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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
- OpenAI launched Frontier, a platform enabling enterprises to build, deploy, and manage AI agents as coworkers with shared context and permissions.
- Anthropic unveiled Claude Opus 4.6, its most advanced model, featuring a one-million-token context window and stronger reasoning and coding.
- Picogrid secured a $9.3 million US Air Force contract to modernize base security using its AI-driven Legion platform for sensor integration.
- Paladin launched Knighthawk 2.0, an NDAA-compliant autonomous drone designed to enhance public safety with rapid response and aerial awareness.
- Carbon Upcycling Technologies appointed Markus Kritzler as CEO to drive global expansion, with co-founder Apoorv Sinha becoming President.
💸 Top Funding Rounds
- Waymo raised a $16 billion funding round led by Dragoneer, Sequoia, and DST Global to accelerate global autonomous driving expansion.
- ElevenLabs landed a $500 million Series D, valuing the company at $11 billion, to scale enterprise conversational voice AI.
- Bedrock Robotics closed a $270 million Series B to deploy autonomous heavy machinery and address labor shortages in construction.
- Positron AI completed an oversubscribed $230 million Series B at a $1 billion+ valuation to scale energy-efficient AI inference chips.
- Neo Financial obtained $50.15 million and launched a securitization program to expand lending capacity with Canadian institutions.
💰️ IPO and M&A Watch
- SpaceX acquired xAI to form a vertically integrated AI and space platform targeting orbital data centers and next-generation energy infrastructure.
- Marvell completed its acquisition of Celestial AI to strengthen optical interconnects for AI-driven cloud and data center infrastructure.
- Ukrainian defense tech firm Swarmer filed for a Nasdaq IPO to take its AI-powered drone swarm automation platform public.
- Polaryx Therapeutics began trading on Nasdaq under PLYX to advance treatments for rare pediatric lysosomal storage disorders.
- Skillz acquired Beamable to integrate backend and LiveOps tools into a unified platform for building and monetizing mobile games.
🏦 About Investors
- Santé Ventures raised $330 million for its fifth fund to back early-stage biotech, medtech, and digital health startups.
- Ariel Investments announced Project Level’s $250 million first close to scale women’s sports.
- NEA promoted Arjun Jain to Partner and Mason Murray to Principal, strengthening its leadership across investing and portfolio management.
- Elevate Capital promoted Ben Nahir to Partner, recognizing his role in scaling the portfolio and supporting underrepresented founders.
- Queen City Angels rebranded as QCA Ventures to reflect its evolution into a national early-stage investment platform with expanded startup impact.
🚀 Startup of the Week
Introducing our Startup of the Week 🏆
Waymo
Waymo, founded in 2009 in Mountain View, California, as Google’s self-driving car project, has evolved into the world’s most advanced autonomous mobility company. Now an Alphabet subsidiary, Waymo operates fully driverless robotaxi services through Waymo One, delivering hundreds of thousands of weekly rides across major U.S. cities. The company closed a landmark $16 billion funding round led by Dragoneer, Sequoia Capital, and DST Global, valuing it at $126 billion and reinforcing investor confidence in its commercial scale. Led by Tekedra Mawakana, Waymo will use the capital to accelerate fleet growth and global expansion, including planned launches in Tokyo and London. Its mission is to make transportation safer, more accessible, and truly autonomous at global scale.
💼 Investor of the Week
Introducing our Investor of the Week 🏆
Santé Ventures
Santé Ventures, founded in 2006 in Austin, Texas, is a leading early-stage venture capital firm focused on biotechnology, medical technology, and digitally enabled healthcare. Managing around $1 billion across multiple funds, Santé typically leads or co-leads Seed and Series A rounds in companies tackling complex, high-impact medical needs. The firm closed Fund V at $330 million, its largest fund to date, surpassing its target and expanding its global LP base, while promoting Dennis McWilliams and Omar Khalil to Managing Directors. Led by founding MD and CIO Kevin Lalande, Santé differentiates through deep scientific diligence, hands-on company building, and a strong exit track record. Its mission is to partner with exceptional founders to deliver breakthrough healthcare innovation and meaningfully improve patient outcomes.
🤑 Opportunities Expiring Soon
Opus University of Saskatchewan Startup Incubator
- 📢 Organizer: University of Saskatchewan
- 🗂️ Category: Incubator
- 🪜 Target Stages: Ideation, Pre-seed, Seed
- 🏭 Focus Sectors: Sector Agnostic
- 📅 Application Deadline: February 9, 2026
Y Combinator — Spring 2026 Batch
- 📢 Organizer: Y Combinator
- 🗂️ Category: Accelerator, Funding
- 🪜 Target Stages: Pre-seed, Seed
- 🏭 Focus Sectors: Sector Agnostic
- 📅 Application Deadline: February 10, 2026
Community Business Accelerator
- 📢 Organizer: Grid110
- 🗂️ Category: Accelerator
- 🪜 Target Stages: Pre-seed, Seed, Revenue-generating
- 🏭 Focus Sectors: Sector Agnostic
- 📅 Application Deadline: February 13, 2026
Heal.LA Accelerator
- 📢 Organizer: Larta Institute
- 🗂️ Category: Accelerator, Funding, Training & Learning
- 🪜 Target Stages: Pre-seed, Seed, Pre-Series A
- 🏭 Focus Sectors: Health & Life Sciences, Energy & Environment
- 📅 Application Deadline: February 13, 2026
Beltline Business Ventures
- 📢 Organizer: Atlanta Beltline Business Solutions Office
- 🗂️ Category: Accelerator, Training & Learning
- 🪜 Target Stages: Revenue-generating, Pre-Series A
- 🏭 Focus Sectors: Sector Agnostic
- 📅 Application Deadline: February 16, 2026
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