Top Startup and Tech Funding News – December 1, 2025

It’s Monday, December 1, 2025, and we’re back with the top startup and tech funding news stories across generative AI, defense drones, financial automation, cross-border payments, AI compute marketplaces, digital wealth management, oncology biotech, productivity infrastructure, sales enablement, and Earth imaging. Momentum spanned deep tech breakthroughs and enterprise SaaS, with investors betting heavily on platforms automating high-friction workflows and scaling critical infrastructure across both developed and emerging markets.

Black Forest Labs topped the charts with a landmark $300 million Series B to accelerate its next-generation visual AI platform, pushing deeper into photorealistic image synthesis and model customization. Quantum Systems followed with a €180 million Series C extension, tripling its valuation as it doubles down on autonomous aerial systems for defense and intelligence applications. Meanwhile, Model ML’s $75 million Series A underscored investor appetite for GenAI tools in financial services, aiming to automate the most manual parts of investment banking workflows.

Trusted infrastructure and human-centered AI also gained meaningful traction. Sokin secured €42.9 million to simplify global business payments, while SF Compute raised $40 million to expand its GPU-sharing marketplace, powering the next wave of AI model training. Nevis launched with $35 million to automate wealth management workflows, and One-carbon Therapeutics raised SEK 153 million to advance a first-in-class cancer therapeutic into clinical trials. Rounding out the day, Milestone, Jeeva AI, and Marble Imaging captured early-stage support to bring visibility to GenAI ROI, reimagine sales productivity, and localize ultra-high-resolution satellite imaging, respectively.

Funding Highlights

• Black Forest Labs raised $300 million in Series B funding to scale its generative visual AI platform.

• Quantum Systems secured €180 million in Series C extension funding to expand its AI-powered defense drone fleet.

• Model ML closed a $75 million Series A to automate investment banking workflows using generative AI.

• Sokin raised €42.9 million in Series B funding to expand its global payments and treasury infrastructure.

• SF Compute raised $40 million in Series A funding to build a GPU-sharing marketplace for AI workloads.

• Nevis launched with $35 million in Series A capital to automate wealth advisory operations.

• One-carbon Therapeutics raised SEK 153 million (~$16.2 million) to fund clinical trials for its oncology drug.

• Milestone raised $10 million in seed funding to track engineering ROI from generative AI tools.

• Jeeva AI raised $9 million in seed funding to build agentic AI assistants for sales teams.

• Marble Imaging raised €5.3 million in seed funding to develop a high-resolution satellite imaging constellation.

Investor Activity

Today’s financings featured a strong showing from global multistage firms, deep-tech and defense-focused investors, strategic corporate venture arms, and fintech insiders. From large-scale visual models and sovereign tech infrastructure to capital markets automation and frontier space systems, investor conviction remains high in startups driving computational leverage, workflow simplification, and infrastructure modernization across mission-critical sectors.

Together, these rounds reflect growing alignment around AI-native platforms, real-world deployment, and technical defensibility as we head into the final stretch of 2025. Here’s the full breakdown of today’s funding stories.

Black Forest Labs Raises $300M in Series B Funding for Visual AI Platform

Black Forest Labs, a German AI startup specializing in high-fidelity image generation models, has secured a massive $300 million Series B funding round at a $3.25 billion valuation. Founded in 2024 by AI researchers in Freiburg, the company develops the FLUX family of visual AI models known for producing photorealistic images and even allowing complex edits.

This is one of Europe’s largest AI investments of the year, underscoring investor confidence in Black Forest’s technology, which creative professionals and enterprises are already using for design, media, and imaging tasks. The new infusion – co-led by prominent Silicon Valley and global backers – will accelerate Black Forest’s R&D and help scale its infrastructure and team across its Freiburg headquarters and a San Francisco lab, as demand for advanced image-generation tools surges worldwide.

