Agentic AI is the new application layer. We're past copilots. The money is flowing to autonomous agents that automate finance (Nominal), tax prep (Abacus AI), and even simulate app usage (Blok). This is about replacing workflows, not just assisting them.

The Infrastructure Arms Race is getting physical. From Groq's inference chips to Arago's photonic processors and CoreWeave's $9B data center play, the battle for the foundational stack is heating up. Owning the hardware is becoming the ultimate moat.

Vertical AI is winning. The most compelling deals are hyper-specific. We're seeing AI for clinical trial design (Biorce), construction procurement (Parspec), and non-invasive cancer screening (The Blue Box). Deep domain expertise is the killer app.

The VCs are doubling down. Top-tier firms such as Gradient, Kleiner Perkins, Redpoint, and a16z are all over these deals. And with new funds like Boldstart's fresh $250M, the early-stage pipeline is primed for the next wave of founders.

Cerebrium, an AI infrastructure platform that helps engineers build and scale multimodal AI applications, has raised an $8.5 million seed round led by Gradient Ventures. (Business Insider) 

Arago, a deeptech startup developing energy-efficient AI chips powered by light, has raised $26 million in an oversubscribed seed round co-led by Earlybird, Protagonist, and Visionaries Tomorrow. (Tech.eu) 

Mistral, a French AI startup focused on open-weight LLMs, is reportedly in talks to raise up to $1 billion in equity from investors including Abu Dhabi's MGX fund, plus hundreds of millions in debt. (TechCrunch) 

Groq, a U.S. semiconductor startup known for its AI inference chips, is reportedly in discussions with investors to raise between $300 million and $500 million at a $6 billion post-investment valuation. (Reuters) 

ZeroEntropy, a startup building an API for accurate, low-latency information retrieval for RAG and AI agent applications, has raised a $4.2M Seed round led by Initialized Capital. (ZeroEntropy) 

Harmonic AI, a startup co-founded by Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev to build an AI that can solve complex math problems, raised $100 million in a Series B round led by Kleiner Perkins.(Bloomberg)

GetWhy, a Danish company using generative AI to extract consumer insights from video interviews for market research, has added $20 million to its Series A round, led by PeakSpan Capital. (Tech.eu) 

Parter, a hardware manufacturing startup, closed a $5.5 million seed round led by StageOne Ventures. The company's platform uses AI agents to connect and analyse product, supplier, and ERP data to provide real-time insights for manufacturers. (Axios Pro) 

Pimloc, a London-based company with an AI video privacy and redaction platform, secured $5 million in strategic investment led by Amadeus Capital Partners and Edge Ventures. (Tech.eu)

Sundial, a San Francisco-based AI-powered analytics platform, raised $16 million in a Series A round led by GPV partner DJ Patil, with backing from Sequoia Capital and others, bringing its total raised to $23M. (FinSMEs) 

Tandem, a Paris-based startup developing in-app AI agents to help users complete tasks, has raised a $3.8 million seed round led by Tribe Capital. (Tech.eu) 

SandboxAQ, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based Alphabet spinoff developing AI models for enterprises, raised $95m in a secondary offering from insiders Rizvi Traverse, Forge Global, and Ava Family Office. (sandboxaq.com) 

Vellum, an AI development platform for enterprises to build, test, and deploy AI products, has raised a $20 million Series A round with participation from Socii Capital, Y Combinator, and others. (Axios Pro) 

Blok, a startup that allows developers to use AI personas to simulate real-world app usage for testing, has raised a total of $7.5 million, including a $5 million seed round led by MaC Venture Capital. (TechCrunch) 

Oraion, a US and Ireland-based agentic AI enterprise platform, announced a $3.5 million pre-seed investment led by Studio VC. The platform integrates with tools like Slack and Microsoft Teams to provide actionable insights from company data. (Silicon Republic)

Biorce, a Barcelona-based healthtech startup, raised €5 million in a new investment from Norrsken VC. The company uses its AI platform, Jarvis, to streamline clinical trials by improving protocol design, site selection, and patient recruitment. (Tech.eu) 

Movetru, a sports tech startup focused on AI-powered movement analysis and injury prevention, has raised €1.4 million in Pre-Seed funding. Two Magnolias led the round. (Tech.eu) 

ScienceMachine, a London-based startup, raised a $3.5 million pre-seed round led by Revent and Nucleus Capital for its autonomous AI agent that acts as a 24/7 bioinformatician for biotech research. (Tech.eu)

The Blue Box Biomedical Solutions, a medtech startup developing an AI-powered, non-invasive breast cancer screening test that analyzes a urine sample, has secured €3 million. The round was led by Unconventional Ventures. (Tech.eu) 

Skleo Health, a German healthtech company, has raised €3 million in a seed funding round led by ophthalmology provider Sanoptis and VC firm Antler to scale its network for AI-powered preventative eye screenings. (Tech.eu) 

The Blue Box, a Barcelona-based medtech startup, secured €3 million in seed funding led by Unconventional Ventures to advance its AI-powered, urine-based breast cancer screening test. (Femtech Insider)

Gradient Labs, an AI agentic startup founded by Monzo alumni, raised $13 million in Series A funding led by Redpoint Ventures. The company builds AI agents to automate customer support and other complex processes for regulated industries like financial services. (Tech.eu) 

