Top Startup and Tech Funding News – December 16, 2025

It’s Tuesday, December 16, 2025, and we’re back with today’s top startup and tech funding news spanning enterprise AI, stablecoin payments, clean energy, cybersecurity, biotech, and generative developer infrastructure. From seed rounds to late-stage billion-dollar raises, today’s deals highlight sustained investor conviction in foundational technologies powering intelligent automation, financial decentralization, and next-gen energy systems.

Databricks headlined the day with a record-breaking $4 billion Series L to scale its data and AI platform, followed by Chai Discovery’s $130 million Series B to advance generative drug design. RedotPay secured $107 million to make stablecoin-powered payments truly global, while Last Energy raised $100 million to bring micro nuclear reactors online to meet AI-scale energy demand. AI security, developer APIs, and audio generation all saw strong support from top-tier VCs, reinforcing the end-of-year momentum behind mission-critical platforms and infrastructure. Early-stage breakthroughs include AI-native sound design, climate-resilient water systems, and automated clinical front offices—pushing the frontier of how we interact, heal, and build.

Funding Highlights

• Databricks raised $4B+ in Series L to scale its enterprise AI stack.

• Chai Discovery secured $130M to drive AI-designed antibody development.

• RedotPay closed $107M Series B to expand global stablecoin payments.

• Last Energy raised $100M for compact modular nuclear reactors.

• Adaptive Security locked in $81M to combat AI-powered cyber threats.

• Runware secured $50M Series A to unify high-speed AI model deployment.

• Mirelo raised $41M in seed funding for generative audio infrastructure.

• Valerie Health landed $30M to automate medical admin with AI agents.

• Thread Bank secured $30.5M to scale its embedded banking platform.

• Vital Lyfe raised $24M seed round to deliver clean water in off-grid settings.

Investor Activity

Today’s funding slate featured deep participation from global growth investors, leading AI backers, and strategic corporate VCs betting on next-gen compute, clean energy, and AI-native platforms. As 2025 nears its close, capital continues flowing into mission-aligned companies building the backbone of tomorrow’s infrastructure—from enterprise intelligence and decentralized finance to AI-native healthtech and post-grid climate resilience.

Here’s the full breakdown of December 16’s most significant startup and tech fundings.

Databricks Raises $4 B Series L at $134 B Valuation for Enterprise AI Platform

Databricks, the San Francisco-based data and AI powerhouse, has secured over $4 billion in a Series L round, valuing the company at $134 billion. The massive late-stage funding comes as Databricks surpasses a $4.8 billion annual revenue run rate, with more than 55% year-over-year growth, driven by strong demand for its unified data analytics and AI platform.

This new capital will fuel Databricks’ expansion of “data intelligent” applications – from its Lakehouse and Lakebase technologies to the new Agent Bricks AI automation tools – enabling enterprises to build generative AI and analytics applications at scale. The record-breaking round, led by a roster of top institutional investors, underscores Databricks’ position at the forefront of the AI revolution and will also provide liquidity for employees as the company continues its rapid growth trajectory.

Funding Details:

• Startup: Databricks

• Investors: Insight Partners (lead), Fidelity Management & Research, J.P. Morgan Asset Management, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, BlackRock, Blackstone, Coatue, GIC, NEA, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, T. Rowe Price, Temasek, Thrive Capital, and others.

• Amount Raised: $4 billion+

• Total Raised: Not disclosed (estimated over $7 billion to date)

• Funding Stage: Series L

• Funding Date: December 16, 2025

Chai Discovery Snaps Up $130 M Series B to Advance AI-Powered Drug Discovery

Chai Discovery, a San Francisco-based biotech startup backed by OpenAI, has raised a substantial $130 million Series B round at a $1.3 billion valuation to accelerate its AI-driven drug discovery platform. Founded in 2024 by a team of scientists and engineers, Chai is positioning itself as an “infrastructure” biotech—building a computational design suite that uses generative AI to invent new antibody therapeutics from scratch.

