Upwind raised $400M, and Wealthsimple raised $302M led by GIC. Intel bought Classiq for ~$2.3B.
74 rounds closed this week for ~$2.5B deployed — down 48% from last week's ~$4.8B across 93. Applied AI took 19 of the 74 checks. 46 more raises surfaced only in SEC filings; the largest are in Filing Watch below.
🧭 The partner’s read
Checks slowed this week: 74 rounds for ~$2.5B, down from ~$4.8B, and seed was the busiest stage with 25 rounds. The conviction money still showed up, with GIC leading Wealthsimple's $302M and Sequoia leading Serval's $150M. Sequoia Capital has led 5 rounds in the last four issues, more than any other firm. If you are raising a seed now, get your lead circled before the holidays and close the rest of the round off that term sheet.
📊 The Week's Deployment
Stage | Rounds | This week | Median, 14 issues |
Pre-seed | 6 | ~$16.4M | ~$2.9M |
Seed | 25 | ~$312M | ~$6M |
Series A | 20 | ~$483.1M | ~$20M |
Series B | 6 | ~$423.5M | ~$52.5M |
Growth (Series C+) | 4 | ~$245M | ~$125M |
Most active sector: applied AI (19 of 74 rounds). Quietest: biotech (1). One check skews the growth line: Serval is ~$150M of it — the other 3 sum to ~$95M.
📈 The Radar, 14 issues in
487 rounds and ~$33.9B tracked across 14 issues, plus 1092 raises that surfaced only in SEC filings. Most active lead investors by rounds led: Insight Partners (9), Andreessen Horowitz (7), 3one4 Capital (4). 69% of the raises we tracked were never announced by the company — a quiet round is the norm. An ask above the median for your stage needs the metrics to justify it; the table above has the medians.
✅ Who Wrote Checks
All 74 rounds, grouped by sector and largest first — amount, stage and lead investor.
Applied AI · 19 rounds
Powerlattice — $86M round, stage undisclosed, no lead named · GeekWire
Nevis — $70M Series B, no lead named · Business Wire
Casap — $56M Series B, led by Base10 Partners · Fortune
Bites — $40M Series A, no lead named · CTech
Opentrons — $40M Growth (Series C+), led by Avego · citybiz
Avante — $30M Series A, led by Frist Cressey Ventures · GeekWire
Hyperbolic — $30M Series A, led by Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan’s Walden · AI Funding Tracker
Dream — $17M Seed, no lead named · citybiz
Ravical — $17M Seed, no lead named · Unite.AI
Luxor Technology — $16M round, stage undisclosed, led by CMT Digital · citybiz
Plato — $16M Series A, led by Nava Ventures · Unite.AI
Simplismart — $14M Series B, led by Dallas Venture Capital
Omnichat — $10M Series A, led by Openspace Capital
Atlas Bio — $10M Seed, no lead named
ShareWillow — $8.5M Seed, no lead named
Dalet Labs — $7M Pre-seed, no lead named
Minicor — $3.8M Seed, no lead named
Snowmountain AI — $2.3M round, stage undisclosed, led by Globalway
Talky — €1.5M (~$1.7M) round, stage undisclosed, no lead named
Cybersecurity · 3 rounds
Upwind — $400M round, stage undisclosed, no lead named · SecurityWeek
AIR — $50M Seed, no lead named · Dealroom
Northstar Security — $7M Seed, led by Wing Venture Capital
Robotics · 4 rounds
Foundry Robotics — $100M Series A, no lead named · The Information
Hyphenate — $45M Series A, no lead named · Yahoo Finance
Machenta — $40M Seed, no lead named · Imperial College London
Rendezvous Robotics — $20M Seed, led by MaC Venture Capital · Pulse 2.0
Devtools · 1 round
&Truth — $70M Seed, no lead named · Unite.AI
Healthcare · 7 rounds
