Modelence, a California‑based startup that offers an all‑in‑one framework for building AI‑enhanced applications, announced a $3 million seed investment led by Y Combinator. The funding will support the company’s effort to simplify the complex web of services—authentication, databases, hosting, and LLM observability—that developers must stitch together when using generative AI tools. Modelence’s toolkit, built on TypeScript, aims to reduce friction by handling core infrastructure tasks and providing a low‑code app builder, positioning the firm to capture a growing market of developers seeking smoother, more reliable AI‑driven development pipelines. Leer más →

CVector, an AI startup that builds a brain‑like software layer for heavy industry, announced a $5 million seed round led by Powerhouse Ventures. The funding will accelerate the rollout of its platform, which translates small operational actions into measurable cost savings for clients such as utilities, manufacturers, and chemical producers. With a growing roster of customers and a team of about a dozen engineers, CVector aims to embed AI‑driven economics into the core of industrial decision‑making. Leer más →

The creators of the open‑source inference engine vLLM have launched a venture‑backed startup called Inferact, raising $150 million in seed funding at an $800 million valuation. The round was co‑led by Andreessen Horowitz and Lightspeed Venture Partners. Inferact aims to bring the high‑performance vLLM technology, originally incubated at the UC Berkeley lab of Databricks co‑founder Ion Stoica, to enterprise customers. Early adopters include Amazon’s cloud services and a major shopping app, signaling strong market interest as AI inference moves to the forefront of commercial deployment. Leer más →

AI startup Humans& announced a $480 million seed financing at a $4.48 billion valuation. Backers include Nvidia, Jeff Bezos, SV Angel, GV and Emerson Collective. The company’s founders – former researchers from Anthropic, Google, xAI and a Stanford professor – aim to create AI that acts as collaborative “instant‑messaging”‑style software, emphasizing long‑horizon reinforcement learning, memory and multi‑agent interaction. Humans& plans to rethink model training at scale and user interaction to make AI a connective tissue for organizations and communities. Leer más →

Former physician Jenny Shao left her Harvard residency to launch Robyn, an empathetic AI companion designed to support users without replacing clinicians. The app uses an emotional memory system to offer personalized insights, such as emotional fingerprints and attachment styles, while enforcing safety guardrails that provide crisis line numbers and direct users to emergency care when needed. Backed by a $5.5 million seed round led by M13, Robyn is priced at $19.99 per month and has grown from three to ten team members. Investors praise its potential to strengthen human connections in an increasingly disconnected world. Leer más →

Inception, an AI startup focused on diffusion‑based models, announced a $50 million seed round led by Menlo Ventures with participation from Mayfield, Innovation Endeavors, Microsoft’s M12 fund, Snowflake Ventures, Databricks Investment, and Nvidia’s NVentures. Angel investors Andrew Ng and Andrej Karpathy also contributed. The company, led by Stanford professor Stefano Ermon, aims to apply diffusion techniques—traditionally used for image generation—to software development and natural‑language tasks. Its Mercury model has already been integrated into several development tools, and the team claims diffusion models can deliver higher token‑per‑second throughput and lower latency than conventional autoregressive systems. Leer más →

Tensormesh, a startup emerging from stealth mode, announced a $4.5 million seed round led by Laude Ventures with additional backing from angel investor Michael Franklin. The funding will accelerate the development of a commercial product built around LMCache, an open‑source utility that can slash AI inference costs by up to tenfold. Tensormesh’s approach focuses on preserving the key‑value (KV) cache across queries, a technique that boosts efficiency for chat‑driven and agentic AI systems. The company aims to offer an out‑of‑the‑box solution that eliminates the need for extensive engineering effort, positioning itself as a cost‑saving layer for GPU‑intensive workloads. Leer más →

London‑based AI creative studio Wonder Studios announced a $12 million seed round led by Atomico, with participation from LocalGlobe, Blackbird and early backers including executives from ElevenLabs, Google DeepMind and OpenAI. The capital will fund a doubling of the engineering team and propel the company’s push into intellectual‑property ownership, original productions and commercial AI‑driven projects. Recent milestones include an AI‑generated music video for Lewis Capaldi’s “Something in the Heavens,” the anthology series “Beyond the Loop,” and an upcoming documentary partnership with Campfire Studios, the producer behind several Netflix documentaries. Leer más →

Periodic Labs, founded by former OpenAI researcher Liam Fedus and former Google Brain scientist Ekin Dogus Cubuk, emerged from stealth with a $300 million seed round led by Felicis and backed by a roster of top investors. The company aims to fuse large‑language models, advanced simulations, and robotic labs to accelerate discovery of new materials, initially focusing on superconductors. With a multidisciplinary team drawn from AI and physics, the startup is already generating experimental data and testing predictions, positioning itself at the forefront of AI‑powered scientific research. Leer más →

CommanderAI, founded by former Battle Motors driver David Berg, is launching a specialized CRM and sales prospecting platform for the waste‑management industry. Berg says existing tools like Salesforce and HubSpot are too complex and lack industry‑specific data. Using AI to pull and segment publicly available information, CommanderAI helps waste haulers locate small businesses and construction projects that often lack an online presence. The startup recently closed a $5 million seed round led by 11 Tribes Ventures with participation from Watchfire Ventures, Gaingels, and Rad Fund, and plans to expand its sales team and product features. Leer más →

