Issue #21 • July 29, 2025
Hey SeedRadar Squad! This week's innovation scene reveals significant capital infusions and groundbreaking advancements from visionary tech startups. MapLight Therapeutics secured substantial funding to advance novel treatments for challenging CNS disorders. Simultaneously, Lyten raised significant capital for a strategic acquisition, bolstering its control over the battery value chain for advanced materials.
Alongside these major announcements, Exodigo announced an oversubscribed funding round for its non-intrusive mapping technology, and Startup Central launched a new manufacturing hub to scale hardware innovations, and more.
📈 Important News of the Week!
• MapLight Therapeutics Announced a $372.5 million Series D financing round. The funding will advance its portfolio of novel treatments for challenging central nervous system disorders like schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease psychosis. - Read More
• Lyten raised $200 million from existing investors to fund its acquisition of assets from bankrupt manufacturer Northvolt AB. The deal includes intellectual property and a Polish manufacturing plant, enabling Lyten to move downstream and control more of the battery value chain. - Read More
• Exodigo announced an oversubscribed $96 million Series B round. The capital will fuel the expansion of its non-intrusive mapping technology, which helps prevent costly and dangerous utility strikes in major construction and infrastructure projects. - Read More
• Startup Central announced the soft launch of its Tempe, Arizona, manufacturing hub, designed to help hardware startups scale from prototype to production. The accelerator also revealed a strategic partnership with post-quantum cryptography firm IdentiKey to safeguard its infrastructure and the systems of its defense-tech spinout, DCO. - Read More
💰 Hot Funding Rounds You Missed!
• Positron AI ($51.6M) -A company developing American-made semiconductors and inference hardware as a purpose-built, cost-effective alternative to GPUs for AI workloads. - Read More • BlinkOps ($50M) -A no-code security automation platform that allows teams to build and deploy custom "micro-agents" to automate cybersecurity workflows and incident response. - Read More • Centivax ($45M) -A biotech startup developing an mRNA candidate for what could be the world's first universal flu vaccine, with technology applicable to other highly variable pathogens. - Read More • E2B ($21M) -A provider of open-source cloud infrastructure for AI agents, offering secure, sandboxed environments for agents to complete complex tasks. - Read More - Read More
🌱 The Next Big Thing: Our Startup Pick!
🎯 This Week's Emerging Star: Sphinx Labs 1
Sphinx Labs is a new startup that's making some serious noise in the FinTech and AI space. Backed by the prestigious accelerator Y Combinator, they are definitely one to watch.
So what's their big idea? Sphinx Labs builds AI agents to eliminate the massive bottlenecks in financial compliance, specifically with Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) checks. We aren't talking about simple identity verification. Their technology is designed to conduct deep, complex investigations in real-time, like scanning global news, untangling complicated corporate ownership structures, and screening against hundreds of international sanctions lists to provide clear, explainable onboarding decisions.
Anyone in the financial industry knows the pain of slow, manual compliance processes that can frustrate customers and expose businesses to risk. That's exactly what Sphinx Labs is trying to fix. They are betting that AI can be so effective at this deep research that it transforms compliance from a costly bottleneck into a streamlined, intelligent defense. It is a bold goal to make regulatory compliance fast, automated, and genuinely insightful, and that makes Sphinx Labs a company worth watching very closely.
🚀 Startup Radar: Movers, Shakers & Future Makers
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🛠️ Trending AI Tools to Supercharge Your Workflow!
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💼 Join the Revolution: Hot Startup Jobs!
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💼 Resource of the Week: Investor’s list!
💰 LeadLoft's Curated List of Most Active AI Investors
A comprehensive and up-to-date list of the top VC firms actively funding AI startups in 2025. The list details each firm's investment stage (from Seed to Growth) and highlights notable AI investments (e.g., a16z's investment in OpenAI, Sequoia's in DeepMind), providing critical intelligence for targeted fundraising outreach.
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Disclosure: Seedradar Ventures and/or its general partner may hold investments in some of the companies mentioned in this newsletter. This content is provided for informational purposes only and should not be considered investment advice.
1 The general partner of Seedradar Ventures is an investor in Sphinx Labs.
