Seed & Series A Radar

Series A Highlights

• 🔥 Cognichip: Cognichip raised an oversubscribed $60 million Series A led by Seligman Ventures for physics-informed AI in...

Massive VC surge into foundational AI startups in Q1 2026:

• $178B raised across 24 deals as of March 31
• 100% increase over full-year 2025's $88.9B...

AI startup Serval closed a private deal with Sequoia in December, valuing it at less than $400 million. This exemplifies the fundraising tactic AI startups use to juice valuations – a key signal for early-stage investors.

Key investor signals in Cognichip's round:

• Oversubscribed $60M Series A led by Seligman Ventures, with SBI Investment joining
• Boosts total funding...

Key playbook for infra startups from Cloudflare alum Manish Jindal (emp #45):

• Reject Fortune 500 early: Said no to protect product, including...

• $4.1M pre-seed round led by Seedcamp (London early-stage VC focused on AI/SaaS), with Drysdale, Plug and Play, Bpifrance et al.
• Platform...

Brad Harrison of Scout Ventures shares key signals for early defense tech funding:

• Operator experience drives investments; founders need defense...

• Real competition isn't rivals: It's other startups VCs evaluate simultaneously – timing your pitch is crucial.
• Investors pick the best now: Not...

Investor signal in Paris biotech:

• €20M Series A for Generare
• Expands platform decoding microbial genomes
• Targets cryptic molecular chemistry and inaccessible small molecules for drug discovery

Miravoice raises $6.3M to bring AI voice agents to market research and polling, targeting the stubbornly manual area of phone-based surveys – key early signal for agentic AI investors.

Spotwise, the Latvian AI startup behind a broadcast sales intelligence platform, raises 450,000 US in pre-seed funding to expand in Europe – an early signal of regional traction for investors.

Eight-month-old Anvil Robotics raised $5.5M seed to build a “Legos for robots” platform enabling physical AI teams – early hardware bet in hot robotics space. Key signal for seed investors eyeing AI manufacturing.

CEE Seed Rounds

• 🔥 Uforce €43.6M Seed: Ukrainian-founded Uforce raised €43.6M in seed funding from Lakestar, Shield Capital, Ballistic Ventures,...

• Biotech: RyboDyn raises $10M seed for AI genome sequencing and cancer drug discovery platform
• Insurance: Cara lands $8M led by Kearny Jackson,...

• NYC traction: Crosby (2024-founded) lands $60M Series B for AI legal contracts; Normal Computing (2022) secures $50M Venture in probabilistic AI.
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AI mega-rounds dominate: OpenAI ($122B), Anthropic ($30B), xAI ($20B), Waymo ($16B) grabbed 63% of $297B total.

• Seed squeeze: Deals fell 31% to...

• Civic tech platform MOVEMENTS enables creation, scaling, sustainability of citizen movements
• Values-led startup drove major campaigns, hits €300k pre-seed target
• Now opens extension round – early traction signal for seed investors

Key signals for pre-seed diligence from Afore Capital's leader:

• Momentum beats traditional moats, via constant product iteration and user pull in...

• €1.6M seed for female-founded Audicin, targeting nervous system overstimulation
• Uses brainwave entrainment and music neuroscience for real-time...

Runway rolls out a $10M fund and Builders program to support early-stage AI startups and build a video intelligence ecosystem. Prime signal for LPs scanning AI seed acceleration.