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Welcome to another edition of 🔍 Startup Researcher - North America, your essential digest delivering the latest news and premium insights on startups and venture capital across the region 🌏️
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📰 Important News
- Anduril Industries secured a monumental 10-year, $20 billion U.S. Army contract to revolutionize counter-drone capabilities.
- Oklo and Centrus announced they will pursue discussions for a joint venture focused on HALEU deconversion services in Ohio.
- Perplexity introduced "Computer for Enterprise," an advanced AI agent designed to automate intricate business workflows.
- Serve Robotics, White Castle, and Uber Eats launched autonomous delivery in Orlando, expanding their robot delivery service.
- Accrete and Ocient partnered to launch a joint solution enabling national security agencies to operationalize AI in mission-critical environments.
💸 Top Funding Rounds
- Mind Robotics raised $500 million in Series A funding from Accel and Andreessen Horowitz to advance AI-powered factory robots.
- Nexthop AI secured $500 million in Series B funding at $4.2 billion valuation, introducing high-performance networking hardware for AI data centers.
- E-commerce platform Quince attracted a $500 million Series E round led by Iconiq, more than doubling its valuation to $10.1 billion.
- Enterprise AI startup Rhoda AI came out of stealth with a $450 million Series A funding round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners.
- Replit raised $400 million in a funding round led by Georgian, boosting its valuation to $9 billion to fuel the development of its new Agent 4.
💰️ IPO and M&A Watch
- Google completed its acquisition of cloud and AI security leader Wiz, which will join Google Cloud to create a unified security platform.
- OpenAI acquired AI security startup Promptfoo to integrate its powerful suite of testing and evaluation tools directly into the OpenAI Frontier platform.
- Zendesk acquired AI pioneer Forethought to lead autonomous customer service, accelerating its product roadmap.
- Meta acquired Moltbook, the viral Reddit-like social network for AI agents, and will integrate its founders into its Superintelligence Labs.
- Veeva Systems announced its acquisition of Ostro, a leading AI-powered brand engagement platform for life sciences, for approximately $100 million.
🏦 About Investors
- Peter Thiel's Founders Fund is nearing a $6 billion close for its fourth growth fund less than a year after its last growth fund.
- Coefficient Capital closed its oversubscribed Fund II at $290 million and its Apex Fund at $240 million, bringing its total AUM to over $800 million.
- Scout Ventures closed its oversubscribed $125 million Fund V to expand its investment in dual-use frontier technologies.
- Janet Bannister's Staircase Ventures successfully closed its $36.8 million second fund, surpassing its target with strong investor confidence.
- Pawsible Ventures, backed by Victory Square Technologies, launched its Pet Health Incubator and a $10 million fund to provide capital and mentorship.
🚀 Startup of the Week
Introducing our Startup of the Week 🏆
Mind Robotics
Founded in 2025 and spun out of Rivian, Mind Robotics is building an AI “cognitive brain” designed to make factory robots more adaptable and capable of handling complex, variable tasks. Created by Rivian founder RJ Scaringe, who now serves as chairman, the company focuses on developing intelligent robotic systems that combine perception, reasoning, and dexterity for modern manufacturing environments. The startup recently raised $500 million in a Series A round co-led by Accel and Andreessen Horowitz, reaching a $2 billion valuation. Through a strategic partnership with Rivian’s production facilities, Mind Robotics is using real-world manufacturing data to train its AI models, aiming to unlock a new era of flexible industrial automation.
💼 Investor of the Week
Introducing our Investor of the Week 🏆
Founders Fund
Founded in 2005 in San Francisco by Peter Thiel, Ken Howery, and Luke Nosek, Founders Fund is one of Silicon Valley’s most influential venture firms, known for backing transformative companies in AI, defense tech, space, and frontier technologies. The firm recently moved to finalize Founders Fund Growth IV, a $6 billion growth-stage vehicle, bringing its total fundraising to over $10 billion in under a year. Led by partners including Peter Thiel and Trae Stephens, Founders Fund has invested in major technology leaders such as SpaceX, Stripe, OpenAI, and Anthropic, positioning itself at the center of the next wave of capital-intensive innovation.
🤑 Opportunities Expiring Soon
Amazon Nova AI Hackathon
- 📢 Organizer: Amazon Web Services
- 🗂️ Category: Hackathon, Award/Prize
- 🪜 Target Stages: Stage Agnostic
- 🏭 Focus Sectors: AI & Data
- 📅 Application Deadline: March 17, 2026
Hack-Nation Global AI Hackathon
- 📢 Organizer: Hack Nation
- 🗂️ Category: Hackathon
- 🪜 Target Stages: Stage Agnostic
- 🏭 Focus Sectors: Sector Agnostic
- 📅 Application Deadline: March 21, 2026
Immersive Edutainment Platform Challenge
- 📢 Organizer: Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MoEHE)
- 🗂️ Category: Award/Prize, Funding, Competition/Challenge
- 🪜 Target Stages: Stage Agnostic
- 🏭 Focus Sectors: Education & Workforce, Media & Entertainment, AI & Data, Software & IT
- 📅 Application Deadline: March 23, 2026
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