Top Startup and Tech Funding News – February 25, 2025

It’s Wednesday, February 25, 2026, and we’re back with today’s top startup and tech funding news. Today’s rounds underscore investor commitment to next-gen AI infrastructure, embodied robotics, enterprise software acceleration, and spatial computing. As platforms push further into intelligent automation and immersive environments, strategic and financial backers are doubling down on chips, data, and vertical applications that can redefine productivity at scale.

Notable Series A and B raises reflect strong conviction in AI-native developer tools, precision biotech platforms, and synthetic protein production. Meanwhile, global leaders in autonomy, robotics, and world modeling are securing billion-dollar bets to reshape how machines perceive and act in real and virtual space. Today’s financings span semiconductors, fintech, industrial AI, and 3D computing—marking a clear shift toward deep-tech systems engineered for real-world scale.

Tech Funding News

Funding Highlights

• Wayve raises $1.2B Series D for autonomous driving platform
• MatX raises $500M Series B for high-performance AI training chips
• World Labs raises $1B Series C to build spatial AI world models
• Spirit AI raises $290M to develop embodied intelligence robotics
• SolveAI raises $50M Series A for no-code AI enterprise app builder
• Rowspace raises $50M Seed & Series A for AI financial intelligence
• Harper raises $47M Series A to automate commercial insurance
• Union.ai raises $38M Series A for ML workflow orchestration
• Verley raises $38M Series A to scale precision-fermented proteins
• BreezeBio raises $60M Series B for nanoparticle genetic therapies

Investor Activity

Today’s deals drew broad participation from top venture and strategic investors, anchoring long-term AI and infrastructure bets. NVIDIA, Microsoft, and Mercedes-Benz fueled autonomy and robotics plays, while GV, Sequoia, and NEA backed early-stage enterprise and ML infrastructure startups. Food tech, biotech, and fintech also saw disciplined support from Bpifrance, Dayli Partners, and Emergence Capital. Across sectors, capital is consolidating around platforms with high defensibility, generational upside, and the potential to serve as new system layers for computation and intelligence.

Wayve Raises $1.2B in Series D Funding for Autonomous Driving Technology

Wayve is a British startup developing self-driving car technology, including AI-powered robotaxi software and advanced driver-assistance systems. The company works with Uber (for robotaxi services) and automakers such as Nissan, Mercedes-Benz, and Stellantis to integrate its autonomy platform into commercial vehicles.

The company announced today that it raised $1.2 billion in a Series D round led by Mercedes-Benz, Stellantis, Nissan, and Uber. Including milestone payments, the round brings the total to $1.5B and Wayve’s total funding to about $2.8B. The mega-round underscores renewed investor confidence in autonomous vehicles just as Wayve plans to roll out Uber robotaxis in multiple cities in 2026 (despite other automakers pulling back on self-driving projects).

Funding Details:

• Startup: Wayve

• Investors: Mercedes-Benz, Stellantis, Nissan, Uber (and others, including NVIDIA, Microsoft)

• Amount Raised: $1.2B

• Total Raised: $2.8B

• Funding Stage: Series D

• Funding Date: Feb 25, 2026

MatX Raises $500M in Series B Funding for AI Training Chips

MatX is a U.S.-China AI hardware startup designing semiconductor accelerators for large language model training. Its chips promise roughly 10× the performance for training AI models compared to current GPUs. In a newly announced Series B round, MatX secured $500 million led by Jane Street and Situational Awareness.

The funding, one of the largest chip deals to date, attracted strategic backers, including chipmaker Marvell and investors such as Spark Capital and the Stripe co-founders. MatX says it will fab its first-generation chips at TSMC and begin sample shipments in 2027, positioning itself as a major competitor to Nvidia in the AI training market.

