AI was supposed to kill the travel agent. Instead it just minted a billion-dollar one.
AI was supposed to kill the travel agent. Instead it just minted a billion-dollar one.

Fora, a platform that lets ordinary people become travel agents and gives travellers a way to find them, has raised a $60m Series D at a $1bn valuation led by Forerunner and Tactile Ventures. It has 15,000+ advisors (97% new to the profession) who have…

SWISSto12 raised $70M, and it is that rare thing: a profitable space startup
SWISSto12 raised $70M, and it is that rare thing: a profitable space startup

Most space-hardware startups raise money because they are burning it. SWISSto12 raised $70m while turning a profit, an unusual thing in the satellite business. The Swiss company closed the €61m round days after ESA member states put $84.8m into its Hum…

Fireworks raised $1.5bn on a bet that companies will build AI, not rent it
Fireworks raised $1.5bn on a bet that companies will build AI, not rent it

The AI economy has run on a simple habit: rent a model from a big lab. Fireworks just raised $1.5bn to argue the opposite, that every company will build intelligence of its own. The Series D values the San Mateo startup at $17.5bn, it said. Atreides Ma…

Sable raised $45 million from Sequoia to build an AI that runs product demos instead of humans
Sable raised $45 million from Sequoia to build an AI that runs product demos instead of humans

Sable has raised $45 million from Sequoia Capital and 8VC to build an AI system called Aidan that runs live product demonstrations, answers customer questions in real time, and switches between languages mid-conversation. The company, which is less tha…

Bunkerhill Health raised $55M to put AI agents to work inside hospitals
Bunkerhill Health raised $55M to put AI agents to work inside hospitals

The hard part of medical AI was never the model. It was getting a hospital to actually run it. Bunkerhill Health has raised fresh money to close that gap. The startup closed a $25m Series B led by Khosla Ventures, it told Fortune in an exclusive. That …

Oak raised $60M to give every user, machine, and AI agent one identity system
Oak raised $60M to give every user, machine, and AI agent one identity system

Most companies still cannot say who, or what, has access to their systems at any given moment. Oak, an Israeli startup, has raised $60M to fix that, and it is betting AI agents make the problem urgent. The company came out of stealth with the seed roun…

Anthropic and Blackstone bet the next fortune in AI is implementation, not models
Anthropic and Blackstone bet the next fortune in AI is implementation, not models

The race in AI has been about who builds the best model. A new company backed by Anthropic thinks the real money sits elsewhere: in getting those models to actually work inside big companies. That company is Ode with Anthropic, and it launched under it…

A Face ID pioneer raised $52M to read the brain like a blood test
A Face ID pioneer raised $52M to read the brain like a blood test

One of the minds behind Apple’s Face ID wants to point AI at something harder than a face. He wants it to read the brain. His startup, Hemispheric, has come out of stealth with $52M. The Tel Aviv firm calls itself a NeuroAI company, and its pitch is si…

Applied Computing raises $20m to build a foundation model for the refinery
Applied Computing raises $20m to build a foundation model for the refinery

A single refinery can carry thousands of sensors measuring temperature, pressure, velocity, and viscosity. According to Applied Computing, operators make decisions using less than 8% of what those sensors tell them. The London startup has raised a $20m…

Uber agrees $14.8bn Delivery Hero takeover, 26% above its May bid
Uber agrees $14.8bn Delivery Hero takeover, 26% above its May bid

The May bid was €33 and landed below the close. Eight weeks later it is €41.50, with 14 markets carved out to a New York firm before anyone asks about competition. Uber has agreed to buy Delivery Hero for €41.50 a share in cash, a 26% improvement on th…