Top Startup and Tech Funding News – September 8, 2025
Nickie Louise
Posted On September 8, 2025
It’s Monday, September 8, 2025 — and today’s startup and tech funding news underscores investor conviction in AI agents, enterprise data tools, fintech infrastructure, space safety, and next-generation biotech. From billion-dollar raises by established giants to scrappy seed rounds fueling new entrants, capital continued flowing across industries and geographies.
Funding Highlights
Cognition AI led the day with a $400 million raise to scale its autonomous coding agent “Devin.” On the fintech side, Rainforest secured $29 million to expand embedded payments, while Orbii closed $3.6 million to power SME lending in the Middle East. Biotech momentum was marked by NRG Therapeutics’ £50 million Series B to advance treatments for Parkinson’s and ALS, alongside Epigenic Therapeutics’ $60 million Series B for epigenome editing.
Investor Activity
Top-tier global investors participated, including Founders Fund, Thrive Capital, Insight Partners, and Prosus Ventures, alongside corporate strategics like Novartis and Merck KGaA. The mix also included sector specialists such as Female Founders Fund and Automate Health, signaling confidence across vertical AI, fintech infrastructure, and healthcare compliance.
The day’s financings reflect a broad spread of innovation — from Silicon Valley to Riyadh, London, Shanghai, and Copenhagen — with funding backing both billion-dollar valuations and early-stage startups aiming to reshape their industries.
Here’s the full breakdown.
Cognition AI Raises $400M in Funding to Scale Autonomous Coding Agents
Cognition AI, a San Francisco-based AI software startup known for its autonomous coding agent “Devin,” has secured a colossal $400 million funding round at a valuation of about $10.2 billion. The raise, led by Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, reflects strong investor confidence in Cognition’s vision of AI agents that can write, debug, and deploy code with minimal human intervention.
Despite a broader market cooldown for AI funding, Cognition’s ability to attract such capital underscores its status as a frontrunner in the AI coding arena. The company recently acquired a smaller rival, Windsurf, to bolster its enterprise capabilities, and it plans to use the new funds to expand its AI agent ecosystem and enhance Devin’s problem-solving skills.
This investment comes just weeks after a prior financing reportedly valued the year-old startup at $9.8 billion, marking a rapid leap in valuation as Cognition races to transform software engineering with AI.
Funding Details:
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Startup: Cognition AI
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Investors: Founders Fund (lead); Lux Capital, 8VC, Neo, Elad Gil, Definition Capital, Swish VC; new strategic backers include Goldman Sachs and Palantir
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Amount Raised: $400 million
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Total Raised: Not disclosed
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Funding Stage: Late-stage (Series B/C)
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Funding Date: September 8, 2025
Motion Raises $38M in Series C Funding to Build AI “Office” for SMBs
Motion, a Y Combinator-backed AI productivity startup, has raised a total of $60M across Series B, Series C, and Series C2 funding rounds to expand its suite of AI agents for small and mid-sized businesses. The San Francisco-based company – founded by Harry Qi and team – offers an AI-driven platform that functions like a “Microsoft Office of AI agents,” integrating an array of virtual assistants for scheduling, sales, customer support, and marketing into one bundle.
After seeing explosive growth to over 10,000 business customers and $10 million ARR in just a few months, Motion attracted new funding led by Scale Venture Partners to accelerate development of its agent platform. The startup’s technology allows resource-strapped SMBs to automate routine tasks (from managing calendars to drafting emails) using a coordinated team of AI agents that work together seamlessly.
Motion’s co-founder and CEO Harry Qi says the fresh capital – which brings total funding to $75 million – will help the company broaden its product offerings and scale operations as it aims to become “the next Microsoft” in the era of AI-driven software.
