MENLO TIMES

Mecha Health , an applied AI lab building next-generation foundation models for radiology, led by Ahmed Abdulaal, Nina Montaña Brown, Ayodeji Ijishakin, and Hugo Fry, has raised  $4.1 million in Seed funding, led by  Valia Ventures  with support from  Y Combinator . Radiology is now a critical backbone of modern medicine, but the field is at a breaking point. Nearly 70% of practices report staffing shortages, two-thirds of radiologists face burnout, and imaging demand has sur

The Prompting Company , an AI-optimization platform led by Kevin Chandra, Michelle Marcelline, and Albert Purnama, has secured  $6.5 million from Peak XV Partners , Base10 , Y Combinator , Firedrop , and angels, including Logan Kilpatrick. As AI becomes the primary interface for product discovery and autonomous agents begin transacting on users’ behalf, The Prompting Company aims to equip brands to market effectively to both agents and humans. Recent website growth has been d

Wild Moose , an AI-powered site reliability platform, led by Yasmin Dunsky, Roei Schuster, and Tom Tytunovich, has secured  $7M seed round led by iAngels , with participation from Y Combinator , F2 Venture Capital , Maverick Ventures , and others, including an exceptional group of angels at the forefront of AI research and reliability engineering, such as Joel Pobar (AI researcher at Meta Superintelligence Labs, formerly Anthropic), Jeremy Edberg (Founding SRE at Reddit & Net

Formalize , a Copenhagen-based compliance software company led by Jakob Lilholm, Magnus Boye, Christian Jessen, and Kristoffer Abell, has secured  €30 million in a Series B funding co-led by Acton Capital  (DE) and BlackFin Tech  (FR), with participation from West Hill Capital  and CIBC Innovation Banking . Formalize helps European companies manage growing regulatory complexity by automating compliance workflows across frameworks like GDPR, NIS2, DORA, and ISO 27001, consolid

Cellcolabs , manufacturing High-Quality Mesenchymal Stromal Cells, led by Petter Hallman, Mattias Bernow, Lina Sörvik, Heidi Stensmyren, and others, has raised  $12 million in a round led by Titian Capital. Global demand for regenerative therapies is surging, yet high costs and limited production still restrict access for many patients. Stockholm-based Cellcolabs, founded in 2021 by Dr. Mattias Bernow, aims to change this through industrial-scale stem cell manufacturing. Its

Mercor , a platform powering AI Research led by Brendan Foody, Adarsh Hiremath, and Surya Midha, has secured  $350 million Series C funding, led by Felicis  with participation from Benchmark , General Catalyst , and Robinhood Ventures , and values Mercor at $10 billion, 5x its Series B valuation. Despite rapid advances in AI over the past three years, it still falters on the nuances that define meaningful work: judgment, intent, taste, and prioritization. This is the space wh

Crusoe , the AI infrastructure company led by Chase Lochmiller, Cully Cavness, Matthew DeNezza, Nitin Perumbeti, Chris Dolan, Tara Green, and others, has announced  the initial closing of its anticipated $1.375 billion Series E round, bringing the company's expected valuation to over $10 billion. The oversubscribed round was co-led by technology investors Valor Equity Partners  and Mubadala Capital , with participation from 137 Ventures , 1789 Capital , Activate Capital , Alt

Continue Research , a 2-year-old research effort to identify and study upstream mechanisms in biology, started by Deepinder Goyal, has announced a $25 million fund to back researchers, funded by personal investment, and is not a part of Eternal. The next breakthroughs in aging biology are hiding in plain sight, emerging not from added complexity but from uncovering foundational mechanisms that control everything downstream. A $25M fund supports researchers testing ideas so si

Riff , an Oslo-based vibe coding platform, led by Viral Shah, Trygve Karper, and Martin Skow Røed, has secured  $16 million in Series A funding led by Northzone , with backing from existing investors Skyfall Ventures ,  Maki.vc ,  Sondo Capital ,  Global Founders Capital , and new investor  Illusian .  Riff empowers professionals across organizations to build AI applications and agents that enhance productivity and outcomes. Addressing the gap between rapid AI innovation and

Quantum Space , developer of advanced space crafts, led by Dr. Kam Ghaffarian, Kerry Wisnosky, Ben Reed, Phillip Bracken, Sue Hall, and Richard Matlock, has announced  the successful completion of the Manufacturing Readiness Review (MRR) for its upcoming Ranger Prime mission, marking a key milestone toward the projected June 2026 launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base. The Ranger Prime mission will demonstrate Quantum Space’s Ranger 500 spacecraft in orbit, validating its pr

