[STARTUPS]

Town, an enterprise personal AI assistant platform, is in talks to raise funding at a $1 billion valuation in a round led by Index Ventures, according to sources.

Product management platform Linear reached $100M in annual recurring revenue and conducted a $99M employee tender offer at a $2.5B valuation, doubling its valuation from $1.25B in 2025.

Flipboard is acquiring Bluesky feed-building startup Graze, integrating its ad technology and creator monetization tools into its open social web platform.

Artificial intelligence is fundamentally changing how startups operate, not just what they build. According to Floodgate co-founder Ann Miura-Ko, companies are deploying AI agents across engineering, sales, marketing, and strategy to accelerate learning and execution.

Deep Cogito, founded by former Google AI search employees, secured $43 million in Series A funding led by TQ Ventures. The startup helps companies build specialized open-weight AI models.

Sweden's startup ecosystem is experiencing significant momentum as AI-focused companies rack up massive valuations. Lovable, a vibe-coding platform, just raised $400 million at a $13.3 billion valuation—doubling its worth in eight months.

QueryStory emerged from stealth with $6 million in seed funding, combining large language models and cybersecurity expertise to ensure AI-generated queries are accurate and trustworthy.

Arga Labs has secured $10 million in seed funding to develop improved methods for training enterprise AI agents. The round was led by General Catalyst with support from Box Group, Emergence, Gradient, and SV Angel.

Hearing tech startup Legato has emerged from stealth with $12 million in funding and unveiled Legato Frames, AI-powered eyeglasses designed to assist users with hearing.

Runable secured $21 million in funding to expand its AI agent platform beyond business creation into growth and scaling. The startup reports that 60-70% of its token usage comes from paying customers.

The founders of Swedish autonomous truck company Einride are launching a Europe-focused venture capital firm. The new investment company aims to create at least ten tech unicorns within the next decade.

Fusion startup Pacific Fusion has begun construction on a demonstration facility in New Mexico designed to generate enough energy to power itself—a critical milestone toward commercial viability.

Startups are launching paid social platforms that use algorithms to match users with potential friends, capitalizing on widespread loneliness among young adults and the erosion of traditional meeting spaces.

Bonobos co-founder Andy Dunn's startup Pie is expanding beyond event planning to function as a broader social platform. The app now offers digital spaces for groups to connect, organize, and coordinate plans.

Digs, a Vancouver-based startup developing AI software for residential construction, secured $25.3 million in Series A funding. The round was led by Builders FirstSource, a major building materials supplier.

Physical AI robotics startup Generalist has reached a $3 billion valuation following a $200 million funding extension, just months after crossing the $2 billion mark.

Stability AI, the company behind image generator Stable Diffusion, has secured $76 million in fresh funding. The raise brings the startup's total capital raised to $232 million.

South Korean AI services platform Wrtn Technologies closed a Series C round of approximately $72.2 million at a $722 million valuation. The funding brings the company's total capital raised to roughly $166 million.

Stability AI closed a $76 million Series B funding round led by Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, Electronic Arts, and Sony Music. The round reflects growing industry interest in AI models trained on licensed creative content.

Gamma has acquired Lica, an Accel-backed design startup. The Lica co-founders will join Gamma's newly formed research team.

Mexico-based Primero announced its public launch Tuesday with a $12 million seed round co-led by Kaszek and General Catalyst. The startup uses AI to modernize outdated software systems for Latin American enterprises.

Tel Aviv and NYC-based Alice secured $140 million in funding led by Apax Digital, reaching a valuation close to $1 billion. The startup focuses on protecting AI models from misuse and rogue behavior.

US nutrition startup Berry Street has merged with Indian health platform Healthify as demand for GLP-1 weight-loss drugs accelerates. The combined entity will be led by co-CEOs Noah Kotlove and Tushar Vashisht.

Accel-backed Keenable is launching publicly with a $26 million seed round to build a specialized web search index optimized for AI agents rather than traditional search engines.

Autonomous trucking startup Gatik secured $200 million in funding led by Qatar Investment Authority and Koch Disruptive Technologies. The round, the company's largest to date, brings total funding to approximately $500 million.

Oura, the Finnish smart ring maker, is planning to go public in September with a potential valuation exceeding $16 billion, according to reports.

Bengaluru-based autonomous drone startup Airbound secured $37 million in Series A funding led by Greenoaks, bringing total capital raised to approximately $50 million in less than a year.

The founders of Danish digital bank Lunar have secured €8.2 million to launch an artificial intelligence-powered auditing startup. The new firm aims to automate manual processes that still dominate the audit industry.

India's Airbound has secured $37 million in funding to scale its lightweight drone delivery service, positioning itself as a competitor to traditional trucking logistics. The round was backed by Greenoaks, DoorDash, and investor Lachy Groom.

