Venture Capital

Cellares: $257 Million Series D Closed To Scale Automated Cell Therapy Manufacturing

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 29, 2026

Cellares has raised $257 million in a Series D financing co-led by investment funds managed by BlackRock and Eclipse, bringing total capital raised to $612 million. The round brings in a slate of new investors, including accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Investment Management, Baillie Gifford, Duquesne Family Office, Intuitive Ventures, EDBI, and Gates Frontier, alongside existing backers DC Global Ventures, DFJ Growth, and Willett Advisors.

Sokin: $100 Million Debt Facility Raised From Oxford Finance To Scale Embedded Payments Globally

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 29, 2026

Sokin, a London-headquartered business payments company, has secured a $100 million long-term debt facility from Oxford Finance, adding structured capital it says will accelerate its international expansion and product roadmap as demand grows for payments infrastructure integrated directly into enterprise workflows.

PaleBlueDot AI: $150 Million Series B Raised At Over $1 Billion Valuation Closed To Scale Global AI Compute Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 29, 2026

PaleBlueDot AI, a Silicon Valley-based AI compute platform founded in 2024, has closed a $150 million Series B financing round that values the company at more than $1 billion. The round was led by B Capital, an investment firm headquartered in San Francisco and Singapore with more than $9 billion in assets under management.

Mesh Security: $12 Million Series A Raised To Build ‘Execution Layer’ For Cybersecurity Mesh At Enterprise Scale

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 29, 2026

Mesh Security, a Palo Alto and Tel Aviv-based cybersecurity startup positioning itself as the “execution layer” for Cybersecurity Mesh Architecture (CSMA), has raised $12 million in Series A funding. The round was led by Lobby Capital, with participation from S Ventures (SentinelOne’s corporate venture arm) and Bright Pixel Capital.

BoldVoice: $21 Million Series A Raised To Scale AI Voice Coaching For Non-Native English Speakers

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 29, 2026

BoldVoice, an AI-based voice coaching platform designed to help non-native English speakers improve pronunciation and clarity, has raised a $21 million Series A round led by Matrix, with participation from Flybridge, Xfund, Corazon Capital, Alumni Ventures, Umami Capital, and Y Combinator.

Outtake: $40 Million Series B Raised To Build a Unified Digital Trust Platform for the AI Era

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 29, 2026

Outtake, a digital trust platform designed to protect organizations from AI-driven impersonation and identity-based abuse, has raised $40 million in a Series B funding round led by ICONIQ. The round also included participation from CRV, S32, and a group of technology and security executives investing as angel backers, including Satya Nadella, Nikesh Arora, Bill Ackman, Shyam Sankar, Trae Stephens, Bob McGrew, Guillermo Rauch, and John Donovan.

Genspark: $300 Million Series B Raised, $100 Million ARR Crossed, And AI Workspace 2.0 Launched

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 29, 2026

Genspark announced the launch of AI Workspace 2.0, positioning the release as a step toward “operational autonomy,” in which AI agents can plan and execute multi-step work end-to-end across common knowledge-worker outputs. The Palo Alto-based company said the platform is designed to reduce friction in modern work, which often involves repeated prompting, tool switching, manual formatting, and handoffs between drafts and systems.

Decagon: $250 Million Series D At $4.5 Billion Valuation Raised For AI-Based Customer Experience Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 29, 2026

Limy: $10 Million Raised To Help Brands Optimize For The Agentic Web And AI Storefronts

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 29, 2026

Limy, an infrastructure platform focused on optimizing brand performance in what it calls the “Agentic Web,” has emerged from stealth and announced a $10 million funding round. The financing was led by Flybridge, with participation from a16z speedrun, along with other investors including Axiom, Clarim, Communitas, and JRV & AnD.

Stellular Bio: Series 1 Financing Closed To Advance Regenerative Biologic For Sjögren’s Dry Eye

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 29, 2026

Stellular Bio, which is developing Platelet-derived Regenerative Biologic (PRB) therapeutics, announced it has closed its Series 1 financing round to support advancement of its lead candidate, STLR-201, toward clinical testing as a treatment for Sjögren’s disease dry eye.

