WHAT’S INSIDE

Breaking News: Deel DOJ Spying Probe, OpenAI x Cerebras Deal, & OpenEvidence Hits a $12B valuation, Wikimedia AI deal, Moonshot AI + More.

Open Deals: Anthropic Round, World Labs ~$500M at $5B, SambaNova Seeks $500M, Recursive Seeks “hundreds of millions” at ~$4B, Applied Compute $70M at ~$1.3B.

Mega Rounds: Zipline $600M at $7.6B, Humans& $480M seed at $4.48B, & Upscale AI $200M Series A

Exit Watching: Google acqui-hires Hume AI, Harvey acquires Hexus, & BitGo pops 24.6% on NYSE IPO (at $2.59B).

The Funding Buzz: Standish Mgmt $700B AUM, Healthier Capital $220M Fund I, & SEMCAP $125M fund.

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH NORTON NEO

Norton Neo Spotlight

Agentic may be the trend. Trust is the need.

Welcome to the world’s first AI-native browser, built from the ground up for safety and speed. Every click, search, and task is now effortlessly faster, more secure, and intuitively efficient.

• Privacy and security are in its DNA.

• Tabs that intelligently organize themselves.

• A personalized memory that adapts to you.

Experience zero-prompt productivity: AI that anticipates your needs, so you can just focus on doing.

_{Join the Norton Neo Discord to meet the team, share feedback, and get early access to what’s coming next: Join the Discord →}

BREAKING NEWS

Big tech moves, movers and trends to watch this week

Deel is under a criminal investigation by the DOJ for allegedly recruiting a spy within rival firm Rippling. Grand-jury subpoenas have been issued to collect info.

OpenAI & Cerebras teamed up to use Cerebras chips for Codex inference and a new voice mode, known as "Garlic."

Moonshot AI, a Chinese AI lab, has been valued at $4.8B following a recent funding round, up from $4.3B. Backed by Alibaba.

Wikipedia entered paid agreements with major AI companies like Meta, Microsoft, and Perplexity for structured data access.

OpenEvidence was valued at $12B post-$250M Series D, co-led by Thrive and DST Global. The AI-powered medical consultation platform saw a six-fold usage spike, to 18M consultations in December.

Humans&, a human-centric AI startup founded by former researchers from Anthropic, xAI, and Google, raised $480M in a seed round at a valuation of $4.48B.

SpaceTech Investments — Global investment in space technology is forecast to grow in 2026, driven by $7.3B in U.S. funding and a potential SpaceX IPO.

OPEN DEALS

Big tech moves, movers and trends to watch this week

Anthropic — Boasts a $9B revenue run rate, more than doubling in six months. Its funding round at $350B, is attracting Iconiq, Lightspeed, Menlo, and Sequoia.

World Labs Inc. — AI pioneer Fei-Fei Li-led startup is in talks to raise up to $500M, potentially reaching a $5B valuation.

SambaNova — SambaNova, a provider of AI cloud services, seeks to raise $500M after acquisition talks with Intel failed. Previously valued at $5B.

Recursive — AI researcher Richard Socher is in talks to raise hundreds of millions for this AI systems startup at ~$4B, with GV and Greycroft likely leading.

Applied Compute — AI startup founded by ex-OpenAI researchers to customize AI models, is negotiating a $70M raise at ~$1.3B. Backed by Kleiner Perkins.

Breaking News: $EAT hits All-Time High Marketcap and Meals Funded ($14.4M MC & 5000 meals)

Ending Hunger is public!

The first crypto 501c4 nonprofit (WYDE: END HUNGER $EAT) that has aimed to use trade fees to feed those who are hungry has just hit it’s all time high ($14.4M FDV) the same day it reached the milestone of funding 5000 meals.

Coinbase Listing: $EAT

It was launched on the Wyoming Decentralized Exchange and is now tradable on Coinbase.

About WYDE: END HUNGER($EAT)

• Tradable on Coinbase - TRADE

• The first cause coin with an organizational structure behind it (DUNA 501c4 federally approved tax exempt organization).

• The $EAT team is working with some of the most well-respected nonprofits in America

• Every trade funds verified food banks and operators who impact their local community.

• Holding $EAT provides you with governance in the organization (coming soon)

• Fair launched and fully decentralized.

• Meals Funded so far: 5,100 / Next Milestone: 10,000

• Current number of holders: 548

Visit www.wyde.org for more information on Wyoming Decentralized Exchange

IN THE MONEY

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

Massive Deals

Zipline — The drone delivery startup secured $600M at a $7.6B valuation from Fidelity and Baillie Gifford. 15% weekly growth in U.S. deliveries.

Humans& — The human-centric AI startup founded by ex Anthropic, Google, and xAI researchers, raised a $480M seed at $4.48B from the likes of Nvidia and Jeff Bezos,.