Nominal, an NYC-based startup using AI agents to automate enterprise finance and ERP tasks, has raised $20 million in a round led by Next47, with participation from Workday Ventures and others. (Axios Pro) 

Castellum.AI, a NYC-based financial crime compliance platform using AI for AML/KYC screening, closed an $8.5 million Series A funding round led by Curql. (FinSMEs) 

Layer, a San Francisco-based embedded accounting platform for SMB software, raised $6.6 million in seed funding led by Emergence Capital. The company will use the funds to enhance its AI-powered bookkeeping solutions. (FinSMEs) 

Cashfeed, a Ghent-based AI-powered invoicing tool, has secured €1.3 million in funding led by tech fund Pitchdrive. The tool automates the invoicing workflow for business owners and accountants. (Tech.eu) 

Moment, a company automating trading and portfolio management workflows for fixed-income teams, raised $36 million in Series B funding led by Index Ventures. (PR Newswire) 

Two, an Oslo-based B2B payments platform, closed a €13 million strategic funding round from investors including Investinor and Idékapital. The company uses AI for fraud prevention and to provide a seamless checkout experience for business customers. (Tech.eu) 

Abacus AI Inc., an agentic assistant startup for accounting firms, raised $6.6 million in seed funding led by Menlo Ventures. The platform gives CPAs AI agents to automate high-volume tax preparation tasks. (SiliconANGLE)

OneText, a "text-to-buy" network using AI-powered conversations to facilitate purchases via SMS, closed a $4.5 million seed round from investors including Khosla Ventures, Coatue, and Y Combinator. (TechCrunch)

GeniusTravel, a Netherlands-based traveltech startup, has raised €2 million in funding from anonymous investors. The company offers an AI-powered app that curates travel packages based on conversational user requests. (Tech.eu) 

Perry, a Dutch AI startup, closed a €1.6 million investment round led by Revent. The company develops AI-powered visual work instructions and training tools to help upskill technical workers in sectors like renewable energy and construction. (Tech.eu) 

Honor Education, a learning platform using AI for personalisation, announced it raised $38 million in Series A funding from investors including Alpha Edison and Wasserstein & Co. to expand its capabilities. (EdTech Innovation Hub) 

Parspec, an AI-native software platform for the construction supply chain, raised $20 million in a Series A round led by Threshold Ventures to modernise materials procurement. (Parspec) 

Polimorphic, a New York-based startup creating AI chatbots and support services for local governments, raised $18.6 million in Series A funding led by General Catalyst. (Semafor) 

Bastazo, a five-year-old startup based in Bentonville, AR, that uses AI to help security teams prioritize and remediate the top 5% of vulnerabilities most likely to be exploited, raised a $5.3 million seed round. Cortado Ventures led the financing. (Bastazo) 

MaintainX, which operates an AI-powered equipment maintenance and asset management platform, raised $150 million in a Series D round, boosting its valuation to $2.5 billion. Backers included Bessemer Venture Partners, Bain Capital Ventures, and D.E. Shaw Ventures. (Reuters) 

Augmentus, a company developing an "intelligent no-code robotics solution," raised $11 million in a Series A+ funding round led by Woori Ventures. The platform uses AI and 3D scanning to simplify and accelerate the programming of industrial robots. (The Robot Report) 

Foundation EGI, an "engineering general intelligence" platform spun out of MIT, raised $23 million in Series A funding led by Translink Capital. The company uses domain-specific AI to turn manufacturing bottlenecks into breakthroughs. (SiliconANGLE) 

Tolan, an AI companionship app featuring animated virtual alien friends, raised $20 million in a Series A round led by Khosla Ventures. The app is designed to offer emotional support and help users feel more grounded and confident. (GeekWire) 

CoreWeave, an AI-focused cloud infrastructure provider, announced plans to acquire Core Scientific, a data center operator, in an all-stock deal valued at approximately $9 billion. The move gives CoreWeave ownership of key data center sites, eliminating future lease obligations and enhancing its operational efficiency to meet high AI demand. (CNBC)

Torch, a coaching and leadership development platform, has acquired Praxis Labs, an AI-powered learning company, for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition will integrate Praxis's AI practice simulations with Torch's coaching to create a more powerful and data-driven leadership development offering. (UNLEASH) 

Google is hiring Windsurf's CEO, co-founder, and top researchers and licensing its AI coding technology in a deal reportedly worth $2.4 billion. The move, a "reverse-acquihire," came after OpenAI's planned $3 billion acquisition of Windsurf fell apart. (TechCrunch)

Boldstart Ventures, a Miami-based VC firm, has closed a $250 million fund to invest in AI and SaaS founders at the earliest stages of development. (The Wall Street Journal)

A study by the non-profit AI research group METR found that for a group of experienced open-source developers, using AI coding tools increased their task completion time by 19%, questioning the universal productivity benefits of current AI assistants for expert coders. (TechCrunch)

Intel is spinning out its AI robotics and biometric venture, RealSense, into a new, independent company. The spin-out is accompanied by a $50 million Series A funding round that includes MediaTek Innovation Fund and Intel Capital to develop new product lines for robotics automation. (CNBC) 

Chinese AI startup Zhipu, an OpenAI competitor backed by Alibaba and Tencent, is reportedly considering a shift for its planned initial public offering from mainland China to Hong Kong. The potential share sale could raise around $300 million. (Bloomberg)