Artificial Intelligence

Slack Unveils Rebuilt Slackbot As Context-Aware AI Agent For Work

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 15, 2026

Slack announced it has rebuilt Slackbot from the ground up, repositioning the familiar in-app helper as a “personal, context-aware AI agent” designed to reduce the time employees spend searching for decisions, summarizing conversations, and tracking down files across channels and tools.

OptConnect Buys DPL Wireless To Add AI-Based Device Intelligence To Global Managed IoT Connectivity Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 15, 2026

OptConnect, a provider of managed wireless connectivity solutions, has acquired Canada-based DPL Wireless to expand its engineering capabilities and bring more device-level intelligence to IoT deployments, particularly in ATM connectivity and adjacent use cases.

Phenom Acquires Included AI, Bringing Agentic People Analytics To HR And Business Leaders

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 15, 2026

Phenom, an applied AI company focused on helping organizations hire, develop, and retain talent, said it has acquired Included, an AI-native agentic people analytics platform designed to turn fragmented workforce data into actionable insights for faster decision-making.

Prometheus Acquires Webalo To Build Closed-Loop Digital Execution Platform Linking Frontline Work To Systems Of Record

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 15, 2026

Prometheus Group, an enterprise asset management (EAM) software provider, has acquired Webalo, an AI-enabled connected worker platform, in a deal aimed at closing the gap between frontline activity and enterprise execution.

Amplitude Acquires InfiniGrow To Bring Revenue Analytics To Marketers

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 14, 2026

Amplitude has acquired InfiniGrow, an AI marketing analytics company, as the Nasdaq-listed analytics platform seeks to expand its AI-driven capabilities beyond product analytics into marketing and revenue use cases. Financial terms were not disclosed.

depthfirst Raises $40 Million Series A To Bring AI Agents to Software Security

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 14, 2026

depthfirst, an applied AI lab focused on software security, has raised a $40 million Series A funding round as it positions its “General Security Intelligence” platform as a response to a fast-changing threat landscape shaped by AI-generated code and increasingly automated attacks. The round was led by Accel and included participation from Alt Capital, BoxGroup, Liquid 2 Ventures, Mantis VC and SV Angel, alongside angel investors Jeff Dean, Kirsten Green, Colin Evans, Logan Kilpatrick and Julian Schrittwieser, the company said.

Novee Emerges From Stealth With $51.5 Million To Counter AI Cyberattacks With A Proprietary AI Hacker

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 14, 2026

Novee, an AI offensive security startup based in Tel Aviv, Israel, has launched out of stealth with $51.5 million in total funding as it targets the rise of AI-enabled cyberattacks with continuous, AI-driven penetration testing.

OpenAI Partners With Cerebras To Add 750MW Of Ultra Low-Latency AI Compute

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 14, 2026

OpenAI has partnered with Cerebras to add 750 megawatts of ultra low-latency AI compute to OpenAI’s platform, expanding the company’s inference capacity with systems designed to deliver faster, more responsive model outputs.

Vista AI: $29.5 Million Series B Raised To Expand Automated MRI Scanning Across Health Systems

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 14, 2026

Vista AI, a provider of automated MRI scanning software for hospitals and imaging centers, has closed a $29.5 million Series B financing round backed by a mix of health systems and venture investors as it looks to scale its FDA-cleared cardiac MRI platform and broaden into additional anatomies.

Listen Labs: $69 Million Series B Closed To Bring Customer Voices Into Every Decision

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 14, 2026

Listen Labs, an AI-first customer research platform, said it has raised $69 million in a Series B round led by Ribbit Capital, with participation from Evantic and existing investors Sequoia Capital, Conviction, and Pear VC.

Skild AI Raises $1.4 Billion At $14 Billion Valuation For AI Robotics Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 14, 2026

Skild AI, a Pittsburgh-based AI robotics company developing a foundation model designed to serve as a general-purpose “brain” for multiple types of robots, announced it has raised close to $1.4 billion in new funding at a valuation above $14 billion.

