M to Scale Clinician-Supervised Behavioral Health AI
Jimini Health, a New York‑based behavioral health startup, announced a $17 million seed round, bringing its total capital to more than $25 million. The funding, led by M13, Town Hall Ventures and Zetta Venture Partners with backing from former CMS Acting Administrator...
Autonomous Vessel Innovator Saronic Series D Round Raises $1.75BN
Austin‑based Saronic Technologies closed a $1.75 billion Series D round, valuing the autonomous‑vessel maker at $9.25 billion. The funding, led by Kleiner Perkins, adds Advent International, Bessemer, DFJ Growth and others to its investor base. Recent milestones include acquiring Gulf Craft’s shipyard, a...
Variance Raises $21.5M Series A to Automate Financial Crime Investigations
Variance, a San Francisco AI risk‑compliance startup, closed a $21.5 million Series A led by Ten Eleven Ventures, bringing its total funding to $26 million. The round will fund expansion of its agentic AI platform that automates KYC/KYB investigations, delivering auditable decisions in...
Clinical AI Platform Avo Secures $10M, Announces EBSCO DynaMed Partnership
Avo, a clinical AI platform that overlays major EHRs, closed a $10 million Series A led by Noro‑Moseley Partners and backed by AlleyCorp. The company announced a strategic partnership with EBSCO’s DynaMed to embed evidence‑based guidelines directly into its AI copilots. Avo’s...
Debt Intelligence Platform 9fin Scores £130m Round
AI‑driven debt intelligence platform 9fin has become a unicorn after closing a $170 million (≈£128.8 million) Series C round, pushing its valuation to $1.3 billion. The funding, led by HarbourVest and joined by CPP Investment Board and other investors, will fund AI enhancements, dataset...
NODWIN Lines Up $100 Mn Pre-IPO Round For Its Next Act
NODWIN Gaming is raising a $100 million pre‑IPO round to pivot from pure esports into a broader youth‑media business. The capital will fund IP expansion and new monetisation layers rather than aggressive geographic growth, as the firm already operates in over...
Brickken Secures €3M to Expand Tokenisation Infrastructure
Barcelona‑based Brickken, a tokenisation infrastructure provider for financial institutions, closed a €3 million (≈$3.3 million) pre‑Series A round. The round attracted strategic European investors, including Dedagroup founder Marco Podini and venture firm GRX. Brickken’s platform enables banks, asset managers and issuers to tokenise equity,...
DoorDash Invests in EV Startup with Plans to Automate More Deliveries
DoorDash is investing in Also’s $200 million Series C round and launching a multi‑year partnership to develop autonomous electric‑vehicle delivery units. The collaboration builds on DoorDash’s earlier Dot robot rollout and aims to create purpose‑built, small EVs that can navigate bike lanes...
Finnish Startup Test of Things Lands €1.2 Million Pre-Seed to Automate Connected Device Security
Finnish cybersecurity startup Test of Things secured €1.2 million (about $1.3 million) in a pre‑seed round led by Vendep Capital, with participation from Business Finland and several angel investors. The company is developing an AI‑driven platform that automates security testing and regulatory...
Blackstone Closes $6.3B BXLS VI Fund, Making It the Largest Life Sciences Vehicle
Blackstone announced the final close of its Life Sciences VI fund at a hard cap of $6.3 billion, roughly 40% larger than the prior vehicle. The BXLS platform, launched in 2018, now manages about $15 billion and invests across the entire drug...
Belgium Crypto Startup Keyrock Hits Unicorn Status, Says Valuation Quadrupled
Belgium‑based crypto infrastructure firm Keyrock announced it has reached unicorn status after a Series C round that lifted its valuation to roughly $1.1 billion. The round, led by SC Ventures – the venture arm of Standard Chartered – includes participation from Ripple...
How VCMint Fast-Tracks Investments in Early-Stage Startups
Serial entrepreneur Aditya Vuchi launched VCMint, a venture fund that has deployed roughly ₹40 crore (~$4.8 million) across 60 early‑stage startups in under two years, targeting ₹100 crore (~$12 million) by 2028. The fund concentrates on infrastructure and financial products for gig workers, digital‑safety...
Semarion Raises $3.8M to Scale Cell Assay Technology
Semarion, a Cambridge spin‑out, secured $3.8 million (≈£2.9 million) in a Series A round led by Parkwalk to scale its SemaCyte cell‑based screening platform. The funding follows a $2.89 million seed round in 2022 and will be used to expand manufacturing, field support,...
On the Journey with 9fin From Day One to Their $1.3 Billion Valuation.
9fin announced a $170 million Series C round that lifts its valuation to $1.3 billion, bringing total capital raised since its 2017 launch to over $250 million. The AI‑native platform tackles the decades‑old data fragmentation in debt capital markets by centralising documents, emails and...
Saronic Closes $1.75B Series D Funding
Saronic Technologies announced closing a $1.75 billion Series D round, valuing the company at $9.25 billion. The round was led by Kleiner Perkins with participation from Advent International, Bessemer Venture Partners, DFJ Growth and existing backers such as Andreessen Horowitz. Funds will accelerate...
Eloelo Burns Rs 59 Cr on Ads to Generate Rs 69 Cr Revenue in FY25
Eloelo, an Indian social‑entertainment platform, posted FY25 revenue of about Rs 69.5 crore (~$8.4 million), driven entirely by in‑app purchases and a modest Rs 6.3 crore (~$0.8 million) non‑operating income. Advertising and promotions were the biggest expense, rising 46% to Rs 59 crore (~$7.1 million), while creator payouts jumped...
Enkei Raises a Pre-Seed Round to Scale a Material Made From Construction Waste that Replaces Marble and Concrete
Enkei, a Stockholm startup, closed a pre‑seed round at a €3 million (~$3.3 million) valuation to commercialise ReCeramix™, a surface material made from over 90 % recovered construction and ceramic waste. The composite can replace concrete, marble and terrazzo while cutting cement use...
Chip Maker Fractile in Talks to Raise $200m at Unicorn Valuation, Reports Say
London‑based AI chip maker Fractile is courting $200 million in new capital at a $1 billion unicorn valuation. The round is being led by Accel and early backer Oxford Science Enterprises, with interest from other investors. Fractile, founded in 2022, develops AI...
Wealthtech Startup Bachatt Raises $12 Mn in Series A Led by Accel
Bachatt, an AI‑driven savings and wealth platform focused on India’s self‑employed, closed a $12 million Series A round led by Accel, with Lightspeed and Info Edge Ventures also participating. The funding follows a $4 million seed raise last year and will be used...
Beiersdorf to Boost Its Innovation Agenda With New, 100 Million-Euro Venture Capital Fund
Beiersdorf has launched a second‑generation Skin Care Innovation Fund with a €100 million ($109 million) commitment, doubling the size of its 2020 venture capital vehicle. The fund will back early‑ to growth‑stage startups worldwide in skin‑care, life sciences, sustainability, AI‑enabled technologies and...
Standing Ovation Raises €30M to Scale Precision Fermentation Dairy Proteins Globally
Standing Ovation, a French precision‑fermentation startup, closed a €30 million Series B round (≈$32.5 million) led by the France 2030‑backed Ecotechnologies 2 fund and Crédit Mutuel Innovation, with participation from Danone Ventures, Bel Group and other investors. The financing includes €25 million in equity (≈$27 million) and...
