This week's largest fundraising recipient was frontier AI lab Recursive Intelligence, and agentic AI, AI-compute, and AI-native startups filled up much of the rest of the Top 10 list. Other areas that attracted sizable funding include biotech, nuclear power, and security. 1. Ricursive Intelligence, $300M, AI: Ricursive Intelligence, a frontier AI lab, announced that it has raised $300 million in a Series A round of funding at a $4 billion valuation. Lightspeed Venture Partners led the latest round, which comes just two months after the Palo Alto, California-based company's launch. 2. Cellares, $257M, biotech: Cellares, a startup focused on the automated, large-scale manufacturing of cell therapies, said it secured $257 million in a Series D financing led by BlackRock and Eclipse. Founded in 2019, South San Francisco, California-based Cellares has raised $612 million to date. 3 (tied). Upwind Security, $250M, cloud security: Cloud security unicorn Upwind Security closed on $250 million in Series B funding led by Bessemer Venture Partners. The round brings total investment for the San Francisco-headquartered company to over $430 million....

Last year was the third-strongest on record for global venture funding, trailing only the peaks in 2021 and 2022. It was also a surprisingly strong year for IPOs and we saw an uptick in startup M&A numbers. All that sets the stage for what the industry insiders we spoke with expect will be another robust year for startup investment, acquisitions and new public-market listings. At the same time, there's growing concern about capital concentration as venture dollars accumulate in a relatively small cohort of companies, many of them based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Although the IPO window didn't stay open the whole year, 2025 turned into an unexpectedly strong one for new offerings. At least 23 U.S.-based companies listed above $1 billion in value in 2025 compared to nine in 2024. Total valuations at IPO price for those billion-dollar listings reached at least $125 billion ' more than doubling year over year. This year, experts we spoke with expect that momentum to continue. In this market, 'a profitable company ' particularly one that either is an AI play or has a good story of how AI will be a tailwind for their business ' are good candidates for a 2026 IPO,' Aman Singh, a corporate partner at Fenwick & West who was involved with the CoreWeave, Figma and Navan IPOs, told my colleague Gene Teare in late December....

Bluesky released its first transparency report this week documenting the actions taken by its Trust & Safety team and the results of other initiatives, like age-assurance compliance, monitoring of influence operations, automated labeling, and more. The social media startup ' a rival to X and Threads ' grew nearly 60% in 2025, from 25.9 million users to 41.2 million, which includes accounts hosted both on Bluesky's own infrastructure and those running their own infrastructure as part of the decentralized social network based on Bluesky's AT Protocol. During the past year, users made 1.41 billion posts on the platform, which represented 61% of all posts ever made on Bluesky. Of those, 235 million posts contained media, accounting for 62% of all media posts shared on Bluesky to date. The company also reported a fivefold increase in legal requests from law enforcement agencies, government regulators, and legal representatives in 2025, with 1,470 requests, up from 238 requests in 2024. While the company previously shared moderation reports in 2023 and 2024, this is the first time it's put together a comprehensive transparency report. The new report tackles other areas outside of moderation, like regulatory compliance and account verification information, among other things....

This is it. The clock is running out. With demand surging and early inventory nearly gone, tonight is your last chance to lock in record-low pricing for TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 and secure a plus-one pass at 50% off while limited passes remain. This year, Disrupt takes over San Francisco's Moscone West from October 13'15, bringing together 10,000 founders, VCs, operators, and tech leaders for a tightly curated, three-day experience focused on real outcomes. With 300+ startups expected to showcase their innovations, the intensity of Startup Battlefield 200, and curated networking designed to drive results, Disrupt isn't just another conference. It's where momentum is built. Founders meet investors actively backing breakthrough ideas. VCs cut through the noise to discover startups aligned with their investment focus. Operators exchange real-world lessons on building, scaling, and shipping what's next. Aspiring innovators get a front-row seat to tomorrow's tech. The 50% off plus-one passes are nearly sold out, and the countdown to the best offer of the year ends tonight at 11:59 p.m. PT. Register now to lock in your TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 ticket. Save up to $680 and bring a plus-one at half the price while you still can....