Artificial Intelligence

Origin: $21 Million Series A Raised For Global Benefits Intelligence Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 19, 2025

Origin, the world’s first Global Benefits Intelligence platform, announced it officially launched and it has raised $21 million in Series A funding led by Felix Capital, with participation from Acadian Ventures and Notion Capital. And additional investment has been secured from Tudor Havriliuc (former VP of HR at Meta), Paul Daugherty (enterprise AI author) and recently retired CTO of Accenture), Jacqui Canney (CHRO at ServiceNow), and Laura Modiano (Startups Lead for OpenAI in EMEA). The funding round values Origin at $106 million and will advance the company's goal to transform the global benefits industry by providing HR and benefits.

PhaseV: $50 Million Series A Closed For Clinical Development Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 19, 2025

PhaseV, a leader in AI/ML-driven clinical development, announced the completion of a $50 million Series A funding round. The round was co-led by Accel and Insight Partners, and existing investors Viola Ventures, EXOR, and LionBird participated. This brings the company's total funding to $65 million.

DiffuseDrive: $3.5 Million Raised For Physical AI Technology

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 19, 2025

DiffuseDrive, a next-generation physical AI company, announced a double milestone, raising $3.5 million in seed funding and multiple successful deployments with Fortune 500 companies. And the company’s breakthrough generative AI platform turns data scarcity into data abundance automating photorealistic content in hours giving enterprises a competitive edge.

Conversation With CGS Immersive’s Doug Stephen On AI-Powered Roleplay To Improve Soft Skills

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 19, 2025

CGS Immersive, Inc. (a CGS company) is an innovation lab and training transformation engine dedicated to pioneering leading-edge Extended Reality (XR) training solutions for businesses worldwide. Pulse 2.0 interviewed CGS Immersive President Doug Stephen to learn more about the company and the recent debut of its new immersive roleplay platform, Cicero.

Somite AI: $47 Million Series A Raised To Accelerate Human Cell Therapy Development

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 18, 2025

Somite AI, a tech-bio company utilizing foundation models and proprietary AI to advance human cell therapy development, announced it closed a Series A funding round raising more than $47 million. The funding round was led by Khosla Ventures, with participation from SciFi VC, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Fusion Fund, Ajinomoto Group Ventures, Pitango HealthTech, TechAviv, Harpoon Ventures, along with angel investors such as Dr. R. Martin Chavez (former Chairman of Recursion), and Fidji Simo (outgoing CEO of Instacart and incoming CEO of Applications at OpenAI).

Celery: New Round Of Funding Raised For Financial Operations Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 18, 2025

Celery, a financial operations platform that utilizes AI to automate internal controls, today announced that it has raised $6.25 million in seed funding. The funding round was led by Team8, with participation from Verissimo Ventures, Centre Street Partners, 97212 Ventures, and additional strategic angel investors. This brings the company's total funding to $9 million.

Hyperbots: Finance-Focused Agentic AI Platform Raises $6.5 Million Series A

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 18, 2025

Hyperbots, an agentic AI platform for finance and accounting, announced that it has raised a $6.5 million Series A round co-led by Arkam Ventures and Athera Venture Partners. This funding round also saw participation from new investor JSW Ventures and existing investors, Kalaari Capital, Sunicon Ventures, and Darashaw & Company Sunicon Ventures, and Darashaw & Company.

Adopt AI: $6 Million Closed For Turning Apps Into Agents

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 18, 2025

Agentic AI company Adopt AI announced the launch of its platform that enables applications with intelligent agent capabilities, signaling the death of excessive clicking and the rise of conversational interaction. This vision is backed by a $6 million seed funding round, led by Elevation Capital and supported by Foster Ventures, Powerhouse Ventures, Darkmode Ventures, and notable angel investors. This funding emphasizes the significant potential of Adopt AI's agent experience solution to disrupt the market.

TensorStax: $5 Million Closed For Autonomous AI Agentic Platform For Data Engineering

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 18, 2025

TensorStax, an autonomous AI agentic platform for data engineering, announced it has raised $5 million in seed funding led by Glasswing Ventures, with participation from Bee Partners and S3 Ventures.