Funding Details:
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Startup: Motion
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Investors: Scale Venture Partners (lead); HOF Capital, 468 Capital, SignalFire, Valor Equity Partners, Fellows Fund, Leonis Capital, Apollo Projects, and Y Combinator
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Amount Raised: $38 million
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Total Raised: $75 million
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Funding Stage: Series C
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Funding Date: September 8, 2025
Space DOTS Launches with $1.5M in Seed Funding to Monitor Orbital Threats
London-based space startup Space DOTS has closed a $1.5 million seed round to advance its platform for detecting and analyzing threats in Earth’s orbit. Founded by aerospace engineer Bianca Cefalo in 2022, Space DOTS develops “SKY-I,” a software system that aggregates in-orbit environmental data to help satellite operators identify and attribute both natural and human-made hazards in space. The seed funding, led by Female Founders Fund, brings Space DOTS’ total funding to $3.2 million to date.
With decades of industry experience (including work on NASA’s Mars Insight mission and European satellite projects), Cefalo created Space DOTS to fill a critical gap: providing real-time intelligence on space weather, radiation, and orbital debris events that can disrupt spacecraft.
The new capital will allow the startup to expand its team in the UK and the U.S. and prepare its technology for upcoming space missions. Space DOTS’ long-term goal is to equip both commercial and defense space operators with the data and predictive analytics needed to safeguard satellites and critical infrastructure from orbital threats.
Funding Details:
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Startup: Space DOTS
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Investors: Female Founders Fund (lead); other participants include Seldorff Capital (Sie Ventures), Feel Ventures, and General Electric Co.
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Amount Raised: $1.5 million
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Total Raised: $3.2 million
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Funding Stage: Seed
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Funding Date: September 8, 2025
Eloquent AI Lands $7.4M in Seed Funding to Automate Finance Customer Service
Eloquent AI, a Y Combinator-incubated startup co-founded by second-time entrepreneur Tugce Bulut, has raised $7.4 million in seed funding to streamline customer service in the financial services sector. Based in San Francisco, Eloquent provides banks and fintech companies with an AI platform that can handle complex, regulated tasks – from onboarding new clients to unfreezing bank accounts – through a proprietary large language model tuned for compliance.
The round came together in just three days and was 12× oversubscribed, reflecting strong investor demand for verticalized AI solutions. Foundation Capital led the financing, joined by EJF Ventures, Duke Capital Partners, Zeno Ventures, and Y Combinator.
Bulut, who previously founded market research firm Streetbees, partnered with UCL machine learning professor Aldo Lipani to launch Eloquent in 2025. In a matter of weeks, the startup has secured 10 pilot customers and reached $500,000 in annual recurring revenue by automating labor-intensive workflows that normally require human agents. With the new seed capital, Eloquent AI plans to grow its engineering team and expand its product’s capabilities (such as AI-driven sanctions screening) as it prepares for a larger raise next year.
Funding Details:
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Startup: Eloquent AI
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Investors: Foundation Capital (lead); EJF Ventures, Duke Capital Partners, Zeno Ventures, Y Combinator
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Amount Raised: $7.4 million
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Total Raised: $7.4 million (seed)
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Funding Stage: Seed
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Funding Date: September 8, 2025
Rainforest Snags $29M in Series B Funding to Embed Payments in Software
Atlanta-based fintech startup Rainforest has raised $29 million in a Series B round to accelerate its “payments-as-a-service” platform for vertical software companies. Rainforest’s technology enables businesses (from SaaS platforms to marketplaces) to easily integrate payment processing into their own software, allowing them to offer branded payment solutions to their end-users without relying on third-party processors.
The new funding was co-led by Matrix Partners and Infinity Ventures, with participation from existing investors including Accel, Tech Square Ventures, and The Fintech Fund. Since its Series A in 2024, Rainforest’s annual recurring revenue has grown 10× as more software firms turn to embedded payments as a revenue driver. Founder and CEO Joshua Silver – who previously sold his last startup to a public fintech – says Rainforest differentiates itself from giants like Stripe and Adyen by focusing exclusively on the needs of software platforms (providing features like residual revenue sharing and merchant management tools).
