Sales & Marketing Archives - 小蓝视频色情网页版 News /sections/sales-marketing/ Data-driven reporting on private markets, startups, founders, and investors Tue, 02 Jun 2026 16:53:14 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.5 /wp-content/uploads/cb_news_favicon-150x150.png Sales & Marketing Archives - 小蓝视频色情网页版 News /sections/sales-marketing/ 32 32 How Bigger ACVs Are Bringing Direct Sales Back To Vertical AI /ai/bigger-acvs-bring-direct-sales-vertical-ai-agarwal-defy/ Mon, 08 Jun 2026 11:00:27 +0000 /?p=93646 By 听

For more than a decade, customers spent their software budget procuring vertical SaaS products. ACVs, or annual contract values, were modest, customer acquisition cost had to stay below a ceiling, and the resulting go-to-market playbook was product-led growth, SDR-led and content-driven.

With AI, many products are no longer SaaS but usage and outcomes based. They are replacing labor, not software. At my investment firm, , we call this new category of companies vertical AI. Vertical AI spend doesn’t just come from a customer’s software budget. It often comes out of headcount as well, a much larger line item. As a result, ACVs have jumped meaningfully to 6- and 7-figure deals.

I’ve written before about how AI for vertical SaaS, and how the value framing shifted from subscription pricing to. As ACVs have grown in vertical AI, the go-to-market motion is changing too. We’ve explored tactics to drive a more efficient sales process.

Here, I鈥檒l explore how the channels are changing as well.

Why direct sales is back

Medha Agarwal is general partner at Defy
Medha Agarwal

Direct sales has historically only worked at true enterprise scale. The cost of an AE’s time wasn’t warranted for smaller ACVs. Below a certain deal size, the math didn’t work for high-touch sales. That’s why SaaS GTM became PLG and SDR-led.

With vertical AI ACVs frequently landing in the 6- or 7-figure range, founders now have room to invest meaningfully in winning each logo. We鈥檙e also seeing these smaller businesses spending relatively more with quicker sales cycles which is enabling higher volume.

AEs, in-person sales motion, and other tactics that didn’t pencil at scale under old SaaS economics now do. Direct sales now works further down market where prior SaaS economics didn’t allow it.

Two channels in particular have driven a lot of distribution and success for vertical AI companies recently. They are distinct from each other but we’ve seen companies have success with both.

No. 1: Private equity and heads of AI

Many PE firms are actively pushing their portfolio companies to drive efficiency with AI. Some have even created a new role internally to spearhead these initiatives. These AI partners are often tasked with collecting and disseminating learnings, finding good AI tools, and connecting them into the portfolio if there’s a fit.

The motivation is sometimes EBITDA driven, but can also be softer than that. Many of these execs are focused on adding value across the portfolio, helping companies build AI competency, and coming up with an execution plan.

The decision making structure also varies. Sometimes the and push adoption down to the portfolio. More often, the firm will forward information to relevant company executives and leave the decision making to them. If executed well, this can be a very efficient channel for vertical AI companies. One introduction to the PE firm surfaces many qualified leads across their portfolio companies.

Usually, companies will land one customer initially. Positive feedback then travels in two directions. Laterally to peer companies within the portfolio, and back up to the PE investor, who introduces the vendor to others in the portfolio. We’ve seen this be particularly successful in industries where rollup strategies are popular like healthcare services, dental, MSP, accounting, legal, financial advisory, insurance brokerage, home services and industrial.

No. 2: Conferences

We’ve also seen sector and function specific conferences be incredibly valuable in driving distribution for vertical AI companies. The advantage is concentrated attention and self selection by the right buyer. Buyers are captive and open to learning.

They come to these events curious to hear what’s new in their sector. Attendance allows companies to meet the right buyer, showcase the product live, and collect leads at scale. Sponsoring and attending dinners is another opportunity to meet prospects.

I鈥檇 argue that scalability of lead generation and brand awareness matters more now than ever. That requires getting the word out about your own company but also cutting through the noise of others in the market. Buyers are actively building out their AI strategies so vertical AI companies should be sprinting on GTM. Companies need to be top of mind when potential buyers are open to evaluating new tools.

Whether that becomes a sole source decision or an RFP, the prerequisite is being part of the consideration set. In order to do that, your buyer needs to know you exist, and this is a great way to spread the word efficiently.

What this means

The GTM playbook for vertical AI now looks meaningfully different from the SaaS playbook it grew out of. Distribution, pricing and sales motion have all shifted in tandem, with each piece reinforcing the others. Buyer pull justified larger ACVs, larger ACVs justified deeper investment in the sales motion, and the new economics opened up channels that didn’t work under the old model.

The companies pulling away are the ones pairing a great product with the right GTM motion. They have recognized that bigger ACVs demand a different playbook, and they have adapted before their peers.

When the gates of distribution opened, everyone walked through. The companies winning now have figured out what to do once they were inside.

If you’re a founder building vertical AI and rethinking GTM, I’d love to hear from you.


听 is a general partner at , where she invests in and partners with early-stage founders from inception through Series A across sectors including AI, fintech, healthcare and enterprise software. Prior to joining Defy, Agarwal spent seven years at and began her investing career at . A former founder and operator, she previously co-founded two startups and started her career at

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Exclusive: Capchase, The 鈥楢ffirm for B2B,鈥 Secures $200M In Debt And Equity /venture/fintech-capchase-b2b-bnpl-200m-debt-equity/ Wed, 27 May 2026 14:00:50 +0000 /?p=93610 Financing startup has secured a new round of funding, consisting of $26 million in equity and a $174 million credit facility, the company told 小蓝视频色情网页版 News exclusively.

led the round, which included participation from , , , , and others.

Founded in 2020, New York-based Capchase initially made a name for itself by providing revenue-based financing for SaaS companies. However, by late 2022, the company began to evolve into its current iteration: a vendor-financing technology platform. Capchase embeds itself directly into the sales workflows of companies such as original equipment manufacturers, software vendors and cybersecurity providers.

It has entirely discontinued its revenue-based financing, and instead now focuses on B2B buy now, pay later tools that help software and hardware vendors offer flexible payment terms while getting paid upfront.

Przemek Gotfryd and Miguel Fernandez, co-founders of Capchase.
Przemek Gotfryd and Miguel Fernandez, co-founders of Capchase. (Courtesy photo)

The concept addresses a longstanding friction point in enterprise sales: vendors want cash immediately, while buyers want to preserve capital. Rather than forcing a buyer to pay $1 million upfront in 30 days, Capchase allows a sales rep to offer more flexible terms 鈥 say, $15,000 per month for up to five years. When the deal is signed, Capchase pays the vendor the full amount upfront, net of a financing fee.

