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- Latest AI, Biotech & Fintech Raises + News
Latest AI, Biotech & Fintech Raises + News
TECH IN THE NEWS
Blockchain.Gov — Elon Musk is exploring using blockchain for federal spending tracking and data management at the new Department of Government Efficiency.
Crypto Reserve — Trump ordered the creation of federal crypto working group led by VC David Sacks to evaluate regulations and a potential government reserve.
X Debt Sale — Morgan Stanley is reportedly leading an effort to sell as much as $3B of X's $13B debt from the $44B Twitter acquisition at 90-95 cents on the dollar.
Green Data — OpenAI's $100B joint venture with Oracle and SoftBank reportedly plans on using solar and battery-powered data centers amid power concerns.
AI Identity — Sam Altman's web3 digital identity project World is reportedly developing tools to verify AI agents that are acting on behalf of human users.
Meta AI Push — Meta plans to spend $65B on AI this year as leaders of US AI companies worry about falling behind Chinese model DeepSeek's capabilities.


DEALS WE’RE WATCHING
Closed Deals:
MASSIVE DEALS
Anthropic — The SF-based AI startup raised $1B from Google, bringing total raised to $14.7B. Additional $1B+ investment expected to boost valuation to $60B.
DDN — The Chatsworth-based data storage company received $300M strategic investment from Blackstone at $5B valuation to expand into healthcare, autonomous vehicles and AI.
Neko Health — The Swedish AI body scanning startup co-founded by Spotify's Daniel Ek raised $260M Series B at $1.8B valuation, led by Lightspeed with General Catalyst, O.G. Venture Partners, Rosello, Lakestar and Atomico.
ElevenLabs — The Brooklyn-based synthetic voice startup raised $250M Series C at $3-3.3B valuation, led by ICONIQ Growth with Andreessen Horowitz participating.
StackBlitz — The company behind Bolt, an AI-powered web app development and code deployment platform raised a $105.5M Series B, led by Emergence & GV, with Madrona, The Chainsmokers (Mantis), and Conviction participating.
LARGE DEALS
Highnote — The San Francisco-based payment card management platform raised a $90M Series B led by Adams Street Partners.
Render Services — The San Francisco-based cloud computing platform raised an $80M Series C led by Georgian, with 01A and Avra.
ShopMy — The New York-based influencer marketing platform raised a $77.5M Series B at a $410M valuation (5X+ up), led by Bessemer and Bain Capital.
Fundraise Up — The New York-based nonprofit donor engagement platform raised $70M led by Summit Partners, total raised $80M+.
Eleos — The Boston/Tel Aviv AI mental health startup raised a $60M Series C, led by Greenfield Partners with Dell Foundation, Union Tech, Centerstone and others.
Method Financial — The Austin-based debt management platform raised a $41.5M Series B led by Emergence Capital, with Avra Capital and Samsung Next.
Clay — The New York-based data enrichment platform raised a $40M Series B at $1.25B valuation, led by Meritech Capital.
SMALLER DEALS
Bedrock Energy — The Austin-based geothermal systems startup raised a $12M Series A led by Titanium Ventures, with Energy Impact Partners and others.
Spaceium — The San Francisco-based space service stations startup raised a $6.3M seed led by Initialized Capital, with Y Combinator and others.
Coval — The San Francisco-based AI agent testing platform raised a $3.3M seed led by MaC Venture Capital, with General Catalyst and Y Combinator.
Intryc — The San Francisco-based AI customer support startup raised a $3.1M seed from General Catalyst, Sequoia, and others.
Riley AI — The San Francisco-based customer data analysis startup raised a $3M seed led by Vertex Ventures US, with NextView and others.
CapeZero — The Brooklyn-based clean energy tax credit software startup raised $2.6M led by Powerhouse Ventures, with participation from Climactic and others.
Companies to Watch:
[Open Deal] Retro Biosciences — The San Francisco aging-focused biotech startup is raising a $1B Series A after announcing an OpenAI partnership for drug development. It received a previous $180M seed from Sam Altman, who will re-up.
Clay — The GTM development environment platform that 6x'd revenue in 2024 raised $40M Series B expansion at $1.25B valuation, led by Meritech Capital. Expected 2.5x growth in 2025 to $75M with low to no burn.
Nu Holdings — The Brazilian crypto-friendly digital bank raised $750M from Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway increasing its stake by 3x to 0.4%.
Coval — The San Fran YC grad AI startup startup evaluates enterprise AI voice and chat agents' performance using Waymo’s self-driving methodology. It just raised a $3.3M seed led by MaC VC with help from YC and General Catalyst.

DEALS WE’RE WATCHING
The Funding Buzz
Madrona Capital — The Seattle-based firm raised a record $770M for its 30th anniversary, surpassing its 2022 raise of $690M. The funds will be used to invest in AI applications in travel, life sciences, and infrastructure that “can remove friction” between foundational models and users.
Binance Labs — The $10B AUM crypto VC arm of crypto company Binance is transforming into a family office for the company’s co-founders CZ Zhao and Yi He (the mother of his three children).
Exit Watch:
Divvy Homes — The A16z-backed rent-to-own startup was acquired by Brookfield Properties for $1B, though some investors may miss payouts due to deal terms.
Circle Internet Group — The USDC stablecoin issuer acquired Hashnote Management, provider of the USYC tokenized money market fund investing in U.S. Treasury Bills; terms were not disclosed.
Sana Labs — The nine-year-old Swedish AI agent developer is planning a US IPO in the coming years, according to its CEO Joel Hellermark.
Mistral AI — The two-year-old French open-source LLM startup confirms its IPO plans, rejecting acquisition offers; it is well-capitalized for global expansion.
Voyager Technologies — The Denver-based space station developer files for an IPO, seeking a $2-3B valuation after raising $215M+ from Afterburner Capital and others.
