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Boston-based startup Outset is transforming customer research with its AI agent-led interview solution, helping companies scale and accelerate insights through automated, interactive conversations.
• Deploys AI-powered agents to conduct interviews at scale
• Automatically captures verbal feedback and generates rich, structured insights
• Enables enterprises to gather research without manual moderation
• Integrates with CRM tools to trigger interviews post-event or interaction
• AI handles scheduling, follow-ups, and transcription in a unified portal
• Promises faster turnaround and deeper analysis for product and CX teams
• Raised $17 million in Series A funding to support infrastructure, R&D, and go-to-market expansion
• Founded by seasoned researchers and enterprise SaaS veterans
• Targets mid-to-large enterprises looking to modernize qualitative research
• Ideal for sectors where customer sentiment and qualitative nuance matter—think fintech, health tech, and B2B SaaS
• Positioned to challenge manual interview workflows and traditional tools
Outset is automating the qualitative voice-of-customer layer with AI agents that both talk and listen—getting remote, scalable, and fast feedback without sacrificing nuance. With Series A backing, it’s ready to bring enterprise research into the AI era.
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Digital banking startup Chime raised $700M in its IPO at a valuation of $11.6B, marking one of the biggest public debuts in the consumer fintech space this year. Shares jumped 59% on day one, trading under the ticker CHYM.
• Chime targets users earning under $100K/year, with 2/3 using it as their primary account.
• Offers fee-free checking and savings, with most revenue from interchange (“swipe”) fees.
• Simplicity is the strategy: 72% of revenue is from debit card use, not lending or credit.
• Q1 2025 revenue: $518.7M — up 32% YoY.
• Q4 net income: $12.9M, maintaining profitability.
• 8.6M monthly active users, with high app engagement (4–5 opens/day per user).
• Over 90% of users stay once they set up direct deposit.
• Average user makes 55 transactions/month — strong for a consumer neobank.
• User acquisition driven by $1.4B in marketing between 2022–24, now leveraged by loyalty.
• $11.6B valuation is less than half of 2021’s $25B private round.
• Reflects fintech’s broader market correction — but Chime remains a category-defining player.
• Public debut seen as a potential bellwether for stalled fintech IPO pipeline.
• Nearly failed before Series B — over 100 VCs passed.
• Faced regulatory pushback in 2021 for calling itself a “bank.”
• Now profitable, scaled, and positioned as the everyman’s fintech.
As fintech IPOs cautiously return, Chime’s clean model, sticky users, and growth discipline offer a rare combination — but staying public-ready is the next challenge.
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Spain’s Multiverse Computing has raised €189M (~$217M) in a Series B round led by Bullhound Capital, with backing from HP, Toshiba, and the Spanish government. The company is tackling one of AI’s biggest pain points: cost and scalability of large models.
• Uses tensor networks from quantum physics to compress models by up to 95%.
• Cuts inference costs by 50–80%, with minimal accuracy drop.
• Supports LLaMA, Mistral, and DeepSeek — deployable on phones, PCs, even Raspberry Pi.
• Live on AWS Marketplace, targeting telcos, defense, and AI-at-the-edge use cases.
• Founded in 2019; now Spain’s leading AI scaleup with strong public-private backing.
• €59M of latest round came from the Spanish state, backing sovereign AI infrastructure.
• Compresses open-source models without retraining, saving energy and hardware costs.
• Competes with quantization/pruning — but uses a quantum-inspired framework with better scalability.
• Makes AI more accessible for enterprises outside Big Tech.
Multiverse is betting that compression isn’t a tool—it’s the foundation for the next era of affordable, decentralized AI.
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Gecko Robotics has entered the unicorn club with a $125M Series D, building wall-climbing robots that inspect critical infrastructure faster, safer, and more accurately than humans.
• Magnetic robots inspect ships, refineries, and power plants — 10× faster than manual checks.
• Capture 1,000× more data per job, feeding into Gecko’s AI platform, Cantilever.
• Reduces risk for workers while boosting maintenance accuracy.
• Used by the U.S. Navy, Abu Dhabi National Oil Co, and NAES.
• Cuts downtime and enables predictive repairs with actionable AI insights.
• Backed by $347M total funding; investors include Founders Fund and Y Combinator.
• Founded in 2016 in a college dorm by Jake Loosararian and Troy Demmer.
