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EliseAI Raises $250M Led By a16z, Authentic Brands Group Takes Guess Private in $1.4B Deal, Canva Eyes $42B Valuation, & Databricks Nears $100B+

EliseAI Raises $250M Led By a16z, Authentic Brands Group Takes Guess Private in $1.4B Deal, Canva Eyes $42B Valuation, & Databricks Nears $100B+

FieldAI’s $405M robotics round, TinyFish’s $47M raise, and Seemplicity’s $50M Series B — plus early bets on Phoebe, PeelOn, and Astro Mechanica highlight today’s VC moves:

Traded: Venture Capital
August 20, 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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🧑‍🍳 Let’s get right into it…

☢️ Google bets on nuclear power for data centers — Partnering with advanced reactors in Tennessee to secure clean, reliable energy for AI workloads.
🚗 Tesla debuts long-range Model Y “L” in China — Offering 320 miles per charge as it pushes to stay ahead in the EV race.
👔👕 Guess has agreed to be taken private by a group, including its co-founders, CEO and brand conglomerate Authentic Brands Group, in a deal valuing the designer apparel brand at $1.4 billion, including debt.
🔧 Nvidia builds new AI chip for China — A workaround to U.S. export curbs, ensuring continued access to a critical market.
🤖 FieldAI raises $405M Series A — Robotics firm hits a $2B valuation with backing from Bezos Expeditions, Khosla Ventures, and Intel Capital.
🐟 TinyFish nets $47M Series A — Palo Alto AI web agent startup secures funding led by ICONIQ Capital with support from MongoDB Ventures and USVP.

🧠 Dopamine Dealflow

🌱Seed & Early Rounds

Phoebe (London, UK) – raised €15.6M seed led by GV & Cherry to build AI agents that auto-fix software issues.
Firecrawl (San Francisco, CA) – scored $14.5M seed led by Nexus with Shopify CEO Tobias Lütke & YC backing its open-source web crawler.
Garage (New York, NY) - a YC W24 startup, raised $13.5M to help firefighters buy necessary equipment. Garage is a marketplace that sells specialized equipment commonly used in local governments and public safety. (Powered by Arc)
Yourway Learning (Salt Lake City, UT) – raised $9M equity led by Greybull Stewardship for AI-powered K-12 edtech.
Convoke (San Francisco, CA) – landed $8.6M seed led by Kleiner Perkins & Dimension for its AI-native OS for biopharma.
TensorZero (New York, NY) – raised $7.3M seed led by FirstMark with Bessemer, Bedrock & angels to build open-source LLM infra.
ChemFinity Technologies (Boston, MA) – raised $7M seed led by At One & Overture to refine critical minerals with sorbent-based recovery.
Aircards (Newcastle, UK) – raised £3M seed from Foresight Group to scale Invisionary + Metalitix immersive tech platforms.
ShiftUp (Phoenix, AZ) – raised $3M seed led by Phil Reed with Fortune 500 execs joining in for its AI sales intelligence platform.
Three Space Lab (3SL) (Frankfurt, Germany) – raised $3M seed led by Arminius Verwaltung to expand AI-driven VR for luxury real estate.
Nullspace (Boston, MA) – raised $2.5M seed led by Fathom Fund with Golden Seeds for electromagnetic simulation software for RF + quantum.
BetterPic (Ghent, Belgium) – raised $2.5M seed led by MOC Capital & Shilling VC for AI fashion + photography imaging.
Liquid (São Paulo, Brazil) – raised $2.1M seed led by SaaSholic with Flourish & Crivo for AI-powered credit infra in real estate.
Seabound (London, UK) – secured £1.1M UK Gov’t grant for marine carbon capture in partnership with STAX + AB Ports.
SugaROx (Oxford, UK) – raised €1.1M seed extension from Mosaic, UKI2S, Regenerate Ventures to accelerate agri-biotech biostimulants.
ChatBlu (London, UK) – raised $500K pre-seed led by Matador VC with ex-Google/AWS angels for AI e-commerce inventory automation.
Hades Mining (Munich, Germany) – scored €5.5M pre-seed led by Project A for next-gen geothermal + mineral drilling.

