Startup & VC Funding on Pulse — Page 8

Every venture round we've covered on Value Add Pulse -- seed through mega-rounds, with the VC take on each.

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Sep 25, 2026
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FUNDING

OpenAI Buys Patents From Altman-Backed Rain AI

OpenAI Buys Patents From Altman-Backed Rain AI logo
FUNDING

OpenAI Buys Patents From Altman-Backed Rain AI

OpenAI acquired patents from Rain AI, the Sam Altman-backed chip startup, after a full acquisition fell through when Rain AI's own $150M funding round failed to attract investors.

BRIEF
FUNDING

Moove Raises $250M to Fuel Robotaxi Fleets

Illustration for: Moove Raises $250M to Fuel Robotaxi Fleets
FUNDING$250M Series C

Moove Raises $250M to Fuel Robotaxi Fleets

Moove raised a $250M Series C led by Mubadala at a $2.1B valuation, repositioning its 42,000-vehicle ride-hailing fleet business as financing and operations infrastructure for the robotaxi industry, including future Waymo purchases.

BRIEF
FUNDING

Klaviyo Acquires Elias Torres' AI Startup Agency

Illustration for: Klaviyo Acquires Elias Torres' AI Startup Agency
FUNDING

Klaviyo Acquires Elias Torres' AI Startup Agency

Klaviyo agreed to acquire Agency, the three-year-old AI customer-success startup founded by Elias Torres, who backed Klaviyo's 2015 seed round as an angel and will now join as chief product officer.

BRIEF
FUNDING

Jeff Dean Launches Discovery Loop With Google Backing

Illustration for: Jeff Dean Launches Discovery Loop With Google Backing
FUNDING

Jeff Dean Launches Discovery Loop With Google Backing

Jeff Dean left Google after 27 years to co-found Discovery Loop, an AI research startup automating scientific discovery, with Google staying on as a founding investor and cloud partner.

FOLLOW-UP
FUNDING

ICEYE Raises 1B EUR, Tops 10B EUR Valuation

Illustration for: ICEYE Raises 1B EUR, Tops 10B EUR Valuation
FUNDING1B EUR Series F

ICEYE Raises 1B EUR, Tops 10B EUR Valuation

Finnish satellite radar company ICEYE raised a 1B EUR Series F including a 450M EUR primary round at a valuation above 10B EUR, with the EU-backed Scaleup Europe Fund co-leading its first-ever investment.

BRIEF
FUNDING

Apollo Names AI Sector Head to Chase Megadeals

Illustration for: Apollo Names AI Sector Head to Chase Megadeals
FUNDING

Apollo Names AI Sector Head to Chase Megadeals

Apollo Global Management named a dedicated AI sector head to coordinate financing teams and pursue repeat megadeals with chipmakers, building on its $35 billion Broadcom AI infrastructure financing struck in June.

BRIEF
FUNDING

MagicSchool Raises $63M After VCs Said No

Illustration for: MagicSchool Raises $63M After VCs Said No
FUNDING$63M total raised

MagicSchool Raises $63M After VCs Said No

MagicSchool AI, an AI teaching-assistant platform founded by a former school principal, has raised $63M total after early investors initially passed, and now serves educators in nearly every US school district.

FUNDING

The Educator Who Built a $63M AI Edtech Startup

Illustration for: The Educator Who Built a $63M AI Edtech Startup
FUNDING$63M total raised

The Educator Who Built a $63M AI Edtech Startup

MagicSchool AI, founded by a former school principal who says VCs initially refused to fund an educator, has now raised $63M and reaches an educator in nearly every US school district.

FUNDING

Robinhood Lets Retail Investors Back Y Combinator Startups

Robinhood Lets Retail Investors Back Y Combinator Startups logo
FUNDINGUp to $200M fund

Robinhood Lets Retail Investors Back Y Combinator Startups

Robinhood is listing a publicly tradable fund that invests in current and former Y Combinator startups, opening up to $200M of early-stage venture exposure to any retail investor for the first time.

FUNDING

WindBorne Raises $37M to Fly Its Own Weather Data

Illustration for: WindBorne Raises $37M to Fly Its Own Weather Data
FUNDING$37M

WindBorne Raises $37M to Fly Its Own Weather Data

WindBorne Systems raised $37M for its balloon-based atmospheric sensor network, selling proprietary weather data to forecasters and insurers who say government satellite and balloon coverage has thinned in the wrong places.

