Copyright TechStartups.com
It’s Tuesday, October 28, 2025, and we’re back with the top startup and tech funding news stories making headlines today. From AI-native talent marketplaces and memory infrastructure to bleeding-edge biotech and global fintech, today’s rounds reflect the broad spectrum of innovation still drawing deep investor interest. Standouts include Mercor’s $350 million Series C round, which rocketed its valuation to $10 billion in under a year, and Whatnot’s massive $225 million Series F as it doubles down on live commerce. Startups across sectors—defense-tech, remote care, subsea cybersecurity, and enterprise AI compliance—also made waves with high-conviction seed and Series A deals. Fireworks AI locked in $250 million to scale its cloud inference platform, while Pelage Pharmaceuticals and Hemab Therapeutics raised $100M+ rounds to advance next-gen therapeutics. Across stages, investors showed continued appetite for infrastructure, automation, and vertical-specific AI. Funding Highlights Mercor raised $350 million at a $10 billion valuation to scale its AI-driven expert network. Whatnot landed $225 million in Series F funding to accelerate live-stream shopping globally. Fireworks AI secured $250 million to expand its cloud-based inference platform. Pelage Pharmaceuticals closed a $120 million Series B to push its hair-loss treatment toward Phase 3. Hemab Therapeutics raised $157 million to advance therapies for rare bleeding disorders. Investor Activity The day’s capital inflows came from a global network of top-tier VCs, growth equity firms, health systems, and strategic investors—including Sequoia Capital, CapitalG, Felicis, Sofinnova Partners, Lightspeed, and GV. Angels and emerging funds backed early-stage bets in photonics security, enterprise infrastructure, and AI-native compliance, signaling both risk appetite and long-term conviction across frontier markets. Here’s the full breakdown. Until tomorrow, have a great evening. Mercor Raises $350M in Series C Funding for AI Talent Platform San Francisco–based Mercor, an AI-driven talent marketplace, has secured a $350 million Series C round led by Felicis. The funding values the two-year-old startup at $10 billion, a fivefold jump from its $2 billion valuation earlier this year. Mercor, founded by recent college dropouts, connects thousands of AI researchers and engineers with tech and research labs around the world. Its platform uses data and machine learning to match vetted experts with technical projects, and more than 30,000 contractors now earn an average of $85 per hour through the service. The new capital will be used to expand Mercor’s expert network and improve its AI-powered hiring algorithms. Funding Details: Startup: Mercor Investors: Felicis (lead), Benchmark, General Catalyst, Robinhood Ventures Amount Raised: $350 million Total Raised: $380 million (including prior rounds) Funding Stage: Series C Funding Date: October 27, 2025 Mem0 Raises $24M in Series A Funding for AI Memory Infrastructure Mem0, a San Francisco startup building a persistent memory layer for AI agents, announced a $24 million funding round on Oct. 28. This round includes a new Series A led by Basis Set Ventures and a seed round led by Kindred Ventures, with participation from Peak XV Partners, GitHub Fund, and Y Combinator. The platform helps AI applications remember past interactions and context, solving the “memory gap” in current generative AI tools. Founders say the funding will be used to make Mem0 the default memory backend for agentic AI apps and to scale its engineering team. Funding Details: Startup: Mem0 Investors: Basis Set Ventures (lead), Kindred Ventures, Peak XV Partners, GitHub Fund, Y Combinator (with strategic investments from AI leaders like Scott Belsky and Dharmesh Shah) Amount Raised: $24 million Total Raised: $24 million Funding Stage: Series A (Seed + Series A) Funding Date: October 28, 2025 SalesPatriot Raises $5M in Seed Funding to Accelerate Defense Procurement SalesPatriot, a Polish-American defense-tech startup, raised $5 million in seed funding to expand its AI-powered procurement platform. The San Francisco– and Warsaw-based company uses algorithms to automate and speed up the sourcing of specialized military and aerospace parts. Founded in 2024, SalesPatriot shortens quote and order cycles for defense contracts, replacing slow manual processes with data-driven workflows. The round was led by CRV, with participation from Pear VC, Y Combinator, SV Angel, Liquid2 Ventures, and Uncorrelated Ventures. Well-known tech angels – including Paul Graham, Rich Miner, Mark Pincus, Steve Blank, and Mati Staniszewski – also joined the seed round. The new funds will help grow the company’s engineering team and deploy its platform to U.S. and European defense customers. Funding Details: Startup: SalesPatriot Investors: CRV (lead), Pear VC, Y Combinator, SV Angel, Liquid2 Ventures, Uncorrelated Ventures, and angels (Paul Graham, Rich Miner, Mark Pincus, Steve Blank, etc.) Amount Raised: $5 million Total Raised: $6.3 million Funding Stage: Seed Funding Date: October 28, 2025 Brook.ai Raises $28M in Series B Funding to Expand Remote Care Platform Brook.ai, a Seattle-based digital health company, secured a $28 million Series B to scale its AI-driven remote care services. The round was led