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stories 181–240 of 910
FUNDING$155M Growth Round
TabaPay Raises $155M to Buy Its Way Into Banking
TabaPay raised $155M led by FTV Capital to acquire Transact Bank outright, betting that owning a bank charter beats renting one from a partner bank.
DEEP DIVE
Crusoe Reportedly Raises $3B at $30B Valuation
FUNDING$3B round
Crusoe Reportedly Raises $3B at $30B Valuation
Crusoe, the AI data center developer that pivoted from flared-gas crypto mining, reportedly closed a $3 billion round at a $30 billion valuation, tripling its mark from October and setting up meetings with IPO bankers.
FOLLOW-UP
Superluminal Raises $60M for AI-Designed Obesity Pill
FUNDING$60M Series B
Superluminal Raises $60M for AI-Designed Obesity Pill
The Boston biotech's Series B, backed by Nvidia and Eli Lilly among others, funds Phase 1 trials of an oral MC4R agonist for rare genetic obesity designed by its de novo drug-discovery AI platform.
DEEP DIVE
Qualcomm Backs Ultrahuman's $70M Smart Ring Bet
FUNDING$70M round
Qualcomm Backs Ultrahuman's $70M Smart Ring Bet
Ultrahuman raised a $70 million round led by Qualcomm Ventures at a $365 million valuation, a 3x markup, to build custom silicon that turns its smart ring into an on-device computer -- launching the same week rival Oura filed to go public.
DEEP DIVE
Wonderful Doubles Valuation to $5B in Six Months
FUNDING$550M Series C
Wonderful Doubles Valuation to $5B in Six Months
The enterprise AI operating system startup raised $550 million led by Insight Partners with Salesforce joining as a new investor, more than doubling its valuation from $2 billion just six months after its last round.
DEEP DIVE
Upwind Triples Valuation to $3.8B Riding Wiz's Exit
FUNDING$300M Series C
Upwind Triples Valuation to $3.8B Riding Wiz's Exit
The cloud-security startup raised $300 million led by Bessemer and TCV at a $3.8 billion valuation, tripling its price in roughly five months as rivals scramble to fill the gap Google's $32 billion Wiz acquisition left in independent cloud security.
DEEP DIVE
Profound Raises $96M to Own AI Search Answers
FUNDING$96M Series C
Profound Raises $96M to Own AI Search Answers
Profound raised a $96 million Series C led by Lightspeed to help brands track and influence how they get cited inside AI chatbot answers, the generative engine optimization category forming as search shifts from links to answers.
DEEP DIVE
The Startups Building AI Agents That Shop for You
FUNDING
The Startups Building AI Agents That Shop for You
Venture capital is fanning out across every layer of agentic commerce at once -- multipurpose shopping agents, deal-finding assistants, and the payment plumbing agents need to transact -- with real usage and real failures alike.
DEEP DIVE
Startup ARR Is Less Secure Than Ever
FUNDING
Startup ARR Is Less Secure Than Ever
New research from Madrona, a16z and MIT shows enterprises now reevaluate AI vendors every six months, and fewer than half of AI pilots reach production -- meaning AI-era ARR is far less durable than the metric implies.
DEEP DIVE
HubX Raises $75M, Becomes Turkey's 8th Unicorn
FUNDING$75M Series A
HubX Raises $75M, Becomes Turkey's 8th Unicorn
Turkish app studio HubX raised up to $75 million from Point72 Private Investments at a $1.275 billion pre-money valuation, its first outside funding after bootstrapping to profitability.
DEEP DIVE
August VC Funding Jumped 122% From a Year Ago
FUNDING$42B in August
August VC Funding Jumped 122% From a Year Ago
Global venture funding hit $42 billion across more than 1,500 startups in August, up 122% year over year but down 25% from July, with seven companies closing billion-dollar rounds led by Databricks at a $190 billion valuation.
BY THE NUMBERS
Ex-Apple Engineers' Lyte Raises $165M at $1.6B
FUNDING$165M Series C
Ex-Apple Engineers' Lyte Raises $165M at $1.6B
Lyte, a robotics-perception startup founded by former Apple and PrimeSense engineers, raised a $165 million Series C led by Maverick Silicon at a $1.6 billion valuation to scale sensing for warehouse robots.
