Funding Round

• De startup voor agentic security operations, Exaforce, kondigde een Series B-financieringsronde van $125 miljoen aan bij een gerapporteerde waardering van $725 miljoen, wat een van de grootste rondes is in de opkomende markt voor AI-security operations centers. • De ronde werd gesteund door HarbourVest Partners, Peak XV Partners, Mayfield Fund, Khosla Ventures, Seligman Ventures en AICONIC; Exaforce heeft nu in totaal $200 miljoen opgehaald na een Series A van $75 miljoen iets meer dan een jaar geleden. • De financiering zal het door AI aangedreven security operations-platform van Exaforce schalen en de real-time threat reasoning-capaciteiten uitbreiden, wat de groeiende vraag van bedrijven naar autonome beveiligingsoplossingen weerspiegelt.

• Tech: NYC meldt dat 21 startups in april 2026 de Series A-drempel hebben overschreden, bijgehouden in hun maandelijkse 'Series A: A Series'-update. • Financieringsbedragen nemen merkbaar toe, wat wijst op een sterker investeursvertrouwen in early-stage techventures te midden van het economische herstel. • Het overzicht benadrukt het bruisende startup-ecosysteem van New York City, met een focus op de sectoren AI, fintech en climate tech.

• Shield AI, gevestigd in San Diego en opgericht in 2015, verzekerde zich in maart 2026 van 1,5 miljard dollar in haar Series G-financieringsronde, waarmee de totale financiering op 2,5 miljard dollar komt. • De investering ondersteunt vooruitgang in AI-gestuurde autonome systemen voor defensietoepassingen, ter verbetering van de nationale veiligheidscapaciteiten. • Deze enorme ronde onderstreept het groeiende vertrouwen van investeerders in Amerikaanse defensie-tech startups te midden van stijgende geopolitieke spanningen.

• 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.

• China's AI startup DeepSeek is closing in on a massive funding round that could value the company at approximately $45 billion, more than four times its valuation from discussions just two weeks prior. • China Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund (Big Fund) is leading the financing round, with Tencent and Alibaba participating to provide strong domestic backing. • The funding round represents a dramatic increase in DeepSeek's valuation and underscores China's aggressive push to develop competitive AI capabilities independent of Western technology.

• Twelve Indian tech firms announced funding exceeding $1.1 billion, fueling AI innovation and startup growth in the country's booming sector. • This influx highlights exploding investment in India's tech industry, with focus on AI-driven startups and product development. • The deals position India as a global hub for tech funding, supporting economic expansion amid high AI adoption rates.

• U.S. startups in applied enterprise AI secured over $500 million in funding rounds announced May 4, 2026, focusing on workflow automation and analytics. • Key deals include a $120M Series B for an AI platform optimizing supply chains and $80M for defense-oriented machine learning tools. • Surge underscores investor shift toward practical AI deployments, with returns projected at 5x in three years amid 25% market growth.

• 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.

• VisionWave Holdings (NASDAQ: VWAV) closed a $20 million senior loan in late February and subsequently completed a $60 million–valued acquisition of AI video intelligence intellectual property, strengthening its technology portfolio. • The acquisition adds significant video AI capabilities to VisionWave's platform and positions the company for expanded market presence in computer vision applications. • These transactions demonstrate continued investor confidence in AI video technology sectors and emerging opportunities in automated visual intelligence.

• Port, an AI startup in cybersecurity, raised $100 million in its third funding round led by General Atlantic, achieving an $800 million valuation. • The funding supports expansion in cloud infrastructure protection technologies. • This round reflects investor confidence in AI-driven defenses against evolving cyber threats in the US market.

• 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.

• Databricks announced a Series H funding round of $10 billion at a $43 billion valuation on April 18, led by existing investors including Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital, to accelerate development of its AI and data platform. • The funding will support expansion of Databricks' lakehouse architecture, which integrates data warehousing and data lakes, and fund aggressive hiring in engineering and sales across North America. • The round positions Databricks as one of the fastest-growing enterprise software companies and signals strong investor confidence in the competitive data infrastructure market dominated by Snowflake and others.

• 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.

• Scale AI raised $1 billion on April 9, 2026, at $2.5 billion valuation from Accel and Founders Fund for US data labeling expansion. • Funding supports hiring 1,000 engineers in San Francisco to improve RLHF datasets for models like Llama 4. • Positions Scale as critical US AI infrastructure player, with CEO Alexandr Wang noting 'data is the new oil.'

• Shield AI, a San Diego-based defense tech firm, raised new funding that more than doubled its valuation to $12.7 billion on March 27, 2026. • The company projects revenue exceeding $540 million this year, driven by its Hivemind autonomy software used in drones and fighter-jet programs. • This funding underscores growing investor confidence in AI-powered military autonomy amid rising defense tech demand in the US.