🚀 Series A

Casca (New York, NY) – raised $29M Series A led by Canapi Ventures with Live Oak, Huntington, YC & others for its AI-native loan origination platform.
Basic Capital (New York, NY) – landed $25M Series A led by Forerunner & Lux with SV Angel, Box, Henry Kravis & Inspired Capital for its modern 401(k) platform.

🌳 Series B+ & Growth

Databricks (San Francisco, CA) – raised $1B in a primary round co-led by Thrive & Insight Partners to scale its AI database + agent platform.
EliseAI (New York, NY) — raised $250M Series E at a $2.2B valuation led by a16z. EliseAI provides automation and conversational AI that helps housing and healthcare organizations streamline communications and improve operational efficiency.
Cognition (San Francisco, CA) – scored $500M Series C at a $9.8B valuation, led by Founders Fund, backing its Devin AI engineer and Windsurf acquisition.
Aalo Atomics (Cambridge, MA) – raised $100M Series B led by Valor Equity to develop microreactors powering data centers.
Midas (Istanbul, Turkey) – landed $80M Series B led by QED with IFC, Spark, Portage, Nigel Morris & others to expand its retail investing superapp.
IVIX (Tel Aviv, Israel) – secured $60M Series B led by O.G. Venture Partners to fight global financial crime with AI.
Functionize (San Mateo, CA) – raised $41M Series B led by Mumford & LHH to push AI agents into autonomous QA.
Keychain (New York, NY) – raised $30M Series B led by Wellington & BoxGroup to grow brand-to-manufacturer connections.

🤝 Strategic & Undisclosed

Canva (Sydney, Australia) – launched a secondary share sale at $42B valuation with investors including Fidelity & JPMorgan Asset Management.
Ohai.ai (San Francisco, CA) – raised a strategic investment led by Muse Capital with NEA, Olivia Munn & Mindy Kaling backing its AI-powered household assistant.
Nurture Life (Chicago, IL) – secured a senior secured term loan from Chicago Atlantic to refinance debt + expand kids’ meal delivery.

💸 VC Funds Raised & Raising

Dawson Partners raised $8B for its sixth flagship secondaries fund, cementing its role as a Canadian powerhouse in GP-led deals.
Pritzker Private Capital, founded by Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, closed $3.4B for its fourth fund to back family- and founder-led businesses.
Nexus Commodities — founded by ex-Goldman global commodities head Qin Xiao — secured $1B in seed capital from Millennium and others for a new Singapore-based hedge fund.
Japan plans to raise $1.5B for an impact investing vehicle focused on Africa.

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📚 Read of the Day

Google Powers Up Advanced Nuclear Project in Tennessee ⚡️ ☢️

Google is taking a major step into nuclear energy, announcing a partnership with Kairos Power and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) to deploy the Hermes 2 advanced reactor in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

The project marks the first-ever purchase of electricity from a Gen IV nuclear reactor by a U.S. utility, with 50 MW slated to go online in 2030 to help power Google’s data centers in Tennessee and Alabama.

The Big Bet on Hermes 2
Through a new power purchase agreement, TVA will buy electricity from Kairos Power’s demonstration plant, while Google secures clean energy attributes to supply its regional data centers with round-the-clock carbon-free power. The deal builds on Google’s 2023 commitment with Kairos to unlock up to 500 MW of nuclear capacity.

Oak Ridge, Reborn
The project is expected to re-establish Oak Ridge as a nuclear innovation hub, with new workforce training programs at the University of Tennessee and other local institutions. Kairos Power’s presence could deliver high-paying jobs and cement the region’s role in the next wave of nuclear technology.

Why It Matters
For Google, the partnership isn’t just about clean energy—it’s about securing reliable, affordable, first-of-a-kind nuclear capacity to meet growing data center demand. For TVA and its 10 million customers, it means advancing new technologies without shifting the burden of cost and risk onto ratepayers.

👉 Read The Whole Story Here