MENLO TIMES

Pixel Photonics , a pioneer in superconducting single-photon detectors, led by Nicolai Walter, Dr. Wladick Hartmann, and the team, has announced  total funding of €13.5 million. The amount consists of a first closing of a €5 million seed round and €8.5 million from the European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator , including €2.5 million in grants and €6 million in equity investment. The seed round is led by Futury Capital . Additional investors include the Federal Agency fo

Portal Space Systems , developing advanced spacecraft that redefine what’s possible in space, led by Jeff Thornburg and the team, has raised  $50 million in Series A funding led by  Geodesic Capital  and Mach33 , with participation from Booz Allen Ventures , ARK Invest , AlleyCorp , and FUSE. The financing reflects a broader shift in the space ecosystem: while access to orbit has improved, on-orbit mobility remains constrained. As activity increases and missions grow more dyn

Gracia AI , creating Gaussian splatting-based volumetric videos for XR and beyond, led by Georgii Vysotskii , Andrey Volodin , and the team, has enabled “ Expedition ULUM: The Jurassic Awakening ”, a family mixed-reality experience at PortAventura World, to reach a new level of its immersive experience by implementing a photorealistic digital human character, with a volumetric personage addition built using Gracia  AI's 4D Gaussian Splatting (4DGS) technique, which reconstruc

Hermeus , building the world’s fastest aircraft, led by AJ Piplica and the team, has raised  a $350M Series C financing led by Khosla Ventures  and more than a dozen other investors. Aviation has increasingly prioritised risk avoidance, often at the cost of speed and iteration. In contrast, Hermeus focuses on accelerating learning through rapid development and testing. Within three years, multiple vehicles have been built across key locations, with two jets flown just nine mo

Manna Air Delivery , helping you get anything from the sky, led by Bobby Healy , Alan Hicks , and the team, has raised  $50 million in Series B funding from ARK Invest , ISIF , and Schooner Capital , alongside continued backing from Coca-Cola HBC , Molten Ventures , and Enterprise Ireland . Manna began in 2019, when drone delivery was widely seen as a gimmick. Instead of limited demos, consistent real-world deployments were rolled out across multiple locations, delivering eve

Valar Atomics , a nuclear energy startup backed by Palmer Luckey and Palantir CTO Shyam Sankar, led by Isaiah Taylor and the team, has raised  fresh capital at a $2 billion valuation, a total of $450 million in the deal, including $340 million in equity and $110 million in debt. The latest round follows Valar’s $130M raise in November 2025, led by Snowpoint Ventures, with backing from Palmer Luckey, Shyam Sankar, and John Donovan. Founded in 2023 by Isaiah Taylor, Valar Atomi

Cognichip , builders of ACI® Artificial Chip Intelligence, led by Faraj Aalaei, Ehsan Kamalinejad, Simon Sabato, and the team, has raised  $60 million in new funding led by Seligman Ventures , with notable participation from Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan, who will be joining Cognichip’s board. Umesh Padval, a managing partner at Seligman, will also join the board. Cognichip is developing a deep learning model to assist engineers in designing next-generation chips, tackling a long-stan

Saronic Technologies , redefining maritime superiority, Dino Mavrookas, Rob Lehman, Vibhav Altekar, Doug Lambert, and the team, has closed  $1.75 billion in Series D funding led by  Kleiner Perkins  and values the company at $9.25 billion. Saronic welcomes  Advent International , Bessemer Venture Partners ,  DFJ Growth ,  BAM Elevate , and other new partners and recognizes the continued commitment of its existing investors, including  8VC ,  Caffeinated Capital ,  Andreessen

Antaris , simplifying and automating the design, simulation, and operation of satellite missions, cutting time-to-orbit by 2X and reducing lifetime cost by 10X, led by Thomas Barton, Karthik Govindhasamy, John Trionfo, and the team, has announced  the first close of a $28 Million Series A funding round led by WestWave Capital  with participation from Lockheed Martin Ventures , other insiders, and new investors. The fundraise follows a breakout year for Antaris, driven by stro

INCIRT , the Aachen-based deep-tech company, led by Oner Hanay, Erkan Bayram, Mohamed Saeed Elsayed, Theodore Varelas, and the team, has raised a €4.8 million funding round led by early-stage VC fund Lifeline Ventures , with participation from High Tech Gründerfonds . With this funding, INCIRT advances toward commercializing its novel chip architecture, strengthening Europe’s push for digital sovereignty. New Chip Architecture Overcomes Key Limitations INCIRT is developing n