DEEP DIVE
iPronics Raises $125M for AI Data-Center Optics
FUNDING$125M Series B
iPronics Raises $125M for AI Data-Center Optics
Spanish photonics startup iPronics raised $125 million co-led by Maverick Silicon and Light Street Capital, with Nvidia joining as a strategic investor, to scale optical circuit switches that reconfigure AI data-center networks in sub-millisecond time.
DEEP DIVE
Lasso Security Raises $30M for CPU-Only AI Guardrails
FUNDING$30M round
Lasso Security Raises $30M for CPU-Only AI Guardrails
Lasso Security raised $30 million led by ClearSky to scale LEAP, a transformer-free AI guardrail that screens model inputs and outputs on ordinary CPUs instead of GPUs, cutting the cost of running AI safety checks at enterprise scale.
DEEP DIVE
Palantir's Karp Backs Fedorov's New Defense Startup
FUNDING
Palantir's Karp Backs Fedorov's New Defense Startup
Palantir CEO Alex Karp is becoming the first lead investor in a new, still-unnamed defense tech company from Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine's former digital and defense minister.
DEEP DIVE
Medici Brands Raises $250M as David Protein Scales
FUNDING$250M Series B
Medici Brands Raises $250M as David Protein Scales
Medici Brands, parent of David Protein and the newly launched HallPass candy brand, raised a $250 million Series B as David heads toward $300 million in 2026 revenue.
DEEP DIVE
Miami's Felix Raises $200M for WhatsApp Banking
FUNDING$200M Series C
Miami's Felix Raises $200M for WhatsApp Banking
Felix, a Miami-based WhatsApp remittance platform for Latino immigrants, raised $200 million in a Series C split between $87 million of equity led by Andreessen Horowitz and $113 million of debt from General Catalyst.
DEEP DIVE
The 10x Markup in Five Months Is the Real Story
FUNDING10x in 5 months
The 10x Markup in Five Months Is the Real Story
AfterQuery went from a $300 million post-money in April to a reported $3.2 billion in September. I think the interesting number is not the valuation but the interval, and what it says about who is actually setting prices in AI services.
TRACE'S TAKE
August's Megarounds Went to Missiles and Inference
FUNDING$2.63B in a week
August's Megarounds Went to Missiles and Inference
In a single mid-August week, six US startups raised $2.63 billion between them, and the two largest -- a hypersonic missile maker and an inference chip company -- accounted for $1.5 billion of it.
BY THE NUMBERS
Thrive Hires Musk's Lawyer Over a Dead $4.2B FIFA Deal
FUNDING$4.2B secondary
Thrive Hires Musk's Lawyer Over a Dead $4.2B FIFA Deal
Josh Kushner's Thrive Capital retained Alex Spiro of Quinn Emanuel after UEFA moved against FIFA over a scrapped plan in which Thrive would have led a $4.2 billion purchase of 20% of FIFA's commercial arm at a $20 billion valuation.
DEEP DIVE
AfterQuery Becomes YC's Fastest-Ever Unicorn at $3.2B
FUNDING$3.2B valuation
AfterQuery Becomes YC's Fastest-Ever Unicorn at $3.2B
AfterQuery, which pays doctors and lawyers to train AI models, reportedly hit a $3.2 billion valuation just five months after its $30 million Series A -- the fastest run from launch to unicorn in Y Combinator's history.
DEEP DIVE
AIR Raises $50M to Vet What AI Agents Use
FUNDING$50M seed
AIR Raises $50M to Vet What AI Agents Use
AIR, founded by two Israeli Unit 8200 veterans, raised $50 million across two seed rounds led by Sequoia and Greenoaks to build a platform that discovers and vets the skills and add-ons AI agents pull into enterprise environments.
DEEP DIVE
AIR Raises $50M to Vet What AI Agents Are Allowed to Use
FUNDING$50M seed
AIR Raises $50M to Vet What AI Agents Are Allowed to Use
AIR, founded by two Israeli intelligence veterans, raised $50 million across two seed rounds to build a firewall that vets the skills and tools AI agents pull from, after finding 17,800 public add-ons linked to untrusted sources.
DEEP DIVE
Polymarket Raises $1B at $21B, Adds Trump Jr.
FUNDING$1B round, $21B valuation
Polymarket Raises $1B at $21B, Adds Trump Jr.
Polymarket is closing roughly $1 billion in new funding at a $21 billion valuation, with Donald Trump Jr.'s 1789 Capital putting in $300 million on top of an earlier $200 million check and Trump Jr. joining the company's advisory board.
