Innovation

Tastewise: $50 Million Raised For Scaling GenAI Tools For The Food Industry

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 23, 2025

Tastewise is a GenAI platform powering execution for the food and beverage industry that announced a $50 million Series B to scale its generative AI-based marketing and sales tools for global brands. The funding round was led by TELUS Global Ventures, with participation from Duo Partners, Peakbridge, Disruptive AI, and PICO, bringing Tastewise's total funding to date to $72 million.

Ares Management Buying Minority Stake In Plenitude For €2 Billion

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 23, 2025

Ares Management, a global alternative investment manager, announced that Ares Alternative Credit funds have entered into a definitive agreement for the acquisition of a 20% stake in Plenitude, a leader in energy transition controlled by Eni, for about €2 billion. This consideration implies an enterprise value for Plenitude of over €12 billion. The completion of the transaction is subject to customary regulatory approvals.

Caylent: Interview With CTO Randall Hunt About The Cloud Native Services Company

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 23, 2025

Caylent is a cloud native services company that helps organizations bring the best out of their people and technology using AWS. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Caylent CTO Randall Hunt to learn more about the company.

Zorro: $20 Million Series A Raised For Benefits Administration Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 23, 2025

Zorro, a next-generation benefits administration platform using advanced technology and big data to transform how America's workers plan, pay, and save for healthcare, announced that it has secured $20 million in a Series A round led by Entrée Capital, with participation from existing investors 10D and Pitango.

Teqtivity: Interview With CEO Hiren Hasmukh About The Smart Vending Solutions Company

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 23, 2025

Teqtivity is a company that provides IT asset management and smart vending solutions. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Teqtivity CEO Hiren Hasmukh to gain a deeper understanding of the company.

Payrails: $32 Million Series A Raised For Helping Enterprises Maximize Payment Performance

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 23, 2025

Payrails, a payment software company, announced it has raised $32 million in Series A funding to further its mission of enabling enterprises to take control of their payment operations. The funding round was led by HV Capital’s Growth Fund, with strong participation from all existing investors, including EQT Ventures, General Catalyst, and Andreessen Horowitz, bringing the total funding raised to over $52.8 million.

Parallel Bio: $21 Million Series A Raised For Advancing Human-First Drug Discovery

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 23, 2025

Parallel Bio, a company pioneering human-first drug discovery, announced it has raised $21 million in Series A funding, led by AIX Ventures. The funding round attracted prominent leaders in AI and biotech, including new investors Amplo and Marc Benioff, founder and CEO of Salesforce, as well as existing investors Metaplanet, Humba Ventures, Atypical Ventures, Undeterred Capital, and Jeff Dean.

Operant AI: Interview With CEO Vrajesh Bhavsar About The Runtime Application Defense Platform Company

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 23, 2025

Operant AI is known as the world's only Runtime AI Defense Platform. The company's 3D Runtime Defense Suite discovers, detects, and defends over 80% of the OWASP Top 10 most critical attacks across APIs, K8s, and LLMs. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Operant AI CEO Vrajesh Bhavsar to learn more about the company.

Multiverse Computing: $215 Million Secured For Scaling Quantum AI Model Compression

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 23, 2025

Multiverse Computing, a quantum-inspired AI model compression company, has developed CompactifAI, a compression technology capable of reducing the size of LLMs (Large Language Models) by up to 95% while maintaining model performance. Having spent last year developing the technology and rolling it out to initial customers, the company also recently announced a €189 million ($215 million) investment round. The Series B funding round will be led by Bullhound Capital with the support of HP Tech Ventures, SETT, Forgepoint Capital International, CDP Venture Capital, Santander Climate VC, Quantonation, Toshiba and Capital Riesgo de Euskadi - Grupo SPRI.

Volantis: $9 Million Secured For Photonic Compute Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 23, 2025

Volantis, a semiconductor startup building photonically integrated computers for the AI era, has announced its emergence from stealth and a $9 million seed round of funding. The funding round includes backing from Alex Wang (Scale AI) and Trevor Blackwell (Y Combinator). Sam Altman backed Volantis in April 2022, betting on the need for foundational breakthroughs in computing long before today’s AI infrastructure limitations became apparent.

Meter: $170 Million Raised For Internet Infrastructure Solutions Provider

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 23, 2025

Meter, a leading provider of internet infrastructure solutions for the enterprise, announced it raised $170 million in a Series C funding round led by Hemant Taneja at General Catalyst, with new and existing investors such as Baillie Gifford, Lachy Groom, J.P. Morgan, Microsoft, Sequoia Capital, Tishman Speyer, WndrCo, and 53 Stations.

Nominal: $75 Million Raised For Real-Time Test Stack For Physical Systems

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 23, 2025

Rebel Medicine: $6 Million Series A Secured For Advancing Non‑Opioid Pain Therapeutic Into Clinical Development

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 23, 2025

Rebel Medicine, a clinical‑stage biotechnology company developing innovative drug delivery systems and non‑opioid pain therapeutics for acute and post-operative pain, announced the closing of its $6 million Series A funding.

Enterome: $19 Million Secured To Fund Development Of OncoMimics Immunotherapy To Treat Follicular Lymphoma

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 23, 2025

Commons Clinic: $26 Million Series B Raised For Wholebody Multi-Specialty Care Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 23, 2025

Commons Clinic announced a $26 million Series B financing, bringing the total funding to over $60 million. The funding round was led by RA Capital, with participation from Floating Point, SteelSky Ventures, Time BioVentures, Courtside Ventures, and physicians from Commons Clinic.

