News/Fundraising
DroneDeploy reaches break-even, raises $15M for autonomous job sites
DroneDeploy, a company that specializes in capturing real-world data using drones, has reached break-even profitability and secured $15 million in strategic funding to accelerate its AI and robotics capabilities. This milestone allows the reality capture company to reinvest all earnings into product development, positioning it to lead the transformation of construction sites, inspections, and drone operations through autonomous technology. What you should know: The break-even achievement marks a turning point for DroneDeploy after a decade of growth, setting it apart from competitors who struggled after the overfunded 2021 cycle. CEO and cofounder Mike Winn explained that "reaching break-even means we've...
read Sep 11, 2025Swim team? Old news! All-girls underwater robotics team raises $2K through community raffle.
The Clarkston P.E.O. FE Chapter has partnered with ECH Science, an all-girls underwater robotics team, to promote women's education through a fundraising raffle. The collaboration highlights growing community support for encouraging girls to pursue STEM careers through hands-on robotics and engineering programs. What you should know: ECH Science brings together girls from different schools and communities who share a passion for science, technology, engineering, and math. The team explores new concepts through hands-on outreach activities and competitive challenges, applying scientific and engineering processes in real-world scenarios. They have become a local role model and inspiration for others in the community...
read Sep 11, 2025PixVerse creator AIsphere raises $60M from Chinese e-commerce titan Alibaba
AIsphere, the Beijing-based startup behind the popular AI video generator PixVerse, has raised $60 million in a funding round led by Alibaba Group Holding, the Chinese e-commerce and cloud computing giant. This marks the largest single funding amount raised by a domestic AI video generation company, reflecting the growing investment interest in China's AI video creation market as Big Tech firms seek to complement their offerings through strategic partnerships with specialized startups. Key details: The funding round included participation from Singapore-based venture capital firm Antler and the Beijing Artificial Intelligence Industry Investment Fund, though the company's valuation was not disclosed....
read Sep 10, 2025Replit raises $250M, triples valuation to $3B as AI coding market heats up
AI software development platform Replit has secured $250 million in funding at a $3 billion valuation, tripling its worth from just over $1 billion in 2023. The massive funding round underscores growing investor confidence in code-generation startups as companies increasingly turn to AI to augment and potentially replace human software engineers. The big picture: Valuations for AI-powered coding platforms are surging as businesses seek to accelerate software development through artificial intelligence assistance. Key details: The funding round was led by Prysm Capital, with strategic investments from Google's AI Futures Fund and Amex Ventures. Existing investors including Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), a...
read Sep 10, 2025Chemistry-focused CuspAI raises $100M to accelerate AI-designed materials discovery
CuspAI, an artificial intelligence startup developing models for chemistry discovery, has raised $100 million in Series A funding led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA), a prominent venture capital firm, and Temasek, Singapore's sovereign wealth fund. The round, which values the company at $520 million, positions CuspAI to accelerate the development of AI-designed materials ranging from carbon capture substances to advanced semiconductors, targeting markets that could reshape manufacturing and sustainability efforts. What you should know: CuspAI has assembled an impressive roster of AI luminaries and industry veterans to guide its mission of using AI to discover new materials. The company's advisory...
read Sep 10, 2025The Big Rethink: Klarna CEO admits company shifted from AI cost-cutting after $15B IPO
Klarna's CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski admitted the Swedish fintech company moved too aggressively with AI implementation, prioritizing cost-cutting over service improvements after raising $1.37 billion in its U.S. IPO. The admission comes as the buy-now-pay-later lender, valued at $15 billion, shifts its AI strategy toward enhancing customer and merchant experiences rather than simply reducing operational expenses. What you should know: Klarna has spent the last six months course-correcting its AI approach after recognizing it "over indexed" on cost reduction. The company cut its workforce from 5,000 to 3,800 employees last year, with AI chatbots handling customer queries that previously required 700...