Samaya AI: $43.5 Million Raised To Advance AI Platform For Financial Services

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 18, 2025

Samaya AI, an expert AI platform for financial services, announced $43.5 million in financing, led by NEA (New Enterprise Associates), with participation from leaders in technology and financial services, including Eric Schmidt (former CEO of Google), Yann LeCun (AI Turing Award winner), David Siegel (Co-founder Two Sigma), and Marty Chavez (Vice Chair Sixth Street), and others.

Granola: $43 Million Series B Raised For AI-Based Notepad

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 18, 2025

Granola, an AI-based notepad that combines your typed notes with AI transcriptions, launched Granola 2.0. The launch also coincided with the announcement that Granola has raised $43 million in Series B funding led by Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross from NFDG, with continued participation from existing investors Mike Mignano from Lightspeed Venture Partners and Nabeel Hyatt from Spark Capital. The company has also attracted investment from a notable roster of angel investors, including Guillermo Rauch (Vercel), Amjad Masad (Replit), Tobi Lutke (Shopify), Karri Saarinen (Linear), Lenny Rachitsky (Lenny's Newsletter), Des Traynor (Intercom), Karim Atiyeh (Ramp), Zach Lloyd (Warp), Charlie Songhurst, Noah Weiss, Romain Huet, Nilan Peiris and Laura Modiano.

Arm And SoftBank Contributing $15.5 Million To Advance AI With Carnegie Mellon And Keio

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 18, 2025

Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), Arm, and SoftBank Group (SBG) announced that Arm and SBG will contribute $15.5 million to CMU to support its partnership with Keio University, a collaboration to accelerate the global advancement of AI.

Cognichip: $33 Million Seed Funding Raised For Advancing Artificial Chip Intelligence

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 16, 2025

Cognichip, a company advancing Artificial Chip Intelligence (ACI) to power the future of semiconductor design, announced its launch out of stealth mode with $33 million in seed funding. The funding round was led by Lux Capital and Mayfield, with support from FPV and Candou Ventures.

Theom: $20 Million Series A Raised For Transforming Data Governance And Security

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 15, 2025

Theom, an AI-native Data Operations Center (DOC) platform that automates AI and data governance and security, announced it has raised $20 million in Series A funding. Wing VC led the round, which also included Sentinel One, Snowflake, and Databricks.

Persona AI: $27 Million Raised For Embodied AI Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 15, 2025

Persona AI, a leader in embodied artificial intelligence, today announced it has closed its oversubscribed pre-seed funding round, raising $27 million. The funding round was co-led by Unity Growth and Tides Ventures, with participation from Mirae Asset Group, Invicta Growth, Fathom Fund, Embedded Ventures, Wave Function Ventures, Zero Infinity Partners, dConstruct Technologies, Goose Capital, SGH, Sound Media Ventures, Kalea Ventures, K50 Ventures, Cofounder Ventures, Tola Capital, SGA Capital, and Olive Hill Ventures, and K2 Global.

Fastino: $17.5 Million Raised For Building Next-Gen LLMs

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 13, 2025

Fastino AI announced it launched a new AI model architecture, coined ‘TLMs’ – Task-Specific Language Models. Fastino also announced $17.5 million in seed funding led by Khosla Ventures, bringing Fastino’s total funding to $25 million. The funding round included participation from preseed lead investor Insight Partners, Valor Equity Partners, and notable angels including Scott Johnston, the previous CEO of Docker, and Lukas Biewald, the CEO of Weights & Biases.

Upscale AI: $5.5 Million Raised To Help Brands Optimize TV Ads

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 13, 2025

Upscale AI announced it has launched to help e-commerce brands win on streaming. And with $5.5 million in seed and pre-seed funding, Upscale launches Upscale Studio, the first end-to-end AI-native platform built to create, run, and optimize performance TV ads across streaming. The seed funding round was led by nvp capital with participation from M12 (Microsoft’s Venture Fund), Eniac Ventures, SuperAngel.Fund and Breakpoint Capital.

Stash: $146 Million Series H Raised And $4.3 Billion AUM Milestone

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 13, 2025

Stash, a transformative platform helping millions build financial futures, announced that it has secured $146 million in an oversubscribed new Series H funding through a round led by Goodwater Capital, with participation from returning investors Union Square Ventures, StepStone Group, Serengeti, and the University of Illinois Foundation, and funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Investment Management.

Rentana: $5 Million Secured For Accelerating Revenue Optimization

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 13, 2025

Rentana, an AI-based revenue intelligence platform for multifamily owners and operators, announced the closing of a nearly $5 million seed funding round led by Zigg Capital and Benchstrength.

