Databricks' 1 Billion Rise, Microsoft's AI Play & The Future of Hardware Design! 🚀

Issue #34 • September 12, 2025

Hi Seedradar Squad! This week, AI powerhouse Databricks reached a landmark valuation, cementing its status as a dominant force in enterprise AI. Meanwhile, Microsoft signed a multi-year deal to secure dedicated cloud capacity for its AI services, underscoring the immense demand for compute.

This is all happening as PsiQuantum secured a massive round to build commercially useful quantum computers, while Strive Health and Kriya Therapeutics saw significant investments for AI-driven preventative care and gene therapies. The AI revolution is here, and it's redefining everything!

💰 Databricks Reaches $100B+ Valuation with $1B Funding Round

Data and AI giant Databricks closed a $1 billion Series K funding round, pushing its valuation past the $100 billion mark and cementing its status as a dominant force in the enterprise AI landscape.  

The round was co-led by Andreessen Horowitz, Insight Partners, and others, and will fuel the expansion of its AI strategy, including its "Agent Bricks" tool for building AI agents; the company also announced it had surpassed a $4 billion annual revenue run-rate.

☁️ Microsoft Signs Multi-Billion Dollar AI Infrastructure Deal with Nebius

Microsoft entered into a multi-year agreement, reportedly worth as much as $19.4 billion, with AI infrastructure company Nebius to secure dedicated cloud capacity for its AI services.  

The massive deal underscores the unprecedented demand for AI compute, revealing that even hyperscale cloud providers like Microsoft are turning to specialized partners to accelerate their infrastructure build-out and meet the needs of the global AI arms race.

💰 Snapshots: What Else Is Happening?

Funding News

PsiQuantum raised a massive $1 billion Series E round at a $7 billion valuation to build the world's first commercially useful, fault-tolerant quantum computers.  - Read More

Eli Lilly launched TuneLab, a groundbreaking AI platform that provides biotech companies with access to drug discovery models trained on over $1 billion worth of Lilly's proprietary research data.  - Read More

Strive Health secured $550 million in Series D financing, comprising $300 million in equity and $250 million in debt. The equity round highlights a major strategic alignment for AI-driven preventative care.  - Read More

Thinking Machines Lab published research on its plan to solve one of AI's biggest challenges: unpredictability. The lab's research focuses on "defeating nondeterminism" in large language models, aiming to make AI responses consistent and reliable.  - Read More

💰 Sharks of the Week!

Funding News

️‍🔥 Patient Square Capital- Co-led a $320 million Series D financing for Kriya Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, to advance its pipeline of gene therapies for chronic diseases.  - Read More

️‍🔥 General Catalyst- Co-led a $130 million funding round for Harbor Health, an Austin-based company that combines primary care clinics with its own health insurance plans.  - Read More

️‍🔥 Khosla Ventures- Led a $110 million Series E funding round for Aven, a fintech company offering a home equity-backed credit card, valuing the company at $2.2 billion.  - Read More

🚀 Startup Radar: Movers, Shakers & Future Makers

Seed Radar - Startups
🚀 Rendezvous R.
#SpaceTech

Pioneering modular, autonomous robotics for in-space assembly.

$3M Pre-Seed  Read More

🧾 Accordance
#FinTech

AI platform automating complex tasks for accounting firms.

$3M Pre-Seed  Read More

🛡️ AegisAI
#Cybersecurity

AI-native email security using autonomous agents to stop attacks.

$13M Seed  Read More

🎬 Runware
#AIInfrastructure

AI provider with a hardware-optimized engine to slash AI costs.

$13M Seed  Read More

🛡️ Geordie
#Cybersecurity

Platform designed to protect enterprises from threats posed by AI agents.

$6.5M Seed   Read More

🏭 Procense
#IndustrialTech

Developing AI and remote sensing technologies for process manufacturers.

$1.5M Seed  Read More

🛡️ Koi
#Cybersecurity

Security startup focused on securing the "software perimeter."

$38M Series A  Read More

👁️ Optain Health
#HealthTech

Applying AI to retinal imaging for early disease detection.

$26M Series A  Read More

🛠️ Trending AI Tools to Supercharge Your Workflow!

Tools List Newsletter

🗣️ Deepdub L.

A real-time, scalable voice model for creating lifelike, multilingual AI agents and enterprise applications.

🐝 Honeycomb I.

An AI observability suite for developers to accelerate debugging and resolve incidents faster.

🗺️ SPLX AI

A security platform that maps and secures enterprise AI stacks, models, and agentic workflows.

🏭 Hitachi H.

An enterprise platform for trusted agentic AI, featuring a library of over 200 pre-built agents.

📖 N-able Cat-MIP

A solution to standardize terminology for seamless AI automation across IT ecosystems.

🥋 Aikido S.

A security platform to secure everything you build, host, and run in your development lifecycle.

💼 Join the Revolution: Hot Startup Jobs!

Job Board
Controller
New York City (US)
Novo
$200K-$250K  - Apply here
Growth Marketer
Remote (US)
Workshop Ventures
$100K-$130K  - Apply here
Sr. Software Engineer
Los Angeles (US)
Bold
$175K-$220K  - Apply here
Sr. Data Engineer
Remote (US)
Angi
$110K–$185K  - Apply here

💼 Resource of the Week: Cap Table Template!

🗂️ Carta's Cap Table Template & Software

A free, downloadable cap table template for early-stage founders to track ownership and equity distribution. Carta also offers a free software plan for startups with fewer than 25 stakeholders to manage their equity more formally as they grow.

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