Legal tech funding is booming, but the money isn鈥檛 spreading evenly across the market.

Last year, 小蓝视频色情网页版 News reported that legal tech startup investment was riding high as investor enthusiasm for AI reshaped legal software funding, citing a report estimating that 44% of legal work could eventually be automated. That concentration has helped create one of the clearer success stories in legal AI 鈥� and may also be obscuring an adjacent market that remains far less developed.

Using disclosed funding totals for a selected group of plaintiff-side legal AI companies, the imbalance is hard to miss.

EvenUp has raised $370 million, $164 million, $85 million, and Darrow $63 million, for a combined total of roughly $682 million. Plaintiff-focused companies account for about 71% of disclosed capital for legal AI, suggesting investors have found a part of the sector where adoption, workflow clarity and venture-scale narratives already line up.

That investor interest is not difficult to understand. Plaintiff firms tend to share more standardized workflows around client intake, case evaluation, medical review and demand generation 鈥� all areas where AI can automate repetitive work and improve throughput. As those firms have adopted software, the category has become easier to understand, distribute and fund.

The underserved side: legal defense

The defense side, by contrast, remains underdeveloped and may present the next big opportunity.

Corporate legal departments and the law firms managing high-volume defense work still rely heavily on fragmented systems, spreadsheets, email-based coordination and outside counsel processes that were not designed to produce portfolio-wide visibility. For companies facing hundreds or thousands of active matters, litigation is often still run more as a services function than a software-enabled one.

That creates a sizable but harder-to-package opportunity. Retailers, insurers, healthcare systems and financial services companies can each manage large litigation portfolios, yet many still lack a unified view of case risk, settlement patterns, legal spend and outside counsel performance. The need is not new. What has been less clear is whether a venture-backable software category could be built around it.

Part of the reason defense-side legal AI has lagged is structural. Workflows vary widely by industry, matter type and regulatory context, making the market less standardized than plaintiff-side practices. Buying decisions also tend to run through general counsels, legal operations teams and outside counsel relationships, which can lengthen sales cycles and make the category look less immediately viable to investors.

But a shift is underway. Last fall, 小蓝视频色情网页版 News reported that legal tech funding reached record highs in 2025, reinforcing how quickly investor attention has shifted toward AI-enabled legal workflows. As plaintiff-side firms get faster at sourcing, valuing and prosecuting claims with software, the operational pressure on defense teams mounts. At the same time, AI is making it more feasible to turn messy litigation workflows into systems that can surface comparable matters, flag risk earlier and benchmark outcomes across portfolios.

From an investor perspective, that makes defense-side litigation AI look less like a niche and more like an underbuilt segment of a broader legal software market. If plaintiff-side investment reflects where legal AI has already become easy to fund, defense-side infrastructure may represent where the next category still has room to form.

Investors, take notice

For venture capitalists, this is the kind of asymmetry worth watching: a large enterprise market with measurable pain points, improving technical feasibility, and no entrenched category leader yet. What investors should watch is whether startups in the category can pair proprietary outcome data with repeatable enterprise adoption 鈥� the combination most likely to produce a durable category leader.

One emerging approach on the defense side is exposure and settlement benchmarking: using historical resolution data to estimate settlement ranges, legal spend and case risk across similar matters. In practice, that can mean comparing claims by jurisdiction, plaintiff firm, claim type or other operating variables to help in-house teams make faster and more consistent decisions.

If the category scales, one potential moat may come from proprietary outcome data. Defense-side settlement details, matter economics and resolution patterns are often difficult to reconstruct from public records alone.

A platform that aggregates and normalizes those signals across customers could build a data asset that becomes more useful with scale 鈥� a familiar dynamic in vertical software, and a potential early signal for investors of durable advantage in defense-side legal AI.

There is still no clear, scaled, venture-backed winner built specifically around defense-side litigation intelligence. For startup and growth investors, that makes the segment less a settled market than an open question: whether one of legal AI鈥檚 next durable companies will emerge not from the workflows that have already attracted the most capital, but from a large enterprise category whose software stack is still taking shape.

听 is CEO and co-founder of , which builds AI-powered litigation intelligence for corporate defense teams and law firms.

Related 小蓝视频色情网页版 query:

Related reading:

• Legal Tech Startup Investment Is Riding High, Thanks To AI Boost
• EvenUp, AI Software For Personal Injury Law, Doubles Valuation To $2B As Legal Tech Funding Hits Record High
• Highest Count Of New Unicorns Join 小蓝视频色情网页版 Board In Over 3 Years As Exits Also Gain Steam
• Wheels Of Justice Slow To Accept Legal Tech As Funding Falls

Illustration:

A grab bag of funded startups caught our attention this past month, from a previously bootstrapped custom metal manufacturer that got its first outside funding from big-name Silicon Valley backers, to a startup that aims to provide geothermal energy from underwater volcanoes to small island nations. Let鈥檚 take a look.

$110M for on-demand custom manufacturing

First, let鈥檚 start with a refreshingly non-AI round, and a sizable one at that.

Reno, Nevada-based said last month that it has raised $110 million in funding led by brothers and founders and , along with and , at a $1 billion valuation.

The company operates an on-demand manufacturing platform specializing in custom-cut metal and fabrication. The round is its first venture investment, and apparently came only after Sequoia’s flew to Reno to woo SendCutSend CEO into accepting Silicon Valley backing. Previously, Belosic had bootstrapped the company, founded in 2018, with personal savings, bank loans and credit cards, he told .

