Sequoia Capital is a US venture capital firm that invests in companies from seed through growth stages. Its recent coverage centers on AI deals: it led Mecka AI's $60M Series B, took part in Instinct's $1B Series C at a $10B valuation and Flapping Airplanes' $1B raise, co-led Profound's $180M Series D, and backed Healthleap and Cymphony. Partner Konstantine Buhler said at Citadel's Securities Conference that he is bullish on AI agents.
Crunchbase Top 10 Funding Rounds: Re:Build $2.1B, Kalshi $1BRe:Build led the week's US mega-rounds with $2.1B, while prediction market Kalshi raised a $1B Series G at a $40B post-money valuation. Bedrock Robotics closed a $600M Series C at a $4.1B valuation.
US Series B funding rises but deal count fallsCrunchbase data shows roughly $48 billion has gone into US Series B-stage financings this year, a multiyear high, while round counts are below year-ago levels and heading for a multiyear low. About two-thirds of the money went to AI startups; rounds of $100 million or more made up roughly a quarter of deals, led by Prometheus at $12 billion.
AI Research Startup Flapping Airplanes Raises $1B at $6B ValuationOne-year-old AI research startup Flapping Airplanes raised $1 billion at a $6 billion valuation, led by Index Ventures and Lux Capital, with Sequoia, Alphabet's GV and Kleiner Perkins participating. The company has yet to launch a commercial product, and its valuation has quadrupled.
Data-center debut plunges, fueling AI valuation worriesBloomberg's Open Interest highlights a gut-check for AI as a data-center debut crashes on valuation and debt fears. Separately, GM tightened its profit outlook and launched a $20 billion buyback.
Sequoia partner discusses the AI agent economyAt Citadel's Securities Conference, Sequoia Capital partner Konstantine Buhler said he is bullish on AI agents, arguing they will create a new economy and job growth, and that near-term market shifts won't erase long-term opportunity.
Crunchbase: Q3 deal pace holds steady as funding fallsCrunchbase data shows most top VCs matched or increased their Q3 deal count even as overall funding fell, partly due to a lack of new giant AI rounds. Y Combinator led with 45 deals, while Insight Partners and Andreessen Horowitz led 18 and 16 rounds; Valor and Atreides tied at $7.7B in led deal value.
Mecka AI Raises $60M Series B for Robotics PushMecka AI raised $60 million in Series B funding led by Sequoia Capital, with participation from Nvidia, Microsoft's M12 and Qualcomm. The company builds tech to help robots understand and operate in the physical world; CEO Josh Gao said scaling physical AI requires major investment in sensors, infrastructure and real-world data collection.
Healthleap raises $38M for AI that flags at-risk hospital patientsHealthleap raised $38M across seed and Series A rounds backed by Sequoia, First Round, and Hummingbird Ventures. Its AI plugs into hospital EHRs to flag undiagnosed conditions like malnutrition and delirium from clinician notes, and is deployed in over 50 hospitals.
Week's 10 biggest US funding rounds are almost all AIAI companies dominated this week's ten largest U.S. startup funding rounds, per Crunchbase. Personal AI assistant developer Instinct led with a $1B Series C at a $10B valuation; AI rental platform EliseAI raised $350M at a $4B valuation; AI cybersecurity firm Armadin raised $255.5M in Series B at over $2.5B.
Viral AI agent Instinct raises $1B Series C at $10B valuationAI assistant startup Instinct raised a $1B Series C from investors including Sequoia Capital, Benchmark Capital and Coatue at a $10B valuation. This comes a month after a round valued at $2.5B; its invite-only service handles tasks like booking, shopping and bill pay, while facing competition from Meta's Muse.
Greece PM: No government ready for AI's coming impactGreek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, on a trade mission in San Francisco, candidly admitted that governments are not ready for what AI is about to do. The trip mixed fact-finding with pitching Greece, whose economy is repaying debt at record pace, borrowing more cheaply than the US, and set to regain MSCI developed-market status next year.
Profound Raises $180M at $1.8B ValuationAI marketing startup Profound raised $180 million in a Series D at a $1.8 billion valuation, co-led by Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins. The funding will support product and market expansion for AI-driven brand search and marketing.
Mecka AI nears $500M valuation in Sequoia-led dealTwo-year-old Mecka AI is nearing a Sequoia-led financing at about a $500M valuation. The startup collects egocentric human motion data to train humanoid robots; it raised $60M three months earlier in a Framework Ventures-led round. Deal terms are not final.
Sequoia leads Cymphony in $30M funding roundSequoia and partners backed Cymphony with $30M (including a $25M Series A) valuing it above $100M; Cymphony builds a 'workforce graph' to show employee and AI-agent access to systems and data, and found about 85,000 files exposed to AI at one client.
The A.I. Daily