The fresh capital, which brings Rainforest’s total funding to $57.5 million, will help the company expand its engineering team and onboard new platform partners as it aims to become a go-to payment infrastructure for software makers globally.
Funding Details:
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Startup: Rainforest
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Investors: Matrix Partners (co-lead), Infinity Ventures (co-lead); with Accel, Tech Square Ventures, The Fintech Fund, and other returning backers
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Amount Raised: $29 million
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Total Raised: $57.5 million
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Funding Stage: Series B
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Funding Date: September 8, 2025
Isotopes AI Emerges with $20M in Seed Funding to Clean Up Enterprise Data
Isotopes AI, a Silicon Valley-based enterprise AI startup, has launched from stealth with a hefty $20 million seed financing to tackle one of the business’s biggest challenges: messy data. Co-founded by a trio of veteran data engineers (including Hortonworks co-founder Arun Murthy), Isotopes AI introduced an intelligent agent called “Aidnn” that helps managers find, clean, and analyze data across various enterprise systems using simple natural-language queries. Unlike basic chatbots, Aidnn is designed to perform multi-step data workflows – it can locate data in siloed ERP, CRM, and finance apps, automatically normalize and join disparate datasets, then generate reports or forecasts while explaining its reasoning.
The seed round was led by NTTVC (the venture arm of NTT), signaling confidence in Isotopes AI’s approach to next-gen business analytics. With this new funding, the startup plans to accelerate product development and address the data integration pain points that plague large organizations. Aidnn’s early demos have shown promise in cutting down the manual effort required for financial reporting and other analytics tasks, giving enterprises a powerful tool to unlock insights from their fragmented data.
Funding Details:
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Startup: Isotopes AI
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Investors: NTTVC (lead); other strategic investors undisclosed
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Amount Raised: $20 million
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Total Raised: $20 million
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Funding Stage: Seed
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Funding Date: September 8, 2025
Orbii Raises $3.6M in Seed Funding to Power SME Lending in MENA
Orbii, a Riyadh-based fintech startup, has secured $3.6 million in seed funding to help banks and fintechs launch lending programs for small businesses. Founded in 2024, Orbii provides an AI-driven credit infrastructure platform that integrates with financial institutions’ existing systems to automate the underwriting, disbursement, and monitoring of SME loans.
The funding round was led by Prosus Ventures (the investment arm of Naspers), with participation from regional investors including VentureSouq, DASH Ventures, Taqnia (Taqnia Investments), and Sanabil 500. Orbii’s solution allows banks and B2B platforms to embed lending services directly into their workflows – for example, enabling a point-of-sale provider or an ERP system to offer instant working capital loans to merchants based on real-time financial data.
By processing raw financial inputs and using AI to assess creditworthiness in seconds, Orbii aims to dramatically speed up and broaden access to business credit in the Middle East. The startup plans to use the fresh capital to expand its engineering and data science teams, deepen integrations with banking partners, and expand from Saudi Arabia into the UAE. Orbii ultimately envisions powering over $1 billion in SME loans by 2026 as it drives a new wave of embedded lending across the region.
Funding Details:
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Startup: Orbii
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Investors: Prosus Ventures (lead); VentureSouq, DASH Ventures, Taqnia Investments, Sanabil 500 MENA
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Amount Raised: $3.6 million
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Total Raised: $3.6 million
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Funding Stage: Seed
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Funding Date: September 8, 2025
Naq Secures £5.1M Series A to Boost Healthtech Cybersecurity
Naq, a UK- and Netherlands-based cybersecurity startup, has secured £5.1 million in Series A funding to scale its compliance platform for digital health companies. Co-founded by GDPR lawyer Nadia Kadhim in 2020, Naq offers a one-stop software solution that helps healthtech vendors meet the myriad of cybersecurity and data privacy standards required to work with national health systems (like the NHS in Britain).