He held little interest in taking cash from startup investors until SendCutSend started to be flooded earlier this year with orders from AI-driven industries including robotics and data centers, and Belosic said he realized the business needed outside investment to grow.

Investor of Paradigm told WSJ that underlying SendCutSend鈥檚 booming business is intense demand for rapid, on-demand sheet metal and custom parts. 鈥淚f you think about the entire frontier of robots, defense companies, rocket companies, electric-car companies, they all need very fast turn prototyping,鈥� he said.

The investment is Paradigm鈥檚 first into the manufacturing sector, he noted.

Related 小蓝视频色情网页版 query:

$100M for insurance-covered metabolic health counseling

GLP-1 weight-loss drugs may be booming, but a well-funded startup is betting that medication alone isn鈥檛 enough to solve the chronic disease crisis.

, a New York-based metabolic health startup that combines dietitians, AI tools and GLP-1 medication management, last month said that it raised a $100 million Series C round led by . , , and a long list of other investors also backed the round, which brings the company鈥檚 total funding to date to just over $213 million, .

Founded in 2021, Nourish operates what it describes as the country鈥檚 largest dietitian-led metabolic health clinic, pairing more than 10,000 registered dietitians with AI coaching, lab testing and virtual care. The company has increasingly expanded into GLP-1 prescribing and medication management as demand for drugs such as Ozempic and Wegovy continues to surge.

Nourish said it has partnered with hundreds of health insurers in the U.S. and that its service is covered by most plans.

Its pitch is that the next phase of the GLP-1 boom will require more than prescriptions. While the drugs have transformed obesity treatment, many patients struggle to stay on them long term or maintain results after stopping, according to the company. Nourish is positioning itself as a broader metabolic health platform focused on nutrition, behavior change and ongoing clinical support alongside medication.

鈥淐hronic disease is the central failure of U.S. healthcare 鈥� nearly 200 million Americans affected, trillions spent, and outcomes that still don’t move,鈥� Menlo Ventures partner said in a statement. 鈥淲hat Nourish has built in four years is remarkable: a care model that actually bends the cost curve, with 10,000 dietitians, deep payer relationships, and clinical outcomes patients stick with.鈥�

Related 小蓝视频色情网页版 query:

$58M for Gen Z group travel adventures

Group travel startups are having a moment as younger travelers increasingly look for ways to meet people while exploring new destinations.

, a Milan-based startup that organizes group travel experiences for millennials and Gen Z travelers, raised a 鈧�50 million (roughly $58 million) Series C funding round as it looks to expand further across Europe and enter the U.S. market. The round was led by .

Founded in 2017, WeRoad operates a platform that connects solo travelers and small groups through curated multiday trips led by coordinators. The company says it has served more than 300,000 travelers across over 1,000 itineraries, with offerings ranging from adventure travel and cultural experiences to outdoor excursions. Participants are typically grouped with strangers in similar age ranges, turning the trips into a hybrid of travel booking and social networking.

鈥淲e live in a time when artificial intelligence and social media are reshaping the way we connect with each other. And amid all this digital connection, real human connection has become increasingly rare. Around 30% of young adults say they feel lonely every day. In the United States, this phenomenon is especially significant,鈥� the company said in a statement. 鈥淲e believe we have an answer. Not the only one, not a perfect one, but a real one: putting people in a room together (or on a quad bike in Morocco, in a canoe in Vietnam, or in front of a sunset in Patagonia) and letting whatever is meant to happen, happen.鈥�

Related 小蓝视频色情网页版 query:

$26M to keep AI data centers cooler

AI may be driving the data center boom, but keeping those facilities cool is becoming a business opportunity in its own right.

, a U.K.-based startup developing precision liquid cooling systems for AI infrastructure, said last month that it raised a $26 million Series B as demand surges for technologies that can manage the growing heat and power requirements of next-generation AI data centers. The round was led by and and brings Iceotope鈥檚 total funding to date to just under $100 million, .

Founded in 2005, Iceotope has developed a chassis-based liquid cooling approach designed to replace traditional air cooling and cool entire systems rather than individual chips. The company says it now holds 219 granted and pending patents. It said it will use the new funding to expand product and engineering development, grow its patent portfolio and accelerate partnerships that bring its cooling technology to market.

The raise comes as AI workloads create mounting challenges for conventional cooling systems. Iceotope argues its technology can reduce energy consumption and water use while supporting high-density AI and high-performance computing deployments in both data centers and edge environments.

Related 小蓝视频色情网页版 query:

$25M for geothermal energy from subsea volcanoes

As AI companies scramble for more electricity, investors are increasingly willing to fund some unconventional ideas for generating it. One of those is , a Seattle-based startup developing subsea geothermal power systems designed to tap into heat generated by subsea volcanic activity.

The company recently raised between $25 million and $30 million in a seed round led by , sources familiar with the matter .

Founded just last year, Endurance Energy is targeting island nations 鈥� where it says electricity can cost almost 7x as much as in the U.S. 鈥� industrial sites and eventually hyperscale data centers that need large amounts of reliable power.

Unlike solar and wind, geothermal energy carries the promise of round-the-clock, renewable baseload electricity, a feature that has become increasingly attractive as AI infrastructure drives soaring power demand.

Endurance says its seafloor geothermal generators could deliver gigawatts of power from hydrothermal systems along tectonic plate boundaries and volcanic regions. It is , where about 80% of electricity generation still relies on imported diesel fuel.

Earlier this year, the company signed an agreement with the Tongan government and launched a pilot project aimed at harnessing geothermal heat generated by subsea volcanic activity around the island nation.

