This is a weekly feature that runs down the week’s top 10 announced funding rounds in the U.S. Check out last week’s biggest funding deal roundup here.

Physical tech is back, at least judging by this week’s largest U.S. funding deals. The biggest of all was a $1.5 billion corporate round for a medical device company that develops implants and treatment systems for musculoskeletal disorders. It was followed by an enormous Series A round, backed by a bevy of big-name investors, for , a 1-year-old artificial intelligence startup that says it’s developing personalized AI devices. Along with the usual heavy dose of AI, this week’s list also includes large deals for aerospace and defense, fintech, and retail technology. Let’s dive in.

1. $1.5B, healthcare: MiRus raised a massive $1.5 billion corporate round led by as strategic investors continue betting on next-generation orthopedic and spinal technologies. The Marietta, Georgia-based company has now raised $1.6 billion to date, . The deal comes with a 34% equity stake for Boston Scientific.

2. , $700M, artificial intelligence: AI startup Hark landed a huge $700 million Series A led by, with participation from a of investors including chip giants , , and , as well as ,, , 1Ěý˛ą˛Ô»ĺ . The San Jose, California-based company it’s building “advanced personalized intelligence and next-generation hardware” and plans to release some kind of product later this summer.

3. , $355M, AI infrastructure and developer tools: New York-based Modal Labs raised $355 million in a Series C round led by and , with participation from and . The company provides serverless cloud computing tools and GPU access for running AI models and testing AI-generated code. Its latest round is at a $4.65 billion valuation. CEO ​told Reuters that Modal’s ARR has soared to $300 million, up from about $60 million in September, as enterprise AI coding becomes widespread.

4. (tied) , $300M, artificial intelligence: Frontier lab Decart raised $300 million in a round led by that reportedly values it at nearly $4 billion. The deal also received backing from including venture firms and, AI researcher and corporate investors Nvidia, and . The startup, based in San Francisco and Tel Aviv, develops generative AI models and infrastructure, and has now raised roughly $456 million to date as investors continue pouring capital into foundational AI technologies.

4. (tied) , $300M, aerospace and defense: El Segundo, California-based Amca raised $300 million in a Series B led by, alongside investors including and. The company focuses on aerospace manufacturing and supply-chain technologies, an area drawing increased venture interest amid renewed defense-tech spending. Amca has raised $376.5 million overall, . Its latest round reportedly comes at a $1 billion-plus valuation.

6. , $250M, search and generative AI: AI search startup Exa secured $250 million at a $2.2 billion valuation in a Series C round led by Andreessen Horowitz. Based in San Francisco, the company develops AI-native search infrastructure designed for agents and large language model applications. The latest raise brings Exa’s total funding to $357 million and comes as competition intensifies around AI retrieval and search tools.

7. , $230M, edge computing and AI infrastructure: Armada raised $230 million in fresh funding at a $2.2 billion valuation. The Series B deal was led by , and, with participation from other investors including and . The San Francisco-based company develops edge computing and AI infrastructure systems designed for remote and industrial environments. The round brings its total funding to $469 million, .

8. , $200M, fintech: Mercury raised $200 million at a $5.2 billion valuation in a Series D round led by . Returning backers Andreessen Horowitz, , , , and also participated. The San Francisco-based company provides banking and financial workflow software for companies and has now raised about $657 million to date. Its latest round comes amid a broader uptick in fintech funding, including strong investor interest in digital banking platforms serving startups and businesses.

9. , $170M, retail technology: New York-based Radar secured $170 million in funding at a $1 billion valuation. The Series B round was led by and, with participating. The company develops AI technology for brick-and-mortar stores that uses overhead RFID sensors, software and analytics to give retailers real-time inventory visibility with item-level tracking accuracy. The company said its platform is deployed in more than 1,400 stores for customers including and . It has raised nearly $310 million to date, .

10. , $150M, wealth management: Farther raised a $150 million Series D led by as investors continue backing platforms modernizing financial advisory services. The San Francisco-based company provides technology-enabled wealth management tools and has raised approximately $268 million to date. Farther didn’t reveal its valuation with the latest raise, only that it is “now a unicorn.”

Methodology

We tracked the largest announced rounds in the ˝űÂţĚěĚĂ database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the period of May 18-22. Although most announced rounds are represented in the database, there could be a small time lag as some rounds are reported late in the week.

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What is intriguing, however, is that while AI-enabled toys are gaining traction, we are simultaneously seeing renewed interest in older technologies, including analog toys and screen-free gadgets. There is also a movement toward toys that are more than mere playthings, but also models of cultural learning and identity.

While ˝űÂţĚěĚĂ data shows the toy industry overall doesn’t receive much in the way of venture dollars, there are some companies in the space getting investor cash, many with an AI angle. So as we head into the holiday season, we thought it would be fun to see what funded startups in the toy space are selling this year, and some of the trends catching investor attention. (I’m of the age where I mostly got Barbies and Play-Doh, so all of these cool new toys are extra fascinating to me.)

AI-enabled

It’s no surprise that artificial intelligence has made its way into the toy industry, as it is infiltrating seemingly every industry in one way or another. While there’s still plenty of debate about the potential risks and drawbacks of AI technologies aimed at children, the AI toys market is projected to nearly triple to $6.4 billion by 2032, up from $2.2 billion in 2024, according to a recent from .

One of the funded startups marketing an AI-enabled toy for youngsters this holiday season is . In early October, the company unveiled its AI-powered conversational companion in the form of a stuffed dinosaur. According to , the new toy is designed “to help children learn, imagine, and grow through safe, interactive play.” The startup has raised $5.3 million in a seed funding round led by with participation from , and

Bondu is not cheap. The toy costs $199.99, but hey, at least it comes in four different colors. Ironically, even though the toy is powered by AI, the company is

Some of the things Bondu can do, according to its manufacturer: help kids learn by having “conversations” in which it answers questions and teaches facts and can reply back to a child in 32 languages. Parents can even use the toy to set reminders in an effort to motivate their kids to do boring tasks such as brushing their teeth.

Another startup funded this year that offers a screenless, conversational, AI-powered toy is , a San Jose, California-based maker of a companion robot for young children. The company, which has raised $4.3 million to date, likewise touts a companion that it says can help young children with language development (English, Spanish, French and Mandarin), and math and science skills.

