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Defense Mega-Rounds, AI Inference & NYC's Venture Surge | Jul 14
Audio is available on Spreaker — see link below.
Helsing's €1.8B round and Baseten's €1.5B Series D signal where venture capital is concentrating — and what it means for founders outside these dominant categories. Today's briefing covers defense VC, inference infrastructure, AI-powered acquisitions, and June's US funding data.
Audio is available on Spreaker — see link below.
Helsing just raised one point eight billion euros at an eighteen billion euro valuation. That's the largest European defense venture round ever recorded, and it landed alongside a one point two billion euro raise for Quantum Systems on the same day.
June's US venture data sharpens that picture. AI absorbed sixty percent of all venture dollars last month.
One of the clearest examples of where large checks are going is Baseten. The inference infrastructure company just closed a one point five billion euro Series D at a thirteen billion euro valuation.
A different kind of capital efficiency play is emerging in verticalized AI. American Growth Insurance raised seventy million euros to acquire independent insurance agencies and automate them using AI agents.
New York captured twenty-four point four percent of US venture dollars in June, its highest recorded share in a year. That's worth tracking, but carefully.
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