Startups

Hume AI: $50 Million Secured To Build AI Optimized For Well-Being

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 29, 2024

Hume AI - a company and research lab building artificial intelligence optimized for human well-being - announced it had raised a $50 million Series B funding round. EQT Ventures led this round. Union Square Ventures, Nat Friedman & Daniel Gross, Metaplanet, Northwell Holdings, Comcast Ventures, and LG Technology Ventures also joined the round.

NewRetirement: Financial Planning Platform Closes $20 Million In Funding

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 29, 2024

NewRetirement - a comprehensive and digital-first financial planning platform for consumers and enterprise partners - announced that it has closed its Series A round with $20 million in funding. The funding round was led by Allegis Capital and joined by Ulu Ventures, Nationwide Ventures, Fin Capital, Frontier Venture Capital, Cameron Ventures, Marin Sonoma Impact Ventures, Northwestern Mutual Future Ventures, Plug and Play Ventures, and Motley Fool Ventures. This funding round brought the total to $20.8 million.

iCustoms.AI: $2.2 Million Raised To Transform Trade Compliance Using AI

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 29, 2024

iCustoms.AI is a leading provider of AI-powered trade compliance solutions that announced the closing of a $2.2 million seed funding round. Fuel Ventures, a leading venture capital firm, and PlugnPlay, Outrun Ventures, Montblu Capital, SyndicateRoom, and leading angels are backing iCustoms' growth.

Gather AI: AI-Based Warehouse Inventory Monitoring Solutions Company Raises $17 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 28, 2024

Nourish: Telenutrition Platform Company Raises $35 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 28, 2024

Nourish, a telenutrition platform connecting people to registered dietitians covered by insurance, announced that it has raised $35 million in Series A funding. The funding round was led by Index Ventures with participation from Maverick Ventures and TCV. Also joining in the round were existing backers Y Combinator, Thrive Capital, and BoxGroup and several prominent angel investors, including professional soccer player Alex Morgan and founders from Oscar, Olipop, and Notion.

Oriole Networks: UCL AI System Performance Spinout Company Raises £10 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 28, 2024

Oriole Networks - a company transforming the performance of AI systems and data centers – announced it has successfully raised £10 million in seed funding. The funding round was co-led by UCL Technology Fund, Clean Growth Fund, XTX Ventures, and Dorilton Ventures, with support from Innovate UK Investor Partnership.

Celestial AI: Photonic Fabric Company Closes $175 Million In Series C

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 28, 2024

Celestial AI - the creator of the Photonic Fabric optical interconnect technology platform - announced it raised $175 million in its Series C funding round led by Thomas Tull’s U.S. Innovative Technology Fund (USIT). Along with USIT, the funding round included participation from new and existing investors, including AMD Ventures, Koch Disruptive Technologies (KDT), Temasek, Temasek’s wholly owned subsidiary Xora Innovation, IAG Capital Partners, Samsung Catalyst, Smart Global Holdings (SGH), Porsche Automobil Holding SE, Engine Ventures, M-Ventures and Tyche Partners.

ValidMind: AI And Model Risk Management Platform Raises $8.1 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 28, 2024

ValidMind, a leading next-generation AI and model risk management platform for financial services, announced it had raised $8.1 million in a seed funding round led by Point72 Ventures. Third Prime, New York Life Ventures, AI Fund, Notion Capital, FJ Labs, Angel Invest, and Gaingels also participated.

Sertis: Insurance-Focused Managing General Agency Raises $3.2 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 28, 2024

Sertis - a managing general agency (MGA) focused on the insurance industry – announced it has successfully completed an oversubscribed $3.2 million seed funding round. JLL Spark Global Ventures (the venture capital arm of JLL) led the investment. Ajey Kaushal, an investor at JLL Spark, joins Sertis' board in connection with the investment.

EVOLOH: $20 Million Secured To Develop Electrolyzer Stacks For Hydrogen Production

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 28, 2024

EVOLOH, a cleantech company that develops electrolyzer stacks for hydrogen production, announced it had raised an oversubscribed $20 million Series A round led by Engine Ventures. Additional participating investors include a subsidiary of NextEra Energy Resources and 3M Ventures.

SecondWave Systems: Bio-Ultrasonic Medicine Company Raises $3 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 28, 2024

SecondWave Systems has made a couple of major announcements. SecondWave Systems has welcomed Professor Paul Peter Tak as the inaugural member of its newly established advisory board. And SecondWave also announced that it has secured $3 million of additional funding from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) in partnership with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), bringing the total non-dilutive funding from U.S. government agencies to $15.3 million.

Nominal: $9.2 Million Raised To Bridge The Gap Between Costly ERP Systems

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 28, 2024

Nominal is a company tapping into generative AI to bridge the gap between outdated and costly ERP systems and the financial management needs of modern mid-market and multi-entity businesses. The company launched this week with $9.2 million in seed funding from Bling Capital and Hyperwise Ventures, with participation from Vela Partners, Incubate Fund, and executives at companies like Bill.com, Salesforce, Justworks, ServiceNow, and Intel.

PipeDreams: Home Services Provider Company Raises $25.5 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 28, 2024

PipeDreams, a tech-enabled home services provider, announced $25.5 million in Series A funding led by Canvas Ventures and Plural. Angel investors include Tony Xu (the founder of DoorDash), Thomas Layton (the founder of CitySearch, former CEO of OpenTable, and Chairman of UpWork), and Allison Pickens (former COO at Gainsight). With this funding round, the company has raised $39 million total.