Rebalance , a Gurugram-based accelerator to build an ecosystem that helps women and diverse people build wealth and pay it forward, led by Aishwarya Malhi and Vikas Kumar, has announced  its 9th cohort of 10 women-led startups. Since 2019, Rebalance has backed 30 startups across sectors, including climate, deep tech, healthcare, fintech, D2C, and biotech. With 85% of its portfolio led by women founders and 60% of its angel community made up of women investors, a first in Indi

NewLimit , a biotechnology company focused on human longevity, led by Blake Byers, Brian Armstrong, Cathy O'Hare, and Jacob Kimmel, has secured  an additional $45 million from Eli Lilly and Company, Duke Management Co., Section 32, and others, bringing its market capitalization to $1.62 billion. Insiders, including Kleiner Perkins, Dimension, Abstract, Human Capital, and Boost, also participated. Significant progress has been made in developing medicines that rejuvenate aging

Dedalus Labs , building an infrastructure layer for shipping AI agents at a rocket-fast speed, led by Catherine Di and Windsor Nguyen, has raised  $11 million in seed funding co-led by   Kindred Ventures  and  Saga Ventures , with participation from  E14 Fund , Emergence Capital ,  Sunshine Lake ,  Transpose Platform ,  Liquid 2 Ventures ,  FPV Ventures ,  Twenty Two Ventures ,  Telescope Foundation ,  Spot VC ,  Operator Partners , and  Y Combinator . Dedalus Labs is also ba

LuxQuanta , enabling a new age of security in telecommunications with Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) systems, led by Vanesa Diaz, Ernest López, Dr. Sebastian Etcheverry, and others, has secured  €8 million Series A funding round. Led by  Big Sur Ventures , and with support of A&G as the main investor, the round also includes new investors  GMV ,  Wayra , and the  EIC Fund , alongside renewed commitments from existing investors  Corning  and  GTD . The funding marks LuxQuanta’

Impulse Space , developing the in-space mobility infrastructure to accelerate our future beyond Earth, led by renowned propulsion expert Tom Mueller, Eric Romo, Kevin Miller, and others, has announced  a Helios and Impulse-made lander combination, estimated to deliver up to 6 tons of payload mass to the Moon (across two missions) per year starting in 2028 at a cost-effective price point. The Space Race once promised a bold future beyond Earth, inspiring generations with rapid

Dexory , the leading provider of real-time warehouse intelligence, led by Andrei Danescu, Adrian Negoita, Oana Jinga, Kristen Shannon, and others, has secured  $165 million. Eurazeo , through its Growth team, led the $100M Series C round, with participation from LTS Growth and Endeavor Catalys t, alongside existing investors DTCP , Atomico , Lakestar , Elaia , Latitude Ventures, Wave-X , and others. In addition, Bootstrap Europe expanded the existing growth debt facility.  Si

Nabla Bio , making drug development designable with generative AI, led by Surge Biswas, Frances Anastassacos, Rose Harrison, and others, announced  a new, multi-year research collaboration with Takeda. Under the agreement, Nabla Bio will receive double-digit millions in upfront and research payments, with potential success-based payments exceeding $1 billion. The collaboration will deploy Nabla Bio’s Joint Atomic Model (JAM) platform across Takeda’s early-stage programs, incl

Reducto , offering robust and reliable document ingestion for any workflow, led by Adit Abraham and Raunak Chowdhuri, has secured  a new $75M Series B led by a16z , alongside existing investors Benchmark , First Round Capital , Y Combinator , and BoxGroup . Less than two years after launching the first Parse API that combined traditional computer vision with Vision-Language Models (VLMs), Reducto has set a new benchmark for transforming complex documents into LLM-ready data w

Clove , a wealth-tech platform, led by Christian Owens and Alex Loizou, has secured  £10m ($14m) in pre-seed funding, led by Accel  with participation from Kindred, Air Street , and a group of incredible angel investors. Despite advances in consumer technology, financial guidance has barely evolved. While products exist to move money or invest, few help answer critical questions about timing, trade-offs, and future planning. Moreover, the financial advice industry largely ser

Industry Ventures , a leading venture capital platform that invests across all stages of the venture capital lifecycle, led by Hans Swildens, Justin Burden, Roland Reynolds, and others, has entered  into an agreement to be acquired by Goldman Sachs . Industry Ventures manages $7 billion in assets under supervision and has completed over 1,000 secondary and primary investments since its founding in 2000. The firm reports a strong realized performance, with a net IRR of 18% and