OK, let's just jump right into this deep dive,
because seriously, this past week, May 31st to
June 6th, 2025, it was just absolutely massive
for AI funding. Yeah, massive feels about right.
The source material we're looking at, it actually
calls it a mountain of cash. And honestly, looking
at these numbers, that might even be putting
it mildly. Ultimately, the scale is kind of wild.
So our mission today, it's pretty straightforward,
but. You know, there's a lot to cover. We're
going to unpack the top 20 AI funding rounds
announced just in this one week. We'll look at
the companies, the sometimes staggering money
involved, and really the incredible ways they're
applying AI, sometimes really unexpected ways.
Right. And think of this as like. your shortcut.
You get a clear snapshot of where the big money
is flowing in AI right now. It really shows how
AI is moving beyond theory. You know, it's being
applied everywhere in sectors you might not even
immediately think of. Exactly. It's definitely
not just about chatbots anymore, is it? So let's
start climbing this mountain. We'll kick off
with the biggest newsmakers from the source list
working our way down the top 20 and right at
the very top with a number that honestly feels
a bit sci -fi. Neuralink. Yeah, Neuralink. They
grab the single largest round. Like by a huge
margin this week, $650 million. Wow. $650 million.
Series E announced June 2nd, June 3rd, somewhere
in there. I mean, that is a statement. It absolutely
is. And their focus is, well, it's fascinating.
AI driven brain computer interfaces. They're
literally trying to build a direct link, you
know, between the human brain and computers.
Which for years that just sounded like. Like
pure science fiction, right? Straight out of
a novel. It really did. But the AI is kind of
the key piece here. It's the software that has
the incredibly hard job of interpreting those
super complex, noisy signals from the brain,
trying to decode the electrical language of thought.
That takes some serious AI power for pattern
recognition. And the initial goal, it's really
powerful, isn't it? Yeah. It's not just like
controlling video games with your mind yet. The
focus is on... Helping people with profound challenges.
Yeah. Paralysis. Severe speech issues. Right.
Giving them new avenues for communication, for
interaction. Yeah. It's that sci -fi dream. But
starting with a really profound, practical, almost
urgent need and that kind of funding. $650 million.
It just shows the massive bet being placed on
this. Absolutely. It's a huge swing, a real moonshot,
and investors are clearly all in. Okay. So moving
down the list, but still way up there in the
hundreds of millions. Yeah. Impulse Space. Ah,
yes. Impulse Space. They're doing really interesting
stuff. They raised $300 million in a Series C.
That was announced between June 3rd and 5th.
And their focus, AI -driven mobility in space.
Okay. So we talk about self -driving cars all
the time. Is this like self -driving spacecraft?
Pretty much. That's a good way to think about
it. Or the source calls them space tugs. They
build these vehicles designed to move things
around after they're already in orbit or deep
space, moving satellites, delivering cargo, that
kind of complex stuff. And the AI, what's its
role in space tugging? Seems complicated. Well,
space is incredibly hard, right? Navigation needs
to be precise. Docking with other objects moving
at insane speeds, optimizing fuel for long trips.
It's all super complex. Their AI handles that
navigation, the tricky docking maneuvers, planning
the most efficient routes. It's automating the
really difficult parts of operating in space,
making it easier and, importantly, cheaper. Wow.
So AI decoding brainwaves, AI driving vehicles
in space. The sheer range just in the top two
is kind of breathtaking already. And we're only
two companies in. It really shows the breadth.
Next up, we see AI tackling something maybe a
bit closer to home for a lot of folks. Investing.
Scalable Capital raised a very significant $175
million in their Series E announced June 3rd.
Right. An AI -powered retail investing platform.
So this is aimed at, like... Everyday people
wanting to invest, not the big Wall Street firms.
Exactly. Their platform uses AI essentially as
a, you know. a smart financial advisor for individual
investors. It helps manage portfolios, just investments
based on your goals and risk level, personalizes
things. It's trying to make investing less intimidating.
Yeah, I guess the goal is just making it feel
way less daunting or more accessible if you don't
have deep financial knowledge or hours to research.