The fresh funding comes just months after a prior raise. It brings Chai’s total funding to $225 million, fueling its mission to tackle some of the most challenging disease targets that have eluded conventional approaches. With a leadership team blending deep pharma R&D experience and cutting-edge AI expertise (including alumni of Meta AI and Stripe), Chai is poised to bridge computational models with real-world drug development. The Series B, led by prominent healthcare and tech investors, will help Chai scale its platform, expand its scientific team, and advance multiple AI-designed antibody candidates into clinical trials.

Funding Details:

• Startup: Chai Discovery

• Investors: Oak HC/FT and General Catalyst (leads), joined by Thrive Capital, Menlo Ventures, and OpenAI’s Startup Fund

• Amount Raised: $130 million

• Total Raised: $225 million

• Funding Stage: Series B

• Funding Date: December 15, 2025 (announced Dec. 16)

RedotPay Raises $107 M in Series B Funding for Global Stablecoin Payments Platform

RedotPay, a global fintech startup leveraging stablecoins for everyday payments, has raised $107 million in an oversubscribed Series B round to accelerate its mission to make digital finance borderless. The company – which enables instant, low-cost transactions via stablecoin technology – has seen explosive user growth across more than 100 markets, now serving 6+ million users and processing more than $10 billion in annualized payment volume.

This new funding round, led by top fintech and crypto investors, signals strong confidence in RedotPay’s model of bridging traditional money and digital assets. The fresh capital will help the company expand its stablecoin-powered products – from global payout rails to multi-currency digital wallets and payment cards – all aimed at boosting financial access and inclusion. With a profitable business model and $ 150+ million in annual revenue, RedotPay is poised to scale its platform globally and drive mainstream adoption of stablecoin-based payments.

Funding Details:

• Startup: RedotPay

• Investors: Goodwater Capital (lead), Pantera Capital, Blockchain Capital, Circle Ventures, HSG, and others

• Amount Raised: $107 million

• Total Raised: $194 million (in 2025)

• Funding Stage: Series B

• Funding Date: December 16, 2025

Last Energy Attracts $100 M in Series C Funding to Build Micro Nuclear Reactors

Last Energy Inc., an Austin-based nuclear energy startup, has secured a $100 million Series C funding round to advance the development of compact, modular nuclear reactors. The oversubscribed round was led by the Astera Institute and joined by prominent deep-tech investors, reflecting renewed interest in next-generation atomic power amid soaring energy demands from AI and cloud computing. Last Energy is developing a 20-megawatt microreactor designed for efficient mass production, aiming to cut costs by using standardized, off-the-shelf components.

The fresh funding will accelerate the company’s commercialization plans – including engineering, regulatory approvals, and scaling manufacturing – as it strives to deliver reliable, carbon-free power in a smaller, factory-built package. With this investment, Last Energy is well-positioned to bring its first reactors to market and help meet the growing demand for clean, high-density energy solutions in the data-driven era.

Funding Details:

• Startup: Last Energy

• Investors: Astera Institute (lead), Galaxy Interactive, Gigafund, Woori Technology, among others

• Amount Raised: $100 million

• Total Raised: Not disclosed (prior rounds approx. $64 million before this round)

• Funding Stage: Series C

• Funding Date: December 16, 2025

Adaptive Security Secures $81 M in Series B Funding to Combat AI-Powered Cyber Threats

Adaptive Security, a New York-based cybersecurity startup, has raised an impressive $81 million in a Series B round to expand its platform that protects organizations from AI-driven social engineering attacks. In less than a year since launch, Adaptive’s AI-powered training and simulation tools have been adopted by over 500 enterprises to defend against new threats such as deepfake voice scams and sophisticated phishing attacks powered by generative AI.

The latest funding, led by major tech and finance players, will accelerate product development and global expansion as Adaptive races to stay ahead of rapidly evolving cyber threats. The company’s technology analyzes an organization’s exposure (e.g., leaked data that attackers could exploit). It simulates hyper-realistic phishing and deepfake attack scenarios to train employees and provides real-time risk analytics. By bringing on investors such as NVIDIA’s venture arm and major financial firms, Adaptive Security is positioned as a leader in the emerging “human defense” segment of cybersecurity, helping companies counter next-generation AI-enabled attacks.

