Startups

Lightshift Energy: Utility-Scale Energy Storage Development Company Raises $100 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 29, 2024

Lightshift Energy (formerly Delorean Power) announced a $100 million capital infusion from Greenbacker Capital Management.

Skyflow: Data And AI Privacy Company Secures $30 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 29, 2024

Data privacy vault company Skyflow announced it has raised $30 million to extend its Series B funding. Khosla Ventures led the round, joined by prior investors Mouro Capital, Foundation Capital, and Canvas Ventures. This funding round follows revenue growth of more than 210% and quick adoption in the emerging market of sensitive data protection for large language models (LLMs).

Pelago: Substance Use Virtual Clinic Company Raises $58 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 29, 2024

Pelago - a leading digital clinic partner to U.S. businesses and health plans for substance use management - announced $58 million in new funding on the strength of customer growth and validated ROI. This funding round brought the company’s total to $151 million.

Blueground: $45 Million Raised To Expand Flexible Rental Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 29, 2024

Blueground - the largest global operator of furnished and flexible rentals for 30+ day stays - announced that it has secured $45 million in Series D funding. This funding round includes investments from new investor Susquehanna Private Equity Investments, LLLP (Susquehanna), and other notable investors, including WestCap. Blueground also raised a debt facility from Barclays with participation from Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank, and HSBC, which replaced its prior facilities with Silicon Valley Bank (SVB).

Oka: Carbon Insurance Company Secures $10 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 29, 2024

Carbon Insurance Company Oka announced it has closed a $10 million funding round, which sets the foundation for the next growth phase. The company’s lead investors included Aquiline Capital Partners LP, firstminute capital, and Overview Capital. This round of funding also included the support of multiple angel investors with a vested interest in climate technology and carbon-market innovation.

Benjamin Capital Partners: Cash-Rewards Platform Company Raises $5.5 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 29, 2024

Benjamin Capital Partners announced the closing of a $5.5 million seed round from Play Ventures and F4 Fund. Other prominent investors in the round include Anton Gauffin, an inventor, investor, and serial entrepreneur; payment veteran Shane Happach; and Reworks founder Ilkka Teppo.

Manifest Technologies: Precision Neuroscience And Computational Neuroimaging Company Launches

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 29, 2024

Manifest Technologies, a developer of an AI-powered computational neuroimaging platform for CNS disease, unveiled the company after completing the initial funding and partnership with a top-five global pharmaceutical company. Supported by over $50 million of NIH-funded research at Yale, the scientific founders pioneered the NAIO technology, utilizing computational neuroscience and AI for enabling a true precision medicine approach to mental illness and neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

Cloverleaf: Automated Coaching Technology Company Raises $7.3 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 29, 2024

Cloverleaf, a leading automated coaching technology designed to bring out the best in workers and teams, has secured a $7.3 million Series A extension funding round. Advantage Capital led the round, including Conductive Ventures, Origin Ventures, ScOp Venture Capital, JobsOhio, Cintrifuse Capital, and 1809 Capital.

Evari: $7.5 Million Raised To Develop Next-Generation Heat Pump Turbocompressors

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 29, 2024

Evari, a developer of pioneering next-generation heat pump turbocompressors, announced a $7.5 million seed financing to commercialize a green design for the electrification of consumer and industrial heating and cooling systems. Headed by Clean Energy Ventures, with participation from Clean Energy Venture Group (CEVG) angel investors and Farvatn Venture, the funding will enable Evari to grow its team and scale up its manufacturing capabilities.

Observe: SaaS Observability Company Raises $115 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 29, 2024

Observe, a SaaS observability company reinventing how machine-generated data is stored, managed, and analyzed, announced it has closed a $115 million Series B funding round led by Sutter Hill Ventures. Existing investors Capital One Ventures and Madrona participated, and new investor Snowflake Ventures participated.

Thoras.ai: Cloud Workload Scaling And Anomaly Detection Company Raises $1.5 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 29, 2024

Thoras.ai announced the successful closure of a $1.5 million pre-seed funding round. The funding round was co-led by Storytime Capital and Focal VC, with participation from Hustle Fund, Precursor Ventures, the Pitch Fund, and strategic angel investors.

Sanctuary AI Raises Funding From Accenture Ventures

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 29, 2024

Accenture Ventures announced it had made a strategic investment in Sanctuary AI, a developer of humanoid general-purpose robots powered by AI that can perform various work tasks quickly, safely, and effectively.

TurbineOne: Government Machine Learning Leader Raises $15 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 29, 2024

TurbineOne, a leader in government Machine Learning (ML) that is edge-first, announced it raised $15 million in its Series A funding round. This round was led by Bessemer Venture Partners and included previous investors The General Partnership and XYZ Ventures. Pallas Ventures (a national security-focused investment firm) also joined this round.

Ensis: Proposal Software Company Raises $4 Million To Help Organizations Win More Government Contracts

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 29, 2024

Champ Titles: Digital Vehicle Title Provider Raises $18 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 29, 2024

Champ Titles, a leading provider of digital vehicle title, registration, and lien systems of record in the United States, announced it has raised $18 million in Series C financing. Point72 Ventures led the round, joined by existing investors W.R. Berkley Corporation, Eos Venture Partners, Guidewire Software, Rev1 Ventures, and others. Including this round, Champ Titles has raised over $45 million.

Elixir Games: web3 Gaming Company Raises $14 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 29, 2024

Elixir Games, a leading web3 gaming distribution platform backed by Square Enix, announced the close of its seed funding round, raising $14 million to drive the development of a comprehensive global gaming ecosystem that will launch later this year.

