Startup Watch
Nous Research raises $90M Series B for Hermes Agent
Nous Research raised $90 million on October 7 to build a business version of Hermes Agent, its open-source AI agent cloned over 24 million times.
Funding news and analysis
Funding rounds and valuations for AI labs, compute providers, agent startups and applied-AI companies, plus venture funds and foundation programs paying open-source maintainers. Each story gives the amount, valuation, lead investors and what the money buys, and flags figures that are reported rather than confirmed.
Tech Industry
Waymo closes $5 billion loan, its first debt financing
Waymo closed a $5 billion term loan on October 8, its first debt deal, led by PIMCO, Blackstone and Sixth Street, to expand its robotaxi service abroad.
Tech Industry
Firmus pulls $5 billion IPO, turns to private investors
Nvidia-backed Firmus pulled its US$5 billion IPO on October 9, citing volatility. It had sought a US$30.6 billion value, triple its August round.
Startup Watch
Rein Security raises $25M to guard enterprise AI agents
Rein Security raised $25M, co-led by Glilot and Sienna, for software that watches and limits what enterprise AI agents do. Revenue is up 8x since January.
Startup Watch
Arena, the AI leaderboard, raises $200M at $3.1B
Arena raised $200M at a $3.1B valuation, nearly double January's price, and previewed an index that ranks AI models on unsafe and deceptive behavior.
Startup Watch
Manus raises over $500M after its Meta sale is unwound
Manus's parent raised more than $500 million, led by Boyu Capital and IDG Capital. It is the first round since China ordered Meta's $2 billion deal unwound.
Startup Watch
Atomic Machines emerges with $250M to build micro-machines
Atomic Machines left stealth on October 7 with $250 million raised and PrimeSwitch, a relay for 800-volt AI data centers that opens in 50 microseconds.
Startup Watch
Universal Quantum raises $100M to link quantum chips
UK startup Universal Quantum raised a Series A of more than $100 million, co-led by DCVC and Firgun Ventures, to scale its modular trapped-ion chips.
Startup Watch
Mecka AI raises $60M from Sequoia for robot training data
Mecka AI raised a $60M Series B led by Sequoia, with Nvidia and M12. The startup pays people to record everyday tasks with body sensors to train robots.
Startup Watch
Parallel Systems raises $100M for driverless freight rail
Parallel Systems, founded by ex-SpaceX engineers, raised a $100M Series C led by AVP to build battery-powered rail vehicles that run without drivers.
Startup Watch
Healthleap raises $38M to flag at-risk hospital patients
Healthleap raised $38M for AI that reads hospital records overnight and flags patients at risk of missed conditions such as malnutrition. It runs in 50+ hospitals.
Startup Watch
Lambda is raising up to $4B ahead of a 2027 IPO
GPU cloud Lambda is raising up to $4B at a $14.5B pre-money valuation, led by Blackstone and Coatue. Its backlog jumped from $15B to $50B in three months.
Startup Watch
Vinci raises $250M to speed up chip physics simulation
Vinci raised a $250M Series B at a $1.5B valuation for AI physics simulation it says runs up to 1,000 times faster than conventional chip design tools.
Startup Watch
Hadrian raises $40M for AI agents that test your defenses
Hadrian raised $40 million, bringing its total to $65 million, for AI agents that map attack surfaces and run penetration tests for firms like McKesson.
Startup Watch
RobCo hits $1B valuation as employees sell $40M in shares
RobCo passed a $1 billion valuation, double its level nine months ago, as employees sold $40 million in shares. Its two-armed Alfie robot ships in 2027.
Startup Watch
SignSplit gets $400M seed at $1B to license human data
SignSplit left stealth with a $400 million seed deal from W Group at a $1 billion valuation. It pays people to license their data and likeness to AI firms.
Startup Watch
Varda raises $251M to make medicines in orbit
Varda raised $251M at a $1.6B valuation to process drugs in orbit. It has flown six reentry missions since 2023 and plans more than a dozen through 2028.
Startup Watch
Supabase raises $150M and buys Turso for agent databases
Supabase raised $150M four months after a $500M Series F and is buying Turso, whose SQLite tech lets one server run millions of small databases.
Startup Watch
Flow Engineering raises $50M Series B at a $750M valuation
Flow Engineering, whose AI agents check CAD and requirements for hardware teams, raised $50M at a $750M valuation a year after its $23M Series A.
Startup Watch
EliseAI raises $350M at $4B for housing and health AI
EliseAI raised $350 million at a $4 billion valuation, nearly double its 2025 price, as its AI runs leasing work for one in six U.S. apartments.
Startup Watch
Armadin raises $255.5M for AI attack agents at $2.5B
Kevin Mandia's Armadin raised $255.5 million at a valuation above $2.5 billion to sell AI agent swarms that attack company networks before criminals do.
Startup Watch
Photon raises $4.5M to put AI agents in iMessage
Photon raised a $4.5 million seed round co-led by Gradient and A* for Spectrum, its toolkit that puts AI agents in iMessage, WhatsApp, SMS and more.
Startup Watch
ElevenLabs doubles its valuation to $22B in a $300M tender
ElevenLabs is now valued at $22 billion after a $300 million employee share sale, double its February price, as voice agents hit 15 million calls a week.
Startup Watch
Wabi 2.0 turns its app builder into an AI messenger
Wabi, backed by $20 million in a16z-led funding, relaunched its AI app builder on September 29, 2026, as an invite-only agent messenger.
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