OpenEvidence — The AI-powered medical information platform raised a $250M Series D at a $12B valuation, co-led by Thrive Capital and DST. $100M+ ARR.

Noveon Magnetics — A U.S.-based rare earth magnet manufacturer raised a $215M Series C led by One Investment Mgmt. to meet demand in automotive and defense.

Upscale AI — The AI networking company raised a $200M Series A led by Tiger Global to enhance AI networking infrastructure by integrating GPUs, memory, storage, and networking.

Inferact — The open-source software vLLM startup raised a $150M seed at an $800M valuation led by a16z and Lightspeed, with Sequoia , Altimeter, Redpoint, and ZhenFund.

Neurophos — The Duke U.-based photonics startup raised $110M to develop optical processors enhancing AI efficiency.

Applecart — The marketing technology startup raised $100M led by Blackstone at $700M to provide software for identifying and engaging key stakeholders.

Large Deals

Ethernovia — The CA company raised a $90M Series B to advance its Ethernet-based processors for autonomous vehicles led by Maverick Silicon, backed by Porsche & Qualcomm.

Superstate — The onchain equity issuance startup raised $82.5M in Series B funding led by Bain Capital Crypto and Distributed Global. $1.2B in assets.

Emergent — The Indian AI "vibe-coding" startup raised a $70M Series B led by SoftBank and Khosla, tripling its valuation to $300M. $50M ARR & 5M+ users.

Cubby — The property management platform for self-storage raised a $63M Series A led by Goldman Sachs Alternatives to boost product development.

Ivo — Legal AI startup based in NY/Israel raised a $55M Series B led by Blackbird at $355M. Funds will enhance its platform and expand sales. Clients include Uber and Shopify.

Think Bioscience — The U.S. synthetic biology company raised $55M in an oversubscribed Series A round led by Regeneron Ventures to develop small molecule drugs.

Jetson — The all-electric heat pump systems startup raised a $50M Series A led by Eclipse to expand across the U.S. Jetson’s flagship product.

Juspay — The Bangalore-based payment processing company raised $50M in a Series D round from WestBridge Capital, valuing it at $1.2B.

Smaller Deals

Dominion Dynamics — The Canadian defense tech company raised a $21M CAD Seed led by Georgian to enhance NATO security via a sensor network and autonomous systems.

XBuild — The AI-powered estimating platform startup for residential construction has raised $19M & plans to expand to other trades. 15K projects to date.

Cambio — An AI-powered commercial real estate software startup, raised an $18M Series A to transform building data into investment decisions.

Statusphere — An AI marketing platform for enterprise retailers, raised an $18M Series A led by Volition to enhance social SEO and generative engine optimization.

Ditto — The platform for product text management raised a $12.2M Series A led by Craft Venturesto streamline text management across product development stages.

Artie — The provider of a real-time data streaming platform raised a $12M Series A led by Standard Capital's Dalton Caldwell, with YC. Clients include ClickUp, Substack.

Blockit — Kais Khimji, ex-Sequoia Capital partner, launched the agent-based AI calendar-scheduling startup with a $5M seed round from Sequoia. 200 companies use it.

Furl — Furl, a security remediation startup, secured a $10M Seed led by Ten Eleven Ventures. It autonomously executes security fixes, integrating with popular tools.

EXIT WATCHING

Mergers & Acquisitions and IPOs

Google DeepMind — Acquired the CEO and several engineers from Hume AI to boost voice features in Gemini. Hume specializes in emotion recognition.

Harvey — The legal AI leader acquired Hexus, an enterprise AI tools startup, to bolster its market presence. Includes Hexus's founder and engineering team.

Farcaster — Merkle will refund $180M to investors after selling the decentralized social protocol Farcaster to Neynar. Farcaster will continue under Neynar's management.

Yelp — Acquired Hatch, an AI-powered lead management platform, for ~$300M aiming to enhance Yelp's AI offerings, aiding local businesses.

Serve Robotics — Acquiring Diligent Robotics, a hospital assistant robot company, for $29M as an entry into robotic healthcare delivery.

IPO Watch

Open or upcoming IPOs to watch:

BitGo — The crypto custody firm hit a $2.59B valuation with a 24.6% stock increase during its NYSE IPO, raising $212.8M by selling 11.8M shares at $22.43 each.

Ethos Technologies — The insurance tech firm is launching an IPO valuing it at $1.26B. Backing from Sequoia and Accel, $278M in ARR and $46.6M in net income over 9 months.

THE FUNDING BUZZ

VC & PE Activity To Watch

Standish Management — Surpassed $700B in AUM to become the fastest-growing fund administrator in 2025 for PE ****and VC funds. 500+ clients.

Healthier Capital — Closed its $220M oversubscribed inaugural fund to back transformative health-tech innovations with a focus on AI-driven solutions.

SEMCAP — Growth equity fund based in the U.S., closed its inaugural Food & Nutrition fund at $125M attracting strategic investors and leading food brokers.

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