It’s Monday, August 4, 2025 — and we’re back with a fresh wave of startup and tech funding news from across the globe. Today’s funding pulse shows a strong investor appetite for generative AI, cybersecurity, data automation, and next-gen biotech. From billion-dollar AI labs to seed-stage pharma AI innovators, capital is flowing into platforms that promise to reshape how industries operate.
The lineup spans everything from OpenAI’s multi-billion-dollar raise to advance AI capabilities, to Saudi Arabia’s Salasa scaling e-commerce fulfillment, to South Korea’s PhnyX Lab building generative AI tools for the pharmaceutical sector. Founders are targeting bottlenecks in tax research, brain-computer interfaces, cyber risk management, and enterprise data reliability — with a clear focus on solving complex problems at scale.
Investor participation is as global as the startups themselves, with heavyweights like Dragoneer, Founders Fund, Oak HC/FT, Thrive Capital, and Apollo Global Management driving major rounds, alongside regional growth funds in the Middle East, India, and Asia making bold plays in their home markets.
Today’s mix covers early seed bets, high-velocity Series B growth, and late-stage financing at market-leading valuations — offering a snapshot of where the smartest money is heading and how founders are positioning themselves to capture the next wave of demand.
Here’s the full breakdown.
ChatGPT-maker OpenAI has raised a massive $8.3 billion in new funding at a staggering $300 billion valuation, reflecting investors’ confidence in the company’s AI leadership. The new capital is part of its $40 billion fundraise back in March. The oversubscribed late-stage round, coming months ahead of schedule, was led by Dragoneer Investment Group (which contributed $2.8 billion) and included a roster of major backers such as Blackstone, TPG, and T. Rowe Price.
This capital is part of OpenAI’s ambitious plan to secure $40 billion in 2025 and will fuel the development of more advanced AI models and infrastructure as the startup’s revenue and user base continue to soar. The funding solidifies OpenAI’s position at the forefront of the AI industry and underscores the intense demand for generative AI solutions across sectors.
Funding Details:
Polymarket, a New York-based prediction market startup, has secured $135.4 million in a new funding round to expand its platform for trading on real-world events. The massive investment – revealed through an SEC regulatory filing – is said to value Polymarket at over $1 billion as the company continues to popularize event derivatives trading in crypto.
Founded in 2020 by Shayne Coplan, Polymarket allows users to bet on the outcomes of events using cryptocurrency, effectively harnessing collective intelligence to forecast real-world outcomes. The fresh capital will help Polymarket scale its operations and product offerings while navigating the evolving regulatory landscape for decentralized trading markets.
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Blue J, a Toronto-based provider of generative AI tax research software, has raised $122 million in a Series D round to accelerate its growth in the legal and fintech space. The financing was co-led by Oak HC/FT and Sapphire Ventures, with participation from Intrepid Growth Partners and prior backers Ten Coves Capital and CPA.com.
Blue J’s platform leverages advanced generative AI to instantly answer complex tax law questions, dramatically speeding up research for tens of thousands of tax professionals across the U.S., Canada, and the UK. Founded in 2015 and led by CEO Benjamin Alarie, the company has more than doubled its revenue and customer base in the first half of 2025. The new funds will be used to further expand Blue J’s team, enhance its product capabilities, and extend its market reach as it cements its position as a leader in AI-driven tax and legal research.
Funding Details:
Nudge, a San Francisco-based brain-tech startup co-founded by Coinbase’s Fred Ehrsam, closed a hefty $100 million Series A round to advance its non-invasive “whole brain interface” platform. Thrive Capital and Greenoaks Capital led the financing, which will support Nudge’s development of ultrasound-based technology to stimulate and image brain activity with millimeter precision, all without surgery.
The company’s approach aims to enhance human cognition and treat neurological disorders by safely targeting deep brain regions that have been historically hard to reach. With this major infusion of capital, Nudge plans to accelerate R&D and begin bringing its first system – called Nudge Zero – into clinical studies, moving closer to new treatments for conditions like chronic pain, PTSD, and depression.
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SAFE Security, a Palo Alto-based cyber risk management startup, has raised $70 million in a Series C round to scale up its AI-driven cybersecurity platform. The funding was led by Avataar Ventures with participation from a mix of new and existing backers, including Susquehanna Asia, NextEquity Partners, Prosperity7 Ventures (Aramco’s venture arm), Eight Roads, veteran Silicon Valley executive John Chambers, and Sorenson Capital.