Makes sense. It totally does. And that funding
level suggests they're getting real traction,
making that AI guide smarter and reaching more
people across Europe and potentially elsewhere.
Okay, now this next one. The funding amount at
this stage, and it kind of made me do a double
take. Shield technology. Oh, yeah. Shield technology.
This is wild. Over $100 million for a seed round.
A seed round. Yeah. Announced June 5th, Thrive
Holdings and ZBS Partners leading. That is just
massive early stage confidence. What on earth
are they doing that gets that kind of money right
out of the gate? They're building AI -enabled
managed IT services. You know, think about the
IT support team at work, the people who seem
to magically know what's wrong when your system
goes down. Shield is trying to bottle that using
AI. So instead of waiting for things to break
and calling help desk, their AI tries to predict
problems before they happen and fix them automatically,
like... digital IT wizards. Kind of, yeah. Digital
IT wizards or maybe proactive digital mechanics.
The idea is moving from reactive support to proactive
automated maintenance. Keeping systems running
smoothly, maybe fixing stuff before anyone even
knows there was an issue, that kind of uptime
for businesses. It's clearly super valuable,
hence the huge seed round. Okay, sticking with
businesses, Boltek also pulled in a big number,
$147 million in a Series C on June 5th. Right.
Boltec. They're an insert tech insurance plus
technology. And what stands out, according to
the source, is their Gen AI factory. They're
working with AWS on this. A Gen AI factory. That
sounds very organized for insurance, almost industrial.
Well, that seems to be the point. They're using
generative AI to build and deploy systems that
can rapidly create more personalized insurance
products and streamline the whole process, really
getting quotes, processing claims, customer service.
So the goal is pretty straightforward then. Use
AI to make insurance less of a hassle for everybody.
Pretty much. Insurance can be incredibly clunky.
This funding suggests investors see massive potential
in using Gen AI to automate and personalize it
all at scale. Better efficiency, better customer
experience. All right, let's swing back to the
really cutting edge, maybe brain bending stuff,
inflation. $100 million, Series C, June 2nd.
Their focus sounds... Oh, absolutely. They're
right at the intersection of quantum computing
and AI, developing quantum enhanced AI and something
called contextual machine learning or CML. OK,
quantum enhanced AI, like using quantum physics,
weirdness, position entanglement to make AI algorithms
more powerful. How does that even work? That's
the fundamental idea. Yeah. The hope is that
quantum approaches can solve certain problems
that are just intractable for today's best classical
computers. Optimizing incredibly complex systems,
maybe discovering new materials, code breaking.
So unlocking new types of computation. Potentially
building the next generation of super smart machines.
That seems to be the ambition. And the contextual
machine learning part, my read is it suggests
AI systems that are better at grasping the nuances,
the surrounding info, the context of data, leading
to more accurate insights, especially where simple
pattern matching isn't enough. It's really pushing
the boundaries. Deep tech, like you said. Yeah,
deep is right. Okay, let's pivot back to something
impacting businesses more directly, though maybe
less flashy than quantum physics. Symmetric raised
$85 million in a Series B, led by Goldman Sachs.
Announced June 5th, and the source noted a new
$30 million part of that round. Symmetric is
tackling a huge ongoing headache for almost any
company handling lots of transactions. Financial
reconciliation. Financial reconciliation. OK,
break that down simply. What's that mean? Imagine
a big company. millions of transactions, daily
cards, transfers, different processors, currencies,
refunds. Reconciliation is the super tedious
job of matching all their internal records against
bank statements and payment reports to ensure
everything adds up. It's complex, slow, and really
easy to make mistakes. Oh man, I can just picture
the endless spreadsheets. So Symmetrix AI comes
in and acts like it's a super accountant that
never gets tired. Or maybe a robot army matching
numbers? That's pretty much it. Their AI automates
matching those millions of transactions from
all these different places. It flags problems
that a human would have to hunt for manually,
saves finance teams tons of time, cuts errors,
and lets people focus on more strategic stuff.
That sounds incredibly valuable for any decent
-sized business. Making finance less stressful
is always good. Absolutely. It's crucial back
-office stuff, and clearly big investors like
Goldman see the huge need for AI to automate
it. Ah, next. Prepared. They're using AI for
something really critical, emergency response.
