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Arago Sparks the AI Chip Race, Fantasy Life Scores with Celeb-Backed Seed, and $4.5B Energy Fund Enters Chat

Arago Sparks the AI Chip Race, Fantasy Life Scores with Celeb-Backed Seed, and $4.5B Energy Fund Enters Chat

Oh, and also — Gradient Labs just banked $13M to automate regulated markets, Quantum’s raising billions for oil & gas, and AI-driven compliance, carbon, and childcare are all trending up in global venture.

Traded: Venture Capital
July 08, 2025

Your dose of daily dealflow, essential VC & tech trends to know. The biggest moves in venture, all in one place. Celebrating startups, founders, and funders.

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Today’s venture pulse is firing across photonic chips, regulated ops, and fantasy-fueled fintech.

Arago raised $26M Seed to commercialize photonic AI chips—touting energy efficiency that could redefine edge computing. With Earlybird, Protagonist, and Visionaries Tomorrow behind them, the Paris team is chasing a silicon revolution for AI inference.

Gradient Labs banked $13M Series A to automate operations in highly regulated markets. Backed by Redpoint and Localglobe, they’re building the compliance automation engine for industries that move slow—until now.

Fantasy Life, co-founded by ESPN vet Matthew Berry, raised $7M Seed with celeb backing from John Legend and YouTube’s Chad Hurley. They’re making fantasy sports social-first—think TikTok meets Sunday Night Football.

Meanwhile, Chloris Geospatial scored $8.5M to scale carbon tracking from space. Their satellite data is already being used by Cisco, AXA, and UN programs—turning tree canopy into hard carbon math for the ESG era.

🧠 Dopamine Dealflow

Arago (Paris, France) – Raised $26M Seed led by Earlybird, Protagonist, and Visionaries Tomorrow to commercialize its energy-efficient photonic AI chips.
GetWhy (Copenhagen, Denmark) – Raised $20M Series A from PeakSpan Capital and Arbejdernes Landsbank to reinvent market research with generative AI.
Gradient Labs (London, UK) – Raised $13M Series A led by Redpoint Ventures, with Localglobe, Puzzle Ventures, and Liquid 2 Ventures, to automate ops for regulated markets.
Bumo (Los Angeles, CA) – Raised $10M Seed to scale its on-demand child care marketplace.
Synfini (Menlo Park, CA) – Raised $8.9M in expansion funding to advance its AI-driven chemistry automation platform.
Chloris Geospatial (Boston, MA) – Raised $8.5M Series A led by Future Energy Ventures to provide satellite-based measurement of forest carbon and ecosystem change.
Castellum.AI (New York, NY) – Raised $8.5M Series A to expand its financial crime compliance platform.
Blues (Boston, MA) – Raised $8M in follow-on funding to support its IoT connectivity solutions.
Fantasy Life (New York, NY) – Raised $7M Seed led by LRMR Ventures and SC Holdings to launch new fantasy sports products. Angels include Chad Hurley and John Legend.
APFusion (Champaign, IL) – Raised $6M Series A to modernize the automotive salvage market with its technology platform.
Parter (Tel Aviv, Israel & New York, NY) – Raised $5.5M Seed to help hardware teams manage complexity across engineering, R&D, and supply chains.
Biorce (Barcelona, Spain) – Raised €5M from Norrsken VC to streamline clinical trials using AI.
Pimloc (London, UK) – Raised $5M led by Amadeus Capital and Edge Ventures to expand its video privacy SaaS platform.
BridgePort (Singapore) – Raised $3.2M Seed led by Further Ventures to develop middleware for post-trade crypto markets.
GLD (Miami, FL) – Received strategic growth investment led by MarcyPen Capital and Brand Velocity Group. Founder Christian Johnston reinvested.
Quorso (London, UK) – Secured undisclosed growth equity from Summit Partners to expand its AI ops platform for retail chains.

💸 VC Funds Raised & Raising

Quantum Capital Group is seeking $4.5B for its ninth flagship fund targeting oil & gas bets.
Genesis Financial Asset Management was launched by Brookfield veterans Bahir Manios and David Levenson, targeting infrastructure, healthcare, and financial services in $1B deals.
SAB Invest launched a $267M Shariah-compliant, open-ended private credit fund.
Blackstone is exploring a standalone private credit secondaries strategy (fund size not yet disclosed).