SAFE (formerly known as Lucideus) plans to use the funds to further its ambitious “CyberAGI” initiative – developing agentic AI models for autonomous threat detection and remediation – and to expand its global go-to-market efforts. This investment brings SAFE’s total financing to over $170 million to date and solidifies its position as a leader in proactive cyber risk quantification and management for enterprises.
Funding Details:
GeoWealth, a Chicago-based fintech offering a turnkey asset management platform for financial advisors, secured $38 million in a Series C round led by alternative asset giant Apollo Global Management. Alongside the investment, GeoWealth and Apollo announced a strategic partnership to integrate Apollo’s private market strategies into GeoWealth’s portfolios, enhancing the platform’s public-private investment offerings for registered investment advisors (RIAs).
The round also saw participation from existing supporters, including BlackRock, Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors, and J.P. Morgan Asset Management, reflecting continued confidence in GeoWealth’s growth. The company will use the new capital to expand its unified managed account technology, develop new product features, and scale its team – including completing the acquisition of a set of advisory portfolio assets – as it seeks to meet rising demand for seamless access to private markets in wealth management.
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Pantomath, a Cincinnati-based startup building AI-powered data operations tools, raised $30 million in a Series B financing to eliminate manual data pipeline firefighting in large enterprises. The round was led by General Catalyst, with participation from existing investors Sierra Ventures, Bowery Capital, and Epic Ventures, as well as new backers Hitachi Ventures, Cintrifuse Capital, and Foster Ventures.
Pantomath’s platform uses real-time monitoring, automated root-cause analysis, and “agentic AI” Data Reliability Engineer (DRE) agents to detect and resolve data incidents across complex analytics environments. The fresh funds will accelerate product innovation, go-to-market expansion, and strategic hiring as Pantomath scales up to meet surging demand from Fortune 500 companies looking to improve data reliability and trust.
Funding Details:
Salasa, a Riyadh-based e-commerce fulfillment and logistics platform, has closed a $30 million Series B round to fuel its expansion across Saudi Arabia. The investment was led by Artal Capital, with participation from Saudi Venture Capital Company (SVC), Wa’ed Ventures (the venture arm of Aramco), 500 Global, AlSulaiman Group, and other strategic investors.
Salasa plans to use the new capital to open additional fulfillment centers throughout the Kingdom, launch rapid delivery services in major cities, grow its network of dark stores, and enhance its AI-powered logistics infrastructure. The company – which now has raised about $37.2 million in total – also announced a new special customs zone service to enable international brands to enter the Saudi market and ship products locally without needing a physical presence in-country.
Funding Details:
Mitigata, a Bengaluru-based cyber resilience startup, secured $5.9 million in a Series A round led by Nexus Venture Partners. The funding saw participation from existing backers Titan Capital and WEH Ventures, which previously invested in the company’s seed financing. Founded in 2021, Mitigata offers a full-stack platform that integrates cybersecurity, risk management, compliance, and cyber insurance into a unified solution, powered by artificial intelligence. Its AI-driven risk manager provides real-time visibility into an organization’s cyber risk posture and even facilitates cyber insurance to cover residual risk. The company will leverage the Series A funds to further develop its AI-powered security and risk management tools, hire talent, and expand its operations across key Indian cities and into select global markets.
Funding Details:
PhnyX Lab, a Seoul, South Korea-based generative AI startup focused on the life sciences sector, has raised $4 million in seed funding to expand its suite of AI tools for pharmaceutical companies. The seed round was led by SK Networks, with participation from several prominent angel investors — including Aidan Gomez (co-founder and CEO of Cohere) and Illia Polosukhin (co-founder of NEAR Protocol) — both of whom are noted for their contributions to foundational AI research. PhnyX Lab’s flagship platform, Cheiron (launched in late 2024), is already used by over 60 pharma and biotech companies to streamline complex workflows like scientific literature reviews and clinical trial searches. With the new funding, PhnyX Lab is broadening Cheiron into a full product suite (including an AI tool for automating medical writing) and deepening partnerships with industry players. The capital will support further product development and drive the startup’s growth in the global biotech market.