Funding Details:

• Startup: Adaptive Security

• Investors: Bain Capital Ventures (lead), NVentures (NVIDIA’s venture arm), Capital One Ventures, Citi Ventures; with existing backers including OpenAI Startup Fund, Abstract Ventures, and Andreessen Horowitz

• Amount Raised: $81 million

• Total Raised: Not disclosed

• Funding Stage: Series B

• Funding Date: December 16, 2025

Runware Lands $50M in Series A Funding to Build “One API for All AI” Infrastructure

Runware, a San Francisco-based startup aiming to speed up generative AI with unified infrastructure, has secured a $50 million Series A round led by European VC firm Dawn Capital. Founded in 2023, Runware set out to address a key pain point in AI development: the slow, fragmented process of deploying AI models at scale. The company provides a platform touted as “one API for all AI,” aggregating over 300 model types and millions of model variants behind a single interface, coupled with custom high-performance AI hardware for fast inference.

In just two years, Runware claims its cloud API has powered over 10 billion AI content generations for 200,000 developers and 300 million end users, delivering significantly faster performance and lower costs than traditional setups. With this new funding – bringing its total financing to $66 million – Runware plans to expand its engineering team, roll out more of its proprietary “Sonic Inference Engine” pods, and make every new AI model (including the 2+ million on Hugging Face) easily accessible to developers via its platform.

The round’s participation from big-name investors in AI and cloud (including Comcast Ventures, Insight Partners, Speedinvest, and a16z’s seed fund) underscores the promise of Runware’s approach to democratizing and accelerating AI deployment.

Funding Details:

• Startup: Runware

• Investors: Dawn Capital (lead), Comcast Ventures, Speedinvest, Insight Partners, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) Speedrun, and others

• Amount Raised: $50 million

• Total Raised: $66 million (to date)

• Funding Stage: Series A

• Funding Date: December 16, 2025

Mirelo Raises $41M in Seed Funding Round to Bring AI-Generated Sound to Videos

Mirelo, a Berlin-based AI startup specializing in generative audio, has raised an extraordinary $41 million in seed funding to automate the creation of sound effects for video content. Co-founded by former Amazon Web Services researchers, Mirelo has developed foundation models that can produce synchronized, high-quality sound effects and audio tracks to match video scenes in seconds. This task traditionally takes video creators hours of manual work. The seed round was co-led by Index Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz, signaling firm conviction in Mirelo’s vision to become the “audio layer” for all visual media, from films and games to social videos.

Mirelo addresses a notable gap in the generative AI landscape: while AI can now create images, text, and even video, the audio component has lagged. By leveraging advanced machine learning techniques and a specialized dataset, Mirelo’s platform generates ambient sounds and effects that perfectly align with on-screen action, enhancing the atmosphere and emotional impact. With this substantial early funding – and backing from top-tier VCs along with Atlantic Labs and TriplePoint – Mirelo plans to grow its research team and bring its AI audio tools to content creators worldwide, aiming to transform how sound is produced in the digital media industry.

Funding Details:

• Startup: Mirelo

• Investors: Index Ventures (lead), Andreessen Horowitz, Atlantic Labs, TriplePoint Capital

• Amount Raised: $41 million

• Total Raised: $41 million (seed round)

• Funding Stage: Seed

• Funding Date: December 16, 2025

Valerie Health Bags $30 M Series A to Automate Medical Admin with AI

Valerie Health, a San Francisco-based healthtech startup, has raised $30 million in Series A funding to scale its AI-powered “front office” platform for medical practices. Led by Redpoint Ventures, the round brings Valerie’s total funding to $39 million and will fuel growth as the company automates the flood of tedious administrative tasks that burden healthcare providers. Valerie’s solution embeds AI agents (with humans-in-the-loop for oversight) into clinics’ existing workflows to handle referrals, faxes, appointment scheduling, insurance paperwork, and more – tasks that typically consume staff time and lead to delays or errors.

