Top 10 Startup and Tech Funding News – August 28, 2025

It’s Thursday, August 28, 2025, and we’re back with today’s top startup and tech funding news from across the globe. From trillion-dollar fusion bets and stablecoin infrastructure to AI inference engines and cross-chain trading protocols, today’s financings show capital flowing into both high-stakes deep tech and foundational crypto rails.

Investors are backing companies tackling massive engineering challenges—nuclear fusion, decentralized finance, and design tools powering the next wave of the internet—while also writing checks to early-stage AI startups focused on cost efficiency and civic infrastructure. The scale ranges from billion-dollar mega-rounds to lean seed financings, signaling that conviction capital is alive across all stages.

Funding Highlights

Commonwealth Fusion Systems pulled in a record $863 million to advance its SPARC reactor toward commercial viability, while Framer closed a $100 million Series D that values it at $2 billion. Stablecoin infrastructure saw major bets with Rain raising $58 million and M0 adding $40 million. On the AI front, FriendliAI landed $20 million to reduce GPU inference costs, while Ordinal raised $1 million to bring AI assistants into city halls. Crypto infrastructure also surged, with Portal to Bitcoin securing $50 million and aPriori locking in $20 million for DeFi trading infrastructure.

Investor Activity

The day’s financings brought together some of the most influential capital allocators in tech. Fusion giant Commonwealth Fusion Systems pulled commitments from Nvidia, Google, and Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures, underscoring how corporate strategics and mission-driven funds are doubling down on clean energy. Rain’s $58 million round featured Sapphire Ventures, Dragonfly, Galaxy Ventures, and Samsung Next, signaling deep interest from both fintech VCs and corporate innovation arms.

Crypto infrastructure also drew top-tier backers: Polychain Capital and Ribbit Capital co-led M0’s $40 million, while Paloma Investments anchored Portal to Bitcoin’s $50 million. Pantera Capital, HashKey, and IMC Trading backed aPriori’s $20 million Series A, extending traditional market-making expertise into DeFi. On the AI side, Capstone Partners and Sierra Ventures drove FriendliAI’s $20 million seed extension, while Plains Ventures and regional investors supported Ordinal’s civic AI push. Valkyrie Fund added strategic weight to DeAgentAI, highlighting the blend of early-stage conviction capital and specialist funds moving into AI agents.

Together, today’s activity shows how 2025 capital is flowing at both ends of the spectrum—mega-rounds for fusion and fintech infrastructure alongside nimble checks for AI startups in governance, inference, and agent ecosystems.

Here’s the full rundown:

Rain Raises $58M in Series B Funding for Stablecoin Infrastructure

Rain, an enterprise-grade stablecoin payments platform, announced a $58 million Series B round led by Sapphire Ventures. The New York-based startup’s platform allows banks, fintechs, and marketplaces to embed stablecoins into global payment programs.

The fresh funding – which brings Rain’s total funding to about $88.5 million – will support its expansion in Europe and other markets, as Rain continues to scale its Visa-linked stablecoin cards and wallets worldwide. Investors in the round include Dragonfly, Galaxy Ventures, Endeavor Catalyst, Samsung Next, Lightspeed, and Norwest.

Funding Details:

• Startup: Rain

• Investors: Sapphire Ventures (lead); Dragonfly; Galaxy Ventures; Endeavor Catalyst; Samsung Next; Lightspeed; Norwest

• Amount Raised: $58 million

• Total Raised: $88.5 million (to date)

• Funding Stage: Series B

• Funding Date: August 28, 2025

Commonwealth Fusion Systems Raises $863M in Mega-Round

Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS), a Massachusetts-based nuclear fusion startup, closed an $863 million funding round. The round brought together a diverse syndicate of investors – including tech giants Nvidia and Google, Breakthrough Energy Ventures (co-founded by Bill Gates), Tiger Global, Khosla Ventures, Lowercarbon Capital, Emerson Collective, Eni, Future Ventures, and others.

