Artificial Intelligence

Brickanta: $8 Million Seed Funding Raised To Bring AI To Construction

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 28, 2026

Brickanta, a Y Combinator-backed construction technology startup from the F25 batch, has raised an $8 million seed round as it builds what it describes as an AI-native operating system for the construction industry, according to a LinkedIn post from founder Linus B. Fahlander. Northzone led the financing, with additional participation from angel investors spanning both construction industry operators and AI founders.

Salesforce: $5.6 Billion IDIQ Contract Award From U.S. Army

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 27, 2026

Salesforce announced that the U.S. Army has awarded the company a 10 year Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity contract with a ceiling value of $5.6 billion, aimed at accelerating military modernization and supporting Department of War readiness. The agreement is executed through Computable Insights LLC, which Salesforce described as a wholly owned subsidiary dedicated to its national security operations.

StrongSuit: Interview With CEO Justin McCallon About The AI-Based Litigation Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 27, 2026

StrongSuit is an AI-powered litigation platform that helps attorneys with case law research, discovery analysis, and drafting motions/briefs (and related legal workflows), while keeping lawyers in control of the final strategic decisions. Pulse 2.0 interviewed StrongSuit CEO Justin McCallon to gain a deeper understanding of the company.

D-Wave Lands $10 Million Two-Year Quantum Computing Services Deal

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 27, 2026

D-Wave Quantum announced it has signed a $10 million, two-year enterprise Quantum Computing as a Service agreement with a leading Fortune 100 company, positioning the contract as a meaningful commercial validation for its annealing quantum computing offering and its broader push to bring quantum capabilities into day-to-day enterprise workflows.

Nerd Apply: $3.2 Million Seed Funding Closed To Power Outcome-Driven College Counseling

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 27, 2026

Nerd Apply, a privacy-first platform focused on outcome-driven college counseling, announced it has raised $3.2 million in seed funding to expand distribution and strengthen its security, compliance, and data governance infrastructure. The round included participation from Riverpark Ventures, Alumni Ventures, 1.61 Ventures, and a group of angel investors that includes Gokul Rajaram and David Krane (CEO and Managing Partner of Google Ventures).

Risotto: $10 Million Seed Funding Raised To Automate The Help Desk

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 27, 2026

Risotto, an AI-native autonomous help desk platform, has raised $10 million in seed funding to accelerate its effort to automate internal employee support workflows across large enterprises. The round was led by Bonfire Ventures, with participation from 645 Ventures, Y Combinator, Ritual Capital, Surgepoint Capital, and angels, including former Dropbox and HelloSign executives. Risotto says its platform integrates across a company’s technology, IT, and communications stack to autonomously resolve internal support tickets in seconds, and has already processed hundreds of thousands of tickets for customers, including Gusto and Jobber, helping automate up to 70% of IT requests.

Fulcrum: $25 Million Raised To Bring AI Agents Into Insurance Brokerage Workflows

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 27, 2026

Fulcrum, an AI platform designed for insurance brokerages, has raised $25 million in combined Seed and Series A funding as it targets one of the industry’s most persistent bottlenecks: slow, manual back-office work tied to legacy systems, email-driven document flows, and outsourced servicing models.

Micron’s Planned $24 Billion Singapore Wafer Fab Breaks Ground As AI-Driven NAND Demand Rises

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 27, 2026

Micron Technology has broken ground on a new advanced wafer fabrication facility in Singapore, marking a planned investment of about US$24 billion (SG$31 billion) over the next decade as the company scales manufacturing to meet long-term demand for NAND technology tied to AI growth and data-centric computing.

Compa: $35 Million Series B Raised To Scale Agentic AI For Enterprise Compensation

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 27, 2026

Compa, an AI-driven compensation intelligence provider, announced it has raised $35 million in Series B funding to accelerate product development and growth as large companies modernize how they set pay. The round was led by Jump Capital, with participation from Crosslink Capital, Storm Ventures, Permanent Capital, HR Tech Investments LLC (an affiliate of Indeed, Inc.), and PagsGroup.