By using large language models and vision AI, the platform reads and routes documents, extracts data, and engages with patients via SMS for scheduling, all while adhering to each clinic’s specific rules. Early deployments have shown promising results, including reducing referral processing times to minutes and increasing new patient visits by over 5%. With backing from prominent healthcare and tech investors, Valerie plans to expand its engineering and operations teams, roll out new features (such as voice-based workflows), and bring its productivity-boosting tools to more physician groups nationwide – ultimately aiming to reduce costs and burnout in independent healthcare practices.

Funding Details:

• Startup: Valerie Health

• Investors: Redpoint Ventures (lead), General Catalyst, Primary Venture Partners, BoxGroup, Karman Ventures, .406 Ventures, and strategic angels (including founders/executives from One Medical, Oscar Health, Main Street Health, DoorDash)

• Amount Raised: $30 million

• Total Raised: $39 million

• Funding Stage: Series A

• Funding Date: December 16, 2025

Thread Bank Secures $30M in Funding to Expand Embedded Banking Services

Thread Bank, an innovative community bank-turned-fintech player, has raised $30.5 million in fresh funding to accelerate its embedded banking strategy. Based in Nashville, Tennessee, Thread Bank has reinvented itself since 2021 as a “digital branch” platform, partnering with fintech apps, SaaS companies, and consumer brands to offer banking products directly inside those third-party services. The new capital – consisting of a recently closed $27.6 million raise and a $2.9 million extension – will support Thread’s continued technology development and growth initiatives.

Led by Portage Ventures with participation from Rockmont Partners and other strategic backers, the funding is a decisive vote of confidence in Thread’s model of marrying community banking expertise with modern API-driven integration. In the past year, Thread has surpassed $2 billion in deposits through its partners and achieved triple-digit growth in embedded accounts. With this round (which brings Thread’s total funding to over $100 million in tier-1 capital), the company plans to scale up its offerings, forge more fintech partnerships, and serve as a blueprint for how regional banks can innovate through embedded finance while remaining focused on customer needs.

Funding Details:

• Startup: Thread Bank (Thread Bancorp, Inc.)

• Investors: Portage Ventures (lead), Rockmont Partners, and other fintech-focused investors

• Amount Raised: $30.5 million

• Total Raised: Over $100 million

• Funding Stage: Growth round (Series B equivalent)

• Funding Date: December 16, 2025

Vital Lyfe Raises $24 M Seed Funding to Deliver Clean Water “Anywhere on Earth”

Vital Lyfe, a California-based climate tech startup founded by former SpaceX engineers, has closed a $24 million seed funding round to develop its portable, aerospace-grade water purification systems. The company is on a mission to provide “Water Without Limits,” creating compact devices capable of pulling in virtually any water source – from humidity in the air to contaminated supplies – and purifying it into clean, drinkable water on the spot.

Vital Lyfe’s technology, born from lessons learned building life-support systems for space, uses advanced membranes, adaptive AI controls, and rugged materials to ensure reliable water output even in off-grid, disaster-stricken, or remote locations. The seed round, led by deep-tech investors, will be used to ramp up manufacturing ahead of Vital Lyfe’s first product launch in 2026, expand field testing with partners (like NGOs and maritime organizations), and iterate on the design for consumer and community use cases. With this funding, the startup plans to move from prototypes to full production, aiming to revolutionize water access in areas where traditional centralized infrastructure falls short.

Funding Details:

• Startup: Vital Lyfe

• Investors: Interlagos Investments and General Catalyst (co-leads), with participation from Generational Partners, Cantos, Space VC, and Also Capital

• Amount Raised: $24 million (seed round)

• Total Raised: $24 million

• Funding Stage: Seed (plus venture debt commitment)

• Funding Date: December 16, 2025

Tech Funding Summary Table