鈥淐lean geothermal power will enable us to substitute most of our diesel base load power and further insulate ourselves from future external shocks caused by geopolitical conflicts and global economic impacts,鈥� Tongan Prime Minister Lord Fakaf膩nua said in a statement.

Related 小蓝视频色情网页版 query:

Illustration:

Operating as an 鈥渁ll-in-one鈥� software ecosystem, Scotch provides liquor retailers with point-of-sale hardware, custom software, payment processing and a back-office suite to manage state-by-state regulatory complexities. Customers range from boutique single-register shops to enterprise stores running over a dozen lanes.

led Scotch鈥檚 Series A raise, which included participation from , and . The injection of capital comes on the heels of a growth spurt, with the Denver-based startup reporting greater than 500% year-over-year growth and surpassing $1 billion in processed payment volume.

While the company declined to reveal its valuation, co-founder and CEO said the funding marks 鈥渁 significant step-up鈥� from its $10 million seed round, raised in September 2024 and led by First Round Capital.

Old-school market

Formally incorporated in January 2024, Scotch was born out of a unique industry challenge encountered by Bolling and CRO during their previous venture, . A convenience-store software company that supported 15,000 stores across the U.S., Skupos attracted attention from major consumer packaged goods giants such as , and Budweiser owner .

鈥淏udweiser, in some way, shape, or form, tried to get us not only to continue to grow our C-store business, but to also expand into the liquor store industry,” Bolling told 小蓝视频色情网页版 News in an interview.

Market research conducted in 2022 revealed a striking contrast between the two sectors. While the $650 billion convenience store market is highly fragmented, its point-of-sale technology is heavily consolidated around four major players.

Conversely, the liquor-store industry proved to be an entirely different beast: highly fragmented, intensely regulated and flooded with more than 200 regional, legacy POS systems.

Recognizing that the Skupos business model didn’t align with that level of fragmentation, the founders held off. Following the acquisition of Skupos by in August 2023, the team revisited the concept.

Drawing inspiration from the business model of restaurant tech giant 鈥� with whom the founders frequently shared strategy notes in the mid-2010s 鈥� they recognized the potential to replicate that success in a highly specialized, nuanced retail market.

, former chief architect of (acquired by for more than $1 billion), serves as Scotch鈥檚 CTO.

鈥楤usiness in a box鈥� strategy

The platform鈥檚 business model scales directly with the merchant, driving revenue through a hybrid mix of SaaS fees, charged on a per-device, per-month basis; fintech monetization, or collecting standard interchange fees on its payment volume and hardware sales, providing the modern storefront terminals necessary to run the infrastructure.

While general retail giants like Lightspeed and exist, Scotch markets itself as the only player capable of handling the severe operational and compliance hurdles distinct to alcohol retail.

Customers include The Liquor Store of Jackson Hole, Big Bear Wine & Liquor, Corkdorks and Everest Spirits Superstore.

Eradicating the 鈥榯oil鈥� via AI

With inventory sizes ranging from 2,000 to 12,000 distinct products per store, manual inventory and vendor management can lead to miscalculated ordering and tied-up working capital, noted Bolling.

Scotch says it differentiates itself by building artificial intelligence directly into these back-office workflows. The platform uses AI to eliminate administrative friction, with the company claiming its offering can save business owners over a full day of work per week. It also saves them money by giving them, for example, a more accurate picture of their inventory, according to Bolling.

鈥淲e’ve really focused our AI workflows on the ‘toily’ aspects of running one of these businesses,鈥� Bolling said. “Some of our customers are sommeliers who opened a store because they are passionate about serving their community with the right wine curation. That鈥檚 their creative outlet. We try to take up the parts of the day that suck for these business owners.鈥�

By optimizing supply chains and automating store management, Bolling believes that Scotch鈥檚 AI native architecture is driving 鈥渕easurable鈥� gross margin expansion for its merchants.

Grassroots growth and word of mouth

Because it is targeting an industry historically dominated by 鈥渙ld-school,鈥� family-owned, mom-and-pop operations, Scotch has employed an unconventional go-to-market approach. The company relies on a dual strategy of targeted geographic inside and outside sales reps as well as localized trade association partnerships. The reasoning behind that approach, according to Bolling, is because liquor store owners rarely search for new POS hardware on a whim.

However, the startup’s fastest growth vector over the last six months has been organic word of mouth. Because many state laws cap the number of liquor licenses an individual can own, competitive hostility is low, creating tight-knit networks of friendly competitors.

“They go to the same industry events, they talk to each other, they are in study groups together,” Bolling noted. “When one of them adopts a system like Scotch, they refer a lot of other customers our way.”

Scotch currently has about 45 employees working out of its Denver headquarters. It plans to use its new capital in part to scale its engineering and sales operations across the United States in addition to accelerating product development.

Going after 鈥榯he hard part of the market first鈥�

, general partner at VMG Partners, believes that Scotch is modernizing 鈥渙ne of the last major categories of retail.鈥�

鈥淭he beverage alcohol market is nearly $250 billion and, despite that, is still operating on systems built in the 1970s with on-prem servers,鈥� he wrote via email. 鈥淚t isn鈥檛 an exaggeration to say Scotch is the only player that has solved enterprise-level complexity.鈥�

Most industry startups never moved beyond basic solutions for small businesses, believes Stenmark.

