Startups

University Of Arkansas GORP Seeks Applicants For Spring 2026 Outdoor Recreation Startup Cohort

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 22, 2026

The University of Arkansas’ Greenhouse Outdoor Recreation Project (GORP), the school’s flagship business incubator for outdoor recreation startups, is accepting applications for its spring 2026 cohort as the program returns with new multi-year funding.

AiStrike: $7 Million Seed Funding Raised To Scale AI-Native And Preemptive Cyber Defense Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 22, 2026

AiStrike has raised $7 million in seed funding to expand an AI-native platform designed to help security teams move from reactive alert handling to what the company calls “preemptive” cyber defense. The round was led by Blumberg Capital, with participation from Runtime Ventures, Oregon Venture Fund, and strategic angel investors.

LatticeFlow AI Acquires AI Sonar To Add On-Prem Discovery To Evidence-Based AI Governance

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 22, 2026

LatticeFlow AI announced it has acquired Dublin-based AI Sonar Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of CloudSphere Ltd., in a deal the company unveiled during the World Economic Forum in Davos. The acquisition adds AI Sonar’s “AI discovery” capabilities—aimed at detecting “shadow AI” across enterprise environments—to LatticeFlow AI’s governance platform, which focuses on technical evaluations and evidence generation.

Nexxa.ai: $9 Million Seed Funding Closed To Scale AI Agents For Heavy Industry Workflows

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 21, 2026

Nexxa.ai has raised a $9 million seed round to scale specialized AI agents designed for heavy-industry workflows, as the company looks to expand deployments across rail, construction, manufacturing, and other critical infrastructure sectors.

AheadComputing Raises Additional $30 Million Seed2 Round To Reimagine CPU Architecture

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 21, 2026

AheadComputing, a Portland, Oregon-based IP design house developing high-performance RISC-V CPU cores, has raised an additional $30 million in a Seed2 financing round, bringing total funding to $53 million. The round was co-led by Eclipse, Toyota Ventures, and Cambium, with participation from Corner, Trousdale Ventures, EPIQ, MESH, and Stata.

Benepass: $40 Million Series B Closed To Expand Benefits Platform for Employers Facing Rising Healthcare Costs

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 21, 2026

Benepass has raised $40 million in Series B funding to expand its benefits capital management platform as employers look for new ways to rein in rising healthcare costs without simply shifting more expense onto employees. The round was led by Centana Growth Partners, with participation from FoW Partners and existing backers Portage Ventures and Threshold Ventures.

Renterra: $9 Million Series A Raised To Scale AI-Driven Equipment Rental Software

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 21, 2026

Renterra has raised $9 million in a Series A round to accelerate growth of its equipment rental software platform and expand its use of practical AI tools for rental operators.

Claim Health: $4.4 Million Seed Funding Raised To Automate Post-Acute Revenue Operations With AI

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 21, 2026

Claim Health, a Y Combinator-backed startup building AI-native revenue operations infrastructure for post-acute care, has raised a $4.4 million seed round led by Maverick Ventures, with participation from Peak XV, Y Combinator, and DHVP. The financing also included checks from C-suite executives at large post-acute care providers, which the company said reflect growing demand for modernized revenue workflows in home health, hospice, and personal care settings.

Campfire Interactive Acquires Cover 4 PM To Broaden AI-Driven Profit Optimization For Manufacturers

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 21, 2026

Campfire Interactive announced it has acquired Cover 4 PM, adding program and project management capabilities to its AI-enabled profit optimization platform for automotive suppliers and manufacturers.

Duetti: $200 Million Secured To Scale Independent Music Catalog Acquisitions And Expand Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 21, 2026

Duetti, a music-tech and financial services company focused on helping independent creators monetize and manage their music rights, has secured $200 million in new capital to accelerate catalog acquisitions and expand its technology and services globally.

One To One Health Partners With Frist Cressey On $12 Million Investment To Scale AI-Enabled Primary Care

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 21, 2026

One to One Health announced it has raised a $12 million minority growth investment from Frist Cressey Ventures to expand its employer-sponsored primary care model and accelerate development of its AI-enabled clinical platform, Intelligent Care Manager.

