Latest AI, Biotech & Fintech Raises + News

TECH IN THE NEWS

BRICS Ban — Donald Trump issued a warning Saturday that he would impose a 100% tariff on any BRICS country that attempts to move from the US dollar in international trade.

Black Friday For USD — The dollar saw its worst week since August, pulling back from a sharp rise fueled by speculation that Donald Trump’s policies will boost it.

AWS Re:Invent — The year’s biggest cloud computing conference starts today in Las Vegas. AWS is expected to unveil an AI Agents play as well as new AI chips to take on rivals like Google and Microsoft.

Suiting Up — A group of Canadian news outlets — including CBC/Radio-Canada — has launched a joint lawsuit claiming copyright infringement against OpenAI.

Social Media Ban — Australia has enacted a comprehensive ban on social media for children under 16, aiming to protect their mental health from online hazards.

Sole Ownership — Meta plans to build a $10B subsea cable spanning the world, to ensure reliable service for its platforms and supporting future Indian AI infrastructure.

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DEALS WE’RE WATCHING
Closed Deals:

MASSIVE DEALS

[Open Deal] Databricks — The SF cloud data platform company is near to closing an $8B raise at a $55B post-money valuation, mostly through a secondary share sale.

Rivian — The EV maker secured a conditional $6.6B loan from the US Energy Department for a Georgia factory construction, with operations planned for 2028.

Halcyon — An Austin-based AI ransomware prevention startup raised a $100M Series C at $1B valuation, led by Evolution Capital with Bain, SYN, DropBox and others. Its’ total raised to date is now $190M.

Eon — A NY-based automated cloud backup platform startup raised a $70M Series C at $1.4B valuation, led by Bond with Sequoia, Greenoaks, and Lightspeed.

LARGE DEALS

[Open Deal] Decart — The Tel Aviv-based AI model optimization startup is raising $25M at $500M pre-money, just weeks after closing a $21M seed at $100M post-money.

Cradle — The SaaS software startup using LLMs in biotech for protein-design just raised $73M led by IVP, with Index and Kindred participating. It aims to empower a million scientists with its tech.

Jupiter Bioventures — The SF-based therapeutics company builder raised $70M from investors including Alexandria, Bioventure, Cedars-Sinai, and previous investors Mission BioCapital and Mayo Clinic.

/dev/agents — A SF-based AI agent connection/communication framework startup raised $56M at a $500M valuation, co-led by Index Ventures and CapitalG.

Cardless — The SF-based custom credit card platform raised $30M led by Activant Capital, with Mischief, Industry Ventures, Thayer Ventures and others participating.

Range — The McLean, VA-based AI-driven wealth management platform raised $28M Series B led by Cathay Innovation with Gradient Ventures, total raised $40M.

Wherobots — The SF-based spatial data analysis platform raised a $21.5M Series A led by Felicis, with JetBlue, P7 andprevious investors Clear and Wing VC joining.

SMALLER DEALS

PlayAI — The Palo Alto-based AI voice replication startup raised a $20M seed, co-led by 500 Startups and Kindred with Race Capital and 500 Global also participating.

Capitolis — The NY/Israeli financial institution-focused capital optimization platform raised $20M led by Citi, with Morgan Stanley and UBS + prior backers State Street, Andreessen Horowitz, Index, Sequoia, S Capital, Spark, SVB, Canapi, 9Yards, Standard Chartered, and JPMorgan also piling on.  more here.

Roon — The NY-based medical video support platform raised $15M at $68M valuation, co-led by Forerunner and FirstMark with previous backers Sequoia and TMV also investing.

Constrafor — The NY-based fintech running a construction admin platform raised a $14M Series A led by NFX and $250M in debt led by Wafra and Crestline Investors.

OpenYield — The NY-based FINRA and the SEC registered automated bond trading platform raised $7M led by Canapi, with Clocktower and Flow Traders participating.

Pylon — The SF-based Peter Thiel-backed mortgage services API platform received an undisclosed minority strategic investment from Citi and closed a deal to sell mortgages on its platform.

Circleback — The SF-based AI meeting transcription platform raised $2.5M seed from YC, Transpose, Rebel, and Pioneer along with notable angel investors.

Exit Watch:

Pony AI — The Chinese autonomous driving startup raised $260M through a US IPO at $4.5B valuation, pricing shares at $13 each. It is now set to list US depositary shares.

Quikrete — The building materials giant will acquire Summit Materials for $11.5B ($52.50/share, 29.2% premium) amid rising infrastructure demand, with Morgan Stanley and Evercore advising; the deal closes H1 2025.

Brightcove — Italian app developer Bending Spoons is taking the Boston video creator tools platform private in a $233M cash deal ($4.45/share, 40% premium), expected to close early 2025.

Companies to Watch:

AI Server Rentals — Two startups that rent out Nvidia-powered servers are seeking financing. SF-based Together AI is in talks about raising at least $200M and recently passed $100M in ARR. Lambda Labs is set to close $600M at $2B pre-money.

Earth AI — A CA-based AI-driven predictive metal discovery company announced a significant expansion of a find of a large deposit of vital rare earth minerals palladium, platinum and nickel in SE Australia.

Rox — An AI-driven sales productivity platform, enhances top enterprise sales reps' performance by over 30% by using AI analyst teams for tasks like planning and engagement. Rox has raised a $50M seed led by Sequoia with input from GV and a General Catalyst led Series A.

Lightning AI — The NY startup simplifying AI development, has 240,000 users across 2K organizations and 160M app downloads. It reduced a Fortune 100 company's infra setup from 30 days to 2 days. It just raised $50M (total $103M).

The Funding Buzz

Gilroy & Rajaram — Former Coatue investor Michael Gilroy and tech exec Gokul Rajaram will raise a $400-500M debut fund for a new VC firm to back U.S.-based early-stage fintech and software startups.

Michelle Volz — The Andreessen Horowitz partner on the American Dynamism team, is leaving to start her own National security fund targeting $50M to back pre-seed & seed startups in defense, aerospace, manufacturing and industrials.

The Energy Department — To offer $30M to AI projects designed to free up the backlog of renewable energy that's waiting to connect to the grid.

GitHub — The Microsoft-owned platform launched a $1.25M fund for open source projects with a focus on security. It’s backed by American Express, Shopify, & Stripe.