鈥淪cotch went after the hard part of the market first, solving for some of the largest and most complex retailers in the country,鈥� he wrote via email. 鈥淭his approach allowed them to harden their product early, and has translated to them having the only product that can actually solve every business operations and payments problem a retailer might have, whether they be a national brand or a beloved regional storefront.鈥�

Related 小蓝视频色情网页版 query:

Illustration:

How times have changed. Already this year, more than $14.6 billion in venture investment has gone into companies in 小蓝视频色情网页版鈥檚 military, national security and law enforcement categories, blowing past the sector’s previous annual record of $9.6 billion raised in all of 2025.

Investors have poured billions into startups developing AI-powered military systems, autonomous vehicles, defense software and space technologies, and they’re writing increasingly large checks to do it, 小蓝视频色情网页版 data shows.

Funding growth accelerates

The defense tech sector’s rise has been years in the making

Global defense tech funding totaled $1.6 billion in 2020 before climbing to $3.9 billion in 2021, 小蓝视频色情网页版 data shows. Funding then remained relatively steady between roughly $2.8 billion and $3.8 billion from 2022 through 2024.

That changed dramatically last year, when funding jumped to a record $9.6 billion. Now, five months into 2026, startups in the sector have already eclipsed the full-year record set in 2025.

Deal flow has stayed steadier, mirroring a broader trend of venture capital concentration. So far this year, defense tech startups have announced 107 venture rounds, 小蓝视频色情网页版 data shows, putting 2026鈥檚 pace slightly ahead of the 206 deals done in 2025.

Megarounds lead the way

The biggest contributor to this year’s funding surge, by far, is .

The Costa Mesa, California-based company announced a $5 billion Series H last month, a deal that valued it at $30.5 billion and further cemented its status as the most valuable venture-backed defense startup in the world.

Still, it鈥檚 not the only defense- or military-related startup drawing large sums of funding. Many of this year’s biggest rounds involve companies building AI-enabled defense systems, autonomous aircraft and maritime vehicles, military software platforms and space infrastructure.

Case in point: a $300 million Series C round announced today for , an autonomous drones systems manufacturer. The round was led by and and values the Huntington Beach, California-based startup at $1.8 billion.

Autonomous aviation startup raised a $2 billion Series G round in March led by and, while , which makes unmanned surface vessels for naval and defense use, secured a $1.75 billion Series D led by later that month.

Space-related startups with defense applications have also been especially prominent among defense-tech bets this year. , and , rank among the largest defense-related funding recipients of 2026, highlighting continued investor interest in technologies with both commercial and national security applications.

Attention turns to exits

As funding totals climb, investors may begin looking toward exits. Already this year, one smaller defense-tech startup, AI drone company , went public, with shares soaring more than 500% in their first day of trading. They remain near the high end of their price range as of early June.

Anduril is now widely viewed as one of the most likely defense tech candidates to pursue an IPO in the coming years. A public offering by a company of its size would mark a significant milestone for the sector and provide a closely watched test of public-market appetite for next-generation defense contractors.

Other well-capitalized companies across defense, autonomy and space are also reaching a scale where public listings or major acquisitions become more plausible, with 小蓝视频色情网页版鈥檚 predictive intelligence tools forecasting that nearly four-dozen . Along with Anduril, they include True Anomaly, Shield AI, Sierra Space and .

Related queries and lists:

Related reading:

• Anduril Raises Another $5B As Defense Tech Startups Shatter Funding Records
• Sector Snapshot: Defense Tech Funding Hits Record High
• After Swarmer鈥檚 Soaring Debut, Here Are 12 Other Potential Defense Tech IPOs

The market believes software businesses can鈥檛 charge premiums anymore and it predicts slowing growth indefinitely.

There are two reasons. First, AI powers a 10x decrease in software production costs. Second, these AI capabilities enable a huge wave of new competitors, both VC-funded startups and in-house solutions.

Reduced software production costs and rising competition, they say, will eliminate software鈥檚 pricing power. Public software stocks traded down 20% this year through mid-May, and for the first time in history, software trades at a discount to the average S&P500 multiple on earnings. SaaS is dead.

It is true that AI has brought falling costs and rising competition. But it does not follow that SaaS is dead. Lowering the cost to produce software does not mean that software revenue will shrink. In fact, history suggests the opposite.

In certain cases, efficiency begets consumption. This is the lesson of the . It worked for coal engines, it worked for data centers, and it will also work for AI-powered software.

The Jevons Paradox

Let鈥檚 start with coal. In 1860s Britain, many worried about burning through the country鈥檚 coal resources too quickly. Conventional wisdom said that developing more-efficient coal-burning engines would make the coal last longer.

But economist William Stanley Jevons recognized that more coal-efficient engines would cause an increase in demand for coal energy with the result that Britons would burn through their coal more quickly, not less.

Jevons was right. When greater efficiency produced lower costs, it also unlocked enormous new demand. This consumed coal reserves faster, not slower.

Twenty-five years ago, I joined a buyout firm during the 2001 dot-com crash. My first investment was in a troubled datacenter company. Exodus Communication, which reached a peak market cap of $32 billion, then went through bankruptcy twice as datacenter demand continued to fall.

In 2004, I recommended that our firm acquire that datacenter business out of the second bankruptcy for $200 million and merge it into a competitor named Savvis.

At the time, the market considered datacenters a shrinking industry. Dot-com companies were pulling racks of servers out of the sites, and datacenter floors were emptying out. Industry analysts forecast that given Moore鈥檚 law about the exponential growth of chip capacity and increasing server power density, a single rack in 10 years would deliver what it took 100 racks to deliver in 2005, and that in 20 years, a rack would deliver what 10,000 racks delivered in 2005. Conventional wisdom said that more-efficient chips would require less datacenter floorspace over time.

