Top Startup and Tech Funding News – January 15, 2025

It’s Monday, January 20, 2026, and we’re back with today’s top startup and tech funding news. Today’s funding landscape reflects a widening investor push into AI infrastructure, fintech rails, space systems, and enterprise automation, as capital concentrates around companies building foundational layers for how work, money, and intelligence operate at scale. From a nearly half-billion-dollar seed round for a new AI lab to late-stage bets on model deployment, digital banking, and commercial launch vehicles, today’s rounds show investors still paying up for teams that can turn technical advantage into platform leverage.

AI remained the center of gravity. Humans& raised $480 million to build a human-centric AI research lab, while Baseten secured $300 million to scale AI model deployment for enterprises. Fintech momentum stretched well beyond Silicon Valley, with Mal raising $230 million to build an AI-native Islamic digital bank and Pomelo adding $55 million to expand payments infrastructure across Latin America.

Europe also posted heavyweight rounds, led by Pennylane’s $190 million raise to modernize accounting workflows and Exciva’s financing to advance an Alzheimer’s agitation therapy. On the hard-tech side, Japan’s Interstellar Technologies raised $288 million to expand commercial launch and satellite capabilities, while Ethernovia secured new capital to power high-bandwidth networking inside autonomous systems.

Tech Funding News

Funding Highlights

• Humans& raises $480M seed to launch a human-centric AI research lab
• Baseten lands $300M Series E to scale AI model deployment infrastructure
• Mal secures $230M seed to build an AI-native Islamic digital bank
• Interstellar Technologies raises $288M Series F to expand commercial space launch and satellite platforms
• Pennylane grabs ~$190M Series E to streamline accounting and finance operations
• Emergent locks in $70M Series B as its AI app creation platform scales globally
• Ethernovia secures $90M Series B to power next-gen networking for autonomous machines
• Exciva raises ~$59M Series B to advance an Alzheimer’s agitation therapy
• Ivo raises $55M Series B to automate contract review and legal workflows
• Pomelo raises $55M Series C to expand fintech infrastructure across Latin America

Investor Activity

Today’s rounds drew a mix of global growth firms, strategic corporates, regional power investors, and deep-tech backers. The AI-heavy deals featured major platform investors and compute-aligned strategics, while fintech rounds showed strong conviction in infrastructure plays serving emerging markets at scale. Across early-stage mega-seeds and late-stage platform rounds, investor behavior signaled a familiar pattern: fund the winners building core rails, then fund them again as adoption accelerates.

Here’s the full breakdown of January 20’s most significant startup and tech fundings.

Humans& raises $480M in seed funding for human-centric AI lab

Humans& is a new AI startup founded by veteran researchers from OpenAI, Google DeepMind, Anthropic, and xAI. The company just raised a staggering $480 million seed round, pushing its valuation to $4.48 billion, a rare figure for a startup that has yet to ship its first product. Humans& is building a “human-centric” AI research lab, aiming to develop AI tools that coordinate with people and other AIs to augment human collaboration.

This massive seed round, one of the largest ever, underscores intense investor interest in next-generation AI labs led by experienced AI pioneers. The funding will help Humans& launch its first products this year and scale compute for training advanced AI models. Investors are betting that Humans&’s human-first approach could shape the next chapter of AI beyond today’s chatbots, pushing the frontier of artificial general intelligence.

• Startup: Humans& (San Francisco, CA) – AI R&D lab for collaborative, human-aligned AI

• Investors: Led by Ron Conway’s SV Angel and co-founder Georges Harik. Strategic backers include Nvidia, Jeff Bezos, GV (Google Ventures), Emerson Collective, Felicis Ventures, and others.

• Amount Raised: $480 million

• Total Raised: $480 million (seed financing)

• Funding Stage: Seed Round

• Funding Date: January 20, 2026

Baseten lands $300M in Series E funding to scale AI model deployment

Baseten provides a platform for companies to deploy and manage machine learning models at scale. Fresh off a prior raise just six months ago, the San Francisco startup closed a $300M Series E that more than doubled its valuation to $5 billion. Baseten’s platform helps enterprises serve AI models in production with high performance and reliability, a critical need as AI adoption surges.

