By Shikha Singh
Juniper Networks To Back AI Startup Recogni In $102 mn Funding Round.
Juniper Networks has announced its investment in AI startup Recogni as part of the latter’s $102 million Series C funding round. Recogni made this investment to develop an AI inference system for server racks, aiming to create cost-effective, scalable, and energy-efficient solutions for running complex AI models in cloud environments and data centers. The two companies plan to collaborate on this project, leveraging Recogni’s AI inference accelerator technology. Celesta Capital and GreatPoint Ventures co-led the Series C round, which closed in February, with Juniper joining as a participant.
Portal Ventures Raises $75 mn for Pre-seed Crypto Fund.
Portal Ventures has closed its second fund, raising $75 million to invest in pre-seed Web3 startups. Investors such as Marc Andreessen and Chris Dixon of a16z, along with funds from Accolade Partners, Theta Capital, and CrossLayer Capital, are backing the fund. Portal Ventures, based in New York City, has a history of investing in crypto startups at an early stage, even before the creation of a white paper or pitch deck. Its portfolio includes companies like Plume Network (focused on real-world asset tokenization) and crypto lending platform Arch. The fund emphasizes investments in Bitcoin programmability, decentralized infrastructure (DePIN), and maximal extractable value (MEV) business models, typically backing one founder per category.
Crypto-AI Startup 0G Labs Raises $40 mn seed, Receives $250 mn Token Purchase Commitment.
Zero Gravity Labs (0G Labs or 0GL), a crypto-AI startup developing infrastructure for a decentralized AI system, has announced $290 million in new funding. The Labs raised a $40 million seed round and the 0G Foundation, the independent governance body for the 0G Protocol, received a $250 million token purchase commitment. Investors include Hack VC, Delphi Digital, OKX Ventures, Samsung Next, Bankless Ventures, Animoca Brands and its co-founder Yat Siu, Polygon and its co-founder Sandeep Nailwal, Stanford Blockchain Fund, Abstract VC, Alchemy, Blockdaemon, Foresight Ventures, and many others, 0G Labs said Wednesday. It did not specify which investors participated in the seed round and which provided the token purchase commitment.
DeFi Platform Folks Finance Raises $3.2 mn Series A at $75 mn Valuation.
Folks Finance, a cross-chain decentralized finance (DeFi) platform, raised $3.2 million in a Series A funding round, bringing its valuation to $75 million. Borderless Capital led the round, with participation from Algorand Ventures, Mapleblock Capital, Sovo Ventures, and others. Strong investor interest oversubscribed the round, which initially aimed for $2 million at a $50 million valuation. The first $2 million was raised in February, with the remaining $1.2 million secured more recently. The $75 million valuation includes both equity and token fully diluted valuation (FDV), suggesting a future token launch.
Pulse, Web3 Health Tech Startup, Closes $1.8 mn Pre-Seed Round.
Pulse, a Web3 health tech startup reshaping how people manage and benefit from their health data, has closed its $1.8 million pre-seed round, co-led by Collab+Currency and Lemniscap. According to the team, “Pulse’s digital twin technology aggregates data from wearables, electronic health records, and diagnostics into a comprehensive, unified health profile. Using privacy-first technology, Pulse empowers users to securely share this data with trusted partners, such as researchers or healthcare providers, on their terms—unlocking actionable health insights that improve wellness and drive medical research forward.”
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