Paid, the London‑based AI startup founded by former Outreach CEO Manny Medina, closed an oversubscribed $21.6 million seed round led by Lightspeed. The company introduces a results‑based billing model that lets AI agent creators charge customers based on the measurable value the agents deliver, rather than traditional per‑user or subscription fees. Early customers include sales‑automation platform Artisan and ERP vendor IFS. Investors such as Lightspeed, EQT Ventures, and FUSE participated, and the round pushes total capital raised to $33.3 million, with a valuation reported to be above $100 million. Leer más →

Koah, a startup focused on monetizing AI-powered applications through advertising, announced a $5 million seed round led by Forerunner with participation from South Park Commons and AppLovin co‑founder Andrew Karam. Co‑founder and CEO Nic Baird said the company aims to serve the “long tail” of AI apps, especially those outside the United States, where subscription revenue is limited. Koah already delivers sponsored ads in several AI‑driven products, partnering with advertisers such as UpWork, General Medicine and Skillshare. The firm claims its ad format yields click‑through rates of 7.5%, delivering higher effectiveness while preserving user engagement. Leer más →

AegisAI, a new email security startup founded by former Google Safe Browsing and reCAPTCHA leaders Cy Khormaee and Ryan Luo, has emerged from stealth with a $13 million seed round co‑led by Accel and Foundation Capital. The company builds a network of autonomous AI agents that analyze every component of an email in real time to detect phishing, malware, and business‑email‑compromise threats. Early pilots in the United States and Europe have already added paying customers, and the team plans to expand its technical and go‑to‑market capabilities. Leer más →

Icarus Robotics, founded by Ethan Barajas and Jamie Palmer, has raised $6.1 million in a seed round led by Soma Capital and Xtal, with participation from Nebular and Massive Tech Ventures. The startup aims to alleviate the time‑consuming cargo‑handling tasks that dominate astronaut work on the International Space Station. By field‑testing a fan‑propelled robot equipped with two jaw‑gripper arms, Icarus plans a series of demonstrations—including a parabolic‑flight campaign and a one‑year ISS trial via Voyager Space’s Bishop airlock—before advancing toward partial and full autonomy through embodied AI. Leer más →

Koah, a startup focused on monetizing AI-powered applications through advertising, announced a $5 million seed round led by Forerunner with participation from South Park Commons and AppLovin co‑founder Andrew Karam. Co‑founder and CEO Nic Baird said the company aims to serve the “long tail” of AI apps, especially those outside the United States, where subscription revenue is limited. Koah already delivers sponsored ads in several AI‑driven products, partnering with advertisers such as UpWork, General Medicine and Skillshare. The firm claims its ad format yields click‑through rates of 7.5%, delivering higher effectiveness while preserving user engagement. Leer más →

Koah, a startup focused on monetizing AI-powered applications through advertising, announced a $5 million seed round led by Forerunner with participation from South Park Commons and AppLovin co‑founder Andrew Karam. Co‑founder and CEO Nic Baird said the company aims to serve the “long tail” of AI apps, especially those outside the United States, where subscription revenue is limited. Koah already delivers sponsored ads in several AI‑driven products, partnering with advertisers such as UpWork, General Medicine and Skillshare. The firm claims its ad format yields click‑through rates of 7.5%, delivering higher effectiveness while preserving user engagement. Leer más →

AegisAI, a new email security startup founded by former Google Safe Browsing and reCAPTCHA leaders Cy Khormaee and Ryan Luo, has emerged from stealth with a $13 million seed round co‑led by Accel and Foundation Capital. The company builds a network of autonomous AI agents that analyze every component of an email in real time to detect phishing, malware, and business‑email‑compromise threats. Early pilots in the United States and Europe have already added paying customers, and the team plans to expand its technical and go‑to‑market capabilities. Leer más →

AegisAI, a new email security startup founded by former Google Safe Browsing and reCAPTCHA leaders Cy Khormaee and Ryan Luo, has emerged from stealth with a $13 million seed round co‑led by Accel and Foundation Capital. The company builds a network of autonomous AI agents that analyze every component of an email in real time to detect phishing, malware, and business‑email‑compromise threats. Early pilots in the United States and Europe have already added paying customers, and the team plans to expand its technical and go‑to‑market capabilities. Leer más →

Icarus Robotics, founded by Ethan Barajas and Jamie Palmer, has raised $6.1 million in a seed round led by Soma Capital and Xtal, with participation from Nebular and Massive Tech Ventures. The startup aims to alleviate the time‑consuming cargo‑handling tasks that dominate astronaut work on the International Space Station. By field‑testing a fan‑propelled robot equipped with two jaw‑gripper arms, Icarus plans a series of demonstrations—including a parabolic‑flight campaign and a one‑year ISS trial via Voyager Space’s Bishop airlock—before advancing toward partial and full autonomy through embodied AI. Leer más →

Icarus Robotics, founded by Ethan Barajas and Jamie Palmer, has raised $6.1 million in a seed round led by Soma Capital and Xtal, with participation from Nebular and Massive Tech Ventures. The startup aims to alleviate the time‑consuming cargo‑handling tasks that dominate astronaut work on the International Space Station. By field‑testing a fan‑propelled robot equipped with two jaw‑gripper arms, Icarus plans a series of demonstrations—including a parabolic‑flight campaign and a one‑year ISS trial via Voyager Space’s Bishop airlock—before advancing toward partial and full autonomy through embodied AI. Leer más →