MENLO TIMES

Lyte , an end-to-end integrated perception company for robotics and Physical AI, led by Alexander Shpunt, Dr. Arman Hajati, and Dr. Yuval Gerson, has emerged  from stealth with $107 million in aggregate funding from some of the industry's premier investors, including Avigdor Willenz's group, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Atreides Management , Exor Ventures , Key1 Capital , and Venture Tech Alliance . Based in Mountain View, California, Lyte was founded by Alexander

Boston Dynamics , which develops practical robotics solutions designed to tackle today's and tomorrow's toughest automation challenges, and Google DeepMind , the world’s premier AI Lab, have formed  a new AI partnership aimed at bringing a new era of artificial intelligence to humanoid robots. Announced at CES 2026 in Las Vegas, the two teams aim to integrate cutting-edge Gemini Robotics AI foundation models with Boston Dynamics’ new  Atlas ® robots. The strategic partnership

Armis , the cyber exposure management & security company, protects the entire attack surface and manages an organization’s cyber risk exposure in real time, led by Yevgeny Dibrov, Nadir Izrael, and others, is being acquired  by ServiceNow . The move represents a strategic step forward for customers and the broader mission. Since its inception, Armis has focused on enabling organizations to see, protect, and manage every asset across IT, OT, IoT, medical devices, cloud, and co

Naxatra Labs , bringing groundbreaking axial and radial flux motor technology to the world of electric mobility, led by Abhilash Maurya , Arnav Biswas , and Piyush Verma , has raised  $3 million in a pre-Series A funding round led by Rainmatter with participation from Mohit Tandon (Delhivery), Himanshu Aggarwal (Aspiring Minds), Vijay Shekhar Sharma (Paytm), Aloke Bajpai (Ixigo), Anupam Jalote (iCEM), Narayan (Ather Energy), and others. The proceeds will support product expan

Nodu , a compliant platform bridging fiat and stablecoin payments, led by Alex Novozhenov , Vladislav Nikolayev , and  Daria Dubinina ,   has closed a $1.45 million pre-seed round led by  Digital Space Ventures . Nodu provides banks, fintechs, and businesses with a ready-to-use global compliance and payments framework for stablecoins, enabling services to be launched without the need to build internal infrastructure. The platform enables sending, receiving, and holding stable

Nabla , one of the most advanced AI assistants in clinical care, led by Alexandre Lebrun, Delphine Groll, Martin Raison, Laurent Landowski, and others, has announced  an exclusive strategic partnership with Advanced Machine Intelligence, the new AI research company founded by Professor Yann LeCun. This next chapter builds on LeCun’s early belief in Nabla’s mission and his continued confidence in the company’s technical vision. As part of a board-supported transition, Nabla co

Cloudberry , a venture capital firm based in Helsinki and London, led by Rene Kromhof, Veera Pietikäinen, Lawrence Lundy-Bryan, Tuomas Hollman, and Lukas Steinmann, has announced  the launch of Europe’s first semiconductor venture fund with an initial close of €30 million. The fund invests in companies advancing the technological frontier with semiconductors, photonics, and advanced materials to advance compute, connectivity, sensing, and power.   Cloudberry’s fund, anchored

Neural Concept , revolutionizing how customers design their products by speeding up R&D cycles, augmenting product performance and solving their next engineering challenges, led by Dr Pierre Baqué, Théophile Allard, Dr Jonathan Donier, Thomas von Tschammer, and Philippe Cuendet, has raised  a $100 million Series C funding round led by Growth Equity  at Goldman Sachs Alternatives, with participation from existing investors Forestay Capital , Alven , HTGF , D. E. Shaw Ventures

Finny , the organic growth engine for financial advisors, led by Eden Ovadia, Victoria Toli, and Theodore Janson, has secured $17 million in Series A funding led by Venrock , with participation from Activant , Altruist’s Jason Wenk, and continued support from Y Combinator , Maple VC, and Crossbeam Ventures . Nick Beim from Venrock and Bill McNabb, the former Chairman and CEO of Vanguard, will join the Board. Financial advisors play a critical role in helping Americans navigat

AIO , an Estonian biotechnology company developing sustainable, non-animal fats and oils through innovative fermentation processes, led by Nemailla Bonturi, PhD, Petri-Jaan Lahtvee, PhD, Mary-Liis Kütt, PhD, and others, has been awarded  a €1.2 million grant from Enterprise Estonia  to advance its new project FERM-OIL. The total budget of the project is €2.3 million. Over three years, the project will scale ÄIO’s Flavoured Fat, a lipid-rich yeast ingredient with umami taste,

