Artificial Intelligence

Azimuth AI Raises New Funding As Smart-Utility Edge-AI Chip Moves Toward Production

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 6, 2026

Azimuth AI, a semiconductor company building custom edge-AI system-on-chips for smart utilities, energy, and industrial infrastructure, said it has closed a new funding round led by Jetha Global, with participation from existing investors Moneta Ventures and AUM Ventures as well as additional new investors.

Qualcomm Introduces New Robotics Stack And Dragonwing IQ10 Processor To Power Physical AI

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 5, 2026

At CES, Qualcomm Technologies unveiled a new end-to-end robotics architecture and its latest premium-tier robotics processor, the Qualcomm Dragonwing IQ10 Series, positioning the combined hardware and software stack as a foundation for “Physical AI” systems ranging from household and personal service robots to industrial autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) and full-size humanoids.

Accordion Acquires FCM, Expanding Operator-Led Performance Improvement Offerings For Private Equity Clients

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 5, 2026

Accordion, an AI and data-powered financial consulting firm focused on private equity, has acquired FCM, an operator-led performance improvement firm known for large-scale value creation programs at private-equity-backed companies.

Exotec: Interview With Co-Founder & CEO Romain Moulin About The Warehouse Robotics Company

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 5, 2026

Exotec develops warehouse robotics and automation solutions that combine hardware (robots) and software to optimize storage, retrieval, and order fulfillment operations. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Exotec co-founder and CEO Romain Moulin to gain a deeper understanding of the company.

Cowbell Names John Botros CFO As Insurtech Targets Profitability and Accelerates Global Expansion

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 5, 2026

Cowbell announced it is entering a “next cycle” of its growth strategy focused on sustained revenue expansion, operating profitability, and continued international buildout, as the cyber and specialty insurance provider broadens beyond its roots in adaptive cyber coverage.

Alchera X: Interview With President & CEO Michael Plaksin About The Visual AI Tech Company

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 5, 2026

Alchera X is an AI tech company that is engaging in the development and distribution of products involving: visual artificial intelligence (AI), AI data, facial recognition, augmented reality, wildfire detection, healthcare solutions, and more. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Alchera X’s President and CEO, Michael Plaksin, to learn more about the company.

Kodiak AI And Bosch Partner To Scale Production-Grade Autonomous Trucking Hardware

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 5, 2026

Kodiak AI said it has agreed with Bosch to collaborate on and scale the manufacturing of a production-grade, redundant autonomous platform designed to bring Kodiak’s AI-powered “Kodiak Driver” to trucks at commercial scale. The companies said the platform integrates specialized hardware, firmware, and software interfaces needed to automate trucks, either directly on a vehicle production line or through an upfitter.

Gnani.ai: Interview With Co-Founder & CEO Ganesh Gopalan About The Speech And Conversational Solutions Company

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 5, 2026

Gnani.ai develops AI-driven speech and conversational automation solutions for enterprises. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Gnani.ai co-founder and CEO Ganesh Gopalan to gain a deeper understanding of the company.

Plaud Unveils Wearable AI Notetaker NotePin S And Plaud Desktop

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 4, 2026

Plaud has introduced Plaud NotePin S, an upgraded version of its wearable AI notetaker, and launched Plaud Desktop, a dedicated desktop app designed to capture and summarize online meetings without meeting bots. Based in San Francisco, the company said the two releases extend Plaud’s “conversation intelligence” across the full spectrum of how professionals meet today—face-to-face, on calls, and in virtual meetings.

SoftBank Completes Additional $22.5 Billion Investment In OpenAI

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 3, 2026

SoftBank Group announced it has completed an additional $22.5 billion investment in OpenAI, marking the second closing of its previously announced commitment to invest up to $40 billion and bringing the company’s total SoftBank-backed investment in the AI company to $30 billion. The second closing happened on December 26, 2025.

Axoniq: Interview With CEO & Board Member Jessica Reeves About Why Explainability Matters In AI

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 2, 2026

Axoniq, a company trusted by over 65,000 companies globally and with more than 70 million downloads, transforms how organizations develop AI native applications that seamlessly evolve and scale to meet tomorrow's business challenges. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Axoniq CEO and Board Member Jessica Reeves to gain a deeper understanding of the company.