Funding Details:

• Startup: Black Forest Labs

• Investors: Salesforce Ventures (co-lead), AMP (Anjney Midha’s fund, co-lead), Andreessen Horowitz, NVIDIA, Northzone, Creandum, Earlybird VC, General Catalyst, BroadLight Capital, Temasek, Bain Capital Ventures, Air Street Capital, Visionaries Club, Canva Ventures, Figma Ventures (among others)

• Amount Raised: $300 million

• Total Raised: ~$450 million

• Funding Stage: Series B

• Funding Date: December 1, 2025

Quantum Systems Raises €180M Series C Funding to Expand AI Defense Drones

Quantum Systems, a Munich-based drone startup at the forefront of defense and autonomous systems, raised an additional €180 million in a Series C extension led by Balderton Capital, tripling its valuation to over €3 billion. The “triple unicorn” develops AI-powered unmanned aerial vehicles that have seen high demand amid rising geopolitical tensions – its drones are deployed by NATO forces, notably in Ukraine, for critical intelligence missions.

This extension follows a €160 million tranche earlier in the year, bringing Quantum Systems’ total new funding in 2025 to €340 million, the largest private capital raise in Europe’s dual-use (defense and civilian) tech sector to date. The fresh capital will fuel the company’s aggressive expansion across autonomous systems for air, land, and sea, support strategic acquisitions, and ramp up production to meet surging global demand for trusted European defense tech innovation.

Funding Details:

• Startup: Quantum Systems

• Investors: Balderton Capital (lead), with participation from existing strategic investors (including Porsche SE) and other European backers

• Amount Raised: €180 million

• Total Raised: €340 million (in 2025 rounds)

• Funding Stage: Series C (extension)

• Funding Date: November 27, 2025

Model ML Raises $75M in Series A Funding for AI Banking Workflow Automation

Model ML, a one-year-old AI startup automating the grunt work of investment banking, has closed a hefty $75 million Series A round to expand its platform globally. With offices in New York and London, Model ML’s software uses “AI agents” to automatically generate pitch decks, financial models, due diligence reports, and other documents directly from firms’ data – tackling tasks that typically consume junior bankers’ extended hours.

The company emerged from stealth after Y Combinator and seed funding earlier this year, and its Series A – one of the largest ever in fintech AI – signals strong confidence in its approach. The new funding will enable Model ML to scale its engineering teams in the U.S. and Europe, deepen its AI capabilities, streamline workflows at major banks and asset managers, and potentially cut 20% or more of the time spent on manual document preparation.

Funding Details:

• Startup: Model ML

• Investors: FT Partners (lead), QED Investors, 13 Books, Latitude, Y Combinator, LocalGlobe (among others)

• Amount Raised: $75 million

• Total Raised: ~$87 million

• Funding Stage: Series A

• Funding Date: November 24, 2025

Sokin Raises €42.9M Series B for Global Payments Platform

London-based fintech startup Sokin has raised €42.9 million (approximately $50 million) in a Series B round to accelerate its global payments and treasury management platform. Founded in 2019, Sokin provides businesses with multi-currency accounts, cross-border payment services, and tools for managing international cash flow, positioning itself as a “borderless” finance platform.

The fresh funding, led by a significant growth equity firm, comes as Sokin has spent six years building out a comprehensive financial infrastructure to simplify international transactions for SMEs and enterprises. With this new capital, the company plans to scale its product globally and enhance its platform’s capabilities. Sokin’s investor roster includes notable payments veterans (including former PayPal executives Gary Marino and Mark Britto as angel backers), reflecting the fintech community’s belief in Sokin’s mission to modernize and unify cross-border payments and treasury operations.

Funding Details:

• Startup: Sokin

• Investors: Prysm Capital (lead), Watershed Ventures, Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital (existing investor), Aurum Partners, and notable angels including Gary Marino and Mark Britto (former PayPal executives); early backers also include Rio Ferdinand and May Capital

• Amount Raised: €42.9 million

• Total Raised: Not disclosed

• Funding Stage: Series B

• Funding Date: December 1, 2025

SF Compute Raises $40M Series A for AI Compute Marketplace

San Francisco-based SF Compute secured a $40 million Series A round to build out its marketplace for AI computing capacity. The startup’s platform lets organizations rent spare GPU and other hardware resources to companies training or running AI models, essentially creating an on-demand compute exchange.