Vention: $110 Million Raised To Scale Physical AI And Expand Access to Industrial Automation

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 29, 2026

Vention announced it has raised $110 million in new financing (C$150 million) to accelerate its push into what it calls Physical AI and to help manufacturers automate more quickly and with less complexity. The company said the round included participation from Investissement Québec, Desjardins Capital, Fidelity Investments Canada ULC, and NVentures, NVIDIA’s venture capital arm, along with other financial institutions.

Emobi: $3.4 Million Seed Funding Raised To Scale JustPlug And Expand Plug-And-Charge EV Roaming

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 29, 2026

Emobi announced it has closed a $3.4 million seed round to expand its JustPlug technology and scale its EV charging roaming infrastructure across North America. The company is known as North America’s largest EV charging roaming and JustPlug infrastructure provider and said the new capital will be used to strengthen its technical platform and accelerate commercial partnerships with automakers, fleets, charging operators, and infrastructure providers.

Curate: $10 Million Raised To Help Restaurants Build Loyalty Without Requiring App Downloads

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 29, 2026

Curate Technologies, a hospitality platform that powers instant, white-labeled mobile ordering and loyalty experiences, has raised $10 million in a new round of funding led by Kirk Brown, co-founder of ZoomInfo. The round also included institutional support from K5 Global, a venture capital firm co-founded by Michael Kives and Bryan Baum, and participation from individual investors, including NFL wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown and Carl Cheng, founder of Pieology.

Elysium Therapeutics: $7.5 Million SAFE Round Raised To Advance SOOPR Rescue Therapy For Oral Fentanyl Overdose

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 29, 2026

Elysium Therapeutics announced it has completed a $7.5 million SAFE round to accelerate development of SOOPR (Synthetic Opioid Overdose Protection and Reversal), a novel rescue treatment the company is designing specifically to prevent and reverse overdoses caused by highly potent synthetic opioids, particularly when ingested orally. The Lyons, Colorado-based biopharmaceutical company said the financing will support efforts to move SOOPR through additional preclinical and clinical work.

Lassen Peak: Over $10 Million Raised To Bring Handheld Terahertz Radar Concealed-Weapon Detection To Market

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 29, 2026

Lassen Peak announced it has completed a mix of debt and equity financings totaling more than $10 million to fund product completion and prepare for market introduction of what it describes as the world’s first fully integrated handheld radar system for concealed weapon detection.

CraniUS Therapeutics: $20 Million Series B Raised To Advance NeuroPASS Platform For Targeted Brain Drug Delivery

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 29, 2026

CraniUS Therapeutics announced it closed a $20 million Series B financing to accelerate development of NeuroPASS, a fully implantable, skull embedded platform intended to bypass the blood brain barrier and enable targeted drug delivery and monitoring in the brain.

Factify: $73 Million Seed Funding Closed To Build A Post-PDF ‘Intelligent Document’ Standard

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 29, 2026

Factify, a startup aiming to replace static PDFs with what it calls “Factified” documents, announced it has raised $73 million in seed funding to build a new document standard designed for AI-driven business workflows. The round was led by Valley Capital Partners and included participation from technology and business leaders, including John Giannandrea, former Head of AI at Google and SVP of AI at Apple, Ken Moelis, founder of Moelis & Co., and Peter Brown, CEO of quantitative hedge fund Renaissance Technologies.

Datatruck: $12 Million Series A Closed To Build An AI-Native Operating System For Long-Haul Trucking

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 29, 2026

Datatruck, a Chicago-based platform positioning itself as an AI-native operating system for North American long-haul carriers, announced it has raised a $12 million Series A round led by Avenue Growth Partners, with participation from existing investors. The company said the funding will be used to accelerate product development, expand its teams, and scale adoption among carriers that are replacing legacy transportation management systems with AI-driven platforms.

EAM Closes $575 Million Fund II For Growth Software Investments

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 29, 2026

Equality Asset Management (EAM), a Boston-based private equity firm focused on transformative growth software and technology companies, announced it has closed its second fund, EAM Private Equity Partners II, L.P., with $575 million in total capital commitments. The firm said the fund was oversubscribed, with investor demand exceeding its hard cap.

Scholé AI: $3 Million Raised To Bring Personalized And Role Based Learning To Enterprise AI Upskilling

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 29, 2026

Scholé AI, an AI native workforce learning platform, has raised $3 million in funding to expand deployments, hire, and continue building its adaptive learning product. The round was led by ACE Ventures with participation from The House Fund and FundF.