$80 million in a Series C, led by General Catalyst,
announced sometime between May 30th and June
5th. Prepared is focused on assistive AI for
emergency responders. You know, when 911 calls
flood in or during a major incident, information
is coming from everywhere. Calls, texts, maybe
sensors, video feeds. Right. Total chaos. How
does AI help there? Their AI works to synthesize
all that incoming data in real time. It processes
the language from calls, analyzes data streams,
and gives crucial insights and context to dispatchers
and first responders instantly. It helps them
build a clearer picture of a confusing situation
way faster than humans could alone. So it's like
a vital sidekick, feeding them better, faster
info to make critical decisions more effectively.
Exactly. It's genuinely lifesaving tech if it
improves response times or helps responders understand
the situation better before they arrive. That
funding is backing technology that can have a
real impact on public safety. Wow. Okay, shifting
gears again, but still high impact. Yeah. And
Thea raised $56 million in a Series C on June
3rd, using AI in biology and medicine. Yes, they're
working in AI -driven synthetic biology, specifically
producing essential drug ingredients using basically
reprogrammed microbes. The source used a neat
analogy. calling it kind of like a high -tech
brewery. High -tech brewery making medicine.
Okay, tell me more about that. That sounds cool.
Well, they use AI to help redesign the internal
workings, the biological pathways inside microorganisms
like yeast. The AI helps figure out how to make
these tiny yeast cells act like efficient little
factories. Factories for what? Factories that
produce complex molecules needed for essential
medicines. Things that might otherwise be hard
to make, expensive, or depend on unstable supply
chains, like relying on specific plants. So the
impact is scaling up production of critical drugs.
Yeah. Making supply chains more stable. Exactly.
It's about making these vital pharmaceutical
ingredients in a more controlled, potentially
cheaper, and more reliable way. It could really
help stabilize global drug supplies, which is
huge for health care. Okay. Cybersecurity, always
a hot topic. Zero Networks got 55. million in
the Series B on June 3rd for their AI -driven
platform. Zero Networks is looking at cybersecurity
from a slightly different angle. A lot of security
is about building walls around the network, keeping
threats out. But what if something does get inside?
Their platform focuses on internal network security,
specifically microsegmentation automated by AI.
Microsegmentation. So instead of one big open
network inside a company, AI automatically carves
it up into lots of tiny isolated zones, like
smart automatic internal firewalls. That's a
really good way to put it. The AI learns normal
traffic patterns, who needs to talk to what,
and automatically creates these tiny barriers.
If a threat gets into one zone, the AI stops
it from easily spreading everywhere else, contains
the breach, limits the damage. It's a key part
of defense in depth. Makes sense. You can't just
rely on the outer wall. Right. And having AI
automate that segmentation makes it way more
practical and less error prone than trying to
manage it all manually. Speaking of the underlying
tech, SpeedEdit raised $44 million in a Series
B on June 3rd. They're focusing on AI analytics
processing units, APUs. Yeah, this is about the
actual hardware AI runs on. Speedata is jumping
into the race to build specialized chips designed
specifically for AI and data analytics, these
APUs. They're aiming to compete with the established
players, maybe even giants like NVIDIA. So building
the silicon muscle needed for all this AI computation.
Exactly. AI needs massive processing power, especially
for training big models and running analysis
at scale. This funding helps them speed up designing,
making, and selling their specialized hardware.
More competition and innovation in AI chips is
definitely a good thing. Moving over to global
finance, NomiPay raised $40 million in the Series
C on June 3rd for AI cross -border payment infrastructure.
This tackles the pain of sending money internationally.
It can be slow, expensive, lots of intermediaries.
NomaPay uses AI to streamline that whole process.
How does AI make international payments better
exactly? The AI looks at all the different possible
payment routes, the correspondent banks involved,
the network fees, all in real time. It finds
the fastest, cheapest, most reliable path for
money to get from country A to country B, basically
untangles that complex web. Which has got to
be huge for businesses operating globally, right?
Right. Getting bogged down by... slow or costly
payments is a real drag on international trade.