DEEP DIVE
Miami's Felix Raises $200M to Grow Beyond Remittances
FUNDING$200M Series C
Miami's Felix Raises $200M to Grow Beyond Remittances
Félix, a Miami-based WhatsApp remittance platform for Latino immigrants, raised $200 million -- $87M in equity led by a16z and $113M in debt from General Catalyst -- with its valuation tripling since last year's Series B.
DEEP DIVE
Felix Hits Unicorn Status on $200M Series C
FUNDING$200M Series C
Felix Hits Unicorn Status on $200M Series C
Miami-based WhatsApp remittance platform Felix raised $200 million -- $87 million in equity led by a16z and General Catalyst, plus $113 million in debt -- tripling its valuation into unicorn territory.
DEEP DIVE
a16z's Growth Fund Hits $8.5B, Days After a New $1.1B Fund
FUNDING$8.5B growth fund
a16z's Growth Fund Hits $8.5B, Days After a New $1.1B Fund
Andreessen Horowitz expanded its fifth Growth fund to $8.5 billion just three days after closing a separate $1.1 billion fund dedicated to AI hardware -- roughly $9.6 billion in fresh capital disclosed in a single week.
FOLLOW-UP
Proptech's $4.53B Half: Fewer Deals, Bigger AI Bets
FUNDING$4.53B H1 2026
Proptech's $4.53B Half: Fewer Deals, Bigger AI Bets
Proptech venture funding reached $4.53 billion across 231 disclosed rounds in H1 2026 -- still well below pre-pandemic peaks, but investors are increasingly concentrating checks on AI-driven construction and real estate tools.
BY THE NUMBERS
Sequoia-Incubated Empirik Launches With $21M
FUNDING$21M seed
Sequoia-Incubated Empirik Launches With $21M
Empirik, spun out of a 2023 Sequoia incubation, raised $21 million to sell AI-driven infrastructure observability that predicts and prevents outages before they happen, already serving S&P Global and Guardant Health.
DEEP DIVE
Bitcoin's Best Week in Three Years, By the Numbers
FUNDING+23% weekly gain
Bitcoin's Best Week in Three Years, By the Numbers
Bitcoin surged roughly 23% last week to the $80,000 range on nearly $2 billion of spot ETF inflows -- its strongest week in more than three years, with Solana and XRP posting even bigger gains.
BY THE NUMBERS
The AI Capex Supercycle Now Dwarfs Global VC
FUNDING
The AI Capex Supercycle Now Dwarfs Global VC
Nvidia's $500B Wall Street platform and TSMC's $64B capex budget together outweigh all global VC raised in H1 2026 -- a scale mismatch that shows where AI's real money is flowing.
BY THE NUMBERS
Why I'm Not Buying the Funding Slowdown Story
FUNDING
Why I'm Not Buying the Funding Slowdown Story
One slow fintech week doesn't erase a year where physical AI alone raised $47.4B and global VC hit a record $510B in H1 -- the 'funding is slowing' narrative confuses one category's rough week with the whole market's direction.
TRACE'S TAKE
Clipto Hits $250M Valuation on $15M Round
FUNDING$15M at $250M val
Clipto Hits $250M Valuation on $15M Round
Clipto, a profitable AI-powered local file search startup, raised $15 million at a $250 million valuation after reaching $15 million in annual recurring revenue.
DEEP DIVE
Clay Nears $7B Valuation in New Wellington-Led Round
FUNDING$7B pre-money valuation
Clay Nears $7B Valuation in New Wellington-Led Round
Clay, the AI-powered sales and marketing platform, has inked a new round led by Wellington Management at a $7 billion pre-money valuation -- up from $5 billion in January and $3.1 billion a year ago.
DEEP DIVE
Bolt Raises Up to $27M to Survive Its Own Collapse
FUNDINGUp to $27M bridge
Bolt Raises Up to $27M to Survive Its Own Collapse
Bolt is raising up to $27 million in punitive pay-to-play bridge financing to survive after its valuation collapsed 97% from an $11 billion peak.
DEEP DIVE
Why Nvidia Just Pulled Back From Its Own Financing Plan
FUNDING$36B program paused
Why Nvidia Just Pulled Back From Its Own Financing Plan
Nvidia paused deals under its $36 billion AI Compute Partnership after employees flagged antitrust concerns -- a retreat that says as much about how AI infrastructure gets financed next as the $500B platform it announced weeks earlier.
