It’s Monday, August 25, 2025 — and we’re back with the latest wave of startup and tech funding news from the U.S. and around the world. Today’s startup funding activity spans AI infrastructure, climate tech, fintech, and biotech breakthroughs across the U.S., India, Europe, and beyond. The day’s rounds reveal investor conviction in platforms powering autonomous vehicles, modular nuclear energy for AI data centers, and sleep-optimizing AI agents. We also saw strong backing for ocean-based carbon capture, needle-free vaccine delivery, and RNA therapeutics for rare disease, while early-stage bets ranged from social AI interfaces to AI-powered sales automation. Funding Highlights Leading the pack, Nuro secured $203 million in Series E financing at a $6 billion valuation to expand its autonomous vehicle technology. Aalo Atomics and Eight Sleep each raised $100 million to advance modular nuclear plants and AI-driven sleep health solutions, respectively. Biotech momentum was marked by Arnatar’s $52 million Series A for RNA therapies and Vaxxas’ $90 million Series D to scale its needle-free vaccine patches. Climate-focused Equatic closed $11.6 million to accelerate ocean carbon removal, while Firecrawl landed $14.5 million to fuel its AI web data engine. Investor Activity Global participation came from top-tier investors such as Nvidia, Valor Equity Partners, Founders Fund, and Vertex Ventures, alongside corporate strategics including Uber and Avalanche. The mix also included deep-tech backers like Hitachi Ventures and Fine Structure Ventures, as well as impact investors such as Avaana Capital. Their collective focus underscores where capital is flowing: into AI-driven platforms, clean energy, biotech, and digital-first consumer services that could reshape core industries. Today’s financings highlight a global spread of innovation — from Silicon Valley to Copenhagen, Dubai, and Bengaluru — with capital fueling both billion-dollar ventures and fresh pre-seed experiments. Here’s the full breakdown. Nuro Raises $203M in Series E Funding for Autonomous Vehicle Expansion Mountain View’s Nuro, an autonomous vehicle startup founded by former Google engineers, has closed a $203 million Series E round at a $6 billion post-money valuation. This financing came in two tranches ($106M in April and $97M in August) and brings Nuro’s total funding to roughly $2.3 billion. The round included strategic investors Nvidia, Icehouse Ventures, Kindred Ventures, and Pledge Ventures as co-leads, along with Uber (joining as a strategic partner) and existing backers like Baillie Gifford, T. Rowe Price, Fidelity, Tiger Global, Greylock, and XN. Nuro has shifted its model from operating its own delivery fleets to licensing its “Nuro Driver™” autonomous system to automakers and partners. The new funding will accelerate development of its AI-driven vehicle platform and expand partnerships – for example, Uber plans to deploy Nuro’s technology in Lucid Gravity electric SUVs for a robotaxi service. Funding Details: Startup: Nuro Investors: Nvidia (lead), Icehouse Ventures, Kindred Ventures, Pledge Ventures, Uber (strategic partner); with participation from Baillie Gifford, T. Rowe Price, Fidelity Management, Tiger Global, Greylock Partners, and XN. Amount Raised: $203 million Total Raised: ~$2.3 billion (including all previous rounds) Funding Stage: Series E Funding Date: August 25, 2025 Eight Sleep Raises $100M in Funding for AI-Powered Sleep Optimization Tech Eight Sleep, a New York–based “sleep fitness” startup, secured a $100 million funding round to expand its AI-driven smart mattress and sleep optimization platform. The round was led by Valor Equity Partners with participation from Founders Fund, Y Combinator, Atreides, and HSG, along with notable sports figures Ferrari F1 driver Charles Leclerc and McLaren CEO Zak Brown. Eight Sleep has already sold over $500 million worth of its smart “Pods” and analyzed more than one billion hours of sleep data, and it is now developing an AI Sleep Agent that uses biometric data to proactively optimize users’ sleep in real time. The fresh capital will also support Eight Sleep’s expansion into medical applications – from