The platform automates compliance with frameworks such as Cyber Essentials, the NHS Data Security & Protection Toolkit, and other regulatory criteria – saving startups hundreds of hours and thousands of pounds in audit costs. Naq’s Series A was funded entirely by Automate Health, a private investment firm backed by the Steyn Group, which also brings an advisory network of healthcare industry veterans.
The fresh capital will be used to add AI capabilities to Naq’s product (for continuous security monitoring and risk assessment) and to incorporate additional standards like medical device regulations and SOC 2 into the platform. With more than 150 health tech solutions already using Naq to safeguard patient data across the NHS, the company plans to expand its services across Europe as hospitals increasingly demand robust cyber compliance from their tech suppliers.
Funding Details:
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Startup: Naq
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Investors: Automate Health (sole investor, backed by Steyn Group)
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Amount Raised: £5.1 million (Series A)
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Total Raised: Not disclosed
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Funding Stage: Series A
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Funding Date: September 8, 2025
Understory Lands €12M in Series A Funding to Digitize Experience Providers
Understory, an Aarhus, Denmark-based travel tech startup, has raised €12 million in Series A funding to scale its platform for tour and experience providers. Led by CEO Lasse Kjær (who previously built the Nordics’ largest experience portal), Understory provides an AI-powered software suite that combines booking, payment, and marketing tools in one system. The goal is to help experience providers – from adventure tour operators to class and workshop hosts – automate their workflows and grow their businesses online.
Nearly half of experience bookings worldwide still occur offline, a paradox Understory aims to fix by giving providers modern tools to attract and manage guests digitally. The Series A round was led by London-based Smedvig Ventures, with participation from People Ventures and Sequel, as well as existing backers Seed Capital and firstminute Capital. Understory, which already operates in 10 countries, plans to use the new capital to expand into more markets and further develop its platform.
With 44 employees across offices in Aarhus and Copenhagen, the startup has seen its customer base grow sixfold in the past year and was recently named one of Europe’s 100 most promising software startups. Understory’s investors say its strong team and clear vision position it to become a global leader in the $3 trillion experience economy.
Funding Details:
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Startup: Understory
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Investors: Smedvig Ventures (lead); People Ventures, Sequel; existing investors Seed Capital and firstminute Capital
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Amount Raised: €12 million
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Total Raised: Not disclosed
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Funding Stage: Series A
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Funding Date: September 8, 2025
NRG Therapeutics Raises £50M in Series B Funding to Target Parkinson’s and ALS
UK-based biotech NRG Therapeutics has raised £50 million (approximately $67 million) in a Series B financing to advance its novel small-molecule treatment for Parkinson’s disease and ALS. The round was led by the Dementia Discovery Fund, with significant backing from the corporate venture arms of pharma giants Novartis and Merck KGaA.
NRG’s approach tackles neurodegenerative diseases by targeting mitochondrial dysfunction – specifically by preventing the pathological opening of the mitochondrial permeability transition pore (mPTP), which triggers inflammation and neuron death. The startup’s lead candidate, dubbed NRG-5051, is a brain-penetrant compound that binds a key mitochondrial protein to keep the mPTP closed, potentially slowing or halting disease progression.
With this infusion of capital, NRG Therapeutics plans to initiate clinical trials for NRG-5051 as early as Q4 2025, moving from preclinical promise to first-in-human studies. The company will also expand its pipeline of backup compounds and invest in biomarker development to measure the drug’s impact. Launching in 2018 with seed support from Parkinson’s UK and the Michael J. Fox Foundation, NRG has steadily advanced its science, and the strong interest from both venture funds and Big Pharma in this round underscores the promise of its mitochondrial-based strategy to combat Parkinson’s, ALS, and potentially other neurodegenerative disorders.
