News linked to both this project and an event.
According to TNW, AI supply chain management startup Freehand announced the completion of a $75 million funding round, co-led by Battery Ventures and NewRoad Capital Partners, with participation from Nexus Venture Partners and PSP Growth, a fund under former U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker. Freehand's AI agents can autonomously handle contract interpretation, supplier rate negotiation, overcharge bill identification, payment processing, and ERP system reconciliation, with clients covering top enterprises such as Meta, Unilever, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Dunkin', and Cardinal Health.
According to TechCrunch, New York AI detection startup Pangram announced the completion of a $9 million funding round, led by Menlo Ventures, with participation from Haystack, ScOp, Script Capital, and Cadenza. Pangram simultaneously released the new generation AI text detection model Pangram 4 and AI image detection model Pangram Image, with text detection accuracy exceeding 99%, capable of identifying AI-assisted writing, mixed human-AI content, and text generated by AI humanization programs; the image detection model is currently in the research preview stage, based on pixel-level distribution analysis, capable of identifying cross-model AI-generated images, and can detect AI images appearing within real photos.
According to Bloomberg, UK real estate tech startup Dwelly announced it has completed $170 million in financing to acquire more real estate businesses and integrate artificial intelligence into its operations. The round was led by EQT Growth and General Catalyst and included $95 million in equity financing and a $75 million debt facility provided by Trinity Capital. The company did not disclose its valuation.
SSI secured $2 billion in funding from top venture capital firms such as Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital last year, at which time its valuation reached $32 billion.
according to sources familiar with the matter, AI robotics startup Genesis AI is in talks with investors for a new funding round, planning to raise approximately $500 million, corresponding to a pre-money valuation of around $3 billion. Existing investor Premji Invest is in discussions to lead the round, while HSG (formerly Sequoia China) and Northzone Ventures are also discussing additional investments.In June this year, Genesis AI launched an AI industrial robot named Eno. The company stated that Eno is capable of reasoning "beyond predefined tasks" and adapting based on different outcomes. (Bloomberg)
Humanoid robotics startup Humanoid has announced the completion of a $152 million Series A funding round, achieving a post-money valuation of $1.35 billion and becoming Europe's first unicorn company focused specifically on humanoid robots. The round was led by Prime Movers Lab, with participation from German industrial giants Schaeffler and Bosch, Taiwan's Fubon Financial Holding Venture Capital, as well as Aglaé Ventures, the investment arm of the LVMH Arnault family. With this latest funding, Humanoid's total capital raised reaches $270 million. (Forbes)
: AI reasoning cloud startup General Compute has obtained a $400 million loan from Upper90. This deal is the world’s first financing project to use dedicated inference chips as collateral. The company has built a proprietary AI reasoning cloud platform based on SambaNova’s self-developed ASIC chips, primarily targeting Agent-type AI computing workloads. Compared to traditional GPU clouds, it offers faster token processing speeds and lower operational latency. The hardware requires no water cooling and can be directly deployed in traditional data centers and idle cryptocurrency mining facilities.
According to Bloomberg, humanoid robot startup Walden Robotics, spun off from Toyota's robot research lab, announced the completion of approximately $300 million in seed funding, reaching a valuation of $1.1 billion, and officially emerging from stealth mode. This round was co-led by Deviation Capital and Toyota Motor Corporation, with Toyota's strategic investment and early venture capital arm also participating. Nvidia, Boeing, AE Ventures, Samsung Ventures, and CoreWeave Ventures participated as investors. Headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Walden Robotics was founded in January this year. It independently develops hardware, software, and AI models, focusing on building general-purpose humanoid robots capable of continuous learning and evolution in real-world environments, currently primarily deployed in the manufacturing and logistics sectors. The company has launched multiple commercialization projects, including a pilot program at a Toyota factory in North America, where robots work alongside human teams to complete 8-hour shifts daily, handling repetitive tasks such as parts loading and unloading, machine cleaning, and equipment preparation. Morgan Stanley predicts that the global humanoid robot market size is expected to surpass $5 trillion by 2050.
According to Bloomberg, AI chip startup Positron is negotiating a two-stage financing round targeting a raise of approximately $750 million. People familiar with the matter said the first stage values the company at approximately $3.5 billion, while the second stage valuation could rise to $5 billion.
