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◆QUANTLOGIX STARTUP DAILY
FRIDAY · 09/25/2026 SILICON VALLEY
Displayed Rounds
6
Past 7 days
Disclosed Capital
$249M
Past 7 days
Tracked Startups
2,523
QL private book
Mega-Round Board
8
$100M+ recent
Markdown Watch
100
names flagged

◆ Rainmaker Series B ($100M) leads the startup tape

Six tracked rounds totaling $249M disclosed in the last 7 days, down 96.3% from $6.77B across 28 rounds the prior week — a steep single-week drop, though the prior week included outsized energy deals ($4.04B) that skew the comparison. This week's tape: Rainmaker $100M Series B (Climate); Firecrawl $75M Series B led by Smash Capital (AI); Baselayer $35M Series A led by M13 (Fintech); Corridor $25M Seed led by Bain Capital Ventures (Insurtech); Atum $14M (Financial Software, stealth emergence); Feldera Series A led by Inovia Capital, amount undisclosed. Lead totals shown reflect full round sizes, not individual checks. Coverage gaps: 1 missing amount, 6 missing valuations among 2,271 eligible rounds.

◆ Daily Startup News

Outside the tracked tape (recent news, treat separately): Island raised $400M at a $6.4B valuation with AI-driven security demand cited; OpenEvidence reportedly hit a $15B valuation in a new round — both are announcements/press reports, not tracked-book data. Ultraviolette Automotive raised €74M and plots a U.S. launch; also not in the tracked tape. Japan's Defense Ministry is launching a system to incorporate startup tech. SkyDrive won a ministry award at Japan Startup Awards 2026 — recognition, not funding. Treat reported valuations as press claims until filings confirm.

◆ Valuations & Secondary Transactions

No tracked-book valuation events in the structured data this week (valuations array empty; 6 rounds missing valuations). Public-market evidence was thin and mostly noise: Meta near all-time highs, Blue Owl trading at a ~20% BDC discount, Pantheon's monthly NAV update. Markdown Watch remains the sharper signal: of 2,523 tracked companies, only 124 are scored. Top marks at risk: Linktree (86/100, +481% vs public comps), Replit (86/100, +191%), Xendit (80/100, +1943%). Recent ledger: Anchorage Digital cut -28.6%, Etched -51.5%, Found -70%.

No round-specific post-money valuations captured in the last seven days.

Historical round marks are not replaced with today's company valuation. Mark changes compare disclosed post-money levels, not investor returns; dilution and financing terms may differ. Secondary indications, fund marks and enterprise values in linked reporting are separate evidence, not interchangeable round valuations.

◆ Capital by Sector

ClimateClimate · $100M disclosed in window$100MAIAI · $75M disclosed in window$75MFintechFintech · $35M disclosed in window$35MInsurtechInsurtech · $25M disclosed in window$25MFinancial SoftwareFinancial Software · $14M disclosed in window$14M

Disclosed round capital in the window. Undisclosed amounts count as zero.

◆ The Funding Tape — Past 7 days

Six tracked rounds totaling $249M disclosed in the last 7 days, down 96.3% from $6.77B across 28 rounds the prior week — a steep single-week drop, though the prior week included outsized energy deals ($4.04B) that skew the comparison. This week's tape: Rainmaker $100M Series B (Climate); Firecrawl $75M Series B led by Smash Capital (AI); Baselayer $35M Series A led by M13 (Fintech); Corridor $25M Seed led by Bain Capital Ventures (Insurtech); Atum $14M (Financial Software, stealth emergence); Feldera Series A led by Inovia Capital, amount undisclosed. Lead totals shown reflect full round sizes, not individual checks. Coverage gaps: 1 missing amount, 6 missing valuations among 2,271 eligible rounds.

