Morning VC Brief丨2025.06.18

Week25 Highlights丨Clay, Gecko Robotics, Nominal, Landbase, Antimetal, Shinkei, Andrenam, Alta

Author

eric gu
June 18, 2025

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

Table of Contents

01. Venture News

1/ AI GTM Platform Clay raised Series C at $3B

  • Product: AI-powered relationship management platform for sales/marketing teams, offering data enrichment, CRM integration, and personalized outreach automation

  • Highlight: Processes data from 75+ sources across 20+ CRMs, serving 300K+ teams including OpenAI, Canva, and Uber

  • Investor: CapitalG(Lead)

  • Source

2/ Inspection Robotics Startup Gecko Robotics raised $125M Series D at $1.25B

  • Product: Cantilever Platform – AI-powered operating system for inspecting and modernizing critical infrastructure (e.g., power plants, warships) via climbing/flying robots

  • Highlight: Partnerships with NAES (energy), L3Harris (Extended Reality), and Abu Dhabi National Oil Company

  • Investor: Cox Enterprises(Lead), Founders Fund, Y Combinator

  • Source

3/ Hardware Testing Platform Nominal raised $75M Series B

  • Product: Modern test stack for hardware development, featuring Nominal Core (cloud data platform) and Nominal Connect (edge automation)

  • Highlight: Addresses critical gaps in legacy testing tools for hypersonics, autonomous fleets, and modular reactors

  • Investor: Sequoia Capital(Lead), Founders Fund, Lux Capital

  • Source

4/ AI GTM Platform Landbase raised $30M Series A

  • Product: AI-powered platform that helps B2B businesses find customers through hyper-personalized, omnichannel sales campaigns using its proprietary GTM-1 Omni model

  • Highlight: 1825% revenue growth in 2025, serving 150 paid customers; GTM-1 Omni boosts conversions by 4–7x vs. traditional outbound

  • Investor: Sound Ventures (Lead), Picus Capital, 8VC

  • Source

5/ AI Infra Management Agent Antimetal raised $20M Series A

  • Product: Automates infrastructure management to reduce engineering maintenance burdens, allowing teams to focus on innovation

  • Highlight: Platform learns team behaviors to automate workflows, encodes institutional knowledge, and aims to reduce system failures.

  • Investor: Sound Ventures(Lead), Nat Friedman

  • Source

6/ US Seafood Supply Chain Startup Shinkei raised $22M Series A

  • Product: End-to-end traceability platform ("OS for the ocean") ensuring American-made, quality seafood from catch to kitchen

  • Highlight: Extends fish shelf life 3x, reduces waste, and doubles fishermen's margins

  • Investor: Founders Fund(Lead), Interlagos, 8VC

  • Source

7/ Maritime Intelligence Sensor Network Andrenam raised $10M Seed

  • Product: Develops a distributed sensor network using smart buoys, passive sonar, and machine learning for real-time maritime domain awareness

  • Highlight: Tracks vessels even without AIS signals

  • Investor: First Round Capital (Lead), Homebrew

  • Source

8/ AI-Powered Personal Stylist Alta raised $11M Seed

  • Product: AI stylist and personal shopper that offers outfit recommendations and virtual try-ons via personalized avatars, integrating user closets and purchase preferences

  • Highlight: Combines "Clueless"-inspired fashion tech with AI, trained by celebrity stylist Meredith Koop

  • Investor: Menlo Ventures (Lead)

  • Source