Early Stage VC Pulse

Climate Tech Pre-Series A

• 🔥 Kind Designs: Raised $10M Pre-Series A at $70M valuation for 3D-printed coastal infrastructure solutions.

##...

H1 2026 funding hit $41.3B with capital concentrating in fewer large rounds that captured nearly 65% of total investment.

• Nuclear push: Valar...

This week's biggest funding rounds confirm mega-round dominance, with AI and infrastructure capturing the lion's share including Fireworks AI's $1.5B...

Hadrius raised $27M ($5M seed + $22M Series A led by CRV) to scale its agentic AI platform that consolidates compliance data and cuts false positives...

Singularity has exited stealth with an $80 million Series A to develop low-cost air defense drones and munitions, led by Khosla Ventures and Felicis....

Two AI-native cybersecurity startups raised seed funding in the same week, underscoring sustained VC appetite for early-stage security automation.

-...

Alpaca raised $135 million in a round led by Peak XV to accelerate its AI-powered brokerage platform and API-first infrastructure for traditional and...

AI-powered fintech tools for funding guidance are drawing investors like Claypond, Binny Bansal, and Accel in the latest funding activity.

Mega Seed Rounds

• 🔥 Walden Robotics: Raised $300 million seed at $1.1 billion post-money valuation, co-led by Deviation Capital and Toyota Motor...

Mega-rounds captured $307B of 2025's $469B total VC funding, leaving early-stage capital scarcer as sub-$5M rounds fell below half of deals.

Series A...

Hadrius raised $27 million ($5m seed + $22m Series A led by CRV) to expand its agentic AI platform that centralizes compliance data and cuts false...

Sheryl Sandberg led a $10 million seed round into Self Inspection, an AI startup that uses smartphone photos for fast vehicle damage assessment. The...

Walden Robotics raised a $300 million seed round at a $1.1 billion post-money valuation, one of the largest in robotics history, co-led by Deviation...

Menlo Ventures delivered 40%+ IRR on its recent early-stage funds after deploying ~$1B into Anthropic—now worth $14B—and other AI bets like Lovable and Suno. A timely LP benchmark on concentrated AI strategies.

Aina, founded by ex-Ultrahuman hardware VP Apoorv Shankar, raised a $5.5M seed led by Redstart Labs and 360 ONE Asset to launch its AI-first interface...

Elorian AI's $55M seed round at a $300M valuation highlights the trend of elevated early-stage AI deal sizes.

Anthropic and Blackstone's $1.5B Ode JV marks a new commercialization model where frontier labs partner with institutional investors to capture...

Runta just raised seed funding from Andreessen Horowitz in San Francisco to build a stateful compute execution layer for AI agents. The round targets the surging demand for specialized CPU resources as AI agents strain existing infrastructure.

Former DeepMind researcher Andrew Dai raised $55M at a $300M valuation for Elorian just months after leaving Google.

• Vision over traction: Investors...

Feathery raised a Series A to reach $30M total funding for its platform automating client onboarding, underwriting, and portfolio tasks for 300+...