DateCompanyRoundAmountReported Post-MoneyLeadSector
2026-09-22 Atum Undisclosed (stealth emergence) $14M — — Financial Software
2026-09-22 Baselayer Series A $35M — M13 Fintech
2026-09-22 Firecrawl Series B $75M — Smash Capital AI
2026-09-21 Corridor Seed $25M — Bain Capital Ventures Insurtech
2026-09-21 Feldera Series A — — Inovia Capital Database Software
2026-09-21 Rainmaker Series B $100M — — Climate

◆ Stage Mix — Deals & Capital by Stage

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.

Seed: 1Series A: 2Series B: 2Other: 1
Seed · 1 deal · $25MSeries A · 2 deals · $35MSeries B · 2 deals · $175MOther · 1 deal · $14M
SeedSeed: 1 deal1 dealSeed: $25M$25MSeries ASeries A: 2 deals2 dealsSeries A: $35M$35MSeries BSeries B: 2 deals2 dealsSeries B: $175M$175MOtherOther: 1 deal1 dealOther: $14M$14M
Seed
1 deal · $25M disclosed · 10% of window capital
Series A
2 deals · $35M disclosed · 14% of window capital
Series B
2 deals · $175M disclosed · 70% of window capital
Other
1 deal · $14M disclosed · 5% of window capital

◆ VC Activity & Lead Investors

Leads were one-deal each on the displayed tape: Smash Capital ($75M), M13 ($35M), Bain Capital Ventures ($25M), Inovia (undisclosed) — round totals, not check sizes. Off-tape fund news: Connect Ventures closed $55M first close of Fund V; Agrobank launched a $6.1M Uzbekistan vehicle; Morocco launched a startup digital-investment fund. Counter-signal: EnterpriseAM reports UAE startups struggling to find lead investors for growth rounds. Liquidity angle: Venture Capital Journal reports Oura's IPO path implies a payday for Finnish VC Lifeline. VC commentary this cycle was mostly essays (India deep-tech, GP success factors) rather than deal data.

Lead InvestorDisplayed DealsAssociated Round Sizes
Smash Capital1$75M
M131$35M
Bain Capital Ventures1$25M
Inovia Capital1—

Total sizes of associated rounds, not the lead investor's check sizes. Investor types are not inferred from their names.

◆ Private Equity & Growth Buyouts

PE flow was services-led and small-ticket relative to VC headlines: Clifford Chance is advising Mehler Systems on its acquisition of Craig International Ballistics; Osborne Clarke advised Dalcour Maclaren on an MML Capital growth investment; Gibraltar Business Capital provided a credit facility supporting RS2 Healthcare Partners' investment in KMM Group. AMWatch frames Schroders' P+ mandate as evidence of growing Nordic LP demand for European PE. Coverage also included a Nigeria PE-buildout piece and Fidelity's Q2 dividend commentary — context, not transactions.

◆ Investment Funds & Capital Formation

Capital formation headlines: NYC comptroller proposes a $5bn private-markets climate push — a proposal, not an allocation. Danish pension P+ backs Schroders with $230M for European PE, the concrete LP commitment of the cycle; fund size is not deployment. Inflexion invested in a French nail-care brand. Jelawang Capital appointed Howard Soh as CEO after a long vacancy — a governance event worth watching for Malaysian fund continuity. Underlying theme: LP appetite for European and climate sleeves is strengthening even as weekly venture deal flow thins.

◆ M&A & Exits

Active mid-market and tuck-in M&A: Databricks acquired Seattle spreadsheet startup Row Zero to push enterprise spreadsheets onto its AI platform; Rohde & Schwarz bought two Dresden satellite deep-tech startups; Microchip's Hailo acquisition closed as edge-AI consolidation accelerates; Groundcover acquired Israeli startup Wand for a reported tens of millions (recent context). Reported, not confirmed: Qualcomm is said to be eyeing Tenstorrent — stock moved on the report, but no deal is agreed. Corporate buyers keep acquiring infrastructure-layer tools rather than apps.

