Travis Kalanick’s robotics company raises $1.7B, led by a16z

Uber is also investing in Travis Kalanick’s company Atoms, which has made gauzy claims about using industrial AI to modernize the world.

Cascade raises $3.5M to help construction firms find and win projects

a16z Speedrun, Ada Ventures, and Snowball VC have invested in Cascade’s $3.5 million seed round.

Dimension Capital’s $800M third fund shows the intersection of science and compute is booming

The four-year-old firm’s latest fund is 60% larger than its second vehicle announced 18 months ago.

Bluecore Energy raises $10M to build portable nuclear reactors on barges

Maritime nuclear energy startup Bluecore Energy has raised $10 million in a pre-seed funding round led by Slauson & Co.

Natural raises $30M to reinvent payments for AI agents — and take on Stripe

The one-year-old startup aims to reinvent financial architecture for autonomous AI transactions.

Inference startup Infinity raises $15M from Touring Capital, OpenAI and Athropic researchers

AI infrastructure company Infinity announced Monday a $15 million raise at a $100 million valuation from investors including Touring Capital, Principal VC, and researchers from companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic.  

StrictlyVC returns to New York City September 10 to celebrate a huge year for the city’s startup community 

For the first time since 2024, StrictlyVC is coming back to New York City — and we’re bringing the kind of access you’d expect from an under-wraps event to the whole startup, VC, and dealmaking community.

Neil Rimer thinks the AI money is coming back out

Neil Rimer, the venture capitalist who co-founded Index Ventures, predicts the historic wealth AI is generating in Silicon Valley will have to be redistributed, voluntarily or involuntarily.

Nuclear startup Valar Atomics in talks to raise new funding at $6B valuation

The potential deal highlights a growing trend of complex, multi-stage funding rounds that mask true entry prices.

No product? No problem. This Disrupt 2026 session shows how to get pre-seed funding with conviction, storytelling 

It’s not just you: AI startups are taking in a huge amount of seed funding, and in the process making things harder for anyone looking for funding even at a pre-seed stage. We’ve covered the trend in detail, and at this year’s TechCrunch Disrupt event,…