Midstream Health — $20M Series A, led by Valtruis · citybiz
Cent — $15M Series A, led by Blume Ventures
Clinics On Cloud — $14.3M Series A, no lead named
Kivo Health — $10M Series A, led by Allumia Ventures
SpendRule — $4M Seed, led by Mark Cuban’s Radical Investments
Wrapped Health — $2.1M Pre-seed, led by Lightbank
Urologic Design — $1.2M Pre-seed, no lead named
Fintech · 3 rounds
PhotonPay — $40M Growth (Series C+), led by Blockchain Capital · CryptoRank
FinMaq — $6.5M Series A, no lead named
Bloquo — $3.7M Seed, no lead named
Consumer · 2 rounds
Stryv — $11.5M Series B, led by ACV Capital
Offe Market — $3M Seed, led by Slauson & Co
Edtech · 1 round
Pathfinder — $12M round, stage undisclosed, no lead named
Climate · 1 round
Noak — €5M (~$5.5M) Seed, no lead named
Defense & space · 1 round
Manastu Space — $2.3M Series A, no lead named
Biotech · 1 round
Imphatec — £1.5M (~$2M) Seed, no lead named
Other sectors · 31 rounds
Wealthsimple — $302M round, stage undisclosed, led by GIC · TNGlobal
Vinci — $250M Series B, no lead named · IndexBox
Serval — $150M Growth (Series C+), led by Sequoia · citybiz
General Compute — $100M Series A, led by Blackbird Ventures (press figure; the Form D shows $132.2M total offering) · TechCrunch
Wabi — $55M round, stage undisclosed, led by IVP · citybiz
Cognitive Credit — $40M round, stage undisclosed, led by Summit Partners · Pulse 2.0
Braid — €34.13M (~$37.5M) round, stage undisclosed, no lead named · EU-Startups
Ozlo — $22M Series B, led by Modi Ventures · citybiz
Swish.ai — $20M round, stage undisclosed, no lead named · Startup Fortune
Archera — $15M Growth (Series C+), led by Pivot Investment Partners · Pulse 2.0
Blue Arbor Technologies — $10.5M Series A, led by Ottobock
Allox — $10.5M Seed, no lead named
Matiks — $10M Series A, led by General Catalyst
Neuron Industries — $10M Seed, no lead named
Ace Blend — $9.9M round, stage undisclosed, led by 3one4 Capital
Rotoris — $8.5M Series A, led by Blume Ventures
Predicate — $8M round, stage undisclosed, no lead named
Mintive — $7M Seed, led by Cowboy Ventures
Sunshine Buns — $7M Series A, no lead named
Cambridge Heavy Industries — $6.2M Seed, no lead named
Spicenet — $5M Series A, no lead named
Wisable — $5M Seed, no lead named
Mostest — $4M Seed, led by Capital Q Ventures
Birch Hill — $4M Seed, led by Multicoin Capital
Venttup — $3M Series A, led by Rainmatter
Colare — $2.5M Pre-seed, no lead named
QwikBuild — $2.3M Pre-seed, led by Globalway
holiCHIC — $1.5M Seed, no lead named
Vuse XR — €1.2M (~$1.3M) Pre-seed, no lead named
dubdub — $1.3M Seed, led by 3one4 Capital
Gaio — $1M Seed, led by G4
🔍 Investor Spotlight: Blume Ventures
Blume Ventures wrote 3 checks in the last two weeks — 3 as lead (~$27.8M deployed). Led: Cent ($15M Series A), Rotoris ($8.5M Series A), Hunar.AI ($4.3M Series A). The pattern in the checks: healthcare, applied AI with checks between $4.3M and $15M. A firm leading at that pace has capital to deploy now; this is the quarter to get in front of them.
Fit notes like this on every active firm — matched against your deck — live in Backable. Pitching any of this week’s check-writers? Upload the deck and read the verdict a partner would give, before they give it. Get the free verdict.
🎊 Who Bought
6 of the 26 startup exits we tracked this week — who bought what, and the price where it was disclosed.