PolyAI Names Ryan Longfield President Of Go-to-Market As Enterprises Move Agentic AI Into Production

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 14, 2026

PolyAI, an enterprise agentic AI company focused on customer experience, has appointed Ryan Longfield as President of Go-to-Market, a newly created role that expands the company’s senior leadership as it scales commercial operations amid rising enterprise demand for production-grade AI agents.

WRITER Names Mina Alaghband As First Chief Customer Officer To Scale Enterprise Agentic AI Adoption

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 14, 2026

WRITER has appointed Mina Alaghband as its first Chief Customer Officer, bringing on a veteran of large-scale digital and AI transformation programs to lead global customer operations as enterprise demand grows for agentic platforms that can deliver measurable ROI at scale.

Duck Creek Technologies Names Jose Lazares Chief Product Officer

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 14, 2026

Duck Creek Technologies has appointed enterprise software and AI product executive Jose Lazares as chief product officer, tasking him with leading the company’s global product organization and advancing its AI-driven product strategy across Duck Creek’s cloud platform.

TJC Deepens Investment In GrowthLoop To Back Agentic AI Marketing Platform Built On The Data Cloud

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 14, 2026

TJC announced it has made a follow-on investment in GrowthLoop, extending a financial partnership that began with TJC’s initial investment in 2022 as enterprises look to modernize marketing with agentic AI and composable customer data infrastructure.

WithCoverage: $42 Million Series B Closed To Build AI-Powered Risk Management Team

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 14, 2026

WithCoverage, an insurtech startup positioning itself as an alternative to traditional insurance brokers, said it has raised a $42 million Series B round led by Sequoia Capital and Khosla Ventures as it looks to scale an “AI-enabled Risk Management Team” for fast-growing businesses.

AstraZeneca Acquires Modella AI To Scale Multimodal AI And Agents Across Oncology R&D

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 14, 2026

Modella AI announced it has been acquired by AstraZeneca, deepening an existing partnership aimed at applying multi-modal AI foundation models and AI agents across AstraZeneca’s global oncology research and development efforts.

Docusign Unveils AI eSignature Tools That Summarize Contracts and Automate Agreement Setup

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 14, 2026

Docusign announced it is rolling out new AI-powered eSignature capabilities designed to help people understand what they are signing and to reduce the manual work businesses do to prepare agreements, as the company pushes further into its Intelligent Agreement Management (IAM) platform.

VoiceRun: $5.5 Million Seed Funding Raised And Full-Stack Enterprise Voice AI Platform Launched

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 14, 2026

VoiceRun, an enterprise platform for building and deploying Voice AI, has raised a $5.5 million seed round led by Flybridge Capital Partners, with participation from RRE Ventures and Link Ventures. The company said it will use the funding to expand its product and go-to-market efforts as more enterprises push voice agents from pilots into production deployments.

Functionize: Interview With Founder & CEO Tamas Cser About The Test Automation Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 14, 2026

Functionize is an AI-native, cloud-based test automation platform that uses autonomous, self-healing agents (digital workers) to create, run, and maintain end-to-end software QA workflows across applications. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Functionize founder and CEO Tamas Cser to gain a deeper understanding of the company.

Horizon3.ai Secures Investment From Prosperity7 Ventures To Protect AI Datacenters And Critical Infrastructure

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 13, 2026

Horizon3.ai announced it has received an investment from Prosperity7 Ventures, the diversified venture fund of Aramco Ventures, as the offensive security company looks to accelerate efforts to safeguard AI datacenters and other critical infrastructure increasingly targeted by cyber adversaries.

