Editor's Note
Welcome to another exciting week in california's vibrant tech ecosystem! We've got a packed newsletter full of insights, events, and inspiring stories from the heart of innovation.
🗓️ Upcoming Deadlines
TechCrunch Disrupt Battlefield
Calling all early-stage startups: Submit your pitch for a chance to win $100,000 and investor spotlight.
Application Deadline: April 15, 2024
Location: San Francisco, CA
AI for Good Global Summit
$250,000 funding available for AI projects addressing global challenges.
Grant Applications Open: March 22 - May 10, 2024
Apply: Application Link
Stay Inspired
Together AI (Redwood City) closed an $800M Series C led by Aramco Ventures, pushing its valuation to $8.3 billion for its platform that lets enterprises train and run AI on open-source models. Tech Startups
TwelveLabs (Redwood City) raised a $100M Series B co-led by NEA and NAVER Ventures, bringing total funding to $207 million for its video understanding AI/ML platform. Tech Startups
Oxmiq Labs (San Francisco) landed $35M in Series A funding from Samsung Catalyst Fund and Fudomo to build chip blueprints that merge GPU, CPU, and tensor accelerator functions into a single licensable IP block for AI silicon. Tech Startups
Agave (San Francisco) picked up a $15M Series A led by Accel, applying AI to construction financial management — budgeting, invoicing, change orders, and lien releases, with tools already processing over 80,000 projects. Tech Startups
Arkenstone Defense (Menlo Park) emerged from stealth with a $35M seed round from J2 Ventures and others, aiming to handle compliance burdens so startups can reach defense customers. Tech Startups
Mirendil (San Francisco) raised a $200M seed round led by a16z and Kleiner Perkins (with Nvidia backing) — a frontier lab focused on building systems that excel at AI R&D. Crunchbase News
Quantifind (Palo Alto) secured $200M in growth financing led by Summit Partners for its risk intelligence platform for financial crime detection and national security operations. Crunchbase News
8090 Solutions (Redwood City) picked up $135M led by Salesforce to build enterprise software with coordinated AI agents under human-led oversight. Crunchbase News
EdVisorly (Los Angeles) closed a $13.3M Series A to scale its AI-driven work in the education space.
Big picture: U.S. and Canadian startup investment hit a record $392 billion in H1 2026, with AI megarounds — including a massive Anthropic raise — driving most of the surge.
Did You Know?
California's Silicon Valley got its name not from a tech company, but from a 1971 article in Electronic News — coined by journalist Don Hoefler to describe the region's booming silicon chip industry, decades before "AI" was even a buzzword in the same zip code.
Till next time,