Rainbow Weather: $5.5 Million Seed Funding Raised To Expand AI Powered Hyperlocal Forecasting App

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 29, 2026

Rainbow Weather, a climate tech startup focused on ultra-accurate short-term forecasting, has raised $5.5 million in seed funding to accelerate development of its consumer app and expand into business customers. The company said the financing included a syndicate of investors led in part by Yuri Gurski, founder and president of Flo Health.

Checkbox: $23 Million Series A Closed To Build AI Legal Front Door For In-House Legal Teams

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 29, 2026

Checkbox has raised a $23 million Series A round to accelerate development of its AI Legal Front Door platform, positioning the product as a single entry point for legal teams to capture, manage, and measure enterprise legal work. The round was led by Touring Capital, with participation from Peak XV (formerly Sequoia Capital India), Conductive Ventures, Tidal Ventures, Five V Capital, and angel investors including Jerry Ting, VP and Head of Agentic AI at Workday and former co founder and CEO of Evisort.

Tenpoint Therapeutics: $235 Million Raised To Launch Dual Agent Presbyopia Eye Drop YUVEZZI

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 29, 2026

Tenpoint Therapeutics said it has secured $235 million in new capital, combining an $85 million Series B preferred stock financing with a $150 million senior secured term loan facility, as the company prepares to commercialize its newly approved presbyopia treatment, YUVEZZI.

Tree Line: $1.1 Billion Direct Lending Fund IV Closed To Expand Lower Middle Market Lending

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 29, 2026

Tree Line Capital Partners has closed its fourth flagship fund with $1.1 billion in total capital commitments, marking the largest raise in the firm’s history. The vehicle, Tree Line Direct Lending IV, LP, exceeded its $550 million equity target, finishing with $724 million in equity commitments plus $355 million in leverage commitments.

Gyde Launches With $60 Million Funding To Build AI-Native Brokerage Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 29, 2026

Gyde, an AI-native brokerage platform based in Austin, Texas, announced its official launch alongside $60 million in capital raised to modernize how brokers support clients across insurance, health, and wealth decisions.

RTW Foundation Gives $8 Million To Overhaul Physician Training At Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 28, 2026

A landmark $8 million gift from the RTW Foundation will launch a major effort to redesign the curriculum at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, aimed at preparing future physicians for a rapidly changing clinical and scientific landscape. Penn Medicine said the commitment, led by Penn Medicine Board of Trustees member Rod Wong, M’03, and Marti Speranza Wong, C’98, is the largest donation in the school’s history dedicated specifically to curriculum innovation.

ZOHO.VC Spins Out From ZOLLHOF And Reaches 70% First Close On €10 Million Debut Fund

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 28, 2026

ZOHO.VC, a newly spun-out venture capital firm born from Nuremberg-based ZOLLHOF – Tech Incubator, has announced a first close on its inaugural fund at roughly 70% of its €10 million target, about ten months ahead of its planned final close. The fund currently stands at approximately €7 million and is backed by a limited partner base that includes entrepreneurial families and startup founders.

Phia: $35 Million Series A At $185 Million Valuation Raised To Build AI Alignment Layer For Commerce

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 28, 2026

Phia, a shopping agent co-founded by Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni, has raised a $35 million Series A financing at a $185 million valuation as it looks to expand what it describes as an “AI alignment layer” connecting consumers and brands. The round was led by Notable Capital, with participation from Khosla Ventures and returning investor Kleiner Perkins.

Charcuterie Artisans Opens Rhode Island Innovation Center And Invests $12 Million To Expand

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 28, 2026

Charcuterie Artisans, the parent company of Creminelli, Daniele, Del Duca, and recently acquired La Quercia Cured Meats, has opened a new Innovation Center at its campus in Mapleville, Rhode Island, positioning the facility as a product-development and partnership hub as the company scales capacity across its U.S. footprint.

Nivaan Care: $7 Million Series A Raised To Scale Chronic Pain Management Platform Across India

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 28, 2026

Sorin Investments has led a $7 million Series A financing round in Nivaan Care, backing the India-focused healthcare company as it scales a specialized, doctor-led platform to improve access to chronic pain treatment. Additional investors in this round include W Health Ventures, Endiya Partners, and Rebright Partners.