menopause-related sleep issues to sleep apnea – and help pursue FDA approvals for sleep health solutions. Funding Details: Startup: Eight Sleep Investors: Valor Equity Partners (lead), Founders Fund, Y Combinator, Atreides, HSG; plus sports figures Charles Leclerc and Zak Brown. Amount Raised: $100 million Total Raised: Not disclosed Funding Stage: Growth funding (undisclosed round) Funding Date: August 25, 2025 Aalo Atomics Raises $100M in Series B Funding for Modular Nuclear AI Data Centers Austin’s Aalo Atomics, which builds factory-made modular nuclear reactors, announced a $100 million Series B round to fund the construction of ultra-compact plants aimed at powering AI data centers. The round, co-led by Valor Equity Partners, brings Aalo’s total financing to $136 million to date. Aalo has already completed its first full-scale non-nuclear reactor prototype this year and plans to finish an operational 50 MWe “extra modular reactor” (XMR) by 2026. Other backers in the round include Fine Structure Ventures, Hitachi Ventures, NRG Energy, LGT Crestone, Tishman Speyer, Kindred Ventures, 50 Years, Harpoon Ventures, and alumni VCs. The company will use the funds to double its team and fast-track factory construction of the XMR units, which are designed to provide safe, scalable baseload power for AI-intensive industries. Funding Details: Startup: Aalo Atomics Investors: Valor Equity Partners (lead), Fine Structure Ventures, Hitachi Ventures, NRG Energy, LGT Crestone, Tishman Speyer, Kindred Ventures, 50Y, Harpoon Ventures, Alumni Ventures, and others. Amount Raised: $100 million Total Raised: $136 million Funding Stage: Series B Funding Date: August 25, 2025 Firecrawl Raises $14.5M in Series A Funding for AI Web Data Platform Firecrawl, an AI-powered web data platform, announced a $14.5 million Series A led by Nexus Venture Partners to expand its “Fire-Engine” technology that turns raw web pages into structured data for AI use cases. Y Combinator (Firecrawl’s early investor) and Shopify CEO Tobias Lütke also participated in the round. Firecrawl’s engine now serves over 350,000 users – from individual developers to companies like Zapier, Shopify, and Replit – enabling AI agents, chatbots, and analytics tools to crawl and extract live web content at scale. With the new funding (bringing the total raised to $16.2M), Firecrawl will further grow its engineering team and cloud infrastructure, aiming to make live web data universally accessible and up-to-date for the next generation of AI applications. Funding Details: Startup: Firecrawl Investors: Nexus Venture Partners (lead), Y Combinator, Tobias Lütke (Shopify CEO). Amount Raised: $14.5 million Total Raised: $16.2 million Funding Stage: Series A Funding Date: August 25, 2025 Cointel Raises $7.4M in Funding for AI-Driven Crypto Education Platform Dubai-based Cointel, an AI-native crypto education and research platform, raised $7.4 million in a strategic funding round led by the Avalanche blockchain and joined by Sugafam Inc. (a major Japanese Web3 firm). Launched earlier in 2025, Cointel combines real-time trading tools, gamified learning modules, and scam-avoidance features to help new users navigate the digital asset space. The funding will accelerate Cointel’s expansion into North America in late 2025, building on early traction in Japan and Turkey. Avalanche’s participation underscores confidence in Cointel’s mission to onboard the next 100 million crypto users, and the company has also announced partnerships (e.g., with KuCoin exchange) to broaden reach. Funding Details: Startup: Cointel Investors: Avalanche (Layer 1 blockchain) (lead), Sugafam Inc. (Japanese Web3 firm), plus other undisclosed strategic investors. Amount Raised: $7.4 million Total Raised: $7.4 million Funding Stage: Strategic round (early-stage) Funding Date: August 25, 2025 Equatic Raises $11.6M in Series A Funding for Ocean Carbon Capture Technology Santa Monica’s Equatic, a climate tech startup, closed an $11.6 million Series A to commercialize its ocean-based carbon removal and green hydrogen technology. The round was led by Catalytic Capital for Climate and Health (a Temasek Trust fund) and climate investor