Starcloud , building data centers in space, led by Philip Johnston, Ezra Feilden, and Adi Oltean, has raised  $170 million in Series A  led by Benchmark  and EQT Ventures , valuing the company at $1.1 billion.  Starcloud has raised $200 million to date and launched its first satellite equipped with an Nvidia H100 GPU in November 2025. Later this year, Starcloud 2 will deploy a more powerful satellite featuring multiple GPUs, including an Nvidia Blackwell chip, an AWS server b

TerraSpark , powering Earth from space, led by Jasper Deprez, Dr. Sanjay Vijendran, Matthias Laug, and the team, has completed  its pre-seed financing round, raising over five million euros from Daphni , Sake Bosch, angel investor alliance better ventures, the Hans(wo)men Group , and other strategic business angels. The financing will be used to further develop the technology and prepare for initial pilot applications and live tests. Europe’s Energy Challenge Europe’s power g

IQM , building full-stack superconducting quantum computers for HPCs, researchers, and enterprises, led by Dr. Jan Goetz, and the team, has secured  a €50 million financing package from funds and accounts managed by BlackRock. The facility will accelerate IQM’s technology roadmap, strengthen R&D, enable expansion into new markets, and reinforce its leadership in quantum computing. The facility was secured ahead of IQM’s planned merger with Real Asset Acquisition Corp (RAAQ) t

Xona Space , unlocking the potential of tomorrow’s technologies by providing the most robust and accurate navigation and timing services on Earth, led by Brian Manning , Tyler Reid , Jay Wakenshaw , Christina Youn , Adrien Perkins , and Allison Hampel , has raised  a $170 million Series C round led by Mohari Ventures Natural Capital with additional support from Craft Ventures , ICONIQ , Woven Capital , NGP Capital , Samsung Next , Hexagon , and other new and existing investor

PAVE Space , creating the systems that make the in-space economy possible, led by Julie Böhning  and Jérémy Marciacq , has raised  $40 million in seed funding to develop a new generation of spacecraft designed to move satellites rapidly between orbits, led by  Visionaries Club  and  Creandum , with participation from Lombard Odier Investment Managers , Atlantic Labs , Sistafund , b2venture , ACE Investment Partners, Ilavaska Vuillermoz Capital , and Pareto  & Motier Ventures

Inifinity Avionics , an Australian hardware company providing spaceflight-proven and qualified camera and processor systems for space missions worldwide, led by Igor Dimitrijevic  and the team, has announced  the full commercial availability of Aquila. Following a debut at IAC Sydney, the high-performance Aquila imaging system is now flight-ready, providing critical ‘eyes’ for the $14B Space Situational Awareness, In-Space Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing (ISAM) and Ren

EPIC Microsystems , a semiconductor company developing breakthrough power delivery solutions for AI infrastructure, led by Sabin Eftimie  and Wonyoung Kim , has raised  an oversubscribed $21 million in Series A funding to accelerate the development and commercialization of its vertical power delivery technology for next-generation AI compute platforms, led by Seligman Ventures , with participation from Intel Capital , AICONIC Ventures , Cambium Capital , and existing seed inv

Arbor , delivering clean, reliable baseload electricity with zero operating emissions, led by Brad Hartwig, Andres Garcia-Clark, and the team, has announced  an agreement with GridMarket , an energy and infrastructure project facilitator, led by Nick Davis, to deliver up to 5 gigawatts (GW) of zero-emission power starting in 2029. GridMarket helps large energy users, such as data centers, manufacturers, and logistics providers, secure reliable and cost-effective power. Arbor

Entrix , an energy trader and market leader for trading flexible energy systems in Europe, led by Steffen Schülzchen  and the team, has reached  3 GW / 8.5 GWh of contracted battery storage capacity with final investment decisions across Europe, marking a defining milestone in the company’s evolution into the European leader in flexible energy trading and optimization at scale. A consortium of investors has committed an additional 43m€ capital, consisting of BNP Paribas via i

Airbase , the software startup building modern infrastructure for radio-frequency (RF) spectrum coordination, founded by Ari Rosner & Millen Anand, has emerged  from stealth with a $5M funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz  (a16z), joined by Squadra Ventures  and Founders You Should Know . Launching with an active U.S. government agency contract, Airbase is starting by automating federal spectrum management and coordination.  The RF spectrum underpins trillions in global G