Tadaweb: $20 Million Secured For Scaling Small Data PAI And OSINT Operating System

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 23, 2025

Tadaweb announced it has secured $20 million to scale its Small Data Operating System for publicly available information (PAI) and open-source intelligence (OSINT). Arsenal Growth and Forgepoint Capital International led the investment, with participation from existing investor Wendel.

Infinity Bio: $8 Million Series A Raised For Mapping Immune Responses At Scale

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 23, 2025

Infinity Bio, a biotechnology company pioneering technologies to map immune responses at scale, announced the successful closing of an $8 million Series A financing round. The funding round was led by Illumina Ventures, with participation from PTX Capital, Blackbird BioVentures, and Propel Baltimore Fund.

Lioncrest Ventures: $100 Million Multi-Strategy Platform Debuted

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 23, 2025

Lioncrest Ventures, a new purpose-built venture, announced its debut and initial raise of $30 million toward its $100 million multi-strategy platform spanning both equity and credit funds.

Uncountable: $27 Million Series A Raised For Advancing AI Adoption

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 23, 2025

Uncountable, a platform for digital transformation in industrial research and development, announced it has raised $27 million in an oversubscribed Series A funding round. The funding round was led by Sageview Capital with participation from SE Ventures, the specialist venture fund backed by Schneider Electric, and all existing investors, Teamworthy, 8VC, and MK Capital.

Tow4Tech: Interview With CEO Craig Schneider About The Commercial Trucking Software Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 23, 2025

Tow4Tech is a company that has created a software solution, exclusively catering to the commercial trucking industry. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Tow4Tech CEO & co-founder Craig Schneider to gain a deeper understanding of the company.

Qualytics: $10 Million Series A Raised For Augmented Data Quality Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 23, 2025

Qualytics, an enterprise platform for augmented data quality, announced an oversubscribed $10 million Series A funding round, led by BMW i Ventures. Conductive Ventures and The Hill Fund, backed by Firebrand Ventures, joined the round, along with existing investors Tech Square Ventures, Knoll Ventures, Inner Loop Capital, SaaS Venture Capital, and Rich Family Ventures.

Spinwheel: $30 Million Series A Raised For Changing How Consumer Credit Data Is Accessed

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 23, 2025

Spinwheel is a company that is transforming how consumer credit data is accessed, activated, and embedded into financial workflows. The company announced the closing of a $30 million Series A funding round, led by F-Prime with participation from QED Investors, Foundation Capital, and Fika Ventures.

Tesla Launches Robotaxi In Austin At A $4.20 Flat Fee

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 22, 2025

Tesla has officially announced the Robotaxi, which has debuted in Austin, Texas over the weekend. Initially, customers would pay a flat fee of $4.20. Tesla said that Cybercab, its fully autonomous vehicle, will begin offering rides in your area in the future.

Shift4 To Buy Payment Processing And POS Company Smartpay

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 22, 2025

Shift4 (a leader in integrated payments and commerce technology) announced it has signed a definitive agreement to buy Smartpay, a leading independent provider of payment processing and point-of-sale solutions in Australia and New Zealand, for NZ $296.4 million (about $180 million) or NZ$1.20 per share. This represents a 46.5% premium to the 90-day Volume Weighted Average Price (VWAP).

New Iridium: $2.65 Million Seed Raised For Advancing Sustainable Chemical Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 22, 2025

New Iridium, a sustainable chemical innovation company pioneering low-carbon and clean chemistry technologies, announced it has raised $2.65 million in seed financing. This funding round builds on support from the National Science Foundation and U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), including a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) and ENERGYWERX Vouchers awarded through the DOE’s Office of Technology Commercialization (OTC).

Outset: $17 Million Series A Raised For Helping Enterprises Scale

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 22, 2025

Outset, an AI-moderated research platform that provides the scale and speed of a survey with the depth of a one-to-one interview, announced that it has raised a $17 million Series A round to bring AI-based research to Fortune 500 enterprises. The funding round was led by 8VC, with participation from new investor Future Back Ventures, a venture arm of Bain & Company, and existing investors Y Combinator, Adverb Ventures, Rebel Fund, Genius Ventures, Ritual Capital, and Alt Capital.

GrailPay: $6.7 Million Raised For Risk And Data Banking Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 22, 2025

GrailPay, a risk and data platform for bank payments, announced $6.7 million in funding to expand its suite of tools that make ACH transactions safer, smarter, and faster. The funding was led by Construct Capital, with participation from Commerce Ventures, Broadhaven Ventures, Soma Capital, Grasshopper Bank, and a network of experienced fintech operators and angel investors. This round follows an initial fundraise led by Noemis Ventures.

Seven Stars: First Fund Announced At $40 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 22, 2025

Seven Stars, a VC firm that partners with founders building the next generation of AI companies, announced the launch of its inaugural $40 million pre-seed and seed-stage fund, which was oversubscribed in just five weeks. Founded and managed by Steven Lee, a former Partner at SV Angel, Seven Stars will partner with early-stage AI startups, focusing sharply on applications across consumer and enterprise technology.

Blend: $300 Million M&A Initiative Revealed

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 22, 2025

To solidify its position as a global AI and analytics powerhouse, Blend360 announced an aggressive M&A strategy as a pillar of its long-term growth agenda. And the company plans to invest over $300 million in strategic acquisitions over the next five years, targeting firms that will enhance its capabilities, expand its global footprint, and accelerate innovation across key industries.

Ubyx: $10 Million Seed Funding Closed For Stablecoin Clearing System

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 22, 2025

Ubyx, a stablecoin clearing system that enables regulated banks and fintechs to redeem stablecoins at face value, announced a $10 million seed round led by Galaxy Ventures with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Founders Fund, VanEck, Mirana Ventures, LayerZero, Paxos, Boku, Payoneer, and Monerium.