Kibo Invest. Equatic’s platform works by pumping seawater through electrochemical cells: it captures CO₂ in solution and concurrently produces hydrogen, leveraging the ocean’s chemistry to achieve scalable carbon capture. This solution promises 99,000× faster CO₂ removal than the ocean alone. The new capital will fund construction of onshore pilot plants and support Equatic’s push into markets that demand regulated carbon removal and green fuel production. Funding Details: Startup: Equatic Investors: Catalytic Capital (Temasek Trust) (lead), Kibo Invest. Amount Raised: $11.6 million Total Raised: $11.6 million Funding Stage: Series A Funding Date: August 25, 2025 Vaxxas Secures A$90M in Series D Funding to Scale Needle-Free Vaccine Delivery Australia’s Vaxxas announced roughly A$90 million (about $60 million) in its latest round, one of the year’s biggest biotech fundraises, Down Under. The raise consists of A$49.2 million in new Series D equity led by SPRIM Global Investments (SPRIM’s venture arm) and A$40 million in R&D-linked debt financing. New investor LGT Crestone joined existing backers OneVentures and Brandon Capital–Hostplus in the equity syndicate. Vaxxas develops a high-density microarray patch (HD-MAP) that delivers vaccines through the skin without needles, vastly improving storage stability and enabling painless self-administration. The funds will scale up Vaxxas’ manufacturing lines and late-stage trials, extending its cash runway into 2027.. Funding Details: Startup: Vaxxas Investors: SPRIM Global Investments (lead), LGT Crestone, OneVentures, Brandon Capital–Hostplus. Amount Raised: ~$90 million (A$90M equity + debt) Total Raised: ~$90 million Funding Stage: Series D Funding Date: August 25, 2025 ShiftUp Raises $3M in Seed Funding to Reinvent Enterprise Sales ShiftUp, a U.S. startup automating enterprise sales workflows, raised a $3 million seed round to further develop its AI-powered Salesforce-native platform. The round was led by veteran investor Phil Reed, alongside a group of former VC partners and Fortune 500 sales and tech executives. Founded by Salesforce expert Nick Valla (CEO) and his brother Ken Valla (CRO), with tech veteran Ryan Adamson as COO, ShiftUp uses AI to autonomously handle tasks like account research, opportunity mapping, and strategic planning for sales teams. The new funds will accelerate product build-out and early customer acquisition as the company positions itself as a “virtual sales strategist” for enterprises. Funding Details: Startup: ShiftUp Investors: Phil Reed (lead) and a syndicate of former VC investors and Fortune 500 sales/tech executives. Amount Raised: $3 million Total Raised: $3 million Funding Stage: Seed Funding Date: August 25, 2025 Kiwi Raises $24M in Series B Funding for UPI Credit Platform Bengaluru-based Kiwi (formerly Vodafone Play Financing) raised $24 million in Series B to expand its buy-now-pay-later credit offerings via India’s UPI payments network. The round was led by Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia & India, with Nexus Venture Partners, Stellaris Venture Partners, and Omidyar Network also participating. Kiwi enables merchants and customers to access instant retail credit at checkout, and the new funds will accelerate product development and help strengthen its unit economics. With this funding, Kiwi – co-founded by Flipkart alumnus Sameer Nigam – plans to deepen partnerships across India’s digital economy and enhance its AI-driven credit underwriting. Funding Details: Startup: Kiwi (India) Investors: Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia & India (lead), Nexus Venture Partners, Stellaris Venture Partners, Omidyar Network. Amount Raised: $24 million Total Raised: $24 million Funding Stage: Series B Funding Date: August 25, 2025 Enmovil Raises $6M in Series A Fundinf for AI Supply Chain Platform Enmovil, an AI-driven supply chain and logistics startup in Hyderabad, raised $6 million in its Series A round led by Sorin Investments (the India fund co-founded by ex-KKR India CEO Sanjay Nayar and Caravel Group’s Angad Banga). Capria Ventures and Twynam Investments also joined the round. Enmovil’s platform uses AI