51 stories from 9 sources
The week in Startups and VC
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Frontier and enterprise AI companies continued to command exceptional financing, from PixVerse and Nous's high-value rounds to Databricks's proposed $188 billion valuation. DeepSeek paired rising revenue with plans for further financing and a potential listing, while Anthropic sought more credit and new Chinese and US models intensified competition over cost, benchmarks, and usability.
Capital flowed across crypto infrastructure rather than a single application layer, including Gauntlet's institutional vaults, Velocity and Cyclops's settlement and payments platforms, and Crypto.com's $400 million strategic round. The week connected crypto fundraising more directly to corporate finance and traditional market infrastructure.
Venture conditions weakened in the Middle East and Zepto moved toward an IPO at a valuation below its peak, signaling pressure on some capital-intensive businesses. At the same time, Flex more than doubled its valuation and Lakestar raised a defense-focused European fund, showing that capital remained available for selected growth and resilience themes.
Two mentions traced a $50 million raise to Auger, a supply-chain startup building an autonomous operating system under former Flexport executive Dave Clark. The repeated appearance made supply-chain automation the week's clearest smaller funding thread.
Day’s Recap