Meta Acquires AI Agent Developer Manus For A Reported $2+ Billion

By Amit Chowdhry ● Dec 31, 2025

AI agent developer Manus said it is joining Meta, a significant milestone for its work on general-purpose autonomous agents designed to help users with research, automation, and other complex tasks.

Traini: $7.5 Million Raised To Build Pet Emotional Intelligence Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Dec 29, 2025

Traini, a Palo Alto-based startup focused on “pet emotional intelligence,” announced it has raised $7.5 million to develop AI systems that interpret pet emotions and intentions and translate them into human-understandable language through real-time, two-way interaction.

Accordion Acquires Pinnacle Healthcare Advisors To Expand Revenue Cycle Management Capabilities

By Amit Chowdhry ● Dec 27, 2025

DUX: $9 Million Seed Funding Closed To Bring Agentic Exposure Management To Modern Cyber Defense

By Amit Chowdhry ● Dec 26, 2025

Dux, an agentic exposure management platform designed to keep pace with AI-driven cyberattacks, has emerged from stealth with a $9 million seed financing round led by Redpoint, TLV Partners, and Maple Capital. The company said the round also included participation from cybersecurity executives from CrowdStrike, Okta, and Armis.

Nvidia Acquiring Groq’s Assets In A Reported $20 Billion Deal

By Amit Chowdhry ● Dec 26, 2025

Groq recently announced that it has entered into a non-exclusive licensing agreement with Nvidia for Groq’s inference technology. This agreement reflects a shared focus on expanding access to high-performance, low-cost inference. While the size of the deal was not officially confirmed, CNBC revealed that Disruptive, the investment firm that spearheaded Groq’s most recent funding rounds, confirmed a massive $20 billion price. Alex Davis, the chief executive of Disruptive, noted that his firm invested over half a billion dollars into Groq over nearly a decade of development. Nvidia plans to pay the full sum in cash to acquire the specialized technology developed by the high-speed chip designer.

Manifold: $18 Million Series B Raised To Expand Vertical AI Platform For Life Sciences

By Amit Chowdhry ● Dec 23, 2025

Manifold, an AI platform focused on life sciences workflows from discovery through clinical and precision care, has raised $18 million in a Series B financing led by Reach Capital, with participation from SilverArc Capital, Industry Ventures, and existing investors TQ Ventures and Calibrate Ventures. The round brings Manifold’s total capital raised to $40 million as the company positions itself as a category player in “vertical AI” for the life sciences market.

Marissa Mayer’s Dazzle AI Raises $8 Million Seed Round At $35 Million Valuation

By Amit Chowdhry ● Dec 23, 2025

Dazzle AI, a new startup founded by entrepreneur and former Google and Yahoo executive Marissa Mayer, has raised $8 million in seed funding at a $35 million post-money valuation.

Lemon Slice Launched With $10.5 Million Seed Round

By Amit Chowdhry ● Dec 23, 2025

Lemon Slice, a frontier AI research and product lab focused on interactive video, debuted publicly with $10.5 million in seed funding and the launch of Lemon Slice-2. This real-time, “zero-shot” avatar model can turn a single image into a live, conversational video experience.

Thread: $18 Million Raised From Susquehanna To Expand Agentic AI Service Intelligence For MSPs

By Amit Chowdhry ● Dec 23, 2025

Thread, an AI service desk platform built for managed service providers, has raised an $18 million in growth equity investment led by Susquehanna Growth Equity, with participation from Headline, as the company accelerates development of its Service Intelligence platform and agentic AI products to modernize how MSPs deliver support.

Ankar: $20 Million Series A Raised To Expand AI-Powered Patent Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Dec 23, 2025

Ankar, a London-based software company building an “AI operating system for innovation,” has raised $20 million in Series A funding to scale its AI-driven patent platform and expand further into the U.S. The round was led by Atomico, with Index Ventures doubling down on its prior investment and additional participation from Norrsken VC and Daphni. With the Series A, the company's total funding now stands at $24 million.