by UMass Memorial Health and co-led by Morningside, with the local health system investing through its venture fund. Brook.ai’s platform combines analytics and patient coaching to manage chronic conditions (such as heart failure) outside the hospital. The company has seen rapid growth – 204% patient volume increase and 82% patient retention in one year – and says the new funding will help add providers and enhance its software tools. The proceeds will support hiring across engineering, product, and sales as Brook.ai expands its remote care model nationwide. Funding Details: Startup: Brook.ai Investors: UMass Memorial Health (lead), Morningside (co-lead) Amount Raised: $28 million Total Raised: Not disclosed Funding Stage: Series B Funding Date: October 28, 2025 Fireworks AI Raises $250M in Series C Funding for Cloud AI Inference Fireworks AI, a Redwood City startup offering a global AI inference cloud, closed a $250 million Series C round at a $4 billion valuation. The funding was co-led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, Index Ventures, and Evantic, with participation from existing backer Sequoia Capital. Fireworks provides an “AI-as-a-service” layer enabling developers to run generative AI models on its distributed cloud. The company has served hundreds of customers building chatbots and AI assistants, and says the new capital will support international expansion and infrastructure growth. With this raise, Fireworks’ total funding reaches $327 million. “Fireworks now powers over 10,000 companies (a 10× increase from our Series B) and serves hundreds of thousands of developers building customized AI applications. Our platform processes more than 10 trillion tokens per day, and our annualized revenue has surpassed $280 million,” the company said in a statement. Funding Details: Startup: Fireworks AI Investors: Lightspeed Venture Partners (lead), Index Ventures, Evantic (all co-leads), with Sequoia Capital participating Amount Raised: $250 million Total Raised: $327 million Funding Stage: Series C Funding Date: October 28, 2025 AccessGrid Raises $4.4M in Seed Funding to Turn Phones into Digital Key Fobs AccessGrid, a Miami-based startup, is modernizing building security with a $4.4 million seed round led by Harlem Capital. Its API platform lets companies issue encrypted digital key credentials to smartphones via Apple and Google Wallet. The system replaces physical RFID or magstripe cards; users tap their phone (or watch) to unlock doors even if the device is off. Founded by former QuickNode platform lead Auston Bunsen, AccessGrid says the round closes the gap between building access and today’s cloud security standards. Other investors include Exceptional Capital, Spice Capital, and startup accelerator HF0. The funding will finance product development and pilot deployments for corporate and auto-access applications. Funding Details: Startup: AccessGrid Investors: Harlem Capital (lead), with contributions from Exceptional Capital, Spice Capital, and HF0 accelerator Amount Raised: $4.4 million Total Raised: $4.4 million Funding Stage: Seed Funding Date: October 28, 2025 CyberRidge Raises $26M in Seed Funding to Encrypt Data in Subsea Cables CyberRidge, an Israeli photonics security startup, announced $26 million in seed funding to commercialize its subsea cable encryption technology. Its hardware adds a photonic “encryption layer” at each end of a fiber link so that any intercepted light appears as indecipherable noise. An $10 million seed was led by Awz Ventures, followed by a $15 million extension with new investors Arkin Capital, Redseed VC, and Elron Ventures. The startup plans to use the funds to move from prototype to full production of its first product. CyberRidge says its tech could protect critical internet and cloud data from future “harvest-and-decrypt” attacks by quantum computers, addressing a niche in optical security. At the center of CyberRidge’s approach is a new class of photonic encryption that turns every transmission into a burst of meaningless optical noise. The technology targets an invisible but growing threat—the interception and long-term storage of data moving through global fiber-optic cables. More than 95% of all international digital communication, from government records and medical data to banking transactions and AI workloads, travels through fiber networks, including subsea cables stretching across continents. Those cables have become one of the most vulnerable points in global infrastructure, as cyber adversaries quietly tap and record vast amounts of data for later use in what experts call “harvest now, decrypt later” attacks. Funding Details: Startup: CyberRidge Investors: Awz Ventures (lead), Arkin Capital, Redseed VC, Elron Ventures Amount Raised: $26 million Total Raised: $26 million Funding Stage: Seed (including extension) Funding Date: October 28, 2025 Polygraf AI Raises $9.5M in Seed Funding to Secure Enterprise AI Polygraf AI, an Austin-based AI security startup, closed a $9.5 million seed round led by Allegis Capital. The company builds “Small Language Models” for on-premises AI compliance in defense and enterprise markets. Alumni Ventures, DataPower VC, Domino Ventures, and other investors joined Allegis in the financing. Polygraf’s software inspects AI-generated content to prevent data