This is a weekly feature that runs down the week鈥檚 top 10 announced funding rounds in the U.S. Check out last week鈥檚 biggest funding deal roundup here.

The pace of large-scale dealmaking picked up some this week, led by 鈥檚 disclosure that it raised another $10 billion to add to its record-setting megaround announced last month. Other big financings went to startups and growth-stage companies in sectors including defense tech, enterprise AI, autonomy and even laundry.

1. , $10B, foundational AI: OpenAI $10 billion in additional funding for its record-setting megaround announced in late February, reportedly bringing the total fundraise to the San Francisco-based company to over $120 billion. Backers in this latest financing include , , , and .

2. , $2B, defense tech: San Diego-based defense tech unicorn Shield AI said it secured $2 billion at a $12.7 billion valuation. The round consists of $1.5 billion in Series G funding led by and along with $500 million in preferred equity financing backed by . Part of the proceeds will help pay for the planned acquisition of , a defense software company whose technology is used to train pilots and test advanced aircraft and autonomous systems.

3. , $350M, transportation safety: Cambridge Mobile Telematics, a telematics and AI company focused on enabling safer mobility, picked up $350 million in a new financing听 led by and . Founded in 2010, the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company has raised over $850 million to date, per 附近上门 .

4. (tied) , $200M, legal tech: Harvey, the fast-growing provider of AI-enabled tools for law firms and in-house legal teams, closed on $200 million in fresh financing at an $11 billion valuation. and led the round, which brings total funding to 4-year-old San Francisco-based Harvey to around $1.2 billion.

4. (tied) , $200M, healthcare: eMed, a provider of GLP-1 programs for employers that counts as chief wellness officer and backer, said it raised $200 million in new funding. led the round, which set a $2 billion plus valuation for the Miami-based company.

6. , $170M, satellite tech: Xona secured a $170 million Series C round led by . The funds will go to scaling satellite production for a planned constellation of next-generation navigation satellites. Founded in 2019, Burlingame, California-based Xona has raised over $320 million to date.

7. , $140M, laundry tech: Cents, a provider of software and payments technology for the laundry industry, secured $140 million in Series C funding led by . The New York-based company said the round represents 鈥渢he largest single software investment in the laundry vertical to date.鈥�

8. , $125M, AI health tools: Palo Alto, California-based Qualified Health, developer of an enterprise AI platform for health systems, locked up $125 million in Series B financing led by .

9. (tied) , $110M, data observability: Dash0, an agentic observability platform, announced it closed on $110 million in Series B funding led by . Founded in 2023, the New York-based company has raised over $154 million to date.

9 (tied) , $110M, drones: Huntsville, Alabama-based Performance Drone Works, a startup that designs, engineers and manufactures drones for defense and law enforcement, secured over $110 million in Series B funding led by .

Methodology

We tracked the largest announced rounds in the 附近上门 database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the period of March 21-27. Although most announced rounds are represented in the database, there could be a small time lag as some rounds are reported late in the week.

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One of their largest customers had asked for a specific new feature which would help their workflow, the kind of request that was clearly valuable to the customer but not necessarily important enough to jump it to the top of the roadmap.

As usually happens in enterprise software, the request needed to move through business and product discussions, design work, engineering prioritization, testing cycles and security reviews before anyone could even commit to a timeline.

The customer understood that. But after waiting for some time, it raised a different possibility: Rather than continue waiting for the vendor to ship the feature, it was considering using AI coding tools internally to build something themselves that would solve the problem well enough.

That single comment reflects a broader shift that SaaS companies are only beginning to fully absorb as their stock prices take a hit, precisely because of this sentiment.

For years, a feature request was a request to the vendor. It entered the backlog, competed with other priorities, and if the customer was important enough or the use case broad enough, eventually it would make its way into the product.

That logic is now starting to weaken. If customers can increasingly generate narrow workflows, lightweight internal tools or customized interfaces on their own, the role of the traditional feature begins to change. And once that happens, it is worth asking a deeper question: Will features even exist in the way the software industry has historically understood them?

Features were once the product

For decades, SaaS companies built value through predefined functionality. A roadmap was essentially a sequence of decisions about which features to build, which customer pain points to prioritize, and how quickly the product team could turn demand into software.

In many categories, feature depth and feature velocity became the core of competitive differentiation. The company that could ship faster, cover more use cases, and respond more effectively to customer requests often had the advantage.

That model made sense in a world where software creation was expensive, slow and highly constrained by engineering capacity. A feature had weight because it represented significant investment. It required planning, development, quality assurance, release management and support. Customers understood that process because there was no real alternative. If they needed something badly enough, they could ask for it, pay for customization, or wait.

AI-assisted development begins to change that equation. When internal teams can describe a workflow and generate a usable version of it in days rather than quarters, the meaning of a feature starts to erode 鈥斕齨ot because functionality is no longer important, but because it no longer has to arrive in the same packaged form.

In some cases, customers may not need the vendor to build every layer of functionality for them. They may only need enough access, flexibility and context to shape part of it themselves.

Functionality may become something dynamic

The real question may not be whether AI will help SaaS companies build features faster, although it clearly will. The more important question is whether the concept of a feature as a fixed unit of product development starts to fade.

For many years, teams gathered requests, translated them into product requirements, scheduled them into roadmaps, and released them as standardized functionality for a broad user base. That process may increasingly look inefficient in a world where software can be generated more dynamically.

