Tracked tape is thin: one deal this window. Higgsfield (AI) closed a $400M Series B at a $5.4B valuation led by DST Global — DST was the sole most-active lead. Mega-round board holds: OpenAI $122B, Waymo $16B, Scale AI $14B. Outside the tracked set, headlines captured Form Energy's $750M Series G (T. Rowe Price lead, iron-air batteries), Groq's $350M raise at $3.5B — reportedly nearly halved from a year prior — Botanika $1.5M (Solana DePIN), Grounded $5M (Detroit EV vans), Quartr $18M, and Indian FinTechs at $935.5M across 10 deals in June. Window breadth was notably narrow; we flag the data gap plainly.
Disclosed round capital in the window. Undisclosed amounts count as zero.
Disclosed rounds in the window · every bar opens the company's live page.
Tracked tape is thin: one deal this window. Higgsfield (AI) closed a $400M Series B at a $5.4B valuation led by DST Global — DST was the sole most-active lead. Mega-round board holds: OpenAI $122B, Waymo $16B, Scale AI $14B. Outside the tracked set, headlines captured Form Energy's $750M Series G (T. Rowe Price lead, iron-air batteries), Groq's $350M raise at $3.5B — reportedly nearly halved from a year prior — Botanika $1.5M (Solana DePIN), Grounded $5M (Detroit EV vans), Quartr $18M, and Indian FinTechs at $935.5M across 10 deals in June. Window breadth was notably narrow; we flag the data gap plainly.
| Date | Company | Round | Amount | Valuation | Lead | Sector |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-08-17 | Higgsfield | Series B | $400M | $5.4B | DST Global | AI |
Where the window's activity sits on the funding ladder: deal count (solid) against disclosed capital (faded) per stage, with the companies behind each cluster. Stages come from the reported round labels; undisclosed amounts count as zero capital.
New capital entering the market: QuantumLight — Revolut founder Nik Storonsky's AI-driven venture strategy — closed a $500M second fund (EU-Startups cited €432M). Reach Capital raised $265M for Fund V, expanding beyond edtech into broader AI. Parachute launched an advisory firm alongside a VC fund targeting the gap between brand strength and revenue in frontier tech. WovenEarth closed its second fund-of-funds. No tracked lead activity beyond DST Global this window. Fund formation is steady but deployment into tracked companies was minimal — a divergence worth monitoring.
| Lead Investor | Deals | Disclosed Capital |
|---|---|---|
| DST Global | 1 | $400M |
Stripe is reportedly nearing an acquisition of AI gateway startup OpenRouter for more than $7B — corroborated across two outlets, marking a major AI infrastructure push. Samsonite paid $178.5M for BÉIS. Ondas acquired Aran's defense activities for NIS 100M. Google purchased data from a bankrupt U.S. airline, reportedly for AI training. Ever After Foods raised $2M and acquired cultivated seafood startup Fishway. AI automation startup Relay shut down — staff joined Google's Chrome team. The Stripe-OpenRouter deal is the week's dominant M&A signal and the largest reported AI-infrastructure acquisition this window.
Funding headlines from outside the tracked book — sourced links, not QL data.
The largest recent private rounds ($100M+) across the tracked book — 1902 ranked. Full board: quantlogix.ai/mega-rounds.
The Silicon Valley Private Market Daily — the 8pm PT desk close: qualified raises, roster re-rates and sector velocity from the QL private-market pipeline.
The private market landscape in mid-August 2026 shows extreme concentration in AI and infrastructure. Major capital is flowing into high-valuation AI platforms (Wispr at $2B, Lovable at $13.3B), while significant investments are also being directed toward physical infrastructure, such as energy and data centers (e.g., Nvidia's $1.5B investment in SB Energy). Market activity remains heavily weighted toward established 'unicorns' and AI-first software, creating significant uncertainty for smaller firms struggling to secure funding outside these high-growth, capital-intensive verticals.
🗂️ Dataset updated: added 1 company to the QuantLogix private-companies list — Naïve — 2,150 → 2,151. Append-only.
100 tracked names flagged for markdown risk — 121 scored nightly, 2028 left unscored (no comp bridge). Down rounds are recorded in the open ledger — receipts only work in public. Live boards: markdown-watch · down-round-ledger.
| # | Company | Sector | Risk Score | Band | Vs Comps | Last Mark | Last Round |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Linktree | SaaS | 86 | High | +552% | $1.3B | 53 mo ago |
| 2 | Replit | Data / Infra | 86 | High | +202% | $9.0B | 40 mo ago |
| 3 | Xendit | Financial Services | 80 | High | +1681% | $2.7B | 51 mo ago |
| 4 | Forter | Fintech | 80 | High | +862% | $3.0B | 63 mo ago |
| 5 | Greenlight | Fintech | 80 | High | +544% | $2.3B | 65 mo ago |
| 6 | Betterment | Fintech | 80 | High | +382% | $1.1B | 41 mo ago |
| 7 | BetterUp | SaaS | 80 | High | +310% | $4.7B | 58 mo ago |
| 8 | Cross River Bank | fintech | 80 | High | +185% | $3.0B | 53 mo ago |
Nightly score: comp-bridge premium (45%) · round staleness (30%) · IPO-readiness drag (15%) · funding deceleration (10%). Companies without a computable public-comp bridge stay unscored — never guessed.
16 markdowns detected all-time · 4 flagged beforehand · 12 missed · hit rate 25%
| Company | Detected | Event | Mark | Called? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wonder | 2026-08-17 | Mark cut −16.2% | $9.0B → $7.5B | ✗ Missed |
| Asimov | 2026-08-17 | Mark cut −18.7% | $1.2B → $1.0B | ✗ Missed |
| Harvey | 2026-08-17 | Mark cut −29.0% | $16B → $11B | ✗ Missed |
| Column | 2026-08-17 | Mark cut −41.7% | $10B → $6.0B | ✓ Flagged #41 · Elevated |
| Plaid | 2026-08-10 | Mark cut −23.8% | $8.0B → $6.1B | ✓ Flagged #26 · Elevated |
| Clay | 2026-08-10 | Mark cut −38.0% | $5.0B → $3.1B | ✗ Missed |
| Blockchain.com | 2026-08-10 | Mark cut −50.0% | $14B → $7.0B | ✗ Missed |
| Quantum Systems | 2026-08-10 | Mark cut −59.3% | $8.0B → $3.3B | ✓ Flagged #30 · Elevated |
Down-round & valuation headlines scraped at publication from Google News, Hacker News, CNBC, Yahoo Finance and the wider tech press.
Groq raised $350M at $3.5B — nearly half its prior valuation. If AI inference hardware is repricing down, founders in adjacent AI infra should stress-test pre-money assumptions before signing term sheets.
Harvey's mark was cut 29%, joining Wonder (-16.2%) and Asimov (-18.7%) on the ledger. 100 companies on markdown watch. Late-stage AI legal/automation is not spared — model your downside.
A >$7B reported price for OpenRouter shows strategic buyers will pay premium for AI routing/infrastructure layers. Founders building picks-and-shovels should map exit paths to payments and platform players early.
Tracked funding was a single-deal week — Higgsfield's $400M Series B is the only entry. New fund closes (QuantumLight $500M, Reach $265M) suggest capital is being raised but not yet deployed into our tracked set. Markdowns are accelerating (Harvey -29%, Groq nearly halved). Watch for repricing to cascade into next-quarter raises.