Converge Bio: $25 Million Series A Raised To Expand Generative AI Drug Discovery Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 13, 2026

Converge Bio, an AI platform focused on accelerating drug discovery and development, announced it has raised $25 million in Series A funding, bringing total capital raised to $30 million. The highly oversubscribed round was led by Bessemer Venture Partners, with participation from TLV Partners, Vintage Investment Partners, and Saras Capital, along with individual executives from Meta, OpenAI, and Wiz.

Proxima: $80 Million Raised To Power The Next Generation Of Proximity-Based Medicines

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 13, 2026

Proxima, the AI-native biotech company developing drug discovery tools and therapeutics for proximity-based medicines, has raised an oversubscribed $80 million seed round and rebranded from VantAI as it sharpens its focus on proximity therapeutics. The financing was led by DCVC, with participation from NVentures (NVIDIA’s venture capital arm), Braidwell, Roivant, AIX Ventures, Yosemite, Magnetic Ventures, Alexandria Venture Investments, Modi Ventures, and other strategic and institutional backers. As part of the round, DCVC General Partner Jason Pontin will join Proxima’s board.

WitnessAI: $58 Million Raised To Expand Globally And Roll Out New Security Controls For AI Agents

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 13, 2026

WitnessAI, an enterprise AI security and governance vendor, said it has raised $58 million in a strategic funding round to accelerate global go-to-market efforts and broaden its product portfolio as more companies deploy autonomous, agent-based AI systems. The round was led by Sound Ventures, with participation from Fin Capital, Qualcomm Ventures, Samsung Ventures, and Forgepoint Capital Partners, according to the company. WitnessAI said the capital will be used to expand internationally and scale product development focused on securing AI agents alongside traditional large-language-model usage.

Euna Solutions Acquires GrantExec To Expand AI-Powered Grants Discovery And Research

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 13, 2026

Euna Solutions has acquired GrantExec, an AI-native startup focused on simplifying grant discovery and research for nonprofits, universities, and community-focused organizations, as Euna looks to deepen AI-driven capabilities across its end-to-end grants platform.

Zepo Intelligence: $15 Million Seed Round Raised To Protect Workspaces From AI-Driven Social Engineering

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 13, 2026

Zepo Intelligence, a human-centric cybersecurity startup focused on defending employees against AI-powered manipulation, has raised a $15 million seed round backed by European investors Kibo Ventures, eCAPITAL, and TIN Capital.

Sema4.ai: Interview With Co-Founder & CEO Rob Bearden About The Enterprise AI Agent Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 13, 2026

Sema4.ai is a company that builds an enterprise AI agent platform that helps companies create, deploy, and manage secure AI agents that automate complex workflows across their data, documents, and business applications. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Sema4.ai co-founder and CEO Rob Bearden to gain a deeper understanding of the company.

Dyspute.ai Launches Adri V2, A 24/7 Asynchronous AI Mediation Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 13, 2026

Dyspute.ai announced the official launch of Adri V2, a 24/7 asynchronous AI mediation platform designed to guide parties through dispute resolution without live sessions or simultaneous participation. Announced January 13, 2026, the company said Adri V2 uses an AI mediator persona to manage the process end-to-end, from intake through negotiation and agreement, aiming to reduce scheduling friction, lower costs, and speed up outcomes.

Deepgram: $130 Million Series C At $1.3 Billion Valuation Raised And OfOne Acquisition

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 13, 2026

Deepgram announced it raised $130 million in Series C funding at a $1.3 billion valuation to accelerate development of its real-time voice AI API platform and support new product and ecosystem initiatives, including an acquisition, expanded intellectual property efforts, and a new collaboration space in San Francisco.

OpenAI Acquires Torch In Reported $100 Million Equity Deal To Build Out ChatGPT Health

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 13, 2026

OpenAI has acquired Torch, a small health records startup, in a deal that was not publicly priced but is pegged at about $100 million in equity, according to a source cited by The Information. OpenAI confirmed the acquisition, while Torch said its four-person team will move over to OpenAI as part of the transaction—making the deal look less like a traditional buyout and more like a “acqui-hire.”