In an AI-native environment, the customer may not ask for a feature in the traditional sense at all. They may simply describe the workflow they need, the output they want, the approvals required, the data sources involved, and the rules that should govern the process. The platform could then generate that capability inside the product environment rather than waiting for a formal release cycle. In that scenario, functionality becomes more fluid.

That would represent a meaningful shift in how enterprise software is defined. The feature would no longer be the product鈥檚 smallest strategic building block. Instead, the platform would provide an environment in which functionality can be created, modified and governed with greater flexibility.

This matters because it changes where value sits. If the workflow can be generated on demand, then the defensibility does not lie in the isolated feature itself. Rather, it lies in the system that makes that generation possible in a secure, reliable and scalable way.

The platform becomes the real moat

This is also why AI is unlikely to simply make serious SaaS platforms irrelevant. Even when a workflow can be generated quickly, it still needs to operate inside a much larger enterprise reality. It must connect to structured data, respect access controls, interact with existing systems, produce auditable outputs, comply with security policies, and function with a level of reliability that internal experiments rarely match on their own. These are not minor details. In many enterprise environments, they are the actual product.

is a strategic adviser to tech companies and investors, specializing in strategy, growth and M&A, a guest contributor to 附近上门 News, and a seasoned lecturer. Learn more about his advisory services, lectures and courses at . for further insights and discussions.

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The New York-based startup says its new valuation is $2 billion, double it achieved when raising its $125 million Series D round in December 2023.

In total, Vestwell says it has raised $660 million in capital since its 2016 inception.

Also participating in the latest round were , , , , and .

Vestwell is growing 鈥減rofitably,鈥� according to CEO , who said the company鈥檚 annual recurring revenue is now more than $200 million. The platform has more than 2 million active savers and works with more than 500,000 businesses. In total, Vestwell has over $50 billion in assets administered across workplace, institutional and government channels.

The company grew nearly 50% year over year, Schumm said, and is operating with 鈥渟trong unit economics and improving margins.鈥�

Vestwell鈥檚 revenue model is dependent on its customers and their preferred structure, according to Schumm. Typically, it鈥檚 a monthly fee per employer and/or a monthly fee per employee.

The company works with financial institutions, payroll and HR platforms to distribute or integrate its white-labeled savings products to employers and employees nationwide. Those partners include , , , , , , , , , 听补苍诲 .

Overall funding to wealth management startups totaled $1.9 billion in 2025, per 附近上门 , roughly the same amount as in 2024. That鈥檚 down from about $3.8 billion raised by such startups in the peak funding year of 2021.

Connecting the dots

Schumm founded Vestwell with the goal of addressing the problem of 鈥渇ragmented鈥� savings.

鈥淸There were] separate systems for retirement, emergency, education, disability and other savings programs. Each had its own rules, vendors and barriers to participation,鈥� he said. 鈥淰estwell solves that problem by connecting these programs into one interoperable platform.鈥�

Describing the company as an enterprise fintech platform, he said Vestwell makes it easier for employees and employers 鈥渢o save, manage and grow their money, no matter the size of the company.鈥�

It supports a range of savings vehicles, including retirement: 401(k), 403(b) and IRA savings programs; education such as 529 savings plans; emergency savings accounts; and ABLE accounts for people with disabilities. Its offering is accessible across more than 20 languages.

Presently, Vestwell has 500 employees.

Expansion plans

The company plans to use its new capital to expand its distribution. For example, it is working to embed savings more deeply into payroll, benefits platforms, financial institutions and government-led public programs.

It鈥檚 also continuing to invest in AI-native capabilities with the goal of having them personalize guidance, automate administration and surface 鈥渁ctionable鈥� insights for users and their employers.

Before Vestwell, Schumm co-founded wealth management startup , which was by in 2017 .

, principal at Blue Owl, describes Vestwell as 鈥渁 standout company.鈥�

鈥淰estwell is taking a holistic approach to savings, making it far more durable than just a recordkeeping platform,鈥� he wrote via email. 鈥淚t has created the infrastructure layer that connects payroll providers, financial advisors, enterprises and state programs into a unified savings ecosystem.鈥�

Related 附近上门 Pro query:

Related reading:

• Wealth Management Startups See Funding Rise
• Wealth Management Platform Wealthfront Targets $2.05B Valuation In Latest Fintech IPO

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Clarification: This story has changed since its original publication to confirm the company’s current valuation.

The news was big in the fintech world with Brex claiming the pairing would represent 鈥渢he largest bank-fintech deal in history.鈥� ( had planned to buy in 2020 for $5.3 billion until that deal fell apart a year later due to regulatory concerns.)

In a joint statement, Capital One founder, chairman and CEO said it’s always been a goal of the bank 鈥渢o build a payments company at the frontier of the technology revolution.鈥�

鈥淎cquiring Brex accelerates this journey, especially in the business payments marketplace,鈥� he said. 鈥淏rex invented the integrated combination of corporate credit cards, spend management software and banking together in a single platform. They have taken the rarest of journeys for a fintech, building a vertically integrated platform from the bottom of the tech stack to the top.鈥�

While $5 billion is no small sum, it is less than half the that San Francisco-based Brex was valued at in October 2021. In total, the company has raised $1.7 billion in equity and debt since its 2017 inception 鈥� with about $1.2 billion of that being venture funding.

Early investors such as , which led Brex鈥檚 in 2017, are likely quite pleased with the outcome. Investors who wrote checks at its later stages are likely less so.

Other early backers include , and 1听.

The company has 1,100 employees, according to a Brex spokesperson who also told 附近上门 News that its business is growing 40% year over year and is profitable. Customers include , , , , and , among others.