This new funding will fuel product development and global expansion as Baseten competes to become a core infrastructure provider for the AI boom. The raise also signals investor confidence that Baseten’s AI inference platform can be a big winner in the race to support the deployment of ever-larger models in real-world applications.

• Startup: Baseten (San Francisco, CA) – Cloud platform for deploying and scaling AI models in production

• Investors: Led by IVP and Alphabet’s CapitalG. Nvidia participated with a $150M strategic investment. Other backers include BOND, DST Global, and Sequoia (existing).

• Amount Raised: $300 million

• Total Raised: ~$585 million (estimated)

• Funding Stage: Series E

• Funding Date: January 20, 2026

Mal secures $230M in seed funding to launch AI-native Islamic digital bank

Mal, based in Abu Dhabi, is an ambitious fintech startup planning to build the “world’s first AI-native Islamic digital bank.” The company just closed a record-breaking $230M seed round, the largest seed ever in the Middle East & Africa. Mal aims to serve the globe’s 2 billion Muslim population and other underbanked communities by blending ethical Islamic finance principles with advanced AI infrastructure.

The huge seed funding will accelerate product development, licensing, and hiring as Mal prepares for a 2026 launch. With former Revolut and Nubank executives on the team, Mal is poised to bridge a $7 trillion market gap in Islamic finance using AI-driven digital banking solutions. Investors are signaling strong confidence in Mal’s vision to become a global fintech leader from the MENA region.

• Startup: Mal (Abu Dhabi, UAE) – AI-powered digital bank built on Islamic finance principles

• Investors: Led by BlueFive Capital (global investment platform), joined by strategic investors and family offices in the GCC. (Specific investor names were not disclosed.)

• Amount Raised: $230 million

• Total Raised: $230 million (seed financing)

• Funding Stage: Seed Round

• Funding Date: January 20, 2026

Pennylane grabs $190M in Series E funding to streamline accounting workflows

French fintech Pennylane has raised €175M (approx. $190M) in a Series E to expand its accounting and financial management platform. Pennylane provides software that centralizes invoices, tax filings, and financial data to improve collaboration between businesses and their accountants. The new funding, led by major U.S. growth investors, vaults Pennylane’s valuation to around $4.25 billion and comes less than a year after its Series D. The company has grown rapidly – approaching €100M ARR – by helping 6,000 accountants and 800,000+ SMEs automate back-office workflows.

With this big round, Pennylane plans to invest heavily in R&D, including leveraging generative AI to build an “analysis copilot” for users and to accelerate expansion across Europe. The funding underscores how Europe’s B2B fintech leaders are scaling up to become financial “super apps” for businesses.

• Startup: Pennylane (Paris, France) – Accounting and bookkeeping SaaS for enterprises and accounting firms

• Investors: Led by TCV and Blackstone Growth. Existing investors Sequoia Capital, DST Global, CapitalG, and Meritech Capital also participated.

• Amount Raised: €175 million (~$190 million)

• Total Raised: ~€360 million (~$390 million)

• Funding Stage: Series E

• Funding Date: January 20, 2026

Interstellar nets $288M in Series F funding to expand space launch and satellite services

Tokyo-based Interstellar Technologies has secured ¥44.6 billion ($288M) in Series F funding to scale its vertically integrated space business. Interstellar is developing the ZERO orbital launch vehicle for low-cost small satellite launches while also building out its own communications satellite platforms – a model similar to SpaceX’s end-to-end approach. This huge round, one of Japan’s largest for a space startup, will fuel final development and manufacturing of ZERO ahead of its first orbital flight. It will also support R&D on satellites and expand production capacity via a new alliance with Toyota for mass manufacturing.

Interstellar’s well-funded push strengthens Japan’s commercial space ecosystem by providing domestic launch capability and satellite services. With seven satellites already booked for ZERO’s debut and backing from major Japanese corporates and investors, Interstellar is positioned to become a key player in the global small launch market and a catalyst for Japan’s space-tech ambitions.