Optical interconnect startup Quintessent secured $40 million in Series A funding led by Cycle Capital, building on its $11.4 million seed round from 2024.

Lambda Inc., an Nvidia-backed AI cloud computing provider, is in talks to raise up to $3 billion in a pre-IPO funding round that could position the company for a public listing next year.

Robotics startup Generalist has secured approximately $200 million in new funding led by 8VC, following a $400 million raise in June. The company released its GEN-1 model for physical task completion in April.

General Intuition, an AI startup developing foundation models for robotic agents, is raising funds at a $6 billion pre-money valuation from investors including Valor Ventures, Point72 Ventures, and Seven Seven Six.

ElevenLabs, TwelveLabs, and ThirteenLabs have launched with separate technological approaches. The trio's emergence signals continued fragmentation in the AI development landscape.

David Heinemeier Hansson has established the Omacom Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to supporting Omarchy, his Linux distribution. The initiative secured $8 million in funding from notable tech leaders including Michael Dell, Jack Dorsey, and Patrick Collison.

Runlayer and Rippling have dropped their lawsuits against each other with no settlement payments exchanged. Rippling marked the resolution by launching a competing product.

Japanese space startup Letara has secured ¥2.6 billion ($16 million) in funding to expand its hybrid rocket technology beyond satellite thrusters into broader defense and security applications.

Calgary-based payments processor Helcim secured CA$53 million in Series C funding led by Business Development Bank of Canada's Growth Venture Fund. The round values the SMB-focused fintech at CA$250 million.

Devoted Health, an AI-powered Medicare Advantage coordinator, is raising new capital at a $25 billion valuation. The funding round underscores investor appetite for healthcare-AI startups.

Rillet raised $100M and achieved unicorn valuation after CEO Nicholas Koop shared growth metrics at a board meeting, triggering a funding frenzy from top-tier investors including Iconiq and Sequoia.

Patreon has announced a series of platform updates aimed at improving discoverability for smaller creators. The changes include modifications to the recommendation system as part of a broader roadmap to enhance the creator economy.

London-based AI infrastructure startup Nscale is targeting up to $3 billion in its US initial public offering, potentially launching as early as September, according to sources.

Adit Singh, an early investor in semiconductor startup Cerebras, has joined Mayfield as an infrastructure partner. He will focus on investments in semiconductors, cybersecurity, and physical AI.

Starcloud has raised $250 million to build data centers in orbit as competition for limited launch capacity intensifies. The funding underscores growing demand for space-based computing infrastructure.

TextTech has unveiled its annual curated list of the 200 most promising early-stage startups globally. The Startup Battlefield 200 recognizes emerging companies across sectors showing significant potential.

Fusion startup Inertia Enterprises has dramatically accelerated its fuel filling process, reducing the operation from a week to just a few hours. The breakthrough addresses one of ten critical hurdles the company must clear before achieving a commercially viable power plant.

Agility Robotics plans to go public this fall as the only pure-play US public company focused on humanoid robots with commercial applications. CEO Peggy Johnson announced the move amid growing competition from Chinese rivals.

Twin1 AI, a San Mateo-based startup, has emerged from stealth with $20 million in seed funding. The company builds professional digital twins that integrate with workplace tools like Slack.

Linkdaze has launched a smart calendar designed to coordinate household operations beyond basic scheduling. The platform includes an AI meal planner and keeps all core features free.

Mayfield has invested over $3 billion in AI companies, often before founders have built products or incorporated. The firm sees AI as a "100x opportunity" and remains committed to early-stage investing despite industry pressure toward larger funds.

Defense tech startup Castelion secured $1 billion in Series C funding, reaching a $13 billion valuation. The round was co-led by Andreessen Horowitz, Carlyle, and JP Morgan Chase.

Astromech, an AI company that uses genomic data to predict biological change, secured $20 million in funding at a $3.8 billion valuation. The round brings the company's total funding to $60 million.

Andreessen Horowitz's Borderless Founder network backs immigrant and international entrepreneurs, arguing that straddling home countries and Silicon Valley creates competitive advantages in AI development.

Y Combinator-backed Apollo Atomics is miniaturizing a previously overlooked nuclear reactor component to reduce electricity costs below natural gas prices.

Anthropic-backed enterprise AI venture Ode has acquired four-year-old AI consultancy Casper for an undisclosed amount. The move marks Ode's second acquisition since launching in July.

London-based Callosum has raised $100M in seed funding to scale its software platform that automatically matches AI workloads to optimal models and hardware. The round was led by Atomico and the UK Sovereign AI Fund.

Travis Kalanick has renewed his criticism of venture capitalists, claiming only 1% are genuinely helpful. The statement comes after securing $1.7 billion for his robotics company Atoms.