FUNDING

St. Louis Lands $25B in AI Data Centers

Illustration for: St. Louis Lands $25B in AI Data Centers
FUNDING~$25B

St. Louis Lands $25B in AI Data Centers

St. Louis has attracted roughly $25B in announced data center investment, a sign the AI infrastructure buildout is spreading well beyond the traditional hubs of Northern Virginia and Texas.

FUNDING

Volta Emerges From Stealth With a $10B Anthropic Deal

Illustration for: Volta Emerges From Stealth With a $10B Anthropic Deal
FUNDING$300M Series A

Volta Emerges From Stealth With a $10B Anthropic Deal

AI cloud startup Volta launched out of stealth with a $300M seed and Series A at a $2.4B valuation plus a six-year, roughly $10B compute deal reportedly with Anthropic, tied to a 133MW Norway site built with Bitdeer.

FUNDING

Volta Exits Stealth With $10B Anthropic Compute Deal

Volta Exits Stealth With $10B Anthropic Compute Deal logo
FUNDING$10B compute deal

Volta Exits Stealth With $10B Anthropic Compute Deal

Seven-month-old startup Volta Infra emerged from stealth with a $10B, six-year compute deal to supply Anthropic from a Norway data center built with Bitdeer, plus a separate $5B financing program to fund more sites.

FUNDING

Robinhood Opens Y Combinator Startups to Retail

Robinhood Opens Y Combinator Startups to Retail logo
FUNDINGUp to $200M raise

Robinhood Opens Y Combinator Startups to Retail

Robinhood's second closed-end venture fund, set to list publicly on August 13 at $25/share, will let any retail investor buy exposure to Y Combinator startups for the first time.

FUNDING

Can WindBorne Make AI Weather Forecasting Lucrative?

Illustration for: Can WindBorne Make AI Weather Forecasting Lucrative?
FUNDING$37M Series B

Can WindBorne Make AI Weather Forecasting Lucrative?

WindBorne Systems, which raised $37M at a $250M valuation earlier this year, is now testing whether AI weather forecasts accurate enough to beat government agencies can also be a real business, not just a research feat.

FUNDING

Indian EV Startup River Raises $120M Series C

Indian EV Startup River Raises $120M Series C logo
FUNDING$120M Series C

Indian EV Startup River Raises $120M Series C

River, an Indian electric two-wheeler startup, raised a $120M Series C after scaling production with a single motorcycle model, betting on India's fast-growing EV two-wheeler market.

FUNDING

Indian EV Maker River Raises $120M Series C

Indian EV Maker River Raises $120M Series C logo
FUNDING$120M Series C

Indian EV Maker River Raises $120M Series C

Bengaluru-based electric two-wheeler maker River raised $120M led by Elev8 and Claypond Capital, taking total funding to $144M as it scales manufacturing and launches new models.

FUNDING

Volta's $10B AI Contract Hinges on a Norway Site

Illustration for: Volta's $10B AI Contract Hinges on a Norway Site
FUNDING

Volta's $10B AI Contract Hinges on a Norway Site

Days after its $2.4B valuation round, Volta Infra disclosed it will lease Norway-based capacity from Bitdeer to help deliver its reported $10B, six-year compute contract with a leading AI developer.

FUNDING

Obsidian Security Raises $85M, Crosses $1.1B Value

Illustration for: Obsidian Security Raises $85M, Crosses $1.1B Value
FUNDING$85M Series D

Obsidian Security Raises $85M, Crosses $1.1B Value

Obsidian Security raised an $85M Series D led by Crescent Cove Advisors at a $1.1B valuation, becoming a unicorn on demand for securing AI agents and non-human identities inside enterprises.

FUNDING

HappyRobot Hits $1.2B With $150M for Logistics Agents

Illustration for: HappyRobot Hits $1.2B With $150M for Logistics Agents
FUNDING$150M Series C

HappyRobot Hits $1.2B With $150M for Logistics Agents

Prysm Capital and Eurazeo led a $150M Series C for HappyRobot at a $1.2B valuation, backing AI agents that handle the phone calls, emails and documents moving freight between brokers, carriers and shippers.