PraxisPro: $6 Million Seed Funding Raised To Transform Life Sciences With AI for Commercial Intelligence

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 21, 2026

PraxisPro, a data intelligence company focused on improving how life sciences organizations generate and govern commercial insights, has raised a $6 million oversubscribed seed round led by AlleyCorp. Flybridge, South Loop Ventures, Zeal Capital Partners, True Ventures, Techstars, Alumni Ventures, and Daring Ventures also participated in the financing.

OpenEvidence: $250 Million Series D At $12 Billion Valuation Raised To Expand AI ‘Medical Superintelligence’ Platform for Doctors

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 21, 2026

OpenEvidence, an AI-powered medical search platform used by clinicians, said it has raised $250 million in a Series D financing that values the company at $12 billion, positioning it as the highest-valued healthcare AI company. Thrive Capital and DST Global co-led the financing. This round brings the total funding raised over the past 12 months to roughly $700 million. And it listed a broad roster of prior investors, including Sequoia, Google Ventures, Nvidia, Kleiner Perkins, Blackstone, Henry Kravis, Coatue, Thrive Capital, Conviction, ICONIQ, Greycroft, Breyer Capital, BOND, Craft Ventures, Goanna, Meritech, Alkeon, and Mayo Clinic, among others.

Engineering Resource Group Raises Strategic Investment From Godspeed Capital

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 21, 2026

Engineering Resource Group, a mechanical, electrical, and plumbing engineering consulting and design firm based in Mississippi, has received a strategic investment from private equity firm Godspeed Capital Management LP. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Furl: $10 Million Seed Round Closed To Bring Agentic AI To Security Remediation

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 21, 2026

Furl, a security remediation startup focused on automating the execution of vulnerability and configuration fixes, has raised a $10 million seed round led by Ten Eleven Ventures. The financing also included participation from Rapid7 CEO Corey Thomas and the Open Opportunity Fund.

Sage Geosystems: Over $97 Million Series B Closed To Launch First Commercial Pressure Geothermal Power Facility

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 21, 2026

Sage Geosystems has raised over $97 million in a Series B round co-led by Ormat Technologies and Carbon Direct Capital to advance its Pressure Geothermal power generation and energy storage platform and support development of what it says will be the world’s first commercial Pressure Geothermal power generation facility. The round included new investors SiteGround Capital and The UC Berkeley Foundation’s Climate Solutions Fund, alongside existing backers Exa, Nabors, alfa8, Arch Meredith, Abilene Partners, Cubit Capital, and Ignis H2 Energy.

Zarminali Pediatrics Raises $110 Million Series A To Transform Pediatric Care

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 21, 2026

Zarminali Pediatrics, an outpatient pediatric provider focused on integrated primary and specialty care, has raised a $110 million in Series A funding to scale its clinic network and expand its proprietary technology platform. The round was led by Healthier Capital, with participation from existing investor General Catalyst and new investor K2 HealthVentures.

Cosmos: $15 Million Series A Closed As It Expands Social Discovery And Attribution Features

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 21, 2026

Cosmos, a visual bookmarking and discovery app built for saving and organizing images, has raised a $15 million Series A financing round co-led by Shine Capital and Matrix as the startup rolls out a redesigned product aimed at making saving faster, discovery more social, and image credit more durable across the web. The round included participation from prior backers GV and Accel, as well as Plug and Play and Squarespace founder and CEO Anthony Casalena, according to McCune. Shine’s Ethan Daly has joined Cosmos’ board.

ErVimmune: €17 Million Series A First Close To Advance Off-The-Shelf Cancer Vaccine Into The Clinic

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 21, 2026

ErVimmune, a Lyon, France-based biotechnology company developing next-generation therapeutic cancer vaccines targeting “unconventional” tumor antigens derived from human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs), has raised €17 million ($19.8 million) in the first closing of its Series A financing. The round included participation from existing shareholder Seventure Partners and new investor SPRIM Global Investments, and is expected to be supplemented by additional non-dilutive funding support tied to Bpifrance and the France 2030 program.

BrightInsight: $13 Million Closed To Expand AI-Enabled Medication Adherence Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 21, 2026

BrightInsight has raised $13 million in funding to accelerate the development of its AI-enabled medication persistence and adherence solutions and scale patient support programs globally. The San Jose-based digital health company said the round included both existing and new backers: Eclipse, General Catalyst, Insight Partners, Mayo Clinic, and New Leaf Venture Partners.

