Innovation

Obin AI: $7 Million Seed Funding Raised By Enterprise AI Company Building Agentic Workforce For Financial Institutions

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 18, 2026

Obin AI, an enterprise artificial intelligence company focused on financial services, has emerged from stealth with $7 million in seed funding to build what it describes as an agentic workforce for financial institutions. The round was led by Motive Partners, with participation from angel investors and advisors, including Dr. Fei-Fei Li and Lukasz Kaiser.

Duravent Group: Strategic Growth Investment Secured To Expand HVAC And Air Quality Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 18, 2026

Duravent Group, a Detroit-based climate technology company specializing in venting and air quality solutions, has secured a strategic growth investment from Bain Capital. The investment, made alongside existing investor Egeria, is aimed at accelerating the company’s expansion through both organic initiatives and strategic acquisitions. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Excalipoint Therapeutics: $68.7 Million Raised For Next-Generation T-Cell Engager Therapies

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 18, 2026

Excalipoint Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on next-generation T-cell engager therapies, announced the close of an oversubscribed $68.7 million seed financing round to advance its proprietary platforms and pipeline targeting cancer and autoimmune diseases.

Agency Capital Partners Launches To Acquire Small Digital Marketing Agencies Across The U.S.

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 18, 2026

Agency Capital Partners (ACP) has officially launched as a holding company focused on acquiring small digital marketing agencies across the United States, targeting a segment of the market that has historically lacked viable exit opportunities.

Beautiful.ai: $45 Million Raised For AI-Powered Presentation Software Expansion

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 18, 2026

Beautiful.ai, an AI-powered presentation software company, announced the launch of a new context-aware AI workflow alongside securing $45 million in funding from General Catalyst to accelerate its global growth and product development.

RAVEN.IO: $20 Million Raised For Runtime Cybersecurity Platform Targeting AI-Driven Attacks

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 18, 2026

RAVEN.IO, a cybersecurity company focused on protecting applications at runtime, announced it has raised $20 million in funding to accelerate product development, expand its U.S. go to market efforts, and grow its engineering and research teams. The round was led by Norwest, with additional investment from Elron Ventures and participation from RedSeed, UpWest, SentinelOne, Jibe Ventures, Dnipro VC, Unusual Ventures, CyberFuture, and Descope CEO Slavik Markovich.

MassRobotics: Physical AI Fellowship Program Announces Second Cohort With AWS And NVIDIA Support

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 18, 2026

MassRobotics has announced the second cohort of its Physical AI Fellowship, a virtual program powered by Amazon Web Services Startups and NVIDIA Inception, designed to help high-potential robotics startups build, refine, and scale physical AI solutions.

Connection Capital Appoints Sam Kemp As CEO To Lead Next Phase Of Growth

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 18, 2026

Connection Capital, a London-based private markets investment firm, has appointed Sam Kemp as Chief Executive Officer and Partner, a newly created role designed to support the firm’s continued expansion as demand for private market investments grows.

XBOW: $120 Million Raised To Scale Autonomous Offensive Security Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 18, 2026

XBOW, an autonomous offensive security company, announced it has raised $120 million in Series C financing, valuing the company at over $1 billion. The funding round was led by DFJ Growth and Northzone, with participation from Sofina, Alkeon Capital, Altimeter, NFDG Ventures, and Sequoia Capital.

Owkin: Interview With Co-Founder & CEO Dr. Thomas Clozel About The Patient Data Company

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 18, 2026

Owkin is a TechBio company that uses AI and federated learning to analyze decentralized patient data, aiming to improve drug discovery, clinical trials, and diagnostics. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Owkin co-founder and CEO Dr. Thomas Clozel to learn more.

Miracle Chain: $200 Million Oil-Backed Initiative To Build African Capital Gateway

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 18, 2026

Miracle Chain has announced a new blockchain-based initiative aimed at expanding global access to African markets through tokenized assets and integrated payment infrastructure. The project centers on building a scalable financial framework designed to make African economic opportunities more accessible, structured, and investable for international participants.

Linux Foundation: $12.5 Million Raised For Open Source Security Initiative

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 18, 2026

The Linux Foundation announced $12.5 million in grant funding from a coalition of major technology companies to strengthen the security of the open source software ecosystem, as artificial intelligence accelerates both software development and vulnerability discovery.

CometChat: $6.5 Million Raised To Expand AI Agent Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 18, 2026

CometChat announced it has raised $6.5 million in strategic funding from Run Ventures as it accelerates the expansion of its next-generation AI agent platform. The company has now raised a total of $21.1 million to date.

Advanced Inhalation Rituals: Interview With CEO Stuart Brazier About The Global Social Inhalation Leader

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 18, 2026

Advanced Inhalation Rituals (AIR) is a leader in social inhalation and the world’s largest flavored hookah producer by volume, owning the iconic Al Fakher brand. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Advanced Inhalation Rituals CEO Stuart Brazier to learn more.

Transform Iran: Interview With Lana Silk About The Faith-Based Outreach

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 18, 2026

Transform Iran is a Christian ministry that aims to transform Iranian society by planting underground churches, developing leaders, and spreading the gospel through media outreach and humanitarian aid. The organization focuses on long-term, structural, and spiritual change across Iran. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Transform Iran CEO Lana Silk to learn more.