Intel acquired Classiq for ~$2.3B · CTech
Guidewire acquired Hyperexponential for ~$1.7B · TechCrunch Venture
Ferring Pharmaceuticals acquired Gameto for ~$1.4B · Femtech Insider
Gameto is a biotechnology company using cell engineering to develop women’s health treatments, spanning fertility, ovarian disease, and menopause.
Itaú acquired NeoSpace for ~$589M · UA.NEWS
Salesforce acquired Rune for ~$375M · The Tech Buzz
Rune is an AI-powered logistics startup that specializes in supply chain optimization, predictive analytics, and resource allocation for complex…
Tomo acquired Fae · Dealroom
📄 Filing Watch
6 raises surfaced in SEC Form D filings this week. The 6 below are the largest of 46 venture-relevant Form Ds we tracked. A Form D is filed once a company has sold securities, so these rounds have closed; most have not been announced by the company. The filing date lags the close, so treat it as a floor.
Warp Sciences Inc. — ~$194.6M total offering, Form D filed October 26 · SEC filing
Other Technology · California · formerly WPR Labs Inc.
Hertha Metals, Inc. — ~$133.6M raised (offering fully sold), Form D filed October 27 · SEC filing
Texas
Halo Labs I LLC — ~$84.9M total offering, Form D filed October 26 · SEC filing
Other Technology · New York
BigHat Biosciences, Inc. — ~$75.1M total offering, Form D filed October 26 · SEC filing
Biotechnology · California
Commure, Inc. — ~$70.1M raised (offering fully sold), Form D filed October 27 · SEC filing
Other Technology · California
Elucid Bioimaging Inc. — ~$56.2M total offering, amended filing (extension or upsize), Form D filed October 27 · SEC filing
Biotechnology · Massachusetts
💰 Fresh Dry Powder
3 venture funds filed new Form Ds this week, and 1 fund that began raising earlier updated its filing. 1 more fund was announced in the press, not yet in an SEC filing. This is capital the funds now have to invest over the next few years.
Disruptive — ~$10B reported, announced October 27 · TechCrunch Venture
Monolith Venture Fund III A L.P. — ~$561M in the filing, Form D filed October 29 · SEC filing
SemiAnalysis Capital Fund I, LP — ~$500M in the filing, amended Form D filed October 26 · SEC filing
Inspired Capital Partners IV, L.P. — ~$450M in the filing, Form D filed October 27 · SEC filing
Interlagos Fund II, LP — ~$400M in the filing, Form D filed October 26 · SEC filing
🤓 Worth your time
Tomasz Tunguz on the four open questions in the AI stack: input context is up to 98% of all tokens, a smart harness cuts the cost of the same answer by 71% and lifts gross margin from 38% to 75%, and about 83% of agent tasks now route to smaller fine-tuned models. If you are raising for an AI application, bring your gross margin and your answer to what happens when the next model release absorbs your feature. Read it.
🎯 Who to pitch this month
6 firms led two or more rounds in the last four issues. Their recent checks, largest first:
Sequoia Capital — led 5 rounds: Whop ($200M Growth), Serval ($150M Growth), Blacksmith ($66M Growth)
Andreessen Horowitz — led 3 rounds: TypeSafe AI ($870M Series A), General Medicine ($120M), Preference Model ($16M Seed)
Blume Ventures — led 3 rounds: Cent ($15M Series A), Rotoris ($8.5M Series A), Hunar.AI ($4.3M Series A)
3one4 Capital — led 3 rounds: Ace Blend ($9.9M), Parallel Loop ($6.6M Seed), dubdub ($1.3M Seed)
Insight Partners — led 2 rounds: Stuut ($52.5M Series B), Qualitate ($25M Series A)
Hitachi Ventures — led 2 rounds: Scimplify ($25M), Trmeric ($6.5M)
Where the volume is: Seed, 25 of 74 rounds (27 last week). Applied AI took 19 of 74 checks.
About to pitch one of them? Don’t send the deck you have — send the deck that survives a partner meeting. Backable reads it the way a partner does and tells you what to fix, free.
— Martin
