🧠 Dopamine Dealflow

💰 Massive Rounds (€50M+ / $50M+)

• Z.ai (Beijing, China) – $1.5 B from Chinese state-backed firms to scale open-source AI models.

• Plasma (Global) – $373 M public token sale to build a stablecoin-focused Bitcoin sidechain.

• NewCo (Boston, MA) – $300 M launch funding from Bain Capital and CPP Investments for autoimmune therapies.

• ARTBIO (Cambridge, MA) – $132 M Series B to expand alpha radioligand cancer treatments.

• Aeva Technologies (Mountain View, CA) – $50 M equity from LG Innotek for 4D LiDAR production.

• BlinkOps (San Francisco, CA) – $50 M Series B to grow cybersecurity automation platform.

• Hightouch (San Francisco, CA) – Series C extension from Snowflake and Capital One Ventures to supercharge its AI-powered marketing platform.

📈 Mid-Sized Rounds ($40M–$49M)

• MaaT Pharma (Lyon, France) – €37.5 M debt from European Investment Bank for microbiome cancer trials.

• Lumana (Los Angeles, CA) – $40 M Series A for AI-powered video intelligence.

• 4AG Robotics (British Columbia, Canada) – $40 M CAD Series B for AI-driven mushroom harvesting.

• Calo (Bahrain) – $39 M Series B extension to expand healthy meal delivery to the UK.

• Dropzone AI (Seattle, WA) – $37 M Series B to grow its AI SOC analyst platform.

• Reveal Technology (Silicon Valley, CA) – $30 M Series B for defense intelligence systems.

🌱Seed & Series A ($10M–$30M)

• Wingspan (New York, NY) – $24 M Series B for modern contractor payroll management.

• E2B (San Francisco, CA) – $21 M Series A for open-source cloud infra for AI agents.

• Promptfoo (San Francisco, CA) – $18.4 M Series A to secure AI prompts and expand testing tools.

• Zodia Markets (London, UK) – $18.25M Series A led by Pharsalus Capital with Circle Ventures, The Operating Group, and XVC Tech to support international expansion and enhance institutional stablecoin payment rails

• Delian Alliance Industries (Athens, Greece) – $14M financing led by Air Street Capital and Marathon Venture Capital (total funding ~$22M) to scale solar‑powered surveillance towers and autonomous drones

• Seal Security (Tel Aviv, Israel) – $13M Series A led by Vertex Israel with More Investments, SBI Group, and CCL to deploy automated open‑source vulnerability patching across application stacks .

• ARX Robotics (Munich, Germany) – €11M Series A extension (bringing total Series A to €42M) led by Speedinvest and supported by HV Capital to scale modular UGV production and expand Mithra OS-based software platform

• Root Evidence (New York, NY, US) – $12.5M seed led by Ballistic Ventures with Grossman Ventures focused on evidence‑first vulnerability management.

• TakeUp (Cleveland, OH, US) – $11M Series A led by 1848 Ventures to build AI‑powered pricing and revenue optimization for independent hotels.

• Reach Security (Palo Alto, CA, US) – $10M strategic investment from M12 (Microsoft Ventures) and Artisanal Ventures to develop AI assistants for security controls in SaaS and on‑prem environments.

• Julius AI (San Francisco, CA, US) – $10M seed led by Bessemer Venture Partners with Horizon VC, 8VC, Y Combinator, AI Grant, and angels including Guillermo Rauch & Jeff Lawson.

• Fu2re (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) – R$12.5M funding led by Copel Ventures and Indicator Capital for its AI-based image recognition SaaS.

• Credibur (Berlin, Germany) – $2.2M pre-seed led by Redstone, MS&AD Ventures, and Inovia for private credit infra.

• Sawt (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia) – $1M pre-seed to build Arabic-native AI voice assistants, led by T2 and STV.

• Fluid Focus (Belfast, UK) – £640K to grow its screen-time productivity and wellbeing app.

• Kuvi.ai (Toronto, Canada) – $700K seed led by Moon Pursuit Capital to develop an AI OS for digital asset transactions.

• Psylink (Vilnius, Lithuania) – €501K pre-seed for biotech-driven mental health therapies using natural compounds.

• ZabonEx (Oman) – $100K pre-seed from Oman Future Fund and ITHCA to grow its predictive SaaS for the F&B sector.

• Olivery (Cardiff, UK) – Undisclosed seed from Ibtikar Fund and Flat6Labs for its logistics SaaS.