Close friends Franceschi and , who co-founded Brex, started working together when they founded another company, Brazilian payment processing startup , in 2012 at the wee age of 16. That company ended up getting acquired by Stone Pagamentos for 鈥渢ens of millions of dollars鈥� 鈥� before the two had even gone to college.

A change of plans

Brex began its life as a buzzy startup that served mostly other startups. But in June 2022 鈥� three months after announcing it would make a into software and enterprise 鈥� Brex confirmed that it was apparently it started to serve: small to medium-sized businesses.

The abrupt news didn鈥檛 sit well with many of the SMBs it served.

Over time, Brex began to seemingly fall behind its largest rival, , when it came to fundraising and revenue generation. Ramp as of last November was valued at $32 billion, having raised a total of $2.3 billion in equity.

By joining Capital One, Brex says it will accelerate Capital One鈥檚 presence in corporate cards and spend management, complementing its existing leadership in SMB banking.

Capital One鈥檚 purchase of Brex is slated to close midyear.

Fintech M&A expected to pick up

On the heels of a strong year for venture funding to fintech startups, sources who spoke with 附近上门 News said they expect exits 鈥� both M&A deals and IPOs 鈥� in the sector to gain steam in 2026.

Related 附近上门 query:

Related reading:

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• Fintech Ramp Now Valued At $32B After $300M Raise Led By Lightspeed
• Fintech Funding Jumped 27% In 2025 With Fewer Deals But Bigger Checks
• Fintech Forecast: Momentum Builds With Big Deals, IPO-Ready Companies And More AI

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Investors poured $280 billion into seed through growth-stage rounds for U.S. and Canadian companies in 2025, per 附近上门 data. It was the highest annual total in four years, with funding up a whopping 46% from 2024.

The fourth quarter also delivered a strong finish to 2025 with $67 billion in reported investment, the second-highest quarterly tally for the year. 1 Early-stage dealmaking was particularly robust, hitting the highest level in the past four quarters.

While funding rose, deal counts declined a bit in 2025 and in Q4, as more capital was concentrated in larger rounds. Overall, deal count declined about 16% year-over-year, with just under 10,500 reported rounds.2 Deal count also declined about 14% sequentially in Q4.

Of course, AI was the dominant technology trend for the year, capturing a record sum. Beyond new rounds, investors also logged some gains, as IPOs, M&A and multibillion-dollar deals conceived as acquihires all contributed to ROI.

Below, we look at these trends along with a more granular look at Q4 funding.

Table of contents

• Artificial intelligence
• Late stage
• Early stage
• Seed
• Exits
• Indicators don鈥檛 point to a slowdown
• Methodology
• Glossary of funding terms

Artificial intelligence

We鈥檒l start with AI, as that鈥檚 where most of the money went.

Around $168 billion 鈥� or roughly 60% of all North American startup funding 鈥� went to companies in AI-related categories, per 附近上门. Investment held up in Q4, with around $36 billion, or more than half of total funding, going to AI.

The tally included multiple billion-dollar-plus rounds. For Q4, the largest AI deals were a $2.3 billion Series D for and its Cursor coding automation platform, and a $2 billion Series B for software development AI startup .听

For the full year, meanwhile, the largest AI rounds were 鈥檚 $40 billion -led financing in March and 鈥檚 $13 billion Series F in September.

Late stage

Startup funding was also strong across most stages in both Q4 and all of 2025. This held true for late-stage and technology-growth dealmaking, which drew $191 billion for the full year 鈥斕� up 75% from 2024.听

For Q4, meanwhile, investors put about $41 billion into late- and growth-stage deals, down a smidge from the prior quarter.

For Q4, the largest late-stage deals included a $1.5 billion Series E for , a provider of supercomputers for AI inference, and a $1.4 billion Series E for AI data center developer .

Early stage

Investors were also pretty generous about writing checks to early-stage companies last year.听

Overall, close to $69 billion went to Series A- and Series B-stage companies in 2025, up about 5% year over year. Funding hit a high point in Q4, with $21.6 billion going to early-stage deals.

For Q4, some of the largest deals included a $700 million Series B for identity security provider and a $600 million Series B for AI robotics startup .

Seed

Seed-stage investors were also not slouches in 2025, putting around $20.4 billion into reported rounds for the most nascent startups. However, that鈥檚 a bit of a decline from 2024, which saw about 9% more in known investment.

Deal counts also ticked lower last year, hitting a nadir in Q4, with just over 1,300 reported seed financings. (As always, we expect that total to rise a bit over time as more deals get entered into the dataset.)

The idea of a seed round being synonymous with small, of course, is now an outdated concept. This was evident in Q4, which had multiple jumbo-sized seed deals, including a $475 million financing for , which is focused on energy-efficient AI computing.

Exits

Both 2025 and Q4 were also reasonably active periods for sizable exits of both the IPO and M&A varieties.

IPO: For IPOs, Q4 closed out the year with a few big debuts including electric aircraft maker and corporate travel and expense platform . For the full year, the largest IPOs were AI infrastructure provider and design software platform .

M&A: It was also a happening year for big M&A deals. The largest of these was 鈥檚 planned purchase of for $32 billion, announced in March.

Many of the standout deals came in the fourth quarter. Biggest among these was 鈥檚 December deal to acquire assets of AI inference chip developer in a transaction reportedly at $20 billion.

In addition, announced plans in December to merge with fusion company in a transaction said to be valued at $6 billion. And purchased , a provider of data observability tools, for $3.35 billion.听

Indicators don鈥檛 point to a slowdown

There鈥檚 little in the 2025 and Q4 data that points to a slowdown ahead. In particular, the year closed on an up note for big rounds, especially early-stage, as well as good-sized exits.