鈥淲e started to see that there was a very big pull in the market,鈥 , co-founder and CEO of Capchase, said in an interview. 鈥淲e saw that sales cycles were expanding, CAC was going up, and all of this was driven by the high interest rates. Buyers wanted to pay as late as possible and pay installments.鈥

He added: 鈥淲e shipped a product quickly to solve that need, and we started to get very strong market pull to the point that that ended up eclipsing the other product lines, and we decided to focus everything there.鈥

Displacing a legacy market with AI

The pivot has unlocked impressive growth. Capchase says it has a 400% growth rate over the past 12 months and forecasts another 200% growth in the upcoming year. Its workforce has scaled alongside this momentum, expanding to 75 employees, up from 50 a year ago.

While legacy banks, independent financing firms and captive financing arms have dominated the $1.3 trillion equipment financing market for decades, Capchase says it differentiates itself by replacing 1980s-era workflows with real-time automation.

Traditional financing approvals often require an email-driven back-and-forth that can take four to 17 days, according to Fernandez. Capchase claims to compress that timeline into seconds.

Capchase uses artificial intelligence and machine learning agents across its platform. For example, an 鈥渙rder generation agent鈥 parses uploaded quotes or purchase orders to create flexible payment links in under 60 seconds 鈥 down from a manual process that typically took eight hours 鈥 according to Fernandez. As another example, an AI email agent automatically handles multiparty coordination between vendors, resellers and buyers, all without human intervention.

鈥淲hat makes us different is that we are both the lender and the technology. And AI is what makes the combination work at the speed enterprise tech sales demands,鈥 Fernandez told 小蓝视频色情网页版 News in an interview. 鈥淲e built the credit decisioning engines that allow us to look at all the data these other players look at as well, but we were able to do it and infer it in just seconds.鈥

Moving upmarket and expanding globally

The new capital will primarily support Capchase’s rapid transition into the enterprise space.

鈥淚n the past 24 months, we went from serving vendors in the tens of millions of revenue to in the last 12 months in the hundreds of millions in revenue, and now in the multiple billions of revenue,” Fernandez said.

The startup鈥檚 platform now underwrites more stable, established borrowers. The average buyer utilizing Capchase has roughly $80 million in annual revenue, has been operating for over 20 years, and is profitable, he added. This profile has allowed Capchase to maintain a highly controlled risk environment and what he described as a “spectacular” default rate.

Capchase currently supports hundreds of tech vendors and tens of thousands of buyers. Its customer roster features enterprise tech giants, public cybersecurity firms and massive distributors, including , , , and .

Though Capchase keeps its specific financials, valuation and cumulative funding figures confidential, Fernandez confirmed that the latest capital injection represents a valuation step up from its 2021 $80 million Series B round. At the time of that raise, the company had raised more than $400 million in equity and debt.

Looking ahead, Capchase will use its fresh capital to scale beyond its core markets in North America 鈥 the U.S. and Canada 鈥 and Europe, including the U.K., Ireland, Belgium, Netherlands, the Nordics and Spain. Driven by direct demand from its enterprise partners, the company is officially entering the Australian market this year.

Reducing friction with flexible terms

, co-founder and managing partner of 01 Advisors, said he was drawn to Capchase primarily because of how AI has helped it disrupt traditional vendor financing.

Incumbents possessed plenty of capital but 鈥渉ave never been forced to build real technology because their customers had nowhere else to go,鈥 he wrote via email.

AI fundamentally shifts this dynamic, allowing Capchase to “underwrite a buyer and create accurate docs in 30 seconds,鈥 he said.

This solution hits close to home for Bain, who previously ran the sales team at and says he intimately understands the friction Capchase aims to eliminate. In traditional enterprise sales, momentum frequently stalls when a ready-to-buy customer hits a roadblock over payment terms, forcing sales leaders to either “discount to close, wait for the next budget cycle, or spend weeks negotiating.”

Those outcomes drain margin or time. Capchase completely removes that friction, Bain said, by offering instant approvals and flexible terms.

Fintech startups, particularly those that apply AI to traditionally manual or burdensome processes, have benefited from increased investment in recent quarters. Global funding to VC-backed financial technology startups totaled $53.8 billion in 2025, per 小蓝视频色情网页版 . That鈥檚 a more than 29% increase from 2024鈥檚 total of $41.6 billion raised.

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Sector Snapshot: Sales And Marketing Gets An AI Makeover /sales-marketing/gtm-ai-startup-funding-netomi-hightouch/ Fri, 08 May 2026 11:00:34 +0000 /?p=93518 Not all of us are salespeople. But at some point, everyone gets to be a customer.

In that role at least, we鈥檙e all pretty familiar with the current state-of-the-art in advertising, marketing and customer experience management technology. And we can all attest it鈥檚 quite skilled at separating us from our disposable income.

Still, startups and their backers see myriad paths to do better. With that in mind, they鈥檝e deployed billions of dollars in recent quarters to a heavily AI-driven cohort of companies largely focused on improving efficiency by deploying agentic tools to their chosen niches.

The broad trend: We鈥檙e not back to boom times. Venture funding to sales, marketing and CRM categories actually hit its cyclical peak in 2021 and 2022. Investment has slowed down considerably since, with annual funding hovering around the $8 billion mark in the past three years, 小蓝视频色情网页版 data shows.

Not surprisingly, however, AI-focused companies are scooping up a much larger share of funding than during the prior peak, with a majority of sales, marketing and CRM-focused investment going to companies in 小蓝视频色情网页版 AI-related categories.

The numbers: So far in 2026, companies in sales, marketing and CRM categories have pulled in around $3.7 billion globally in seed- through growth-stage funding, per 小蓝视频色情网页版 data.听

That puts the space on track to come in roughly flat with or a bit up from the prior three years, and still far below boom-era levels, when sales and marketing investment topped $20 billion.

Standout deals

The past few weeks have been particularly busy on the funding front, with multiple big rounds.

In the customer experience area, AI unicorn pulled in a $950 million megaround this week led by and The financing set a $15 billion valuation for the San Francisco-based company, which offers AI-driven customer experience tools to companies.

Another recent large funding recipient was , developer of an agentic marketing platform, which closed last week on a $150 million Series D financing led by and , valuing the company at $2.75 billion. The San Francisco startup offers AI agents that carry out audience research, generate brand content and conduct digital marketing campaigns.

, developer of an agentic customer experience platform for enterprises operating at scale in what it describes as high-stakes, regulated environments, picked up another sizable financing. Last week, the San Mateo, California-based company closed on $110 million in new funding led by .

Also last month, , developer of agentic AI tools for go-to-market teams, secured its Series B. The New York startup raised $45 million in a round co-led by and .

One of the year鈥檚 biggest rounds for the marketing and CRM space, meanwhile, came earlier this year. , developer of an AI agent management platform for enterprise customer service, locked up $350 million in a January Series D. General Catalyst led the financing, which brought the听 Berlin-based startup鈥檚 valuation to $3 billion.

Exits and outlook

Big startup M&A deals are also happening, albeit in small quantities.

Just two weeks ago, payment platform announced that it will acquire , a loyalty and incentives platform for merchants, for around $880 million. Berlin-based Talon had previously raised over $120 million in venture funding.

