🧠 Dopamine Dealflow

💰 Massive Rounds (€50M+ / $50M+)

• Flexjet (Richmond Heights, OH) – $800M equity round from L Catterton, KSL Capital, and J. Safra Group to scale private aviation infrastructure.

• Makersite (Munich, Germany) – €60M Series B from Lightrock, Partech, SE Ventures, and others to enhance AI lifecycle tools for manufacturers.

• Gupshup (Palo Alto, CA) – $60M+ equity + debt from Globespan and EvolutionX to grow conversational AI messaging in emerging markets.

• Vanta (San Francisco, CA) – $150M Series D led by Wellington Management with Sequoia, Goldman Sachs, Atlassian, and others to accelerate AI-native trust management.

📈 Mid-Sized Rounds ($40M–$49M)

• april (New York, NY) – $38M Series B led by QED Investors to scale embedded AI tax infrastructure.

Seed & Series A ($10M–$30M)

• inforcer (London, UK) – $35M Series B to simplify compliance and configuration for Microsoft 365 MSPs.

• Alix (San Francisco, CA) – $20M Series A led by Acrew Capital to streamline estate transfers with AI.

• Kadence (San Francisco, CA) – $20M Series A to improve workplace operations with smart scheduling tech.

• Hertha Metals (Boston, MA) – $17M+ seed from Khosla, Breakthrough Energy Fellows, and Pear VC to disrupt steel and iron production.

• ValGenesis (Santa Clara, CA) – $16M strategic financing from Bridge Bank to expand digital validation in life sciences.

• Scrunch AI (Salt Lake City, UT) – $15M Series A led by Decibel to optimize enterprise AI presence in search.

• Poseidon (San Francisco, CA) – $15M Seed from a16z Crypto to decentralize AI data access using Story Protocol.

• Cooler Heads (San Diego, CA) – $11M Series A to expand scalp-cooling tech for chemotherapy patients.

• Dash Bio (Boston, MA) – $11M funding led by The Aligned Fund to support automated bioanalysis for drug development.

• Cloaked (Boston, MA) – $11M extension round to launch dark web monitoring and AI caller screening tools.

Strategic & Growth Investments

• DevvStream (Vancouver, Canada) – $10M convertible note as part of a $300M agreement to support carbon credit platforms.

• Nevoya (Los Angeles, CA) – $9.3M Seed from Lowercarbon to provide electric trucks at diesel parity.

• Bitfount (London, UK) – $8M Series A from Parkwalk, Foresight, and others to enable federated AI in healthcare.

• Daylight Security (Palo Alto, CA) – $7M Seed led by Bain Capital Ventures for AI-powered managed detection and response.

• NetZeroNitrogen (Travancore, Australia) – $6.6M Seed from World Fund and Azolla to reduce fertilizer use with biotech.

• TRIC Robotics (Dover, DE) – $5.5M Seed to replace pesticides on strawberries with UV-enabled robots.

• Magentic (New York, NY) – $5.5M Seed led by Sequoia Capital and The Westly Group to modernize manufacturing supply chains with AI.

• ALL.SPACE (Reading, UK & Baltimore) – €3.42M ESA grant to advance 5G multi-orbit satellite platforms.

• Blue Longevity Clinic (Sofia, Bulgaria) – €2M Seed from Eleven Ventures and others to launch longevity-focused health centers in SE Europe.

• Mixus (New York, NY) – $2.3M Pre-Seed for AI agents that integrate with email and Slack.

• NFL Biosciences (Paris, France) – €1.2M non-dilutive from French institutions to push botanical addiction treatments.

• Source (Dublin, Ireland) – $1.4M Pre-Seed led by Square Peg to automate procurement for retailers.

• ÄIO (Tartu, Estonia) – €1M grant to convert industrial by-products into sustainable beauty ingredients.

• Metly (Lisbon, Portugal) – €520K Pre-Seed to streamline pharmaceutical product development.

• Currency Stream (London, UK) – Strategic investment from Paycorp to grow real-time FX conversion infrastructure.

💸 VC Funds Raised & Raising

• Neuberger Berman raised $2.8B for a new PE co-investment fund, doubling down on its private markets strategy.

• 17Capital, the world’s largest dedicated NAV finance provider, raised $5.5B for its sixth strategic lending fund.

• Trilantic Capital Partners is seeking $1B for a multi-asset continuation fund for Fund VI, offered at a ~30% discount to NAVs after raising just one‑sixth of its target for Fund VII.

• ACRE, a private real estate fund manager focused on U.S. housing, raised $1B for its second credit fund.

• Glade Brook Capital, a growth equity firm, raised $515M for its fourth VC fund.

• 50T, formed from the merger of 10T Holdings and 1RoundTable Partners, launched a $500M growth capital fund.

• Brentwood Associates raised an oversubscribed $410M continuation fund for water‑kiosk provider Watermill Express.

• Emerald Technology Ventures, a VC focused on sustainable investments, is seeking to raise up to $210M for a new water-focused fund.

Founders: Want to be featured on @tradedvc? → traded.co/submit/vc

📖 Read of the Day

Early-Stage M&A Is the New VC Exit Rocket Fuel

Early-stage acquisitions are dominating the exit landscape as unicorn valuations stay sky-high and IPOs remain shaky. Q2 saw $67.7B in exits across 394 deals, with early-stage M&A making up 63.7% of all acquisitions this year.

• Alphabet dropped $32B on Wiz and OpenAI snapped up Jony Ive’s startup for $6.5B—but most deals are targeting nimble, fast-growth startups.

• With 841 US unicorns (46 new this year), late-stage M&A is just too pricey to keep pace.

• FTC scrutiny is lighter than expected under new Chair Andrew Ferguson, keeping smaller acquisitions moving fast.

• Big tech is turning to AI acqui-hires with massive price tags to dodge regulatory heat.

Pandemic-era valuations? “Not real anymore,” says Pitchbook’s Emily Zheng. Early-stage is where the action—and exits—are happening.

📰 News You Don’t Want To Miss

• 🏅 AI Models Win IMO Gold

  Google’s Gemini & OpenAI math model each solved 5 of 6 problems at the International Mathematical Olympiad—officially earning gold and reshaping AI reasoning benchmarks.

• 🤖 Microsoft Swipes 24+ DeepMind Stars

  Microsoft just poached over 24 top AI researchers from Google DeepMind—part of a full-blown talent war with salaries hitting nine figures.

• 🏗️ AI Infrastructure Is the New Battleground

  A Reuters Breakingviews deep dive calls AI the next big infrastructure shift—VC is pouring into compute and chips as if they’re software

  Business Insider.

• ⏳ GPT-5 Modularity Is Coming

  OpenAI’s upcoming GPT-5 is expected to be a network of specialty AI models that route prompts automatically—a step toward modular, always-on intelligence.

• ⌚ Amazon Eyes AI Wearable

  Reports suggest Amazon’s entering the AI wearable race, signaling the next major human–AI interface is about to launch.