Yes, there鈥檚 plenty of talk about an AI bubble. But for now, investors seem quite comfortable backing follow-on rounds for hot companies at ever-higher valuations and exit markets look accommodating. Broadly, the direction is still upward.

Methodology

The data contained in this report comes directly from 附近上门, and is based on reported data. Data is as of Jan. 4, 2026.

Note that data lags are most pronounced at the earliest stages of venture activity, with seed funding amounts increasing significantly after the end of a quarter/year.

Please note that all funding values are given in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted. 附近上门 converts foreign currencies to U.S. dollars at the prevailing spot rate from the date funding rounds, acquisitions, IPOs and other financial events are reported. Even if those events were added to 附近上门 long after the event was announced, foreign currency transactions are converted at the historic spot price.

Glossary of funding terms

Seed and angel consists of seed, pre-seed and angel rounds. 附近上门 also includes venture rounds of unknown series, equity crowdfunding and convertible notes at $3 million (USD or as-converted USD equivalent) or less.

Early-stage consists of Series A and Series B rounds, as well as other round types. 附近上门 includes venture rounds of unknown series, corporate venture and other rounds above $3 million, and those less than or equal to $15 million.

Late-stage consists of Series C, Series D, Series E and later-lettered venture rounds following the 鈥淪eries [Letter]鈥� naming convention. Also included are venture rounds of unknown series, corporate venture and other rounds above $15 million. Corporate rounds are only included if a company has raised an equity funding at seed through a venture series funding round.

Technology growth is a private-equity round raised by a company that has previously raised a 鈥渧enture鈥� round. (So basically, any round from the previously defined stages.)

Related reading:

• Global Venture Funding In 2025 Surged As Startup Deals And Valuations Set All-Time Records
• 附近上门 Predicts: Why Top VCs Expect More Venture Dollars, Bigger Rounds And Fewer Winners In 2026
• These Were The Largest Funding Rounds Of 2025听
• 附近上门 Predicts: Why The Race For Talent And Tech Could Accelerate Startup M&A In 2026
• 附近上门 Predicts: IPOs Picked Up In 2025 And The Outlook For 2026 Is Even More Optimistic听
• What We Learned From 6 Active AI Investors Backing Startups Across The Stack听

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After a prolonged slowdown, the IPO market is showing clearer signs of life. As our 2026 IPO outlook forecast details, improving public-market conditions, stabilizing interest rates and renewed investor appetite for growth are setting the stage for a wider reopening of the listing window.

Against that backdrop, a growing cohort of late-stage private companies now looks increasingly prepared to make the leap. Using 颁谤耻苍肠丑产补蝉别鈥檚 鈥� which evaluate factors including funding history, growth signals, investor mix and market timing 鈥� we鈥檝e curated a list of 15 companies across AI, enterprise software, fintech, space, defense, healthcare and consumer tech that could realistically go public in 2026, should market momentum continue to build.

AI and enterprise tech

: When the window is open, you make your move. That鈥檚 something IPO market timers take to heart. But while well-funded private companies are aware of this cyclicality, actually prepping and orchestrating a public debut takes the kind of prep that doesn鈥檛 always align with the perfect window. That said, AI infrastructure unicorn Crusoe Energy Systems is certainly scaling in a direction that points to a public exit, a likelihood that 附近上门 predictions affirm with a 鈥減robable鈥� rating on a listing for the Denver-based company. Crusoe closed on a in October at a valuation of more than $10 billion. With generative AI platforms currently expanding and investing at an unprecedented rate, the timing is certainly right for the kind of growth metrics IPO investors appreciate.

鈥� Joanna Glasner

: Databricks has been on our list since the end of 2021, when it missed the IPO window. 颁谤耻苍肠丑产补蝉别鈥檚 predictive tools label it a 鈥渧ery likely鈥� IPO candidate and that makes sense. The 12-year-old, San Francisco-based company is well placed to go public. As of Q3, it announced it is growing more than 55% year over year, with an over $4.8 billion revenue run rate as of its . Of that revenue, $1 billion was from its AI products. Net retention was above 140% and the company has been free cash flow positive for more than 12 months. Its valuation in recent months has soared. It was valued at $100 billion in September and in December at $134 billion in a round led by and public market investors and .

: Competition among model developers is heating up. AI lab has engaged to begin to explore an IPO, according to the . While 2026 might be too early for Anthropic to go public, another, less-known model developer could make a public-market debut this year. Cohere, co-headquartered in Toronto and San Francisco, focuses on supporting sovereign and secure AI for enterprise and governments. Its customers hail from across North America, APAC and EMEA, and include , and . , its founder and CEO, spoke at a event in London expressing an interest in a public listing in the near future for the 6-year-old company, which was recently valued at $7 billion with . 附近上门 predicts it is a 鈥減robable鈥� IPO candidate.

: Design platform Canva is another strong contender to go public in 2026. The 13-year-old Sydney, Australia-based company was valued at $42 billion in its most recent funding 鈥� a share sale for employees led by public market investor . As of its August 2025 funding, Canva鈥檚 . The company, which 附近上门 bills a 鈥減robable鈥� IPO candidate, claimed 240 million monthly users designing with its tools at that time. And adding further validation of Canva鈥檚 public-market readiness, competitor went public in July 2024 at a valuation of $16.1 billion. (Although, Figma鈥檚 stock is slightly up as of mid-December but remains well below its first-day massive .) As of Q3, Figma, by comparison, has reached .

