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Exa Raises $250 Million Series C to Build the Search Engine for AIs
Exa, the search engine built for AI, led by Will Bryk, Jeff Wang, and the team, has raised $250M at a $2.2B valuation led by a16z to power all agents with the highest quality web search. Exa already powers search for Cursor, Cognition, HubSpot, OpenRouter, Monday.com, and more than 400,000 developers. As LLM-driven search volume is expected to grow far beyond today’s Google search scale, the company sees an opportunity to fundamentally redesign how information is discovered a
10 hours ago
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Blank Bio Announces Seed Financing and Strategic Collaboration with PacBio to Advance RNA Foundation Models for Precision Oncology
Blank Bio, RNA intelligence for precision oncology, led by Jonathan Hsu, Ruian (Ian) Shi, and Philip Fradkin, has announced the closing of a $7.2 million seed financing and a strategic collaboration with Pacific Biosciences (Nasdaq: PACB), a leading developer of high-quality, highly accurate sequencing solutions. The oversubscribed round included Define Ventures, Leonis Capital, Nova Threshold, Ripple Ventures, SignalFire, Y Combinator, and others. Proceeds will support conti
6 hours ago
Quantum Bridge Secures $8 Million to Fortify Global Networks Against Quantum Threats
Quantum Bridge, unbreakable cybersecurity for the quantum era, led by Mattia Montagna, Hoi-Kwong Lo, and the team, has closed a US$8 million Series A funding round led by Primo Capital SGR and supported by a global syndicate of investors, including Wayra (Telefónica), Cadenza VC, Club degli Investitori angels, HPE, and Bacchus Venture Capital. Together with prior financing from investors, including Alumni Ventures and the University of Toronto, the round brings Quantum Bridge
6 hours ago
Clouted is Defining The Next Era Of Distribution Marketing
Clouted, the growth system for modern entertainment - built for artists, labels, festivals, gaming studios, startups, consumer apps, and the brands that live inside culture, led by Justin Banusing, Adriel Yong, David Viray, and the team, has announced the close of a $7M seed round led by Slow Ventures, with participation from Gold House Ventures, Weekend Fund, LINE-Yahoo's Z VC, Gondor Capital, Iterative, AppWorks, Peak XV’s Surge, and a16z Speedrun. Angel investors include G
8 hours ago
Exa Raises $250 Million Series C to Build the Search Engine for AIs
Exa, the search engine built for AI, led by Will Bryk, Jeff Wang, and the team, has raised $250M at a $2.2B valuation led by a16z to power all agents with the highest quality web search. Exa already powers search for Cursor, Cognition, HubSpot, OpenRouter, Monday.com, and more than 400,000 developers. As LLM-driven search volume is expected to grow far beyond today’s Google search scale, the company sees an opportunity to fundamentally redesign how information is discovered a
10 hours ago
Y Combinator Launches of the Week
(This round-up is for informational purposes only, and in order of the date/time of the launch, from earliest to latest) 1) Elyra: Founded by Alan Mando and Felix Odeberg Glasenapp, Elyra is an AI reservation system for restaurants. Know More At: elyrasystems.com 2) Transload: Founded by Nils Börner, Julius Scheel, and Jago Wahl-Schwentker, Transload helps logistics companies measure shipments using the security cameras they already have. Know More At: transload.io 3) Andustr
1 day ago
AI & Robotics
Clouted is Defining The Next Era Of Distribution Marketing
Clouted, the growth system for modern entertainment - built for artists, labels, festivals, gaming studios, startups, consumer apps, and the brands that live inside culture, led by Justin Banusing, Adriel Yong, David Viray, and the team, has announced the close of a $7M seed round led by Slow Ventures, with participation from Gold House Ventures, Weekend Fund, LINE-Yahoo's Z VC, Gondor Capital, Iterative, AppWorks, Peak XV’s Surge, and a16z Speedrun. Angel investors include G
8 hours ago3 min read
Clouted is Defining The Next Era Of Distribution Marketing
Clouted, the growth system for modern entertainment - built for artists, labels, festivals, gaming studios, startups, consumer apps, and the brands that live inside culture, led by Justin Banusing, Adriel Yong, David Viray, and the team, has announced the close of a $7M seed round led by Slow Ventures, with participation from Gold House Ventures, Weekend Fund, LINE-Yahoo's Z VC, Gondor Capital, Iterative, AppWorks, Peak XV’s Surge, and a16z Speedrun. Angel investors include G