Totally. This investment should help them expand
their network and make sending money internationally
much smoother and more affordable for businesses
and maybe even individuals. Keeping data safe
is always critical. Mind raised $30 million in
a Series A on June 4th. Their platform is for
AI -native data loss prevention. What's interesting
about Mind, backed by folks like Okta Ventures
and Paladin Capital, is their approach to DLP,
data loss prevention. Old school DLP often uses
rigid rules like block files with these keywords.
But attackers and even accidental leaks get smarter
than simple rules, don't they? Exactly. Mind's
platform is AI native. Instead of just rules,
their AI learns what normal data usage looks
like inside a company, how data typically moves,
who accesses what. It builds a baseline of normal
behavior. Ah, okay. So it can spot something
weird even if it doesn't break a specific rule
just because it's not normal for that company.
Precisely. It's more like a smart security guard
who understands the context, not just a checklist
minder. That should make it way better at catching
subtle or new ways data might leak out. That
makes a lot of sense. Smarter defense needed
for smarter threats. Okay, electric vehicles.
Hypercraft raised $26 million in a Series A on
June 4th. Stalwart Ventures led that. They're
doing AI -optimized electric powertrains. Yeah,
this is about making EVs even better. The powertrain
is basically everything that gets power from
the battery to the wheels, motor, controllers,
gears, etc. It's a complex system. And how does
AI optimize it? Is it designing better parts?
It's used in both the design and the real -time
control. AI can simulate countless configurations
to find the best designs for efficiency, power,
keeping things cool. And then AI in the car can
actively manage the powertrain for optimal performance
moment to moment. So that could mean, what, longer
range, better acceleration, maybe faster charging.
Exactly. Things like that. Using AI and designing
control to squeeze out every bit of performance
and efficiency, making EVs better, accelerating
that smarter electric future by fine -tuning
the core tech. Semaphore .ai got $25 million
in a Series A extension on June 4th. Their focus
is an enterprise AI agent platform. Right, we
hear a lot about AI agents' smart programs that
do tasks. Semaphore .ai provides the platform
layer so companies can actually build, manage,
and use these agents across the board. So it's
not the agents themselves, but more like the
factory for making and managing the agents inside
a company. Yeah, that's a good way to think about
it. It's the toolkit and infrastructure for businesses
to really put AI agents to practical use. The
source mentioned they integrate with data platforms
like Snowflake, which is crucial. Agents need
data. This funding helps make their platform
more powerful and easier for companies to adopt.
More security. Trustify raised $25 million. in
a Series A on June 4th focused on AI email security.
Yeah, our email inboxes. There's still a major
front line for cyber attacks, right? Phishing,
malware. Justify is building an AI shield that
aims to be smarter than traditional filters that
just look for known threats. How's AI better
at filtering email? Their AI analyzes the email
content, the sender's behavior, even subtle things
in the language that might signal a phishing
attempt or malicious link that a simple filter
would miss. Plus, they integrate things like
encryption and data loss prevention specifically
for email. So it's trying to keep up with the
constantly evolving tricks cyber criminals use.
Absolutely. The threats get sneakier. Email volume
is huge. You need smarter defenses like AI to
stay ahead in that ongoing battle. This investment
helps them scale up. Okay, switching to... the
legal world famously document heavy. WordSmith
AI raised $25 million in a Series A on June 3rd.
Index Ventures, Scottish Enterprise were involved.
Yep, LegalTech AI agents. Legal work involves
so much reading, research, document analysis.
WordSmith AI's platform offers AI agents designed
specifically to help lawyers with those kinds
of tasks. So just to be clear, this isn't AI
replacing lawyers, right? It's more like giving
them tools. Definitely the latter. Think of them
as AI legal assistants. They can rapidly sift
through huge document sets, find relevant info,
speed up legal research, even help draft standard
documents. OK, so it frees up lawyers from the
really time -consuming, maybe tedious parts,
letting them focus on strategy, advice, court
work. Precisely. Doesn't replace legal judgment,
but gives lawyers powerful tools to work faster
and maybe more accurately through mountains of
information. That funding will help get these
AI assistants Fabric raised just over $25 million,
about $22 million in growth capital on June 4th.