Our thesis that demand for datacenter floorspace would grow was not a popular opinion at the time. If 10,000 racks in 2005 would be replaced by just one rack in 2025, didn鈥檛 the U.S. have plenty of datacenter floorspace already?

was running advertisements showing a room full of servers replaced by one mainframe. One skeptical investment committee member told me that this business had been through bankruptcy twice in two years, and that if it went through a third time, I would go with it.

Today, one rack can indeed deliver 20,000x the compute power of racks from 2005, and as everyone knows, far from having too much floorspace, we can鈥檛 build new datacenter capacity fast enough. Truly enormous latent demand for computing power was unlocked as rack efficiency increased. The Savvis story ended well too, sold six years later for $3.2 billion.

The Jevons Paradox was true for coal, and it was true for data centers. It will also be true for AI-supported knowledge work.

Knowledge work and market expansion

Twenty-five years ago, only the wealthy had access to personalized investment advice. In 1996, Nobel Laureate Bill Sharpe co-founded to bring personalized investment advice to anyone with a 401(k).

My firm was an investor, and I had the privilege of working closely with the company. At first it tried to sell advice about how to invest 401(k) funds, but only about 20% of employees were interested in taking advice and then managing their 401(k) positions themselves.

Financial Engines鈥� breakthrough innovation was to manage the 401(k) positions directly, not just advise. Employees could check a box: 鈥渄o it for me鈥�. The demand from people who previously had no access to this advice was beyond all expectation and did enormous good. I recall that an early customer was , whose tens of thousands of employees with an average age of 27 years had approximately 40% of their 401(k) monies in cash, 40% in stock of JCPenney (which would eventually file for bankruptcy in 2020), and 20% in everything else. Just moving them into sensible low-cost mutual funds appropriate to their age and other financial goals generated huge benefits.

Financial Engines went from zero to $169 billion in assets under management when it was acquired in 2018 for $3 billion.

The company delivered a service that is very similar to what we today would call agentic AI. The customer (an employee with retirement savings) was delegating a decision (invest my money) to a computer system, and the employee paid in a way tied to the outcome (~50 basis points on AUM).

Of course, the technology to deliver this was quite different, and this was a very narrow application. The lesson remains: Software enabled a massive efficiency in delivering knowledge work (in this case individual investment advice) and a huge latent market appeared to buy the service.

The end of the rationing of knowledge work

The increased cost efficiency of AI, like the increased cost efficiency of Financial Engines鈥� algorithms, allows demand to increase because it relaxes a supply constraint on knowledge work.

Across human history, even to today, knowledge work has always been rationed because it is supply constrained.

Knowledge workers take years of education and training, tend to want to live in high-cost places, over time want to work on only certain kinds of problems they find interesting, and require a lot of management to get along. That is why we pay them such high wages and do everything we can to make them more productive.

Business software is a tool to make knowledge workers more productive. The total business software market in the U.S. is on the order of $0.5 trillion per year, according to Gartner. The U.S. market for knowledge work, that is the amount paid to the 100 million knowledge workers in this country, is roughly $10 trillion, per numbers. Currently, we spend about 5% of the cost of knowledge workers on software tools to help them.

AI enables software companies to not just sell tools to knowledge workers, but to begin to sell the knowledge work outcomes themselves, as I have written about in prior 小蓝视频色情网页版 articles.

Put those together: 90% cost compression in software development plus the ability to sell knowledge work. We know there is a huge latent demand for knowledge work, if only it were not so expensive and hard to access.

For the first time, millions of people and businesses who have never had access to a strategist, an analyst, a lawyer or a financial adviser are about to get one.

Software is far from dead. The increase in efficiency offered by AI will allow it to do much more for less, and just like a more efficient coal engine or data center, this will unlock huge latent demand for knowledge work.

Ultimately, this will increase revenue and the strength of software businesses that use AI to further improve knowledge workers鈥� productivity or deliver knowledge work outcomes directly. Software鈥檚 job today is to solve the problem of delivering this safely and reliably.

It was no small task for industry to learn how to manage knowledge workers who are human, and it will be just as big a task to learn how to manage those who are machine knowledge workers. That is the challenge.

But remember that today the market for knowledge work is 20x the size of the market for software. The scale of the prize for software companies is unlocking the latent demand for knowledge work that, if history is any guide, will dwarf today鈥檚 software market.

The market today fears that the efficiency delivered by AI will shrink the software industry. Exactly the opposite is true. AI will unlock massive latent demand for knowledge work, and the software market will explode. Long live software.

co-founded in 2014 and is managing partner. He has served on numerous private and public technology company boards, and currently is a director of , , , , and . Previously, he was a partner and member of the investment committee at . He also worked at and . Morse serves on the board of directors of and as member of the advisory board for the HMTF Center for Private Equity Finance at . He attended , graduating summa cum laude with a BSE, and , where he earned his MBA and was an Arjay Miller Scholar. Morse lives in Austin.

Related reading:

• Don鈥檛 Just Talk About AI. Measure Business Outputs. Here鈥檚 How.
• The Rise Of The AI Executive
• Invention To Innovation: Making Sense Of AI鈥檚 Moment

Illustration:

The statement was light on details and did not specify the planned offering size or where it will list. For its most recent funding round, a $65 billion Series H funding announced last week, the San Francisco company more than doubled its post-money valuation to a staggering $965 billion.

With that round, Anthropic also surpassed its closest rival, , in terms of last reported valuation. In February, OpenAI announced it had closed a $110 billion round at an $840 billion post-money valuation.