Another large transaction, announced last summer, was 鈥 purchase of Dusseldorf-based , a conversational AI platform for customer support, in a deal valuing the latter at around $955 million.

As for IPOs, activity has been more muted. One exception was , a platform for brands to launch TV commercials, which made its debut a year ago and is currently trading well below its post-IPO price.

It鈥檚 not surprising to see IPO activity muted. The enterprise software IPO market has been muted for months now, driven by investor worries over AI impact on SaaS business models. Startups focused on vertical AI since inception, meanwhile, are a more youthful cohort, mostly not yet prime for public markets.听

Give them time, however, and it鈥檚 likely these AI-driven upstarts will come up with plenty of ingenious techniques to separate us from more of our spending money. And when they do, expect exits to follow.

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Frontier Labs And Robotics Companies Again Top List Of New Unicorns In April听 /venture/new-ai-unicorn-startups-april-2026-frontier-labs-ineffable-intelligence-recursive-superintelligence/ Wed, 06 May 2026 11:00:30 +0000 /?p=93508 A total of 28 companies joined The 小蓝视频色情网页版 Unicorn Board in April, 小蓝视频色情网页版 data shows, with robotics startups and frontier labs leading by number of entrants for the second consecutive month.

Two newly founded AI labs, both based in London and both with researchers from , raised large rounds out of the gate and made their Unicorn Board debuts. The two companies, and , both raised large initial fundings out of the gate, though take very different approaches to training AI.听 They were joined by another new unicorn in the foundation AI sector: , an open-source model company from China with on-device smaller models.听

Six companies working on humanoid robotics 鈥斕齠ive from China and one from Japan 鈥 also received billion-dollar-plus valuations last month. Quite a few of these companies are building models for robotic intelligence using simulated data.听

The financial services, defense, developer tools, energy and healthcare sectors each added two or three new unicorns in April.听

Of the 28 companies, 12 are U.S.-based and eight are from China. The UK counted two new unicorns last month, while Germany, Spain, Switzerland, India and Japan each added one.听

April鈥檚 new unicorns

Here are April鈥檚 new unicorn companies. Of the 28 companies, 26 are AI-related.听

Foundational AI听

  • , a London-based AI lab using reinforcement learning rather than human-generated data, raised a $1.1 billion seed round led by and . The less than 1-year-old company was founded by of AlphaGo and . It was valued at $5.1 billion in its first funding.听
  • London-based , a new AI intelligence lab with the goal of continuous learning improvement, raised a $500 million Series A led by and . Founded by DeepMind researchers and 鈥檚 1 previous AI lead, the less than 1-year-old company was valued at $4.5 billion.听
  • Beijing-based , an on-device foundation model developer, raised funding led by and . Its open source MiniCPM is deployed in automotives, smartphones, PCs and home devices. The 3-year-old company was valued at $1 billion.听

Robotics听

  • Shanghai-based is a robotics AI company building a foundational model as well as hardware. It uses simulated training to create a model for grasping and spatial awareness. The 1-year-old company raised a Series A round and was valued at $2 billion.
  • Shanghai-based humanoid robotics company raised a $513 million seed round led by and HSG. The 1-year-old company was valued at $1.9 billion.听
  • Beijing-based , a hardware and software developer of models for robotics using simulated data, raised a $220 million Series B. The 3-year-old company was valued at $1.5 billion.听
  • Shenzhen-based , a builder of humanoid and quadruped robots, raised a $200 million Series B led by and . The 2-year-old company robots will be deployed for traffic, security and retail. It was valued at $1.5 billion.听
  • Shenzhen-based , a commercial robotics company for delivery and commercial cleaning, raised a $146 million funding led by and . The 10-year-old company was valued at $1.5 billion.听
  • Tokyo-based , a humanoid robotics company to address public safety and urban maintenance, raised a Series A led round. The 1-year-old company co-founded by was valued at $1 billion.

Financial services听

  • , which automates research for investment banks, raised a $160 million Series D led by . The 4-year-old New York-based company was valued at $2 billion.
  • Bangalore-based , a consumer and small business lending service, raised a $220 million Series E led by , , and . The 8-year-old company was valued at $1.5 billion.听
  • , a banking and expense management service targeting small businesses and solopreneurs, raised a $100 million Series C led by , and . The 5-year-old San Francisco-based company, founded by college dropouts at the time, was valued at $1.4 billion.听

Defense听

  • Space defense company raised a $600 million Series D led by and . The company has built software for space operations and an autonomous orbital vehicle called Jackal. The 4-year-old, Colorado-based company was valued at $2.2 billion.听
  • Defense aviation company raised a $200 million Series C led by Khosla Ventures. The 7-year-old El Segundo, California-based builder of autonomous aircraft was valued at $1 billion.听

Developer tools听

  • , a web search provider for AI agents used by and , raised a $100 million Series B led by Sequoia Capital. The 2-year-old Palo Alto, California-based company was valued at $2 billion.听
  • , an agentic software coding tool for enterprises, raised a $150 million Series C led by . The 3-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1.5 billion.听

Energy听

  • , developer of small nuclear reactors to provide direct power for AI data centers, raised a $340 million Series B funding. The 2-year-old El Segundo, California-based company was valued at $2 billion.听
  • , a long duration energy storage battery provider, raised a $58 million Series C led by . The 12-year-old Bayern, Germany-based company that supports energy needs for grids, data centers and industry, was valued at $1.2 billion.听

Health care听

  • Shanghai-based , a developer of a model for healthcare that includes computer vision and large language models, raised a $73 million Series A round. The 12-year-old company has built an assistant for doctors for screening, diagnosis and patient care, and was valued at $1 billion.听
  • Switzerland-based , a developer of a peptide product to address enamel repair without needing surgery, raised a private equity funding led by . The 6-year-old company was valued at $1 billion.听

Data platform

  • has built a semantic layer between data and agents necessary to interpret data and provide guardrails for AI. The 4-year-old San Francisco-based company raised a $120 million Series C led by and was valued at $1.5 billion.听

Manufacturing

  • Shanghai-based , a collaboration tool to make factories more efficient, raised a $146 million Series D funding. The 10-year-old Shanghai-based company was valued at $1.3 billion.