DEEP DIVE
Physical AI, Defense and Robotics Own This Year's Capital
FUNDING$47.4B physical AI H1
Physical AI, Defense and Robotics Own This Year's Capital
Physical AI raised $47.4B across 521 deals in H1, defense tech hit $35.6B YTD (+40%), and robotics topped $18.8B YTD -- three category totals that together explain where 2026's record VC wave is actually landing.
BY THE NUMBERS
India's Startup Funding Surge Deserves a Second Look
FUNDING$8.91B YTD
India's Startup Funding Surge Deserves a Second Look
Indian startups have raised $8.91 billion across 620-plus rounds in 2026, even as US VC funding overall is up 113.6% year over year -- a reminder India's boom is real but still small next to where AI capital is concentrating.
DEEP DIVE
Blue Voice Raises $6M to Build a Harvey for Cops
FUNDING$6M round
Blue Voice Raises $6M to Build a Harvey for Cops
Boston-based Blue Voice raised $6 million from SignalFire and Las Olas VC for an AI assistant that answers officers' legal and procedural questions against their own department's rules, now deployed across 225 county agencies in 25 states.
DEEP DIVE
The WealthTech Squeeze: A $389M Fintech Week, Explained
FUNDING$389M/week
The WealthTech Squeeze: A $389M Fintech Week, Explained
Only $389 million closed across 12 fintech deals last week, the slowest pace in over a month -- and WealthTech, the one bright spot, is quietly absorbing a sector-wide funding contraction happening everywhere else in fintech.
TRACE'S TAKE
GPU-Backed Debt Is Becoming Its Own Asset Class
FUNDING$100M facility
GPU-Backed Debt Is Becoming Its Own Asset Class
Bullish just put $100 million behind a protocol that lends against GPUs the way a bank lends against real estate -- one small piece of a much larger shift toward treating compute capacity itself as collateral.
DEEP DIVE
A16Z's Machine Age Fund: What the $1.1B Is Actually For
FUNDING$1.1B fund
A16Z's Machine Age Fund: What the $1.1B Is Actually For
A16Z's new $1.1 billion Machine Age Fund isn't a diversification bet -- hardware now makes up more than a fifth of the firm's deal flow, and this fund formalizes a shift that's been building for two years.
FOLLOW-UP
Defense Tech's $35.6 Billion Year, By the Comps
FUNDING$35.6B YTD (+40%)
Defense Tech's $35.6 Billion Year, By the Comps
Anduril at $61 billion, Castelion at $13 billion, True Anomaly at $600 million raised -- the named rounds behind defense tech's $35.6 billion year explain what's actually driving the category better than the aggregate number does.
DEEP DIVE
Biotech Funding Held Its Ground While AI Took the Oxygen
FUNDING$36B-$40B annual
Biotech Funding Held Its Ground While AI Took the Oxygen
Global biotech startup investment is tracking to its usual $36 billion to $40 billion range in 2026 despite the AI capital surge, with more than $6 billion of that going to AI-native drug discovery companies.
DEEP DIVE
Icon Raises $30M From Founders Fund for AI Ad Content
FUNDING$30M Venture Round
Icon Raises $30M From Founders Fund for AI Ad Content
Icon raised $30 million led by Founders Fund to scale its human-creator ad production platform, with OpenAI and DeepMind executives and NFL running back Saquon Barkley among the angels in the round.
DEEP DIVE
Physical AI Is Out-Raising the Model Layer This Month
FUNDING
Physical AI Is Out-Raising the Model Layer This Month
Named August rounds for chips, energy and defense hardware -- Castelion, Etched, Groq and Base Power -- total more than $3.2 billion, versus roughly $1.1 billion for consumer and enterprise AI application startups covered on Pulse the same month.
BY THE NUMBERS
Why the AI Buildout Runs on Debt, Not VCs
FUNDING
Why the AI Buildout Runs on Debt, Not VCs
Nvidia's pause on financing smaller AI clouds, alongside a16z's new $1.1B hardware fund, shows two separate capital markets now underwriting AI: equity chasing the model layer, debt absorbing the risk of the physical buildout.
TRACE'S TAKE
SoftBank Goes Back for a Second $10B OpenAI Loan
FUNDING
SoftBank Goes Back for a Second $10B OpenAI Loan
SoftBank is seeking another $10 billion loan against its OpenAI stake, just three weeks after its first margin loan closed, pushing its OpenAI-linked borrowing past $50 billion for the year.