• Now valued at $1.25B, expanding across defense, energy, and manufacturing.
Gecko is turning dangerous inspections into a high-speed, high-precision AI process — climbing walls to keep infrastructure upright.
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Brazilian fintech Meliuz has raised R$180M (~$32.4M) through a follow-on share offering to buy bitcoin, becoming the first public company in the country to formally adopt bitcoin as a treasury asset.
• Funds will be used entirely to purchase bitcoin for long-term holding.
• Marks a bold pivot from cashback and financial services into crypto-native treasury strategy.
• Positions Meliuz as Brazil’s first public “bitcoin treasury” fintech.
• Raised R$180M via primary offering priced at R$7.06/share (~5% discount).
• BTG Pactual acted as sole bookrunner on the offering.
• Shareholder vote in April enabled bitcoin to become a formal reserve asset.
• Move echoes MicroStrategy-style bitcoin accumulation — but in LatAm fintech context.
• Demonstrates growing institutional confidence in bitcoin amid high inflation and currency volatility.
• Could inspire other public firms in Brazil to explore crypto as an alternative asset class.
• Founded in 2011, Meliuz started with cashback and digital finance tools.
• This marks a strategic shift toward crypto-forward treasury and brand positioning.
• Aims to lead in bridging fintech utility with decentralized asset adoption.
Meliuz is betting that bitcoin isn’t just a store of value — it’s a new financial identity for the next generation of LatAm fintech.
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Meta has acquired a 49% non-voting stake in Scale AI for $14.3 billion, valuing the data-labeling powerhouse at ~$29B — and bringing on its co-founder and CEO Alexandr Wang to lead Meta’s “superintelligence” initiative.
• Wang will head Meta’s new AGI division, reporting directly to Mark Zuckerberg.
• The group will focus on developing artificial general intelligence with access to Scale’s massive data infrastructure.
• Wang remains on Scale’s board, while CSO Jason Droege becomes interim CEO.
• Meta’s stake is non-voting — ensuring Scale’s operational independence.
• The structure avoids regulatory pushback while securing data access and leadership.
• Scale remains a core vendor to OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, and U.S. defense — for now.
• Comes after disappointing traction with Meta’s Llama models in the enterprise market.
• Zuckerberg has been on an AI talent spree — offering up to 9-figure comp to top researchers.
• The deal positions Meta to vertically integrate data labeling and model training.
• Scale AI was founded in 2016 by Alexandr Wang and Lucy Guo.
• Went from defense contracts to powering AI pipelines for Silicon Valley giants.
• Now at the center of Meta’s most ambitious AI play yet.
Meta didn’t just invest in Scale — it invested in its architect. Wang’s move signals a new phase of AGI competition, where infrastructure and intelligence are built in-house.
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Munich-based Proxima Fusion has closed a €130M Series A to develop the world’s first commercial stellarator-based fusion power plant, offering a radically stable path to net-energy fusion in the 2030s.
• Uses stellarators, which confine plasma with external magnets — unlike Tokamaks, no internal currents = better stability.
• Combines quasi-isodynamic designs with AI and high-temperature superconductors (HTS) for compact, scalable machines.
• Based on research from the Max Planck Institute’s Wendelstein 7-X, the world’s most advanced stellarator.
• 2027: Targeting “Model Coil” milestone — a full-scale magnet testbed.
• 2031: Net-energy prototype named Alpha to be operational.
• 2030s: Launch of Stellaris, the first grid-ready fusion power plant.
• €130M Series A led by Redalpine, UVC Partners, Atlantic Labs, and Earlybird.
• Europe’s largest private fusion round to date; brings total raised to €185M+.
• German government support signals rising momentum behind deeptech energy bets.
• Technical hurdles: precision magnet manufacturing, tritium breeding, and power conversion.
• Fusion remains a long game — capital-intensive with multi-decade ROI timelines.
• But stellarators may offer a more commercially viable and steady-state alternative.
Proxima isn’t chasing the next fusion breakthrough — it’s engineering the one we already have into reality.
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Mosanna Therapeutics has launched with an $80M Series A to advance MOS118, a once-nightly nasal spray targeting the root causes of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). The round was led by EQT Life Sciences and Pivotal bioVenture Partners.
• MOS118 restores natural airway muscle control — treating OSA at the source.