• Startup: Interstellar Technologies (Tokyo, Japan) – Vertically integrated small rocket launch and satellite platform company

• Investors: A consortium of Japanese financial institutions and corporates. Key investors include DBJ (Development Bank of Japan), Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Venture Capital, SB Investment (SoftBank), Toyota Ventures/Woven Capital, and other unnamed partners. (The round was widely supported by government-linked funds and strategic industry backers.)

• Amount Raised: ¥44.6 billion (≈$288 million)

• Total Raised: ~¥61 billion (≈$405 million)

• Funding Stage: Series F

• Funding Date: January 20, 2026

Emergent locks in $70M in Series B funding for AI-powered app creation platform

Emergent – an Indian startup pioneering an AI-driven “vibe-coding” platform – has raised a $70M Series B at a reported $300M valuation. In under a year since launch, Emergent’s platform has attracted 5+ million users and $50M in annual recurring revenue by enabling entrepreneurs and small businesses to design and deploy software applications using AI agents rather than large engineering teams.

The new round comes just four months after Emergent’s Series A, as the company races to meet surging demand for its no-code AI app builder. SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2 and Khosla Ventures jointly led the investment, marking SoftBank’s first major new India bet in years. Emergent will use the funds to expand its research and engineering teams in San Francisco and Bengaluru and to build out more product features – including more advanced AI “coding agents.”

The startup’s explosive growth and quick follow-on funding underscore the market appetite for tools that democratize software development with AI, hinting at a broader shift in how apps might be built in the future.

• Startup: Emergent (San Francisco, CA & Bengaluru, India) – AI platform for autonomous software creation (“vibe coding”)

• Investors: SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and Khosla Ventures (co-leads). Participation from Prosus, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Together Fund, and Y Combinator, which all invested in prior rounds.

• Amount Raised: $70 million

• Total Raised: ~$100 million (within 7 months of launch)

• Funding Stage: Series B

• Funding Date: January 20, 2026

Ethernovia secures $90M in Series B funding to power autonomous vehicle networks

Ethernovia is a Silicon Valley semiconductor startup developing high-performance networking chips for “physical AI” systems, such as autonomous vehicles, robots, and smart machines. The company closed a $90M+ Series B to accelerate production of its packet processor platform, which acts as the high-bandwidth data backbone in next-generation vehicles and edge devices.

Ethernovia’s novel Ethernet-based chips can deterministically move and route massive sensor and AI data streams with ultra-low latency, enabling a unified vehicle “nervous system” for autonomy. The round was led by Maverick Silicon and Socratic Partners, with participation from Porsche SE and Qualcomm Ventures (existing investors). Ethernovia plans to use the funding to scale up chip manufacturing, expand its software stack, and support growing engagements with automakers and robotics firms. As the auto industry embraces software-defined vehicle architectures and AI features, Ethernovia’s technology offers a critical solution for handling the data explosion in autonomous systems, making this startup a notable contender in the automotive AI hardware space.

• Startup: Ethernovia (San Jose, CA) – Developer of high-speed networking chips for autonomous vehicles and edge AI machines

• Investors: Maverick Silicon (lead), Socratic Partners, Conduit Capital, CDIB-TEN Capital. Existing backers Porsche SE, Qualcomm Ventures, and Fall Line Capital also joined the round.

• Amount Raised: Over $90 million (Series B)

• Total Raised: ~ $120 million (estimated)

• Funding Stage: Series B

• Funding Date: January 20, 2026

Exciva snags $60M in Series B funding for Alzheimer’s agitation therapy

German biotech Exciva GmbH has raised €51M (~$59M) in Series B funding to advance its lead neuropsychiatric drug for treating agitation in Alzheimer’s patients. The round was supported by a syndicate of European life science investors and will bankroll a Phase 2 clinical trial of Exciva’s oral therapy, called deraphan. Deraphan is a novel combination of dextromethorphan (an NMDA modulator) with additional agents to enhance its effect and reduce neurological side effects. Agitation and aggression are common and devastating symptoms in Alzheimer’s disease, and there are no approved treatments specifically for this indication. Exciva’s candidate has shown promise in early studies to safely alleviate agitation. With this new financing, the company aims to demonstrate efficacy in a larger patient cohort and move closer to a much-needed therapy for patients and caregivers. The funding – one of Europe’s larger biotech rounds this year – highlights the continued investor appetite for central nervous system (CNS) drugs targeting the huge unmet needs in Alzheimer’s and dementia care.