The funded companies are examples of growing investor interest in embedding conversational AI into physical toys.

More recently, another AI-enabled startup, New York-based , managed to raise $7 million in seed funding in just two months after co-founder ’s 4-year-old son asked: “Can we make our own coloring sheets?”

That question prompted Whitney, an alumnus of , to join co-founder and CEO (formerly of ) to start Stickerbox, a toy company that claims it has developed the first-ever voice-powered AI creativity tool for kids.

Investors such as , , and tennis legend ’ wrote checks into the startup to help it grow.

The Stickerbox is pretty much like what it sounds like: A cube that prints stickers. Children deliver prompts for images with their voices. Importantly, the company says, the box doesn’t collect voice data and doesn’t have a camera.

Like many other popular techie toys these days, including the and Toniebox audio players, Stickerbox also emphasizes that while it’s tech-enabled, it’s screen free, meaning it doesn’t come with many of the

What’s old is new again

The move away from screens is another trend that’s attracting investor interest.

Case in point: In September, , which has created a landline-style WiFi telephone for children, raised $3.5 million in funding. For those of us who remember the days of phones with actual cords, there is something nostalgic about the idea behind . Essentially, the Seattle-based startup is tapping into a trend where parents want simpler, more “analog” devices for kids so they can slowly back away from the screens and participate in more direct communication.

, , and all felt compelled to fund the company.

, managing director at Seattle-based PSL, told that he believes Tin Can is “one of the fastest growing and most viral businesses” he’s seen in over 25 years of investing.

Personally, I love the idea of these colorful phones that are shaped like, you guessed it, oversized tin cans. Kids can actually talk to each other without a screen or via text. One might argue that kids can talk to each other with cellular phones. But to that, I argue back, cellphones still have screens.

I’m rooting for this one.

Other trends: Subscriptions and cultural ties

Two other trends we’ve spotted in our perusal of funded companies in the toy space: Those that tap into cultural heritage, and subscription offerings aimed at reducing clutter.

In October, , a toy brand offering handcrafted, eco-friendly toys inspired by Indian culture and heritage, raised an undisclosed amount of funding from . The nod to promoting culture is one to be applauded.

And last but not least: We all know how easily kids can get bored with toys. They’ll play with one toy for two months straight, only to discard it with not so much as a glance at it again.

A startup called has the solution for frustrated parents who are tired of seeing discarded toys strewn all over the house, cluttering up rooms and taking up space — not to mention the money wasted on toys that are only played with for a short time before their child loses interest and moves on.

Started by mother of three , ​​Orbit Crates is a subscription toy-rental company designed for children aged newborn to 6. The startup, according to y, “has almost 500 toys in stock, from classic wooden toys to Bluey and princesses.” The startup participated in the in October, winning the $5,000 Mark and Jamie Summer Innovation Award.

In India, a similar toy rental startup called last month raised $1 million in pre-seed funding, per ˝űÂţĚěĚĂ.

So if you’re struggling with shopping for kids this holiday season — whether they be your own or someone else’s — hopefully this will give you some creative and fun ideas.

Related reading:

• What Startups Are Selling For The Person Who Has Everything

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While there’s no single explanation for the decline, it doesn’t help that this has been a tough area for returns. It’s a widespread trend, as we’ve chronicled, affecting areas including fashion, consumer electronics and the once-burgeoning direct-to-consumer space.

All this is to say that, if one were perusing recently funded startups to find gift ideas, the options aren’t as broad as they used to be. No more $700 juicers or this holiday season.

That said, there are still intriguing options in the mix, particularly around wellness, customization and apparel. To illustrate, we used ˝űÂţĚěĚĂ to assemble a list of 24 companies funded this year with products on the market, ranging from libido-lifting kits to 3-D printers. We also dig into some of the more transparent trends.

Wellness is one of the top trends

Wellness was the standout focus area this year for consumer gadgets and products startups.

This includes the most heavily funded and best-known name on the list — , maker of smart rings that track over 20 biometrics to deliver wearers personalized and timely health metrics. The starting price is around $500.

We could all use a better night’s sleep, and startups are tackling this area as well. The top fundraiser here is , which picked up a $100 million Series D in August. It sells connected bed gear that can adjust to provide optimal temperature and support.

Getting older also brings its share of wellness needs, and startups are on this too. This includes San Francisco-based , which sells anti-aging skincare products and raised a $20 million round this summer. And for menopausal or post-menopausal women, there’s a Black Friday sale at , which sells “menopause survival,” libido-lifting and healthy aging kits, along with skincare and sexual wellness products.

Customization

Personalized gifts are also a popular offering, with several recently funded startups focused on customized products.

For artistic types, offers an AI-enabled platform for designing jewelry and home decor goods. The startup then works with a team of “verified makers” to turn the design into a finished product.

On the manicure front, is mixing up custom nail polish based on customer-submitted photos. The Tennessee startup snagged a $6 million Series A in May.

For those seeking a pricey item to pre-order, meanwhile, crowdsource-backed wants to let you make your own custom creations with its personal, . One can currently pre-order a printer for $2,300.

Fashion’s still in style (somewhat)

We’re also still seeing some fashion startups raising good-sized rounds, although it’s admittedly not the most action-packed sector.

The biggest startup fundraiser in this niche for 2025 was Kim Kardashian’s . The shapewear and clothing brand closed on $225 million in a Series D this month.

, a subscription offering for luxury accessories, was another investor favorite, picking up a $62 million round this summer. It’s also running a Black Friday sale for those targeting fans of designer handbags.

Fun vs. fundable

Overall, there’s a lot of stuff to buy, even if VCs haven’t been heavy patrons of the consumer space.

This is pretty typical. As startup categories go, consumer products has always been one of the more fun ones to research. Offerings tend to be clever, quirky and nice-to-have, if not essential.

But while the category may be a startup reporter favorite, it’s not always venture investors’ top pick. This was apparent for 2025, as VCs poured record sums into AI deals and mostly ignored market-ready consumer products and gadget startups.

Still, I wouldn’t count this sector out. For one, while we didn’t see many market-ready consumer products unicorns, investors did put considerable cash into a number of robotics startups working on consumer products.

