Latest AI, Biotech & Fintech Raises + News

TECH IN THE NEWS

Shutdown Averted — House Democrats prevented a government shutdown with a spending deal signed hours before the deadline, amid Trump-Musk political tensions.

"Near-AGI" — OpenAI ended its "shipmas" series of reveals with its o3 model family, the successor to o1, claiming near-AGI capabilities…(with plenty of caveats).

Steering Free — The NHTSA proposed a framework allowing autonomous vehicles without manual controls, requiring increased safety data sharing from AV companies.

AI Encyclopedia — The organization behind the Encyclopedia Britannica transformed into an AI company, and plans a $1B IPO, as it expands into digital education and AI tutoring while aiming to double revenue.

Healthcare Breach — The Black Basta ransomware group is believed to have stolen 5.6M patient records from Ascension's 140 hospitals in a May cyberattack.

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DEALS WE’RE WATCHING
Closed Deals:

MASSIVE DEALS

CHIPS Grants — The Commerce Department has finalized up to $6.75B in awards for Samsung, Texas Instruments, and Amkor to boost semiconductor production, with Samsung's investment plans revised down to $37B.

Rumble — The Toronto video sharing platform and cloud services provider entered into an agreement with Tether to receive a strategic investment of $775M.

Oura Health — The Finnish smart ring maker secured a $200M Series D at a $5.2B valuation (2x up from its 2022 round) from Fidelity and DexCom.

Aiwyn — Charlotte-based accounting workflow automation startup raised $113M from KKR and Bessemer, bringing its total funding to $127M.

Anysphere — SF-based AI coding assistant raised $100M Series B at $2.6B valuation led by Thrive Capital, with Neo, Patrick Collison, Nat Friedman, and Arash Ferdowsi.

LARGE DEALS

Nanoramic — The Boston-based lithium-ion battery tech company raised $44M co-led by GM Ventures and Catalus Capital, with Samsung and others.

Basis — The New York-based automated accounting startup raised $34M Series A led by Khosla Ventures, with NFDG and Larry Summers.

Decart — The San Francisco-based generative AI training startup raised $32M Series A at $500M+ valuation led by Benchmark, with Sequoia Capital and Zeev.

Backflip — The San Francisco-based generative AI 3D design platform raised $30M co-led by Andreessen Horowitz and NEA.

Stand — The San Francisco-based AI-powered home insurance startup raised $30M, with investors including Inspired, Lowercarbon, Equal, and Convective.

Bureau — The San Francisco-based identity fraud prevention startup raised $30M led by Sorenson Capital, the company is already serving major clients like Microsoft and Disney.

Slip Robotics — The Atlanta-based automated truck loading startup raised $28M led by DCVC, bringing its total funding to $45M.

SMALLER DEALS

Boon — The San Francisco-based AI fleet management startup raised $20.5M Series A from previous investors Marathon and Redpoint to build agentic fleet AI.

Anatomy Financial — The San Francisco-based AI healthcare finance automation startup raised $19M Series A led by Canapi with Lightspeed.

Ask Sage — The Arlington-based secure LLM access platform for government and enterprises raised $17M Series A led by Sapphire Ventures with Mucker Capital.

Nuon — The San Francisco-based cloud deployment platform raised $16.5M from M12, Uncork, Redpoint and others for customer-controlled SaaS infrastructure.

Kurrent — The San Francisco-based real-time data streaming platform raised $12M led by Crane Venture Partners with Creandum.

BlueQubit — A San Fran startup has raised a $10M seed to develop its quantum-software-as-a-service platform integrating the tech into real-world applications across sectors like finance and pharmaceuticals.

Mantis Robotics — The Pleasanton-based collaborative industrial robotics startup raised $5M led by Emerald Technology with Amazon Industrial Innovation Fund.

Exit Watch:

Chime — The SF-based digital bank filed confidential IPO paperwork after hiring Morgan Stanley bankers in Sept. It was last valued at $25B+ in 2021 by investors including Forerunner, Menlo, Sequoia, SoftBank, and Tiger Global.

Grammarly/Coda — The SF-based writing assistance company acquires document editor, Coda. It will also take on a co-founder Mahotra as its new CEO.

Perplexity/Carbon — The AI search startup acquired Seattle-based AI data services startup Carbon to enhance its AI systems' external data connectivity.

Nvidia/Run:ai — The EU cleared Nvidia’s acquisition of the Israeli GPU orchestration firm announced in April. A DOJ antitrust probe continues on the deal.

Companies to Watch:

Stem AI — Ex-Twitch CEO Emmett Shear launched a new stealth startup backed by Andreessen Horowitz to develop AI systems that align with human behavior and ethics, focusing on AI safety.

Chip Investment — The US granted $406M to Taiwan's GlobalWafers for first high-volume 300mm wafer production in Texas and Missouri.

Oklo — The Sam Altman-backed nuclear startup partnered with Switch to build small modular reactors generating 12GW for data centers.

Cohere — AI startup Cohere has partnered with defense and cyberintelligence giant Palantir to deploy AI technology to defense customers.

The Funding Buzz

[Open Fund] Penny Jar Capital — A Bay Area VC with Steph Curry as special advisor is raising its second fund with no stated target amount.

[Open Fund] Lerer Hippeau — The consumer-focused VC firm (backer of Allbirds, BarkBox, Casper) is raising its ninth fund, with its target undisclosed.

Category Ventures — A New SF firm raised a $160M first fund by GitLab investor Villi Iltchev (ex-Two Sigma) for $1.5-5M pre-seed/seed investments in AI, infrastructure, and dev tools.

Principle Venture Partners — Former NCSoft exec Songyee Yoon launched a $100M fund to back AI startups, bringing MIT PhD and gaming industry experience.

Swizzle Ventures — Jessica Kamada raised $5M for early-stage investments in women-focused sectors including caretaking, health, wellness, and finances.

Skyseed — Peter Wang launched a $1M incubator fund (later scaling to $5-10M) for projects built on Bluesky's AT Protocol to foster an open social media ecosystem.

MarcyPen Capital — Jay-Z's Marcy Venture Partners merged with Pendulum Opportunities to form a $900M AUM firm.