to optimize procurement, inventory, and supply forecasting for distributors and manufacturers. The fresh capital will go toward building out Enmovil’s sales and marketing teams, enhancing its machine learning models, and exploring international partnerships and markets. Funding Details: Startup: Enmovil Investors: Sorin Investments (lead), Capria Ventures, Twynam Investments. Amount Raised: $6 million Total Raised: $6 million Funding Stage: Series A Funding Date: August 25, 2025 WizCommerce Raises $8M in Series A Funding for AI Wholesale eCommerce WizCommerce, an AI-powered e-commerce platform for wholesale distributors based in India, secured $8 million in Series A funding led by Peak XV Partners (formerly Sequoia India). All of WizCommerce’s four existing investors also participated, including Z47, Blume Ventures, and Alpha Wave Global. WizCommerce helps distributors offer online catalogs and automated sales insights; it plans to use the new capital to deepen its product portfolio and accelerate hiring in both its U.S. and India offices. CEO Div Makkar said the goal is to “double down on products and go-to-market operations,” reflecting strong demand from legacy wholesalers digitizing their channels. Funding Details: Startup: WizCommerce Investors: Peak XV Partners (lead), Z47, Blume Ventures, Alpha Wave Global. Amount Raised: $8 million Total Raised: $8 million Funding Stage: Series A Funding Date: August 25, 2025 Palmonas Raises $7M in Series A Funding for Gold-Demi-Fine Jewelry Palmonas, an Indian demi-fine jewelry brand, has raised ₹55 crore (about $7.0 million) in Series A funding to expand its gold-plated jewelry line. The round was led by Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia & India, which partnered with Palmonas’ founders to help scale the business. Palmonas will use the proceeds to widen its 9-karat gold jewelry collection, open roughly 100 new retail stores over the next year, and bolster its top-selling designs online and offline. This capital infusion comes as Palmonas seeks to build on rapidly growing consumer demand for affordable luxury jewelry in India. Funding Details: Startup: Palmonas Investors: Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia & India (lead). Amount Raised: ~$7.0 million (₹55 crore) Total Raised: ~$7.0 million Funding Stage: Series A Funding Date: August 25, 2025 Wastelink Raises $3M in Series A Funding to Upcycle Food Waste Wastelink, an Indian food-tech startup, raised $3 million in Series A funding from impact investor Avaana Capital to expand its food upcycling technology. The company converts surplus food waste (like brewer’s spent grain and fruit pomace) into consistent, traceable animal feed ingredients, addressing nutrient variability and price volatility in the supply chain. Swapna Gupta of Avaana Capital said Wastelink’s platform has “breakthrough innovation” potential for global food systems. The new funds will support nationwide expansion, strengthen R&D and technology development, and increase the startup’s production capacity. Funding Details: Startup: Wastelink Investors: Avaana Capital (lead). Amount Raised: $3 million Total Raised: $3 million Funding Stage: Series A Funding Date: August 25, 2025 Acembee Raises €1.1M in Seed Funding for AI Construction Energy Management Acembee, a Copenhagen-based AI startup, raised €1.1 million in seed funding from node.vc and Kiilto Ventures to bring its energy-monitoring platform to construction sites. Acembee’s technology automatically collects energy data (from meters, bills and on-site sensors) and generates sustainability compliance reports (LCA A4/A5) in real time. By identifying energy waste (often ~40% of consumption on a site), Acembee helps managers cut costs and CO₂ emissions without disrupting operations. The seed capital will further develop Acembee’s AI platform, enabling more automation and real-time insights so construction teams can optimize energy use while meeting stringent carbon rules. Funding Details: Startup: Acembee Investors: node.vc (lead), Kiilto Ventures, and a group of angel investors. Amount Raised: €1.1 million Total Raised: €1.1 million Funding Stage: Seed Funding Date: August 25, 