◆ Off-Book Wire

Funding headlines from outside the tracked book — sourced links, not QL data.

◆ Mega-Round Board

The largest recent private rounds ($100M+) across the tracked book — 2181 ranked. Full board: quantlogix.ai/mega-rounds.

OpenAIOpenAI · $122B · Late-stage primary122000WaymoWaymo · $16B · 2026 mega-round16000Scale AIScale AI · $14B · Series F + Meta investment14300PrometheusPrometheus · $12B · Funding12000SwitchSwitch · $11B · Buyout/LBO11000Blue OriginBlue Origin · $10B · Private (Bezos-funded)10000

🎯 QL Score Movers

Biggest overnight changes in the graded company score — scores only move when disclosed data moves, and every repricing grades the score that was standing.

CompanyScoreΔ
Posit 39 → 42 +3

◆ Private Markets Weekday Digest · 09/25/2026

Display-only private-markets tape from the tracked roster — formations, priced fundraises, valuation marks, and U.S. VC lead activity. No inferred amounts; empty sections stay empty.

Window: 2026-09-25 · sources: private-companies.json, investors.json

New company formations

No rows in the report window.

Fund raises

No rows in the report window.

Valuation marks

No rows in the report window.

Top U.S. VC activity

No rows in the report window.

No in-tree private-market events matched the report window; amounts and valuations were not inferred.

◆ Private Market Desk — Evening Edition · 09/24/2026

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.

💰 Notable Raises

  • Pilgrim — $25M Seed at a $150M valuation. Early-warning system for biological threats Backing from Anthropic leaders highlights growing institutional interest in AI-driven biosecurity defense. (USA)
  • Ando — $20M Seed (+ Accel, Index Ventures, Emergence). Team messaging platform for humans and agents Direct challenge to enterprise incumbents with an agent-first communication architecture.

🔍 Reported, not yet verified

  • TEKEVER — reported $580M Series D; details did not clear cross-source verification — held for manual review, excluded from the dataset.

📊 Valuation re-rates (roster marks that moved)

  • Impulse Space — $4.3B (2026-Q2) → $5.6B (+31%) on Series D extension.
  • Factory — $1.5B (2026-Q2) → $5B (+233%) on Growth round (series undisclosed).
  • Profound — $1B (2026-Q1) → $1.8B (+80%) on Series D led by Sequoia Capital / Kleiner Perkins (co-led).
  • Temporal — $5B (2026-Q1) → $12.6B (+151%) on Series E led by Lightspeed.
  • The Boring Company — $5.7B (2022-Q2) → $23B (+305%) on Series D led by United Arab Emirates and affiliated investment entities.
  • Harvey — $11B (2026-Q1) → $15.5B (+41%) on Later Stage VC led by Diffusion / Lightspeed Venture Partners (co-led).
  • Cognition — $26B (2026-Q2) → $48B (+85%) on Later Stage VC led by Andreessen Horowitz / Accel / Founders Fund / General Catalyst / Avenir (co-led).
  • Upwind — $1.5B (2026-Q1) → $3.8B (+153%) on Series C led by Bessemer Venture Partners, TCV.
  • AfterQuery — $300M (2026-Q2) → $3.2B (+967%) on Growth round (reported).
  • Fluidstack — $7.5B (2026-Q1) → $18B (+140%) on Growth round (series undisclosed) led by Jane Street.
  • Instinct — $500M (2026-Q3) → $2.5B (+400%) on Series B led by Index Ventures / Benchmark (co-led).
  • Firmus Technologies — $5.5B (2026-Q1) → $10.5B (+91%) on Growth Equity led by Nvidia & Coatue.
  • Hadrian — $1.6B (2025-Q3) → $7.9B (+392%) on Series D led by JPMorgan Strategic Investment Group.
  • HappyRobot — $500M (2025-Q3) → $1.2B (+140%) on Series C led by Prysm Capital.
  • Owner — $1B (2025-Q2) → $2.3B (+130%) on Series D led by Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives.
  • K2 Space — $3B (2025-Q4) → $6.8B (+127%) on Series D led by Kleiner Perkins / ICONIQ Capital.
  • Anthropic — $965B (2026-Q2) → $1000B (+4%) on Strategic Investment led by AMD.
  • Wonder — $7B (2025-Q2) → $9.7B (+38%) on Series D.
  • Baseten — $5B (2026-Q1) → $13B (+160%) on Series F led by Altimeter Capital, Conviction, Spark Capital.
  • Prometheus — $38B (2026-Q2) → $41B (+8%) on Funding led by Jeff Bezos.
  • Ramp — $32B (2025-Q3) → $44B (+38%) on Series F led by ICONIQ / GIC / Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan.