Anthropic has now raised roughly $125 billion from investors, per 小蓝视频色情网页版 data.

The path to the public markets

The IPO filing marks an escalation in the race among generative AI behemoths to make it first to the public market. That said, it could still be while.

Before making its market debut, Anthropic must still receive a sign-off from securities regulators on its confidential filing. After that, it will need to submit its public filing, carry out its pre-IPO roadshow, and put the remaining pieces in place for an offering of this presumed magnitude.

How long could it take? It鈥檚 unclear, of course, but if we use as a proxy, things could proceed briskly. SpaceX, which is reportedly seeking a valuation of $1.8 trillion or more, submitted its confidential filing on April 1. The company is expected to begin trading this month, with multiple reports citing June 12 as the target date.

If Anthropic follows a similar timeline, we could potentially see a market debut in August. Before that, however, will be the public filing of its IPO prospectus, which will offer a long-awaited peek under the hood at Anthropic鈥檚 famously fast revenue growth and the scope of the capital expenditures it has taken to get there.

As someone who has used the word boring in IPO market headlines many times in the past, one thing that can assuredly be said is that word no longer applies.

Related 小蓝视频色情网页版 queries:

Related reading:

• Anthropic Nears $1T Valuation And Leapfrogs OpenAI On Unicorn Board With $65B Funding Round
• OpenAI鈥檚 New $110B Raise At A $840B Valuation Marks The Largest Venture Deal Ever

Illustration:

So far this year, investors have put about $7.8 billion into Boston-area startups, per 小蓝视频色情网页版 That puts the region on track for a moderate annual gain and the strongest tally in about four years, as charted below.

Invidious comparison

Under normal circumstances, such numbers might be celebrated as pretty strong. But many Bostonians don鈥檛 see it that way.

鈥淔or the first time, startups in Texas raised more VC money than those in Massachusetts,鈥� one headline this spring. Earlier this year, another correspondent concerns from local startup backers and builders that the tech startup scene is thinning out.

At root, the issue may not be that Bostonians are delivering so little investable startup talent, but rather that other places are swimming in unprecedented capital. This kind of invidious comparison is particularly stark in the AI realm.

Overall, North America venture funding hit a record high in the first quarter of this year, surging to $252 billion. Of that, more than 87% went to companies in 小蓝视频色情网页版 AI-related categories.

Few of those AI mega-fundraisers were in Massachusetts. The biggest, most heavily funded names in generative AI, like , and others, are predominantly headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area. That means Boston didn鈥檛 get a slice of history鈥檚 largest startup funding rounds.

By contrast, biotech, a traditional area of strength for the Boston area, hasn鈥檛 been on a funding tear. True, there鈥檚 no dramatic slump. But in a time when a single venture-backed AI company can snag $122 billion in a , biotech round sizes can鈥檛 compete for scale.

Standout rounds

Still, by pre-AI standards of venture funding, Boston has been scaling some heavy hitters.

Per 小蓝视频色情网页版 , at least 12 companies in the greater metro area听1 raised rounds of $200 million or more this year, listed below.

The largest round went to , a provider of wearable fitness technology and a subscription platform that raised $575 million in Series G funding at a $10.1 billion valuation in March. The company says it is powered by more than 24 billion hours of physiological data and purpose-built AI models to provide predictive, personalized health insights.

, a provider of consumer privacy and security tools, came in second. It secured $375 million in Series B funding in March led by and .

Next on the list is , which provides healthcare plans to seniors on Medicare. The 9-year-old company disclosed in January that it had closed on $366 million across two Series F funding tranches.

Biotech startups, meanwhile, didn鈥檛 make the top 3 but were heavily represented on the list. Overall, more than half of funded startups in the list are focused on biotech or healthcare.

Why compare?

Boston isn鈥檛 the San Francisco Bay Area, and it certainly isn鈥檛 Texas. So it鈥檚 worth asking: What is the point of comparing startup ecosystems? Is a metro area flailing if it doesn鈥檛 keep up with a particular major innovation cycle, even if it maintains core areas of strength?

At risk of over-generalizing, we鈥檇 conclude that competitive rank still matters. A metro area can retain its crown as a startup innovation hub only if it continues to produce transformative companies.

For Boston, there鈥檚 no indication the region is losing its edge in biotech and other sectors where it鈥檚 long been an established powerhouse. However, in the generative AI era, it鈥檚 also evident that the region has not produced one of the most high-valuation players in the space, and that鈥檚 put some ding in the city鈥檚 reputation as a leading innovation hub.

Related 小蓝视频色情网页版 queries:

Related reading:

• North America Q1 Funding Surges Across Stages To Record Level
• Whoop鈥檚 Wearable Fitness Tech Lands $575M From Athletes, Celebrities, Institutional Investors To Reach $10.1B Valuation

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.

Venture funding has always been a world of haves and have nots. And these days, the haves are having more than ever. Case in point this week was . The 5-year-old generative AI giant secured $65 billion in Series H funding this week, pushing its post-money valuation to a mind-blowing $965 billion.

After that, the next-biggest financing was a $1 billion round for AI software development tool maker , lifting its valuation to $26 billion. Companies in a range of other sectors also managed to secure sizable though smaller rounds, in areas including commerce logistics, developer AI, insurtech, fusion and more.

1. , $65B, foundational AI: Generative AI company Anthropic raised $65 billion in a Series H funding round, more than doubling its post-money valuation to a staggering $965 billion. San Francisco-based Anthropic said , , and led the financing, and that , , , , and co-led the investment.