Lucid Bots , building commercial drones for exterior cleaning, led by Andrew Ashur and the team, has raised  an oversubscribed $20 million Series B round co-led by Cubit Capital  and Idea Fund Partners , with participation from Taylor Rhodes, WaterStone Impact Fund , and Front Porch Ventures , in addition to existing investors. The raise brings total funding to $34 million and will support the scaling of commercial operations, expansion of domestic manufacturing capacity in C

Renasens , a deep tech company revolutionising textile recycling through a proprietary, waterless supercritical CO2 platform, led by Jade Abir Bouledjouidja , Nora Eslander , and the team, has raised a €10 million seed round led by Extantia , with participation from Course Corrected VC  and continued backing from Norrsken Launcher . The funding, reportedly the largest hardware seed round in Europe this year, will be allocated toward implementing a pilot plant in Borås, Sweden

BRINC , deploying drones and other technologies that benefit the community and help save lives, led by Blake Resnick and the team, has announced  its new Seattle factory, more than doubling its production footprint and positioning the company to scale manufacturing significantly. The expanded facility will expedite the delivery of BRINC’s existing public safety drone solutions, and also enable the production of new, innovative products like its Guardian drone. Amid rapid grow

Crusoe , the AI factory company, led by Chase Lochmiller, Cully Cavness, and the team, and Redwood Materials , securing U.S. critical materials, led by JB Straubel and the team, have announced  a significant expansion of their partnership to scale renewable-powered AI compute.  Following the June 2025 deployment of a Redwood Energy 12 MW / 63 MWh microgrid, the companies are expanding from 4 to 24 Crusoe Spark™ modular data centers, increasing total compute capacity by nearly

Ramon.Space , a leader in space computing infrastructure, led by Avi Shabtai and the team, and Ingrasys , a subsidiary of  Foxconn Technology Group  and the world’s largest manufacturer of server and storage platforms, led by Benjamin Ting, have announced  an expansion of their collaboration to develop data center infrastructure for space. As space data grows, Earth-based systems face limits in latency and bandwidth, driving the shift to space-based data centers for real-time

EGIDE , a French defence technology startup building the next generation of affordable defence systems, led by Florian AUDIGIER, Simon CALONNE, and the team, has raised  an €8 million seed round co-led by Expeditions, Eurazeo , and Heartcore Capital , with participation from Galion.exe  and Kima Ventures .  At the Paris Defence and Strategy Forum, strengthening Europe’s defences has taken priority, as recent conflicts highlight the need for scalable, cost-effective systems to

SWISSto12 , powering next-generation satellite communications, led by Emile de Rijk and the team, and Space Compass  have executed  a procurement contract for the first GEO optical data relay satellite. This agreement marks a significant milestone in the development of Space Compass’s optical data relay service. By providing high-speed, high-capacity optical data transmission, Earth Observation is positioned to evolve from a passive tracking system into a real-time decision-m

Gecko Robotics , combining advanced robotics and AI-powered software to build, operate, and modernize the world’s most critical infrastructure, has been awarded  a five-year IDIQ contract from the U.S. Navy and GSA with a $71 million ceiling to deploy artificial intelligence and robotics to assess and maintain the health of military assets. Gecko will start work with 18 ships in the U.S. Pacific Fleet with the initial award worth up to $54m over a five-year period. Customers

RoboForce , building the future of Physical AI, scalable, deployable Robo-Labor designed for demanding industrial environments, led by Leo Ma, Calvin Zhou, and others, has secured  $52 million in oversubscribed funding, bringing the total raised to $67 million. The round was led by YZi Labs  with participation from Jerry Yang (co-founder and former CEO of Yahoo! Inc.), who joined existing investors Myron Scholes (Nobel Laureate economist), Gary Rieschel (Founding Partner of Q

Frore Systems , bringing a revolution in cooling technology for high-performance applications, led by Dr. Seshu Madhavapeddy, Dr. Surya P. Ganti, and the team, has announced  the close of a $143 million Series D financing round, bringing total capital raised to $340 million and valuing the company at $1.64 billion. The Series D round was led by MVP Ventures  and included participation from investors Fidelity Management & Research Company , Top Tier, Mayfield Fund , Clear Vent

