MENLO TIMES

Meridian , the AI-powered modeling layer for Excel that automates the work behind financial models, helping teams move faster without losing precision, led by John Ling, George Fang, and Zach Kirshner, has raised  $17 million in seed funding, co-led by Andreessen Horowitz  and The General Partnership , to bring Meridian to more finance teams. Why Meridian Was Built Excel remains foundational in finance, but manual modeling is tedious, time-consuming, and error-prone. Existing

Trener Robotics , building the foundational intelligence layer for software-defined robotics, led by Dr. Asad Tirmizi, Dr. Lars Tingelstad, and others, has raised  a $32 million Series A round co-led by Engine Ventures  and IAG Capital Partners , with participation from strategic investors Cadence  and Geodesic Capital , through Nikon's NFocus Fund.  Shanda Ventures , Emergent Ventures , Fitz Gate Ventures , Techable VC , Radius Capital Ventures , and Raisewell Ventures  also

Elaia , backing ambitious tech entrepreneurs with capital and care, has announced the first closing of its fifth Digital Venture Fund (DV5), converging at €120m, reaffirming its mission to back enduring, IP-driven ventures that define the future of European technology. Mimic Robotics, a Zurich-based physical AI company, marks DV5’s first investment, highlighting its focus on breakthrough technologies from leading European hubs. As demand grows for next-generation infrastructu

Clearly AI , automating security and privacy assessments, reducing backlogs, and improving visibility without sacrificing trust, led by Emily Choi-Greene and Joe Choi-Greene, has raised  $8.4 million in Seed funding from Basis Set Ventures , Crosspoint Capital Partners , Argon Ventures , Ritual Capital , and Y Combinator . Security teams are facing increasing strain. Each new feature, third-party vendor, and AI deployment demands thorough evaluation across security, privacy,

driveblocks , unlocking off-road autonomy through advanced perception, led by Dr. Alexander Wischnewski, Dr. Stephan Matz, Leonhard Hermansdorfer, Dr. Thomas Herrmann, Dr. Felix Nobis, and Dr. Tim Stahl, has raised  a 3.5M Pre-Series A investment led by FORWARD.one , a European industrial technology venture capital firm, and with strong participation of existing investors Bayern Kapital , rethink Ventures  and angel investor Joachim Drees. The funding will accelerate product

Allonic , reimagining how robotics are made and where they can go, led by Benedek Tasi, Dávid Pelyva, David Holló, and others, has raised $7.2M in pre-seed funding, led by Visionaries Club  and with backing from Day One Capital , RoboStrategy , Prototype, SDAC Ventures , and TinyVC . The round also includes more than a dozen angel investors from leading US and European tech companies, including OpenAI and Hugging Face, as well as top research institutions such as ETH Zurich a

Dragonfly AI , helping you maximize your omnichannel creative performance, powered by a patented biological algorithm, has launched  two new creative effectiveness metrics, Emotion and Memory, expanding its patented AI platform beyond Attention measurement to give brands a more complete understanding of what drives performance. Each metric unlocks a distinct capability. Combined with Dragonfly AI’s Attention metric, they form a three-part framework that can improve response r

Naboo , an AI-powered corporate events (MICE) procurement platform, led by Maxime Eduardo, Antoine Servant, Lucien Bredin, and Jean-Louis Villeminot, has raised  a $70M Series B led by  Lightspeed Venture Partners , with participation from its existing investors  Notion Capital , ISAI  and Ternel , less than a year after a €20M Series A (February 2025). The announcement coincides with the opening of a New York office as Naboo’s new North American hub following Montreal, build

Ouster , an automation company moving the world forward safely and efficiently, led by Angus Pacala, has announced  that on February 4, 2026, it closed the acquisition of StereoLabs SAS  (“StereoLabs”), a pioneer in AI vision and perception solutions, led by Cecile Schmollgruber, Olivier Braun, and Edwin Azzam. With this acquisition, Ouster now provides a unified sensing and perception platform for Physical AI, integrating high-performance digital lidar, cameras, AI compute,

Uplift360 , a cleantech company developing chemical-based technologies to recycle and reuse advanced materials, led by Sam Staincliffe, Jamie Meighan, and others, has announced  the successful close of its €7.4M seed funding round led by Extantia , with significant contributions from the NATO Innovation Fund (NIF) , Promus Ventures , and Fund F . Advanced materials such as carbon fibre and aramids are essential to defence, aerospace, and manufacturing, but face supply-chain c