⚡ Mega-round momentum (sector velocity, closed rounds)

  • ↑ AI — $18.9B across 23 rounds / 23 companies (accelerating, 23 vs. 7 prior rounds). Top: Anthropic $5B (Strategic Investment).
  • ↑ Energy — $3.4B across 5 rounds / 5 companies (accelerating, 5 vs. 2 prior rounds). Top: Valar Atomics $1B (Series B).
  • ↑ Defense — $3.4B across 5 rounds / 5 companies (accelerating, 5 vs. 1 prior round). Top: Helsing $1.8B (Late Stage).
  • → Transportation — $3B across 1 round / 1 company (steady, 1 vs. 1 prior round). Top: The Boring Company $3B (Series D).
  • ✦ Space / Defense — $1.5B across 2 rounds / 2 companies (new, new vs. a quiet prior window). Top: Stoke Space $1B (Series E).
  • ✦ Defense / Industrials — $1.4B across 1 round / 1 company (new, new vs. a quiet prior window). Top: Hadrian $1.4B (Series D).

🚀 New / Stealth Companies

  • No fresh stealth intake surfaced this window.

🏦 Private-Market Fund Watch

  • No new fund registrations, launches, or portfolio changes cleared primary-source verification in this window.

📊 Robinhood Ventures Performance

  • RVI — $28.65 close (2026-09-24) · day +1.67% · since first available close (2026-03-06) +36.43% · NAV/premium-discount not published in today's qualified inputs.
  • RVII — $22.4 close (2026-09-24) · day +0.18% · since first available close (2026-08-13) -2.40% · NAV/premium-discount not published in today's qualified inputs.

🏛️ Institutional Ownership (13F)

  • RVI: no holders currently indexed in the curated top-manager 13F universe. The quarter-over-quarter read is BEARISH: 0 new, 0 increased, 0 decreased, and 1 exited (2026-03-31 → 2026-06-30). Coverage is filing-based and can lag quarter-end by up to 45 days.
  • RVII: no holders currently indexed in the curated top-manager 13F universe. Coverage is filing-based and can lag quarter-end by up to 45 days.

🧭 Macro read

The private market displays heavy concentration in defensive and biosecurity AI, with significant capital flowing to infrastructure (TEKEVER, Pilgrim, Island). A notable shift is occurring in public-private fund management (Powerlaw Corp) where high-profile private exits (SpaceX) are being leveraged to sustain dividends for public investors, signaling increased focus on liquidity realization as an alternative to IPO paths.

🗂️ Dataset updated: added 2 companies to the QuantLogix private-companies list — Pilgrim, Ando — 2,523 → 2,525. Append-only.

🔗 Sources

  • [TechStartups](https://techstartups.com/2026/09/23/startup-funding-news-today-september-23-2026-tekever-f13-brahma-ai-noxtua-standardx-more/)
  • [TechStartups](https://techstartups.com/2026/09/24/startup-funding-news-today-september-24-2026-50skills-byteask-pilgrim-kasvu-therapeutics-puxi-optoelectronics-more/)
  • [TechCrunch](https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/24/ando-eyes-slack-as-it-builds-team-messaging-platform-for-humans-and-agents-to-work-together/)
  • [RVI market performance](https://polygon.io/)
  • [SEC Form 13F methodology](https://www.sec.gov/divisions/investment/13ffaq.htm)

◆ Markdown Watch

100 tracked names flagged for markdown risk — 124 scored nightly, 2399 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.