This innovative approach, backed by prominent deep-tech investors, aims to lower the cost and complexity of AI development by reducing the need for companies to over-invest in their own data centers or cloud contracts. SF Compute’s valuation with this round sits around $300 million, reflecting its emergence as an essential new infrastructure player in the AI ecosystem. The infusion of funds will help SF Compute expand its marketplace, enhance its technology for seamless GPU sharing, and onboard more enterprise providers and customers – ultimately increasing flexibility and reducing bottlenecks in the global AI supply chain.

Funding Details:

• Startup: SF Compute

• Investors: DCVC (Data Collective, lead), Wing Venture Capital (lead), with participation from other tech infrastructure investors

• Amount Raised: $40 million

• Total Raised: Not disclosed

• Funding Stage: Series A

• Funding Date: November 27, 2025

Nevis Launches with $35M Series A to Automate Wealth Management

Nevis, an AI startup founded by former Revolut executives, has officially launched with a $35 million Series A funding round aimed at automating the wealth management industry. Based in the U.S. with a global outlook, Nevis was founded less than a year ago and is building an AI-powered platform to act as an “operating system” for financial advisor teams. Its software automates up to 80% of the administrative and operational tasks that bog down wealth advisors – from prepping for client meetings and handling paperwork to opening accounts – freeing advisors to spend more time on client service and growth.

The new round, led by top-tier VCs, brings Nevis’s total funding to $40 million and will fuel expansion of its engineering team and product deployment. With Americans increasingly relying on financial advisors (over 50 million households) and advisors struggling with capacity constraints, Nevis’s backers are betting that modernizing advisor workflows with AI is a timely opportunity to transform a $50 trillion industry.

Funding Details:

• Startup: Nevis

• Investors: Sequoia Capital (lead), ICONIQ Growth, Ribbit Capital (co-leads) – with board participation by Sequoia’s Luciana Lixandru – and several prominent fintech angels

• Amount Raised: $35 million

• Total Raised: $40 million

• Funding Stage: Series A

• Funding Date: December 1, 2025

One-carbon Therapeutics Secures $16.2M in Funding for Cancer Therapy Trials

Sweden’s One-carbon Therapeutics AB has closed an oversubscribed 153 million SEK (approximately $16.2 million) private financing to accelerate clinical trials of its first-in-class cancer therapy TH9619. Based in Solna, One-carbon is a clinical-stage biotech pioneering a novel approach that targets the “one-carbon” metabolic pathway in cancer cells – a mechanism aimed at starving tumors by inhibiting key enzymes (MTHFD1/2) critical to tumor DNA repair and growth.

The fresh capital, raised from a consortium of existing and new investors, including prominent Swedish family offices, will bolster One-carbon’s Phase 1/2 trial of TH9619 (dubbed the ODIN study). The startup dosed its first patient earlier this year, marking its transition from preclinical research to human trials. With this funding, One-carbon can expand the multi-center study across Europe and ramp up development, bringing it closer to delivering a breakthrough therapy for patients with treatment-resistant solid tumors.

Funding Details:

• Startup: One-carbon Therapeutics

• Investors: A network of private Swedish family offices and existing biotech investors (undisclosed)

• Amount Raised: 153 million SEK (≈ $16.2 million)

• Total Raised: Not disclosed

• Funding Stage: Private placement (Seed/Series A equivalent)

• Funding Date: December 1, 2025

Milestone Raises $10M in Seed Funding to Prove ROI on Generative AI

Milestone, an Israeli startup helping companies track the real impact of generative AI on their software development, has raised a $10 million seed round to grow its engineering analytics platform. Milestone’s solution correlates the use of AI coding tools (such as GitHub Copilot) with concrete engineering metrics, including code quality, bug frequency, and feature delivery speed – effectively answering whether AI “co-pilots” are actually improving productivity.