This financing makes CFS the best-funded fusion company in the world, with nearly $3 billion raised to date. CFS plans to use the new capital to advance its SPARC experimental reactor toward scientific breakeven and to lay the groundwork for its future ARC commercial power plant.

Funding Details:

• Startup: Commonwealth Fusion Systems

• Investors: Nvidia; Google; Breakthrough Energy Ventures (Bill Gates); Tiger Global; Khosla Ventures; Lowercarbon Capital; Emerson Collective; Eni; Future Ventures; Mitsui; Mitsubishi; Morgan Stanley Counterpoint

• Amount Raised: $863 million

• Total Raised: ~$3 billion (approx.)

• Funding Stage: Funding Round (private)

• Funding Date: August 28, 2025

M0 Raises $40M Series B for Stablecoin Payments Network

M0, a crypto startup building a cross-chain stablecoin issuance network, announced a $40 million Series B round. The round was co-led by Polychain Capital and Ribbit Capital, with participation from Endeavor Catalyst and existing backers Pantera Capital and Bain Capital Crypto. This round brings M0’s total funding to roughly $100 million.

The new funds will fuel M0’s effort to connect stablecoin issuers across blockchains, reflecting surging investor interest in stablecoin infrastructure as the stablecoin market has roughly doubled this year.

Funding Details:

• Startup: M0

• Investors: Polychain Capital (lead); Ribbit Capital (lead); Endeavor Catalyst; Pantera Capital; Bain Capital Crypto

• Amount Raised: $40 million

• Total Raised: ~$100 million (approx.)

• Funding Stage: Series B

• Funding Date: August 28, 2025

Framer Raises $100M in Series D Funding at $2B Valuation

Framer, a software platform for interactive web design, has raised $100 million in a Series D funding round, valuing the company at about $2 billion. The Amsterdam-based startup’s round was led by its existing investors Meritech Capital Partners and Atomico.

Framer’s tools enable companies to build responsive websites and prototypes with minimal coding. Including the previous $27 million it raised in 2023, Framer has now raised roughly $127 million in total. The fresh capital will be used to accelerate product development and expand Framer’s global team as it grows its half-million-strong user base.

The company has come a long way since co-founders Jisse Reijsiger and Koen Bok—who previously sold their design studio Sofa to Facebook in 2011—launched it in 2014. What started as a tool for interactive prototypes is now a full-fledged platform that lets teams build, publish, and manage professional-grade sites without touching a line of code.

Funding Details:

• Startup: Framer

• Investors: Meritech Capital Partners (lead); Atomico (lead)

• Amount Raised: $100 million

• Total Raised: ~$127 million (approx.)

• Funding Stage: Series D

• Funding Date: August 28, 2025

Ordinal Raises $1M Seed Funding for AI Government Assistant

Ordinal, a Bentonville, Arkansas-based startup offering AI research assistants for municipal governments, secured a $1 million seed round led by Plains Ventures. Other participants included Winrock International and The Venture Center Arkansas Fund.

“Most government employees spend about a third of their work week retrieving information, often navigating multiple sources and even people,” said Jacob Herrington, co-founder of Ordinal. “Ordinal makes that process fast, reliable, and secure. Our goal is simple: help governments and their communities work better together. With this funding, we’re scaling to bring our technology to more cities across the U.S., giving civic servants an easy entry point into AI.”

Ordinal’s platform uses retrieval-augmented AI to help city staff quickly answer questions from local ordinances, codes, and documents. With the new funds, Ordinal plans to scale its technology to more cities nationwide, expanding beyond its initial deployments in Arkansas and other U.S. municipalities.