• Refundy (Seoul, South Korea) – Undisclosed seed led by New Paradigm Investment to automate e-commerce returns with AI.

• Spear AI (Washington, USA) – $2.3M seed led by Cortical Ventures and Scare The Bear Capital for maritime AI tech.

🤝Strategic & Growth Investments

• Cover Whale (New York, NY) – $40 M growth equity for its connected commercial auto insurance platform.

• StiQ (Athens, Greece) – €20 M venture debt from the European Investment Bank for AI cloud kitchen tech.

• LIfT BioSciences (London, UK / Dublin, Ireland) – €12M non‑dilutive grant from Ireland’s Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund (DTIF), in collaboration with University of Galway and Hooke Bio, to advance IMAN neutrophil therapy into first-in-human trials—largest DTIF award to date

• Trustfull (Milan, Italy) – €6M raise led by Seaya Ventures and Elevator Ventures (with United Ventures) to scale its AI-based fraud prevention across Europe.

• Cascade Space (Los Angeles, CA, US) – $5.9M seed from Nova Threshold, Undeterred Capital, and Y Combinator to build an end-to-end platform for space communications system design and testing.

• Centauri Therapeutics (Kent, UK) – $5.1M CARB‑X grant (total ~$12.3M) to advance ABX‑01 gram-negative antimicrobial into first-in-human trials.

• Keye (New York, NY, US) – $5M seed led by Sorenson Capital, with General Catalyst, YC, ERA, Dunamu, Palm Drive, and angels for an AI-driven PE due diligence platform.

• JotPsych (San Francisco, CA, US) – $5M seed led by Base10 to build agentic EHR automation for behavioral health providers.

• D2X (Amsterdam, Netherlands) – $5M strategic round led by CMT Digital, Circle Ventures, and Point72 Ventures to scale its Derivatives exchange compliant with MiFID II.

• Saint Sass (Berlin, Germany) – €4.2M fundraise via Infinitas Capital and Daniel Bronk to expand its celebrity-endorsed Gen Z lingerie brand globally.

• DynaRisk (London, UK) – $4.7M raise led by YFM Equity Partners to enhance cyber‑risk tools for insurers and enterprise clients.

• Tilla (Berlin, Germany) – €2M seed led by Motion Ventures with EXMAR to push its AI-driven maritime crew-change logistics platform to global scale.

• Ripple Operations (Toronto, Canada) – Growth financing from CIBC Innovation Banking to modernize its maritime workforce platform.

• Xemelgo (Washington, USA) – Strategic investment from Zebra Ventures to extend its RFID + AI tools to new verticals.

• Apera AI (Toronto, Canada) – Oversubscribed Series A led by BDC Capital and Lobby Capital to scale 4D vision robotics in industrial automation.

💸 VC Funds Raised & Raising

• Odyssey Investment Partners is seeking to raise a $1B continuation fund to extend ownership of Industrial Electric, an industrial equipment maker.

• Macquarie raised $711M for its debut infrastructure secondaries fund, doubling down on alternative assets.

• Heritage Group closed $370M for its fourth healthcare-focused PE fund.

• Tecum Capital raised $325M for its fourth SBIC mezzanine fund, focused on lower-middle-market debt.

• Flow Capital Partners launched a $125M Asia Credit Master Fund to expand into renewable energy and other sectors across Asia.

• New Era Capital Partners secured $120M for its third fund to back early-stage AI startups in Israel and beyond.

• Hercules Capital’s investment advisor arm reached first close on its fourth private credit fund (amount undisclosed).

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🔬 Aeva Strikes Lidar Chipmaking Deal With LG Subsidiary

📡 Jack Dorsey’s Bluetooth Messaging App “Bitchat” Now on App Store

💸 Anthropic in Talks to Raise at $170B Valuation

📖 Read of the Day

OpenAI Launches ‘Study Mode’ in ChatGPT

• ChatGPT just got a back-to-school upgrade.

• OpenAI’s new Study Mode helps users break down problems, explain answers, and learn step-by-step.

• Think of it as your AI tutor—ideal for students, lifelong learners, or anyone cramming at 2 a.m.

• Users can toggle between the standard responses and this new ‘explain-as-you-go’ format.

• Rolling out now to ChatGPT Plus users.

TLDR: Study Mode = ChatGPT with office hours. Less magic trick, more whiteboard.