FUNDING

Bending Spoons Buys Airtable for $1.28B, an 88% Markdown

Illustration for: Bending Spoons Buys Airtable for $1.28B, an 88% Markdown
FUNDING$1.28B acquisition

Bending Spoons Buys Airtable for $1.28B, an 88% Markdown

Bending Spoons agreed to acquire Airtable for $1.28B in cash, its first deal since going public -- an 88% markdown from Airtable's $11B peak valuation during the 2021 boom.

FUNDING

July Set a Record: 14 Billion-Dollar Venture Rounds

Illustration for: July Set a Record: 14 Billion-Dollar Venture Rounds
FUNDING

July Set a Record: 14 Billion-Dollar Venture Rounds

Fourteen startups raised billion-dollar-plus rounds in July, the most in a single month ever, with $65B in total mega-round capital deployed -- up 100% year-over-year.

FUNDING

HappyRobot Hits Unicorn Status With $150M Series C

Illustration for: HappyRobot Hits Unicorn Status With $150M Series C
FUNDING$150M Series C

HappyRobot Hits Unicorn Status With $150M Series C

HappyRobot raised $150M at a $1.2B valuation just eight months after its Series B, with a16z and Eurazeo betting AI voice agents can expand from freight brokering into insurance, energy and airlines.

FUNDING

Base Power Raises $1B at $13B for Home Batteries

Base Power Raises $1B at $13B for Home Batteries logo
FUNDING$1B Series D

Base Power Raises $1B at $13B for Home Batteries

A consortium led by JPMorgan's Strategic Investment Group put $1B into Base Power at a $13B valuation, backing a company that leases home batteries and sells the aggregated capacity back to the grid.

FUNDING

Convex Raises $57M for an AI-Native App Backend

Illustration for: Convex Raises $57M for an AI-Native App Backend
FUNDING$57M Series B

Convex Raises $57M for an AI-Native App Backend

Insight Partners led a $57M Series B for Convex, the reactive TypeScript backend now powering close to 2 million applications, with a16z and Spark Capital returning and OpenAI among its customers.

FUNDING

Ambrook Raises $30M to Bring Fintech to Farms

Illustration for: Ambrook Raises $30M to Bring Fintech to Farms
FUNDING$30M Series B

Ambrook Raises $30M to Bring Fintech to Farms

Ambrook raised a $30M Series B led by Lachy Groom to build accounting and financial-management tools built specifically for farmers, ranchers and rural businesses.

FUNDING

Antioch Raises $31M to Simulate Robots Before Building

Illustration for: Antioch Raises $31M to Simulate Robots Before Building
FUNDING$31.4M

Antioch Raises $31M to Simulate Robots Before Building

Antioch raised $31.4M for a simulation platform that lets robotics teams build, test and deploy autonomous systems entirely in software before touching physical hardware.

FUNDING

Nvidia, Dell Back AI Cloud Startup Volta at $2.4B

Illustration for: Nvidia, Dell Back AI Cloud Startup Volta at $2.4B
FUNDING$300M @ $2.4B val

Nvidia, Dell Back AI Cloud Startup Volta at $2.4B

Volta Infra raised $300M at a $2.4B valuation from a16z, Altimeter, Nvidia and Michael Dell, plus a $10B, six-year cloud-capacity contract reportedly with Anthropic.

FUNDING

QuantHealth Raises $45M to Simulate Drug Trials

Illustration for: QuantHealth Raises $45M to Simulate Drug Trials
FUNDING$45M Series B

QuantHealth Raises $45M to Simulate Drug Trials

QuantHealth raised a $45M Series B led by Qumra Capital to expand AI simulation of clinical trials before patients enroll, a platform already used by 12 of the world's top 20 pharma companies.

FUNDING

MagicSchool Built an 8M-Educator AI Tool on $63M

Illustration for: MagicSchool Built an 8M-Educator AI Tool on $63M
FUNDING~$63M total raised

MagicSchool Built an 8M-Educator AI Tool on $63M

Founded by a former assistant principal who says VCs initially wouldn't fund an educator, MagicSchool has raised nearly $63M and now counts roughly 8 million educator sign-ups across 160 countries.