leakage and fraud in sensitive workflows. The proceeds will fuel the expansion of Polygraf’s product and R&D teams as demand grows for explainable, secured AI solutions in regulated industries. Funding Details: Startup: Polygraf AI Investors: Allegis Capital (lead), Alumni Ventures, DataPower VC, Domino Ventures Amount Raised: $9.5 million Total Raised: $9.5 million Funding Stage: Seed Funding Date: October 28, 2025 Lula Commerce Raises $8M in Series A Funding for Retail E‑Commerce Platform Lula Commerce, a Philadelphia startup helping small retailers go online, raised $8 million in Series A funding. The round was led by SEMCAP AI, with participation from Rich Products Ventures, GO PA Fund, NZVC, UP.Partners, Green Circle Foodtech Ventures and Outlander VC. Lula provides an e-commerce and delivery platform that integrates with apps like Grubhub and DoorDash, aiming to help mom-and-pop stores sell online. Founder Adit Gupta says the funds will support building new features for its network of convenience stores and recruiting engineers, sales, and product staff. According to industry tracking, Lula has now raised about $16 million total at roughly a $25 million valuation. Funding Details: Startup: Lula Commerce Investors: SEMCAP AI (lead), Rich Products Ventures, GO PA Fund, NZVC, UP.Partners, Green Circle Foodtech Ventures, Outlander VC Amount Raised: $8 million Total Raised: $16 million Funding Stage: Series A Funding Date: October 28, 2025 Grasp Raises $7M in Series A Funding to Bring AI to Finance Tasks Stockholm-based Grasp closed a $7 million Series A round, led by Octopus Ventures with participation from Yanno Capital. Founded by ex-McKinsey consultants and a former Ericsson AI engineer, Grasp develops AI “multi-agent” systems to automate complex financial analysis and consulting work. Grasp’s platform connects specialized AI agents with domain datasets to produce presentation-ready reports and analytics for banks and consulting firms. The new capital will fund the opening a London office and expanding engineering and sales teams as Grasp pursues international growth. Funding Details: Startup: Grasp Investors: Octopus Ventures (lead), Yanno Capital Amount Raised: $7 million Total Raised: $7 million Funding Stage: Series A Funding Date: October 28, 2025 Whatnot Raises $225M in Series F Funding, Valuation at $11.5B Live-shopping marketplace Whatnot has secured a $225 million Series F, more than doubling its valuation to $11.5 billion. The Los Angeles-based company’s round was co-led by DST Global and CapitalG. New backers Sequoia Capital and Alkeon Capital joined, alongside returning investors Greycroft, Andreessen Horowitz, Avra Capital, and Bond. Since 2019, Whatnot has raised about $968 million in total. The company will use the capital partly to buy back shares from early investors. Whatnot’s mobile app hosts live auctions for collectibles and merchandise, and its founders say the funding accelerates the growth of live e-commerce in the U.S. and abroad. Funding Details: Startup: Whatnot Investors: DST Global (co-lead), CapitalG (co-lead); others include Sequoia Capital, Alkeon Capital, Greycroft, Andreessen Horowitz, Avra Capital, Bond Amount Raised: $225 million Total Raised: $968 million Funding Stage: Series F Funding Date: October 28, 2025 Pelage Pharmaceuticals Raises $120M in Series B Funding for Hair Loss Drug Los Angeles-based Pelage Pharmaceuticals, a biotech developing a hair growth treatment, closed a $120 million Series B round. The financing was co-led by ARCH Venture Partners and GV (formerly Google Ventures), with participation from existing investors Main Street Advisors, Visionary Ventures, and YK Bioventures. Pelage’s lead program (PP405) is a topical small-molecule designed to reactivate dormant hair follicles. The startup will use the funding to advance its hair-loss drug through Phase 3 clinical trials. This is Pelage’s first outside funding since a prior Series A, and the new investment officially values the firm at over $900 million. Funding Details: Startup: Pelage Pharmaceuticals Investors: ARCH Venture Partners (co-lead), GV (co-lead), Main Street Advisors, Visionary Ventures, YK Bioventures Amount Raised: $120 million Total Raised: $120 million Funding Stage: Series B Funding Date: October 28, 2025 Hemab Therapeutics Raises $157M Series C for Bleeding Disorders Hemab Therapeutics, a biotech focused on clotting disorders, announced a $157 million Series C financing. The round was led by Sofinnova Partners, with significant participation from large funds (a sovereign wealth fund and global asset manager) and biotech investors Avoro Capital. Existing backers including RA Capital, Novo Holdings, HealthCap, Invus and others also joined the oversubscribed round. Hemab’s lead programs target Glanzmann thrombasthenia and von Willebrand disease. The capital will support Hemab’s registration trials for its first drug (sutacimig) and further clinical expansion. This funding round brings Hemab’s total equity raised to date to roughly $280 million. Funding Details: Startup: Hemab Therapeutics Investors: Sofinnova Partners (lead); RA Capital, Novo Holdings, Avoro Capital, HealthCap, Invus, and others Amount Raised: $157 million Total Raised: $157 million Funding Stage: Series C Funding Date: October 27, 2025 Tech Funding Summary Table
