WHAT’S INSIDE

• Tech Companies to Watch: Startup news and deals from the last week

• Big Movers: The Big tech movers, shakers and partnerships this week

• Making Waves: Companies making a buzz in the Tech world

• Open Deals: Startups raising capital this week

• In The Money: Significant raises last week and why they matter

• Exit Watching: Mergers & Acquisitions and IPOs

• The Funding Buzz: VC & PE Activity To Watch

BIG MOVERS

Big tech moves, movers and trends to watch this week

OpenAI — Achieved a $12B annualized revenue, 2x in seven months of 2025 with 700M weekly active users. Despite this growth, the company faces an $8B cash burn for 2025. Investors plan to commit $7.5B in a $30B funding round,

Microsoft — Plans to spend a record $30B this fiscal quarter, driven by a 39% increase in Azure cloud revenue. With annual Azure revenue over $75B, Microsoft is heavily investing in AI to outpace competitors.

Apple — Apple is ramping up its AI investments, with CEO Tim Cook highlighting its importance across platforms. The company is reallocating resources, considering mergers, and has launched over 20 AI features.

Google — Lost its appeal in a case against Epic Games, with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upholding a ruling to overhaul its app store. Opal introduces 'vibe-coding', enabling users to create mini web apps with text prompts.

Meta — Reviving its smartwatch plans, potentially launching a model with a built-in camera at Meta Connect Sept 17. Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses from EssilorLuxottica have sold 2M pairs since October 2023, with sales tripling in 2025.

Huawei — The Chinese tech giant has unveiled an AI computing system competitive with Nvidia's leading product suggesting China is narrowing the AI technology gap with the US.

Teaming Up

Tesla & Samsung — Tesla signed a $16.5B deal with Samsung to source chips for its AI6 chip production at a new Texas factory. This boosts Samsung’s US contract business, with shares rising 6.8%, while Tesla’s increased by 4.2%.

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH IMMERSED

🚀 Google, Microsoft, & Meta Partnered With This XR Startup

As tech reshapes how people work, a $250B+ opportunity is up for grabs¹²³. With the help of partners like Meta, Microsoft, and Google, Immersed is perfectly positioned to seize it.

Immersed combined the world’s most-used remote work XR software ($127B by 2030)¹, AR/VR hardware ($100B+ by 2026)², and AI productivity tools ($36B)³ to create a productive, communal, and helpful virtual workspace. That’s why 1.4M+ professionals, including Fortune 500 teams, already use it.

Now, Immersed is shipping the first units of its productivity-designed Visor headset. 75,000+ already waitlisted, representing $71M in projected first-year sales. No wonder leaders at Intel and Meta have already invested.

Join them as an investor by July 30th to receive up to a 16% discount and share in Immersed’s growth today.

Disclaimer: This is a paid advertisement for Immersed’s Regulation CF offering. Please read the offering circular at https://invest.immersed.com/

1. https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/ai-productivity-tools-market-23074

2. https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/ai-productivity-tools-market-report 

3. https://www.giiresearch.com/report/grvi1512062-ai-productivity-tools-market-size-share-trends.html 

[OPEN DEALS] RAISING DOLLARS:

Startups, firms or funds raising capital this week

Anthropic — A leader in AI research based in San Francisco, Anthropic is nearing a $3B-$5B funding round led by Iconiq Capital, potentially raising its valuation to $170B. CEO Dario Amodei emphasizes ethical funding, cautious of sovereign funds.

n8n — The German software startup, specializing in workflow automation, is aiming to raise over $100M at a valuation above $1.5B. With an ARR of $40M, n8n is signaling strong growth potential.

MAKING WAVES

Startups, trends and signals to watch in the USA this week

Nemo Industries — Social media entrepreneur Daniel Liss co-founded this steelmaking startup to modernize the industry with AI-optimized production. Itraised $28.2M and seeks an additional $100M, leveraging state incentives.

Joby Aviation — Partnering with L3Harris Technologies, the CA-based company is developing a gas-turbine hybrid VTOL aircraft for defense. Set for flight testing this fall, aiming for operational demos by 2026 to secure a DoD contract.

Windtree Therapeutics — The biotech firm is allocating up to $700M for BNB purchases. Funding includes a $520M equity line of credit. Despite a 5% share drop, its stock is up over 160% for the month.

Foxconn — Acquiring a 10% stake in TECO Electric & Machinery Co to enhance its role in building AI data centers. This move aims to tap into a projected $1T market and diversify Foxconn's revenue beyond consumer electronics.

IN THE MONEY

Companies that raised money in the past week and why they matter

Massive Deals

Groq — The US AI chip startup is closing a $600M funding round at a nearly $6B valuation, doubling its worth in a year. Led by Disruptive, with investors like BlackRock and Cisco, it partners with Bell Canada and Meta for key projects.

Observe Inc. — The CA-based AI-powered observability company raised a $156M Series C. The platform, featuring a scalable data lake and AI-driven workflows, has tripled revenue and doubled its enterprise customer base.

Motive Technologies Inc. — The SF-based fleet management technology company raised $150M led by Kleiner Perkins to support AI investments and international expansion, with a potential IPO by the end of 2025.