FOLLOW-UP
Lambda Borrows $1B to Buy GPUs for Microsoft
FUNDING$1B debt facility
Lambda Borrows $1B to Buy GPUs for Microsoft
AI cloud provider Lambda raised $1 billion in short-dated private debt arranged by JP Morgan to purchase chips it will lease to Microsoft, its third nine-figure financing this year ahead of a reported pre-IPO round.
DEEP DIVE
Thrive Backs Retro's $21M Bet Against Feeds
FUNDING$21M Series A
Thrive Backs Retro's $21M Bet Against Feeds
Retro, a friends-only photo sharing app built by two former Instagram engineers, raised a $21 million Series A led by Thrive Capital after roughly 7 million downloads and a subscription-only model.
DEEP DIVE
Regent Raises $120M for Coastal Seagliders
FUNDING$120M Series B
Regent Raises $120M for Coastal Seagliders
Rhode Island-based Regent closed a $120 million Series B led by Mare Liberum and AE Industrial Partners to commercialize its all-electric seaglider, a wing-in-ground-effect vessel for coastal routes.
DEEP DIVE
Emerald AI Hits $1.05B Making Data Centers Grid-Flexible
FUNDING$150M Series A at $1.05B
Emerald AI Hits $1.05B Making Data Centers Grid-Flexible
Emerald AI raised an oversubscribed $150 million Series A at a $1.05 billion valuation co-led by Energize Capital and DCVC for software that throttles data center power in response to grid conditions.
DEEP DIVE
Gatik Raises $200M for Driverless Freight Routes
FUNDING$200M Series D
Gatik Raises $200M for Driverless Freight Routes
Autonomous trucking company Gatik closed a $200 million Series D led by the Qatar Investment Authority and Koch Disruptive Technologies, bringing total funding to roughly $500 million as it targets 100-plus driverless trucks.
DEEP DIVE
Owner Raises $240M at $2.3B to Run Local Businesses
FUNDING$240M at $2.3B
Owner Raises $240M at $2.3B to Run Local Businesses
Owner, the AI platform that runs websites, ordering, marketing and phone support for restaurants, raised $240 million led by Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives at a $2.3 billion valuation.
DEEP DIVE
Instinct Raises $250M at $2.5B, Four Months Old
FUNDING$250M at $2.5B
Instinct Raises $250M at $2.5B, Four Months Old
Instinct, a personal AI assistant still in private testing, raised a $250 million Series B led by Index Ventures and Benchmark at a $2.5 billion valuation, up from roughly $50 million four months ago.
DEEP DIVE
a16z Raises $1.1B to Build AI's Physical Layer
FUNDING$1.1B fund
a16z Raises $1.1B to Build AI's Physical Layer
Andreessen Horowitz has closed a $1.1 billion Machine Age fund dedicated to chips, memory, cooling, power and robotics -- the hardware underneath AI rather than the software on top of it.
DEEP DIVE
a16z Raises $1.1B to Bet on AI's Physical Layer
FUNDING$1.1B fund
a16z Raises $1.1B to Bet on AI's Physical Layer
Andreessen Horowitz raised $1.1 billion for the Machine Age Fund, its first vehicle dedicated to AI hardware and infrastructure, targeting chips, memory, networking, robotics and data centers.
DEEP DIVE
Socure Raises $156M at $5.2B and Buys Fravity
FUNDING$156M at $5.2B
Socure Raises $156M at $5.2B and Buys Fravity
Identity-verification company Socure raised $156 million led by Summit Partners at a $5.2 billion valuation and acquired agentic AI startup Fravity, disclosing $364 million of annual recurring revenue growing 63% year over year.
DEEP DIVE
Music Labels Fund Stability AI's $76M Series B
FUNDING$76M Series B
Music Labels Fund Stability AI's $76M Series B
Stability AI raised $76 million in a Series B backed by Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, Sony Music Group and Electronic Arts -- the rights holders that spent three years suing generative AI companies now funding one.
DEEP DIVE
Unrivaled Basketball League Valued at $650M
FUNDING$650M valuation
Unrivaled Basketball League Valued at $650M
Unrivaled, the Miami-based 3-on-3 women's basketball league founded by Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier, closed an oversubscribed Series C that pushed its valuation to $650 million ahead of its third season.
DEEP DIVE