FUNDING

Ambrook Raises $30M to Take Farm Accounting Wider

Illustration for: Ambrook Raises $30M to Take Farm Accounting Wider
FUNDING$30M Series B

Ambrook Raises $30M to Take Farm Accounting Wider

Lachy Groom led a $30M Series B for Ambrook, whose bookkeeping and bill-pay software grew from 2,500 to 8,000 businesses in a year and is now expanding from farms into trucking, contracting and real estate.

FUNDING

July Sets Record With 14 Billion-Dollar Rounds

Illustration for: July Sets Record With 14 Billion-Dollar Rounds
FUNDING

July Sets Record With 14 Billion-Dollar Rounds

Fourteen startups raised billion-dollar-plus rounds in July, the highest monthly count on record, with $65B in combined capital led by a $10B round for Blue Origin.

FUNDING

Why VCs Are Writing Bigger Checks Into Fewer AI Deals

Illustration for: Why VCs Are Writing Bigger Checks Into Fewer AI Deals
FUNDING

Why VCs Are Writing Bigger Checks Into Fewer AI Deals

US startup funding has already hit $415B through July across roughly 4,660 rounds -- a deal count that's not growing nearly as fast as the dollar total, meaning capital is concentrating into fewer, larger checks rather than spreading wider.

FUNDING

QuantHealth Raises $45M to Simulate Clinical Trials

Illustration for: QuantHealth Raises $45M to Simulate Clinical Trials
FUNDING$45M Series B

QuantHealth Raises $45M to Simulate Clinical Trials

Qumra Capital led a $45M Series B for QuantHealth, which builds AI simulations of clinical trials so drug developers can test protocol designs before enrolling a single patient.

FUNDING

Enterprise AI's Quiet Money: Compliance, Payroll, Credit

Illustration for: Enterprise AI's Quiet Money: Compliance, Payroll, Credit
FUNDING

Enterprise AI's Quiet Money: Compliance, Payroll, Credit

Beneath the mega-rounds, a steady stream of $10-30M seed and Series A checks is funding unglamorous back-office AI -- compliance, payroll, private-credit operations -- and that's where a lot of near-term enterprise revenue is actually landing first.

FUNDING

AI Cybersecurity's Arms Race Is Now a Funding Race

Illustration for: AI Cybersecurity's Arms Race Is Now a Funding Race
FUNDING

AI Cybersecurity's Arms Race Is Now a Funding Race

As attackers adopt AI-driven tooling, defenders are getting funded to match -- autonomous penetration-testing and AI-governance startups have both posted billion-dollar-plus valuations within the same month.

FUNDING

Defense Tech's Capital Keeps Compounding, Not Cooling

Illustration for: Defense Tech's Capital Keeps Compounding, Not Cooling
FUNDING

Defense Tech's Capital Keeps Compounding, Not Cooling

Defense tech has already pulled in more venture funding in 2026 than all of 2025 combined, and the checks keep landing even as public defense-tech comps wobble -- a split between private conviction and public market patience.

FUNDING

The Physical AI Funding Wave, By The Numbers

Illustration for: The Physical AI Funding Wave, By The Numbers
FUNDING

The Physical AI Funding Wave, By The Numbers

This week's largest venture checks all went to physical infrastructure -- nuclear power, chips, energy -- not software, and the dollar totals now dwarf what's going into application-layer AI startups.

FUNDING

Ore Energy Raises $43M for Iron-Air Batteries

Illustration for: Ore Energy Raises $43M for Iron-Air Batteries
FUNDING$43M Series A

Ore Energy Raises $43M for Iron-Air Batteries

Amsterdam's Ore Energy raised a $43M Series A from Plural and HV Capital to commercialize iron-air batteries that store renewable power for up to 100 hours at roughly a tenth of lithium-ion's cost.

FUNDING

Parallel Raises $100M to Build Search for AI Agents

Illustration for: Parallel Raises $100M to Build Search for AI Agents
FUNDING$100M Series B

Parallel Raises $100M to Build Search for AI Agents

Parallel raised a $100M Series B led by Sequoia, with Khosla Ventures and Kleiner Perkins participating, to build a search engine designed specifically for AI agents rather than human browsers.

