startups

Global venture capital firm Accel announced that it has raised a new fund of $3.5 billion for early-stage investments worldwide. A total of four funds were raised, including a global expansion fund of $1.35 billion for larger early rounds and follow-on investments; the U.S. fund and the European and Israeli funds are each $800 million, while the Indian fund is $550 million.Accel partner Harry Nelis stated that companies are raising funds more quickly in their early stages than ever before, which presents opportunities for investors, although the scale of risk still exists. Accel has invested in AI companies such as Anthropic, Cursor, and Perplexity.

According to the industry analysis platform Hello China Tech, as of June 2026, there are a total of 8 humanoid robot-related companies in China with valuations reaching or exceeding 20 billion yuan (approximately 2.9 billion USD), of which 5 companies have valuations primarily based on models rather than shipment volumes, with annual shipment volumes still maintaining at the hundreds level. In the second quarter, the financing amount in the humanoid robot field reached 6.95 billion USD, more than double that of the previous quarter.The report points out that the data collection costs vary significantly across different stages: the hourly wage for frontline operators is about 20 to 40 yuan, approximately 25 yuan when outsourced; the internal cost for companies involving robots is about 250 yuan; and the data price from government-supported training bases reaches 500 to 1000 yuan. However, the data produced through different collection methods (wearable devices and robot involvement) shows significant differences in quality and training effectiveness, with only about 50 hours of usable data from 100 hours of raw collection. The data measurement units used by different companies (hours, trajectories, skills, etc.) are incompatible, and there is a lack of independent auditing, leading to considerable uncertainty in valuation bases. It is believed that the industry urgently needs to establish a unified data asset measurement standard.

According to Bloomberg, former OpenAI researcher Leopold Aschenbrenner's AI fund Situational Awareness has splurged $400 million this week to support a private company, which is the semiconductor manufacturing startup Source Foundry. It is reported that VC giant Sequoia Capital has also provided support for this startup. So far, representatives from Situational Awareness and Source Foundry have not responded to requests for comments, while Sequoia Capital has declined to confirm the hedge fund's investment situation.It is reported that Source Foundry is dedicated to developing a semiconductor manufacturing process that is simpler, cheaper, and faster than existing methods, aiming to bridge the widening gap between the demand for AI computing power and the capacity expansion of chip manufacturing. Analysts believe that Leopold Aschenbrenner's large-scale investment reflects the ongoing strong demand in the market for new chip manufacturing technologies, as AI developers' demand for computing power is increasing day by day. However, this investment also reveals that Situational Awareness has formed a highly concentrated risk exposure before facing significant financial pressure due to severe fluctuations in its publicly held technology positions.

According to Business Insider, Alexandr Wang, founder of Scale AI and current head of Meta's Superintelligence Lab, stated at a Y Combinator event that AI has significantly narrowed the power gap between startups and giants. He recalled that when he founded Scale AI in 2016, "startups faced giants like David against Goliath, needing to find market entry points more intelligently"; however, with the development of AI agent technology, "it now feels more like Goliath against Goliath," and as long as startups apply AI agents in "the most ambitious way," it is not difficult to defeat large companies that already have an advantage.Scale AI, founded by Wang, is one of the earliest data annotation companies, employing thousands of contractors worldwide to train models for large AI labs. Last June, Meta reached a $14.3 billion deal with Scale AI, and Wang subsequently joined Meta. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman also stated at the same event that "there has never been a better time to start a business."

According to TechFundingNews, Lightning Capital announced the establishment of a $100 million "AI Ripple Effect" early-stage fund and appointed former Andreessen Horowitz partner Michele Griffin as the fund's managing partner and COO. It is reported that the fund will invest in startups focused on the secondary impact of AI as it transitions from experimentation to implementation on industries, infrastructure, and ways of working, while also providing secondary market and cash management strategies and offering flexible liquidity options for family offices and corporate investors.

According to Axios, Silicon Valley venture capital firm Playground Global has completed fundraising of $475 million for a new fund, which will focus on investing in startups in the fields of artificial intelligence, automation, advanced computing, and deep tech.Playground Global was founded by Android co-founder Andy Rubin and others, and has long focused on AI infrastructure, robotics, and hardware innovation. This new fund indicates that, driven by the surge in generative AI and automation, capital continues to pour into the frontier technology sector.Playground Global is headquartered in Palo Alto, California, and previously completed fundraising of $410 million for its third fund in 2022. Its investment portfolio includes companies such as Agility Robotics, PsiQuantum, Skydio, Ultima Genomics, Virta Health, and Unconventional AI.