Picogrid: Defense Technology Company Raises $12 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 28, 2024

Staffing Engine Raises Strategic Investment From LRS Healthcare

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 27, 2024

LRS Healthcare - a leading healthcare staffing services provider and part of the Jackson Healthcare family of companies - announced a strategic investment in Staffing Engine. Staffing Engine is an AI innovator for the staffing industry, developing the world’s first Recruiting Acceleration AI Platform for staffing firms.

Storyteller Overland Receives Strategic Investment From L Catterton And Additional Investors

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 27, 2024

L Catterton announced a significant investment in Storyteller Overland, a leading innovator in adventure vehicle manufacturing. RX3 Growth Partners, Wheelhouse, and Virentes Partners Group are also joining L Catterton.

Be Fulfilled: Growth Funding Raised From Decathlon Capital

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 27, 2024

Be Fulfilled (a full-service platform that helps creators grow businesses) announced it had raised a significant investment from Decathlon Capital Partners. The details of the revenue-based investment were undisclosed.

Fieldguide: AI-Based Advisory And Audit Services Company Raises $30 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 27, 2024

OpenPipe: LLM Fine-Tuning Company Secures $6.7 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 27, 2024

OpenPipe – a company that enables developers to create their own application-specific Large Language Models (LLMs) - announced the closing of a $6.7 million seed round. This funding round was led by Costanoa Ventures, with participation from Y Combinator and prominent angel investors, including Logan Kilpatrick (former head of developer relations at OpenAI), Alex Graveley (creator of GitHub Copilot), and Tom Preston-Werner (co-founder of GitHub). This funding round will scale the team and accelerate the product.

Viam: $45 Million Raised To Advance Software Platform For Smart Machines

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 27, 2024

Viam – a software platform for smart machines - announced that it has closed $45 million in Series B funding. This funding round includes participation from continuing investors, Union Square Ventures and Battery Ventures. Including this funding round, Viam has raised a total of $87 million.

Activeloop: Database For AI Company Raises $11 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 27, 2024

Chiyo: Maternal Nutrition Company Closes $3 Million In Funding

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 27, 2024

Chiyo, a maternal nutrition company rewriting what care looks like from fertility through postpartum, announced the completion of a $3 million financing round led by Bread & Butter Ventures, Ingeborg, Union Heritage Ventures, Peterson Ventures, Detroit Venture Partners, Palette Ventures, and The Helm. With this funding round, the company has raised a total of $3.4 million to fuel its goal of better maternal nutrition.

Brightside Health: Telemental Health Company Raises $33 Million Strategic Funding Round

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 27, 2024

Iron Sheepdog: Trucking Technology Company Raises $10 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 26, 2024

Iron Sheepdog - a trucking technology solution for brokers and contractors - announced it has raised a $10 million Series B funding round led by SJF Ventures with participation from Grand Ventures, Supply Chain Ventures, and other strategic partners.

ZayZoon: Earned Wage Access Provider Secures $15 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 26, 2024

ZayZoon, a leading Earned Wage Access (EWA) provider for small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs), announced it has raised $15 million in an extension of its Series B financing. This funding round was led by Viola Fintech with participation from Intuit Ventures and existing investors Framework Venture Partners, and Export Development Canada (EDC). This round extension brought ZayZoon’s total Series B funding round to $49.5 million.

Ionobell: Silicon Battery Technology Company Closes $7.3 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 26, 2024

Ionobell, a breakthrough silicon battery technology company, announced that it had raised a recent seed extension round of $3.9 million led by Dynamo Ventures and Trucks VC, bringing the total funding to $7.3 million in seed investment fundraising. Trucks VC led the initial equity round, with participation from Dynamo Ventures and Alumni Ventures.

Binarly: Supply Chain Security Platform Company Raises $10.5 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 26, 2024

Binarly, a provider of an AI-powered firmware and software supply chain security platform, announced the closing of a $10.5 million seed funding round. The oversubscribed funding round was led by Two Bear Capital, with participation from Blu Ventures, Canaan Partners, Cisco Investments, and Liquid 2 Ventures. The pre-seed investors Westwave Capital and Acrobator Ventures also expanded on their equity positions.

Protembis: Cardiovascular Medical Device Company Raises €30 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 26, 2024

Protembis - a privately-held emerging cardiovascular medical device company - announced the completion of a €30 million Series B funding round for supporting the enrollment of the PROTEMBO Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) Pivotal Trial (NCT05873816).

Avenzo Therapeutics: $150 Million Raised To Develop Oncology Therapeutics

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 26, 2024

Avenzo Therapeutics - a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing next-generation oncology therapeutics - announced the closing of an oversubscribed $150 million Series A-1 financing. This funding round included nine new investors and was led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Deep Track Capital, Sofinnova Investments, and Sands Capital, with participation from additional new investors, including INCE Capital, TF Capital, Delos Capital, and Quan Capital. The total funding since the company’s founding in August 2022 is $347 million.

OneNotary: On-Demand Notarization Provider Secures $5 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 26, 2024

OneNotary, a leading on-demand notarization provider, announced it closed a $5 million Series A and entered a deal with DocuSign to provide a third-party notary network to DocuSign customers. Jackson Square Ventures led this funding round, with participation from DocuSign founder Tom Gonser and existing investors DocuSign Ventures, GoodPaper Ventures, Digital Future, and The LegalTech Fund.