Series Funding

Head of Early Years Alliance says additional charges paid by parents represent ‘cross-subsidy’Parents of nursery children in England are being charged extra fees to cover for government underfunding of free childcare hours, with some paying thousands of pounds a year for consumables such as food, wipes and nappies, campaigners have said.The comments came as the education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, asked the competition watchdog to investigate hidden extra charges that parents have encountered when trying to access government-funded childcare. Continue reading...

• Chinese robotics startup Linkerbot has completed a Series B+ funding round, achieving a $3 billion valuation, according to a Reuters report covering the company's expansion in industrial robotics. • The funding round reflects strong investor appetite for advanced robotics solutions in Asia, where manufacturing automation and industrial AI applications are driving significant venture capital deployment. • Linkerbot's valuation milestone positions the startup among China's leading robotics firms, competing in the growing market for intelligent automation systems across manufacturing, logistics, and service sectors.

• Anduril Industries announced a $5 billion Series H funding round, doubling its valuation to $61 billion just one year after its previous multibillion-dollar raise. • The late-stage funding was jointly led by Thrive Capital and Andreessen Horowitz, demonstrating strong investor confidence in the defense and autonomous systems company. • The massive valuation increase reflects growing demand for advanced defense technology and autonomous systems in the current geopolitical environment.

• Agentic security operations startup Exaforce announced a $125 million Series B funding round at a reported $725 million valuation, marking one of the largest rounds in the emerging AI security operations center market. • The round was backed by HarbourVest Partners, Peak XV Partners, Mayfield Fund, Khosla Ventures, Seligman Ventures, and AICONIC; Exaforce has now raised $200 million total following a $75 million Series A just over a year ago. • The funding will scale Exaforce's AI-driven security operations platform and expand its real-time threat reasoning capabilities, reflecting growing enterprise demand for autonomous security solutions.

• Tech: NYC reports 21 startups crossed the Series A threshold in April 2026, tracked in their monthly 'Series A: A Series' update. • Funding checks are notably increasing in size, reflecting stronger investor confidence in early-stage tech ventures amid economic recovery. • The roundup emphasizes New York City's vibrant startup ecosystem, with focus on AI, fintech, and climate tech sectors.

• Shield AI, headquartered in San Diego and founded in 2015, secured $1.5 billion in its Series G funding round in March 2026, bringing total funding to $2.5 billion. • The investment supports advancements in AI-driven autonomous systems for defense applications, enhancing national security capabilities. • This massive round underscores surging investor confidence in US defense tech startups amid rising geopolitical tensions.

• Singapore‑headquartered AI‑analytics company NexaAnalytics raised $120 million in a Series B round led by Temasek Holdings on May 8, 2026, valuing the firm at $1.1 billion. • The startup, which specializes in real‑time marketing‑attribution and supply‑chain‑demand‑prediction models for ASEAN retailers, says it will allocate 60% of the capital to expand its GPU‑cluster footprint in Singapore and Malaysia and the rest to R&D and regional hiring. • NexaAnalytics reports current ARR of $49 million, up from $18 million a year ago, with its prediction models deployed across more than 850 enterprise clients including major e‑commerce and logistics networks in Indonesia and Thailand.

• XBOW, a leader in autonomous offensive security, raised $35 million in additional Series C financing with Samsung Ventures participating, announced on May 8, 2026. • Foley & Lardner LLP represented Samsung Ventures in the deal, bolstering XBOW's capabilities in AI-driven cybersecurity operations. • The funding arrives amid rising demand for advanced security tools, emphasizing the growing importance of autonomous systems in threat detection and response.

• Moonshot AI, a leading Chinese chatbot maker focused on commercial AI applications, secured $20 billion in its Series E funding round led by Meituan. • The massive investment, one of the largest in AI history, will accelerate development of advanced AI models and expand commercial deployments across Asia. • This funding underscores China's aggressive push in AI amid global competition, positioning Moonshot to challenge U.S. giants like OpenAI.

• Cogent Security, a vulnerability management developer, secured $42 million in Series A funding in February 2026 at a post-money valuation of $295 million. • Bain Capital Ventures led the round with participation from OpenAI, Datadog, and existing investor Greylock Partners, bringing the company's total capital raised to $53 million since its seed round. • The investment reflects growing enterprise demand for AI-powered vulnerability management tools as organizations prioritize cybersecurity infrastructure upgrades.

• DeepInfra, a Palo Alto-based AI infrastructure company, secured $107 million in Series B funding to expand its global AI inference cloud platform. • The funding will be used to enhance the company's cloud infrastructure capabilities and support for AI model deployment across regions. • DeepInfra competes in the rapidly growing AI infrastructure market alongside companies like Together AI and Replicate, addressing demand for cost-effective inference services.

• A leading AI startup focused on enterprise AI solutions secured $150 million in Series B funding on April 25, 2026. • The round was led by Lightspeed Ventures and SoftBank, signaling strong investor confidence in scalable AI technologies for businesses. • This funding underscores accelerating growth in the US enterprise AI sector amid rising demand for efficient AI deployment tools.

• Anthropic announced a $4 billion Series E funding round on April 25, 2026, with lead investments from Amazon and Google, valuing the AI safety firm at $61.5 billion post-money. • The capital will accelerate development of Claude 4 models and expand enterprise AI infrastructure across US data centers in California and Virginia. • This funding underscores intensifying competition in AI amid regulatory scrutiny, positioning Anthropic as a key challenger to OpenAI's dominance.

• Perplexity AI announced a Series D funding round of $500 million at an $8.5 billion post-money valuation on April 19, led by prominent venture capital firms and strategic investors including Nvidia and Saudi PIF. • The funding will support expansion of Perplexity's AI search engine capabilities, development of enterprise API offerings, and geographic expansion into European and Asian markets with localized language models. • The round positions Perplexity as a serious challenger to Google Search and reflects growing investor confidence in AI-powered search alternatives and conversational information retrieval platforms.

• Alcatraz, a physical security startup founded by a former Apple Face ID engineer, completed a $50 million Series B funding round on April 13, 2026. • The company focuses on privacy-first artificial intelligence solutions for the physical security sector, leveraging expertise from its founder's background in biometric technology. • The funding reflects growing investor confidence in AI-powered security solutions and privacy-preserving technology approaches.

• Anthropic secured $8 billion in its Series E funding round on April 9, 2026, led by Lightspeed Venture Partners with participation from US-based investors including Amazon and Google. • The funds will accelerate development of Claude 4 AI models and expand enterprise AI infrastructure in US data centers. • This round values Anthropic at $61.5 billion post-money, solidifying its position as a leading US AI challenger to OpenAI amid intensifying competition.

• Shield AI, a U.S.-based developer of autonomous pilot platforms, secured $1.5 billion in Series G funding as part of a $2.25 billion capital package on April 4, 2026. • The round values the company at $12.7 billion, a 140% increase in one year, with its Hivemind platform selected by the U.S. military for defense applications. • This funding underscores surging investor confidence in AI-driven defense tech amid rising geopolitical tensions.

• Edmonton-born startup Smart Access raised $12 million in Series A funding from Bay Area investors Lobby Capital, Aspenwood Ventures, and Coelius Capital to expand its digital workforce management platform. • The company, co-founded by Tim Regnier and John White, helps large distribution operations optimize training, safety programs, and adherence to standard operating procedures across their workforce. • Smart Access, which relocated its operating base to San Francisco while maintaining Edmonton roots since its 2015 founding, plans to scale deployments across North America using the new capital.