Orca AI: $72.5 Million Raised For Scaling Autonomous Shipping Solutions

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 12, 2025

Orca AI, a leader in maritime technology, announced it has closed an investment of $72.5 million in Series B funding. Brighton Park Capital led the funding round with participation from existing investors Ankona Capital and Hyperlink Ventures.

Google Announces AI Futures Fund

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 12, 2025

Today, Google announced the AI Futures Fund. This new program will invest in and collaborate with startups that want to bring their innovative ideas to market using Google DeepMind's latest AI models. With this fund, Google will work closely with companies in various stages of growth while also providing access to Google’s advanced resources, expertise, and early iterations of the company’s latest AI models like Gemini.

illumicell AI: Interview With Co-Founder & CSO Jeyla Sadikova About The Cellular Data Analytics Company

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 12, 2025

illumicell AI is a company that is transforming how clinicians analyze the most fundamental unit of health: the cell in fluid. Pulse 2.0 interviewed illumicell AI co-founder and CSO Jeyla Sadikova to learn more about the company.

Blackstraw AI: Interview with Founder & CEO Atul Arya About Fast-Tracking AI Projects

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 9, 2025

Blackstraw is a leading digital transformation provider specializing in delivering innovative data and artificial intelligence solutions to clients across various industries. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Blackstraw founder and CEO Atul Arya to learn more about the company.

Haut.AI: Interview With Founder & CEO Anastasia Georgievskaya About The Skincare AI Company

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 9, 2025

Haut.AI is an industry-leading global artificial intelligence company that specializes in skincare and longevity. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Haut.AI CEO and founder Anastasia Georgievskaya to learn more about the company.

Sett: $27 Million Series A Secured For Gaming-Focused Agentic AI Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 9, 2025

Sett, an Agentic AI platform for mobile gaming studios, announced it has emerged from stealth with a $15 million Series A funding round led by Bessemer Venture Partners, along with Saga VC, F2 Venture Capital, Vgames, and gaming kingpin Akin Babayigit (Arcadia Gaming Advisors, Tripledot).

Jozu: $4 Million Raised For Scaling Enterprise AI Orchestration Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 9, 2025

Jozu, a company building enterprise-grade orchestration tools for AI applications, announced it has raised $4 million in seed funding. HalfCourt Capital led the round, which also included Mozilla Ventures, BrightSpark, AlleyCorp, Sentiero, and Union Bay Partners.

University Of Michigan Partners With Emeritus To Launch Chief Data And AI Officer Program

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 8, 2025

The Stephen M. Ross School of Business Executive Education and Michigan Engineering Professional Education, both at the University of Michigan, in collaboration with Emeritus, announced that they have launched the Chief Data and AI Officer (CDAIO) Program. This five-month multimodular program enables senior executives to develop AI-driven business strategies, enhance data governance, and lead digital transformation within their organizations. Enrollment is now open for the program starting on June 24, 2025.

EdgeRunner: $12 Million Series A Funding Raised For On-Device AI Agents For Military And Enterprise

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 8, 2025

EdgeRunner AI, a leader in domain-specific, air-gapped, on-device AI agents for military and enterprise, announced the closing of its $12 million Series A fundraise. This funding round was led by Madrona Ventures with participation from seed lead Four Rivers Ventures and joined by new investors HP Tech Ventures and Alumni Ventures. This brings EdgeRunner AI’s total funding to $17.5 million.

Doppel: $35 Million Series B Raised For AI-Based Social Engineering Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 7, 2025

Doppel, an AI-based social engineering defense platform, announced a Series B funding round following a year of rapid growth following its Series A, bringing the total amount raised to $54.4 million. The Series B funding round of $35 million was at a $205 million valuation. It was led by Bessemer Venture Partners, additional first-time Doppel investors 9Yards Capital and Sozo Ventures, and repeat investors a16z, South Park Commons, Strategic Cyber Ventures, Script Capital, and Sabrina Hahn.

LXT: Interview With Cofounder & CEO Mohammad Omar About The AI Data Solutions Company

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 7, 2025

LXT is a provider of industry-leading AI data solutions to power innovation for top 10 global technology companies and Fortune 100 organizations. Pulse 2.0 interviewed LXT co-founder and CEO Mohammad Omar to learn more about the company.