Agentic AI

  • , which builds agents trained on company data, raised a $80 million funding led by . The 1-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1.3 billion.听

Aerospace听

  • Madrid-based , which is building data from satellites tracking changes in the earth for various commercial needs, raised a $130 million Series B led by . The 6-year-old company was valued at $1 billion.听

Marketing & sales听

  • , a provider of booking and customer service for the services industry using AI, has raised a Series B funding led by and . The 4-year-old New York-based company was valued at $1 billion. The company has raised $125 million in funding from seed through its Series B.听

Biotechnology听

  • , an AI biotechnology infrastructure platform speeding up drug discovery, raised a $40 million Series E. The 8-year-old Waltham, Massachusetts-based company was valued at $1 billion.听

Waste management听

  • converts unused food products into energy. It raised a Series C funding led by strategic partner . The 19-year-old Concord, Massachusetts-based company was valued at $1 billion.听

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  • (1,756)
  • (611)
  • (128)
  • (187)
  • (118)
  • (102)
  • (896)
  • (516)
  • (239)
  • (38)
  • (477)

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Methodology

The 小蓝视频色情网页版 Unicorn Board is a curated list that includes private unicorn companies with post-money valuations of $1 billion or more and is based on 小蓝视频色情网页版 data. New companies are as they reach the $1 billion valuation mark as part of a funding round.听

The unicorn board does not reflect internal company valuations 鈥 such as those set via a 409a process for employee stock options 鈥 as these differ from, and are more likely to be lower than, a priced funding round. We also do not adjust valuations based on investor writedowns, which change quarterly, as different investors will not value the same company consistently within the same quarter.听

Funding to unicorn companies includes all private financings to companies that are tagged as unicorns, as well as those that have since graduated to .听

Exits analyzed here only include the first time a company exits.听

Please note that all funding values are given in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted. 小蓝视频色情网页版 converts foreign currencies to U.S. dollars at the prevailing spot rate from the date funding rounds, acquisitions, IPOs and other financial events are reported. Even if those events were added to 小蓝视频色情网页版 long after the event was announced, foreign currency transactions are converted at the historic spot price.

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  1. Salesforce Ventures is an investor in 小蓝视频色情网页版. They have no say in our editorial process. For more, head here.

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The Week鈥檚 10 Biggest Funding Rounds: Defense Tech Leads With Multiple Large Deals, Topped By $600M For Space Security Startup True Anomaly /venture/biggest-funding-rounds-defense-aerospace-ai-fintech/ Fri, 01 May 2026 19:00:30 +0000 /?p=93498 Want to keep track of the largest startup funding deals in 2026 with our curated list of $100 million-plus venture deals to U.S.-based companies? Check out The 小蓝视频色情网页版 Megadeals Board.

This is a weekly feature that runs down the week鈥檚 top 10 announced funding rounds in the U.S. Check out last week鈥檚 biggest funding deal roundup here.

Large U.S. venture deals this week were led by a massive defense tech raise for space security startup . That theme continued with another two aerospace- and defense-related companies also getting major investor backing. We also saw sizable deals for startups applying AI to fintech, marketing, customer service, healthcare and developer tools. Let鈥檚 take a closer look.

1. , $600M, aerospace and defense: Centennial, Colorado-based True Anomaly raised a massive $600 million Series D led by and , with participation from a long list of other backers including , , , , and . True Anomaly develops space security and in-orbit defense systems, an area drawing increasing venture investor attention amid rising geopolitical tensions. The new round brings its total funding up to $1.1 billion, .

2. , $160M, AI and fintech: New York-based Rogo secured $160 million in Series D funding led by and joined by other investors including , , , , and . Rogo builds AI-powered tools to automate financial research and workflows. The latest financing brings its total funding raised to date to $314 million, . The deal is also the latest example of investor enthusiasm for startups targeting high-value knowledge work such as law and accounting.

3. , $150M, AI and marketing: San Francisco-based Hightouch raised $150 million in a Series D co-led by and . , , , and other investors joined. The company focuses on agentic AI-driven marketing and customer data activation. The round brings Hightouch鈥檚 total funding to date to and comes amid rising demand for AI tools embedded directly into enterprise marketing stacks.

4. , $125M, AI and customer service: New York-based Avoca brought in $125 million in a Series B led by and, with participation from other investors including , , and . Avoca develops AI agents for customer communication workflows. The new raise brings its total funding to $125.5 million, .

5. , $110M, AI and customer service: San Mateo, California-based Netomi raised $110 million in a Series C led by , with participation from and others, including individual investors , , and . The company offers AI-powered customer experience automation across channels. The new funding brings its total raised to date to $217 million, .

6. (tied) , $100M, developer tools: Palo Alto, California-based Parallel secured $100 million in a Series B led by , with additional backing from other big-name investors , and . The startup is building a suite of AI agents and developer tools to automate workflows. It has raised $260 million to date, .

6. (tied) , $100M, aerospace and defense: Sunnyvale, California-based Scout AI raised a sizable $100 million Series A led by and . A long list of other investors joined, including , and . The startup develops AI systems for aerospace and defense applications. Its large early-stage round underscores continued investor appetite for dual-use and defense-focused startups, which globally raised a record $7.7 billion in 2025, per 小蓝视频色情网页版 data.

8. , $82M, aerospace and defense: San Diego-based Firestorm closed an $82 million Series B led by . also participated in this round, as did , , , and others. Firestone builds modular, mission-adaptable drone systems. It has raised nearly $150 million total, .

9. , $77M, health diagnostics: Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Iterative Health raised $77 million in a Series C led by and, with additional backing from , and . The company develops AI-powered diagnostic and clinical workflow tools, particularly in gastroenterology. It has raised more than $268 million since inception, according to .

10. , $75M, foundational AI: Investors continue to back next-generation foundation model startups. One of the latest is San Francisco-based AI research startup Standard Intelligence, which raised a $75 million Series A led by and . The raise comes at a $425 million pre-money valuation. Other investors in the deal include , and AI researcher . Standard AI is developing 鈥渃omputer-use鈥 models designed to interact directly with software. Its approach 鈥 training on large-scale video data rather than manually annotated screenshots 鈥 aims to significantly reduce costs and improve performance.

Large non-US deals

We also saw several sizable deals for startups based outside the U.S.:

, $1.1B, foundational AI: London-based frontier lab Ineffable Intelligence raised a $1.1 billion seed round, the largest for a European startup on record. (The previous record was set just a couple of months ago, when Paris-based frontier lab raised a $1.03 billion seed round.) and led Ineffable鈥檚 seed funding.

, $300M, aerospace: China-based Volant Aerotech raised a $300 million Series C led by . The company is developing electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, or eVTOLs, designed to be used as taxis.

, $200M, robotics: China-based humanoid robot developer Robot Era raised a $200 million round led by , with participation from a long list of investors including and . The company is developing robots designed for industrial and service work, and follows a string of other large fundings for China-based robotics startups.

Methodology

We tracked the largest announced rounds in the 小蓝视频色情网页版 database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the period of April 25-May 1. Although most announced rounds are represented in the database, there could be a small time lag as some rounds are reported late in the week.

Illustration:

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The New Unicorn Count Reached A 4-Year High In March, Led By Robotics, Frontier Labs And AI Infrastructure听 /venture/unicorn-count-4-year-high-robotics-ai-march-2026/ Tue, 21 Apr 2026 11:00:24 +0000 /?p=93443 A total of 37 companies joined The 小蓝视频色情网页版 Unicorn Board in March, the highest monthly count in close to four years, 小蓝视频色情网页版 data shows. The robotics sector led unicorn creation last month, with six new billion-dollar startups, including three from China. Frontier labs added four new unicorns, including two that are building models for robotics.

