MENLO TIMES

Stilla , the multiplayer AI for teams, led by Siavash Ghorbani and Kaj Drobin, has announced  its launch with $5M in Pre-Seed funding led by General Catalyst  with participation from the founders & leaders of Elevenlabs (Mati Staniszewski), Lovable (Anton Osika), Shopify (Harley Finkelstein), Legora (Max Junestrand), Synthesia (Victor Riparbelli, Steffen Tjerrild), Sana Labs (Joel Hellermark), Hugging Face (Thomas Wolfe), and more to build the intelligence layer that keeps hu

Vanagon Ventures , purpose-built for sovereign-edge technology in Industrial, Nature, and Digital Infrastructure - to seize the €3T DeepTech opportunity in Europe, led by Sandro Stark, Susanne Fromm, and Axel Roitzsch, has announced  the final closing of its €20 million Fund I. The fund targets a structural gap in venture capital by providing pre-seed capital to AI-native and deep tech companies with strong economic potential but non-traditional scaling models. It plans to ba

Ananda Impact Ventures , partnering with visionary founders who dare to challenge limits, shaping a future that’s better for people and planet alike, led by Partners Johannes Weber, Florian Erber, Zoe Peden, Bernd Klosterkemper, and others, has secured  €73m in the first close of its fifth fund, targeting €108m. The fund, Ananda V, has attracted backing from a mix of returning and new limited partners, including the European Investment Fund , NRW.BANK , Investcorp-Tages , Mer

Elyos AI , an AI agent built for trades and field services, led by Adrian Johnston, Philippa Brown, and Panos Stravopodis, has secured a $13 million Series A round, led by Blackbird Ventures , with participation from Y Combinator  and Pi Labs , bringing the total funding to $16 million. Trades businesses such as plumbers, electricians, HVAC teams, fire and security operators, and facilities managers form the backbone of the built world, yet many struggle with overwhelming cal

Sinpex , the AI-powered platform for KYB / KYC lifecycle management, led by Dr. Camillo Werdich, Dr. Philipp Eska , Werner Krahe , and others, has secured a €10 million Series A financing round led by BlackFin Capital Partners , Europe’s largest financial services investor, with strong participation from existing investors ACE Ventures  and TX Ventures .  The new capital will accelerate growth, solidify Sinpex’s leadership in KYB automation in Europe, and support expansion in

ClickHouse , a leader in real-time analytics, data warehousing, observability, and AI/ML, led by Aaron Katz, Alexey Milovidov, and Yury Izrailevsky, has announced the close of its Series D financing, raising $400 million, led by Dragoneer Investment Group , with participation from Bessemer Venture Partners , GIC, Index Ventures , Khosla Ventures , Lightspeed Venture Partners , accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., and WCM Investment Management . ClickHouse conti

Hydrosat , providing irrigation and crop management solutions to help governments preserve water while increasing farmers’ crop yields, led by Pieter Fossel and others, has announced  the close of $60 million in new funding to accelerate growth across commercial, civil government, and defense markets led by Hartree Partners ,  Subutai Capital Partners , and  Space 4 Earth , with new investment from  Truffle Capital . The round includes follow-on investment from the Luxembourg

Merge Labs , a Brain Computer Interface Research Lab, founded by Mikhail Shapiro, Tyson Aflalo, and Sumner Norman, complemented by technology entrepreneurs Alex Blania, Sandro Herbig, and Sam Altman in a personal capacity, has announced  its launch and support  and collaboration from OpenAI. The goal centers on advancing a new class of brain-computer interfaces with high bandwidth, deep AI integration, and broad accessibility. Human experience emerges from billions of neurons

Parloa , the premier provider of AI agents elevating enterprise customer experience, led by Malte Kosub, Stefan Ostwald, Latane Conant, Csaba Tamas, Chris Silver, and Tino Mittelmeier, has announced  $350 million in Series D funding led by General Catalyst , with strong continued support from Parloa’s existing investors, including EQT Ventures , Altimeter Capital , Durable Capital Partners , and Mosaic Ventures , bringing its valuation to $3 billion. Closing just seven months

Slingshot Aerospace , powering the future of space, led by Tim Solms, Julio Pekarovic, Andrea Powers, Kelli Furrer, Erik Ekwurzel, Dr. Adrian Thompson, and others, has earned  a $27 million contract to modernize scenario training activities.   Under the contract, Slingshot will advance the Space Force’s Operational Test and Training Infrastructure (OTTI) program by integrating existing training capabilities with AI-native technology designed to accurately replicate today’s ra