FUNDING

Valar Atomics Triples to $6B for Factory Nuclear

Illustration for: Valar Atomics Triples to $6B for Factory Nuclear
FUNDING$1B Series B

Valar Atomics Triples to $6B for Factory Nuclear

Valar Atomics raised a $1B Series B led by Sequoia at a $6B valuation, tripling its mark since April, months after using a fission reaction to power an Nvidia chip for the first time.

FUNDING

Defense Startup Twenty Technologies Raises $100M at $1B

Defense Startup Twenty Technologies Raises $100M at $1B logo
FUNDING$100M @ $1B val

Defense Startup Twenty Technologies Raises $100M at $1B

Arlington-based cybersecurity and defense startup Twenty Technologies raised a $100M Series B led by Accel at a $1B valuation, joining a growing cohort of defense-tech companies crossing unicorn status this year.

FUNDING

Zenity Raises $125M to Police Enterprise AI Agents

Illustration for: Zenity Raises $125M to Police Enterprise AI Agents
FUNDING$125M Series C

Zenity Raises $125M to Police Enterprise AI Agents

Norwest led a $125M Series C for Zenity, which monitors and governs the AI agents enterprises are wiring into sensitive systems, bringing the New York- and Tel Aviv-based company's total funding to about $185M.

FUNDING

Bending Spoons Buys Airtable for $1.28B in Cash

Illustration for: Bending Spoons Buys Airtable for $1.28B in Cash
FUNDING$1.28B acquisition

Bending Spoons Buys Airtable for $1.28B in Cash

Bending Spoons agreed to buy Airtable for $1.285B in its first acquisition since going public, a steep comedown from Airtable's $11B peak valuation in 2021 and its more recent $4B secondary-market price.

FUNDING

Valar Atomics Raises $1B at $6B for Factory Nuclear

Illustration for: Valar Atomics Raises $1B at $6B for Factory Nuclear
FUNDING$1B Series B

Valar Atomics Raises $1B at $6B for Factory Nuclear

Sequoia led a $1B Series B for Valar Atomics at a $6B post-money valuation, tripling the mark it carried in April, weeks after the startup used a fission reaction to power an Nvidia AI chip.

FUNDING

Base Power Raises $1B, Launches Home Battery

Base Power Raises $1B, Launches Home Battery logo
FUNDING$1B Series D

Base Power Raises $1B, Launches Home Battery

Base Power raised $1B at a $13B valuation and launched Base Core, a 39.2 kWh home battery built in Austin -- a bet that AI-driven grid strain shows up first at the household level.

FUNDING

Baselayer Raises $20M to Automate Fraud Checks

Illustration for: Baselayer Raises $20M to Automate Fraud Checks
FUNDING$20M Series A

Baselayer Raises $20M to Automate Fraud Checks

Baselayer raised a $20M Series A to automate fraud and risk checks for the 1,900+ banks and government agencies it already serves, betting the long-tail-institution market beats chasing megabanks.

FUNDING

P-1 AI Raises $50M to Automate Engineering Design

Illustration for: P-1 AI Raises $50M to Automate Engineering Design
FUNDING$50M Series A

P-1 AI Raises $50M to Automate Engineering Design

P-1 AI raised a $50M Series A led by NEA for Archie, an AI agent that performs mechanical and electrical design work -- one of the few funding stories this week aimed at industrial engineering rather than software.

FUNDING

Base Power Raises $1B More for Grid Batteries

Base Power Raises $1B More for Grid Batteries logo
FUNDING$1B @ $13B val

Base Power Raises $1B More for Grid Batteries

Base Power closed a $1B Series D at a $13B valuation, less than a year after its last billion-dollar round, to keep installing home batteries at roughly 100 per day.

FUNDING

TwelveLabs Raises $100M to Build Video Superintelligence

Illustration for: TwelveLabs Raises $100M to Build Video Superintelligence
FUNDING$100M Series B

TwelveLabs Raises $100M to Build Video Superintelligence

TwelveLabs raised a $100M Series B co-led by NEA and NAVER Ventures to expand beyond video-understanding models into a full-stack agentic system combining perception, knowledge and reasoning for video.

FUNDING

Horizon3.ai Triples to $2B in AI Cyber Arms Race

Illustration for: Horizon3.ai Triples to $2B in AI Cyber Arms Race
FUNDING$250M Series E

Horizon3.ai Triples to $2B in AI Cyber Arms Race

Horizon3 closed a $250M Series E at a $2B+ valuation, tripling its mark from a year ago as its autonomous 'AI Hacker' pentesting platform posts 120% ARR growth and 7,000+ customers.