AI infrastructure also added four new unicorn companies focused on data center technology and provisioning. Fintech, including startups in wealth management, payment and digital assets, added four companies, while developer tools and defense each added three.

Twenty of March鈥檚 new unicorns are U.S.-based, including 11 from the San Francisco Bay Area. China added six companies in sectors ranging from robotics to AI and quantum computing.

From Europe, four new March unicorns are U.K.-based, while France, the Netherlands and Belgium each minted one. The UAE, Seychelles, India and Australia also each added one new unicorn to the board.

The most valuable unicorn newcomer last month was Seychelles-based crypto exchange , valued at $25 billion. The largest funding was a $1 billion round raised by AI pioneer 鈥檚 new frontier lab startup, Paris-based .

The board also saw a sizable cohort of very young companies earning their unicorn horns: 18 of the companies that joined the board last month were less than 3 years old. Five were not even a year old.

March鈥檚 new unicorns

AI-centric sectors by far led unicorn creation in March, with 14 of the 36 newcomers hailing from the robotics, foundational AI or AI infrastructure industries:

Robotics

  • , a robotics for manufacturing company spun out by , raised a $500 million Series A led by and . The 1-year-old Palo Alto, California-based company was valued at $2 billion.
  • Shenzhen-based , an intelligent sensor technology for robotics, raised a $145 million Series B led by , and . The 4-year-old company was valued at $1.5 billion.
  • Beijing-based , a humanoid robotics company, raised $145 million in funding. The 2-year-old company was valued at $1.5 billion.
  • , a humanoid robotics company for household tasks, raised a $165 million Series B led by . The 2-year-old Mountain View, California-based company was valued at $1.2 billion. The company plans to deploy robots to homes this year.
  • Pudong, China-based , an intelligent layer for robotics in manufacturing, raised an $87 million Series D round. The 9-year-old company was valued at $1.2 billion.
  • , a provider of simulated data for robotic intelligence, raised a $146 million Series A. The 3-year-old Santa Clara, California-based company was valued at $1 billion.

Foundational AI

  • Paris-based raised a $1 billion seed round led by , ,, and . The less than 1-year-old company was founded by LeCun, 鈥檚 former AI lead, and is working to develop models for physical AI. It was valued at $4.5 billion in the round, which is Europe鈥檚 largest seed round on record.
  • , a robot foundation model developer trained on internet scale video, raised a $450 million Series A led by . The 2-year-old Palo Alto, California-based company was valued at $1.7 billion.
  • , a math foundation model developer for verified AI useful for coding and other applications, raised a $200 million Series A led by . The 1-year-old Palo Alto, California-based company was valued at $1.6 billion.
  • Beijing-based , a text-to-video startup with its own AI model, raised a $300 million Series C led by . The 2-year-old company was valued at $1 billion.

AI infrastructure

  • , a provider of networking hardware and software for data centers, raised a $500 million Series B led by and . The 2-year-old Santa Clara, California-based company was valued at $4.2 billion.
  • , a chip cooling technology, raised a $143 million Series D led by . The 8-year-old San Jose, California-based company was valued at $1.6 billion.
  • , which offers GPU rentals for startups, raised a Series A funding led by . The 2-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1.5 billion.
  • Redmond, Washington-based , a company building data centers in space, raised a $170 million Series A led by and . The 2-year-old company听 was valued at $1.1 billion.听 It launched its first satellite with a H100 in November 2025.

Financial services

  • London-based , an AI-native platform for debt providers including banks, asset managers and advisory firms, raised a $170 million Series C led by . The 9-year-old company was valued at $1.3 billion.
  • Mumbai-based , a wealth asset advisory firm for high-net-worth individuals and family offices, raised a $53 million private equity funding led by . The 4-year old, venture-backed asset manager was valued at $1.1 billion.
  • Brussels-based , an investment group for digital assets, raised a Series C led by . The 8-year-old company was valued at $1.1 billion.
  • Abu Dhabi-based , a payments infrastructure provider for regulated gaming markets, raised a $250 million funding led by . The less than 1-year-old company was valued at $1 billion.

Developer tools

  • , which promises to make your app enterprise ready with authentication and other features, raised a $100 million Series C led by and. The 8-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $2 billion.
  • , an observability platform for agentic AI, raised a $110 million Series B led by . The 3-year-old New York-based company was valued at $1 billion.
  • , a software developer for hardware testing and development, raised an $80 million Series B led by . The 3-year-old Austin-based company was valued at $1 billion.

Defense

  • , a drone technology company built for defense, raised a $110 million Series B led by . The 7-year-old Huntsville, Alabama-based company was valued at $1.2 billion.
  • Sydney-based , provider of advanced navigation beyond GPS for military and industrial capabilities, raised a $112 million Series C led by . The 13-year-old company was valued at $1 billion.
  • London-based , a builder of unmanned systems used in the Ukrainian war, raised a $50 million seed听 funding led by and . The 1-year-old company was valued at $1 billion.

Biotechnology

  • Austin-based , a biological AI research company spun out of听 , raised a $10 million seed extension. The less than 1-year-old company was valued at $2 billion.
  • , a neurotech company focused on brain computer interfaces, raised a $230 million Series C led by and听 Lightspeed Venture Partners. The 5-year-old Alameda, California-based company, whose primary product, an implant to restore vision for those who suffer retinal disease, was valued at $1.5 billion.

Sales and marketing

  • Amsterdam-based , a builder of agents for companies to deploy in customer service and business operations, raised a $150 million Series B led by . The 1-year-old company was valued at $2 billion.
  • , an agentic layer that monitors customers and researches prospects, raised a Series B led by . The 2-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1.2 billion.

Security

  • , native AI security with its own human triage for customers, raised a $250 million Series B led by . The 1-year-old Sarasota, Florida-based company was valued at $1 billion.
  • , which uses AI for offensive security, raised a $120 million Series C led by and . The 2-year-old Seattle-based company was valued at $1 billion.

Cryptocurrency

  • Seychelles-based , a global cryptocurrency exchange platform, raised a $200 million corporate round led by , the parent company of the . The 12-year-old company was valued at $25 billion.

Telehealth

  • Miami-based , ‘s telehealth provider for GLP-1 medications through employers, raised a $200 million Series A led by . The 5-year-old company was valued at $2 billion.

Professional services

  • London-based , an AI notetaking startup, raised a $125 million Series C led by . The 3-year-old company was valued at $1.5 billion.

Consumer goods

  • , a company with a mattress, thermal blanket and pillow designed to monitor and improve sleep, raised a $50 million Series D led by . The 11-year-old New York-based company was valued at $1.5 billion.

Accelerator

  • London-based , an accelerator that sources founders from top schools, raised a $200 million Series D. The 11-year-old company, which hosts its latest cohorts in Silicon Valley, was valued at $1.3 billion.

Quantum computing

  • Sichuan, China-based , a quantum computer and chip-production company, raised a $145 million Series B. The 5-year-old company was valued at $1 billion.