• Unlike CPAP, it’s non-mechanical and designed for higher patient comfort and adherence.
• Funds will support Phase 2 trials following a successful Phase 1.
• EQT and Pivotal co-led; joined by Forbion, Norwest, Broadview, and others.
• Addresses a massive market: nearly 1B people suffer from OSA, with low CPAP compliance.
• New board members from EQT, Forbion, and Norwest signal investor conviction.
• Veteran biotech exec David Weber appointed CEO.
• Founded in 2022, with teams in Redwood City and Basel.
• Aiming to become the first drug-based standard of care for OSA.
Mosanna is betting that the future of sleep apnea treatment isn’t a mask — it’s a molecule.
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Archer Aviation has secured $850 million to scale its electric air taxi platform, just days after Trump signed executive orders supporting eVTOL deployment. With nearly $2B in liquidity, Archer is now the most capitalized U.S. air mobility startup aiming to launch by the 2028 Olympics.
• “Midnight” is a four-seat, piloted eVTOL built for 20–50 mile city trips.
• ~100-mile range, 150 mph top speed, optimized for fast turnaround and frequent use.
• Backed by tech partners Palantir (AI flight ops) and Anduril (defense autonomy).
• The raise follows Trump’s eVTOL Integration Pilot Program order.
• Funds will go to FAA certification, infrastructure, and scaling production.
• Archer targets 2026 certification and operations in time for LA 2028.
• Working with United Airlines on air taxi routes in NYC and Chicago.
• Official air mobility partner for the 2028 Olympic Games.
• Backed by Stellantis, ARK, Palantir, and BlackRock for both capital and manufacturing.
With $2B in the bank and federal momentum, Archer leads the U.S. eVTOL race — but certification and urban adoption remain the final hurdles.
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Fervo Energy is developing Cape Station in Utah, set to become the world’s largest enhanced geothermal project. Backed by Breakthrough Energy and energy investors, the plant will deliver 500MW of always-on clean power by 2028—starting with a 100MW phase in 2026.
• Uses enhanced geothermal systems (EGS): horizontal drilling + hydraulic stimulation, adapted from fracking.
• Recent test well reached 15,765 ft with temperatures over 520°F—ready for high-efficiency power output.
• Geothermal offers 24/7 baseload power, with zero emissions and low land impact.
• $206M secured, including $100M from Breakthrough Energy Catalyst (Bill Gates) and $60M from Mercuria.
• Adds to $500M+ raised since 2024—underscoring investor confidence in scalable geothermal.
• Commercial launch starts in 2026, with full 500MW capacity targeted by 2028.
• Power purchase agreement signed with Southern California Edison.
• Fervo is positioned as a utility-scale clean baseload provider for grids and data centers.
• Improved drilling efficiency (lower cost, faster wells) is accelerating the geothermal rollout.
By unlocking scalable, round-the-clock clean power, Fervo is turning geothermal from niche to essential in the future energy mix.
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Clay, the fast-growing AI sales automation startup, has raised a new Series C round that doubles its valuation to $3 billion, according to sources. The round is led by CapitalG, signaling strong conviction in Clay’s AI-first approach to relationship management.
• Clay combines contact data, outreach, reminders, and tracking into a single AI-powered interface.
• Automates routine sales tasks while personalizing outreach based on live web and email activity.
• Built for modern sales teams looking to move faster than legacy CRMs allow.
• Series C nearly doubles Clay’s valuation; round led by CapitalG (Alphabet’s growth fund).
• Capital will support expansion into larger enterprise accounts and deeper AI tooling.
• Part of a broader shift as GTM teams seek lighter, smarter sales stacks.
• Clay stands out with its real-time enrichment, AI suggestions, and intuitive UI.
• Positioned as a next-gen layer atop or replacing traditional CRMs.
• The company is betting that software replacing repetitive sales work will define the next decade.
Clay isn’t just another CRM — it’s rethinking how modern teams build pipelines, using AI as the engine.
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Circumvent, a cloud security startup founded to address the growing problem of alert fatigue, has raised a $6M seed round to build an AI-driven remediation engine. The round was backed by notable angels including Riccardo Zacconi, co-founder of King.