Funding Details:

• Startup: MatX

• Investors: Jane Street (lead), Situational Awareness, Marvell Technology, Spark Capital, and the founders of Stripe

• Amount Raised: $500M

• Total Raised: ~$600M (including prior $100M)

• Funding Stage: Series B

• Funding Date: Feb 25, 2026

BreezeBio Raises $60M in Series B Funding for Genetic Medicine Platform

BreezeBio (formerly GenEdit) is a biotech startup developing a nanoparticle delivery system (“NanoGalaxy”) for genetic medicines aimed at treating autoimmune diseases and cancer. It recently pivoted from collaborations to advancing its own therapy pipeline. The company announced a $60 million Series B to fund these efforts.

New investors Yuanta Investment and DSC Investment co-led the round, with participation from firms like SV Investment, Kiwoom, and Dayli Partners. BreezeBio will use the funding to advance its lead program (for type 1 diabetes immune tolerance) into late preclinical stages and broaden its delivery platform.

Funding Details:

• Startup: BreezeBio (formerly GenEdit)

• Investors: Yuanta Investment (lead), DSC Investment (co-lead), SV Investment, Kiwoom Investment, Dayli Partners

• Amount Raised: $60M

• Total Raised: $60M

• Funding Stage: Series B

• Funding Date: Feb 25, 2026

SolveAI Raises $50M in Series A Funding for No-Code AI Application Builder

SolveAI is a London-based startup whose platform lets enterprise teams create custom software applications by describing them in natural language instead of writing code. In less than a year since launch, SolveAI has raised $50 million, which includes a $5M pre-seed led by Accel and a $45M Series A led by GV (Google Ventures).

This funding will scale SolveAI’s AI-driven development platform, which captures a company’s data, systems, and compliance requirements and auto-generates secure, deployable applications. Investors include Northzone, Mantis VC, NeverLift, and angel backers such as Mike LoSapio, Pushmeet Kohli, and Olivier Godement. The raise highlights strong interest in AI tools that lower the barrier to software development in large enterprises.

Funding Details:

• Startup: SolveAI

• Investors: GV (Google Ventures, lead), Accel (lead of seed round), Northzone, Mantis VC, NeverLift, plus angel investors including Mike LoSapio, Pushmeet Kohli, and Olivier Godement

• Amount Raised: $50M

• Total Raised: $50M

• Funding Stage: Series A

• Funding Date: Feb 25, 2026

Rowspace Raises $50M in Seed & Series A Funding for AI Financial Data Platform

Rowspace is a fintech startup building an AI “intelligence layer” on top of proprietary data for private equity firms, hedge funds, and other financial institutions. Its platform integrates all of a firm’s structured and unstructured data and uses AI reasoning to generate actionable financial insights.

Rowspace launched publicly on Feb 25 with $50 million in funding: an unannounced seed round and a Series A co-led by Sequoia and Emergence Capital. Rowspace will use the funds to accelerate development of its analytics platform, enabling institutional investors to quickly turn messy data into investment decisions. The round also included participation from Basis Set Ventures, Stripe (the company), Conviction, and others.

Funding Details:

• Startup: Rowspace

• Investors: Sequoia Capital (lead), Emergence Capital (co-lead), Basis Set Ventures, Stripe, Conviction (and other angels)

• Amount Raised: $50M

• Total Raised: $50M

• Funding Stage: Seed & Series A

• Funding Date: Feb 25, 2026

Harper Raises $47M in Series A Funding for AI-Driven Insurance Brokerage

Harper is an AI-native insurance brokerage that automates quoting and issuing commercial insurance policies for small- and mid-sized businesses. Its platform uses autonomous software agents to handle policies from over 160 insurance carriers with minimal human intervention.

The startup’s combined seed and Series A round totaled about $46.8M (TechCrunch reports it as $47M). Emergence Capital led this round, with participation from Y Combinator and Peak XV Partners. The funding will help Harper expand its automated brokerage platform, reflecting growing investor interest in AI tools for fintech and insurtech.