Autonomous driving

  • Hangzhou-based , an intelligent driving platform, raised a Series A led by , and . The less than 1-year-old company was valued at $1 billion.

Related 小蓝视频色情网页版 unicorn lists:

  • (1,739)
  • (609)
  • (101)
  • (188)
  • (117)
  • (102)
  • (896)
  • (510)
  • (236)
  • (38)
  • (472)

Related reading:

Methodology

The 小蓝视频色情网页版 Unicorn Board is a curated list that includes private unicorn companies with post-money valuations of $1 billion or more and is based on 小蓝视频色情网页版 data. New companies are as they reach the $1 billion valuation mark as part of a funding round.

The unicorn board does not reflect internal company valuations 鈥 such as those set via a 409a process for employee stock options 鈥 as these differ from, and are more likely to be lower than, a priced funding round. We also do not adjust valuations based on investor writedowns, which change quarterly, as different investors will not value the same company consistently within the same quarter.

Funding to unicorn companies includes all private financings to companies that are tagged as unicorns, as well as those that have since graduated to .

Exits analyzed here only include the first time a company exits.

Please note that all funding values are given in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted. 小蓝视频色情网页版 converts foreign currencies to U.S. dollars at the prevailing spot rate from the date funding rounds, acquisitions, IPOs and other financial events are reported. Even if those events were added to 小蓝视频色情网页版 long after the event was announced, foreign currency transactions are converted at the historic spot price.

Illustration:

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The Most Active Startup Acquirers Of The Past 3 Years Aren鈥檛 Always Who You鈥檇 Expect /ma/most-active-startup-acquirers-3-years-crm-openai-snowflake/ Fri, 20 Mar 2026 11:00:43 +0000 /?p=93261 Companies that buy a lot of startups don鈥檛 always have a lot in common.

Some are longstanding blue chip tech and pharmaceutical companies. Others are fast-growing venture-backed unicorns. And still others are more recent public market entrants looking to stay competitive in the age of AI.

To get a sense of who鈥檚 buying in bulk, we used 小蓝视频色情网页版 data to put together a that acquired three or more seed- or venture-backed startups in the past three years. From there, we picked the most acquisitive names.

The most prolific startup acquirers of the past 3 years

Per 小蓝视频色情网页版 data, the most prolific acquirers of seed- and venture-backed startups in recent years are 1, and . Overall, our query showed six companies with six or more known purchases, charted below.

For top-ranked Salesforce, high-volume M&A is nothing new. The San Francisco software giant has purchased at least 91 companies in the past 20 years, per 小蓝视频色情网页版 data. Its most recent startup purchases include , a revenue orchestration platform, and , which focuses on agentic AI for e-commerce.

OpenAI, by contrast, has a shorter track record of M&A shopping sprees. The pioneering generative AI company has bought 16 companies in the past three years. Among the most recent was an deal involving open-source AI agent and its creator, . This month, it also snapped up , a creator of open source tools for software developers, and , an open-source tool for testing AI applications.

Snowflake, meanwhile, has 19 acquisitions to date. Most recently, it acquired , a developer of AI observability tools that previously raised more than $460 million in venture funding.

Notably, recent the active acquirers list for recent years looks quite a bit different that the ranking of all-time top M&A dealmakers in the 小蓝视频色情网页版 dataset, shown below:

Highest-spending acquirers

The most prolific startup buyers also aren鈥檛 always the biggest check-writers. By the latter metric, the far-and-away leader is , and its $32 billion acquisition of .

For a broader picture view, we used 小蓝视频色情网页版 data to put together a list of six companies that made the biggest-ticket funded startup acquisitions of the past three years.

2026 off to a promising start

So far this year, it looks like the pace of startup M&A dealmaking remains fairly robust.

This includes two deals in the multiple billions: 鈥檚 $5.15 billion purchase of and s $2.4 billion acquisition of . The AI sector鈥檚 appetite for acqui-hires and smaller purchases of earlier-stage startups also continues to boost momentum.

We鈥檒l see if it keeps up.

Related 小蓝视频色情网页版 list:

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  1. Salesforce Ventures is an investor in 小蓝视频色情网页版. They have no say in our editorial process. For more, head here.

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While OpenAI Shattered Records, Robotics and Semiconductor Startups Quietly Added The Most New Unicorns In February /venture/robotics-semiconductor-led-unicorns-february-2026/ Thu, 12 Mar 2026 11:00:20 +0000 /?p=93230 AI frontier labs continued to lead The 小蓝视频色情网页版 Unicorn Board last month in terms of dollars spent and valuations, but it was hardware 鈥 robotics and semiconductors 鈥 that added the largest number of new billion-dollar companies in February.

A total of 27 companies joined the Unicorn Board last month, including six robotics companies and four semiconductor-related startups. Healthcare minted three new unicorns, while foundation AI, cloud services, aerospace and financial services each accounted for two companies that joined.

The U.S. once again dominated, with 19 companies joining the board. China tallied four new unicorns, the U.K. contributed two, and India and Germany each added one new unicorn.

Soaring valuations

Overall unicorn values soared in February as raised $110 billion at a value of $840 billion, making it the most highly valued private company of all time. Its closest rival, , raised $30 billion at a valuation of $380 billion, making it the fourth-largest valued company on the list. , the autonomous driving technology company, was valued at $126 billion, positioning it among the top 10 most highly valued private companies.

February鈥檚 new unicorns

Here are February鈥檚 newly minted unicorns.

Robotics

  • , a solution for automating building equipment for autonomous construction, raised a $270 million Series B led by and . The 1-year-old company, based in San Francisco, was valued at $1.8 billion.
  • Beijing-based , a physical intelligence foundation model and humanoid robotics company, raised a $290 million Series A led by and . The 2-year-old company was valued at $1.5 billion.
  • , a builder of intelligent robots for industrial and service industries, raised a $145 million Series B round. The 2-year-old Beijing-based company was valued at $1.4 billion.
  • Humanoid robotics company raised a $145 million Series B led by . The 2-year-old China-based company was valued at $1.4 billion.
  • , a testing and control software layer for aerospace, defense, robotics and industry, raised a $150 million Series B led by . The 1-year-old Los Angeles-based company was valued at $1 billion.
  • , a company that transforms 5G and Wi-Fi into spatial awareness for connective devices, an underlying layer necessary for physical AI, raised a $100 million Series B from well-known investors , , , and . The 9-year-old Belmont, California-based company was valued at $1 billion.

Semiconductor

  • China-based , developer of a chip for advanced autonomous driving, raised a $330 million Series A led by and . The company, which is less than a year old and spun out of automaker , was valued at $1.5 billion.
  • London-based , a photonic chip company for more efficient AI inference, raised a $220 million Series A led by . The 2-year-old company, valued at $1 billion, has plans to ship its first product in 2027.
  • Reno, Nevada-based , builder of memory chips for AI, raised a $230 million Series B led by , and . The 3-year-old company was valued at $1 billion.
  • , a chip developer for AI training, raised a $500 million Series B led by and . The 3-year-old company, based in Mountain View, California, was valued at $1 billion. It plans to ship its first product in 2027.

