Senior Funding Correspondent
Sophie covers venture financing, late-stage rounds and the investors writing the checks. She joined The Company Wire in 2021 after six years reporting on private markets.
Investors are pouring record amounts into the companies building the data, chips, and software powering the next phase of artificial intelligence. The scale of the buildout is now rewriting how private markets price risk.
The San Francisco startup will use the capital to expand engineering, grow enterprise partnerships and accelerate international rollout.
Median seed size crossed $5.6 million last quarter, the highest figure the market has recorded.
Some of the funds raised at the peak are returning capital. Others are quietly becoming firms.
Investors now want $2.5 million in recurring revenue and evidence of durable retention.
What was once a discreet workaround is now a standard line item in fund strategy.