Exa Raises $250 Million Series C to Build the Search Engine for AIs
Exa, the search engine built for AI, led by Will Bryk, Jeff Wang, and the team, has raised $250M at a $2.2B valuation led by a16z to power all agents with the highest quality web search. Exa already powers search for Cursor, Cognition, HubSpot, OpenRouter, Monday.com, and more than 400,000 developers. As LLM-driven search volume is expected to grow far beyond today’s Google search scale, the company sees an opportunity to fundamentally redesign how information is discovered a
Stilta Raises $10.5 Million to Bring Agentic AI to Patent Litigation and Intelligence
Stilta, Agentic AI for high-stakes patent work, led by Oskar Block, Petrus Werner, Tobias Estreen, and Oscar Adamsson, has raised $10.5 million in funding led by Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from Y Combinator and a group of founders and operators from leading AI companies, including Sana, Legora, OpenAI, Lovable, and Listen Labs. Patents are a highly underleveraged asset class in business. While over 90% of S&P 500 value is intangible, most patents are never enforc
How Commure is Transforming Healthcare Operations Using AI
Commure, the AI-native enterprise RCM & ambient platform, led by Tanay Tandon, Deepika Bodapati, and the team, has announced $70 million in financing at a $7 billion post-money valuation. The round was led by General Catalyst, with participation from Sequoia Capital, Morgan Stanley, and Kirkland & Ellis. Commure uses AI and agents to streamline administrative work in health systems, targeting one of healthcare’s largest cost centers, estimated at about $1 trillion annually in
Ocean Emerges from Stealth to Protect Enterprises from AI-Powered Email Attacks
Ocean, an agentic email security platform, led by Shay Shwartz and Oran Moyal, has announced its launch from stealth with $28 million in total funding, led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with participation from Picture Capital and Cerca Partners. Additional angel investors include Assaf Rappaport (Wiz), Yevgeny Dibrov and Nadir Izrael (Armis), and Dor Knafo (former CEO of Axis Security and General Partner at Cyberstarts), among other leading angel investors. Ocean is introdu
LawX Raises 7.5 Million Euros and Develops a European Operating System for Legal Work
LawX, an AI-powered OS for notaries and law firms, led by Dr. Norman Koschmieder, Dr. Sara Brinkmann, and Torben Rabe, has closed a seed round led by Motive Partners, raising over €7 million in capital, alongside WENVEST Capital, xdeck, and SIVentures, as well as several prominent angels from the tech and legal sectors. The legal market is undergoing structural change, with rising demand for legal services and a growing shortage of administrative staff. Around half of law fir
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Fintech
Moment Becomes the AI Operating System of Choice for Leading Wealth Managers
Moment, the AI operating system for investment management, led by Dylan Parker, Dean Hathout, and Ammer Soliman, has raised $78 million in a Series C funding round led by Index Ventures, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, Avra, and other existing investors. This comes less than 10 months after Moment’s $36M Series B, which was also led by Index Ventures. “Investment management is being rebuilt around AI, and it’s happening at Moment,” said Jan Hammer, Partner at Ind
bunch is Replacing Legacy Fund Operations with AI-Native Private Markets Infrastructure
bunch, building the Backbone for Private Markets, led by Levent Altunel, Enrico Ohnemüller, and the team, has announced the close of its $35 million Series B, led by Portage, with participation from Illuminate Financial, significant follow-on investment from existing investors Motive Partners, Cherry Ventures, Fintech Collective, and additional angel investors. The funding will be used to accelerate commercial growth across Europe, deepen automation and AI capabilities, and
1 day ago
Moment Becomes the AI Operating System of Choice for Leading Wealth Managers