Midship: $4.15 Million Seed Funding Raised To Automate SOX Testing With Agentic AI

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 27, 2026

Midship, an AI-native platform focused on automating Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) testing and internal audit workflows, has raised $4.15 million in seed funding as it looks to modernize one of the most time-intensive parts of public-company compliance. The round was led by Costanoa Ventures, with participation from Seguin Ventures and additional angel investors.

Lanai: Interview With Co-Founder & CEO Lexi Reese About The Enterprise AI Interaction Observability Company

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 27, 2026

Lanai Software builds an enterprise AI interaction observability “system of record” that captures AI usage across tools, copilots, and agents, enabling organizations to measure workflows/ROI, manage risk, and scale AI adoption safely. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Lanai Software co-founder and CEO Lexi Reese to gain a deeper understanding of the company.

Fiddler: $30 Million Series C Raised For Powering The AI Agent Control Plane

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 27, 2026

Fiddler AI raised $30 million in Series C funding as it pushes to build what it calls a neutral “control plane” for compound AI systems that increasingly rely on autonomous agents. The round was led by RPS Ventures, with participation from existing investors Lightspeed Venture Partners, Lux Capital, Insight Partners, Capgemini Ventures, Dallas VC, Dentsu Ventures, and Mozilla Ventures, as well as new strategic investors LG Technology Ventures, Benhamou Global Ventures, and LDV Partners. The financing brings Fiddler’s total funding to $100 million.

CVector: $5 Million Seed Funding Raised To Scale AI For Energy-Intensive Industry

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 27, 2026

CVector has closed an oversubscribed $5 million seed round to accelerate development and adoption of its AI software designed for industrial operators navigating volatile inputs, complex production constraints, and shifting market demand. The financing was led by Powerhouse Ventures, with participation from Fusion Fund, Hitachi Ventures, Myriad Venture Partners, and Schematic Ventures.

IonQ To Buy SkyWater In $1.8 Billion Deal To Build Vertically Integrated Quantum Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 26, 2026

IonQ and SkyWater Technology announced they have entered into a definitive agreement for IonQ to acquire SkyWater in a cash-and-stock transaction that values SkyWater at approximately $1.8 billion in equity and is intended to create what the companies call the only vertically integrated, full-stack quantum platform company.

Microsoft Unveils Maia 200, A New Inference Accelerator To Cut AI Token Costs

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 26, 2026

Microsoft has introduced Maia 200, a first-party AI accelerator designed specifically for inference workloads, positioning it as a step change in the economics of AI token generation and in the company’s broader heterogeneous AI infrastructure strategy.

Ricursive Intelligence: $300 Million Series A At $4 Billion Valuation Raised To Advance AI-Driven Semiconductor Design

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 26, 2026

Ricursive Intelligence, a newly launched frontier AI lab founded by Dr. Anna Goldie and Dr. Azalia Mirhoseini, announced a $300 million Series A led by Lightspeed Venture Partners that values the company at a $4 billion post-money valuation. The round comes less than two months after Ricursive’s public debut and includes participation from DST Global, NVentures, Felicis Ventures, 49 Palms Ventures, Radical AI, and Sequoia Capital, among others.

Jelou: $10 Million Series A Raised To Build WhatsApp-Native AI Agents For Payments and Financial Workflows

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 26, 2026

Jelou announced it has raised a $10 million Series A to expand Brain, its platform for building AI agents that can securely execute business and financial operations directly inside WhatsApp. The round was led by Wellington Access Ventures, with participation from Krealo, Credicorp’s corporate venture arm, and Collide Capital. Jelou said it has now raised $13 million in total funding, including a prior $3 million seed round led by Act One Ventures and Arca Continental Ventures.

Skrooge.ai: $1.85 Million Seed Funding Raised For Scaling AI-Based Accounting And Tax Services for UAE SMEs

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 26, 2026

skrooge.ai, an AI-enabled accounting and tax service provider focused on small and medium-sized businesses in the UAE, has raised $1.85 million in a seed round through SAFE notes from fintech-experienced angel investors. The Dubai based company said the funding will be used to expand product and engineering and to increase delivery capacity as it grows its managed service offering for local SMEs.