Funding Details:

• Startup: Harper

• Investors: Emergence Capital (lead), Y Combinator, Peak XV Partners

• Amount Raised: $47M

• Total Raised: $47M

• Funding Stage: Series A

• Funding Date: Feb 25, 2026

Verley Raises $38M in Series A Funding for Precision-Fermented Dairy Proteins

Verley is a French food technology startup that produces high-performance whey protein using precision fermentation. It’s process engineers microorganisms to ferment and produce dairy proteins that are molecularly identical to those in cow’s milk, but with significantly lower greenhouse gas emissions and land use. These proteins can be incorporated into existing dairy products to improve nutrition and sustainability.

The company announced a $38 million Series A round led by Alven (with support from Blast Club and Bpifrance). Verley will use the funding to scale up production of its proteins and to prepare for global commercial launches.

Funding Details:

• Startup: Verley

• Investors: Alven (lead), Blast Club, Bpifrance (also backed by Sofinnova, Sparkfood, CAPTECH Santé, Founders Future)

• Amount Raised: $38M

• Total Raised: $38M

• Funding Stage: Series A

• Funding Date: Feb 25, 2026

Union.ai Raises $38.1M in Series A Funding for AI Workflow Infrastructure

Union.ai (creator of the Flyte platform) offers an open-source system for orchestrating AI and ML workflows, helping engineering teams deploy robust AI pipelines and agents. The Bellevue, Washington–based startup closed a $38.1 million Series A round led by NEA, with participation from Nava Ventures and Mozilla Ventures.

Union.ai will use the capital to launch Union 2.0 and enhance Flyte 2 with features such as full Python support, improved debugging, and crash-resilient execution. This investment will help companies move AI projects from experimental code to scalable production, addressing a growing need for specialized AI development infrastructure.

Funding Details:

• Startup: Union.ai

• Investors: NEA (New Enterprise Associates, lead), Nava Ventures, Mozilla Ventures

• Amount Raised: $38.1M

• Total Raised: $38.1M

• Funding Stage: Series A

• Funding Date: Feb 25, 2026

Spirit AI Raises $290M in Funding for Embodied Intelligence Robotics

Spirit AI is a Chinese robotics firm developing “embodied intelligence” systems that integrate AI models into physical robots. It has built foundational models (vision-language-action) and humanoid robots (such as its Moz robot) for logistics and industrial applications. The company announced roughly ¥2 billion in new funding (about $290.5 million) this week, bringing its valuation to roughly ¥10 billion (around $1.5B).

The round attracted a broad investor base: YF Capital, HongShan Capital Group, Chaos Investments, Synstellation Capital, TCL Fund, and state-backed funds, along with continued support from Shunwei, Fortune Capital, and others. This capital will accelerate Spirit AI’s development of its robotics hardware and AI models, reinforcing China’s rapid push into AI-driven automation.

Funding Details:

• Startup: Spirit AI

• Investors: YF Capital, HongShan Capital Group, Chaos Investments, Synstellation Capital, TCL Technology Fund (plus existing backers like Shunwei Capital and Fortune Capital)

• Amount Raised: $290.5M

• Total Raised: $290.5M

• Funding Stage: Growth rounds

• Funding Date: Feb 25, 2026

World Labs Raises $200M in Funding for 3D “World Model” AI

World Labs (founded by AI pioneer Fei-Fei Li) develops AI systems called “world models” that generate and reason about fully 3D virtual environments. Autodesk has invested $200 million in World Labs as part of a larger $1 billion round. The strategic partnership will integrate World Labs’ generative 3D AI with Autodesk’s design tools, focusing initially on entertainment and design use cases.

World Labs will use the fresh capital infusion to scale its Marble platform (the company’s first world-model product) and collaborate with Autodesk on next-generation spatial AI for industries like construction, engineering and media. This investment signals that industrial design and animation firms are eager to adopt advanced AI for immersive content creation.

Funding Details:

• Startup: World Labs

• Investors: Autodesk (lead), AMD, Emerson Collective, Fidelity, Nvidia (among others)

• Amount Raised: $200M (from Autodesk)

• Total Raised: $1.0B (total round)

• Funding Stage: Strategic investment round

• Funding Date: Feb 25, 2026

Tech Funding Summary Table