AIRMO , the space tech startup developing the world’s most advanced greenhouse gas monitoring system, led by Daria Stepanova, Dr. Errico Armandillo, David Vilaseca, Christoph Grobbel, and the team, has announced  a €5M seed funding round led by Ananda Impact Ventures , alongside Unconventional Ventures , kopa ventures , Desai Ventures , Hypernova / New Venture Securities, and two EQT Partners acting as strategic investors (Matthias Fackler and Francesco Starace). Existing inv

Elaia , backing ambitious tech entrepreneurs with capital and care, has closed its third deep tech seed fund (DTS3) at €134 million, double the size of its previous deep tech seed funds. Developed in partnership with leading European research institutions, including PSL , INRIA , CNRS , the Barcelona Supercomputing Center , and also the Max Planck Foundation , DTS3 reflects strong investor confidence in Europe's growing deep tech ecosystem.     Since its first close of €60 mi

Nexthop AI , the leading pioneer of highly efficient AI Networking, led by Anshul Sadana and the team, has announced  the successful closure of an oversubscribed $500 Million Series B funding round, catapulting the company’s valuation to $4.2 Billion. This round was spearheaded by Lightspeed Venture Partners , with Andreessen Horowitz  joining as a major investor, and participation from Altimeter  and all existing investors. “AI’s rapid growth is reshaping data center network

Rhoda AI , redefining robotic intelligence, led by Jagdeep Singh, Eric Chan, Gordon Wetzstein, Andrew Wooten, Changan Chen, Steve Tirado, Alex Bergman, and Vincent Clerc, has announced  its public launch after 18 months in stealth, unveiling FutureVision, a new approach to robotic intelligence based on video-predictive control and designed to operate beyond controlled laboratory demonstrations and into real-world environments. The company also announced it has raised $450 mil

Sandbar , an interface company based in NYC, led by Mina Fahmi, Kirak Hong, and the team, has raised  $23 million in a Series A funding round led by Adjacent and Kindred Ventures . The company’s smart ring is designed for note-taking rather than health tracking, unlike products from Oura. It features a microphone that is off by default and a touch-sensitive panel on top to record notes, interact with an AI assistant via the phone app, and control media playback and volume. Fa

Eridu , Reengineering networking for AI, led by Drew Perkins, Omar Hassen, Mike Capuano, Promode Nedungadi, Ting-Kuang Chiang, Amy Stanton, Brian Kinard, and the team, has announced  that it has raised more than $200M in funding to disrupt the $200B AI networking market. Eridu’s funding includes a new oversubscribed Series A round led by Socratic Partners , John Doerr, Hudson River Trading , Capricorn Investment Group , and Matter Venture Partners , with participation by Bosc

Science Corporation, a clinical-stage medical technology company, led by Max Hodak , Alan Mardinly, PhD, Darius Shahida, Alex Feerst, PhD, and the team, has raised  a $230 million in Series C financing with participation from Khosla Ventures , Lightspeed Venture Partners , Y Combinator , IQT , and Quiet Capital , all pre-existing investors in Science, among others. The deal was oversubscribed with demand in excess of our capital needs, and brings the total capital invested in

Vast , building next-generation space stations, led by Jed McCaleb , Max Haot , and the team, has raised  $500 million in new funding led by Balerion Space Ventures  with participation from  IQT ,  Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) ,  Mitsui & Co., Ltd ,  MUFG ,  Nikon Corporation (Nikon) , Stellar Ventures ,  Space Capital , and  Earthrise Ventures  to advance its mission of enabling humanity to live and work in space long-term. Jed McCaleb, founder and first investor, also p

Sierra Space , defining the new era of space defense technology, led by Dan Jablonsky  and the team, has raised $550 million in equity investment led by LuminArx Capital Management  (“LuminArx Capital”), a global alternative investment manager, with participation from existing investors. The financing values the company at $8 billion post-money. Sierra Space’s investors include General Atlantic , Coatue , Moore Strategic Ventures, and Andalusian Private Capital , among others

Infinite Orbits , providing geostationary operators with all the in-orbit services they need, from the inspection of their assets to the extension of their lifespan and the management of the end-of-life phase, led by Adel Haddoud and the team, has announced  the acquisition of UK-based Lúnasa Space , led by Amin Chabi, marking the company’s establishment in the United Kingdom and reinforcing its Endurance life-extension servicer through enhanced rendezvous and docking capabil