Bots for housework look particularly compelling. Two-year-old has raised $300 million to date to develop a robot for doing housework. And , a -backed startup building a household robot capable of doing everyday chores, introduced its first bot, , last week. Several others in the heavily funded space are working on both consumer and more specialized workplace bot offerings.

Perhaps these will be the hot holiday item in a couple years. If they work as well as early buzz hints, they might even be able to wrap themselves.

Related ˝űÂţĚěĚĂ list:

Related reading:

• VCs No Longer Do DTC
• IPO Returns Show Fashion Startups Were Not Runway Ready
• Consumer Electronics Is A Bust That Never Boomed

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The broad trend: While investors are still backing some big rounds, overall funding to e-commerce startup categories has declined in 2025. Even so, we are seeing some bright spots, including quick delivery, livestream shopping and AI-enabled e-commerce.

The numbers: So far in this year, investors put around $7.3 billion into global e-commerce-related startup funding rounds. That puts 2025 on track to deliver the sector’s lowest investment tally in years.

Funding remains stuck at a fraction of its peak four years ago, and deal counts are also way down. To illustrate, we charted investment for the past six calendar years below.

U.S. e-commerce funding, by contrast, looks on track to be relatively flat year over year. Even so, investment is down more than 80% from the peak.

Noteworthy recent rounds: Food and grocery delivery continue to be major themes for e-commerce funding.

In the U.S., the largest financing along these lines went to New York-based , a food takeout and delivery startup that raised $600 million in May at a reported $7 billion valuation. A sort of modernized version of the food court, Wonder lets customers order a selection of different cuisines from a single location.

Indian e-commerce unicorn , which offers quick deliveries of groceries and household supplies, also did well, last month at a $7 billion valuation.

Live shopping platform was also a venture favorite, securing $225 million in an October Series F. The San Francisco-based company said it has surpassed $6 billion in live sales this year.

Below, we look at nine of the leading e-commerce fundraisers of 2025.

The broad takeaway: A mature space, but newcomers can still find niche markets.

Early adopters have been buying stuff online for roughly three decades now, and early entrant is now a $2.6 trillion company. Suffice it to say, e-commerce is a fairly mature space, leaving limited new addressable markets for startups.

That said, we haven’t reached the zenith of on-demand commerce, and, as Whatnot’s rise exemplifies, buyers are always looking for a compelling new shopping experience. As AI technology advances, we’re also likely to see more startups finding innovative ways to apply it to e-commerce.

Related ˝űÂţĚěĚĂ queries and lists:

Related reading:

• Whatnot Lands $225M Series F, More Than Doubles Valuation to $11.5B Since January

To help answer that question, we used °ä°ůłÜ˛Ôł¦łó˛ú˛ą˛ő±đ’s to curate a list of 14 venture-backed companies in sectors ranging from AI to fintech to consumer goods that could be on tap as IPO candidates in the foreseeable future. Some of them are known IPO hopefuls; others, more under-the-radar picks that nonetheless have strong credentials for a public-market launch. Let’s take a closer look.

Fintech

There is perhaps no IPO more anticipated than that of payments giant Stripe. And, unsurprisingly, the fintech is “very likely” to go public, according to ˝űÂţĚěĚĂ predictions.

However, Stripe seems to be doing so well as a private company that some people speculate it has no reason to take to the public markets. Stripe, which has dual headquarters in San Francisco and Ireland, is not only the most-valuable fintech in the world, it’s one of the most-valuable private companies, period. But instead of going public, it’s thus far been offering early investors and employees liquidity through secondary sales. In February, for example, Stripe announced in which investors would buy up shares from current and former employees at a valuation of $91.5 billion. Stripe passed the $1.4 trillion total payment volume threshold in 2024. Says : “There are no perfectly reliable sources for Stripe’s revenue, but some sources estimate they surpassed $16B in 2023.”

Since its 2010 inception, Stripe has from investors such as ,,, and . Whether it finally decides to take the plunge into the public markets remains to be seen, but if it does, there is no doubt its filing will be devoured by media and fintech enthusiasts alike.

Airwallex, a Singapore-based global payments and financial platform, is also “very likely” to go public, per ˝űÂţĚěĚĂ predictions. CEO has stated that the plan is to have Airwallex make its public market debut by the end of 2026, although the company is reportedly “” to list. Interestingly, Airwallex rejected a $1.2 billion acquisition offer from Stripe in 2018. And that probably wasn’t a bad move. Founded in 2015 in Melbourne, Australia, the Stripe competitor has raised more than $1.2 billion in funding and was valued at over $6.2 billion as of its last raise — a in May 2025 that included $150 million in secondary share transfers. Investors include ,,, and 1, among others.

In August 2024, that Airwallex had reached an annual revenue run rate of $500 million after seeing major growth in its North American and European businesses. In announcing its Series F, the company that it was “on track to hit $1 billion in annualized revenue in 2025, as businesses of all sizes look to expand globally without friction.” That follows its achievement of $720 million in annualized revenue in March, up 90% year over year, according to the company. It touts more than 150,000 customers globally, including , , , , , , and .

— Mary Ann Azevedo

Enterprise tech and AI

We know that AI chip company Cerebras, founded in 2016 by , has been gearing up to go public. The Sunnyvale, California-based company filed with the to go public at the end of 2024. It then delayed its offering due to regulatory scrutiny over its ties to UAE-based , which has since been cleared by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. The company is considered a “probable” IPO candidate by ˝űÂţĚěĚĂ. In its filing, Cerebras noted its dependence on a single customer, Group 42, a subsidiary of its investor G42, responsible for more than 80% of revenue in 2023 and the first half of 2024. Cerebras has built a larger chip that is 10x faster for AI training and inference compared to leading GPU solutions, according to the . Its customers include , and the . Cerebras is reported to be raising which could delay its plans to go public. Still, the market conditions are good for an AI chip company. has topped $4 trillion in value and , which went public in March 2024 at $36 per share, has doubled its price from mid-July to mid-August to over $180.

Databricks, at the center of AI and data, is a strong candidate to go public in the next year. The San Francisco-based company is one of the 10 most-valuable private companies in the world, with a in revenue run rate as of Jan. 31, and on track to deliver positive free cash flow. In December, Databricks raised a $10 billion funding, the largest round in 2024, which valued it at $62 billion. The 12-year-old company has also been on a buying spree, notably purchasing AI infrastructure builder in 2023, data management service in 2024, and sql database solution developer in 2025, each at $1 billion or more. ˝űÂţĚěĚĂ indicates it’s a “probable” IPO candidate.