read Sep 9, 2025Ledger leaders: Fintech company Ramp hits $22.5B valuation with AI-powered expense automation
Ramp has raised $22.5 billion in valuation across two funding rounds just two months apart, cementing its position as one of the fastest-growing fintech companies challenging American Express in the corporate credit card market. The six-year-old startup, which crossed $1 billion in annualized revenue in August and serves over 45,000 businesses, is leveraging AI-powered automation to transform how companies manage expenses and spending—positioning itself to capture market share from established financial giants with a 169-year head start. The big picture: Ramp has evolved from a simple corporate credit card company into a comprehensive financial platform that promises to save businesses...
read Sep 8, 2025Chinese AI startup Tripo hits $12M revenue with hopeful “3D TikTok” tool
Tripo, a Chinese 3D AI company, has reached $12 million in annual recurring revenue and secured tens of millions in pre-A+ funding just two and a half years after its founding. The startup's latest release, Tripo Studio 3.0, represents what CEO Simon Song calls the first "product-ready" 3D generation technology, potentially enabling a future consumer platform he describes as "3D TikTok." What you should know: Tripo has built a substantial professional user base while developing technology that could democratize 3D content creation. The company serves more than three million professional users globally and has signed over 40,000 studios and corporate...
read Sep 8, 2025Databricks hits $4B revenue as AI drives 50% growth with $1B funding
Databricks has projected $4 billion in annualized revenue, marking a 50% increase from the previous year, driven by surging demand for its artificial intelligence products. The milestone coincides with the company's successful $1 billion Series K funding round at a valuation exceeding $100 billion, positioning it as a leading candidate for a potential public offering. Key financial metrics: The analytics firm has achieved impressive growth indicators across multiple areas. The company surpassed a $4 billion revenue run rate in the second quarter, with AI products specifically reaching $1 billion in revenue Databricks is targeting net revenue retention above 140% and...
read Sep 4, 2025Supersonik breaks the round barrier, raises $5M for AI that delivers instant software demos
Supersonik has raised $5 million in seed funding led by Andreessen Horowitz, a prominent Silicon Valley venture capital firm, to develop an AI agent that delivers live, multilingual software demos on demand. The San Francisco and Barcelona-based startup aims to eliminate the typical wait times for sales demos by offering instant, personalized product walkthroughs that adapt to each prospect's needs in real time. What you should know: Supersonik's AI agent provides immediate access to live software demonstrations without requiring prospects to fill out forms or wait for human sales representatives. The AI shares its screen and guides prospects through actual...
read Sep 4, 2025MagicDoor raises $4.5M to automate property management for small landlords, petty bourgeois
MagicDoor, an AI-driven property management platform, has raised $4.5 million in seed funding led by Okapi Venture Capital and Shadow Ventures. The platform addresses a critical gap for small landlords and independent property managers who have been underserved by traditional software designed for large institutional portfolios, offering automated solutions for everything from listing vacancies to maintenance dispatching and tenant communication. What you should know: MagicDoor transforms property management into a unified, AI-powered experience that handles routine tasks automatically. The platform allows landlords to communicate their needs, then takes over by prioritizing requests, dispatching vendors, and keeping tenants informed in their...
read Sep 3, 2025Cornell dropout at helm of Orchard Robotics raises $22M for AI-powered fruit farm monitoring
Orchard Robotics, founded by Cornell dropout and Thiel Fellow Charlie Wu, has raised $22 million in Series A funding led by Quiet Capital and Shine Capital to expand its AI-powered farm vision technology. The startup uses tractor-mounted cameras and artificial intelligence to help fruit growers precisely monitor crop health, addressing a critical gap where even the largest U.S. farms rely on manual sampling to make crucial operational decisions. The founder's story: Wu was inspired by his apple farmer grandparents in China and discovered the agricultural technology gap while studying computer science at Cornell University, a leading agriculture school.• "I got...