StealthMole: Dark Web Data Intelligence Company Raises $7 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 29, 2024

Coro: SME-Focused Cybersecurity Platform Company Closes $100 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 29, 2024

Coro, a leading cybersecurity platform purpose-built for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), announced it had secured $100 million in Series D funding led by One Peak. Existing investors Energy Impact Partners and Balderton Capital also participated. The company has raised $255 million in the last two years, including this funding round.

Hume AI: $50 Million Secured To Build AI Optimized For Well-Being

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 29, 2024

Hume AI - a company and research lab building artificial intelligence optimized for human well-being - announced it had raised a $50 million Series B funding round. EQT Ventures led this round. Union Square Ventures, Nat Friedman & Daniel Gross, Metaplanet, Northwell Holdings, Comcast Ventures, and LG Technology Ventures also joined the round.

NewRetirement: Financial Planning Platform Closes $20 Million In Funding

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 29, 2024

NewRetirement - a comprehensive and digital-first financial planning platform for consumers and enterprise partners - announced that it has closed its Series A round with $20 million in funding. The funding round was led by Allegis Capital and joined by Ulu Ventures, Nationwide Ventures, Fin Capital, Frontier Venture Capital, Cameron Ventures, Marin Sonoma Impact Ventures, Northwestern Mutual Future Ventures, Plug and Play Ventures, and Motley Fool Ventures. This funding round brought the total to $20.8 million.

iCustoms.AI: $2.2 Million Raised To Transform Trade Compliance Using AI

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 29, 2024

iCustoms.AI is a leading provider of AI-powered trade compliance solutions that announced the closing of a $2.2 million seed funding round. Fuel Ventures, a leading venture capital firm, and PlugnPlay, Outrun Ventures, Montblu Capital, SyndicateRoom, and leading angels are backing iCustoms' growth.

Gather AI: AI-Based Warehouse Inventory Monitoring Solutions Company Raises $17 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 28, 2024

Nourish: Telenutrition Platform Company Raises $35 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 28, 2024

Nourish, a telenutrition platform connecting people to registered dietitians covered by insurance, announced that it has raised $35 million in Series A funding. The funding round was led by Index Ventures with participation from Maverick Ventures and TCV. Also joining in the round were existing backers Y Combinator, Thrive Capital, and BoxGroup and several prominent angel investors, including professional soccer player Alex Morgan and founders from Oscar, Olipop, and Notion.

Oriole Networks: UCL AI System Performance Spinout Company Raises £10 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 28, 2024

Oriole Networks - a company transforming the performance of AI systems and data centers – announced it has successfully raised £10 million in seed funding. The funding round was co-led by UCL Technology Fund, Clean Growth Fund, XTX Ventures, and Dorilton Ventures, with support from Innovate UK Investor Partnership.

Celestial AI: Photonic Fabric Company Closes $175 Million In Series C

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 28, 2024

Celestial AI - the creator of the Photonic Fabric optical interconnect technology platform - announced it raised $175 million in its Series C funding round led by Thomas Tull’s U.S. Innovative Technology Fund (USIT). Along with USIT, the funding round included participation from new and existing investors, including AMD Ventures, Koch Disruptive Technologies (KDT), Temasek, Temasek’s wholly owned subsidiary Xora Innovation, IAG Capital Partners, Samsung Catalyst, Smart Global Holdings (SGH), Porsche Automobil Holding SE, Engine Ventures, M-Ventures and Tyche Partners.

ValidMind: AI And Model Risk Management Platform Raises $8.1 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 28, 2024

ValidMind, a leading next-generation AI and model risk management platform for financial services, announced it had raised $8.1 million in a seed funding round led by Point72 Ventures. Third Prime, New York Life Ventures, AI Fund, Notion Capital, FJ Labs, Angel Invest, and Gaingels also participated.

Sertis: Insurance-Focused Managing General Agency Raises $3.2 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 28, 2024

Sertis - a managing general agency (MGA) focused on the insurance industry – announced it has successfully completed an oversubscribed $3.2 million seed funding round. JLL Spark Global Ventures (the venture capital arm of JLL) led the investment. Ajey Kaushal, an investor at JLL Spark, joins Sertis' board in connection with the investment.

EVOLOH: $20 Million Secured To Develop Electrolyzer Stacks For Hydrogen Production

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 28, 2024

EVOLOH, a cleantech company that develops electrolyzer stacks for hydrogen production, announced it had raised an oversubscribed $20 million Series A round led by Engine Ventures. Additional participating investors include a subsidiary of NextEra Energy Resources and 3M Ventures.

SecondWave Systems: Bio-Ultrasonic Medicine Company Raises $3 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 28, 2024

SecondWave Systems has made a couple of major announcements. SecondWave Systems has welcomed Professor Paul Peter Tak as the inaugural member of its newly established advisory board. And SecondWave also announced that it has secured $3 million of additional funding from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) in partnership with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), bringing the total non-dilutive funding from U.S. government agencies to $15.3 million.

Nominal: $9.2 Million Raised To Bridge The Gap Between Costly ERP Systems

By Amit Chowdhry ● Mar 28, 2024

Nominal is a company tapping into generative AI to bridge the gap between outdated and costly ERP systems and the financial management needs of modern mid-market and multi-entity businesses. The company launched this week with $9.2 million in seed funding from Bling Capital and Hyperwise Ventures, with participation from Vela Partners, Incubate Fund, and executives at companies like Bill.com, Salesforce, Justworks, ServiceNow, and Intel.