According to The Block, the well-known startup accelerator Y Combinator will hold interviews in New York City for the first time, focusing on fintech and cryptocurrency startups, hoping to support more companies in this field.YC stated on Wednesday: "This is the first time YC has moved the interview process for a specific industry offline in this way, as they are meeting with founders who are forming a key ecosystem."A YC spokesperson said the interviews will take place offline in New York on May 21. The standard investment terms for selected startups are a $500,000 investment for 7% equity. Earlier this year, after YC launched this option, startups can also choose to receive funding in the form of Circle's stablecoin USDC.The YC Winter 2026 batch includes several crypto and fintech startups, including the financial infrastructure Sponge Wallet for the AI agent economy, the crypto deposit service provider Unifold, the unified trading platform for crypto, real-world assets, and prediction markets Sequence Markets, and the cross-platform trading platform for prediction markets Valence.Since its establishment in 2005, YC has invested in over 5,000 companies, with a total valuation exceeding $1 trillion. Its portfolio includes OpenAI, Airbnb, Stripe, and Reddit. YC's first crypto investment was in Coinbase in 2012, and it has since invested in over 150 crypto and fintech companies, including the prediction market platform Kalshi, the DeFi trading platform Axiom, and the NFT marketplace OpenSea. Last year, YC partnered with Coinbase to support startups building on-chain infrastructure, which YC referred to as "Fintech 3.0."

According to DL News citing DefiLlama data, cryptocurrency startups raised nearly $5 billion in the first quarter of 2026, a year-on-year decrease of 16%. However, the investment ecosystem continues to evolve, with funding shifting significantly from speculative tokens to practical sectors such as payments and trading infrastructure. Among them, the prediction market sector leads with over $1.7 billion, while payments and trading infrastructure attracted $735 million and $423 million, respectively. Top non-crypto institutions such as Sequoia Capital, Founders Fund, Bain Capital, and Alibaba are also accelerating their entry.The top ten financing projects in Q1 are as follows: • Kalshi: $1 billion, valuation of $22 billion, led by Coatue Management, CFTC-regulated prediction market leader • Polymarket: $600 million, investment from Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), leading decentralized prediction market platform • Rain: $250 million Series C, valuation of nearly $2 billion, led by Iconiq Capital, stablecoin payment infrastructure • BitGo: $213 million, NYSE IPO, valuation of over $2 billion, crypto custody institution • Flying Tulip: $206 million, public token sale, led by DeFi architect Andre Cronje, integrating trading/lending/insurance • Whop: $200 million, Tether.

According to official news, YZI Labs has launched the Atlas Scout Program to help college students support Web3, artificial intelligence, and biotechnology startups.Ella Zhang, head of YZi Labs, stated: "During recent meetings with founders, I was impressed by young entrepreneurs aged 16 to 18. In this AI-driven new era, the pace of learning and entrepreneurship is accelerating exponentially. We launched the Atlas Scout Program to empower the next generation of investors, allowing them not only to witness the future but also to identify, fund, and co-create it."It is reported that the Atlas Scout Program is a student-managed $1 million venture capital initiative that will support 5 to 10 top college students as investors, providing funding for founders in the fields of Web3, artificial intelligence, and biotechnology. Atlas Scouts will receive a global travel budget, rewards aligned with incentive mechanisms, and direct access to the ecosystem of over 300 portfolio projects under YZi Labs.

According to the official website of the SEC, Paul Atkins, the chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, announced new cryptocurrency guidelines at the DC Blockchain Summit, and proposed the concept of a regulatory safe harbor for crypto assets, which includes three exemption pathways:Startup Exemption: A maximum of four years, allowing projects to have a regulatory buffer period before reaching maturity, with a fundraising limit of no more than $5 million within four years, requiring the submission of principal disclosure information.Financing Exemption: Allowing up to $75 million in fundraising within 12 months, requiring the submission of disclosure documents to the SEC that include principal disclosures, financial status, and financial statements.Investment Contract Safe Harbor: When the issuer completes or permanently ceases core management efforts under the investment contract, the relevant crypto assets may be exempt from the definition of securities.Atkins stated that this framework draws on Congress's work in recent years, particularly the CLARITY Act, and proposed rules are expected to be released for public comment in the coming weeks.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong posted on the X platform that cryptocurrency will soon break down the barriers surrounding financing and capital formation. He stated that the reduction of financing friction will increase the number of startups globally and accelerate the development process. Every entrepreneur knows that the fundraising process is time-consuming and expensive.