• Product: Circumvent automatically filters, correlates, and resolves cloud security alerts using a proprietary AI engine
• Pain point: SOC teams are flooded with false positives — Circumvent reduces alert noise and accelerates real threat response
• Platform: Works across fragmented cloud environments, integrating into existing security operations workflows
• Funding: $6M seed round with backing from strategic angels and cybersecurity veterans
• Use of funds: Scaling product development and expanding go-to-market
• Vision: Become the “auto-pilot” layer for cloud security teams overwhelmed by manual alert triage
• Founders: Built by ex-cloud and security engineers who experienced alert fatigue firsthand
• Edge: Combines automation, context, and decision logic in a single remediation layer
• Timing: Positioned at the intersection of AI-native security and rising cloud complexity
Circumvent is betting that in the era of AI and hyperscale cloud, the future of security lies in autonomous remediation, not just detection.
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Aspora, the cross-border fintech formerly known as Vance, has raised a $53M Series B to expand its digital banking platform for non-resident Indians (NRIs) and other global immigrant communities. The round was co-led by Sequoia Capital and Greylock, with participation from Y Combinator, Quantum Light, and Hummingbird Ventures.
• Product: A full-stack financial app offering remittances, banking, investments, insurance, and concierge services
• Core feature: Fee-free, real-time remittances with competitive FX rates—now extending into deposits and credit products
• Coverage: Operating in the UK, EU, and UAE; launching in the US (July 2025), with Canada, Australia, and Singapore coming soon
• Traction: Over 250K users and $2B+ in transaction volume in six months, saving users an estimated $15–17M in fees
• Funding: $53M Series B brings total raised to ~$93M
• Expansion: Funds will support new product lines and global geographic expansion
• Founder: Parth Garg, Stanford dropout and second-time founder, started Aspora to solve the pain points he faced as an immigrant
• Strategy: Corridor-first approach, building products tailored to local compliance, culture, and customer needs
• Vision: To be the all-in-one financial platform for immigrants—going far beyond remittances
Aspora is aiming to own the global diaspora wallet by combining speed, trust, and a deep understanding of immigrant financial lives.
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PostHog, the developer-first analytics platform, has raised a $70M Series D led by Stripe to build the next generation of AI-native tools for customer insights, experimentation, and engagement — all in one unified workspace.
• Combines analytics, session replay, feature flags, A/B testing, LLM observability, surveys, and data warehousing
• New “Max AI” feature turns user behavior into natural-language insights, auto-generated dashboards, and smart summaries
• Aims to replace stitched-together tools with a seamless, developer-friendly system
• Series D round led by Stripe, joined by Y Combinator, GV, and Formus Capital
• Valuation climbs to $920M, with capital fueling product expansion and team growth
• Roadmap includes a CDP launch and new tools for AI-powered support, marketing, and sales
• Founded by James Hawkins and Tim Glaser via YC in 2020 — built from day one for engineers
• Used by 176K+ companies and teams who want control, transparency, and speed
• Differentiates through open-source roots, developer-first design, and modular flexibility
PostHog is positioning itself as the AI-native control center for customer data — replacing siloed GTM stacks with one powerful platform for product-led teams.
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Elon Musk’s xAI is raising $4.3B in equity, on top of a recent $5B debt deal, to scale Grok and its massive Colossus supercomputer as it races against OpenAI and Anthropic in the AGI race.
• xAI builds Grok, a chatbot focused on reasoning and truth-seeking, now integrated into X.
• It’s also building Colossus, a 100,000-GPU supercomputer under construction in Memphis.
• The company claims Grok-3 competes with GPT-4, and aims for full-stack control from chips to models.
• Total raise will hit $9.3B, making xAI one of the most capitalized AI players.
• The company is burning $1B/month with only $4B in cash left, prompting the fresh raise.
• Revenue is projected at $500M in 2025, with hopes of $2B+ by 2026.
• xAI’s deep integration with X and infrastructure focus set it apart—but require enormous capital.
• Environmental concerns and unclear monetization paths pose real risks.
xAI is betting that controlling the full AI stack—chips to chatbot—will justify its $9B+ burn.
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Sword Health just raised $40M to push beyond physical therapy into AI-powered mental health care, hitting a $4B valuation as it bets on full-spectrum digital treatment.