A new startup is addressing a critical market inefficiency: despite hundreds of billions in annual AI spending, there's no standardized way to price compute or hedge against cost fluctuations.

Also, a Rivian spinout, has secured $150 million in Series B funding led by Prysm Capital. The capital will accelerate the company's expansion from electric bikes into autonomous delivery vehicles.

Sachin Bansal's fintech startup Navi has secured $100 million in funding from Prosus, marking the company's first outside capital injection. The investment arrives as Navi prepares for a public listing.

Cybersecurity data company Prevalent AI has closed its first external capital raise, securing $22 million from Integrity Growth Partners. The nine-year-old startup had previously operated without outside investment.

Relativity Networks secured $22 million in funding to scale hollow-core fiber technology, which transmits data 30% faster than conventional fiber optics.

Spotify founder Daniel Ek's health-scanning startup Neko Health is opening its first US office in New York within the next month. The company offers body scanning and bloodwork services.

Junghwan Lim, CEO of Korean AI startup Motif Technologies, outlined the company's strategy to develop frontier AI models capable of competing with global leaders.

Temporal Technologies, an open-source workflow orchestration platform, is in talks for a funding round that would value the company at $12 billion or more. The round would bring in approximately $500 million in fresh capital.

Rillet, an AI-native accounting platform startup, has secured $100 million in Series C funding led by Iconiq Capital. The round values the two-year-old company at $1 billion, bringing total funding to over $200 million.

AI chip startup Etched has doubled its valuation to $21 billion following a major funding round led by Jane Street. The investment came after the trading firm deployed Etched's first shipped AI cluster system.

Velaura AI, a chip startup targeting low-power AI inference, raised $110 million in Series A funding at a $1 billion+ valuation. The company is developing processors for data center and physical AI applications including robotics.

Integral AI's shutdown highlights a fundamental challenge facing the robotics industry: development costs for robots designed to handle simple tasks have become economically unfeasible. The failure suggests widespread hurdles ahead for companies pursuing general-purpose robotics.

Reach Capital announced an oversubscribed $265M Fund V on Tuesday, targeting AI founders focused on expanding human potential through technology.

A Mark Cuban-backed startup developing hardware and software for autonomous robot control is merging with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) in a deal valuing the company at $500 million.

Grounded, a Detroit-based startup, has secured $5 million in funding to customize electric and gas-powered vans for small businesses. The company pivoted from consumer van-life builds to focus on commercial vehicle outfitting.

Speko, a Y Combinator S26 startup, launches a platform that automatically selects optimal combinations of speech-to-text, LLM, and text-to-speech models based on user constraints and benchmarked performance data.

African defense tech startup Terra Industries has completed a $52 million seed round led by 8VC. The newly founded company projects $100 million in contract bookings.

SoftBank Group Corp. invested $200 million in Gravis Robotics, a Swiss startup developing autonomous software for construction machinery. The funding underscores growing investor interest in robotics for heavy industry.

Former SpaceX engineers are building an automated factory to manufacture steel parts. The venture applies aerospace manufacturing expertise to industrial production.

Data center developer Crusoe is in IPO discussions with at least four Wall Street banks, including JPMorgan, as it raises $3B in pre-IPO funding.

Sonic Fire Tech secured $15 million in funding to deploy its acoustic fire suppression technology across commercial and residential spaces. The system uses sound waves to extinguish fires before they escalate.

Higgsfield, an AI image and video generation platform founded by former Snap executive Alex Mashrabov, raised $400 million in Series B funding, quadrupling its valuation to $5.4 billion in just eight months.

Robotera, a Chinese robotics startup backed by HSG and CDH Investments, is considering a Hong Kong IPO as the robotics sector sees increased public market activity.

Groq secured $350 million in funding at a $3.5 billion valuation as the company shifts from AI chip manufacturing to a neocloud infrastructure model. The funding will support expansion of its Nvidia-powered data center operations.

Serve Robotics is partnering with DoorDash and Grubhub to deploy autonomous delivery robots that could significantly reduce last-mile logistics expenses. CEO Ali Kashani outlined how the technology extends beyond food delivery to hospitals and supply chains.

ETH Zurich spinout Gravis Robotics secured $200 million in Series A funding from SoftBank Group to scale production of Gravis Rack, a retrofit autonomous control system for excavators.

Voice AI startup Wispr secured a $280M Series B funding round led by Menlo Ventures, valuing the company at $2B. The round brings total funding to $361M as the company serves 100K business customers.

AI video generation startup Higgsfield secured $400 million in funding from DST, Goldman Sachs, Liberty Global, Intel, and others, valuing the company at $5.4 billion—a fourfold increase from its $1.3 billion valuation in January.

AI research company Pathway has raised $30 million in seed funding at a $500 million valuation. The startup is developing models based on its proprietary "Post-Transformer" BDH architecture.