Funding Details:
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Startup: NRG Therapeutics
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Investors: Dementia Discovery Fund (lead); Novartis Venture Fund, M Ventures (Merck KGaA), and other pharma-focused VCs
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Amount Raised: £50 million (Series B) – approx. $67 million
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Total Raised: Not disclosed
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Funding Stage: Series B
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Funding Date: September 8, 2025
Epigenic Therapeutics Closes $60M in Series B Funding for Epigenetic Gene Therapy
Shanghai-based Epigenic Therapeutics has completed a $60 million Series B round to accelerate its clinical programs in epigenome editing therapies. The financing was led by Lapam Capital, with continued participation from existing investors Qiming Venture Partners and OrbiMed, plus new backers including IFSC. Epigenic is a pioneer in epigenetic medicine – it’s developing a proprietary platform called EPIREG™ that can silence disease-causing genes through targeted DNA methylation and histone modification, without cutting the DNA (a safer alternative to CRISPR-style gene editing).
The company’s lead candidates include EPI-003, aimed at a functional cure for chronic hepatitis B, and EPI-001, targeting familial hypercholesterolemia; both are currently in clinical development and will be fueled by the new funding. Epigenic will also use the capital to advance multiple preclinical programs and to enhance its AI-driven drug discovery infrastructure.
The startup has developed an in-house lipid nanoparticle delivery system (EpiTax™) to direct its gene-silencing therapies to the liver and other organs, and an AI-enabled design platform (AIAID™) to accelerate discovery of epigenetic drug candidates. With this round, Epigenic Therapeutics is well-positioned to push its epigenome modulation treatments through clinical trials and closer to market, offering a potential new class of gene therapies for chronic diseases.
Funding Details:
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Startup: Epigenic Therapeutics
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Investors: Lapam Capital (lead); Qiming Venture Partners, OrbiMed (existing investors); IFSC and others (new investors)
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Amount Raised: $60 million
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Total Raised: Not disclosed
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Funding Stage: Series B
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Funding Date: September 8, 2025
Tech Funding Summary Table
| Startup | Investors (Lead and notable investors) | Amount Raised | Total Raised | Funding Stage | Funding Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cognition AI | Founders Fund (lead); Lux Capital, 8VC, Neo, Elad Gil, etc. | $400M | Not disclosed | Late-stage (Series B/C) | Sept 8, 2025 |
| Motion | Scale Venture Partners (lead); HOF Capital, 468 Capital, SignalFire, Y Combinator, etc. | $38M | $75M | Series C | Sept 8, 2025 |
| Space DOTS | Female Founders Fund (lead); Seldorff (Sie) Ventures, GE Ventures | $1.5M | $3.2M | Seed | Sept 8, 2025 |
| Eloquent AI | Foundation Capital (lead); EJF Ventures, Duke Capital, Zeno, YC | $7.4M | $7.4M | Seed | Sept 8, 2025 |
| Rainforest | Matrix Partners & Infinity Ventures (co-leads); Accel, Tech Square, Fintech Fund | $29M | $57.5M | Series B | Sept 8, 2025 |
| Isotopes AI | NTTVC (lead); others undisclosed | $20M | $20M | Seed | Sept 8, 2025 |
| Orbii | Prosus Ventures (lead); VentureSouq, DASH, Taqnia, Sanabil 500 | $3.6M | $3.6M | Seed | Sept 8, 2025 |
| Naq | Automate Health (sole investor) | £5.1M (~$6.3M) | Not disclosed | Series A | Sept 8, 2025 |
| Understory | Smedvig Ventures (lead); People Ventures, Sequel, Seed Capital, firstminute | €12M | Not disclosed | Series A | Sept 8, 2025 |
| NRG Therapeutics | Dementia Discovery Fund (lead); Novartis Venture Fund, Merck KGaA Ventures | £50M (~$67M) | Not disclosed | Series B | Sept 8, 2025 |
| Epigenic Therapeutics | Lapam Capital (lead); Qiming Venture, OrbiMed, IFSC | $60M | Not disclosed | Series B | Sept 8, 2025 |
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