There’s a specific kind of Wednesday where your brain boots up like a broken modem. The plan’s there, hell, you made it, but it’s hiding somewhere between the fridge light and the panic loop. You stand in the kitchen, iced coffee sweating in your hand, wondering if you’ve actually forgotten how to think, or if this is just the new normal.
And then you move. Not with confidence. With muscle memory. With that half-aware instinct that pulls you through the fog. It’s not flow state, it’s survival state. But somehow, things get done. Ideas take form. Strategies unfold. And that static in your chest? It quiets, just a bit, when the first good thing happens.
Innovation doesn’t come from clarity. It comes from chaos. From the scrambled hours where nothing makes sense, until something does. These companies didn’t wait for peace. They moved through the mess.
Work-Bench closed Fund IV at $160M to back Seed-stage enterprise killers. Jessica Lin, Jonathan Lehr, Hugo Van Vuuren, and Tom Carroll are writing $2–4M lead checks into AI/ML, cybersecurity, and GTM-obsessed infra startups. From a $10M Fund I to $317M AUM, this NYC crew doesn’t chase hype—they engineer conviction.
iAltA Holdings raised $20M (WestCap) to rebuild private markets infrastructure from scratch. Co-founders Laurence Tosi, Scott Ganeles, and Bill Sherman are turning duct-taped workflows into high-frequency-grade orchestration across compliance, fund admin, and capital calls.
Intrepid Labs secured $7M seed (AVANT BIO, Radical Ventures) to supercharge drug formulation with robotics and AI. Led by Christine Allen, Pauric Bannigan, Riley Hickman, and Alán Aspuru-Guzik, their Valiant™ platform is running 200+ experiments a day—faster, cleaner, and smarter than legacy R&D ever dreamed.
Aligned Climate Capital raised $240M+ for its sixth distributed solar fund (ASP6). Founded by Peter Davidson, with Jamie Rubin and Brendan Bell, they’re deploying into rural, underserved markets with a $2B clean energy platform delivering 38.5% IRR and 58K tCO2e in reductions.
EDGE Surgical raised $1.3M (ActiMed Orthopedics) to push its FDA-cleared Ortho EDG® digital depth gauge. Founder Christopher Wilson hands CEO reins to Leo Carayannopoulos as they target hospitals and ASCs with single-use precision and surgical-grade efficiency.
Addepar locked in $230M Series G (Vitruvian, WestCap) at a $3.25B valuation. CEO Eric Poirier, Bob Pisani, and Joe Lonsdale scaled this $7T AUM platform into 50+ countries, now tightening grip on global wealth with $275M revenue and $100M pumped back into R&D.
Olio landed $11M Series B (Fulcrum Equity, Mutual Capital) to own care coordination. Ben Forrest, Rachel Kilroy, and Bob Baker are slicing post-acute chaos with HITRUST-secure real-time platforms that reduce LOS, drop costs, and raise standards in Medicaid and behavioral health.
ClearVector raised $13M Series A (Scale Venture, Okta Ventures) to secure identity like it’s the new firewall. John Laliberte, Andrew Davis, and Phil Puleo are turning 4B-edge behavior graphs into real-time runtime attribution with FedRAMP-compliant, AI-powered defense tech.
Blank Beauty closed $6M Series A (Evolution VC, EPSON, Kirker) to reinvent cosmetics at the kiosk level. Charles Brandon, Ji Lee, and Jenny Lam are running AI + micro-dosing polish machines at Walmart with 15 patents, $100K burn, and a next-gen Shopify fulfillment system called Dolly.
Realta Fusion scored $36M Series A (Future Ventures, Khosla, Mayfield) to scale modular fusion tech. CEO Kieran Furlong and CSO Cary Forest built CoSMo™—a 17-Tesla, non-tokamak platform aimed at delivering clean heat to industry for $40/MWh. Anvil reactor is next.
Cart.com raised $50M (BlackRock, Neuberger Berman) at a $1.6B valuation. Omair Tariq and Jim Jacobsen turned ECaaS into a logistics stack with $10B GMV, 10M+ sq ft fulfillment, and a product suite stretching from AI-powered WMS to cold-chain pharma distribution.
PhaseV grabbed $50M Series A (Accel, Insight, Viola) to bring causal machine learning to clinical trials. Raviv Pryluk, Elad Berkman, and Dan Goldstaub built an adaptive trial OS that’s cutting per-patient costs by 50% and pushing Phase II/III transitions up by 30%.
Complement 1 raised $16M seed (Owl Ventures, Blume) to rewire cancer care with lifestyle medicine. Karan Bajaj and Trupti Mukker are running IRB-approved platforms with 90% adherence, 37% fewer side effects, and AI-driven coaching that reduces both pain and payer costs.
Bestow closed $120M Series D (Goldman Sachs, Smith Point) and a $50M credit facility (TriplePoint) to scale its enterprise insurance infra. Melbourne O’Banion and Jonathan Abelmann moved from DTC to SaaS, powering Nationwide and USAA with zero-churn, triple-digit ARR growth.
ThriveAI raised $1.2M pre-seed (500 Global, Hustle Fund, Iterative) to ship an AI PM that works like your best junior hire. Ishwar Dhanuka and Brian Ngo built a multi-agent system that integrates with Slack, Jira, and Amplitude, cutting resolution time by 30% and scaling without headcount.
Let’s connect and keep the momentum going across the tech ecosystem. Whether you’re a founder shaping the future, a leader driving change, a VC backing bold ideas, or an investor spotting the next big thing—together, we’re pushing boundaries. Proud to be building the future with you.
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