Moment, the AI operating system for investment management, led by Dylan Parker, Dean Hathout, and Ammer Soliman, has raised $78 million in a Series C funding round led by Index Ventures, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, Avra, and other existing investors. This comes less than 10 months after Moment’s $36M Series B, which was also led by Index Ventures. “Investment management is being rebuilt around AI, and it’s happening at Moment,” said Jan Hammer, Partner at Ind
1 day ago
How Adfin is Helping the World Build Better Businesses
Adfin, the first platform designed from the ground up for the specific demands of invoice payments, led by Tom Pope & Ciprian Diaconasu, has raised Series A, bringing the total invested in Adfin to over $30M in less than two years. The long-time supporters, Index Ventures, have tripled down by leading the round, along with existing investors Visionaries Club. The company is delighted to welcome Stéphane Kurgan, one of Europe's best operators, and Andrey Khusid, founder of Mir
May 12
Fazeshift Announces $22 Million Series A to Build the Future of Accounts Receivable
Fazeshift, your AI agents for accounts receivable, led by Caitlin Leksana, Timmy Galvin, and the team, has announced Series A, bringing the total funding to $22 million. The Problem Fazeshift is Solving Accounts receivable remains one of the most manual and fragmented workflows in modern businesses, spread across spreadsheets, email threads, and disconnected systems. This slows payments, restricts working capital, and forces finance teams to focus on collections rather than s
May 8
Elastics Raises $2 Million Pre-Seed for AI Agents for Prediction Markets
Elastics, building AI agents for prediction markets, led by Szymon Pawica and Mateusz Brodowicz, has raised $2 million in an oversubscribed pre-seed round led by Frst with participation from angels from across the AI and crypto world, among them the co-founders of ElevenLabs, partners from XBTO, an a16z scout, and a co-founder of RedStone. Elastics has secured funding to democratize quantitative trading by equipping individual traders with AI-powered tools for automated resea
May 5
Rogo Announces $160 Million Series D Round
Rogo, building the best AI analyst on Wall Street, led by Gabriel Stengel, John Willett and Tumas Rackaitis, has raised $160M in new financing, led by Kleiner Perkins, with participation from Sequoia, Thrive Capital, Khosla Ventures, J.P. Morgan Growth Equity Partners, BoxGroup, Mantis VC, Jack Altman, Evantic, and Positive Sum. Rogo is now deployed across many of the world’s leading investment banks, asset managers, and private equity firms, reflecting strong early adoption
May 1
Venture Capital
A* Announces Fund III
A*, guiding outliers from idea to IPO, led by Kevin Hartz, Bennett Siegel, Gautam Gupta, and the team, has announced A* III, a $450 million early-stage fund. A* was founded on a simple idea: becoming a founder’s first believer. Sector-agnostic but deeply specialized in seed investing, A* backs exceptional builders before consensus, traction, or even a product exists. The focus is driven not by market theses, but by conviction. As seed investing becomes increasingly crowded an
A* Announces Fund III
A*, guiding outliers from idea to IPO, led by Kevin Hartz, Bennett Siegel, Gautam Gupta, and the team, has announced A* III, a $450 million early-stage fund. A* was founded on a simple idea: becoming a founder’s first believer. Sector-agnostic but deeply specialized in seed investing, A* backs exceptional builders before consensus, traction, or even a product exists. The focus is driven not by market theses, but by conviction. As seed investing becomes increasingly crowded an
May 13
How Early-Stage Investing Is Shifting — From Pattern Matching to Founder Conviction
By Andra Bagdonaitė, General Partner at FIRSTPICK Most early-stage investment decisions are made with almost no data. There's no revenue to analyze. No market share to defend. No proven team history at the specific problem they're now attacking. And yet capital gets deployed, at speed, in volume, based on frameworks built for a world that increasingly no longer exists. The question every serious early-stage investor should be asking right now: what is actually driving convict
May 11
Wisdom Ventures Closes Oversubscribed $77.7 Million Fund II to Advance Tech-Enabled Wellbeing