Trigger.dev , the open source platform for building AI agents and workflows in TypeScript, led by Matt Aitken, Eric Allam, Dan Patel, and James Ritchie, has secured  a $16M Series A led by Standard Capital , with new investment from Michael Grinich and the CTO fund. Existing investors, including  Y Combinator ,  Liquid 2 ,  Wayfinder Ventures ,  Pioneer Fund , and  Rebel Fund , also participated again in the round. Trigger.dev empowers developers to build production-grade AI

Ben , the London-based platform using AI to help global enterprises manage employee benefits, led by David Duckworth and Sebastian Fallert, has raised $27.5m (£20.8m) led by Mercia Ventures  with strong participation from existing investors Atomico , Cherry Ventures , DN Capital , and Seedcamp , along with new backing from Revolut founder Nik Storonsky’s QuantumLight Capital .  The investment comes amid rapid growth, fueled by strong adoption among enterprises previously usin

Ankar AI , empowering patent teams with AI tools to innovate more efficiently, thoroughly, and productively, led by Wiem Gharbi and Tamar Gomez, has secured a $20 million Series A round led by Atomico , with Index Ventures  doubling down and Norrsken VC  and Daphni  participating, bringing the total funding to $24 million. The company will use the funding to grow its team and expand further into the US. AI is transforming how inventions become protected assets, but fragmented

Radiant , a clean energy startup building a nuclear microreactor, led by Doug Bernauer , Dr. Rita Baranwal, Dr. Mike Starrett, and others, has raised  more than $300 million in a new round of funding led by Draper Associates  and Boost VC , with additional financial commitments from current investors, reinforcing their continued confidence in Radiant’s positioning in the microreactor space. As part of this latest capital raise, Radiant also received additional investment from

MoEngage , empowering consumer marketers with AI-powered tools to succeed in a fast-paced, competitive, digital-first, and multi-channel world, led by Raviteja Dodda, Yashwanth Kumar, Yashwanth Reddy, Narasimha Reddy, Krishna Reddy, Nalin Goel, Ajish Nair, and others, has closed  an additional $180 million as part of Series F, bringing the total round to $280 million, led by new investors ChrysCapital  and Dragon Funds , alongside Schroders Capital , with continued participat

Adaptive Security , protecting your organization from AI-powered attacks like deepfakes, smishing, and vishing, led by Brian Long and Andrew Jones, has secured $81M Series B from new investors NVIDIA , Bain Capital Ventures , Capital One Ventures , and Citi Venture s, alongside participation from existing investors including the OpenAI Startup Fund , Abstract Ventures , and Andreessen Horowitz  (a16z). Less than a year after launch, Adaptive now protects more than 500 enterpr

Root Sustainability , empowering retailers to instantly turn complex product data into simple, actionable life cycle assessments, led by Gijs de Mol and Maud Schijen, has secured  a €1,000,000 seed round led by  Borski Fund , with participation from VC investor Rockstart and angel investors  Spotlight  and  Empower Impact , along with additional private investors. Root provides an AI-powered data foundation that helps retail brands turn fragmented value-chain data into audit

Chai Discovery , engineering better molecules using artificial intelligence, led by Joshua Meier  and Matthew McPartlon , has secured  $130 million Series B financing round co-led by Oak HC/FT  and General Catalyst , with participation from Thrive Capital , OpenAI , Menlo Ventures , SV Angel , and others, alongside new investors Emerson Collective  and Glade Brook , valuing the company at $1.3 Billion. The Series B round brings Chai’s total funding to more than $225 million.

Mirelo AI , developing everything from the foundational AI model to the end product for full control, focused on audio, led by Carl Johann SIMON-GABRIEL , Florian Wenzel , and others, has secured a $41 million seed round, co-led by Index Ventures  and Andreessen Horowitz , with participation from Atlantic.vc  and TriplePoint Capital . The funding marks a major milestone in reimagining how audio is created and experienced in videos and games. Mirelo was born out of a love of s

Quantum Systems , developer of Aerial Intelligence Systems, led by Florian Seibel, Sven Kruck, Matthias Lehna, and Dave Sharpin, and Frontline Robotics , a Ukrainian defence technology company that develops and manufactures robotic systems for Ukraine's security and defence forces, led by Pavlo Kosolapkin and Yevhenii Tretiak, have launched  “Quantum Frontline Industries”(QFI), a German-Ukrainian joint venture that will establish Europe’s first fully automated, industrial-sca