Photoncycle , the year-round solar energy system for heating and electricity for your home, led by Bjorn Brandtzaeg, Per Hjalmarsson, Sebastian Gutterød, Elina Koivisto, and Koray Abatay, has raised €15M in Series A funding led by NordicNinja  and Voima Ventures , Nordic's leading deep-tech and energy transition investors, with participation from existing investors Lifeline Ventures , Eviny Ventures , Luminar Ventures , and Momentum . The funds will support the commercial rol

ZaiNar , building the foundation layer for physical AI, led by Daniel Jacker, Alexander Hooshmand, Eric Roselli, Philip Kratz, Jake Levy, and the team, has announced  commercial availability of its 5G positioning technology, the first 5G location system that operates entirely independent of device makers, using the network as a sensor (i.e., connectivity signals that devices already transmit) to deliver sub-10cm accuracy at ranges up to 1.5km. The network-side solution delive

CesiumAstro , delivering advanced communication capabilities for a diverse set of applications at compelling performance and cost, led by Shey Sabripour, has announced  the acquisition of Vidrovr, an artificial intelligence (AI) company specializing in real-time multimodal signal analysis. Following the acquisition, Vidrovr co-founder Joe Ellis is overseeing the integration of machine learning capabilities across CesiumAstro’s portfolio, advancing the development of next-gene

ISPTech , pioneering a new era of space mobility, led by Dr.-Ing. Lukas Werling, Dr.-Ing. Felix Lauck, and the team, has  raised  €5.5M million to deploy its advanced, non-toxic propulsion solutions for operational space missions. The round was led by Join Capital , with participation from High-Tech Gründerfonds ( HTGF ), Faber, First Momentum Ventures , Lightfield Equity , Final Frontier Liftoff , The German Aerospace Center ( DLR ), and Start-up BW Seed Fonds , among others

Saronic , redefining maritime superiority, led by Dino Mavrookas, Rob Lehman, Vibhav Altekar, Doug Lambert, and the team, has announced  a $392 million production contract for its Corsair autonomous maritime vessels, with nearly $200 million obligated at the time of award from the U.S. Navy. The announcement was made at the Reagan National Defense Forum, where Secretary of the Navy John Phelan said the deal reflects a new benchmark for rapid defense procurement. Phelan said t

Clee Medical , a Swiss neurotechnology startup developing novel ultra-high-resolution real-time imaging for brain surgery, led by Matthew Lapinski, Abed Hammoud, Jules Scholler, and Gary Evans, has announced  the successful closing of its seed financing round led by High-Tech Gründerfonds ( HTGF ), with participation from Zürcher Kantonalbank ( ZKB ), Kickfund , FONGIT , and Venture Kick , with continued participation from their existing partner and investor, Wyss Geneva . Th

Sceye , an aerospace company with a background in material science leading the industry of high-altitude platform systems (HAPS), led by Mikkel Vestergaard Frandsen and the team, has unveiled  a first-of-its-kind custom-built antenna, SceyeCELL, designed to bring high-speed connectivity at scale from the stratosphere.  Described as a “cell tower in the sky,” Sceye’s SceyeCELL combines satellite-grade precision with the flexibility of cellular networks, creating a new class of

MatX , building high-throughput chips for LLMs, led by Reiner Pope, Mike Gunter, Avinash Mani, and the team, has announced  MatX One and a $500M Series B led by Jane Street and  Situational Awareness LP . Participants include Spark Capital ,  Daniel Gross and  Nat Friedman ’s fund,  Patrick  and  John Collison ,  Triatomic Capital ,  Harpoon Ventures , Andrej Karpathy ,  Dwarkesh Patel , and others, including investors across the supply chain, including Alchip  and  Marvell

Sophia Space , building orbital compute and data centers, solar powered, space-cooled, AI-ready, led by Rob DeMillo, Dr. Leon Alkalai, Brian Monnin, and Jim Chase, has raised  a $10 million seed round, led by Alpha Funds , KDDI Green Partners Fund , and Unlock Venture Partners .   Founded by former NASA/JPL Fellow Leon Alkalai, Sophia Space is redefining in-orbit computing with a scalable, space-native thermal management approach. Its technology is built for the extreme therm

Frankenburg Technologies , redefining air-defence technology solutions for national defence and critical infrastructure, led by Kusti Salm, Andreas Bappert, Juhan Tenisson, and the team, has raised  €30 million in Series A funding, led by  Plural  and followed by  SmartCap . Founded in 2024 by serial deep-tech entrepreneurs Taavi Madiberk and Marko Virkebau, Frankenburg Technologies was established to address a structural shift in Europe’s security landscape: modern aerial th