Oxide Computer Company — The on-premises cloud infrastructure company raised a $100M Series B led by Thomas Tull's US Innovative Technology Fund to enhance manufacturing, customer support, and product development.

fal — The generative media platform raised $125M in Series C led by Meritech, with backing from Salesforce Ventures and Shopify Ventures, bringing total funding to $197M. The company supports 1M+ developers and 100+ enterprise customers.

Large Deals

Saphyre — The New York-based AI-driven financial workflow automation company secured $70M from FTV Capital to bolster international expansion and product development, serving over 75 financial institutions with $3T AUM.

SAFE — The Palo Alto-based cyber risk quantification company raised $70M in Series C funding led by Avataar Ventures, bringing total funding to over $170M with triple-digit revenue growth and clients like Google and Fidelity.

Wallarm — The API security company raised $55M in Series C funding to boost real-time protection against advanced API attacks, introducing innovations like Agentic AI Protection and a pioneering Penetration Testing Service for AI systems.

Augmodo — The Seattle-based spatial AI company secured $37.5M led by TQ Ventures to enhance its real-time inventory and task tracking technology, following a $5.3M Seed round less than a year ago.

Positron AI — The AI hardware company raised $51.6M in an oversubscribed Series A to enhance its inference-optimized hardware, supporting deployment of its accelerator in 2026, targeting AI with improved cost and energy efficiency.

Fable Security — The cybersecurity startup focusing on human risk launched with $31M, combining AI and behavioral science to offer real-time interventions against phishing and AI-driven threats, showing better results than traditional methods.

Smaller Deals

Conversion — The AI marketing automation startup founded by UC Berkeley dropouts Neil Tewari and James Jiao secured $28M, bringing total funding to $30M with nearly $10M in ARR from midsize businesses.

AIR — The eVTOL company secured $23M in Series A funding led by Entrée Capital to enhance U.S. operations, support production scaling and team growth while meeting regulatory standards with a strong order backlog.

Still Bright — The New Jersey-based copper extraction startup raised $18.7M to scale its pollution-free vanadium-based solution, planning a 500-ton demo unit by 2027/2028 and 10,000-ton annual commercial target.

PlayerZero — The AI bug detection startup founded by Animesh Koratana raised $15M to develop AI agents that identify and fix code errors, functioning like an immune system for codebases with Zuora as a notable client.

Command Zero — The U.S.-based AI-driven cyber investigation platform raised $10M from Okta Ventures, SE Ventures, and Crosspoint Capital to enhance its platform addressing cybersecurity skill shortages while achieving SOC 2 compliance.

EXIT WATCHING

Mergers & Acquisitions and IPOs

Palo Alto Networks — Cybersecurity leader plans to acquire identity security firm CyberArk for $25B, marking its entry into the identity security sector and largest acquisition in its history, enhancing its robust acquisition strategy.

Windsurf — Details emerge that Google acquired the startup for $2.4B, splitting funds equally between investors and employee compensation, but Cognition later acquired the remaining entity, ensuring all employees gained.

IPO WATCH

Figma — Design platform launched its IPO on the NYSE, achieving a $45B market cap with prices ranging from $101 to $124, closing at $115.50 following a failed $20B acquisition by Adobe in 2023.

Kraken — The U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange aims to raise $500M at a $15B valuation in preparation for a potential IPO in 2026. After the SEC dropped its lawsuit, Kraken reported $472M in Q1 2025 revenue.

Klarna — Swedish fintech Klarna is considering rescheduling its IPO for September amid rising fintech stock prices, potentially raising $1B at a $15B valuation after initially filing in March.

Motive Technologies Inc. — The San Francisco-based fleet management technology company raised $150M led by Kleiner Perkins to support AI investments and international expansion, with a potential IPO by the end of 2025.

THE FUNDING BUZZ

VC & PE Activity To Watch

HarbourView Equity Partners — New Jersey-based private equity firm has raised $630M for its music royalties fund, exceeding its initial target amid increasing deal activity in the media and entertainment sector.

Point72 Asset Management — Launching a $400M Deterrence Fund for defense, aerospace, energy, and security startups, with Steve Cohen committing $100M personally, focusing on AI-driven defense systems amid global tensions.

Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. — SMBC, partnering with a U.S. asset manager, is launching a $300M venture capital fund to invest in fintech and artificial intelligence startups, focusing on U.S.-based companies.

Architect Equity Management — El Segundo, CA-based private equity firm closed its first fund at $285M, targeting lower middle market companies in North America with revenues between $50M-$750M; first acquisition is Gibbs Die Casting.

Skyline Investors — Closed a $125M inaugural fund to support micromarket companies in healthcare and technology, partnering with Standard Communities to invest in companies with revenues $5M-$50M, focusing on community growth.

TECH BUZZ DIRECTORY
Featured Products*

SEO Bot — A fully autonomous "SEO Robot" with AI agents for busy founders.

Memelord — Meme Software for marketing memes, tech memes, & sales memes.

Otonomos — Incorporate your Delaware C-corp or tax advantaged foundation and get 5% OFF.

FOR INVESTORS
Open Deals
Investors– request an intro to startups - invest@techbuzz.ai.

Before we restart our placements of raising startups, we’re sharing an open call to send in your own company. Just shoot us an email with a deck and we may feature you in this bulletin.

For detailed pitch materials, please email invest@techbuzz.ai with your deck.
🔥 — hot deal!
⏰ — leaving soon.

FOR EMPLOYERS
Job Candidates

Employers– request an intro to candidates - jobs@techbuzz.ai