— Gené Teare

Clay sits at the red-hot intersection of AI and marketing and is a “probable” IPO candidate, per ˝űÂţĚěĚĂ predictions. Its growth metrics and scale seem to support that outlook, with the company — triple its 2024 figure. It has likewise tripled its valuation in just over a year from $500 million to $3.1 billion in a $100 million Series C raise last month. The New York-based startup, founded in 2017, is reportedly nearing profitability. It’s backed by IPO-savvy investors including , and , further bolstering its public-market credentials. The company claims to have invented the “,” which CEO and co-founder has described as “the first true AI-native profession.”

— Marlize van Romburgh

Cybersecurity

Crypto wallet startup Ledger is “very likely” to IPO, according to ˝űÂţĚěĚĂ predictions. That makes sense, as the French startup, founded in 2014, is well-positioned at the intersection of two currently hot industries: cybersecurity and blockchain. Paris-based Ledger offers a hardware wallet to secure crypto private keys. It has raised some $577 million from venture investors including and , per . CEO in June that Ledger is actively thinking about a U.S. stock market debut, likely within the next three years. It also has plans to expand beyond crypto security into cybersecurity more broadly. While he didn’t disclose revenue figures, Gauthier said Ledger has sold 8 million of its devices to date and estimated that 20% of the world’s crypto assets are protected via the company’s wallets. “Our size is compatible with an IPO,” he said. “That’s a short-medium term vision.”

It’s “probable” that security startup 1Password will go public, according to °ä°ůłÜ˛Ôł¦łó˛ú˛ą˛ő±đ’s prediction model. That makes sense, given the Toronto-based startup’s disclosed financials. The company was founded in 2005 and bootstrapped for its first 14 years before receiving its first outside investment from in 2019. It’s gone on to raise $920.1 million total from venture investors, per . Its most recent raise was in 2022, when it landed a $6.2 billion valuation in a $620 million -led round. While 1Password hasn’t raised since then, it likely hasn’t needed to: Co-CEO in February that the company has been profitable since the get-go and now has more than 150,000 customers, with 75% of its business selling to enterprises. While the company hasn’t made any formal moves toward an IPO, Faugno told CRN that “we do believe that this platform and this company can be a very large, standalone business. And we do believe that public markets are a likely stop on that journey, and an accelerator of that journey.”

Tanium, founded in 2007, is a frequent guest on IPO predictions lists, our own included. That’s likely because the endpoint management startup has raised a whopping $1 billion from private-market investors including ,, , and . It has also disclosed big revenue numbers to boot, that ARR topped $700 million in 2024 and that it had free cash flow margins north of 10%, making it profitable on an EBITDA basis. The company’s most recent funding-round valuation is $9 billion, though that dates to 2021. But trading on secondary-market platforms including has reportedly — around $4 billion — more recently. Kirkland, Washington-based Tanium hasn’t disclosed going-public plans, and CEO — brought on last year to take over from co-founder — told Forbes “we feel very comfortable as a private company.” Still, if it were to pursue an IPO, Tanium may see a receptive market following data security platform ’s successful IPO last year.

— Marlize van Romburgh

Consumer startups

Founded in 2013, hair-color brand Madison Reed has had quite some time to build up a following, and it continues to expand its reach. Launched as an online brand, it also currently sells in brick-and-mortar stores and operates a network of  hair color bars. Co-founded and led by , a longtime consumer-focused partner at VC firm , the San Francisco-headquartered company has raised over $220 million in equity funding as well as $50 million in debt financing. ˝űÂţĚěĚĂ grades it as a “probable” IPO candidate.

Skims, the shapewear brand co-founded by in 2019, has expanded its way into a host of product lines including sleepwear and activewear in addition to its core shapewear offerings. Funding has followed. The company has raised more than $700 million in seed and venture investment and attracted a host of well-known backers, including and . It also has a knack for staying in the news, boosted of late by a controversial sculpting . Could an IPO be next? ˝űÂţĚěĚĂ predicts that move is “probable.”

— Joanna Glasner

It’s unusual, to say the least, for a D2C clothing retailer to land on an IPO watch list like this one in the year 2025, but Quince is the exception. The San Francisco-based startup is a “probable” IPO candidate, per ˝űÂţĚěĚĂ, a prediction likely fueled by its reportedly fast revenue growth, back-to-back funding deals, and strong brand appeal among Gen Z and millennials. The company has raised more than $260 million from investors to date, not yet including an in-the-works $200 million -led Series D that would reportedly value the company at more than $4.5 billion — double its year-earlier valuation. Quince bucks the trend when it comes to fashion startups, which have seen venture investment fall off precipitously since the peak year of 2023.

— Marlize van Romburgh

Health/biotech

Mountain View, California-based Commure, a provider of AI-enabled software for health systems and clinicians, has raised more than $800 million in venture funding to date, including a led by , per ˝űÂţĚěĚĂ data. The company also that its ARR, in the hundreds of millions, has doubled for three consecutive years. Those sound like the kind of metrics that IPO investors like, and ˝űÂţĚěĚĂ says a listing is a probable outcome.

Inari is hoping to pioneer technology for seeds that will enable plants to make the most efficient use of land, water and fertilizer. Founded in 2016, the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company has raised more than $720 million in equity funding to date, a $144 million January financing. In terms of IPO potential, it helps that the company is employing two hot technologies: AI-powered predictive design and . Inari is another probable IPO candidate according to ˝űÂţĚěĚĂ.

— Joanna Glasner

Defense/space tech

Sierra Space is firmly on the IPO radar. The company, named a “very likely” IPO candidate by ˝űÂţĚěĚĂ, (including with ) and has raised $1.7 billion in total venture investment at a $5.3 billion valuation from heavyweights including and . The company has several marquee projects advancing, which include its Dream Chaser spaceplane and Orbital Reef commercial station. It also enjoys the benefit of an increasingly bullish market for space and defense startups, which have raised robust venture investment this year. The sector has already seen a successful 2025 IPO in the form of ’s August public-market debut — could Sierra be next?