2025 Interhuman AI Raises €2M in Pre-Seed Funding for Social AI Interfaces Interhuman AI, a Danish startup, has raised €2 million in a pre-seed round led by Nordic deep-tech fund PSV Tech. The Copenhagen-based company is building a “social intelligence” layer for AI – software that lets AI systems interpret and respond to human non-verbal cues (body language, facial expressions, voice tone) in real time. Other backers in the round include EIFO (Danish export fund), Yope Foundation, Antler and Ada Ventures. Interhuman AI will use the funding to enhance its API and social AI models and to grow its engineering team, aiming to make virtual interactions more natural and emotionally aware across applications like digital health, customer service and training. Funding Details: Startup: Interhuman AI Investors: PSV Tech (lead), EIFO, Yope Foundation, Antler, Ada Ventures. Amount Raised: €2 million Total Raised: €2 million Funding Stage: Pre-Seed Funding Date: August 25, 2025 Arnatar Raises $52M in Series A Funding to Develop RNA Therapies for Rare Disease Arnatar Therapeutics, a biotech emerging from stealth, announced a $52 million Series A to develop novel RNA-based medicines for rare diseases. The California startup’s lead program, ART4, is an antisense oligonucleotide designed to upregulate a protein (JAG1) to treat Alagille syndrome, a rare pediatric liver disease. The Series A was co-led by Eight Roads and 3E Bioventures, with participation from F-Prime Capital, New Alliance Capital, Jifeng Ventures and Legend Star. Arnatar said it will use the proceeds primarily for IND-enabling studies and initial clinical development of ART4. The funding round was actually closed in 2024 but was publicly revealed today, positioning Arnatar to advance its pioneering RNA upregulation approach. Funding Details: Startup: Arnatar Therapeutics Investors: Eight Roads (lead), 3E Bioventures, F-Prime Capital, New Alliance Capital, Jifeng Ventures, Legend Star, Zhuhai Huajin Capital, Transfar Capital and others. Amount Raised: $52 million Total Raised: $52 million Funding Stage: Series A Funding Date: August 25, 2025 Tech Funding Summary Table Startup Investors (Lead and notable investors) Amount Raised Total Raised Funding Stage Funding Date Nuro Nvidia (lead), Icehouse Ventures, Kindred Ventures, Pledge Ventures, Uber; Baillie Gifford, T. Rowe Price, Tiger Global, Greylock, and XN $203 M ~$2.3 B Series E Aug 25, 2025 Eight Sleep Valor Equity Partners (lead), Founders Fund, Y Combinator, Atreides; Charles Leclerc, Zak Brown $100 M – Growth Aug 25, 2025 Aalo Atomics Valor Equity Partners (lead), Fine Structure Ventures, Hitachi Ventures, NRG Energy, LGT Crestone, Tishman Speyer, Kindred Ventures $100 M $136 M Series B Aug 25, 2025 Firecrawl Nexus Venture Partners (lead), Y Combinator, Tobias Lütke $14.5 M $16.2 M Series A Aug 25, 2025 Cointel Avalanche (lead), Sugafam Inc., (others undisclosed) $7.4 M $7.4 M Strategic Aug 25, 2025 Equatic Catalytic Capital (Temasek Trust) (lead), Kibo Invest $11.6 M $11.6 M Series A Aug 25, 2025 Vaxxas SPRIM Global Investments (lead), LGT Crestone, OneVentures, Brandon Capital–Hostplus ~$90 M ~$90 M Series D Aug 25, 2025 ShiftUp Phil Reed (lead), other angel and VC backers $3 M $3 M Seed Aug 25, 2025 Kiwi Vertex Ventures SEA & India (lead), Nexus Venture Partners, Stellaris Venture Partners, Omidyar Network $24 M $24 M Series B Aug 25, 2025 Enmovil Sorin Investments (lead), Capria Ventures, Twynam Investments $6 M $6 M Series A Aug 25, 2025 WizCommerce Peak XV Partners (lead), Z47, Blume Ventures, Alpha Wave Global $8 M $8 M Series A Aug 25, 2025 Palmonas Vertex Ventures SEA & India (lead) ~$7.0 M (₹55 Cr) ~$7.0 M Series A Aug 25, 2025 Wastelink Avaana Capital (lead) $3 M $3 M Series A Aug 25, 2025 Acembee node.vc (lead), Kiilto Ventures, angel investors €1.1 M €1.1 M Seed Aug 25, 2025 Interhuman AI PSV Tech (lead), EIFO, Yope Foundation, Antler, Ada Ventures €2 M €2 M Pre-Seed Aug 25, 2025 Arnatar Therapeutics Eight Roads (lead), 3E Bioventures, F-Prime Capital, New Alliance Capital, Jifeng Ventures $52 M $52 M Series A Aug 25, 2025 🚀 Want Your Story Featured? 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