Morning VC Brief丨2025.03.28

Week13 Highlights丨Island, Mercury, Solace, Brisk Teaching, Lucky Energy, Straiker, Plural, Hook

Author

eric gu
March 28, 2025

Morning VC Brief is an expert daily curation of tech and venture news. Feel free to forward

TL;DL

01. Venture News

1/ Enterprise Browser Startup Island raised $250M at $4.8B

  • Product: The world’s first self-protecting browser designed to secure enterprise data in remote/hybrid work environments, integrating zero-trust security and real-time collaboration tools

  • Investor: Coatue (Lead)

  • Source

2/ Fintech Platform Mercury raised $300M at $3.5B

  • Product: Banking service, credit cards, and financial software for businesses to centralize monetary workflows

  • Highlight:

    • 40% YoY customer growth; $156B annual transaction volume

    • 10 consecutive profitable quarters; $500M 2024 revenue

  • Investor: Sequoia Capital (Lead), Spark Capital, Marathon

  • Source

3/ Patient Advocate Startup Solace raised $40M Series B at $300M

  • Product: Connects Medicare patients with clinical professionals for navigating healthcare complexities (scheduling, insurance appeals)

  • Highlight:

    • Services reimbursed by Medicare/Medicare Advantage since 2024

    • $10M annual revenue run rate

  • Investor: Menlo Ventures (Lead)

  • Source

4/ AI Education Platform Brisk Teaching raised $15M Series A

  • Product: AI browser extension integrating with tools like Google Docs and YouTube to automate grading, tutoring, and resource creation for K-12 teachers, saving up to 10 hours weekly

  • Highlight:

    • Serves 1M+ educators across 100 countries; partners with 2,000+ schools; recognized by Student Privacy Pledge and Common Sense Media for data protection

  • Investor: Bessemer Venture Partners(Lead), Owl Ventures, South Park Commons

  • Source

5/ Energy Drink startup Lucky Energy raised $14.2M Series A+

  • Product: A zero-sugar, zero-calorie functional energy drink with six flavors, designed to enhance performance through natural ingredients like maca and beta-alanine

  • Highlight:

    • Expanded to 10,000 retail locations and 400K+ social media followers

  • Investor: Maveron(Lead), DMG Ventures, Second Sight Ventures

  • Source

6/ AI Security Platform Straiker raised $21M Seed

  • Product: AI-native security platform protecting enterprise AI applications and autonomous agents through real-time threat detection and automated blocking

  • Highlight:

    • Patented AI Engine combines fine-tuned models for low-latency, high-precision analysis

    • Adopted by enterprises like People AI and Coupa for securing generative AI deployments

  • Investor: Lightspeed Ventures(Lead), Bain Capital Ventures(Lead)

  • Source

7/ Intelligent Kubernetes Management Platform Plural raised $6M Seed

  • Product: Develops an intelligent platform to simplify enterprise Kubernetes management across hybrid/multi-cloud environments and AI/ML workloads

  • Highlight:

    • Addresses critical market needs as 60%+ enterprises manage 10+ Kubernetes clusters, while enabling financial institutions to balance innovation with security compliance

  • Investor: Primary Venture Partners(Lead), Capital One Ventures, Company Ventures

  • Source

8/ Social Music App Hook raised $3M Seed+

  • Product: AI platform for creating licensed music remixes, enabling creators to earn income while compensating rights holders

  • Highlight:

    • Partners with 16 music labels and 1,200+ artists (e.g., Justin Bieber, Migos)

    • Ethically trains AI without using artists' music, endorsed by Universal Music Group

  • Investor: Khosla Ventures, Point72 Ventures, Palm Tree Crew

  • Source