Healthcare

  • New York-based , a platform that helps employers and employees source the best doctors with improved costs, raised a $118 million Series D led by . The 7-year-old company was valued at $1.4 billion.
  • Palo Alto, California-based , a women’s telehealth provider, raised a $100 million Series D led by . The 4-year-old company was valued at $1 billion.
  • , a Redwood City, California-based digital platform that helps medicare customers connect with advocates to navigate healthcare, raised a $130 million Series C led by . The 4-year-old company was valued at $1 billion.

Cloud services

  • , a cloud platform for application development teams, raised a $100 million Series C led by . The 8-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1.5 billion.
  • Mumbai-based , a cloud service GPU provider, raised a $600 million round led by . The 3-year-old company was valued at $1.4 billion.

Foundational AI

  • , builder of an AI model to analyze large databases, raised a $225 million Series A led by . The company also says it has signed a partnership agreement with ‘s to offer the model to its customers. The 2-year-old, San Francisco-based company was valued at $1.4 billion.
  • , a model developer to debug and understand AI, raised a $150 million Series B led by . The 1-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1.3 billion.

Aerospace

  • , a space-based communications infrastructure player to support commercial satellite and government missions, raised a $100 million Series B led by and. The 4-year-old Livermore, California-based company was valued at $1.3 billion.
  • , an aviation hardware and software company for automated flights, raised a $300 million Series C led by and . The 10-year-old El Segundo, California-based company was valued at $1.2 billion.

Financial services

  • London-based , a U.K.-based digital bank for small and medium-sized businesses, raised a $155 million Series D led by , and . The 8-year-old company was valued at $1.2 billion.
  • , an agentic platform for accountants, raised a $100 million Series B led by , and . The 3-year-old company, based in New York, was valued at $1.2 billion.

E-commerce

  • Brooklyn-based , a marketplace for creators to sell digital products, raised a $200 million round led by . The 5-year-old company was valued at $1.6 billion.

Coding

  • , a Boston-based code translation service for legacy code, raised a $125 million Series B led by 1. The round valued the 2-year-old company at $1.3 billion.

Defense

  • Berlin-based , a developer of strike drones and autonomous defense systems, raised an undisclosed sum in a round led by that valued the 1-year-old company at $1.2 billion.

Forecasting

  • Boston-based , an AI-native weather satellite constellation, raised a $175 million Series F led by and . The 9-year-old company was valued at $1 billion.

Sales & marketing

  • New York-based , a brand marketing platform geared for AI search, raised a $96 million Series C led by that valued the 1-year-old company at $1 billion.

Web3

  • , a blockchain intelligence platform to detect crime networks, raised a $70 million Series C led by . The raise valued the 8-year-old company, based in San Francisco, at $1 billion.

Related 小蓝视频色情网页版 unicorn lists:

  • (1,703)
  • (604)
  • (65)
  • (187)
  • (115)
  • (102)
  • (878)
  • (500)
  • (228)
  • (38)
  • (471)

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Methodology

The 小蓝视频色情网页版 Unicorn Board is a curated list that includes private unicorn companies with post-money valuations of $1 billion or more and is based on 小蓝视频色情网页版 data. New companies are as they reach the $1 billion valuation mark as part of a funding round.

The unicorn board does not reflect internal company valuations 鈥 such as those set via a 409a process for employee stock options 鈥 as these differ from, and are more likely to be lower than, a priced funding round. We also do not adjust valuations based on investor writedowns, which change quarterly, as different investors will not value the same company consistently within the same quarter.

Funding to unicorn companies includes all private financings to companies that are tagged as unicorns, as well as those that have since graduated to .

Exits analyzed here only include the first time a company exits.

Please note that all funding values are given in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted. 小蓝视频色情网页版 converts foreign currencies to U.S. dollars at the prevailing spot rate from the date funding rounds, acquisitions, IPOs and other financial events are reported. Even if those events were added to 小蓝视频色情网页版 long after the event was announced, foreign currency transactions are converted at the historic spot price.

Illustration:


  1. Salesforce Ventures is an investor in 小蓝视频色情网页版. They have no say in our editorial process. For more, head here.

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鈥榃hy Not?’ How Sales Automation Unicorn Clay Uses Tender Offers To Reward Employees Without An Exit In Sight /liquidity/sales-automation-unicorn-clay-tender-offers-qa-amin/ Thu, 12 Feb 2026 12:00:21 +0000 /?p=93132 Last month, sales automation startup announced its in less than nine months. The tender, led by , will allow employees to sell up to $55 million in Clay shares at a $5 billion valuation.

Clay鈥檚 back-to-back tender offers underscore a growing shift among high-growth startups: rewarding employees with liquidity long before an IPO is in sight. As companies stay private longer 鈥 and hit major revenue milestones at breakneck speed 鈥 secondary sales are becoming a tool not just for retention, but for signaling strength. In Clay鈥檚 case, the two tenders followed rapid valuation jumps and a sprint to $100 million in ARR, positioning liquidity as a performance-based reward rather than a prelude to exit.

鈥淏uilding a generational business is a marathon, and tenders help equity feel real when top talent has options,鈥 said , a partner at who noted that as companies stay private longer and talent competition intensifies, tender offers can be a powerful tool for recruiting, morale and retention.

Still, he noted, there tend to be limits. 鈥淚n the tender offers we鈥檝e participated in, most employees were limited to selling just 10-25% of their vested holdings, and nearly half of founders didn鈥檛 sell a single share, signaling long-term conviction,鈥 he wrote via email. 鈥淓ven modest liquidity can make a big difference, translating to life milestones like a down payment on a first home, a child鈥檚 education, or helping a loved one transition into care.鈥

Clay鈥檚 previous tender, led by , happened in May 2025 at . In between the two tender offers, the startup closed at a $3.1 billion valuation. In total, New York-based Clay has raised $206 million in equity since its 2017 inception. It has 300 employees, up from 80 to 90 a year ago, and 14,000 customers.

Tender offers have become more common as an increasing number of startups choose to stay private longer. Other high-profile examples include payments giant , which has already undergone a few tender offers and is reportedly considering that could value it at more than $140 billion. Generative AI company is also believed to be working on its own at a valuation of at least $350 billion.

Kareem Amin and Varun Anand, co-founders of Clay.
Kareem Amin and Varun Anand, co-founders of Clay. (Photo courtesy of Ava Pelor)

In Clay鈥檚 case, the motivation was twofold, according to CEO and co-founder . The tender offers have served as a way to allow new investors to come in, and for employees to feel like their equity is 鈥渞eal.鈥

小蓝视频色情网页版 News recently spoke with Amin to dig deeper into the company鈥檚 decision to launch not just one but two tender offers in the past nine months. The interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

小蓝视频色情网页版 News: Before we dig into the tender offers, tell us more about what Clay does.