Click a column to sort · third click restores rank order
#CompanySectorRisk ScoreBandVs CompsLast MarkLast Round
1 Linktree SaaS 86 High +481% $1.3B 54 mo ago
2 Replit Data / Infra 86 High +191% $9.0B 41 mo ago
3 Xendit Financial Services 80 High +1943% $2.7B 53 mo ago
4 Forter Fintech 80 High +1003% $3.0B 65 mo ago
5 Greenlight Fintech 80 High +639% $2.3B 66 mo ago
6 Betterment Fintech 80 High +453% $1.1B 42 mo ago
7 Cross River Bank fintech 80 High +227% $3.0B 54 mo ago
8 Pump SaaS 75 High +1550% $1.5B 28 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.

60 markdowns detected all-time · 11 flagged beforehand · 49 missed · hit rate 18.3%

CompanyDetectedEventMarkCalled?
Anchorage Digital 2026-09-21 Mark cut −28.6% $4.2B → $3.0B ✗ Missed
Etched 2026-09-21 Mark cut −51.5% $10B → $5.0B ✗ Missed
Found 2026-09-21 Mark cut −70.0% $2.0B → $600M ✗ Missed
Public 2026-09-21 Mark cut −99.4% $190B → $1.2B ✗ Missed
Upgrade 2026-09-14 Mark cut −30.8% $7.3B → $5.0B ✓ Flagged #64 · Moderate
Applied Intuition 2026-09-14 Mark cut −60.0% $15B → $6.0B ✗ Missed
Axonius 2026-09-14 Mark cut −61.5% $2.6B → $1.0B ✗ Missed
Digital Currency Group 2026-09-14 Mark cut −80.0% $10B → $2.0B ✗ Missed

Down-round & valuation headlines scraped at publication from Google News, Hacker News, CNBC, Yahoo Finance and the wider tech press.

◆ IPO Runway — Latest Deep Dives

◆ Founder & Investor Take

Lean weeks cut both ways

The -96.3% weekly drop is largely a function of last week's $4B energy mega-deals rolling off, but the underlying signal holds: only 6 tracked rounds closed. If you're raising now, assume longer timelines, fewer competing term sheets, and price discipline. Lead investors are scarce at growth stage — the UAE lead-investor shortage is a global pattern, not regional.

Undisclosed is a signal, not a shield

Feldera's undisclosed Series A and Atum's stealth-emergence round show quiet raises persist. But with only 124 of 2,523 tracked companies scored on markdown risk, opacity cuts against you at the next round: the +481% to +1,943% premium flags on Linktree, Replit and Xendit show what happens when pricing runs ahead of verifiable comparables.

Infrastructure buyers are the exit path

Databricks-Row Zero, Microchip-Hailo closing, and Rohde & Schwarz's satellite tuck-ins all point the same way: acquirers want infrastructure and tooling that slot into platforms. If your product is a layer rather than an app, strategic interest may exist even when the primary market is thin — build the integration surface before you need it.

◆ Outlook

One thin week doesn't make a drought, but $249M tracked with only one lead repeat and two undisclosed rounds suggests a lull, not a pause. Watch whether mega-round activity (Island, OpenEvidence off-tape) re-enters the tracked book, and whether LP formation news (P+, NYC climate) translates into deployment within two quarters.

QuantLogix briefings are educational market commentary generated from live data, not investment advice. Private-market figures come from public reporting and the QuantLogix private-company dataset; amounts and valuations are as-reported, not audited. Markets carry risk of loss.