鈥� Gen茅 Teare

: Before the AI boom, quantum computing was the hot, capital-intensive tech that got VCs and technologists excited. While AI has eclipsed investor interest in quantum, the latter continues to draw big checks from investors, who see enormous potential for the technology to facilitate breakthroughs in areas ranging from drug discovery to cybersecurity and defense. At least one quantum startup is actively mulling an IPO. That鈥檚 Quantinuum, which 附近上门 labels a 鈥減robable鈥� IPO candidate. That prediction squares with other reporting, including a March 2025 that cited a source with direct knowledge of the matter saying parent company is aiming for a 2026 or 2027 listing. The Broomfield, Colorado-based startup, formed in 2021 via the merger of Honeywell Quantum Solutions and Cambridge Quantum, has raised $925 million from venture investors to date, including a $600 million -backed Series B in August at a $10 billion pre-money valuation.

鈥� Marlize van Romburgh听

Space and defense tech

: Space tech has been a strong area for venture investment of late, and with the prospect of a IPO in 2026, it鈥檚 an increasingly buzzy sector for public markets as well. Among recently funded startups in the sector, Torrance, California-based K2 Space is a standout on several fronts. For one, it鈥檚 a fundraising machine, securing more than $400 million across three rounds since 2024. That culminated in a $250 Series C led by last month at a $3 billion valuation. The company, founded in 2022, develops large, high-power satellite platforms and has secured $500 million in signed contracts across commercial and U.S. government customers. 附近上门 predicts it鈥檚 鈥減robable鈥� that the startup will IPO.

鈥� Joanna Glasner

: This one is kind of a gimme. Late last year, -led SpaceX was reported to be eyeing an IPO that would be the largest VC-backed listing of all time 鈥斕齜y about 10x 鈥� at a target valuation of $1.5 trillion. The company is already one of the most valuable private businesses in the world. Its reported IPO ambitions make a lot of sense, given the capital-intensive nature of space exploration, aforementioned investor appetite for space tech, and its revenue: an $15 billion in 2025, much of it from its fast-growing StarLink satellite internet business. Founded in 2002, SpaceX has raised nearly $12 billion in its lifetime, according to 附近上门, which pegs a 鈥渧ery likely鈥� IPO probability on the Hawthorne, California-based company. Investors include , , , and , among others.

: Venture investment into defense tech hit an all-time high last year, and no company received more money than Anduril. Of the more than $7.7 billion that flowed to defense-related startups in 2025, roughly a third went to Anduril in its $2.5 billion Series G at a $30.5 billion valuation. The startup, founded in 2017 by founder , is well-connected in the administration and has been the beneficiary of the U.S. military鈥檚 efforts to modernize its defense and war technologies, including a contract with the to supply VR/AR headsets to the . The company has raised $6.3 billion to date from investors including , the , and . The Costa Mesa, California-based company is deemed a 鈥渧ery likely鈥� IPO candidate.

鈥� Marlize van Romburgh听

Health and consumer tech

: Innovaccer, provider of AI-enabled data and intelligence platform for healthcare providers, hits a lot of the checklist items we see in pre-IPO startups. It鈥檚 been around for a while (founded in 2014), raised considerable capital, secured a big early this year, and has high-profile strategic backers including . With 1,200 employees across five global offices, San Francisco-based Innovaccer is also a fairly large operation at this point, and certainly looks scaled enough for a public market debut, all factors that contribute to its 鈥減robable鈥� IPO prediction from 附近上门.

鈥� Joanna Glasner

: Hardware-maker Nothing is taking a more unconventional path to a potential IPO. The London-based startup is working to be 鈥淚PO-ready鈥� in three years, CEO and co-founder last month. In the meantime the company is giving fans of its smartphones and other gadgets a chance to invest at a via platforms like and . 鈥淭he timing will depend on market conditions and what makes sense for the business at that point in time,鈥� Pei told the publication. 附近上门 puts a 鈥減robable鈥� prediction on an IPO for Nothing, which has reportedly posted fast growth, particularly in markets like India, the U.K. and Japan. The company has said it hit more than $1 billion in lifetime sales last year and has sold more than 7 million devices. Along with its crowdfunding campaigns, Nothing has raised more than $446 million from venture investors including and , .

鈥� Marlize van Romburgh听

Cybersecurity

: Cybersecurity has long been one of the most robust and predictable areas for venture investment. One of the faster-growing startups in the sphere is Huntress, which offers cybersecurity products for small and medium-sized businesses that don鈥檛 have the resources for a fully staffed 24/7 security team. 附近上门 pins a 鈥減robable鈥� IPO prediction on the company, and CEO has also indicated a Huntress listing is a strong possibility in coming years. on the floor of the in late October, he said that the Columbia, Maryland-based company has posted 60% year-over-year growth and is on track to hit $185 million to $190 million in revenue this year. Demand for its offerings has only increased as generative AI has aided scammers and hackers to craft more sophisticated phishing and other cyber attacks, he said. The company has raised nearly $310 million from investors to date, , including a June 2024 Series D led by , and .

: 附近上门 says it鈥檚 鈥減robable鈥� that crypto wallet startup Ledger will IPO. That鈥檚 down from a 鈥渧ery likely鈥� prediction last year, but other signs continue to point to the likelihood of an offering for the Paris-based startup, which provides a hardware wallet to secure crypto private keys. That means Ledger, founded in 2014, is well-positioned at the intersection of two currently hot industries: cybersecurity and blockchain. It has raised some $577 million from venture investors including and , per . CEO in mid-2025 that Ledger is actively thinking about a U.S. stock market debut, likely within the next three years. He reiterated that an IPO is actively under consideration in an interview with last year, adding that the company鈥檚 revenue had hit triple-digit millions in 2025 amid soaring demand for secure crypto storage devices spurred by rising hacks. Ledger secures about $100 billion worth of bitcoin for its customers, he said. Gauthier has previously said an estimated 20% of the world鈥檚 crypto assets are protected by his company鈥檚 wallets.

鈥� Marlize van Romburgh听

Fintech

: With a 鈥渧ery likely鈥� IPO prediction from 附近上门, 2026 could be the year that Plaid, a fintech company that connects bank accounts to financial applications, finally decides to go public. In April, the company sold about $575 million worth of common stock at a $6.1 billion post-money valuation. At the time, Plaid told that it would not go public in 2025, but confirmed that an IPO was a milestone the company continued 鈥渢o track towards.鈥� The startup has not revealed specifics around revenue, noting only that 2025 was a record-setting year in which revenue grew over 25%. Plaid has raised about $1.3 billion from investors such as , , , and .

: Revolut, a digital bank based in London, is a 鈥渧ery likely鈥� candidate for an initial public offering, per 附近上门 predictions. In November, it completed a secondary share sale, boosting its valuation to $75 billion. That was a 67% jump compared to the $45 billion that Revolut was valued at in August 2024 when it announced to provide liquidity to employees. Investors include , , , , 鈥檚 venture capital arm , and . Revolut has seen impressive growth since its 2015 inception. In 2025, it achieved $1 billion in annualized revenue and surpassed a 65 million customer base across 100 countries. The company likely won鈥檛 IPO until it secures its full U.K. banking license, for which it is still .

: Monzo, another U.K.-based banking platform, is also said to be eyeing an IPO in 2026 and 附近上门 pegs a 鈥渧ery likely鈥� prediction for an offering too. Timing of the IPO is so sensitive for the company now that its CEO was pushed out of the head role due to his reported attempts at a listing earlier than some directors apparently wanted. He also reportedly indicated he might leave soon after. In June, Monzo revenue of more than $1.35 billion and 鈥渁 sharp rise鈥� in annual profit. It also increased its customer base by 25% to 12.2 million in its last fiscal year. The company was valued at $5.9 billion in October 2024 after selling shares to a group of existing investors. Backers include , , , and .

鈥� Mary Ann Azevedo

An IPO prediction is never a promise. But as market conditions shift and investor appetite broadens, these companies are flashing more of the signals that tend to precede a public offering.

Methodology

颁谤耻苍肠丑产补蝉别鈥檚 utilize 附近上门 data 鈥� including funding and valuation, and milestones such as financial growth, key leadership hires, market share expansion and headcount growth 鈥� to forecast the likelihood of a private company launching an IPO, providing a probability score and its supporting evidence. Read more about 颁谤耻苍肠丑产补蝉别鈥檚 Predictions & Insights and its methodology for IPO predictions .

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• 附近上门 Predicts: IPOs Picked Up In 2025 And The Outlook For 2026 Is Even More Optimistic听
• 附近上门 Predicts: Why Top VCs Expect More Venture Dollars, Bigger Rounds And Fewer Winners In 2026
• 附近上门 Predicts: Why The Race For Talent And Tech Could Accelerate Startup M&A In 2026
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• The IPO Market Is Opening Up. These 14 Companies Could Be Next.

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The financing marks the fourth raise for New York-based Ramp in 2025 alone, and brings its total equity raised since its 2019 inception to $2.3 billion, per the company. It was valued at $13 billion after a secondary share sale in March, and announced a $500 million Series E-2 at a $22.5 billion valuation in late July.

Roughly half of the $300 million in equity just raised will be used toward covering employee liquidity, according to the company. Any other employee liquidity needs will be covered by the secondary/tender portion, but that amount isn’t final.

led the latest equity round, which included participation from existing backers such as , , , and , among others. New investors , , , , and wrote checks into the round as well.

Ramp says it is now generating more than $1 billion in annualized revenue and producing free cash flow. It also reports that it has over 50,000 customers, double the amount it had last year, including , , , , and .

In particular, Ramp says it grew its enterprise customer base by 133% year over year, with more than 2,200 customers. Overall, it claims to power over $100 billion in purchases annually.

Global venture funding to financial technology startups in 2025 has, as of Nov. 17, reached $45.8 billion across 3,291 deals, per 附近上门 . That鈥檚 a 27.6% increase in dollars raised compared to the $35.9 billion raised across 4,348 deals during the same time period in 2024.

Related 附近上门 query:

Related reading:

• Fintech Comeback? IPOs Reignite Investor Optimism, But VC Funding Still Trails 2021 Highs
• Here Are The Fintech Companies That Could Go Public In 2025
• Fueled By AI, Fintech Ramp Raises $500M at a $22.5B Valuation Just Weeks After Last Raise

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Clarification: This story has changed since its original publication to correct the amount of the new valuation.

I鈥檓 a firm believer that 鈥� like oil and water 鈥� vibes and coding don鈥檛 mix particularly well.

When we code, we鈥檙e following rules and concepts to make sure programs are built on proper foundations. In contrast, vibes are about intuition and what feels right. Mash them together and you will inevitably end up with inconsistent software with inherent reliability issues.

In the short-term, vibe coding is an approach that creates confusion and buggy problems. But in the long-term, the stakes are far higher. This potent mix is a recipe that could lead to model collapse.

