Startups

Navier: $5.6 Million Seed Funding Raised To Launch Agent-Driven Engineering Platform For Hardware Teams

By Amit Chowdhry ● Dec 16, 2025

Navier, a San Francisco-based startup developing autonomous engineering teams for hardware design and development, has raised $5.6 million in seed funding and launched from stealth. The round included participation from GV (Google Ventures), HCVC, and Y Combinator, as the company positions its technology as a new productivity layer that automates repetitive work between design and engineering groups.

Octane: $100 Million Series F Raised To Fund Expansion And Product Growth

By Amit Chowdhry ● Dec 16, 2025

Octane (Octane Lending), a fintech focused on digitizing the purchasing and financing experience for recreational and specialty vehicle categories, has closed a $100 million Series F equity financing. The company said the round includes primary capital to support growth initiatives, as well as proceeds from secondary share transfers, and follows Octane’s continued originations growth as it looks to deepen its product offering and expand into additional markets.

Skyblue Analytics: Strategic Funding Closed To Expand Global Coverage And Accelerate AI Product Roadmap

By Amit Chowdhry ● Dec 16, 2025

Skyblue Analytics, a fintech infrastructure company focused on helping brokers, banks, and financial institutions build modern investment platforms, has raised a strategic investment round led by a group of industry partners and regional market participants. The round, announced December 15, 2025, included Merchant Seven, A3 Mercados, Matba Rofex, PrimaryX, and Draper Angels LATAM, with the company aiming to expand regional coverage and accelerate development of AI-enabled investment experiences.

Cofactor Genomics Secures Strategic Investment From Labcorp And Ascension Ventures

By Amit Chowdhry ● Dec 16, 2025

Cofactor Genomics has received strategic investments from Labcorp and Ascension Ventures to accelerate nationwide expansion of its OncoPrism® immunotherapy response diagnostic and broaden patient access across U.S. cancer care networks.

Mirelo: $41 Million Seed Funding Raised To Bring AI Soundtracks To Video, Gaming, And Visual Media

By Amit Chowdhry ● Dec 16, 2025

Mirelo, a Germany-based foundation model company focused on sound for videos, has raised a $41 million seed round led by Index Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz. Atlantic.vc and TriplePoint Capital also participated, along with notable angel investors: Yariv Adan, Alex Berriche, Léon Bottou, Burkay Gur, Thomas Hofmann, Antoine Le Nel, Coco Mao, Arthur Mensch, Laura Modiano, Jakob Uszkoreit, and Thomas Wolf.

Iconic: $13 Million Seed Round Raised To Build On Device AI For Interactive Entertainment

By Amit Chowdhry ● Dec 16, 2025

Iconic disclosed that it has raised a $13 million seed financing round to advance its on-device AI technology for what it calls a new category of interactive entertainment. The round was co-led by Kindred Ventures and Northzone, with participation from Google AI Futures Fund, Conviction, Deepwater Asset Management, Sequoia Capital scouts, and a group of angel investors.