read Sep 3, 2025HappyRobot raises $44M for freight AI automation at $500M valuation
HappyRobot, an AI startup automating freight communications, has raised $44 million in Series B funding led by Base10 Partners, valuing the company at approximately $500 million. The San Francisco-based firm specializes in AI agents that handle routine logistics tasks like rate negotiation and appointment booking for major freight operators including DHL, Ryder, and Flexport. Why it matters: HappyRobot's specialized approach targets the freight industry's specific operational challenges rather than offering general-purpose AI solutions. The company has raised nearly $62 million total since its 2022 founding, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, Y Combinator, and new investors including Tokio Marine and WaVe-X....
read Sep 2, 2025Anthropic raises $13B, valuation nearly triples to $183B
Anthropic has raised $13 billion in a new funding round that values the AI startup at $183 billion, nearly tripling its valuation from $61.5 billion just six months ago. The massive valuation surge reflects the unprecedented investor appetite for artificial intelligence companies, as tech giants and venture capital firms pour hundreds of billions into AI development amid questions about the sustainability of the current boom. The big picture: AI spending has reached record heights in 2024, with five major companies—Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and OpenAI—planning to spend over $300 billion combined on data centers for AI development before year-end.• That's...
read Sep 1, 2025Grindr CEO and “gAI” inventor warns AI funding bubble targets wrong areas
Grindr CEO George Arison warns that a "VC bubble" is forming around AI applications, predicting that many promising companies will "get destroyed" by excessive venture capital funding. While positioning Grindr as an "AI-first company" that has embraced artificial intelligence with products like gAI (pronounced "gay-I"), Arison argues that venture capitalists are flooding money into the wrong areas of the AI ecosystem. The big picture: Arison believes venture capital follows predictable patterns where "a few people will set the trends, then everyone will jump in that direction and too much money will go into that space." He compared the current AI...
read Aug 29, 2025Laborup raises $7.7M to solve US manufacturing worker shortage with AI
Artificial intelligence startup Laborup has raised $7.7 million in seed funding to address America's critical manufacturing labor shortage using voice-first AI recruitment technology. The funding comes as the U.S. faces over 450,000 unfilled manufacturing jobs, with projections that 2.1 million roles could remain vacant by 2030—potentially costing up to $1 trillion in lost output annually. The big picture: America's manufacturing boom is creating a paradox where massive industrial investments are driving job creation, but companies lack the workforce to fill critical roles. Companies have announced trillions in new U.S. manufacturing investments since 2020 across electric vehicles, semiconductors, defense, nuclear, and...
read Aug 28, 2025Aurelian raises $14M to automate non-emergency 911 calls with AI
Aurelian has raised $14 million in Series A funding to expand its AI system that handles non-emergency 911 calls across the United States. The company, which pivoted from automating hair salon bookings, now serves nearly 5 million Americans by automating an average of three-quarters of non-emergency calls—saving dispatchers approximately three hours per day and allowing them to focus on genuine emergencies. Why this matters: Emergency communications centers face critical understaffing and high turnover rates, with dispatchers often working 12- to 16-hour shifts handling everything from life-threatening emergencies to routine parking complaints. How it works: Aurelian's AI system automatically processes non-emergency...
read Aug 19, 2025One good turn: Keychain raises $30M to replace legacy ERP systems with AI-powered OS
Keychain, an AI-powered marketplace for consumer packaged goods (CPG) manufacturers, has raised $30 million in Series B funding and launched KeychainOS, an AI operating system designed to replace legacy Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems in manufacturing. The company, founded by former Angi CEO Oisin Hanrahan, aims to capture market share in the $81.15 billion ERP market by offering a CPG-specific alternative that can be implemented in days rather than months. What you should know: Keychain has rapidly grown from a search-and-discovery platform to a comprehensive AI operating system serving major retailers and CPG brands. The company now serves more than...
