MENLO TIMES

SalesPatriot , a platform for distributors and manufacturers in the defense supply chain, led by Nelson Ray, Benjamin Rhodes-Kropf, and Maciej Szymczyk, has secured  $5 million in seed funding led by CRV , with participation from  Pear VC , Y Combinator , SV Angel , Liquid2 , Uncorrelated Ventures , and several incredible angels, including Paul Graham, Rich Miner, Mark Pincus, Steve Blank, and Mati Staniszewski. The mission is clear: make defense supply chains faster and smar

Mem0 , a universal, self‑improving memory layer for LLM applications, led by Taranjeet Singh and Deshraj Yadav, has secured  $24M raise across Seed and Series A, the seed round led by Kindred Ventures , and Series A led by Basis Set Ventures , with participation from Peak XV Partners , GitHub Fund , and Y Combinator . Mem0 is also backed by an incredible group of angel investors, including Scott Belsky, Dharmesh Shah, and the CEOs of companies that have built core infrastruct

Fireworks AI , the platform to build your Generative AI capabilities, optimized and at scale, led by Lin Qiao, Benny Chen, Chenyu Zhao, Dmytro Dzhulgakov, Dmytro Ivchenko, James Reed, and Pawel Garbacki, has secured  a $250 million Series C at a $4 billion valuation, co-led by Lightspeed Venture Partners , Index Ventures , and Evantic , with continued support from Sequoia Capital , bringing the total funding to $327 million. Founded in 2022 by former PyTorch engineers, Firewo

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

Vesence , a cursor for lawyers, led by Henrik Hansson and Ludvig Swanstrom, has secured  $9 million seed round, led by Emergence  with participation from Creandum , Y Combinator , and 20VC . Angel investors include Paul Graham, Anton Osika, and Jason Bohemig. Vesence is an AI agent platform for law firms integrated within Microsoft Office. It reviews documents, emails, and projects directly in Word and Outlook, ensuring accuracy and consistency before anything reaches the cli

Builders , a Rotterdam-based venture studio led by Michael van Lier, Sharon Klaver, Darko Marković, Julia Bramer, and others, has raised  €4.5 million from a group of leading entrepreneurs, exit-founders, and family offices, including Wouter Holtslag, Eric Carbijn, and Invent Capital. Builders, a venture studio focused on creating enterprise AI companies, partners with entrepreneurs from idea to launch, providing expertise in concept validation, hiring, funding, and growth. A

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

Sequoia Capital , the Apple of the Venture Capital World, has announced  its latest venture fund and sixth dedicated seed fund. The firm reflects on a legacy of early partnerships that have grown into iconic companies such as Apple, Nvidia, Stripe, and Wiz, relationships that continue to fuel its belief in the transformative power of early-stage innovation. As Sequoia sees it, founders today stand at the edge of a generational opportunity. Artificial intelligence is reshaping

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

Onfire , AI revenue intelligence for technical-buyer GTM, led by Tal Peretz (CEO), Shahar Shavit (CTO), and Nitzan Hadar (CPO), has secured $20 million initial round led by Grove Ventures  and TLV Partners  with participation by IN Venture  and Leumi 77 Ventures. Onfire is redefining how revenue teams engage with technical buyers through a purpose-built vertical AI platform. Trained on years of proprietary contextual data, it enables precise targeting of engineering, data, an

Adaptam Therapeutics , a pioneering company in cancer immunotherapies specifically targeting the immunosuppressive myeloid tumor microenvironment, led by Asis Palazon, Pablo Cironi, Salvatore Cappadona, and José M. Mato, has secured  a €3 million (~$3.5 million) pre-seed financing round led by Criteria Bio Ventures . As part of the round, Criteria Bio Ventures’ Salvatore Cappadona, PhD, and Pablo Cironi, PhD, join Adaptam’s board of directors. The €3M funding will advance Ada

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

Wonder Studios , a global network of artists, directors, and technologists exploring the creative frontier of AI, led by Xavier Collins and Justin Hackney, has secured  $12 million in seed funding led by Atomico , alongside existing investors LocalGlobe  and Blackbird , and builds on Wonder’s pre-seed investment, which included executives from ElevenLabs, Google DeepMind, and OpenAI.  Wonder will use the new funding to double its engineering team and accelerate original conte

Newton , the AI workflow platform for dental, led by Rohit Chaparala and Sam Detjen, has secured  $3.8 million in seed funding from Y Combinator ,  Twenty Two Ventures,   The Transpose Platform ,  Phosphor Capital , and a cohort of prominent angels, including Bo Jiang of Lithic. Newton serves as an AI-powered communications layer for dental practices, handling outbound and inbound tasks like reactivating unscheduled patients, verifying insurance benefits, and filling last-min

Crustdata , a real-time B2B data broker, led by Abhilash Chowdhary, Manmohit Grewal, and Chris Pisarski, has secured  $6 million in a seed round led by Y Combinator  and A Capital , with participation from General Catalyst , SV Angel , and Phosphor Capital . Crustdata is creating a real-time web data layer for AI agents, allowing customers to track companies, founders, and recruiting candidates before they gain traction. Its signals power top AI SDRs, recruiting platforms, an

Mondra , a climate tech platform, led by Jason Barret, Elyn Patrick, Tom Holden, and Marco De Sanctis, has secured  £10 million from investors including AlbionVC , Planet A , Swisscom, PeakBridge , Ponderosa Ventures , and Green Circle Foodtech Ventures. The funding will accelerate Mondra’s expansion across Europe, starting with the Netherlands, Germany, and France, and fuel the development of new capabilities that go beyond emissions tracking to address supply chain disrupti

Redwood Materials , powering America’s energy future, led by JB Straubel, Chris Lister, Colin Campbell, Cal Lankton, Mandy Clark, and others, has secured  a $350 million Series E funding round, led by Eclipse  with participation from new strategic investors, including NVentures  (NVIDIA’s venture capital arm).   The oversubscribed round underscores strong momentum across Redwood’s two core business lines: Critical Materials, including cobalt, nickel, copper, lithium, and cath

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