Wisdom Ventures, a leading early-stage VC fund investing in tech-enabled wellbeing, led by Bradley Horowitz, Cecily Mak, Soren Gordhamer, and the team, announced the close of its oversubscribed $77.7M Fund II. The new raise comes after the successful deployment of its $10 million Fund I. With the new fundraise, Wisdom Ventures will deepen its investment in startups building technologies that advance human resilience and wellbeing at scale. “In an era where AI is reshaping eve
May 9
Graduate Ventures Reaches Milestone with 80th Investment in Delft Quantum Startup FrostByte
Graduate Ventures, empowering founders through funding and support, is celebrating its 80th investment. The milestone backing goes to FrostByte, a Delft startup whose technology makes it possible to build quantum computers at a greater scale. The investment is part of a 1.3 million euro funding round, alongside Innovation Quarter, Paeonia Group, UNIIQ, and an angel investor. Since its founding in 2021, Graduate Ventures has invested in 79 startups from the ecosystems of TU De
May 9
Haun Ventures Announces Fund II
Huan Ventures, backing the founders building the future of finance, led by Katie Haun and the team, has announced Fund II. Founders redefining financial assets operate at the frontier of evolving rules and technology. As capital and trust systems shift, those who can navigate both will shape the next era. Haun Ventures is backing this opportunity with $1 billion in new funds to support builders of the emerging economy. The Opportunity Ahead Core financial services, money, pay
May 5
DVC Launches Live State of AI Report — A Continuously Updated View of the AI Economy
DVC, a San Francisco–based VC focused on AI startups, led by Marina Davidova, Nick Davidov, and the team, has released its State of AI Report — a living, continuously updated analysis of the artificial intelligence landscape. According to the report, the market is mispricing AI. The State of AI report is based on a framework developed by DVC co-founders Nick Davidov and Marina Davidova over more than a decade of AI investing. It combines meta-analysis of leading industry rese
Apr 30
Deep Tech
Quantum Bridge Secures $8 Million to Fortify Global Networks Against Quantum Threats
Quantum Bridge, unbreakable cybersecurity for the quantum era, led by Mattia Montagna, Hoi-Kwong Lo, and the team, has closed a US$8 million Series A funding round led by Primo Capital SGR and supported by a global syndicate of investors, including Wayra (Telefónica), Cadenza VC, Club degli Investitori angels, HPE, and Bacchus Venture Capital. Together with prior financing from investors, including Alumni Ventures and the University of Toronto, the round brings Quantum Bridge
Quantum Bridge Secures $8 Million to Fortify Global Networks Against Quantum Threats
Quantum Bridge, unbreakable cybersecurity for the quantum era, led by Mattia Montagna, Hoi-Kwong Lo, and the team, has closed a US$8 million Series A funding round led by Primo Capital SGR and supported by a global syndicate of investors, including Wayra (Telefónica), Cadenza VC, Club degli Investitori angels, HPE, and Bacchus Venture Capital. Together with prior financing from investors, including Alumni Ventures and the University of Toronto, the round brings Quantum Bridge
Astrolab Announces NASA Payloads for Upcoming Mission to the Moon
Astrolab, the ultimate in planetary mobility, led by Jaret Matthews and the team, has announced NASA payload customers for its first lunar mission aboard the company’s FLIP (FLEX Lunar Innovation Platform) rover. FLIP will fly aboard Griffin-1 lander under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, which supports missions to the Moon’s south pole as part of the Artemis campaign. The mission is scheduled for late 2026 and will mark FLIP’s lunar debut, carrying
Destinus Accelerates RUTA Block 3 Development Program with Rheinmetall to Scale European Long-Range Strike Production
Destinus, a European defence manufacturer with a particular focus on scalable strike and air-defence systems for European and allied armed forces, led by Mikhail Kokorich, has announced the accelerated start of the RUTA Block 3 program, developed for a 2,000 km-class long-range precision strike capability and extending the operationally validated RUTA family. The flight-test campaign is planned to begin in 2027. RUTA Block 3 builds on the existing RUTA architecture, which has
Intuitive Machines to Acquire Goonhilly Earth Station and COMSAT