Polygon Labs announced that it has completed the acquisition of cryptocurrency startups Coinme and Sequence, with a total acquisition price exceeding $250 million. However, Polygon Labs declined to disclose the specific acquisition prices for each company and did not specify whether the transactions were conducted in cash, equity, or a combination of both.Polygon Labs CEO Marc Boiron and Polygon Foundation founder Sandeep Nailwal stated that the acquisitions aim to support the stablecoin strategy of the blockchain network. Coinme holds a range of remittance licenses in the United States, while Sequence is focused on building blockchain infrastructure, including cryptocurrency wallets.

According to The Information, in recent months, JPMorgan has frozen accounts used by at least two rapidly growing stablecoin startups that operate in high-risk countries like Venezuela. The bank's actions highlight the risks that cryptocurrency trading poses to banks, as they must understand their business counterparts and the sources of funds.The bank has frozen the account of Blindpay.

Solana co-founder Raj Gokal stated at the Solana Breakpoint conference, "Among the 20 companies that recently reached $100 million in revenue, most are from the crypto industry, and the majority of these companies are built on Solana. This has actually been the goal we initially envisioned.I believe that to achieve this, we need the entropy brought by thousands of entrepreneurs------constantly exploring various potential value propositions of utilizing block space. And I feel that Solana now has this ecological potential. Events like the 'Colosseum' hackathon are growing larger, with over 1,700 teams participating each time."

ChainCatcher news, according to Business Post, Norio Ventures is raising a €10 million fund to invest in fintech startups focused on blockchain technology (covering pre-seed and seed stages).It is reported that Norio Ventures is led by Pete Townsend, who previously led the Techstars Web3 accelerator program in Dublin and served as a non-executive director at Coinbase. The first closing of Norio Ventures Fund I is expected to be completed in April.

ChainCatcher news, according to The Block, Japan's financial giant Credit Saison's venture capital division will launch a blockchain investment fund called Onigiri Capital.The fund has a size of $50 million and aims to build an institutional-level bridge between American innovation and Asia's mature blockchain and financial networks, helping founders create global financial products. According to a spokesperson, Onigiri is supported by Saison Capital and has raised $35 million through "joint investments from Credit Saison and external investors," with a maximum fund limit of $50 million, and can also accept additional funds. The fund will focus on early-stage startups in the real-world asset space, covering financial infrastructure such as stablecoins, payments, tokenization, and DeFi, with a particular emphasis on connections with Asia. Credit Saison is a large financial services company based in Tokyo, associated with the Mizuho Financial Group, and is the third-largest credit card issuer in Japan, also involved in various business sectors. Its venture capital division has been investing in cryptocurrency companies since 2023.

ChainCatcher message, according to the Web3 asset data platform RootData X tracking data, in the past 7 days, the platform supporting startups star.fun has gained the most new X (Twitter) top influencer followers, including anonymous Twitter KOL Inversebrah(@inversebrah), crypto KOL Kill Wolf (@Wolfy_XBT), and Altcoin Gordon(@AltcoinGordon).In addition, the project with the most X top influencer followers also includes Polyfactual.

ChainCatcher news, the artificial intelligence company Anthropic announced that it has recently completed a new round of financing of $13 billion, with its valuation soaring to $183 billion. This financing, which far exceeded expectations, makes it one of the highest-valued startups in the world. The round was led by Iconiq Capital, with participation from Fidelity Management and Research, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Singapore's GIC, Insight Partners, and the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA).According to previous reports, Anthropic's initial goal was to raise $5 billion, which was later increased to $10 billion, ultimately reaching $13 billion. In a statement on Tuesday, Anthropic stated that this investment "confirms Anthropic's unprecedented growth rate and solidifies our leadership position as the preferred intelligent platform for enterprises, developers, and high-end users."