— Marlize van Romburgh

Related ˝űÂţĚěĚĂ query:

Related reading:

• 30 Startups We Think Could Go Public In 2022
• Quince, A Bright Spot In Struggling D2C Fashion Space, More Than Doubles Valuation To $4.5B With Second Raise In 6 Months

Methodology

°ä°ůłÜ˛Ôł¦łó˛ú˛ą˛ő±đ’s utilize ˝űÂţĚěĚĂ data — including funding and valuation, and milestones such as financial growth, key leadership hires, market share expansion and headcount growth — to forecast the likelihood of a private company launching an IPO, providing a probability score and its supporting evidence. Read more about °ä°ůłÜ˛Ôł¦łó˛ú˛ą˛ő±đ’s Predictions & Insights and its methodology for IPO predictions .

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AI was yet again an inescapable theme this month as we looked for interesting startups that landed fresh investment. From a company using AI to help Alzheimer’s patients and their families better manage care, to another promising to streamline clothing production in the U.S. through advanced robotics, startups scooped up cash around a variety of AI-related businesses in August.

Sewing robots stitch up new funding

Atlanta-based — the company behind the Sewbot autonomous sewing robot — this month said it has raised $20 million in a Series B1 round.

use machine vision, AI and machine learning to produce apparel that SoftWear claims is cost-competitive with importing garments to the U.S. from low-wage countries.

The company says its robots support local production and allow garments to be made more efficiently, closer to their final destination and with less human labor. Its Sewbots also enable faster manufacturing, it says, meaning clothes are produced more in line with current fashion trends and demand.

“SoftWear Automation is helping address some of the key challenges we face across the industry — from speed and flexibility to lowering environmental impact. We’re pleased to support their development and explore how this technology can help us move forward,” said , CFO at Danish fashion company , which led the round as a strategic investment through its Invest FWD arm.

Current investors including , and also participated in the round. SoftWear has now raised $45.6 million total, per .

Startups that incorporate artificial intelligence into the fashion industry have seen strong investor interest, ˝űÂţĚěĚĂ data shows, raising around $100 million globally per year. Funded companies include those working on more efficient garment manufacturing, and others that aim to help consumers more easily shop for clothing online.

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Better advocacy for rare disease patients

A rare disease — one that affects only a small number of people relative to the general population — by definition doesn’t necessarily represent a massive addressable market for companies or health providers. But there are thousands of such diseases. Although each affects 200,000 or fewer Americans, altogether to live with one of those conditions.

For those diagnosed with conditions such as sickle cell disease — which affects around 200,000 Americans and is most prevalent among Black and Hispanic people — accessing the care and information they need can represent a major challenge.

With that in mind, San Mateo, California-based this month raised a $30 million Series A. The startup aims to use a personalized “AI advocate” to help folks living with rare diseases better navigate the care and management of those conditions themselves.

The company says its platform combines AI with community and longitudinal data “to help patients interpret medical records, track symptoms, learn from peers, manage appointments, and connect to the next best step in their health journey.”

Its newest round was led by 1 , with participation from and . Citizen Health has raised $44 million since its December 2023 launch, per the company.

The startup aims to launch the first version of its AI Advocate tool to select communities this quarter, along with a new product for patient advocacy groups. It says it will use the new capital to expand its AI engineering and product teams.

“Today’s patients aren’t waiting — they’re searching, deciding, and expecting more,” Citizen Health CEO and co-founder , said in a statement. “They deserve the same clarity, personalization, and intelligence in healthcare that they get in every other part of their lives.”

Notably, Citizen Health is a relaunch of , the startup where Vij and co-founder met. Ciitizen had been acquired by genetic testing company in 2021, then sold off before Invitae filed for bankruptcy protection in early 2024.

Delivering better Alzheimer’s care

Of course, it’s not just people dealing with rare diseases who might struggle to navigate a complex and costly healthcare system.

An Americans suffer from Alzheimer’s disease, a figure that’s only slated to grow as the population ages further. At the same time, patients for Alzheimer’s care appointments.

New York-based startup sees a gap to provide better preventative care for cognitive decline. The company this month raised $10.5 million in a -led Series A round for its platform, which offers AI screening technologies it says can help detect, diagnose and manage dementia from home.

The company says its “predictive machine learning can quickly identify patients with different cognitive and brain health conditions and pair them with a team of specialists that offers center-of-excellence level care, resulting in 73 percent of patients with improved neurocognitive function over the course of six months, and an improvement against cognitive goals in only three weeks for 92 percent of patients.”

New investors and , as well as investors , and , participated in the round for Isaac Health, which says it has raised $16.3 million to date.

Overall, startups working on both healthcare and AI-related technologies attract strong investor interest, ˝űÂţĚěĚĂ data shows, raising $5 billion globally last year, the highest total since 2021. Through the first half of 2025, such companies raised around $3.9 billion, a slight uptick compared to H1 2024.

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Slashing vendor costs

“Sorry, our AI says your product is too expensive.”

That might just be the conversation many businesses are having soon with their vendors, as companies increasingly turn to AI tools to help them track, manage and even renegotiate expenses and contracts.

Providing those tools is New York-based , which this month raised a $5 million seed round for its AI-powered vendor contract management platform.

The company says its platform is designed to replace the methods many enterprise teams use to manage their vendor spend — legacy tools such as spreadsheets and outside consultants — with AI-powered tools that “grade existing and proposed contracts, flag underperforming terms, and recommend specific, data-backed negotiation strategies tailored to each vendor and deal.”

Every company using its platform has seen at least 12% in annual savings, according to Infinity Loop.

The company’s seed round was led by and , with participation from , and unnamed angel investors.

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Using AI to sniff out fraud

Handling credit card and banking disputes is an increasingly costly part of doing business for banks and credit card companies.

To help tackle the problem, New York-based this month closed a $25 million Series  A that brings its total funding to $33.6 million, . The round was led by , with participation from , , and others.

Notably, Casap’s customers are the financial institutions themselves, and its product aims to eliminate what’s known in the industry as “first-party fraud” — that is, when a bank or credit card company’s own customers fraudulently dispute legitimate transactions.

Casap said its AI‑powered platform manages the entire dispute process — from intake to chargeback filing to customer communication — which can otherwise take as long as three months.

Its AI agents evaluate evidence, forecast outcomes and automate steps such as issuing credits or responding to merchants. The company says it also has a proprietary fraud‑scoring engine that flags sketchy activity before it becomes a problem.