FUNDING

Sequoia Leads $1B Round for Nuclear Startup Valar

Illustration for: Sequoia Leads $1B Round for Nuclear Startup Valar
FUNDING$1B @ $6B val

Sequoia Leads $1B Round for Nuclear Startup Valar

Valar Atomics closed a $1B Series B led by Sequoia at a $6B valuation, tripling its April mark, weeks after its microreactor became the first in US history to power an Nvidia AI chip.

FUNDING

Lyzr's AI Agent Helped Raise Its Own $100M Round

Illustration for: Lyzr's AI Agent Helped Raise Its Own $100M Round
FUNDING$100M Series B

Lyzr's AI Agent Helped Raise Its Own $100M Round

Lyzr raised a $100M Series B at roughly a $500M valuation after using its own AI agent, SivaClaw, to field questions from more than 130 investors and draft investment memos.

FUNDING

Base Power Raises Another $1B for Home Batteries

Base Power Raises Another $1B for Home Batteries logo
FUNDING$1B @ $13B val

Base Power Raises Another $1B for Home Batteries

Base Power, founded by Zach Dell, raised another $1B Series D at a $13B valuation to keep installing backyard home batteries it never sells to customers -- it owns and monetizes them as grid assets.

FUNDING

Sequoia Leads $1B Bet on Mass-Produced Nuclear Reactors

Illustration for: Sequoia Leads $1B Bet on Mass-Produced Nuclear Reactors
FUNDING$1B Series B at $6B

Sequoia Leads $1B Bet on Mass-Produced Nuclear Reactors

Nuclear startup Valar Atomics raised a $1 billion Series B led by Sequoia Capital at a $6 billion valuation, tripling its valuation as it works to mass-produce small reactors to power AI data centers.

DEEP DIVE
FUNDING

OLIX's $312M Bet Against Nvidia's Chip Shortage

Illustration for: OLIX's $312M Bet Against Nvidia's Chip Shortage
FUNDING$312M Series B

OLIX's $312M Bet Against Nvidia's Chip Shortage

OLIX raised $312M to build a photonic inference chip that skips the HBM shortage bottlenecking Nvidia -- backed by Arm, Hudson River Trading and Reed Hastings, and a real signal that the AI chip market is finally getting a credible non-GPU challenger.

FUNDING

Seed Investors Are Still Funding Wonderfully Boring Ideas

Illustration for: Seed Investors Are Still Funding Wonderfully Boring Ideas
FUNDING

Seed Investors Are Still Funding Wonderfully Boring Ideas

Bidbus's $15 million round for live-dealer car auctions and Smallest.ai's $13 million round for narrowly-focused voice models show seed-stage capital still backing unglamorous, defensible niches even as headlines chase AI infrastructure mega-rounds.

FUNDING

Government Money Is Becoming a Legitimate AI Infrastructure LP

Illustration for: Government Money Is Becoming a Legitimate AI Infrastructure LP
FUNDING

Government Money Is Becoming a Legitimate AI Infrastructure LP

The Department of Energy converting a Cold War-era Kentucky uranium site into a $100 billion AI data-center complex, funded with private capital, shows federal real estate becoming a repeatable co-investment template for AI infrastructure.

FUNDING

Singularity Emerges From Stealth With $80M for Air Defense

Illustration for: Singularity Emerges From Stealth With $80M for Air Defense
FUNDING

Singularity Emerges From Stealth With $80M for Air Defense

Defense startup Singularity emerged from stealth with an $80M Series A led by Khosla Ventures and Felicis at a $400M valuation, betting on next-generation air defense technology as venture defense-tech financing keeps accelerating.

FUNDING

The AI Boom's First Real Leverage Casualty Landed Quietly

Illustration for: The AI Boom's First Real Leverage Casualty Landed Quietly
FUNDING

The AI Boom's First Real Leverage Casualty Landed Quietly

Leopold Aschenbrenner's AI-focused hedge fund shrank from roughly $45 billion to about $10 billion in weeks after a leveraged momentum trade reversed -- proof a correct AI thesis doesn't protect against leverage-driven liquidation.