MENLO TIMES

FoodLabs , founded with the commitment to revolutionize the food system and improve both planetary and human health, led by Christophe Maire, Patrick Noller, Thilo Winter, Bastian Stöhr, Florian Breiner, and others, has closed  its Third Fund of €105m to invest in early-stage food tech startups in Europe.  Founded in 2016, FoodLabs invests in software and hardware startups driving a healthier, more sustainable food system. Its portfolio includes Formo (animal-free cheese), Kl

Quilt , the world’s most intuitive, advanced, and efficient ductless heat pump on the market, led by Paul Lambert, Matthew Knoll, and Bill Kee, has secured  a $20M Series B round from   Energy Impact Partners , Galvanize ,  Lowercarbon Capital ,  Gradient Ventures ,  Alumni Ventures , Incite Ventures , and others. The company is welcoming  Tom vonReichbauer (former CFO of Nest, Sunrun, and ICON) and  Veery Maxwell  (co-head of Galvanize Climate’s Innovation + Expansion fund)

Unconventional AI , rethinking the foundations of a computer to optimize energy efficiency for AI, led by MeeLan Lee , Sara Achour , Michael Carbin , and Naveen Rao , has secured  $475 million in seed funding led by Lightspeed  and Andreessen Horowitz , with participation from Sequoia , Lux Capital , DCVC , Future Ventures , Jeff Bezos, and many other amazing investing partners, valuing the company at $4.5 Billion. Naveen Rao, cofounder and CEO, will personally be investing $

Flex , empowering business owners with a new approach to finance, led by Zaid Rahman, Hadi Solh, Robbie Figueroa, Vishal Saxena, David Toro, Luciano Arango, and others, has secured  $60 million in Series B equity funding, led by  Portage , and additional participation from  Titanium Ventures ,  Wellington ,  Crosslink Capital , Companyon Ventures ,  Spice Expedition ,  Florida Funders ,  FirstLook Partners ,  MS&AD Ventures ,  Restive  and others, bringing the company's total

Melt & Marble , the company rethinking how fats and lipids are created, to deliver better performance, consistency, and sustainability across food and personal care, led by Anastasia Krivoruchko, PhD, Florian David, PhD, Jens Nielsen, Professor, Thomas Cresswell, and Tue Hodal, has closed  a €7.3 million Series A round led by  Industrifonden , with strategic participation from  Beiersdorf ,  Valio ,  Catalyze Capital ,  Chalmers Ventures , and the  European Innovation Council

Indico Capital Partners , supporting the best, most unique, and scalable high-tech and sustainable companies, led by Stephan de Moraes, Ricardo Torgal, Cristina Fonseca, Rui Rodrigues, Sofia Egídio, André Almeida Santos, and others, launched  its 6th fund, Indico VC Fund III, with a capital target of €125 million,   a pivotal moment for the firm and the entire Southern European VC ecosystem.  The fund has successfully secured a major anchor commitment of €30 million from The

Besimple AI , building the data layer for AI, led by Yi Zhong and Bill Wang, has secured  $3M in a seed round from Y Combinator , Surgepoint Capital , Porterfield Ventures, Amino Capital , WELIGHT Capital , Multimodal Ventures , Script Capital , and several amazing angel investors. The concept originated from challenges encountered at Meta, where training advanced AI models demanded vast amounts of high-quality data, an increasingly difficult resource to obtain. After years o

Yoodli , the company on a mission to help people communicate with confidence, led by Varun Puri, Padmashree Koneti, Esha Joshi, Derek Sessions, Andy Larson, Betsy McKibbin, and others, has secured  a $40M Series B fundraise, led by  WestBridge Capital  with participation from Neotribe  and  Madrona . This funding marks Yoodli’s rapid progression to Series B, arriving just months after its Series A announcement in May and bringing total capital raised to nearly $60 million. Th

Castelion , a cutting-edge defense technology company working to restore America's conventional deterrence capability, led by Bryon Hargis, Sean Pitt, Andrew Kreitz, and others, has secured  $350 million in Series B financing led by Altimeter Capital  and Lightspeed Venture Partners , with participation from Lavrock Ventures , Andreessen Horowitz , General Catalyst , First In , Space VC , Cantos , BlueYard , Avenir , Champion Hill , and Interlagos . The capital raise supports

Imper.ai , a pioneer in real-time cyber impersonation prevention, led by Noam Awadish, Anatoly Blighovsky, and Rom Dudkiewicz, has announced its public launch and $28 million in new funding from Redpoint Ventures  and Battery Ventures , with participation from Maple VC , Vessy VC , and Cerca Partners. Imper.ai ’s platform identifies impersonation risks in real time, maintaining privacy and accuracy across widely used communication platforms including Zoom, Teams, and Slack. B