Chiral , building next-generation chips with nanomaterials, led by Seoho Jung, Natanael Lanz, André Butzerin, and others, has raised  a $12 million seed financing round led by  Crane Venture Partners , with participation from  Quantonation ,  HCVC , and  Founderful , as well as public funding from  Innosuisse. The funding supports Chiral’s mission to enable wafer-scale manufacturing of post-silicon computing chips built on nanomaterials, advancing the next generation of proce

Goodfire AI , a research company using interpretability to understand, learn from, and design AI systems, led by Eric Ho, Daniel Balsam, Tom McGrath, and others, has announced  a $150 million Series B funding round at a $1.25 billion valuation led by B Capital , with participation from Juniper Ventures , DFJ Growth , Salesforce Ventures , Menlo Ventures , Lightspeed Venture Partners , South Park Commons , Wing Venture Capital , Eric Schmidt, and others. Goodfire was founded t

Voyager Technologies , an innovative national security and space solutions company committed to advancing and delivering transformative, mission-critical solutions, led by Dylan Taylor and others, and Max Space , envisioning a future where space is not just a frontier but a thriving base for humanity, led by Saleem Miyan, and others, have announced  a strategic partnership to advance expandable space exploration technology, serving as the cornerstone of future lunar and deep-

Lunar Energy , the leader in integrated home battery systems and Virtual Power Plant software, led by Kunal Girotra, and others, announced it raised $102 million in an oversubscribed Series D round led by B Capital  and Prelude Ventures . This round follows a previously unannounced Series C financing of $130 million led by Activate Capital . These commitments will accelerate Lunar’s mission of powering every home with clean, reliable, and affordable energy with its suite of h

Talentguide , the Ghent-based HR-tech company, led by Filip Tack, Beatrice Toussaint, Judith Straetemans, Bhanu Angam, Maryna Soufi, and Evelien Tanghe, has raised  €1.3 million in fresh capital   from     NXT II , Travvant (Partena Professional),  Miles Ahead Capital ,  imec.istart , and the founders, entrepreneurs such as Ewout Meyns (PieSync), Koen Handekyn (Allcrux, Nabu), and Jan Delaere (Delaware), also participated in the funding round. Talentguide enables smarter, dat

Mundi Ventures , backing bold and purpose-driven founders, led by Partners Javier Santiso, Lluis Vinas, Moises Sanchez, Rafaela Andrade, Rajeev Singh-Molares, and others, has just completed  a €750 million first close for  Kembara , its fifth fund and largest to date.  Europe invests billions in early-stage climate startups, yet many stall at Series B, according to a recent report. New funds are emerging to address this gap, including Spain-based Mundi Ventures’ Kembara Fund

SlateVC , a growth-focused venture firm dedicated to driving the climate transition forward, led by Chloe Giard, Clement Buyse, Renaud Visage, and Sebastien Leger, has secured  €132 million in the first close of its first growth fund, backed by  EIF ,  Bpifrance , France 2030’s FNVI,  BNP Paribas , and several family offices. Europe faces rising energy instability, high-cost legacy infrastructure, and import dependence, challenging competitiveness and sustainability. SlateVC

Fibr AI , empowering marketers to focus on what matters, led by Ankur 'AJ' Goyal and Pritam Roy, has raised  $7.5 million in a seed funding round led by Accel , with support from WillowTree Ventures , MVP Ventures , and some incredible operator angels. This funding represents validation of a future built around intelligent, adaptive, and context-aware web experiences. It enables a shift beyond static pages toward dynamic, personalized agents at every URL, adapting in real tim

Duna , the AI-native platform that accelerates business onboarding, automates manual work, and grows revenue, led by David Schreiber and Duco van Lanschot, has announced  a €30 Million Series A funding round led by CapitalG , Alphabet’s independent growth fund. Existing investors Index Ventures , Puzzle Ventures , and Snowflake Chairman Frank Slootman also participated in the round.  Founded in 2023 and based in Germany and the Netherlands, the company was started by former S

Axiology , simplifying access to digital fixed-income instruments by providing infrastructure that connects businesses and retail investors, led by Marius Jurgilas , Andrius Košuba , Andrius Mamontovas , and Algirdas Neciunskas , has raised €5 Million in seed funding led by Exponential Science, e2vc , and Coinvest Capital . It was joined by new investors TIBAS Ventures  and Plug and Play . The seed round is also supported by the previous round investors like  BSV Ventures , N