• Startup: Exciva GmbH (Berlin, Germany) – Clinical-stage biotech developing neuropsychiatric treatments for Alzheimer’s disease symptoms

• Investors: Gimv, EQT Life Sciences, Fountain Healthcare Partners, LifeArc Ventures, Carma Fund, Modi Ventures, Andera Partners, and LBBW Venture (all participated in the syndicate)

• Amount Raised: €51 million (approximately $59 million)

• Total Raised: ~€60 million (approximately $70 million)

• Funding Stage: Series B

• Funding Date: January 20, 2026

Ivo raises $55M in Series B funding to automate legal contract review

Ivo is an artificial intelligence startup focused on the legal industry, and it just raised a $55M Series B to accelerate development of its AI-powered contract review platform. Ivo’s software uses AI to speed up contract review and analysis for businesses and law firms, automating much of the tedious “grunt work” that legal associates traditionally handle. The San Francisco-based company, whose customers already include major corporations such as Uber, IBM, Shopify, and Reddit, says its revenue has grown 6× since its last round a year ago, as demand for AI in legal services soars.

The new funding – led by existing investor Blackbird Ventures – values Ivo at around $355M, according to sources. Ivo plans to use the capital to triple its headcount (currently 60) by 2026 and further refine its technology, which breaks down contract review into 400+ specialized AI tasks to maximize accuracy. In light of high-profile incidents of AI legal tools making errors, Ivo is emphasizing a methodical approach to ensure reliability. This sizable Series B underscores investor belief that “LegalTech” AI startups like Ivo can transform how corporate legal work is done, offering speed and cost advantages to in-house teams and law firms.

• Startup: Ivo (San Francisco, CA) – AI platform for automated contract review and legal document analysis

• Investors: Led by Blackbird Ventures (existing lead). New investors Costanoa Ventures, Uncork Capital, Fika Ventures, GD1, and Icehouse Ventures joined in this round.

• Amount Raised: $55 million

• Total Raised: ~$80 million (estimated)

• Funding Stage: Series B

• Funding Date: January 20, 2026

Pomelo banks $55M in Series C funding to expand LatAm fintech infrastructure

Pomelo, an Argentina-based fintech infrastructure provider, has raised $55M in Series C funding to expand its presence across Latin America and roll out new payment products. Pomelo offers an API platform that helps companies launch credit cards, digital accounts, and payment programs across LatAm markets.

The new financing brings Pomelo’s total funding to about $160M and comes as the startup plans a push beyond its core in Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico. Pomelo will use the capital to enhance its card issuance and processing solutions and to introduce innovative offerings, such as a global stablecoin-backed payment card and AI-powered chargeback management tools.

In an interview, CEO Gastón Irigoyen said Pomelo is also winning more business from traditional banks and large international fintechs looking to modernize their Latin American operations. With clients including BBVA, Santander, Binance, and Western Union, Pomelo is emerging as a key backend provider for LatAm’s digital payments ecosystem. This Series C round – reportedly involving both new and returning investors – signals continued optimism in Latin America’s fintech infrastructure, even amid broader global fintech funding headwinds.

• Startup: Pomelo (Buenos Aires, Argentina) – Fintech-as-a-service platform for issuing cards and powering digital banking in Latin America

• Investors: Co-led by Monashees (Brazil) and Index Ventures. Participating investors include Insight Partners, QED Investors, Tiger Global, and Greyhound Capital, among others (mix of new and existing backers).

• Amount Raised: $55 million

• Total Raised: $160 million (approximate)

• Funding Stage: Series C

• Funding Date: January 20, 2026

Tech Funding Summary Table: