Top Startup and Tech Funding News – June 12, 2025

It’s Thursday, June 12, 2025, and we’re back with your daily tech funding roundup, tracking where capital is flowing and which startups are setting the pace across AI, fintech, hardware, and enterprise infrastructure.

While it’s a relatively quiet day on the funding front, today’s lineup still packs a punch, with billion-dollar valuations, high-efficiency AI breakthroughs, and next-gen robotics in the spotlight. From San Sebastián to San Francisco, a handful of bold bets reveal where investor conviction still runs deep—even in a slower news cycle.

Funding Highlights

Today’s highlights include Chime’s $700 million IPO debut, bringing fee-free banking to the public markets, and Multiverse Computing’s €189 million Series B to slash AI model costs using quantum-inspired compression. Meanwhile, Gecko Robotics hit unicorn status with a $125 million raise, Meter pulled in $170 million to scale managed networking infrastructure, and agentic AI startup Landbase launched from stealth with a $30 million Series A. Finally, hardware testing startup Nominal secured $75 million to support real-time validation for mission-critical physical systems.

Fewer rounds than usual, but no shortage of ambition. We’ll be watching closely tomorrow to see if deal volume rebounds heading into the weekend.

Here’s the full breakdown of the 6 funding deals we tracked today, complete with investor info, startup focus, and key financial details.

Chime Raises $700M in IPO to Expand Digital Banking Platform

Digital banking startup Chime made a splash in the public markets, raising around $700 million in its Nasdaq IPO to fuel the growth of its fee-free banking platform. The San Francisco-based fintech debuted at a valuation of $11.6 billion, about half its peak private valuation, reflecting a market reset in fintech. Chime offers checking and savings accounts with no overdraft or maintenance fees, earning revenue mainly from card transaction fees.

Major backers like DST Global, General Atlantic, and Iconiq, which first invested in Chime in 2019, supported its rise and partially exited through the offering. The fresh capital from public investors will help Chime broaden its financial products for everyday consumers and sustain its growth as one of the most valuable consumer fintech firms to go public in recent years.

Funding Details:

• Startup: Chime (San Francisco, USA – neobank for fee-free digital banking)

• Investors: DST Global; General Atlantic; Iconiq (notable pre-IPO shareholders)

• Amount Raised: $700 million (IPO proceeds)

• Total Raised: Over $2 billion (including IPO and private funding)

• Funding Stage: IPO (Nasdaq: CHYM)

• Funding Date: June 12, 2025

Multiverse Computing Lands €189M to Cut AI Costs with Model Compression

Multiverse Computing, a Spanish AI startup, secured a massive €189 million (about $217M) Series B round led by Bullhound Capital with participation from HP Inc., Forgepoint Capital, Toshiba, and other strategic investors. Based in San Sebastián,

Multiverse has developed CompactifAI, a quantum-inspired compression technology that shrinks large language models by up to 95% without sacrificing performance, slashing AI inference costs by as much as 80%. The new funding will accelerate Multiverse’s plans to scale this breakthrough globally, making AI models more efficient and even able to run on everyday devices instead of expensive cloud infrastructure.

With this raise (one of Europe’s largest AI rounds), Multiverse joins the ranks of top European AI startups and is now backed by an international syndicate confident in its ability to radically reduce AI deployment costs and broaden AI’s reach.

Funding Details:

• Startup: Multiverse Computing (San Sebastián, Spain – quantum-inspired AI model compression platform)

• Investors: Bullhound Capital (lead); HP Tech Ventures; Forgepoint Capital; Toshiba; others

• Amount Raised: €189 million (approx. $217 million)

• Total Raised: ~ $250 million (to date)

• Funding Stage: Series B

• Funding Date: June 12, 2025

Gecko Robotics Joins Unicorn Club with $125M for Wall-Climbing Inspection Robots

Pittsburgh-based Gecko Robotics raised $125 million in a Series D round led by Cox Enterprises, bringing its valuation to about $1.25 billion and officially making it a unicorn. The company, which builds AI-powered wall-climbing robots to inspect industrial infrastructure like tanks, boilers, and ships, has now amassed a total of $347 million in funding to date.

Existing investors, including USIT, XN, Founders Fund, and Y Combinator, joined the round, signaling confidence in Gecko’s mission to make hazardous inspections safer and more data-driven.

With the new capital, Gecko plans to expand into defense, energy, and manufacturing sectors, accelerating deployment of its robots that can drastically reduce inspection time and improve safety by keeping human workers out of dangerous environments. The funding will also help Gecko advance its analytics platform for infrastructure maintenance and meet rising demand from clients like the U.S. Navy and power plant operators.

Funding Details:

• Startup: Gecko Robotics (Pittsburgh, USA – industrial inspection robots with AI analytics)

• Investors: Cox Enterprises (lead); USIT; XN; Founders Fund; Y Combinator (existing investors)

• Amount Raised: $125 million

• Total Raised: $347 million

• Funding Stage: Series D

• Funding Date: June 12, 2025

Meter Reels In $170M to Scale Enterprise Internet Infrastructure Services

Meter, a provider of fully managed internet and networking infrastructure for businesses, today announced a $170 million Series C funding round to accelerate its growth in delivering “networking-as-a-service” solutions. The San Francisco-based startup’s round was led by General Catalyst (Hemant Taneja) and joined by a roster of new and existing investors, including Baillie Gifford, Lachy Groom, J.P. Morgan, Microsoft, Sequoia Capital, and others.

“We raised $170M in a Series C funding round led by Hemant Taneja at General Catalyst, with new and existing investors like Baillie Gifford, Lachy Groom, J.P. Morgan, Microsoft, Sequoia Capital, and WndrCo,” Meter said in a blog post.

The fresh capital vaults Meter’s valuation above $1 billion, underscoring its emergence as an enterprise tech unicorn. Meter plans to use the funds to scale up deployment of its hardware-software stack that provides businesses with high-performance internet, Wi-Fi, and cellular coverage as a subscription service.

By handling everything from on-site networking equipment to cloud management, Meter enables companies to rapidly set up and maintain secure, reliable connectivity across offices and facilities with minimal hassle. The Series C investment will help Meter meet growing demand from large organizations for turnkey networking solutions and continue innovating its unified network platform.

Funding Details:

• Startup: Meter (San Francisco, USA – managed internet & networking infrastructure provider)

• Investors: General Catalyst (lead – Hemant Taneja); Baillie Gifford; Microsoft; Sequoia Capital; others

• Amount Raised: $170 million

• Total Raised: Not disclosed (estimated over $300 million)

• Funding Stage: Series C

• Funding Date: June 12, 2025

Landbase Snags $30M to Automate Go-To-Market Efforts with Agentic AI

Landbase, an “agentic” artificial intelligence startup, closed a $30 million Series A to expand its AI-powered platform for automating business go-to-market workflows. Founded in 2024 and based in San Francisco, Landbase has built GTM-1 Omni, a domain-specific AI model trained on billions of sales data points to act as a virtual marketing and sales team. Its platform autonomously researches leads, crafts personalized outreach across email, LinkedIn, and phone, and optimizes campaigns in real-time, aiming to radically simplify B2B growth processes.

The Series A was led by Sound Ventures and Picus Capital, with participation from Firstminute Capital, 8VC, and A* A*AA*Capital. (Notably, Sound Ventures is co-founded by actor Ashton Kutcher.) Landbase will use the funding to enhance its AI models and launch a free entry-level version of its platform to onboard more businesses.

The startup’s goal is to give companies of all sizes an always-on, AI-driven go-to-market engine, cutting costs and time while boosting outreach effectiveness. With investor backing from both venture firms and industry angels, Landbase is poised to scale its “growth automation” solution and help clients accelerate revenue using AI.

Funding Details:

• Startup: Landbase (San Francisco, USA – AI platform for automated B2B go-to-market execution)

• Investors: Sound Ventures (lead); Picus Capital (lead); Firstminute Capital; 8VC; A* Capital

• Amount Raised: $30 million

• Total Raised: ~$30 million (first major round)

• Funding Stage: Series A

• Funding Date: June 12, 2025

Nominal Secures $75M to Accelerate Real-Time Testing for Physical Systems

Nominal, a Los Angeles–based startup building a unified test platform for hardware systems, closed a $75 million Series B financing to expand its operations and product development. Sequoia Capital led the round, joined by top-tier investors including Lightspeed Venture Partners, Lux Capital, General Catalyst, and Founders Fund.

Nominal provides a real-time testing “stack” for physical-world systems – its cloud-based workbench (Nominal Core) lets engineering teams capture high-rate sensor data, logs, and video in sync, while its edge platform (Nominal Connect) enables hardware-in-the-loop tests and live monitoring of equipment in the field.

The platform is used in demanding sectors like aerospace, defense, energy, and advanced manufacturing; clients such as Anduril Industries, Shield AI, and even the U.S. Air Force rely on Nominal to detect anomalies and ensure mission readiness of critical hardware. With the new funding, Nominal plans to scale up its team and infrastructure to support growing customer demand for faster, more collaborative testing of physical systems. The Series B infusion, backed by a who’s-who of venture firms, positions Nominal to become a key enabler for hardware companies to iterate and deploy technology with software-like speed and confidence.

Funding Details:

• Startup: Nominal (Los Angeles, USA – real-time testing and monitoring platform for hardware systems)

• Investors: Sequoia Capital (lead); Lightspeed Venture Partners; Lux Capital; General Catalyst; Founders Fund

• Amount Raised: $75 million

• Total Raised: Not disclosed

• Funding Stage: Series B

• Funding Date: June 12, 2025

Funding Summary Table