• Initially built for musculoskeletal (MSK) pain, using sensors + AI for at-home therapy
• Now expanding into mental health with CBT-based tools and AI-powered coaching
• Targets conditions like anxiety and depression with integrated physical-mental support
• Serves patients in 4 continents, with partnerships from employers to NHS trusts
• Acquired UK-based Surgery Hero in Jan 2025 to expand pre/post-op care
• Grew to $340M+ in total funding, maintaining operational efficiency through tech-first care
• CEO Virgílio Bento founded Sword after his brother’s accident showed gaps in rehab access
• Blends clinical expertise with aggressive product and M&A strategy
• Pushing toward a unified AI care stack that delivers across body and mind
Sword isn’t just adding a mental health tab—it’s building a full-service, AI-native care platform from the inside out.
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German defense AI startup Helsing has raised €600M (~$694M) in a new round led by Spotify founder Daniel Ek’s Prima Materia, doubling its valuation to $12B as it scales from battlefield AI to autonomous drones, jets, and subs.
• Started with real-time AI for battlefield awareness—now building autonomous weapons platforms
• Products include HF-1 and HX-2 drones, AI-piloted fighter jets, and unmanned subs
• Core tech: “vision-language-action” models that help machines make fast decisions in combat
• Already supplying drones to Ukraine; deals with UK, Germany, Sweden
• Partnerships with Airbus, SAAB, Rheinmetall, and French AI lab Mistral
• Total funding now ~€1.37B, with investors like Lightspeed, Accel, and General Catalyst
• Rapid hardware push adds execution and regulatory risk
• Emphasizes “human-in-the-loop” control amid growing scrutiny of autonomous weapons
With €600M in fresh backing, Helsing is positioning itself as Europe’s Anduril—full-stack, combat-tested, and ready to define the future of autonomous defense.
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Ramp, the New York-based fintech streamlining business spend, has raised $200M in a round led by Founders Fund, pushing its valuation to $16B. The company is doubling down on AI to automate everything from expense management to bill pay.
• Ramp’s platform covers corporate cards, expense tracking, bill pay, and procurement
• AI handles expense categorization, policy enforcement, and workflow automation
• Designed to replace legacy tools like Concur with smarter, faster systems
• Ramp now generates over $300M in annualized revenue
• Total funding exceeds $1B, with support from Founders Fund, Stripe, Khosla, and Thrive
• Valuation more than doubled since early 2024
• Founded in 2019 by Eric Glyman and Karim Atiyeh
• Evolving into a full finance operating system for modern companies
• Long-term bet: AI-native finance will give CFOs strategic leverage, not just cost savings
Ramp’s AI-first strategy positions it as a category-definer in modern finance infrastructure.
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Biotope, the Belgian incubator launched by life sciences institute VIB, has secured €5M to support early-stage biotech startups across Europe. The funding will power its unique incubation model blending capital, lab access, and mentorship.
• Biotope selects 2–4 teams per cohort via its biannual “basecamp”
• Each startup gets €250K, 18 months of support, and access to VIB’s scientific and IP infrastructure
• Focus on transforming academic science into investable biotech companies
• Since 2022, Biotope has backed 13 startups across 5 cohorts
• Alumni span Belgium, UK, Germany, Israel, Denmark, and more
• Startups have raised over €10M in follow-on capital and €10M+ in grant funding
• Led by VIB and supported by experienced operators and scientists
• Targets agtech, therapeutics, and bio-based innovation
• Aims to scale to 30 startups with a €9M fund over six years
Biotope is proving that deep science startups don’t just need capital — they need a launch environment built by scientists, for scientists.
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Typedef, an AI infrastructure startup founded by ex-Facebook and Google engineers, has emerged from stealth with $5.5M in seed funding. Its mission: help developers turn AI experiments into production-grade software with reliability, traceability, and scale.
• Typedef provides a data engine optimized for AI inference and deterministic pipelines
• Converts unstructured model output into structured, auditable, and observable systems
• Helps teams avoid the common pitfalls of brittle, one-off AI implementations
• Seed round backed by The General Partnership and a group of top-tier angels
• Founders previously led AI platform work at Meta, Google, and Scale AI
• Described as a “world-class team” with deep infra and developer tools experience
• Targets teams moving from AI PoCs to enterprise-grade products
• Offers traceability, monitoring, and reliability from day one
• Early traction with devs building mission-critical AI systems
Typedef isn’t another AI model company — it’s the scaffolding that makes real-world AI actually work at scale.
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