Visitt: $22 Million Series B Raised To Build A Single AI Interface For Commercial Real Estate Operations

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 26, 2026

Visitt, an AI native property operations platform for commercial real estate, has raised $22 million in Series B funding led by Susquehanna Growth Equity, with participation from existing investors Vertex Ventures Israel, Anfield, and Sarona Ventures.

NVIDIA Expands CoreWeave Partnership And Invests $2 Billion To Speed Buildout Of AI Factories

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 26, 2026

NVIDIA and CoreWeave announced they are expanding their long-running collaboration to accelerate the buildout of more than 5 gigawatts of “AI factories” by 2030, positioning the companies to meet surging demand for AI compute at a global scale.

Synthesia: $200 Million Series E At $4 Billion Valuation Raised To Expand AI Video And Agentic Workforce Training

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 26, 2026

Synthesia, a London-headquartered AI video platform focused on helping organizations create and share knowledge, said it has raised a $200 million Series E round at a $4 billion valuation, positioning the company to accelerate product development aimed at enterprise learning, internal communications, and upskilling.

Microsoft Research Unveils Rho-Alpha Robotics Model To Bring Physical AI To Real-World Manipulation

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 25, 2026

Leidos And OpenAI Partner To Bring Generative And Agentic AI Into Federal Agency Workflows

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 24, 2026

Leidos and OpenAI have entered into a partnership to deploy artificial intelligence to support national priorities, with a focus on improving the efficiency and effectiveness of government operations.

Sakana AI Announces Strategic Partnership With Google

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 24, 2026

Sakana AI announced it has entered into a strategic partnership with Google following its Series B round, and that Google is also making a financial investment in the company to further strengthen the relationship.

Norm Law Names Former Sidley Austin Chair Mike Schmidtberger As Chairman

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 24, 2026

Norm Law, an AI native law firm serving global institutional clients, has appointed longtime Sidley Austin leader Mike Schmidtberger as Chairman, Partner, and Head of its Investment Funds and Regulatory practice, a move the firm framed as a marker of how it intends to combine senior legal judgment with an integrated AI platform and engineering-driven workflows.

Structurely Names Corey Welch As CEO

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 24, 2026

Structurely, an AI-powered sales automation platform built for high-volume, compliance-driven industries, has appointed Corey Welch as chief executive officer, naming a veteran mortgage and fintech operator to lead its next stage of disciplined, industry-focused expansion.

Goodfin Launches Goodfin Go, Bringing AI Agent Support To Pre-IPO Private Market Investing

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 24, 2026

Goodfin has unveiled Goodfin Go, a new agentic system designed for pre-IPO investors that aims to shrink private-market investing workflows from weeks to minutes. The San Francisco-based company said Go is now publicly available after engagement with thousands of users and testing by human advisors, positioning the product as an AI-powered companion that supports the full investment process, from research and analysis through to execution.

Baseten: $300 Million At $5 Billion Valuation Raised As Inference Becomes Core AI Infrastructure

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 23, 2026

Baseten, an AI inference company focused on running modern models in production, has raised $300 million in new financing at a $5 billion valuation. IVP, CapitalG, and NVIDIA anchored the round, as demand accelerates for high-performance infrastructure that can reliably deploy and operate AI models at scale.

Cubby: $63 Million Series A Raised To Expand AI-Native Self-Storage Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 23, 2026

Cubby has raised a $63 million Series A minority investment to accelerate the growth of its property management platform for self-storage operators, the company said. The round was led by Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives, with existing investors also participating.

PayPal To Buy Cymbio To Expand Agentic Commerce And AI-Channel Selling

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 23, 2026

PayPal has agreed to acquire Cymbio, a multi-channel orchestration platform that helps brands sell across “agentic” AI shopping surfaces and other e-commerce channels, as the payments company moves to deepen its commerce offering inside emerging AI-driven discovery and checkout experiences.