“Disputes are one of the most broken and expensive workflows in financial services. What should be a simple resolution often turns into a slow, manual process — frustrating consumers, overloading teams, and bleeding revenue along the way,” Casap CEO and co-founder wrote in a announcing the funding.

The company says its Series A is the largest investment for a startup catering to the issuer — rather than the consumer — side of the business. With the fresh capital, it plans to grow its engineering, GTM and product teams.

Startups at the intersection of financial services and AI raised about $2 billion in venture funding in each of the past two years, ˝űÂţĚěĚĂ data shows. Through the first half of 2025, such startups raised about $1.4 billion, up notably compared to the $907 million raised in H1 2024.

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Related reading:

• ​​5 Interesting Startup Deals You May Have Missed In July: Universal Flu Vaccine Candidate, AI Legal Matchmaker And Seeing Underground
• 5 Interesting Startup Deals You May Have Missed In June: Drug Discovery Without Animal Trials, Better Nuclear Fuel, And Software For Military Planning
• 5 Interesting Startup Deals You May Have Missed In May: AI Shoplifting Prevention, Smart Irrigation And Helping Startups Shut Down

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We thought we might be able to write this column and include some startups not related to AI, but that turned out to be too difficult.

Every under-the-radar funded company that caught our eye in May relied heavily on artificial intelligence, whether that was to help farms reduce water usage, trucking companies deploy fleets more efficiently, or retailers catch would-be shoplifters before the act. Let’s take a look.

Startup raises VC to help other VC-backed startups shut down

You know we’re not in the 2021 boom times anymore when a startup that helps other startups shut down raises a decent chunk of funding from venture investors.

That’s the case with , a platform that helps startups close up shop. The Los Angeles-based startup this month raised a $15 million Series A led by . Existing investors , , , along with new investors and , and undisclosed angel investors also participated.

SimpleClosure launched in late 2023. To date, it says it has helped more than 1,500 startup founders dissolve their companies and move on to their next ventures. Its platform uses AI to help founders automate the requisite regulatory paperwork, legal filings, compliance and investor communications to shut down their businesses.

“The reality is that 90% of startups don’t make it, and shutting down remains the unspoken but necessary part of entrepreneurship. We hope companies never need us, but if they do, we’re here to help them do it the right way,” CEO and founder said in a statement.

SimpleClosure’s new funding comes as startup funding remains challenging, especially for seed- and early-stage startups. While global venture funding jumped to $113 billion in Q1, a whopping third of that went to a single company, . Graduation rates from seed to Series A have also declined significantly, ˝űÂţĚěĚĂ data shows, raising the risk of failure for many seed-stage startups.

That more challenging environment — which also includes delayed IPOs and an only modest uptick in startup M&A this year — no doubt helped SimpleClosure raise its latest round, which comes just over a year after its February 2024 seed round.

AI automation for truckers hauls in $40M

If you thought truckers — like plumbers, nurses, electricians or wildlife biologists — were among the professions least likely to be affected by AI, you might have to think again. New York-based startup , which makes AI decision-making software for trucking fleets, raised a $40 million Series C financing round led by .

Enterprise fleets and logistics companies including , and reportedly use Optimal Dynamics’ platform for proactive load planning and dynamic dispatching.

The software optimizes trucking routes by considering factors such as driver fatigue, fuel consumption, load capacity and customer demand to streamline deliveries and reduce manual planning effort by more than 80%, according to the company.

Optimal Dynamics was spun out of and co-founded by Princeton professor  , who taught operations research and financial engineering at the school for nearly 40 years.

The company, founded in 2017, has now raised $95.8 million, per . Previous investors include , and .

Money flows to smart irrigation

If you’ve been reading this column for a while, you know that startups tackling water-related issues often catch our attention.

This month, it was , an agtech startup that’s combatting water scarcity with its AI-powered, retrofittable smart irrigation systems. It says the process brings the precision of indoor farming watering systems to outdoor fields, orchards and vineyards.

The Vancouver, British Columbia-based startup raised a $4.7 million seed round led by .

The company, which counts wineries, berry farms, orchards and cannabis producers among its customers, said it saved more than $1 million in labor costs and 100 million liters of water in 2024 across 5,000-plus acres in the U.S. and Canada.

Its patented smart watering devices are fitted to existing irrigation infrastructure — which reduces rollout costs — bringing features such as remote leak detection and row-level watering control to farming operations. Verdi said its technology can reduce labor costs by up to 90% and water usage by 70% while increasing yields by as much as 20%.

Verdi has now raised $9.5 million in total investment, per the company.

Doji tries on $14M for size

Hate going into fitting rooms to try on new outfits, or worse, buying clothes online only to find they don’t fit at all? There’s a new app for you.

Fashion tech startup raised $14 million in seed funding this month for its app that lets users try on clothing virtually with their phones. The round was led by with participation from .

The Doji app has users upload selfies and full-body images of themselves to generate a personalized AI avatar that can try on different outfits. Currently, the app is by invitation only, and users can’t buy clothing in-platform yet, but Doji presumably plans to change that.

“Going around the web to hundreds of click links to shop is laborious,” Thrive Capital partner . “Doji has an opportunity to make shopping fun as it puts me at the center of the experience. The app also has a social aspect of making me want to share different looks [with friends and family].”

Doji launched publicly this month and was founded by and , whose combined tech resume includes stints at , , and .

Caught AI-handed

AI to detect would-be criminals? No, this isn’t “Minority Report.”

Paris-based security startup raised a $43 million Series B for its software that uses AI to “detect suspicious movements in real time so retailers can prevent theft.” The company plans to use the new funding for a major U.S. expansion push.

led the recent round with participation from and . Existing investors, and also participated. The company said that in addition to its equity funding, it also secured $17 million in non-dilutive financing.

Veesion said the U.S. currently accounts for about 10% of its revenue. Existing customers include , and .

The new funding will help it to invest in R&D, establish a subsidiary in the U.S., hire local commercial and technical talent, and build partnerships with U.S. retail chains. Veesion co-founder is moving to the U.S. to lead the expansion. The startup says it plans to hire about 100 new employees in the next 18 months, with about half of them based in the U.S.

According to statistics from the cited by the company, U.S. retailers suffered $50 billion in shoplifting losses last year.