Fracttal: $35 Million Closed To Advance Global Expansion

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 21, 2026

Fracttal announced it has closed a $35 million financing round led by Riverwood Capital, with participation from existing backers including Seaya Ventures, as the company looks to speed up international growth and deepen investment in AI-driven maintenance and asset-management capabilities.

Finst: €8 Million Series A Raised For Crypto Investing Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 21, 2026

European crypto investing platform Finst has raised €8 million in a Series A funding round led by Endeit Capital, with continued support from returning backers Eelko van Kooten, founder of Spinnin’ Records, and Mark Fransen, co-founder of DEGIRO. The new financing brings Finst’s total funding to €15 million.

Upscale AI: $200 Million Series A Raised To Build Open AI Networking Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 21, 2026

Upscale AI announced it has raised $200 million in an oversubscribed Series A round as it works to establish what it calls the first pure-play AI networking infrastructure company, positioning networking as a primary constraint on scaling modern AI systems. The financing was led by Tiger Global, Premji Invest, and Xora Innovation, with participation from Maverick Silicon, StepStone Group, Mayfield, Prosperity7 Ventures, Intel Capital, and Qualcomm Ventures. The company said the new round brings its total funding to more than $300 million and follows a rapid fundraising trajectory, characterized by moving from a $100 million seed round to “unicorn” status within months.

NEOintralogistics: €3 Million Seed Round Raised To Scale Robotics-As-A-Service For Warehouses

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 21, 2026

NEOintralogistics has raised €3 million in seed funding to expand its “democratized” approach to warehouse robotics, targeting operators that have been slow to automate due to high upfront costs and lengthy deployments. The company said that the round was co-led by Amadeus Capital Partners, APEX Ventures, and Cetus.

Brickeye: $10 Million Series B Closed To Expand IoT Construction Risk Mitigation Platform Across North America

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 21, 2026

Brickeye has raised $10 million in a Series B financing to scale its construction IoT monitoring and risk mitigation services across North America and accelerate expansion into additional international markets. The Toronto-based construction technology company said the round was led by GreenSky Ventures, Brightspark Ventures, Graphite Ventures, Export Development Canada (EDC), Beauchamp Construction, and one of the largest building materials suppliers in North America.

Datarails: $70 Million Series C Raised To Bring AI Into The Heart Of The CFO’s Office

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 21, 2026

Datarails has raised $70 million in Series C funding in a round led by growth equity firm One Peak, as the company bets that finance teams want AI capabilities embedded directly into the tools they already use (especially Excel) rather than forcing a tradeoff between spreadsheets and standalone AI products.

Infinitopes Expands Seed Round To $35.1 Million To Advance Precision Cancer Vaccine Into First-In-Human Trial

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 21, 2026

Infinitopes has expanded its seed financing to $35.1 million, adding $15.4 million in a second close that the company says will accelerate clinical development of its lead precision cancer vaccine candidate, ITOP1. The financing was co-led by Octopus Ventures and new investor Amplify Bio, with additional participation from new investor Macmillan Cancer Support and existing backers Cancer Research Horizons and Manta Ray Ventures.

Swissto12: €73 Million Secured In ESA-Backed Support For HummingSat Compact Telecom Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 21, 2026

SWISSto12 has secured €73 million ($84.8 million) in financial support from European Space Agency (ESA) member states to advance HummingSat, its next-generation, compact geostationary satellite platform designed to deliver lower-cost and more agile commercial and sovereign communications capabilities. The support is being provided through ESA’s Advanced Research in Telecommunications Systems (ARTES) HummingSat Partnership Project, part of ESA Connectivity and Secure Communications.

L-Nutra: $83.5 Million In Total Series D Raised And Abu Dhabi JV For Medical Nutrition and Longevity Programs

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 21, 2026

L-Nutra announced it has secured a $36.5 million investment led by Mubadala Investment Company as part of its Series D round, bringing total Series D proceeds to $83.5 million. The company is pushing to expand internationally and scale its “nutrition as medicine” and longevity-focused programs.

Dam Secure: $4 Million Seed Funding Closed To Help Enterprises Secure AI-Generated Code At Scale

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 20, 2026

Dam Secure, an AI security startup based in Sydney and San Francisco, has raised $4 million in seed funding to address the security risks posed by AI-generated code entering production environments. The round was led by Paladin Capital Group, a Washington, D.C.-based investor focused on cyber and AI.