Beanstack Acquires Comics Plus To Launch Joyful Reading Company

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 18, 2026

Beanstack announced it has acquired Comics Plus, bringing together a reading motivation platform with a digital content library to form a new brand, Joyful Reading Company. The combined entity aims to increase reading engagement by pairing Beanstack’s motivation tools with Comics Plus’s catalog of comics, graphic novels, manga, and picture books.

Podpage Acquires School Of Podcasting To Expand Education With Free Tier And Coaching

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 18, 2026

Podpage announced that it has acquired the School of Podcasting, a long-running podcast education platform founded in 2005 by Dave Jackson, as part of a broader push to expand access to podcasting education and integrate learning more deeply into its ecosystem.

SuperSeed: £50 Million Fund III Launched For Physical AI Startups With British Business Bank Backing

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 18, 2026

SuperSeed has launched its third fund, securing a cornerstone commitment of up to £50 million from the British Business Bank to invest in seed-stage companies focused on physical AI. The fund, backed through the Enterprise Capital Funds programme, will target B2B AI and SaaS startups applying artificial intelligence to industries such as manufacturing, energy, construction, and autonomous systems.

British Business Bank: €20 Million Commitment To Partech Impact Fund

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 18, 2026

The British Business Bank, a UK government-owned development bank, has committed €20 million to Partech Partners’ inaugural €300 million Impact Fund, expanding its strategy of backing European growth funds that invest in UK businesses.

SEALSQ: $125 Million Raised In Registered Direct Offering Priced At $4.11 Per Share

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 18, 2026

SEALSQ Corp announced that it has entered into a securities purchase agreement with several institutional investors to raise approximately $125.0 million through a registered direct offering priced at-the-market under Nasdaq rules.

Blify: $2.1 Million Raised For AI Workplace Learning Platform Embedded In Slack And Teams

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 18, 2026

Paris-based HR tech startup Blify has raised $2.1 million in pre-seed funding to accelerate development of its AI-powered learning platform designed to integrate directly into workplace tools such as Slack, Microsoft Teams, and WhatsApp. The round was led by AFI Ventures, with participation from Kima Ventures, Better Angle, Fair Equity, and more than 50 angel investors, including operators from companies such as Maki People, Alan, Doctolib, and JobTeaser.

Robinhood: $34.6 Million Of Ventures Fund I Invested In Stripe And ElevenLabs

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 18, 2026

Robinhood Markets announced that its closed-end Robinhood Ventures Fund I (RVI) has completed investments in two high-profile private companies, Stripe and ElevenLabs, marking the fund’s latest move to expand retail investor access to private markets.

Ōura: Brian Lynch Joins As Senior Vice President Of Hardware Engineering

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 18, 2026

Brian Lynch, a longtime Apple hardware leader, has joined smart ring maker Ōura as Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering, marking a notable executive move in the consumer health wearables space.

Gency AI: $20 Million Raised For AI And Blockchain Advertising Infrastructure

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 18, 2026

Gency AI, an AI and blockchain infrastructure company based in San Francisco, announced that it has raised $20 million in new funding to support the development of its sovereign advertising network.

AmpliSi: £2 Million Raised For Silicon Battery Materials Scale-Up

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 18, 2026

AmpliSi, a University of Sheffield spin-out developing silicon anode materials for next-generation lithium-ion batteries, has raised £2m in pre-seed funding. The round was led by Northern Gritstone and Clean Growth Fund, with the capital aimed at advancing the company from laboratory development to industrial scale-up and early customer engagement.

Sequen: $16 Million Raised For AI Personalization Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 18, 2026

Sequen, a New York City-based artificial intelligence company focused on in-session personalization for enterprise consumer applications, has raised $16 million in Series A funding, bringing its total funding to $22 million.

SetSale: $2 Million Raised For AI-Powered HVAC Sales Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 18, 2026

SetSale, a Charlotte, North Carolina-based developer of an AI-powered sales platform for the residential HVAC industry, has raised $2 million in seed funding, bringing its total funding to $2.7 million since its founding in 2024. The round was led by York IE, with participation from Palmetto and Finturf.

GSR: $57 Million Acquisition Of Crypto Advisory Firms Autonomous And Architech To Build Integrated Capital Markets Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 18, 2026

GSR announced it has acquired digital asset advisory firms Autonomous and Architech in a $57 million deal aimed at creating a full-service, integrated capital markets and treasury platform for crypto.

Google: Personal Intelligence Expands To Free Users Across Search, Gemini App, And Chrome In The U.S.

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 18, 2026

Google has officially announced the expansion of its Personal Intelligence feature to a broader audience in the United States, making it available to free-tier users across AI Mode in Search, the Gemini app, and Gemini in Chrome.

Sun Auto Tire & Service Expands Into Colorado With 23-Location Acquisition

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 18, 2026

Sun Auto Tire & Service announced it has expanded into Colorado through the acquisition of 23 locations across Colorado and Arizona from DAS Drive Automotive Services, marking its entry into its 26th U.S. state. The move establishes a strong presence in the greater Denver market while reinforcing the company’s footprint in the Southwest.