The Tel Aviv-based company was co-founded in 2024 by CEO Liad Elidan and Professor Stephen Barrett (of Trinity College Dublin), who built the product to create a “GenAI data lake” combining source code data, project management data, team information, and AI tool activity.

With paying customers already including tech firms like Kayak and Monday.com, Milestone’s new funding – led by Heavybit (a Silicon Valley developer-tools VC) and Hanaco Ventures – will be used to expand its team and refine the platform. The goal is to give engineering leaders clear, data-driven insight into how AI tools affect their teams’ ROI, as companies worldwide invest heavily in AI productivity tools.

Funding Details:

• Startup: Milestone

• Investors: Heavybit (lead), Hanaco Ventures (lead), with participation from StageOne Ventures and Essence VC (previous seed backers)

• Amount Raised: $10 million

• Total Raised: Not disclosed

• Funding Stage: Seed

• Funding Date: November 13, 2025

Jeeva AI Raises $9M in Seed Funding to Build Human-Centered Agentic Sales Tools

Jeeva AI, a San Francisco-based startup, has raised a $9 million seed round to advance its “agentic” sales platform that automates tedious tasks while keeping human salespeople at the center. Founded by serial entrepreneur Gaurav Bhattacharya, Jeeva launched earlier this year to give sales teams an AI assistant that handles repetitive chores – like research, prospect outreach, meeting follow-ups, CRM data entry, and scheduling – without replacing the reps themselves.

In contrast to the wave of “AI BDR” tools that tried to take over sales outreach (often with disappointing results), Jeeva’s philosophy is to supercharge human sales reps by clearing their busywork and letting them focus on closing deals and building relationships.

The approach has gained traction, with the startup already serving 35,000 users across 300+ companies (including real estate giant JLL). The seed funding – co-led by JLL’s proptech fund and Sapphire Ventures – will help Jeeva expand its platform’s capabilities and reach new industries. With this support, Jeeva aims to scale its user base and continue improving its AI models for sales workflows, riding a wave of demand for AI tools that truly boost worker productivity in fields like real estate, healthcare, finance, and legal services.

Funding Details:

• Startup: Jeeva AI

• Investors: JLL Spark (co-lead), Sapphire Ventures (co-lead); plus participation from Alt Capital (Jack Altman), Launch Capital, GTM Fund, Nonstop Capital, Coyote Capital, Bonfire Ventures, Techstars, Marc Benioff, Mucker Capital, and others

• Amount Raised: $9 million

• Total Raised: $9 million (seed round)

• Funding Stage: Seed

• Funding Date: December 1, 2025

Marble Imaging Raises €5.3M in Seed Funding for High-Resolution Earth Imaging

Marble Imaging, an Earth observation startup based in Bremen, Germany, has raised a €5.3 million seed round to develop a new constellation of ultra-high-resolution imaging satellites. Founded in 2023 by a team of aerospace engineers, Marble is tackling Europe’s capability gap in very high-resolution satellite imagery by designing its own satellites and an AI-powered analytics platform. The company’s planned constellation, starting with launches in 2026, will capture visible and infrared images with unprecedented detail and update frequency, enabling applications ranging from detailed terrain mapping and coastal monitoring to defense intelligence and infrastructure management.

The seed round was led by Germany’s High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) and joined by a syndicate of specialized investors in space and deep tech. With this funding, Marble Imaging will expand its engineering team, build out its data processing pipeline and customer portal, and establish a mission operations center for the upcoming satellites. The investment sets the stage for Marble to scale toward its ambitious goal of eventually deploying hundreds of satellites to provide near-hourly global coverage, positioning the startup as a potential European leader in real-time Earth intelligence.

Funding Details:

• Startup: Marble Imaging

• Investors: High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF, lead), BBM, Lightfield Equity, Oslo Venture Company, nwk | nwu (New Work SE funds), Sentris Capital, Auxxo Female Catalyst Fund, SpaceFounders

• Amount Raised: €5.3 million

• Total Raised: €5.3 million

• Funding Stage: Seed

• Funding Date: December 1, 2025

Tech Funding Summary Table