Kalshi Looks to Almost Double Its Valuation in Just a Month

Top News

Kalshi is reportedly in talks to raise new funding at a roughly $40 billion valuation just a month after raising $1 billion at $22 billion, based presumably on the prediction market’s surging trading volume and its expansion into sports, crypto, and financial-event contracts. The Financial Times has more here.

OpenAI unveiled Jalapeño, its first custom inference chip, built with Broadcom and designed to lower the cost of running its AI models, as the company doubles down on its own infrastructure to reduce its dependence on Nvidia GPUs. TechCrunch has more here.

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Here’s Why Slate Changed the Battery in Its Cheap EV Truck

By Tim De Chant

Slate, maker of the stripped-down EV pickup truck, found another way to simplify its product: the battery.

When the startup revealed its starting price on Wednesday — $24,950 before destination, taxes, and other fees — it also said it had changed its battery strategy, eliminating the optional 240-mile pack but bumping the standard pack from 150 miles to 205. 

How Slate pulled that off illustrates just how significantly the battery market in the U.S. has changed in the past four years.

Initially, the startup planned to use nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) cells. The chemistry is widely used in the automotive industry and favored for its energy density, which translates into longer range. But NMC is also expensive, mostly due to high nickel and cobalt prices.

More recently, automakers have begun to use another chemistry, lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP). Battery packs that use LFP are less energy dense but cheaper by about 40%, thanks in part to lower-cost ingredients like iron, one of the main cathode materials, which replaces nickel and cobalt.

There were good reasons why Slate, and other automakers, started with NMC. The LFP supply chain today is concentrated in China. That wasn’t always the case — early U.S. battery startup A123 Systems was founded to commercialize the technology. But after a few missteps, it fell into bankruptcy and was bought in 2013 by a Chinese auto parts company. Since then, Chinese battery companies have embraced the chemistry and dominated production of LFP cells.

Massive Fundings

Alan, a 10-year-old Paris company that sells health insurance to corporate customers and offers virtual care and AI-powered patient support through its app, raised a $545.2 million round led by Prosus at a $6.2 billion post-money valuation, with Teachers’ Venture Growth and Index Ventures also engaging. The round includes both new capital and a secondary share sale. The Financial Times has more here.

Assort Health, a three-year-old San Francisco startup that automates patient access workflows for healthcare providers by handling calls, scheduling, intake, referrals, and payments across clinics and health systems, raised a $120 million Series C round at a $1.2 billion valuation. The deal was led by Menlo Ventures, with Lightspeed, Felicis, First Round Capital, Chemistry, Joe Montana, Tau Ventures, and Quiet Capital also taking part. The company has raised a total of $222+ million. More here.

Cadence, a six-year-old New York startup that monitors patients with chronic diseases at home and helps health systems adjust treatment and medications between visits using supervised AI agents, raised a $100 million Series C round led by Spark Capital, with Thrive Capital, General Catalyst, Coatue, B Capital, Corewell Health Ventures, Memorial Hermann, and Duke Health also pitching in. Modern Healthcare has more here.

HyperLight, an eight-year-old startup based in Cambridge, MA, that builds photonics chips that improve data transmission speed and reduce power use in optical interconnects for AI data centers and telecom networks, raised an $80 million Series C round led by MediaTek, with UMC Capital, Jabil, Foxconn, EDBI, CDIB-TEN Capital, and Qatar Investment Authority as well as previous investors Summit Partners, The Engine, Foothill Ventures, and Xora Innovation also piling on. More here.

Ollin Biosciences, a three-year-old Austin startup that develops antibody drugs for eye diseases such as macular degeneration and diabetic macular edema, raised a $330 million Series B round co-led by TCGX and Arch Venture Partners, with Andreessen Horowitz, Blackstone, Commodore Capital, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, RA Capital Management, T. Rowe Price, and an unnamed sovereign wealth fund as well as previous investors Mubadala Capital and Monograph Capital also piling on. BioPharma Dive has more here.

Osanni Bio, a four-year-old San Francisco startup that discovers and develops new drug candidates and spins them into affiliate companies after early validation in areas like ophthalmology and cardiology, raised a $190 million Series B round led by Patient Square Capital, with Horowitz Group, Invus Opportunities, and the Retinal Degeneration Fund also anteing up. Pulse 2.0 has more here.

Partly, a six-year-old Austin startup that uses a specialized model to identify correct vehicle parts from diagrams, photos, and repair descriptions to help auto repair shops order parts accurately, raised a $50 million Series B round at a $500 million post-money valuation. The deal was led by DST Global Partners. More here.

Runpod, a four-year-old startup based in Mt. Laurel, NJ, that rents cloud computing power to AI developers for experimenting, training, fine-tuning, and running models, raised a $100 million round at a $1 billion post-money valuation led by Summit Partners. The Next Web has more here.

SambaNova Systems, a nine-year-old Palo Alto startup that develops AI chips and server systems that compete with Nvidia, is reportedly set to raise $800 million to $1 billion at an approximately $10 billion valuation, up from $2 billion in February. The Information has more here.

Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings

Allium, a five-year-old New York startup that aggregates and standardizes blockchain transaction data for banks, fintechs, and government agencies to analyze markets, run queries, and integrate onchain activity into internal systems, raised a $40 million Series B round led by Amplify Partners, with previous investors Kleiner Perkins and Theory Ventures also participating. SiliconANGLE has more here.

Astral Systems, a five-year-old startup based in Bristol, UK, that builds compact fusion reactors that produce medical isotopes for hospitals to use in cancer imaging and targeted therapies, raised a $30.3 million round led by Mercia Ventures, with Tees River, Daphni, and Blast Club as well as previous investors Speedinvest and Playfair also contributing. Tech Funding News has more here.

Caplight Technologies, a five-year-old San Francisco startup that provides private market data and runs a marketplace connecting investors and broker-dealers to trade venture stakes and access secondary market liquidity, raised a $16 million Series A round co-led by BlackRock, Fin Capital, and LEAP Global Partners, with UBS Investment Bank as well as previous investors DB1 Ventures, Better Tomorrow Ventures, Clocktower Ventures, and Dash Fund also investing. More here.

Coval, a two-year-old San Francisco startup that runs simulations, monitors performance, and labels data to help enterprises test and improve voice and chat agents before and after deployment, raised a $28 million Series A round led by Norwest, with Base10 Partners, Twilio Ventures, and Y Combinator also chipping in. The company has raised a total of $31 million. SiliconANGLE has more here.

CroíValve, a 10-year-old Dublin company that develops a minimally invasive heart valve device that treats tricuspid regurgitation in patients unsuitable for open-heart surgery, raised a $20 million Series B extension from BGF as well as previous investor MedTech Syndicate. Silicon Republic has more here.

Jupus, a four-year-old startup based in Cologne, Germany, that automates client communication, case organization, and document drafting for small and mid-sized law firms, raised a $14.8 million Series A round led by Semapa Next, with NRW.BANK and Combination VC as well as previous investors Acton Capital and High-Tech Gründerfonds also engaging. The company has raised a total of €20+ million. The SaaS News has more here.

JustAI, a two-year-old San Francisco startup that automates customer marketing campaigns by generating messages, selecting next-best actions and optimizing engagement decisions for enterprise marketing teams, raised a $17 million Series A round led by Base10 Partners, with Y Combinator and Peak XV Partners also digging in. More here.

Kotoba Technologies, a three-year-old San Francisco and Tokyo startup that develops speech AI models for East Asian languages, raised an additional $10 million in seed funding led by Kindred Ventures, with Salesforce Ventures and Sony Innovation Fund also participating. The company has raised a total of $23 million.