Morning VC Brief丨2024.10.16

Morning VC Brief is an expert daily curation of tech and venture news. Feel free to forward; the sign-up is here

00. TL;DR

1/ Welding Robotics Startup Path Robotics raises $100M Series D

2/ B2B Retail Inventory Marketplace Ghost raises $40M Series C

3/ AI Customer Support Agent Decagon raises $65M Series B

4/ AI Evaluation and Observability Platform Galileo raises $45M Series B

5/ Sexual Wellness Startup Cake raises $18M Series B

6/ Silicon Photonics Startup Xscape Photonics raises $44M Series A

7/ Web3 Game Startup Azra Games raises $42.7M Series A

8/ HIV Clinics Alchemy raises $31M Seed Round

9/ AI Practice Prospects FullyRamped raises $2.3M Pre-Seed Round

01. Venture News

1/ Welding Robotics Startup Path Robotics raises $100M Series D

Path Robotics is on a mission to rebuild American manufacturing and help companies onshore their production and boost their profitability. This round was led by Matter Venture Partners and Drive Capital with participation from Yamaha Ventures, Tiger Global, and more. Link

2/ B2B Retail Inventory Marketplace Ghost raises $40M Series C

Ghost combines real-time data with intelligent solutions to help brands monetize their excess inventory discreetly and sustainably. This round was led by L Catterton with participation from Union Square Ventures, Equal Ventures, Eniac Ventures, and more. Link

3/ AI Customer Support Agent Decagon raises $65M Series B

Decagon’s AI agents help enterprise manage customer interactions from start to end, including fetching data, taking actions, and reviewing conversations. This round was led by Bain Capital Ventures with participation from Elad Gil, A*, Accel, BOND Capital, and more. Link

4/ AI Evaluation and Observability Platform Galileo raises $45M Series B

Galileo is the leading AI evaluation and observability platform with 834% ARR growth in 2024. This round was led by Scale Venture Partners with participation from Databricks Ventures, Premji Invest, Amex Ventures, Citi Ventures, ServiceNow, and more. Link

5/ Sexual Wellness Startup Cake raises $18M Series B

Cake offers tailor-made products for the bedroom, inspired by real couples, and designed for specific types of play. This round was led by Silas Capital and Strand Equity Partners with participation from AF Ventures. Link

6/ Silicon Photonics Startup Xscape Photonics raises $44M Series A

Xscape Photonics develops photonic platform solutions designed for ultra-high bandwidth connections inside data centers to power Gen AI systems. This round was led by IAG Capital Partners with participation from Cisco Investments, NVIDIA, and more. Link

7/ Web3 Game Startup Azra Games raises $42.7M Series A

Azra Games has always been dedicated to pushing the boundaries of mobile role-playing games (RPGs). With a vision to deliver console-quality gameplay on mobile platforms, the company is spearheading what CEO and founder Mark Otero calls the “4th generation of mobile RPGs.” This round was led by Pentera Capital with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, NFX, a16z crypto, and more. Link

8/ HIV Clinics Alchemy raises $31M Seed Round

Alchemy provides the entire physical, clinical, and digital infrastructure needed to build, operate and grow in-house pharmacy programs. This round was led by Andreessen Horowitz with participation from Earvin “Magic” Johnson, Sandberg Bernthal Venture Partners, Banc of California, and more. Link

9/ AI Practice Prospects FullyRamped raises $2.3M Pre-Seed Round

FullyRamped builds voice AI which help companies develop their human capital, not replace it. This round was led by BoxGroup, Mac Venture Capital and NOMO Ventures with participation from Sequoia Capital, Greylock, and more. Link