The long-term risks of sloppy code

Vibe coding replaces experience with vision. And while it can be a great way of experimenting and opening up the magic of software development to more people, when used to create code that will actually power systems and be relied on by others, it鈥檚 not fit for purpose.

Products built on AI-generated code that hasn鈥檛 been properly stress-tested weaken the integrity of everything built on top of them. Every time we lean on AI-generated code, or train new models on the outputs of vibe-coded ones, we are polluting the data sets and weakening the infrastructure that forms the foundation of software.

It鈥檚 a feedback loop where slop feeds off slop. The code gets fuzzier, the bugs more frequent, the quality of results steadily worse. Ultimately, the very models themselves will be unable to tell fact from fiction 鈥� rendering results and outputs useless.

This is . Constant hallucinations and errors, , and a breakdown of trust among customers.

When we rely too heavily on approaches that cut corners 鈥� skipping testing, overlooking governance and avoiding hard questions 鈥� we won鈥檛 just get bad apps, we鈥檒l break the foundations that models rely on.

How to build better

It鈥檚 time to re-establish some fundamentals. To avoid model collapse, here鈥檚 what we can do:

Double-down on data governance. If you don鈥檛 know where your data came from, or whether you can trust it, you鈥檙e essentially building on sand.

Build the infrastructure needed to accurately classify and label documents, before enriching them with top-quality metadata. Then ensure this data is stored correctly, backed up, and given the right security and permissions to enable good governance.

If you鈥檙e keen to optimize delivery, there are AI data governance tools that can do it for you. Establishing solid governance gives you greater control over the AI systems that work on your data. (Oh, and just another reminder to .)

Train engineering muscle

While AI can speed up development and enable teams to ship code faster, leaning too hard on it can cause core skills to wane. It鈥檚 vital to train developers properly and continue to invest in junior talent. All colleagues need to understand what 鈥済ood鈥� code looks like, so they can ensure the quality remains high and become the senior leaders of tomorrow.

Building coding skills without shortcuts should be a focus for junior developers to ensure that the next generation of tech talent understands what they are building at a foundational level, before they reach for optimization tools.

Aim for real-world feedback

It鈥檚 not enough to test your products in a sandbox and call it a day. An important part of the development cycle is testing software in the real context it鈥檒l exist in. For example, beta testing your products on users might take a lot of time, but it will stress-test systems in ways that developers might never have anticipated.

In other words: don鈥檛 rush feedback. Spending time observing and measuring how your products perform in the real world means you can catch and resolve quality issues early and build reliability into a final product.

Discipline means stability

The next wave of startups have a choice: build with discipline or build on slop. One scales trust. The other scales technical debt. By resisting the temptation to cut corners, we can ensure strong foundations and avoid model collapse.

is chief technology officer at AI company , whose tech and services help teams find, make sense of and retain control over their data. He leads Aiimi’s research and development on new and emerging technologies, with a particular focus on AI. When Maker is not at his computer, you will find him either at the gym or walking his dog.

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This is a weekly feature that runs down the week鈥檚 top 10 announced funding rounds in the U.S. Check out last week鈥檚 biggest funding rounds here.

This week has been a busy one for good-sized rounds, led by $500 million financings for crypto unicorn and AI-enabled parking provider . We also saw multiple large financings for biotech startups, plus some big rounds for cybersecurity and enterprise software.

1. (tied) , $500M, cryptocurrency: San Francisco-based crypto payments company Ripple raised $500 million at a $40 billion valuation. Funds managed by affiliates of and led the investment, along with , , and .

1. (tied) , $500M, parking: Metropolis, an AI-powered checkout-free parking platform, announced that it has secured $1.6 billion in debt and equity financing, including a $500 million Series D at a $5 billion valuation. led the equity financing for Los Angeles-based Metropolis, while provided a $1.1 billion term loan.

3. , $435M, cybersecurity: Armis, a provider of tools for monitoring cyber risk exposure, closed on $435 million in what it described as pre-IPO funding round. led the financing, which a $6.1 billion valuation for the 10-year-old, San Francisco-based company.

4. , $200M, neurotech: Synchron, a developer of nonsurgical brain-computer interface technology, picked up $200 million in Series D funding led by . The New York-based company wants to use its technology to restore communication and mobility for people with paralysis.

5. , $126M, healthcare AI: Hippocratic AI, a developer of generative AI healthcare agents, landed $126 million in Series C financing. led the round, which set a $3.4 billion valuation for the Palo Alto, California-based company.

6. , $100M, marketing automation: MoEngage, an AI-enabled customer engagement platform, raised $100 million in new financing, with going to the company and 40% going to secondary share sales. and led the financing.

7. , $91M, aerial robotics: Infravision, a company that aims to transform how power lines are built and maintained with aerial robotics, raised $91 million in Series B funding. Singapore鈥檚 led the financing for the 7-year-old, Austin-based startup.

8. , $80M, AI go-to-market tools: Santa Clara, California-based Reevo, developer of an AI platform for managing go-to-market strategy and processes, launched publicly and it has raised $80 million in funding co-led by and .

9. , $75M, biotech: Palo Alto, California-based Neok Bio, a startup focused on developing antibody drug conjugates for improving cancer outcomes, emerged from stealth with $75 million, backed by Korean biotech .

10. , $65M, genomic medicines: Berkeley, California-based Azalea Therapeutics, a developer of precision genomic medicines, launched from stealth and announced it has raised $65 million in a Series A led by .

Methodology

We tracked the largest announced rounds in the 附近上门 database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the period of Nov. 1-7. Although most announced rounds are represented in the database, there could be a small time lag as some rounds are reported late in the week.