According to Reuters, AI chip startup Oxmiq announced the completion of a new $35 million funding round, led by Samsung Catalyst Fund and Fudomo, with participation from Taiwan's MediaTek and Pegatron Venture Capital, bringing the company's total funding to $60 million. Oxmiq was founded by former Intel Chief Architect Raja Koduri and is headquartered in Campbell, California. The company plans to integrate GPU, CPU, and tensor engine components into a single IP module for licensing, and develop an integrated computing architecture including Chiplets and memory, while positioning itself in the custom chip market to compete with Broadcom, Marvell, and MediaTek. Koduri stated that Oxmiq's goal is to become the "ARM of the next era." The funds will be used to complete the development of the first batch of IPs and bring them to market, while expanding the engineering team.
Odaily reports: Blockchain data infrastructure startup Cambrian has secured $6 million in seed funding, co-led by Franklin Templeton and Polychain Capital, with participation from Flow Traders, Selini Capital, Paper Ventures, Nomad Capital, and others.As previously reported by Odaily, Cambrian also received a $5.9 million pre-seed investment led by the a16z Crypto Startup Accelerator, bringing its total funding to $11.9 million.Founded in 2024, Cambrian currently offers APIs for institutions and AI agents, providing real-time and historical on-chain data covering yield, risk, lending rates, trading activity, liquidity positions, and market sentiment, helping users allocate capital on-chain. The company plans to expand its existing APIs into a verifiable blockchain data oracle network, serving institutional financial clients, AI agent builders, and protocols that require reliable data to control capital flows. Unlike traditional oracles that primarily provide price data, Cambrian aims to aggregate data from lending protocols, DEX liquidity, social sentiment, developer activity, and historical market data.According to Cambrian, its platform has processed millions of API calls, currently indexes approximately $4.5 billion in TVL across four major lending protocols, tracks 1,789 vaults managed by 895 curators, and monitors over 320,000 DEX liquidity pools on Base and Solana. The company also plans to expand trading data support by integrating Hyperliquid and richer perpetual contract data.
Helion, a nuclear fusion energy startup backed by OpenAI founder Sam Altman, has announced the completion of a $465 million funding round, led by Thrive Capital. The post-investment valuation has reached $15.5 billion, nearly three times its previous valuation of $543 million. It is reported that the company is dedicated to developing nuclear fusion technology to power data centers and other customers. However, it has yet to prove the feasibility of its technology in actual electricity production. Investors remain highly confident in its potential, and this round of funding will be used to accelerate technology development and commercial advancement. (The Information)
Samsung Securities has passed a board resolution to acquire 2% of Dunamu's shares for 306.3 billion won (approximately $204 million), totaling around 697,000 shares at an acquisition price of about 439,000 won per share.The sellers in this transaction include Kakao Investment, Kakao Ventures, Kakao Youth Startup Fund, and the KIF-Kakao Woori Bank Technology Finance Investment Fund. Based on the transaction price, Dunamu's overall valuation is estimated at approximately 15.3 trillion won (about $10.2 billion).Samsung Securities stated that this investment aims to enhance its competitiveness in the digital asset business and expand related synergies. Previously, Hanwha Investment & Securities also acquired Dunamu shares held by Kakao Investment at the same valuation. (Yonhap News Agency)
According to Bloomberg, AI programming startup Cognition AI has announced a new funding round exceeding $1 billion, valuing the company at $26 billion post-funding—more than double its valuation from the previous round in September 2025. Lux Capital, General Catalyst, and 8VC co-led the round, with participation from Ribbit Capital, Atreides Management LP, and Founders Fund—Peter Thiel’s venture capital firm.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Parallel Web Systems—an AI startup founded by former Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal—has raised $100 million in its Series B funding round, led by Sequoia Capital, with participation from Kleiner Perkins, Index Ventures, and Khosla Ventures. The company’s valuation has risen to $2 billion, bringing its total funding to $230 million. Parallel focuses on building web search infrastructure for AI agents, supporting in-depth research use cases such as investment research, insurance claims processing, and government contract analysis. Over 100,000 developers are already using its platform, with customers including legal AI company Harvey. Proceeds from this round will be used to expand the sales team and strengthen R&D efforts.
On-chain lending platform Votre has raised $3.75 million in seed funding, led by a16z Crypto Startup Accelerator, with participation from MaC Venture Capital, Druid Ventures, and angel investors from Goldman Sachs, Harvard University, and OrangeDAO. Founded in 2025, Votre operates a non-custodial crypto lending platform on Coinbase’s Base Layer 2 network, enabling users to borrow USD—settled the same day—using Bitcoin as collateral, with loan sizes ranging from approximately $25,000 to $5 million. The funds will be used to scale technical infrastructure, increase platform capacity, enhance liquidity management tools, and strengthen risk and compliance systems.