Intuitive Machines, a space technology, infrastructure, and services leader, led by Stephen Altemus and the team, has announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Goonhilly Earth Station Ltd. (“Goonhilly”), a world-class deep space communications provider with major ground station assets in the United Kingdom and Goonhilly USA Inc. (dba COMSAT). The acquisition, including Goonhilly’s lunar and deep space communications, commercial satcom, and defense and se
Mantle8 Raises €31 Million in Series A Funding to Prove Commercial Viability of Natural Hydrogen Production
Mantle8, unearthing natural hydrogen, led by Emmanuel Masini, has raised €31M in Series A funding led by Sandwater and includes Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Ecotechnologies 2 fund managed on behalf of the French government by Bpifrance, IP Group, Wind Capital, and Calderion (an Audacia-backed investment platform). This capital will fund the next two years of advanced natural hydrogen exploration and drilling. Mantle8 will deploy its technology platform to identify and rank p
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Security
Ocean Emerges from Stealth to Protect Enterprises from AI-Powered Email Attacks
Ocean, an agentic email security platform, led by Shay Shwartz and Oran Moyal, has announced its launch from stealth with $28 million in total funding, led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with participation from Picture Capital and Cerca Partners. Additional angel investors include Assaf Rappaport (Wiz), Yevgeny Dibrov and Nadir Izrael (Armis), and Dor Knafo (former CEO of Axis Security and General Partner at Cyberstarts), among other leading angel investors. Ocean is introdu
Ocean Emerges from Stealth to Protect Enterprises from AI-Powered Email Attacks
Ocean, an agentic email security platform, led by Shay Shwartz and Oran Moyal, has announced its launch from stealth with $28 million in total funding, led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with participation from Picture Capital and Cerca Partners. Additional angel investors include Assaf Rappaport (Wiz), Yevgeny Dibrov and Nadir Izrael (Armis), and Dor Knafo (former CEO of Axis Security and General Partner at Cyberstarts), among other leading angel investors. Ocean is introdu
General Analysis is Building the Security Arsenal for the Agentic Era
General Analysis, providing a comprehensive suite of AI safety tools, including run-time guardrails, red-teaming frameworks, interpretability techniques, observability, and more, led by Rez Havaei, Maximilian Li, and Rex Liu, has raised $10 million in seed funding led by Altos Ventures with participation from 645 Ventures, Menlo Ventures, Y Combinator, Leonis Capital, & strategic funds & angels. Agent Security Is an Empirical Problem Traditional software is deterministic and
How MindFort is Securing the World's Software in the AI Era
MindFort, building the security agent company, led by Brandon Veiseh and Akul Gupta, has raised a $3M+ seed round, led by Soma Capital, with participation from Y Combinator, 468 Capital, CRV, Sandwith Ventures, and Blast. The raise comes as Anthropic showcases AI systems capable of uncovering thousands of hidden vulnerabilities, highlighting the limits of traditional security approaches. MindFort addresses this shift with an autonomous security engineer built for continuous,
TENEX.AI Announces $250M in Series B
TENEX.AI , the first leading AI-native, human-led SOC that triages every alert, investigates every threat, and frees your team for strategic work, led by Eric Foster, Venkata Koppaka, Ryan Shreve, Edwin Solis, Jan Grzymala-Busse, Elias “Lou” Manousos, and the team, has raised $250M in Series B funding led by Crosspoint Capital Partners . Nearly one year since entering the market, TENEX has achieved rapid growth, generating $25M+ in contracted revenue, scaling headcount by 3
XBOW Accelerates the Expansion of its Autonomous Hacker Platform
XBOW , transforming application security with AI-powered continuous offense, led by Oege de Moor, Nico Waisman, Niroshan Rajadurai, Jonaki Egenolf, and others, has raised $120 million in Series C financing led by DFJ Growth and Northzone , valuing the company at over $1 Billion. As part of DFJ Growth’s investment, Ramin Sayar will join XBOW’s board, bringing experience to scale enterprise growth. The round also includes Sofina , Alkeon Capital , and existing investors Alt
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