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Arlington-based Quartermaster has closed a $140 million Series B just months after a $43 million Series A, with about $100 million in equity from Insight Partners, Overmatch Ventures and existing backers, plus a $40 million debt facility from Stifel. The company makes 'SmartMast,' a hardware package of cameras and radios mounted on ship masts that delivers real-time maritime data beyond basic AIS location pings.
Arlington-based Quartermaster raised a $140 million Series B just months after closing a $43 million Series A in May, according to CEO Neil Sobin. Roughly $100 million came from equity investors led by Insight Partners, with new backer Overmatch Ventures and existing investor First Round Capital, while the remaining $40 million came as debt financing from Stifel. The startup builds weather-hardened camera and radio hardware called SmartMast that mounts on ship masts to deliver real-time maritime data beyond basic AIS location pings.
Ema, which builds coordinated AI agent systems it calls 'AI employees' to automate HR, IT, and finance workflows, has closed a $77 million Series B funding round. The round, led by Creaegis with participation from existing backers Accel, Section 32, and Prosus, was all-primary equity and pushes Ema's total funding to $140 million while more than quadrupling its valuation from 2024.
Verda, a Finland-based AI cloud infrastructure company, closed an oversubscribed $189 million Series B round led by Emergence Capital, with backing from MUFG Innovation Partners, Supermicro, Varma Mutual Pension Insurance, Lifeline Ventures, 6 Degrees Capital, byFounders, Tesi, and several angel investors. The round pushes Verda's total funding past $450 million in combined equity and debt, and values the company at unicorn status, making it one of Europe's newest billion-dollar startups.
Oura's upcoming IPO will offer 50 million shares priced between $40 and $44, but nearly two-thirds of those shares are being sold by existing shareholders rather than the company itself. Forerunner Ventures, an early backer since 2020, stands to collect roughly $1.2 billion by selling its entire stake, accounting for about 80% of shares sold by insiders. Oura itself expects to net around $532.6 million, most of which will go toward covering tax obligations tied to vesting employee shares.
Mazama Energy closed an oversubscribed $135 million Series B round led by Centaurus Capital and Doerr Capital, with Vinod Khosla among earlier backers. The funds will support horizontal drilling into super-hot rock formations in Oregon, where each well could generate up to 15 megawatts, and the company now estimates the site could ultimately yield 10 gigawatts of power, double last year's projection.
Health benefits startup Thatch has raised $108 million in new funding at a $1 billion valuation, backed by existing investors including Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst, Index Ventures, and The General Partnership. The round comes just 17 months after Thatch was valued at $410 million, with CEO Chris Ellis saying annual recurring revenue grew roughly sevenfold in that span.
Gimlet Labs has closed a $300 million Series B funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from Sapphire Ventures, Menlo Ventures, Arm, Samsung Ventures, Tiger Global and others. The company says it has added billions in contracted revenue and gigawatts of datacenter pipeline since March, and is scaling toward hundreds of megawatts of managed capacity, just five months after its Series A.
British AI infrastructure startup Nscale, founded two years ago, is reportedly pursuing $3.5 billion in financing ahead of a possible IPO as soon as this month. That total reportedly includes $1.5 billion in convertible notes sold to investors and an additional $2 billion from Nvidia, which also backed Nscale's $1.1 billion Series B round in March.
Instinct, founded last year by 23-year-old Noah Shinn under parent company Spear Street Technology, has closed a $250 million Series B round led by Index Ventures and Benchmark. The deal pushes the young startup's total funding to $350 million and its valuation to $2.5 billion, driven by buzz around its AI assistant that manages users' schedules, purchases and subscriptions through texts and calls.