“Nearly half of global shoplifting losses now happen in the U.S. Our AI is already delivering results worldwide, and this funding gives us the resources to bring those results to American retailers at scale,” Veesion CEO and co-founder said in a statement. “With rising theft and violence in stores, businesses need smarter tools to protect staff, inventory, and margins.”

Along with shoplifting prevention, Veesion said its technology can also help with other store operations, such as identifying spill risks or assisting with crowd management.

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Tariff-related uncertainty is cascading through the investment ecosystem. This environment is particularly challenging for private investors and venture capital investors, who rely on predictable capital markets and functioning global supply chains to drive value creation and liquidity.

Uncertainty in the economy affects all sectors of investing, and family office and private equity sponsored funding deals, especially venture-backed M&A — are no exception. When the investment community is confronted with material uncertainty in the near-term, decision-making becomes a synthesis of the most relevant data available, and a consensus is usually reached.

Currently, the overwhelming conclusion of the markets is clear: Tariffs are not good for the economy or for the global supply infrastructure developed over the past 30-plus years.

The effects of tariffs

Tariffs function as a tax on American businesses importing foreign products. As such, they increase costs within the supply chain — much like a game of “whisper down the lane,” with each participant adding their tariff cost to the next member of the chain. The result is higher consumer prices to cover the newly imposed tax.

Unlike direct payments to the government, these costs cascade through the supply chain, dampening economic activity. Over time, higher costs push buyers toward alternative markets, potentially hurting U.S. exporters.

Retaliatory tariffs from trade partners further strain American industries, decreasing demand for goods such as bourbon from Kentucky, mushrooms from Pennsylvania and wine from California. These demand shocks quickly lead to labor reductions and economic softening.

As a result, companies recoil from capital expenditure commitments or, at the very least, stretch decision-making timelines. Many capital projects will involve deferring technology purchases or postponing investments to a later date — metaphorically “kicking the can down the road.”

Venture and growth investors, in turn, impute slowing revenue growth and apply lower valuations to companies seeking capital, based on forecasted slowing or reduced future cash flows. This leads VC- and growth-investor-backed companies to delay potential liquidity events, waiting for more favorable market conditions.

When venture and private equity funds are unable to exit and return capital to their limited partners, pension funds and high-net-worth individuals cannot raise new capital. Without this capital recycling, the flow of new money into the market stalls and may eventually shut down for a period.

Clarity is needed

For investors, tariffs add yet another layer of risk. Venture capital and growth-equity sponsors have responded by prioritizing domestic investments and reducing exposure to global supply chain volatility. This mirrors the trend seen in the latter part of the COVID-19 pandemic when uncertainty around logistics and pricing significantly slowed M&A activity. Depressed valuations discouraged sellers, creating a cautious deal-making environment.

Until there is more clarity around tariff policies, investors will favor U.S.-centric opportunities. However, even that universe is becoming smaller. In summary, the markets are speaking: Tariffs are bad for both the U.S. and the global economy.

has almost 30 years experience as an investment banker to middle market companies. Prior to the founding of in 2004, he served as the founder and head of equity capital markets for Commerce Bancorp (now ). He previously served as managing director and head of investment banking for and was a founding partner of the Philadelphia investment bank Foley Mufson Howe & Co., which was acquired by Janney Montgomery Scott. He started his investment banking career with Butcher & Singer (now in 1981. Before that he was with Arthur Young & Co. (now ). Mufson has completed hundreds of M&A deals, private placements, recapitalizations, IPOs, follow-on financings and advisory assignments. He has served as a director of numerous public and private companies and has acted as general partner in venture capital and private equity funds. He received his bachelor’s and MBA degrees from and is a certified public accountant.

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When you think of personalization, what springs to mind? If you’re a boomer or member of Gen X, maybe it’s ’s recommendation feed. Millennials may think of ’s Daylist. For Gen Z or Gen Alpha, is likely the answer.

The personalization of our digital world impacts us. It’s a reflection of internal and external identities (MySpace) while revealing what we really want or like (FB/IG ads, TikTok feeds).

While the past decade has seen increasing levels of daily personal digital experiences, today’s advancements in AI have us on the precipice of entering a new era of personalization — far more targeted, tailored and timely.

It’s not personal, it’s business

The e-commerce experience is deeply stagnant and hasn’t meaningfully evolved in 20-plus years: It’s a feed-based scrolling process where you click on an item, look at an image, scroll, read, add to cart, input info, checkout. Consumers need better solutions.

How companies and brands communicate presents another issue. Think about app notifications. Many can relate to getting the same notification at the same time from the same company each day or simply irrelevant pings. This leads to a selective blindness to the notifications (and the company) because they’re not tailored and aren’t meeting you, the consumer, where you are.

The way these feeds or notifications were built has prevented personalization because it’s functionally impossible to build out all the edge cases for an individual. Instead, companies have catered to the largest common audience and default to displaying the most popular products.

Historically, most digital personalization was powered by recommender systems. These are machine-learning algorithms — using collaborative and content-based filtering — to recommend items, goods or content based on things like previous engagement, usage signals and user demographics.

But what if you could remove even more of the friction from the discovery or engagement process? What if the onus of engagement was shifted toward brands and companies to create more of a pull than a push? What if life’s digital interactions were noticeably tailored to consumers?

Wouldn’t that feel almost magical? Joyful? Frictionless?

This type of e-commerce personalization has long been a white whale. Today, thanks to AI, we will soon see massive adoption of these types of tools, so let’s talk about a few interesting use cases in e-commerce and digital consumer engagement.

Get online loser, we’re going shopping

E-commerce has always struggled to replicate the joyful discovery of in-person shopping. What many VCs get wrong about e-commerce is that it’s not always about efficiency. Shopping is also entertainment and the process — the joy of the hunt — is a feature, not a bug.

When you walk into a store and an associate helps you find an item that feels like it was meant for you — that’s an amazing, personal experience that quite simply makes you feel good.

Replicating that online is challenging with feed-based scrolling, relatively creating a lot of friction for the consumer and leading to lost sales. In an age of personalization, lean-back minimal- input-based discovery will become the norm (and much closer to that enjoyable, IRL experience).