2. , $1B, AI software development: Cognition, developer of AI software engineer Devin, has closed on over $1 billion at a $26 billion valuation. , , and 1听led the financing for the San Francisco-based company.

3. , $250M, logistics: Atlanta-based Stord, developer of a fulfillment network, software and AI tools for independent brands, secured $250 million in Series F funding. The round set a $3 billion valuation for the 11-year-old company.

4. , $113M, AI for developers: OpenRouter, a marketplace for AI models, secured $113 million in Series B funding. led the financing for the New York-based startup.

5. , $106M, insurtech: San Francisco-based Corgi Insurance, developer of an AI-native insurance platform for startups, picked up $106 million in Series B1 funding led by . The financing, which set a $2.6 billion valuation, comes just three weeks after Corgi $160 million in Series B funding at a $1.3 billion valuation.

6. (tied) , $100M, fusion energy: Kearny, New Jersey-based Thea Energy, a developer of technology for fusion energy systems, raised $100 million in Series B funding led by . Thea says the funding will go toward manufacturing infrastructure.

6. (tied) , $100M, healthcare data: Garner Health, a platform for finding healthcare providers, closed on $100 million in Series E funding led by . The financing set a $2.74 billion for the New York-based company.

8. , $90M, space tech: Observable Space, a space tech startup that develops and builds advanced optical systems, says it raised $90 million in Series A funding led by to scale manufacturing and develop its technology. The Santa Monica, California-based company also announced that it secured a $94 million contract with the.

9. , $59M, AI video: Reactor, a San Francisco-based developer platform for real-time generative video, emerged from stealth with $59 million in funding led by .

10. , $52M, cancer detection: San Diego-based ClearNote Health, a developer of early detection and monitoring tests for multiple forms of cancer, picked up $52 million in Series D financing. Founding investor led the round.

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 May 23-29. 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:

Although the number of women-owned businesses keeps growing, startups led by women continue to fall behind their male counterparts when it comes to raising venture funding.

That’s why former executive teamed up with , a veteran and marketing executive, to found , an -registered, funding portal.

The platform, also called AQi, gives women-led businesses 鈥� those that are at least 50% women-owned 鈥� a way to raise capital through , a securities framework aimed at opening up startup investing.

Launched in 2024, AQi seeks to help female entrepreneurs reach everyday investors by simplifying regulatory disclosures and business documentation. As a member of the , the platform has passed a rigorous federal vetting process and agrees to operate under strict oversight to protect investors and ensure transparency.

小蓝视频色情网页版 News recently spoke with Huyck and Konwinski to hear more about what led them to start AQi, why they think women don鈥檛 need to give up board seats early on, and how they want to help female entrepreneurs raise and hold on to more equity.

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

小蓝视频色情网页版 News: What is your platform鈥檚 mission and what led you to launch this company?

Huyck: I spent 21 years at PayPal, where I mentored women through a partnership with the . It was there I learned about the $5 trillion gap in global GDP resulting from women entrepreneurs lacking access to capital.

In the U.S., while women start nearly half of all businesses, they receive only 2% of venture capital and less than 20% of small business loans. I wanted to build an innovative system to solve this. I considered starting a fund, but many already exist. Instead, I wanted to create a crowdfunding platform exclusively for women, providing an additional avenue to raise money. The economic irony is that women entrepreneurs earn 78 cents for every dollar invested, compared to 31 cents for men. It simply didn鈥檛 make sense, and I wanted to build a system that truly enables women.

Konwinski: To add to that, we are a very distinct entity. We are not a broker-dealer; we are an SEC-registered and FINRA-member crowdfunding platform. Following the 2012 JOBS Act, Reg CF (Regulation Crowdfunding) was created to allow nonaccredited investors to invest in private, early-stage companies. There are about 50 active platforms in the U.S., but we are the only one founded by women, owned by women, and exclusively serving women-owned businesses.

Beyond just providing a neutral platform, we act as a “quarterback.” We help entrepreneurs navigate the process 鈥� whether they are just starting or ready for a “glow-up” 鈥� by providing access to accountants, lawyers and marketing firms. We are creating a community where women can get the resources they need to build their businesses without competing for attention in male-dominated tech circles.

How does your platform differ from sites like ?

Konwinski: Kickstarter and are for charitable gifting. We are not asking for charity; we are facilitating investments. We are on par with platforms like or , but our fee structure is more founder-friendly. On platforms like Kickstarter, you might only keep about 60% of the funds raised. Our success fee is only 6.5%. When investors invest in these businesses, they receive equity in return. Furthermore, there is a clear social return: Studies show that for every dollar a woman earns in her business, she creates significant economic benefit for her community and family.

How many businesses have you helped raise capital for thus far?

Huyck: We spent our first year building the technology and another six months on the rigorous SEC and FINRA registration process. We believe this high level of regulation is critical to ensuring investor trust. We currently have a pipeline of 20 businesses. We closed our first campaign earlier this month and have two more launching in the coming weeks.

Since Reg CF has a $5 million cap per 12-month period, how do you position yourselves for high-growth startups? And do you view this as a permanent alternative to traditional venture capital, or a bridge?

Huyck: I don鈥檛 see the VC space changing soon because it is heavily reliant on 鈥減attern matching,鈥� where investors look for people and paths that resemble previous successes. Until that breaks, women founders face significant barriers. Crowdfunding is a vital, viable alternative.