read Aug 19, 2025Databricks raises funding at $100B+ valuation as AI demand soars
Databricks is set to raise funding at a valuation exceeding $100 billion, marking a 61% jump from its $62 billion valuation less than a year ago. The analytics firm's rapid valuation increase underscores the intense investor appetite for AI companies, as businesses worldwide rush to harness artificial intelligence capabilities from their data. What you should know: Databricks, a San Francisco-based data analytics company, has signed a term sheet for a Series K funding round but hasn't disclosed the specific amount being raised.• The company serves 15,000 customers, including major enterprises like payments firm Block, energy giant Shell, and electric-vehicle maker...
read Aug 15, 2025Cohere raises $500M at $6.8B valuation for enterprise AI
Canadian AI startup Cohere has raised $500 million in funding, reaching a valuation of $6.8 billion as it competes for enterprise AI market share. The funding round was led by Radical Ventures and Inovia Capital, with participation from AMD Ventures, Nvidia, PSP Investments, and Salesforce Ventures, positioning the company to expand globally and advance its enterprise-focused AI models. What you should know: Unlike broad foundational model companies such as OpenAI and Meta's Llama, Cohere specializes in building AI models specifically designed for enterprise use cases. The company recently launched North, a ChatGPT-style tool designed to help knowledge workers with tasks...
read Aug 14, 2025Ai2 secures $152M from NSF and NVIDIA for open scientific AI research
Ai2, a Seattle-based nonprofit AI research institute, has secured $152 million in combined funding from the National Science Foundation ($75 million) and NVIDIA ($77 million) to build a national-level open AI ecosystem for scientific research. The partnership will establish the Open Multimodal AI Infrastructure to Accelerate Science (OMAI) project, positioning Ai2 to advance both AI-driven scientific discovery and the fundamental science of AI itself through fully transparent, reproducible models. What you should know: The OMAI project represents a major federal investment in open-source AI infrastructure specifically designed for scientific applications. Led by Dr. Noah A. Smith, Senior Director of NLP...
read Aug 11, 2025Biotech startup Tahoe raises $30M for AI cancer drug discovery platform
Biotech startup Tahoe Therapeutics has raised $30 million in Series A funding led by Amplify Partners, bringing its total funding to $42 million and valuing the company at $120 million. The Palo Alto-based company has developed breakthrough technology for generating massive biological datasets needed to train AI models that can simulate living cells, positioning it to accelerate cancer drug discovery through digital cell modeling. What you should know: Tahoe's proprietary Mosaic platform can generate unprecedented amounts of single-cell data by testing multiple patient cell types simultaneously, rather than conventional one-patient-at-a-time approaches. In February 2024, the company released Tahoe-100M, a dataset...
read Aug 8, 2025Ex-Waymo team raises $80M for AI construction equipment retrofits
Bedrock Robotics, a startup founded by former Waymo engineers, has secured $80 million in funding to develop AI-powered systems that retrofit existing heavy construction equipment for autonomous operation. The company's technology package includes cameras, LiDAR sensors (which use laser beams to detect objects and distances), and AI software designed to enable excavators and other heavy machinery to work continuously without human operators, targeting an industry facing severe labor shortages. What you should know: Bedrock isn't manufacturing new equipment but instead offers retrofit solutions that can transform existing construction machinery into autonomous operators. The company's prototype was specifically developed for excavators,...
read Aug 7, 2025NSF awards $32M to 5 teams for AI-powered protein design breakthroughs
The National Science Foundation has awarded nearly $32 million to five teams across the United States through its inaugural Use-Inspired Acceleration of Protein Design (NSF USPRD) initiative. This strategic investment aims to accelerate the translation of AI-based protein design approaches into real-world applications, strengthening America's competitive position in the rapidly expanding bioeconomy sector. Why this matters: The funding represents a critical push to maintain U.S. leadership in biotechnology as global competition intensifies, particularly in areas where AI-driven protein design could revolutionize industries from manufacturing to healthcare. The big picture: The National Science Foundation's Technology, Innovation and Partnerships directorate is betting...
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