Their focus, industrial AI for the factory floor.
Fabric is putting AI right into manufacturing
plants. They focus on analyzing data coming directly
off the machines and production lines in real
time. Data from the machines. What for? What
does the AI do with it? It optimizes everything
on the factory floor. Spots inefficiencies, identifies
bottlenecks, predicts when a machine might fail
so they can fix it before it breaks down, improves
overall quality and output. Investors like OSS
Ventures are specifically focused on factories,
so this is hitting a real need. So it's like
giving the whole factory an IQ boost. Making
it run smarter, smoother, less prone to surprises.
Exactly. Taking all that raw machine data and
turning it into actionable insights to make manufacturing
much more efficient and cost effective. Almost
there. Moma's lab raised $24 million in an unspecified
series round on June 3rd. Ox and Orange Ventures.
We're investors. Moments Lab tackles a growing
problem. Finding stuff inside all the video content
out there. They have an AI powered video discovery
platform. Like if I need to find where someone
mentioned a specific topic in a long meeting
recording or webinar. That kind of thing. Exactly
that. Their AI effectively watches and understands
video content, identifies speakers, transcribes
audio, recognizes objects, grasps concepts. It
automatically tags everything, creates transcripts,
builds a searchable index. So you can search
for words, topics, even people within huge video
libraries and jump right to the relevant spot.
Precisely. It makes video content, which is usually
pretty opaque, much more searchable and useful,
like text. This investment helps make their video
search faster, smarter, and handle even more
content. And finally, rounding out our top 20
for this week, Avio raised $22 million in a Series
A, announced between June 4th and 5th, backed
by big names like Bain Capital Ventures and Kosla
Ventures. Avio is applying AI to a super important
area, traffic safety. Their platform uses AI
to analyze traffic data and video feeds. How
does that improve safety? What's the AI actually
looking for? It's not just counting cars. The
AI analyzes patterns to spot dangerous situations
before accidents happen. It can identify near
misses, predict high -risk intersections based
on traffic flow issues, or even detect risky
driving behaviors from camera feeds while maintaining
privacy naturally. Wow, so it's about preventing
crashes, not just analyzing them afterwards.
Exactly. By flagging risks proactively, cities
and traffic... authorities can use Obvio's insights
to maybe change signal timings, deploy resources
more effectively, or redesign problem areas before
people get hurt. It's critical safety tech, and
that funding shows real confidence in its potential
to save lives. Wow. Okay, so we just went through
the top 20 AI funding rounds from just one week,
May 31st to June 6th, and the range... Seriously,
it's just staggering. From literally plugging
into the brain with Neuralink to driving things
in space with Impulse Space, managing personal
finances with Scalable Capital, fixing IT automatically
with Shield, helping first responders with Prepared,
brewing medicines with Anthea, securing email
with Trustify, optimizing factories with Fabric,
even preventing car crashes with Avio. Yeah,
it really hammers the point home, doesn't it?
This wasn't just, you know, a list of chatbot
companies. It underscores the incredible breadth
and the sheer speed of AI development and adoption.
And the amount of money we saw just in that one
week shows how much capital is backing these
incredibly varied, sometimes really ambitious
visions for AI's future. It really makes you
stop and think like, OK, you've heard this incredible
range, augmenting brains, automating space travel,
managing money, running factories. It's such
a spectrum. Totally. Yeah. For you listening
right now, what do you think is the single most
impactful AI application we talked about today?
Which one feels like it could really shift things
near or long term? And maybe take it a step further.
How might these different areas, brain tech,
space tech, finance, industry, how could they
connect or influence each other down the line
in ways we haven't even thought of? Yeah, that's
a great question to ponder. Could insights from
brain interfaces, say, help us build more intuitive
controls for complex machines? Could better financial
AI unlock funding for even wilder deep tech projects?
The potential crossovers are fascinating. Right.
It's not just 20 separate stories. It's a snapshot
of this rapidly evolving ecosystem. This week's
funding isn't just about the cash. It's a real
glimpse into where AI is going and just how fast
that future is being built. Definitely something
to think about. Thanks for joining us on this
deep dive into that mountain of AI cash from
one pretty remarkable week.