For example — how would you typically describe bold heels you need for a wedding? Maybe it’s something along the lines of “spikey statement heels.” But historically, back-end product taxonomies have been rigid and narrowly defined by brand name, item name, SKU and maybe one or two basic attributes, making it difficult to find what you want without the actual product name.

There are several startups such as or that are removing this friction in the discovery process by using AI to create “real-world language” product taxonomies. This enables products to be discovered by more attributes, vibe, style, occasion — words we would use to describe them to our friends.

AI enables these products to be scalably and effortlessly tagged with hundreds or even thousands of relevant attributes — facilitating better discovery. Products like this are much more efficacious and efficient than brand managers or merchandisers manually inputting one to three attributes across hundreds or thousands of SKUs, which is obviously not scalable (so no one does it).

Enter agentic AI — upleveling engagement

Let’s go back to that example of how poorly architected notifications and feeds can negatively impact users. How do we fix this?

At a high level, agentic AI acts independently on self-directed goals with decision-making capabilities that are not just premised on pre-programmed reactions to inputs or stimuli.

This is currently one of the most exciting areas of AI for both founders and VCs because it gets us closer to the optimal relationship between humans and technology: Technology should work for us, we should not work for technology.

What does this look like applied to personalization for consumer engagement? It’s proactive, tailored notifications that make us want to engage and meet individuals where they are. A brilliant example of this type of product is being built by a company called . Their agentic AI infrastructure delivers continuously personalized and optimized experiences to consumers.

With a tougher regulatory environment around consumer data privacy and third-party cookie usage, startups like this are poised to backfill a massive and fundamental part of consumer engagement and lead us to a new paradigm of tailored, “pull-you-in” experiences.

The exciting part of agentic AI is that it’s a horizontal technology that can be applied across many industries. Agentic AI startups that go deep into a vertical and leverage industry-specific data sets will be positioned to embed into many workflows. The beauty of agentic models is that the more they’re used, the more data is created which can further refine the agents — creating a powerful flywheel.

Parting thoughts

AI-driven personalization will become a foundational technology that will reshape how we interact with digital content on a daily basis. It won’t happen overnight. Regulatory bodies will try to figure out a balancing act for consumers and their privacy over time — just as they did for cookie-based ads and more broadly for AI.

However, similar to the early days of rapidly building strong D2C businesses by running ads (, , , ) — companies that build and/or adopt AI-driven personalization earlier, will reap asymmetric rewards. As the solutions become more widespread, the pricing-per-action arbitrage or engagement-per-ping effectiveness stabilizes and less customer value can be captured efficiently. In other words, for e-commerce companies hoping to capitalize on this AI trend, time is of the essence to make business more personal.

is vice president and investor at in San Francisco. Previously, he worked on ad monetization and marketplace dynamics at , was a fintech investor at , and began his career in investment banking at . Schwarzbach holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from at the .

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The next time you buy shampoo, lotion, bodywash or your favorite face mask you might notice prices creeping up. That’s because containers for personal care come heavily from China, Canada and Mexico, and these countries are the targets of tariffs by the administration.

You may not realize, but the beauty industry has a heavy reliance on China as a source of containers, and that’s not likely to change soon. The level of creativity in containers and choice of options in plastic or glass make China a major source of packaging materials for personal care and makeup products. Estimates from . Other substantial chunks came from Canada, Mexico and South Korea. estimates that 43% of personal care packaging globally comes out of the Asia-Pacific region.

Buyer appeal

As the founder of a skincare and personal care brand, I know that the choice of packaging for a personal care product is exceptionally important. Unique bottle colors, shapes, decoration and closures help differentiate brands and create shelf appeal. The choice of container may also consider issues like the viscosity of the product, sensitivity to light, how it needs to dispense, and possible eco-friendliness.

It’s not cheap or easy to change containers once a personal care brand has committed to a look and supply chain. The containers they use are often unique and may require tooling and special color mixing. The cost to package or repackage a line of products could encompass hundreds of thousands of dollars of expenses, including design, printing and photography assets.

In 2019, President Trump levied a 25% tariff on Chinese containers, theoretically because of their “unfair” competition with American-made containers. Now, in slightly over a month, another 20% has been added, totaling 45%

The additional 20% tariffs on Chinese containers that have been put in place in the past month will add about $0.108 of cost per container for my company, , which translates into about a 65-cent to 86-cent increase in the retail price paid by consumers for finished goods.

Every 10% additional tariff on Chinese containers could increase the price of many personal care products by 32 cents to 43 cents. Last fall Trump originally threatened tariffs totaling possibly 60% to 100% on Chinese goods. Based on the speed with which the Chinese tariffs were increased it’s very concerning that tariffs could reach those extreme levels.

The struggle is real

Tariffs are paid in cash when a shipment of containers arrives in the USA. That means brands have to consider pricing changes now in order to be able to afford their next shipment of containers and closures. The uncertainty and volatility with which tariff policies are being enacted does not allow for prudent planning, creating unnecessary risk.

Tariffs are the proverbial cherry on top of the personal care industry’s lengthy list of strains after handling MoCRA, or the Modernization of Cosmetics Regulation Act of 2022, registration, rising minimum order quantities for components and finished goods, increasing customer acquisition costs, rising shipping rates, increases to employee pay to keep up with inflation, and reduced consumer spending. There’s no margin left for additional expenses. In 2024, innovation in the personal care industry already hit its lowest level since 1996.

Brands need to be reinvesting and putting money toward staying competitive in the global market. Rising tariffs on containers and closures create real, substantial risk to manufacturing jobs in the personal care industry in the U.S.

We would gladly buy more containers from within the U.S. if they had more creative, cost-effective options to do so. The cost savings on shipping alone would be tremendous.  We’ve had time to see the effect of tariffs since 2020, and container options in the U.S. are no more competitive than they were.

Tariffs don’t just fund innovation at container manufacturers in the USA. Instead tariffs go directly into the where they can be used for essentially anything. That pile of unearmarked money can go to pet projects, to pay for unelected advisers to fly on Air Force One, or to pay for costs of a historically high number of presidential golf outings.

Personal care products represent one area of government policy that will affect the purchasing power of every person. Soon American shoppers, employees in the personal care industry, and entrepreneurs will all be feeling the squeeze while someone else enjoys the juice.

is an herbal chemist and founder and owner of , a sophisticated, unique and potent collection of botanical skincare products that proactively heal skin and enhance health.

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