Funding Details:

• Startup: Ordinal

• Investors: Plains Ventures (lead); Winrock International; The Venture Center Arkansas Fund

• Amount Raised: $1 million

• Total Raised: $1 million

• Funding Stage: Seed

• Funding Date: August 28, 2025

FriendliAI Raises $20M Seed Extension for AI Inference Platform

FriendliAI, a California-based AI inference startup, has closed a $20 million seed extension round. The round was led by Capstone Partners and included new investors Sierra Ventures, Alumni Ventures, KDB Investment, and KB Securities. FriendliAI’s platform helps companies run large AI models more efficiently by reducing GPU costs.

The new capital will accelerate the development of FriendliAI’s inference engine as demand grows for cloud-based AI processing. FriendliAI has now raised at least $20 million across its funding rounds.

Funding Details:

• Startup: FriendliAI

• Investors: Capstone Partners (lead); Sierra Ventures; Alumni Ventures; KDB Investment; KB Securities

• Amount Raised: $20 million

• Total Raised: Not disclosed (seed stage)

• Funding Stage: Seed (extension)

• Funding Date: August 28, 2025

Portal to Bitcoin Raises $50M in Funding for Bitcoin Trading Protocol

Portal to Bitcoin, a startup building a Bitcoin-centric cross-chain trading protocol, secured $50 million in new financing led by Paloma Investments. This brings the project’s total funding to $92 million.

Portal’s technology enables non-custodial trading of any asset settled on the Bitcoin blockchain. The new funds will expand Portal’s grant program and integrations, accelerating development of its BitScaler adapter for native Bitcoin scalability and onboarding institutional liquidity providers.

Funding Details:

• Startup: Portal to Bitcoin

• Investors: Paloma Investments (lead)

• Amount Raised: $50 million

• Total Raised: $92 million

• Funding Stage: Series B

• Funding Date: August 28, 2025

aPriori Raises $20M in Funding for DeFi Trading Infrastructure

aPriori, a San Francisco startup founded by former Jump Trading engineers, has raised $20 million in new funding, which brings its total capital raised to $30 million. Investors in the round include Pantera Capital, HashKey Capital, IMC Trading, Primitive Ventures, Gate Labs, GEM, Ambush Capital, and Big Brain Collective.

aPriori is building a high-performance on-chain execution layer to apply high-frequency trading techniques to DeFi markets. The new funding will be used to expand hiring, accelerate product rollouts (including its liquid-staking platform and AI-powered DEX aggregator), and deepen partnerships across the crypto trading ecosystem.

Founded in 2023, the San Francisco startup was launched by a team of former quant traders and engineers who cut their teeth at firms like Coinbase, Jump Trading, and Citadel Securities.

Funding Details:

• Startup: aPriori

• Investors: Pantera Capital; HashKey Capital; IMC Trading; Primitive Ventures; Gate Labs; GEM; Ambush Capital; Big Brain Collective

• Amount Raised: $20 million

• Total Raised: $30 million

• Funding Stage: Series A

• Funding Date: August 28, 2025

DeAgentAI Secures Strategic Investment from Valkyrie Fund

DeAgentAI, a blockchain-based AI agent infrastructure project, announced a strategic investment from Silicon Valley’s Valkyrie Fund. The strategic round brings DeAgentAI’s cumulative funding to over $10 million.

“We’re thrilled to announce a strategic investment from Silicon Valley powerhouse, Valkyrie Fund [https://valkyriefund.xyz]. This partnership is key to tackling one of AI’s biggest challenges: optimizing compute cost and efficiency. Valkyrie’s expertise will accelerate the rollout of our on-chain AI Agent infrastructure,” DeAgentAI said in a post on X.

Valkyrie Fund’s investment will help DeAgentAI optimize computing efficiency and accelerate the development of its on-chain AI agent platform. The startup plans to use the funds to improve its infrastructure for agent-based AI applications on blockchains.

Funding Details:

• Startup: DeAgentAI

• Investors: Valkyrie Fund (lead)

• Amount Raised: Not disclosed (strategic investment)

• Total Raised: >$10 million

• Funding Stage: Strategic Investment

• Funding Date: August 28, 2025

Tech Funding Summary Table