MENLO TIMES

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

Southern Launch , provider of bespoke space mission services including orbital launch, suborbital missions, orbital re-entries, and range services, led by Lloyd Damp, Rebecca Darcey, Tori Murray, and others, and Lux Aeterna , building the world’s first fleet of reusable satellites to transform the future of space operations for defense, intelligence, commercial, and in-space manufacturing customers, led by Brian Taylor, have signed  a contract to conduct orbital re-entries of

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

Leona Health , the AI-powered assistant built for doctors to securely and intelligently manage patient care through WhatsApp, led by Caroline Merin, Tom Chokel, and Arela Solis, announced  its launch with backing from Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), General Catalyst, Accel, and seasoned tech luminaries, including David Vélez, co-founder and CEO of Nubank, Simón Borrero, co-founder and CEO of Rappi, and Kate Ryder, founder and CEO of Maven Clinic.  In Latin America, WhatsApp is th

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

Mindoo , the European platform for deploying safe and governed agentic workflows in healthcare, led by Dr. Gauthier Willemse and Bart Lens, has secured  €5 million in seed financing from 6DC , Syndicate One , and a group of strategic angel investors.  The investment advances Mindoo’s mission to deliver a scalable AI workforce that automates routine tasks for hospitals and practices, easing staff pressure while keeping teams in control. Healthcare providers face a growing gap

Navier AI , developing agent-driven engineering, led by Cameron Flannery and Evan Kay, has announced  $5.6 million in seed funding and its launch from stealth. The round includes participation from GV  (Google Ventures), HCVC , and Y Combinator . Engineering has seen two major productivity leaps: CAD replaced manual drafting, and simulation enabled virtual testing. Navier introduces the third, Agent-Driven Engineering, where AI agents automate repetitive design-to-engineering

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

MD One Ventures , Europe's first Defence and National Security Venture Capital, led by Will McManners, Kelvin Au, Edward Ebbern, and others, and Randox , a global diagnostics and healthcare company from the UK and Ireland, have announced  the launch of  Randox for Builders , a security and biotech incubator and accelerator for UK and European founders and their teams. Alongside funding, founders gain immediate access to world-class scientific, R&D, and commercial expertise, g

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

Soverli , an ETH-Zurich spin-off, led by Ivan Puddu and Moritz Schneider, has secured  $2.6 million in pre-seed funding led by Founderful , with participation from the ETH Zurich Foundation , Venture Kick , and cybersecurity industry figures. Built on four years of ETH Zurich research, Soverli’s patent-pending technology runs multiple isolated operating systems on a single device, enabling a sovereign OS to operate alongside Android on standard smartphones with fast, seamless

Quantum Diamonds ,  building next-gen testing tools based on quantum sensing to solve one of the semiconductor industry’s hardest problems, led by Dr. Fleming Bruckmaier and Kevin Berghoff, announced  a €152 million investment plan to establish the world’s first production facility for advanced chip testing systems. The Munich facility is a strategic asset for strengthening Europe’s semiconductor position and is expected to receive tens of millions of euros in public funding

Serval , a unified help desk, access management, and automation platform with a built-in AI agent workforce, led by Jake Stauch and Alex McLeod, has raised  $75 million in Series B funding, led by Sequoia  with participation from Redpoint , Meritech , First Round , General Catalyst , Evantic , Sound Ventures , Radical Ventures , and others, bringing the total funds raised to $127 million since August and valuing the company at $1 Billion. This pre-empted round reflects Serval

Kuva Space , empowering decision-makers with actionable planetary intelligence through innovative space and AI technology, led by Jarkko Antila, Jerry Welsh, Tuomas Tikka, and others, has partnered  with the WWF-Indonesia (WWF-Indonesia) to launch an initiative that uses satellite data and AI to monitor and quantify Indonesia’s vast blue carbon assets. The collaboration will map seagrass and mangrove habitats in East Nusa Tenggara and East Kalimantan, creating scalable data f

Harness , delivering intelligent AI automation, so your team ships code faster, safer, and smarter, led by Jyoti Bansal, Carlos Delatorre, and others, has secured  a $240 million Series E financing round, comprised of a $200 million investment led by Goldman Sachs  and a planned $40 million tender offer with participation from IVP , Menlo Ventures , and Unusual Ventures . This investment values Harness at $5.5 billion. The real bottleneck in software engineering lies not in w

Port , the agentic engineering platform, led by Zohar Einy, Yonatan Boguslavsky, Aviv Teldan, Ariel Sakin, and others, has secured  $100M Series C led by General Atlantic , with participation from Accel , Bessemer Venture Partners , and Team8 , bringing the total funds raised to $158M and valuing the company at $800M. In recent years, the company has become a leading provider of commercial Internal Developer Portals (IDPs), now supporting hundreds of customers worldwide. IDPs