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One such startup, , has secured $51 million in equity and debt funding, the company tells 附近上门 News exclusively.

The raise includes a $36 million Series C led by (Silver Lake Waterman) with participation from , 听补苍诲 , as well as $15 million in growth financing from . The financing brings Findem鈥檚 total funding since its 2019 inception to $105 million, with $90 million of that being equity, per the company.

Redwood City, California-based Findem鈥檚 mission is simple, even if its methods are not. It aims to transform how businesses 鈥渋dentify, attract and engage top talent.鈥�

The startup uses what it calls (out of a dataset developed out of 1.6 trillion data points) that it combines with AI to automate 鈥渒ey parts of the talent lifecycle.鈥� And those parts include building 鈥渢op-of-funnel鈥� pipelines of interested candidates, executive search and analyzing workforce and labor markets.

In an interview with 附近上门 News, co-founder and CEO said that Findem鈥檚 user base surged by 鈥渁bout 100x鈥� in the last 12 months and that the company is experiencing 3x year-over-year growth. Its enterprise customer base increased by 3x over the last year.

It has a user base of more than 12,000 customers, including from , , , 听补苍诲 , Kolam said.

Currently, Findem operates under a SaaS business model, charging per seat. As it expands its agentic abilities, the company plans to add an outcome-based model as well, according to Kolam. It is not yet profitable.

Findem is just one of more than a dozen startups at the intersection of AI and recruitment globally that have raised venture capital in 2025. As of early September, global startup investment for startups in the HR, recruitment and employment categories totaled around $2.3 billion, per 附近上门 data. That puts funding on track for a year-over-year gain, even as investment remains at a fraction of the levels hit during the market peak, as charted below.

How it works

Watching Findem鈥檚 platform in action provides better insight into just how it helps companies zero in on the specific talent for which they鈥檙e searching.

Say a startup wants to hire a software engineer who has worked at a company from its early days until it raised a Series C funding round. But it also wants that engineer to have a profile that it can view. Or, say a company wants to hire competitive coders who have seen a successful exit, or a CFOs who drove a company from a negative operating margin to a positive one.

Findem鈥檚 software will allow you to filter for all those desired attributes.

The startup says it鈥檚 able to help companies recruit so specifically because its 3D data combines people and company data over time into a format suitable for AI analysis. It claims that the 鈥渃ontinuously enhanced鈥� 3D dataset is 鈥渆xponentially larger and more factual鈥� than traditional sources of candidate data, making it a powerful tool for deep insights and automated workflows.

Using the combination of the data and AI, Findem creates 3D profiles, also dubbed 鈥渆nriched鈥� profiles, for every candidate it helps surface. The goal of the profiles is to provide 鈥渁 detailed and factual view鈥� of an individual鈥檚 鈥減rofessional journey and impact,鈥�

So just where does all this data come from? Findem says it continuously leverages a language model to generate that 3D data from more than 100,000 sources that are chronologically gathered (from earliest to latest).听

Those sources include , GitHub, , , personal websites, the , company funding announcements and IPO details, business models, more than 300 million patents and publications, over 5 million open datasets and ML projects, and over 200 million open source code repositories.听

It also pulls applicant profile information from applicant tracking systems such as , , , , and , among others.

This comprehensive data pull is what helps set Findem apart, in Kolam鈥檚 view. Some other hiring tools rely on one-dimensional data from resumes or LinkedIn profiles, which, he argues, 鈥済ive only a snapshot of someone鈥檚 career 鈥� without the context that reveals true potential.鈥� Kolam contends that it takes 鈥渆xtensive manual effort鈥� to verify and interpret the data.

鈥淛ust looking at a resume on paper really doesn’t come close to telling the whole story of how really qualified a candidate could be, or if they can really fit the criteria that a particular employer is looking for,鈥� Kolam maintains.

Findem is primarily focused on North American customers who have users across the globe. It鈥檚 also expanding into Europe. The company has a second headquarters in Bangalore, India.

Kolam declined to reveal Findem鈥檚 valuation, saying only that it was 鈥渁 significant up round and more than 2x鈥� compared to its valuation when it raised a $17 million-plus Series B extension in December 2023.

, managing partner at SLW, told 附近上门 News via email that his firm first got to know Kolam before Findem raised its Series B and then 鈥渢racked the company鈥檚 trajectory for some time.鈥�

鈥樷�橶hat drew us to Findem wasn鈥檛 just the technology, it was the traction,鈥� he said. “The team has achieved strong commercial momentum while tackling one of the most persistent challenges in HR 鈥� connecting data, insight and human potential in a way that actually drives business outcomes.鈥�

But the technology didn鈥檛 hurt.

In O鈥橬eill鈥檚 view, Findem鈥檚 main differentiator is its 鈥渄ata advantage 鈥� in a market where most companies are simply wrapping LLMs.鈥�

鈥淭he depth and breadth of their 3D profiles and web-scale dataset are unlike anything else in the market,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he UX is excellent, but the magic is really in how the platform leverages that data 鈥� it makes finding and understanding people effortless. We use it ourselves and see the power firsthand.鈥�

Related 附近上门 lists and queries:

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• Funding To HR Software Startups Rises As M&A Activity Heats Up听
• 鈥嬧�婮ob-Related Startup Funding Points To More AI Screening And More 鈥楪igification鈥� Of Work
• Exclusive: With OpenAI and Shopify As Customers, Ashby Raises $50M Series D For AI-Powered Talent Platform

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