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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
- Anthropic and Snowflake expanded their partnership with a $200 million deal, integrating Anthropic's LLMs into Snowflake's platform.
- Vulcan Elements secured a $620 million defense contract within a $1.4 billion partnership to boost US magnet production.
- OpenAI is working with TCS on AI compute in India, potentially launching Stargate India and boosting TCS’s enterprise AI stack.
- Uber and Avride launched a commercial robo-taxi service in Dallas with safety drivers, a key step toward fully driverless rides.
- The New York Times is suing Perplexity for copyright and attribution, escalating publisher pressure on AI firms to pay for content.
💸 Top Funding Rounds
- Kalshi raised $1 billion in Series E funding at an $11 billion valuation to grow its user base, expand brokerage integrations, and broaden prediction products.
- Castelion secured $350 million in Series B to scale U.S. hypersonic weapons production and advance its Project Ranger test facility.
- Eon landed $300 million, reaching a $4 billion valuation and signaling strong investor demand for next-generation cloud data infrastructure.
- Curative closed a $150 million Series B round to expand its preventative health insurance model and improve access to affordable care.
- 7AI secured $130 million in Series A funding to expand its AI-driven cybersecurity agents, bringing its total funding to $166 million.
💰️ Notable Exits
- Bun was acquired by Anthropic to enhance Claude Code and AI coding tools while staying open source and optimized for JavaScript and Node.
- Marvell moved to acquire Celestial AI to enhance next generation data center connectivity and accelerate advanced AI infrastructure development.
- OpenAI is set to acquire Neptune AI to integrate experiment tracking and improve scalable model training, research workflows, and deeper AI insights.
- SAI360 acquired Plural Policy to strengthen AI-driven compliance, speeding regulatory change management and improving obligation analysis.
- Hims and Hers has entered a definitive agreement to acquire YourBio Health for $194 million to expand personalized preventative care.
🏦 About Investors
- Nexus Venture Partners closed its $700 million Fund VIII to invest in early-stage AI, enterprise, consumer, and fintech startups across the US and India.
- Expedition Growth Capital closed a $375 million Fund III to invest in fast growing software and tech-enabled services businesses.
- Beth Turner launched Valkyrie, a $45 million fund backing AI and critical industries with support from Ron Conway, Jack Dorsey, and others.
- Conexus Venture Capital closed its second $30 million fund to back Saskatchewan tech startups from pre-seed to Series A.
- JD Saint-Martin is joining Boreal Ventures as co-managing partner to help scale startups in blue-collar industries and digital health.
🚀Startup of the Week
Introducing our Startup of the Week 🏆
Kalshi
Kalshi, founded in 2018 by Tarek Mansour and Luana Lopes Lara, has rapidly grown from a bold idea in New York into the United States’ first federally regulated exchange for trading event contracts. The company recently closed a landmark $1 billion Series E round at an $11 billion valuation, led by Paradigm with backing from Sequoia, Andreessen Horowitz, ARK Invest, and CapitalG. Under CEO Tarek Mansour, Kalshi now processes over $1 billion in weekly trading volume across 3,500 markets, reflecting explosive nationwide adoption. With new capital fueling expansion and strategic partnerships, Kalshi is redefining how people interact with information by turning future events into a mainstream financial asset class.
💼 Investor of the Week
Introducing our Investor of the Week 🏆
Nexus Venture Partners
Nexus Venture Partners, founded in 2006 with dual roots in Silicon Valley and India, has grown into one of the most influential early stage venture capital firms backing transformative AI, enterprise software, fintech, and consumer startups. The firm recently closed its $700 million Fund VIII, doubling down on AI-led innovation across both markets while continuing to invest from idea to scale. Led by partners such as Anup Gupta and co-founder Suvir Sujan, Nexus has built a portfolio that includes category leaders like Postman, Delhivery, Zepto, and Apollo. With a founder-first ethos and a twenty-year track record, the firm remains committed to shaping the next generation of global technology champions.
🤑Opportunity Radar
Call for Applications: The HAX Program
The HAX Program, run by SOSV, is a global accelerator for hard-tech startups building solutions in hardware, climate tech, health tech, industrial tech, energy, and AI. Founders gain access to investment, hands-on engineering resources, a world-class mentor network, and long-term venture support through SOSV’s multi-stage platform. The program targets pre-seed hard-tech teams with early prototypes and strong customer insight. Apply now to join a globally diverse community and accelerate your path from prototype to scale.
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