Konwinski: I would challenge the notion that $5 million isn’t enough. For many of the companies we work with, that is a strong runway for 18 to 24 months. Because Reg CF allows for rolling raises, a company can raise up to $5 million every 12 months. We see companies use this to reach a significant milestone and then potentially pursue a Series A later. We aren’t trying to be a broker-dealer for Series A deals. We are here for those who get “ghosted” by VCs or don’t want to leverage their homes to secure an SBA loan.

Does a distributed ownership structure with many unaccredited investors create a “messy” cap table that scares off traditional VCs?

Huyck: We utilize special-purpose vehicles. This consolidates all Reg CF investors into a single line item on the company鈥檚 cap table, often with a lead investor managing voting rights. This keeps the cap table clean.

Konwinski: Additionally, one of the greatest benefits of our model is that founders retain autonomy. VCs often demand board seats, veto rights and up to 20% equity. With us, founders usually give up only 5%-10% equity, allowing them to maintain control of the company they built from the ground up.

Without the pressure of a VC board, how do you help founders maintain operational discipline? And what do exit horizons look like?

Konwinski: Women entrepreneurs are natural 鈥渉ustlers鈥� who are inherently self-motivated. They are also excellent at collaborating and leveraging their community rather than operating with ego. Many of the founders we work with are Gen X, balancing business with family, and they have developed an incredible ability to multitask and execute.

Huyck: We also encourage founders to bring on advisers rather than giving up board seats too early. As for exit strategies, many women founders are mission-driven and haven’t historically been forced to consider an exit. We provide the guidance to help them think through those horizons 鈥� whether that鈥檚 acquisition or long-term growth 鈥� so they can make informed decisions rather than being forced into a timeline by traditional VC pressure.

Finally, how does your platform compare to other equity crowdfunding sites like Wefunder?

Konwinski: It is apples-to-apples in terms of our SEC/FINRA licensing. Where we differ is our value proposition: we provide a “concierge” service. On many larger platforms, you are processed through an AI-driven, automated checklist. We are building relationships, talking to our founders, and acting as their partner throughout the process.

Related reading:

• The Portion Of US VC Funding That Went To Female Founders Hit A New Peak In 2023, Thanks To Massive AI Deals
• How Female Founders Can Access Capital In A Tight VC Funding Market
• Is There A Gender Bias in Funding? Yes. Here鈥檚 How Female Founders Can Overcome

Illustration:

AI’s share of venture funding climbed to 80% this quarter, up from 55% a year ago. The deployment is real. The liquidity question behind it is the one founders should be paying attention to.

In 2025, 小蓝视频色情网页版 roughly 2,300 venture-backed acquisitions against just 65 IPOs. In aggregate, the LPs sitting behind every venture fund have been in since 2022. Record deployment in Q1 doesn’t change the math at the LP level, and that pressure is reshaping every term sheet, follow-on decision and board conversation in venture right now.

Know what’s actually driving the firm across the table

When a partner walks you through their thesis, they’re telling you a story about your market; rarely are they telling you a story about their fund. That second story determines whether they can write your bridge in 18 months, whether they’ll fight for pro rata in your Series B, and whether their behavior in the next downturn looks like patience or anxiety.

LPs are demanding cash back. Paper markups aren鈥檛 enough. Some firms are responding well, consolidating into their best companies and being deliberate about new commitments while others are pretending it’s still 2021. Founders should know which type they’re sitting across from before signing anything.

Ask the questions founders rarely ask

Three reference calls with portfolio CEOs used to be enough due diligence on a VC. Not anymore.

Ask what vintage the partner’s current fund is and how much dry powder is left. Ask how many of their 2018 through 2020 companies have produced realized returns rather than paper markups.

Ask whether their LPs have been pushing for GP-led secondaries. If the answer is yes, the firm is operating under a cash-flow constraint that will show up in your boardroom. These aren’t rude questions. They’re the same ones serious LPs are asking that partner this quarter, and high-quality firms welcome the conversation.

Build your buyer relationships now

If you’re raising in 2026, you’re statistically far more likely to get acquired than to ring the bell at the . Q1 2026 alone produced, the third-busiest quarter since 2022. Of the 21 venture-backed exits over $1 billion globally last quarter, only four happened in the U.S. The exit window for American founders is narrower than the headline funding numbers suggest.

Smart founders design for that reality from Series A. They know which platform companies have an active corporate development team. They build product surface area that maps cleanly into someone else’s stack. They cultivate executive relationships at the most likely acquirers years before any sale conversation, so when one starts naturally the introduction is already there.

Capital is plentiful. Discipline is what separates outcomes.

Every dollar concentrated into the four AI mega-rounds is a dollar that hasn’t returned anything to LPs yet. Founders who understand the LP-to-GP-to-startup chain end up with better partners, smarter terms and companies built for more than one path to a great outcome.

As the co-founder and managing partner of , is committed to establishing MGV as the premier venture firm for world-class tech entrepreneurs to accelerate their visions. Under Schr枚der鈥檚 stewardship, MGV has swiftly ascended to a top-quartile firm, surpassing the performance of 95% of venture funds. The performance of MGV is driven by Schr枚der鈥檚 unique approach to venture investing 鈥� that providing intensive sales training, devising robust fundraising strategies and securing follow-on investments is the best way to support founders and drive the deepest return for investors. has recognized him as one of the Top 100 global seed investors, and his perspectives are published regularly in 小蓝视频色情网页版 News and other leading publications.

Related reading:

• What The Record Venture Funding Quarter Actually Means For Your Startup鈥檚 Fundraise
• Q1 2026 Shatters Venture Funding Records As AI Boom Pushes Startup Investment To $300B