#venture capital

Rillet's $100m Round: New ARR Doubled, Not Total ARR

An insider-led markup fourteen months after the Series A, with 600+ customers, no revenue figure, and a total-raised number that does not reconcile.

Aug 20, 2026

A purple announcement card reading "We raised $100m at a $1b valuation to build accounting superintelligence", credited to founder and chief executive Nicolas Kopp, over an aerial photograph of a fissure in a landscape.

AI Data Centers

Relativity Networks Raised $22m on SAFEs, Not The $40m Order

A hollow-core fibre startup discloses a round with no valuation, and a purchase order from an unnamed hyperscaler nearly twice its size.

Aug 19, 2026

A hand holding an optical fibre strand glowing orange at its tip in a laboratory.

AI Chips

Etched Raised $700m at $21B, Led By Its Only Named Customer

A valuation that roughly doubled in 26 days, on one shipped rack — delivered to the firm that led the round.

Aug 19, 2026

Portrait of Etched co-founder and chief operating officer Robert Wachen against a grey backdrop.

Marketing AI

Higgsfield Hit $5.4B, Or 7.7 Times Revenue

Every write-up leads with the 4x step-up in eight months. The more interesting number is the one it implies — a multiple far below what frontier AI commands.

Aug 18, 2026

Higgsfield's marketing card: an AI-generated close-up of an astronaut's face inside a helmet visor, captioned 'The ultimate AI-powered platform for creators'

Nvidia

Groq Raised $350m and Called It a Series A. The Valuation Fell From $6.9bn to $3.5bn.

A company that has raised over a billion dollars does not have a Series A. The label, the halved valuation and the identity of the lead investor all point at the same thing.

Aug 18, 2026

Finance AI

Databricks Raised $5B at $190B, Backed By $7B

Coatue led a round that marks the company 42% above February. The justification is a revenue run-rate growing more than 80% a year — none of it audited.

Aug 14, 2026

A dark Databricks announcement card reading Closed $5B in new strategic funding at a $190B valuation, above a list of second-quarter figures including $7B revenue run-rate and 80% year-over-year growth.

Finance AI

Lovable Doubled Valuation in Eight Months, Revenue Tripled

$400m at $13.3bn, co-led by Menlo Ventures and EQT's Scaleup Europe Fund. Tencent came in as a participant, not a lead.

Aug 13, 2026

Finance AI

Index Ventures Raised $2 Billion, and $700 Million of It Is a Top-Up

Three vehicles: a $400 million seed fund, a $900 million venture fund, and $700 million added to an existing 2024 growth fund. The $3.5 billion figure is something else again.

Aug 1, 2026

AI Agents

AI Security Startups Have Raised $855 Million in Seed Money This Year

More than 150 seed rounds, on track for an all-time high — and three of them were large enough to pass for Series As. Two more landed the day the numbers were published.

Jul 29, 2026

A flat illustration on a blue background of a folded newspaper with the headline 'SEED', a cup of coffee and a pair of reading glasses beside it

AI Chips

AI Chip Startup Etched Is in Talks for a $20 Billion Valuation

The transformer-chip maker is negotiating two concurrent rounds — one near $20 billion, another near $10 billion — that would quadruple the $5 billion valuation it held just months ago, though neither has closed.

Jul 19, 2026

AI Agents

An AI Agent Startup Let Its Own Agent Run a $100 Million Fundraise

Lyzr says its agent 'SivaClaw' handled 130-plus investors, drafted memos and tracked which slides they lingered on — surfacing about $400 million of interest without a traditional roadshow.

Jul 10, 2026

An AI Agent Startup Let Its Own Agent Run a $100 Million Fundraise