Startups Tech News.

JPMorgan Chase invested $5 billion in startups during the first year of its U.S. security initiative, a faster pace than the planned $10 billion over a decade. The bank backed Hadrian, which uses 10 robots per human employee, and Castelion, a maker of the Blackbeard hypersonic missile founded in late 2022 by former SpaceX engineers.

Bill Gross of Idealab announced on October 19 the launch of Idealab.ai, an initiative using AI to generate over 1 million business ideas. The platform offers a searchable database, a chatbot, and a periodic table of startup functions. Idealab expects to launch the funding side by the end of 2026, aiming to connect founders with $100 million in potential capital.

Mecka AI completed its second acquisition by buying Ottawa-based social app Thirdspace for a cash-and-stock deal. The startup raised $60 million USD in Series B funding from Sequoia, Nvidia, Microsoft, Qualcomm, and Samsung. Mecka acquired the team to help reach a 100 million hours video target by end of 2027.

ResolvMD, an Alberta startup founded in 2019, expanded its AI-integrated medical billing software into Ontario this past August. The company added around 150 clients to its platform, which takes 1.95 percent of processed claims. ResolvMD plans a potential British Columbia expansion in 2027.

Russian military satellite Cosmos 2612 closed from over 200 miles to roughly 3 miles of US-owned ICEYE-X36 radar satellite. This deliberate approach near the Ukraine-supporting craft raises alarms about potential spying or interference in low Earth orbit.

Horizon3, a Singapore-based security validation company, received a strategic investment from EDBI and SG Growth Capital. The deal amount was not disclosed, following a US$250M Series E round in August 2026 that valued the firm at more than US$2 Billion. Horizon3 plans to use funds for expansion in Southeast Asia, Australia, and Japan.

Holyvolt, a San Diego AI-powered battery materials discovery company, raised $45M in funding on 19/10/2026. Backed by Zone II, CC.VC, and angels, the company will expand its AI capabilities and laboratory capacity to advance nickel- and cobalt-free DRX cathode materials toward commercial deployment for defense and grid applications.

Anthropic announced Sunday it plans to launch a massive benefit fund with 5% of its shares. The pledge amounts to $100 billion if the company reaches a $2 trillion IPO value. The fund will be a wholly owned LLC dedicated to flexible capital and measurable impact rather than traditional donations.

Barcelona-based Enzo Ventures launches a €20 million fund targeting Southern European tech startups. The firm doubled its previous €10 million capital, raising nearly €20 million from family offices in Spain, Europe, and Mexico. Initial cheques range from €250k to €600k for pre-Seed investments.

Bristol startup Siloton wins a 9.98 million euro contract from Innovate UK to develop its handheld eye imaging system. The funding aims to accelerate the GiraffeOCT device trials and expand the team to 16 employees by August 2028, potentially cutting development time by two years while supporting quantum technology adoption in the NHS.

Linkener, a Valencia-based energy management technology provider, raised 7.5 million euros in a funding round led by Klima Energy Transition Fund. The company plans to use the capital to accelerate development of its proprietary AI models for bill validation and consumption analytics while pursuing strategic M&A acquisitions to integrate complementary technologies.

Microsoft pulls out of a giant deal with U.K.-based firm Nscale right before its planned IPO. The deal valued Nscale at $35 billion and included 23,000 Nvidia chips for a facility in Essex. Microsoft accounts for 40% of Nscale's current revenue. Global AI debt issuance dropped from $113 billion in June to $23 billion in September.

Disney paid $5.5 million and a $2 million deposit to acquire Character.AI technology after the startup filed for bankruptcy on October 12. The deal allows Disney to hire most staff while retaining the company to handle ongoing lawsuits and regulatory investigations.

B2B manufacturing firm Zetwerk's IPO is fully subscribed on day 3 with 1.07X oversubscription. Qualified institutional buyers oversubscribed by 1.44X while retail investors subscribed 51%. The company valued at roughly $2.7 billion raised over $900 million previously. Operating revenue rose 55.4% to ₹4,117.9 Cr in Q1 FY26.

Defence tech company Tonbo Imaging's IPO is oversubscribed 40.82X on the third day of bidding. Investors placed bids for 34.80 Cr shares against 85.26 Lakh shares offered. The ₹852.1 Cr IPO comprises an offer for sale of up to 1.2 Cr shares priced between ₹665 and ₹700 per share.

Anthropic acquires Opaque Systems, a confidential computing startup founded by Ion Stoica and Raluca Ada Popa. The deal follows Opaque's recent $24 million Series B at a $300 million valuation. Opaque now winds down operations as its team joins Anthropic to advance verifiable AI technology.

Khosla Ventures leads a $50 million Series B round for Indian startup Even Healthcare, valuing it at $300 million. Even plans to open five new hospitals in Bengaluru over six months despite posting a net loss of ₹902 million in fiscal 2025.

On Sept. 9, the six-member Automattic board voted to put CEO Matt Mullenweg on paid leave, a move he reversed 33 hours later by removing three directors and the CFO. The internal conflict stems from a legal dispute over WP Engine, causing 159 staff departures and a federal antitrust lawsuit revived on Sept. 24.

Elice Inc. is set to debut on South Korea's Kosdaq market Tuesday, raising 201 billion won ($151 million) in its initial public offering. This marks the bourse's biggest listing this year, with shares priced at 90,500 won apiece for a market capitalization exceeding 1 trillion won.

Stockholm startup Vessla raised 3.3 million in an oversubscribed pre-seed round led by Seedcamp. Founded in 2026 by Kasper Janehag, the team includes former McKinsey AI leaders and ex-NASA Mars 2020 mission CTOs. The funding supports building AI agents to automate property operations for real estate.

Philippines fintech Salmon Group Ltd announced raising $140 million in capital through a mix of equity and public bonds. The round includes $90 million in equity from investors like Spice Expeditions and $50 million in public bonds.

Hangzhou-based robot AI startup Gewu Tongzhi completed an angel funding round of nearly RMB 100 million on October 18. Investors include Hongfu Asset Management, Peak Investment, Hangzhou Capital and Hangzhou Talent Group. The capital supports model training and hardware development for dexterous robotic manipulation, with first delivery expected by the end of 2026.

NestJS framework creator Kamil Myśliwiec announced version 12, a major release moving core packages to ESM and adding Standard Schema validation. The update requires Node.js 20.19+ or 22.12+ and introduces an official observability SDK. While benchmarks showed no meaningful startup gains, the shift aims to clean up tooling debt for server-side Node.js applications.

SpaceX reports third quarter results after the market closes Tuesday, with a webcast at 4:30 p.m. ET. Bloomberg consensus calls for revenue of $12.89 billion and adjusted EPS near $0.15, marking its first profitable quarter since IPO. Analysts project $6.4 billion from AI and $4.9 billion from Starlink, which reaches 14.3 million subscribers.

Bill Gross launches Idealab.ai, an AI platform analyzing 17 million sources to generate 1.2 million potential businesses. Cloudflare offers 100,000 credits to startups. Gross aims to support 12,000 founders, shifting from his previous record of 12 companies.

Anthropic announced Sunday a plan to commit 5% of its shares to a new public benefit fund addressing AI job impacts. The company cited third-quarter revenue of $16.8 billion ahead of its planned November IPO, while Elon Musk recommended giving shares to the public. Fund receives another 2% of shares at board discretion.