CoinMENA , Headquartered in the Kingdom of Bahrain and licensed by the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB) as a crypto asset service provider (category-3), led by Talal Tabbaa, Dina Sam'an, and Yazan Barghuthi, has officially joined  forces with Paribu , Türkiye’s leading digital asset platform and one of the few to receive authorization from the Turkish Capital Markets Board (CMB), in a transaction valued at up to USD 240 million. This strategic acquisition unites two regional lea

Multifactor , redefining zero-trust so you can protect your accounts with confidence, led by Vivek Nair, Ph.D. and Colin Roberts, Ph.D., has secured $15M seed round led by Nexus Venture Partners , with participation from amazing funds like Y Combinator , Taurus Ventures , Honeystone Ventures , Flex Capital , Pioneer Fund , Ritual Capital , Liquid2 Ventures  and leading operators across security, AI and enterprise software including Mohan Warrior & Padma Warrior, Gokul Rajaram

Nexus Venture Partners , backing extraordinary founders at seed and Series A, helping them build product-first companies that redefine their categories, led by Abhishek Sharma, Anand Datta, Anup Gupta, Jishnu Bhattacharjee, Pratik Poddar, Suvir Sujan, and others, has   announced  the closing of Nexus Ventures VIII, a $700 million fund to back exceptional founders building AI, enterprise software, consumer and fintech startups at inception, seed, and Series A stages in the US

Ultraviolette , the world's most advanced EV platforms, led by Narayan Subramanian and Niraj Rajmohan, has secured  $45 million as part of its ongoing Series E round. The latest infusion comes from leading Indian technology company Zoho Corporation  and Lingotto , one of Europe's largest investment management companies. The continued momentum in Ultraviolette Automotive’s Series E round underscores strong investor confidence in its growth trajectory and global ambitions. With

The Flywheel , the Thessaloniki(Greece)-based Venture Studio, led by Kostas Fetfatsidis and Dimitrios Kourtesis, will start  its first cohort in Q1 2026 with five paid Founder-in-Residence placements and up to €300k in funding, to build Europe’s next industrial AI champions. A new venture studio, The Flywheel, offers professionals with deep industry or technical expertise a structured path to creating industrial AI companies in Europe. Based in Thessaloniki, the studio co-fou

Curvestone AI , the platform for regulated firms to automate complex tasks with code‑simple AI flows, led by Dawid Kotur and Sebastian Kotur, has secured $4 million in seed funding, led by  MTech Capital  with participation from  Boost Capital Partners ,  D2 Fund , and  Portfolio Ventures . The funding round will advance Curvestone AI’s mission to make AI automation truly dependable for financial services, legal, and insurance teams. Most AI tools excel at isolated tasks but

Alinia AI , the company on a mission to make the deployment of Generative AI safer, led by Ariadna Font Llitjós and Carlos Muñoz Ferrandis, has secured  a $7.5 million seed round led by  Mouro Capital , with participation from  Raise Seed For Good ,  Speedinvest , and  Precursor Ventures . Development of the enterprise-grade Guardrails API and AI Compliance Platform is set to accelerate, enabling regulated organizations to deploy generative AI with embedded real-time auditing

Verkada , an American leader in cloud-based physical security, led by Filip Kaliszan, Hans Robertson, James Ren, and Benjamin Bercovitz, has secured  an investment from Alphabet's independent growth fund, CapitalG ,  valuing the company at $5.8 billion, a $1.3 billion increase from Series E earlier this year. More than 2 million devices from Verkada are now deployed across 171 countries, unifying video security, access control, sensors, intercoms, and alarms on a single platf

Lumia , an AI Security and Governance platform helping enterprises safely adopt AI and autonomous agents, led by Omri Iluz and Bobi Gilburd, has secured  $18 million seed round led by Team8  with support from New Era . As part of the announcement, the company is appointing Admiral Michael Rogers, former Director of the NSA and Commander of U.S. Cyber Command, to its Advisory Board. Enterprise use of AI agents is rising quickly, with Gartner expecting 40% of enterprise applica

Autolane , developing hardware & software infrastructure for autonomous commerce, led by   Ben Seidl and Andy Seidl, has secured  $7.4 million in funding co-led by Draper Associates  and Hyperplane , with participation from LAUNCH and Feld Ventures . The funding will accelerate Autolane’s expansion across retail, restaurant, and commercial properties. Supporting autonomous ride-hailing and delivery vehicles, its infrastructure has demonstrated up to 50% reductions in curbside