Lovable: $330 Million Series B At $6.6 Billion Valuation Raised To Expand No Code Building Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Dec 23, 2025

Lovable announced it has raised $330 million in Series B funding at a $6.6 billion valuation to expand its platform for creating websites and applications without traditional software development. The round was led by CapitalG and Menlo Ventures’ Anthology fund, with participation from a mix of corporate venture investors and growth firms, as Lovable positions itself to serve both large enterprises and early-stage founders looking to move from idea to product faster.

Alphabet To Buy Intersect For $4.75 Billion For Accelerating U.S. Data Center And Energy Infrastructure

By Amit Chowdhry ● Dec 22, 2025

Alphabet has agreed to acquire Intersect, a provider of data center and energy infrastructure solutions, in a deal valued at $4.75 billion in cash plus the assumption of debt. Google previously took a minority stake in Intersect through an earlier funding round.

Tebra: $250 Million Funding Raised To Accelerate AI Across EHR, Billing Automation And Practice Marketing

By Amit Chowdhry ● Dec 17, 2025

Tebra has closed $250 million in new equity and debt financing to accelerate research and development in AI and automation for independent healthcare practices. The Newport Beach, California-based company said the oversubscribed round will fund expanded AI-powered capabilities across clinical documentation, billing and payments, patient experience, and practice marketing for its EHR+ platform, which it says is used by more than 140,000 private healthcare providers.

Databricks Raising Over $4 Billion Series L At $134 Billion Valuation As Revenue Run Rate Tops $4.8 Billion

By Amit Chowdhry ● Dec 16, 2025

Databricks is raising more than $4 billion in a Series L financing that values the data and AI platform company at $134 billion, as it reported passing a $4.8 billion revenue run rate during its third fiscal quarter and growing more than 55 percent year over year. The company said it achieved the growth while delivering positive free cash flow over the last year and highlighted billion-dollar run rates in both its data warehousing business and its AI products.

Ritten: $35 Million Series B Closed To Expand AI Platform For Behavioral Health Providers

By Amit Chowdhry ● Dec 15, 2025

Ritten, an AI-powered system of record for behavioral health providers, has raised a $35 million Series B funding round led by Five Elms Capital, with participation from existing investors Threshold Ventures, 8VC, Bienville Capital, and others. The Philadelphia-based company said the financing will support expansion across mental health and addiction treatment providers spanning all levels of care.

OnCorps AI: $55 Million Closed To Scale Agentic Fund Operations Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Dec 15, 2025

OnCorps AI, an agentic AI platform focused on fund operations for asset managers and fund administrators, has raised $55 million in growth capital from Long Ridge Equity Partners as it looks to accelerate product development, expand go-to-market capacity, and scale infrastructure to support a growing customer base.

PolyAI: $86 Million Series D Closed To Scale Enterprise Voice Agents And Agent Studio Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Dec 15, 2025

PolyAI, an enterprise conversational AI company focused on automating customer interactions, has raised $86 million in Series D funding in a round co-led by Georgian, Hedosophia, and Khosla Ventures. Additional participants include NVentures (NVIDIA’s venture capital arm), British Business Bank, Citi Ventures, Squarepoint Ventures, Sands Capital, Zendesk Ventures, and Point72 Ventures.

Cynch AI: $9 Million Raised To Accelerate Acquisition-Led Expansion

By Amit Chowdhry ● Dec 15, 2025

True Global Ventures has led a $9 million equity investment round in Cynch AI, a San Francisco-based company building AI native tax automation software and pursuing acquisition-led growth in the tax and accounting market. The round also included participation from existing investors Permanent Capital, AI Capital, Clear Ventures, and Factory HQ, according to the firms.

Why Meta Is Buying AI Wearables Company Limitless

By Amit Chowdhry ● Dec 15, 2025

Meta has acquired Limitless, a company known for an AI-based pendant that records and transcribes real-world conversations, in a deal that underscores CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s growing focus on AI-enabled wearables as a primary way consumers will access AI tools. The terms were undisclosed.