Morning VC Brief丨2025.04.07

Week15 Highlights丨Runway, Redpanda, Thatch, Unframe, SchoolAI, Actively, Fourier, Phonic

Author

eric gu
April 07, 2025

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

TL;DR

01. Venture News

1/ Video Gen Platform Runway raised $308M Series D

  • Product: AI-powered tools for generating/editing images, videos, and media; operates film/animation studio Runway Studios

  • Highlight: Runway Gen-4 can utilize visual references, combined with instructions, to create new images and videos utilizing consistent styles, subjects, locations and more

  • Investor: General Atlantic(Lead), Nvidia, SoftBank

  • Source

2/ Enterprise Agentic AI Platform Redpanda raised $100M Series D

  • Product: Unified data platform for processing real-time event streams in AI/analytical workloads with 300+ connectors

  • Highlight: Launched Agentic AI Service for enterprises (traceability, data protection); serves Cisco, Vodafone, and 2 top U.S. banks; processes hundreds of TB daily

  • Investor: GV(Lead), Lightspeed Venture Partners

  • Source

3/ Healthcare Benefits Platform Thatch raised $40M Series B

  • Product: Enables employees to choose personalized health insurance plans and allocate tax-free healthcare budgets

  • Highlight: Serves 1,000+ companies; partners with major insurers and HR systems like QuickBooks

  • Investor: Index Ventures(Lead), a16z, General Catalyst

  • Source

4/ Enterprise AI Platform Unframe raised $30M Series A

  • Product: Turnkey AI solutions for enterprise use cases (Observability, Data Extraction & Abstraction, Automation & Agents) with modular AI building blocks and Blueprint-driven customization

  • Highlight: Achieved millions in ARR within first quarter, outcome-based pricing model, and secure no-code deployment

  • Investor: Bessemer Venture Partners(Lead), Craft Ventures, Third Point Ventures

  • Source

5/ AI Education Platform SchoolAI raised $25M Series A

  • Product: Classroom Experience platform offering AI tools for teachers (lesson planning) and personalized learning Spaces for students

  • Highlight: Used in 1M+ classrooms across 50 U.S. states and 80+ countries

  • Investor: Insight Partners (Lead), NextView Ventures

  • Source

6/ Revenue Intelligence Platform Actively raised $22.5M Series A

  • Product: GTM Superintelligence leveraging reasoning AI to optimize sales decisions and maximize revenue

  • Highlight: Trains custom AI models mimicking top sellers’ strategic reasoning

  • Investor: Bain Capital Ventures(Lead), First Round Capital

  • Source

7/ On-Site Hydrogen Production System Fourier raised $18.5M Series A

  • Product: On-demand hydrogen production system with ultra-modular, software-defined architecture, optimized by real-time algorithms for efficiency and reliability

  • Highlight: Address hydrogen adoption barriers (cost, logistics) and energy resilience challenges through scalable clean energy solutions

  • Investor: Paramark Ventures (Lead), General Catalyst(Lead), Airbus Ventures

  • Source

8/ Voice AI Platform Phonic raised $4M Seed

  • Product: Unified platform for building lifelike conversational voice agents with direct speech processing, 300ms latency, and dynamic decision systems

  • Highlight: Eliminates disconnected tools, adapts to edge cases via intelligent decision-making, deployed in healthcare/insurance for scheduling and claims handling

  • Investor: Lux Capital(Lead), Replit (Amjad Masad), Hugging Face (Clem Delangue)

  • Source