Amin: We help businesses find and grow their best customers. You can think of Clay as an AI go-to-market tool which implements any creative idea you have for sales and marketing.

Go-to-market is just a new name for sales, marketing and customer success 鈥 the whole apparatus that helps you find customers and grow them, and implement any idea. Our vision is that in sales and marketing, you need to constantly be doing something different that’s unique for you, different from everybody else. Otherwise, it just becomes noise.

And we let you implement these strategies. It might be something like personalized landing pages to, 鈥淗ey, let’s analyze all the video calls with sales calls that you’ve had, figure out why you lost the customer, and put that into .鈥澨1 I like to think of it as 鈥渓ike is for designers, Clay is for go-to-market teams.鈥

So what drove you to do not just one, but two, tender offers over the past year?

It鈥檚 interesting actually to think of it as the inverse: Why not do a tender offer?

Two reasons you don’t do a tender offer is either you don’t have the demand, or you think you’ll demotivate the team. Because we’re growing super quickly, we have the demand, and people want to invest in the company because we’re extremely efficient. Our burn is very, very low.

We don’t actually need more primary capital. We haven’t touched the primary capital. So this is a way to allow new investors to come in. This is also a way to bring in new partners without diluting the whole cap table.

It鈥檚 also a way for employees to feel like their equity is real. And some employees are having some real-life events. People are getting married, people are having kids, and this allows them to be a little bit more comfortable and do things like buy a house or buy a car. There are a bunch of people who’ve told me they’ve worked in startups for 10 years and never gotten any liquidity, and this is their first opportunity.

People might only stay at a company because they want liquidity if they don’t like the culture 鈥斕 and they’re just withstanding it for the money. But we prefer people to stay because they want to do the work and they see that the value that they’re generating is real. I actually think it motivates the team.

Plus, it makes the ecosystem grow.

When you did the earlier tender offer, did you think you would be doing another one in less than a year鈥檚 time?听听

No, I don’t think that we were. The way I’m thinking about it is [it makes sense to do a tender offer] every time we hit certain milestones. So we hit $100 million ARR really fast (in December). Tender offers are a way to reward the team each time it performs to a level where we get to the next milestone for the company. I think it makes sense to allow some people to get some of the value that they’ve created.

Do you have an exit plan?

Sometimes even investors ask this question. And we don鈥檛. It is nonproductive to think about that. You’re only building this type of company if you want to see how big it can be. I always say it’ll be as big as it wants to be, and as long as there are problems for us to solve for customers. That’s what we should be focused on, and the valuations and the exits, those are things that are a result of that.

The other way to think about it is we’re basically close to being profitable all the time. Like we can choose to become profitable. (The company touts that it was cash-flow positive for parts of 2025, earning more in interest than it burned.)听 We want to be in a place where we have options.

Going public is a way to fund things so you can do more for customers. So I think whenever I start going down that line, I refocus back on, 鈥淚s there work to do for customers? Can we make the product better?鈥 And the answer right now is, yes, we’re nowhere near achieving our mission, which is how we help you finally grow your best customers. And as long as there’s work to do around that, we should keep doing it.

Do you think you’re going to be doing any more tender offers in the near future?

I think as long as we hit the next set of growth milestones, we’ll consider it. We鈥檙e still early in this. There are no exits on the horizon.

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  1. Salesforce Ventures is an investor in 小蓝视频色情网页版. They have no say in our editorial process. For more, head here.

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Exclusive: Winn.ai Raises $18M Series A For AI-Powered Real-Time Sales Assistant /venture/startup-winn-ai-seriesa-real-time-assistant/ Wed, 11 Feb 2026 11:45:21 +0000 /?p=93118 , which has built an artificial intelligence-powered sales assistant, has raised $18 million in a Series A funding round, the company tells 小蓝视频色情网页版 News exclusively.

The company provides sales reps with a real-time AI assistant that 鈥済uides鈥 them during a prospect call while integrating with enterprise CRM and business intelligence systems. It also aims to eliminate administrative tasks before and after the call.

The Tel Aviv-based startup was co-founded by CEO and CTO .

The biggest difference between Winn and other startups in the space is timing, according to Postan-Koren.

Winn.ai co-founders Eldad Postan-Koren and Bar Haleva
Winn.ai co-founders Eldad Postan-Koren and Bar Haleva. (Courtesy photo.)

鈥淢ost players in the market are passive and retrospective 鈥 they record calls to analyze after the fact why a deal was lost 鈥 a 鈥榩ost-mortem鈥 approach,鈥 he told 小蓝视频色情网页版 News. 鈥淲inn is proactive and real-time. We don’t just analyze history 鈥 we help the rep navigate the conversation while it’s happening to ensure the right questions are asked.鈥

The focus, compared to other conversation intelligence tools, is execution vs. analytics, according to Winn鈥檚 co-founders.

鈥淐oaching is hard to apply when the feedback comes a week later,鈥 Postan-Koren said. 鈥淚nstead of telling a rep what they should have done, we guide them on what to do right now.鈥

, and co-led the Series A raise, which included participation from , , , and . In total, the startup has raised $35 million since its 2022 inception.

Companies at the intersection of AI and sales and marketing raised close to $4 billion in venture capital last year, That represents a sizable increase over the $3.4 billion raised by such startups in 2024, though remains lower than the $6.9 billion raised in the peak venture funding year of 2021 or the $5 billion raised in 2022.

Growth and expansion

Postan-Koren declined to provide hard financial figures for Winn, saying only that it tripled its annual recurring revenue in 2025 and that it has achieved 30x growth over the past two years.

Winn has dozens of customers, including HR and payroll company , IT management platform , and data security startup . The company鈥檚 revenue model is a standard SaaS per-seat subscription.

The company is not yet profitable. It plans to use its new capital to expand its U.S. go-to-market team, while continuing to invest 鈥渉eavily鈥 in R&D. Presently, Winn has over 40 employees.

Its primary market is the U.S., although Postan-Koren said it is seeing 鈥渟trong organic traction鈥 in the United Kingdom and Europe. It is also expanding its target user, he said.

鈥淲e started with a laser focus on account executives,鈥 Postan-Koren explained. 鈥淗owever, the demand quickly pulled us into other departments.鈥

The company now also works with sales development representatives, account managers, solutions engineers and customer success. Interestingly, he said that Winn is also starting to see demand from nonsales teams, such as support and HR.

, operating partner at Insight Partners, believes that Winn 鈥渢ransforms the process鈥 of scaling a sales team.

“It helps leaders to standardize excellence across every rep, delivering higher playbook adoption,鈥 he said in a statement. 鈥淔or a sales leader, this听 shift can bring teams closer to delivering consistency.鈥

, managing partner and general partner at Mangusta Capital, described Winn鈥檚 offering as an AI co-pilot that can 鈥渆mpower revenue teams in real time to sell more effectively and consistently in the future.鈥

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