WitnessAI , a platform that helps enterprises protect and accelerate their AI journey across the rapidly evolving AI tech stacks, led by Rick Caccia, Gil Spencer, Stephanie Gilliam, and others, has secured  strategic funding of $58 million led by Sound Ventures , with participation from Fin Capital , Qualcomm Ventures , Samsung Ventures, and Forgepoint Capital Partners . The company also unveiled expanded agentic AI governance capabilities that bring observability to global e

AlphaLum , building the world's most efficient AR displays & optical sensors, led by Markus Rossi, Eric Tremblay, Tim De Reyck, Tanja Koch, Carlos Macias, and Volker Zagolla, has announced  the successful close of its CHF 3.4 million seed financing round led by Vsquared Ventures . The funding accelerates AlphaLum’s shift from advanced engineering to a core supplier for next-generation smart glasses and spatial-computing products, establishing it as a leading European provider

Skene , automating onboarding, retention, and growth, so vibe-coders can focus on building, led by Teemu Kinos, Michele Boggia, and Teppo Hudsson, has closed  a €800,000 pre-seed round led by Superhero Capital  and with participation from NVIDIA executives. AI-driven development has created a $113B execution gap, where products ship faster than they achieve activation, adoption, or retention. With 42% of startups missing the market and over half of SaaS tools going unused, co

Aule Space , building the robotic workforce for the space economy, led by Jay Panchal, Nithyaa Giri, and Hrishit Tambi, has secured  $2 million in pre-seed funding led by pi Ventures , with participation from a clutch of angel investors, including Eash Sundaram, former Board Member of Intelsat and Founder of Utpata Ventures, and Arvind Lakshmikumar, CEO of defence tech company Tonbo Imaging , among others. Aule Space has been part of the Entrepreneurs First  accelerator progr

Skild AI , building omni-bodied intelligence, led by Deepak Pathak and Abhinav Gupta, has raised  $1.4 billion in Series C funding, led by SoftBank  with participation from NVentures  (NVIDIA), Macquarie Capital  (entities administered by Macquarie Capital), and Jeff Bezos(via Bezos Expeditions ), valuing the company at over $14 Billion. Lightspeed , Felicis , Coatue , and Sequoia Capital  have doubled down on their investments. Several strategic investors have also come on b

depthfirst , an applied AI Lab solving security’s AI-era problems, led by Daniele Perito, Qasim Mithani, and Andrea Michi, has secured $40M Series A round, led by Accel  with participation from Alt Capital , BoxGroup , Liquid 2 Ventures , Mantis VC , SV Angel , and notable angel investors including Jeff Dean, Kirsten Green, Colin Evans, Logan Kilpatrick, and Julian Schrittwieser. depthfirst’s General Security Intelligence platform introduces a unified AI system that detects,

ThinkOrbital Inc. , constructing and defending the critical infrastructure required for a thriving space economy, led by Colonel Lee Rosen, USAF, Ret. and Vojtech Holub, Ph.D., has announced  the successful close of its Seed Round, led by TFX Capital .   The new funding accelerates development of technologies that will shape on-orbit defense and operations, from spacecraft inspection using Space-to-Space X-ray to asset servicing and large-scale orbital infrastructure. With na

Aikido , securing your code, cloud, and runtime in one central system, led by Willem Delbare , Roeland Delrue , Felix Garriau , and others, has secured $60 million in Series B at a $1B valuation, led by Tom Stafford at DST Global , with participation from PSG Equity , Singular, Notion Capital , and others. Aikido was created to fix a core problem in security: developers were being burdened, not supported. Traditional tools generated noise instead of clarity and complexity ins

VoiceRun , building a secure, reliable voice infrastructure for enterprises, led by Derek Caneja and Nicholas Leonard, has secured  $5.5 million in funding.  In the near future, AI-powered voice agents will be able to communicate anytime, anywhere, and in any language, with billions expected to run on VoiceRun. Advances in real-time voice understanding and generation from companies like ElevenLabs, Deepgram, and Fish Audio, combined with intelligence from models by OpenAI, Ge

osapiens , a leading provider of enterprise software for sustainable growth, led by Stefan Wawrzinek, Alberto Zamora, Matthias Jungblut, Jörg Bernauer, and others, announced  that it had entered into an agreement with Decarbonization Partners , a joint venture between BlackRock and Temasek, to lead a US$ 100 million Series C fundraising round, subject to regulatory approvals. Decarbonization Partners  will join existing investors  Goldman Sachs Alternatives , which led the US